It's Hip to be Hypocritical
Travelling around the country gives you a window into disparate viewpoints. Train journeys were the best: they afforded the opportunity to get into the viewpoints over an extended period. While flights are inherently much more snobbish, random snatches of conversation between fellow travelers are still very interesting, since the babudom mostly pretty much insulates me from overtly political viewpoints.
And here, lads and lasses, intellectuals and pack-asses, is mine own struck-by- the-blindingly-obvious conclusion : there ain’t nothing like a good disaster for us to come slavering to the carrion. So this post merely details what was left unsaid by this good babu to the people of Bharat that is
#1 These bastid terrorists! Killing innocents! Targeting foreigners!
“… eight tracksuit-clad Black September members carrying duffel bags loaded with AK-47 assault rifles, Tokarev pistols, and grenades scaled a two-meter chain-link fence”.
No, we called them freedom fighters then, they were not targeting us. What was that about sowing a wind ?
#2 Everything about the Pakis rings false. Even their denials are so wishy-washy.
“… when he first heard of these events, the official spokesman of the Ministry for External Affairs said: "The act resulting in this tragedy was senseless and condemnable. It remains so, whatever the disappointments and frustration leading to it. There is no justification for dragging terrorism into the arena of sports.
#3 I bet “they” bloody enjoy it inwardly, regardless of what you hear about them criticizing it in public.
“"Bajrangi: It was a huge pit… You could enter it from one side but you couldn't climb out at the other end… They were all there together…They started clinging to each other… Even while they were dying, they told each other, you die too, … so the number of deaths increased.… There were bodies everywhere… it was a sight to be seen, but it wasn't something to be filmed, in case it got into someone's hands… There was a video-wala there, some mediawala, we set him on fire too…"
#6 Hell. If only this was phoren, it wouldn’t have happened.
Be clear. Your reactions will get better. Your intelligence will need to get a lot, lot, better. There ain’t any way this could have been prevented by policing, however. Read what every security expert the world over says.
#7 This is a national shame. It’s the single biggest thing to have ever hit
Uhuh. It is the most publicized, maybe. Single biggest shame ? Check these out, as easily googled.
# “My appeals to the policemen who were standing nearby and watching only resulted in further beating. At one point the nun slipped away to plead with the police for help but she was dragged back by the mob and her blouse torn,” he said. The nun was gang raped in a nearby building, and he was doused with kerosene by the mob, which threatened to set him on fire.”
# “With cans of petrol they went round the localities and systematically set fire to Sikh houses, shops and gurudwaras. We were told by the local eye witnesses in all the area we visited, that well know Congress (I) leaders and workers (their names are to be found in Annexure-I) led and directed the arsonists and that local cadres of the Congress (I) identified the Sikh houses and shops. “
# The taxi drivers say they are being targeted for being northerners.
“We have to ply taxis and get the beatings to fill our stomachs,” says taxi driver Ashok Kumar. Another taxi driver, Anil Kumar, adds, “We haven't come 1500 km to fight with anyone.”
Apart from 100 other such instances.
Seller V, people. The good thing is, that though IPL and such like will get cancelled, there is always Bigg Bossss 2 or something to divert us. Scusez while I head for the remote.
so this is what it takes to get you out, huh?
Posted by
Space Bar |
December 03, 2008 11:53 AM
What SB said. :)Linking you up ...
Posted by
the mad momma |
December 05, 2008 1:39 AM
SB , TMM : I haven't even got started. This was merely the equivalent of a Twitter feed from a convenient net access point. Read some archives for what happens when I REALLY get going : ) Mess with Barkha, mess with me, says I.
Seriously, all she did was be louder and shriller (== better in the competitive context), doing what everybody else was doing. To single her out with this kind of personal venom ... unfair.
And while we are at it, can we put a TOTAL stop please, pretty please on bended knee please, to " We will not talk about spirit of Mumbai. We will not just move on" chants ? It is even more tiresome than the original "spirit of Mumbai" chants!
--> Is full of the milk of human kindness, really. Take no notice of above.
Posted by
?! |
December 05, 2008 10:39 AM
And you didn't think I wouldn't come by, no?
by the way, been wondering: what are users of Twitter called? Tweats? Twits? Both could lead to a bloody nose in different circles.
Hmm.
Posted by
The Wizard of Odd |
December 06, 2008 11:30 PM
awesome post.
Actually one of the sensible given the current ones...tells it as it is!
Posted by
Anonymous |
December 10, 2008 10:47 AM
Please Twitter some more. Jokes apart, give us some more of your travel-induced thoughts. I've been unable to put into words my own responses.
Posted by
Banno |
December 10, 2008 1:52 PM
well if you havent even got started, may i say - dont stop?!
Posted by
the mad momma |
December 10, 2008 7:25 PM
WoO :I share that feeling. I mean, seriously... microblogging sounds pretentious, but Twitter ? Eesh.
Chandni : --> Will always associate this name with a shrieking Sribaby, esp. maniacal laugh. (Thanks).
Banno/TMM : I'm lucky, I don't have to prove my patriotism.
(i) Warmongers who want a "surgical strike" against a failed state with nukes-they want us to do a Bush. On our own borders, too. With no oil to be looted, either. etc. etc.
(ii) A media that is trying to cover itself by frantic mudslinging at the poor Armed Forces/Coast Guard/NSG/whoever as substitute for an audit of their own follies.
(iii) Politicos who are spinning their illusions out of this (remember eventually more than half of the US thought Iraq had to do with 9/11 ?) Now somebody is making this out to be result of BJP's freeing Masood, other says Cong (I) is soft on terror, nobody wants a cleaning out of the SYSTEM, which is what counts.
Do you wonder that with all the targets above, I choose to flame the ffing idjits whose reaction to EVERYTHING, whether terrorism or Om Shanti Om, is to create a Facebook group ?
--> Takes a deep breath.
Ae khuda ret ke sehra ko samundar kar de
Ya phir mera dil, paththar kar de.
Posted by
?! |
December 10, 2008 9:36 PM
1.)yes, unfortuantely i have to always prove it. dont know abt banno. so cant say half the things you get away with :)
2.) love that song and those lines in particular
Posted by
the mad momma |
December 10, 2008 11:33 PM
hey ram, to get you to write one or more people have to die these days. what happened to the muse, the desire, the need to write - JLT?
agree with your (as usual, brilliant piece of writing) points. And to think that all this started more than 16yrs back with the breaking of a Mosque that no one really cared about - neither Muslims nor the Hindus; only politicians did. AND it will not stop at this...this is only one in a chain of events that will continue and be repeated in diff places over and over again. Which means the first and biggest of all the criminals is LK Advani.
Orissa, Kerala, Karnataka... what have the poor Christians ever done to raise the ire of the Bajrangis or anyone else??? Is it just blood lust that makes them target diff. groups every now and then??? It's all SO depressing. If the SIMI is banned why not VHP and Bajrang Dal? What will it take to change this country?
....god - i'm going on and on...and waited a few days to comment just so i would not rant... what was the point.
peccavi
Posted by
Anonymous |
December 13, 2008 8:49 AM
P.S.: tis just the quality of your writing that's kept you from being flamed by all the wimmin for siding with Naqvi on the 'lippistik aur pawdar' comment. Me - i was hugely amused to see a pic in the noose-paper of Preity Zinta in pretty colour-coordinated clothes carrying what looked like a fanciful Olympic torch. Turns out it was a candle holder ... harharhar...
peccavi
Posted by
Anonymous |
December 15, 2008 1:29 AM
TMM :Gam zeh yaavor.
Pexter :(a) Seems that way @opportunities to write. What to do, life intrudes.
I disagree @ Advani. A party that got two seats out of 500 odd decides to embrace a fundamentalist agenda to reinvent itself.Starts a Ram Mandir programme.*WINS*. Do you blame it for sticking to a winning formula ?
Ratan Tata decides to shift his factory to Gujarat. It is used by India's biggest mass murderer to flaunt his social acceptability. I hold friend Tata responsible. He had the money, the position, the NEED to slap him down and choose AP,TN, Maharashtra ... SOME place rather than accept this offer. He chose not to. Of course, it is easy to rant at Modi, cos Tata wears a suit and speaks polished English.That paragon of the middle class,India Today, published a "full report" on Orissa wherein Navin Patnaik was lauded as "not your frothing communalist".It is presumably OK to wear Fab India and countenance rabid murder.
"The fault, dear Brutus, is not in our stars
But in ourselves, that we are underlings."
I read somewhere that the high voter turnout and NGO-forced publicity of disclosure records has meant a record low in criminals getting elected in the present Dilli assembly.THAT is the kind of activism we need. Not lisptickwaalis saying "let us say no to politicians". Hello ?49-o ? Similarly ill-judged and stupid public rants depress me. It is the system, stupid. Read beyond the lipstick remark: Naqvi said that asking people to boycott the political process *is what the terrorists are doing too* . It is brutally correct.
Oh well, I only get worked up over people dying. Look at you, standing up for wildlife (yawn) ,especially snakes (eeesh!).
Posted by
?! |
December 18, 2008 10:57 PM
i did rant about Modi getting back to power - but in a diff place (TMM's blog). And fully agree with you on Tata going to Gujrat - it's all part of the same rant. Have wondered about it innumerable times including early today. WE have bought into the India Shining BS and are willing to keep in power ANYONE who will get us more 'things', however inessential they may be. And they also, smartly, scratch some deep down insecurities that we may have about the 'OTHERS' which is how they go from 2-500 seats. And as much to blame was the govt. in power which did nothing to stop the demolition of the mosque. Makes them more culpable???
Hmmm...by criminals not getting elected you mean people with police record, i suppose. But what about what the so called non-criminal politicians. Last year we saw the declarations of assets by many of the local politicians. It was scary. My repeated question was HOW. How do they amass the crores and crores of wealth that they are willing to disclose. Why is there never any investigation of pre-politics and post-politics wealth and a calculation of how much they have earned in between to see if "the declared assets are disproportionate to known sources of income" (i love that phrase ;0).
Baah, gaah, tchah - the animals need it more - fewer of them and have no voice or vote. And look who's talking - who tried to save a snake, not knowing it was a poisonous one and just saved from a horrible end by the luck that smiles on drunks, babies and idjits ;).
peccavi
Posted by
Anonymous |
December 19, 2008 4:05 PM
Hellow sir
if you find a good website for entertainment and fun visit this website
Desirulez
Posted by
desirulez |
May 18, 2020 11:59 PM