Salman Khan felt like a ‘Raped Woman’

Recently, Salman Khan in an interview said he felt like a raped woman.

“While shooting, during those six hours, there’d be so much of lifting and thrusting on the ground involved. That was tough for me because… When I used to walk out of the ring, after the shoot, I used to feel like a raped woman.”

The twitterati went abuzz taking umbrage to this remark: One person asks, ‘how does he know what a raped woman feels’.  Amir Khan thought it was ‘insensitive’. Kangana Ranaut thinks his comments were ‘horrible’.  Anurag Kashyap felt they were ‘very thoughtless’, while Freida Pinto takes ‘offence’.

Such a reaction is quite understandable.  This is definitely an insensitive remark in the modern context.  Now, with so much awareness in gender discrimination, sexual harassment of women, and child abuse, these statements sound very insensitive and callous.

Yes, insensitive and callous, statements of bad taste.  Agreed.

But are these statements illegal?

All of a sudden everyone is anti-national

I have not seen so many anti-nationals in my lifetime.  It’s like raining traitors this season in India.  All of a sudden, there are traitors and anti-nationals everywhere in this country.  Like how the enemies of the State suddenly came onto the scene from within in various countries of Europe in early 1900s, like in Germany, and in Italy, there are enemies of India everywhere from within India.  These enemies of India come in the form and shape of protesting Dalit students in university campus, they come in the form of ordinary farm worker who ate beef, and they come in the form of journalists and editors. 

Sedition cases, those used by the British Empire to incarcerate the freedom fighters of India, are springing up everywhere like it’s the Spring Revolution of Tunisia.  This country is geared for witch-hunting.  All of a sudden each of us is asked to prove our patriotism.  To do that, we have to chant a devout slogan for a Goddess.  Otherwise we are traitors who will sent to Pakistan. 

And how do these traitors look? They look just like you, the ordinary people, they are your nice neighbors.  Oh! Don’t be fooled! They are all traitors, they are all anti-nationals, as the Hindutva leaders tell you.  They come in the form of liberals, the seculars, the communists, the socialists, the SCs, the STs, the OBCs, the Muslims, and the Christians. They come in the form of students, the teachers, the professors, the journalists, the editors, the book writers, and the movie makers.   They are everywhere.  They are the enemies within.  And amidst all these anti-nationals, there is only one patriot.  He wears a Khakhi uniform or wears a tilak. And he owes his allegiance to Hindutva ideology.

And there is only one prescribed and sanctioned expression of love for your country.  You have to chant ‘Bharat Mata Ki Jai’.  Anything less, you are traitor.  ‘Jai Hind’ won’t do.  ‘Hindustan Zindabad’ won’t do.

Bharat Mata Ki Jai – Does it have religious connotation?

On the controversy surrounding Asaduddin Owaisi’s refusal to chant ‘Bharat Mata Ki Jai’, Bharka Dutt of NDTV asks Owaisi, ‘Why would you say NO to a slogan which does not have a religious connotation - that simply describes the country to be a motherland?’

When I Google Searched ‘Bharath Mata’ in Images, this is what I get.  These are the first few results.

Why I won’t say ‘Bharat Mata Ki Jai’?

Another controversy is now brewing across the country.  Asaduddin Owaisi, MP from Hyderabad, said that he won’t say ‘Bharat Mata Ki Jai’. He insisted that he won’t chant this slogan even if someone puts a sword on his neck.  

Owaisi says he is a patriot, but not a nationalist (the way RSS defines).  Mr. Rakesh Sinha, the other commentator, says that a person who doesn’t say, ‘Bharat Mata Ki Jai’ cannot love his country.  Whereas Owaisi asks, do you have a problem if we say, ‘Hindustan Zindabad'? [He later said, 'Jai Hind' on TV]

This raises fundamental questions about how we view our country.  What is India to each of us?

Video: Anupam Kher Vs Asok Ganguly - The Essential Truth

Anupam Kher Vs Asok Ganguly - The Essential Truth

Should we not protest against Supreme Court Decisions?

During the course of JNU row many have contended in TV debates and online discussions that ordinary people in India do not have a right to protest a Supreme Court Decision.   One anchor even asked a JNU student leader, ‘Do you think you know more than the Supreme Court judges that you could protest their decision?’

Most Indians tend to think that a protest against Supreme Court decision should not be allowed.  However, in most mature democracies, including India, people have protested against Supreme Court decisions.   There are many examples.  But here I describe a notable one.

When Abraham Lincoln was the President, the US Government passed 13^th, 14^th, and 15^th Amendments to US Constitution to emancipate Black people in that country, giving them equal rights.  For about twenty years they enjoyed this freedom as equal citizens.  However, a Supreme Court Decision (Plessy v. Ferguson 1896) reversed most of these amendments thereby creating Jim Crow laws that implemented ‘separate but equal’ doctrine.  Blacks were segregated, lynched, and denied voting rights.  Basically, the Black man was not treated as equal citizen.

It took major protests of 1950s and 1960s to reverse the Supreme Court decision of 1896.  People came out in thousands to protest these laws.  Martin Luther King is one of the leaders of this Civil Rights Movement.

Is this ‘freedom of speech’?

Smrita Irani, Minister for HRD, in her speech in Lok Sabha, while referring to a pamphlet on Mahishasur Martyrdom Day that described Goddess Durga as ‘sex worker’, asks, ‘Is this freedom of speech?’

She then asks, ‘What is this depraved mentality?’

She believes that a group which celebrates Mahishasur, and describes Goddess Durga as ‘sex worker’ is mentally depraved and she believes such a group should NOT be allowed to express their opinion.  She questions everyone else who is supporting JNU students:  ‘Freedom of speech, ladies and gentleman. Who wants to have this discussion…? I want to know.’

This is where Hindutva gets it wrong.  Not only do they do not understand the concept of India, they fail quite miserably when they try to define Hinduism for all of us.  Each time they try to bring a new section of Hindus into their fold enforcing conformance in their definition of Hinduism, they alienate some other section of Hindus.

Smriti Irani is bang on in reflecting the true prejudices of Hindutva proponents when she accuses the group identities that have distributed the pamphlets, in her own words, “SC, ST and minority” students of JNU.   Isn’t this the same allegation levelled against Hindutva groups? That they are against the interests of SC, ST and minorities in this country?

Today I woke up in the land of Taliban

You know there is something grossly wrong with a nation when it books a man on ‘sedition’ for demanding ‘freedom from casteism’, and books another man for ‘defacement of property’ for offering ‘reward to kill a real person’.

Today I woke up in the land of Taliban – the fear that I expressed many times over the last many years.  ‘Look, I said so!’ just doesn’t cut it anymore.

The fears that I expressed about this nation are slowly turning out to be true. 

Talibanization of this country is now picking up pace.   Nationalism is hijacked by one group, one ideology, who now portray every other group, and every other ideology as ‘anti-national’.

Long ago, I wrote (in 2007):

First they came for…

First they came for the Sikhs, and I didn’t speak up,

because I wasn’t a Sikh.

Then they came for the Muslims, and I didn’t speak up,

because I wasn’t a Muslim.

Then they came for the Christians, and I didn’t speak up,

because I wasn’t a Christian.

Then they came for the Communists, and I didn’t speak up,

because I wasn’t a Communist.

Then they came for the Liberal Hindus, and I didn’t speak up,

because I was a conservative Hindu.

Then they came for me, and by that time there was no one left

to speak up for me.

Why I am a traitor?

I eat beef

Therefore, I should be sent to Pakistan, but not any other beef-eating country such as England, USA, or Japan.

I criticized death sentence to Afzal Guru

Therefore, I am a supporter of terrorism.

I supported freedom of speech to the JNU students.

I could be charged with sedition.

I believe that India is not just for Hindus but home to many others.

I could be labelled as anti-nationalist.

I don’t think my country is always right just because I happen to be born in it.

I could be labelled as unpatriotic.

JNU Student Leader arrested on Sedition

Right now, as I write this, India is under a great threat.  India’s unity as a nation is under attack.  An enemy has made his intentions clear - he wants to break up India into tiny pieces.  He has the wherewithal to take away our freedoms, strip us of our institutions, and then break up this nation.  And we are all reeling under the fear.  What we believed in all these years - that this country shall always stay united - is all of a sudden put at risk. 

The enemy comes in the form of ordinary students of JNU campus in New Delhi.  What they said in their college grounds, their threats to break this nation into tiny little pieces, has made this entire country paranoid, and India has taken the necessary precaution to stop them in their tracks.  It has used the same law that the British used to incarcerate Gandhi and other national leaders during Independence Movement.  On the charges of sedition, the student union leader of JNU is arrested.

Social media is buzz with support for the threatened nation.  They believe that this nation has done the right thing putting this evil incarnate in the jail for his threats.

What is my opinion on this issue?

Why Indian Elite Cannot Solve the Problems of the Poor – Food

The recent ban of eggs in the midday meals to school children by Madhya Pradesh opens up questions on how as a society we solve some of the fundamental problems in India.  Most of the decision making in the legislature, bureaucracy, activist groups, and media, is usually done by the elite of India, who are most often well off.  And the challenges faced by the elite in India closely resemble the challenges experienced by the people living in the developed world.  And in most cases, like in deciding the nature of food and diet for nutritional purposes, those challenges are exactly reversed between developed and underdeveloped countries, thereby putting the elite in India squarely incapable of solving the problems of the poor.

Starving India through Vegetarian Bullying

If you have traveled the world as an Indian, you will notice one thing about the whole world that is so unlike India – you would realize that all other cultures on the planet eat some kind of meat in their regular diet.   You will stumble upon the great discovery that India is the only country on the planet which has highest percentage of vegetarians, where vegetarianism is proudly worn as badge of virtue and value.  Only in India would you see people preferring the vegetarian diet overwhelmingly, wherein even the non-vegetarian communities tend to consume mostly the vegetarian food with paltry consumption of meat one or two meals per week.

Upon this greatest discovery of your lifetime you may go through a debate, if you happen to have some curiosity that your mental faculties have endowed you with.  And if you happen to be one of those Indians who grew up believing India is the greatest country on the planet and it is your mission to tell the whole world how great it is, like for example, if you happen to be Modi bhakt, you would come to the same conclusion which many other have come to – that is – India is indeed the greatest country on the planet to have found the virtue of vegetarianism thousands of years ago, and therefore it makes more sense now to tell the whole world the greatness of vegetarianism, how you are kind to animals, especially the street roaming cows, and how you now hold yourself high morally and ethically.   Like many other Hinduphiles, you will ignore the complicated topics, such as dietary habits of various castes, and instead focus only on the virtues of the vegetarian diet.

Return from a long hiatus

I wrote my first blog post on 02 February 2006 - that’s more than nine years ago.  And in these nine years I wrote 540 articles, averaging nearly 60 per year – or 5 per month.  Of those nine years, the most prolific one was 2007 when I wrote 110 articles.  And in year 2014, I wrote only six.

The last one is from 23 July 2014 – that’s almost a year ago.   

I went through some rough period in life and I guess that’s the reason why I could not make myself write anything.  And in the recent few weeks I just could not muster anything even when I wanted to – call it a writer’s block.

So, I thought I should just go on a freewheeling mode and get started, and hence this post.

Modi is in power.  The unthinkable has happened.  The Congress got decimated – Indians rejected Rahul Baba and UPA III overwhelmingly.  And State of Telangana got formed. 

'Make in India' is the theme, so is the agenda to transform India into Hindustan.   

What is Child Abuse?

I saw the following image posted by a friend on the facebook, and I couldn’t help but add my own inputs below.

The other child abuses are:

Teaching the kid that there is an imaginary, all powerful-man who judges people on their dietary, ritual and sexual habits.

Teaching the kid that there is an imaginary place where he/she will burn for eternity - for praying to the wrong imaginary man or for doing some silly human things, like disobeying your parents or cursing.

Teaching the kid that his/her country is the greatest on the planet just because he/she happens to be born in it.

Expressing your opinion in front of the kid that certain people are incapable just because of their color or caste or sex.

Exhorting the kid to study hard to get full marks in the exams, or win the games at all costs, just so that you want to see your glories through the kid’s achievements.

Preparing the kids for the real world too early whereby the kids do not enjoy their childhood.

What do you do when someone copies your post? [Part II]

I have a previous article on this topic at Part I.

Today, I woke up to get forwarded an article written by one A. Muthukrishnan on Telangana. The article was published on Counter Currents and Brave New India. And it was reposted at least on three other sites.

While I was reading it I immediately started to realize that it was the exact piece that I wrote on Telangana few years ago.  It was written on 13 December 2009 and was titled ‘Case for Telangana’.   It was 100% cut-and-paste job.  He added only one line at the bottom:

This year in June the state of Andra Pradesh and Telengana will be a reality.

And it has two spelling mistakes already.  Andhra is spelled as ‘Andra’ and Telangana is spelled as ‘Telengana’. 

It is unfortunate that Counter Current and Brave New India published this article without even making a cursory search.  The author seems to be a person of well-established background.  These two blogs introduce him as:

A.Muthukrishnan is a writer, traveler and activist who resides in Madurai, Tamilnadu

I have written to both these sites giving reference to my article plus the links to this article published elsewhere. 

http://such.forumotion.com/t8859-the-case-for-telangana-is-separate-telangana-an-eventuality

http://asiknews.wordpress.com/2011/10/01/telangana-a-brief-report-by-sujaiblog/

I think I have to wait and see what they would do.

Coming back to the previous report (from Part I).  The article still exists on Sulekha. 

Related Article:
Kaavya and Plagiarism
 

Indian movies at Oscars III

This follows from Part I and Part II.

Are Oscars fool-proof? Do they actually select the best movie and best actor?

Though we all tend to have a different opinion on who should be the ultimate winner of Academy Award, do we not generally agree on the nominations at least?  Take ‘12 years a Slave’ for example.  Most people on the planet would concede that it is indeed a well-made movie irrespective of cultural or ethnic background.  The same goes for ‘Gravity’. 

Well-made movies, irrespective of whether they win the Academy Award or not, tend to be recognized as ‘well-made movies’ irrespective of the audience’s cultural or ethnic background.   If a villager in India is shown these movies with subtitles or translations he would concede they are ‘well-made movies’.  Whether he would actually pay for it in a cinema theater to watch it is a different matter altogether!  If paying for the movies is the only criterion - then we need to consider this fact – he would pay more to watch a pornographic movie if it were to be shown in his village. 

According to me, Indians tend to love Indian movies for sheer nostalgia factor.   It is like Kolkatans loving Kolkata just because it is their home city – in spite of its extremely bad roads, bad traffic, congested trains and buses.  But no observer, however incompetent he is, would ever put Kolkata as top ten cities in the world.  The minute we start putting objective parameters for measurement, and remove the subjectivity of ‘love for one’s home city’ from the list, Kolkata doesn’t stand a chance. 

The same holds true for Indian movies.  Except for the fact that we tend to love them because it perpetuates our love for them for sheer nostalgic reasons, no objective criteria can place them in the category of ‘well-made’ movies.   Take the five nominated movies for the Best Film by Filmfare.  Bhaag Milkha Bhaag, Chennai Express, Ram-Leela, Raanjhanaa, Yeh Jawaani Hai Deewani.  I didn’t watch the first one, so I cannot comment.  The other four movies do not qualify as ‘well-made’ movies by any standard of movie-making, and it doesn’t matter who the judge is – whether it is an American, Brazilian, Scandinavian, African, Vietnamese, or Indonesian.   And if the Indian judge were to keep his ‘love for Indian movies’ aside, he would not qualify them as well-made.  

Aren’t Oscars overrated? Why should Indians even bother?

Oscars may be overrated. But by calling it overrated what exactly are we doing?  We are basking in the faint glow that comes from celebration of mediocrity in India Cinema while deluding ourselves that we are getting a suntan out of it.  A society can never excel itself unless its people or its audience seek for better or improved things – whether it is governance, music, sports or cinema.  The sports in any country improves when the spectators seek improvement, otherwise it will be a mockery event like it happens in India wherein some of the college sports are completely unwatchable. 

The same malaise which allows us to tell ourselves, ‘this is the best we can do, so let’s rather not complain’ to our political leaders and bureaucrats, also allows us to go in throngs to see extremely mediocre patchwork of untalented artists looking cute, mumbling some words, to make what is called an Indian movie. 

What kind of talent gets promoted in a movie industry is extremely important to any culture or society – because it is one institution where talent, originality, creativity score over everything else.  Unlike education and employment which are considered access to basic opportunities to live a decent life, and therefore has to be guaranteed to everyone, whereby quotas, reservations, affirmative actions are legislated or imposed, the fields of arts, sports, cinema, on the other hand, are supposed to be highly democratized and open, whereby the talent is recognized, celebrated and rewarded. 

Even during ancient times, while most opportunities were closed to the privileged classes, it was the field of arts, music, poetry, plays, which allowed people from underprivileged classes to shine forth.  Even before the US administration and government treated blacks as equals through legislation, it was sports, cinema and arts that allowed the inclusion of blacks (of course with some prejudice still intact).

How did we end up taking an institution that is supposed to promote excellence, talent, creativity and originality to completely corrupt it whereby the mediocrity is not just tolerated, but celebrated and rewarded?  Is it because it was imposed onto us, or is it because as people, as audience, reveled in this celebration and promoted it to incrementally degrade it and debase so much so that now it is nothing but a parade of unoriginality, mediocrity, plagiarism, untalented?

I have nothing against Deepika Padukone.  Poor girl! She just cannot act.  In any other country, Argentina or France or Iran or Korea, she would not have won any audition.  But in India, that completely untalented cute girl is the paragon of Indian Arts.  She won the Best Actress Award.  And that is just sad.  This corruption, degradation and debasement did not happen overnight. It happened over many years, where plagiarism was lapped up, then inability to act was lapped up, then extremely bad storylines were lapped up.  And very soon, before we realized, those untalented people and those unoriginal works, those mediocre patch works started to get awards. 

It is like PhD is in India.  It is like technology creation in India.  Mediocrity is not just promoted, but rewarded and celebrated.  That’s because we allow it, we tolerate it, we legitimize it, and then we institutionalize it.