RSS FeedsJai Baba Ram Dev ki
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05 Jan
2006 |
Watching the crowds (on our TV set of course) protesting violently and burning the effigies of the Rajya Sabha MP and CPIM general secretary’s wife Brinda Karat for claiming he mixed human and animal bones in his ayurvedic medicines, was both amusing and disturbing. Amusing because, how does it matter? As Laloo aptly put it — Jab tak log theek ho rahei hei, kya pharak padta hei ki dawai mei manav ki haddiya hei ya danav ki? (as long as people are getting cured, how does it matter if there are human bones or devils’ bones in the medicines?). I personally have no issues with my medicines containing bones as long as humans and animals are not being specifically killed to make these medicines (a good plot for a horror movie). Brinda Karat claimed that human bones are dug up from the graves for this purpose.
Disturbing is the way people protest for stupid things such as these. Are we only good at going on rampage for non-issues? Our country seethes with poverty, with illiteracy, with casteism, with crime and with corrupt bureaucracy and politics and we don’t hit the roads to protest — we don’t want to torch the effigies of misery. We are ready to kill and die for a temple, mosque or a baba but we cannot kill and die for the education of our children. Our blood doesn’t boil when someone pollutes our environment. Our tolerance level meteorically rises when it comes to dealing with a mafia don. No effigy is burnt when a child falls into an open manhole. No flame ignites when a poor person dies because he or she cannot pay for the treatment. Just today they were showing in the news that a girl was raped in Gurgaon — why don’t we see a crowd gathering and protesting and jamming the traffic until action is taken by the police? An IIT professor was killed in Bangalore by terrorists recently — I’m yet to see or hear of a single protest march. Leave alone the general mohalla crowd, not even a single the so-called secular intellectual has come forward and expressed anger. No effigies of terrorism have been burned till now. When will we learn to express outrage for the lack of things that really matter?
On second though I guess we’ve become used to living in misery and backwardness and we deserve all the shit we get from the system. We nurture this system with the nutrients of our own stupidity and defeatist attitude.
Recently I read in another blog that we are a nation of arrogant people who are timid in front of the mighty and brutish in front of the week. That’s why when we get to join a mob, we feel strong, and we use this strength for all the wrong reasons such as killing people and burning properties, and this is the reason for our economic backwardness. We are never aggressive when it comes to individual well-being. That’s why we can cry horse for a temple, but we don’t even feel an itch when a hungry man dies in front of our eyes. It’s an attitude very nicely described in Leo Tolstoy’s The Death of Ivan Ilyich: most of his acquaintances, when they hear of his painful death, think, “it is he who is dead and not I.??? All they are worried about is their next game of cards. All we are normally worried about is how Parvati is going to tackle her bahu in the next episode.
No big change is going to happen unless we learn to protest – en masse – for the right things. Burning effigies like churlish losers is not going to take us anywhere, not as a nation, not as an individual.
Email this link | Posted by Amrit | Tags: General
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[...] Swami Ramdev and Brinda Karat don’t like each other, and uhm.. make no bones about it. The Writing Cave on the non-issues that take up media and national space, and the issues that are forgotten! [...]
[...] A mostly non-issue between a Communist Member of Parliament and a Godman - over the presence of animal tissue in certain medicines sold by the latter has caught the fancy of the media, and effigy-burners. The Writing Cave on the kinds of of non-issues given preference by the media and society, and how real issues are ignored. [...]
Hmm…I agree that people don’t protest about the right things; not always, at least. However, I’m not in favour of protesting: I see it as a hangover from colonial times. The civilised thing to do would be to lodge a complaint, but given the state of our judicial system, you might as well keep waiting.
If the ‘medicines’ were labelled as vegetarian, and the required contents weren’t specified as the law requires them to, then of course Brinda Karat is in the right (Ha!). Ad Hominem attacks serve no purpose.
You might find this interesting, even though it is old - http://www.businessworldindia.com/oct1303/invogue01.asp
I sometmes wonder, is it that people feel so defeated - and think that protesting about the really important issues will not make any difference- and they vent their frustrations by latching on to any small cause…?
Charu said:
“I sometmes wonder, is it that people feel so defeated…”
I think this is an interesting observation and at some places it might hold true but we have to face one thing. Except for a few countable people (for instance, people in the forces) I think we’re becoming a nation of cowards that why we feel so strong when we have to face softer issues and run behind the shelters if threatened.
I really wonder that in the modern World of research and advanced technology, the ancient things which was so miraculous was hidden from the eyes of the World. Although, there are benefits of Medicines, but still sometimes they post a threat to the human life and make the life miserable. This Yoga is so good that without spending any penni one can get marvelous benefits of health. This is a boon for the poor mass who cannot afford very costly medical treatment. Thanks God that He guided Men of Vision for this bounty.
i have got a dark circle
around my eyes and i dont want to use cosmetics and those creams which have some harmfull side effect so can u tell me some natural way to remove my dark circle
yes karan, if you are serious i do know something,
use honey mixed with lemon, or just lemon, and get this cream “A-ret-hc” i know the guy who invented it he got like a medical award or something. occrasionaly use cucumber juice and also place them on your eyes it works, seriously this doctor in lajpat market used it all the time for the many gujaratis that came in with the same problem.
if your comment was a joke…then haahahha i enjoyed it.
lol by the way, the only community really who feels strong as part of a mob are the hindus and record shows this. sikhs and christians would have to be excluded
hidi side in india