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Saturday, March 24, 2012

Maun is Rather Mean!

Silence Hath More Eloquence G? 

Our Prime Minister, who is an excellent economist, was to manage human assets with the same passion, as managers manage the work flow and processes within the party. Then why is it that he seems often bored and indifferent to the day to day operations of the party/organization?

What is it about him that makes him ill-suited for leadership roles? Why is he unable to take enormous risks, huge initiatives,decisive action and controversial stands that good leaders rarely shy away from? Is he a good manager? a good economist? a good statesman?

Look at the 2G, 3G, CWG and more recently the Coal scams? Poor management skills, or just what happens when a leader is forced into becoming a good follower?

Why do we always hear words like “passive”, “serf”, “obedient”, “lemming”, “mindless” and “mute” describing/referring to our honorable PM? Why we speak to the manner in which we have come to think of this poor man who submits himself to the visible hand that holds the stick in an endless cycle of subjugation, loss of personal authority, and a diminishing sense of self worth!

Mr Singh said that in the course of seven years as Prime Minister, he may have made mistakes. "Who is above making mistakes? To err is human but to accuse me of evil intentions, of conniving with corruption is a charge I firmly repudiated," the Prime Minister said. (from DNA) link given below.
http://www.dnaindia.com/india/report_hurt-manmohan-singh-rubbishes-charges-of-conniving-with-corruption_1579602

Would our PM please truly demonstrate his leadership within this contemporary organization, which is so fraught with contradictions and turbulence?
How long this MUTE-iny? G

Time to Speak up and Act up Honorable Prime Minister G!



Thursday, March 15, 2012

Have We Become Social Voyeurs?

“ Leprous Voyeurs”  

RAPE-  Is Death of a Soul!

Women and children are vulnerable segments of the population in almost all parts of the world. The spate of recent events, in India, the rise of crime against women and even worse, the indifference of both common man and the law and order machinery, has left me in shock.

Incidences of violence committed are glaringly open, very rapidly and faithfully reported in the media and almost challenge the existing law and order machinery. The horrible violations committed against women and children both infringe the enjoyment of basic human rights and fundamental freedom. The most pervasive form of gender-based violence against women is reported to be abuse by husbands or intimate partners. Sexual assault/rape is also common, but only a small fraction of rapes are actually reported to the police. This unfortunately is the only crime, where the victim ends up often being the accused and the perpetrator escapes. Physical abuse is a common violation committed against women in India. Incidences of sexual abuse and emotional abuse likewise are increasing.

The new endemic is sexual abuse, specifically attempted/committed rape, based on the spate of recent reports in and around NCR. Deterioration of living conditions in urban areas has produced its share of disorders like drug dependency juvenile delinquency, , prostitution, mental illness, physical disability, suicides, family and personal disorganization, environmental degradation, pollution, garbage and sewerage disposals, traffic jams and congestion, conditions that can create fertile breeding grounds for crime.

Visual media that glorify criminals and show a lot of violence, sex and tabloids that depict lewd scenes may indirectly contribute to the rise in crime. Lack of sound crime prevention planning and the apathy of the community towards involvement in anti-crime campaigns leave the victims helpless and suffering. Motive, Instrumentality and Opportunity must be identified, analyzed and remedial measure provided. Instead we have become “Leprous Voyeurs” (Thank you to Dwijith for helping me with an illustration)

There really is no better way to minimize crime than to prevent it at the first instance or, better yet, eliminate the conditions where it can flourish. It’s a Herculean task but as long as there are people willing to help, there is hope!

What I endeavor to do - to make a difference to the life of even just one person! What do you wish to do?

15 March 1977- Happy Birthday Major Sandeep Unnikrishnan

My favorite line from Caesar:

"Cowards die many times before their deaths,

The valiant never taste of death but once."
“Do not come up, I will handle them”, were the last words which Major Unnikrishnan told his men, as he was hit by bullets while engaging well armed ruthless terrorists inside The Taj Mahal Palace Towers, Mumbai during Operation Black Tornado according to NSG officials.

It just seems like the waste of a human life to die in the line of duty, and I am not sure if I believe in this concept of martyrdom as much as I blindly did in the past. Sadly, not anymore!

I wish to celebrate Sandeep’s Birthday today, because he believed so strongly in something that he prepared to give everything, to see it survive. I venerate him and all the people who laid down their precious lives fighting for us to live on. They were the kind of people who are prepared to value something more than they value their own life.

I am sure the object of his belief is something we can appreciate, we naturally must glorify those who give their all for it.Today, it hurts me real bad because, I see a majority of us who dismiss even a memory as untrue, or unworthy, and then we often dismiss their sacrifice as well.

Sandeep fought until finish, he endured the pain, 
for he knew  not just he would gain 
The battle is over is the victory won?
A soldier makes his journey home. 
Sandeep fought so hard, He fought so long. 
And now, he sings a victor's song when the rest of the world goes MUTE! 

We must STOP this indifference! A strange and unnatural state in which the lines blur between light and darkness, dusk and dawn, crime and punishment, cruelty and compassion, good and evil even life and death.
Can one possibly view indifference as a virtue? Is it necessary at times to practice it simply to keep one's sanity, live normally, enjoy a fine meal and a glass of wine, as the world around us experiences harrowing upheavals?

Of course, indifference can be tempting -- more than that, seductive!

Indifference is not a beginning, it is an END. And, therefore, indifference is always the friend of the enemy, for it benefits the aggressor -- never his victim, for the one whose pain is magnified when he or she feels forgotten. The hundreds of martyrs --forgotten, exiled them from human memory. And in denying their humanity we betray our own. Indifference, then, is not only a sin, it is a punishment. This for me has been one of the most important lessons of the experiments in good and evil I have experienced day after day. In the country that I come from, my society is composed of three simple categories: the killers, the victims, and the bystanders, the largest majority unfortunately belonging to the third category.

What about the abused children, raped women, martyred soldiers, terror victims? Oh, we see them on television, we read about them in the newspapers, and we do so with a broken heart. Their fate is always the most tragic, inevitably.Soon we forget all of them.They become just another story in the distant archives of our memory.

It is so much easier to look away from a sacrifice. It is so much easier to avoid such rude interruptions to our work, our dreams, and our hopes. It is, after all, awkward, troublesome, to be involved in another person's pain and despair. Yet, for the person who is indifferent, his or her neighbors are of no consequence. Therefore, their lives are meaningless! Their anguish is of no interest. 

Indifference has reduced Major Sandeep Unnikrishnan to an "abstraction." 
If we continue this indifference, mankind will perish. I see Sandeep’s face every single day, his placid eyes, his cold and lifeless body appeals to me every single minute! I hear Sandeep’s parents and their silent pleas,pain striking eternal injuries... Do I feel their pain, their agony? I die every single day with them.

Yes, every minute I die, imagining the indifference to a martyr. Not just one  -- so many of them -- could be saved just with a caring thought.With a few good memories lived year after year.After all the lives we live are the very same they laid down!

Happy Birthday Sandeep Unnikrishnan! 




Friday, March 9, 2012

Bloodlines- Local versus Global

WAVING GOODBYE?

The latest oxymoron in my list is Family-Politics!

After being humbled by the Uttar Pradesh Assembly elections, the heir apparent, Rahul Gandhi seemed more an apparition on 6/3/2012, accepting responsibility for the Congress’ poor show, and acknowledging the verdict as if he had a choice but to! Had Rahul G ‘delivered’ UP, at least he would have added some muscle to the vacuous claims of dynasty worshippers who had illusions of him donning the gaddi of the prime minister in future.

Rahul G’s campaign in UP was high on dramatics and low on earnestness. Whether it was his shrill campaign in Bhatta Parsaul, his resort to the so called padayatra politics or his stealthy visits to Dalit homes, they all symbolized an effort to reflect on the newscast of the day, with not an ounce of sincerity to attempt to cure the malaise. The man’s cynical exploitation of caste and communal identities that masquerades as empathy for the underprivileged, really didn’t work!

The glaring and often repeated visual of Rahul Gandhi tearing up the Samajwadi Party’s manifesto promises at a Lucknow rally, made for TRP and footage, but in the end it did count to null and void among the nine Assembly seats in Lucknow, the Congress won only one! Seemed all the histrionics was just for the television and media who followed him like the plague all through the campaign! It had become a sight for sore eyes!The "barsati mendak" or seasonal frog sister of his, could hardly prop him up, but add one more scene to the histrionics.Prince Robert and Pasta Mommy watched the decimation live!

Has this been a worst case of flawed understanding of reality on his part, or no more political alibis? Not even the precious Diggy Mama? Rahul G made no comment on the elections or results in the states of Punjab, Goa and Uttarakhand where the Congress failed to make an impression. How could he?

Imagine in UP,Akhilesh Yadav's  eternal confusion of whether to call Mulayam Singh G "pitaji" or "netaji"...He is always going to be singing "paapa kehte hain"...Hope this enduring passion for "family-politics" doesn't last forever.Sabko Badal daalo...oops did I say Badal? As in the father-son duo from Punjab which is so SAD!This entire family drama clutches power like designer handbags and even flouts it.Almost every party and state is running on bloodlines! Hope the heirs don't loom.

 “FRACTURED” mandate?Or Apna Haath Jagannath!  --Family Drama Continues......