Monday, March 31, 2008

Who is the Grasshopper and who is the Ant?

This was a mail i received and i found it irresistible to put it in my blog. Kudos to who ever has composed it
PS: First time I am posting something thats not mine :( But this was too good

However harsh it would be, it remains a fact and we need to take it with a pinch of salt

OLD VERSION

The Ant works hard in the withering heat all summer building its house and laying up supplies for the winter.

The Grasshopper thinks the Ant is a fool and laughs & dances & plays the summer away

Come winter, the Ant is warm and well fed. The Grasshopper has no food or shelter so he dies out in the cold.

Modern Version


The Ant works hard in the withering heat all summer building its house and laying up supplies for the winter.
The Grasshopper thinks the Ant 's a fool and laughs & dances & plays the summer away.

Come winter, the shivering Grasshopper calls a press conference and demands to know why the Ant should be allowed to be warm and well fed while others are cold and starving.

NDTV, BBC, CNN show up to provide pictures of the shivering Grasshopper next to a video of the Ant in his comfortable home with a table filled with food.

The World is stunned by the sharp contrast. How can this be that this poor Grasshopper is allowed to suffer so?

Arundhati Roy stages a demonstration in front of the Ant ' s house .

Medha Patkar and Tan Shyamoli goes on a fast along with other Grasshoppers demanding that Grasshoppers be relocated to warmer climates during winter.

Amnesty International and Koffi Annan criticizes the Indian Government for not upholding the fundamental rights of the Grasshopper.

The Internet is flooded with online petitions seeking support to the Grasshopper (many promising Heaven and Everlasting Peace for prompt support as against the wrath of God for non-compliance) .

Opposition MPs stage a walkout. Left parties call for "Bharat Bandh" in West Bengal and Kerala demanding a Judicial Enquiry.

CPM in Kerala immediately passes a law preventing Ants from working hard in the heat so as to bring about equality of poverty among Ants and Grasshoppers..

Lalu Prasad allocates one free coach to Grasshoppers on all Indian Railway Trains, aptly named as the 'Grasshopper Rath'.

Finally, the Judicial Committee drafts the ' Prevention of Terrorism Against Grasshoppers Act ' [POTAGA], with effect from the beginning of the winter.

Arjun Singh makes 'Special Reservation' for Grasshoppers in Educational Institutions & in Government Services.

The Ant; fined for failing to comply with POTAGA and having nothing left to pay his retroactive taxes; its home is confiscated by the Government and handed over to the Grasshopper in a ceremony covered by NDTV.

Arundhati Roy calls it ' A Triumph of Justice ' .

Lalu calls it 'Socialistic Justice' .

CPM calls it the 'Revolutionary Resurgence of the Downtrodden'

Koffi Annan invites the Grasshopper to address the UN General Assembly.


NEW VERSION :

Many years later

The Ant has since migrated to the US and set up a multi-billion dollar company in Silicon Valley .

100s of Grasshoppers still die of starvation despite reservation somewhere in India ....

because of loosing lot of hard working Ants and feeding the Grasshoppers, India is still a developing country!!!

Friday, March 21, 2008

Forget Tibet, Free Kashmir!

A lot of hue and cry has been raised over the protests by Tibetans against the autocratic rule of the Chinese. Human rights violation they say. A lot of Tibetan refugees in India are taking to the streets demanding action against China, asking the Indian Govt to intervene. Our good old take-law-into-our-own-hands media is being the Judge passing ridiculous judgment over how Tibet is being exploited and how India as an 'South Asian Superpower' should play a role and how Indians should stand solid against the Chinese atrocities. Send support smses they say, and our poor easily fooled public spends money for the cause of some people who don't even belong to this country and the media just finds another way to rake in profits.

Now, I ask, if China is having problems with Tibet, so be it. If Tibetans break rules, shoot at the police or even jump into wells who cares? We all know how sensitive China is with regard to Tibetan issue. It went on an all out war against us just because we sheltered the Dalai Lama. Thanks to it, we lost a great chunk of Arunachal Pradesh apart from numerous military posts being occupied. What did we gain? Dalai Lama is a celebrity all over the world. He goes about roaming the whole world, meeting big shots. And we got labeled as a perennial threat to the Chinese and in the process are in perennial threat from the Chinese. True, the Chinese can never be trusted but they at least do justice to their sovereign rights and maintain their policies no matter what.

If the Chinese strictly adhere to the policy of selling their products everywhere including India, whats wrong? They want to be global leader in manufacturing and do everything to make their presence felt. If Indian industries are being hit by the Chinese presence, why should the Chinese be blamed? They are practicing something they never advocate, Hard core capitalism.If we fail to capture our own markets then the problem lies with us and not the Chinese. We need to portray an image of a nation that never gives in petty emotions and strictly safeguards its borders. Our foreign policy is so weak, that who knows someday we might give away Assam and Kashmir to our illustrious neighbors to please them.

Everyone cries about human rights violation in Tibet. What about Kashmir? Who cares about the Kashmiri Pandits? Two million people made refugees in their own land. There is also a belief that Hinduism has its root in Kashmir, with Kashmir being mentioned many a times in the Vedas. There is a strong presence of Hinduism in Kashmir. Adi Shankaracharya himself came to Kashmir and even today there is a Shankaracharya temple in Srinagar. The word Hindu came from the river Sindhu (Indus) and the Sindhu Nadi is primarily in Kashmir. What have we done for Kashmir? Article 356 has literally made Kashmir an autonomous region. The region is highly militarized and the defense expenditure in Kashmir is escalating by the year. There is literally no productive output from Kashmir. Kashmiris are hardly represented anywhere in this country. Ironical because the whole Nehru family is one of Kashmiri Pandits. You will find even North Eastern people as air hostesses but how often do you come across a Kashmiri? Majority of them wouldn't have come even to the most visited city of Mumbai.

We keep having talks and deals with the Pakistanis but i believe i will be a grand dad and even then our Nation will be having 'Peace Talks' with Pakistan. Two Nations which fiercely protect their sovereignty are Israel and China. They would never tolerate intruders in their land. Chinese will intrude our posts in Sikkim and we would still deny all reports. All so as not to hurt our neighbor!! Our politicians will sell the nation in order to please every other nation in the world. Communists play a vital role here. I bet they would be feeling bad for the fact that Chinese don't play cricket.

The bottom line stays that Tibet and China can quarrel as long as they want to. we need not have any role to play. Support for Tibet would mean unnecessary diatribes with China. Charity begins at home they say, lets do charity in our country by doing something about Kashmir. Lets educate their mass. Let them never have the feeling that they belong to Pakistan. Lets secure our interests first! Let the media propagate the widespread injustice done to the Kashmiris. All Kashmiris regardless of their religion have suffered for six decades , violence, oppression, economic laxity and loss of identity. Let us do something for our own countrymen first!

Sunday, March 9, 2008

Women's Day - A Sham

Women's Day - A Sham

Its that time of the year, Women's day or is it Woman's Day :P Seems like there is a coterie of women who flaunt themselves before the media every year for 'the cause of women'. Funny things is that, invariably it is the same coterie again and again every year. Any social event for Women's day is marked by appearances by 'Women who achieved great things in Society' like Preity Zinta, Nita Ambani, Smita Thackerey, Sharmila Tagore, Sweta Nanda Bachchan, Ekta Kapoor and so on. Now these faces will be the ones repeatedly shown with gleaming smiles, showering praises on the 'Woman of Today'. Aah...one must really applaud them for their efforts. You know why?

Nita Ambani - Wife of India's richest man, Mukesh Ambani. Was gifted a 240 Jet crore by her husband! They have so much wealth that they need to buy just to avoid taxes! Now, with so much of money at your disposal, you wouldn't expect the lady to be at home making roti and dal. After all, you cant be always called the Wife of Mukesh Ambani with no identity of yourself. So what do you do? You indulge in media watched charity. Now charity is good no doubts but does it involve any sort of labour or effort on this lady's side? She has money that she doesn't know what to do with. She just has to dispose them! Hell and she gets awarded for that!

Priety Zinta - She made only movie last year and that too flopped badly at the box office. An affair with Ness Wadia, the heir of the wadia group would only mean social status and money. More glamor, more media outings, more media glare. Crores being spent on their IPL team, Chandigarh and all whose money? Well, investors, wadia group etc...What did she have to do? Wear big sunglasses and power suits and talk to the media as if they have just conquered Mars.

Ekta Kapoor - Daughter of Jitendra 'Jumping Jack'. Lots of family money. I don't say she has not become the boss of Indian Television out of nothing. She has done her bit of hard work. But then, give me all the backing her father gave in terms of finance and contacts and i would have achieved the same.

The other women you guys should know. Sweta Nanda Bachchan, the daughter of the biggest superstar of Indian Cinema, Amitach Bachchan and wife of Nikhil Nanda (grandson of Raj Kapoor). Do i even need to comment? Smita Thackerey, the Daughter in law of Shiv Sena supremo, Bal Thackerey has so much power at her disposal that big cinema stars stoop to being servile before her. See filmfare award functions and every single award recipient would thank her for achieving the award ! Beats me! How is smita thackerey involved in their achieving an award?? Sharmila Tagore, needless to say was and has always been in an environment of prosperity. One should see the horse races she and her husband, the Nawab of Pataudi indulge in

So, looking at all these, one wonders where is the real woman of India? One who languishes behind veils, one who works day in and day out in households as a maid earning as little as youngsters like me spend on coke a month. Where is the woman is struggling in construction sites carrying heavy loads, facing abuses of fellow men and making sure her kids have a meal to eat everyday. Where is the woman who is struggling to create an identity for herself when she tries to get a job as conductor or a driver of a bus in a highly male domain. Where is that woman who sells Idlys to make her son study at IIM?

More and more women opt for divorce and many indulge in extra marital affairs says the newspaper. The changing face of the modern woman it says. Boldness they say. Is boldness all about snapping relations and being infidel? Is that all is there to a woman? Does breaking the bastions of a male dominated society mean infidelity and intolerance to relations? Is the partying, boozing woman of today the new face of women?

There are women out there who break all odds to bring their family our of poverty by making remarkable achievements like the World Carrom Champion Ilavazhagi for whom everyday survival is a battle. They have to literally plead for attention whereas the rest, affluent go away with all laurels and applauds. Who is the real achiever? The lady who despite her husband's demise makes a good citizen of her son. The lady who sustains various complexities of her in laws and still manages to keep the family in one piece. Let us salute that woman and value her and not make a mockery of 'Women's Day'

Every day is to be a woman's day. They, as humans have equal right as all men. They have equal share in enjoying life as much as men do. The whole concept of a Women's day is a sham when political parties come out asking for a reservation for women in the parliament for reasons only they know. Why should transport authorities have women drivers only on Women's day? Why should Kingfisher Airlines and Air India have an all women crew only on this day? It is like saying, "Ok thank you for giving this day exclusively for us. The rest of the year is for you men". Let us stop demeaning women with such a 'Day'