Best of Vadivelu – 1

Why this discrimination?

-    Buta Singh on Justice P.D.Dinakaran case – “Dinakaran being targeted for being a Dalit”

-    Omar Abdullah on the detention of a Kashmiri cricketer in Bangalore – “Rasool was targeted because he was a Kashmiri Muslim”

-    Mayawati on her political opponents targeting her erecting statues all over Lucknow – “They are targeting me because I am a dalit”

-    Moh’d Azharuddin on him being framed in the match-fixing scandal – “I am being targeted because I belong to a minority community”

Does belonging to a minority community automatically provide immunity against being corrupt and wrong? The answer unquestionably is yes. While Mayawati, Dinakaran, Azharuddin may all be big names, there are more unreported incidents involving less known/ unknown people.  Quoting from my personal experience, an employee of a public sector bank [apparently a SC/ST] was reprimanded by her superior during the course of employment.  The said employee created a ruckus and raised the caste card to defend herself against her misdoings.  The superior realizing that the whole issue was attaining an entirely different colour, decided not to pursue the matter further, apologized and closed the issue.

Now the big question is who exactly are these minority or backward communities? Is being a minority or backward a social indicator or a social status? How long does a backward caste remain backward? Do they really move ahead towards social equality? Well, there are no proper answers to the same.  The constitution of India does not define who a ‘minority’ is. Section 2(c) of the National Commission for Minorities Act, 1992 defines ‘minority’ as “minority, for the purposes of this Act, means a community notified as such by the Central Government”.  Its upto the Central Government to define a ‘minority’ from time to time.  All this means ‘minorities will remain minorities’ as long as there is no political will to get them into a ‘majority’.

The hard truth also is that minorities or backward classes prefer remaining minority/ backward for the whole of their life, the reason being the preferential access to jobs and education they get by virtue of this status.  Imagine how easy it is getting into one of India’s top engineering colleges by scoring just 60% and without having to undergo the pain of competing with those poor souls who have scored 96-98%.  No matter we are also not surprised to see the protest and struggle when such backward status is taken back. One such struggle for remaining backward was witnessed in 2008 when the Gujjars had taken to the road protesting against the government.  They had launched the agitation seeking a downgrade in their social status and an inclusion in the government’s list of scheduled tribes (ST).  They ought to have succeeded by now I guess.

Now, a question may arise on who is a majority? That is a fairly simple question to answer. Majority is the opposite of minority.  Therefore ‘majority’ may be defined as ‘rest of the citizens of India who do not fall under the category of minority’.  In short, the most underprivileged and unfortunate citizens of India. In a typical ‘application form’ parlance, all those falling under ‘General category’ fall under tag of ‘majority’.

It is high time in this country we get rid of all divisions based on caste, religion, colour, region and language.  It is also high time we realize that all such divisions are for achieving political gains being carried out by our political class by using the people of the nation as a means to achieve their ends. I know this is all wishful thinking, since caste system is as deep rooted as corruption in this country.  But no harm thinking positive, right???

Shashi Tharoor twits, the media twists

An average middle class Indian is treated like a cattle every day. Right from the bus he travels in to the dirty garbage strewn roads he uses every day, the sleeper class in trains with stinking toilets, unhygienic railway stations, unapproachable politicians, the high handed policemen, unreasonable auto rickshaws, corrupt government officials especially in RTO & Passport office, uncharitable hospitals and much more, the average Indian middle class is everyday treated by one or more of the above category of persons like a cattle. They don’t mind it and the media is too busy to bother whether anybody really minds it.

But the moment someone like Shashi Tharoor unwittingly and in good humour refers to the ‘economy class’ as ‘cattle class’, the media suddenly decides to go berserk. The great Indian media, the so-called ‘voice of the people’ and ‘repository of justice for the common man’ decides that the comment is simply ‘unacceptable’ and hurts ‘public sentiment’. They ‘willfully distort’ the unassuming twit to ensure that a controversy is created and that it fills the air time on news channels for atleast the next couple of days.

Thankfully Tharoor chose to clarify so as to avoid any further ‘distortions’. Firstly, he did not use the word ‘cattle class’ first, rather he was replying to a journo’s query on whether he would travel to Kerala in “cattle class”, which phrase he merely repeated. Secondly, he clarified that it was a silly expression and meant no disrespect to economy travelers and only to airlines for herding us (people) in like cattle. This was apparently ‘misunderstood’ by the media (sorry, the common man). It is not the common man alone who is ‘cattle class’ but also the media, who are behaving like ‘cattle class’.  While Shashi Tharoor ‘twits’, the media ‘twists’ it.

Whats all this austerity drama about?

Wow. Here’s some news. Our politicians are on an ‘Austerity drive’. Rahul Gandhi has started travelling by train and his super mom Sonia decides to fly by Economy class. So does the Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee.  Shashi Tharoor and SM Krishna are forced out of their 5-star hotel comforts.  Mamata says that she has been doing it since ages.  What next? Maybe our ministers would start travelling by auto rickshaws to reach the Parliament/ Legislative Assembly or our MPs/MLAs would start using prepaid mobile cards. My suggestion, don’t read too much into this. It’s all for publicity.

As the famous saying goes “Penny wise, pound foolish”, on one hand is this drama about the austerity thing, whereas on the other hand there exist people within the UPA like ‘Spectrum’ Raja who lays his hand on everything that means money.  There is rampant corruption across all government departments.  Crores and crores of money are swindled off in the allocation government tenders, in the allocation of spectrum, while granting flood relief etc.  The Government turns a blind eye to all this only to give attention to saving a few thousands or perhaps lakhs of rupees on airfares and hotel rentals. As always, they think the common man is a fool and rightly so.

It’s time the people of India start demanding accountability from our ministers/ politicians.  I also hope that they don’t get carried away by such publicity drives and demand for what is actually required like drought relief, improved economy, better job opportunities, effective foreign policy (especially vis-à-vis Pakistan & China) etc.

Too busy for friends?

Many people today are so busy, they rarely have time to see their friends. If this has happened to you, it may be time to rethink your priorities in life

If you’re a typical person in today’s modern world, you’re very, very busy. You may be trying to juggle a mate at home, kids of various ages, a full time job, and aging parents who take up more and more of your time. Your job probably demands a lot of you, and you may also be taking classes to upgrade your skills, and you may be volunteering in your community.

Many of us today are on the go all the time. We rush from appointment to appointment until we collapse exhausted.

One place that many of us cut back is on spending time unwinding with our friends. We often feel guilty just at the thought of taking time to hang around. Spending time just relaxing with friends seems like a luxury we can’t afford.

If you are one of those people who is too busy for friendship, maybe it’s time to rethink your life priorities.

Even though all the new technological toys we have today were supposed to free up our time and make us more connected, it can have an opposite effect.

When we do spend time with our families or friends, many of us are also tied to the computer, or our cell phone or we’re busy sending and receiving text messages.

Our attention is never really where we are. Our mind is split. We’re never really committed to working when we are at work, and we’re never really with the people we care about, because someone else is on the line.

A better, more exciting offer might come in any minute, on our cell phone, or in our email.

Many people, once they become adults, become so busy, and their life priorities are so fractured, that one of the first things to be set aside is time to spend relaxing, and re-creating with friends.

Those lazy days when life seemed to be about spending quality time with your family and friends seem to belong to a different century.

If you currently feel frazzled and empty, one reason may be that you have let yourself become too busy to make time for the relationships you already have. And if you don’t feel frazzled and empty, it could be that you are using your business as a way of keeping your inner emptiness hidden from yourself.

When we spend time with the people who truly love us and accept us, we have a chance to let go of our false roles. We can feel more accepted and relaxed when we are surrounded by those who care about us. We don’t need to be on the go all the time, and we don’t need to be putting on a front.

Yet how many people today, living modern, busy lives, make friendship a priority?

Very often, friendship is one of the first casualties thrown overboard as a life speeds out of control.

If the main reason you haven’t been getting together with old friends, or new friends you’d like to know better is because you’re too busy, take a good look at how you spend your time.

Compare it with your real values and priorities in life. Is your hectic lifestyle really bringing you the quality of life that you want?

If you have become too busy for friends, why has this happened? Are you pursuing material toys in your life at the expense of relationships with other human beings? Have you allowed your time to be over-committed because you never say “No” to anyone? Do you insist on doing things yourself that could be delegated to others? If so, why? Do you believe that everything depends on you?

Examine whether the way you are currently spending your time accurately reflects your deepest values and priorities. Make sure that you schedule adequate time for the things that are truly most important to you.

Are there any people you could call right now and be assured of a pleasant welcome?

Are these people that you could count on to help you in a crisis? Can you have close talks with them? Do you have fun when you are together? Are you happy to have them in your life?

Making the effort to call your friends more regularly, and to accept more of the invitations you receive from others, can improve your social life in a hurry!

If you really want to keep friends in your life, make a space in your schedule and a space in your heart for them.

Source: http://www.buzzle.com/

I am a victim of Racism: Mizoram CM

” I am a victim of racism, claims Mizoram CM.”

Perhaps there may not lie any credibility or truth in his claim but the larger issue that people from north-east India are discriminated on the basis of their race is true and cannot be denied.

In a country where any person from south of India irrespective of whether he/she is from Tamilnadu, Kerala, Andhra or Karnataka is called as ‘Madrasi’, and likewise, a north-east Indian is being forced to put-up with being called a ‘Chinki’, it is amusing when we find ourselves crying foul when discriminated on the same basis elsewhere in the world.

While we ourselves are so racist, I fail to understand the reason for such extreme kneejerk reaction to the much hyped media-generated concerns on the racial discrimination against Indians in Australia.  I suggest that we first clean up our houses and then may be turn our attention to other people’s trash.

Is the media scared of Vijay??

Vijay in my opinion is the most over-rated actor in Tamilnadu (never mind, he is not even known outside Tamilnadu).  Despite his mediocre looks and more mediocre acting, Vijay has been hailed as a successful actor and is even given the title ‘Ilaya Thalapathi’. All this possible perhaps due to the reason that he is the son of SA Chandrasekhar, a well known producer-cum-director and  is rich enough to ensure that Vijay movies gets its piece of cake of the movies released in any given year. 

All that is fine, but what is amazing is the amount of control which SAC/Vijay exercise over the media.  It sometimes gives a feeling that the media is shit scared of writing/showing anything that would criticize Vijay.  Vijay’s lack of tolerence of criticism is very apparent with the way things have been going on over the years. The first is his confrontation with Lollu Sabha Producers & Vijay TV for telecasting the most amazing Lollu Sabha episode ‘ Bakery’, a direct take on Vijay’s so-called ‘’superhit’ movie ‘Pokkiri’.  Perhaps people would agree that ‘Bakery’ made for a much better viewing than Pokkiri.  The apology from Lollu Sabha was perhaps not sporting, unacceptable and not in good taste.

The most recent being Vijay’s shouting at the media persons, who were questioning the reasons of his mega flop movie Villu.

Right from Gilli to Tirupachi, from Pokkiri, Adi, Pokkiri to Villu, aparts from the change of heroines to change of a few lines in his songs, nothing has changed.  I wonder why the media is scared to write (criticize) about Vijay.