Category: Politics & Social Issues

Story of India- Apples and Oranges

On January 5, 2013

Blazing the chilling winds, on three wheels, our auto-rickshaw was passing along one of the busy streets of Jamshedpur. The auto, which was already full with around 6 passengers along with the driver, stopped midway noticing a girl who was looking for an auto. The girl first looked in, and then with a little hesitation said, NO!!!

I happened to sit just beside the auto-driver. He said, “Sharm aati hai yaar.. From the last week or so, if even 2-3 guys are there in my auto, no women seems to be getting in”.

One other day, while travelling in an empty auto-rickshaw, well almost, with just the driver and his conductor-friend (yes, they have conductors too here). With nothing much to do, I had to listen to their convo.

Driver- You know what, it’s the mistake of women as due to that they get to suffer in the hands of these horny-bastards.

Conductor- kaahe be ??

(even I wanted to ask!!!!)

Driver- You see, if I am running after a girl or even teasing him, which I’m not. But hypothetically, if I do.

Conductor- abbey bol na..kaahe ghuma raha hai..

Driver- If, I am doing any of these things like eve-teasing or even making remarks on her, and the girl turns up and gives me a tight slap, neither me nor anyone who sees that would ever think of doing that. It’s just because girls ignore small things that other guys do, they take it so lightly. As if it’s just okay and they can get away with it.

Conductor- haan be. Sahi bola.. du go lagao, sasura line pe ajaega..

Driver- Uhi to hum bhi bol raahe hain be.. ee jo laundiya log chod deti hai na.. ki log kaa bolega, usise poroblm hota hai…

Neither did I interfered in their conversation, nor did I am making any stand on this issue of what they said.

Because, I am clueless and it’s difficult to conclude as to what is right and what is wrong. More than being clueless, I’m shocked and guilty.

It was not the fault of just some people that girls like damini are raped, it is the society that I am part of is responsible too. The guilt is for numerous little reasons, but even though no matter how little they are does contribute a lot to the attitude of the society that we live in.

They are now talking about, Honey Singh’s songs, female clothing, Bharat vs. India, Denting-Painting, etc. Well, do you think if a rape has to happen, those sick bastards will see what kind of clothes the girl is wearing?? Or that only in the “Urban India” that rapes occur and the “Rural Bharat” is just away from it’s dark shadows?? Or that Honey singh’s songs are so powerful enough to change people’s attitude? If it is so, then tell him to write anti-corruption songs. The thing is whatever happens in the society is just a reflection of what we are. He is actually mirroring that mindset.

The male dominated and superiority complexed people that dominate our society are the reason for this attitude, which has been there for ages and has only manifolded itself. The only change that our society has witnessed is that the females have tried to fit into this society with the hope of getting rid of this mindset and matching shoulder-to-shoulder.

But, sadly, they don’t realize that the insecure male does not want that to happen. Sharing the dais of superiority is another thing, they don’t even want them to come closer to it, just let them be the audience. Forget about protecting them and taking them to a pedestal so that they can walk along, they just don’t consider them even worthy for competition. Sometime, they just term this competition as something like apples and oranges. Sometimes, reason their success to the sympathetic attitude with which superiors end up treating them. Sometimes, this and sometimes that, but they just won’t accept that it’s not about apples and oranges.

The whole problem revolves around that societal attitude of seeing them as apples and oranges. And until and unless that changes, nothing substantial can happen. No matter how “terrible, sad, devastated” we feel after every incident of a female’s modesty getting tarnished, unless this mindset gives way to a more broad mindedness in terms of accepting that women are not inferior than us, nothing can be changed.

Mid-way through my SUPA (Socially useful and productive work), I interviewed some disabled students undergoing training at Indo-Danish Training Tool here at Jamshedpur. I started off with some guys after getting permission from one of their teachers, but when it came to the girls, I had to ask one person after another and finally after some 2 hours of bureaucratic shifts, I got the green signal.

Later came to know, that after various incidents all across India, security of girls has been their prime focus and they have become “extra conscious”. While talking to these ladies, who happen to be disabled, I was amazed. Amazed as to how, even with all the added struggles apart from them being physically handicapped, they have continued to learn and prosper in whatever they are doing. Neither, financial difficulties or societal inputs on their disability, stopped them from achieving what they strived for. These are women with disability and yet looking at their determination, it added a little light on my dying optimism.

If this added fuel to my fire of optimism, the regular talks at every small adda’s I’ve been part of. Guys, who were seen passing remarks on girls at every possible moment, talk about how they were wrong in doing that. Their guilt does get reflected, and so does their anger. A talk on figure of a girl has given way for what needs to be done by the government.

If this is change, I’m glad to be a part of it.

A Muslim Boy’s Diwali

By farooq

On November 12, 2012

In Politics & Social Issues

“Abbu Abbu.. diwali ke lie pathaake lane hain..paiseee do na”, with child-like innocence, I asked for money to buy firecrackers for diwali. Dada , sitting nearby, before Abbu could reply, remarked “ kaiku re wo paise barbad karna… paise jalaaane ke jaisa ich na wo”. (Why burn money by buying those?) in his Dakkhani.

This scene, year over year, can be seen at home every Diwali.

By the time it was evening, I would definitely have some pathaakas with me from my “sources”, which included my dadi, who would part away some money from her khazaana. I would already make sure I had my emergency money in place from Abbu as well in the name of “stationary”.

Evenings were not limited to lightening firecrackers alone. Although they were a part of it.

“Diwali houses” made from mud and wood (with help from Ammi), batasha and mudi, would also be present as part of the celebrations. The diwali house preparation begins in the afternoon itself when the sun is out, so as to let the mud dry up. Colorful papers, all the toys, including those small kitchen cutleries, will adorn our new Diwali house for the course of the 3-day celebrations.

Once, it starts getting a little dark, you could see and hear firecrackers buzzing all around the dark skies, and we as kids, would excitedly merry around before starting our own spree of Fuljhaddis, Chakris, Anaar, Snakes, Mirchi Pathake, etc, while our neighbours would try to outdo us. All of the pathakaas would be in moderate amount, so we would make sure that we don’t finish the entire quota in one day. No one wants to be the kid who finishes off the first.

Then we also had “guests “coming in large numbers to pay our diwali homes a visit. This included, our basti wale friends, coming in one-by-one, bringing with them sweets and firecrackers. We would give them something to eat (after all, atithi devo bhava 🙂 ), fire a few firecrackers and then would follow the ritual of diwali home hopping post that.

And surprise, surprise! When the evening was about to end and we’d be up there on the terrace watching the lit up sky, dada would bring home some more firecrackers!! Yes, the same dada who was preaching us about “wasting money” and blah blah. All of us would again revel in the joy of those bonus firecrackers. We had our unique way of celebrating this festival of lights, which was so much fun back then.

Of course, I miss dada , who is no more in person with us. That diwali celebration at home gradually stopped as we grew up. It wasn’t about religion, it was all about having fun and enjoying ourselves. And mind you, we lived in a Muslim locality, so there wasn’t even any compulsion to celebrate under peer pressure. Diwali used to be an Indian festival as opposed to a Hindu festival, back then.

Festivals in India are about the celebration of culture and upholding the idea of India. Over the years, we have strengthened this bond, and let us hope that it continues. Even with forces trying to make it otherwise.

Religion and culture are two different things. I may not pray or participate in a Puja, but I would celebrate the joy of festivities. Usually one sees images of Muslims (in skull caps) praying to Hindu deities. Sorry, I won’t do that. A muslim is not supposed to indulge in idol worship and I sincerely hope others understood this and take this as disrespect. As I, nor the others, mean any disrespect!

It is of course an individual’s choice, but this photo alone doesn’t define secularism. Secularism means respecting others’ religion and having the freedom to celebrate and practice our faiths the way we want. Each of our religions has earmarked a few boundaries, the principles and the code we have to abide by. And that should be respected by each of us.

Celebrating joy is beautiful and who doesn’t want to do that? Methods might be different but the intentions are always right.

Celebration and cultural bonhomie is something we should all strive for. The idea of India needs to be preserved. It cannot happen by forcing a ban on eating something or calling people anti-national or pakistanis. It can only happen when we consider all of us as equals and strive to progress further.

A Reply….

By farooq

On November 7, 2012

In Politics & Social Issues

It’s all Very calm and quiet.(so, unlike my mind for the last 2-3 days). Most of them in the floor are already asleep. From room no.24, I am writing another blog. (Don’t be scared, no controversies this time.) this is not just a blog, but an Apology. Yes, I need to apologize to the people who got hurt by my previous post

Specifically speaking, my intention was not to hurt people but to get a message across to all and start a healthy discussion on this issue, which many feel but don’t talk openly. After that blog got posted, many came to me and said:”Dude, good job”, some openly supported me when people were criticizing me. Others chose to be on the safe side, by saying that without getting into anyone’s attention. Nevertheless, I didn’t felt great when they did that, but yeah each criticism (even the harshest ones) and each support equally meant something to me. Thanks for both.

In the process of writing, my idiotic mind generated some kind of language that appeared to be offensive. Also, it ended up targeting people from just one particular community or to say a particular part of a country which is linguistically and culturally different from where I come from.

The reasons why I ended up writing that blog were—-

Start a discussion on a very important issue of how language barriers are actually hampering many of the communication processes.
Get things out for everyone to see as to what I think about an issue, instead of keeping it close to my chest.
That left out feeling you get when people start talking in a particular language, which you don’t understand, culminating into weird mood sequences.
Getting the feeling that people don’t want you to be part of their conversation because of some differences.
Trying to make people understand, how a little empathy can go a long way in solving it out very easily.

Lesson learnt it’s not just about the message; it’s how well you convey the same.

What the blog actually ended up doing was

1. It got directed to particular communities because of direct use of names. Instead, I could have generalized as this, as it isn’t limited to one. Like one community may be at the receiving end of this barrier, but may also be the one doing that as well. Sometimes, even Hindi speaking people may do that with the non-Hindi ones.

2. It created a feeling that there is a certain sense of hatred in me regarding a certain community. Well, I can sense that many might have started feeling like this.(instead of smiles, I get that “WTF-were-you- thinking-when-you-wrote-that-look). I never intended to justify, but to keep things in clear perspective, I should say.

Some of the very good friends, including my two roomies, which I have made after coming here, are the ones who are from down south. All my grief, homesickness, sad stories(which are way too sad :P, sadder than this)are only subjected to their ears only. Since I’m on a convincing spree to show-off my south-connect, I would also like to “brag” that my grandfather was actually a south Indian, quite fluent in at least two Dravidian languages. For some strange reasons, people who have some connection with south India and live in the Hindi-heartland tend to be known as “madraasis” (a little crazy, I understand) mainly because of the food preferences and ingredients that they use (like tamarind). (I am bragging too much. Right? 🙂 )

3. Someone mentioned stereotyping. Was I?? Don’t many do that while talking here in groups?? But yes, I only took into account the people from the college whom I saw and included the whole south Indian community all into it.

4. Posting a sensitive content on the web. With a place like India, with diverse cultures and rich heritage, people have their sentiments attached with everything from language to religion and region. Maybe, the way it was all written appeared to be accusing that attachment they had and also raising the sensitivity of the people. The web is becoming a place where one should be careful enough as to what they speak. I wasn’t Maybe something that would hurt me might get the same amount of criticism that I received or even more than that.

I don’t know whether you people will even read this blog, going by the fact that blogging and my name would be negatively subconscious-ed into your mind based on my last post. But, if you are reading then I would like to just say, when I talked about south Indians starting to being more empathetic, I forgot the fact that I wasn’t actually being one.

As someone mentioned to me that maybe because I didn’t tried enough to be someone important, for whom anyone can “switch” to any language that I understand. May be some introvert-ness, some “opening-up” that is still necessary. Or instead, I should try actually learning any of the languages 🙂 I should be the one making the change, if I want to make something happen and not complain to others about not doing that. So, cheers. Let’s kick this controversy out, podaaa :). (Oops, i Did it Again 🙂 )

A nation free of corruption

By farooq

On September 18, 2012

In Politics & Social Issues

So the fast by Anna Hazare finally ends. Giving us some positive results. Well, I know, not everyone of us will term it as “positive”. Maybe for some this JanLokpal bill , will only add one more avenue for the breeding of corruption. Well, I won’t completely rule out the fact that this won’t happen. Our system has almost rotted due to this very malaise and it won’t be an easy thing to cure by just passing a bill. But isn’t this a step in that direction, a first step. And just because we fear that this will eventually come true, should we shy away from implementing something which is the need of the hour and has been ignored for the last 42 long years!!!Too much of cynicism, I say, when people fear change. Change which I believe is for good. And instead of having a pessimistic approach towards it, we may seriously give it a thought. It is TIME to get rid of this evil and for that we should not sit back, but take command. It is TIME to just go ahead and fight it against the bloody menace itself and the people who are practicing and spreading it. Its is time to clean up our house.

Picture this- A scam comes into public focus, media gives its 24×7 attention to it; we feel baffled as to how low our politicians can fall just for the sake of money. We feel guilty for having electing them. Then from one thing to another, the media finds a new muse, and our attention follows suit. All those cries to get those people behind bars gets lost, while we return to normalcy. Done!!! This is what we do every time, and with the exact discipline. But is this what we are going to continue doing in the future as well ?? Or will there come a time when instead of just sitting back , we are really going to do something???

Well , it is true that we all have lives of our own ,some have their families to run and a whole lot of chores to do than to take time out to clean the mess up. Kaun apne haath gande kare, bhai? When things like this happen , I end up remembering that climax scene of “ a Wednesday”. One of my all-time favourite movie. And that dialogue by Naseeruddin shah sir . “ hame khud ka ghar chalana hota hai saab, isilie hum aapko , sarkaar ko chunte hain…” yes. That’s the reason which we always end up giving ourselves. That it’s the work of the government to clean this mess up. But aren’t we the ones who elected this corrupt government? Well partly it is our fault . Not completely. The reason is that we fall short of choices. Elections, these days, are not to choose the best, but to choose the best of the rest. and no wonder we are bound to make mistakes. Those netas who are voted to power by us don’t even think twice before becoming our masters though we have appointed them as our servants. But what is done is done. No time to hold back onto them. Now the onus is only on us to make these goons of our society accountable.

The fact that the government has now issued a notification in this regard. The lokpal will soon be a reality. More than the passing of the bill, the fact that the civil society came together, to fight corruption just goes to show that how much anger had been brewing inside the people. And it was just a matter of time that this anger had to be collectively come out. The Jantar-Mantar episode is just a trailor of what the future beholds. That people have grown sick of the ways of our bloody Netas and We, as citizens of this country shall, instead of just criticizing the policies take the required steps to cure our nation of this chronic disease. We should appreciate that this movement of sorts has provided the much needed spark needed to set afire the model of corruption. Its time to join hands and fight the evil with all our might. And as they say, a journey of thousand miles starts with a single step, so first lets ablution ourselves and then lets start cleaning u our house with the combined efforts of everyone, with the hope to have a nation free of corruption. Its our time, we shall make it count..