INSPIRATIONAL REAL (OR REEL) LIVES !!

recently, there was a huge celebration in media and across the country of sachin completing his 20 glorious yrs in international cricket .. truly, a remarkable feat that goes to show his dedication and passion for the country and cricket ..

however, seeing the celebration on TV news channels made me wonder whether sachin has had only success in his lifetime ?? perhaps the only hardships and difficult times he ever faced were his tennis elbow problem and ofcourse the 99 WC when he returned from his father's funeral to hit a century against Kenya (indeed an inspirational story for ne one); however, there was no mention of the not-so-famous Sialkot test, which was the last in his 1st Test series against Pakistan, where he was hit on face by a Waqar's delivery and still continued to bat to save the test fr India; (i read it in an interview of K Srikant, who was the captain of Indian side then; click here to read the complete interview) ... one can be quite sure that there would be many more such instances, but since they do not belong to his glorious/glamorous years (which arguably, start from the famous sharjah series against team australia) most of us would be least interested in such stuffs; and the same reasons why media is not interested in such stuffs coz such stuff wont sell in today's consumerist world .. almost similar was the case when Big B recently completed his 40 yrs in B'wood ... and looking @ the media coverage made me wonder did he start his b'wood career with Zanjeer !! he gave up his job as a freight broker for a shipping firm in kolkata to move to mumbai in 1968 and Zanjeer came in 1973 ... but again, those 5 yrs, (when he appeared in more than 10 movies which, barring movies like anand, were not commercial hits) dont form a part of his glorious yrs, and so the lack of interest .. in fact, many of those reading this blog might be surprised to know that he even slept on the pavement and benches of Marine Drive (click here) during his initial days in mumbai!!

these legends are truly an inspirational story in themselves .. they hv written their own destinies with an effort that's characteristic of super humans, but y i made above comments is coz i believe many of us want to live in our world of fantasies where ppl become legends and earn name, fame, money and power without much of a struggle ... and in today's world of fast paced life, call it the side effects of globalization/commercialization or nething, but we want success easily and with little efforts .. and hence, these "success stories" are as well moulded to suit our fantasies: coz if these legends can do it without much struggle, so can we!! we probably want our b'wood actors (dont know what acts of heroism they do that we love calling them heroes) to succeed in their reel lives the way the likes of Sachin and Amitabh succeeded in their real lives so that we can draw an inspiration from their reel lives, knowing fully well that their hardships wont continue for more than 3 hrs!! (prob thats the reason we love to take inspiration from the movie lakshya by remembering the "tough times" Hrithik Roshan had in the movie but not the numerous real videos of army which are easily accessible) ...

AS I SEE THE FATWA AGAINST VANDE MATARAM

The recent controversial fatwa issued by JEU (Jamait-e-Ulema Hind) at its Deoband national convention meet, wherein, it asked all Muslims to shun singing Vande Mataram as some verses of the song are against the tenets of Islam (specifically Tawheed (Islam's faith in monotheism), as I read somewhere on the net), is rather unfortunate, to say the least.

The original Vande Mataram, as it appeared in Anand Math, was longer than the current version; however, the INC in its 1937 session decided to adopt only the first 2 stanzas of the song as the national song; as the later stanzas contained references where the motherland is likened to Goddess Durga and Laxmi. It was pointed out in the same session that the first two stanzas begin with an unexceptionable evocation of the beauty of the motherland and hence they would aptly make for the national song (for details, click here). Thus, its just the first 2 stanzas from the song "Vande Mataram" that comprise our national song. Hence, it's clear that the "objectionable" content of the original song "Vande Mataram" is no longer a part of our national song...

However, still, the issue of whether or not to sing Vande Mataram is best left to an individual (as Supreme Court also observed); after all, merely singing a song doesn't make one patriotic .. however, there is a difference in making the singing voluntary and its quite the other thing to issue a religious decree against muslims singing the song .. while the former is explainable, the later makes it unnecessarily political and has probably best been described by Mr Swapan Dasgupta, in his TOI blog, as "doctrinaire intolerance" (click here) .. by issuing the fatwa, JEU has thus, violated one of the basic requirements of a democratic society, that of tolerance .. this fatwa is now being used by several extremist groups to make singing Vande Mataram a measure of "Indianness" of an individual ... when Home Minister P Chidambram, in his speech at Deoband convention, asked majority everywhere (including Australia!!) to protect minorities and their interests, he was absolutely right .. however, he prob touched on only one side of the coin .. coz the other side that he shud hv touched as well is: do the minorities organizations hv no obligations towards the society (not the majority) in which they live ? we studied in our civic lessons that rights and duties always go side by side ... are such lessons only for learning at school ?? ...

The issue, once raised before (in 2006; when UPA Govt made singing of Vande Mataram mandatory on September 7; to mark the 125th year of the song's creation; only to make it voluntary later) is again back in limelight; and the cts discussion of such religio-political issues at the national level politics sometimes amazes me whether all the social issues e.g. poverty, illiteracy, terrorism hv been resolved ...

DAMN U PAGE 3 CELEBRITIES !!

Recently, an article was published in TOI abt Booker prize winner and activist Arundhati Roy supporting the cause of Maoists and urging the Govt for an unconditional talks with the Maoists. (here's the article on TOI) ...

the aim with which the maoist organization started might not hv been totally wrong .. however, their recent activities have proven that they hv become nothing but cold blooded murderers & terrorists ... how else, could one explain the fact tht on "charges" of suspicion of a farmer being a police informer, the maoists killed his wife, his daughter, aged 12, and 2 other college students staying in their house as tenants .. even his 7 year old daughter was injured ... similarly, in another incident, a village girl was killed due to incessant firing by them on Ranchi-Jamshedpur highway... (here's the complete article)

however, the real shameful thing is the fact tht inspite of these and many others blatant acts of terrorism, they get full "logistic" support from page 3 specialists like Arundhati Roy ... and perhaps worse still, is the fact that, sometimes, civil rights activists and "intellectuals" even go to the extent of romanticizing their anti-law activities .. i still remember a political debate after a top Maoist propagandist Kobad Gandhy was arrested from delhi; in that, a participant, who was also a poet, from AP, went to the extent of comparing maoists to Legendary Hero Bhagat Singh, by comparing their fights for "justice".... how can killing innocent ppl be compared to taking the utmost precaution of making the bomb land in an empty area in the Hall ?? ...
also, y is it that these page 3 celebs only come in support of maoists/terrorists, etc and never in the support of ordinary men/cops/police officers and their families who are killed by them ... are all the human/civil rights reserved for those who hv no respect for human lives ... that's prob coz, these celebs know that supporting cops would never give them the attention of media the way they get when they romanticize maoists ...

PUN IN VEDIC MATHS

The not-so-famous Anustub Sutra is a wonderful pun in it's own right. It's so worded that it can bear 3 different meanings: and all of them quite apt. The first is a hymn to Lord Sri Krsna, the second is similarly is a hymn in praise of Lord Shri Shankara, and third, arguably, the best and most ingenious of all (from a mathematician's point of view), is the evaluation of PI/10 to 32 places of decimal, and more importantly, with a "Self contained master key" to extend the evaluation to any number of decimal places !!! (and remember, we are talking of a time when ppl would multiply 7 by 5 by adding 7 five times !! ) ...

On understanding it, Dr V P Dalal (of the Hiedelburg University, Germany) commented: "It shows how deeply the ancient Indian mathematicians penetrated, in the subtlety of their calculations, even when the Greeks had no numeral above 1000 and their multiplications were so very complex, which they performed with the help of the counting frame by adding so many times the multiplier ! 7 X 5 could be done by adding 7 on the counting frame 5 times !"

However, the same great ancient genius, poetry and literature, of which each and every Indian shud be proud of, is being used to demean Vedic maths by calling it communal ... and even if our pseudo secular leaders are so much concerned abt "censoring" such "communal" stuff, even then, our ancient sciences could be taught without such literary genius as well i.e removing all such puns etc from it ... in my opinion, this literary stuff adds on to the beauty of the subject and prevents it from becoming dull; however, it's not necessary to be taught ... isn't it shameful that we feel shy to acknowledge our own greatness in several domains when the entire world is gng crazy after them ?

we had almost forgotten योग unless it returned to us as "योगा" .. hope such is not the case with Vedic Maths ...

THE GREAT AUSTERITY RACE OF OUR POLITICIANS ..

Recently, there has been quite an uproar abt politicians trying to show austerity by travelling in economy class (and "tweeting" abt it) or in 3rd AC (and making a news when some kid throws a stone at the train) etc... well, they r prob trying to show their solidarity with the "aam admi" who is forced to live such a life.. well, to say the least, i dont think that austerity is a virtue in the eyes of the poor, they are forced to lead such a life ... it might be in the eyes of the rich, who hv got all the luxuries in the world and would lead the life of an austere for some time (remember, its not forced upon them) and finally revert to their original lifestyle ... but the same cannot be said abt the poors or the aam admi who has no other option ...

and then, who doesn't know abt the luxuries that politicians enjoy.. i m not saying there is nething wrong in that; when SRK can charge Rs. 7 crore for a 3 day add shoot, aren't our politicians eligible for allowances that they enjoy for running such a big and vast country ... so, in my opinion, its better if media, instead of giving importance to their austerity drive, concentrates on their performance ...

SHAME ON INDIAN MEDIA OR SHAME ON THEIR AUDIENCES ???

I got a mail a few days back abt how, in Nov 2006, media completely neglected the ultimate sacrifice of Major Manish Pitambre - who became a martyr in an Anantnag (Kashmir) encounter with Suhail Afzal, divisional commander of the Hizbul Mujahideen, who topped the list of most wanted terrorists at that time - while highlighting (or rather celebrating) the release of Sanjay Dutt in the TADA case where he was found guilty of possession of armoury. (The entire mail could be found on the following blog: http://satyameva-jayate.org/2006/12/09/munnabhai-vs-manish-pitambare/; plz go thru it atleast once if u hvn't already read it). The incident mail referred to was long back (it occured in Nov 2006) but i forwarded it to many in my contact list and even had some kind of discussion on it ... The subject of the mail was "SHAME ON INDIAN MEDIA"; however after having the discussion, I m not sure is it the fault of Indian media or is it WE, the people, who shud be blamed ...
i mean, lets accept the fact that media has become a business today and it shows what it's able to sell...what else can u expect when we hv so many 24X7 News Channels running, all claiming to be "India's No 1" or "Sabse Tez" etc ... there is indeed a lot of fight amongst them for the so called "loyal" audience ... and in such a scenario, they just can't show news which doesn't sell ...
and isn't it true that the "loyal' audiences of media would rather listen to some news on Indian cricket eg, who hit how many sixes in a match b/w India and XYZ or some b'wood gossip rather than read abt the hardships which our army officers and jawans face almost daily ? after all, what effect does it hv on us if chinese armies incur into our territories and loot the bordering villages, or an Indian technology is being patented by some foreigner, and other such issues ?? these are meant only for some half-an-hour discussion on some national news channel, isn't it ?? and how many of us would prefer a magazine that mentions the gallantry award recipients of the country, and the heroic deeds for which they got it, to some bollywood masala magazine which details out when and where a 'couple' were last seen together ??

Time for SACH KA SAAMNA (with yourself, ofcourse) , r v ready ???

INDIA'S BIGGEST EVER SEARCH ??

Billed as "India's Biggest ever search" with 5000 jawans, an ISRO remote sensing aircraft, a Sukhoi, 14 search & rescue choppers, the forest department police, paramilitary forces & Chenchu tribal guides mobilized within 3 hours of late Mr. YSR, the ex CM of AP, going missing...being the CM of a state, he prob deserved all that (and i m not being sarcastic here) ... but then, did Mumbai not deserve a better response during those dreaded 60 hrs @ the time of 26/11 attack ?? y is it that we have to follow so many protocols even in situations of national crisis like Mumbai attack and not when something happens to a VVIP ?? couldn't NSG have got the clearance it needed faster and thus reached mumbai b4 those crucial 19 hrs when everything in case of Mr YSR was done within 3 hrs of him gng missing?? i m not against him given such a treatment; but yes, if the govt could do this much for a missing CM, surely it could have done much more for the worst terror attack on the financial capital of the country...