Dial D for Diversity and for Discrimination as well...

“If India were to be defined by one word then the best word would be Diversity”. This was a comment posted on my blog site in response to an article published recently. This may be one of the many perspectives people have about our motherland. And this statement is undoubtedly true but is not absolute. Certainly, though we are not a country of one Thanks-Giving Day and one Christmas but a country is only as good as its society and this applies to the society and its people in the same context. The opening statement does not hold its ground about this society and its inhabitants. Diversity cannot co-exist with discrimination. Discrimination defeats the very essence of Diversity. Diverse people here discriminate on almost on all trivial and not-so-trivial pretexts.

Caste based discrimination is what comes to our mind first. All professions in ancient India had a caste and every caste was associated with a profession. Nevertheless, ancient India was far more civilized than today’s in many ways than one and then there were only caste or profession based identities…discrimination, the negativity among them, came later and made strongholds in the mindset and thought processes. We or our society at large, still carry those inhibitions…the mindset remains the same and discrimination remains prevalent along this and many more pathological lines. Just to illustrate, Christianity & Islam (since both came from outside this country) worldwide do not have caste based system but here the malice is so engrained in our society’s fabric that only here we have Dalit-Christans & Dalit-Muslims and Muslims discriminate their dalit brothers (if I may call them). Speaking of Dalits - the most discriminated of them all, along caste lines, they have their own set of parameters for discrimination…dalits who chose to convert to Buddhism along the lines of Babasaheb are discriminated by those who didn’t and quite ironically, the same people (who haven’t converted) still idolize Babasaheb and he is their biggest icon.

Discrimination against woman is second only to caste based discrimination and female foeticide is worse to none. It is just one of the parameters besides an endless list of discrimination against women. Even the high & mighty, ladies like Kiran Bedi, discriminated by non-other than her female chief-minister. Ironically, they (chief-minister & co) enthroned the first female to the Rastrapati Bhavan only a fortnight ago. So this leads us to the discrimination faced by most of the honest & upright officers by the yes-men/women.

It is not only that the uneducated who cultivates this ancient malice but we, the self proclaimed, self certified, modern & enlightened do have our own parameters when it comes to discrimination. Let’s face it. Parents discriminate among sons & daughters and they do so among their bright & not-so bright children. Reportedly, there’s discrimination based on caste in AIIMS, practiced by the “second-only-to-god”: doctors & MBBS student and they are most definitely educated, sober, gentlemen and more than that they are under oath…shameful or is it not?? Well actually, it isn’t…at least till the time we hear those doctors passing out only to discriminate with their patients along caste lines.

There’s discrimination among the self-declared Holier-than-Thou journalists as well. The English journalists discriminate their Hindi counterparts and the private channel journalists discriminate against their public broadcaster’s counterparts. Then there is the electronic media journalist’s discrimination against their print holy-souls.

North-Indians discriminate South-Indians by calling them “Madrasi” and “Khatta”…based on the taste of their cuisine. Not to forget, then comes the discrimination based on language & looks. Our fellow nationals of the north-east are fondly called “chinkee” for their looks and addressed “ping-pong” for their nosy language and never ‘to miss-out that all of them are branded & discriminated “dog-eaters”.

Then there are Page3 discriminations of various kinds and again the list could be endlessly long and thankfully, most of which I am not even aware off. But from my own experience, surprisingly, there’s discrimination among dog-lovers as well…I was discriminated & laughed at for owning an Indian breed as against the foreign breed owners during a dog show held in Patna some years ago.

The fair-skinned discriminate against their not-so-fair-skinned; the bald are not too far behind in this list. The over-weight / over sized and the not-so-tall ones are again one of the most discriminated & ridiculed people across spectrum. Then there are moochaads and mooch-munda or nimoochias, classifications for discrimination based on their preference for the hair above their upper-lip. Sadly, there’s discrimination against physically-handicapped and not to mention the plight of mentally retarded…but the silver lining for optimistic people like us is that at least they do not feel the agony of discrimination they are subjected to most of the time.

Here’s the second most debated discrimination of recent times. Discrimination based on Dynasty. Sons & Daughters are the first claimant of the throne. They are treated first among equals by almost all political parties (except the Left) and business empires. I mean I can go on endlessly sighting one example after another…you state the diversity; I will list out the corresponding discrimination…

So may I conclude by saying that the though I agree with my friend’s comment but would definitely like to add a bit…“India is Diverse but equally Diverse is Discrimination here, so deeply en-grained in our psyche…A diverse country with equally diverse spectrum of discrimination.

How dare you, de Bono! Let’s have an argument!

Don't know if you noticed but I certainly did. Edward de Bono, who has expounded at some length on the dangers of linear thinking, came up with an argument which appears suspiciously linear (and meanier, if I may say so). Indians are very argumentative, he pronounced recently, going on to add that “argument is a very primitive way of discussion”.
How dare he suggest, first of all, that the epistemological discussions on existential dilemmas that the One Billion Plus of us routinely engage in — on the streets and out of it, in newspapers and on television screens, in parking lots and railway stations, over issues ranging from whether it is okay to throw a banana peel on the pavement to whether God exists — is merely primitive expression that is just one register higher than wielding the old-fashioned cudgel. In fact, I would have liked to have had a good argument with the man.
Alright, we as a people may not even get around to agreeing on what we should be arguing about — whether it is the ASI affidavit, the existence of Ram, or bridge engineering, for instance. But that has never stopped us from carrying on our argument.
True, every good argument, as far as we are concerned, is about give and take. We give the argument, they take it. We are reasonable folk, always ready to meet our opponents half way, provided they admit that they are wrong. And, in this fashion, we finally come to terms. Our terms, that is. Which, of course, leads logically to a whole new cycle of old arguments, because we believe in re-cycling our arguments in order to create new ones, instead of wastefully discarding them like the rest of the world and moving on. Take Indian politics, for instance. It has, to date, never ever resolved a single issue of national importance once and for all. Instead, once our politicians have exhausted themselves arguing on one particular theme, they carefully put it aside and take up another issue, until they are ready for something else.
In this pattern, you may notice, no argument great or small is ever wasted. It is just neatly put away for another day, like schoolchildren do their wads of chewed up chewing gum.
Okay, I admit that we sometimes fail to behave like Plato in the conduct of an argument — listening politely to the other point of view before coming up with a reply, and that sort of thing — but why should that be a problem when we happen to be right? Take Delhi motorists. It has been scientifically established that 90 per cent of deaths of motorists in the city are caused, not from accidents, but from parking lot brawls. Nah, I’m just making this up — but, seriously, one in two motorists in Delhi are high on high-octane arguments, and sometimes even spontaneously self-combust before your eyes. But this should not lead de Bono to conclude that they are engaging in primitive activity. They are merely arguing in defence of their right to lateral mobility — and immobility.
Of course, ever so often we argue in chorus as part of a big, fat Indian mob that has all the characteristics of a gaggle of Neanderthals. I would concede that a lively mob composed of articulate, intelligent, argumentative Indians — say of the kind that made news in Bihar lately — can engage in a rigorous cycle of argument and counter-argument that can sometimes reach life-threatening proportions. But do not conclude from this that brute unreason has got translated into brute force. On the contrary, such action is in fact driven by the need to maintain the highest levels of law, order and justice delivery — something that Bihar’s chief minister and his bureaucrats are too busy arguing over, to be able to do anything about.
So who is de Bono to tangle with us argumentative Indians? I want to tell him, here and now, that we may not agree with what he says, but will defend to death our right to say it. Also, please note, I’m not arguing with de Bono, I merely wish to inform him that while I am driven by conviction, he, in contrast, is driven by rank prejudice. And I hope that with this I have pronounced the last word on this matter.

Pamela Philipose

SOTTO VOCE
Defying Age

Sadhna, the lovely yesteryear actress, of the ‘Sadhna Cut’ fame refused to be photographed when she felt she had started looking her age. She wanted her fans to remember her as she was at her best. On the other hand, Rekha, the ultimate ‘diva’ actually managed to turn time around (how? HOW??), almost as easily as one would invert a sand clock. And with her ‘exclusive’ photo-spreads that appear in the glossies almost every year, she still manages to turn heads and people her age go green with envy. If anything, she looks more fetching by the day. Age certainly isn’t so kind to lesser mortals. The first grey hair is the harbinger of doom for many and we admit to it being the cause for our long faces. We’d do almost anything to turn the clock around, even if it makes us look like the fool of the decade! Recently, a hobby had taken the nation by storm — everywhere you looked you’d see people busily rubbing their fingernails together. Why? Because it was considered a ‘ram-baan’ for greying and the secret behind the flowing black mane of a much-revered yoga guru. Wherever one went — the movie theatre, dentist’s lounge or in a bus or train, avid disciples would be at it, oblivious to strange looks! After all, all is fair in love and war, and ours is a war against age! Thankfully, the entire beauty industry is now with us. In the beginning they’d have us believe that just hiding our grey strands was enough; now they know we need ‘plumped up’ skin as well. They realise our desperation to pause the ‘age’ button. It’s another matter however that a dying-to-look-young friend experimented with a lotion guaranteed to remove crow’s feet and found it to be more effective than it claimed. She ended up with a huge swollen eye. Her mild-mannered hubby is still to forgive her for the looks he got for that. Is this curious ‘age-o-phobia’ only India-specific? Look at our major motivator — Bollywood — downwards from Dev Saab. Have you ever seen anybody sporting grey hair unless it’s for a role? We don’t have any Sean Connery or Richard Gere who have gone grey quite happily, in spite of being in showbiz. However, in our movie-mad nation, where the line between reel and real is happily blurred, we go on searching tirelessly for the fountain of youth.

Madhumita Gupta

My Love for Newspapers...Insatiable!!

Newspaper is my first love...Since my childhood years I was simply fascinated by the variety of topics covered...that too at a time when almost all national dalies, primarily english (TOI, HT, IE, Hindu, Statesmen, Telegraph) & news mags (Frontline, Outlook, The Week & India Today) were a regular feature in my household, courtsey my grand pa's craze for them. Inheritance was natural and I was compelled by my love.

Here on, I wish to post some of the most intresting topics I came across, for you my friends to relish. Kind of filter for you guys who do not have time to go through them daily but are most definately adrent readers. I will post my articles as well but these will definately add spice & colour to my blog site.

I hope you'll enjoy the content. Comments / Suggestions / Brickbats solicited...Nevertheless, all these and Bouquets, if any, will be accepted with same grattitude!!


The Booby Trap
Posted online: Sunday, August 19, 2007 at 0000 hrs
How do you address a woman’s greatest assets? A brief guide to what divides one woman from another...

The last time I wrote about this, I got grief. What I said was that men watch the Academy Awards for only two reasons — cleavage. Times have changed. Cleavage has gone mainstream. Public cleavage once was reserved for specific social occasions like fancy cocktail parties where the highlight is stabbing little wieners with toothpicks. Now, there is no such thing as a cleavage-free zone, no escaping the great divide.
Cleavage also has become controversial. Hillary Clinton recently created a bit of a stir when she showed up on the Senate floor in pants, a pink jacket, black blouse and cleavage. This prompted a fashion writer from The Washington Post to criticise the quality of Clinton’s cleavage, writing: “It was more like catching a man with his fly unzipped. Just look away!” Obviously, the Post fashion writer was a woman. To the male, there is no such thing as “look away” cleavage.
Which is not to suggest that all cleavage is created equal. You have your common cleavage, your above-average cleavage, your overachieving cleavage and your Star Trek cleavage, which has the power to take men where no man has gone before. Then you have your long cleavage, your stubby cleavage, your wide-body cleavage, your shallow cleavage, your shy cleavage, your full-disclosure cleavage, your full-contact cleavage, your pumped-up cleavage and your reined-in cleavage yearning to breathe free.
Age-wise, there’s your late-model cleavage, middle-age cleavage, senior cleavage and vintage cleavage. All of which is suitable for viewing, with one exception, male cleavage. Male cleavage is always “look away” cleavage, unless you happen to find Jell-O with hair on it appealing.

With cleavage so up-front, it might be a good idea at this point to review some basic cleavage etiquette:
*Is it proper to compliment someone on their cleavage? Certainly, but keep it simple: “I love your cleavage.”
*Should you thank someone for providing cleavage? Again, less the better: “Thank you for the cleavage; I really appreciate it.”
*Is it OK to stare at cleavage? A good rule of thumb is that it is acceptable to behold until you blink, at which point politeness dictates you make eye contact with the presenter.

Jim Shea LAT-WP

Pak Mis-Bah 5 Runs!!

This I guess is the best time to ponder over this question that if India won it or Pakistan lost it? I am writing this late, deliberately, 'cause I wanted the frenzy to settle down only then the mind can think reasonably.

There were two unsual events which compelled me to believe that there’s politics, within the team and there’s more to it than meets the eye!!

First, let me state what I’m trying to prove here…that Yuvi, Bhajji & Sehwag (Punjabi / Sardar / Jat) gang-up to (ironically they themselves do not want to see each other but…) against their new captain Dhoni, a Bihari (Bihari / Jharkhandi…all the same for them, I can say this with my experience in Delhi).

Fortunately, Dhoni was able to drop Sehwag, thanks to his poor show in the Ind-Aus match but how do you drop Yuvraj & Harbhajan?? Both star performers in India’s spectacular entry to the finals. But ironically Sehwag was dropped just at the last minute, from the finals and a debutant was included instead in this very crucial Indo-Pak finals of tournament…just how many parallel examples in the history of the game itself wherein you’ve a debutant opening an innings in a final match against arch rivals…n correct me if I’m mistaken but this was the first of its kind debut and yet no eyebrows raised…ironic, isn’t it?? And was Sehwag’s injury that bad?? Was it worse than…remember Kumble with that broken Jaw still playing and winning it for the team…it couldn’t have been worse for Sehwag or could it be?? Both Yuvi & Bhajji perform abysmally in finals...watch the entire finals again and that too the previous matches against Aussies & English. In both these matches Yuvi blasts off with the word go quite contrary to their show in finals.

Never-to-miss that Joginder Sharma with a total experience of not more than 10 overs in international matches, was given that last over…Pak almost won it before lady-luck won it for us!! I mean can you imagine a Indo-Pak final in a world cup with those “every-passing-moment-heart-attack” for more than a billion fans and the best hitter of the arch rivals at the strike and your captain ends-up with an amateur…

Now, allow me to take you a couple of days back when Yuvi hit 6 sixes in an over against England and topped it with his slam-bang 70 of 30 balls against the Aussies…just as if he was trying to prove some point and here was his father all over the e-madia churning out “exclusive” sound bytes about his son’s heart-felt disappointment following captaincy being bestowed to Dhoni…his junior. And this was bothering him so much so that only his poor father could make out but was waiting for the right time to share it on prime-time and what better moment poor-chap could have asked for??

Actually the trio draw their grudge from their pathological hate Punjabis and Jats have cultivated for Biharis. It may be because they’ve grown-up watching Bhiari farm-labors, rikshaw-pullers & domestic-helps all around them and may've started believing that all of Biharis and Jharkhandis are but some distant relatives of those and how come hell they can captian us?? I mean the last thing you would want is your servant becoming your master. So let’s just spike the finals and Dhoni would then be labeled a “Choker” as alike his predessors, which will pave way for a slam-bang flambuyont Yuvraj to be crowned Captain sooner than later…

But Khudos to Dhoni and his brave-hearts for whatever they were able to pull-off!!

Rocket Science...

...no it wont be. I am going to keep this short...cut the crap, cut the bullshit...n believe me when I say that "pure gya" is what's gonna flow from these keys!! n it will be a weekly affair...every saturdays!!

I somehow never believed in blogging, but, off late drew inspirations from Pankaj, one of my childhood friends who on "his" day can post as many as 8 blogs of 300-400 words each!! Such are his poweress. There are many things upon which I wanna express my opinion and what a better place than a blog site. But let me promise one & all that it would definately be a long story cut short & crisp.

And what a better to start off with than India's spectacular T20 win, the title "Pak Mis-Bah 5 Runs" was contributed by Saurabh Dixit...