Posts Tagged ‘india’
India’s Daughter: Phonies back in business
Controversy surrounded the documentary India’s daughter has brought all phonies back to action. With their opinions and commentary on various media platforms.
I read a piece by a self proclaimed eminent person, who was in news about controversial death of his wife till very recently. According to him, the ban embarrasses India. Cool! So a ban on a documentary by BBC embarrasses whole of India. No Sir, it’s you who feel embarrassed. You who feel economy class flight traveler are cattle. We can just imagine what you would think of Train travelers; Bus travelers. God forbid you meet a person who don’t have any money to travel, you would I am sure choke to breath the same air. You feel embarrassed as you would be asked questions by your friends across the world and probably in BBC.
Your phoniness knows know bound. Stop crying for British Broadcasting Corporation, come down to earth and do your bit for your mother India. But no, you would enjoy and feel embarrassed in the company of global elites, while we who are worse than cattle, are subjected to this torture of your blogs.
A lot of such his/her highness are raising voices across. Like all other issues in India are already resolved. Please work to make India a better nation, not to grab airwaves. I am deeply saddened by affairs of media. How have they fallen! The race for TRP has corrupted them beyond repair. I can understand actions by a foreign media channel, foreign reporter, who did things to make money at the expense of India. But why our own media wants to do the same to our own nation is beyond understanding.
I urge our national media not to fall prey to sensationalism. There are many issues in countries across the world. Find such issues and make equally outrageous documentaries about those countries. You will find me standing by you. For the sake of nation, spare your own country.
India’s Daughter: TRP Lust
Arguments, counter arguments and then some. This has been going on over the BBC documentary India’s Daughter. It has boiled down to the clash of two leading media houses. Both wanting to outdo each other in TRP race.
The media house who was to air the said documentary has begun rally in support. Rival news channel, has gone to town all bonkers against it. The sad part is, this war is not ideological. These channels could have easily switched places, and would have justified themselves too.
This is TRP race my friend. Documentary will get more eyeballs now, in this internet age. All those who didn’t knew about the details of interview, will know now for sure. So all the campaign against it will backfire. But who cares. As I said, it’s not ideological.
The flouting of norms and ethics has become a passe. What else could be expected of Radia-taped journalists. Why add to the horror of the victim’s family by airing the face and views of a monster. Who cares. As I said, it’s not ideological.
As long as the TRP’s are coming, it’s all good. Someone has the pressure to reach No. 1, other is under pressure to remain No. 1.
The irony is, I too seems to be in on the race somewhere, by writing this. Sigh!
Tax Slabs Unchanged: A welcome change
Finance Minister has kept tax slabs unchanged this budget 2015-16. Disagreeing with the popular notion, I welcome this. I’ll tell you why.
It goes back to the root question, “What do we expect of our Govt.?” For me personally, I expect my life to get better. Public amenities to get better, Traffic situation to get better, Better Roads, Better Air, Affordable Housing. I expect to retire early and save enough for leisure. For me none of these wishes are granted by easing of Tax-Slabs. A few thousand rupees extra in my pocket seems nothing but a bribe.
Yes BRIBE. It feels like Govt. throwing bones to a dog. Something like, “We won’t do anything to give you a better quality of life, but here, I am throwing few thousand bucks to you. Lap it up and shut up. Vote for me the next time too”. For me it’s nothing better than a MNREGS like subsidy. I am totally against it.
Hence I commend FM. Thanks for not throwing bones to me and bribing me. Hope you utilize the tax I pay to give me what I want in the long run. Let future FM’s too hear this loud and clear. Don’t try and buy my integrity and my vote. Create sustained resources. Give me the nation of my dreams.
The Apathy of General Class
This weekend I was travelling by train. I had a slight argument with train attendant. According to him, “Bedsheets don’t belong to railways, they belong to me”. I didn’t completely understand why he said so; have raised this query with railways, which I know would go unanswered.
Since rail budget is round the corner, I would like to touch upon a topic that has been neglected year after year. The General Class compartment. According to a news report around 2.3cr people travel by trains daily. Out of them around 1.5cr travel by General Class. Tectonic 65%, around the same as total voter percentage last General Elections.
Whilst train fares have been increased time and again, the situation of General Class Compartment has not improved. Wooden seats, People fighting a war to get inside. All of you would have seen long lines, manned by policemen, waiting to get inside the train. Those lines are to get inside the General Compartment.
Whenever you feel things are not going well in your life, imagine the apathy of people in General Compartment, you will stop complaining. 65% figure does not mirror Govt.’s priorities. I see hardly 3-4 General Compartments whenever I travel.
I would have expected 65% Compartments to be of General Class in trains, Alas! It’s not the case. Well, Democracy works differently in theory and in practice.
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.
Kaun Hai Yeh Vikaas?
Since 9 months of Modi Govt are over, people of India have been doing rounds of Birth Registration offices across India to look if Vikaas has been born or not. Okay Bad Joke.
A lot of things doing round on social media and people are seriously looking for Vikas. Kaun Hai Yeh Vikaas?
I received a message on my Whatsapp, “Modi Sarkar ke 9 Maheene Poore, Kejriwal CM Ho gaya. Kahin Kejriwal hi toh Vikaas Nahin?”. When Kiran Bedi said, “My name is Vikaas Bedi”. People got confused. But then she lost and that debate was nipped in the bud.
Top detectives of India took it into their hands to find out who Vikaas is. Below are the excerpts from when they met.
ACP Pradyumn: Chupp ke baitha hai yeh Vikaas. Kuch toh Gadbad hai Daya. Kuch toh Gadbad hai. Aakhir chupp ke kyon baitha hai yeh Vikaas? Kya zaroorat padi isko chupp ke baithne ki? Har darwaja tod ke dekhna padega (Finger swirling).
Karamchand: Shut up Kitty. Ahem Pradyumn. Yeh bhi koi sawaal hua. Swaal toh yeh hai, ki kya sahi mein yeh Vikaas hai ya behroopiya hai? Is Vikaas ke mukhaute ke peeche Kaun hai? Kitty…Kitty.
Byomkesh Bakshi: Mujhe toh lagta hai ki Koi Vikaas-Bikaas tha hi nahin. Ajit, yahi asal baat hai. Par phir bhi sab Vikaas ka naam baar baar le rahe hain. Is rahasya ki jad tak jaane ke liye humein gawahon se ek baar phir baar karni padegi.
All three of them went to talk to the witnesses.
Tumne dekha hai Vikaas ko?
Witness 1: Nahin Maalik. Humein toh nahin dekha. Suna bahut tha. Gaye bhi they haspataal hum toh. Doctor sahib ko bhi nahin pata hua ki nahin.
Witness 2: Kal ekdum aisa laga ki Vikaas chilla raha hai door. Bahut dhoondha. Bas awaaj hi sunayi di. Kaunoo pishaach laage.
Enter The Muffler Man.
Mufflerman: Arey ab bhi nahin samjhe. Yeh Vikaas Chunavi Jumla tha ji. Chunavi Jumla.
Akbar-Birbal jodi: He…He.
BJP confers Bharat Ratna on Rahul Gandhi
It was being discussed in power circles over last week or so. With the outcome of assembly results of Jharkhand and J&K, it has been made official. BJP Govt has decided to confer Bharat Ratna on Rahul Gandhi.
The sense of adulation towards Rahul is profound within BJP. Earlier in the media name of Atal Bihari Vajpayee was doing rounds for this award. When asked, BJP spoke person had this to say, “No doubt Atalji, Advaniji laid the foundation of our party. However it was Rahul who has worked hardly and helped BJP achieve glorious heights today. We wouldn’t be grateful enough if we ignore his contribution to our party and the nation. Without Rahul’s statements and lack of charisma, Modiji might not have become PM and driven hard the development agenda. Rahul is apple of nation’s eyes.”
Congress was quick to issue a defense. “Conferring Bharat Ratna on Rahul is a joke. What has he done? Other than to systemically eradicate Congress and propel BJP back to power. This is a vicious attempt by BJP to placate people faithful to them. We condemn it right, left and center.”
Rahul Gandhi was too happy to say anything. When prodded for a statement, he said, “Bharat Ratna is a state of mind. In my mind I am Global Ratna. Globe at my house has Bharat also. So I was already Bharat Ratna. However it feels nice to get that ribbon and pendant. Nice design I say”.
Disclaimer: This is a work of fiction and should be taken with humor.
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.
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…”.
Mars Orbiter and India
Mars Orbiter takes India to dizzying heights in Space research. You would have already read a lot about technical intricacies of the mission, so I would not elaborate on that. That’s the stuff for geniuses anyways.
I recall a conversation from decade back from college days. Topic of Mars exploration came up and we wondered when our country would achieve that. It was during college and quite few of us wanted to be part of this dream.
I remember a funny reply that one my friend gave in a drunken stupor. “Hey, I would move to US; become a citizen there. My Country would then have gone to Mars Man! Simple”. Not that he really meant what he said. Such characters who could play with words either ways used be in abundance.
Out of the nations ravaged by colonial rule, we are way ahead. Chaiwaala becoming a PM is one of the things that keep sanity in this country. We know that hard work pays here and there is no need to grab and dash. Mars Orbiter also showcases the exploits of that hard work.
Hope MOM gives impetus to next generation of Space Research in India.
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