It was sad to read in today’s newspaper about the demise of Kamleshwar, one of the last respected, and considerably known Hindi authors. Personally I don’t like Hindi authors for their perpetually grim view of the world in general, Kamleshwar was among the few who are not always writing about the dying farmers of rural India (I’m not underplaying the severity). He was also distinct in the sense that people actually knew him.
I’m in the midst of reading The Last Mughal. Today I read about how barbaric the sepoys had turned during the 1857 revolt, and it seems, as far as Delhi was concerned, it was less of a revolt, and more of rioting and brutal killings. And these brutal slayings happened on both the sides — whoever had the power butchered the other. So I was just thinking, as a race, humans are more violent than animals. We simply kill and torture people just because we can. When the British had the upper hand, they tortured and killed the Indians in all conceivable manners, and when the Indians got the control briefly, they didn’t differentiate between women, babies (even in the wombs), children and men.
During the 1984 riots I myself saw people being burnt alive. In Gujarat after the Godhra carnage, a pregnant woman’s belly was ripped apart with hands and the baby was shredded to pieces. And this is not unique to India. The blacks in the US were burnt alive, were cut into pieces while they were still alive and while the onlookers clapped in delight. The horrible killings in various civil wars in all the continents cannot be described in words.
It’s a normal perception that cruel deeds of arson and butchering are conducted by the people of lower strata. Even most of the people who indulged in rapes and looting during the 1857 revolt were mostly Gujjars, chamars and dhobis.
But then what about the Nithari incident? This guy was rich. He studied in one of the best schools and colleges and moved in the most elite circles. What sort of socio-economic background prompted him to rape, murder, and probably eat children?
Given a chance, humans are prone to orchestrating the most heinous cruelties one can imagine, just because they are capable of.
Just found this funny article in Guardian Unlimited titled How not to write a novel: A step by step guide to failure, by Anita Sethi. Besides being funny it is scary too. There are many suggestions in the list she has chronicled in the article, that I sedulously follow.
I wish for my country
- A sense of sincerity
- A true essence of freedom
- A desire to strive hard
- Love for the country — its people, its flora and fauna, its natural resources and economic assets
History never repeat itself. It’s just that, as a civilization, and as individuals, we never learn from our mistakes, or even if we learn from them, our vanities stop us from assimilating them, from making amends. We keep on committing the same mistakes again and again. Some people don’t do this, but they are in a minority, and most often than not they becomes the victims of nationalization. So is all the hope lost?
No, and that’s why the world progresses.
Today I read an ad in our Hindi newspaper that invites people to get shops in an upcoming shopping mall in Bareilly. Lots of malls are coming up in smaller cities (I mean, cities compared to Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai, etc.) and I was wondering how much money they earn. Bharti along with Wal-Mart are planning a big venture.
Recently I read an article that people in India don’t enjoy shopping in big malls and I feel this too. Here in India we are too used to shopping at either the very old markets, for instance in Delhi’s case, Lajpat Nagar Central Market, Sarojini Nagar, South Extension, etc., or the smaller neighborhood shops. Malls are considered as entertainment trips. People generally go there in groups (family and friends), visit the hep eating joints, see a movie if a theater happens to be there, and come back quite happy.
Consequently, most of the malls remain unprofitable. Unless there is some really compelling reason (no local shops and markets remaining, things becoming appallingly cheap) people are not going to do regular shopping there, and there are many cultural and conceptual reasons:
- People think things in malls are expensive and hence only very rich people shop there.
- People are still getting used to the plushness of the malls — they are too used to filthy markets with puddles, spits, dogs and cows.
- We don’t stock things. It could be because we don’t have big fridges, and this could be because we don’t have big houses.
- Parking problems.
- Traveling is difficult with all that traffic and broken roads — every shopping experience can turn into a needless ordeal.
- These days you can telephone and get things at home.
I personally prefer smaller shops because they are closer to the community.
The government of Iran requires the Iranian bloggers to register their blogs and websites, and even their physical addresses, with the appropriate authorities. This is clearly being done to throttle free flow of information and communication. Bloggers are known to have been tortured in the Iranian jails for blogging about the despotic and authoritarian government.
BBCPersian.com recently interviewed 6 Iranian bloggers and asked about their views on this imposition. You can read their reactions here.
Alka just forwarded me this link that talks about the repercussions being faced by the two participants of Big Brother after they racially abused Shilpa Shetty. They are almost on the verge of ruin. All their contracts are being terminated, and their commercial ventures (of course not in India) are in jeopardy.
And look how proudly our good pals Sanjay Dutt and Salman Khan remain the heartthrobs of the public as well as the producers, despite all that they have done. We so deserve all the smut that we get everywhere.
While bloggers in Iran and Egypt are being hounded by their respective governments, there is a good news for those who love the truth, but also worry for theirs and their loved ones’ security. Websites like Wikileaks can be of great help.
You can remain anonymous while talking about your repressive and corrupt regimes.
I’m not sure how effectively secure such websites can be. I mean, yes, we do need such places. I myself want to write a lot but don’t, and outside of my immediate family I trust nobody, and no other organization, or in this case, no other website.
There is a downside of being anonymous: the facelessness of truth. Truth needs a 3D manifestation.
But it’s a good step.
I don’t watch TV these days (recently I didn’t have even a single glimpse of TV for more than a month) so I didn’t know that AXN has been banned for broadcasting indecent programming. It’s so silly to ban an entire channel for a single program.
AXN is a stupid channel and the last program I watched on it with an intermittent regularity was Poor Man’s Bikini Beach, and the most obscene thing used to be, when they blurred nipples and butts. No, I’m not saying that they should show nipples and butts on regular timings, but why telecast a program you cannot show properly?
Some time back I heard that channels will be able to telecast adult programs after 11 PM. I don’t know whether it has started happening or not, but if it is happening, and if AXN was telecasting the offending program (for which it was taken off the air) during the adult slot, what was Munshi’s problem (he’s the same clueless IB minister who previous banned The Vinci Code too)? I’m sure he watches whatever he wants to watch whenever he can, so why shackle the public?
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