Lynching Secularism!

I do not swear by the tenets of hard core hindutva ideology that a section of the BJP think tanks preach and want the entire Hindu populace of the country to blindly follow. But off late I have been observing that bashing anything 'hinduissh' is deemed fashionable by the media! My problem is with the media highlighting certain issues and interpreting it in a manner in which the people perceive the great Indian media as super secular! ...

An example of such kind of indulgence by the media is the recent news in which it gives importance to the act of 'Narendra Modi praying guns' . The headline is a fantastic example of sensationalism, at the first place Modi didn't pray guns, he offered pujas to the 'shastras', and guns is one of the modern day Shastas(which I feel everyone must pray and gain mastery over irrespective of the religion one follows...look at the Jammu Girl who killed the millitants using GUNS!!) It is also important to take into consideration that the shatra puja is performed on the day of Vijaya Dashami. Hence it is a common affair in almost all the Gujju homes across the country! it is very obvious that millions of the Hindus must have followed the ritual on that day... As it is a common fact that the media which always runs out of NEWS feeds on trivia. And the worst part is that the media creates it own theories and exports the images to the public sphere.

Modi Praying GUNS is a news because when Modi does so he is made to appear more horrific, deadly, violent and blood sucker !

But spare a thought ,will the media ever dare to show any top Muslim leader lynching a goat on Bakri Eid????

When Muslim do it..its custom, its religious expression, its freedom. When a Hindu does it...its threatening, its orthodoxy, its highly problematic to the SECULAR fabric of the society.

The concept of secularism itself needs restructuring...In Indian context majority bashing is the best form of secularism and media is the ardent follower of this mantra!

It was last week when one of the friends, in the course of random ramblings on phone, uttered a familiar name..Ogden Nash and was generous enough to recite some lines of his poetry. hence i promised to read the entire poem, I googled the name next day.... forgetting the title of the poem , I landed to a different poem! never did I think that it would be so relevant to the current situation prevailing on the campus.

I find it very difficult to enthuse Over the current news.
Just when you think that at least the outlook is so black that it can grow no blacker, it worsens, And that is why I do not like the news, because there has never been an era when so many things were going so right for so many of the wrong persons.

Ogden Nash

Thought for the day!

It was one of those days on earth .... when I was enchanted by the beauty of powerful as well as tactful oratory. It was a lecture (I do not like this word lecture.... it makes me feel sleepy and the makes the person who delivers it sound very preachy) by Shri Ashok Chakradhar, one of the renowned Hindi scholars of the country. I think it was after a gap of about 6 yrs, I heard something profound in Hindi. I was completely lost in those two hours... was elated watching a person fiddling with words and making his point so effectively. he kept the audience spell bound.. and even after 120 odd minutes, the people were left gasping for more. the very idea of people asking to hear more from you thrills me.... having been a debater(rather a struggling one) throughout my school and college life, I have had numerous expeditions on various stages.the act of climbing as stage and then blabbing is an act of surrender!you surrender yourself to the mercy of the almighty audience. As I believe that the amateur speakers are led by their audience and a seasoned one leads the audience to fall into his/her mood! Ashok Chakradhar belonging to the later category.

I just mentioned the stage.... I revere the school stage where I had delivered my first' thought for the day'(though those thoughts never made any one's day in the school!!). 'Thought for the day' used to be a cameo appearance on the school stage..for those people who wanted to desperately get rid of the stagophobia, hence one would rise abruptly on to the stage ...blabber the phrase (which would be lifted from the wisdom magazine as this small booklet consisted of marvellous quotes on all its pages...) and then if the speaker is a brave one he/she would take the risk of spending few more seconds of the fiery platform and indulge in the painful exercise of explaining the quote and the run back to the respective class queue. I clearly remember that for delivering those 2 to 3 lines , I would spend hours practicing, trying all possible accents, all probable voice modulations and muster guts !!

It has been a long time now and things have changed much.... though I no longer have to deliver the 'thought for the day' but in a day,hundreds of thoughts keeps passing me by.......

In thy name o' Democracy...

let me play thousand splendid games!

We are a fortunate lots to be able to live in a country where the constitution bestows upon us the Right to speech. but the sordid part is that we rarely do realise its importance, the importance to express ourselves in a civilised manner. Being closely associated with the university elections this time... I was amazed to unravel two kinds of politics...

The politics of posters

The politics of impostors

The first one I do appreciate , the second one... I detest vehemently!

Since the General Body Meeting (GBM) was conducted , there has been a flood of literature in the campus.... one could find propaganda, ideas, accusations, questions, campaigns, historical facts about HCU elections, all the students organisation's past,present and future predictions,quotes ans unquotes and alas those swearing on the name of Democracy on all the possible walls of HCU! Thanks to election and the thousand queries attached to it, people started ventilating on papers.

The poster politics informed(at times falsely),entertained, enlightened and even confused the students community... but the bottom line was that it made some people write and others read!! what a constructive and engaging exercise in such an 'unconducive environment' when the election process has been stretched beyond means.

now coming to the politics of the impostors..... those illogical arguments and the ear deafening queries.... it simply disgusted. It was hard to digest that the so called educated... rather highly educated intellectuals could make noise for all wrong reasons and didn't hesitate a bit to go on a vandalising spree.It is a fact worth knowing that the so called "peaceful Protest" actually led to the breaking open of the Dean's Student Welfare office and also stealing of the important documents from the election commissions office.At times I really wondered whether I am standing on my Central university grounds or I am caught in the hinterlands of some distant north Indian state (sorry for mentioning north, as i haven't really explored much of the behavioural patterns of the south!) where people do not comprehend the meaning of negotiations and take pride in issuing open threats. its indeed very depressing watching the 'Future' leaders of the country who are the 'Present' loud mouths of the university!

I am reminded of those wonderful words of Tagore..

"Where the mind is led forward by Thee into ever-widening thought and action;
Into that heaven of freedom, my Father, let my country awake."

.......Rather let my countrymen awake

(that's a different story, I didn't find many women indulging in nuisance...... hence I assume that the women are already awakened!)