EK CUP CHAI

I received a mail yesterday with modern version of “Ant-Grasshopper”. The ant works hard in summer while the grasshopper lazes. So when winter comes, the media, the politicians – ‘Ghaas’ Lalu, ‘Mandal’ Arjun Singh and ‘Comrades’ all support the Grasshopper and start opposing the Ant. So far so good.

In this story, I also saw all even Arundhati Roy’s and Medha Patkar’s names mentioned in support of the Grasshopper! It was only a joke. But….but!

I’m not sure of Medha Patkar, but here are some interesting facts and achievements about Arundhati Roy:

• Her family gave Shahrukh Khan one of his first films (though a telefilm).
• She wrote those wonderful dialogues for never forgettable TV serial ‘Malgudi Days‘!
• She won a Booker Prize for her first novel. Later she won two other international awards for Cultural Freedom Award and Peace Prize! Don’t forget the Saahitya Academy award, which she declined against the Indian Government policies – the same foolish policies which we know and regret. Now how many have the guts to do it?
• She was on the ‘Vogue’ cover when she was just 22, and when very few of us even heard of the magazine!

In Arundhati’s support:
I happened to read her Booker Prize winner “The God of Small Things”. It is brilliant, though some famous names tried to call it over rated. May be it is! But when communists said her book was ‘anti-communist’, ‘Sangh Parivar’ said that ‘communists’ should change ways! Later when she wrote against Narmada Dam, the same Sangh Parivar said she was “anti-sangh parivar”.

This is where she Arundhati is seen as a villain – when she sued Producers of ‘Bandit Queen’! based on the life story of “Phoolan Devi” and when she has opposed Narmada Dam!

Bandit Queen was a good film, only a good film. The director’s and producer’s proclaimed that the film was ‘the truth’, even though opposed by Phoolan Devi herself.
The links will be tell you the entire story.
http://www.sawnet.org/books/writing/roy_bq1.html

I think both Shekhar and Roy will have got over the incident and forgiven the actual culprit(whoever it was).

Narmada Dam has always been in dispute! But from when it was initiated in 1940, to when it took form in 1979 quite a few things have changed! And until 1984 our Land Acquisition Act promised Only Money to those whose land has been taken away by Government. The land acquisition act is still a big pot boiler! Thousands of people would have been left with some 10,000 rupees each, losing their land.

Only after a huge strike by Medha Patkar and Narmada Bachao Andolan (NBA), supported by Arundhati Roy, the Supreme Court has asked Gujarat government (remember Gujarat Feb 2002?) about proper rehabilitation! When the height of this dam is increased, it will submerge more lands, and more forests! I’m not sure if we will face more of Nature’s fury in Gujarat (did we forget the earthquake as yet?)

People said that she didn’t understand the drought of Gujarath and Maharashtra! But people didn’t answer why they won’t move near Narmada – no one likes to move from their own lands! The same is the case with adivasis who will be drowned because of the Dam.

Some leaders asked Medha Patkar and Arundhati Roy why there were no Adivasi leaders in NBA and hence called them Urban exhibitionists! Yes the leaders wanted someone who can be ‘mended’ and forced, not someone intelligent enough who could frighten the hell out of someone like George Bush! May be Arudhathi is exhibitonist! Foolish woman, she is trying to give life to few tribals.

A friend told me that I was thankless person when I bashed Sachin Tendulkar for his incompetencies! May be I’m thankless! But for Arundhati, I’m thankful – she teaches me humanity everyday!

We like to be judges don’t we? Now let’s get back to the ant-grasshopper story. On which side do you find Arundhati Roy?

Maybe quite a few people will support their NDTVs, their Lalus, and their communisms, Hinduisms, and many other isms in the same way I supported Roy. But then I’m just standing by a human, who cares for other humans – not by pitying them, but by voicing for them!