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Showing posts with label Democracy. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Democracy. Show all posts

Today's Gandhiji

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Bespectacled, a wrinkled face and a familiar nose - Anna Hazare, the Gandhi for today’s youth. At 71 years of age, his fast unto death campaign to eradicate corruption has made everyone from a young toddler to an old compatriot go berserk. Our deep slumber ended on 5th April. This man, with his party of handful followers, started an epic fast for getting the Jan Lokpal bill approved and it phenomenally turned out to be a voice that everyone needed, a leader that everyone was waiting for. Perhaps, people are now realizing that it was either now, with this Gandhi of ours, or never.
We have been hearing about corruption ever since, many of us have probably been victims of corruption. Everyone wanted corruption out of the system. We saw many scams that put our country to shame, we read well-written essays by few eminent personalities, we saw media having moron panel to discuss/debate and howl on TV sets, bloggers writing about corruption, children speaking about anti-corruption in school elocutions but never a step taken of such magnitude was seen.
Then why does it matter now?
After facing corruption, even getting involved in it at times, why does it matter now?
Why has the issue of Lokpal Bill being discussed now when nobody took it seriously for 42 years?
Why is every Indian irrespective of age, out on the street shouting “I am Anna Hazare”?
The answer lies in the simple fact that we never had a bold voice speaking so resolutely against corruption. Even if we had any, we never saw any action being taken and as an activist puts it “This old man here is ready to put his life on a struggle to have a better India ready for the youth” – India where politics could become a career option for the educated rather than hooligans and half witted people (like now) mobbing it and exploiting the nation for their vested interests. He is ably providing a voice to help us channelize our fight and build a better nation for ourselves.
Just before his campaign, the God of Cricket, Sachin Tendulkar and the Indian team bought whole of India together in celebration. Now this man has accomplished a historical feat, a mass drive across hundreds of cities, with thousands of people (majority of which is youth) – truly an iconic crusade worth emulating.
A mellow voice, a shy smile on his face but the sheer grit to get corruption out of India has overwhelmed me, and most certainly the entire nation. Seeing the teenagers (surprisingly) with posters pasted on their t-shirts displaying “Anna Hazare hum tumhare saath hai” sends frissons in me from head to toe.
The night India won the World Cup 2011, those on the streets would have swore that it looked like a revolution, like India having achieved independence yet again – with Indian flags fluttering on every car, people shouting “Bharatmata ki Jai” slogans, et al.
Hopefully we should revive the same emotion now to honour the efforts of that 71 year old man. This time we have a new Gandhi to lead, a vision set and the enemy lies within for whom you don’t need guns or swords or canons – our own government, comprising the same people we elected with lots of hope will now be responsible for every action they take, will now be answerable for every question we ask. They will now, after almost sixty years of independence and having the tag of “the world’s largest democracy” will understand what it will mean to be really governing a country. And as for us, we will see a dawn of new dimension of politics, understanding the fundamental rights of a citizen, a cleaner system to get our questions through, a right knowledge of whom to elect and why to elect, knowledge of our basic right of knowing and questioning all the decisions taken.
This will be a result of a revolution, not a fight like the one we had sixty years ago, a revolution in the real meaning of the word. Possibly, the whole governing system will be changed, it will evolve to be better place to dwell and the mindset of society will change towards politics and towards the people that govern us. Having “ruled” the country for years, hopefully they will now learn how to “govern” it and govern it to the benefit of the people.
This all being the efforts of one man – Bespectacled, the same thin frame round spectacles, a familiar nose and those deep sunken eyes so endearing and willful.
In all good hope that we don’t let that man lose, make him look weak & lonely there; let us pledge our support for him and the cause he has put up. Let us for once, keep oneself aside and think about our nation – a nation that has in its own way and to best of its capacity conferred some privileges on us.

- Aniket Sawant

Tower of Lust, 31st – A Dramatic Monologue

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This Dramatic Monologue is based on Robert Brownings Love among the Ruins first appeared on 10th Nov, 1855 before 155 years. The original poem depicts the ultimate object of male desire to collect material wealth in a misdirected way and hence the fall of the city.
The situation is exactly the same today. In fact, in multiplied proportion.
31st in the title is just because of the number of floors of the building in scam.

 
(Based on "Love Among The Ruins" by Robert Browning)
Now, Mumbai tipsters of towers
Not flowers
On the tranquil seashore plot of Nariman Point
Spaces they joint
Making a paper file of the land, ministers and bureaucrats remark
To embark
In the names of widows of war-soldiers dead
The rulers tread
Our country's financial capital's chief minister
Playing sinister
Kith and kin feel entering their hypothesized heaven
Surrounded by stain
Car wheels crushing excreta carrying to podium
Enjoying odium
Uniformed watchdogs protecting city and national gates
Sharing secrets
In the heart of marshland and slum
Enter political plum
The lust of money and land grab doesn't stop
Though crests drop
A billion dwellers never inhaled pure weather
They capped feather
Concentration camps moving on rails make them no difference
Signing file clearance
Prince and the queen ‘ever beating poverty drum
Mysteriously mum
The chief ministers and confreres under oath
Naked over cloth
The entire world looked with awe at new Mumbai-south
With open mouth
Where are five year national plans?
Consistency sans
Entire political career of continued corruption
Where’s interruption!
With their Bakasuri hunger of grabbing wealth
Where's the oath?
Their shenanigans and their rogueries and their guiles
Killing smiles

(Apologising Robert Browning)

- Divakar Kambli

Prince’s Hollywood Movie Based on India!

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Rahul Gandhi should visit Hollywood instead of draught prone hinterlands of Maharashtra that he is fond of. Not because he looks like a western actor with an expressionless face and faltering dialogue delivery like Clint Eastwood, not an A class actor, but because he thinks at least to extent in Hollywoodian manner. Clint Eastwood also is movie maker.

RG said that the social schemes devised by Maharashtra were followed by the country for the welfare of the people. The phrase, aam aadmi is out of fashion?

The schemes like Co-op Movement, Panchayti Raj, Employment Guarantee Schemes, he meant. Absolutely true, though the English press has always tried to suppress such positive news in their reports as far as Maharashtra is concerned.

There is saying in Marathi – the sun doesn’t stop rising though the cock doesn’t bang. Now Rahul Gandhi’s sun has risen though may be later in the morning and at odd times.

As a son he is also pushed on the eastward horizon to rise!

Now why do I feel RG should go to Hollywood?

The Hollywood public has a habit of lifting the original stories from across the other part of the world, polish them, buff them, gloss them at an exorbitant cost and present the chakachak copy with a big bang in the world market.

One example is enough; “Seven Samurai” (Originally Japanese) of Akira Kurosawa to “The Magnificent Seven” in English. I doubt whether one fourth of the world viewers are aware of Kurosawa and how important and influential director he is.

Ditto welfare schemes devised by Maharashtra. One percent of the Indians may not know about it.

RG, lovingly (!) called Prince by some section of media also has a script in mind for his movie. The movie this time is based on eradication of corruption and may be in two parts.

Now the production scenario:

In the first part the storyline will move around the action to be taken, immediately against corruption cases. This will go on the sets soon. Lots of young actors can be considered for the leading role from his brigade. But preference will be given to those who are not from a pedigree of politicians, the dynastic leader said.

There were whispers of laughter from the attendees of the press conference.
   
The first assistant director would be Ashokrao Chavan. But the gossip columnists say there is a big tussle behind the screen for the post. Vilasrao Deshmukh wants to push Ashokrao Chavan to the second place that may be agreed to as the planning chief of the studio is in latter’s favour.

Though a Hollywood production, the crew and cast is totally Indian. Top to toe (touching his head to the foot fingers of a baba) believer in Indian superstition, the frustrate has decided to reinstate himself back as Ashok Chavan under the auspices of Satya Saibaba after his secret visits.

In the earlier Marathi-Hindi bilingual production under the same banner Baba had advised to change the name. The movie bombed and hero Ashok Chavan who also did a miniscule role of a police waiting for the Prince (why? Nobody knows) under a tree was dismissed in the next production. Vilasrao (rao, in tact) was the production manager then. Gladly!

In all other productions earlier, he was the most favourite hero. However, in his efforts to push his son under another banner making a movie on terrorism on a five star backdrop was not appreciated by the production house, dismissing him from the scenario sending to a distant studio.

It is rumoured that he is being brought back. The signals are shining visibly green.

Having decided to take an ambitious plunge in Hollywood, the shaky director, though backed well on all other aspects of cinema making, is uncertain about choosing the villain.

Suddenly there is such a crop of villains like Congress grass that it has been difficult to choose the main villain. A. Raja and Thomas are the leading names. However, as per public survey by competing studios, names of our earlier two heroes are also in the race, though they are reluctant.

They have already offered them the roles of villains.

The henchmen and ruffians around the villain had no count. They are available in million, ready to do any role, like willingly throwing the administrative officers in fire. They are fed up of wielding Pt.32 revolver like Clint Eastwood in sixties, boring now.

The music director is not finalized yet. But from the script that is almost ready it seems that Nero from Rome would be the one called from the past with mainly using fiddle. Who can befit more than him when the land is burning under the black market of adulterated fuel?

There may not be any heroin in the movie. But Sushma Swaraj has a big role to play. RG, the director is not in favour to cast her. The movie pundits have however warned him to introduce her, lest the movie won’t see the midnight of the release.

The director on the visit was heard murmuring to himself aloud not to pay any attention to her. But he knows it’s meaningless.

The publicity team however is far below par. The secretaries, with nothing to tell when asked in the press conferences whether the movie is based on the real truth, bark one and all on the question callers and go back to 1998-2004 regime of the opposition party not allowing anyone to hear anything, including themselves.

India feels this stray category of publicity has already sunk the movie before going on the floor. Both the studio heads, planning and executive, are having stiff upper lips though none of them is British to do so, mostly out of fear of losing the chairs thinking of the aftermath of this venture handed over to the novice.

The sets are ready. Many court sets are under construction. Some with slanting roofs of clay tiles, resembling European court buildings. Outdoor shooting would be mostly done in Maharashtra as the thriller has the backdrop there. The foreign locations are Zurich and doubly landlocked (means where a person has to cross at least two borders to reach a coastline) alpine country Liechtenstein situated on the border of Switzerland.

Nobody knows when the movie would be completed and released or whether it would be finished at all.

In the meanwhile, Prince, the director has declared with misplaced expressions on his face, one line story of the sequel, saying - in the long run there was a need to cleanse the political system.

It would take more time than Pakeeza (14 years) by Kamal Amrohi or The Thief and The Cobbler (31) years a Canadian animation film conceived by Richard Williams based Arabian Nights, any young boy not allowed to question in his pompous Q & A programs in cities would tell.

- DevikaRani Kamath

May Maharashtra ‘Mahawake’!

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‘Maharashtra is a mahajoke,’ a young boy from a southern state of India told me. He was in Mumbai for two years and knew about the state much more than the youth of his age from the land – politically, culturally, and financially.

‘Why?’ I asked him with a bit of disdain, though somewhere within I concurred with him.

‘See, you all here are joking. Right from a budding actor to your chief minister, people have no other business it seems!’

I couldn’t refute his statement because it was true beyond doubt.

One of the earlier two chief ministers, handsome looking than his actor son always told the anecdotes about the jokes in his career time on stage, in his interviews or on Marathi news channels. His smile is good, might have been liked by the ruling squad of the country. And hence he could have been reinstated as the chief minister. The reasons may be abundant. The Pandora box is opening and other reasons for his baxishi (the chief minister could not pronounce ‘s’ properly, he said ‘sh’ for ‘s’) may pop up soon. Then it could turn out to be a tragical humour!

“Umar-e Daraj Mangke Laye Theyy Char Din…” half of them he wasted on telling jokes and rest in obeying orders of Delhi.

Maharashtra is fond of homour. ChiVi Joshi, Acharya Atre, PuLa Deshpande and though a mainly politician, Balasaheb Thackeray, through his circuitous speeches have kept the tradition. That was a kind of - old as gold. However, over the generations the pedigree is spifflicating the legacy.

Aso.

Anyhow a minor reason caused to stop this joke and Maharashtra heaved a sigh of relief from invasion of jokes in political life.

Delhi sent an MBA to Maharashtra to rule as a CEO.

One more smart sigh of relief. An MBA would rule the state. What a fortune! Smart fellow. Smart talker with a bit extra smart tone. But this talker had a relationship with tower. Who knew? The smartness was a rudeness, who knew?

The MBA proved not to be a CEO, but yours obediently.

The bobda (dull in talks) prince is his master.

I’m coming to Mumbai to challenge ShivSena, prince messaged. Obedient CEO massaged himself for duty, collected all the police force from other duties and employed them to protect the prince as if there was going to be a borderline battle. The prince traveled with full protection in a local train specially emptied for him.

The MBA, CEO, Chief Minister of the once upon a time the most progressive, reformist state, himself left the place of his work brushing aside his formal duties and marched to the destination that prince was to visit.

Message flashed – I’m reaching within half an hour.

But he is a prince after all. He has his whims. Is it compulsory for him by law or convention to reach the destination within the stipulated time?

Would he care that chief minister of a big state, the biggest financial earner to run his kingdom, is waiting for him? Never mind. He took a diversion en route and reached his destination after couple of hours. Diversions are not new to Maharashtra!

Our CEO, visibly embarrassed, sat underneath a mango tree holding his right cheek fallen like a lorn in right hand as a policeman on a duty or a door keeper at his own cabin does.
(Memory pricked me to remember Sean Connery and Ursula Andress in the first James Bond movie, Dr. No that had a song – “underneath a mango tree”)

Has Maharashtra ever been conflicted by a more cruel joke than this?
And that even though he continued raising the towers of corruption is daily coming out before Maharashtra, India, Asia, the world, the earth, the universe and so on….

Hehi aso.

A new chief minister, wisdom prevail, that Delhi has sent.
M.S. from University of California.
He is a Member Consultative Committee, Ministry of Science and Technology, Electronics, Atomic Energy, Standing Committee on Science and Technology, Finance and Planning, Rural and Urban Development, Committee on Public Undertakings, Public Accounts Committee, Standing Committee on Energy and many others.

With such a vast range of experience of work and guts to defy the viciously powerful builder lobby in Maharashtra while assuming the already badnaam post he may wash out the buffoon’s image his predecessors have created, one feels.
Anna Hazare, the only Gandhian left in the country, also feels so.

Notwithstanding, Raj Thackeray doesn’t. The new CM’s action may soon make him change his opinion.

For me, I remember the CM in a beautiful movie packed with positive outlook, SARANSH. The chief minister at the end of the movie says to his teacher – ‘There is still a hope.’

Who would forget that chief minister enacted by Akash Khurana, the epitome of simplicity, authority, and sophistication one feels a politician should be like.

And, I hope to write soon to that young friend of mine from southern state that, Maharashtra is ‘mahawoke’ from that nightmare of joke.

- Divakar Kambli

Greed: Abnormal Extreme of Aspiration

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“Greed, for lack of a better word, is good. Greed is right. Greed works. Greed clarifies, cuts through, and captures, the essence of the evolutionary spirit. Greed, in all of its forms; greed for life, for money, for love, knowledge, has marked the upward surge of mankind and greed, you mark my words…” Gordon Gekko (Michael Douglas) said in the 1987 movie, ‘Wall Street’

Considering only the movie part, I was utterly impressed with that dialog. I grew up enacting that dialog, it had very powerful words. I have seen the movie enough number of times to defeat the claimants of Sholay (insanely boring movie).

However, as stages of maturity and sanity passed in my life, I began to realise that the dialog was good enough only for the delivery part and could not actually be practiced. The upshot of Gekko’s words lessened over a period of time.

It was short-lived though. The words started resonating in my mind when India emerged a country of scams, frauds in 2010 – the CWG, the 2G, and the Adarsh.

There was Bofors in 1986, the fodder scam in 1996, the arms bribery scandal in 2001, and there were people like Harshad Mehta, Ketan Parikh, Telgi, all of which have shamed India repeatedly. Today we have the sucker-games in telecom, lands, food grains, onions, sports and possibly many more to come. The more is dug, the deeper it gets.

Laissez-faire capitalism proponents claim that it is inappropriate to out rightly reject greed as a negative quality. On the contrary greed should be considered as an overwhelming munificent force in human affairs and also an important underpinning for the capitalist system. However, there have been numerous arguments as this portrayal of greed misappropriates it with self-interest, which can be benevolent.

Time and again our country has been plagued with nuisances of various kinds. It was the real rats that spread the epidemic long time ago. The rats have now transformed into politicians, real estate honchos, bureaucrats, defence personnel et al. These blood sucking rats are running in pursuit of power and wealth with negligent thought about the disaster they are causing (and hence probably the word “rat race”).

It takes me by surprise thinking about the psyche of these people who ignorantly want to amass wealth about which they perhaps have no clue when and how they will utilise it. 1.7 lac crore, an amount beyond my imagination; I would perchance spend my entire life counting it (no pun intended).

What is it that so persistently drives the greed of accumulating money power or fame? Is it only the greed and is it pleasure giving in first place? Is peace of mind not important, forget about values or culture or family matter?

I wonder from where does this disproportionate goad to acquire material wealth beyond one’s need arises from. What is worse is this act of greed denies access to legitimate others who are in need of those resources and which can be utilised to build up a society that will give our country a look of a “developed country”. It is the greed of people like these that has left our country at the status of a “developing country”.

It is good to aspire about being rich & famous. It is ubiquitous and conventional in all the civilisations across the world. It would be rather harsh to synonymise this plain aspiration to greed. Greed is usually the far extreme of this aspiration, largely driven by the psyche of collecting huge amounts of money not to spend it but just to have its possession, when considered in terms of wealth. The extreme of consuming drinks for sheer delight is gluttony as is the fanatical greed for sex called lust; underlying psyche in both these examples remains greed.

Greed classically involves acquisition of material possession at the cost of other’s welfare.

Not only politicians or people who have power but I have seen many around me who despite having all the basic needs and freedom of luxury behave insanely yearning for more material wealth. People in their early sixties (who own a house, a car, have wife, pension, other savings, children supporting them, enjoyed vacations, enjoy alcohol, have had enough sex all their life, have enough well wishers around, good friends, etc) still crave for accumulating as much as they can. At that age, possibly, I would have fulfilled all my aspirations.

What is it then that there is something still missing in one’s life? What is this nature of ravenous hunger? Is it because of the society that we live in, which praises and recognises and worships only fame and richness?

Inner selfishness gives birth to greed; a paradox. Greed breeds on unawareness of the self. The greedy always craves for more than what is at hand, even when it is enough to satisfy his/her needs. It is an ineffectual attempt to satiate the barrenness within you. These self defeating and destructive mannerisms arise from unfulfilled puerile needs and the trauma of the adulthood that fails to catch pace with the mates around.

The focus then shifts from yourself and the dissension begins to avoid the self.

I am neither religious nor spiritual. However, I do end up subscribing to Gautam Buddha’s ideology of desire (which the greed is a part of) – the root cause of all human suffering.

- P. K. Dastoor

Do We Know Our Enemy?

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It was the Christmas time and Santa was bound to be around the corner. It was the time to go wishing for gifts from the white-bearded man. But we have to behave good for that.

Perhaps, the name at the bottom in Santa’s list might be that of Julian Assange, co-founder of the whistle-blower website Wikileaks. A man cursed upon right from the most powerful man on earth, the President of America, protested against by those fighting for privacy rights, branded as a terrorist by Sarah Palin, and still among the most admired men. He is a dark knight, the people’s choice for the Times Person of the Year, the messenger.

Standing for all that is good in the world, and hunted down by half the governments, he is a man we were waiting for, a man who stands up for the underdogs. Built on principles and ethics, an intriguing personality with a great philosophy behind his mottos, this man is courage personified.

A young Julian Assange was a part of a hacker group that had one of its mottos as share information. Perhaps a little inquisitiveness, personal experience and a strong sense of right and wrong has made this man we know today. Being one of the winners of Amnesty award and “one of the most influential person” he is still humble. A brain of unparalleled genius is transforming the now rotten field of journalism.

Greenday, the punk rock band asked the world, “Do you know your enemy?” and we didn’t till then. But today when the very basis of democracy is shattered by the bulk of secrets kept from the public we do realize who the enemy is. It is the regime, the very government that we elect and today Wikileaks has called for a change in this regime. The regime which wants to stay by covering their schemes, the wars they got into, the loss in those wars, is brought to open by these messengers. Julian Assange and his people revolted against the honor to obey, they brought down the silence which had been our enemy for so long. The new era for internet freedom has begun and this massive power of the internet is taming all those power-hungry politicos and bringing to the public all the dirty little secrets. 

This simple man, with very simple and straight philosophy, has showed to us the real face of the world’s most powerful democracy and the notorious secrets of other countries. A self-taught hacking expert and a computer-whiz, he is a revolution in the field of journalism, the press. The fourth pillar of democracy which sways public opinion in any direction, was till now a tool used by the governments to mould facts the way they want. We knew, the facts that we saw were not true, we knew there was also the “Other Side of the Story” but we stood silent. When incidents like 26/11 happened we thought we had enough of this silence. We rose up in violence and brought this government to senses that not always would we accept your facts. And this violence is the energy we seek now to bring reform. Wikileaks gave us channel to let this violence flow, a way to ask the government “what’s the truth?”

News supported with documents and material to prove the truth, is the new face of journalism. The sources are hidden but the documents echo the truth. The methods to acquire the documents are known yet “fool-proof”. And all this is the genius of one simple man. The power will now move in our hands when the foreman of control will be brought down, when his effigy will be burned.

But still one question lingers in the mind. Is it ethical?

Is it ok to steal the secrets of a government? And the answer lies in the fact, if we elect the people up there, we give them our trust votes then they should be entrust us about the annual spending, the wars and the losses suffered, the schemes carried out at international level. If not then the Heroes are waiting to spill the beans. It’s a choice upon the regime up there to decide. Either trust us with every step you take or acknowledge the fact that we do know who our enemy is.

- Aniket Sawant