The K-dilemmaa

There is no solace for Kashmir...Why?
Simple reason: the tussle between BJP & Congress seems to be more bitter than the one with the country across the border.
Rajdeep Sardesai's favourite dialogue in The Big Fight used to be 'Hamam mein sab nange hain', only this Hamam is used as the orgy of politics. While Indo-Pak clamour, the bullets continue to destroy the lives of people across the borders. Kashmir gets united in misery, while politicians feast in oblivion. Why should patriotism be so insensitive to humanity. Jingoism feeds only the obese, starving the unimportant fragments of race.
The leaders continue to herald newer and grander era of Good Times, the 'unaffected' continue to look upto them for 'salvation', the 'dispensable' continue to be lost to unwritten history.
Who started the war? Who retaliated? The mirror doesn't know...Acts of aggression always manage to bleed the skin of humanity. & this is nothing but a mere bruise on the ego of the Greater Gods.
When will we ever stop looking at people as theirs and ours? Cattle is branded by their owners and similar is the fate of Kashmiris. We are saddened by their casualties but never pained...
The question of anonymousity, secession, PoK, Azaad Kashmir leave the anonymous casualties of this war without hope, without remorse.
 While it's convenient to blame leaders from across the border, the shameless cross-firing that the Gov and opposition has indulged in this 'game' very much establishes the importance of Kashmiri lives in comparison to the talk of hard-soft government. The entire state is nothing but a mere pawn in a game of chess that is being played by as many players as their are squares on the board.
Let's for a shed the overcoat of nationalism, let for a moment humanity take precedence over jingoism, let patriotic RIP....let's be human again

Thank You Mr. PM

Not a supporter of the person who seats himself on the chair of PM, never will be one. But to not to acknowledge the initiative of Clean India is not only unfair to him but also to be blinded by political myopia.
Whether the step remains a short lived euphoria or will make a real contribution is to be seen, but well done Mr. PM for taking the step. From the eyes of an armchair critic and a cynic, I do not know how far will it go to change the outlook of the people, but you have definitely taken a 1st step, we need to move ahead. Very rarely do we witness an event where a leader leads from the front with a greater vision - you have done it. & nothing can take the credit away from you.
Whether things get lost in the maze of files, whether the whatsapp messages slowly fade away, a message has been delivered. Even if for a day or a week, we make that effort to participate in this drive, it will be a welcome change.
Some of the silent problems that India faces, problems of hygiene, accessibility to water, toilets - have lost to issues of corruption & misgovernence, growth & foreign policy - Thanks Mr. PM to bring this back to public conscious. The previous govt. did some thankless work in RTI, MNREGA and Right to Education, & you have moved a step forward. This may not bring you votes, but will go a long way in improving the general dignity of the living.
Mr. PM, you will not still & never get my vote, but you have my thanks for an initiative that perhaps after Gandhi, none has dared or cared to take...

Will the Journalist answer?

Dear News Media

& the wave stuck...a different person, a different setting but the same unrepentant demeanour, the same swagging arrogance.
When Rajdeep Sardesai was slapped, the echo reverberated till home and for long. Most rejoiced, few were aghast - & media paid a silent obituary to journalism.
I've grown up watching Rajdeep on NDTV, have loved him, respected him and pondered pleasingly on the Old Monk tweets. It was sad & it hurt badly. But why did the media remain a mute spectator? Some over zealous hooligans on rampage, and Times NOW celebrates the Rockstar! Where was the front page of newspaper that can zoom in possibly anywhere & everywhere? Why did 4th estate crumble like a house of cards?
That journalism had made way for 'news products', we knew, but to be so blind, so un-acknowledging to the events at Madison Square shows a complete surrender. Those involved in the incident were part of a blameless mob, but where were you, the respected news channels and publications of the country?
I represent perhaps the last generation that grew up to respect journalists, I represent a section who considered the 8:30 pm news on DD sacrosanct and boring, I represent a community that took the headline to be the truth and only the truth. You have no right to let us down. A respected member from your field is attacked and you do not even blink an eyelid. & here we are not even talking of Assam floods? If you can't stand up for your own, what is the guarantee you will ever stand up for the oppressed or even the celebrated common man?
We don't understand your compulsions to make money, we don't buy your point of becoming a Talking Tom to your masters. We want news, not tailored interviews, not advertorials, not a tool of propaganda.
Please free the journalists that you have archived in your galleries. Let them report and not be coining fancy terms. The nation needs you...