August 28, 2007 at 4:54 pm (India is my country.., KayP's Den)
Regarding the recent developments in the Indian Judiciary in conjuncture with Bollywood (Read: Salman & Sanju’s conviction and jail) my Mom has an interesting rationale.
According to her, the verdicts are too harsh and she is one of them who thinks they have suffered enough, I still dont know what have they suffered?. If its the mental and emotional trauma that comes as part and parcel of being an accused in a criminal case..then it doesn’t count. Though it does for their friends and family.
But thats not what she meant, she said: “Initially we cribbed about law not being same for all; different yard sticks for commoners and different for celebrities/politicians. Now with these two cases celebrities have been reduced to mere commoners”.
“Isn’t it what we wanted?”, I interjected.
“Yes, but thats not it“, she said.
Me: what do you mean?
“There are still the politicians, the yard stick is still shorter for them” she observed.
Ironically, JMM leader Shibu Soren was acquited for “lack of evidence” in a murder case (earlier convicted by a lower court) on the same day as Salman was arrested and suddenly My Mom’s observation suddenly seemed prophetic.
So, I guess till everyone is measured on the same yard stick, there will be sympathies for Black Buck hunters or an illegal arms hoarders and their defense arguments will indeed have some ground after all.
I personally feel punishment is justified if not deserving in both cases. But it would have served better purpose if jail term was couple of years less and these 2 years they could dedicate towards mandatory full time social/humanity/community service. Maybe work in oldage homes, Blue cross or Red cross associate or may be even cleaner/keeper of cages in Zoo’s etc.
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August 27, 2007 at 4:50 am (KayP's Den, Take Light..)
There are some people whom we often acknowledge as the “unsung heroes” if not heroes, like: 1. B.R. Ambedkar 2. Chanakya 3. Ekalavya 4. Jatayu 5. Felipe Massa etc ..I think you get the picture.
Now, what I want to compile with your help is a list of “unsung heroes” consisting of things, entities, places, songs etc which are crucial or critical or have had significant impact on human civilisation but are not celebrated enough.
Eligibility-Should satisfy atleast one of the following:
1. Indispensible but neglected due to nature of utility.
2. Overlooked due to presence of more “famous” alternative/substitute/competitor.
3. Would apply to society at large and not a single person or a small group.
(Also, mention in brackets S.No of eligibility it qualifies under)
Unsung Heroes of Human Civilisation:
1. Tooth brush (1,3)
2. Song-Hum Honge Kaamyab Ek Din ( 2,3)
3 .Toilets (May sound stupid, but I sincerely feel it fits all the critirion-1,2,3)
4. Pencil (Pens usually get the credit, we call ‘em “Mighty Pen”,”Mightier than sword”etc, all the while we forget all of us started with pencils!.2,3)
5. ?
6. ?
7. ?
8. ?
9. ?
10. ?
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August 4, 2007 at 6:09 am (KayP's Den, Reviews)
Read “Anthem”… yes read it and not sung, because what Im talking.. typing about is the novella written by Ayn Rand and not our national anthem..bad joke..eh?..dont care.. ’cause the book isnt and thats what matters..dont it?
Well, at the outset Im glad to have found out that this authoress can make as much sense in 30+ pages as she mustered in her 700/800+ magnum opus “The Fountainhead”. I personaly liked that too actually.
Ok..Without drifting too much. The book in discussion is set in an unspecified future date.Where the human race has entered a dark era..the causes for which she attributes to the ill effects of Socialism. What seem to be the remnants of the mankind live in a society where “individualism or individuality” are unheard of..or should I say locked up terms. People are reared and brought up on the ideas of “collectivism”, so much so that references to oneself are made in plurals of pronouns such as “we”, “us”,”they” etc instead of “I”, “me” or “he/she” resulting in total absence of self identity.
So its in such a world that our hero Equality 7-2521(thats his name!) was born, an ambitious and visionary man who is not content with this world, a man who realises and finds out that there is more to the world than what is being taught to him. Tries to persuade others to make this place better. But the world ( in this case.. a few council members..who are in charge of this society) refuse to relent and serve him death penalty for treachery. Hero escapes and is joined by his lady love; settles far away from his birth home and discovers the truth about life and history of the world.
I must say “Anthem ” is a very creatively written story…initially I couldnt understand a thing in the plot..but as the plot unfolded everything made marvelous sense.
The intention to promote individualism…self- reliance, respect, identity etc was encouraging to see, but to see it culminate into an objective of giving more than due importance and glorifying the need of “EGO” was a little disheartening at the end. But having said that and knowing Ayn Rand has her own definitions in her philosophy, she might have intended well. Also the fact that the story was written at the time whe socialism had started to disintegrate the Russian empire..this philosophy could have lent towards some much needed moral & social encouragement.
Probably made more sense to that era’s common man than today’s habitual reader.
But for me the best feature, with all due respect to the authoress .. still remains the volume of the book.
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