Maharastra Nastam Sena!

Apparently the pride of the marathi manoos seems only to be in swearing names in Marathi! This chunk of population is least bothered about the real issues that have been hogging the state. Maharashtra has seen the worst cases of farmer suicides, it witnessed the bloodiest act of terrorism but nothing was worth to catch the attention of the Raj Thackeray’s gang. They are a bunch of literary scholars who are obsessed with the vernacular language of the state. It is better to place them in the linguistics department (if there is one) rather than giving space to them in the precincts of the assembly.

The act of manhandling the Samajwadi party MLA Abu Azmi was indeed disgusting and atrocious in nature. An assembly member is allowed to take oath in any Indian language. But MNS seems to be making dictates that suit its whims and caprices.

Maharastra Navnirman Sena …I really can’t imagine what kind of Navnirman these people are thinking of! Rather the party should be immediately christened as Maharashtra Nastam Sena!

Call for more Chaprasis

I personally feel that there is one political party sans any ideology! it runs by the diktats of a family which has been manning (currently womanning) it since past 60 yrs. One needs to swear by family names if one wants to make it big in the Indian National Congress. It is quite a cliche that the party that leads out loudest cries of being 'Democratic' in reality is actually an ruthlessly 'Autocratic' party.

The incidents that supports my above theory is...

The first one is the gifting of the party ticket to Rajendra Shekhawat, to contest from the constituency of Amravati in the forthcoming Maharashtra assembly elections. The able?? Candidate accidentally happens to be the son of the President of the country(though I feel that her becoming the president of India was itself an accident). hence yuvraj shekhawat was given preference over Sunil Deshmukh, who had been a MLA from the Amravati seat twice but.... Alas he is not remotest relative, leave alone son of any congress big shot! thus the drama of the youth drive where more youth is being brought into the fold of congress seems a nonsensical to me. the drive is not to bring in more youth leaders but to certainly add to more chaprasis to the High Command office.

I think it is important to note that only if you are a spineless sychophant speci you can be a true Congressian. it was indeed infuriating to see the reports in media of how there was a flood of congress men in the homes of Dalits in Uttar Pradesh, on the day of Gandhi Jayanti. all were toeing the line of Rahul Baba, who had performed a similar spectacle few days back when he was touring the hinterlands of the poor state.

All I can say is ...... this is the heights of sycophancy and I wonder how low will the congressi netas stoop to scale the heights?

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!)

A new addition to the Odisha's legislative assembly... shri snakeji (its wise to address the members of the honourable house as 'ji', unless one wants to get dragged in the protocol issues). This is the profile of the new member, It( since I am not sure of the gender) has been living in its constituency 'the jungle' since it burst open through the egg. shri snake ji had a harmonious life back in jungle, it shared a great rapport with the other members of the minority community (lets acknowledge that that animals, reptiles, birds are the 'Minority'). One day it occurred to the community that they must also have a representative, to press for their demands.

The first and the foremost being the enactment of the Forest Rights, as it has been guaranteed to the SCs and the STs by the central government in its last term.

Brainstorming sessions were held deep inside the woods..and finally Snake ji was selected as the MLA. Snake ji because it would not require any reservations for entering the assembly house, it could easily sneak in. Moreover it has characteristics of the 'Majority ' of the politicians of the country, its POISONOUS, it can be highly LETHAL!!!

and yes in its very first day it has 'bit' two of the opposition members!

What a beginning Sirji!

{Recently a snake was found in the Odisha's legislative assembly, and there was a lot of hiss hiss about it...hence the above post is my version of 'the hissing!'}