Tuesday, 19 March 2013

Post independence or post apocalypse?



15th august 1947
The beginning of post-apocalyptic chaos

Have you seen walking dead? Yes, that post-apocalyptic zombie television series. Have you seen any movie set in post-apocalyptic world? Book of Eli, resident evil or any such movie? If your answer is yes, do read on but if your answer is no, I request you to watch something on this line and then come back to read.
Oh! Just Google ‘movies set in post-apocalyptic world’. Stop badgering me.
Okay, so all of you familiar with the genre or still interested in reading, let’s roll.


15th august 1947 is the day India got independence. It was believed that the worst is over and a bright new day lies ahead for this great nation as there was a change of guard, when the clock struck midnight.
Identical to the post-apocalyptic movies. When a comet, an earthquake or a zombie plague wipes out almost the entire population of the planet, those who survived look ahead, assured that the worst is behind them and they will build a better world now( please watch the last scenes of ‘the day after tomorrow and 2012).

See the similarities? Yes? Well good for you smart ones. For those still confused, read on.

Governors are good orators, fearless leaders and have great communication skills.

So in the post-apocalyptic setting, comes a hero (usually someone who led valiantly during the apocalypse), like the governor character in walking dead. Oh just go to Wikipedia, I am not going to tell you about governor now. Anyway, he leads the poor fellow survivors into building up a new system. The common folks work hard to set up and get the system running. The governor meanwhile gets poisoned by the power he holds, slowly and steadily. He forms a coterie of his trusted lackeys while the others toil.
Similarly began the story of free India. The politicians became our heroes, a system was built as the common men and women worked while the ‘governors’ got addicted to the power.

I hope you can clearly see where I am going. If not, then either read on or quit because your power of deduction has clearly been numbed by decades of running behind your leader like a sheep.



Governor keeps his dirty work out of public's vision


Now that the governor has earned the confidence of people, he quietly carries on with his shady activities behind the scene. His lackeys suppress the truth from reaching the common folks. His trusted aides to get stronger. All this while the people carry on in blissful ignorance.
Likewise in India, the politicians kept getting stronger. They indulged in scams, murders, rapes, extortions, feeding crocodiles and all such nefarious activities. The media tried hard to suppress the truth, bombarding the people with distractions like films and sports, pointless debates and over the top anchoring. If something got out into the public domain, they were given an overdose of it before quickly changing with the overdose of another. Public has short term memory after all.


Okay, by now if you are not able to see the similarities, then I urge you to click that small cross icon on top right corner and go back to that dumb movie playing on telly.

Governor loses control and the society breaks down



Anyway, let’s take the story forward. And please watch walking dead. Highly recommended by yours truly.

Soon, in any such post-apocalyptic society, dissent begins to grow, revolts happen, factions are made, chaos ensues, lawlessness prevails, order breaks down and the apocalyptic forces strike back. Meanwhile some sheep still keep grazing the grass in the wonderland.
Exactly the situation in India and in most democracies at present.

The foreign occupants were our zombies, 15th august 1947 was the day we thought that apocalypse has ended. Hence, today we are in a post-apocalyptic, lawless and chaotic world. The governors/politicians have lost control, the heroes( read soldiers, whistle-blowers and citizens) are being massacred, the lackeys have become powerful enough to run free, the factions( our political parties) are fighting amongst each other, indulging in opportunistic alliances, defections, trading loyalties etc. just to take control of this world. And the apocalyptic forces (china) are just at our door step, waiting for us to let our guard down. Some have crept in (naxalites, terrorists, traitors, bomb blasts etc.) already.
 
When will an Alice arrive to deliver the justice?

The climax lies in the near future, but for now it seems that Arvind Kejriwal is playing the rick grimes of the walking dead. But is he? Only time will tell.




A friend of mine asked me about my zombie love. I told her why I adore zombie films and stuff. Because in reality we already are zombies. We are living but emotionally, spiritually, ethically and in every other way that made us human, we are already dead.




This is the truth and the truth always hurts.


Friday, 15 March 2013

The weakest pillar-3



 MSM(main stream media) is a conglomerate of various firms, and these firms are merely interested in business. Do you really expect them to honour the ideals of journalism like late Ganesh Shankar Vidyarthi? This here is my tribute to some of these Media celebrities whose reality is laid bare on social media, time and time again. Can you guess, which stanza is for whom?

Hi, I am a celebrity,
I scream banality,
Sensationalize triviality,
And ignore reality.

1. I ask you to face the nation,
But I can’t face a few trolls,
Cause of few hateful abusers,
I will defame the Hindus all.

2. I demand the answers for nation,
Yet I won’t let anyone speak,
Try as much as you can,
My bark will quell your squeak.

3. I am a fiery old monk,
And I tweeted about a death,
Those I blamed were proved innocent,
Yet I carry no regret.

4. I won’t reply to your arguments,
I propagate my own agenda,
Abuses hurled I retweet,
Ignoring truth for menial propaganda.

5. Yes the buck stops here,
And I love to play the preacher,
I am the lone brain that thinks,
Rest are mere loquacious readers.

6. And why do you forget me,
I am a warrior of the coal,
Did someone just say Jindal?
I must shut my hyperbole.

7. I hold my very own court,
Where all are innocent, set free,
My channel can create news,
On goblins, elves and Easter bunny.

And together we run the show,
Fooling this nation great,
Clamoring for ban on tweeters,
Who expose our dirty traits.

And if you have a disagreement,
We will label you as a TROLL,
Forget ‘hail Hitler’,
Hail MSM you all.


Thursday, 28 February 2013

The weakest pillar-2 (Is NEETPG not newsworthy?)



What is the job of 24*7 news channels? 

You will say ‘giving news’. But the question here is ‘what exactly is news?’ what should make it to the headlines? Is the story of the future of almost 1 lakh doctors hanging in lurch, not a newsworthy story? Is it not even big enough to be a little byte in their speed news segments? Is a certain actress shooting for a song in some city more important for the world to be aware of rather than the fact that every night, thousands of MBBS doctors go to sleep, or rather I must say, attempt to get a sleep, wondering what the next day holds for them?

 Now, any person with even a fraction of intelligence will say that media must do a story on the fiasco known as NEETPG-2012 but going by the media’s funeral silence, it is not news. I have lost count of how many journalists I tweeted, pleading them to listen to the woes of us doctors, but all my cries and requests for help, fell on deaf ear. Slowly and slowly, the frustration crept in and the tweets became aggressive, but they still were not enough to wake up the giants of television media from deep slumber.

The prominent anchors and journalists of both Hindi and English media meanwhile were busy in sensationalizing triviality, screaming banality and disturbing mentality of viewers. They ran their ‘agenda’ at ‘primetime’, pandering to politicians and anything else that brings TRP, all the while masquerading as representatives of ‘we the people’ and telling us to ‘face the nation’ but never actually bothering to face the truth themselves. Truth, that the quality of their circus has so depleted owing to their quench for fame that news channels are no longer news channels. People no longer tune in to them to catch up on news; they tune in to get some entertainment.
Back to NEETPG.

So a pan-India torture was being carried out (and is still going strong as on 13th April 2013) but the media was busy sleeping with political tamashas. And yet strangely enough, every neetpg aspirant ended up watching in disbelief as stories with lesser impact donned the 6-10 pm slots, while tales of their mental harassment went unnoticed, unheard. The story of some logjam in nursery admissions made it to primetime, mainly because it was news from Delhi but yet again, for some inexplicable reason, protest by doctors, held at jantar-mantar could just make it to morning news and appeared as filler in their news bulletins. They even wasted a whole day on a useless SRK controversy but none had the strength and the valor to take this issue.

Wait a minute! I am wrong, it is not about courage. The reason these media managers were not interested in this story was simply due to lack of TRP. Yes! TRP! In the end it boils down to simple commerce. The news they sell must be expensive. Who cares about what the words like truth, honesty, transparency etc. etc. stand for? These words are only restricted for their self-promoting adverts or to the end of their sting operations, where they vow to take to the story to its justified conclusion (*cough* *cough* aajtak *cough* op.dhritrashtra*cough* *cough*) and forget about it within a month as some new ‘hot news’ falls into their lap.

Today, the NEETPG case still lies in court. The doctors still curse the system, NBE, MCI, GOI, SC and every other thing under the sun for the pathetic state of affairs. But sadly, there are many who have begun to rue the day they decided that they want to be a doctor. A sense of anger engulfs them and these TRPwhores must remember, that it is quite possible that years from now, when they will be wearing adult diapers and would have stopped dyeing their hairs, the doctors they have neglected today will be at their prime and there is a high chance that they might end up under the treatment of these very same disgruntled clinicians. What goes around always comes around. And they will do well to remember that doctors are known as ‘gods’ on earth, plainly because ‘The buck stops here’.