Category Archives: Socio/Political

Mantralaya Fire: How prepared are we for emergencies?

Apart from the inability of the fire department to combat the Mantralaya fire, we have also been criticizing the authorities for not training their staff to cope with the emergency. But the big question is – Have we – professionals working in various sectors – ever received any training in our organizations to deal with such emergencies? In other words – How many organizations regularly train their staff for such disasters?

After the shamefully tragic incident of the fire, I recalled in the offices I have worked so far, I have never been trained for such a thing. In fact, I can’t even recall anyone even mentioning an emergency like a fire breakout. I even asked some of my friends (mostly working in private sectors) whether they have received any such training. Strangely, all answered in the negative except a friend who works in a bank.

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Picture courtesy - Ibnlive.in.com

It seems we don’t consider it important since incidents like a fire rarely occur. This is quite understandable as we are only concerned about finishing our tasks before deadlines. But one should remember that at the end of the day, staying alive is the most important thing.

In a city like Mumbai, hundreds of commercial complexes are crammed with thousands of offices. A thought of a serious fire breaking out in these complexes sounds scary considering thousands of untrained staff having no idea how to cope up!

It’s high time we consider the Mantralaya fire as a wake-up call and start mock drills. Let’s not wait for more fires to erupt!

Wanna get noticed? Start abusing!

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Music is something which is considered sacred or divine, especially in the context of Indian culture. Judging by the kind of effect music has on our minds, it can be said that listening to music is a spiritual activity. Needless to say that due to this, like all art forms, music should also be respected. So, when this sacred art form is reduced to a medium of hurling abuses, it becomes disturbing. Very disturbing!

Although songs like ‘Ishq Kameena’ (Shakti – The Power) erupted long time back, there wasn’t really a threat of such songs becoming a fad. Even the abuses used in it weren’t eyebrow-raising.

But the recent development in the abusive genre of songs has left me wondering as to where the hell are we heading! Last year, there came ‘D K Bose’ where the lyricist smartly got away saying that it is just a name! But even a half-intelligent individual can easily guess from the way the name is repeated that the intention was to repeat a foul word again and again. But still, I thought such instances won’t happen regularly.

However, just a couple of days back, a friend of mine gave me a link of the ‘Hunter’ song from Gangs Of Wasseypur. The high level of double meaning behind the lyrics raised a doubt in my mind as to how our so-called Censor Board allowed the song to pass! But there was more shock in store.

I had barely finished thinking about the ‘Hunter’ song when the makers of the movie Jeena Hai Toh Thok Daal released the promotional song of their movie called… hold your breath… ‘Mooh Mein Le’!!! Not just that; the lyrics of the whole song are violently sexist! Now, I started wondering whether there is any Censor Board?

Unable to react much after listening to it, the only question that popped in my mind was how further low these filmmakers can stoop to get their film noticed by polluting music with foul language! Is there any level left? Well, your response and reaction to it will determine that. If the audience continues to welcome such songs like they welcomed ‘D K Bose’, be ready for further pollution of music!

Listen to the songs ‘Mooh Mein Le’ and ‘Hunter’:

An institute running since 4500 years?

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Over the last few years, it is noticeable how education has become a shoddy business in India. With these coaching classes and the so-called international schools charging a bomb, it has become clear that the primary motto of these institutes is only money! This is proved further when one notices the business-like manner in which they function as well as behave.

Naturally, to make huge bucks, these institutes do everything to attract consumers by making huge claims in their advertisements. But one coaching class ad which I came across today jerked me out of my chair. In the ad, (on the front page of a leading daily) the institute has actually made fun of itself by a claim which cannot be described in words. What else would you say when they claim to have ‘4500 years of teaching experience’?

Yes, you read it right (see picture below). In the rat race to acquire maximum number of students, are they trying to prove that they are running these classes ever since humans came into existence?

As I have never seen such a thing before, I decided to call them up. Here’s the audio recording of my chat with them: –

And this is the transcription of my chat:-

Me: Today I saw your ad in a newspaper where you have claimed to have more than 4500 years of teaching experience. How is this possible?

Executive: This is possible because there are more than 200 teachers in our institute for the commerce stream. If we total up their teaching experience, it goes up to 45000 (!!!).

(The executive went far ahead than the ad by mistakenly mentioning 45000 instead of 4500.)

Me: But if you mention in this way without any explanation, one might feel your institute is running since the era of Mahabharata.

Executive: Do you have any other query?

Me: No. My query was only about your ad as it has becoming a laughing stock.

Executive: We are just paid for our work. (Said something that sounded like this.)

While all this sounds very funny, it’s sad to see the difference between education institutes and publicity-hungry film stars reducing.

Listen to the conversation here:

Phalke’s 142nd Anniversary: Overshadowed National Event!

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Over the decades, movies have become an integral part of the lives of Indians. People of all ages, gender, religion, caste, language and class have been regularly thronging movie theatres ever since cinema arrived in India 99 years ago. The choice of movies among people might differ but visiting cinema halls and getting amazed, inspired and influenced by movies and its actors has become very common. Therefore, it won’t be an overstatement to say that cinema has become a part of Indian culture.

For making this possible, we all movie buffs should be thankful or even indebted to the Father of Indian Cinema Dhundiraj Govind Phalke aka Dadasaheb Phalke. It was his strong dedication and belief that made cinema possible in India. But when Phalke decided to make India’s first film Raja Harishchandra in 1912, there were many who tried to discourage him. There were some who even considered him a mad man.

Dadasaheb Phalke (Picture courtesy - Wikipedia)

But his dedication and passion was so strong that it had no effect on him. This was also because his wife Saraswati and his two kids too joined him in the mission. So, it won’t be wrong to say that the first Indian movie was made by the whole Phalke family.

After that, he could have easily settled in England and made films for the English. Financiers from London were ready to shell out huge amounts of money to produce his films. But he chose to stay in India so that the film industry develops and flourishes in our country.

It was filmmaker Paresh Mokashi and his team that enlightened the cinegoers about Phalke through his first film Harishchandrachi Factory (2009). Personally speaking, I will always be thankful to Mokashi for giving this hugely needed tribute to the great man. Without going overboard, the filmmaker presented Phalke’s struggle and the subsequent achievement by just using the visual medium.

However, from the huge number of movie buffs, how many are truly aware about Phalke? And from those who know about him, how many are there who truly think about him? I am sure a lot of people from the Indian film industry might not know about him.

I think even the mass media hasn’t given much importance to Phalke in all these 99 years. It wouldn’t cost much to our filmmakers to give tribute to Phalke at the start of their movie. After all, they are able to make movies only because he brought the medium to India. Apart from Harishchandrachi Factory, the only movie I remember doing this was Swarajya (2011).

I would like to give special mention to Fame Nakshatra (Dadar) for honoring Phalke by putting his picture with a garland inside their theatre (See below picture). I haven’t seen any other theatre doing this.

Monday April 30, 2012 marks the 142^nd birth anniversary of Phalke. As expected, there is just no excitement or even awareness about it. But that is not going to stop me from rejoicing for the Father of Indian Cinema since it’s a day every cinema lover should be proud of!

Watch the 11 minute footage from Raja Harishchandra (1913), the very first film of India!

Nandu Madhav and Vibhawari Deshpande in a still from Harishchandrachi Factory

Picture of Dadasaheb Phalke inside Fame Nakshatra theatre, Dadar.

Bhagat Singh, Sukdev, Rajguru 81st Death Anniversary… Same old story!

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Like every year, this year too there is hardly any hype about Martyrdom Day, i.e March 23, the day when Bhagat Singh, Sukhdev and Rajguru happily accepted death at the hands of the British 81 years ago (1931). Terrible is a small way of describing this situation where the biggest sacrifice for the independence of India hasn’t received the notice it deserves. Over the years our government and even media has failed in honoring the greatest of revolutionaries.

This, however, isn’t going to lower the spirits of all of us who heartily admire the trio for their unmatchable service for India. We will continue to worship them!

Talking of the trio, I would like to point out something about Bhagat Singh which is not known to everyone, especially those who don’t admire him. By doing this, I am also trying to rubbish-off a myth related to Singh and his comrades who have been a part of Hindustan Socialist Republican Association (HSRA).

There has been a wrong widespread belief that the members of HSRA were violent. Time and again, they have been accused of endorsing violence. However, all those who have done an in depth study on their life would highly disagree with it. These revolutionaries had always believed in achieving their mission in a non-violent manner.

There have been instances where they have used violence but it’s only as a means of self defense or when there isn’t any hope of achieving the goal through non-violent methods.

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To prove their non-violent nature, I would like to point out few instances from their revolutionary life:-

* On April 8, 1929, when Bhagat Singh and Batukeshwar Dutt exploded bombs in the Central Assembly in Dehli to oppose Public Safety Bill and Trade Disputes Bill, they purposely used bombs which don’t hurt anyone even a bit. Plus, they exploded the bombs in vacant areas. Their only motto was to create sound.

* Of course, they did avenge the death of Lala Lajpat Rai by killing British officer Saunders but they did that as there was no hope of getting justice from the British government. They had to take the step as a last resort. A pamphlet distributed by HSRA said, “We regret to have had to kill a person but he was part and parcel of that inhuman and unjust order that has to be destroyed.”

* Instead of fleeing from the spot, Singh and Dutt court arrested themselves. They could have escaped as the HSRA had weapons at their disposal but they didn’t even think of doing such a thing.

* After being sentenced, Bhagat Singh, along with other members of HSRA, started a hunger strike as the Indian prisoners were debarred of basic amenities unlike the British prisoners. This was akin to Gandhi’s mode of Satyagraha.

If the members of HSRA really believed in violence, the above mentioned incidents wouldn’t have taken place.

Coming back to the first point, I would like to offer the highest tribute to the trio of Bhagat Singh, Sukhdev and Rajguru. We will never be able to repay the biggest sacrifice ever to the nation.

Have a look at some of the original photos of Bhagat Singh and his comrades: –

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Bhagat Singh (Picture Courtesy – unp.co.in. Click to enlarge)

News of the hanging of the three martyrs (Picture Courtesy – commons.wikipedia.org. Click to enlarge)

Bhagat Singh’s mother with a wellwisher (Picture Courtesy – unp.co.in. Click to enlarge)

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Bhagat Singh as a student in National College, Lahore (Picture Courtesy – unp.co.in. Click to enlarge)

Rajguru (Picture Courtesy – india.targetgenx.com. Click to enlarge)

Sukhdev (Picture Courtesy – india.targetgenx.com. Click to enlarge)

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BMC Elections 2012 Results!

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So, the much awaited results of the 2012 BMC Elections are out! However, one cannot say that the whole of Mumbai is responsible for the results since more than half of them turned a blind eye to voting and instead preferred to chill on a holiday!

Results:

Congress – 46

NCP – 21

Shiv Sena – 65

BJP – 32

MNS – 27

RPI – 1

Others – 22

More than 50% Mumbaikars lose their right to complain!

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Since time immemorial, people of Mumbai have been complaining about poor governance, poor roads, water and electricity shortage, dumping of garbage, lack of civic amenities, etc. But do you really have a right to complain if you fail to exercise your basic right of voting and selecting appropriate people for governing?

Likewise, more than 50% Mumbaikars have lost their right to complain as they were too lazy to carry out an exercise as simple as voting! In other words, these people should not raise eyebrows when there is water-logging in their locality during the next monsoons. What else can one say when the voting percentage in Mumbai for the BMC elections yesterday turned out to be as low as 44%?

Anyways, the results will be out shortly. One can just hope that whichever party wins, turns out to be people-friendly! And a hearty GET WELL SOON to all those who didn’t vote yesterday.

Will South Mumbai vote this time?

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After the 26/11 Mumbai attack, the rich and elite South Mumbai-ites formed a candle rally near Gateway Of India where they literally bashed and abused the government. They even declared overpowering the existing Congress government.

However, at the time of the Lok Sabha Elections, that soon followed, hardly anyone from South Mumbai cared to vote. The percentage of vote was as low as 12%! In fact, this has been the sorry tale in South Mumbai since long.

Now, the 2012 BMC elections are just around the corner. So, will there be a better turnout this time in South Mumbai or will it be the same old story?

The people from this part took active part in the Anna Hazare movement mostly in August where they again vowed to overpower the government. This gives an indication that they care for the country. It’s high time they show this concern by lining up to cast their vote since this is the least one can do!

Looking at the way corruption has grown amongst politicians in recent times, I can understand the overall mindset of not trusting a single politician. But it is wrong to say that each and every politician is good for nothing. You can visit myneta.in and get all the information on the candidates from each constituency. On this website, one can also find whether there are any criminal cases on any of the candidates along with their bank balance.

People are anxious to know the winner of the BMC elections out of Congress, NCP, Sena-BJP, MNS, etc. But I am equally anxious to know the percentage of vote in South Mumbai. This is because I firmly believe that if you can’t do a small deed like voting, you have no right to sit back in your drawing room and say, “Is desh ka kuchh nahin ho sakta!”

What the hell happened to democracy?

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Our so-called government and authorities have forced me to ask this question by their silly acts in the last few months or so.

Firstly, in June 2011 when they acted in a Taliban-like manner and used force to end Baba Ramdev’s agitation against India’s black money stashed abroad. Although I don’t fully support Ramdev and his methods, I wonder how justifiable it is to mercilessly beat-up non-violent protestors including women and children!!! Taliban is the apt term for them!

Later on, in August 2011 when the government, in a state of panic, created a huge blunder of arresting Anna Hazare and denying him the right to peaceful protest. Then, telecom minister Kapil Sibal created a hue and cry to monitor content on social networking sites but the move didn’t gain much fuel.

But recently, there has been put forth a big question mark over India’s democracy after the Centre gave its approval to prosecute websites like Facebook, Google and others if they fail to remove offensive content.

A day before this, a High Court judge Suresh Kait threatened to go the China way and ban websites like Facebook and Google! Well, what bigger proof of India going the undemocratic do you require? From what I have heard, this was the same judge who granted bail to Amar Singh and Sukhram in corruption scandals!!! Any mature grown up will agree that banning such websites is the most cruel as well as foolhardy step!

As filmmaker Shekhar Kapur said on Twitter, “YouTube, Facebook, Google and Twitter are platforms, not publishers. Can you sue a bookshop for carrying Satanic Verses if not banned? Can you sue the Loudspeaker Company for the lies that politicians tell the electorate? Internet is free source and each of you with a blog is a potential publisher, can government sue a million blogs? Each email forwarded 1000 times is potential ‘objectionable material’. Can courts shut down e-mail?”

Another example: – Terrorists have used mobile phones to plan our death. Why haven’t you banned mobile phones yet?

I feel the only way to save India from this barbarism is to protest! Protest in every possible way to show the government that we the people won’t take it lying down else, the day isn’t far when people would say that India ‘was’ a democratic country!

Anna Hazare’s New Blog

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After shutting down his blog due to a fall out with his blogger Raju Parulekar, who was accused of putting up his own views without permission, Anna Hazare has returned to the blogosphere by starting a new blog.

The URL of his new blog is – http://www.annahazaresays.indiaagainstcorruption.org

Anna’s Facebook page and Twitter page remains the same which are: –

Link to his Facebook Page – https://www.facebook.com/pages/Anna-Hazare-Says/268687513149703

Link to his Twitter Page – http://twitter.com/#!/annahazaresays

LET’S KEEP THE FIGHT ALIVE!