Hi!
After another rather long hiatus from writing, I return.
Reading the newspaper has become a rather painful activity these days. Everyday there is enough in it to anger me and set me off with a grimace on my face for the rest of the day. Perhaps its my failing that I allow it to anger me.
I have a rather small readership so I can risk to be somewhat esoteric. I hope you do not get offended by the views I shall put forth, and pray that you discuss with me whatever you disagree with.
We get The Times of India every morning and I usually read it as soon as I wake up. I'll put down my views about today's news.
The First Page
Kalam frisked, House furious
I wonder if we will ever see a day when our respected Parliament decides to work constructively. Passing laws is passe. Do they really have enough spare time on their hands to discuss such an exceedingly stupid incident? Spending 2 hours over why the ex-Prez was frisked at the Delhi airport makes little sense to me.
Believe me, I am quite critical of the action by the airline officials. But I believe it is unwarranted to waste so much time in the Parliament when important issues could have been addressed.
Action against the airline should be initiated. But not on the grounds that it was Kalam who was frisked. It should be on the account of their high handedness and complete disregard for the laws of this land.
Brinda Karat once again rose to our expectations by demanding an apology from Praful Patel to Kalam.
By the way, Kalam did not create a fuss or complain to the ministry. Kudos to him!
Mentally ill raped girl can have baby: SC
A 20 year old mentally challenged girl is allowed to have a baby. The decision by the SC not only shocks me but makes me wonder if the honorable SC looks at the future ramifications of its decisions. The girl has been judged to have a mental age of 7-9 years. I ask you how can a 7-9 year old girl handle an infant?
Are we going to turn a complete blind eye to the child's right to a good life?
The National Trust for Mentally Retarded has pledged lifelong care for the mother and the child. Perhaps I was too quick in believing that the child might not be cared for, but tell me how would the child feel about his life when he turns 18? He was conceived via an inhuman act and sentenced to a life with a mother who can hardly provide him the care and love a child deserves. I will only venture a guess towards the efficiency of the Trust in looking after the duo.
Apparently the ruling went in favour of the mother because of her right to motherhood and because she desperately wanted the child. How can the SC give up all rationale and sentence the poor child to a deficient life?
I sincerely hope all works out well for the mother and her child. May God bless them both.
Page 5
In-laws arrested in Deepika case...
Sometimes I wonder what makes seemingly normal people do such barbaric acts of hatred? A 28 year old mother of one burnt alive for dowry. Why cant these spineless bastards go out and earn some money themselves? Why do they resort to torturing a person and at times even killing?
Is there any hope for justice or will this case also drift into oblivion?
The lack of initiative shown by the police in following up on this case shows how desensitized our police force has become.
I hope some justice is served in this case and the accused be awarded the strictest possible punishment if proven guilty.
Page 13
Chicken Halal?
This was a rather refreshing read in the article. Although I sure hope the writer would read this post, but I doubt it'll ever happen.
The dear fellow was traveling from Bangkok to Delhi on an Air India flight. He started off by explaining how he was accompanied by 8 sardarjis and went on to illuminate us all to the fact that he was in no way trying to make fun of sardarjis (He could have called them Sikhs if he really intended not to make fun of them, but then again he had to get his feelings through while still adhering to the newspaper policies).
He went on the describe how they drank a lot and were quite noisy and how he was not affected by it because he was from Delhi. Then he introduced us to a Muslim gentleman sitting infront of him.
With all the introductions covered and half the article length finished he started narrating what happened.
On the second round of drinks, my mother asked for tomato juice and got half a glass. I asked her why, she said they had just run out. The Muslim gent, too, was denied his request for tomato juice. No, we are all out! Take a Pepsi, thats what you had before, said the air-hostess . What we found strange was that two passengers down sat a White man who also requested tomato juice. Much to our surprise, the hostess reached down and out came a full carton. Our jaws dropped as she served the man politely.
Veg or Non-Veg Our Muslim friend who was so rudely denied a tomato juice had to make a decision between chicken and paneer. Chicken halal he asked. The same air-hostess who had refused him his juice then did something which I could not simply tut-tut at, overlook or ignore. Chicken halal Voh kuch savaal hota hai kya You should say Chicken halal hai Vhat am I meant to know vhat that means Chicken halal Chicken halal Kya pooch rahey ho She did not stop there. You need to say Chicken halal hai Chicken halal hai By this time, her voice was raised and she was looking around for approval. Of course, the first to jump to her aid were my good friends, the Sardarjis, who nodded and supported her. This little incident went on for a good three minutes by which time the last five rows of the airplane had joined in. Kya matlab hai Chicken halal Hahaha. Bolna bhi nahi aata. Hahaha! Eventually, after the air-hostess had enjoyed her audience, she said, Haan, halal hai, yeh leh! and rudely handed over the non-veg meal to the man in front. By this point, I was furious. All the poor man was doing was making sure that the meal was something that he could eat. My mother sensed my mood and nudged me to stay quiet. She knows that if I ever witness any kind of discrimination, I jump in and get involved. I have lived all over the world and have faced discrimination from Whites, Blacks, Asians, Arabs, you name it. To get back, the food was upon us and everything seemed to have died down until I heard one member of the group yell, This is Indian Airlines, not Muslim Airlines!
Cute eh? How he's so righteous and blah...blah...blah
I am Sikh and a rather proud one at that, all I ask you is: Why the hell were we served such a lengthy description of those 8 silly Sikhs? They did not say anything derogatory according to his own account. The last five rows had also joined in. Some guy had shouted something stupid about Muslim Airlines. The white guy had got the juice.
Then why did our dear Mr. Right launch the two paragraphed rhetoric about the 8 Sikhs?
They had nothing to do with the incident. It just goes on to show how biases have a habit of creeping in.
Let me be clear, I do not in any manner condone what they were doing. Their actions were highly uncivil and I agree a lot of Sikhs act in a similar manner. What I did not like was the unnecessary references to them and the fact that he called them Sardarjis.
I would in the same breath laude the gentleman for his secular views and join in criticising the attitude of the flyers.
Indians really do not have the right to blame the whites of racism when they subject others to the same.
The post has gotten too long already and this is where I stop for today.
I wanted to write a bit more about certain issues but deemed them to be too controversial to be touched without proper thought going into the construction of the posts.
Mostly I wanted to write about the Kanwarias, it does merit a full post in my opinion!
Will be back soon.
Thanks for reading through this!
Achint
After another rather long hiatus from writing, I return.
Reading the newspaper has become a rather painful activity these days. Everyday there is enough in it to anger me and set me off with a grimace on my face for the rest of the day. Perhaps its my failing that I allow it to anger me.
I have a rather small readership so I can risk to be somewhat esoteric. I hope you do not get offended by the views I shall put forth, and pray that you discuss with me whatever you disagree with.
We get The Times of India every morning and I usually read it as soon as I wake up. I'll put down my views about today's news.
The First Page
Kalam frisked, House furious
I wonder if we will ever see a day when our respected Parliament decides to work constructively. Passing laws is passe. Do they really have enough spare time on their hands to discuss such an exceedingly stupid incident? Spending 2 hours over why the ex-Prez was frisked at the Delhi airport makes little sense to me.
Believe me, I am quite critical of the action by the airline officials. But I believe it is unwarranted to waste so much time in the Parliament when important issues could have been addressed.
Action against the airline should be initiated. But not on the grounds that it was Kalam who was frisked. It should be on the account of their high handedness and complete disregard for the laws of this land.
Brinda Karat once again rose to our expectations by demanding an apology from Praful Patel to Kalam.
By the way, Kalam did not create a fuss or complain to the ministry. Kudos to him!
Mentally ill raped girl can have baby: SC
A 20 year old mentally challenged girl is allowed to have a baby. The decision by the SC not only shocks me but makes me wonder if the honorable SC looks at the future ramifications of its decisions. The girl has been judged to have a mental age of 7-9 years. I ask you how can a 7-9 year old girl handle an infant?
Are we going to turn a complete blind eye to the child's right to a good life?
The National Trust for Mentally Retarded has pledged lifelong care for the mother and the child. Perhaps I was too quick in believing that the child might not be cared for, but tell me how would the child feel about his life when he turns 18? He was conceived via an inhuman act and sentenced to a life with a mother who can hardly provide him the care and love a child deserves. I will only venture a guess towards the efficiency of the Trust in looking after the duo.
Apparently the ruling went in favour of the mother because of her right to motherhood and because she desperately wanted the child. How can the SC give up all rationale and sentence the poor child to a deficient life?
I sincerely hope all works out well for the mother and her child. May God bless them both.
Page 5
In-laws arrested in Deepika case...
Sometimes I wonder what makes seemingly normal people do such barbaric acts of hatred? A 28 year old mother of one burnt alive for dowry. Why cant these spineless bastards go out and earn some money themselves? Why do they resort to torturing a person and at times even killing?
Is there any hope for justice or will this case also drift into oblivion?
The lack of initiative shown by the police in following up on this case shows how desensitized our police force has become.
I hope some justice is served in this case and the accused be awarded the strictest possible punishment if proven guilty.
Page 13
Chicken Halal?
This was a rather refreshing read in the article. Although I sure hope the writer would read this post, but I doubt it'll ever happen.
The dear fellow was traveling from Bangkok to Delhi on an Air India flight. He started off by explaining how he was accompanied by 8 sardarjis and went on to illuminate us all to the fact that he was in no way trying to make fun of sardarjis (He could have called them Sikhs if he really intended not to make fun of them, but then again he had to get his feelings through while still adhering to the newspaper policies).
He went on the describe how they drank a lot and were quite noisy and how he was not affected by it because he was from Delhi. Then he introduced us to a Muslim gentleman sitting infront of him.
With all the introductions covered and half the article length finished he started narrating what happened.
On the second round of drinks, my mother asked for tomato juice and got half a glass. I asked her why, she said they had just run out. The Muslim gent, too, was denied his request for tomato juice. No, we are all out! Take a Pepsi, thats what you had before, said the air-hostess . What we found strange was that two passengers down sat a White man who also requested tomato juice. Much to our surprise, the hostess reached down and out came a full carton. Our jaws dropped as she served the man politely.
Veg or Non-Veg Our Muslim friend who was so rudely denied a tomato juice had to make a decision between chicken and paneer. Chicken halal he asked. The same air-hostess who had refused him his juice then did something which I could not simply tut-tut at, overlook or ignore. Chicken halal Voh kuch savaal hota hai kya You should say Chicken halal hai Vhat am I meant to know vhat that means Chicken halal Chicken halal Kya pooch rahey ho She did not stop there. You need to say Chicken halal hai Chicken halal hai By this time, her voice was raised and she was looking around for approval. Of course, the first to jump to her aid were my good friends, the Sardarjis, who nodded and supported her. This little incident went on for a good three minutes by which time the last five rows of the airplane had joined in. Kya matlab hai Chicken halal Hahaha. Bolna bhi nahi aata. Hahaha! Eventually, after the air-hostess had enjoyed her audience, she said, Haan, halal hai, yeh leh! and rudely handed over the non-veg meal to the man in front. By this point, I was furious. All the poor man was doing was making sure that the meal was something that he could eat. My mother sensed my mood and nudged me to stay quiet. She knows that if I ever witness any kind of discrimination, I jump in and get involved. I have lived all over the world and have faced discrimination from Whites, Blacks, Asians, Arabs, you name it. To get back, the food was upon us and everything seemed to have died down until I heard one member of the group yell, This is Indian Airlines, not Muslim Airlines!
Cute eh? How he's so righteous and blah...blah...blah
I am Sikh and a rather proud one at that, all I ask you is: Why the hell were we served such a lengthy description of those 8 silly Sikhs? They did not say anything derogatory according to his own account. The last five rows had also joined in. Some guy had shouted something stupid about Muslim Airlines. The white guy had got the juice.
Then why did our dear Mr. Right launch the two paragraphed rhetoric about the 8 Sikhs?
They had nothing to do with the incident. It just goes on to show how biases have a habit of creeping in.
Let me be clear, I do not in any manner condone what they were doing. Their actions were highly uncivil and I agree a lot of Sikhs act in a similar manner. What I did not like was the unnecessary references to them and the fact that he called them Sardarjis.
I would in the same breath laude the gentleman for his secular views and join in criticising the attitude of the flyers.
Indians really do not have the right to blame the whites of racism when they subject others to the same.
The post has gotten too long already and this is where I stop for today.
I wanted to write a bit more about certain issues but deemed them to be too controversial to be touched without proper thought going into the construction of the posts.
Mostly I wanted to write about the Kanwarias, it does merit a full post in my opinion!
Will be back soon.
Thanks for reading through this!
Achint
