Tahelka Article - A New Day a New Mastermind

I personally request you to please read this article from Tehelka on the Ahmedabad Blast ‘supposed’ mastermind.

You will be angry to read how the state is conspiring against innocent people and how the ignorant media is foolishly and irresponsibly backing them.

It is very unfortunate to see how Muslims of our nation are being subject to vandalism and torture, and how they are being denied their rights in broad daylight – all this just for being a Muslim in the Hindu majority nation of a grossly corrupt government and equally ignorant citizens.

http://www.tehelka.com/story_main40.asp?filename=Ne300808Anewdayanewmastermind.asp


Time and again, innocent muslims are falsely framed as terrorists and convicted for crimes they have not done.

For an example, Afzal Guru’s case is a very recent example of how the police and intelligence has miserably failed. Any sane human who reads the case will be able to understand how baseless the allegations are.

Of course, if these are not the real culprits, the actual ones must be lurking out there somewhere getting ready to launch another attack (although the recent blasts appears more like a politically channeled fiasco)… So, it is a gross failure. If you cant catch the right guy, you should not at least catch a wrong guy and fill more unrest, resentment, anger which would eventually seed the fire of revenge in the hearts of these otherwise harmless people.

Plus, this also adds to the already overflowing insecurities that the musilms live with – that they can be falsely implicated any time – they can be called a traitor or terrorist anytime – that they are seen as threats and anti social elements by the rest of the population. It adds to the stupid belief of the majority non-muslims, that all muslims are terrorists and that they are ‘bad’.

They are not bad, but if this continues, they will eventually be left with no choice than to fight back, revolt and take revenge.

We are already seeing the freedom movement which is uprising in the Kashmir valley.

what can i do?

Submitting to the steep fall in enthusiasm, I am blogging far less than what I used to. But that does not mean that I am reading less or am having fewer opinions, in fact it is just that I am blogging lesser, actually much lesser.

Read this post by shekhar kapur, and gave in my comment, which you can also find below:

It is sad to know that people need a front page write up on a news paper to know this fact. But, if people read it and registered it and understood what it means, then too i think the print media did some good. Instead of only highlighting chest thumping news about mergers acquisitions and all the money that is flowing into our country which every media does best, they sometimes do a bit to educate the ignorantly blissful indians who think India is Shining!

What people like us can do abt it??
1. Be aware.
2. Have an educated opinion.
3. Practice and preach what is true.
4. Inform peers of the unjust prevalent in the society.
5. Do our bit to save world resources.
6. Live a decent and not a lavish life.
7. Nurture the feeling to give.
8. Let go of our prejudices.
9. Stand up to injustice -- even if it is happening to someone else.
10. Let go of the thought that ‘how can I make a difference when the rest of the billion people are giving a damn’.
11. Stop thinking that I have too many issues in my life to think abt others, because you dont have to look too hard to find someone who is in deeper mess than yourself.
12. Be tolerant of people who are different but not wrong.

I am not preaching, I constantly try to practice everything that I listed -- some things come easy to me, for others I make a conscious efforts.. But the beginning and truth of change is that it has to start with you.

We are partly responsible for the current state of our people. As the old adage goes "Every country gets the government it deserves"

We need to make ourselves better to get better leaders.

The day every person sleeps with a full stomach, justice is not limited to the powerful, when education is not a privilege, when our women can do what they please and still be safe, maybe then we can say that india truly is shining.

Olympic Bronze way too expensive!!

So, here again we go again, we have another medal for our country.

Sushil Kumar won the bronze for himself and did India proud, and within minutes of his winning, the ministries and other associations from all over India started showering him with insane amount of money as rewards for his achievement. And by insane amounts I mean sums as much as 1.85 crores of Rupees (that is what I had heard last night on television)!

This really disturbs me for more reasons than one.

Firstly, I completely believe that efforts and success should be recognized and suitably rewarded, but there should be some sanity in it. I think it is also unfair to the other participants who could not win a game because winning is so much dependent on spur of the moment performance. And when you bring stories of athletes like Monica Devi, all this looks even more vulgar.

Secondly, with huge sums of quick money, comes power and aggression. Who can guarantee that Sushil is capable of the responsibility that comes with it? And now since he will get an out of turn promotion to being the DSP, there are all the more chances of him getting into a power trip.

Thirdly, I wonder if the state realizes that the money it is so proudly distributing is actually the money of the hard working citizens of India who are diligently paying their taxes with a hope that life in India will eventually improve – that the common man will get electricity, water, food and education – it is totally unacceptable to allow the states to throw up enormous amount of money this way to just one athlete – ( If you really come to think of it, 1.85 crore is more than the combined income of a mid sized village taken over 50 years!)

I totally respect Sushils achievement, and rejoice on his success, however, I think he should have been given a permanent job and additional perks involving education and food, so that he could concentrate on his game without worrying about his family’s basic necessities.

I had written a similar post when after the T20’s how our cricketers were honored in a similar fashion.

Education System

Check out this video put by eduvisionary on the global need of changing the education system. I wrote in a comment there and am just replicating the same here:


I loved the speech.. It is so true that we are in great need to change the education system -- especially in countries like ours, where the children are simply learning things which perhaps they will never use in their lifetimes and will most probably forget after appearing for tests on them.. Our study system in the grassroot level hardly helps anyone to get any job anywhere.. I teach slum children in mumbai who are going to government schools, and I realize that they are just wasting their time trying to learn something which they dont like and which will never help them sustain themselves. I would rather have them go to vocational schools and develop their areas of interests so much so that they can eventually become economically independent and happy. It is disheartening to see that many children there want to be doctors and engineers just because they have been conditioned to think that these are the options for someone who goes to school, whether or not one has the potential to be one.