Archive for the ‘General/Society’ Category
Mother Teresa: The Controversy
A recent remark by RSS chief on Mother Teresa and her missionary work has caused huge uproar across the country. Since Mother Teresa is generally considered an epitome of charity, the statement was bound to cause the ripples.
I decided to do some reading into whether she was involved in conversion or not. What was the real motive of her service? However I left my reading midway. A more emotive issue struck me. Why do people convert?
As I understand any invasion by a ruler of different faith brings with itself forced/induced conversions. It happened with Mughals and British alike with different degrees.
The real reason that came across to me was caste system in India. When we do not allow people of certain caste to enter temples, use common wells and subject them to any and all humiliation in the book, they tend to lose faith in the God they believe in. A ready dose of a different religion and a different God rapidly moves in to fill the void. By the time Hindu leaders (Entirely Upper Caste), understood this, the phenomenon had already spread.
At the same time, let’s not run away from the fact that primary mission of Christian Missionaries is to spread their religion. They find a ready market in the downtrodden and neglected sections of society. It’s a different matter altogether that nothing changes for such poor people in reality. While one religion makes them untouchables, the other religion neglects them once the aim to convert is achieved.
My request to Hindu Leaders would be to make sure caste system is eradicated and anyone who still practices it is thrown out of the religion. And my request to Christian Missionaries would be to stop carrying the White Men’s Burden and work for the downtrodden without asking them to convert.
American Sniper: Need for such Jingoistic Movies
Consider a scene. Soldiers from another country are all over your city. They shoot, they loot, they ravage. You burn with anger. Your husband killed, your parents killed. You find a bomb and decide to avenge their death. You run towards the incoming soldiers. Just then a sniper takes a shot and a bullet pierce through your skull. Sniper rejoice and calls you, “Evil Bitch”.
I am sure patrotic people from snipers country would have clapped during this scene in the movie. I would have clapped too if sniper was Indian and evil bitch was from Pakistan. No point lying about it.
The point I like to discuss is the need for such Jingoistic movies. Do they sell wars to innocent citizens? Do they justify the aggression of army? Or are they mere exploitation of our patriotism by a filmmaker to mint money?
I remember swelling with pride during movie Border. When Sunny Deol was in full fury, I clapped. If I analyse these movies and try to pin them on a hidden agenda. My guess would be they help people morally come to terms with war. Humans are God fearing beings. Morally they cant justify killing other people.
So we try and attach patriotism when it comes to war. My country; Your country. We create separate aloof slaughter houses to kill animals for food. Can we make our child witness to a bufallo slaughter and tell him/her, this is where meat comes from?
I feel when killing is necessary for whatever reasons, we try and find a moral facade of a justification. It helps us sleep well.
PK, Aamir and Controversy
I saw PK movie starring Aamir Khan and directed by Rajkumar Hirani, before any controversy erupted. It was quite clear from the trailers that movie was a satire on religious customs. I went to see the movie with an open mind.
Movie wise its a nice simple story without much drama or twists. A simple tale told with simplicity. Aamir’s acting was superb as always. I liked the message of the movie. About superstitions and wrong numbers and how easy it is to fool people in the name of religion.
But I will be frank here, I found few bits distasteful like the one in the climax involving a guy posed as Shiva, and the one where Tapasvi says that a person from particular religion do blasts…why should Tapasvi answer?
Then the controversy erupted. Hindu religious leaders objected, understandably so, as majorly they were the ones targetted. Then the political free for all.
My take is such movies tend to vitiate atmosphere in a multi religious society like ours. It would have been. difficult to target all religions equally in the movie and this is what caused issues. Right wing and appeasement politicians both made things worse.
My take is though in principle such movies should be celebrated but given the realities, they better not be made.
I find makers of the movie equally at fault as the religious traders. Both made money off religion. Some by celebrating it, others by denigrating it. Movie was made to make crores of rupees and this fact should not be forgetted. I would have liked if makers gave away the profits for social causes. Since their motive was to make money off public, they were always susceptible to attack and can’t take Holier than thou route.
Everyone alike. After all its money honey!
Samosa and Chai
Train journey is synonymous with samosa and chai. The harmonical calls of chai-chai and boasting of garma-garam samosa.
Nothing to kill time and getting totally bored. Let me describe my fellow passengers. Should keep me busy for sometime.
1. Mokey-man: He is sitting next to the door donning a monkey-cap. Wide eyed and dark skinned. Nothing standout. He keeps peeping over the shoulder to gaze at the lady sitting a few seats away. He makes gestures as if he is doing neck exercise. Whatta…playya!
2. Laugh Alone: He has earplugs and laptop is on. Some sitcom probably. He keeps laughing intermittently. Oblivious of his surroundings. Kinda Funny.
3. The Foodie: A middle aged man. With his wife. His wife keeps passing him food like every 10 mins and he seems more than happy to chew down every last bit of it.
4. Bollywood’s own man: Just listen to him. “Dutt sahab ke bete ne naam kamaya. Aur Kapoor sahab ke bacchon ne. Dharam paaji ke bacche okay hain. Ab Sunny ka time gaya. Danny ka ladka toh bekaar lagta hai.” Sajid bhai ke mamu…se lekar Daud bhai tak. All are like his pals the way he speaks. Awesome.
4. The sleeper: This guy has been asleep all through. Not sure if he is on something.
5. The beauty: The lone good looking girl in specs. Everyone keeps looking at her making her a bit uncomfortable. Alas! when will we change.
12 rupaye ki Roti
Good heavens! 140/- for dinner in train. Looking at it from the point of view of when we eat out it’s penny. But looking at it from a public owned organisation, it doesn’t sound nice. Before you start berating me for being a communist, let me explain.
When poverty figures came out. There was a huge uproar. 12/- was the figure that was dicussed endlesslessly. A lot of our esteemed leaders who were part of Govt of the day, supported that figure. They went even further and justified it by saying, “Meal at 12/- is available aplenty in our country”.
No point naming individual leaders but that sounded like a collective voice of the Govt. The point is when on one side you say 12/- is the price per meal in India and on the other you charge people 140/- for a meal on wheels. Where is the disconnect?
When I see the same leaders trying to find the reasons why they lost, I can only laugh. This arrogance was why you lost. Insulting justifications to make point on TV debates, was why you lost. People can bear with hunger, but if someone try to justify that hunger, it’s intolerable. This is why you lost.
Had they been humble enough to admit the failure. Had they sympathized with 12 bucks junta, things might have been different.
The sad part is all those leaders are affluent even in loss. And 12 rupaye ki roti is still soiled in blood.
Thoda adjust karo
Journey back to Mumbai. Just as I boarded the train, first voice in my ear, Bhaisaab adjust kar lo thoda.
I found my seat occupied. Couple of guys sat there relaxed. Mine was the coveted window seat which everyone desire but only few get. Sometimes I wonder how the lack of ample trains in India is a blessing in disguise. The one who gets the seat jumps with joy. If there would be ample trains, this joy would never be.
Anyways, “Bhaisaab can you please sit there”, said the duo pointing to a middle seat. Over the years as I have stopped arguing, I have somehow learned the trick to handle this. With glib and humor.
“Oh! Itni si baat. For you, I am ready to sit on the floor Sir”, I said with a smile. Everyone nearby laughed as I parked myself in my designated seat.
I am a bit tired. It’s nap time now.
Tests of Life
I don’t remember the yaksha tale completely. But there were a set of questions to be answered to attain something. Clearing hurdles and attaining the goal has been a common thread all through our texts.
Some akin it to the way life is. It takes tests at times and what you achieve next depends on the how you perform. Such periods of life lets you understand the reality of a lot of charades. The real face as we can call it.
It’s very important not just to sail through such tests but also remember the period. Who decided to stand by you and who deserted you. It helps not only to gain perspective but also lets you an insight for the future.
Life is short if you make it fun. Life is long if you make it sad. For myself I would choose to keep fun and not let myself be bogged down. If people choose to stand by me, it would be good; if they decide otherwise, even better.
Some people say, after hard work comes the comfort. They might be wrong. There might be further hardships. My view is, even if there are further hardships, I would atleast be trained better to handle them.
Put right foot down
When you see injustice,
Innocent blood spilled,
Don’t just stand and frown,
Put your right foot down.
When you see a child,
Molested by a savage,
Don’t laugh like a clown,
Put your right foot down.
When you see hoodlums,
Teasing a certain eve,
Don’t sip your coffee brown,
Put your right foot down.
When you see a teacher,
Beating up small kid,
Don’t just use proper noun,
Put your right foot down.
When you see poor laborer,
Being taken advantage of,
Don’t you too fill godown,
Put your right foot down.
When you see fake promises,
Made by your beloved leader,
Don’t still paint the red town,
Put your right foot down.
When you see injustice,
Innocent blood spilled,
Don’t just stand and frown,
Put your right foot down.
Poor man’s fight
Not 5 mins back two people in my coach were having a shouting match. Topic “Whose space was it to put the luggage?” Let me call them passenger A and B.
B came and found luggage space under his seat occupied. He asked around and nobody claimed. The bags were exchanged and B settled down.
10 mins later A entered. His seat was couple of rows away. He flew into rage seeing his luggage on the ground. And the slinging match started. Clearly A was in wrong here but I don’t want to go into it.
Have you observed that chances of such fights are higher in trains than in planes; higher in sleeper coaches than in AC coaches; higher in city bus than in private AC bus; higher in hot places than in cooler climates. In fact they increase with decreasing money in the pocket.
Two relatively poor people are prone to fight over such things more than two relatively rich people.
Guess everything is a fight for survival for us poor strata of people.
Disgracing Journalism
As the number of news channels grew, the quality of journalism took a hit. Quality v/s quantity debate has been for long and journalism was not left untouched.
Media is considered one of the pillars of democracy and hence the concept of Free Media. Free in the sense that no pressure or censorship from outside. Media is expected to be self-regulated, just like judiciary. However vested interests among media are hell bent to destroy this.
Over the years reporters have put their life on the line. Hence it pains me to write this. Ever since Radia tapes came out and two senior journalists were named, it was sad to see that they were not shamed. They kept their jobs, were not shunned. They prospered even more.
The self-regulation of media was required. Alas! It was not to be. Modi was hounded by media persons for 12 years and rightly so. I applaud media to do so. But now that he is PM and on a foreign tour we should hold our horses. As long as he is abroad, debates should be on his foreign policy and relations with that country. There will be a lot of time to dissect his old doings when he comes back.
A senior media person, to get into fist fight with people in a foreign land, does not bide well for journalism as a whole. In Deepika v/s TimesOfIndia, where it was evident media house was in wrong, the reporters kept coming out with the sleaziest of POV’s that could be.
In this case also the senior reporter was the first to come out with a video, which turned out to be half-truth. When I first saw the video, I was supportive of him and angry at the un-civilized crowd. But after seeing the entire video, I am just speechless. I urge media once again to stand up and make self-regulation counted. But the only response I see from media is, “Mehhh…”.
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