8/15/12

Satyamev Jayate- 65years of Indian Independence

15th August 1947, a memorable date for all we Indians, we celebrate independence day with much fanfare. We hoist our national falg on this day, we offer garlands and flowers to those who fought for freedom starting from Gandhiji to Netaji Subhas chandra bose, from mangal Pandey to chandrasekhar azad. Its a day of happiness, its a day to remember that we CAN.

But the same time when we look into the other aspects of our society all these happiness goes bleak.There a lot of issues burgeoning in our country like fire which our freedom fighters wont have thought of. If they were alive today they would have been shocked to see whats happening to the country for whose freedom they fought so much.

Today Morning I was watching this reality show on Star Plus : SATYAMEV JAYATE. Todays was a special episode coz' it is 15th august. The host the famous Amir Khan was just telling us how much donations different NGOS have received since the start of this program and then started the old editions. One of which was killing the girl child in the womb. We met 3 women who have taken the brunt of their husbands and in laws only because they gave birth to a girl child. It was brought to light that the so called educated people are into more killings of the girl child compared to the poor ones.

I remember an example of a family where the husband himself is a doctor and tortured his wife as she was not ready to go for an abortion-sonography results showed a girl which again is illegal in this country. There was one more where the husband tampered the face of his wife with his nails and bites. Are these humans or animals in the disguise of animals.

One more astonishing news I came to know that in the 60's and the 70's doctors in government hospitals who used to advocate female foeticide- the reason after independence many were of the opinion that girls and females are responsible for increase in costs and problems in the country. So instead of giving birth to a girl it is better to give birth to a boy , so it was female foeticide which became rampant during that time. Then years later when a group of activists revolted against this unsaid rule it was too late and that late is still on.
will come back again with more......

Happy Independence Day!!!

This year we will see India celebrating its 65th year of Independence. I feel more happy because of the 6 medals which INDIA bagged this year in the Olympics. Compared to the last Olympics the performance was overall better.

We say Sushil Kumar bagging the silver medal after his bronze in the last Olympics, he might have bagged the gold only lest the dehydration and cramps he was suffering from. But still he got somewhat he wished for. I saw ini the paper Sushil Mishra was of the opinion that he needed this after he failed to bag the silver in the Beijing Olympics. Then we had the silver from Vijay Kumar added with the 4 bronzes.

Of course if we compare with countries like Trinidad and Tobago India's count of medals were much lower where we as a country have more people and ability to develop more people for such international games. India's performance have always been dismal in such games. Only a few handful sports are there where India has a name of its own, like cricket, chess, billiards and lawn tennis and that also mostly in doubles tournaments.

This might sound cynic but that's what we are and even though we try to do something big we get embroiled in controversies. Remember the commonwealth games in Delhi?

Well whatever controversies we get embroiled in, still when medals come in we feel happy. we find people beating drums, lighting crackers and giving our Olympians a hero's welcome. These are times we feel we are together as one country.

HAPPY INDEPENDENCE DAY !!!  JAI HO!!

8/12/12

India in a Turmoil


India is going through a lot of turmoil these days!. Starting from natural calamities to human made calamities. Where one part of the country is announcing droughts the other part is flooded...and thats when we have different religious communities rioting for god knows what-is it power or land or sovereignty?

In Assam we saw floods washing away so many districts rendering  millions homeless. We see so many people leaving their homes looking for a higher land, we see people neck dip in water trying to save themselves searching for a place to stay. Do we know which religion they belong to? Does the rain gods show its fury to any religion in particular. The answer I am sure is No......

Isn't this the time when we all should come together for the people of assam and the other flood affected areas instead of fighting for someone's self. Riots are nothing but clash of ideas which comes in the disguise of religion usually or at times in the name of power and sovereignty.

The riots yesterday in MUMBAI proved this one more time. The concerned who organized the march in favor of the Muslims are of the opinion that they expected a turn around of 1000-1500 but it turned out to be more than 50000. Are we living a life of ignorance. Such news spreads like fire and it has also been found that it was spread using SMS.  Two people died, a few policemen are fighting with death, and hundreds of vehicles vandalized. Would this bring peace in ASSAM or would this give food to the affected people in ASSAM who were bound to flee for the floods first and now the riots. There are hundreds who are terrified to re turn to their own land. This reminds of the Singur mishap with the TATA factory where we found people of the same village fearing to go back to their own lands and homes.

When we Indians will learn the need of the hour. When we would learn to leave in peace and harmony. During our school days we used to write essays on democracy, unity in diversity etc :are this going to stay as essays only to be penned in different words by school goers or we are going to do something about this. I feel like asking these rioters sometimes , Have they ever written or heard of these essays in their school life which ever language it might be? Are all rioters illiterates, ignorant?

This reminds me the lines of late Indian freedom fighter and poet , KABI NAZRUL ISLAM- eki brinte duti kusum...meaning two flowers on one stalk. He was referring to the Hindus and Muslims as two flowers on the same stalk. Would this remain as a dream of the famous poet or we will see the light one day?