Read This Farmer

The humble Indian farmer has been in the NEWS for various reasons; ranging from his plight due to lack of rain affecting his crops, presence of flood due to excess and needless to say, suicides in outraging numbers due to his unrecoverable debts. The farmer has been subject to covering full pages with crisp photographs  along with his family in magazines and newspapers, which otherwise have nothing much to offer anyway and at times does achieve its pre-assumed target to gets us thinking deeply about their plight. Making us wonder where our conscience has gone. 

Watch the vegetables we buy today... they simply don't rot-thanks to the farmer who uses preservatives and knows how to inject them intrinsically into their skin. Look at all the fruits available in the stores, in excess too-thanks to the farmer who uses fertilizers and pesticides in plenty to boost the yield. Look how the produce from the farms shine-thanks to the farmer again for rubbing the skin of these chemically created yield further with wax to lure the buyers. Land, consumers, humans, ethics, sustainability-does the farmer care? Are his actions justifiable as much as the justice he cries to have been denied to him in the tabloids and ever-moving media cameras? Does he wonder, bother and care about the people who are affected by him as he asks shamelessly for people to help him out?  Is he as humane as he wants others to be? Does he think about how his actions affects the society as he constantly blames the society for his plight?

The once upon a time backbone of our country, today stands extended like an appendix-useless and causing us pain-unbothered. As we are force-fed these "bio wonders" of modern age, does the farmer or the country that promotes these care? As we have reduced ourselves into becoming test grounds for these seeds, fertilizers and pesticides, does the farmer who makes the choice to make the final decision to implement these which kill the land really care? As we consume these products and become lab rats and source out a major chunk of our hard earned and borrowed revenue for the hospital industry via paying the bills in counters where we shouldn't be and as families as we drown in deep debts, does the farmer really care about the avoidable-damage he causes? And the  farmer manages to have the nerve to ask, "Why no one cares?!" Isn't this an interesting paradoxical irony?! "Hey farmer, are you wondering still why no one cares about you? Let me ask you, why don't you care about others too?" All I can say for now is, "Get well soon farmer." And till then you cry, cry, cry... you make me cry too. 

p.c: http://debbiedoesraw.blogspot.in/2008/11/gmodead-farmers.html

Brown Is The New White

Amazed at the greatness of my country (limited to by birth)-India a.k.a Bharath a.k.a Bharath Mahaan, shock waves shoot up my spine almost like a sneeze that can stretch the nerves within to its maximum. Today is what is called the "Independence Day" of my country. Great! Independence from what?! I do not know; probably the ones who are celebrating do. 

Lets think about it...

• we live in a country wondering why our business becomes everyone else's, while at the same time whenever there is a need for everyone to be involved in an emergency situation (lets say a rescue during an accident) we find none around to stop and help.
• we salvage our values by bursting into sacrosanct oratorical discourses standardizing morality for others yet where do these that are being spoken about go when we are ranked among the top most in the fields of corruption, murder, land grabbing and every other avoidable issue?
• we are known for our capacity to make anything and everything cheaper than almost anyone else to appeal and make things available to quantity crowd. Ironically, we are also renowned for having prostitutes at one of the lowest prices (regardless of quality). These faceless many enter this "profession" not by choice yet because they have no other. Yet...
• we admire and prompt a porn star in becoming a superstar as we wait for the latest tweets from strippers announcing their latest nude pictures available online as we reinstate strict dress codes on our kith and kin-this is the culture of damned hypocrisy we live in today-at its best!
• we watch in silent approval people being arrested, tortured and silenced for showing dissent nevertheless voice it against politicians and the way we disapprovingly run this country... yet we make tall claims of our's being the "largest" democracy in the world. There are places here where people ask for the military who rape women and kill youth in the name of encounters to be removed yet those people's voices fall on deaf ears. There are places here where people voice their reaction against nuclear power plants set up in their soil they do not want as loud as their vocal chords can shout yet those great one's who run this country along with the technocrats would not mind building those giant structures over the dead backs of those who protest. 
• we have given the authority to stakeholders of our country's corruption Inc. the right to call our brothers and sisters fighting to protect our land, water and our people from miners, nuclear scientists, bio-technologists and every other worm-infested, self-interested, rapist-breeding on the bones of others, sucking into the marrow of those being labelled "grave internal threats"... who is?! I wonder.
• we have allowed public money to run alcohol business in the state as schools, colleges and hospitals have been handed over to corporates and private parties to run them as profit-making business houses and we call ours a welfare state?!
• we have moved ourselves into believing that roads can be constructed only by private agencies and for such "services" rendered are allowed to collect toll charges restricting our travel to only the rich who can afford such charges levied.
• we still pay those taxes, both direct and indirect, sincerely for all these so called "welfare" services which are seldom offered or offered to a selective few.
• we offer to elect people who give freebies sans knowing that everything "free" comes with a cost and someone is paying for it, often as is the case a regular tax payer.
• we are worried about national debts as we gape at the staggering figures of scams our country bears.
• we are a country with people who seldom speak and if they do try and their voice reaches the parliament, they are shut up for the rest of their miserable life. This land is the land of people whose virtuous silence one day will be the foundation on which our silenced souls shall be laid to rest. No more do we need the white man to swindle, plunder and steal... we are capable of doing it ourselves. Just our silence will do in thought and action-a silence with which we shall pay for all the inaction. 

Today is our Independence Day. The tri-colour will be hoisted at the Red Fort like every other year... how more symbolic can it get?! How more red can the Red Fort get than the blood of those freedom fighters who lost their lives to the white man before 1947 and to his own hence after. It has been a glorious 66 years since we victoriously got rid of the white man and claim to have got our independence and thus freedom (heavens bless the souls who gave up their life for it.) Freedom and Independence from what? from who? To be taken from the hands of the devil to be drowned in the wells of our very own?! 

What have I said that countless others haven't said a countless times even better? Now, what is it that I have said that is not known? 66 years old! and as old as a cunning-old-man who has learnt how to survive. As others dance, sing and shout on this glorious day the 'vande matarams', the 'jai hinds' and the 'Bharath Maatha ki jais', I shall too on this day forget everything and be reminded to be a Roman in Rome nevertheless an Indian in India and pretend to be unbothered by all that is happening around and shout, dance and scream in my fanatical best with utmost hypocrisy in passive anger...     

 Free at last, free at last... Thank God almightyWe are free at last   

(if not for real, atleast in my dreams... in silence, in desolate silent mourning fit for a dying nation nevertheless the zombies who inherit it.)

p.c: http://www.eltonsaysthings.com/2012_03_04_archive.html 

Oh! Gorgeous Me

She transformed:

From a beauty queen to a "God knows what thing" now...

Her values transformed:
Then: To win the Miss World' 1994 crown, she said that if she became Miss World, 'she was clear about what she would do.  She was concerned for the world’s suffering little children and about poverty and inequalities of race, colour and sex' when asked, "What she would do if she won a Miss World title?" 



Ongoing: This poor girl could not achieve her social ambitions as she was quite busy with her lousy affairs and link-ups with bollywood stars. And/Or that she is busy attending film festivals and high-end parties and/or trying on and deciding what skimpy clothes to pair while pairing with young-heart-throbbing Hrithik Roshan up North to old-heart-attacking Rajnikanth down South and/or busy making money out of her wedding pictures to her daughter's yet to be released pics. Maybe thats why she is not able to achieve her life's (social) ambition yet... understandable, so sad... So much for her concern for world poverty, inequalities and other blah, blahs. 


By the by, this was the woman who had said that if she could change one thing in history, she would change her year of birth so that "she" could have stopped the world wars, (duh! excuse me, I just came back after banging my head on a tree) an answer that made her runners-up in the miss India title. Maybe she contemplated doing that while dancing around trees in rain-drenched clothes... and how nice of her to "try" and stop all existing wars!

Everything changes... yet, "WE" remain constant:

as we are busy wondering if Aishu's figure has changed (will change) after child birth, whether she looks slim(?!) or if  the floral Roberto Cavalli gown and high heeled Guiseppe Zanotti shoes as Yahoo and other sites have been failing endlessly yet continuously to promote along with a total conviction (we are all expected to agree with the power of the media, make-up and photo-editing cast upon us) that "yes, maathaji, India's bahuji, India's only pride, the true face of every Indian woman, has ofcourse slimmed and changed the face of Earth", I must do so before yahoo and co. burst with more promotions (even though I personally feel that a swine would look as good if it had been covered by a bed-sheet from head to toe just as well and calling 'a swine' 'an unicorn' a million times still won't allow it to fly... or would it as expected?!) 


And why all this effort to glamourize her? Sources say that its because she is supposed to have brought back that second-glance at Indian women around the world (Hope that people who say that also remember that so did Poonam Pandey, Mallika Sherawat and that Indian girl who bares it all in all those mms scandals and web-cam leaks.) Thanks to her and all those men who got her there. Otherwise Indian women were not "looked at" at all (Poor pathetic females!) Hence all this and more of these attention-seeking obsession as a country waits for her highness, former miss world to slim down and for her blessed mercy to have men cracking their necks once again, when an Indian woman walks by... 




At the end of the day:
...the face of the real India, the real Indian woman, the real Indian is still the same and looks something like this:

Happy, trying hard to keep a smile, in a face still hiding under that pallu, as she tries to make the ends meet, waiting for her man to come home undrunk, waiting for her children to reach home safe for the simple meal she has managed to prepare, from that rotting wheat she managed to bring home from our topied-babus who are more interested in exporting them to cows in England than distributing them to the poor inland, escaping those mercedes and hyabusas that children of some rich race, unknown to her, race for fun, zipping past her, disregarding safety (especially others) convinced that their mean machines are worth more than her life, still hiding in the shadows of darkness in her power-cut home fearing the greedy eyes that prowl the streets, spitting, urinating and waiting to taste her whole if she dared to venture out. No matter how hard she tries, she can barely save, thanks to the price hikes and the ongoing attempts by the country's elected keepers and only-at-times of "their" need emerging-civil societies in not controlling it as vote-mongers and fund-seekers still manage to scrape above all this, dusting the dirt beneath the carpet as they glorify India as ofcourse the land of the aam-admi."Yes boss, India shining indeed! Agreed, home minister, lest you list me too in your long list of India's grave internal threats and send the army to get me for speaking the truth nevertheless show dissent." 


She waits for her turn at the ration shop as she is turned away with no reason. She waits in line for her turn, in queue-less places and in rows where she will be pushed aside if not strong. She is treated nothing more than an object that cooks, cleans and bears children. Yet, she waits in line and claims her place patiently, yet again. Her shape? Her size? She cares not. All that she cares is the 3-square meals she can barely share with the ones at home before she can have the left-overs for herself. Designer clothes? Designer shoes? She wears not, untattered still-what she wears? she is thankful to be fortunate, she will wash it and wear it as many times till it tears (often even after, ever after.)

She is many yet one. She is not the one who leaves the country and runs away to a foreign land, from where she rattles her opinion (like anyone cares) nor the one who occasionally visits her country for vacations to tell everyone she meets how stinky and dirty this land is. She is brave and braves it all. She knows it all and still survives without running away (not that she has a choice), without a fuss and without a complaint. She maybe abused; yet won't complain. She may be beaten, bruised and might cry in pain; yet, won't complain. She maybe raped, at the police station where she is supposed to register her complaint, yet won't complain. She knows that she has more to gain than lose with her epic silence. 


Without caring a rat's-arse about what Aishwarya is, wants to be or would turnout to be, as the nation gapes in utter shock, the other real Indian woman manages to not lose her grip and takes care of her home and everyone in it who do not care for her, she is she and she is the woman, the real face of India that hides behind the pallu and gently smiles as our topied-babus and paid-media try to polish her, shine her, paint her rags and portray her to the rest of the world as something she is not or doesn't care to be. 


And as far as Aishu is concerned and as the fate of the rest of the valueless things go once it has gone past its expiry date, her next destination awaits. Lurking somewhere at the end of the road in the next turn, around the next pit stop when she will have enough time to spend reflecting on the well-structured meaningless answers she gave to win the crown; a place that has seen many like her and more, a place that waits silently in a corner and has been an eternal constant, a reminder that just like the game of chess, once it is all over, the king and the pawn go into the same box...

...the archives and the dustbin for the rich, the famous and the forgotten to rot.

p.c: 
http://ibnlive.in.com/photogallery/6367.html
http://www.volunteeringwithindia.org/our-programs/women-empowerment
http://www.sodahead.com/fun/which-country-has-the-most-beautiful-women-in-the-world/question-2422633/
http://www.pushpinderbagga.com/old-indian-women-portrait/171/
http://www.trekearth.com/gallery/Asia/India/East/West_Bengal/Kolkata/photo804093.htm
http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Trash_dustbin.jpg
http://www.indianexpress.com/news/50-reservation-to-women-in-panchayat-raj-institutions-in-ap/773578/


Ref:
http://nitawriter.wordpress.com/2006/09/27/about-how-hollow-beauty-contests-really-are/
http://www.mothersforum.org/video/aishwarya-rais-baby-is-worth-5-million-dollar/

Incredible India (The Police)

Here is a link to an 5.55 minutes-audio-visual piece that was created and titled "Incredible India (Police)" and needless to say, "YES, it is sarcasm!"

Follow the link below:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uV-xsUeCex4&feature=youtu.be

p.chttp://doodlewala.blogspot.in/search/label/Toon%20art

Stay Off This Post

I have a confession to make. Looking at people in this blog-world, waiting for others to read their stories, people who so surrealistically provide a virtual shoulder to lean on through their comments (esp. when it is a woman), many who think that they are liberated by speaking words which they otherwise would dare not utter and others who would think vice versa, I always wonder why do people call for so much attention upon themselves? why so much attention-seeking? why so much of discontent about themselves?!

People who hint about feminism and other right-based issues, often the unaffected who pledge virtual support, people who write about nothing and go around sending 'likes', promoting others 'blog post' and even giving their diplomatically useless 'comments' in hope that their deed would be reciprocated, people who simply have nothing better to do to bring home the moolah... these are the kinds I have been seeing mostly around here (the jobless kind).

Of late, I had things to worry about. So much that I worried about where to begin. Probably I must make a priority list of things to worry about. Should I begin with my younger sibling who is going through the frustration of a divorce, or should I worry about my old-classmate who is going through the pain of seeing his daughter, barely 5-years-old, fighting cancer or should I start with my friend who just days after knowing that his wife is pregnant is in agony losing his job and with an almost empty pocket? Frustration, Pain and Agony... this list is just the tip of the iceberg of people in real life around me here who need my real shoulder and I sit here wondering over the crap "some" people often blog about and expect that "some" other to give them the support they feel they so strongly deserve. Those virtual fools!

"My cookies did not come out well (sob, sob, sob)", writes one, "Indian people are such an ugly race... and it just gets worse as you travel southwards (hahaha)", writes another, "Watched a movie yesterday... dumb! can't people make any good movies just like those old days? (my pop corn on slime tasted better)" writes yet another. And I read these like an idiot (yet another). Just look at our blog-posts in the mirror for sometime and it will tell us how pathetic we are. What a sad reflection of being wanted, being loved, such attention-seeking lost lousy souls we are! We have it all and hardly realize how lucky we are yet we complain and once we get what we want, we find another reason to complain about something that we want right now... Losers (with a capital 'L'). When the real world needs us, here we are, hiding from our duties and responsibilities, in this virtual world, connecting to people we do not know-disconnecting from everyone we do... piling reasons, lies and excuses to disappear all the while... I thought.

Then I saw people connecting in these networks, sharing their pain and suffering, agony and anxieties, frustrations and passive anger; those who have no one else to share them with, no where to go and no where to run. Those who see this outlet of thoughts as a light shining in the far-end of the tunnel, probably the only light they get to see; all that they want and all that they ask for is to escape the real world for a while... those who beg for a moment, a moment atleast, of calm and peace and I feel 'let the light shine' let the day dawn for those who find life too dark in the dusk of their life, let them who want to sublimate, exercise their right to do so and those who give them the support in whatever capacity they can, do find strength to provide through this catharsis.

In the meantime, there is someone who has written about a cupcake she has made which has not come out well and this lad who wants to show the world how patriotic he is by cheapening the other countries around us and this other gal who just joined who has written a "great post" and wants us to believe how innocent, religious and virginic she is-those three that promise us of a trust-worthy commodity (I wonder how well behaved we all pretend to be around here... like we do when we know that our parents are trying to get us into an arranged-marriage. Duh!) and I got to read them all... after all I have all the day to waste so might as well "read, promote, comment"...

p.c: http://funnnyphoto.blogspot.in/2012/03/funny-kick.html

Wow! What A Woman!

Remarkable women who are worth remembering on this day, the women's day:

Indira Gandhi: Prime Minister of India led the country to war with Pakistan in 1971. She is remembered most for her campaign against Sikh separatists and for declaring a state of emergency when inhuman atrocities were done to any "suspected" citizen (which meant every one else who did not have a "Gandhi" as their surname.) She set up India's nuclear program, culminating in the explosion of a nuclear device in 1974. Old is gold indeed!

Shiela Dikshit: So now whats in a name?! "Shit" thats what she made the rest of the world call the country which hosted the Common Wealth Games of 2010. Ofcourse she had a Man to blame it all on... didn't we know that behind every ruined man is a smart woman and smart is she indeed! Currently holds the post of CM of a place declared the most dangerous for women... what a parody just like her name!

Mayawati: The recent kick in her behind following the Uttar Pradesh polls tells it all. From her own lavish spending on security and bungalows to erecting her own statues in useless parks, she has done it all just like any other woman would in self-praise and admiration... probably that is the only excuse she has... being a woman!

Sonia Gandhi: Corrupt to the core, she manifests her Italian mafia streak by using a dumb (mute) punjabi prime minister and an evil tamil home minister to silence the screaming pain of thousands of natives by slitting their throats under the pretext of 'curbing "grave" internal threats' and thereby selling our motherland to foreign-step fathers to use it for mining, bringing in FDI and establishing nuclear power stations. Can say more yet the unsettled bofors scammed guns may be aimed at me... after all must anyone teach her to silence dissent better?!

Mamata Banerjee: Came in as the promising hope of all Bengali's in a Hyundai Santro, saviour of the masses (esp. the people labelled naxals) whom she promised to protect and eventually started destroying... an eccentric piece for study and a sad replacement for Jyothi Basu, a legend, a man.

"Selvi" J.J a.k.a Amma: This thing rose to power not because people liked it but because people did not like the night time-goggles-wearing man and his family of corruption. After all can we blame the people? if not him then this thing, what else to vote for?! Then her regime... Power cuts, shortage of fuel, rising crime rates, even tried to screw up school education and managed to do to some extent for the children, often visits the neighbouring state when ever summoned by the court to face trials pending against her, decides what t.v programs people must watch by bringing the cable t.v under government control just like alcohol which too seems to be a booming business as she generously lets the private leaches take shares in the "business" of education and health. Such is her greatness!

These are creatures that will be remembered as those that roamed the Indian soil. Did I have to add more, after all I haven't gone international yet! Then I thought why waste time? Let me give these hapless ones a break; after all today is women's day and wish to end today's scribble with a quote I read... "When a woman behaves like a man, why doesn’t she behave like a nice man ?"

By the by, happy women's day and may you take many more years still to come as you aspire to be a man. Remember, wearing a pant does not make you a Man anymore than standing in a garage would make you a car. So for heaven's sake, forget all the feminist ideas, grow up, be a good girl, cook food, raise children and be a woman.

p.c: http://who-here.blogspot.in/2011/05/low-income-women-die-more-of-alcohol.html

How To Become Rich In A Day

Now for another out of proportion stats:

THE ECONOMIST's Big Mac index is based on the theory of purchasing-power parity: in the long run, exchange rates should adjust to equal the price of a basket of goods and services in different countries. This particular basket holds a McDonald's Big Mac, whose price around the world was compared with its American average of $4.20.

McDonald’s doesn’t even sell Big Mac in India because it’s made of beef which is not acceptable to Hindus. So, The Economist has instead looked at the price of the Maharaja-Mac burger (its equal substitute), made of chicken which sells at 84 rupees. Which makes it quite a simple observation in the global scenario that a man to have a dignified burger a day for which he labours (just for himself without taking into account a family he might have to feed or probably share this single burger with), which is a globally available product, priced taking into consideration the various criteria in economics, like many others across the globe, might require Rs. 84 in India to buy that burger.

Now lets check this out...

The Cause:
The Planning Commission of India has accepted the Tendulkar Committee report says that 37% of people in India live below the poverty line(BPL).
The Arjun Sengupta Report (from National Commission for Enterprises in the Unorganised Sector) states that 77% of Indians live on less than INR 20 a day (about $0.50 per day).
The N.C. Saxena Committee report states that 50% of Indians live below the poverty line.
A study by the Oxford Poverty and Human Development Initiative using a Multi-dimensional Poverty Index (MPI) found that there were 650 million people (53.7% of population) living in poverty in India, of which 340 million people (28.6% of the population) were living in severe poverty, and that a further 198 million people (16.4% of the population) were vulnerable to poverty.
421 million of the poor are concentrated in eight North Indian and East Indian states of Bihar, Chattisgarh, Jharkhand, Madhya Pradesh, Orissa, Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh and West Bengal. This number is higher than the 410 million poor living in the 26 poorest African nations.

The Effect:
The World Bank estimates that India is ranked 2nd in the world of the number of children suffering from malnutrition.
The UN estimates that 2.1 million Indian children die before reaching the age of 5 every year – four every minute – mostly from preventable illnesses such as diarrhoea, typhoid, malaria, measles and pneumonia. Every day, 1,000 Indian children die because of diarrhoea alone.
The 2011 Global Hunger Index (GHI) Report ranked India 15th, amongst leading countries with hunger situation.

Made in India for you...
Planning Commission chairman Montek Singh Ahluwalia submitted new price data that pegged the urban poverty line as consumption of Rs. 32/day per person in urban areas and Rs. 26/day in rural areas, a revision that would immediately lower India’s own measure of its poor from 37% to 32% of its population. Behold: 60 million people, suddenly not poor.

Read more at: http://www.ndtv.com/article/india/rs-26-cr-for-mayawatis-security-rs-20-cr-for-her-bungalows-maintenance-125431&cp

India did it again!!! Now I can have that fcking burger and smile "I'm luvin it!"

By the by, things you can do with Rs. 26:
buy 1 lettuce
buy 6 eggs
pay for (almost)... a 2-way ticket by local transport
a 1 1/2 km ride by taxi
can buy a ticket to the movies if everything is sacrificed and money saved for a week
can buy a Levis 501 if everything is sacrificed and money saved for 78.84 days
buy 370ml of petrol
buy 810ml of milk
buy 2 litres water bottle
have less than half a cup of your regular cappuccino
buy around 650ml of cola
and ofcourse have 30.95% of that freakin burger...

In the mean time, In a supplementary budget tabled in the Uttar Pradesh Assembly, a whopping 26 crore rupees has been allocated for providing security to Chief Minister Mayawati. The money, sources say, will be used to buy Ambassador cars and ten jammer vehicles. Another 20 crore rupees have been earmarked for the upkeep of two state government bungalows allotted to the Chief Minister in Lucknow.

Indian government approves 200% MPs’ salary hike , Still some MP's are unhappy.
TOTAL expense for a MP [having no qualification] per year: Rs.60,95,000
For 534 MPs, the expense for 1 year: Rs. 325,47,30,000
3254730000 X 5 years = Rs. 1627,36, 50000 ( One Thousand six hundred crores plus..)
Now that's a lot of burgers!

Source:
http://www.economist.com/blogs/graphicdetail/2012/01/daily-chart-3
http://blogs.wsj.com/indiarealtime/2011/08/02/india-ranks-low-in-big-mac-index/
"It's official: 37 pc live below poverty line". Ibnlive.in.com. Retrieved 2011-10-16.
"Report on Condition of Work and Promotion of Livelihoods in the unorganized sector.".
"Country Briefing: India, Multidimensional Poverty Index (MPI) At a Glance". Oxford Poverty and Human Development Initiative.
"8 Indian states have more poor than 26 poorest African nations". Times of India. July 12, 2010.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Malnutrition_in_India
http://globalspin.blogs.time.com/2011/10/04/whose-line-is-it-anyway-india-rethinks-its-poverty-schemes/#ixzz1nOwM3yzQ
http://blogs.timesofindia.indiatimes.com/Swaminomics/entry/middle-class-hypocrisy-on-the-poverty-line
http://www.ndtv.com/article/india/rs-26-cr-for-mayawatis-security-rs-20-cr-for-her-bungalows-maintenance-125431
http://www.numbeo.com/cost-of-living/country_result.jsp?country=India&displayCurrency=INR
http://discuss.itacumens.com/index.php?topic=94131.0

p.c: http://www.jmooneyham.com/why-we-cant-afford-for-the-rich-to-pay-higher-taxes.html

The Great Indian Tamaasha

Yesterday night as I watched my child's face while he was sleeping I felt an immense need to thank the Great One above for keeping him safe... safe from caste-related violence, religious violence, religiously motivated violence, corruption, the mafia, political scandals, the Kala Kaccha Gang, murderers, bandits, burglars, muggers, thieves, robbers, (and thus reminded of) the politicians and their politically motivated violence, hit-men, paid-criminals, hit and run speedsters and road ragers, kidnappers, ransom seekers, drug traffickers, gun runners, money launderers, extortionists, poachers, human traffickers, sexual abusers, sexual harassers, physical abusers, emotional abusers, mental abusers, people who neglect their duties, drug abusers, terrorists, abductors, rapists, bribe-seekers, bribe-givers, con-men and women, confidence tricksters, fraudsters, auto and taxi frauds who over charge, pick-pocketers, bag snatchers, chain snatchers, cyber criminals, poachers, wildlife traffickers, arms traffickers, illegal drug traders, people who indulge in domestic violence, infant killers and abortionists, dowry seekers, dowry givers, terrorists, the corrupt system that cradles it and the law enforcement who hide it all.

I was glad that I was not part of the 5361 convicts in Tamil Nadu and the 123941 in India, I was particularly glad that I didn't have to die in these prisons as was the case of 65 others in Tamil Nadu and 1430 others in India. It was nice to know that I was not part of the statistics that reported 16561 suicides in Tamil Nadu and 132226 in India reported every year. It was great to be home safe unlike the 32153 who died over a decade's time in an accident in Tamil Nadu and 373917 others who died across India. I was glad that the rowdies in khakhi (a.k.a the police man) neither received a complaint against me nor was a case registered unlike 43373 in Tamil Nadu who were framed just like the 1426718 others throughout India. I was particularly glad that I did not have a pending case to brood over unlike the 20 million (accounted for till the end of 2002) pending court cases country wide, which makes me not part of the 1 million persons in jail waiting for a fair trial (accounted for till the end of 2002) because the conviction rate of court cases is only around 1 percent. I was glad that I could get past all this and be there to watch my child smile.

I was also glad that the great nation where I live wishing to be safe where 1,700 people died instantly in Bhopal on 2-3 Dec 1984 from the Union Carbide gas leak and 22,000 people who have died since Dec 1984 from its after effects and 570,000 people who continue to suffer from varied diseases affecting respiratory, reproductive systems as a result since 1984 and still my mighty judicial system has remained impotent in rendering justice yet wants nuclear power stations established in rural parts yet again even if it is over the dead bodies of people who know that prevention is better than cure and object it, the same way tribals are killed in other parts of my country to get them off their natural habitat rich with natural resources to allow the rich man and the white man to set up his mining industries. Meanwhile, the dark streets sleep unworried through the deliberate hourly power-cuts as it celebrates a politician's birthday(s) announced in larger than life cut-outs through its corners for dogs to mark their territory thus shower them with the honour they precisely deserve as men in white with retarded colonial reminiscence of master-slave imagery running all over their nerves bend over, completely surrendering their arses nevertheless their dignity, respect and pride along with as the unheard moaning pain of the man on the street submerge dies as he moves past this tamaasha knowing that his voiceless voice just as his fate, glooms over his will to live, like a ghost that haunts him in his nightmares as he curses himself for being born and not being able to die, just as having to vote with none to vote for.

I was glad. Glad to see my son's smile as he sleeps without knowing all this; trusting that the world that I brought him into was safe, nice and happy. Smile my sleeping child! life is but a dream.

Statistics:
http://ncrb.nic.in
The Hindustan Times
p.c: http://genealogy.about.com/od/cemetery_records/ig/tombstone_symbols/sleeping_child.htm

It Happens Only In India (Part III of III)

Steps to ensuring a Goonda Raj:

Step 1. Do something against the will of the people

Step 2: Most spineless humans will not make even a meek cry against it, some gutless humans will discuss this in tea stalls, coffee tables, bars and probably in seminars and conferences yet not lift a little finger to do anything about it… ignore them

Step 3: A few desperate ones will rise to protest. Silence them. First try threat, then try bribe, then try to include them to your side (Tempt them), if you still can’t succeed accuse them of divulging foreign funds and the presence of foreign “terrorists” in their mission. If they still don’t crack, accuse them more, call them "grave internal threat", abuse them and threaten them more with the ever prompt CBI enquiry which has not been able to crack the bofors case so far (Oops! Did I mentioned it again?!)

Step 4: Cut basic amenities, electricity, water, gas and whatever (paid services) you promised to provide while shamelessly begging for votes (that once in five years occurrence)

Step 5: If all the above do not succeed, try death threats before actually killing the main rebel, after all don’t we know that to scatter the sheep all that you have to do is kill the shepherd?! And lay that “Nice” road and maybe charge a toll fees as well… all for the welfare of the country! Duh!

p.c: http://indianvanguard.wordpress.com/2009/06/21/

It Happens Only In India (Part II of III)

Thus reads the preamble of our great constitution… “We, the people of India, have solemnly resolved to constitute India into a Sovereign, Socialist, Secular, Democratic, Republic and secure to all its citizens: Justice, Liberty, Equality and promoting above them all Fraternity” yeah right!

This is a land that claimed Gandhi… lets face it. Probably the Brits aimed at only looting us like they recently did in their own streets recently. We killed Gandhi not the Brits. Now with all these non-violent satyagrahas and ahimsas especially in the form of hunger-strikes (I deliberately resist calling it a “fast” and insist on referring to this as a “hunger strike” the former is for internal cleansing and the other for deliberating control or as in this case maybe for external cleansing… I deliberately resist calling it a “fast”. It is a “hunger strike” and there is a difference) what are we trying to prove? Children go for hunger strikes to force their parents into something. It is not something great that adults do. Hunger strikes are sadomasochistic and the ones who are for it and extend support and push a person to carry on are just plain sadistic who find pleasure in the suffering of another, just one more irony of recent times. Just think. Gandhi, a simple teetotaler, an inspiration to bring forth dry states and dates would be smiling to see his personal belongings resting in the house of one of India’s richest and flamboyant liquor baron. Can we Indians be described with a bigger ironical figurative than this?!

The complacent and unaffected rich seldom question and the issues and concerns of the poor who do dare to question get crushed to silence with brute political and police force thus ensuring silence in the goonda raj. Aren’t we all watching the same drama being enacted over and over and over again by the topied baboos?!

(To be contd.)
p.c: http://globe360.blogspot.in/2011/01/political-dishonesty-and-social-silence.html

It Happens Only In India (Part I of III)

In the stroke of the mid-night hour when the rest of the world sleeps my India wakes up to whimsical fiscal changes, fraudulent finance, scammed economy, political malfunctioning, curtailed civil liberties, manipulating media, privatization, illegal mining, hunger, malnutrition and rising prices of essential commodities. The great depression seems to repeat itself as the great recession of recent times; the Bengal famine repeats itself with the incidence of farmer’s suicides alongside market meltdowns, political uncertainties and silent revolutions being silenced silently, crushing the will of the people to survive nevertheless live with dignity on rights rationed otherwise.

Meanwhile, the aam-admi is subsequently fed up… fed up watching guns and lathis aimed from the shoulders of the politicians charged at the poor rather than poverty, firing at the hungry, the deprived and the vulnerable rather than eliminating hunger, food wastage and discrimination. The one’s who resist destruction of freedom are labeled as “a grave internal threat” rather than deal with real terror from external forces; we are amazed at the way the ministers we trust and elect to power get drunk with power and act nothing less than the drunk barbarian on the streets who in a state of intoxication abuses everyone passing by. The crimes that the law makers and protectors of the iron hand of the legal system accuse the citizens are dissent, disrespect to law and authority and blocking roads towards the paths of development which usually refers to building factories, setting up nuclear power plants and mining (even if it against the will of the people). Yet, the citizen is not always a fool as expected to be. The rebellion we see around whether Gandhian or Subhash Chandra Bose’ian, whether by ahimsa or weapons, it is obvious that there is a generation of people fed up and boiling beneath the skin. The crimes they are accused of are true; yet, these are derivative crimes born out of greater crimes committed against them. Remember that everything Hitler did in Germany was legal at his times and what Gandhi did in Africa was illegal.

(To be contd.)

p.c: http://www.lawctopus.com/

Define "Politics" In One Line

The best definition for "politics" as I have read somewhere goes like this... Poly, meaning "several/many" and Tics, meaning "blood-sucking insects"(No wonder they are...)

p.c:

http://tagonist.net/blog/wp-content/uploads/tics2.jpg

Time to watch the pigs enjoy the filth

Sometimes getting people to read my blog makes me write the way others would probably like to read it, defeating the purpose of blogging in the very first place. Sometimes I look at blogs with a great hit counter and find the writing in there quite captivating... could be that 'Halo effect' created around it even before me setting in with the counter at the bottom highlighting hard-to-believe digits. If there is so much of traffic it has to be good... right?! Then I am reminded of the story of the 'Sour Grapes' that the fox could not reach and shut up.

Moments before I leave my temporary abode that has imprisoned me for the last couple of years, I look back at life and can't believe that I endured a one-straight road for this long. The initial days as usual was great. Exotic!... to a certain extent. Then monotonous melodrama sets in and you need to move before the boredom looms. Before leaving I just had a few questions connected no where with my movement that I wish to pen...

1. Why is Sonia Gandhi and Co. behaving like teenagers on heat (esp. after her visit to the U.S. of A for her so confidentially kept "health reasons") insisting on the FDIs and other foreign retailers to come into India despite the protests of the people in the so called "Demo(n)cratic" government I am asked to believe that I live in?

2. Why is there such a fuss to shut down a nuclear plant in Koodankulam even after the public don't want it there in the first place? If there is such a protest by the people, then can there be space for a doubt that they neglected public opinion and approval, considered mandatory before beginning the project? Such an ill planned installation-whose mistake is it that the PM insists on implementing? Why does this dictatorship form of ruling come in?

3. Chidambaram's nepotism has been brought to light; his earlier client, a hotelier has gotten an undue advantage, a letter of recommndation from this home minister to drop the charges against him and the BJP has the credit of taking up this fight from the media-light. Great! Great that this is happening as it always happens during the election time. This home minister however, is yet to be accused of GENOCIDE for labelling the people who tried to protect the natural resource of the country as "Maoists" and to promoting it sound like such an evil word and for organizing special forces and funding them with the tax-payer's money to eradicate the sons. daughters and children of nature all to give way for "Vedanta", a mining company to come into ofrce and plunder our resource, another earlier client of the minister... was the BJP and other parties dead when this was happening? Can there be anything more openly evil than this?

4. Why is there a toll charge levied on the road I travel in when I pay my taxes, both direct and indirect and to top it road tax and so on and so forth?

5. If my tax money was not used to build the road, then why do I see the picture of the UPA's mute PM and brute president on billboards on the same road claiming that it was an infrastructure development project by them?

6. Why is my country exporting food grains to feed the cattle of another country at a subsidized rate (European cattle to be exact) when the same is sold to the poor in my country at a higher rate and the farmer still kills himself unable to feed himself nevertheless his family?

7. Why does my country's highest court of justice sanction the exporting of 'endosulfan' when its impact on human lives has been witnessed in our own?

There is so much of cleaning up to do... cobwebs, dirt, filth and long decay, while cleaning it, I wonder how these that I dispose now, loads of them, got in and stayed in the first place. What was I doing when this filth was accumulating? "Busy" I suppose, the usual convinient excuse while living my mundane life. And now I am forced to take some strike-force action to throw all this out as I clean up. All this while contemplating about cleaning my house before I vacate... maybe these lines suit well for the country as well. If the cap fits let them wear it. Now, very few like my writing... still, very few care. let me pack.

Picture courtesy: http://cartoonmela.blogspot.com