Live-in Monsters in India and the Institution of Marriage!

It's out of piercing anguish and pain that makes me write these lines. The fundamental fact of life is that it has always been imperfect. Nothing about human beings and their society is perfect. Perfection always remains a dream, perhaps the way God desires.

The institution of marriage was born and evolved out of sheer necessity. And, since a long time back this system had been marked as one of the most imperfect or even regressive ones. There were love marriages or arranged marriages, but it got proved again and again that there was no guarantee of happiness in either. Divorce thus has become the order of the day in almost all countries and with it women's liberty has been the thundering clarion call. Nothing wrong in that, absolutely.

But, what have we got as a result? Mangled and chopped bodies of women in all corners of our country? Yes, you can put in immediately a reference about the horrible dowry deaths, the honor killings, subjugation of the fairer sex within the four walls and the numbing atrocities committed in the streets, in cars and so on. Well, I must clarify that I'm not in support of any system created by the flesh and blood of humans.

However, the institution of marriage still has some advantages: marriages happen mostly between known families with their social status also known; things are always sorted out, allowing the boy and the girl know each other well; and of course, there is always a family support system in case the couple face problems.

But what about the live-in system that apparently grants full freedom to women to choose their partners and which in turn ensures women liberty? Well, how do they choose? From the extremely superficial and dangerous social media platform or from the casual working/drinking/smoking sessions? Okay, let it be, dedicated to the ideal of an equal society. But how do they know each other before deciding on a live-in relationship? Who are there to protect the girls who suddenly discover the monsters within their liberated four walls? Physical inequality is something that has to be accepted by all, and the concerned parents, despite living in a digital egalitarian world, still cry scandal or stigma in case of live-ins concerning their children and insulate themselves against any interaction. So, the girls are left alone to fight the monsters—fights they cannot realistically hope to win.

The emerging situation is in India at the moment thus suffocating and unbearable with the chosen male life-partners cum monsters killing and chopping the bodies of their supposed beloved, storing the parts in fridges or throwing outside and some perverts even roasting or cooking those parts. Again, no perfect solution for all such imperfect systems! The immediate solution that comes to the mind is that of granting a legal recognition to live-ins, although live-in relationships in India at the moment are not illegal either, in terms of at least a provisional registration and a certificate like in the institution of marriage. Or that of a mandatory courtship period in the process of registration? At the same time, the self-assertive girls should apply full caution and doubly ensure safety, identifying the true colors of the persons they're going to live-in with, and their families must not wave their hands in absolute surrender and instead, try to keep up social mixing. Besides, the politicians must desist from making brownie points in sourcing out the faith or caste or religion related identities of the perverted perpetrators, and instead, focus their movements on girl-safety and reducing crimes against women.

Digital Violence, News Channels and Hypocrisy!

It’s a case of wholesome insensitivity, amounting to zombie-like behavior on which subject we dwelt over much earlier, of nearly all of the so-called digitally conscious citizens of the country, but also nearly all the stakeholders including the national media irrespective of how you’d like to describe them. Apart from this looming post-modern characteristic, the other equally portentous factor of hypocrisy has also been rampant across, primarily, the television news channels and other stakeholders. For the last few years at least the insensitivity factor has been colossal: any kind of tragic incident happening in public places is always ravenously video-graphed along with the selfies of the ‘proud’ beholders and circulated instantly in their digital spaces, instead of trying to help the poor victims many of whom stay alive during such digital orgy. The news channels then get hold of those clips, in direct or indirect ways, and start building ‘stories’ around those while putting the clips continuously on their screens. Therefore, the insensitive and the often sadistic citizens including us have been getting used to ‘treats’ of such endless clips relating to the most horrendous cases of lynching, murders and assassinations, police torture, accidents, shootings and even crimes against women in the last few years.

 

The hypocrisy of the news channels becomes bluntly obvious when they choose to debate on a particular tragedy that they never ever fail to do actually: while the ‘conscientious’ anchor and the panelists keep on emphasizing the need to keep such dastardly clips out of social media and any other public digital platforms the channel producers keep on running the clip in an endless loop, in a prominent window created on the screen.  Till even the most sadistic viewer gets tired and switches to a different channel! Doesn’t at all matter even if you happen to watch the same on many other channels too! Some still less-scrupulous channels even watermark the inhuman visuals as ‘exclusive’ or ‘first on this channel only’ and like that. Why such mind-boggling hypocrisy? Well, very simple. They know the dominant facets of the psychology of their viewers and so would definitely like to pander to them, just to generate more ad revenues.

 

I was shocked beyond words, sad as I was to hear the news of the assassination of Japan’s former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, when I found the video clip showing the cruel shooting in broad daylight and in public getting much more importance across the screens of the Indian news channels than the tragic incident itself. Some anchors even wanted to draw our attention particularly to the violent clip being shown endlessly as if to make us understand the sheer audacity of the murder. Their justification was that this involved a huge breach of security. Well, from the Indian point of view this was indeed a breach; but you have to consider Japan where such acts almost never happened and the only news that we keep on hearing about the country is that relating to earthquakes. Had it happened in the trigger-happy and abortion-unhappy US such an approach could’ve been alright; but Japan’s been always trigger-wary and guns in public hands in the country are almost a rarity.

 

However, the glorification of the violent clip just cannot be justified on any ground. Shinzo Abe is one of the most prominent visionary statesmen-politicians of the world and has been a very good friend of India since 2006-07. He’s been a friend of the former Indian PM Manmohan Singh and a closer buddy to PM Narendra Modi. The Government of India had also declared a one-day national mourning in his memory. For some personal reasons this writer, Abe being an almost household name for him as he was actively engaged in the role of a news editor in a national channel during those years,  could not give a fitting tribute to Abe in time, and so is airing his thoughts through this related piece.

Movie Heropanti-2: The Pinnacle of Insanity!

I had the misfortune of going for a movie in 2019 in a big theatre before the Pandemic put a stop to it, titled Pagalpanti (Madness) and was nearly driven mad. It was not my fault as the movie was having a lot of superstars and we went particularly because of Anil Kapoor. But now, after watching the new movie Heropanti-2 (heroism or hero antics) the previous movie seemed to have at least some kind of a method. The question arises then as to why I’ve made the mistake again! Well, firstly it was streaming free where I can ruthlessly go forward at will. And most importantly because I love the kid Tiger Shroff, son of my beloved Jackie Shroff, and ironically, Heropanti (2014) was Tiger’s debut film where his athletic and gymnastic skills plus his lithe, dancing and almost flying body were noticed. I watched only parts of that film some of which seemed a bit sensible, giving Tiger some scope to showcase his acting skills too, perhaps because it was a remake of a Telugu film. Of course, the movie flopped.

 

Coming back to this sequel, not clear why it was necessary at all, Heropanti-2 has absolutely no method in the sheer madness unfolding before your unbelieving eyes. All the characters are raving maniacs except perhaps for the goons who always know what exactly to do, thanks to their exhaustive exposure to the Bollywood tamasha. The immensely talented actor Nawazuddin Siddiqui, named Laila God doesn’t know why, did his best as a grotesquely comic monster that the script demanded and what he has been doing on the screen from the beginning he would’ve fitted a mental asylum much better. His sister, supposedly the heroine of the movie, is even madder than her brother, always jumping and pouncing on Bablu (Tiger) anytime and anywhere, irrespective of the situation they are in.

 

Rather sadder than madder is the fact that the movie doesn’t even try to utilize Tiger’s intense action skills. His character is also reduced to ridiculous mockery, all the time flying, prancing and jumping like a cat in a bid to escape from the attacking goon, again God doesn’t know why; till the last few scenes where some real fighting was required as suddenly Bablu got infected with a rare kind of ‘patriotism’, inculcated in him by a mysteriously comic-serious figure called Khan Saheb, purportedly the chief of an intelligence agency. At times, I couldn’t help thinking: is this meant to be a satirical take on something, nowadays popularly known as the ‘caged parrot’. Maybe the ‘insanity virus’ is affecting my brain too.

 

I really feel sorry for Tiger Shroff who has so far been used only as a stunt-hero, not giving him any chance to prove his acting talent except perhaps for the Baaghiaction franchise (three movies so far) where we can see his intensity as an actor to some extent. Well, Akshay Kumar and John Abraham are also called action heroes, but they’ve been getting ample opportunities to act in serious roles and also in good comedies. I think Tiger should start selecting his films very carefully from now onward and Jackie Dada should also give more attention to the kinds of movies his son’s being asked to ‘act’.

 

I wonder the sheer wastage of money, to the tune of 70 crore in this mad scrap, which could’ve been used for more humanitarian purpose like for the Pandemic-hit poor in the way Sonu Sood has been doing. This is, of course, very unfortunate that the virus has damaged Bollywood very heavily, snatching away many great artistes forever from us, reducing many others to depression due to lack of work and earnings, and perhaps driving a lot others just nuts, not knowing what to do for a recompense, thus landing up with such absurd projects. The best course of action at this juncture should be to go for low-budget serious movies or sensible comedies without keeping the focus constantly on the big stars only.

 

The story? Well, I don’t actually know if there was a story. Laila is supposed to be a magician who wants to loot all the money from all the banks of India on 31^st March with his ingenious App, God doesn’t know why once again. Bablu was supposed to be a government undercover agent, also a rouge at some stage and again a something between a villain and an agent. Once, perhaps two years back, Bablu helped the authorities to nab all of Laila’s gang; however, later the same team appears in New York to rob India from there. Maddening, you see! Don’t get into it even if it’s free, my advice. Get away from for sure, stay safe…and sane.

Two Weeks Of Ukraine Invasion, The Sumy Rescue And Cricket Tragedies!

Russian President Putin’s invasion of Ukraine has entered Day 14 leaving a trail of devastation and loss of lives across the country. We pointed out earlier that the war was totally unnecessary, and now it seems abundantly clear that it was in the interest of the West that Russia did invade Ukraine so that the latter’s strategic presence in Europe could be checked, if not eliminated. The surprising resistance by Ukraine is mainly thanks to the baits by the West in terms of entry into the European Union and a membership in NATO. Russia also made a mistake by not anticipating the support to be extended to Ukraine by the US, most European nations and other strategic allies to fight the war. The main objective of the Western allies seems to be the justification to impose the economic sanctions to isolate Russia in a bid to force it to submit. But unfortunately, they’ve decided to ignite a dormant volcano instead by ignoring its demands, also as strategic as theirs, and by abandoning the universally accepted method called international diplomacy.

 

President Biden has been maintaining that ‘Putin cannot defeat Ukraine’ which means that he along with his allies expect a protracted war so that at the end an isolated and economically bleeding Russia calls it a day. However, the Biden allies have conveniently forgot that by isolating Russia, a major supplier of natural gas, petroleum and weapons, they have nearly plunged the world into an economic crisis—a global economy just recovering from the Pandemic. Crude oil prices have touched almost $140 a barrel and with the US decision to ban all Russian oil imports can further accentuate the oil fire. Among other countries it could hit India in the most severe way because India has already been suffering from insufficient consumer demand to boost the economy. With the assembly elections over it’s to be seen how long the government can fend off the inevitable price increase in petrol an diesel.

 

President Zelensky has let the cat loose. First, he demanded NATO to declare No-fly zone in Ukraine; NATO refused, obviously because it would mean a war between Russia and America, possibly a Third World War which could be nuclear if Putin’s threats are taken seriously. Then, Zelensky wanted more arms, weapons and fighter aircrafts from NATO, in a way, directly asking NATO to involve itself in the war and to protect Ukraine. Thwarted on all requests, the Ukrainian President is now crying hoarse calling it a betrayal by the West and that he would give up his on his promised NATO membership. And, that’s exactly what Russia wants. Putin has been saying clearly that he would instantly end the war if Ukraine gives up on its aspirations to join the EU and the NATO. Well, at the same time the rights of a sovereign nation to do what its citizens desire cannot be repressed, whatever be the strategic interests of whatever power blocks.

 

In the meantime, a humanitarian crisis with unbearable consequences had been developing in the Ukrainian city of Sumy where around 700 Indian students were trapped in the bunkers as food, water and other amenities were drying out. As the attacks outside intensified they were even frightened to switch on the electricity at those endless nights. There seemed to be no way out to evacuate them as it was extremely dangerous to venture out in the missile-raining streets. We must commend the efforts of the Government of India by not giving up and resorting to the much-forgotten diplomacy. A tripartite diplomatic mediation between Russia, Ukraine and India resulted in Russia agreeing to declare ceasefire in four cities to ease the process of civil evacuation. Yesterday, the Sumy students were moved out to Poltava by road, then moved to Western Ukraine by trains and finally to be airlifted to India. We must congratulate the die-hard efforts the Indian Air Force, the officials of the Ministry of External Affairs and of course, the pilots and staff of Air India (now operated by the Tata group).

 

Moving to other fields of world affairs we must mention the double-tragedy suffered by Australian Cricket losing two of their veteran cricketers—wicket-keeper batsman Rodney Marsh (74) and the legendary leg-spinner Shane Warne (just 52)—within 24 hours on 4^thMarch 2022. Shane Warne, undoubtedly the best-ever leg-spinner in world cricket with his 708 Test wickets (the first to reach that mark), has been fully active in cricket even after his retirement in 2007. He played for Rajasthan Royals in the IPL apart from his other international assignments. We have been aware of him all the time as he never failed to comment on the performances of Team India in its international matches. Warne, fondly called Warnie by his pals, reportedly got three months of leave from Fox Sports for whom he had been working, and went to Thailand to start his much-deserved holidays along with his friends. Tragically, the very next day he was found unresponsive in his room. His friends did CPR on him and then it was done repeatedly at the hospital, but the legend could not be revived.   

 

It is indeed hard to put away Shane Warne from our cricket-loving minds. When he dominated the Indian batsmen, prominently Sachin Tendulkar, we admired him, and when he was hit all around and out of the park by Tendulkar, we loved his open admiration and wonderment at the living legend’s prowess. This had been typical of the essence of Warne’s personality who lived his life on his own terms and was not bogged down by the few controversies thus created. And we really feel great talking about the times of the greats. Shane Warne has been bestowed the 4^thplace in the list of Wisden Cricketers of the century along with the greats of Donald Bradman, Garfield Sobers, Jack Hobbs and Vivian Richards.

 

Earlier on 4^thMarch Rodney Marsh passed away—a cricketing great who excelled during 1971-1984 as a wicket-keeper batsman and created history of achieving a record 355 Test catches behind the stumps, mostly combining with the lethal fast bowling legend Dennis Lily. Of course, we could not watch his antics on the field as in those times our only means of tuning in to cricket had been the radio commentary. Interestingly, both of Marsh and Warne had had very ordinary debuts. And more disconcertingly, Shane Warne had twitted his condolences to Rodney Marsh’s demise, not knowing his own destiny. We cannot still believe Warnie is no more.

 

Meanwhile, India made mincemeat of a listless Sri Lanka in the first Test at Mohali winning by an innings and 222 runs. The highlight of the test match is the tremendous comeback of Ravindra Jadeja into the Test team after months of nursing an injury—he made a historic 175 not out in India’s defining first inning total of 574 and went on to take 9 wickets in the Sri Lanka two innings with a fifer in the first innings. Now, Jadeja could justifiably be termed as one of the greatest all-rounders in world cricket. Earlier, India swept the 3-match T20I Series 3-0 where Jadeja also figured prominently. 

(We acknowledge wikipedia.org, alzazeera.com and google maps for the images.)

Ukraine Invasion: Who Is Winning This Barbaric War? Putin Or Biden?

The horrors of this totally unnecessary war have been visible, palpable and real across the television screens, mobile screens and the internet, SOS videos, official release of images and so on. It has reached the 6^th day today in spite of the perplexing Putin offer of dialogues with Ukraine amid flying missiles, the starter of which has in fact been realized in Belarus yesterday, and as feared nothing coming out of it. Only the destruction and despair of the Ukrainians along with fellow global citizens have increased manifold. Now India too is plunged in despair with its young medical student Naveen Shekharappa dying in Russian shelling in the worst affected city of Kharkiv. Around 3500 Indian students are still reported to be stuck in that devastated city and in all, around 16000 students are still undergoing the claustrophobic terror inside the bunkers—hungry, thirsty and crowded like herds of animals.

 

India, preoccupied with elections like last year when the COVID-19 second wave created havoc, realized the urgency of evacuating its citizens quite a bit late. No doubt, it had been issuing advisories since a few days before the invasion started, but failed to connect with the Ukraine universities or educational institutions to request allowing the Indian students leave the country. The students, therefore, could not risk their careers as there were no online classes, and a fatal delay was thus caused. Then Operation Ganga started; but the helpless students were asked to travel hundreds of kilometres to any of the borders of Poland, 

Hungary, Romania or Slovakia on their own so as to be airlifted thereafter. Today the Government of India has issued an emergency alert to the Indian citizens to leave Ukraine by any means—bus, trains or whatever. Naveen died on his way to the Kharkiv railway station where in fact no trains were running.

 

Operation Ganga has rescued about 8000 students so far, but around 15000 are still huddled up there as the war goes on intensifying. To make matter worse, the Government has been trying to score brownie points for the assembly elections by chest-thumping and boasting about the great evacuation efforts and the involvement of four cabinet ministers since yesterday. And what about the so-called great Indian democratic diplomacy? Well, the country has only been abstaining from voting in the UNSC twice and once in the UNHRC lest big brother Russia gets hurt. The country has been unable to take an international stand despite its Prime Minister talking to President Zelensky while holing meet after high-level national meets. Why not now ask your big brother to allow the Indians cross over to Russia which is much nearer?

 

President Biden had indeed been sure about a Russian invasion days before the actual war broke out and had been issuing warnings all around. However, it’s not clear if his ‘fears’ had been based on intelligence reports or on the ‘sanctions yearning’ as displayed by him and his allies all throughout. I read one report of the western mainstream media that said if Putin did not attack Ukraine now it’d mean he was weak and scared to do so. That there were incentives or instigations for a war is a fact beyond doubt.

 

Now the US, most European nations, Australia and some other countries along with the NATO are sending emergency help to Ukraine in terms of money, military forces and high-definition weapons. They, the US, UK and Germany in particular, have imposed possibly the most suffocating economic sanctions ever on Russia or on any country in history, almost isolating them from the world. Nobody has in mind that diplomacy can still persuade a desperate Putin who is facing protests from his own Russian citizens and his international image getting a huge hit.

 

Thus, put under pressure from all sides, President Putin has issued an alert for readying all his nuclear arsenal housed in his own country and Belarus. He must have made a miscalculation too as he thought Ukraine would be conquered in a maximum two days. He did not expect or was not hoping for a terrific resistance effort of Ukraine from its very grassroot levels. We have been shown visuals of Ukraine leaders and general citizens taking up guns for the defense of their dear country. The superpower alliance did not see or did not want to realize that sanctions of this nature would only make Putin more dangerously desperate. They have also seemed to have forgotten the ominous warnings issued by Putin at the start of the invasion.

 

So, who’s winning this war? Obviously, all the losers only. Putin could be the biggest loser, and the superpower alliance elated and obsessed with sanctions cum strategic power controls would only create a global economic crisis later on, if not a full-scale global war. A domestic crisis is already brewing in Russia itself with its Ruble crashing, its central bank increasing interest rates to an unprecedented 20% and the suffering citizens queuing up before banks like we Indians did during the demonetization, apart from worrying about internet and mobile services cum payments. As a global unit we must know that a Russian economic crisis would soon engulf the whole world.

 

We still hope for an immediate end to the war, and saving the lives of many—be it Ukrainians or Indians or Russians or just any global citizens. We also mourn the unnecessary end to the life of a promising Naveen and share the pain with his family and kin.

Ukraine Crisis: World Rulers Are Still Driven By Primitive Instincts!

According to Sigmund Freud’s theory of ‘Id, Ego and Superego’ the Id trait of a personality was present in the first primitive humans, but not as a part of the brain; in fact, the Freudian tripartite components had nothing to do with the grey cells. The Id trait includes the basic survival, sexual and aggressive instincts/impulses, and it acts unconsciously. Over the centuries the primitive humans started living in communities and societies, and at that time the Ego trait became important as a conscious part of a personality able to distinguish between ‘right’ and ‘wrong’ acts in terms of good or harm such acts could cause to the others. With more maturity the Superego trait had emerged as the ethical ‘conscience’ of human beings, always sending correcting messages to Ego whenever the Id trait overpowered it. Freud indicated that any imbalances in these three traits are bound to lead to personality disorders, like if the Id impulses totally dominate the personality that human being turns overtly aggressive, greedy and even into a criminal. The ideal condition, according him, is when Ego effectively mediates between Id and Superego.

 

It’s the ‘imbalances’ part that we are interested in. The inherent greed and aggression components contained in the Id drove human beings progressing from local lordship to regional lords/fiefdoms or small kings or bigger kings and to the emperors. This progression had been based essentially on human’s craze or greed for power manifested in plain greed for land, forests, water sources, livestock and even women of the conquered lands. There is no dearth of expansionist invaders from the times of Alexander the Great to the murderous invaders of the Turks, Muslims, Persians and others. Along this trail of history planet earth has seen thousands of bloody skirmishes, battles and wars, all of which were naturally driven by the overpowering Id component.

 

From Ego there developed monsters like egoist or egotists and super egoists who had demonstrated no ‘guilt’ complexes as explained by Freud in any immoral or inhuman eventuality. Feelings of supremacy also grew in some communities or races who considered theirs as the best, and therefore, wanted to dominate the lesser humans. The planet earth had witnessed devastating ‘supremacy nationalism’ of the Ottoman, the Austro-Hungarians, the Italians and the Germans which led to World War-1 and World War-2 during which millions of soldiers and civilians perished and which in a way led to the murderous Spanish Flu during the first world war that also took a toll in millions.

 

It was hoped that with the tremendous growth and progress of human civilization in terms of technology, scientific exploration, socio-economic, the intelligentsia and benevolent leaders in mostly the emerging of democracies, the world had learned enough lessons from the horrific world wars. But no, the ‘greed for power’ factor as basic imbalances in the personality theory continued unabated. The wars between the two clear superpowers only became secret or undercover that is to say, cold. One of the superpowers, USSR, dissolved itself in 1991 and the other superpower, the US with its western allies, became all powerful which was not at all welcome for the other ‘powers’ like Russian, China and others. Cold war ended, but ‘operations’ continued. Aggressive nationalism again grew for strategic alliances and presence, military bases or deployment of forces and military operations as was thought to be very necessary.  

 

The strength of having nuclear weapons seemed to increase the craze for power more. It was like some diseased persons looking greedily at the stocks of mouth-watering food or piles of money, but not able to devour or use them. The temptations remained permanently. The super imbalances in the Superego kept up the threats of a nuclear war anytime anywhere. The hapless but peace-loving global citizens continued to live in morbid fear, not knowing when and what their monstrously ‘imbalanced’ rulers would do next. Trade and business flourished in manufacturing a wide range of weaponry and the consequent export or import of those to like-minded allied countries or ‘friends’.

 

Apparently, the age-defining spread of higher education and digital literacy had no positive impact on the rulers who continued to suffer from the imbalances, totally neutralizing the Freudian Superego personality trait from generating some ‘conscience’ in them. They still greed for more and more power; want more arsenals of weaponry, preferably nuclear and want to damage that of others; they try to activate a fear psychosis among their subjects saying that their national security is threatened; they want to destroy any indication of a possible growth of patriotism or nationalism in some countries they don’t prefer; they eagerly wait for a demonstration of their supremacy, even not caring if it could involve use of nuclear weapons; and the supposedly benevolent rulers of the democracies or milder dictatorships land up with no choices depending on who happen to be their ‘friends’ or ‘allies’.

 

The COVID-19 Pandemic did indeed make the world a much more closely-knit entity with a common objective of its eradication. However, even before the pandemic officially ended the same old habits started anew. No hope then for humankind? Well, we don’t know. We, the global citizens, have changed ourselves for friendship and everlasting peace; but still, it’s the toughest ask to try change the mindset of our rulers. Hope, in some miraculous way, the Ukraine invasion gets stopped and all kinds of wars/battles/rivalries in future get stopped too, to save our little world.

(Images Source: simplypsychology.org )

Pray For The Citizens Of Ukraine As The Lust For Global Strategic Supremacy Leads To Russia’s Invasion!

Notwithstanding the complications and the stakes involved in the Ukraine crisis it is just incredible that in an ultra-modern age where the globe becomes one community, international diplomacy should fail so miserably to prevent a war that could have grave multidimensional impact. Again and again, the lust for the superpower status and strategic presence cum military bases has been driving the US and Russia with or without China launch military assaults, occupations, invasions and wars since the era of the cold war ended. With the same aggressive intent and lust Russia has invaded Ukraine just hours ago. President Vladimir Putin calls it a military intervention or operation that has become inevitable after the nationalist ambitions of the Ukrainians and Ukraine’s drive to integrate itself with the European Union and the NATO have threatened Russia’s national security. Putin’s justification has extended to his chilling warning that should any other country interfere in its ‘necessary’ war Russia will act immediately which may lead to consequences the world has never witnessed before.

 

President Joe Biden who seemingly knew the inevitability of a Russian invasion many days before and his western allies have, as expected, rather grabbed this opportunity to threaten severe economic sanctions as if they were waiting for just that. Most of these countries are extremely vocal saying the sanctions would be such as to hurt Russia extremely dearly and almost isolate it from the global network of trade and commerce; of course, they admit that these sanctions would hurt them too as is unavoidable in a closely-knit global unit. But why take only economic sanctions as the ultimate weapon leaving the Ukrainians to their fate? Why did they not try harder enough for a diplomatic solution earlier? The NATO reportedly is to mobilize its forces in the neighboring European countries; but they have to be wary of Putin’s threats to not allow this invasion snowball into a global war.  

 

We condemn the invasion. We want Russia’s aggression be stopped immediately come what may while we fail to understand who is going to accomplish that as we cannot justify the actions of any of the superpowers or powers of the Planet Earth with overwhelming stakes in Ukraine. There are reports of explosions and Russian shelling in capital Kyiv and several other cities. Ukraine claims it has brought down five Russian aircrafts while Russia says that it has completely destroyed Ukraine’s air defense systems. India’s efforts in bringing back the Indians have stopped as airports in Ukraine are shut now. Around 40 Ukrainian soldiers and 10 civilians are officially reported as killed so far among many more injured.

 

The panicky citizens of Ukraine are desperately calling upon the United Nations to stop the Russian advances. Huge traffic jams are seen in Kyiv as many of the residents try to flee the city to other possibly safer places. Sounds of bombings and shelling can be heard on the TV news channels across the globe. But a safer haven seems to an illusion. Russian troops had reportedly taken military action in eastern Ukraine days back where it has been supporting the separatists since the invasion of Crimea in 2014. Putin had already recognized two separate nations in that region and it is very clear that he wants the whole of Ukraine to be brought under its direct control for the so-called safeguarding of national security. Of course, many pro-Russia inhabitants of the eastern region have reached the safety by crossing over to Russia.

 

President Volodymyr Zelensky, a politician, actor and a comedian who was elected as Ukraine’s sixth President by the nationalist supporters in 2019, has in the meantime made it very clear that Ukraine is going to fight the Russian attack with all its might. This apparently means a fight to the finish just for the simple but painful fact that Ukraine is no comparison to Russia’s military power. Zelensky has declared martial law in the nation and has allowed all the citizens to arm themselves with guns for defense. This looks very ominous notwithstanding his patriotic feelings and that he expects arms, ammunition and forces from the western European allies. The Russian President calls the independent-minded patriotic Ukrainians as ‘neo-Nazis’ and this further accentuates the frightening reality.

 

Should this uncalled-for war be allowed to run its full course thousands of innocents on both sides are likely to perish apart from causing irreparable damage to the infrastructure of Ukraine. And then, the global citizens are also set to suffer in the disastrous economic aftermath. The crude oil prices have already climbed to unprecedented levels in recent times, and the stock markets in India and elsewhere ae already having a red run. Severe economic sanctions are going to provide no relief, but bring on more misery in terms of trade and prices in the global economy that has just started recovering from the pandemic.

 

The global citizens must rise to the occasion and create enough pressure on the main stakeholders to stop this war. As Russian troops are infiltrating into more and more cities and territories of Ukraine, we all pray for the safety of the Ukrainians. Stop this war!

 

(Note: ‘Reading’ readers of this site must be wondering how this fella has gone down on his pledge so fast! Well, if international cricketers can retire/resign and re-join at will why not his humble human being on this earth! Anyway, the story about that later, not in this grave and ominous time of war.) 

Bulli Bais, Sulli Deals…Zombies Thrill, Bullies Drill And Shrill!

Honestly, I knew absolutely nothing about an App called the ‘Sulli Deals’ which reportedly appeared in around middle of  the year 2021 and created, as I came know now, quite some thrills around our haplessly vulnerable country. My ignorance, blissfully, is perhaps because of my healthy contempt for most of the Apps, thanks to the simple reason that once you fall prey to an app the latter keeps on disturbing you with endless reminders for updates and messages about how to spread the ‘appeal’ of the app to your friends. For the last week almost all the news channels of the same country have been crying hoarse and shedding crocodile tears about another App called, very captivatingly, the Bulli Bai. Such was the din created by the channels with daily news headlines, visuals, debates and updates that I was forced to search for what it actually meant. And I found that what the concerned Apps, Bulli or Sulli, tried to do was heinous, targeting the prominent women of a minority community.

 

Those heinous and offensive things that the currently-raging Bulli Bai app tried to project are universally condemnable and it should ideally have ended with that condemnation, particularly after the hosting web platform which was misused banned the app along with the links to it like they did last year too. However, it is a different issue altogether as to how the same platform could be misused again and again without its knowledge. But unfortunately, the media upsurge continued unabated, and even now they are spiritedly continuing with the update headlines with the arrests of some of the culprits behind. Why? Well, obviously because they know that the people of our haplessly vulnerable country are much more attracted by negative news rather than positive developments, and the ‘names’ involved here really were so mysteriously bewitching that they thought this could generate wonderfully lucrative TRPs.

 

One of the arrested accused reportedly said that he wanted to have some good publicity generated about him through this venture that could eradicate the stamp of ‘nonentity’ from him forever. And the media upsurge fulfilled his wishes to the fullest extent possible. We witness in our ‘digital India’ nowadays numerous instances of the ‘vulnerable’ citizens taking selfies with dying victims of accidents or for that matter any victim of any tragedy rather than trying to help those fellow human beings, and they also videograph the lynching of unfortunate victims with unrestrained sadistic glee, and the visuals later find the mainstream media and the social media where these are welcomed with matching glee, showing the horrible clips in loops endlessly. Therefore, we must amend our earlier dictum of ‘vulnerable people being more attracted by negative happenings’ by saying that most of the news channels are equally attracted more by the negative incidents.

 

We referred to such perverts of our countries as the ‘Zombies’ much earlier in these pages, and very disconcertingly, the Zombie class has been growing steadily over the last few years. They are becoming mechanized or programmed animals rather than human beings, and they venomously loathe the human values and the society. Shockingly, such perverts are being nurtured and looked after by a lot of other mechanisms of this unfortunate country. Some of the Zombies are real wizards as far as the digital media is concerned, and perhaps due to the lack of enough opportunities during the raging pandemic they have been devoting their idle brains more to such sullying or bullying acts that bring them instant ‘fame’ (notoriety being synonymous with fame for them), thanks to an obliging media, social media and the vulnerable netizens thereof.

 

I don’t care to explain the shit that these perverts are doing in their sullying and bullying acts. If you are interested you can easily search it out in the internet, as the latter is full of details about these, in the most exhaustively extensive way. I’m sure, the majority of our progressive and empowered women are blissfully unaware of such heinous crimes against humanity. And those who have fallen prey to the media outburst should ignore it completely. No evil force on earth can ever touch them; it’s definitely not for nothing that they are called the ‘better halves’ universally. The media, the social media and all of us would do better by generating more respect for them and by protecting them from all other heinous crimes committed as ever by the perverts only who always try to indulge themselves in thrills and drills. No more sullying please!

Fight Racism Unitedly, No Knee-Jerk Kockish Controversy Please!

It is very unfortunate that the enlivening ICC Men’s T20 World Cup-2021 should get affected by a largely unnecessary controversy. Did any team ever in international tournaments object to singing their national anthem or any team object to their rivals singing their national anthems? Definitely not, it’s being a celebrated customs in almost all such tournaments across various fields of sports. Therefore, the ‘personal choice’ syndrome never comes up here. Then, why this syndrome has to come up in ‘taking the knee’ for a most noble cause? In our school days our teachers ordered us to kneel down on innumerable occasions, obviously to correct our faults, which is why we are better human beings today. Did we even think of exercising our democratic choice on those occasions? The Black Lives Matter (BLM) movement, started in 2013 ‘as a decentralized political and social movement protesting against incidents of police brutality and all racially motivated violence against black people’ the world over is fully justified. The movement had its ups and downs, but after the brutal police killing of a black protester George Floyd in the US in 2020 it has gained international prominence, and Michael Holding, ex-cricketer of the West Indies, took painstaking efforts to bring it in the cricket arena—unfortunately this gentleman’s game had seen the ugly expressions of racism on quite a few occasions in international cricket, not only involving the blacks, but also the so-called ‘colored’ players.

 

We have seen in most of the matches played so far in this World Cup teams taking the knee before the start to express their solidarity against the evil of racism. The ICC had not issued any official directive for this gesture, but made it voluntary for the teams. Cricket South Africa (CSA), the country that was boycotted by the international community for years for their notorious policy of the Apartheid, has been exemplary in making the gesture compulsory for their team before the start. So, what’s wrong in following that noble gesture and how does the question of personal choice come in such internationally relevant issues? Team India had also taken the gesture as per instructions from their cricket board, and England also expressed the gesture in their match against the West Indies like most other teams.

 

The noble gesture was also made during South Africa’s starter match against Australia; of course, not involving all the players. But suddenly and most significantly as the encounter was against the West Indies, South Africa’s key opener and wicket-keeper Quinton de Kock made an issue out it, calling his refusal to bend his knee due to personal reasons. Not only did he refuse to make the gesture, but also withdrew from the match in the last minutes which was confirmed by the CSA. This is extremely disturbing, because de Kock has also been a key cricketer in the Indian Premiere League (IPL) for years, playing for the Mumbai Indians (the franchise may release him soon due to the impact) that included a lot of black and ‘colored’ players; in fact, India is a country of colored people only. So then, why de Kock never objected to playing continuously with them, as an integral team member? If his ‘personal choice’ is not to support the BLM movement then it stinks of racism, or else de Kock is perhaps a staunch supporter of the ‘white supremacy’ theory so bullishly propounded by the ex-President of USA, Donald Trump. We condemn his action in the World Cup which may ultimately adversely impact his entire cricket career, and South Africa, obviously, would never want to lose such a key player. The CSA has to give the final verdict on the future of Quinton de Kock even as some media reports suggest the player has withdrawn from the entire tournament while others fear that this must the last time we had seen de Kock on the field.

 

We hope for an amicable solution for all the stakeholders concerned holding the noble cause high, respecting the ideals and the movement of Nelson Mandela and suitable punishment for anyone guilty of being a racist. The ICC, in fact, should take this opportunity to make ‘taking the knee’ gesture mandatory for all participating teams. The Council righteously bans any kind of political or religious gestures, but in upholding this noble cause there cannot be any hesitation or the principles of democratic choices.

 

In the match against the struggling West Indies where the controversy had erupted South Africa won easily, without de Kock. In other matches Afghanistan in Group-2 registered a huge victory over the topper of the qualifying Group-B Scotland, even bigger than that of Pakistan's over India. Pakistan continue their exciting run of victories by defeating New Zealand, although they had to struggle to chase a low target of 135 runs. England in Group-1 also have kept their ominous bulldozing act in continuation by routing Bangladesh. Both Pakistan and England are apparently enjoying their toss-luck so far as per the behaviour of the slow pitches and the dew factor later for the bowling side. After creating history by making it to the Super-12 stage for the first time, defeating a well-placed Ireland, Namibia won their first match of the World Cup against Scotland with relative comfort in Group-2.

US Capitol Shame: Unprecedented Assault On Democracy Even As The US Congress Certifies Biden Victory!

Just when the bicameral United States Congress was to sit in a rare joint session to certify Joe Biden’s electoral victory mobs descended on Capitol Hill, the celebrated seat of the US Government, and drafted a black chapter not only in the country’s democratic history but also in the world’s democratic traditions. Supporters of the outgoing President Donald Trump gathered in large numbers and breached the security to carry out an unprecedented act of desecration and vandalism. At least four people were killed in the violence, and the security personnel, totally overwhelmed by the surging mob, arrested around fifty rioters. Coming in as a light at the end of the tunnel the US Congress had met later and certified Joe Biden’s electoral victory which means that Biden is now the rightful official President of the country set to take over on the 20^th of this month. As per the latest news reports Trump has finally conceded his defeat and acknowledged Biden’s democratic victory.

 

The horrific part of the attack was that it was almost state-sponsored with Trump, still the head of the government, inciting his supporters for the act in a rally held prior to the joint session and putting incendiary social media posts. The social media posts were removed eventually, but a shade too late. We think Donald Trump has become the first ever head of a government in a democratic country to try cling to power in spite of a convincing electoral defeat, and egg on or even congratulate his supporters upstaging sort of a coup of an unprecedented order.

 

In fact, such acts are not unexpected. The US election of 2020 has divided the country almost into two halves—the Republicans, empowered by a populist and aggressive nationalism, and the Democrats, in the true spirit of democratic traditions to save democracy. Experts and political commentators have been warning about the inevitable repercussions of the divisions in the American society, and that right-wing nationalist Trumpism would outlast the Biden regime. Besides, Trump had refused to concede defeat from the beginning claiming ridiculously that he had won the Elections, demanding repolls and alleging that the Elections had in fact been stolen by Biden. The fact that many Trump supporters in the attack on Wednesday, the 6^th of January 2021, mouthing the slogan ‘stop the steal’ in an insane obsession says the sordid story that makes one ashamed of it all, and also fearful of democracy coming under serious global threat.

 

The growth of aggressive nationalism and intolerance in several frontline countries of the world including India corroborates the fear that democracy is indeed coming under increasing threat, globally. These openly right-wing forces in power propagate their ideologies bulldozing the government machineries, winning over a sizeable segment of the mainstream media through lucrative deals or even coercion, reigning supreme in the social media thanks to their ‘dedicated’ expert IT cells, passing controversial legislations to pander to the majority, repressing democratic movements with brutal force and creating in the process a foolish majority, blindly supporting anything that the ruling forces do or say. Elections are no longer democratic exercises; these are wars to be won at any cost, going to any extent of dividing or instigating or terrorizing the prospective voters. Accepting defeat with humility is a thing of the distant past, and the old saying needs to be revised to ‘everything is fair in war, love and (elections)’.

 

Donald Trump finally conceding defeat is indeed good news at this despairing juncture, whatever be the eventual outcome. Besides, a whole lot of the Americans still greatly value their democratic traditions with, in fact, some of the Republican legislators and strong supporters of Trumpism voicing against this assault on democracy and cherished institutions. Then of course, a vast chunk of the world’s citizens is still in favor of preserving democratic values and institutions. Therefore, should the fascist forces, disguised as genuine representatives of the people, try bulldoze democracy it would not be without a potent resistance movement across the globe. Save Democracy!

Ek Doctor Ki Maut: The Relevance of a Movie Title!

 

Yes, the title ‘Ek Doctor Ki Maut’ (Death of a Doctor) belonged to an award-winning Hindi movie made in 1990 by well-known filmmaker Tapan Sinha (1924- 2009). In the movie the protagonist, a medical doctor played brilliantly by Pankaj Kapoor, makes a rare discovery of a vaccine for leprosy after years of painstaking research, and instead of being recognized for that he is harassed and hounded by the authorities, and the doctor gets deprived of international honour also as he was transferred to a remote village. We cannot dismiss this story as a mere work of fiction, because the movie was based on the real-life story of Dr. Subhash Mukhopadhyay (1931-1981) who became only the second doctor of the world to use in-vitro fertilization in childbirth. Again, instead of honouring him the then West Bengal government and the Indian Government harassed him thanks to the familiar factors of professional jealousy, manipulative politics and bureaucratic negligence making the doctor face ostracization, reprimand and insults. He was also barred from international recognition. Dr. Subhash, frustrated and utterly dejected, committed suicide on 19^th June 1981, and he wrote in his suicide note, ‘I can’t wait every day for a heart attack to kill me.’

 

Another doctor died recently in Assam. Although he was not in the league of the doctor-scientists as above he was a dedicated and efficient physician, always trusted and loved by his patients. He was working for public sector company and mid-way in his career he started discovering himself in the thick of politics of manipulation, professional or even personal jealousy, administrative negligence and gradual ostracization, and over the years it assumed the horrid proportions of harassment at workplace, constant hounding and denial of deserved promotions/responsibility/desired transfer. The torture took an inevitable toll on his health, and he suffered a sudden inexplicable health disorder in 2018 for which he had to be treated in the critical care unit of a Delhi hospital. He recovered from the illness eventually, but the inhuman official harassment only intensified making him depressed, isolated and afraid to even attend office. The trusted doctor, while on a medical checkup after his recovery, decided to make a last try for a transfer to his hometown so that he could at least resume his normal work, and was taken to the head office by a few colleagues. There, a top-level officer insulted him by reportedly saying that if the doctor wanted to die, he could damn well die as the authorities would take care of his family; these inhuman words were spoken in presence of the doctor's wife. The selective targeting happened till the day before the end. His life was cruelly snuffed out finally, equally inexplicably, when it was all over in just five minutes during his usual afternoon nap. The shock to his family and kin is beyond any relief, forever. 

 

More of such unfortunate cases may have happened or have been happening across India, but statistics on that are missing. We only know that there have always been assaults on good doctors whenever a patient dies suddenly while under their medical care. Last year in Kolkata, West Bengal, a brutal public attack in a hospital almost killed a young doctor, and sometime back in Assam a senior doctor got killed in a similar attack. Therefore, unfortunately, although we hold doctors as givers of life or at times like God, this bonhomie continues as long as the patients get cured and return home. Repeated protests and demonstrations by the medical fraternity are yet to convince the governments in drafting a policy of protection for all of the workers of the healthcare sector. Harassment and hounding at workplaces are a far cry in terms of even taking notice.

 

When the COVID-19 pandemic had started to affect India seriously from the month of March 2020 all doctors and all healthcare workers were hailed as ‘Corona Warriors’ and had been requested to carry on with their life-saving duty with dedication. Now, over six months they have been doing their duty without any break or relief, except for the periods of quarantine when they themselves are infected which, of course, cannot qualify as rest. Active doctors of both government and private sectors have been saying that this continuous stress of non-stop duty is going to have serious repercussions in near future; but no one is hearing them. Instead, in many places across the country the dedicated fraternity has had to hold protests for the payment of even monthly salaries.

 

Appalled by the apathy of various governments the Indian Medical Association (IMA) had recently published a statement pointing out the risks of working doctors and the very high fatality rates among them. The risks of getting infected with COVID-19 is naturally high, because they are treating positive patients all the time, and since the viral load in them is also naturally much higher the fatality rate is also very high. The IMA said in the statement that around 2300 doctors got infected with COVID-19 till mid-September out of which 382 succumbed to the disease (more than 500 in October). This yields a death rate of around 16-17% in doctors while the normal rate is around 1.6% only now. The statistics also reveal a shocking aspect: an overwhelming majority of the dead doctors belongs to the age group of 60-61 which belies the national objective of protecting the elders. In fact, there had been guidelines regarding not directly deploying senior doctors in the field, but allowing them to supervise from the master control rooms. However, the opposite practice is in force, obviously due to the limited number of doctors as per population in the country.

 

As per the IMA statement even insurance facilities are not being extended to the dead doctors, with the central government saying this being a State subject it has no data for consideration, and the States yet to take any action on this. The statement further said that if no government is prepared to recognize them as ‘COVID Warriors’ in the true sense, then at least declare the dead doctors as ‘martyrs. This is very tragic indeed, and scary too, in view of the fact that the Coronavirus pandemic is set to continue for quite sometime to come and the medical fraternity is stressed beyond any measure or understanding.

 

We tend to be very vocal in severe criticism whenever incidents of commercial attitudes of private doctors and hospitals get reported.  But we must consider the other side too, the good and trusted physicians working selflessly round the clock, particularly in the times of the pandemic. We the citizens always look upon the doctors to treat and save us every time we fall sick or get the virus in the present context, and in that same spirit, we must think and care about the dangers and stress faced by the most important and the integral part of our society, and take appropriate steps to help them out. If only citizens and the governments combine in protecting and respecting the medical fraternity, the title ‘COVID Warriors’ given to them would be justified and realized.  Else, the movie title would continue to be the cruel reality.