Rosa Parks and Gandhi

Today Rosa Parks, became the first woman to lie in honor in the Rotunda, sharing an honor bestowed upon Abraham Lincoln, John F. Kennedy and other national leaders of the USA. Her simple refusal to give up her seat on a city bus for a white individual half a century ago sparked the civil rights movement of the 1950s and 1960s. This reminds me of another incident that happened more than half a century prior to this one, where a colored man was thrown out of the first class compartment in a train at Pietermaritzburg station in South Africa. In those days only white people where allowed in the first class and even thought this individual had bought the first class ticket, he was thrown out on his refusal to move to the general compartments. This person was known as Mohandas K. Gandhi in those days, popularly known as Mahatma Gandhi (Mahatma means great soul) now. Events/movements that followed these incidents are elimination of segregation policy from USA and independence of India from England.

I am compelled to write this as every now and then some ‘scholar’ would denounce Gandhi’s contribution to our freedom struggle by non-sense arguments. It didn’t matter if Rosa hadn’t heard about Gandhi doing something similar before her doing so, it didn’t matter if Martin Luther King hadn’t learn the concept of ‘non-violent protest’ from Gandhi and it didn’t matter if Nelson Mandela was not directly influenced by Gandhian thinking during his struggle to bring freedom and democracy to South Africa, what matters is that these individuals had courage, commitment and wisdom that most people lack. Their love and sacrifice for their country is unquestionable. Go wrap yourself in just one piece of cloth for 35 years of your life, spend 20 years or more of your life in jails (not for your own cause) and then talk about Gandhi’s contribution to our freedom struggle.

An Apology From England

I recently saw the movie ‘Mangal Pandey: The Rising’. It gave me the chilling account of British atrocities in India one more time. I don’t know whether the movie is historically accurate as there is no well documented information about most of pre-independence freedom struggle. The press was controlled by the British rulers as well. However I am sure that there might be many unsung heroes, unlike Shaheed Bhagat Singh or Mangal Pandey, whose story we never came to know.

I am not going to talk about what good Britishers might have done to us like “free press, constitutional government, professional service, modern universities and research laboratories" etc. about which Dr. Singh, the current Indian Prime Minister spoke of at the Oxford University. There are old people in India, who even today would say that Britishers were better rulers that our current lot of highly corrupt politicians. I do not want to talk about their looting of our national resources and wealth as well as torture, pain and sufferings that they brought upon us. But my disappointment is that they have never apologized for what they have done to our country and people. I see and read China getting furious every time a Japanese Prime Minister visits their WWII memorial, for which China gets offended and demands apologies from Japan for their WWII atrocities done to China. Japan in past have apologized many times yet China does not hold it good enough. Yet here Britishers have not said sorry even once for their 250 years rule and we keep silence.

One may argue what one would get by a simple sorry. It is a highly emotional issue. One probably has to be a son or a daughter or parent of someone who has been killed or wronged by Britisher to feel the pain. It’s been seen quite a few times that an apology from a killer, a sincere apology, comforts the deceased’s family a lot. If nothing else then at least an apology would be seen as expression of regret and forgiveness for their deeds. And it will be a tribute to hundreds of thousands of freedom fighters who died in this process.

I Am a Vegetarian Without Any Logic

It’s been over five years since I came to America. I never thought about my food preference during my life in India but it has been an ongoing issue for me in this foreign land. Even though I am still a vegetarian here and I intend to stay the same as long as I live, every now and then I come across someone who advises me to turn non-vegetarian to see what I have been missing so far in my life. Let me make it clear, I am not a food junkie so I don’t care what I am missing here. I just need some decent food that fills me up. My taste buds can take most things as long as it is not spicy.

The bigger issue is that every one wants to know why I am vegetarian. Honestly I don’t have a convincing answer for that as, I am a born vegetarian. Even though most members in my family had eaten non-vegetarian food, we used to buy prepared food only once every couple of months. So for me, being vegetarian is as normal as sun rising in the east and setting in the west. Earlier I started giving explanations for me being vegetarian that are inline with Hindu philosophy of ‘Ahimsa’ and ‘Respect for Other Form of Life’. The idea is to avoid the pain and suffering that an animal/bird goes through while being slaughtered. My friend in turn argued that plants have life and just because you don’t see plants in pain/suffering while being cut does not mean that does not happen. What do I say now? Do I say that if I don’t eat even plants then how do I live, on air and water? Once a vegetarian friend told me that he could not eat meat now because being vegetarian all his life, he could not cross the psychological barrier and I thought that it was same with me. From that point, when someone asked me this question I always said that I couldn’t cross this psychological barrier anymore being a vegetarian all my life.

But then I think that why do I need to defend my choice? Why does it have to be logical? So from this point on when someone argues with me about this issue, I would say that it is my choice and preference and would not explain anything. Or should I say ‘that I don’t eat beef because I never met a cow that I didn’t like’ as once told by Alicia Silverstone.

Ekta Kapoor - Get a Life

I am copying following post from a indiatimes blog called 'Uptown Girl'. This is an issue that I always wanted to write about. This person has said it so well that I did not feel any need to amend it. Enjoy!

"Actually that shouldn’t really be the question. Ekta Kapoor makes what sells. So the question really should be, what the hell is the matter with the people in this country? Are we so socially unconscious that we even watch whatever goo is presented to us?

Let’s look at the history a little bit. In the year 2000, two of Ekta’s serials came on together on different channels. Kyuki Saas Bhi Kabhi Bahu Thi and Kkusum…with an extra K. Let’s look at these two serials separately.

Kyuki started out as a serial which showed the ever green tussle between a mother who was not happy with her son’s choice of bride. The subtle tu-tu mein-mein between a mother-in-law and daughter-in-law was how the serial started…which of course soon lost it’s meaning as the whole thing turned into scheming, bitching, killing and rebirths! Marriages, left right and center thrown in and well you have a serial which millions of people across the country actually watch, and get involved! A serial with a story line which has no relation to the title of the story. A serial which degrades women to no end. You have rape scenes…then you have characters within the serial that support marital rapes…you have a mother in law that very recently discouraged her grand daughter-in-law from working with a dialogue like, “Agar ghar ki bahu office jayegi, to ghar kaun sambhalega!” Yeah right…So this is the condition of one of the most popular serials of Indian television today.

Let’s look at Kkusum, this serial really takes the cake I feel…well the serial started out differently…a middle class working woman hitched to a rich guy because her kundali says that she will have a long lasting marriage. The belief was that the male protagonist of the serial, her boss, Abhay would have to marry someone with a strong kundali to save his own life. Kept in dark Kkusum is married to Abhay. But of course she soon finds out the real reason behind this Cinderella wedding and her dream shatters. Then comes to time when she plans revenge only to find Abhay now genuinely in love with her…or so he acts. Then of course there is the plot where he is only acting of being a devoted husband while he is flirting around with Kkusum’s best friend. The story has some sense till this point. But what followed was beyond any rational reasoning!

Some hundred marriages and divorces took place. And no not between different people…but between Abhay and Kkusum itself!!! Then Kkusum vanishes (a.k.a the main actress of the serial backs out!) so she is killed only to be brought back along with a new face and a daughter! In the mean while Abhay once again is married! I don’t understand this at all…if you are widowed is it essential to take saat phera’s around your dead wife’s burning body itself? It’s ridiculous!

So let’s take a look at what Ekta propagates through her serials. 1. Infidelity and Adultery: Don’t need to explain this. Every serial has characters getting married then divorced, then married again, then an extra marital affair…and then some more. 2. Inspiring people to be officious: Some one has to meddle…no matter what! 3. Creating vamps: My God if God forbid, but any household had a bahu like Komolika, do you think that household would be alive and happy? In all probability they would all be in an asylum to say the least4. Glorifying and justifying Satan acts: All the protagonists of her serial suffer…and that suffering never ends. So she is trying to say…don’t be nice because if you be nice you will suffer…

But again, the point of this whole post is not insulting, or yelling at Ekta…but trying to understand the psyche of the audience who watch these never ending shows! What kick do you get in watching one woman, plot against another day in and day out? And even more ridiculous is the fact that on the 8 pm slot on Sony the protagonist suddenly becomes a vamp on the 8:30 pm slot on Star. How do audience even remember the plots of different serials (especially when there are the same set of actors and sets put in) is something I’ll never comprehend. This madness behind the K…series has to stop somewhere. It’s degrading, unreal and tainting for women and that’s the least of it. But of course who is the biggest section of population who watch women being tortured, raped, killed, and mortified on TV? Oh it’s the Indian woman of course! What did you think?"

Recurring Dreams

I am riding a bicycle as a kid and suddenly the wheels start getting bigger. I don’t realize this until the wheels are so big that when I see below for the first time, I freak out and lose my balance. Some how I keep driving but not knowing what to do, I look for some thing tall. Suddenly I see a really tall building and I cling to the terrace and let the cycle go.

I am looking for a good long jump, may be a triple jump. I take my first jump and I realize that I don’t have to put my foot on the ground if I don’t want to. I defy the law of gravity and keep gliding in the air, hardly 2 feet above the ground but not touching it for many more feet and then decide to put my foot on the ground to start the second jump. The same story continues and I go high flying like Michael Jordan for quite a long distance before I decide to let it go and take my last jump.

Harry Potter definitely stole this idea from my dream. That I am in a field and I have a broom with a long stick typically used to clean the yard. I start running, really fast, faster and then hop on it and it starts flying and it goes very high and I realize that I don’t know how to take it back to the ground.

I dream that I forgot to go to my tuition today and then I realize that I have not been going there for a few months, even though I haven’t taken tuition in a decade.