PadmaShree for Kasab, National Award for KRK & Noble Peace for Osama!

Winners are happy, losers are expectedly grim, overlooked but truly deserving people are disheartened but surprisingly the common man is shocked, appalled and puzzled. Yes it’s the time of award ceremonies globally. And as the number of award ceremonies across various fields are increasing exponentially every year, it seems that the authenticity of the most prestigious awards are getting dwindled year by year. Or for that matter the pride, the fame and the sense of accomplishment which people used to attach with the awards and recognitions have lost all its shine. Last year two of the biggest cricketing superstars of the Indian Cricket, Captain Cool Dhoni and ever so defiant Turbanator Bhajji gave one of the most prestigious awards of the country, PadmaShri Awards a miss. So have they become bigger than the sport or one of biggest national honor counts for nothing or are they just keeping up to their image of being super cool and carefree at the expense of insulting the entire nation? Whatever be it, it’s a true mockery and a shameful dip in respect towards one of the highest national honor. There was a time when even getting a first rank in a primary school test was a big enough award in itself, a matter of celebration and feeling proud about oneself. But today we live in an era when a leading actress of recent times Katrina Kaif refuses to attend and perform in an award ceremony unless the organizers give her an award, her argument for the same being ‘how can I not get an award, even after having most no. of hit films against my name this year?’ Ridiculous, isn’t it? But that’s not all, to make things even more ridiculous she was indeed awarded with a newly formed category of award ‘Best Entertainer of the Year’, only after which she brazenly attended and performed on that award night. Such is the state and such are the value of awards, trophies and prizes today.

We have come across various stories of awards being bought and sold across various fields. But the most shocking incident in the recent times has been that of Saif Ali Khan being awarded the Padma Shri awards. Reason???? Nobody knows! Some say it is for his portrayal of a practical and a carefree guy in the movie ‘Love Aajkal’, who handles the breakup with his girlfriend with lot of finesse( another mockery of our value system). Some say it is for his path breaking performance in the movie Kurbaan, I wonder which paths has he broken in that movie. But I personally feel he has been awarded the Padma Shree awards for tattooing his girl friend’s name on his forearm, trust me this seems most reasonable. Come on guys I have heard its very painful, so he well and truly deserved one. On that the poor guy defends himself arguing that none of the recent Padamshree awardees have invented a nuclear bomb either, so why such a fuss. GOD! Can it be more hilarious? I was equally shocked when the same man was felicitated with the national award few years back, probably that was for inspiring her girl friend to turn into a size zero, certainly that became a national rage then, so well deserved again indeedJ

We Indians shouldn’t feel so bad about our system here. Even Barack Obama has received the Noble Peace Prize this year! No laughing please guys. People say he truly deserves it, so what if he has spent only a short span of 8 months in office where our Bapu can’t get it for doing what not for the sake of peace. Upon that, weeks after receiving the Noble Peace Prize, Mr. President announces a 550 billion dollar defence budget and a major ramp up in troops in Afghanistan. True justice to the biggest award on earth!

Fortunately in some parts of the globe common sense still prevails, where true champions like A R Rehman are being awarded with Grammys and Oscars. And because of them we can feel proud and good about ourselves. But I can’t understand what has gone wrong with the common sense of our jury members, either they are all sold out or they have lost all their brains. Certainly one things is for sure, all this has made the award ceremonies very popular and a sought after event every year, because anybody and everybody can expect their names in the covetous list. So next year we can see Ajmal Kasab receiving the Padam Shree from Mrs Patil, may be even KRK getting the National Awards for his exemplary performances in Big Boss or for that matter Osama Bin Laden being felicitated with the Noble Peace Prize( for not striking US for last 10 years). Or may be even I might get a PadmaShree, though I will be more happy with Shahzan PadamseJ

Pity but yes such is the value of awards today!

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