Devil's Advocate

There's methyl isocyanine filled in the air. People are gasping for air rarely knowing that it may be their last breath. Those who died, didn't have to suffer the trauma of living a life of disorder of the worst kind and frailty. Those who did survive, well, their lives epitomise living hell. Justice is still a far cry for them. Warren Anderson is living a life of luxury. Mothers are forced to give birth to children with serious heart disorders. Its been 25 years since the Bhopal gas tragedy. Governments have come and gone. Much water has flown under the bridge but for those suffering, its still poisonous and they are condemned to drink it. Union Carbide has since long wrapped its business and fled. Yes fled. And what have we done? Well for starters, we have continuously pacified those agitating outside the Jantar Mantar for quarter of a century now. Pacified.

Even Jesus would never

Forgive what you do

Let me ask you one question

Is your money that good

Will it buy you forgiveness

Do you think that it could

I think you will find

When your death takes its toll

All the money you made

Will never buy back your soul

And I hope that you die

And your death'll come soon

I will follow your casket

In the pale afternoon

And I'll watch while you're lowered

Down to your deathbed

And I'll stand o'er your grave

'Til I'm sure that you're dead

Boredom and nostalgia had attacked me at the same time, and believe me, its a cocky mix!!! It so happened that I wanted to get a ticket to Pune, and having nothing else better to do and missing the good old days of getting a ticket from the reservation office, decided to head straight for the same. My lazy ass retorted to the idea, but I had the rush of nostalgia already filling me up with the excitement. And so I went.....

Standing five minutes in a queue and a bit of observing (mainly the ladies-only line!!!), this peculiar thing about our country struck me. A male foreigner was standing in the ladies only line. Given that the ladies only counter is shared by senior citizens and foreign tourists alike, but such an arrangement is done because of a few considerations for the womenfolk. Now it raises a few questions, viz.

• Are foreign males considered at par with Indian women? (Due pun intended!!!)
• If they are considered harmless, then the same should apply to Indian senior citizen males.

Atithi-devo-bhavah has long been the Indian motto but I'm seriously fed up of the second class citizen treatment meted out to us Indians in our homeland which is appalling to say the least. The dollars seem to shut the brain signals of Indians coupled with our fetish for the gori-chamdi (fairer skin). Go to Rajasthan, visit any of the monuments of historical significance. You, as an Indian would be subjected to cordoning off of certain sections of the same monument of which the foreigners will have complete access. Worse still, many of them would have a policy of entertaining only foreign guests. Worst still, we will be subjected to all the routine security checks whereas the foreigners will not be subjected to any checks. And this comes off of an eye witness. This at a time when a former president of our country is subjected to security checks from an American airline. Looks like the terrorism bit has become the forte of Asians!!!

As an Indian citizen and a tax payer (to top it), I should have the access to all the national monuments. As much as or more than the foreign tourists. And stop giving the tired excuse of they bringing dollars. If the guys at tourist spots are welcoming to Indians too, I do not see why a billion plus people would not visit places.

And it happens all too regularly. Come down to Pune. Go and try getting a picture clicked in front of the Osho Ashram (yes the same ashram which caters only to firangs and Indians with deep pockets!!!), and the guards take an exception to it. As if the road in front of the place belongs to these guys!!! So much so for roaming freely in your own country!!!

I'm not against foreigners visiting India. Heck no. But I'm opposed to this idea of bending backwards and welcoming foreigners. Of treating my own countrymen as second rate citizens. What a farce.....

Gangs of New York..... a film full of gore for some..... a masterpiece for some. But this post is not going to be one of the innumerable threads which discuss the the film-craft of Scorsese, rather it's going to discuss the larger underpinnings of the movie. Of how the dream of equality of men was a farce then and how it still is. Of how outsiders were not welcome then which is true till date. Of how men feel threatened from people coming in from different countries to earn wages. Of how hoping for a better future is reserved for some.



So why do I feel in such a cynical manner when the whole world is talking about holding high the dignity of humans (?), of justice and equality. Following events materialized in the recent past and I hold them testimony to the fact that we still are living in a draconian era.

• A few days ago the news of Indian students being bashed up in Australia was the only thing media.
• Obama warning the US companies against Bangalor-ing the jobs.

So how do these seemingly incoherent mutually exclusive events link up? In both the cases the natives were threatened by cost arbitrage i.e. people from third world countries gobbling jobs because they do it cheap. What was true in 1846 is true even today. The worst part is that so-called-statesmen (yes I am referring Obama) who assume offices on the pretext of bringing about changes but what they do instead is to beat-around-the-Bush (pun intended). Even the Australian government went about lip-service only condemning the attacks. The attacks went on unchecked for many days.

So is all this high talk just a farce? By the looks of it, YES!!! The movie had just showcased the gangs of New York..... the world has many..... My only hope is we learn from the movie even if it is considered gory, obscene because Roman Polanski said

“You have to show violence the way it is. If you don't show it realistically, then that's immoral and harmful. If you don't upset people, then that's obscenity.”

And yes, countries are born in the streets!!!

VIP. Very 'Important' Person. It's a new species of humans altogether who are supposedly superior to all the other humans on the face of this earth who are, well, un-important. Or how else does one explain the 'important' tag that is fixed to a privileged few. I was told as a kid that India is a democracy. A few days ago, I checked the status of our country and it confirmed that we still are a democracy. Democracy you say? Well then what's up with this VIP crap???

As the case is with most of us in the school, I too was poor in a subject called civics. But I'd studied enough of the dreaded subject to know that our constitution assumes every citizen of India to be having the same set of fundamental rights, bound by the same set of duties and governed by the same set of laws. Yes, I've written the 'constitution assumes' because had everyone been equal, we wouldn't have a relic of the feudal past where some citizens would be important and others, well they'll be citizens who would be law abiding, who would be paying the taxes on time but still wouldn't be important.

The whole concept of VIP is highly contradictory to a democratic setup, its even blasphemous if you consider the constitution, the state and your freedom to be holy. As soon as you accept someone to be important and dole out the state's services to him/ her on a silver platter, you are doing dis-service to all the other citizens of the country who are and maybe more patriotic than your VIP.

What does a VIP in India do other than blocking the traffic for hours altogether, enjoying a state's hospitality for free, a police escort and a motorcade full with his/ her cronies, spouse, children and whatever else can be cramped in.

As a kid we all have seen movies where the now clichéd zamindaar (the feudal lord) would be greeted by people who would fall on his feet. The same scene is repeated now, even after 60 years of freedom when the state bends backwards to accommodate these so called important people.

Feudalism is not dead still.....