This is the first-page scan of our Hindi newspaper:
And this is the first page scan of our English newspaper – unless you look careful you won’t even notice the news:
India’s first Field Marshal Sam Hormusji Framji Jamshedji Manekshaw, whose military victory in the 1971 Indo-Pak war led to the creation of Bangladesh, died yesterday. What caught my attention was the way both the newspapers carried the news. In the Hindi newspaper scan you’ll notice that Sehwag (he’s a cricket player) gets more exposure due to his performance against some match again Pakistan, and in The Pioneer the news is so small that it’s embarrassing. Contrary to this, Aishwarya Roy gets front-page coverage even if she sneezes.
In such details lie the values and ethics of the society, but is it really? This is how it seems media alters our perception. Both Alka and I found the way our newspapers have covered the news infuriating. There must be thousands of others feeling the same thing, but you ask the representatives of these newspapers and they will very cutely say, “Our public is more interested in Sehwag than Field Marshal Manekshaw.” I don’t think so.
Without being rude to Sehwag, does it make a difference if tomorrow Sehwag stops playing? But Manekshaw did help re-orient the boundaries of the Indian sub-continent and even the thankless Bangladeshi’s silently agree to that.
This is what this Hindu links says of Field Marshal Manekshaw:
A soldier’s General, Field Marshal Sam Hormusji Framji Jamshedji Manekshaw crafted India’s greatest military victory in the 1971 Indo-Pak war that created just not history but also a new nation.
Affectionately called "Sam Bahadur", Manekshaw (94) was the architect of many a military triumph but his finest hour came when Pakistani forces were vanquished in 14 days flat. And Bangladesh was born.
Handsome, witty and sporting his trademark handlebar moustache, Manekshaw had the rare distinction of being honoured for his bravery - Military Cross - right on the battle front itself during the Second World War. He was also the first Indian officer to command the Gorkhas after India got Independence.
Manekshaw, who got a second life after the young Captain survived near fatal wounds during the Second World War in Burma, is the first of only two Indian military officers to hold the highest rank of Field Marshal of the Indian Army (The other being Field Marshal K M Cariappa).
His distinguished military career spanned four decades from the British era and through five wars, including the Second World War.
Flamboyant by nature, Manekshaw always had his way with people, including his seniors and even the country’s Head of Government.
Just before the Bangladesh operations in December 1971, the then prime minister Indira Gandhi asked Manekshaw ,who was the Army Chief then, "General are you ready" (for the war). Pat came the reply from the dapper officer, "I am always ready sweetie." Gandhi was not unpleased, nor offended.
On another occasion, Gandhi asked him whether he was planning to take over the country. Pointing to his long nose, the General replied: "I don’t use it to poke into other’s affairs."
When Gandhi asked him to go to Dhaka and accept the surrender of Pakistani forces, Manekshaw declined, magnanimously saying that honour should go to his army commander in the East (Lt Gen Jagjit Singh Aurora).
Manekshaw said he would only go if it were to accept the surrender of the entire Pakistani army.
A shrewd tactician, Manekshaw meticulously planned the Indian attack on Pakistan on both fronts — East and West. While the Indian forces captured the then East Pakistan in the eastern sector, the army made heavy inroads in the western sector going up to Lahore.
Adopting a mature war strategy, he masterminded the rout of the Pakistan Army in one of the quickest victories in the recent military history to liberate Bangladesh.
The Indian government, as is normally the norm during the various Congress governments, made a highly costly strategical blunder by sidelining him during the Indo-China war just because he didn’t wag his tail:
In 1961, his outspoken frankness got him into trouble with Defence Minister V K Krishna Menon and his protege of the time Lt Gen B M Kaul. He refused to toe Menon’s line and was sidelined.
Manekshaw was vindicated soon after when the Indian army suffered a humiliating defeat in North East Frontier Agency (NEFA), now Arunachal Pradesh, the next year, at the hands of the Chinese that led to Menon’s resignation. Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru rushed Manekshaw to NEFA to command the retreating Indian forces. This had an electrifying effect on the demoralised officers.
In no time, Manekshaw convinced the troops that the Chinese soldier was not "10 feet tall". His first order of the day said, "There will be no withdrawal without written orders and these orders shall never be issued." The soldiers showed faith in their new commander and successfully checked further ingress by the Chinese.
Here’s a nice link on Manekshaw. This link contains a very beautiful line:
When I die I would rather have people say why there is no monument to me than why there is.
As Alka says on her blog that it is uncool to talk about uncool people and here I am adding another drop to this uncoolness. But unlike her I don’t intend to berate people who pursue “other passions” because whether you do something for the self-good or for the social goodness, you mostly do something that makes your heart happy and that gives you a sense of fulfillment. Nonetheless, it requires great courage and vision to do what Kaushlendra is doing: despite being a topper at IIM-Ahmedabad he is selling vegetables on a cart. Visit Alka’s link to know more about Kaushlendra.
Today’s society is a crude society; have you seen that ad these days where the cricket player Dhoni says that you have no identity without wearing good clothes? It may sound like a silly ad but it exactly reflects the societal attitude of contemporary times. I have nothing against good clothes or acquiring materials of luxury but these days such possessions have become a maniacal obsession. To aspire, to get rich and affluent does no harm, what harms is the extent to which people go to reach there. Resisting these seemingly universal temptations and doing something for the others requires lots of grit and determination.
It does seem in this video, if it’s not a hoax.
This is a pure X-Files case. Fox Mulder used to claim that he, and his sister perhaps, was abducted by the aliens. Nobody believed him. At least the cow has some documented evidence now.
But why a bovine being? Perhaps they’re taking samples from every species and they must have already beamed up some humans. Or they simply want some fresh milk which is hard to get these days.
This woman from Nagpur was raped by a man she thought was her husband. And this happened while her husband was sleeping in the same room. The husband was sleeping on a cot and the wife was sleeping on the floor (this is often the sleeping arrangement in most of the villages); of course Nagpur is not a village.
While they were sleeping the intrepid intruder broke open the lock and quietly lay beside her and started playing around. He had a nice session with the unsuspecting lady while she lay there quietly, thinking that it was her husband. After the quality time all of a sudden she divined that the body rubbing against her was stockier than her husband’s, and hence she raised an alarm.
Maybe this really was an identity problem but could she really not feel the difference while the real thing was happening and only felt it when the lucky guy was taking some well-earned rest after having hit the carnal jackpot? The nightly Casanova must have mounted her and entered her and all the while she couldn’t make out it was some other bird pecking at her cherries? Hard to believe.
Anyway, when she screamed the husband woke up and the surreptitious lover had to flee. He must have sung on his way Bade be-abru hokar tere kunche se hum nikle (I left your doorstep quite heartbroken). Oh, and the poor husband, I’m sure he’s either going to get rid of his cot or going to buy a bigger cot for both of them.
Update (June 23, 2008): Krishna’s custody has been extended again. What, another bout of narco-tests and lie-detector tests? I think the CBI will drive this guy nuts and then declare that although he has lost his mind it was he who had committed both the murders. Of course in his deranged state of mind he won’t be able to deny it or defend himself; he will simply admit. The CBI is just waiting for the media and the public to get bored of this case and then they will have a field day.
Another confusing thing is the murder weapon. Recently the CBI had said that the murder weapon was flushed down in Arushi’s bathroom. For almost a fortnight Krishna’s niece has been telling the news channels that Krishna’s “badly blunted” khukri has been lying at home and the CBI never came to get it. And now the CBI has got the khukri from Krishna’s place. So what happens to the theory of the flushed down weapon? Flushed down?
Update (June 20, 2008): Krishna has now supposedly told the CBI that it was Rajkumar (Anita Durani’s servant) who killed Arushi and later on Hemraj, and Krishna saw her being first assaulted in order to be raped, then injured, and eventually killed. This is truly bizarre. Now they’ll say the weapon wasn’t a Khukri and it was some other weapon that was used. The statement is probably being changed because now there is too much public support for Krishna. So much happened and the parents kept sleeping. I wonder if someone lived downstairs. In multi-storyed flats the roofs are generally so sound sensitive that the people downstairs can hear the sound even when children run around in the flat above. If so much fighting and physical violence took place, how come nobody heard a sound? And that too at night, when everything is so quiet despite the air-conditioners and coolers.
Beside, why did they choose to come at night for the assault knowing that everyone would be at home: both the parents and the servant. Why didn’t they choose a time when she was alone at home? Were the parents not supposed to be there that day and was it known to the culprits?
Is this the smartest investigative agency the country has? Pathetic, to say the least. They can’t even fabricate properly.
The old post follows
According to the latest development it seems the CBI will go to ludicrous lengths to ensure compounder Krishna’s conviction. By hook or by crook the CBI is hell bent on proving that it was Krishna who committed the twin murders of Arushi Talwar and her man-servant Hemraj. According the the CBI theory (whatever news I’m getting while working), Krishna first murdered Hemraj, took the body to the roof and hid it under the cooler’s cover. Then he murdered Arushi with the same khukri (see on Wikipedia what khukri means) and then flushed the khukri down in Arushi’s bathroom (correction: he first murdered Arushi and then Hemraj). Then he broke both Arushi’s and Hemraj’s cell phones and threw them into the water tank on the roof. All this happened while the girl’s parents soundly slept. After putting the body on the roof and throwing the phones into the water tank he locked the door that goes to the roof (the police found the door locked in the morning of the murder).
Some conflicting facts: Arushi’s bedroom door, due to some weird reason, was always locked from the outside whenever she went to sleep, and nobody has so far asked the parents why this used to happen. But there was another door through Hemraj’s room from where one could enter Arushi’s bedroom. The keys of Arushi’s locked doors were always with Arushi’s parents (now why would Hemraj keep the keys unless he had duplicate keys?). But the next day when Arushi’s body was found, the door was unlocked, wide open. So someone would go to great lengths to lock the door to the roof after dumping Hemraj’s body there but would not lock back Arushi’s bedroom after murdering her. The blood stains on the outer side of the door also proved that the door was wide open even when Arushi was being murdered.
The parents too sound quite shady, and this is why the father was arrested in the first place (and the CBI is doing its best to prove that he’s innocent, as of now). In the morning when the maid turned up, the mother told the maid that the main entrance door was locked from the outside. She told the maid to go down, where she would throw the keys from the balcony. The maid went down and the mother threw the keys down sounding perfectly normal. When the maid entered the house, she found both the mother and the father crying. Had the mother tried going through Hemraj’s room. she could have easily gone out herself and opened the door from the outside. The police, who totally decimated the crime scene by acting prodigiously clumsy and unprofessional, half-heartedly proved that it was simply not possible to go to the roof without creating lots of noise and waking up the family as the door made loud noises while being shut and opened. And anyway, with so much happening in the house, how could have they kept sleeping? Of course the father, a high-profile dentist, said that he had consumed liquor before going to bed. Nonetheless, he was arrested as police thought the girl and the servant had been murdered as either honor killing, or to keep an elicit affair secret, or something more sinister. Both the CBI and the policy have been trying to ascertain what clothes the couple were wearing when they had gone to bed, and strangely, none of them can recall.
It was reported that after finding the body with a slit throat and a badly bashed up face, they were calling up relatives and colleagues instead of the police. After the police had conducted the initial inquisition they promptly performed the last rites and took the ashes to Haridwar and consigned them to the Ganges. The Hindus record the death details at Haridwar and there they mentioned that Arushi had died at 2 A.M. All this pointed the needle of suspicion at them.
The difference between the have’s and the havenots has also come to the fore. The CBI is arresting servants left and right, and the joint director of CBI immediately called a press conference to deny that Nupur Talwar (Arushi’s mother) was going to be arrested, as the news of her imminent arrest began to appear on the Internet. Contrary to that, Krishna has been under arrest for more than a month and the CBI has been conducting all sorts of psychological interrogations of him even without court’s order. Rajesh Talwar’s (Arushi’s father) lawyers are always present when he is being interrogated. Krishna had cried in front the TV cameras that he was being tortured and falsely implicated to save someone else’s butt.
Whoever has murdered Arushi and Hemraj, neither police nor the CBI has come out convincing. I’ll post more thoughts on this case later on. In the meantime, here are some intriguing questions.
I just read on the garam masala packet that the packet was published by the “Gestapo Publishing Company, Jaipur”. The owner must be a great Hitler fan :-).
Transhumanism is supposed to immortalize us. It involves uploading all memories and motions into computers so that we can live as human machines. This is fascinating as well as scary. Living forever is a nice ability, as long as it is in your hand to shut your system down whenever you feel like. Or you should be able to go into hibernation, self-programmed to wake up after a certain period, or when there is an emergency.
But this can also give rise to a species of super-humans that cannot be easily destroyed, that don’t tire, and that can change bodies in case some real damage occurs. In the beginning this technology will only be available to a selected few and this where the danger begins. What if a few rich people decide that only they can use the technology, and the rest of the people are turned into slaves? Humans have this tendency to enslave weaker, less privileged human beings whenever they get a chance, whether there is a valid need or not. They enslave merely to feel powerful and I’m sure no matter how much science and technology advance the basic attitude is going to remain the same.
But I am not against the idea as some people are. Lots of opportunities will be there for humans if the factor of death is removed from the same. Take for instance scientific discoveries and space exploration. If we don’t die we can continue our work for, let us say, hundreds of years. Imagine what could have been achieved if Newton, Ramanujam and Einstein could work together? What if Aryabhatta could use the latest space technology to study planets and other heavenly bodies? What mathematical fetes could Descartes have achieved with new computer software?
Of course with given scientific knowledge Transhhumanism is just a concept but it can some day really change the way we live and die, if dying doesn’t become obsolete by that time. Above all there will remain no such thing as disability, as long as we’re not talking about mental disability (but these days it is very difficult to make out who is mentally challenged and who is not). Another benefit of this technology will manifest when we totally mess up the environment. Since we won’t have biological bodies, we won’t need oxygen, and may be not even food. We’ll be able to live on man-made satellites in the sky or under water, where there is still lots of space. People who are not much inclined towards moving around will be able to share a mainframe with millions of other brains and this means millions of people will be able to live in a single room.
Sounds quite gloomy, but if you can create your own virtual reality (I assume by then technology will be able to give us lots of disk space and processing power within a single room) then it won’t be that boring.
This thought came to me when I was listening to Darde dil, darde jigar, dil mai jagaya aapne – a Rafi song from the film Karz that became a hit in the mid-70s. This song explains why Mohammad Rafi’s career had begun to recede while Kishore Kumar was still doing great. Rafi not at all sounds good in this song. Listen to the song:
He sounds bland especially in the lower notes (not to sound boastful I can sing this song better). Compared to that listen to this Kishore Kumar song from Mr. India:
Kishore Kumar must have sung Kaate nahi kat-te almost after 15 years Rafi sang Darde dil and still, he sounds sizzling, just like Roop tera mastana from Aradhna. Kishore Kumar knew how to adapt and still sound classy. Although I’m a die-hard Rafi fan I think after a certain period his singing lost relevance and he was still trapped in the golden age of Man tarpat hari darshan ko aaj and Kuhu-kuhu bole koyaliya – renditions that only Rafi could deliver, of course. Savor both the songs:
Rafi was no doubt the playback god of Indian cinema but his singing style couldn’t adapt to the changing times. Kishore Kumar did this with great ease and was a successful singer till his last breath. He even sang exceptionally well for those cheap Jitendra flicks produced by south Indian producers.
This is exactly what Amitabh Bachchan does when all his contemporaries have vanished into the oblivion. In the 70s and 80s he hit the right cord and became a mega star. Even these days his roles are as contemporary as it gets. So what’s common between Kishore Kumar and Amitabh Bachchan? The ability to adapt.
Adaptability can help you in any sphere of life. When you can easily and quickly adapt, you can survive under any condition.
This video was sent to me by my sister through Facebook. Really neat!
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