traditional indian art (Kerala)

Charity begins at home

In apportioning responsibilities in the "fight" for gender equality the only one left out is the common citizen. It does not provide for any political mileage or any sensation on the media if we start looking inwards and find out things for us to do.First of all there is a need to relook at gender equality and get it defined correctly. Moving forward more than the police , the paralysed administration and the insensitive government how many of us have had the courage to raise our voices when we see untoward incidents happening around us. This job we have outsourced to that "hero" in the proxy ad of Liquor brand .How many of us have attended marriages where huge amount of cash and gold are "exchanged" when we are "aware" about the dowry act. How many of us have dared to intervene in our localities  ( 20 buildings around you) when we have witnessed harassment ( including violence) by in- laws demanding dowry or chose to ignore because they are friends , relatives, drink buddies. How many times have we tried to counsel , advice , threaten the perpetrators , to avoid abortion of female fetuses in our neighborhood. How many of us have friends who are habitual eve-teasers and how many times have we discouraged them from indulging in such acts. How many of us feel uncomfortable about imaging the policemen as the chulbul pandey's in popular films and feel that it is time we boycotted such films .How many of us realise that most bollywood songs are glamourised eve-teasing and create a certain stereo-type of women in our society Incidentally the ever-sermonising news media doesn't find this depiction as incorrect and are ready to celebrate these films as 100 cr grossers. How many of us squirm when women are depicted incorrectly in ads and feel that we can voice our protest by at least making those ads irrelevant . 
Answers to these question will decide how we are making our society a safer place for women. And if we get our act right we will not require candle light vigils , flash mob demonstration, and condemnation of govt and administration to set things right . And please Don't forget that CHARITY BEGINS AT HOME

STOP TERROR DO IT YOURSELF KIT

It hurts when some one says that there is no guarantee of stopping terror strikes and we look for political overtones in those comments. But do a reality check and any right thinking and balanced mind will be convinced about the reality.
Stopping these bombstrikes is a matter of proper order in society than about natgrid ,pota or any other law .
Look at areas around us and one would realise how vulnerable our surroundings are . We lack the basic civic sense which will be first thing that will be required to stop these bomb attacks. Most areas where this strikes occured will have uncontrolled garbage dumps, huge and unmanageable crowds arounds illegal shops and business outlets , illegal and disorderly parking of vehicles which all are prime areas that are used to place bombs . So instead of blaming govts and the security agencies for the bomb attacks lets do a reality check ourselves and find out whether we are doing enough to ensure our safety

Corruption ! Are We Serious

the cause of corruption and black money is neither communal nor secular , so there is no need to make a distinction of any kind . and it is not very significant too that there were a few fur cap wearers on the stage. Corruption or removal of it cannot be addressed by mere tokenism . corruption is something that is ingrained in our mindset. The movement that we are seeing is not one for a systemetic change but for a Lok Pal the way the five members of the so called civil society want. For that we are not having discussions or debates but we are deciding by straw polls like the one kejriwal was conducting at the Rajghat. The one virtue for this uprising that is being touted is that the movement has popular or mass backing. But one should note that all the corrupt MP's and MLA's are also products of such popular backing . So if one is wrong what is the guarantee that the other will be correct . Are we not taking a chance on this ?

DIDI of Bengal

The dust has just settled down in bengal after the election results and things are beginning to take concrete shape. Didi has been crowned as the CM and her arrival to take oath was quite dramatic. She chose to walk the last KM to writers building , which was very practical because even if she drove in that distance the time taken would have been the same what with the milling crowd in that area. The real test for didi and the people of bengal will start now. Will she be able to deliver the development that the people of bengal were denied during the 34 years of the left rule.It will surely be a tough ask for the didi. Will didi be the same austere person that she was during the struggle against the left govt or will she be sucked in by the trapping of power. Will she go the mayawati /Jayalalitha way or will she chart out a path of her own . Her track record in govt unfortunately does not leave scope for much optimism. She has shown to be autocratic bordering on being whimsical and prone to be populistic than being pragmatic and practical. The question upper most is will she display the same stamina that she displayed during her struggle when she is charting developmental plans for state. Answers to these questions will decide the fate of the state bengal

DIDI of Bengal

The dust has just settled down in bengal after the election results and things are beginning to take concrete shape. Didi has been crowned as the CM and her arrival to take oath was quite dramatic. She chose to walk the last KM to writers building , which was very practical because even if she drove in that distance the time taken would have been the same what with the milling crowd in that area. The real test for didi and the people of bengal will start now. Will she be able to deliver the development that the people of bengal were denied during the 34 years of the left rule.It will surely be a tough ask for the didi. Will didi be the same austere person that she was during the struggle against the left govt or will she be sucked in by the trapping of power. Will she go the mayawati /Jayalalitha way or will she chart out a path of her own . Her track record in govt unfortunately does not leave scope for much optimism. She has shown to be autocratic bordering on being whimsical and prone to be populistic than being pragmatic and practical. The question upper most is will she display the same stamina that she displayed during her struggle when she is charting developmental plans for state. Answers to these questions will decide the fate of the state bengal

Down the wrong Laine

There seems to be no dearth of divisive issues which the politicians can exploit to create strife and trouble in our society. The latest episode revolves around the book “Shivaji – Hindu King in Islamic India”. This book authored by American writer James Laine was first published in 2003 and promptly banned by the Maharashtra govt in 2004. There were loud and often violent protests before the ban led by various organisations like the Sambhaji Brigade. The book is again in the lime light as the Supreme court did not uphold the ban as the state govt could not submit evidence that the book was hurting religious sentiments.

This time around the scene is pretty unique with the ultra nationalistic state govt also joining in the chorus for the ban on the sale of book. There are the usual culprits like the shiv sena, MNS and Sambhaji brigade and they have threatened to resort to violent protests to stop the sale of the book. All this in the 21^st century in a country which claims to be functioning democracy. When arguing with Pakistan we make it a point to mock at them by claiming to be a democracy. But is this the way a democracy must deal with an important issue as the freedom of expression?

We see the usual goons on the streets during the protests and can be sure that none of them would have read the book. The primary reason being the price tag ($60.74) on the book. The goons may not be paid so much for these sponsored protest. The reason for the reactions against the book is the way we look at our History .We are used to the text book view of history where we have most characters in shades of black and white .We start to take the text book images seriously and treat the characters as demi- gods . When we grow up we are supposed to take a more impartial view of our history and the historical characters.

And we have various political outfits that pick and choose their heroes and villains to further their brand of politics .And we have ambiguous laws which have gaping loop holes and a perennially lethargic judiciary and the executive which fail to deal with law breakers. And we have a situation where we have a few bigots holding the entire society to ransom in the name of hurt sentiments.

It is time we stop living in our past and start thinking seriously about our future. We are a nation with a glorious past and should be proud of it. The people and events from the past should act as inspiration for us to move forward and not as distractions in our march towards future glory. We must realise that History is a chronicle of events involving people with human failings and not a fairy tale involving fictitious characters

Poor Indians

It is not enough to lament the death of a dalit some where in haryana when we were busy watching the IPL on our flat screen Televisions. We have to first accept both as the reality of our life and then go about dismantling the evil in them. Although it may be hard to accept but we have to accept that we are a caste and class-ridden society where the chasm between the classes and castes are ever-widening. But strangely we are just not doing anything at all to rid the society of these evils. But silently we are doing everything to perpetuate this system. Even when we have the opportunity to do something to change we just prefer to be mute spectators than be the instrument of change. We are active participants in caste based organisation and parties who do everything to perpetuate these divisions. And it is always a middle class hobby to play the victim and complain about being powerless to ring in any changes. When will we try to rise above our limitations and start doing things than whining about the mess around us?

Coming to the IPL we are back to tokenism that we are so famous for. The entire fiasco has precisely claimed one and half victims. We have a Shashi Tharoor who lost his job as a Minister for being candid in admitting that he took active interest in getting an IPL team for his home state. The entire opposition and an overzealous media hounded him as if he was the first minister to commit this impropriety. It won’t be an exaggeration to state that majority of the ministers in union ministry and in state cabinets will have to be removed if the same yardstick of Propriety is applied to their activities. We are all aware that almost all projects right from local municipal level ones to national level mega project are sanctioned to the “right” people with “blessings” of panchayat level leaders, corporators, MLA’s & MP’s depending on where they are in the pecking order. Shashi Tharoor received the punishment for not being discreet about the whole thing. And Lalit modi for the moment has just been suspended by the self-righteous BCCI who in turn have given themselves, all the worthies in the Governing council and Sharad Pawar a clean chit wherein the actual reality is that all of them are equally culpable in bringing disrepute to the game by turning a blind eye to the happenings that were taking place right under their noses. Media as usual is losing interest in the entire episode as they have milked it to the maximum extent possible. Moreover why will they want to upset the gravy train when reportedly they were promised 250,000 sq cms of space in the print media and 3000 hrs of coverage on the electronic media by the IPL .Why will they want to kill the goose that gave them so many golden eggs. The only loser in the entire game will be the aam aadmi who will be busy saving hard earned money which can fuel the jamboree in its next edition.

THE IPL STORY

Well it may be unjustified to say that IPL is now a Hub of corruption ,but matters in it are not squeaky clean too. But for that matter BCCI is also not known for clean and transparent transactions.As the parent so the offspring. We need not go into details and we will never be privy to the complete details.Look at the set up in BCCI and the IPL .We have more than required presence of politicians in BCCI and with IPL it has brought in a plethora of businessmen too,and we need not speculate about the outcome of this nexus. And who do we have as the Governing council members of IPL ,some faces from the pack of BCCI members and some ex cricketers who are milking the venture as commentators or in some other way .And that leaves the entire show to be controlled by none other than LALIT MODI a man not known for a squeaky clean past unless he has done a Valmiki act in getting reformed. It is known that power corrupts and absolute power corrputs absolutely .Don't we have the clear picture now ?

Racism In Australia

It is interesting that the issue of Racism in Australia is such a rage in the Media now.The Aussies will try to cover up the issue and comment with a straight face that there's is not a Racist country.Yes the fact is that the country may not be racist but there are many elements in that country who are extremely racist in attitude. It is just not coincident that this issue has come up just days after the CEO of Telstra ,the biggest Telecom company in Australia Mr .Sol Trujillos commented in a BBC interview that Australia is" Racist and a Backward country".Incidentally Mr Sol was drawing 30 million dollar as Salary,and he had reasons to say that ,and one of them was some comments attributed to the Aussie PM Kevin Rudd about Mr Sol when he was about to relinquish Office .There were enough red faces in Australia after Mr Sol's interview and now they have real muck on their faces. The reasons for this racial anger are many ,one of them is lack of undestanding about other cultures amongst Australian public .And this is not a recent phenomenon .I remember the story about Russi Surti an ex Indian cricketer now settled in Australia. He had recounted stories of discrimination when he had migrated to Australia . The dissappointment is palpable because the outside impression that one has about the country is one of being a El Doroado of sorts,but reality is quite the opposite.Another aspect of this matter that we cannot overlook is that many of these "victims "never came back or thought of coming back and many of them did not even report the matter to the authorities.They never had the courage to ask for their rights when their parents were paying thru their noses to enrich the Aussie economy .So much for our Uprightness

terrorism

These days the hot topic of discussion across all sections of the society is terrorism and ways & means to tackle that. The govt is spending a lot of the Tax payer’s money to develop anti terrorism squads to tackle this menace. But inadvertently there is a steady addition to the band of people who want to indulge in this kind of unlawful activity. This is due to the cavalier attitude of the government and civil society towards unlawful activities and general break down of our criminal justice system in bringing to book people indulging in unlawful activities. Witness the government’s reaction (or rather lack of it) in dealing with the agitations being carried out by the MNS in the last couple of years and by the shivsena now. Spare a thought for the families of the innocent people who may have lost their lives and livelihood in all these opportunistic agitations. Remember No Thackeray has ever led any agitation on the street so they are never hurt and never loose anything because they do not have to work for a living. They just reap the benefits out of the common man's miseries. Search the dictionaries for a right word for this kind of organisms. And when the law cannot provide security to law abiding citizens don't be surprised if some of them decide to take law into their own hands. This is at the root of the all the insurgency and terrorist activity that we see around the country.

So spare a thought the next time we see some of our dear leaders egg on their supporters to launch another agitation. Think and Decide as to who pays the Price for it.

Amitabh the Great

Dear Amitji

I was amazed reading this post of yours on your blog space.This is more like the monologue in the climax of Your movie “Rann”.It just amounts to nothing ,just random mumbling.
And another thing that stands out is your attempts at remaining on the right side of the trouble makers.Your attempts at showing that you are close to the thackerays is just appalling.Of Course you may argue that they are your Family.But as always your family always have regular dates with activity which are bordering on lawlessness.I am not taking any names because they are Obvious ones .If they are indeed your family I think you can use your wisdom to restrain them from indulging in unwanted slander.Reference to the article in your family’s mouthpiece saamna and the comments in them about Rahul Gandhi.And If Iam not mistaken the Gandhi’s are your Ex-family.Your silence on that matter borders on spinelessness or are you happy that the Gandhi’s are no longer your friends and the present family is helping you in getting back at them.I was watching Jaya Bacchans interview on Tele on the 3rd Feb.She Had an interesting take on The SRK issue.She was mentioning that everyone must face these crises on their own and not expect any kind of help or support,that is because she had to endure her trials with MNS all by her self.Despite her attempt to smile away like a trained method actor one could not miss the vindictive and the cruel undercurrents behind that facade.And you have proved to be the proverbial political butterfly by hobnobbing with the Congress first ,then Amar Mulayam Saga,coupled with your dalliances the Thackerays and now your latest alliance with narendra Modi.You have proved yourself to be perfect immigrant ,the quintessential survivor who knows which side of the bread is to be buttered

The Media

It is all right to be an advocate of an independent media, devoid of any kind of control other than the market.But is it just sufficient for the media to be free and independent?.I think media also has a social responsibility and should not just pander to the market forces.Because the market is not just a monolithic entity. There are various sections and each with a separate and distinct thought process and the media should be able to mirror all these thought processes.And after all is the media all that free for many a times we get an impression that sections of the media are dancing to the tune various vested interests. And being driven by the market should not seem like being by monetary considerations

Rise and fall of the wall street

The Fall of capitalism

At last that bastion of capitalism is finally seeing red.The country which was the biggest advocate of free and unregulated markets is seeing the virtues of Regulation.

To say that the capital market in the USA is in a Mess will be an understatement

At least one Giant financial institution has bowed out,another is on artificial respiration and quite a few are waiting is queue to receive the dole from the Government

And Remember this is an election year in the Big Apple.And the process of regulation is being carried out with a straight face ,without a murmur from the public,which again shows how uninformed the public opinion there is.

And the media around the world has sought to underplay the events ,because it had hooked on to the American apron strings and was advocating for free markets and capitalism pretty vigorously

What are the lessons that the world at large can learn from these events.

First thing is that the economy cannot be driven by consumption based on borrowing.People must be taught to live within their means although this may bring down the growth Rate. Their are strong messages for the Indian youth and the middle class .Simply aping the spending methods of the western world can be really dangerous , and unfortunately if we were to face a similar situation we may not be able to absorb the shocks ,firstly because we may fall short of resources required for the resurrection,and secondly there will be lots of hindrances from the west and particularly the Americans if we adopt the measures that they have taken up.

Lastly it sometime pays to be primitive and conservative at least in matters Financial

In 1990's the Fall of the Berlin wall was an epochal event,because it signified the end of socialism.And now we are in the Midst of a similar event .This time it is the Fall of another Wall ,THE "WALL" STREET driven economy

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Language Wars

But the Top news is the Language war In Maharashtra.

It is the story of a Juvenile leader and a pussy footing Government

We have a Home Minister in Maharashtra who is high on Morality quotient,but fails to deliver when it comes to maintaining Law & order.When he has take decisions to rein in the rowdy elements who move around as political ,he has a tendency to look into the Crystal ball to see whether his actions will offend the local populace and will in turn affect his and political party's standing in the forthcoming elections.He will try to delay the decision making to such an extent that sometime he does not have to  take a decision.The events just take its own course. And the end result is of course misery for the common man.Uncertainty about the future ,anxiety and loss of livelihood for many a citizen.And we are witness to a new kind of terrorism.

Probably we are revisiting History

 

approaching rains

If u are in mumbai you must be eagely awaiting the monsoon rains. But how will your life be when the rains actually comes...not really great I think. as such mumbai aways looks like a city with the (W I P ) work in progress tag on it. You travel anywhere in and around mumbai thye place looks like it has been bombed recently. And the authorities are consistently singing the sames songs as frogs do in the rains. The are touting us figures about how much has been spent in pre monsoon clean up jobs. Unfortunately these spending figures have no relation to the quantum of jobs done. So mumbaikars can hold your breath and pray fereverently to god to grant us a easy monsoon that does not disrupt our daily lives seriously.Because thats our only hope ,because the administrators and the poloiticos have other serious business on their hands, Safeguarding their self interests any other take on this?