Monday, September 29, 2014

Pseudo Secularism and Yellow Journalism show

The most recent news from Indian journalism is the criticism of Rajdeep Sardesai's much deserved slap gate episode. Interesting point in the whole report is the video that has been referred by the journalists stating "Rajdeep Sardesai manhandled by mob at Madison Square Garden. The Video referred rather shows Rajdeep hitting someone in the crowd and it so seems he forgot that crowd doesn't have a face, he indeed has with a name. 

The Video projecting the truth that Rajdeep Sardesai was the first one to get abusive as well as attacking the other guy - Rajdeep Sardesai Slapped at Madison Square

As if that was not all that the practitioners of Yellow Journalism started condemning the act and when I voiced my view point one (not so respected) Bengali (not so) gentleman started bashing me on Twitter calling me names and cursing me. I thought of giving it a pass, but he seemed to have a sleepless time as he was not successful in getting his antidote of cursing :-)).  He came around to me on Twitter in another 3 hrs later seeking if I am wiser than before. Huh that man went ahead calling me a Hindu Extremist because I said I don't support his yellow journalistic thoughts. Apparently he heard a mouth full from me and hope could sleep after that :-)) may be my words worked as his sleeping pill :-)) may be he is used to get a dose daily before he gets sound sleep. I don't blame him for that, Yellow Journalists and Pseudo Seculars need that dose. 

So what this episode boils down to? Why am I writing about it? Truly two very good questions that must be answered. So let me try answering them one by one. 

  1. The episode reestablished my viewpoint that the journalism in India is at all time low. Why should a senior journalist like Rajdeep Sardesai give a provocative statement standing between the crowd. Did he run out of his wits or did he think he would get away from this ad usual? Rajdeep Sardesai was wrong in his approach and making a communal / racist remark in US where he can be prosecuted.
  2. The episode followed by the twitter word of exchange with the chap I mentioned above reestablished my thoughts that there are a lot of Pseudo Seculars who would stand up for Rajdeep. They would not think twice before opening their mouth and will speak as if they have foot in mouth disease. 
So where do we go from here? When Media, the fourth pillar of democracy would be polarized and would resort to yellow journalism, what trust would we have on them?  

Seriously,  we the people of India whose heart beats for the nation should show these guys the door and shout boycott them totally. We should stand for our nation and for fair and righteousness. Enough of Pseudo Secularism and Yellow Journalism. 

Sunday, September 28, 2014

Clean India - Modi's Drive

It's pretty impressive step that Prime Minister of India has taken a pledge for Clean India.  When he had declared his intent on the Independence Day, I was a actually not convinced that he would be acting so fast.  But with the declaration coming on this week where he cancelled the National Holiday of October 2, and declared that this would be the day when he would start the Clean India Drive, I was impressed.  Truly impressed for the selection of the day and the selection of the task to start on that day.

Apparently I was updated about the news by my wife when she said "Modi mein Dum Hai" and I was surprised as she was never a supporter of Modi.  But then the way she elaborated on the "Swachha Bharat Abhiyaan", I was convinced that she was not being sarcastic for her statement.

After that discussion, when I searched on the news on this topic, I thought, the clean India Drive would not be complete unless the weed in Bureaucracy and the weed in society is cleaned.  The statement that made me think this way is "Remove Unwanted stuff from Government Offices".  So if I have to look at the literal meaning of the statement, I would see throwing out any unwanted "stuff" including corrupt officials and those lazy buggers who would n't want to move things at the speed they need to be.  Identifying the corrupt officials is nothing tough, just that you would have to identify the pending files in the government offices and then work with the respective claimants, Business Houses or the parties to get the required support.  This drive may seem to be tough, but then the Parties who cooperate would be assured that their files would be processed faster.

There could be two impacts of this Drive with the steps I am suggesting, either the government officials would fall in line to follow clean work ethics or they would pave way for the youngsters providing employment opportunities for them. This would also set precedence for the rest of the officials to "Either Work or Go".  

Cleaning the Weed in Society would be a more uphill task and we all know that unless we rise above the Castism, Regionalism and Religious Fanaticism, none of the Government with even the most able Governance mechanism may be able to help clean the society and make our nation a better place to live.  Here, we all would have to stand and pledge to ourselves -

"We the Law Abiding Citizens of India stand by our Prime Minister and the Law Enforcement Agencies to help clean the Societal Weed.  We promise to our Motherland that we would help make our nation a better place to live by standing tall against societal injustice. We would not be afraid of harassment by the hands of Law Enforcement Agencies and will duly report such harassment to the Authority Designate.  We will work our level best to ensure that our contribution results in a secure and safe living environment for our future generations."

Friday, September 26, 2014

नवदुर्गा

नवरात्री के पावन पर्व पर
तेरे मात्र स्वरुप को मैं नमन करता हूँ
तेरी महिमा मैं सबको अब सुनाता हूँ
माँ अम्बे अब में तेरी ही गाथा गाता हूँ


शैलपुत्री रूपं वंदना
वन्दे वांछित लाभाय, चंद्रार्ध्क्रित्शेखरम| 
वृशारुधाम शूल्धारम शैलपुत्रिम यशस्विनिम

English - I worship Goddess Shailputri to fulfill my wishes, who is adorned with crescent moon on her head, rides on a bull, carrying a trishul and is illustrious.


ब्रह्मचारिणी रूपं वंदना
दधाना कर पदाभ्यामाक्षमाला कमण्डलु| 
देवी प्रसीदति माई ब्रह्म्चारिन्यानुत्तमा

English - O Goddess Brahmcharini, who holds rosary and Kamandalu in her hands, please on me.


चन्द्रघंता रूपं वंदना
पिंडज प्रवारुध चंद्कोपस्त्र्कैर्युता|
प्रसादम तनुते माध्यम च्न्द्रघ्तेती विश्रुता||

English - O Goddess Chandraghanta, who rides on Tiger, angry on enemies, holds many weapons in 10 hands, be propitious to me.


कुशमंदा रूपं वंदना
सुरासंपूर्नम कलशं रुधिराप्लुतामेव च|
दह्दना हस्त्पद्माभ्याम कुशमंदा शुभदास्तु मे||

English - Goddess Kushmanda who holds two pitchers full of Madira and Blood in her lotus hands, be propitious to me.


स्कन्द माता रूपं वंदना
सिहसंगताम नित्यं पद्मांचित कर्द्वया|
शुभदास्तु सदा देवी स्कंदमाता यशस्विनी||

English - Skandmaata, who rides Lion with Kartikeya, holds lotus in her two hands and Varmudra in one hand, be propitious to me


कात्यायनी रूपं वंदना
चंद्रहासोज्ज्वल करा शार्दूल्वार्वाहना|
कात्यायनी शुभम दद्याद देवी दानवघातिनी||

English - Devi Katyayani, who holds Chandrahaas Sword and other weapons in her ten hands, rides on Lion and destroying demons, be propitious to me


कालरात्रि रूपं वंदना
एक्वेनी जपकर्न्पूर्ण नग्न खरास्थिता|
लम्बोष्ठी कर्णिका करनी तैलाभ्याक्त्शार्लिरिणी||
वाम पादोल्लासल्लोह्लाता कन्ताक्भुशना|
बर्धन मूर्धं ध्वजा कृष्णा कालरात्रिभयकारी||

English - This mantra describes her form. She is naked, rides on an donkey, long tongue, lustrous body, wearing ornaments in legs like lightning, black in color, unlocked hair, big eyes and ears and very dangerous looking.


महागौरी रूपं वंदना 
श्वेते वृशेसमारुधा श्वेताम्बरधरा शुचिः|
महागिरी शुभम दद्यान्महादेव प्रावददा ||

English - Goddess Mahagauri who rides on white bull, wear pure white clothes, giver of happiness, be propitious to me


सिद्धिदायिनी / सिद्धिदात्री रूपं वंदना 
सिद्ध गन्धर्व यक्श्द्येरासुरैरामारैरपी|
सेव्यमाना सदभुयात सिद्धिदा सिद्धिदायिनी||

English - Goddess Siddhidatri who is worshipped by Siddha, Gandharva, Yaksh, Gods, Demons etc., holds Conch, Chakra, Gada and Lotus in her hands, giver of all siddhis and victory all over, be propitious to me

Wednesday, September 10, 2014

Terrorism - Jihad - Sex

This article is a bit bitter in the nature and hence if you feel you might be offended by the content, please do not read further.


Terrorism has been in a rise for ever. Earlier we had regional terror outfits and now it so seems that the terrorism has become just another profession with the terrorists getting certain amount of salaries to carry out their duties. Interesting point is the way they talk about post martyrdom payments and money that is paid to the families should they die. The phenomenon is not just limited to one or two regions, it has actually propagated across the globe.  

Another factor that has been on a rise has been the terrorist outfits declaring starting of their operations in a specific geography - ref: Al Qaida declaring Indian Outfit to operate and spread terrorist activities in India.  It seems as if one company is aspiring to open its overseas branch and hence has given an advertisement of recruitment and their intent of defining their business charter.  Seems that these guys are now becoming more business savvy and want to operate Terrorist outfits as business organization.

Today at lunch, I was having an interesting conversation with my colleagues where they were speculating why the terrorism has cropped up like cancer in society? If God created mankind then why on the name of God some religious fanatics call for Jihad and then call it as their duty to serve God and save religion? Don't they think that what they are doing is actually destroying the beauty of the Creation of God? Some of the very interesting comments came around during the discussion and I am trying to quote them here for the readers to think on those lines - 

  1. In Shrimadbagwad Geeta, Shri Krishna had said that you are only the means and the actual cause of all the misery and then death is me the God.  So if we go by that, the terrorists have been created by God to bring say the ecological balance (LOL). Yeah they kill the innocents and then they are in turn killed by the Security Forces.  Its like Chicken is first raised to get egg as well as the source for chicken dishes, but when they overgrow, they are butchered....So Terrorists can be compared with God's means to cause mass massacre and then as chickens that outgrow the numbers to then be butchered
  2. Al Qaida may not as such be successful in India as there are way too many terror outfits already present in India. Also, with the failure of those terror outfits and after seeing the fate of associated terrorists, the youth seems to have been losing their interest in joining terrorist outfits.
    1. My counter to this was, even if .0001% of youth proceed on the path of terrorism, in India that would mean roughly 1270 youth and that's hell lot to create some serious trouble
    2. Even though Al Qaida may fail to recruit fresh blood, they may go ahead and replicate the M&A strategy of business and actually end up merging IM and other similar smaller operatives with Sleeper cells. Result availability of Larger set of sleeper cells.
    3. Al Qaida though may have had a fall out with ISIS, but that would not mean that Al Qaida may not replicate the Jihadist Sex strategy of ISIS. 
My third point triggered another branch of discussion and my colleagues were a little not too amused with the concept of Jihadist Sex.  But that is a very interesting development initiated by ISIS from the time ISIS occupied geography in Iraq has been declared as Caliphet.  Apparently ISIS has been able to recruit quite a sizable number of women operatives to sexually serve the ISIS male operatives. They have been reported to have recruited these females through their targeted social network contact points on twitter etc.  And most of the females as they have targeted have been from Western World.  Though as per the reports they have also forced the households in their occupied territories to bring all unmarried females to them to help them in Jihadist Sex.  

It so seems that these religious fanatics behind the propagation of concept of Jihad might have realized that most of their terrorism operatives have not reported back to them after execution on the "72 Virgins" and hence they have devised this new strategy to lure the youth to resort to terrorism.  Money, Martyrdom and Women, what else those guys would need? For after death, they wouldn't be witnessing whether they are seen as heroes or villains......

But the nexus of Terrorism and Jihadist Sex is certainly a cause of concern as if the reports are to be believed, the females are lured in for Monthly salaries against their services....that is no good as that is doing nothing by increasing the counts of Flesh Trade in the name of Religion....yeah these females need to understand that they are subject to exploitation in name of the God and Religion and that they would get nothing in the ends except for lost identity....