Is Rape A Game?

I am watching closely the progress of two rape cases that have rocked India’s capital New Delhi and its financial hub Mumbai this June.

Though rape cases are reported in India – particularly in these two centres – with alarming regularity, I’ve picked up these two samples because of their peculiarity.

Bollywood Actor Shiny Ahuja

In the first instance, a Bollywood star Shiny Ahuja has been charged with raping his teenaged domestic maid at his Mumbai flat on a Sunday afternoon. The actor had initially denied the charges but is reported to have said that it was consensual sex, and according to the police he had confessed his crime.

The other case erupted in New Delhi where a 35-year old woman accused the In-charge of a police station and his four uniformed subordinates of raping her inside their duty post. The woman is now reportedly saying that she was on spousal duty, trying to save her husband from arrest.

These two incidents have attracted my eye balls as, the aggressor in Mumbai has ‘admitted’ to something which has shocked the film industry, while in New Delhi, the victim has ‘given’ an embarrassing statement. How will the law advance now! But, as I always naturally side with the poor and the oppressed, I feel sorry for Shiny Ahuja’s family and the maid. My heart also beats for the Delhi police officer’s family and the woman who blew the whistle.

But without jumping to any conclusion, I feel the progress of these cases will show how justice or injustice works in this South Asian country, aspiring to be a world leader in next 10 years.

The status of women has overseen great changes in free India where a woman, Pratibha Patil, is the President while another woman Sonia Gandhi heads the ruling Congress Party. Also, the present lower house of the Indian parliament has the highest number of women lawmakers thus far, 59, and the youngest minister of the country, Agatha Sangama, is a woman, too.

Hence, irrespective of which side the complainants and the victims are in the above cases, we should not forget the gravity of the allegations in a rape case. Rape is a grave offence which could make a doer liable for imprisonment for anything from 10 years to life. May the police investigate these two incidents with great caution and may the guilty be punished.

The Indian society cannot tolerate these types of behavior. Rape is not a game. And if at all one wants to make it one, let there be computer games where a prospective victim could fight back and gauge out an eye or two or stab the would be rapist in the nuts. It can be a good learning experience.

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Copyright © 2009  Neeraj Bhushan.  All Rights Reserved. 

Please feel free to post your comments. Alternatively, you may also send emails at neerajbhushansingh@gmail.com and share your views or ideas with me. I always take the opportunity to read all and reply to everything. Did you like this blog? You may send me your comments / suggestions.

Sri Lanka: Testing Times

Early this month in capital Colombo, the Sri Lankan military showcased its finest hardware at a ceremonial parade, apparently to mark its May victory against the LTTE. But, alongside were hundreds of disabled soldiers also, in gleaming wheelchairs, reminding us of the price the island nation has paid for its 30-year-long war with the rebels.

I am informed there are at least 5,000 permanently disabled Lankan army veterans whose rehabilitation would now be a difficult assignment amid fiscal constraints. Plus, there are thousands of seriously-affected families which are yet to be supported and paid benefits. Just the last three years’ battles have left 6,261 soldiers killed and 29,551 wounded in this South Asian country. [A total of 23,000 troops have died since the first casualties in October 1981.] On the rebels’ side, the loss of lives is estimated to be 20,000 during the corresponding period.

Prabhakaran: Tiger, Tiger Burning Bright

How will Lanka then cope with the post-conflict difficulties? Yes, guerilla chief V. Prabhakaran is dead. Much of the army he built is also dead. But does that bury the Tamil question in Sri Lanka for ever? Is the notion of a Tamil homeland going to perish with Prabhakaran? It appears so, for the moment as no one is talking about the conditions prevailing in the wretched refugee camps where about 200,000 internally displaced people are languishing. Those innocent Tamils are believed to fear a nationwide crackdown on anyone suspected to have had links with the LTTE. There are already reports of pro-government Tamil militiamen hunting for Tiger sympathisers among them.

Only if the Indian Government could speak on the political and social mess that Sri Lankan Tamils are in today. Even if we’re to ignore the rising Chinese influence in Lanka, we should not shut our eyes when our brothers and sisters in the Lankan refugee camps can neither expect justice from the law of the country nor be hopeful of any intervention by the international community. It’s testing time for India too. The overall Commander of the Indian Peace Keeping Force Depinder Singh, in whose presence Prabhakaran accepted (and then refused) the peace-cum-autonomy deal in September 1987, giving Tamils everything they wanted, less independence, had said that peace in Sri Lanka was not possible while Prabhakaran lived. Now that this domineering force is no more, now that the tribulations of Tamils are multiplying, why should we fail, once again, to see the changed environment? Doesn’t a great opportunity present itself with Prabhakaran’s death? India can certainly help heal the wounds the Tigers inflicted on both sides of the Palk Strait.

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 CLICK HERE TO READ PRABHAKARAN’S OBITUARY

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Copyright © 2009  Neeraj Bhushan.  All Rights Reserved.

Please feel free to post your comments. Alternatively, you may also send emails at neerajbhushansingh@gmail.com and share your views or ideas with me. I always take the opportunity to read all and reply to everything. Did you like this blog? You may send me your comments / suggestions.

Nitish’s Tribute to JP

As the Chief Minister of Bihar, Nitish Kumar has built long-delayed bridges, re-laid roads that had ceased to exist, ensured that teachers and doctors work in their respective centres, and kept crime under control. As a result, his development agenda made waves in the just concluded Lok Sabha polls.

Now, the great Bihar change-maker is paying tribute to his guide and ‘Total Revolution’ leader Jayaprakash Narayan, popularly called JP.

Nitish Kumar can thus take full credit for announcing to honour activists who participated in JP movement of 1974 — considered the biggest anti-Congress political movement in the country. [Beginning in Bihar, the JP movement spread all over India and resulted in the first non-Congress coalition taking office in New Delhi in 1977.]

Who Will Benefit: Those who were under imprisonment for one month under Defence of Indian Rules (DIR) or Maintenance of Internal Security Act (MISA), those killed or injured in police firing and the activists who lost their lives behind the bars during the 1974 movement would be honoured and felicitated under the scheme.

Those who had served the jail term from one to six months would be given monthly pension of Rs.2,500 while those who remained behind the bars for more than six months would be given Rs.5,000 monthly pension. The spouses of those who were killed in police firing during the movement would get Rs.5,000 as monthly pension while those who had sustained injuries in police firing would get Rs.2,500 pension. The spouses of those activists of Sampoorna Kranti who died behind the bars would get Rs.5,000 monthly pension.

Those associated with the JP movement would be given some other facilities like free travel pass in government buses and free treatment in government hospitals and in private clinics recognised by the government.

The scheme had been implemented from June 01, 2009, and at least Rs.31 crore would be annually spent on it. [A total of 6,371 people had served imprisonment from one month to six months under DIR while 621 were lodged under MISA. Another 51 people were killed in police firing while 141 were injured. Two people had lost their lives under imprisonment.]

JP called for Total Revolution at the historic students rally in Patna on 5.6.1975

Political Import: While this is good news for hundreds of activists of the JP movement who protested against Congress rule and even served jail terms for it, Congress is sure to fume. The Indira Gandhi government cracked down on JP’s movement, throwing several of its leaders in prison during the Emergency. But it set the stage for her historic defeat and the installation of the first Janata Party led non-Congress government in 1977. Both Nitish Kumar and his deputy CM BJP’s Sushil Modi, in their 20s then, were sent to jail at least thrice. Ironically, the announcement comes close to the speculations that Nitish, a key ally of the Bharatiya Janata Party, was open to joining a Congress-led coalition in the aftermath of the Election 2009.

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Copyright © 2009  Neeraj Bhushan.  All Rights Reserved.

Please feel free to post your comments. Alternatively, you may also send emails at neerajbhushansingh@gmail.com and share your views or ideas with me. I always take the opportunity to read all and reply to everything. Did you like this blog? You may send me your comments / suggestions.

Microsoft Keyboard

I am just back to Delhi after visiting my home town Muzaffarpur in Bihar, where my brother Pankaj gifted me a set of Microsoft Keyboard and Optical Mouse. The casing of the desktop set impressed me a lot and today, when I connected the new hardware to my PC, I was thrilled. As I write this post, I’m excited to use the new keyboard as if it’s a piano. It’s a great gift. My fingers are doing magic; running and dancing like a lady upon a white horse. Its music. Oh!

It has been over 20 years since I am using computers; and I promise I never had such a wonderful experience with a keyboard. I must also share with you as to what impressed me most after opening the hardware pack – It’s a ‘Health Warning’, tagged to the wire. It also had a reminder: ‘Do Not Remove This Tag’. Wow! What an honest warning (read information)!! I am inclined to share the warning with you -

“Use of a keyboard or mouse may be linked to serious injuries or disorders.

When using a computer, as with many activities, you may experience occasional discomfort in your hands, arms, shoulders, neck, or other parts of your body. However, if you experience symptoms such as persistent or recurring discomfort, pain, throbbing, aching, tingling, numbness, burning sensation, or stiffness, DO NOT IGNORE THESE WARNING SIGNS. PROMPTLY SEE A QUALIFIED HEALTH PROFESSIONAL, even if symptoms occur when you are not working at your computer. Symptoms like these can be associated with painful and sometimes permanently disabling injuries or disorders of the nerves, muscles, tendons, or other parts of the body. These musculoskeletal disorders (MSDs) include carpal tunnel syndrome, tendonitis, tenosynovitis, and other conditions.

While researchers are not yet able to answer many questions about MSDs, there is general agreement that many factors may be linked to their occurrence, including: overall health, stress and how one copes with it, medical and physical conditions, and how a person positions and uses his or her body during work and other activities (including use of a keyboard or mouse). The amount of time a person performs an activity may also be a factor.

Some guidelines that may help you work more comfortably with your computer and possibly reduce your risk of experiencing an MSD can be found in this “Healthy Computer Guide. You can request the CD version of this “Healthy Computing Guide” at no charge by calling 1 (800) 360-7561 (in the United States only).”

Well, at a time when even tobacco packaging warning messages are not displayed in true letter and spirit, Microsoft is indeed very conscious of the harmful effects of computer use. Are its competitors prepared to make public aware with regard to such information being extended by Microsoft?

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Copyright © 2009  Neeraj Bhushan.  All Rights Reserved.

Please feel free to post your comments. Alternatively, you may also send emails at neerajbhushansingh@gmail.com and share your views or ideas with me. I always take the opportunity to read all and reply to everything. Did you like this blog? You may send me your comments / suggestions.

Maa Tujhe Salaam…

My Mother Smt. Krishna Singh

Last week, my mother retired from government service. She has been a school teacher for 33 years, since she was 25. During these years, she always had a classroom full of overactive, whiny and noisy students – many of whom from lower strata of society who were motivated by her to attend school.

My mother Krishna Singh’s job at various government schools in Bihar, where even basic amenities did not exist, involved standing for long hours and dealing with a defiant and rude society.

Thanks to her dedication and strong will power, not only did she complete an eventful career with élan, she was never found faulting on any occasion. Unsurprisingly, she has been a role model for many in her community, among colleagues, students and parents. For her family, she has at all times served as the strongest role model. She means everything to us and a lot to all those who have met her.

My mother has contributed so much to the society, by dedicating herself to every job she was assigned and still raised me, my elder sister and my elder brother while continuing to be the most productive member in our community. I have never come across a person with such great positive attitude.

It was really great to see her waking up at her own time, doing her own things, reading newspaper, cooking, not stressing, travelling to her school, managing money, keeping records, planning insurance, saving taxes, and keeping an excellent health. It has been great so far. She’s been able to be very active; and sort of her own boss, always.

At the farewell function held by colleagues on 30.1.2009

My mother had had her education from prestigious institutions like Chapman Girls’ High School, MDDM College and Bihar University, and she excelled at all these places. As a teacher, her best stint was at the Harihar Narayan Kanya Madhya Vidyalaya where, incidently, she also began her studies. Other schools where she taught included Nitishwar Madhya Vidyalaya, Rajkiya Madhya Vidyalaya (Muraul) and Rajkiya Kanya Madhya Vidyalaya Mahila Shilp Kala Bhawan. She retired while teaching at Rajkiya Madhya Vidyalaya Indradaman at Muzaffarpur city.

Now, as she is visited by well-wishers, friends and former colleagues, she discusses her action-packed career with them and describes how wonderful has her retirement been. But I know for sure, my Maa will never retire. Retirement will simply be the beginning of a new life for her. I wish her a fantastic time ahead and believe she’ll live reasonably comfortably enough and can maybe do some travel and enjoy things that she had put off.

Iss desh ko rakhna mere bachchon sambhaal key...

Every child considers his mom as the best. But for me, my mother has been a very very special person. In all the world, there is no other to take the place of my dear mother. We’ve laughed together, cried together. Through this blog, I want the world to know how much I love her. She is my heroine.

Maa tujhe salaam…

Please click to watch the famous ‘Maa’ song from the movie Taare Zameen Par OR Alternatively, you can also click here for the audio link to the Maa song

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Copyright © 2009  Neeraj Bhushan.  All Rights Reserved.

Please feel free to post your comments. Alternatively, you may also send emails at neerajbhushansingh@gmail.com and share your views or ideas with me. I always take the opportunity to read all and reply to everything. Did you like this blog? You may send me your comments / suggestions.

Jassigiri

Jaswin Jassi

Can you sell ice to Eskimos? If your answer is negative, you must read ‘Have Guts…!!’ and meet its author Jaswin Jassi. I’m sure if you put this question to him, he’d quip: Why sell ice to Eskimos when you can sell life jackets to drowning men! He comes up with immediate solutions man, he gives instant responses, he drives you to a new thought process. He’s one who converts a negative into a positive, he’s one who makes impossible possible and he’s one who turns dreams into realities.

Click here to watch Jaswin Jassi on NDTV Metro Nation

‘Have Guts…!!’, published both in UK and India, focusses on the life and times of a Delhi boy – his failures and successes, his grief and joy, his dreams and realities, his irritations and calmness, as also his edginess and pushiness. The straight-from-the-heart real stories written with very simple style and admirable honesty portray the variety and colour of Indian life, so much so that one can associate with the boy in the book.

The boy, who progresses to become a man, could be living anywhere in the world. Reading about him is sure to bring back lot of old memories. There are unforgettable stories for everyone in the just-out book. “If I manage to connect with even one of my readers, if I manage to guide some to a life less ordinary or make them realise that all’s never lost, all the effort will be worth it,” says Jassi. Why not, when for most of us, failure often brings shame, a feeling of inadequacy, and even rejection. Failure is one of the topics we don’t like to think about much less talk about. Most people also do not take any risks for fear of failure. “But,” he says, “where would we be if everyone who feared failure refused to take risks?”

True, history is full of people who failed but their failures often led them to even greater successes. In ‘Have Guts…!!’, the protagonist grows up to face the storm in the eye and paves his own path. Despite being treated as a misfit by his parents and siblings, he doesn’t lose hope and stares adversity in the eye, taking up every challenge circumstances throws at him. He fails some of course, but with each failure he learns. Athletes fail, but the truly great ones strive harder to win the next time. Buildings and bridges that collapse under stress are redesigned to newer and better standards. Scientists spend much time documenting failure after failure before discovering the cure that will save many lives and ‘Have Guts…!!’ teaches how to cash in on  failure, how to turn failure into an opportunity for success.

Probably, Jassi is the first Indian author to write a book without having read one. “I’ve never read a book my entire life, so writing one was completely out of question. Or so I thought. It so happened that an ordinary lunch meeting with friends turned into an extraordinary affair. To kill time, I decided to let them in on a few incidents that happened in my life. Kind of like a story telling session, just that the stories they were hearing, were all true. I was talking about my life after all,” his foreword reads. Oh! Jassi may not have intended to make a full-fledged career out of writing books, but the success of ‘Have Guts…!!’ is sure to make him think twice.

Jassi lives in New Delhi, India. His email is jaswinjassi@gmail.com and he can be reached at 9811162061.

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Copyright © 2008  Neeraj Bhushan.  All Rights Reserved. 

Please feel free to post your comments. Alternatively, you may also send emails at neerajbhushansingh@gmail.com and share your concerns or ideas with me. I always take the opportunity to read all and reply to everything. Did you like this blog? You may send me your comments / suggestions.

Mumbai Massacre

Trained to engage security forces for hours!

The cold-blooded Mumbai operation involving a batch of college-going-type terrorists has raised many questions, including competence of our government and intelligence agencies. I am, however, more concerned with the emergence of new terror tactics, witnessed by the entire world for over three days, starting Wednesday night. I am thus not only alarmed but I am, in fact, bamboozled.

This time, there is more to the harrowing accounts of survivors. There is more to Mumbai’s Hindus, Muslims and Christians standing shoulder to shoulder. There is more to Indians, Americans, British and Israelis weeping together.

You would notice that this time, there weren’t suicide bombers or booby-trapped vehicles when terrorists targetted several places in Mumbai. Their open but complex nature of the attacks was strikingly different from the sudden suicide missions seen worldwide. They were surely on a mission to kill and be killed, yet they engaged us for a long period, 60 hours to be precise. During this, they fired, killed, lobbed grenades, moved up and down, here and there, and showed their capability of creating a lot of damage and death before being killed.

To me, they resembled a small army sent into the heart of society with orders to kill and keep killing as long as possible.

Dressed to turn a railway platform into a battle zone!

Having studied at a military school, I feel that their coordinated attacks turned parts of Mumbai into a combat zone. And this zone was more dangerous because the desperate victims weren’t able to shoot back. It was more like a massacre which is more like terrorism fused with insurgency and guerilla warfare.

In their attacks, the terrorists inflicted both panic and horror; and inflicted them for a longer period. The selection of iconic targets also gave a message to all nationalities that India is a terror-prone country from which they should stay out.

There was also a message to high and mighty to avoid 5-star New Year parties and shun all events and celebrations that often make life a joy. Should we then give the terrorists what they want!

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Copyright © 2008  Neeraj Bhushan.  All Rights Reserved. 

Please feel free to post your comments. Alternatively, you may also send emails at neerajbhushansingh@gmail.com and share your concerns or ideas with me. I always take the opportunity to read all and reply to everything. Did you like this blog? You may send me your comments / suggestions.

1st Anniversary of Blogging

Happy Blogging Anniversary

When I decided to start my blog on 26 November, 2007, I assumed that few people would read it and even fewer would care. But on the first anniversary of Greater Voice, the cumulative statistics gathered by the web counter tells me that visitors to my blog have come from all states of India and many other countries of the world. 

I’m extremely honoured to be up for this achievement, and would really appreciate it if they continue to stay in touch with me, irrespective of wherever they are, whoever they are. I expect them to encourage or criticise me, freely and fairly.

I value all of the visitors and want to say thanks to all of them for supporting my blog throughout.

And hey, I’m excited about the new services I have coming soon which include new website, knowing fully well that the success of my weblog Greater Voice as a media platform shall be driven by its ability to rapidly connect with you and your ideas.

Thanking all with an equal amount of excitement and trepidation…

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Copyright © 2008  Neeraj Bhushan.  All Rights Reserved. 

Please feel free to post your comments. Alternatively, you may also send emails at neerajbhushansingh@gmail.com and share your concerns or ideas with me. I always take the opportunity to read all and reply to everything. Did you like this blog? You may send me your comments / suggestions.

Rahul Raj vs Goonda Raj; Cops Celebrate Killing

Rahul Raj is dead ! Long Live Goonda Raj ! Rahul Raj sustained one bullet injury in the back and three in his head !! All this while, the Goonda Raj (Thackeray) was being protected by a three-tier security cover, full-proof !! Phew !!!

Listen. It’s not the end of the story. Remember Saddam Hussein’s executioners celebrating his hanging, right at the spot !!! THE SAME WAY, THE TRIGGER-HAPPY MUMBAI COPS CELEBRATED OUR RAHUL’S KILLING, AT THE SPOT.

Saddam’s executioners were at least hooded. But, these men in uniform danced openly and most shamelessly, and Oh ! ! ! … ! ! ! they cheered, patted and congratulated each other. They even jumped like monkeys, after shooting down the boy.

It only demonstrates the extent to which the Mumbai police has become the instrument of the GOONDA RAJ.

[We did hear top cops declaring the killing as "courageous", as if Rahul was a terrorist or a criminal. And Maharashtra Deputy CM responded: "A bullet for a bullet."] 

I am agitated over this. Deeply agitated … O My God, Why Were The Police Dancing At The Scene !!! WHY IS THE MEDIA NOT SHOWING THAT VIDEO ? I demand.

But for the brave Mumbai Police. Isn’t it ? If they want to shoot, they shoot; they don’t talk. Hain Na ? And they shot young Rahul; they didn’t talk. They meant business. Their business, obviously, was killing. They killed our lad, mercilessly.

Uh !!!

Our Rahul is no more. Oh My God !!! He is dead, shot dead like a dog on a Mumbai street. May be he couldn’t even cry; may be he didn’t get a sec to cry. Even if he’d tried to, his voice had been choked by the sudden burst of fire, opened on him by the police party.

It were police personnel wearing bullet proof jackets, targetting the lone Bihari voice in the Big Maharashtra State. Rahul was totally alone in Metro Mumbai. No one knew him at the busy Mumbai street. Oh the ill-fated BEST Mumbai Bus !!!

But is the ACP who led the police operation against Rahul, a saint ?  Noooooooooo. Did we forget that Md. Javed is the same police officer who was arrested by cops probing the multi-crore Telgi stamp paper scam in 2004 for dereliction of duty (amounting to connivance) ? This time he did his duty. Isn’t it ?

Now, the indistinguishable Shiv Sena mouthpiece Saamna has labeled Rahul a ‘mafia’, saying he was killed in his own ‘Bihari Ishtyle’ ! Many would argue if Rahul’s actions were justified !! Many would also argue whether Mumbai Police were right or wrong !!! I am not concerned with these …

Right now, I am shocked. I am shocked at the loss of a life. I am shocked this Diwali over Rahul’s death.

Well, Rahul. I will remember you as the first person to lay down his life in the name of Bihar, our state. Rahul, you are our first martyr. 

I call you Mrityunjay Rahul Raj.

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Copyright © 2008  Neeraj Bhushan.  All Rights Reserved. 

Please feel free to post your comments. Alternatively, you may also send emails at neerajbhushansingh@gmail.com and share your concerns or ideas with me. I always take the opportunity to read all and reply to everything. Did you like this blog? You may send me your comments / suggestions.

Boycott ‘Made in Mumbai’ & say ‘Jai Bihar’ on Phone

Raj has done it again. So Laloo Yadav called him a ‘mental case’ and the Maharashtra Government arrested him. Is it enough? Nooooooooo.

Raj Thackeray and his men deserve stringent treatment; their acts need to be deprecated by everyone.

I am surprised why the Mumbaikars are silent over the Chhota Thackeray’s open goondagardi !! Doesn’t their silence reflect support for Raj’s mindless acts !!!

Why can’t their integrity be questioned as well? Is Raj actually ruling the streets or one of the Mumbaikars is carrying sticks and targetting North Indians?? Is Raj actually beating the innocent people or one of them hounding and terrorising the North Indians??? 

Why people from Bihar and other northern Indian states be targeted in Maharashtra, especially in Mumbai? The recent attacks on examinees from Bihar has crossed limits. We can’t sit idle at our homes, now. We ought to adopt all possible, legal and reasonable means.

Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar’s silence is not understandable. I can not talk on his behalf, as he is a politician. But, I can certainly speak on behalf of my fellow Biharis.

May I therefore appeal to my people from Bihar to boycott all products Made in Maharashtra. This must include Bollywood Movies. And listen, when you pick your phone, please do not say ‘Hello’. Instead, say: “Jai Bihar”.

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Copyright © 2008  Neeraj Bhushan.  All Rights Reserved. 

Please feel free to post your comments. Alternatively, you may also send emails at neerajbhushansingh@gmail.com and share your concerns or ideas with me. I always take the opportunity to read all and reply to everything. Did you like this blog? You may send me your comments / suggestions.

Another Defeat

I have just tasted defeat, another defeat. This time at the Press Club elections, wherein I stood for Vice President.

Though I was not sure of my victory, still the number of votes cast in my favour is too humiliating to be mentioned, in comparison to those who won. I admit it’s my worst defeat, ever, in any elections.

A similar defeat ridiculed me at the Delhi Union of Journalist (DUJ) elections in 2006 when I contested for the post of General Secretary. True, being popular is one thing and winning elections the other. At both places – the Press Club & the DUJ – I had intervened in a war between the members, persuading them to come to terms; to protect these great institutions.

However, on both occasions, I lost; and I lost miserably. A cause was lost too.

Six months after the DUJ elections, I resigned its membership, feeling insulted. Can’t say if I would surrender my Club membership this time.

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 Copyright © 2008  Neeraj Bhushan.  All Rights Reserved. 

Please feel free to post your comments. Alternatively, you may also send emails at neerajbhushansingh@gmail.com and share your concerns or ideas with me. I always take the opportunity to read all and reply to everything. Did you like this blog? You may send me your comments / suggestions.

Act of God

One of my friends is a busy RJ. She lives in music. Still, she writes to me often. Recently, she sent me this out of the ordinary story:

In a small town, a person decided to open up a liquor shop, which was right opposite to a church.

The church and its congregation started a campaign to block the liquor shop from opening with petitions and prayed daily against his business.

Work progressed. However, when it was almost complete and was about to open a few days later, a strong lightning struck the liquor shop and it was burnt to the ground.

The church folks were rather smug in their outlook after that, till the liquor owner sued the church authorities on the grounds that the church through its congregation and prayers was ultimately responsible for the destruction of his liquor shop, either through direct or indirect actions or means.

In its reply to the court, the church vehemently denied all responsibility or any connection that their prayers were reasons for the act of God. As the case made its way into court, the judge looked over the paperwork at the hearing and commented:

‘I don’t know how I’m going to decide this case, but it appears from the paperwork, we have a liquor shop owner who believes in the power of prayer and we have an entire church that doesn’t.’

The above story compelled me to explore contextual messages in our faith, wherein I found Lord Krishna saying in Bhagawad Gita:

“If any worshipper do reverence with faith

to any god whatever,

I make his faith firm,

and in that faith he reverences his god,

and gains his desires,

for it is I who bestow them.”

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Copyright © 2008  Neeraj Bhushan.  All Rights Reserved. 

Please feel free to post your comments. Alternatively, you may also send emails at neerajbhushansingh@gmail.com and share your concerns or ideas with me. I always take the opportunity to read all and reply to everything. Did you like this blog? You may send me your comments / suggestions.

Thank You All

Last fortnight was awful. First, I lost my pen drive; losing some key data. Then my mobile sim card got damaged; and a lot of contacts were lost. Finally, my basic email id with hotmail was hacked. 

Would I ever forget this rough time! Certainly not. But at the same time, there were friends (read angels) who extended all possible help and assistance during this period. Would I ever forget their gestures!! Never. I thank each of them through this post. Thank you. Thank you all. Thank you very much.

The good news is that I have got my hotmail account back. So I also thank the hotmail staff for restoring my original mail account. In the meantime, I had switched over to gmail, which mail id will continue to operate.

I love you all. 

Sant Shri Asaramji Bapu

Sant Shri Asaramji, endearingly called ‘Bapu’, gave me some of his precious moments the other day at the Rajokri Ashram in Delhi, just ahead of a pious dissertation coinciding with the inauguration of a commune in Canada.

Just two months back, I had a one-to-one session with Bapu, when he refused to ‘keep’ a white envelope (containing some offerings from me), saying: “Nahin, nahin. Issey apney paas hi rakho“, as if he was acquainted with the fact that I did not have adequate source of income. Quickly, realising that I might be disenchanted, as my offerings had not been ‘accepted’, Bapu said: “Samjho mainey le liya. Tumhey iskee jyaada jaroorat hai“. I was dumbfounded. 

This time, however, my interaction with Bapu was different. It was like chalk and cheese, with lots of media noise and hullabaloo surrounding him, following the death of four children in quick succession at two separate institutions run by him in Ahmedabad and Chhindwara.

It was totally a different session with Sant Shri Asaramji Bapu whose advent, I feel, was a historical necessity.

Though Bapu’s works – mainly spiritual, moral and social - have greatly benefitted the media as well, yet a section of the media, as I found, was engaging itself in mindless mudslinging at him. Mindless? Yes, mindless because the allegations, on the face of it, appear to be totally false, fictitious and vexatious. How could you link Bapu with the deaths of the children? And that too without any basis. Ooooh!!! Freedom of press does not mean freedom of purse. Who is funding such a malicious campaign?

Myself a media man, I feel ashamed to be part of such a fraternity that totally ignored the basic tenets of journalism – both newspaper and television – while reporting on the Aarushi murder very recently. And, as if it was not enough, it is now malafidely taunting Bapu as a criminal; while Bapu, all these times, has been taking all and sundry to a spiritual journey. Whomsoever I encounter, admit that he has experienced a change in his attitude towards life and has gained a new self-confidence, inner peace, equanimity and freedom from stress after being associated with Bapu. No exceptions. Even the father of one of the deceased, whom I met later on, did not seem to nurse any grudge or ill-feeling against Bapu or the organisations run by him.

Bapu is a phenomenon, an observable fact, a movement and I am sure truth shall prevail. His discourses are interspersed with bhajan, kirtan, stories based on scriptures like Srimad Bhagvat Geeta, Upanishads, instances taken from day to day life, Vedanta explained in simple words, tips on natural healthy living, yoga and other jewels of wisdom. Why paint him like this?

Probably, many see Bapu as their rival and appear desperate for an opportunity for themselves in the deaths of innocent children. Shame on them and shame on the section of the media as well which deliberately did not care for the sentiments of the people while presenting totally biased views and one-sided versions of the stories revolving around Sant Shri Asaramji Bapu and his Ashram, without any objectivity.

The mysterious deaths of the children are no doubt serious. So was the death of Aarushi. Remember how the media handled the Aarushi murder!!! Her father, at the very outset, was projected as her killer and was even sent to jail. As a result, father-daughter relationship tumbled at every home. This time, the media is branding Sant Shri Asaramji Bapu as a tantrik and even holding him responsible for the death of four innocent boys. Will now the age-old guru-shishya tradition cave in? This cannot be allowed.

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Copyright © 2008  Neeraj Bhushan.  All Rights Reserved. 

Please feel free to post your comments. Alternatively, you may also send emails at neerajbhushansingh@gmail.com and share your concerns or ideas with me. I always take the opportunity to read all and reply to everything. Did you like this blog? You may send me your comments / suggestions.

Tum itna kyun muskura rahe ho…

A friend greeting Prof. Bhatia on his 84th birthday.

There is so much of youth in Prof. Bhatia – the 84-year-old young man.

No wonder, his friends arrange his each birthday with gusto, some of them even aspiring to learn the tricks he plays with life. But, every time Prof. Bhatia dodges their queries, leaving all at sea. I am lucky, as he recently budged to my persistent quizzing.

“What gets you kicking Professor?” I kept asking him for over three months. One fine day, he yielded: “A game of football and divine imagination.”

No. There are so many things other than these which keep Prof. Bhatia erect.

He is a fantastic human being and an out of this world poet. A good chess player too and a veteran footballer, though he played almost all indoor and outdoor games in his youth.

To me, he is an invaluable friend. I have always seen him smiling, and extending his scrawny right hand to all who choose to wish or ignore him.

Born at Dera Ismail Khan, Pakistan, Prof. Neb Raj Bhatia migrated to India a couple of months before India became independent. Starting from the scratch as a typist, he got himself educated in French, Spanish, German, Italian, Portuguese, Urdu and Persian besides doing his B.A. with French and M.A. in English Literature from Punjab University Camp College, New Delhi which took him to various countries across the globe.

He got First Rank in an All-India Competitive Examination for selection of French Translators held by UPSC in 1955, joined in that capacity DGP&T, New Delhi and in the following year, i.e. 1956, he was awarded a two-year scholarship to study Spanish Language and Literature and went to Spain where he also studied Portuguese. On his return to India in 1958, he followed courses in German and Italian. In 1959, he was deputed as a part-time teacher to teach Spanish at Bhartiya Vidya Bhawan, New Delhi. In 1963, he established Diploma Course in Spanish at Delhi University and also taught French and Spanish at Indian Institute of Foreign Trade, New Delhi. He taught these two languages for five decades. Lately, at the age of 80 years, he has done a diploma Course in Persian at the Iran Cultural Centre, New Delhi.

Again in 1969, he stood First in a competitive test for French-English translators held by the International Bureau, Universal Postal Union, Bern (Switzerland) and went to Tokyo to work for 45 days during the sessions of the XVI UPU Congress.

Before his voluntary retirement from government service in 1977, he worked as a simultaneous and consecutive interpreter/translator in international conferences and also accompanied high dignatories visiting India to various universities, institutions and industrial installations in India. After his retirement, he established ACTIVOS (Multi-lingual People) and covered 250 international conferences as interpreter-translator in India and abroad.

Because of his literary pursuits in English, French, Spanish, Italian, Hindi and Urdu, he won laurels as he took part in several poetic symposia (mushairas) in India and abroad. In 1994, he was sponsored by the Indian Council for Cultural Relations (ICCR), New Delhi, to participate in poetic symposia in Medellin and Bogota (Colombia), where he recited his Spanish verses among 70 Spanish-speaking poets to the great applause from the audience.

The “Spanish Professor”, as he is called, also worked as interpreter-cum-translator with some top Indian leaders including Indira Gandhi whom he refused to give tuitions, saying: “One cannot create the class room atmosphere of teaching and learning in a wealthy person’s living room. You have to come to my class.”

Presently, I believe, he has more than a few ailments including asthma, but that does not deter him from taking his regular dose of three-to-four pegs of whisky, while his all time buddy – a hat – silently keeps an eye on him. Surely, Prof. Bhatia seems to have taken more from alcohol than alcohol has taken from him. Today, as I wait for his collection of Urdu poems “Awaargi” (The Wanderlust) and his Spanish poetic anthology “El Wanderlust y otros poemas”, may I put to the professor the famous lines from the film Arth (Meaning):

“Tum itna jo muskura rahe ho; Kya gam hai jisko chhupa rahe ho… Tum itna jo muskura rahe ho… Aankhon mein nami, Hansi labon par; Kya haal hai, Kya dikha rahe ho… Ban jayenge zahar peete peete; Yeh ashk jo peeye ja rahe ho… Tum itna jo muskura rahe ho…“

(Why are you smiling so much?What is the affliction that you’re hiding? You’re smiling so much… Your eyes are wet, but a smile plays on your lips! What’s your state of mind? What you’re showing? The tears that you’re drinking will soon turn into poison. Why are you smiling so much…?)

Prof. Bhatia lives in New Delhi, India. His mobile number is 9873357056.

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Copyright © 2008  Neeraj Bhushan.  All Rights Reserved.

Please feel free to post your comments. Alternatively, you may also send emails at neerajbhushansingh@gmail.com and share your concerns or ideas with me. I always take the opportunity to read all and reply to everything. Did you like this blog? Send me your comments, suggestions, etc. please.

app2us.com – A Free Service 2 US Varsities

Applying to U.S. Universities

Students desirous of studying in the US have something to cheer.

A California-based website app2us.com is providing personalised guidance for reaching to the US Universities. And they are doing it for free. There is no hidden cost even. I have checked it. 

app2us.com is helping students in test preparation, university selection, finding sources of funding, and even deciding on multiple admission offers.

According to its Vice President Ms Harshita, app2us.com is a self-funded venture by a group of IIT-graduates who believe in giving back to the society. ”Hence this website, which is aimed at fulfilling the need of students to get help in applying to US Universities, and get the help free of cost,” she says, claiming that app2us.com has already helped over 500 students in the past one year. “The users of the site are headed to the top US Universities like Carnegie Mellon University, Stanford University, Johns Hopkins University, and George Washington University in the fall of 2008.”

Hang on! The site also features a blog at www.app2us.com/blog, which is leading the ongoing vote at the 2008 Blogger’s Choice Award, as the best blog in the world in the Education category.

Photo Travelling with Tanya-Vera

One is beautiful, the other vivacious. One is 26, the other 28. When one talks, the other beams. They are two wonderful, yet timid, photo-travellers from Russia – Vera and Tatiana. 

Together, they have been capturing the essence of life and beauty of nature from Ladakh to Orissa for over nine months now. “We are privileged to see the real India, something we always wanted to,” says Vera Adler, the younger of the two; with her friend Tatiana Makarenko joining her quickly: “We feel so energized having seen and captured some very great moments.” 

Smiling, as found in all their pix posted on Vera’s Russian website and Tatiana’s Russian website, they are holding a photo exhibition at the Press Club of India, New Delhi. They welcome you with ‘Namaste’ if greeted and leave you mesmerized with their brilliant work. The exposition ‘India – My Love’ is worth recommending. I bet you will be tempted to buy many of their works, priced very fairly. “Even this Rs.500 means so much for us,” they concede. 

“Why India?” I put to them through separate e-mails, after appreciating their lens work earlier in the day. “Because, it is a sacred country and the finest example of unity in diversity,” said Vera. “We have experienced it, we are experiencing a new India everyday.” Tanya qualified her statements: “Oh! I have fallen in love with India. It’s a great land. No picture album would be enough to capture its beauty. Our exhibition is an attempt to showcase the “Incredible India” as seen through our lens”.  

After seeing the natural beauty featured on their work, I am sure, your mind will be travelling from Ladakh to Orissa, and you will discuss what needs to be done for promotion of their travel photos.

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Copyright © 2008  Neeraj Bhushan.  All Rights Reserved. 

Please feel free to post your comments. Alternatively, you may also send emails at neerajbhushansingh@gmail.com and share your concerns or ideas with me. I always take the opportunity to read all and reply to everything. Did you like this blog? Send me your comments, suggestions, etc. please.

The other side of Jaya Jaitley

Jaya Jaitley, a former politician, is a hothead activist. As a pioneer of the handicrafts movement in India, her most enduring contribution to the national capital is ‘Dilli Haat’ and now she has aptly taken up a new task… from craft revival to magazine revival.

‘the OtherSide’, as the monthly is called, is now in the hands of Jaya who has to find a devoted readership while brandishing socialist thought and action, which tasks come to her a decade after the journal had stopped publication. She is the new Editor, Publisher and Printer with former Defence Minister George Fernandes being the chairman of the editorial board and also her USP.

The journal aims to be part of people’s struggle in India. “At the same time, it is involved in the search for new ideas to illumine humanity’s path towards a more purposeful and rewarding life,” it declares. It is willing to accept ideas and contributions from all ideologies that promote equality in society.

Uncompromising as Jaya is, I will wait for ‘the OtherSide’ to establish as a forceful and indispensable monthly diary to be personally overseen by her. “I personally design the layout and select the colours every month to prove that being political does not mean dull. This alone should attract readers,” she says, adding “I handle most of the work which is very satisfying and challenging.”

I therefore expect this scion of the famous Chittur family of Sir C. Sankaran Nair and Miss Miranda House 1962 to rise from her present position and work attentively to win for herself an image that she has longed for and which she rightly deserves. For that, I don’t need to pamper her to either look into the mirror or walk dawn the memory lane. I also don’t need to tell her that she combines in her the best of several veterans – be it cultural czarina Pupul Jayakar or the legendary Kamaladevi Chattopadhyay, who besides being a member of the Congress Socialist Party and a Gandhian did immensely to uplift handloom and handicrafts sectors and performing arts.

I know she writes well. I know she has been an invaluable Indian soldier. I know ‘the OtherSide’ will do very well under her leadership, given her urbane articulation and capacity to run organizations. What I don’t know is Jaya’s other side. I don’t know if she correctly remembers the lessons her ICS father taught her during his foreign assignments in Tokyo, Rangoon, Brussels and England. I don’t have any clue about her college days at Miranda House in Delhi in late 60’s and in Smith College in Mass. USA. I also don’t know why is she not inclined to lead India. May be she needs unquestioned nationwide respect. Do George and his men understand that!

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Copyright © 2008  Neeraj Bhushan.  All Rights Reserved. 

Please feel free to post your comments. Alternatively, you may also send emails at neerajbhushansingh@gmail.com and share your concerns or ideas with me. I always take the opportunity to read all and reply to everything. Did you like this blog? Send me your comments, suggestions, etc. please.

The saga of a scapegoat, not an underdog — KPS Gill

Kanwar Pal Singh Gill, an author, sports administrator, supercop, superman, Made-in-India-Rambo, or KPS Gill, a wanton killer, megalomaniac, bloody butcher, cold blooded criminal, Made-in-India-Hitler. His tenure as chief of Punjab Police and Indian Hockey Federation (IHF), two different terms, has earned him several sobriquets. 

So call him, what you may, but there is something about this man which stands him apart, way apart. 

One look at him, and you would know what I am talking about. He comes across like an automaton with his face, eyes and voice registering no emotion. To boot, he does not talk. And if he does, he is animated and cant be reasoned with. Or reasoned out. When asked about the debacle of the hockey team once, he famously snapped, “the team has lost. I have not.” 

I have always felt that he worked on his images. Both. He always wished to be powerful rather than charming, feared rather than loved which created a twin persona. And, as Bertrand Russle said, to this type belong many lunatics and most of the great men of history. 

Somebody, widely credited with winning the battle against terrorism in Punjab in nineties putting the fear up the terrorists with his carrot and assassination policy, cannot one day be imagined of talking of authority without responsibility like he is often accused of doing in his 14-year IHF term. And yes, he is the same man, who is alternatively accused of extrajudicial executions and praised for dedicating his post retirement years to the cause of hockey, which before him, or ever before, was in shambles. 

A section of the Sikh community condemned Gill as a “khakiwala gunda” whereas people like Khushwant Singh called him the saviour of  Sikhs in Punjab. Human rights activist J S Khalra, who died a few years back, accused Gill of the genocide of more than 2,000 innocent people in the name of anti-terrorist operations in Punjab. Forces under him have always been accused of having adopted excessive measures during the insurgency in the state, killing many thousands in staged shootouts and cremating or disposing off their bodies without proper identification or post-mortem. 

All said and done, he has been recently appointed as a consultant by the Chhatisgarh government to help tackle the Naxalite movement in the state, looks after the Institute for Conflict Management, edits a magazine called “Faultlines”, gives secret consultancy to a few neighbouring countries in their anti-insurgency missions, and heads, yes, very much heads the Indian Hockey Federation. Still. After his April 28’s so-announced sacking by Indian Olympic Association (IOA). Something like Bush sacking the Indian leadership. 

There is no clause in the Constitution of IOA which gives it the power to dissolve any sports body or sack its President, even in most unusual situations. The most IOA could do was to send a show cause notice to IHF asking for an explanation on poor performance of its players or on the cash-for-selection episode, which it never cared to send. In the event of a show cause sent and even rejected by IOA, the utmost the supreme sport body could do was to de-affiliate IHF from IOA, and that too only under the following conditions:

(1) If IHF repeatedly refused to follow IOA directives;
(2) If IHF failed to hold elections after office-bearers’ tenures ran out; or
(3) If IHF failed to present its annual audited accounts, annual report or list of office-bearers. 

Clearly, IHF has not violated any of these conditions. But I was both shocked and amused when almost all newspapers and tv channels reported that Gill was sacked and a new president had taken over IHF. If Gill brought shame to hockey, our sports journalists brought shame to reporting. If that was not sports, this was not sports reporting. 

My only concern now is why Gill is silent after this blackwash. To assert his position of power, three days back he did release his list of players for Azlan Shah tournament starting this week in Malaysia, but I am sure there is more to come. I, for one, am confident that the proverbial crouching tiger, hidden dragon will emerge, roar, spew venom. One more time. For the simple reason that he cant lie low. 

C’mmon, KPS, Chak De. Hockey needs a new life. And there’s hope, for as former star forward Mohammed Shahid once said on his debacle, “maut ke baad bhi zindagi hoti hai.”

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Copyright © 2008  Neeraj Bhushan.  All Rights Reserved. 

Please feel free to post your comments. Alternatively, you may also send emails at neerajbhushansingh@gmail.com and share your concerns or ideas with me. I always take the opportunity to read all and reply to everything. Did you like this blog? Send me your comments, suggestions, etc. please. 

M J Akbar Ka Safar

I get numerous feeds on the brand of journalism today’s editors are known for. Some even question the role of the editors from furthering public interest to serving private interest.

“Aren’t the business houses the real owners of the media? …  … Haven’t some newspaper owners become Members of Parliament?” These questions are prominently put to me, which I find difficult to counter.

It is not a secret that there are businessmen who themselves have become editors? And having become such, they do not bother for anything. Why would they? They too have right to enjoy ‘freedom of expression’! And they are enjoying ‘freedom of expression’ very well, sometimes at the cost of hardcore journalists.

Commenting more on this would dishearten you and dispel all kinds of illusions regarding media. However, one thing is clear – today’s editors enjoy freedom only at the pleasure of their owners.

A typical case in example is M J Akbar, fondly known among his friends and colleagues as MJ.

MJ, a veteran journalist, editor, columnist and author was recently eased out of Deccan Chronicle / The Asian Age newspapers. There, he was Editor-in-Chief until he was overtaken by a flurry of messages on his Blackberry asking him to check his newspaper’s masthead: his name had gone missing overnight, replaced with that of T. Venkatt Ram Reddy, the publisher.

Indeed, things could not go well between MJ and his Chairman T Venkattram Reddy and his name went missing from the newspapers’ March 2, 2008 printline. But, MJ’s exit has a lot to do with the Congress party which wanted him out of The Asian Age and Deccan Chronicle.

This is what MJ wrote in his farewell note to colleagues: “For reasons that need not detain us, I must say farewell. I was under the impression that I might have been able to do so with more grace; I did want to travel to all the offices and spend a convivial evening with everyone; and in Delhi I did want to call everyone over. But, judging from this morning’s edition ( March 2, 2008 ) of our paper, it seems I might have already overstayed my welcome. You have all been family. Many of you were young men and women when we began this long, difficult journey together, a journey during which we gave so much blood and sweat, during which we often faced hopelessness and never surrendered to despair. Now you are 10 and 15 years older….

“Take care, God bless and remember that what we achieved together made media history. I began working in the South when our circulation was perhaps 60,000 copies; and then we created a new template with the Asian Age. Today, we have a combined circulation of over a million copies, according to ABC. This is a triumph for our family of journalists. We may not have been the biggest, but we held our head high because there was one non-negotiable asset in our family: we could not be bought. We were independent. We were free. We held our head high. Never let your head stoop, not as long as you are a journalist. As ever, MJ”

Later, when Khaleej Times asked MJ if he now joins a list of illustrious editors shown the door rather unceremoniously, he quipped: “I have always wondered what a ‘ceremonious’ exit is like!”

The long list of fine editors who have been unceremoniously shown the door by publishers includes Arun Shourie, Dileep Padgaonkar and Vinod Mehta.

Now MJ is understood to have floated his own company MJP Media which is launching a political fortnightly ‘COVERT’.

Well, MJ always stood for investigative journalism. And I expect him to use his new venture as a weapon to expose the murky side of our media as well. Do it first MJ. And do it fast.

And remember. Do not get so close to any political party or a politician as you were to Rajiv Gandhi, who got you elected to Lok Sabha. Now, even as an owner of a publication, be a journalist first. Good Luck.