Propoganda journalism

Where is the journalism?? News anchors (more specifically English ones) – are just a bunch of propaganda artists.

-          What about ground reporting?? Since 15 days, all they are talking and discussing about is Kejriwal? There were 4 other (bigger/ more important) states that went for elections?? There was Chattisgarh, where people walked for kilometres to cast their vote, do those voters and their reasonings and their choices don’t matter? What about Mizoram, where INC has been re-elected nth time, and its repercussions on North East voters?

-          Channels are comfortably spending 98% of their time footage on Studio debates. Easy recipe is to invite a dozen ‘selected’ speakers on a propaganda topic of ‘channel’s choice’ – the latest one being Kejriwal...

-          There is hardly any width and depth in the news? There are only views.... views of a bunch of same 30 faces (who keep juggling channels), who keep commenting on topics, whether or not there are knowledgeable about those...

-          India as per them (as per weightage assigned by them) is just Delhi and Mumbai, occasionally Bangalore, Kolkata, Hyderbad, Chennai might find a mention if lucky....

-          Mood of the people of Delhi is being extrapolated to mood of the nation – is it?? Really?? Or are the channels carrying an agenda to carve that mood?? Where is the journalism?? Its all propaganda?? Isn’t it????

Rage

Here is the link to an article published way back in 1983, it has gone 'viral' on the internet. Its is truly a thought provoking article, and a story of true courage.

http://www.manushi-india.org/pdfs_issues/articles/I%20Fought%20for%20My%20Life.pdf

And its heart rendering when she says 'I was wounded; My honour was not '... and I echo her thoughts when she says 'I do not hate men. ... many men are victims of different kinds of oppression. It it patriarchy I hate, and that incredible tissue of lies that say men are superior to women, men have rights which women should not have, men are our rightful conquerors.

I worry....

I worry for my long term career

I worry about the fact that I am not clear about my long term goals

I worry about the economy

I worry about the slowing GDP

I worry about MNCs being driven out of India due to political stagnancy

I worry about Bangladeshi immigrants

I worry about BJP not having a leader

I worry about Mum’s skin troubles

I worry about Dad’s ailing heart.

I worry about Dad’s forgetfulness.

I worry about maintaining my romance with A.

I worry about my widening waistline

I worry about my eye wrinkles

I worry about my increasingly visible double-chin

I worry about approaching 30s.

I worry about not owning a home

I worry about a possible child impacting a possible career.

I worry about my sister getting married into a right family and to the right guy

I worry about my sister’s wedding preparations.

I worry about growing apart from my cousins

I worry I worry I worry I worry…. F**** I need to stop worrying!!

Mood Swing - I lost my cool series - entry 2 [May 09]

Is it the 29 crisis? What is wrong with me? Or maybe I have always been this way? Howsoever I may pretend trying but it’s difficult for me to be good-natured for an extended period of time. Some incorrigible part of me seems to spring up from nowhere and turns me into a snapping, angry woman. Nothing against my poor A, even I am left agape at the unreasonable and unfathomable mood swings of mine. 

Or maybe I always need a high – a high on activity, a high on laughter, a high on strength, a high on physical exhaustion or (I am scared to accept but) maybe even a high on tears. – but I always need a high. Happiness is not enough for me. I demand Euphoria. In Continuous spurts. 

I lost my cool series - entry 1

101 things that I want to do in life - 1 to 22....

__________________________________________

101 things that I want to do in life
With little introduction to the title of the post, I am going to start
typing right away...
just two things:
- These are in no particular order of priority/ relevance...
- I am probably not going to type 101 things at one go...
- (I know there were supposed to be 2 things, but I just changed my
mind). I am posting after a loooooong time, not because I didnt feel
like, but because in the effort to keep it anonymous, I shifted the
authorship of the blog to a new gmail ID and then forgot the new
username and password :D.... but (very luckily) just when I had
completely given up on efforts to retrieve it, I just manage to
recover my uname/pswd!!!!!
- (ok, I have already broken the '2' limit). For the record, I am
posting from Istanbul, in transit to Dusseldorf (Germany). I am
comfortably seated in a business lounge; and while I am trying not to
flaunt it, the real fact is that contrary to my own expectations (that
I will be ambivalent to B-class), I actually loved it; no reasons for
guessing why..... why because, I managed to peacefully sleep for 5
straight hours in a flight :)

Now, to the subject matter of the post...
________

1. Start and actively manage a gardening blog
2. Start writing poetry again. - hindi poetry preferably
3. Try my hand at quilling. I just bought a quilling kit. I think they
have just started selling those in India... I am yup so happy!!
4. Euro trip with 'AM'
5. Join dance classes
6. Learn Indian classical dance (pref Bharatnayan/ kuchipudi...) some day..
7. If I have a daughter, I will enable her to learn Indian classical
dance (dont gimme that look, I am not 'forcing' my
yet-unplanned-unborn-may-be-a-girl child.... I said I will 'enable'
her ;-)
8. Want to be a mother - well I will discuss this on a separate post someday
9. Speak fluent Bengali... I can speak in bits and pieces currently
10. I will keep my hair short n'sexy when I am 50+
11. Do a temperature-raising salsa number.... now this one is
preferably with 'AM' again; but, he has two left feet, so... I mean I
have to do the number anyhow!!!
12. Be a good manager, a good boss
13. Learn swimming... at least enough to make use of a pool!
14. Be a sexy mom
15. Sketch better, sketch extensively
16. Be good at my office stuff - no matter what I do, I should do it
well... very well
17. See Ajanta Ellora
18. See Hampi
19. See Ladakh someday, though its difficult for some undisclosable reasons :(

____________

20. I want to make a nice quilling creation
21. I want to have a garden (won't mind if its a 'potted' one even!)
but has to be 'mine'.
22. I want to decorate my garden and do up the interiors myself

101 things that I want to do in life

With little introduction to the title of the post, I am going to start typing right away...

just two things: 

1. These are in no particular order of priority/ relevance... 

2. I am probably not going to type 101 things at one go...

3. (I know there were supposed to be 2 things, but I just changed my mind). I am posting after a loooooong time, not because I didnt feel like, but because in the effort to keep it anonymous, I shifted the authorship of the blog to a new gmail ID and then forgot the new username and password :D.... but (very luckily) just when I had completely given up on efforts to retrieve it, I just manage to recover my uname/pswd!!!!!

4. (ok, I have already broken the '2' limit). For the record, I am posting from Istanbul, in transit to Dusseldorf (Germany). I am comfortably seated in a business lounge; and while I am trying not to flaunt it, the real fact is that contrary to my own expectations (that I will be ambivalent to B-class), I actually loved it; no reasons for guessing why..... why because, I managed to peacefully sleep for 5 straight hours in a flight :) 

Now, to the subject matter of the post...

________

1. Start and actively manage a gardening blog

2. Start writing poetry again. - hindi poetry preferably

3. Try my hand at quilling. I just bought a quilling kit. I think they have just started selling those in India... I am yup so happy!!

4. Euro trip with 'AM'

5. Join dance classes

6. Learn Indian classical dance (pref Bharatnayan/ kuchipudi...) some day..

7. If I have a daughter, I will enable her to learn Indian classical dance (dont gimme that look, I am not 'forcing'  my yet-unplanned-unborn-may-be-a-girl child.... I said I will 'enable' her ;-)

8. Want to be a mother - well I will discuss this on a separate post someday

9. Speak fluent Bengali... I can speak in bits and pieces currently

10. I will keep my hair short n'sexy when I am 50+

11. Do a temperature-raising salsa number.... now this one is preferably with 'AM' again; but, he has two left feet, so... I mean I have to do the number anyhow!!! 

12. Be a good manager, a good boss 

13. Learn swimming... at least enough to make use of a pool!

14. Be a sexy mom

15. Sketch better, sketch extensively

16. Be good at my office stuff - no matter what I do, I should do it well... very well

17. See Ajanta Ellora

18. See Hampi

19. See Ladakh someday, though its difficult for some undisclosable reasons :( 

..... to be continued...

Colours, brushes, palettes... .

Hey ppl! I am back after a long break – and believe me I have been planning to do this post since months now!.... And guarantee you something which you have rarely seen on this blog before!! i.e. the artistic side of me… !

Here is one of my  recent DIY (do-it-yourself) projects... (there are slew of them in the offing!) 

Embossed work on Aluminium sheet. 

Size - ~ 20" X 26" (if I correctly remember ;))
Time taken: ~10 yrs (Ya, I see your expression "!!!???"..... did the embossing when I was in school, and then nothing happened for ~10 yrs.... then one fine day so happened that my dearest mom was hell bent on proving my lethargy and she pointed this as an example to AM. AM obviously seized the opportunity and pestered me day-in-day-out to paint and mount it....  He in turn was motivated by the fact that (we think) it will fit well into our drawing space**.... So, here it is.



Comments most welcome!

The expensive gift that I didn't like :(

How is it?!, said an excited, loving AM.
Hmm, 'you tell me how it looks on me!', said a trying-to-look-excited', hesitant me, trying to hide my real emotion....

Well, the fact of the matter was straight, I didn't like the diamond pendant-earring set that I was just gifted. Secondly, the fact that we have been trying to save for our house down payment, such an expenditure seemed so unwarranted to me, esp. given the fact that I am not too gungho about gold from a fashionista perspective (its a great investment though!).

But somehow I managed to evade it.... but not for long though, an hour later as AM and me were driving down to drop me to office, he asked again 'I think you didn't like it too much'.... that was enough to start me off in clarification of 'why I didn't like it'...  and in the process I did manage to make it clear 'I DID N'T LIKE IT!' .....sometimes its so rightly advisable to shut-one's crappy opinion to self... but I didn't and here I I spoilt it all for him in so many words... :( :(

ultimately, he did add in frustration.... 'AS, you are such a difficult person to gift!'.... well, which girl would cringe at a loving 30k gold jewellery gift on Karwachauth'!! ??probably I am.

PS: I did add in the middle of the conversation somewhere that 30k could have bought lenses for my 'desired' SLR camera! .... and also managed to ask him 'how much making did they charge on the jewellery?'

A distressed Hindu

The 'secular' parties tell us: please do not fight for religion. They tell us that castes are a 'reality', so must be included in population consensus, so "Aye all, please declare your castes". but but but, "Do not believe these religious fanatics, rise above religion.... Religion is an impediment to peace & progress". The English media tells us "that the youth no longer care for Ayodhya", yes may be they don't, they are now fighting for reservations for 'their caste', well, that gets some people 'undeserved' jobs, and gets the politicians 'votes' .... The Secular parties tell us that religion is divisive whilst caste is a reality (though I would have thought the reverse)... The non-rightist parties tell us that "We owe these reservations to a vast majority of people who have been oppressed since centuries by 'Upper class' hindus"....  (and only in India, we have Dalit muslims & christians too, Voila, thats great, who says we have lost the path to innovation!.... So, basically, you convert and retain your "Hindu caste"...  But thats a debate for another day...)

 I do know that each one can have their view.. so here is mine.... I know that what I say here is what an educated, city-elite Indian is probably ashamed to say today.... I regret the way it happened, I would regret if there is a single drop of blood on the street, I do not support the way the structure was demolished.... but I somehow feel that the Temple is rightfully ours, Its not a Mecca/ Medina for Muslims, its just a structure build amoungst the thousands of structures build by muslim rulers over hindu temples....I think the secular India owes this to its Hindus - Hindus who since centuries have been traumatized and trampled by the powerful muslim invaders. Hindus who have no significant place of their own but this Bharatvarsh.... Bharat whose eastern & western sides were blown away, and the whose head continues to be pulled away by Muslim fanatics.... This time India owes it to its Bharat, this time India owes it to its Hindus. 

I do not know how it can be achieved without shedding blood, and thats probably the biggest irony of it all...  given a choice, I would still cowardly choose peace to 'my right' ...... and in the same breath, I do understand that the dilemma courts face, I know faith has no  importance in the eyes of a court, and I respect that... but if I try to look from the timeline perspective of several millenia... I do somehow feel that it would be so wrong for that place to be taken away from Hindus. So, here I am, caught in the dilemma of peace and 'what I think is right'...  

- A proud Indian and a distressed Hindu