To be frank, I have not followed the incident completely except a few press statements from people concerned. On a whole I understood that the incident involved members of a group called "Sri Rama Sena" attacked a pub in Mangalore and thrashed guys and girls in the pub on the pretext that they are dressed indecently and they are behaving immorally.If it would have been a normal law and order issue wherein one group attacked another and police took charge of the situation, there is nothing abnormal with it. But some people started taking moral high-ground in this case. "Sri Rama Sena" activists claimed that they acted only to preserve Indian culture and degradation of moral standards. They alleged that the girls whom they thrashed were dressed indecently and consuming liquor. The state government ministers commented that though they condemn the heavyhanded approach of sene, but they agree that the moral and cultural standards need to be preserved. Now this brings so many questions to my mind.
Does culture and moral standard remains stagnant for ages? If yes, why are we still not roaming nude in jungles? or why are we not condemning women beind purdah anymore? Does it mean that over a period of time some things can change and some cannot? If yes, who decides (and with what right?)which aspects of life can be changed and which cannot be changed? If length of the dress is part of moral code who will specify( and with what right?) the measurements that have to be adhered to? who will set the threshold when decency becomes indecency? In any country is it enough if we live and behave legally or should we also conform to the moral and cultural standards of various groups in that country? Who appointed organizations like sene to police moral standards? Is raiding and thrashing unarmed people part of our culture and moral standard? In a democracy if the majority of people feel that there is the need for such moral policing let it be made into a law. If government believes that drinking alcohol is wrong, let it enact a law, make drinking illegal and shutdown the whole liquor industry.
My principle on culture and moral standard would be simple. Anything that is illegal in a country anyway cannot be done irrespective of its moral or cultural significance. Regarding the rest it is the parents and family who set the example and provide guidance regarding the morals and culture to the children. This coupled with the individuality and rational thinking of children will help them decide the stndard they would adhere to. No body else has the right to force their own standards on others in a free and democratic country like ours. Frogs in the well should remember that as multiple cultures interact a mossaic of various hues and shades emerges. It is natural. There is nothing wrong with it as long as it is not illegal. If the collective conscience of the natio feels that certain hues and shades are not acceptable, let them correct the laws accordingly.
PS: In my interaction withmany people in my age group at various places, I observed that urban middle-class Hindus have some affinity to BJP. But after this incident many are actually wondering(and they are scared) if this is what is held in store for the future if BJP gets complete mandate.
Saturday, 31 January 2009
Friday, 28 November 2008
What kind of leaders do we have
As the combat operation against the terrorist gunmen who held Mumbai for ransom over the past 3 days is coming to an end many thoughts engulf my mind.
Watching Shivraj Patil, the home mininster of India speak, after every major security breach in India which has become a regular feature thesedays, is a pathetic sight. Agreed he showed no spine in taking any kind of strong action over past many years, but he could have shown some resolve and sternness when he spoke in public. Atleast some rhetorical strong talk and posturing could have gone a longway in assuring citizens as well as terrorists that some action might be forthcoming. But no, he spoke like a swami teaching apathy towards life, in a very docile tone, using such uninspiring language that listening to it automatically reveals that this man means no action. Why are we put up with him? won't he resign and go for penance in some ashram after repeated failure over past few years?
Did you watch the primeminister Manmohan singh address the nation when the terrorists took siege of Mumbai? As aptly summed up by Shobha De on TV it was "a lack-luster, uninspiring and robotic speech". He sounded like a student who has memorized something for an exam and he must spit it out quickly before he forgets something. Without any emotion, anger or angst or sorrow or resolve, without even a change in the modulation, he went on uttering non-sense which Iam sure if recorded would be suitable for retelecast, for each and every incident that happens in India.
Can he mean any action?
What a senseless move by Advani and Modi to visit Mumbai at the hour of crisis. Why is Modi projecting that, "if your government puts a value tag of 10lakhs on a policeman's life, my value tag is 1 crore. Hence I offer better value"?
Thankfully for most of the last 3 days, all the coverage is about the law and order, police, army, bravery of the hotel staff etc. I am sure people would have felt relief not seeing the political class on TV,who otherwise hog all the media space at the cost of valuable issues that matter to the nation.
Do we have leaders at any end of the political spectrum to lead India in these times of crisis? Leaders not because they occupy a chair, but because they can show leadership and rise above the mediocrity all around.
In every corner of India, all we can see are leaders who are ready to divide people based on religion, region, caste, language, class and whatever one could imagine.
We have, political right which tries to take advantage of the situation, without any concrete alternative, political left that preaches irrelevant ideologies (and will soon be out to protect the rights of the terrorists and to condemn the aggression shown by police and army). Political centreground is occupied presently not by moderates in policy but by impotents who are just unable to decide, jumping which side would give them the maximum benefit.
Are there any real leaders in the entire political class? If yes, please come out this is the time when India needs you. If not it does not augur well for India.
Watching Shivraj Patil, the home mininster of India speak, after every major security breach in India which has become a regular feature thesedays, is a pathetic sight. Agreed he showed no spine in taking any kind of strong action over past many years, but he could have shown some resolve and sternness when he spoke in public. Atleast some rhetorical strong talk and posturing could have gone a longway in assuring citizens as well as terrorists that some action might be forthcoming. But no, he spoke like a swami teaching apathy towards life, in a very docile tone, using such uninspiring language that listening to it automatically reveals that this man means no action. Why are we put up with him? won't he resign and go for penance in some ashram after repeated failure over past few years?
Did you watch the primeminister Manmohan singh address the nation when the terrorists took siege of Mumbai? As aptly summed up by Shobha De on TV it was "a lack-luster, uninspiring and robotic speech". He sounded like a student who has memorized something for an exam and he must spit it out quickly before he forgets something. Without any emotion, anger or angst or sorrow or resolve, without even a change in the modulation, he went on uttering non-sense which Iam sure if recorded would be suitable for retelecast, for each and every incident that happens in India.
Can he mean any action?
What a senseless move by Advani and Modi to visit Mumbai at the hour of crisis. Why is Modi projecting that, "if your government puts a value tag of 10lakhs on a policeman's life, my value tag is 1 crore. Hence I offer better value"?
Thankfully for most of the last 3 days, all the coverage is about the law and order, police, army, bravery of the hotel staff etc. I am sure people would have felt relief not seeing the political class on TV,who otherwise hog all the media space at the cost of valuable issues that matter to the nation.
Do we have leaders at any end of the political spectrum to lead India in these times of crisis? Leaders not because they occupy a chair, but because they can show leadership and rise above the mediocrity all around.
In every corner of India, all we can see are leaders who are ready to divide people based on religion, region, caste, language, class and whatever one could imagine.
We have, political right which tries to take advantage of the situation, without any concrete alternative, political left that preaches irrelevant ideologies (and will soon be out to protect the rights of the terrorists and to condemn the aggression shown by police and army). Political centreground is occupied presently not by moderates in policy but by impotents who are just unable to decide, jumping which side would give them the maximum benefit.
Are there any real leaders in the entire political class? If yes, please come out this is the time when India needs you. If not it does not augur well for India.
Wednesday, 20 February 2008
Regionalism and New Democracy
Recent attacks in Mumbai on the north Indian hawkers and taxi-wallahs as shown on the TV really present a sorry sight.We call ourselves inching towards a globalized world with no national barriers. We call ourselves a proud nation where rule of law holds supreme, unlike other dictatorships and monarchies across the world. We have commonly approved a constitution which amongst its other fundamental rights bestows right to move freely across the country and settle anywhere one wants to. What comes to your mind when you hear a situation wherein some X saying to Y that you are an outsider, get out of this place. Yes landgrabbers and mafia comes to my mind. But what happened in Mumbai somedays ago follows a similar logic. A group of people claiming to represent Marathi people warn North-Indians not to live in Mumbai and top of that resort to violent mob attacks on vulnerable properties and people. I am sure any true maratha would be definitely ashamed for being represented by such thugs.
Normally media, scholars,common public blames the leaders for instigating violence and in this case too they held Raj Thackeray responsible. After a week full of drama in which everyone except the north Indians involved and a poor HAL engineer emerged victors. It is too easy to blame leaders, but come on we are in democracy and the quality of leaders is directly proportional to the quality of its people.
Raj Thackeray might not have explicitly incited violence, but whatever he has said and whatever any politician ever said to gain attention, it is with a firm belief that it is not intelligent, rational human beings infront of them but it is a bunch of spineless, fourlegged sheep herd. It is the solemn duty of the people to prove that they are not mere sheep but rational human beings. But wow... what happened in this case, people without minimum common sense took the hint and went on rampage like a herd of buffaloes and pried upon all and sundry that came their way. Wow...its time to define new rules of democracy. Democracy is no longer a system wherein every human being is treated with dignity and is expected to choose the type of leader he/e wants to lead him. The new democracy is the one where human beings should be treated as dumb sheep and it is a process of leaders choosing the segment of sheep they want to lead. Democracy is no longer the place where leaders with different ideologies exist and the one whose ideology is supported by maximum number of people becomes the leader. In its new form it is a place where leaders with different sizes of herds besides them and whoever has more sheep in the herd, he becomes the leader.
Why blame the leader when the sheep are ready to be swayed by one way or the other.
Is that the path we are moving on in India!! Only time should prove. In addition to a hundred other factors which divide Indians into various segments one serous factors firmly confirms its place, regionalism.
PS: Sheep and buffaloes...very sorry.
Normally media, scholars,common public blames the leaders for instigating violence and in this case too they held Raj Thackeray responsible. After a week full of drama in which everyone except the north Indians involved and a poor HAL engineer emerged victors. It is too easy to blame leaders, but come on we are in democracy and the quality of leaders is directly proportional to the quality of its people.
Raj Thackeray might not have explicitly incited violence, but whatever he has said and whatever any politician ever said to gain attention, it is with a firm belief that it is not intelligent, rational human beings infront of them but it is a bunch of spineless, fourlegged sheep herd. It is the solemn duty of the people to prove that they are not mere sheep but rational human beings. But wow... what happened in this case, people without minimum common sense took the hint and went on rampage like a herd of buffaloes and pried upon all and sundry that came their way. Wow...its time to define new rules of democracy. Democracy is no longer a system wherein every human being is treated with dignity and is expected to choose the type of leader he/e wants to lead him. The new democracy is the one where human beings should be treated as dumb sheep and it is a process of leaders choosing the segment of sheep they want to lead. Democracy is no longer the place where leaders with different ideologies exist and the one whose ideology is supported by maximum number of people becomes the leader. In its new form it is a place where leaders with different sizes of herds besides them and whoever has more sheep in the herd, he becomes the leader.
Why blame the leader when the sheep are ready to be swayed by one way or the other.
Is that the path we are moving on in India!! Only time should prove. In addition to a hundred other factors which divide Indians into various segments one serous factors firmly confirms its place, regionalism.
PS: Sheep and buffaloes...very sorry.
Tuesday, 19 February 2008
Conveying offensive opinions and covering it up
In my college days one of my dear friends, Ravishankar told me a great rule of thumb to let people know your disagreement, when you are putting across your point, without actually using any offensive words.
Type 1 (Expression: Gentle disagreement):
For your information, "opinion or fact you want to tell"
Type 2 (Expression:Strong disagreement, in a slightly rude accent):
For your kind information,"opinion or fact you want to tell"
Type 3 (Expression: Boss, Iam really frustrated and if you do not understand now, I will bang your head type):
For your kindest information,"opinion or fact you want to tell"
Later I have observed keenly in real life and found that this is what happens in many cases and that is what people mean when they use some variant of For your information. I must confess, it is a matter of profound satisfaction of actually offending others without actually using any abuse.
In the new age of emails and online chats, tactics have changed. Now people resort to smileys. Write down all the opinion you wanted to convey or all the grudges you hold against anything and just add an innocent smiley at the end and abracadabra....(more smileys if it is more offensive, or a wink to sound cheeky)....you can defend yourself at anytime that all you said is in a good dose of humor and you really do not intend anything.....
Iam not concluding on this yet, I do not yet have a critical mass of examples to conclude that this indeed the case. My observations are on. Do let me know what your observations are....
Wow....found a thumping case to prove the above...covering up abuse with humor. Yesterday I watched the Filmfare awards hosted by Shahrukh Khan and Saif Ali Khan on Sony TV. Shahrukh clearly spitted venom on many people especially the likes of Amitabh Bachchan, Sanjay Bhansali, Ranbir, Shahid, even the little Darsheel etc all veiled under the garb of humor. Being an avid movie buff I follow the filmi news whenever I can and it was widely reported that Shahrukh is not in good terms with people in the above list either because of personal spat or because of personal insecurities. Just to make it clear, Iam usually a fan of Shahrukh the entertainer. But on this occasion he was clearly hitting people below the belt holding the armour of humor. I bet let anyone raise an issue with him tomorrow, he has the defense of people not appreciating light hearted, innocent humor....
Type 1 (Expression: Gentle disagreement):
For your information, "opinion or fact you want to tell"
Type 2 (Expression:Strong disagreement, in a slightly rude accent):
For your kind information,"opinion or fact you want to tell"
Type 3 (Expression: Boss, Iam really frustrated and if you do not understand now, I will bang your head type):
For your kindest information,"opinion or fact you want to tell"
Later I have observed keenly in real life and found that this is what happens in many cases and that is what people mean when they use some variant of For your information. I must confess, it is a matter of profound satisfaction of actually offending others without actually using any abuse.
In the new age of emails and online chats, tactics have changed. Now people resort to smileys. Write down all the opinion you wanted to convey or all the grudges you hold against anything and just add an innocent smiley at the end and abracadabra....(more smileys if it is more offensive, or a wink to sound cheeky)....you can defend yourself at anytime that all you said is in a good dose of humor and you really do not intend anything.....
Iam not concluding on this yet, I do not yet have a critical mass of examples to conclude that this indeed the case. My observations are on. Do let me know what your observations are....
Wow....found a thumping case to prove the above...covering up abuse with humor. Yesterday I watched the Filmfare awards hosted by Shahrukh Khan and Saif Ali Khan on Sony TV. Shahrukh clearly spitted venom on many people especially the likes of Amitabh Bachchan, Sanjay Bhansali, Ranbir, Shahid, even the little Darsheel etc all veiled under the garb of humor. Being an avid movie buff I follow the filmi news whenever I can and it was widely reported that Shahrukh is not in good terms with people in the above list either because of personal spat or because of personal insecurities. Just to make it clear, Iam usually a fan of Shahrukh the entertainer. But on this occasion he was clearly hitting people below the belt holding the armour of humor. I bet let anyone raise an issue with him tomorrow, he has the defense of people not appreciating light hearted, innocent humor....
Thursday, 27 December 2007
Vote seeking on Reality TV
I must confess that I am an ardent follower of reality TV shows in all major hindi TV channels. I religiously follow shows like Big boss, Indian Idol, Jhalak dikhlaa jaa, Nach baliye, Sa re ga ma pa etc etc. Though not often but atleast occasionally whenever someone in my family felt that a singer or a dancer is good but appeared to have low popularity, we used to send some votes by SMS.
Of late the contestants and hosts of these shows started behaving in a nauseating way. They started seeking votes targetting a section of audience only. These days it is not uncommon for hosts to say, "OK here comes punjab da puttar....everybody in Punjab vote for him and show the power of Punjab" or "This is your own Gujarati beti, vote her and make Gujarat proud". Contestants happily approve this and gleefully appeal to audiences of their home states in their mother tongues. In one recent Jhalak episode one contestant went to the extent that he thanked his particular caste/sect people for supporting him so far and requested them to keep supporting him till the end.
All this is a slap in the face for people who want to vote based on the talent/entertainment quotient of a person irrespective of where he/she came from and what language he/she speaks. The tone and tenor with which such scenes are enacted on TV appeared as if they were telling "Rest of India, I do not care of you vote or do not vote for me". We already have enough cracks in our Indian society based on caste, language, region, strata etc and this is the last thing we need from television to give space to these tendencies all in the name of entertainment.
Of late the contestants and hosts of these shows started behaving in a nauseating way. They started seeking votes targetting a section of audience only. These days it is not uncommon for hosts to say, "OK here comes punjab da puttar....everybody in Punjab vote for him and show the power of Punjab" or "This is your own Gujarati beti, vote her and make Gujarat proud". Contestants happily approve this and gleefully appeal to audiences of their home states in their mother tongues. In one recent Jhalak episode one contestant went to the extent that he thanked his particular caste/sect people for supporting him so far and requested them to keep supporting him till the end.
All this is a slap in the face for people who want to vote based on the talent/entertainment quotient of a person irrespective of where he/she came from and what language he/she speaks. The tone and tenor with which such scenes are enacted on TV appeared as if they were telling "Rest of India, I do not care of you vote or do not vote for me". We already have enough cracks in our Indian society based on caste, language, region, strata etc and this is the last thing we need from television to give space to these tendencies all in the name of entertainment.
Sunday, 2 September 2007
'Air India' experiences - 1
case 1:
I was about to join a new job in UK. Mumbai - London Air India scheduled at 1:30 in the afternoon. After check-in we all were waiting in the gate for boarding to comence. Clock moves on from 1:15 to 1:30 to 2:00. Nobody informs us anything. People get desperate and clog infront of the air india customer desk but no information comes. At last at 3:00 PM, someone comes into the customer service desk and informs that there is a technical problem in the plane, hence the plane is rescheduled to 11:30 in the night. We who got this information at the counter went and dissipated this information amongst the other passengers waiting in the lounge.
See the style with which the whole thing went on. Firstly at the time of check-in itself nobody knows that there was a technical problem and there could be a delay in take-off. Then when people are waiting for boarding and when the boarding is getting delayed none of the officials come forward and explain the reason to passengers. When passengers repeatedly pound the customer service desk, only then somebody bothered to inform the passengers, that too not as a public announcement but just to those who are waiting infront of the desk.
Air India provided hotel accommodation for non-locals and taxi-fares for locals. Again we all locals were promptly back at airport by 11:00 PM.ofcourse this time I call Air India enquiry at airport to check whether the flight is on time, before leaving for the airport. Again at the airport we come to know that the flight is not yet ready and will now depart at 9:00 AM next day. The same was informed to all those who stayed back in hotels and hence none of them returned to the airport.
Again see the missing communication link. Air India enquiry does not know the latest status of a flight and hence informs us to come to the airport.No body else calls up on the telephone numbers provided by us.
We also were sent to the hotel. Come next day morning, we all board the plane and sharp at 9:00AM plane starts taxiing on the runway. After 10 minutes of taxi, plane stops and we hear an announcement that the auxiliary power unit of the plane is not working and hence technical team is working on it. 30 minutes plane stays on the runway and then takesoff. Iam not sure if this is the same problem on which the technical teams are working from the previous day. I do not know how serious others are but I heard many of them swearing that they are not going to travel by Air India again.
I was about to join a new job in UK. Mumbai - London Air India scheduled at 1:30 in the afternoon. After check-in we all were waiting in the gate for boarding to comence. Clock moves on from 1:15 to 1:30 to 2:00. Nobody informs us anything. People get desperate and clog infront of the air india customer desk but no information comes. At last at 3:00 PM, someone comes into the customer service desk and informs that there is a technical problem in the plane, hence the plane is rescheduled to 11:30 in the night. We who got this information at the counter went and dissipated this information amongst the other passengers waiting in the lounge.
See the style with which the whole thing went on. Firstly at the time of check-in itself nobody knows that there was a technical problem and there could be a delay in take-off. Then when people are waiting for boarding and when the boarding is getting delayed none of the officials come forward and explain the reason to passengers. When passengers repeatedly pound the customer service desk, only then somebody bothered to inform the passengers, that too not as a public announcement but just to those who are waiting infront of the desk.
Air India provided hotel accommodation for non-locals and taxi-fares for locals. Again we all locals were promptly back at airport by 11:00 PM.ofcourse this time I call Air India enquiry at airport to check whether the flight is on time, before leaving for the airport. Again at the airport we come to know that the flight is not yet ready and will now depart at 9:00 AM next day. The same was informed to all those who stayed back in hotels and hence none of them returned to the airport.
Again see the missing communication link. Air India enquiry does not know the latest status of a flight and hence informs us to come to the airport.No body else calls up on the telephone numbers provided by us.
We also were sent to the hotel. Come next day morning, we all board the plane and sharp at 9:00AM plane starts taxiing on the runway. After 10 minutes of taxi, plane stops and we hear an announcement that the auxiliary power unit of the plane is not working and hence technical team is working on it. 30 minutes plane stays on the runway and then takesoff. Iam not sure if this is the same problem on which the technical teams are working from the previous day. I do not know how serious others are but I heard many of them swearing that they are not going to travel by Air India again.
Thursday, 9 August 2007
Power of 'Noise'
Did you ever watch how toddlers get their whims accepted by their parents? They shout, they cry, they make unbearable noise with whatever they have in their hands and finally either out of embarassment or out of pity or out of frustration or out of appeasement mom and dad will bow to their kids wishes.
Did you ever know a kid who does not make much fuss about anything and still gets granted everything he asks for? I don't know any.
What is the moral of this story?, unless you make noise, your interests will go unnoticed.
Iam observing the same phenomenon worldwide on various occasions.Some samples
a)Everytime a hindu god is painted on a underwear or on sandals,I have heard instances of cases being filed in courts of US and Europe and judgements being favourable to the petitioners. But these instances keep repeating now and then.
However when Danish cartoon row erupted, worldwide muslims raised the hue, staged protests, conducted marches, some issued violent warnings and everyone took notice of this. People objected this kind of behavior but I bet, anytime in future if anybody plans anything of this nature against muslim symbols, he will think 100 times. Similar situation has developed in India wherein other minorities like christians and buddhists become unimportant when considering policy decisions for minorities.
b)In the fedral structure that prevails in India, by raising hue and cry about the partiality of the central government or by repeated requests/threats some states garner more funds than others. For exmaple Andhra Pradesh it seems garners most of the flood relief declared by central government from time to time. Likewise I read somewhere that Tamilnadu gets about 60% of the funds allocated for new highways. I have never heard a drought prone and cyclone prone state like Orissa either demanding for greater funds or getting allocated with greater funds.
c)In any Hindi movie 99.9% of the time, when you see a south Indian character, it will be a Tamilian.To many northerners in India, as well as to outsiders, a south Indian implies a Madrasi and south Indian language implies Tamil.
Inspite of the distaste that exists towards the linguistic fervour shown by Tamilians Some of my learned friends also pay tributes to Tamilians for being so vehement in upholding their culture and language.You can love them or hate them but cannot ignore them. Why is this? Go and search for material on anti-hindi protests, anti-english protests in Tamilnadu.
What if Kannadigas or Telugus are accommodative of other languages and cultures, they are ignored.
What will happen if everyone starts making noise for everything they want to achieve?
World will not be a nice place to live in. Hence please, please look around for nice people and consider their silent grievences and concerns.
Did you ever know a kid who does not make much fuss about anything and still gets granted everything he asks for? I don't know any.
What is the moral of this story?, unless you make noise, your interests will go unnoticed.
Iam observing the same phenomenon worldwide on various occasions.Some samples
a)Everytime a hindu god is painted on a underwear or on sandals,I have heard instances of cases being filed in courts of US and Europe and judgements being favourable to the petitioners. But these instances keep repeating now and then.
However when Danish cartoon row erupted, worldwide muslims raised the hue, staged protests, conducted marches, some issued violent warnings and everyone took notice of this. People objected this kind of behavior but I bet, anytime in future if anybody plans anything of this nature against muslim symbols, he will think 100 times. Similar situation has developed in India wherein other minorities like christians and buddhists become unimportant when considering policy decisions for minorities.
b)In the fedral structure that prevails in India, by raising hue and cry about the partiality of the central government or by repeated requests/threats some states garner more funds than others. For exmaple Andhra Pradesh it seems garners most of the flood relief declared by central government from time to time. Likewise I read somewhere that Tamilnadu gets about 60% of the funds allocated for new highways. I have never heard a drought prone and cyclone prone state like Orissa either demanding for greater funds or getting allocated with greater funds.
c)In any Hindi movie 99.9% of the time, when you see a south Indian character, it will be a Tamilian.To many northerners in India, as well as to outsiders, a south Indian implies a Madrasi and south Indian language implies Tamil.
Inspite of the distaste that exists towards the linguistic fervour shown by Tamilians Some of my learned friends also pay tributes to Tamilians for being so vehement in upholding their culture and language.You can love them or hate them but cannot ignore them. Why is this? Go and search for material on anti-hindi protests, anti-english protests in Tamilnadu.
What if Kannadigas or Telugus are accommodative of other languages and cultures, they are ignored.
What will happen if everyone starts making noise for everything they want to achieve?
World will not be a nice place to live in. Hence please, please look around for nice people and consider their silent grievences and concerns.
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