I slammed the door on one of my professor's face and walked out when i thought i was right and he was wrong, well after that i had to face a lot.I learnt my lesson that day "protest but in a right way". There can be different ways of protesting like fasting, demonstrations,working with a black band on arm, not working at all etc.
But something happened last year which caught worlds attention, a shoe was thrown on respected(worldwide) president George W. Bush. And this unique way of protesting was discovered by an Iraqi journalist now that is a different story that he is still in jail but i guess all the great discoverers were treated like this and after sometime the world usually adopt the new ways. Anyhow this time one nation did not waste any time to take this method of protesting seriously, and started practicing this at every possible occasion.
No prizes for guessing yes it is our India, where one skinny bespectacled bald man developed other out of fashion ways of protesting like non cooperation with peace and peaceful talks , but as we all know we indians have a fetish for anything imported no matter from where it comes, as long as its not ours its great!!
So the new way of protesting is to get up, take out your shoe and just throw on that devil who is talking rubbish. Even the results are great suddenly you will be in news , people will be desperate to know you, and will be wondering how can you do this to our capable ministers , are you not scared that they belong to a bunch of goons. If your are affected by this recession this can be an ideal profession, do it once and twice and thrice after a while you can be just perfect in it and political parties can hire you and if you feel the overexposed, just simple , you can open your own shoe throwing institute pvt ltd. and teach others how to perfect this unique art.
everyday the list is getting longer, it all started with super cute Bush and L. K. Adwani, J. D. Tytler, Narinder Modi have already experienced it, And the latest victim is our PM.
But change is the thing which will never change so even this way of protest will change . My extraordinary mind is already trying to find out what would be the next "in" method, it can be anything, something cute like throwing paperplanes or something disgusting like urinating in front of everybody, something adventures like doing some kung-fu stunts, or something funny like dancing on bollywood item number.
After making fun of everything as i always do, i thought whatever it is, at least we are free to protest in our country and that is the greatest power.
Sunday, April 26, 2009
Wednesday, April 15, 2009
Things has to be chaotic, in a nation has 23 official languages, 1065 dialects, 774 million voters, 1055 political parties, nearly 6000 candidates(95% of them are men),few million electronic voting machines, i did not realize it till i begin to explain the month long election affair to my Canadian counterpart. Once i was done with my Indian political system lecture she was looking at me as i just delivered an alien. And i thought they can never understand because when India votes one sixth of mankind votes.
I like politics and when Canada voted i wanted to know their parliament system, but to my surprise there were issues like homeless cats and dogs shelters etc. There was no coverage of elections in leading newspaper all they cared for US elections.Elections started and government was formed, Stephen Harper became prime minister again, but nobody knows, except people like me.
Though picture in India is different there is a whole lot of people going for leadership this time gurus, civil servants, Harward graduates, computer experts, illiterates, goons, bollywood, kollywood, tollywood, criketers. According to exit polls this time its gauranteed no single party can make government, congress can get approx. 140 and BJP may be 130, that means trading happens in New Delhi too, and it will begin in may. But this is not the first time in india for a coalition government, since 1984, there has not been a single party government, that means if you have 10 poeple and a dialect or religion you can give birth to a political party.
The concept of democracy is very tough to understand, US, Canada, EU , Australia are old democracies and when people in Afganistan votes people get misty eyes here as they can see people in different world are getting rights, but as Paul Colleir (renowned oxford professor) writes, democracy is successful untill people know about their rights and educated enough about the candidates. This is so true look at South Africa, Mr Jacob is only educated till 5th grade and he is leading the government and country's condition is detoriating or look at African nations like Kenya, even stable south asian countries like Sri Lanka or Thailand.
It takes several leaders to make the nation but to destroy one is enough, vote wisely.
I like politics and when Canada voted i wanted to know their parliament system, but to my surprise there were issues like homeless cats and dogs shelters etc. There was no coverage of elections in leading newspaper all they cared for US elections.Elections started and government was formed, Stephen Harper became prime minister again, but nobody knows, except people like me.
Though picture in India is different there is a whole lot of people going for leadership this time gurus, civil servants, Harward graduates, computer experts, illiterates, goons, bollywood, kollywood, tollywood, criketers. According to exit polls this time its gauranteed no single party can make government, congress can get approx. 140 and BJP may be 130, that means trading happens in New Delhi too, and it will begin in may. But this is not the first time in india for a coalition government, since 1984, there has not been a single party government, that means if you have 10 poeple and a dialect or religion you can give birth to a political party.
The concept of democracy is very tough to understand, US, Canada, EU , Australia are old democracies and when people in Afganistan votes people get misty eyes here as they can see people in different world are getting rights, but as Paul Colleir (renowned oxford professor) writes, democracy is successful untill people know about their rights and educated enough about the candidates. This is so true look at South Africa, Mr Jacob is only educated till 5th grade and he is leading the government and country's condition is detoriating or look at African nations like Kenya, even stable south asian countries like Sri Lanka or Thailand.
It takes several leaders to make the nation but to destroy one is enough, vote wisely.
Saturday, April 4, 2009
There is special season when i get fully charged and active and i am feeling exactly the same way right now when we have elections coming up and i am glued to my Indian news channels throughout the weekend.But i am quite disappointed this time, it gives me a sense of deja vu, as if all the major channels have a set of experts and they visit these channels one by one. Its not that i dont enjoy them watching but as a big nations we should have more variety.
My restless soul found a meaningful refuge in newspapers, and the first article i read was by Rohini Deshpane and Abhijit Banerjee on the future of Indian politics, and made me think so really this time caste will play a big role. I am a big fan of Ramachandra guhas writing, but you always have to read twice as its difficult to draw the abstract at first, i have to say a well written article about the comparison of late 19 century America and present day India. I really hope we follow the American history and become more matured democracy.
If i have to sum up this week it will be something like this,weeks biggest catfight , definitely, Menka and bahen Mayawati. I laughed for a good 15 mins. as i read, both the mothers ( not to forget maya is not biological mother but claims she is, to the crores of Indians) are fighting over Varun bhaiyas jail visit.
Big achievement of the week, for sure, honourable supreme court for barring Sanju baba from fighting elections and big disappointment to CBI(who else) for giving clean chit to J Tytler.
biggest laughing stock of the week Mamta di for announcing she will not drive nano ( i am so thankful to her).
I have this guilt, i will not be able to vote this time, as i am so far away but i really wish this time India writes the history, able to make a stable and successful government.
My restless soul found a meaningful refuge in newspapers, and the first article i read was by Rohini Deshpane and Abhijit Banerjee on the future of Indian politics, and made me think so really this time caste will play a big role. I am a big fan of Ramachandra guhas writing, but you always have to read twice as its difficult to draw the abstract at first, i have to say a well written article about the comparison of late 19 century America and present day India. I really hope we follow the American history and become more matured democracy.
If i have to sum up this week it will be something like this,weeks biggest catfight , definitely, Menka and bahen Mayawati. I laughed for a good 15 mins. as i read, both the mothers ( not to forget maya is not biological mother but claims she is, to the crores of Indians) are fighting over Varun bhaiyas jail visit.
Big achievement of the week, for sure, honourable supreme court for barring Sanju baba from fighting elections and big disappointment to CBI(who else) for giving clean chit to J Tytler.
biggest laughing stock of the week Mamta di for announcing she will not drive nano ( i am so thankful to her).
I have this guilt, i will not be able to vote this time, as i am so far away but i really wish this time India writes the history, able to make a stable and successful government.
Sunday, March 22, 2009
Bitiya
I spent all my life in this city of dreams, New York, since my childhood i saw people are running, where? i do not know, but most of them are running including my own parents, and those who are not, this city welcomes them too. But i was not born here, i was born far east in India, and my parents are from a small village in Haryana, which my father can never forget, he says he enjoyed the real freedom where he belongs to an affluent and powerful "jat" family, but my mom is more than happy here, as she says there in village she would have been outcasted by now, as i am the only child and a girl.
I was always good in studies and wanted to become an engineer, i wanted to design cars and as a child whenever i used to tell this to my grandmother, who is in India, Haryana right now, used to laugh and say, oh my little girl you will get married one day to a robust "jat", who will have acres of land, i used to blush. The day i came out of Columbia as an graduate engineer, i thought what a lethal combination of a mechanical engineer and robust "jat" with acres of land.
I took my first job as an entry level engineer in R&D department in a prestigious automobile company , and after 3 years of experience i got an offer to work on a project in India, Hrayana. I came home and announced to the family and my dad was full of pride as he could see his son in me, and my mom was happy because she could finally call her sisters in Haryana to look for a suitable alliance for me, after all i am 27, too ready to get married.
I was mesmerized by the idea of going to a place where i was born but never seen, never felt, some says its poor, some says its rich, vibrant economy some says wow finally you can learn some yoga and meditation, and my mind was stuffed with all this, but all i knew that this trip is going to be unique for me.
Life was same for me even in India, factory to home and home to factory, after working for a month i finally decided to travel, and give a visit to my relatives, did both. Diwali came and factory was closed so i thought why not spend holidays with grandma, uncle and aunt who are doctors and have their own maternity home.I loved my first Diwali in India, but wondered if have gone deaf and fat, all those crackers and sweets.
My sleep broke with the loud banging on my door, i opened the door, police , media and lots of people.I was in the state of shock, they all were asking me questions, whether i knew about all the dead fetuses found in the well behind maternity home.I saw police took my uncle and aunt, and grandma , me and my 10 year old cousin were left behind. Next day a huge crowd from some political group came and broke almost everything, all happened in front of media. My grandma packed all essential stuff and we left for our ancestral village.
After few days uncle and aunt got bail, but i was still numb, when i met them i could not figure out what to do. Village was very peaceful though, i called my company took some days off decided to spend few days here. Our neighbors were very calm, i always saw five men leaving home every morning and a woman behind the doors with one little boy. My cousin and him became good friends, they showed me how to play cricket, i asked so what does your father do, he asked me back which one?
There were many families all over the district with one wife and few husbands, and surprisingly none of the ladies knew the language, all belong to the southern states of India. There were so many villages where females were negligible or way less than the men.There were many reasons for it, according to the tradition only a male heir can bring forward the family name, having a number of boys in families can show power, family businesses were safer with boys and last but not the least these villages saw heinous crimes against females during partition and now i understand why my grandmother always associates women as less powerful.
I got transferred to Detroit. Coming back was tough, after what i saw there, was way beyond words, i started to read more and more about female feoticide like geographical locations, methods and techniques. Sometimes i felt so sick after reading how just after delivery father or other family members throw the baby in well, or bury her or closes mouth and nose together.The things were not limited to India, it was all over Asia from China to Pakistan.Even people who immigrated to western countries practices this, and i wondered why some of my relatives got pregnant here and miscarried in India.
I started to write down blogs on this issue, did not get surprised at all, when i saw another girl from Hongkong has posted her comments stating she always wanted to do something on this.Some of my supportive friends came forward and we opened an NGO in delhi, with little money and lots of support, we named it BITIYA.Now we work for nine months in office and three months on streets. There is something in these big democratic nations, courageous people are in abundance, we wanted few but crowd is with us. Students from universities and schools are really supportive, they help in whatever way they can, last month we had a bollywood dance competition in jalandhar to raise money.
Last year we saw a drop in female feoticide by 4%, and the sex ratio under 2 year olds is significantly improved.Educated young people understands this thing that both men and women are important for a happy family, good community, perfect society and successful nation. But i felt the sense of true achievement when my father saw a daughter in me, and accepted proudly.
( This story is a pure fiction and does not bear any resemblance to living or dead.)
I was always good in studies and wanted to become an engineer, i wanted to design cars and as a child whenever i used to tell this to my grandmother, who is in India, Haryana right now, used to laugh and say, oh my little girl you will get married one day to a robust "jat", who will have acres of land, i used to blush. The day i came out of Columbia as an graduate engineer, i thought what a lethal combination of a mechanical engineer and robust "jat" with acres of land.
I took my first job as an entry level engineer in R&D department in a prestigious automobile company , and after 3 years of experience i got an offer to work on a project in India, Hrayana. I came home and announced to the family and my dad was full of pride as he could see his son in me, and my mom was happy because she could finally call her sisters in Haryana to look for a suitable alliance for me, after all i am 27, too ready to get married.
I was mesmerized by the idea of going to a place where i was born but never seen, never felt, some says its poor, some says its rich, vibrant economy some says wow finally you can learn some yoga and meditation, and my mind was stuffed with all this, but all i knew that this trip is going to be unique for me.
Life was same for me even in India, factory to home and home to factory, after working for a month i finally decided to travel, and give a visit to my relatives, did both. Diwali came and factory was closed so i thought why not spend holidays with grandma, uncle and aunt who are doctors and have their own maternity home.I loved my first Diwali in India, but wondered if have gone deaf and fat, all those crackers and sweets.
My sleep broke with the loud banging on my door, i opened the door, police , media and lots of people.I was in the state of shock, they all were asking me questions, whether i knew about all the dead fetuses found in the well behind maternity home.I saw police took my uncle and aunt, and grandma , me and my 10 year old cousin were left behind. Next day a huge crowd from some political group came and broke almost everything, all happened in front of media. My grandma packed all essential stuff and we left for our ancestral village.
After few days uncle and aunt got bail, but i was still numb, when i met them i could not figure out what to do. Village was very peaceful though, i called my company took some days off decided to spend few days here. Our neighbors were very calm, i always saw five men leaving home every morning and a woman behind the doors with one little boy. My cousin and him became good friends, they showed me how to play cricket, i asked so what does your father do, he asked me back which one?
There were many families all over the district with one wife and few husbands, and surprisingly none of the ladies knew the language, all belong to the southern states of India. There were so many villages where females were negligible or way less than the men.There were many reasons for it, according to the tradition only a male heir can bring forward the family name, having a number of boys in families can show power, family businesses were safer with boys and last but not the least these villages saw heinous crimes against females during partition and now i understand why my grandmother always associates women as less powerful.
I got transferred to Detroit. Coming back was tough, after what i saw there, was way beyond words, i started to read more and more about female feoticide like geographical locations, methods and techniques. Sometimes i felt so sick after reading how just after delivery father or other family members throw the baby in well, or bury her or closes mouth and nose together.The things were not limited to India, it was all over Asia from China to Pakistan.Even people who immigrated to western countries practices this, and i wondered why some of my relatives got pregnant here and miscarried in India.
I started to write down blogs on this issue, did not get surprised at all, when i saw another girl from Hongkong has posted her comments stating she always wanted to do something on this.Some of my supportive friends came forward and we opened an NGO in delhi, with little money and lots of support, we named it BITIYA.Now we work for nine months in office and three months on streets. There is something in these big democratic nations, courageous people are in abundance, we wanted few but crowd is with us. Students from universities and schools are really supportive, they help in whatever way they can, last month we had a bollywood dance competition in jalandhar to raise money.
Last year we saw a drop in female feoticide by 4%, and the sex ratio under 2 year olds is significantly improved.Educated young people understands this thing that both men and women are important for a happy family, good community, perfect society and successful nation. But i felt the sense of true achievement when my father saw a daughter in me, and accepted proudly.
( This story is a pure fiction and does not bear any resemblance to living or dead.)
Tuesday, March 17, 2009
Its really easy.....
I altered my future plans today, by the time i will be 50 i want to join Indian politics, so that i can enjoy my career till my death no matter if i die at 105.There are not many requirements you need to fulfill to become a politician in India, and i can successfully meet most of them by my 50th year. But i should not take it so lightly, so i decided to make a to do list.
1. I should make lots of money, by hook or crook, because money plays a big role. In future i will have to provide huge funds to the party i will be in, to get an election ticket, and i will need some really strong goondas(party workers) for some booth capturing, hooliganism,make arrangements for them so that they can do riots peacefully.i will have to bribe officers in public services to show my wealth as less as possible, and yes at last but not the least i will provide free 40'inch LCD HDTV to all who will vote for me( i stole this idea from a southern politician, he won by the way).
2. This one will be really difficult for me, because my orkut and facebook profile says i am agnostic, and religion plays an efficient role in the politics. So i will have to embrace a religion or pseudo secularism,but it is not that easy, no worries i have a solution, i will gather few rallies and shout against one particular religion so that i will get an FIR against me and in court i will say ''I am the only one who will provide justice to this particular religion''.And if i become a pseudo secularist i will have to do pseudo fasting outside the pro religion leader.
3.Now the point comes to issues, agendas and vision, i will have to be really careful about this one because not to forget i am educated, so i will have to project and present myself as thinking mind, I will have to concentrate that my speech and my actions should not be the same.I will show to the world that my goal is to provide education, houses, health care to the people but i will provide 40' inch LCD TV.
4. According to me this is the most important, my dressing sense, I will wear only cotton saari nicely pinned up, to show i am a respected Indian woman and i am with common man, but i will definitely wear western dresses(dolce and gabbana is my favorite by the way) while i will take an expensive vacation on taxpayers money in Italy. I am thankful to Indian media that they have not turned into paparazzi yet, so no exigency of being photographed.
There are many small points too like try to give a little bit like Rs 500 donation to an old age home, take a chopper to far far village, visit slums ( just visit not to touch its dirty you seeee), try to get some footage with bollywood stars if possible hang around with them as much as possible, crack jokes in media in a specific dialect.
After all these points there is only one thing which i cannot suffice is "regionalism", i do not belong to any particular state of India as my forefathers were from delhi and delhi is famous for its alloyed population, I may loose on this front but I think I have an answer for this too, I am the most expedient person for the post of prime minister.
Its easy really.
1. I should make lots of money, by hook or crook, because money plays a big role. In future i will have to provide huge funds to the party i will be in, to get an election ticket, and i will need some really strong goondas(party workers) for some booth capturing, hooliganism,make arrangements for them so that they can do riots peacefully.i will have to bribe officers in public services to show my wealth as less as possible, and yes at last but not the least i will provide free 40'inch LCD HDTV to all who will vote for me( i stole this idea from a southern politician, he won by the way).
2. This one will be really difficult for me, because my orkut and facebook profile says i am agnostic, and religion plays an efficient role in the politics. So i will have to embrace a religion or pseudo secularism,but it is not that easy, no worries i have a solution, i will gather few rallies and shout against one particular religion so that i will get an FIR against me and in court i will say ''I am the only one who will provide justice to this particular religion''.And if i become a pseudo secularist i will have to do pseudo fasting outside the pro religion leader.
3.Now the point comes to issues, agendas and vision, i will have to be really careful about this one because not to forget i am educated, so i will have to project and present myself as thinking mind, I will have to concentrate that my speech and my actions should not be the same.I will show to the world that my goal is to provide education, houses, health care to the people but i will provide 40' inch LCD TV.
4. According to me this is the most important, my dressing sense, I will wear only cotton saari nicely pinned up, to show i am a respected Indian woman and i am with common man, but i will definitely wear western dresses(dolce and gabbana is my favorite by the way) while i will take an expensive vacation on taxpayers money in Italy. I am thankful to Indian media that they have not turned into paparazzi yet, so no exigency of being photographed.
There are many small points too like try to give a little bit like Rs 500 donation to an old age home, take a chopper to far far village, visit slums ( just visit not to touch its dirty you seeee), try to get some footage with bollywood stars if possible hang around with them as much as possible, crack jokes in media in a specific dialect.
After all these points there is only one thing which i cannot suffice is "regionalism", i do not belong to any particular state of India as my forefathers were from delhi and delhi is famous for its alloyed population, I may loose on this front but I think I have an answer for this too, I am the most expedient person for the post of prime minister.
Its easy really.
Saturday, March 14, 2009
one billion and democracy
Suddenly i felt like chill went through my spine, my mind stopped working, also sensed quite an episode of hot flashes, no no i am not in my menopausal stage of life. It all happened with one news of Times of India that behan Mayawati ji can become our prime minister if absolutely zero ideological third front win. So, after i got my senses back i decided to check news channels just to confirm my horror, which was unfortuanately true, and Mr BSP spokesperson was a lot more than hopeful, as if this is the only emulation in the world.
This is not the first time that we are looking forward to coalition governments, but just for a good change cant we have biparty or may be three party system in India. I could not stop laughing when i read that so respected Bhajan Lal is also ready with his brand new party, so we have one more regional party. As a curious person i just wanted to check how many smaller parties we have so i logged on to website of elction comission of India, but no luck, so as citizens, we dont have any data available.
Voting dates are not far, but we dont know that who is going to be the primeminister, what will be his or her agenda, all we care is for which region or caste he or she will present, we dont care what he or she will be able to deliver during this difficult time of economic turmoil, but we undubitably look for the construction of temple or mosque.
As a nation which claims to be the largest democracy of the world we should have the right to know that if we vote, for whom and what are the main issues for the country right now.One billion is not just a number these are lives and the team which claims that they can lead one billion should be very much open about the plans and vision. Again the question remains open in my mind, "does the coalition governments define the true meaning of democracy of one billion".
This is not the first time that we are looking forward to coalition governments, but just for a good change cant we have biparty or may be three party system in India. I could not stop laughing when i read that so respected Bhajan Lal is also ready with his brand new party, so we have one more regional party. As a curious person i just wanted to check how many smaller parties we have so i logged on to website of elction comission of India, but no luck, so as citizens, we dont have any data available.
Voting dates are not far, but we dont know that who is going to be the primeminister, what will be his or her agenda, all we care is for which region or caste he or she will present, we dont care what he or she will be able to deliver during this difficult time of economic turmoil, but we undubitably look for the construction of temple or mosque.
As a nation which claims to be the largest democracy of the world we should have the right to know that if we vote, for whom and what are the main issues for the country right now.One billion is not just a number these are lives and the team which claims that they can lead one billion should be very much open about the plans and vision. Again the question remains open in my mind, "does the coalition governments define the true meaning of democracy of one billion".
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)