Bhopal Gas Tragedy or Poor Man's Mockery?

Bhopal Gas Tragedy took place on December 3rd 1984, officially killed 15,000 innocent people, in reality killed many more. In 1989 Supreme Court of India happily brokered a meager $470 million settlement between the Indian state and Union Carbide as a compensation for little over 1 lakh victims, where the actual number of victims was over five times. Today in the year 2010 the industrial site of disaster is yet to be cleared of the toxic waste and the people living around are still deprived of proper drinking water. But why has this ruckus cropped up now in 2010, 26 years later? Primarily because of two reasons, one being the fact that a lower court handed out a verdict on gas tragedy just recently and secondly because of the omnipresent starving media. And trust me this is one of the rare occasions when the role of media to me seems app laudable and I am pretty sure if Mr Anderson would have dared to flee away from India today, media wouldn't have allowed to let that happen even in anybody's distant dream, but those days were the days in and around emergency so to even think of such a scenario is nothing less than a brazen audacity.

But the million dollar question is who let Mr Anderson flee away from India? Oh, is it actually a million dollar question, its not even worth a penny. Obviously the Arjun Singh led state government and Rajiv Gandhi led Congress government at the center facilitated that. But the then chief minister of Madhya Pradesh Mr Arjun Singh has adopted a buddha-esque silence and the octogenarian politician is not even caring to clarify an ounce on the debacle and the then circumstances. But what is outrageously horrendous and hard to believe is that fact that Mr Anderson was actually flown out in a state government plane when he was charged under sec 304(culpable homicide not amounting to murder) which were later deleted in the trial by the state police. Obviously the nation has the right to know that under whose instructions these decisions were taken but when in 2010 the government's spokesperson says that those decisions were taken keeping in mind the tense situation in Bhopal which might have eventually led to the murder of Mr Anderson by the furious mob, it further saddens our hearts that the government is so concerned about the well being of the murderer and not at all about those lakhs of innocent people who lost there lives for no fault of theirs.

And what about the hysteria which is prevalent within the Congress for the alleged involvement of Rajiv Gandhi in the escape of Mr Anderson or for that matter any scandalous issue. For the Congress who is umbilically tied to the Gandhi dynasty, the very mention of Rajiv is enough to spark off an angry 'how dare you drag Rajivji into this' response. And same is the affinity of opposition who never lets away an opportunity slip by to embarrass the first family of Indian politics. Though I don't have anything against any of the Gandhi superstars but this sycophantic hysteria on every issue irrespective of its meritocratic valuation epitomizes injustice by all means and yields unsurmountable comical extravaganza more often than not.

Certainly Bhopal is not the lone incident embarking a loose stand by the government on a serious issue, Babri Masjid, Kashmir deadlock, Godhra Massacre are some of the other instances showcasing government's inability to handle key issues with a vengeance. And another reason of this loose stand on Bhopal Tragedy could be a shattered state of India at that point in time due to Indira Gandhi's assassination weeks ago, Sikh terrorism posing a serious threat, north eastern states boiling with unrest and bloody genocide going around across the national capital. And also in those days United States was enjoying an exceptional supremacy over most parts of the world.So expecting a tough stand against an American multinational at that point was a bit too much. But even then the manner in which the victims have been compensated is more of a mockery than a compensation, the style in which the Indian court has dealt with Mr Anderson suggests that he was this country's beloved son and those lakhs of innocent victims belonged to a foreign land, and last but not the least the manner in which the government is defending itself rather than taking some concrete action is nothing short of a joke.

Though the newly formed Group of Ministers have promised a speedy resolution to this age long injustice.But their ambitious proposal of extraditing Mr Anderson to India is nothing short of an ambition to one day land on SUN, though definitely the least they can do is to allocate a substantial compensation to each of those long suffering victims. But still the damage and loss caused on that night is irreparable.

--
kin...

Honor Killings or Killing of Honor???

One of my Casanova friends was lamenting his love tales to me few days back. He was objectionable to the fact that I call him a Casanova all the time, his point was I am seriously looking forward to settle down in life, so what’s wrong if I am choosing my life partner on my own. He continued by saying that I went on with a girl for around 5 months and then asked my parents to get me married with her; they opposed it by saying that she belongs to a different religion, I was helpless. Then again I went around with a different girl for 3 months and asked my parents to plan my wedding with her; they objected to it again saying that she belongs to a different community, I was helpless again. Unwillingly I have to again go around with another girl, 3 months later the same scenario cropped up; my parents rejected her because of her different caste, I was helpless again. But I didn’t lose hope, I found another beautiful girl who was a perfect housewife material and luckily for me she also belonged to our religion, community and caste too but my parents still disagreed on her citing a new found reason that she is of our gotra and we don't endorse the same gotra marriage fearing the menace of 'honor killing'. Hearing his comical but sorry tale I was laughing my heart out but at the same time I was flabbergasted too. My friend then asked me ‘am I still a Casanova?’ I replied I don’t know your intentions mate, but definitely what your parents are doing is not right at all, such parochial thinking is not good by any means.

Certainly this was not the first time and unfortunately also probably not the last time that I have been jolted by such a parochial mentality still prevalent in our modern society. And over that to hear these sorry incidents about 'honor killings' is even more hurting. People go on to kill their daughters and sisters just because they have married a person who doesn't belong to a particular caste or he actually does belong to their own gotra. So supposedly to keep up the honor and pride they end the life of there innocent family member whose only crime was that she wanted to live life with a person whom she considered the most apt human being to spend rest of her life. This is nothing less than the most heinous and barbarian piece of act a human being can ever perform. But the irony is a certain section of people have almost turned this act into a norm and they provocate it with such an authority that it almost seems to be a constitutional law in those areas. The setup of Khap Panchayats and their ideologies in this regards is a serious threat to the noble idea of democracy and freedom of thought which is the very basis of the existence our great nation. When the entire world is moving forward both technologically and socially, the Khaps have in a sense institutionalized this aghast practice to such an extent that its a matter of shame for our nation to still remain a breeding ground for such inhuman acts.

So at a time when we are patting our backs that we have successfully moved over those age old unacceptable practices of dowry, sati and female foeticides these frequent stories of 'honor killings' resulting from an out of caste or intra gotra marriage is horrendous. Infact it is far worse than old generation's sins of sati and dowry because awareness and literacy level were far less in those times. So, when highly educated and well to do people indulge into such acts, it is nothing less than an act of utter shame for all of us. And giving it a name of 'HONOR KILLING' is far more outrageous than the act itself, it's like deriving pride from such shameful acts, it's more of pressurizing and misleading innocent people by the name of family pride and honor. It's ultimately nothing but forcing free mongers into death trap for parochial political mileage. It's high time that the government actually takes some corrective,preventive and punitive measures to strictly stop such deadly practices because it's in the best interest of not only our society to collectively condemn such tragic acts but it is also important for the healthy upbringing of our future generations.

As a matter of fact marrying someone of your choice is by no means a dishonor of ones clan but certainly being dishonest in ones job is a surely an act of dishonoring ones community,caste and clan, so is being corrupt, being untruthful and being unhelpful towards the needy. In simple words honor killing is a contempt of individual freedom and it's not honor killing by any means but it's certainly killing of ones honor in a real but tragic sense.

--

kin...

Report Cards - Then & Now!

Remember those scary moments in the school when the very thought of teacher talking of Report Card sent shivers down the spine or the dreaded scene of teacher entering the classroom with a bunch of Report Cards turned the chirpy classroom into a moratorium. Report Cards used to be the true indicators of our all round performance in not only various subjects but also reported and graded other aspects like attendance, sports and overall conduct too. And the worst part being every student has to get their report card's duly reviewed and signed by their parents. Now it can't get any scarier than this? I still remember how hard I tried to evade such situations every time I perform miserably in any of my exams. At times I tried to convince my teacher by telling her my parents are out of town but my HITLEResque class teacher had all the time in the world and was ready to wait for ever, so eventually this ploy never worked. I even tried maneuvering my report card at times by changing those 3's (out of 10) into 8's or 1's into 7's and getting them signed by my parents in a rush, but poor me, I failed every time and rather made my life even more miserable. But those were really beautiful days, rather truly honest and transparent days. And Report Cards were a true and an honest representation of a student's all-round performance in various facets of life which are all equally important for his holistic growth and development.

I don't really know what value and importance Report Cards hold in present day school and college lives, I wish they still follow that beautiful tradition but certainly the manner in which our government is using the concept of Report Card has changed entirely. Recently the incumbent union government came up with a Report Card on completion of their 1 year at office and if one goes by what that Report Card actually reads than one might definitely jump to a conclusion that this has been by far the most efficient government not only in the history of Indian politics but may be in the world history. The Report Card boasts of all the wonderful things the government has done in past 1 year, it emphasizes on achievements like allocating Rs 36,000 crores for the basic services to urban poor and development of slums, approval of construction of around 1.5 million houses for the poor and slum dwellers, setting up of health and sanitation committees in over 36,000 villages, sustained improvement in disease control programmes specifically for tuberculosis, malaria and dengue, proposal for setting up of more high quality medical institutes like AIIMS, opening up of around 20,000 primary and upper primary schools,providing in service training to around 27 lakh teachers and providing free text books to around 10 crore students and approval of proposal for opening up of 6 new IIMs, 2 new IITs and 10 new NITs to list a few.

On the face of it, all these things seem so praise worthy and the report cards certainly seems to be of one of the most brilliant students of the class. But if we give a serious look at all these achievements, aren't these so called 'achievements' the bare minimums expected from any government? These basic amenities and services are the least which a citizen expects from its government, so categorizing them as achievements and patting their own backs is nothing less than making a mockery of themselves, its an indicator that even the government wasn't expecting that it will be able to do all this and when they have finally managed to achieve some of it they have classified it has 'achievements' . And for a change from the normal practice this Report Card holds only rosy aspects of the student (read government here), but where are those weaklings? Shouldn't the government's inability to check the rising prices also featured in their coveted Report Card? What about including their inability to handle the Maoist menace in the list of their 'achievements'? And how about enumerating the bravado's of those tainted corrupted ministers who are assimilating the public money for resurrecting their own empires? Or what about enriching the star studded Report Card by adding the government's shortsighted failed foreign policy and inability to still grab the main artisans in 26/11 terror strikes?

The government feels that it can once again be-fool the people of this country by hiding its failures through the means of these self proclaimed 'achievements', employing this new found prop of perennial Report Cards. But unfortunately every citizen of this nation is somehow aware that what needs to be done and what has been done, so by adopting these new tactics to mislead the people of this nation, government is only fastening the process of digging its own grave. But I truly wish that in my school days I had this choice of writing my own Report Card too, where I could proudly mention how many runs I scored last year playing for my division, how many girl friends I managed to woo in the last 12 months, how many injuries I successfully faked to escape a late comer punishment or how many classes I bunked to catch those SRK flicks and I can leave no room for those poor marks obtained in Maths test or Physics assignments.

I wish life was as beautiful as it used to be, but for these manipulative politicians!

--

kin...

The Beautiful Game that Enchants One & All!

Whoaaaa! It footloose time again, its time to rock n roll, its time to go berserk, its time to unwind and dive into the magic of breath taking, exhilarating and nerve wreaking excitement, its time for FIFA World Cup, its time for 31 days of uninterrupted highest quality FOOTBALL action! But the question is why is our nation is going crazy about the football world cup? Afteral neither we have our national football team featuring in the tournament nor football is the game which we follow so avidly. Hence, it's a bit strange that a nation which eats, sleeps and breathes cricket is not talking about India's prospects in the forthcoming Asia cup or Yuvraj Singh's exclusion from the ODI team or for that matter Sir Sachin Tendulkar's prolonged rest regime, rather they are counting days and minutes left to the start of football extravaganza or possible magic that will weaved in the world cup by the likes of Messi, Ronaldo, Rooney or Torres. The reason is simple and universal, this 90 minute game is the most widely played and watched sport on the planet earth and almost every person born on this planet has somehow or the other definitely played this sport, no wonder it evokes so much passion and interest among the masses irrespective if their color, creed or nationality.

So even a lay man who is technology deprived, has no knowledge about the rules of the game or has no live access to these electrifying contests, understands the game and supports/ follows a team just by a simple logic that his team has to get the ball to the opposite post and not let the ball get in their own post, which is certainly no rocket science to understand and follow. Actually I have no qualms in admitting that I am no better than these guys when it comes to the matters of football literacy. Infact, I don't even know much about the superstars in the world of football but by virtue of my soccer crazy friends and reverberating media I can proudly name 10-15 heavyweights of the game and the ones who are most popular are also my favorites for this world cup:). But it’s not that I don't enjoy watching soccer or I don't have any interest in it, it’s just that I have hardly managed to take some time out of cricket and invest it in football or I failed to cultivate this football sense at the right age and hence I can't debate or express my views on soccer issues with the same authority as I do for may be some other games like cricket or tennis. Obviously I am not those types who religiously follow those midnight English Premier League or Champions League matches and grieve or rejoice on them for next few days, but yes I am certainly among those who once in four years take a plunge in this world cup bandwagon and enjoy it to the fullest. Though I have also come across some people who are hard core leftists talking in comparative terms and always ready to fight and justify how and why their favorite sport is better than football. But luckily I don't fall into this bracket either, cricket is undoubtedly my favorite sport but I don't have any animosity with any other sport either, and when it comes to soccer and soccer world cup specifically, the fun and ecstasy derived from it is different, special and incomparable.

And if we talk in terms of sheer statistics than no other sport is a match at all to this beautiful game. If we consider the numbers of this world cup, 32 countries will play 64 games to fight it out for 31 days across 10 different venues for the covetous 6.5 kilogram trophy and a total prize money of $420 million, of which the winner’s share is a mamoth $31 million. And spare a thought for the amount that this world cup will pump into South African economy, a whooping $12.64 billion, apart from creating almost 7 lakh jobs.And if we talk of popularity, almost 4 lakh visitors are expected to visit southafrica to be a part of this outstanding phenomenon with an expected live viewership of 3.3 million and a TV viewership of 27 billion. Take a breath, whoa! Now is there a match to this gigantic phenomenon? By any stretch of imagination NO. As always this world cup is the biggest ever,earth shaking in its size, symbolism and significance. And not just in numbers but in the sense of movement and pride too.

So no denying the fact that you just can’t escape being a part of this greatest show on earth.It’s like, you may love it, you may hate it but you just can’t ignore it. Football is more than just a simple game, it symbolises the power to bring people together regardless of their language, colour of skin or their religion. Football does this magic of making people smile and believe even amidst their age old foes of poverty, illiteracy and hunger. So let us put aside all our worries and take a plunge in this football fever yet again by shaking on the WAKA WAKA tune and letting those millions of VUVUZELAS roar!

Salute to the magical game of FOOTBALL!

WAKA WAKA….this time for AFRICA:)

--

kin...

Side effects of being in LOOOVE!

Many of my friends have shared the experiences of their love lives at various times with me and I couldn’t stop laughing on each of those hilariously weird stories. Though obviously some of the incidents are really serious ones and the guys involved in them would hardly find them funny and might even kill me for laughing on their sorry state but for everybody else it’s a really nightmare to stop oneself from laughing on those anecdotes. What I don’t understand is with such a high degree of drama involved which might even beat the theatrical excellence of Ekta Kapoor, with such a high degree of tension prevailing between the warring couple which might even outpower the indo-pak border tensions and with the huge operating and maintenance cost involved to keep the love alive which might even overshoot the annual budget for a country like Bhutan, why are these guys still keen in being a part of this setup. Probably because pleasure lies in the pain;).

Some years back one of my close friends who had this craze of having a girl friend eventually happened to woo one of the girls in our group and was super excited with the fact that he too now belongs to the elite league of guys who have a girl friend. But his hyper excitement evaporated in few days which compelled me to ask him ‘What happened bro?’ To which he hesitatingly replied, ‘ there is something wrong with my gal, initially she used to call me day in day out but from last few days she is just giving me missed calls, indicating me to give a call back. Earlier I did that without giving a second thought but now I have realized that my expenses on mobile recharge has increased so exorbitantly that I don’t even have the money to take her out for a samosa treat or get my bike fuelled. I even tried giving her a hint but her reply was ‘now money is more important than me, right? ‘and she didn’t pick my call for next two days though I often found her phone busy’. I couldn’t say anything on this to my friend because you can’t talk and laugh simultaneously JJJ.

Another friend of mine who considers himself very smart, infact he proclaims himself to be the smartest in the herd, tried to impress his girl friend once by flattering her by his culinary skills. He gave her a surprise by cooking a very good meal for her and in turn got loads and loads of appreciation, love, affection and what nots from his girl friend. Moreover he even became a cause of envy for the other guys in the group, as these poor guys were subjected to the wrath of their gals everyday to learn some cooking from this smart stud. And eventually this smartest guy in the herd went on to marry his girlfriend but the scenario changed completely in due course, and all the guys in the group who felt humiliated because of him at one point are laughing there hearts out because the poor guy keeps on complaining all the time that from that day onwards I am the one who is doing all the cooking and my gal just relishes, reviews or criticizes my cooking JJJ.

Infact the very same guy gave yet another proof of his smartness by projecting himself as DIFFERENT from the herd by showing unexpected interest in shopping. No wonder his gal was very happy with this weirdly different habit of his, as shopping is the best rather the only hobby which girls pursue with full dedication. To start off with he couldn’t foresee the side effects of this move but very soon he realized that he has once again dug up his own grave. The situation is so bad now, that when all of us enjoy our weekends watching movies or matches at home, the poor guy religiously drives his wife to all the shopping malls in the town and even turns up into a part time coolie carrying loads of shopping bags. And the last thing which he wants from us is a discussion on his weekend shopping trysts JJJ.

Another poor friend of mine was very disturbed from his self obsessed beauty conscious girl friend who couldn’t stand any other girl around even if she is much inferior to her in looks and the only question she had for everybody around was ‘how am I looking today?’ Obviously she was the most beautiful gal in the world for my poor friend when he fell in love with her, but very soon he got so irritated with her self obsession that he started saying ‘that you are looking very gorgeous today’ even before she said anything to him. Naturally things started to worsen fast but they turned into a debacle when once his ‘aaah so beautiful girl friend’ was thrashing him for having a Pamela Anderson wallpaper on his mobile, the poor guy tried his best to keep his frustration in check but failed to do so beyond a point and vented all his wrath on his petulant girl friend but the final nail on the coffin was his caustic statement that ‘ if you really wana look beautiful wear such skimpy clothes and dress scantily otherwise you are as good as Nana Patekar’JJJ. And that was the last time they talked, but we still pull their legs by the names of Pamela and Nana;).

But one trait with which many of my friends have suffered a lot or are still suffering is the stigma resulting from the ‘transactions of gifts’. Invariably all their girlfriends start the countdown for their own b’days two months in advance and they make sure to start the day with a header note ‘only 58 days to goJ’ and end the day on a footer note ‘now only 57 days to goJ’ . But this is not all, in this period they even start enumerating the items they don’t have or are planning to have on an urgent basis and the poor guy has no other option but to assimilate that huge amount to buy those highly expensive gift items be it a branded swiss watch, diamond studded ring or an expensive touch screen cell phone. And unfortunately he gets no points for doing all this either because ‘ this was expected out of him’. But the things get worse when the guy’s b’day comes, the poor guys expects a decent gift in return of that expensive swiss watch but what he gets in turn is a Greeting Card. Rationale behind that greeting card being, gal to boy – ‘you know baby, I have made this card all on my own, each and every word on that card is original and I mean them by heart’. But the poor girl is unaware that even guys have access to Dr Google through which they can find each and every quote she has copiedJ. One of my friend is so irritated with this vicious gifting cycle that he claims that he can even open a full fledged card gallery without investing a penny JJJ.

One more constant point of debate or rather misery in the beautiful love lives of my friends is the CELL PHONE. Last weekend one of my pals invited me for a stay at his place as his live-in girl friend was out of town and he might have finished only two pegs of vodka that he started his lamentation. I was praising his girl friend for keeping the place so organized and clean, when he vehemently stopped me and said ‘ that lady whom you are referring to as your BHABHIJI is not a normal woman, she is a CBI agent, she scans, frisks and investigates all the messages sent or received; all thecalls made, missed or received with such an authority as if she has been delegated my case by the honorable Prime Minister himself, and I can’t even afford to object to any of these frightening activities, otherwise pat comes the reply that why are you scared, have you done anything wrong? And over this, if at any point in the day she calls me and finds my phone busy, then it’s a nightmare for me, she grills me to such an extent that I feel guilty of being a co-conspirator in 26/11 Mumbai attacks. And if somehow I found her phone busy some day and I can garner strength to ask her that whose call was it, she will bombard me with accusations like – you don’t trust me, you are suspicious about me etc etc etc.’ And he went on for hours and I don’t think I have ever laughed harder than that ever in my life, but the poor guy still laments that you can only understand the fun out of my misery and not the suffering I am subjected to and my reply to him on this always happens to be ‘but my dear friend, who asked you to fall in love and invite this misery JJJ’

Obviously not all love stories are this tragic, dramatic or eventful; there are certainly those SRK type love stories too:). But I still don’t understand why people are still plugged into such relationships when they spend half their time lamenting and fighting over petty issues and the other half in mending those issuesJ. Certainly nobody wants to fall into such a situation and there is no denying the fact that love is the most beautiful thing which can happen to anybody but still such awkward things do happen because of the immaturity and impatience on the part of the individuals. But as long as one is not involved into this mess or some may say bliss everything seems funny, its only when you are a part of this brouhaha you feel the real brunt or the side effects of being in LOOOVEJJJ.

--

kin...