Amused, Troubled and Anguished by Turns...

It pains me to see someone's hard work being used as political mileage by fringe groups. It pains me even more to listen to the silence spawned by the absence of our support to his endeavour. This is not a new phenomenon in India. Rights are frequently violated and Fundamental Rights are the first and sure ones to be denigrated.

But how is this one man's slight so different from the others? Is it different because this one deals with the Freedom of Speech which we, the net savvy generation have been taking for granted? Or is it because it is about a Celebrity?

Going by the history of such protests in the Indian Film Industry, the outcome of these incidents depend mainly on the connections and concessions one has/does. The surest way of getting a positive outcome is for the filmmaker to go on his knees to the perpetrators and apologize for exercising of his rights. The drama of it all gives these fringe parties the power trip it was hoping for. 

In a similar episode, an actor's father had to rush to the negotiating table with these miscreants and agreed to make certain cuts in the movie. The poor guy even went to the extent of promising to have is actor-son play a Muslim in his next movie. To quote Justice K. J Shetty in the Landmark case of S. Rangarajan vs. P. Jagjivan Ram for the movie "Ore Oru Gramathile", the turn of events have by turns amused, troubled and anguished me.

The absurdity of it all, where a group of people could derail what our forefathers had fought for by threat of violence, AMUSES me. But, the reality of it happening before us and the heading being taken by our so called democracy TROUBLES me. Pranab da talked about re-aligning our Moral Compass. But isn't a compass needed, when one chooses to follow a particular direction for a reason. But where is the reason of all this? The absence of institutional support as well as individual support ANGUISHES me.

The support of the institution is essential as seen in "My Name is Khan" . But what would you do when the cosmos conspires. Do you buckle under pressure? Kamal Hassan is not new to controversy. He has been the target of those who wanted their 30 seconds of fame. Time and again he has stuck to his beliefs as much as possible. He has suffered a series a losses over the years and he still seems to continue pursuing his dreams.

This never say die spirit and belief in oneself is worth emulating. Though it is a path of pain, the feeling that you do not owe allegiance to anyone for your success is a heady one. This time i dearly hope that he comes out of this mess shining as ever. If initial reports are to be believed, his latest movie is a sure blockbuster. The only thing it needs is our support and pledge. Patience is a virtue and hope we do not jump the guns with pirated versions.

The supreme court should take suo moto notice of the blatant violation of his rights. It would be even better if a case in tort is instituted by him for the loss and pain he has suffered. On my part, i promise to watch it in the big screen and hope others do so too. But when would such practices be stopped? When are we really going to be free?

If they ever get to see the state of affairs of our Nation at present Gandhi, Nehru and Netaji would turn over in their graves. They were lucky that British followed the Rule of Law...

To be or not to be...

We have come across many atrocities of the police in the newspapers. Sometimes it's the false cases foisted on unaware Muslims in terror plots and other times the sexual assault or to be more exact, pure torture on  people with alleged Maoist links. Let me be frank here.. I knew and understood that these practices were wrong. But somewhere in my subconscious, they did not register any perceptible impact. It could be because i couldn't put myself in the VICTIM'S (of the police atrocities) shoes. There's a shit load of difference between empathy and sympathy, and that matters.

It is then that i came across a recent mishap in my school-friends circle. A few of them had gone to a pub in a Indian Metro on New Year's Eve and had a blast. Somewhere in between, one of them had left. The rest did not miss him and later left for home. However, later in the night they got a call from police saying that the friend who left early had met with an accident. They rushed to the hospital and on arrival were arrested for murder. Apparently the friend had been found stabbed outside the hotel and succumbed to his injuries.

These guys were then subjected to THIRD DEGREE TORTURE and kept under illegal custody of the police for over a week. They were not produced before a magistrate nor were they released. They were frequently threatened that they had evidence of their involvement in the murder without any actual evidence to show. Lawyers were consulted and their intervention was of little help. Finally, it dawns on them that the police were expecting money under the table for this illegal arrest.

Of course the case would not stand to judicial scrutiny. But would a student, IT professional or any one who has something to lose accept to be charged for murder and subjected to the hassles of Indian Judiciary. In the end, a huge amount had to be settled for their release.

Sad is the state of Law and Order in this country. It made me fume with anger. This time i could identify myself with the VICTIMS. It could have happened to me. I wondered about the people who could not have paid the money. How their dreams would have been crushed by the greed of the policemen. The policemen did not understand that they were playing with fire. Cruelty to the innocent is like playing with fire. You have no control over the outcome. I tried putting a reasonable poor educated man in the situation. (since a reasonable man is the often used test in Courts of Law) An FIR would crush and spoil all his dreams for the future.

There are three possibles outcomes.

1. He would have resigned to his fate and tried to move on with his life after the incident.

2. He would have come out a stronger person and used all the proper modes of protest to bring about positive changes so that it does not happen to others.

3. He would become an extremist and his wrath more cruel than the cruelty subjected to him. So that Policemen of later generations fear and shit in their pants before they think of terrorizing an innocent.

--> It needs a person of extra ordinary optimistic outlook in life to not succumb to the atrocities and follow the Option 1. They are always a rare breed to find.

--> Knowing Indian Bureaucratic setup, the most plausible outcome would be a two step one. First Option 2 and the failure of which would lead him to Option 3.

We already know from various literature available on how extremists are product of our systems. I now truly understand their genesis. Would the various approaches by the government eradicate/convert them? Maybe yes. But would the genesis stop? I do not think so. The flaw is endemic to our System and only an overhaul of it would bring a stop to this genesis. Otherwise, whatever methods, whether violent or non-violent, used by the govt would be of little significance.

The system crushes so many dreams that the people manning the system should not forget that a man with nothing to lose is more dangerous than  any other adversary.

"To be or not to be" is an oft repeated literary term and this time it entirely lies in Government Machinery's hands.

Remind me to smack my head for writing this....

I know this post is going to kick me in the **** later in life. Sadly i had nothing better to do when this came up in my mind. So here goes my first post of 2013. I was reading this particular book (in my defense, it was being referenced in many places and curiosity got the better of me. i know i know.. Curiosity kills..) "Fifty Shades of Grey" is the book's name and it is also affectionately called "Mommy Porn". I know, don't ask details. Anyway, coming back to the post, the book is pretty shallow in terms of content like its "Mother" (The Twilight Saga - Don't even get me started on Twilight. The book that made Vampires a joke. Even Van Helsing would commit suicide reading that book. - purely my views and mind it they are not open to discussion.)

Take these two franchises, remove the glitter (seriously Vampires - no pun intended) and all the other unnecessary elements in the books. Then try to understand the reason for it's phenomenal success among the female population. And like for any other story, you will understand that it had become successful because the readers were able to identify themselves with the characters. This led me to one question. Though not a politically correct one, I feel that it needs to be asked.

Do most women suffer from Low Self-esteem and/or the Cinderella Complex?(some may say rhetorical. But i protest) If so, WHY??

Sadly, the answer  for it is beyond my comprehension.

Feminists might disagree with me, but the facts suggest otherwise. Anyway, i came upon this article and it surely points the finger in the right direction. I consider myself fairly broad minded ( in terms if Western society... Sadly, broad-minded in terms of Indian society would get you only as far as allowing girls to have education) and even i can understand that apart from physiology, men and women are different psychologically. Their priorities, likes, dislikes, the decisions one would take in the same situation and an infinite more examples stand testimony.

It sure is true that the psyche is molded by the environment and maybe this build up of psyche over the millennia, about the idea if a Man and Woman,  is its product. So if we change our environment (read as our society), Would it result in bridging the gap between Men and Women?  Maybe or Maybe not.

But unless this gap is bridged, i feel that even with abundance of rights given to women and with all enablers in place, it would not make a serious dent. A bird can fly as long as it is willing to. Don't get me wrong. I am not asking for restriction of rights. By all means Men and Women are equal. They should have equal rights. What i am saying is, it is not fair that some of the Female Gender (going by the books's popularity, i would say most. But who am i to argue) should still be trapped in the Cinderella Complex whereas the rest want Rights that is contrary. To quote Uncle Ben "With Great Power comes great responsibilities". Its not fair to expect a Knight in Shining Armour and when one arrives call him a Male Chauvinist (or sometimes encouraged as Chivalry). Phew. It sure is confusing for me. Do not know how the other fellow poor male souls deal with these mixed signals.

For Equality to exist. Chivalry must die. Romance must die. The idea of Women as we know must die (also the idea of Men). A new idea should be born or Incepted

So as long as Men remain from Mars and Women from Venus, Equality would be a tough goal to achieve. Equality can only be achieved when there is a meeting of minds and my dear friends, right now they are alien to each other.

What can be done then? If you ask me, the immediate goal should be RESPECT. We should start by trying to respect the opposite sex even if you unable to understand them. As one of my friends posted, many of the usual eve teasers and roadside romeos had participated in the Rape protests. Wonder if they understand how much the had in common to the rapists. Respect Women and Understand them. And for the ladies. Don't dwell on Cinderella complex when you need change otherwise.

At last, If you are wondering why the bizarre title. Well, you can never be too sure about being politically correct and this topic IS a Minefield. Prevention is better then cure. Better you than someone else smacking the head.

So to conclude.

Moral of the story : PLEASE AVOID THE TWILIGHT SAGA AT ALL COSTS.