EK CUP CHAI

The author is on a break!!!

Though I do not want to poke at where we stand, India stands in another worst list! Apart from population, AIDS patients and number of uneducated people, India is now amongst the world’s top polluters list! But this time around it has got some great friends like USA, Russia, China and Japan (this small country should start working so many hours – bad joke!).

However, the per capita pollution in India is by any means far … far from that of USA’s or Russia’s. That is the only saving part. One can understand why USA is polluted (domestic emissions including car pollution) or why Japan, Russia & China are polluted (industrial emissions). It is something of a surprise that India should accompany them in that list.

But thanks to the IT revolution and the kind of life style changes it has brought in India, pollution in India is still a factor that we need to understand fully (sorry no blaming IT revolution..but it did revolutionize the way we live). While metros and the bigger cities are obviously polluted, we need to understand why there areas that are far from these cities also polluted. (Eg: Sunderbans, Hill Stations, Beaches)

Another bigger problem for India is distributing the development of places throughout the country so as to reduce too much pollution at few places. But that means deforestation, which in itself a reason for more pollution! In order to contain deforestation, the government will need to contain population growth, which is almost impossible.

Not to forget, India along with its neighbors, by the virtue of its geographic location, has to pay for turmoil brought about by sea pollution carried out unhindered by Western countries.

But the joke is that after all the ‘development’ carried out by the various countries, suddenly a ‘developing’ country like India is asked to ‘check’ its emission. Though the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) appointed by UN wanted the world to be a better place, the timing of such a statement could be detrimental for Indian’s growth, if India has the same kind of policies.

In the end what kind of measures will India need to take to check pollution under control is going to be a huuuuge factor. Is the Indian leadership good enough to tackle such issues while most politicians are facing charges in the courts of laws?

God help India. But then in the mean time it is the common man who suffers the diseases, the farmer who suffers the losses, for whom it seems that the government is working for.

It is interesting to find that in different parts of the world, (possibly including India) people are trying to understand the thin line of difference between pornography and art. But until a full understanding comes, it is going to be yet another tale of twists and turns until the Law of India tries to define Obscenity, Pornography, Sex, Sensuality and Censorship!
Why am I saying this?

Whether it was for a piece of photo art or for a political agenda or just for fun, none of the eighteen thousand people would have expected that they would be eighteen thousand of them. For a photo shoot in Mexico Eighteen thousand people gathered in an outdoor public space, without putting a single piece of cloth on their body! (Imagine such a thing in India or Middle East of Pakistan?”)

What was surprising to hear (or rather read on news for me) was that quite a few people had said the experience of being nude in public was “liberating”.

Liberating?!

What was liberating? Encouraging the exhibitionist mentality of a photographer? Taking off clothes in public? Exhibiting body for a photo? Or did they mean that liberation comes from throwing off traditions, cultures, politics and all other feelings like ones clothes in your bedroom?

May be! May be liberation is accepting the truth, that all our traditions or cultures have for some reason covered us from seeing something beyond them.

The Government of Andhra Pradesh, India will make it compulsory for the students of Class X to attempt answering a moral science question. Wow Moral Science and one question. It has not been made clear in what subject will this question be asked.
I like this idea. It is going to be a question for students who have been prepared for hundreds of hours on how to answer questions, by teachers who have been conditioned to make their students pass exams.

But imagine how would it be, to have MLAs and MPs write Moral Science paper. Just imagine a question: What is honesty? And guess how would their answer be:

“Honesty is the best Policy. I will see to it that this Policy will be put into practice as soon as I come into power.  I have always been honest in my life. It so happened one time that  I was caught in a murder case (or trafficking case or fake encounter case or  corruption) and I made sure that the judges acquitted after 7 years of long struggle. Hence Honesty is the best policy. Honesty is power and power is honesty”

Anyways coming back to this Moral Science Question, I wonder if it is required at all. Why do these stupid policies be put into practice. The fact that our education system lacks morals is a known fact (need example..most of our leaders have studied in India only). And anyways morals do not come from answering a question in a question paper.

I wonder when our policy makers will realize it.

There is too much negativity around happening in India. Eg: The Nithari Killings, the fake encounter scam in Gujarat, the fake passports and human trafficking involving MLAs. And add to this the politics eternal cover ‘Cricket’ taking a side lane in India.

That means all news channels are covering only the bad side of India, and suddenly India ‘looks’ bad. So lets do something positive on ekcupchai.

For quite some time now I have been wondering who are the people who hold the maximum power to influence people’s lives today, and Times released its list of 100 most influential people of the world. As we all some form of bias towards someone, it is of course imperative that Times will have some Political bias. But on the whole the list contains quite a few influential people.

But what was so good to see was not just people like Oprah Winfrey, Tyra Banks being included but some one like Zen Jingyan, (a Chinese Blogger) and Lisa Randall (a professor, we could say of Physics but ‘String Theorist’).

Everyone on the list has struggled with hard work, effective work, failures and successes. But apart from those in the politics or religion, almost all of them inspire us to live a life that we all dream about. But it is these people who are in politics and religion, and their inability to distribute ‘gyaan’ to their counterparts that makes life a struggle for many.

But then, lets take the positive side of it pals. Life is Beautiful, and more so because of some of the people listed by the Times. May be we should take lot of inspiration from them and move on with life, even though sometimes life isn’t all that fair.

The Hindus call him the incarnation of Lord Vishnu. The Chinese call him the re-birth of Lao Tze. And some more followers call him one of the many Buddhas. Buddha – the Enlightened One.

There have been people who have contested things about Christ, there are those who said Mohammed’s verses of God were somehow valid in Desert Gulf. There are people who cry foul against Krishna, and Rama. And yet for some reason, most of these critics wouldn’t say a thing against Gautama Buddha.

This is either they don’t know too much about Gautama, or they know nothing about Gautama. Or may be most people believe that whatever they know of this ‘guy’, it made sense. Lot of sense. In his teaching there is no talking of Believers and Non believers, and there is no talk of God or Devil.

All there is common sense. Gautama Buddha, as he is called today, still surprises me. He is said to have invited the ire of Brahmins and Tribals for his teachings of equality of men. He left behind a kingdom of teachings and lessons. There were plots to have him killed, and attempts to slander. And yet, after 2000 years Buddha and his followers remain the peaceful lot. I wonder what he might have done and taught. Somethings that religions and followers of the world today should ponder upon.

Looks like Central India is having a ball of a time. If not all the people of Central India, then atleast those sitting in the Power are. Few weeks ago, there was this incident where a muslim boy eloped with his girl friend. And then suddenly VHP activists went beserk. For some reason this a muslim boy taking away the girl hurt the sentiments of Hindus, it was said. Result, a the muslim boy’s brother is missing.

Not so long ago, the Chief Minister of  Narendra Modi was about to be assassinated. But then there were the great police officers who killed the about to be killer in an encounter. Result the killer is dead. His wife was killed and burnt (no body knows what the ‘Police’ did with her before killing her). Now only the officers involved are in custody. Not the politicians who had ordered such a Farce.

Yesterday, it was in Jaipur. A mob (supposedly VHP/Bajrang Dal) attacked a person trying to open a missionary. What more, the CNN-IBN also showed recored versions of how the person was attacked. Whether they ‘got’ the VIDEO from ’someone’ or whether the media knew of it and recorded it without police complaint and whether the police simply choose not to react – no one knows.

Everyone knows that in  all these three states, BJP Government’s rule. Hmm…interesting twists these…is BJP trying to make a come back…well…you and I know what happened after Babri, after Godhra… No wonder…it is not just the West Central…it is entire BJP having a ball

Ian Chappel (or may be it was Allan Border) recently said, that one fine day Australian’s felt that not everything is right with Australian Cricket. So they started developing it. And then, what do you have. A team that is far beyond the reach of other teams, and a team that finds replacements to greats as if nothing had actually happened to the team. Result: It is the number one team in the world. Yes South Africa beat them once to the top slot, but only for few weeks.

And then there is this other side. A side that belongs to a country that was attacked by Nature (Tsunami in 2004 December) and that is still being attacked by LTTE. The Sri Lankan Cricket Board has had its share of selection problems administration problems. And yet Sri Lanka, had struggled hard. The beat whoever they could, and when they lost, they lost fighting…except of course Australia.

The winning Sri Lankan team has brought in a great UNITY in the people back home. LTTE had declared on Tuesday (April 24th 2007) there will be no attacks because Sri Lanka were playing the Semi Final!

Yes, it will be a wonderful finish if they can pull it off. It will be heroic.

But just north to Sri Lanka, a country that produces more money, and populace ( who call themselves fans) than any other cricket board is caught with up lack of  Talent. And then the person in charge, Sharad Power, the head of Indian Cricket Board (BCCI) makes a revelation. The revelation is shocking, because it is not only the truth but is also STUPID.

“Team Selection is influenced by the BRANDS that use the players to  advertise their products”.

The time I think is correct. Final between a country that made necessary changes accepting failures and the country  had only HEROISM to fall back upon. And then there is this country…with too much ‘easy’ money.

Well enjoy the match brethren. India never belonged to league actually!

A few years ago, I heard a politician, probably Mr. Rajahshekhara Reddy or Mr. Chandrababu Naidu or may be someone else in an inaugural meeting. He talked in length about how Hyderabad has developed over the past few years, and how the land of Andhra Pradesh and especially Hyderabad was giving great development. The word land was so often repeated, yet placed extremely delicately that in the next few years the price of the land has more than tripled in that area. Not much of development is seen around it; but the land owners there are crorepathis (millionares) now!

And then recently there was this talk about Reservation. The words were (are being) phrased so nicely that if any ‘innocent’ person would listen, he will automatically fall for it. The words were “… we will take our right of reservation…” “…why should we not allow reservations when constitution itself allows us the right…” “… having only forward castes to represent country is wrong…” “…we will take care of the oppressed…” and so on.

These make lot of sense ideally. But when it comes to reality, no body talks how have reservations helped the country so far.

Now recently take the example of Amitabh Bachchan. He is a star, and has an image. And also he has not been in very good eyes of Gandhi family (who were once his friends and now in ruling). So the politician’s have great say in whatever Mr.Bachchan does. He gets a Rolls Royce, politician’s talk how some celebrities evade taxes. He gets a special permission to visit Lord Venkateshwar at Thirupathi, ‘people strike’ and an Inquiry is ordered. There are people who ’strike’ all the time. No inquiry is ordered into those strikes. And that’s enough to say who these people who are able to get an inquiry places.

Yes the media, is there. But all the media says is this is how so and so the Politician reacted.

But funny things is how the Politician’s say, “We will see…”. What they mean is there is no point in doing it?

Great! And how many times have we heard those speeches before elections. “We will see to it…”

I didn’t want to write on this. But our courts have been coming with some stunning judgments of late that I can only keep wondering more and more. The Jaipur High Court has issued arrest warrants against Richard Gere and Shilpa Shetty for doing a Public Kiss as an act of obscenity.The court was legally correct. However, this decision falls into Obscenity category. Let me try and understand what Obscenity is defined as according to Supreme Court…hmm…hmm…hmm…after loads of research I found this, Supreme Court lawyer, Alpana Podda says that Indian Law doesn’t have any clear cut definition on this. Oh great this Supreme Court must be ignorant or is speaking the truth. Assuming that, what the lawyer says is the truth, then on what basis did Jaipur Court issue warrants against Shilpa Shetty and Richard Gere.

And if it was an act of obscenity, then why aren’t the organizers of the show not issued any warrants? Just because it was unplanned, or because their names have been excluded have been missing in the complaint. Also, if it was obscene, whether the complaint define what exact sentiments did the act hurt?

If it were an obscene act, why isn’t media also issued arrest warrant for shamelessly promoting the ‘kiss’. Also why was there no arrest warrant against those who enjoyed and saw the kiss…like the lorry drivers who encourage Richard Gere when he kissed Shilpa Shetty?

No, there will be no answers. But these are the questions that will be asked, because otherwise people might wonder what is a peck, what is a kiss, what is an act of obscenity or what is grabbing attention.