Who the Hell Cares About it??

Over the last week when I looked at the newspapers I felt like being in the year 1947. The reason was Jaswant Singh. He is not to be blamed. Of course having lost the election so badly, he and his party had nothing to make news about. So Jaswant wrote a book for which he had expected even more fracas. It has become a practice of people writing the books after their retirement. Ironically in case of Jaswant Singh, his book caused his retirement! With his book he has opened a bottle of worms that stirred up some of the old historians to dust off their memories of Indian Independence and Partition. People have started debates of whether Jinnah was the real villain in the partition or whether Nehru and Patel were his accomplices. What are the voters going to benefit from raking issues that are already dead and buried? The news channels were spot on making a mountain out of a mole trying to magnify everything they get out of some 70 plus gentlemen. They are happy that they have something in store for the coming month. Otherwise they’ll go back to the swine flu death countdown or Rakhi Sawant ki Swayamvar. Even if this partition row gets over, we have another entertainment sponsored by our BJP comedians which shows no signs of getting over in the near future. This has got enough potential to become the next big blockbuster. May be RGV is itching to make one. He doesn’t even have to wait long for actors’ call sheet. Sooner or later all BJP leaders are going to be suspended and RGV can make use of them. Oh my God, how does it feel like being in a party where all its party followers are against it, calling their leaders all the names under the sun, a party having number of factions larger than the number of states in the country, a party having opposition within itself. There are people who are in pursuit of a second earth, water in Mars, et cetera but back in India we are still talking of Partition, Independence, Nehru and Jinnah. When will Indians wake up from dreaming about the past? India is not going to attain 9% GDP if Nehru is proved to be a hero and not an alleged anti-hero and Pakistan is not going to stop asking for the next dossier if Jinnah is accepted as hero! There are lots of things that India should not learn from US. But India should treat history like an American woman who doesn’t even care to look at her divorced husband who comes walking opposite her! May be that is why they are a superpower!

...ceedee... in the news

August 27, 2009, The New Indian Express

May 18, 2008, The Times of India

Disposable Gods

This Sunday is gonna be Ganesh Chathurthi. Our Ganesh who was happily having milk abhishekaas (sometimes literally had milk) at temple has to come out to have sweat abhishekaas. Of course this suffering is very minor when compared to the immersion in the water, where he has to suffer for breath and die of asphyxiation. Ganesh Chathurthi is a day when Ganesh will be brought to streets to toil in the heat and people gulping sweets sitting at home in the name of Ganesh. Do you know something? Lord Ganesh was created, sorry born in a jiffy. The story goes like this. One day Lord Shiva was out to a war. His wife Parvati wanted to bathe. As his hubby was out of station, she had the thought of having a bodyguard and created Ganesh with the sandalwood paste. May be Britney Spears knew about Parvati earlier and wanted bodyguards for her. Parvati wanted them only when her husband was out. In case of Britney regardless of whether her husband (sorry I did not know who her hubby was when I wrote this post) was with her or not, bodyguards were there. Like her shadows they protected her from paparazzi and fans, sometimes from her past, present and future hubbies too. I think this post is turning out to be Britney’s special.

On Her Guard

Let’s turn our attention to Ganesh. So, Ganesh was created in jiffy. Another interesting story is that Lord Shiva himself did not know that he had a son called Ganesh. As Ganesh was born when he was out of station on war duty, he didn’t know that he became a father. When he returned home after battle and tried to enter into Parvati’s chamber, he was stopped by his son. Enraged by this Shiva cut off his son’s head. Please don’t ask for how long Parvati was bathing. Parvati was raged by his hubby’s foolish act and told her that he was his son Ganesh. This is the turning point of the story. Here is where SA Rajkumar does his ‘lala laa la la laaa’ in the BGM. She explained him that he was protecting her. And when Parvati was all set to destroy the whole world, Shiva ordered his commandoes to bring the head of a child that was sleeping with its head placed in the north direction. The commandoes of Shiva were too intelligent than their boss. They brought the head of an elephant that was sleeping with its head placed in the north and Parvati gave elephant-headed Ganesh life.

On a Normal Day

Ganesh Chathurthi is considered to be Ganesh’s birthday. The person who popularised the idea of making Ganesh idols and submerging them in the sea was none other than the person who said ‘Swaraj is my birthright and I shall have it’. Yeah it was Bal Gangadhar Tilak. Incidentally when I was reading about him I came to know that BGT and I shared the same birthday! And he brought about his idea to bring people from upper and lower castes together in a show of unity to the British. Earlier days Ganesh idols were made of clay and they were submerged in nearby water body. But nowadays ‘yeh dil maange more’ attitude resulted in making huge Ganesh idols of Plaster of Paris. The problem with plaster of Paris is that it takes more time to dissolve and also release toxic substances that pose a threat to sea life. It’s a common sight to see shoals of dead fish the next day on the shore. It’s only now plastics have been banned in the world’s second longest beach, the Marina, Ganesh Chathurthi only going to bring these waters tonnes of plastics and gallons of toxics.

On his birthday, waiting to swim!

Happy Independence Day

Headlines of some famous newspapers on August 15, 1947

The Constittution of India

Indian Independence Act, 1947

Click here for Indian Independence Act, 1947 passed in the British Parliament.

Click Here for some posters on Indian Independence.

Click Here for the Tryst with Destiny speech by Nehru (pdf).

Click here for the Tryst with Destiny speech by Nehru (video).

JaiHind!!

Tryst with Mediocrity

Every time I complete watching a movie based on Indian independence I feel very proud. But unfortunately that feeling lasts only till I switch on the news to see our self-centered, selfish politicians. Even after 60 + years of independence, India has lost all of its chances to be one of the global powers, whereas China has exploited each and every chance to make its stand firm in the global stage. The Beijing Olympics Opening Ceremony made US and other superpowers run for a cover. It was how the world peeped through the iron curtain to get a ballpark figure of China’s strength and power. To be true it was how China flexed its muscles to the world. India too has a chance to showcase its might at Commonwealth Games in 2010. With only 415 days to go all we could see is some haphazard caused by deadline driven projects. When we cannot even infuse confidence into a meager group of badminton players how can we expect India to become a super power in 2020. They say the players overreacted, but we should have done something that neutralizes their doubts over the security.

Beijing National Stadium (Bird's Nest), China

Jawaharlal National Stadium, New Delhi

One major fear lingering in the minds of the first world countries is the way India and China had fought back the global recession still maintaining their growth rate only with a slight fall. When it was a recession everywhere, it was just a slowdown in India. Every other country tout that India has a potential of becoming a superpower but all we do is bask happily in the past glory and achievements. De-politicization of developmental process is the first and major step; if at all our country likes to stand tall in the world stage. Why does a politician or a political party take a ownership in building a flyover or a bridge or something with taxpayers’ money? It is only their duty to fulfill the promises for which they have been voted for. Government officials must be insulated from the authority of politicians. Red tape is the major hurdle in the way of the development of the country. In India development could be seen only in the families of politicians, their accounts, their assets and in some cases, development in the number of families of a politician. Why is there a manifold increase in the assets quoted by them in the successive election nominations? To whom are these people accountable to? When government urges the citizens to pay their taxes, aren’t they the citizens of this country too? Why do their Swiss bank accounts swell when they are in power? Why there are so many prime ministerial candidates? Why do they need to be in power to serve people? Why development means erecting statues? Why sports in India means only cricket? Why only 17 medals in the last 88 years of Olympics? Why are quotas based on caste? Why a government machinery not dependable in the minds of youth of this country? Why government projects carry on at snail’s pace? Why bad roads even when crores of money is allotted in every financial budget? Why do we get floods in every monsoon? And this year we did not even get monsoon rains! May be because to avoid us from experiencing miseries caused by floods. For how long should India remain as a ‘developing’ country? When is India going to cease to seem to be a threat to superpowers and become one? When are all Indians going to be proud about the country without any compromises? When will all the Indians take pride in celebrating our independence day? When will August 15^th be more than just a national holiday?

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