Today the morning was part glorious, part muggy. The sky was a dull grey with the sun playing hide and seek between ominous clouds. Whenever the sun came out the morning lit up but for the remainder it stayed gloomy. A pretty apt reflection of this morning could be found in today's newspaper (I suspect this might be true of most days) - some doom, some gloom and a few bright spots. Like every grey cloud has a silver lining, every silver lining has a touch of grey (thanks J.Garcia).
We begin with the curious case of Irom Sharmila - the Iron Lady of Manipur. Her civil rights activism began in 2000 when she went on a hunger strike to protest against the massacre of ten civilians who were waiting at a bus stop, allegedly by the Army. Over the past fourteen years, she has continued fasting while authorities have arrested, released and rearrested her multiple times, the last incident just a few days ago. The hunger strike is a formidable weapon of civil disobedience used in the past by Mahatma Gandhi to win our independence, and more recently (and less successfully) by Anna Hazare. It has been used as a mark of protest by almost all our current day politicians and even some film stars to protest against whatever is the bone of contention for the day. However, when Irom Sharmila goes on a hunger strike, it is branded as "attempted suicide" and she is promptly jailed and force fed through her nose. This has been going on for almost fourteen long years and it raises the question - where are all the bleeding heart liberals and custodians of the fourth estate when they are needed? Is Irom Sharmila not sexy enough to warrant coverage? Is her story not worth retelling? Is it because Manipur is tucked away in a corner of our collective conscience? Or is it just a simple case of apathy and is the media simply fatigued by a fourteen year old struggle? Do we care anymore? Here is something to try - ask three people whom you meet today if they have heard of Irom Sharmila (not to be confused with Iron Man, Sharmila Tagore or any other semantic variable).
In our neighbourhood, Pakistan continues its slow descent into anarchy, almost akin to passing through the circles in Dante's Inferno. The army continues to bully a democratically elected government (that's a farce for another day) while soft hardliners like Imran Khan make threats they cannot carry out. His rhetoric carries pretty much the same message the Taliban gave out before they captured power in Afghanistan. We all remember how that turned out (certainly not so well for the Bamiyan Buddhas). Any attempt at resolving the Kashmir issue through a dialogue between our two nations is promptly scuttled by Pakistan's Army and the ISI, with (one suspects) some help from our side of the border as well.
Staying with international news, the ISIS continues to shock the world with its modern day barbarism, matched only by the sheer inanity of the Israel - Palestine conundrum. While the latter has no simple solution, the former's grand design to establish an Islamic Caliphate is a wonderful pipe dream (good crack methinks). Nothing captures the bizarre absurdity of the ISIS more than when a teacher blew himself up along with an entire class of students while demonstrating how to make a suicide vest! Good job - it worked!! The ISIS is now the new Enemy No.1, now that Al Qaeda is not the threat it once was, the world (read America) needs another target to keep its economy booming. War, after all, is great for business.
Coming back to domestic news, the recent pronouncements regarding bikinis in Goa by Ministers of the State are part tragic, part comic and almost entirely worthy of contempt. While Goa, along with the rest of the nation, grapples with far more serious issues, these Ministers are obsessed with bikinis on women who want to wear them of their own free will and accord. They have gone as far as recommending that certain beaches be designated as bikini zones and this attractive form of clothing be allowed only on those beaches. There is also a suggestion to charge an admission fee to access these bikini-friendly beaches. So many issues immediately spring to mind - impact on local tourism, impact on other beaches, local commerce and industry, civil liberties, freedom of choice and expression, objectification of women and most importantly - aesthetics. How many times have you visited a public beach or waterfall or lake or river and cringed as you watched middle-aged, pot-bellied Indian men strip down to their briefs and enjoy themselves without a care in the world as if they were standing in their own backyard? Apparently this is acceptable by our standards of Indian "sanskriti" but an attractive woman in a bikini is not!
Staying with the absurd, the new viral craze going around about the ALS Ice Bucket Challenge also makes one pause and wonder. While the cause is genuine and definitely needs both public attention and charity, wouldn't it be easier to simply donate the money and use the water for more productive purposes like bathing? Simply pouring some ice and water over your head is not enough. How many of those who have braved the ice have actually donated money? But then that is not the point of the challenge. Only those who have declined the challenge are liable to donate $100 to the ALS charity? Really? Is that the best way to raise money for a worthy cause? Its obviously a good way to send out a message and watch it go viral. What about the charity? Are we missing the woods for the trees?
Finally to sports and cricket. The debate over WAGS being allowed to accompany the team to England could not have been more ridiculous. A similar debate occurred during the recently concluded FIFA World Cup and statistics show that teams which allowed WAGS to accompany their partners all performed better than teams that did not. Do our esteemed experts seriously believe that having wives and girlfriends around can be such a major distraction for our highly skilled and well-trained cricketers? Can a lack of form be attributed to having a partner around? Does anyone seriously believe that our cricketers have such low levels of concentration and self-restraint that their on-field performance gets impacted by their off-field activities? Even more absurd is the assertion by a former manager of the Indian cricket team that while it is alright for wives to accompany their partners, girlfriends should not be allowed. Seriously? Will we ever grow up?
That's it for now - my two bits for the day. I will continue to Rage Against The Machine. Thank you for staying with me so far and giving life to these mute words on a screen. Without you they would be lifeless. You, the reader, have given them life by simply reading them - so Thank You. Until next time.
We begin with the curious case of Irom Sharmila - the Iron Lady of Manipur. Her civil rights activism began in 2000 when she went on a hunger strike to protest against the massacre of ten civilians who were waiting at a bus stop, allegedly by the Army. Over the past fourteen years, she has continued fasting while authorities have arrested, released and rearrested her multiple times, the last incident just a few days ago. The hunger strike is a formidable weapon of civil disobedience used in the past by Mahatma Gandhi to win our independence, and more recently (and less successfully) by Anna Hazare. It has been used as a mark of protest by almost all our current day politicians and even some film stars to protest against whatever is the bone of contention for the day. However, when Irom Sharmila goes on a hunger strike, it is branded as "attempted suicide" and she is promptly jailed and force fed through her nose. This has been going on for almost fourteen long years and it raises the question - where are all the bleeding heart liberals and custodians of the fourth estate when they are needed? Is Irom Sharmila not sexy enough to warrant coverage? Is her story not worth retelling? Is it because Manipur is tucked away in a corner of our collective conscience? Or is it just a simple case of apathy and is the media simply fatigued by a fourteen year old struggle? Do we care anymore? Here is something to try - ask three people whom you meet today if they have heard of Irom Sharmila (not to be confused with Iron Man, Sharmila Tagore or any other semantic variable).
In our neighbourhood, Pakistan continues its slow descent into anarchy, almost akin to passing through the circles in Dante's Inferno. The army continues to bully a democratically elected government (that's a farce for another day) while soft hardliners like Imran Khan make threats they cannot carry out. His rhetoric carries pretty much the same message the Taliban gave out before they captured power in Afghanistan. We all remember how that turned out (certainly not so well for the Bamiyan Buddhas). Any attempt at resolving the Kashmir issue through a dialogue between our two nations is promptly scuttled by Pakistan's Army and the ISI, with (one suspects) some help from our side of the border as well.
Staying with international news, the ISIS continues to shock the world with its modern day barbarism, matched only by the sheer inanity of the Israel - Palestine conundrum. While the latter has no simple solution, the former's grand design to establish an Islamic Caliphate is a wonderful pipe dream (good crack methinks). Nothing captures the bizarre absurdity of the ISIS more than when a teacher blew himself up along with an entire class of students while demonstrating how to make a suicide vest! Good job - it worked!! The ISIS is now the new Enemy No.1, now that Al Qaeda is not the threat it once was, the world (read America) needs another target to keep its economy booming. War, after all, is great for business.
Coming back to domestic news, the recent pronouncements regarding bikinis in Goa by Ministers of the State are part tragic, part comic and almost entirely worthy of contempt. While Goa, along with the rest of the nation, grapples with far more serious issues, these Ministers are obsessed with bikinis on women who want to wear them of their own free will and accord. They have gone as far as recommending that certain beaches be designated as bikini zones and this attractive form of clothing be allowed only on those beaches. There is also a suggestion to charge an admission fee to access these bikini-friendly beaches. So many issues immediately spring to mind - impact on local tourism, impact on other beaches, local commerce and industry, civil liberties, freedom of choice and expression, objectification of women and most importantly - aesthetics. How many times have you visited a public beach or waterfall or lake or river and cringed as you watched middle-aged, pot-bellied Indian men strip down to their briefs and enjoy themselves without a care in the world as if they were standing in their own backyard? Apparently this is acceptable by our standards of Indian "sanskriti" but an attractive woman in a bikini is not!
Staying with the absurd, the new viral craze going around about the ALS Ice Bucket Challenge also makes one pause and wonder. While the cause is genuine and definitely needs both public attention and charity, wouldn't it be easier to simply donate the money and use the water for more productive purposes like bathing? Simply pouring some ice and water over your head is not enough. How many of those who have braved the ice have actually donated money? But then that is not the point of the challenge. Only those who have declined the challenge are liable to donate $100 to the ALS charity? Really? Is that the best way to raise money for a worthy cause? Its obviously a good way to send out a message and watch it go viral. What about the charity? Are we missing the woods for the trees?
Finally to sports and cricket. The debate over WAGS being allowed to accompany the team to England could not have been more ridiculous. A similar debate occurred during the recently concluded FIFA World Cup and statistics show that teams which allowed WAGS to accompany their partners all performed better than teams that did not. Do our esteemed experts seriously believe that having wives and girlfriends around can be such a major distraction for our highly skilled and well-trained cricketers? Can a lack of form be attributed to having a partner around? Does anyone seriously believe that our cricketers have such low levels of concentration and self-restraint that their on-field performance gets impacted by their off-field activities? Even more absurd is the assertion by a former manager of the Indian cricket team that while it is alright for wives to accompany their partners, girlfriends should not be allowed. Seriously? Will we ever grow up?
That's it for now - my two bits for the day. I will continue to Rage Against The Machine. Thank you for staying with me so far and giving life to these mute words on a screen. Without you they would be lifeless. You, the reader, have given them life by simply reading them - so Thank You. Until next time.
Nice One Sourabh ! Keep going !
ReplyDeleteThanks Navin.... College education finally helped!!!
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