Simon Says.....

Baba re Baba!!

What a week! First Baba Ramdev decided to go on a 'Me Too' Anna Hazare fast, and despite leading all that healthy yoga lifestyle promptly buckled under starvation within day six, and had to consume honey and lime (And in my opinion, technically broke his fast) Looks like yoga and a satvik diet do not a strong system make.

It is a little difficult to believe that a fitness guru can collapse after fasting of mere five / six days.

On the other side a much older 73 plus Anna Hazare who follows no such diet or exercise regimen hung on resolutely surviving quietly on plain water till the government gave in... (technically, that is.)

The support that Anna enjoyed though was tremendous and spontaneous. People, especially, young educated professionals got shaken out of their insulated lives and sat up and took notice. Comparisons to Gandhi were made. Over and over again. There were frenzied texts, face book messages, tweets, singing and marches by the youth. Everyone who was young and optimistic was there for Anna and his cause.

In Baba's case the youth were not so charged. In fact not at all. I wonder why? Maybe because many saw /accused him as the mask for the RSS. Plus shots of him trying to flee in a white ladies outfit broke the saffron spell.

Baba Ramdev should have let the cops take him. That would have have gotten him more sympathy. And his call for arms, was shocking, desperate and unfitting for a Yogi Baba. Personally for me Baba has lost his magic. I kinda feel bad for the guy. He used to be almost worshiped and look what this has done for his image. He should have stayed out of politics and stuck to what he was best at, teaching yoga.

Then came the sad news of the passing away of Mr M. F Husain.

Almost every paper I picked up had devoted pages after pages of eulogies, praises and quotes of grieving celebrities. Where were all these people when he was alive? If only these newspapers had devoted the same amount of space to convince the govt to provide him enough security and confidence to get him back, the poor man wouldn't have died in a country that wasn't his own. Let’s own up, we just didn't do enough to fight for his safe return.

Barely had this sunk in, I heard horror struck, as a news reporter gave the news about a Senior crime reporter from Mid-Day being riddled with bullets in broad daylight.

I had to pinch my self, didn't these atrocities happen in countries like Pakistan or Afghanistan? Was this the beginning of a crime wave against reporters? Were we Journalists going to be used for target practice? Should we start applying for gun licenses? (More important since I cover crime, was it time for me to hire some one else to do my crime reporting?)

The government and the police should get cracking as they would, if this had happened to one of them. Forget killing a reporter,even hitting a journalist should be made a non bailable offense.

There has been talk about a legislation like this in the making for quite some time but it seems, that it has been put in the deep freezer. In fact some media reports say that certain parliamentarians are against passing such a law against attacking journalists. Someof them even want the term 'Journalist' defined. No prizes for guessing why, eh?

It is imperative that the bill against attacking journos is passed ASAP. If not, then it can only be interpreted as a tacit consent to freely attack or kill members of the media. Take away the freedom of the press and our country will be on the verge of collapse.

The killing of Senior Reporter, J Day is shocking, abominable and has no place in a civilized democracy like ours. The authorities should not drag their feet about this. The real killers should be nabbed and tried in a super fast track court. This is not Pakistan, for Pete’s sake folks. THIS IS INDIA! You just don't kill a Journalist and get away with it.

(Pssst....Heard that Baba is a millionaire. Maybe he could donate those millions to his country whilst the struggle to get back all that black money from abroad goes on.)

Simon Says

Watching the Cricket World Cup finals, was a first for me. I have never been much of a cricket fan but this year was different.

There was a sense of anticipation, a feeling that something great was about to happen. The excitement was palpable. Every time a run would be made, the crowd (not only the one on the screen but the one around me) would roar in joy.

As Dhoni shot the winning sixer the spectators erupted in ecstasy. I knew I was witnessing history. This was the first Cricket world cup I had seen India win (the last cup, I was too young to understand anything) and I was proud, so proud that I thought my heart would explode.

The people were screaming, yelling and cheering themselves hoarse. Each yell louder than the other, each decibel like a declaration of patriotism. Fire crackers were going off.....

Groups of young men roared up and down the streets on their bikes waving flags,hollering their love for India. It seemed every single person was shouting out their love for the country.

What we did not know then, was that we were going to witness history again, very soon, the very next week itself.

A quiet, simple, Marathi manoos, Kishen Baburao Hazare, better known as Anna took on the government of India and went on an indefinite hunger strike.

His empty stomach shook the conscience of the nation. He reminded us of Gandhi. This man made people walk out of their schools, homes and air conditioned offices and make a statement against corruption.

Hoards of people converged and meetings, demonstrations and candlelight marches were held not just in Delhi but all over the country.

Mumbaikars did their bit and organized candlelight vigils at Juhu and The Gateway of India. The Motormen of Mumbai pledged their support. But some of the suburbs were silent. We were witnessing history again for the second time this month and the same crowds were conspicuous by their absence. Their silence was deafening.

Where were the patriots? Those who had shouted out their Desh-Prem at the top of their lungs. Wasn’t this fight against corruption, a patriotic struggle too?

Wasn't this movement a unifying attack against the sickness that was eating into India's flesh?

Was their patriotism only limited to cheering for their country at a game or taking pot shots at neighboring countries?

We have to realize, just applauding and cheering for our Cricket team at a game is not patriotism.

The real patriot is the one who decides that he or she will no longer aid and abet corruption or any such evil that hurts our country, in any manner.

The real patriot is the one who pledges his support for activists like Anna Hazare and their cause.

The real patriot is one who embraces the values of Gandhi instead of mocking his teachings and his followers.

Gandhism is neither out dated nor dead. Anna’s victory just proved that.

If you love your country, you must do your bit against this evil of corruption. Look at yourself in the mirror and swear that no matter how hard it is, you will not support this sickness at any level. Make a promise to yourself that you will not buy even movie tickets in black.

Don’t pay bribes to anyone, no matter what the consequences.....

Report anyone who asks for one, because even if you don't indulge in corruption, but remain quiet when others do, you are giving your tacit consent and are as guilty as they are

. Remember - 'All that is needed for evil to prevail is for good men to do nothing' (Edmund Burke)

Anna and his supporters have managed to make history without shedding a single drop of blood, without burning down a single bus and without throwing a single stone. People who ridicule Gandhians and non-violence must rrealize that it is the only way to bring about the change our nation needs.

No amount of bandhs could have achieved what this soft spoken Maharashtrian's starvation and his peaceful supporters have.

Political parties should take note of this and change their modus-operandi to peaceful movements and hunger strikes instead of indulging in threats, violence and vandalism.

If you love India, stand up for India and be counted. Support patriots like Anna and stem the rot in this system that is destroying our beautiful Nation.

I studied this poem as a child and it moves me as much now, as it did then.

(Thank you Mrs Pamela Sinha,for this!)

Written by the same poet and patriot who penned our national anthem, these words say it all.

Where the mind is without fear

Where the mind is without fear and the head is held high

Where knowledge is free

Where the world has not been broken up into fragments
By narrow domestic walls

Where words come out from the depth of truth

Where tireless striving stretches its arms towards perfection

Where the clear stream of reason has not lost its way
Into the dreary desert sand of dead habit

Where the mind is led forward by thee
Into ever-widening thought and action

Into that heaven of freedom, my Father, let my country awake.

- Rabindranath Tagore

Not without my husband!

“Humein Pati chahiye” (I want my husband) wailed Rajni Devi, wife of abducted cop Abhay Prasad Yadav “Get me back my husband or give us some poison” she begged as her scared, terrified children wept with her...

Rajni Devi's husband a Sub-Inspector along with 3 other Policemen,Sub-Inspector Rupesh Kumar, Assistant Sub-Inspector Lucas Tete,and Havildar Ehtesham Khan, had been abducted by the Naxalites in Bihar. They were demanding the release of some of their comrades in custody.

Later as the Maoists declared they had killed Policeman Abhay Yadav, I shuddered to think about his frail wife, Rajni Devi, sitting outside the CM's house with her children, almost faint with horror, pleading for negotiations with her husband's captors.


What followed was like an unbelievable movie plot... Even though the Maoists declared they had killed Rajni Devi's husband Abhay Yadav, the body of one of the other abducted Policeman surfaced along with a note in Hindi.

His name was Lucas Tete and he had been posted in that area just days before being taken hostage.

As the pictures of the unfortunatete cop were splashed across the media, I kept thinking of poor Rajni begging for her husband's life...

Where was he? Was he dead or alive?
What would happen to his poor wife?

And then... a miracle happened …... it seems Rajani's heartbreaking cries rang through millions of television sets across the country and reached the ears of her husband's captors who had a miraculous change of heart/strategy and decided to release her husband and the other two policemen.

On the 5th, a man claiming to be a spokesperson of the Maoists got in touch with her and assured her of her husband's release. He said they were touched by her cries for her husband and had
decided to set him free!!

Today the policemen were indeed released and I sat glued to the T.V... just to see Rajani's joy on seeing her husband.

I saw her fall at her husband's feet.
Wash them and... drink the water that she had used!! (God! I don't know what to say about that!!)

And I wondered, if her husband would ever, EVER realize, that his it was his wife's tears and prayers that brought him back from the jaws of death ... LITERALLY!!!

Couldn't help remembering the story of Savitri who got back her dead husband's soul from the clutches of Yamraj (the Hindu God of death).

Sub-Inspector Abhay Prasad Yadav is one helluva lucky man..... he has a wife like Rajni Devi.

Notes from a mommy's diary

According to the American Academy of Pediatrics,a child's sex education should start when he or she is ready to ask questions about their bodies and while explaining it is important to use proper names for all body parts.

In India,this can be a little tricky...

Here's what happened when a friend tried that with her five year old boy-

We were at the playground and my friend and her kid were playing with a group of kids his age, when suddenly he pushed a girl to the ground. My friend hurriedly intervened,"Don't push beta" she cajoled "she is a girl." The little boy pondered for a moment before piping up "Yesss ,she is a girl, she has a Vagiiiiinaaaaaa!!!"

The girl's mother, (we'll call her Mrs Singh) frothed at the mouth and almost had a fit. My friend's son was quickly hushed up.

Later he was warned about talking about certain body parts in public,which confused him for sure. I mean isn't the entire point of the exercise meant to explain that there is nothing dirty about our bodies?

Any way, that little girl is no longer allowed to play with my friend's kid. Absolutely no prizes for guessing why.

So....when my boy turned four, to be on the safe side, I stuck to baby names for body parts.

In simple language, he made 'susu' with his 'nunu' and he was warned that if he er explored around the area too much,his nunu would fall off. And that, was that.

Now last week something really funny happened-

My four old boy saw me in a swimsuit for the first time. "Mamma?" he asked tilting his head thoughtfully "where is your nunu?"

Stumped by this query, I had two choices-

a)Take this opportunity (defined by the American Academy of Pediatrics as a 'Teaching Moment') and explain the difference between girls and boys.

b)chicken out

I of course chose the latter

"Baby" I cooed "I don't have a nunu."
"Where IS it?" he demanded worriedly

I tried again, "Sweetie, I'm a girl and girls don't have
nunus," I said, hoping that that was the end of the topic.
"But MAMA!!" he persisted "How will you make susu?"

I hid a smile, "Well baby,girls don't need that to make susu"
"NO" he wailed, clearly upset "we have to buy you a new one."

Now to prevent a complete meltdown I soothed him,
"Don't worry,we don't have to buy one, Mama will borrow Dada's"
(at this, Dada chuckled loudly)

My son was silent as he mulled over it,then suddenly brightened
as he came up with a priceless solution "Mama, i got an idea,we
will cut off Dada's nunu and then you can stick it on with gloopy glue!"

My kid looked pleased, his Dad stopped chuckling and I simply fell down laughing.

IRON MAIDEN

Assam witnessed a rock show by an Iron Maiden yesterday.

Media reports splashed images of a young girl in Assam, stoning an armed Indian Army Jawan for molesting her.

I watched, frozen in horror as the petite lioness repeatedly attacked the burly soldier. She carried on throwing rocks at the Jawan fearlessly to the slow rumblings of ‘Kill, Kill’ in the background.

I was terrified that the soldier might just whip his gun off his shoulder and shoot her, but obviously this possibility never crossed the mind of the little tigress (or if it did… it didn’t matter)

I felt disgusted and so proud at the same time.

Disgusted that a soldier from the Indian army could do this and pride at the young girl’s fierce reaction which forced the whole of India to sit up, take notice and make the army order an inquiry.

Even as she was bundled up and driven away in a jeep, she kept clutching on to a couple of rocks... (for future use maybe)

The women of north-east keep displaying an amazing amount of courage,grit, guts and sheer balls.....

Does anyone remember the demonstration (in July 2004) made by hundreds of women in front of the Head-quarters of Assam Rifles in Imphal?

It was to protest the torture, rape and custodial death of a woman named Manorama by soldiers of Paramilitary Assam Rifles.

During the protests, more than a dozen women stripped stark naked with banners reading ‘Indian Army Rape Us’ and ‘Indian Army Takes Our Flesh’.

Speaking of Iron Maidens, brings me to the toughest of them all – Irom Sharmilla.

This woman wants the Armed Forces Special Powers Act (AFSPA) scrapped.

This act gives army personnel (in areas proclaimed 'disturbed') special powers, to arrest, search without warrant, shoot at and even kill on suspicion in the name of curbing insurgency.

The Indian army has committed grave and gory human rights abuses wherever it has had special powers and immunity under the protection of AFSPA (namely J&K, Assam, Manipur, Meghalaya).

To protest against this act, Irom Sharmilla has been on a fast from November 2000.

Since then she has been forcibly fed from a tube and has spent most of her time behind bars.


This is because every time she is released, she resumes her fast and gets re-arrested.

That means that for the past 8 years and 8 months this Iron Maiden has not eaten anything!! Not of her own free will!!

The only reason she is alive is because, she constantly has a tube up her nose from which regularly force fed liquid food !!

Those who have been operated upon must be aware of how painful it is to be intubated through the nose. I was for a few days and, and it chafed, hurt and was painful all the time esp while talking.

Imagine having one up your nose all the way down to your food pipe for 8 years!!!

She is in the Guinness Book of World Records for ‘The longest protest on a social cause by a single individual anywhere in the world.'

In her support, the relay hunger strike demanding to save the life of Irom Sharmilla entered the 235th day today.

It is shameful,that the Government has not addressed this atrocity.

Meanwhile, the Iron Maiden continues to starve for her fellow citizens.

Women of modern India, think about it the next time, your well manicured hand reaches for a sandwich.

MAID IN MUMBAI

OK! OK! I was wrong. I was frickin blind. I was so sure that Shiney was innocent, that the DNA report (confirming sexual contact between him and his maid) was like a slap in the face.

In his defence plea, Shiney has claimed that the sex with the maid was ‘consensual’ (yikes!) and there was nothing amiss about the nail marks found on his body, as such an “injury was possible during sex” (yuck!).

I feel soooo stupid now.

The thing is – Shiney had never been linked with anybody.

All that was written/said about him, was that he had the tendency to rub his co-workers the wrong way (no pun there) and that his marriage was in trouble.

Now who would think that an intelligent, good looking actor, from such a decent family, would throw it all away for a... maid?

I am forced to wonder… what hope do us ordinary wives have against the average hottie?!

I don’t know about you people, but I really feel sorry for his poor wife, Anupam.

That woman really put herself out there – valiantly defending her husband’s honor before the hungry microphones and flash bulbs.

How humiliating for her! How tough it is going to be.... braving the winks, the whispers, the nudges and sniggers.

That poor lady is not going to call for a press conference for a long long long time.

If only these men would stop and think about their families and kids before they unzip and throw it all away for a roll in the hay.

As for me… I am firing my maid!

Hurrah! The courts came through, once again for the terrified ICSE/CBSE bachchas and threw out the 90/10 percent seat sharing formula(at least I was right about that one!)

The government order was called....ahem 'Unconstitutional, Arbitrary and the Epitome of unfairness', among other things.

Now the government is busy wiping the egg off its face. (whatta disgrace!)

Will these politicians never learn?

Sab milkar bolo – Indian Judiciary ki Jai!

One thing that I find very funny, if these lions, (ok, cubs) in politics are brave enough to swear, to chop off the hands, of the enemies of the Hindus of this country, then..... why do they need their security upgraded?

Why do they need security at all?

Why does any threat, real or imagined, distress them so much?

Aha! It is very easy to give inflammatory, poisonous, hate mongering speeches from behind a cordon of security.

Now someone, who loves his countrymen so much, is so protective of them, and is brave enough to openly give hate speeches, should not be afraid of death threats, should he?

If the central government is really secular, it should seriously consider removing completely, the security of any politician, who gives any kind of hate speeches.

Phir dekhna – hamaare netaon ke mukh se sirf phool hi jhadenge :-)