House No.-16, Road No.-12, Circuit House Area, North West Sonari, Jamshedpur...This address will always be special for me. Memories of that magical place will stay with me forever. This was where i met Loraine, my teacher, my mentor, my confidant; it's where I grew and flourished; and it's where i celebrated my win and cried on my loss...perhaps a part of me will always be there. This is the story of the most magical person of my life, with whom i spend some random moment each day feeling such bubbling mirth that makes me want to throw away my shoes and run on vast grassy stretches filled with flowers and butterflies, and race with the clouds...
This is the story of a lady who lost her everything fighting against odds and goons of society to gain a miserable life. She has great faith in judiciary and that faith only keeping her heart beating somehow... she is holding her last breath away to hear the judge pronounce the judgment. She has been waiting for twenty years, prisoned into the four brick walls of her house, with a forced power cut, without the water supply, under the constant threat of murder. More than half the house is already captured by goons, who keep attacking her with their desi pistols to finish an untold saga. And this all happening under the nose of Jamshedpur police, who act deaf and mute spectator in this case. And media who claim to be fair and free, could not run a single story on this case even after witnessing everything before their eyes. Some journalists mustered courage to highlight this issue, they were either fired, bought or threatened to be murdered. Some judges gathered courage to hear this case, they were immediately transferred. Situation has come to such a worse end that for last five years this case is on judgment point, but their is no judge available to pronounce the judgment. Mafias are waiting for a proper chance to kill this lady so that they can possess this highly priced mega property which sits in the heart of most posh residential area of Jamshedpur. The price of this property goes in several crores and top beaurocrates, politicians and so called businessmen ( reality mafias) of Jharkhand are keeping their eagle eyes on it.
Lets go back to seventies and eighties of last century, when G.A. Kutto was the chief of security in TATA STEEL (TISCO). In his late days he planned to gift her only child Loraine a big house. TISCO had leased him a big plot in circuit house area as reward of his honest and loyal service to the company. He started building a beautiful house on that plot. He had given the responsibility to supervise the project to his friend's unemployed son Jitendra S Patel, just as a favor to gain him some experience for his future construction projects. Daughter Loraine was happy to receive such a grand gift from her father, hardly aware about the curse coming along with this memento. Loraine was happily married and settled in Mumbai. She was having an aspiring career of film journalist. But destiny had something else stored for her. After the death of her father, she came to Jamshedpur to perform the last right. Before she could even come over the shock of her loss, she came to know that supervisor Jitendra S Patel is trying to occupy her place by showing some alleged documents. She later realised that she has to knock on the door of judiciary to retrieve the wonderful gift of her late father. And that so when she has all the documents of that property and her opponents have nothing except some alleged papers, muscle power and lots of money to buy anybody… anyhow... Court specifically ordered Jitendra S Patel to vacate the house as soon as possible and not to come even closer to it till the final judgment. But Jitendra making mockery of justice continued occupying unfinished portion. he has kept his musclemen there who keep attacking Lorain. In the beginning she had thought that with the help of police she will regain her house soon and then she can go back to live her dream in Mumbai. But that day never came... She lost everything in the process...eventually her husband too...
Loraine is 55 now. She gets hundreds of threatening calls everyday. For last ten years she is literally living a life of house arrest. Police does not listen to her as attackers are top beaurocrates of Jharkhand. Media does not write her story as they will get backfired by their sponsor. And Judiciary our so called strongest pillar of democracy does not have single courageous judge to pronounce the Judgment…What an irony??? And surprisingly all this happening with the daughter of former chief security officer of TATA, making her the most unsecured person in the city of TATAS... This makes me wonder how safe are people in TATANAGAR? And how clean law enforcing agencies are there? Somebody makes fun of judiciary and judicial order and instead of arresting him they help him to do so...Can anybody still claim that Jamshedpur is better off as far as law and order is concerned than other cities of Bihar and Jharkhand?
Loraine is somehow managing to keep that fragile faith in some small corner of her heart that sacrifice she has made will help justice prevail and truth will emerge victorious...I just pray and hope that she won't have to die without relinquishing that faith...all her life she has been waiting for justice...all she wants is to let judge pronounce the judgment...she has been dying everyday to live for that one moment...can we give that to let her die in peace???
Friday, October 19, 2007
Friday, July 20, 2007
dalits of india
Immediately after I passed my degree course of mass communication from Karim City College jamshedpur, Jharkhand Govt. advertised a vacancy for state communication officer. One of my friends and I applied for this post. We cleared the written test with distinction and after the interview we both were on top of the list markswise. Now final verdict state's information and broadcasting ministry had to take. But everybody was quite sure that it has to be one of us. The result got announced after five days and for our surprise it was none of us. Not even anyone from the mirit list. It was a tribal girl who was somewhere in the lowest position in mark list. Later on we were told that her being a tribal came in her favour. That was the last government job I ever applied for...and even in the future government job will be the last thing I will opt for.
I mean how fare it is in a democratic and equal society to be denied something in the name of cast and religion. In my assembly constituency (simaria, chatra) and hundreds of other constituencies in india there is a rule that a person from forward class can not run in election. At one hand we take pride in being world's largest democracy but at other hand we keep amending our constitution to refrain our own citizen from availing the democracy. The first right democracy gives is to select a leader and get selected as a leader. But most of upper cast of our country does not have even that basic right. should we even call ours a democratic country?
In spite of several protests government has been very kind in increasing reservation quota. Unfortunately India's 65-70% population comes from backward and sc-st classes. Therefor Politicians see them as a winning goats. Increase in reservation quota means automatic gain in vote bank. That's why every new government takes it as their forfather's duty to increase the reservation quota to show their respect to popular votes. Nobody is ready to look into it deeply and see whether fifty years have reservation has benefited the indian society a bit. Do any of us know about a single OBC or SC-ST poor family who got benefited by reservation and today they are rich? I do not know any.
The whole objective of reservation was to make underprevileged people a self -reliant...not to make them handicap. It was suppose to make everybody equal...not to create a wide gap in the society. The whole reservation issue has become too political in nature to help anyone than politicians. It was suppose to help create awareness among the people living under the poverty line, it was suppose to help educating people who have no mean of education. It has failed in it's primary objective.
Some people in india do need reservation. But they need to be identified and then supported so that they also can join the mainstream. Cast based reservation is a monopoly of vote bank ... nothing else. Here I have tried to do a small research with the help of one of my delhi based friends which shows the reality about the states of brahmins - one of the uppermost cast in indian cast system. The public image of the Brahmins, for instance is that of an affluent, pampered class. But is it so today?
There are 50 Sulabh Shauchalayas (public toilets) in Delhi; all of them are cleaned and looked after by Brahmins (this very welcome public institution was started by a Brahmin). A far cry from the elitist image that Brahmins have! There are five to six Brahmins manning each Shauchalaya. They came to Delhi eight to ten years back looking for a source of income, as they were a minority in most of their villages, where Dalits are in majority (60 per cent to 65 per cent). In most villages in UP and Bihar, Dalits have a union which helps them secure jobs in villages.
You also find Brahmin rickshaw pullers in Delhi. 50 per cent of Patel Nagar's rickshaw pullers are Brahmins who like their brethren have moved to the city looking for jobs for lack of employment opportunities and poor education in their villages. Did you also know that most rickshaw pullers in Banaras are Brahmins?
This reverse discrimination is also found in bureaucracy and politics. Most of the intellectual Brahmin Tamil class has emigrated outside Tamil Nadu. Only 5 seats out of 600 in the combined UP and Bihar assembly are held by Brahmins -- the rest are in the hands of the Yadavs. 400,000 Brahmins of the Kashmir valley, the once respected Kashmiri Pandits, now live as refugees in their own country, sometimes in refugee camps in Jammu and Delhi in appalling conditions. But who gives a damn about them? Their vote bank is negligible.
And this is not limited to the North alone. 75 per cent of domestic help and cooks in Andhra Pradesh are Brahmins. A study of the Brahmin community in a district in Andhra Pradesh (Brahmins of India by J Radhakrishna, published by Chugh Publications) reveals that today all purohits live below the poverty line.
Eighty per cent of those surveyed stated that their poverty and traditional style of dress and hair (tuft) had made them the butt of ridicule. Financial constraints coupled with the existing system of reservations for the 'backward classes' prevented them from providing secular education to their children.
In fact, according to this study there has been an overall decline in the number of Brahmin students. With the average income of Brahmins being less than that of non-Brahmins, a high percentage of Brahmin students drop out at the intermediate level. In the 5 to 18 year age group, 44 per cent Brahmin students stopped education at the primary level and 36 per cent at the pre-matriculation level.
The study also found that 55 per cent of all Brahmins lived below the poverty line -- below a per capita income of Rs 650 a month. Since 45 per cent of the total population of India is officially stated to be below the poverty line it follows that the percentage of destitute Brahmins is 10 per cent higher than the all-India figure.
There is no reason to believe that the condition of Brahmins in other parts of the country is different. In this connection it would be revealing to quote the per capita income of various communities as stated by the Karnataka finance minister in the state assembly: Christians Rs 1,562, Vokkaligas Rs 914, Muslims Rs 794, Scheduled castes Rs 680, Scheduled Tribes Rs 577 and Brahmins Rs 537. Appalling poverty compels many Brahmins to migrate to towns leading to spatial dispersal and consequent decline in their local influence and institutions. Brahmins initially turned to government jobs and modern occupations such as law and medicine. But preferential policies for the non-Brahmins have forced Brahmins to retreat in these spheres as well.
According to the Andhra Pradesh study, the largest percentage of Brahmins today are employed as domestic servants. The unemployment rate among them is as high as 75 per cent. Seventy percent of Brahmins are still relying on their hereditary vocation. There are hundreds of families that are surviving on just Rs 500 per month as priests in various temples (Department of Endowments statistics).
Priests are under tremendous difficulty today, sometimes even forced to beg for alms for survival. There are innumerable instances in which Brahmin priests who spent a lifetime studying Vedas are being ridiculed and disrespected.
At Tamil Nadu's Ranganathaswamy Temple, a priest's monthly salary is Rs 300 (Census Department studies) and a daily allowance of one measure of rice. The government staff at the same temple receive Rs 2,500 plus per month. But these facts have not modified the priests' reputation as 'haves' and as 'exploiters.' The destitution of Hindu priests has moved none, not even the parties known for Hindu sympathy.
The Indian government gives Rs 1,000 crores (Rs 10 billion) for salaries of imams in mosques and Rs 200 crores (Rs 2 billion) as Haj subsidies. But no such help is available to Brahmins and upper castes. As a result, not only the Brahmins, but also some of the other upper castes in the lower middle class are suffering in silence today, seeing everyday the hell advancing closer.
These findings leave me wondering about the government's cast based reservation policies. It also makes me wonder about who really is dalit of india? We need to find and support them so that the dream of one and equal india can become a reality...
I mean how fare it is in a democratic and equal society to be denied something in the name of cast and religion. In my assembly constituency (simaria, chatra) and hundreds of other constituencies in india there is a rule that a person from forward class can not run in election. At one hand we take pride in being world's largest democracy but at other hand we keep amending our constitution to refrain our own citizen from availing the democracy. The first right democracy gives is to select a leader and get selected as a leader. But most of upper cast of our country does not have even that basic right. should we even call ours a democratic country?
In spite of several protests government has been very kind in increasing reservation quota. Unfortunately India's 65-70% population comes from backward and sc-st classes. Therefor Politicians see them as a winning goats. Increase in reservation quota means automatic gain in vote bank. That's why every new government takes it as their forfather's duty to increase the reservation quota to show their respect to popular votes. Nobody is ready to look into it deeply and see whether fifty years have reservation has benefited the indian society a bit. Do any of us know about a single OBC or SC-ST poor family who got benefited by reservation and today they are rich? I do not know any.
The whole objective of reservation was to make underprevileged people a self -reliant...not to make them handicap. It was suppose to make everybody equal...not to create a wide gap in the society. The whole reservation issue has become too political in nature to help anyone than politicians. It was suppose to help create awareness among the people living under the poverty line, it was suppose to help educating people who have no mean of education. It has failed in it's primary objective.
Some people in india do need reservation. But they need to be identified and then supported so that they also can join the mainstream. Cast based reservation is a monopoly of vote bank ... nothing else. Here I have tried to do a small research with the help of one of my delhi based friends which shows the reality about the states of brahmins - one of the uppermost cast in indian cast system. The public image of the Brahmins, for instance is that of an affluent, pampered class. But is it so today?
There are 50 Sulabh Shauchalayas (public toilets) in Delhi; all of them are cleaned and looked after by Brahmins (this very welcome public institution was started by a Brahmin). A far cry from the elitist image that Brahmins have! There are five to six Brahmins manning each Shauchalaya. They came to Delhi eight to ten years back looking for a source of income, as they were a minority in most of their villages, where Dalits are in majority (60 per cent to 65 per cent). In most villages in UP and Bihar, Dalits have a union which helps them secure jobs in villages.
You also find Brahmin rickshaw pullers in Delhi. 50 per cent of Patel Nagar's rickshaw pullers are Brahmins who like their brethren have moved to the city looking for jobs for lack of employment opportunities and poor education in their villages. Did you also know that most rickshaw pullers in Banaras are Brahmins?
This reverse discrimination is also found in bureaucracy and politics. Most of the intellectual Brahmin Tamil class has emigrated outside Tamil Nadu. Only 5 seats out of 600 in the combined UP and Bihar assembly are held by Brahmins -- the rest are in the hands of the Yadavs. 400,000 Brahmins of the Kashmir valley, the once respected Kashmiri Pandits, now live as refugees in their own country, sometimes in refugee camps in Jammu and Delhi in appalling conditions. But who gives a damn about them? Their vote bank is negligible.
And this is not limited to the North alone. 75 per cent of domestic help and cooks in Andhra Pradesh are Brahmins. A study of the Brahmin community in a district in Andhra Pradesh (Brahmins of India by J Radhakrishna, published by Chugh Publications) reveals that today all purohits live below the poverty line.
Eighty per cent of those surveyed stated that their poverty and traditional style of dress and hair (tuft) had made them the butt of ridicule. Financial constraints coupled with the existing system of reservations for the 'backward classes' prevented them from providing secular education to their children.
In fact, according to this study there has been an overall decline in the number of Brahmin students. With the average income of Brahmins being less than that of non-Brahmins, a high percentage of Brahmin students drop out at the intermediate level. In the 5 to 18 year age group, 44 per cent Brahmin students stopped education at the primary level and 36 per cent at the pre-matriculation level.
The study also found that 55 per cent of all Brahmins lived below the poverty line -- below a per capita income of Rs 650 a month. Since 45 per cent of the total population of India is officially stated to be below the poverty line it follows that the percentage of destitute Brahmins is 10 per cent higher than the all-India figure.
There is no reason to believe that the condition of Brahmins in other parts of the country is different. In this connection it would be revealing to quote the per capita income of various communities as stated by the Karnataka finance minister in the state assembly: Christians Rs 1,562, Vokkaligas Rs 914, Muslims Rs 794, Scheduled castes Rs 680, Scheduled Tribes Rs 577 and Brahmins Rs 537. Appalling poverty compels many Brahmins to migrate to towns leading to spatial dispersal and consequent decline in their local influence and institutions. Brahmins initially turned to government jobs and modern occupations such as law and medicine. But preferential policies for the non-Brahmins have forced Brahmins to retreat in these spheres as well.
According to the Andhra Pradesh study, the largest percentage of Brahmins today are employed as domestic servants. The unemployment rate among them is as high as 75 per cent. Seventy percent of Brahmins are still relying on their hereditary vocation. There are hundreds of families that are surviving on just Rs 500 per month as priests in various temples (Department of Endowments statistics).
Priests are under tremendous difficulty today, sometimes even forced to beg for alms for survival. There are innumerable instances in which Brahmin priests who spent a lifetime studying Vedas are being ridiculed and disrespected.
At Tamil Nadu's Ranganathaswamy Temple, a priest's monthly salary is Rs 300 (Census Department studies) and a daily allowance of one measure of rice. The government staff at the same temple receive Rs 2,500 plus per month. But these facts have not modified the priests' reputation as 'haves' and as 'exploiters.' The destitution of Hindu priests has moved none, not even the parties known for Hindu sympathy.
The Indian government gives Rs 1,000 crores (Rs 10 billion) for salaries of imams in mosques and Rs 200 crores (Rs 2 billion) as Haj subsidies. But no such help is available to Brahmins and upper castes. As a result, not only the Brahmins, but also some of the other upper castes in the lower middle class are suffering in silence today, seeing everyday the hell advancing closer.
These findings leave me wondering about the government's cast based reservation policies. It also makes me wonder about who really is dalit of india? We need to find and support them so that the dream of one and equal india can become a reality...
Tuesday, May 22, 2007
indian airlines...ooops not again!
It was experience of a hell...nothing less than that I am telling you. I always avoided traveling by Indian Airlines for their high cost and cheap service policies. But had to bear them on few occasions under the compulsion of suitability of time and availability of ticket. I always carried some bad memories traveling by this airlines and last time while coming back from India with family to Doha, it was traumatic. I have been avoiding to write about it as my patriotic conscious does not allow me to badmouth my own country's sick beaurocracy, but the sense of being a responsible citizen has always been instigating me to tell you my experience of traveling by one of our national carriers.
I had gone India few days ago to bring back my family here in Doha. My company (Aljazeera International) had bought me a PTA (Prepaid Ticket Advice) for my family relocation. The PTA was bought through regency travels, doha which is authorized by Indian Airlines. After receiving the PTA, I went to Indian Airlines main office in Doha to reconfirm my booking. The official over there confirmed my booking and assured me for a hasslefree journey. The itinerary of the PTA was from Ranchi-Delhi-Dubai-Doha. All by Indian Airlines except Dubai to Doha, which was by Qatar Airways. At Ranchi Airport, Indian Airlines boarding counter officer recognized my PTA and issued me a boarding pass without even thinking twice. He gave me a printout of my itinerary and PTA no. also so that I can show it at Delhi Airport for further journey.
I reached Indira Gandhi International Airport at Delhi almost two hours prior to my flight to Dubai. Straightaway I went to boarding counter to collect my boarding pass. The officer sitting over there gave me a puzzled look when I gave him my PTA number. He asked me, "e ka hai? (what is this ?) " Without challenging his professional knowledge I told him that this is a PTA number which is issued by airlines after receiving the payment for a booking. He just needs to enter this PTA number in his computer in order to see my booking and process my boarding pass. I requested him to do it quickly as I had to stand in long cue for immigration also before i get to board and I was literally having no time for any further queries regarding definition and origin of PTA. After giving me a hard look he asked his fellow officer,"joshiji, e PTA ka hota hai bhai? e sahib ek number lekar aye hain aur boarding pass mang rahe hain (joshiji, what is this PTA? this gentleman has come up with some kind of number and demanding for a boarding pass in lieu). Joshiji replied, " e-ticket ki tarah hi hota hai. lekin hamara system ise recognize nahi karta. inko to ticket kharidna hoga ( It's similar to e-ticket. But our system does not recognize it. he will have to buy a fresh ticket). I was surprised and pained at the same time. Only because they do not know how to find a booking by entering a PTA number, I am being compelled to buy a fresh ticket which is going to cost me a good amount. I was being made a scapegoat of somebody's ill-information. Frustrated by the situation I tried to argue with them but all went in vein. They kept on making sad faces and showing their pity on me. Finally when I started getting angry with their bad manners and sick attitude, they put me across to the boarding-in-charge. all over again I tried to explain the irony of situation that if the same PTA number can be recognized in Ranchi, then why not in Delhi, specially when it is a connecting flight! He said that in Delhi their computers are yet to be updated. therefore they do not accept PTA numbers. Only thing they accept and recognize is a proper ticket. Why then Indian Airlines let PTA gets issued for Delhi boarding? Avoiding any further questions he went on suggesting that I must buy a fresh ticket in order to catch the current flight. In pursuit to be a kind person he even offered to arrange a quick ticket if i wish to buy it. Seeing the situation getting hopeless I exceeded to his offer. I am sure he must have got a good commission on that high priced ticket.
Somehow I managed to get into the flight on time. But things kept on getting worse. None of the cabin staff serving the passengers were less than 50 years in age. We would have been obliged to serve them in stead of them serving us. It was pity to see a 55 years old fat man acting reluctantly on safety instructions. Passengers were feeling ashamed in putting across their requests to these elderly staffs. Staffs were too lazy ( i doubt deef even) to listen to any requests properly. for example I requested for a blanket for my 9 months old child. Old lady first gave a deef ear to my request, but when I kept on repeating for it she brought me a pillow and asked me to manage with it as she can not find a blanket in the store. Now can anybody tell me how to manage with a pillow when you need a blanket?
Somehow cursing our luck we landed in Doha and then worse of it happened. While transiting us in Dubai, Indian Airlines lost our luggage. All our three bags were lost and we were left with one small handbag. After this I lost my patience and only thing coming out of my mouth was swearing. Qatar Airways officials calmed me down and promised to track my luggage as soon as possible. They could locate it only after two days. Luckly we had some spare clothes for the kid in our handbag. My wife managed with my clothes in meantime.
Here back in Doha my company is trying to get reimbursement of the money they had paid to Indian Airlines and Qatar Airways for my PTA. Indian Airlines has declared the PTA unused and hope I will get back my money soon. But who will pay for the harassment and deep frustration we had to go through due to the inability and sick attitude of their staffs? I am pretty sure that everyday hundreds of passengers must be suffering in the same way as i did and not getting even a chance to express their pain. This is my desperate attempt to make my friends and the readers of my blog aware of the situation out there. I will try my best to avoid Indian Airlines for my further journeys, but if you are the one who is going to commute next by it...please take special care of yourself...and your luggage too...
I had gone India few days ago to bring back my family here in Doha. My company (Aljazeera International) had bought me a PTA (Prepaid Ticket Advice) for my family relocation. The PTA was bought through regency travels, doha which is authorized by Indian Airlines. After receiving the PTA, I went to Indian Airlines main office in Doha to reconfirm my booking. The official over there confirmed my booking and assured me for a hasslefree journey. The itinerary of the PTA was from Ranchi-Delhi-Dubai-Doha. All by Indian Airlines except Dubai to Doha, which was by Qatar Airways. At Ranchi Airport, Indian Airlines boarding counter officer recognized my PTA and issued me a boarding pass without even thinking twice. He gave me a printout of my itinerary and PTA no. also so that I can show it at Delhi Airport for further journey.
I reached Indira Gandhi International Airport at Delhi almost two hours prior to my flight to Dubai. Straightaway I went to boarding counter to collect my boarding pass. The officer sitting over there gave me a puzzled look when I gave him my PTA number. He asked me, "e ka hai? (what is this ?) " Without challenging his professional knowledge I told him that this is a PTA number which is issued by airlines after receiving the payment for a booking. He just needs to enter this PTA number in his computer in order to see my booking and process my boarding pass. I requested him to do it quickly as I had to stand in long cue for immigration also before i get to board and I was literally having no time for any further queries regarding definition and origin of PTA. After giving me a hard look he asked his fellow officer,"joshiji, e PTA ka hota hai bhai? e sahib ek number lekar aye hain aur boarding pass mang rahe hain (joshiji, what is this PTA? this gentleman has come up with some kind of number and demanding for a boarding pass in lieu). Joshiji replied, " e-ticket ki tarah hi hota hai. lekin hamara system ise recognize nahi karta. inko to ticket kharidna hoga ( It's similar to e-ticket. But our system does not recognize it. he will have to buy a fresh ticket). I was surprised and pained at the same time. Only because they do not know how to find a booking by entering a PTA number, I am being compelled to buy a fresh ticket which is going to cost me a good amount. I was being made a scapegoat of somebody's ill-information. Frustrated by the situation I tried to argue with them but all went in vein. They kept on making sad faces and showing their pity on me. Finally when I started getting angry with their bad manners and sick attitude, they put me across to the boarding-in-charge. all over again I tried to explain the irony of situation that if the same PTA number can be recognized in Ranchi, then why not in Delhi, specially when it is a connecting flight! He said that in Delhi their computers are yet to be updated. therefore they do not accept PTA numbers. Only thing they accept and recognize is a proper ticket. Why then Indian Airlines let PTA gets issued for Delhi boarding? Avoiding any further questions he went on suggesting that I must buy a fresh ticket in order to catch the current flight. In pursuit to be a kind person he even offered to arrange a quick ticket if i wish to buy it. Seeing the situation getting hopeless I exceeded to his offer. I am sure he must have got a good commission on that high priced ticket.
Somehow I managed to get into the flight on time. But things kept on getting worse. None of the cabin staff serving the passengers were less than 50 years in age. We would have been obliged to serve them in stead of them serving us. It was pity to see a 55 years old fat man acting reluctantly on safety instructions. Passengers were feeling ashamed in putting across their requests to these elderly staffs. Staffs were too lazy ( i doubt deef even) to listen to any requests properly. for example I requested for a blanket for my 9 months old child. Old lady first gave a deef ear to my request, but when I kept on repeating for it she brought me a pillow and asked me to manage with it as she can not find a blanket in the store. Now can anybody tell me how to manage with a pillow when you need a blanket?
Somehow cursing our luck we landed in Doha and then worse of it happened. While transiting us in Dubai, Indian Airlines lost our luggage. All our three bags were lost and we were left with one small handbag. After this I lost my patience and only thing coming out of my mouth was swearing. Qatar Airways officials calmed me down and promised to track my luggage as soon as possible. They could locate it only after two days. Luckly we had some spare clothes for the kid in our handbag. My wife managed with my clothes in meantime.
Here back in Doha my company is trying to get reimbursement of the money they had paid to Indian Airlines and Qatar Airways for my PTA. Indian Airlines has declared the PTA unused and hope I will get back my money soon. But who will pay for the harassment and deep frustration we had to go through due to the inability and sick attitude of their staffs? I am pretty sure that everyday hundreds of passengers must be suffering in the same way as i did and not getting even a chance to express their pain. This is my desperate attempt to make my friends and the readers of my blog aware of the situation out there. I will try my best to avoid Indian Airlines for my further journeys, but if you are the one who is going to commute next by it...please take special care of yourself...and your luggage too...
Thursday, March 29, 2007
pitches turning political...
The older,the better...unless you are a banana or Indian Cricket team. Anyway,team is back home. Captain repeated his favorite boring defeat statements in hangover tone . Coach sounded arrogant and ignorant as always. And the Mukhiya (head of BCCI) tried to calm down the momentum by promising a sweeping change (only he knows the meaning of his words). Doesn't he need to be swept away as a first change? What a politician who (forget about knowing anything about cricket-the game) cann't even speak properly(because till sometime ago he was a tobacco addict) is doing on that chair? Why all the major sport's clubs whether it is hockey, football or cricket are being headed by politicians? And ironically why nobody raises questions against their credibility?
After every defeat ( which is happening quite regularly now a days), Mukhiya calls up a meeting of former cricket players. Players on their part feels honored and flattered. Both parties butter each other and say good bye till the next tournament defeat. No one cares...not even the cricket fans. Once India win next two consecutive matches, everything will be forgotten. The same demons will again become heroes. They will again be worshiped and prayed. So nothing is changed...nothing will change...then why are we feeling so heart broken? Honestly we had never expected this team to win us world cup. They had been playing worse for quite some time now. Whether it's West Indies, South Africa or even Champions Trophy in home ground, their performance was disasterous. Ironically even after all these India was being projected as one of the possible contenders of cup. How ridiculous!
I hail from a remote part of Jharkhand, where Television has just reached. I was the first cricket fan of my village. That time nobody even knew what this game is all about. Sitting on the back of my buffalo i used to listen cricket commentaries on the radio. And from then...till today, I follow the game with same enthusiasm. That's why it hurts. It hurts seeing politics and political faces in a game like cricket. It hurts seeing cricket taking the path of Indian hockey and soccer. It hurts seeing some dickhead called Pawar, Shah and Modies taking decision about gentleman's game. That's why sometime I hate democracy in everything, where numbers decide the fate.
Indian cricket needs younger blood and passion. Olders should give the way to youngers. Politicians should give the way to professionals. Process is already there, implementation is something what cricket in India needs. The reason why we don't see any fresh talents in Indian cricket is that all the state cricket boards are being run by LLPP politicians. They don't let real talent to emerge up on cricketing arena. Today it costs millions to get a place in any of the State Ranji Team. Where a poor boy with genuine talent will bring so much money from to bribe the white clads. I know several cases where a village boy with tremendous talent couldn't get a place in state team only because he didn't had a good reference and money to offer. This cann't go worse than this. High time to get up...otherwise it will be too late...after all cricket is the only game left for we indians to boost upon.
After every defeat ( which is happening quite regularly now a days), Mukhiya calls up a meeting of former cricket players. Players on their part feels honored and flattered. Both parties butter each other and say good bye till the next tournament defeat. No one cares...not even the cricket fans. Once India win next two consecutive matches, everything will be forgotten. The same demons will again become heroes. They will again be worshiped and prayed. So nothing is changed...nothing will change...then why are we feeling so heart broken? Honestly we had never expected this team to win us world cup. They had been playing worse for quite some time now. Whether it's West Indies, South Africa or even Champions Trophy in home ground, their performance was disasterous. Ironically even after all these India was being projected as one of the possible contenders of cup. How ridiculous!
I hail from a remote part of Jharkhand, where Television has just reached. I was the first cricket fan of my village. That time nobody even knew what this game is all about. Sitting on the back of my buffalo i used to listen cricket commentaries on the radio. And from then...till today, I follow the game with same enthusiasm. That's why it hurts. It hurts seeing politics and political faces in a game like cricket. It hurts seeing cricket taking the path of Indian hockey and soccer. It hurts seeing some dickhead called Pawar, Shah and Modies taking decision about gentleman's game. That's why sometime I hate democracy in everything, where numbers decide the fate.
Indian cricket needs younger blood and passion. Olders should give the way to youngers. Politicians should give the way to professionals. Process is already there, implementation is something what cricket in India needs. The reason why we don't see any fresh talents in Indian cricket is that all the state cricket boards are being run by LLPP politicians. They don't let real talent to emerge up on cricketing arena. Today it costs millions to get a place in any of the State Ranji Team. Where a poor boy with genuine talent will bring so much money from to bribe the white clads. I know several cases where a village boy with tremendous talent couldn't get a place in state team only because he didn't had a good reference and money to offer. This cann't go worse than this. High time to get up...otherwise it will be too late...after all cricket is the only game left for we indians to boost upon.
Monday, March 12, 2007
PLM…a most dangerous alliance
I got to study a research paper on media history and there I found a very interesting and in some sense very striking happening. It was about the certain shift of concept and terms used by media. Citing several examples researcher says that specially after year 1989 media started using excessively terms such as crisis, catastrophe, cataclysm, plague or disaster. For example, during the 1980s, the word crisis appeared in the news reports about as often as the word budget. In addition, prior to 1989, adjectives such as dire, unprecedented, dreaded were not common in television reports or newspaper headlines. But then it all changed…
This research made me to log all the major happenings of the world in the year 1989. Some of the major ones were a soviet sub sank in Norway; salman rashdie sentenced to death; Jane Fonda, Mike Tyson and Bruce Springsteen all got divorced; the Episcopal Church hired a female bishop; Poland allowed striking unions; Voyager went to Neptune; a San Francisco earthquake flattened highways; and Russia, the US, France and England all conducted nuclear tests. A year like any other I suppose. But rise of term crisis can be located with some precision in the autumn of 1889. And it seemed suspicious that it should coincide so closely with the fall of Berlin wall. Which happened on November ninth of that year.
At first I thought the association was spurious…and it was in some respect, but not entirely. The Berlin wall marks the collapse of the Soviet empire. And the end of the Cold War that had lasted for half a century in the West. This provided the reason for a change, but most importantly the shift in media behavior was an advance step to make itself a party for social control.
There has always been a complex, a nexus which has been a primary driver of the society. This complex has been responsible to fulfill the requirement of every sovereign state to exert control over the behavior of its citizen, to keep them orderly and reasonably docile. To keep them driving on the right side of the road – or the left, as the case may be. To keep them paying taxes. And after the world war, during the cold war era, this responsibility was being soldiered by a nexus called military-industrial complex. Following it’s predecessor ( which was church and temple), this complex was also managing social control through a most dangerous and most used weapon called Fear.
Exactly for fifty years, nations (mostly western) had maintained their citizen in a state of perpetual fear. Fear of the other side. Fear of nuclear war. The Communist menace. The Iron Curtain. The Evil Empire. And within the communist countries the fear of Bourgeois and capatalism. Then, suddenly with the fall of 1989, it was all finished. Gone, vanished. Over. The fall of Berlin Wall created a vacuum of fear. Military-industrial Complex couldn’t sustain it’s monopoly and started losing its domination. They couldn’t pick up a scary subject in urgency and that created a situation like emptiness…a vacuum…and nature abhors a vacuum. Something had to fill it.
And there comes an entirely new complex as a filler, far more powerful and far more pervasive. I call it the politico-legal-media complex. The PLM. And it is dedicated to promoting fear in the population – under the guise of promoting safety. A country like US or for instance any European country is fabulously safe, yet people do not feel they are, because of the PLM. And the PLM is powerful and stable, precisely because it unites so many institutions of society. Politician need fear to control the population. Lawyers need dangers to litigate, and make money. The media need scare stories to capture an audience. Together, these three estates are so compelling that they can go about their business even if the scare is totally groundless. If it has no basis in fact at all. For instance, ‘Banning DDT’.
I recall that DDT was claimed to cause several breath and heart related diseases. Some even accused it for causing cancer also. Despite statistical evidence that this was not true, we saw high-profile news stories, high–profile lawsuits, high-profile political hearings all over the world. Manufacturer was hounded out of the business after paying hefty penalty and in some cases juries awarded huge cash payments to plaintiffs and their lawyers.
And now scientists call it the greatest tragedy of the twentieth century. DDT was the best agent against mosquitoes, and despite the rhetoric there was nothing anywhere near as good or as safe. Since the ban, tow million people a year have died unnecessarily from malaria, mostly children. All together, the ban has caused more than fifty million needless deaths. Banning DDT killed more people than Hitler.
Another example and very much current one. Almost all the newspapers and news channels carrying it everyday in their headlines – Global Warming. News reports say that our planet is becoming warmer every day. Sea level is rising dangerously. Politicians are having conferences on the same subjects. Lawyers are filing suits everywhere in the world. Here I would like to quote some of the scientist studying the Global Warming for decades –
US based Scientist Mc Knight, who is studying ‘Antarctic climate change’ says in a science magazine called nature (in 2002 issue), “ From 1986 to 2000 central Antarctic valley cooled .7’c per decade with serious ecosystem damage from cold”
A scientist named Comiso and J.C quotes in their article which was published in a science mag. Called journal of climate “ Both satellite data and ground station show slight cooling over the last 20 years.”
A group of Indian scientist published an article in 2003 subjecting it as on the secular trends in sea ice extent quotes that “Trend towards more sea ice may be accelerating”.
Lot many other scientific observation I went through and all suggested that 19th century was warmer than twentieth. In fact it gives me the notion that we are heading towards an ice age…The amount of CO2 was more in 14th century than it is today. What I meant to say is burning of Industrial fossils and greenhouse effect are not that alarming as much this nexus PLM is projecting. This is a fund raising tactic of so called Environmental Organizations and all of them are being headed by this PLM Complex. If you don’t believe me then check it out in your neighborhood.
Just think…If it is not all right to falsely shout ‘fire’ in a crowded theater, why is it all right to shout ‘cancer!’ in the pages of ‘The New York Times’ or for the matter of fact any news paper or channel.
We are talking about a situation that is profoundly immoral. It is disgusting, if truth be told. The PLM callously ignores the plight of the poorest and most desperate human beings on our planet in order to keep fat politicians in office, rich news anchors on the air, and conniving lawyers in Mercedes-Benz convertibles.
This research made me to log all the major happenings of the world in the year 1989. Some of the major ones were a soviet sub sank in Norway; salman rashdie sentenced to death; Jane Fonda, Mike Tyson and Bruce Springsteen all got divorced; the Episcopal Church hired a female bishop; Poland allowed striking unions; Voyager went to Neptune; a San Francisco earthquake flattened highways; and Russia, the US, France and England all conducted nuclear tests. A year like any other I suppose. But rise of term crisis can be located with some precision in the autumn of 1889. And it seemed suspicious that it should coincide so closely with the fall of Berlin wall. Which happened on November ninth of that year.
At first I thought the association was spurious…and it was in some respect, but not entirely. The Berlin wall marks the collapse of the Soviet empire. And the end of the Cold War that had lasted for half a century in the West. This provided the reason for a change, but most importantly the shift in media behavior was an advance step to make itself a party for social control.
There has always been a complex, a nexus which has been a primary driver of the society. This complex has been responsible to fulfill the requirement of every sovereign state to exert control over the behavior of its citizen, to keep them orderly and reasonably docile. To keep them driving on the right side of the road – or the left, as the case may be. To keep them paying taxes. And after the world war, during the cold war era, this responsibility was being soldiered by a nexus called military-industrial complex. Following it’s predecessor ( which was church and temple), this complex was also managing social control through a most dangerous and most used weapon called Fear.
Exactly for fifty years, nations (mostly western) had maintained their citizen in a state of perpetual fear. Fear of the other side. Fear of nuclear war. The Communist menace. The Iron Curtain. The Evil Empire. And within the communist countries the fear of Bourgeois and capatalism. Then, suddenly with the fall of 1989, it was all finished. Gone, vanished. Over. The fall of Berlin Wall created a vacuum of fear. Military-industrial Complex couldn’t sustain it’s monopoly and started losing its domination. They couldn’t pick up a scary subject in urgency and that created a situation like emptiness…a vacuum…and nature abhors a vacuum. Something had to fill it.
And there comes an entirely new complex as a filler, far more powerful and far more pervasive. I call it the politico-legal-media complex. The PLM. And it is dedicated to promoting fear in the population – under the guise of promoting safety. A country like US or for instance any European country is fabulously safe, yet people do not feel they are, because of the PLM. And the PLM is powerful and stable, precisely because it unites so many institutions of society. Politician need fear to control the population. Lawyers need dangers to litigate, and make money. The media need scare stories to capture an audience. Together, these three estates are so compelling that they can go about their business even if the scare is totally groundless. If it has no basis in fact at all. For instance, ‘Banning DDT’.
I recall that DDT was claimed to cause several breath and heart related diseases. Some even accused it for causing cancer also. Despite statistical evidence that this was not true, we saw high-profile news stories, high–profile lawsuits, high-profile political hearings all over the world. Manufacturer was hounded out of the business after paying hefty penalty and in some cases juries awarded huge cash payments to plaintiffs and their lawyers.
And now scientists call it the greatest tragedy of the twentieth century. DDT was the best agent against mosquitoes, and despite the rhetoric there was nothing anywhere near as good or as safe. Since the ban, tow million people a year have died unnecessarily from malaria, mostly children. All together, the ban has caused more than fifty million needless deaths. Banning DDT killed more people than Hitler.
Another example and very much current one. Almost all the newspapers and news channels carrying it everyday in their headlines – Global Warming. News reports say that our planet is becoming warmer every day. Sea level is rising dangerously. Politicians are having conferences on the same subjects. Lawyers are filing suits everywhere in the world. Here I would like to quote some of the scientist studying the Global Warming for decades –
US based Scientist Mc Knight, who is studying ‘Antarctic climate change’ says in a science magazine called nature (in 2002 issue), “ From 1986 to 2000 central Antarctic valley cooled .7’c per decade with serious ecosystem damage from cold”
A scientist named Comiso and J.C quotes in their article which was published in a science mag. Called journal of climate “ Both satellite data and ground station show slight cooling over the last 20 years.”
A group of Indian scientist published an article in 2003 subjecting it as on the secular trends in sea ice extent quotes that “Trend towards more sea ice may be accelerating”.
Lot many other scientific observation I went through and all suggested that 19th century was warmer than twentieth. In fact it gives me the notion that we are heading towards an ice age…The amount of CO2 was more in 14th century than it is today. What I meant to say is burning of Industrial fossils and greenhouse effect are not that alarming as much this nexus PLM is projecting. This is a fund raising tactic of so called Environmental Organizations and all of them are being headed by this PLM Complex. If you don’t believe me then check it out in your neighborhood.
Just think…If it is not all right to falsely shout ‘fire’ in a crowded theater, why is it all right to shout ‘cancer!’ in the pages of ‘The New York Times’ or for the matter of fact any news paper or channel.
We are talking about a situation that is profoundly immoral. It is disgusting, if truth be told. The PLM callously ignores the plight of the poorest and most desperate human beings on our planet in order to keep fat politicians in office, rich news anchors on the air, and conniving lawyers in Mercedes-Benz convertibles.
Saturday, February 24, 2007
naxalism...crime or despair
Naxalite, first time i heard this term when i was just eight. Oneday while coming back from my school i saw the people mostly from backward class gathering and raising slogans against capatalism, curruption, beaurocracy and forward class monopoly. Coming back home I asked my dad about it who explained it as "some people who believe in equal distribution of wealth and human resources call themselves nexalite have come to our village and they are instigating people of lower casts against upper cast. My next question was, "why to target certain section of society. Wealth has nothing to do with the cast. Nepali Bhuiyan of my village is wealthier than Belu Singh".Dad replied saying," that's where politics come beta. These so called nexalites are nothing but local goon brigades of politicians. Politicians feed them so that they can be handful during the elections". Definately my infant mind couldn't understand the complexities of his sentence and realised better to forget about it as i had more important works to do - captaing the village soccer team, but before that creating a soccer team. My dad had bought me a football and for last ten days I was trying to gather my friends to create the first soccer team of my village, but so far not a single one had come my way as they had to help their parents in the field after the school hours. That day only I had persued some dalit kids to play, as they didn't go to schools and could manage sometime for me in the evening.
After almost ten days of that incident of people gathering and raising anti forward class slogan, I heard that our lands have been captured by the dalits of our village. It created a rage in forward and muslim dominated mohallahs of my village that the people who used to work for us in our field on daily wages have suddenly become the landowners by force and were ready to meet the eyes and muscles anytime required. Whole village was tense rifted in two parts. The dalit boys who used to play with me didn't turn up that day. In the night all the landowners assembled at my house seeking advice from my father. After the long discussion they decided to lodge a complain against dalits in local police station. Early morning my father led the landowners to police station. Surprisingly police refused to ladge a complain worrying about the current political situation and suggested the villagers to do nothing against dalits as that might lead to a bigger incident.
Tension was rising day by day. Everybody was having his own opinion regarding the current situation and nexalites. I was hurt and happy at the same time. Hurt because among the captured land some part belonged to the poor family's like Belu Singh. And the reason to be happy was that all my friends were free now to play soccer with me as their parents were not going to field to work. Amid all these we had develped lot many games posing nexalites as hero and villain.We were not allowed to go to the village playground, as that falls under dalit area. General rumour was that some more nexalites are coming from Nepal to help dalits to keep control over captured land. The most surprising was that after repeated complains, police didn't bother to come to village once even to guege the situation.
Almost after fifteen days of land capturing incident, Nexalites announced a 'maharally', which was supposed to start from local police station and has to end at my village. Landowners of my village took this as a perfect opportunity to show the muscle power. Messengers were sent to all the neighbouring villages seeking help. Preparation started for the doomsday. People from nearby villages started gathering with their weapons. it was a warlike situation. Finally the day came. A big crowd assembled in village playground. Lots of regiments were made. I remember just one name among them for their idiotic weapon. It was 'Durgawahini'. It was regiment of women, which had to stay back in village and protect the children. Their weapon was chilli powder and the head of this regiment was Panditain kaki, who has enormous size and considered strongest among women in my village. Since morning she was trying to motivate this Durgawahini regiment citing the example of Devi Durga and Rani Laxmibai. She had special uniform recommended to her regiment - red sari.
Anyway, maharally of nexalites reached our village. My father escorted by five young men went to them for a peace talk. They refused to talk and tried to bully the young escorts. The regements assembled in the village ground saw it and with roar of Allah-ho-akbar and Jai Bajrangbali they ran against the nexalite maharally. Nexalites couldn't handle this sudden attack and they started dispursing and running away. Some got cought and beaten badly. After that incident, for next twenty years no nexalite came to my village. But recently I have heard that they have again turned up to capture some parts of our forest land. Police is again working cowardly by ignoring the situation...
Anyway, why I am compelled to blog this story of my small village is that I met a retired nexalite here at Doha few days ago. This bengali fellow is aged between 60-65 and prefers to remain anonymous. He was one of the most active members of Naxalbadi movement in his youth days. After a couple of meetings we started talking about his favourite topic - Naxalism. I am leftist from the blood, but perhaps due to my childhood experience of above incident I never favoured naxalism. So while talking to this gentleman I always opposed his motion. In response he would always get furious and say, "The notion that a Naxalite is someone who hates his country is naive and usually idiotic. He is, more likely, one who likes his country more than the rest of us, and is thus more disturbed than the rest of us when he sees it debauched. He is not a bad citizen turning to crime; he is a good citizen driven to despair"...then after a silence he would start again,"Who wants to sacrifice his whole life running away from police? Who doesn't want to stay along with his family and live a comfortable life? Who wants his family to be tortured by police day and night? And above all who wants to be called a terrorist and hated by majority? There must be some very rude, unholy and disturbing incidents beyond mine and your imagination which compells somebody to become a nexalite. I am brahmin by birth and had heridated good ancestral property to live my life with luxury, but renounced everything to join naxalbadi. The reason was that I couldn't see anymore the huge gap of my society between poor and rich, upper and lower cast, big and small, civillian and beaurocrats......couldn't see anymore...I just wanted to make two humen equal and I am happy that more or less we achieved our goal." Taking last sip of tea near gulf cinema he said.
Then I narrated him the story of my village and told that again nexalites have appeared from somewhere, captured our forest and now issueing threating letters to villagers. In response he said the same thing what my father had told twenty years ago in response of my question about nexalites,"that's where politics come. These are not nexalite, but just the local goon brigades of politicians. Politicians feed them so that they can be handful during the elections. They don't even know what naxalism is. They are uneducated goons, taking orders from top politicians and misleading people with wrong agendas. It hurts that they are giving naxalism a bad name".
He left me there to have my final cup of tea and headed towards his home. But for some reason came back again to say, " listen Gautam, I want to tell you something very important. Remeber it always - Naxalbadi can not be called a bygone era. This is requirement of every human society. But with time and space it has to change it's shape, policies and agendas". With a smile we parted.
It seems few more meetings and he will make me a nexalite...
After almost ten days of that incident of people gathering and raising anti forward class slogan, I heard that our lands have been captured by the dalits of our village. It created a rage in forward and muslim dominated mohallahs of my village that the people who used to work for us in our field on daily wages have suddenly become the landowners by force and were ready to meet the eyes and muscles anytime required. Whole village was tense rifted in two parts. The dalit boys who used to play with me didn't turn up that day. In the night all the landowners assembled at my house seeking advice from my father. After the long discussion they decided to lodge a complain against dalits in local police station. Early morning my father led the landowners to police station. Surprisingly police refused to ladge a complain worrying about the current political situation and suggested the villagers to do nothing against dalits as that might lead to a bigger incident.
Tension was rising day by day. Everybody was having his own opinion regarding the current situation and nexalites. I was hurt and happy at the same time. Hurt because among the captured land some part belonged to the poor family's like Belu Singh. And the reason to be happy was that all my friends were free now to play soccer with me as their parents were not going to field to work. Amid all these we had develped lot many games posing nexalites as hero and villain.We were not allowed to go to the village playground, as that falls under dalit area. General rumour was that some more nexalites are coming from Nepal to help dalits to keep control over captured land. The most surprising was that after repeated complains, police didn't bother to come to village once even to guege the situation.
Almost after fifteen days of land capturing incident, Nexalites announced a 'maharally', which was supposed to start from local police station and has to end at my village. Landowners of my village took this as a perfect opportunity to show the muscle power. Messengers were sent to all the neighbouring villages seeking help. Preparation started for the doomsday. People from nearby villages started gathering with their weapons. it was a warlike situation. Finally the day came. A big crowd assembled in village playground. Lots of regiments were made. I remember just one name among them for their idiotic weapon. It was 'Durgawahini'. It was regiment of women, which had to stay back in village and protect the children. Their weapon was chilli powder and the head of this regiment was Panditain kaki, who has enormous size and considered strongest among women in my village. Since morning she was trying to motivate this Durgawahini regiment citing the example of Devi Durga and Rani Laxmibai. She had special uniform recommended to her regiment - red sari.
Anyway, maharally of nexalites reached our village. My father escorted by five young men went to them for a peace talk. They refused to talk and tried to bully the young escorts. The regements assembled in the village ground saw it and with roar of Allah-ho-akbar and Jai Bajrangbali they ran against the nexalite maharally. Nexalites couldn't handle this sudden attack and they started dispursing and running away. Some got cought and beaten badly. After that incident, for next twenty years no nexalite came to my village. But recently I have heard that they have again turned up to capture some parts of our forest land. Police is again working cowardly by ignoring the situation...
Anyway, why I am compelled to blog this story of my small village is that I met a retired nexalite here at Doha few days ago. This bengali fellow is aged between 60-65 and prefers to remain anonymous. He was one of the most active members of Naxalbadi movement in his youth days. After a couple of meetings we started talking about his favourite topic - Naxalism. I am leftist from the blood, but perhaps due to my childhood experience of above incident I never favoured naxalism. So while talking to this gentleman I always opposed his motion. In response he would always get furious and say, "The notion that a Naxalite is someone who hates his country is naive and usually idiotic. He is, more likely, one who likes his country more than the rest of us, and is thus more disturbed than the rest of us when he sees it debauched. He is not a bad citizen turning to crime; he is a good citizen driven to despair"...then after a silence he would start again,"Who wants to sacrifice his whole life running away from police? Who doesn't want to stay along with his family and live a comfortable life? Who wants his family to be tortured by police day and night? And above all who wants to be called a terrorist and hated by majority? There must be some very rude, unholy and disturbing incidents beyond mine and your imagination which compells somebody to become a nexalite. I am brahmin by birth and had heridated good ancestral property to live my life with luxury, but renounced everything to join naxalbadi. The reason was that I couldn't see anymore the huge gap of my society between poor and rich, upper and lower cast, big and small, civillian and beaurocrats......couldn't see anymore...I just wanted to make two humen equal and I am happy that more or less we achieved our goal." Taking last sip of tea near gulf cinema he said.
Then I narrated him the story of my village and told that again nexalites have appeared from somewhere, captured our forest and now issueing threating letters to villagers. In response he said the same thing what my father had told twenty years ago in response of my question about nexalites,"that's where politics come. These are not nexalite, but just the local goon brigades of politicians. Politicians feed them so that they can be handful during the elections. They don't even know what naxalism is. They are uneducated goons, taking orders from top politicians and misleading people with wrong agendas. It hurts that they are giving naxalism a bad name".
He left me there to have my final cup of tea and headed towards his home. But for some reason came back again to say, " listen Gautam, I want to tell you something very important. Remeber it always - Naxalbadi can not be called a bygone era. This is requirement of every human society. But with time and space it has to change it's shape, policies and agendas". With a smile we parted.
It seems few more meetings and he will make me a nexalite...
Saturday, February 17, 2007
...he was a kashmiri
yesterday, after my office i decided to do some shopping. I took up a taxi for local irani market. On my way to market my driver asked, "where are you from sir". " i am from bombay" i replied asking him the same question. He hesitated and then replied caustiously " main pakistan se hun". oh cool...showing overjoy and trying to make him comfortable i asked "where in pakistan man". after a long pause he said, " kashmir.... i am from Pakistan occupied kashmir". He turned to me to know my reaction and then contiued, "i hope you are not going to take me for a terrorist, as in india our part of world is considered 'a terrorist ground'.......we kashmiries are not terrorist....we are peace loving people and want to live a life with honour and prosperity like rest of the world does. But the politicians of both the countries will not let us do so, as they have their own political agendas. Pakistan makes us moujahidin saying urgent requirement for our freedom and india slaughters naming us terrorist. I have lost my four young children in the name of jihad." he cries and then continues "Today at the age of 65, i have to come to another country and drive a taxi so that i can feed my familymembers as i am the only male left alive in my family". He takes a pause and then continues, "It's to tiring for me now. I am fighting my age everyday. Hope I will run for another 2 - 3 years. what will happen after that? who will feed my family after me? who will guarantee their security?" ...he kept on with his questions but perhaps after that i lost my hearing capabilities. With the jerk of taxi when i got my conscience back I found him looking at me stopping his taxi. I was sitting shy, wondering if i have anything to offer which in any sense might become consoling for him! Almost for next two minutes he kept gazing at me and i kept looking down paralyzed by his questions. Eventually he broke the silence requesting me to get down as we had reached the Irani market. I paid him the fare and headed. after reaching near the marker gate i looked back. he was still staring at me with sad smirk and expressionless face asking the same questions again and agian. Perhaps he had expected little more than some qatari riyals, perhaps an answer...which i didn't have. I hurried myself inside the market to avoid his blank look and questioning eye...and... to be in my comfortable world.
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