Nuclear War – A Quandary filled Solution

This peice is written by Reena Mehta soon after she saw the documentry 'WAR AND PEACE' by the Legendry documentry maker Anand Patwardhan, very well written Reena questions with indignation to the proponents of the nukes (as also the movie does) and trigers our minds n hearts to think the darker side of the so called national pride - the nukes testing of Pokharan

I heaved a sigh, ignored a sob that was waiting to reveal itself and switched off the ‘idiot box’ which for a change was showing me something sensible. I had just finished watching Mr. Anand Patwardhan’s documentary movie – War & Peace (Jung aur Aman). A movie about the Pokhran Nuclear test – and its POWER (I intend a pun here). For me the sob was too late to come, as nukes and its stories are a history now. All we remember is that a test was conducted; nuclear missiles were launched at pokhran. The test was a success; we celebrated and said ‘India is a Nuclear Power’; “Hum kisi se kum nahin”.
“Ab sab humse darenge”. With this our perspective to nuclear power ended as Arundhati Roy rightly puts ‘The end of Imagination’.

We Indians have the habit of listening to half truth, half stories and with all these halves we boast our half knowledge to feel good. I question; have we ever tried to step beyond the obvious? Every aspect from our side is left half done, half said, half expressed. And when someone tries and succeeds in giving us the other half or rather the ‘Whole’ we use another lethal weapon ‘BAN’.

Mr. Anand Patwardhan braved to know the ‘whole’ of nukes and wanted to tell us – but for us it was a waste; as we knew enough. I am not challenging intellects, but saying that we know enough only about one side of the issue. The side which appeals us. So for the other side we impose a ban. Despite this Mr. Patwardhan fights; not for his documentary but for our right to know the truth or to be correct the ‘whole’. We hardly know about his struggle for our right; as we are too busy with ‘sensex’s nautanki’, ‘Ekta’s Kitchen Politics’, ‘Salman – Aishwarya break up’ and numerous other essentially unimportant issues.

He fights a court case for 4-5 years, what is he accused for? For showing nation and its politician in bad light. ‘Bad light’ – let me make a slight correction here not for showing in bad light but altogether ‘throwing light’ on the dark and unseen areas. Thus he has to pay the price for believing that India is a democratic nation and taking the liberties of a democracy. How dare he say the truth? But his belief wins, and so does he in the court case. Fortunately for both political parties BJP and congress he wins in 2006.

In 2006 BJP government is already out, after enjoying its regime, after ruling enough and after a filled stomach now it can do no harm.
And for congress – “Arey bhai! Yeh to agle chunav ka mudda ban sakta hai”

But unfortunately for us it’s an opportunity lost – an opportunity for knowing the ‘whole’ at the time much needed, for being ‘true patriots’, for ‘telling that we aren’t fools’, for ‘proving that we are still human’

Still as the famous defending line goes (in Hindi – a dilasa) – ‘It’s better late than never’ a handful of us dared to know the ‘whole’. The movie revealed a cold truth about ‘Nukes’; the movie revealed the true power of ‘Nuclear Weapons’.

We on this side of our country were all praises for our government. “Acha hua yeh bomb phoda, ab sabko pata chalega ki India kya hai”, “yeh bajpayee government ne Bharat ka naam roshan kiya”.

But on the other side of our nation, our rural India was not aware what happened to their village, there was a sudden blast, and a high decibel noise was heard. Post all this, strange stuff happened. Tumors increased in people around pokhran, cancer spread, and people died. The water reservoirs of their villages got destroyed. The heat underground went high; it was as if Sun was invited here to stay.

All they knew was that Pokhran will shoot to fame; and they will be able to strike kerosene and would be able to make money.

Children die early deaths, what an irony the walls of the village houses sport the slogans for Primary education, and here the kids who are suppose to go to schools are lying on their death beds. Some are drinking venom in form of water.

All this is either termed a lie or is justified that it’s for the security of the nation; George Fernandes said “No price is high for the security of our nation”, for him the nation is his home, his bank balance, so the price in the form of lives is nothing – Tehelka proved it.

This was one argument; as for Lt. Pramod Mahajan – “Amit Shah a student completing his studies abroad; all his colleagues were introducing themselves one said I am from France the others said Oh! Eiffel Tower, the next one said I am from Russia so the others said oh! Super Power. Then came Amit’s turn he said I am from India. The others said India where is India”. This agony of Amit made all here in India very humiliated, but after Pokhran India was known as the nuclear power. Amit now could raise his head and not feel ashamed of his own nation; his self respect was preserved.

The credit goes to Mr. Vajpayee; and Mr. Mahajan said that it was he who gave India it respect. After this emotionally savored speech slogans roared “Neta ho to kaisa ho, Atalji jaisa ho”. And then he finally concludes by saying the line for which the entire speech was made – “so to keep such a diligent politician we need your votes”.

RESPECT OF OUR NATION – strange nation is built with its people; so for ones respect others life; a very costly deal.

Some facts –
One nuclear bomb is equal to the cost of making drinking water available to 37,000 villages.
It is 4 times the cost of providing primary education to children of our nation.

Still for us this power is important. Reality check – With these weapons whom will we protect? As with these we are already putting our future our kids in danger.


It’s very easy for us to discuss and say that ‘nukes’ is necessary; as we reside at the greener pastures. If even 0.001% of nukes would have harmed us or anyone near to us our opinion would have changed.

It’s just some farm land villages; why for handful of them the entire 1 billions security and pride be put at risk.

Security!! How safe do we feel today? How safe do super powers fell today?
I would not answer these questions in detail as the answer is the fear we feel traveling in locals today.
What good did nukes do to US at the time of 9/11? They aren’t different issues as the bottom line is feeling secured and safe.

In fact we have made have made our living even more dangerous; by challenging a power that no nukes can defeat - the power of mother nature its given us enough calamities to make us realize we should not disturb its balance.

These are some of the obvious arguments that MAY BE will appeal my logical and highly reasoned readers.

As for the humanity arguments are concerned they don’t touch us a bit as we have repetitively failed being human. As for us some farms and some farmers and some children and some animals’ death don’t matter.

We are selective listeners and selective believers; what appeals is right rest does not exist.
We are slowly loosing our humanity. ‘Nukes’ is just one issue which proves we are moving towards inhumanity. So I chose to write on it. Our thoughts don’t cross the ‘I’ LOC. So all our opinions are formed just the ‘I’ perspective. And one such deadly perspective we have formed is -
Today for us to resolve any issue violence is the key; for a little road accident – some slaps, and some punches work and for a Kashmir issue WAR.

We think being violent is being brave; talking about peace is being cowards.

I question; aren’t we so used to violence that now we fear talking and living in peace??

Writing this I don’t want you to become some parties, someone’s ideologies followers; all I want to do is question and want you to think and ask yourself….

Just quoting Arundhati Roy here…

“If only, if only nuclear war was just another kind of war. If only it was about the usual things -- nations and territories, gods and histories. If only those of us who dread it are worthless moral cowards who are not prepared to die in defense of our beliefs. If only nuclear war was the kind of war in which countries battle countries, and men battle men.
But it isn't. If there is a nuclear war, our foes will not be China or America or even each other. Our foe will be the earth herself. Our cities and forests, our fields and villages will burn for days. Rivers will turn to poison. The air will become fire. The wind will spread the flames. When everything there is to burn has burned and the fires die, smoke will rise and shut out the sun. The earth will be enveloped in darkness. There will be no day -- only interminable night. What shall we do then, those of us who are still alive? Burned and blind and bald and ill, carrying the cancerous carcasses of our children in our arms, where shall we go? What shall we eat? What shall we drink? What shall we breathe?”
I would appreciate your comments on this piece of writing.

I would further love if your comments are given from two aspects:

One from the aspect of how I am as a writer and
Second from the aspect of your views on this issue and the articles content.

You could also visit this site to know more about Mr. Anand Patwardhan.

http://www.patwardhan.com/

Heights of optimism

(this ones a replay to an news paper article written by Mr Karan Thapar supporting Dr Manmohan Singh when he praised the british rule in India at his july 2005 oxford visit, ive first posted the article headed - From Raj to Swaraj and then my replay headed - Heights of optimism.)

From Raj to Swaraj
(Karan Thapar – Sunday HT 17 July)

I suppose our dislike of British rule is understandable. What’s not is our lack of knowledge. Even less so our inability to understand the English language. Yet it seems the latter two have led astray the vast majority of critics of the prime ministers speech last week at oxford. This is why a set of sentiments which are perfectly unexceptional – if not undeniable – have become seemingly controversial. Although in all fairness I should add that the PM’s arguments could have benefited from the odd codicil or two and a little better balancing.
First lets see what the PM actually said:
“with the balance and perspective… of hindsight, it is possible for the Indian prime minister to assert that India’s experiences with the British had its beneficial consequences too.” Note the word too. It refers to the comments he made earlier in the speech about how “there is no doubt that our grievances against the British Empire (have) a sound basis.” In particular quoting the historian Angus Maddison, he pointed out that India’s share of world income collapsed from 22.6% in 1700, when it was almost equal to Europe at 23.3%, to 3.8% in 1952.
At no point as the BJP erroneously claims, did the PM describe British rule as good governance. The closest he came to it was, in fact a long way off. Referring to as popular slogan of the British struggle ‘self governance is more precious than good governance’, he commented “the slogan suggests that even at the height of our campaign for freedom from colonial rule we did not entirely reject the British claim to good governance.” To conclude form this as BJP does, that Manmohan Singh was praising the Raj for its governance is, quite simply, to misunderstand his English. I’m afraid they have.
Now, let’s look at the facts. Can we deny our parliamentary democracy, independent judiciary, civil service, free press and the concept of equality of all despite caste or creed are British inherited or influenced? Can we dispute that they created the railways, the telegraph, the postal services, the army as well as our public schools and universities, our clubs and even our chota pegs? I dare no would deny that the English language that we speak – despite what we’ve done to it – is a gift from them. But what might amaze you is that the modern ‘re-discovery’ of our Sanskrit culture, including our Vedas, the Upanishads and the Manusmriti, is the work of British scholars such as Bloomfield, Burton, Carey, Colebrooke, Griffith, Monier-Williams, Rhys Davis and Wilkins.
And then there’s cricket. This dreadful game which I find a bore is, of course, a British invention. At it’s the concept of gentleman which, somewhat imperfectly, we aspire to.
Even Karl Marx, the original opponent of imperialism, praised the Raj, in essays published in 1853 in the New York Tribune; he believed British rule was essential for India’s liberation from feudalism and its translation into the modern world. To the Raj he gave the credit of India’s unity, the beginnings of a bourgeoisie and for breaking up the self-sufficient inertia of its dormant villages. The Raj was India’s shortcut to catch up with the world.
So where did Manmohan Singh go wrong? First of all, he didn’t. At least not really. However what he is guilty of is abbreviating the downside. He doffed his pugri to the economic ills of the British rule but appeared to ignore – or at least specify – its political pitfalls. The massacre at Jallianwalla and the Bengal Famine should have found mention. Their absence leaves critics to believe the atrocities they represent have been condoned. And perhaps this appraisal of the Raj – a sort of putting-in-perspective – should have been done on the home ground rather than the British soil and that too in thanks for an honorary doctorate. To me the occasion and timing don’t matter but I can see how they have mislead others.
Yet at the end of it all the Old Doc was right. 58 years after independence India must come to terms with its British past. That means acknowledging and accepting we benefited substantially from it, may be more than what we suffered, perhaps by a fair margin. Which is why it’s sad this attempt to grapple with the truth has brought forth a pack of howling ignoramuses. But they are part of our democracy. And they have a right to be heard.
Oh well, lets be British about it!



Heights of optimism

(Response – From raj to swaraj – Karan Thapar - Sunday HT – July 17-05)

Imagine a drunken driver knocks you down to taste the roads & you turn all blood. You are rushed to a hospital only to know that your anatomy is in a bad structure & you’ve lost a very important part of it, your leg!
Imagine in this state of mental and physical agony you go limping to that ruthless drunkard and then to surprise of rationalism – you thank that person for not killing you!!
Hard even to imagine – the illogical and absurd side of optimism.

This egregious dimensions of optimism is what displayed by our oxford educated prime minister and his supporter Mr Karan Thapar, who says the speech would be balanced if the PM could codicil arguments of the Jallianwala and the Bengal famine –
I question - Was that enough??

“The Raj had its beneficial consequences too” -
Despite of the word ‘too’; the mention of the word ‘grievances’ and the quote of the historian Angus Maddison which reflected the economic suffering of the country at large. Even if only these figures are taken as a basis – the downfall from 22.6% to 3.8% is too steep to call the invaders rule beneficial.

Good Governance?
How can he use the words “good governance” even if he does it partially and not entirely. If it was partly a good governance then how does one explain the Taxation Act which was passed to suppress the Indian entrepreneurs; the Education Act which stated the gurukuls illegal ……. The list goes on. Even if we site some rare examples of good governance was for their own ulterior motives.
“Even a stopped clock shows correct time twice a day.”

Quoting Mahatma Gandhi -
Man Mohan Singh stated in his speech Mahatma Gandhi’s answer to the question “how far will u cut India from the empire?” which was (his answer) – “from the empire not at all. The emperorship should go and I would like to be equal partners with the british.” This lucidly states that Gandhiji was not a supporter of the empire and he wanted the emperorship to go – who has misunderstood English (or logic) Mr Thapar.

Facts - Independent Judiciary –
OK now let’s look at the true facts and not the handicapped ones. The fact is – if the then britishers wanted to rob my belongings, they would first legalise robbing and then go ahead. I may be exaggerating a bit in this example but the so called INDEPENDENT JUDICIARY is a result of such ideologies of the britishers.

Concept of equality -British inherited?
I am afraid if intellectuals like Man Mohan Singh and Mr Karan Thapar consider the “concept of equality” british inherited. My eyebrows were raised and my ‘how could they’ expression asked both the Oxford alumni – does their definition of equality include ‘Racism’. How can we forget the way we were treated worst than second grade citizens in our own country the first being the invaders and how our great prisoners shared their food with cockroaches and mice.

Railways - a british gift
Then came the thanks giving for the railways as a creation of the britishers. The famous argument by the british raj supporters, I not being one question them – would the country be deprived of the railways without the britishers? If we in the face of the great JRD TATA can introduce our pride the TATA Airlines (now the Indian Airlines) – was railway a distant dream?? If the britishers wouldn’t have suppressed Indian entrepreneurs with the illegal law of Taxation Act. How many Tata’s would the country have produced?

Schools and Universities – education system
Then the PM went on length talking about the schools, universities and the English language. These require a serious consideration. These schools and universities were built on the graveyards of our Gurukuls.
Now let’s glance through the ture facts – Mr Thapar, which are unfortunately not known to the people and the related documents are eating dust in The House of Commons Library and the India House Library – London.
Here I am talking about a document prepared and presented by Macaulay around the year 1835 in the british parliament after a survey on India before the takeover, which reveled some staggering facts. He stated after the survey - in Madras presidency alone (the whole of south India then) there were around 1.5 lakh Gurukuls (read schools and colleges), more than one college per village (according to the land revenue documents) out of which 22-25 thousand were termed as ‘Higher learning institutes’ by Macaulay. My eyes stood wide open with surprise when I read about the subjects being thought at these institutes (in Sanskrit off course) Astro Physics, Vedic Maths, Law and ethics ,Physics etc. nearly 1500 of them were surgery colleges , about 2000 colleges of architecture and if anyone doubts about the equality of education imagine the century old temples of south India. Rameshwaram in tamilnadu, the Bahubali in Karnataka….
All this came to an end with the introduction of Indian education act which declared the gurukuls illegal and hence it donor became illegal. Gradually an entity called as gurukul became an extinct species. Imagine if this system of education continued to this day-a delightful thought-only a thought thanks to the so called beneficial rule (ok partly).

The English language –
Then let’s focus on the English language the so called gift from the britishers. Mr. PM positioned the language above our national language. I regard the usage of this language as the major fallouts of independent India - we market this language as a great achievement! Why is intelligence of a person measured in terms of the language he speaks? Why is speaking regional languages treated as vernacular and down-market? Adopting a language doesn’t mean degrading our own pride. Consider this for information – our regional languages are much more profound then the English language alone Gujrathi has 40,000 original words, marathi about 38,000, Hindi has about 70,000 original words. The perceptionally sophisticated English language stands far with about 12,000 original words. The knowledge of English is considered as a symbol of growth. To clarify this perception consider only 2 names if not more Japan and France (also India before the british raj).

RE – discovery of culture -
The PM mentioned the re-discovery of the Sanskrit culture, the Vedas, the Upnishhads etc. by some british scholars. My question is if the britishers wouldn’t have destroyed the culture was there any need for Re - discovery?

The raj as the short-cut to catch up with the world -
Now somebody please explain me the statement “the raj was India’s shortcut to catch up with the world.” 200 years of immense sufferings - A shortcut???
With 23% of the world trade (nearly ¼ of the total world), were we not ahead of the world. One of the most important person of the country making such a baseless statement and intellects like Mr. Thapar supporting them have hurt the sentiments of the people who have some acquaintance about India’s struggle for her freedom.

Substantial benefits?? More than sufferings??
My frustration on this article reached to acme when I read the most pathetic statement of the article - “acknowledge and accepting we benefited substantially from it (our british past), may be more than we suffered perhaps by a fair margin.”
My pen refused to move ahead while I was rewriting the statement but I had to for reference.
Why should I acknowledge and accept?
How can a rational Indian make or even think such conclusions. Isn’t it an insult to the lacks of Indians who donated their lives for freedom?
What does this statement (conclusion) mean – The great men who donated themselves for the cause of freedom, for us to leave without any English domination – did that for a beneficial rule?
A practical example of handicapped knowledge, insane is the only word coming to my mind. If u still think, this is a grapple with truth and we are howling ignoramuses - Please be british about it.
And for others – for the reasons mentioned above and the sacrifices of great men please do not aegis the invaders.

(This is in no support or enmity for any political party)

27-07-2005

Blown out of horizon!

When I first conceptualised this issue, this was to be titled as (the much clichéd) ‘blown out of proportion’ but the word ‘proportion’ was too mild for the issue which demanded a much stronger peg, so the word ‘horizon’ meaning a visible limit. Read on to understand the reason for exaggeration.
It was the issue of India Today (tamil) that hit the stands on September 18th which published the survey regarding - the opinion of tamil women on pre-marital sex (they claim 20-25% were affirmative in this regard). Filling in was Khushboo’s all famous so called derogatory remark, opinion, expression, view - “ the society should free itself from out dated notion that a woman has to be a virgin at the time of marriage.
They should rather know how to protect themselves from pregnancy and AIDS if they choose to have sex before marriage. Educated men today do not expect their brides to be virgins at the time of marriage.”
There was no reaction for almost a week. Then the new magazine Tamizh Murasu (of Sun TV group) owned by the family of union minister Dayanidhi Maran, came out with canard reaction of ‘shock’ which represented the comments as tantamount to social and cultural ills.
Among those whose reactions the magazine sought was Thol Mavalavan who heads the Dalit panthers of India (DPI) which is now co-authoring the anti – Khoshboo script for which social and cultural stands sound unconvincing.
The veteran actress (who at one point of time was sooo loved that the people erected a temple for her at Trichy) saw some worst days of her life - In a high decibel and ugly campaign, adverse comments were made about her character, as she was supposed to have maligned the chastity and the goodness of tamil womanhood, had betrayed the decent people of the state and she was given marching orders to relocate to Mumbai (as she originally from Mumbai). She saw a monsoon of chapples, eggs, rotten tomatoes, broomsticks…. She received so much flak and so many threats, one even heard of a ridiculous threat by some group to send loads of condoms because she has given the sound advice of practicing safe sex – so much for the serene of society and culture and in this process treating logic and common sense as extinct species. Even I found the statement “educated men today do not expect their brides to be virgins at the time of marriage” derogatory but that’s my remark, opinion, expression, view and that doesn’t mean that I should tantamount it with chapples, eggs, rotten tomatoes and broomsticks.
Political and business intentions were clearly camouflaged under social and cultural outcries. Lets undertake a rational cause - effect analysis – let’s talk business first : - Khushboo incidentally, hosts a game show ‘Jackpot’, on Jaya TV which soon became the most popular show on TV. This pricked its rival Sun TV which ruled the airwaves or 15 long years so the sun groups magazine Tamizh Murasu who 1st published the intentional negations behind the plank of Indian culture.
Now the political dimension – sometimes before this exaggerated agitation was enacted, producer/actor Thankar Bachchan made a remark that rocked the tamil film industry. He reportedly said “women who acted for money were like prostitutes”, when he had a call - sheet problem with his lead actress Navya Nair is his film Chidambarathil. (heres the catch) In this furry Khushboo and another tamil actress Manorma representing the female voice of the film industry led the protests against T Bachchan’s remarks and demanded apology. They forced him to apologise to his lead actress.
Here comes the twist out of the cocktail of caste, film and politics T Bachchan is from the vanniyar caste. So are the members of tamil protection movement lead by PMK (pattali makkal katchi) a partner of the UPA coalition. The PMK lead by Dr. Ramadoss whose son Ambumani is the union health minister from the party of vanniyars. The series of coincident doesn’t end here, Thirumanavalam, leader of DPI the second body of agitation is a close friend of T Bachchan.
All this to level the score boards!!
So much for following one of the chapters of democracy ‘the freedom of expression’.
Isn’t illegitimate politics as bad as illegitimate sex?!!
T Bachchan said to a reporter in this regard “as a creative person I value the freedom of expression and speech. But by saying things which are contrary to our culture and tradition, Khushboo is indeed insulting the tamils.”
Ok now lets take this statement at face value – views relating to pre-marital sex are contrary to our culture and tradition and it is insulting the tamils –

Consider these examples for information –
- Our country ‘Bharath’ herself take the name from King Bharath who himself is born out of wedlock by a pre-marital affair between maiden Shakuntala and King Dushyanta. Let’s dig a bit deep, nymph Shakuntala herself a result of a pre-marital affair between Menaka and sage Vishwamitra.
- Rig – veda known to be the first book known to the planet contains the worlds first known romance of nymph Urvashi and King Pururavas a married man for four years, Urvashi even complains about Pururavas mating with her ‘thrice a day’ (-mandala x, sukta 95, verse5). Further rishis Mitra and Varuna, exited by the charms of Urvashi both ejaculated, resulting in sage Agastya.
- Shrimad Bhagwatam, celebrates Lord Krishna’s dalliance with sixteen thousand gopis, of this it accords primacy to Radha (a married woman), infact so loved is the Radha-krishna pair that even today greeting in the Krishna country of mathura and vrindavan is ‘Radhey-Radhey’. Morever, his dalliance is for pleasure and not for progeny (offspring) (an approved motive elsewhere in the scripture).
- India’s richest temple Tirupati (Andhra-Pradesh) has its founding story – where Vishnu falls in love with the local beauty Padmavati, but he must pay a bride price for her and he has nothing without his wife Laxmi (the Goddess of wealth), so he is forced to take a loan from Kubera (the treasurer of Gods) and that’s why devotees consider themselves blessed by donating money into the Tirupati hundi - they are helping Vishnu pay for his bigamy.
- Mumbai based writer Devdutt Patnaik in his book ‘Goddess in India’ says the scripture has it that “under no circumstances could a man refuse a women who demanded sex during her fertile period.” Its Indra the Lord of fertility gave women the right to approach any man when she on a hormonal high. Following this rule was Ravana conceived by his mother Kaikesi and sage Vaishrava.
- Wasn’t Karna (an integral part of the Mahabharata) boon-bounded (by the Sun God) but pre-marital.
Later the tradition tried to camouflage these as moral stories and termed them as divine leela (divine play) to achieve greater ends.
The point in citing these mythological examples is not to categorise or debunk Hinduism nor am I comparing human beings to divine entities - but just a reaction to the insane agitation built on the foundation of culture and tradition. So with indignation I question, do the tamils consider the Rig-Veda, Mahabharata, Srimad Bhagvatam, foundation of Tirupati an insult to their culture?!!
Are we living in a state where freedom of speech and freedom of expression are hypothetical paradise or curbed under political domination?
People who want victory at any cost – if not so why don’t they agitate against the films serials and songs (in tamil nadu itself) which not only show adulterous relations but then justify them! Why don’t they turn aggressive against India-today at first place for undertaking such surveys?
They’ll give the chappal – broomstick treatment to Khushboo and agitate against Sania Mirza for making statement in support of safe sex but no action against FM – P Chidambaram, Narayan Kartikeyan and Aamir Khan for supporting Khushboo.

They are searching for soft targets aren’t they?
These political chamchas are known to hoodwink the masses –
They’ll file a case against the stalwart Arundhati Roy for describing adulterous relations in her novel ‘God of small things’ while the rest of the world awards her the prestigious Booker Prize for the same novel;
They’ll create a hullabaloo when its comes to censorship in films but a Bheege hont tere which is the highlight of the A rated film (Murder) can easily seen on TV, on the net;
These wise men decided to remove words like Gujarat and Ayodhya from Govind Nihalani’s ‘Dev’, set against the backdrop of riots, but they turned blind eye to Praveen Togadia’s ‘Ram Sevak Amar Raho’ vcd’s – sold openly at the VHP offices;
They brand Anand Patwardhan’s cinema as dangerous even though the judiciary disagrees!
Last year CBFC rejected Michael Moore’s ‘Fahrenheit 9/11’. Bush though he hated the documentary, couldn’t prevent it screening in the US, yet our censor defended the global enemy.
The hippocratic list goes on….
At the risk of repeating myself I comment - our freedom expression and our right to information is at stake. Let’s not lose the power of reasoning in this chaos. Let’s question everything and let common sense come out as the ultimate winner.
Now take a deep breadth think again is the title justified?

*(The information is sourced from newspaper articles - the mythological facts are sourced from an article by Renuka Narayan - Hindustan Times 26th Nov 05, also helping – article in Hindustan Times, Oct 29, 2005. Take the scissors away from the Censor Board - by Rakesh Sharma)

The 9:04 Churchgate Slow – A blessing in disguise.

Its about 6:30 in the morning, the sky has sucked only a tip of the sun. It’s this time of the day when the sky equivocates both – the ferocious sun and the calm moon are visible to the human eye. After about an hour the sun will dominate and outshine its colleague. Some birds are chirping amidst the noise of irritated horns of Bombay cars and amidst all this I am sleeping a baby’s sleep, after some late night chatting. Suddenly the very punctual and merciless alarm blows up like a thorn in this paradise. I still in my sleep – eyes closed play a bit of hide-n-seek with the alarm, finally find it, and hit its head to stop the unpleasing music – more habitually then consciously. Oh! I am loving the cozy and comfortable life at the other side of my eyes and then again a wave of horror passes my mind – Hey I have to submit my finance project the day after – still my sleep dominating my senses and I make this decision to get up after 5 minutes and start starting my assignment. So I follow my decision – continue to enjoy sleeping, completely unknown of the danger at the other side of this heavenly sleep - when I get up the sun has dominated the sky and the wall clock has an angry expression of 7:50 on it. The very imbecile me gets up at once rubbing my eyes, take another look at the clock feel like kicking myself, again change my mind turn a bit philosophical give my self a –
“honi ko kaun taal sakta hai” – advice along with a pseudo optimistic thought that there’s one more day left to submit the assignment and then get up to get ready for my college. Getting ready for my college – it’s a package of some 40 minutes – off loading, bathing etc. So I am ready at 8:40, I go to the mirror for one last time, to ask it whether I will get some looks in the college, affirmates and I then depart. I have to go to Borivali from Dahisar to catch the local train to reach vile parle.

At Borivali station it’s about 8:55, I use a railway bridge to reach the platform No.2, from the bridge I look down at the platform. It’s a usual sight a pool full of thousands of people. The indicator at the middle is indicating the arrival of the monstrous 9:04 churchgate slow, ‘9:04 C S (the ‘S’ is incomplete – the poor indicator is sick form past one month).

So here I am stepping downwards to reach the platform – at the threshold of a challenge of a war. Whether I like it or not I have to dive in this pool, searching for some amount place to land my feet. The government says the local trains are the cheapest, fastest and a safe mode of transport. Cheapest and fastest - ‘Yes!’ but there’s an apprehension that tantamount to negation for the safety aspect. Hence I along with 6 million other per day (out of the total population of 16 million) 50% of the whole countries train traveling population travel Bombay’s local trains with this apprehension and negation in their minds.

I walk (struggle) through the platform and find a comfortable place to wait for the train – landing my feet on the land is a comfort. 2 people per sq feet - is a comfort mind you – Definitions Redefined.

It’s about 9:03 train still not arrived and it will depart after 5-10 minutes of arrival. I wonder this peculiarity of local trains, these demons will be precisely named – 9:04, 9:16, 11:23… and not rounded of to 9:05, 9:15…. The reality consistently different. The 9:04 has never in its life time departed at 9:04 but around 9:10 and you don’t need to be an astrologer to guess that it will never in its lifetime depart at 9:05. Oh! We forgive it after all it moves the whole city doesn’t it? A blessing in disguise.

People are waiting eagerly taking their positions for the train to arrive, for the war to fight. Here the 9:04 cries its horn to mark its arrival. When everyone’s alerted, heads turn, eyes excited – excited for a bone bending experience. The 9:04 running on its wheels approaches the battlefield amidst the warriors. It’s not allowed even a bit of rest as it has not yet come to a halt when the warriors jump on board, as if a big piece of gold is kept unattended inside. What follows is a deadly clash between the incoming and the outgoing warriors; I am being mercilessly squeezed and pushed inside where a usual sight follows – the seat are already full before the train comes to a stand still. These are the to-fro commuters, they don’t mind traveling back and then ahead the come from as far as malad and goregaon – to Borivali and in the same train from Borivali to malad – to their destination. Sounds illogical but its worth for a place to sit or stand on their feet as when the train reaches their destination logically it’s a struggle for place even for their figures to enter. So the only place left for the people who follow this logical sequence is to hang on the window clutching the grills, between the bogeys and above the train roofs where they are at a hair line distance form the deadly high voltage electric train wires – a hairlines distance from death.

I fortunately or unfortunately am inside, body parts of other men all around me, my bones begging for mercy, my lungs begging for some place to expand. It’s for this hour of the day that I have my lunch, dinner and the likes.

Now the people inside and out side are getting settled in arguably one of the most uncomfortable place in the world, my body is an obnoxious position anything but straight. Its 9:10 and the train start’s with a jerk and almost every one remembers the almighty – a ritual of hand movements a small prayer that we surrender –
“Ram Bharose” (a bambaya lingo).

I am getting squeezed to new extremes at every halt. 4700 passenger traveling as against the rated capacity of 1700!! It means there are 2 to 3 people who will chal hat you form the place that you think is yours.

According to a letter to the Times of India by G.D.Patwardhan –
“This is a mockery of our status, which lay down precise number for live animals cows, donkey etc. that can be carried in a wagon specified dimension. Any breach of such a rule is an offence punishable under the railways disciplinary action procedures and also under the prevention of cruelty to animals’ legislations. But no such rule and legislation to govern the transportation of human beings”.

Hey please I too am a social animal!

As Suketu Mehta describes in his book about his love affair with the city ‘maximum city’ – “Certainly if you commute into Bombay (trains) you are made aware of the precise temperature of the human body as it curls around you on all sides, adjusting itself to every curve of your own. A lover’s embrace was never so close”. We are at a kissing distance form each other!

I am standing close to the open door to consume a bit of air, which hardly reaches to the people in the middle and worst those who are less that the average height where the air is fetid with sweat and fart.

I am crumpled in a Ist class compartment – the only difference being that of the words, the stripped paints to indicate the same, other petty difference include – smell – Ist class surrounded with a mixture of sweat (more so) and some deodorants in IInd class its sweat with some pathetic hair oil; the fights one of the most entertaining parts of the local trains – fights for what –places obviously, but it’s a eruption of sentiments. These people fed up of their vociferous wives at home and the voluble bosses at work, so these fights are just a process of vindication. But abuses differ according to the classes. In the Ist class there are the sophisticated ones – assholes, the fuck yous and in the IInd class there are the vernacular ones the chutiyas and you know what.

The handles too – overcrowded, hundred of handles sporting thousands of hands. Each one burdened with at least three. When I make an attempt to look at the sky outside the train I can only see these hands. Poor commuters appear like innocent children punished ‘hands up’ by their teachers with both our hands up (on the hands up punishment is just a euphemism). I look at these hands – some with formal office going sleeves and some bare hands; some office going formal watches, some college going funky ones, some watches ahead of time, some on time, some slow – may be to show their bosses or professors their reasons for reporting late.

I look at my watch (which is on time) its 9:35 and I am still near goregaon station, I’ve to reach my college at 10:00. So standing there I do one of the few things I can, I am thinking of an innovative idea – I think of some marketing strategy – to advertise our very own local trains. Hey we can advertise it as a weight loss program, which will give the health clubs a run for their money – and wow! They can use my pictures for the before and after ones – as I was called a fatso in my school days and all that changed after 2 months of continues train traveling (oh! I think of these stupid ones to escape the train pain, the thoughts of project, professors and lectures). Continuing on advertising inside the train it’s a whole advertising hub. We talk of reach and frequency in advertising and the train stand as an appropriate medium on both of them – reaches form upper middle class to the poor class, frequency 2 times a day and at a time when you have no option but to see them. There are wide ranges of products the marketers want to sell the squeezed commuters. There is this underwear ad where the male model in his bare minimum has lipstick marks all over, his body and tells me ‘prepare to get assaulted’ – some commuters had their own view of that ad they drew the only part he tired to cover with a product which promised to cover the same; there are ads of sexual clinics,
clinics for piles (these are for those people who if they are lucky enough to get the seats may not sit), financial products too advertised – they say they’ll give us a loan of Rs. 75000/- within no time, with no hassles, no mortgage, no guarantee…. As you read this you apprehensively think - Why are they so kind to us? Then at that time you see a small asterik mark and then at the lowest corner it describes the mark * with even smaller font i.e. * - Conditions apply. Besides this poster a very passionate lover has inscribed his love with a marker which says ‘Raja Luv Kajal’. Raja wants to make his love public despite of the grammatical mistake. Poor girls’ whose name is kajal and whose parents travel the local train might have a bad time back home. Continuing about lovers – they have a good time in the local train. The kajals’ are convinced to travel the gents compartment (they negate only to affirmate), so that in the guise of saving them from the rush hour they can enjoy the closeness, the touch of the vital parts. Once they get in comfortably she will be completely fortified by him in front and her back supported by the train wall – so that no one except himself would be in touch with her. Mind you Rajas’ will only act as above only when the trains are moderately crowded, he will dare not take her at peak hours – you remember the kissing distance, the ratio of 3 people /sq feet, 3-4, hands / handle.

At this point of time I manage to see outside the moving train between all those sweaty hands only to see another usual sight, I see the back of a man squatting to shit near the railway track – demonstrating the lowest extreme of this city – named as ‘Bumbay’ in a film about shitting in the city by ad film maker Prahlad Kakkar who says – “Half the population don’t have a toilet so they shit outside. That’s million people, if they shit half a kilo each day that is 2 and half kilos of shit each and every day. The real story is what you don’t see in the film. There are no shots of women shitting. They shit between 2-5 in the morning, because it’s the only time they get privacy and many of these people shit near the railway tracks as they are comparatively less crowded. A sorry state for the people of this city which contributes maximum to the treasuries of the whole country – The Financial Capital of India. Continuing on the unfavorable usuals a darker one. The ‘Lifeline’ of Bombay means quite the opposite – the ‘Death line’ for 3500 people per year. Averages of 10 passengers a day are killed in grisly train accidents. The families of these people think they are in the office following their daily routine but they are at the other side of life and their and their corpses remain on the platform for 2-4 hours. While the police say it’s the railways job to transport the bodies to hospitals or morgue and the railway claims vice-versa. I myself see about 2 accidents a week many lying on the platform helpless. Dead bodies treated as nobodies. The people who are supposed to act delay that amounts to denial and others are so busy, entangled to their routines they act as if nothing new happened (including me) of course there are some exceptions - people like Bhavesh Patel – heads the Manavta Railway Accident Response Center, a new 24 hours hotline, Mr. Prakash Nathvani – who provides free shrouds for those killed by train accident. The reason for these deaths – lack of space coupled with ignorance and dare devil acts – lack of space in the bridges and platform resulting in death due to track crossing, lack of space inside trains resulting in pole collision and lack of place in the city results in people living at deadly distances near the railway track; so close that they can roll out of their beds (whatever) to their death beds.

So the ‘life taking’ line for 3500 (per year) is a bone squeezing life line for the rest of us. But we accept it the way it is (or do we have a choice) much like the Laxman’s Common Man and god forbid we try to enjoy the dissonance. There are all type of people around you, adjusting their curves to fit yours, there are Hindus, Muslims, Christians, the laborers, the managers, the stock brokers, the students… people form all walks of life – the very cosmopolitan local trains and you dare not discriminate. They say it’s a symbol of unity and cohesiveness. We talk, argue, sing, play, we make friends. Bombay is the only place where we have this unique species of friends along with school friends, college friends etc. we have the train friends – called as ‘mere 8:03 ke friends’, ‘mere 9:04 ke friends’. They are our daily companions they catch the same train, same wagon, and same door everyday and are literally our closest friends. These groups are small when the train strarts but snowball as the train moves from station to station. The group welcomes their partners shouting from inside “Aao Vipul Bhai Aao” and Vipul Bhai manages to reach his group mates. When he gets in they make place for him on their laps, crack some double meaning jokes, talk about what happened the last day and night; each statement with a minimum of 3 abuses, they share their breakfast. Someone has bought hot samosas on their way to station; some one has bought Aloopuri from home, some of them entitled to bring big bottles of cold water which passes from hand to hand diminishing by a sip or two with each pass.

The local train is a hub of news, speculation, rumors and abuses. The topics – almost everything under the sun – form TV serials to office politics, form stock markets to cricket matches – I’ve seen people literally fist fight on the ‘Ganguly’ issue. Then there are some products sold inside the train – the hoodwink speeches of these salesmen too interesting, I’ve heard women chop vegetables for dinner that night and the fight I’ve heard are more interesting in the women’s compartment. People sing devotional bhajans, filmi songs with background music, play cards, listen to music from their new multimedia cell phone these days. They’ll tease the people standing in the station while passing the same. All this to make the journey bearable for the people who sit and diverting for those standing.

The interaction among these people makes some interesting and entertaining observation. There are some illogical insipid ones and some interesting and racy comments. One such indulgent comment that has flagged my mind – a perfect example of black humor. I was returning home in Borivali fast – a fat 30s man got in at goregaon struggled near the seats couldn’t get one and stood near by and started talking about trains i.e. about the rush. Sounded a delhiite by accent, very chirpy, managed to get a seat at malad. Had made some friends around. Still continuing on the hectic life Bombay – one of them was telling the fatso the sob story about the war that we fight in the morning to catch the train as he continued “Charon taraf se Dhaka……” bisecting his statement this delhiite while cleaning his glasses made a tantalizing statement – “Raat ko bed mein Dhaka kam marenge to idhar (train) bhi kam Dhaka lagega” at the start I dismissed this one as another insipid statement that you hear around but then the profoundness of the statement struck me (read it again), the economic dimension , the social dimension spiced up with the play of words – indicating population control. (I thought of translating this one in English – oh! Forget it the pun, the spice will be missing).

Back to present – I’ve passed Andheri and I do this routine – I ask “Parle, Parle” so that the people standing in front of me make place for me to get down. I wait for some time and there it is, its Vile Parle and again the collision between the incoming and outgoing ones; oh I land safely and I turn my head towards right. What I see near the ladies compartment; I know this girl she is one of my friends, girlfriend. Oh! She was looking awesome. I try to recollect her name but in vain. I think we can go together till college in the rickshaw. So still at the platform I try to see myself in the glass at the railway stall where at the other side of this glass a man is frying some sweaty samosas. I find myself and somewhat mend my messy hair (pun unintentional) simultaneously thinking how to strike a conversation for that small ride. Again I turn my head right only to find she has left the platform. I stand there feeling stupid. People running all around me. I feel like kicking myself for the second time in the morning. Back to reality I check my watch its 5 minutes to 10. I have to reach in 5 minutes now. So I run up the bridge to get down and catch a rick – ‘alone’. I manage to get one, continuously advising him to accelerate to reach on time for the International Finance lecture to be physically present and consume virtual sleeping pills made up of US$ and Japanese Yen.

Now its exactly 10 and I am walking towards the entrance gate the guard is about to latch the gate clutches to close it on my nose; Oh! He does it again and has a cunning smile on his face. I plead, he says ok have a talk with the coordinator. I give it a thought and decide otherwise. As I’ve already missed many a morning lectures that she’s aware about and she’ll be mad at my first sight.

I take an about turn and my legs take me straight to the canteen bench – I am about to order a cup of refreshing tea and something to eat – may be sandwich to pacify my hunger after that usual dreadful ride. Again I change my mind on time as I see 4 of my classmates – latemates who join me and I dare not order anything because they are as hungry as I am. I settle for a cup of tea, we all do. Sipping the tea we start chatting, unanimously so we all are happy that we missed the torturous lecture and gave jargons a happy miss- A blessing in disguise – as we all have unspoken expression of disguise beneath the artificial bliss. The fat professor will go mad at us the next time we sit in his class he may cut our marks big time, may refer us to the principal etc. etc.

We all go mute for a minute – may be we all are optimistic (at least I am) thinking that we will be regular from now on with lectures, with assignments and with the trains. A blessing in disguise, A ray of hope in disguise – hope that tomorrow will be better; trains will be on time, I’ll receive kam dhaka; hope that people who are supposed to act, do that effectively and channelize their strength to make the ride bearable for the people of this maximum city, the Financial Capital is respected as one and people at least get to shit in privacy and hope that I meet the girl tomorrow in the same train and by then I’ll find some words for that small little ride.

26th june 06