WHEN ASMITA GOT RAPED…AND SABHYATA WAS MOLESTED…

I always felt  sorry for Asmita. This girl in my college. Hardworking and sincere. Always ready to help. Her father was from Uttar Pradesh. Or was it Bihar? Or,  as Gulzar saheb said in his play Athanniya, ” Kaun sey UP ki hai rey tu”?. ..( I find it tough to translate this subtle dry humour. In the play, its a moral policeman who asks this question to an ‘obviously’ north indian migrant. For the cop, anything north of Maharashtra, is a UP (Uttar Pradesh).

Back to dear Asmita. Her dad was from ’some’ UP, as they say. Her mother,  a Maharashtrian.  Her mother tongue, was thus, Marathi. Hence, Marathi Asmita she was for us. .

One always felt sorry for her. And  for her twin sister, Sanskriti.  Both of them were cultured, well-groomed and good examples..  I never ever saw them answer back, or display their anger or disgust. ANot even when some one would pass a snide remark or feel lecherous eyes undress them.

I guess that’s why they were taken for granted.

Ummm..I correct myself. Everyone wanted to ‘own’ them.  Aamchi Asmita, said the elite, well heeled, and well-groomed Maharashtrians. My foot!! Aamchi Asmita, I would grumble. If you feel so much for her, why don’t you do something about it?

Then there were two other groups in fray, which wanted to  take up the cause of protecting Asmita and Sanskriti. Though their intentions almost alsways seemed suspect. (They never admitted it so) The law was an ass, so it seemed, from their attitude. But nobody could do a frigging $$@^ about it.

 The ‘middle-class’ sensibilities debated the bad behaviour and decried the humiliation, but, all  in private. And hung their head meekly as they petered past the other two groups of ‘protectors’ of the twins, in public.

These two groups.  One was led by Abu bhaiyya. He was from ‘Azim’garh. But had settled in our ilaka. The other was Raj Bhau. He spoke good marathi. Was quite a dashing young man and could really have  been a well-suited groom for both,  asmita and   sanskriti.

But he chose the wrong path. His practise and preach were like two-tracks of the same railway line. Never did the twain, or train, meet.  Raj Bhau’s other problem was his passion for animals. Taming them. Especially the wild ones. They would behave themselves only when inside his compound. But, the paltu kuttey would bite just anyone who would refuse to feed them in public.

Every one was scared of these wild ones, but  had no choice. We are like this only you see. Imagine trying to tame a wild one who has a gold band strapped around his neck. Look closely, there is a leash, but, nobody is holding on to it.  The dog catchers always look the other way when these mongrels are on the loose. It’s the meek stray puppies who get caught in the net.

Then there was Abu Bhaiyya. He was like a ‘Bhai’ to every one. Do I need to say more? He was  given police protection from the wild animals. But in his own home, the cops were denied entry by the ingrate. Wonder if he was too scared of skeletons tumbling out.

Both Raj bhau and Abu bhai would often clash in the middle of the night. Their fights were invariably over their love for Asmita and Sanskriti. I once over heard key aides of both, conspiring in the we hours of a morning. The groups had joined hands. Decided to share the ‘booty’. The deal had been done. Both groups took turns in disrobing and then….

Asmita and Sanskriti were  brutally gang raped, so I was told.  Raj bhau and Abu Bhai’s henchmen came forward,initially, condemning the acts. Later, retracting. Going as much to say that this is not their Asmita, not their Sanskriti. Disowned them.

But then, do we really care? Of course we do. We debate, we condemn. We issue press releases. We middle-class. Ofcourse, we also avoided being seen anywhere close to the lane where Asmita and Sanskriti lived.

Asmita and Sanskriti have since got married. To two wealthy foreigners. They are now well taken care of in foreign land. Initially, when the shaadi took place and the adoption happened, nobody cared. Now, Asmita’s hubby has won a Nobel. Sanskriti’s beloved has won the Oscar.

India has united again. The Raj bhau and Abu bhai camp has once again staked claim over the two.”She was from our gaon”, they have said. They have threatened to burn buses and damage public property if Asmita and Sanskriti do not return.

We the middle-class, have issued a press release, forming a ‘core-committee’ to discuss the matter.

Meanwhile, even as this issue rages on, a  new child has been born to the Bhartiya family in the neighbourhood. They have named the baby SABHYATA. Raj bhau and Abu bhai  wanted to be there for the naming ceremony. They pelted stones at each other last night, but, could not resolve the isue.

The middle class has yet to decide what  to do about it. (Raj bhau and Abu Bhai are any way unconcened about what the middle-class decides.)

Life goes on.

Of course it has to. Elsewhere in the world,  the state legislature in Maharashtra has been shamed by MLAs slapping each other. One more year is tip- toeing past the 26/11 mark. The Home Minister who had said “Badey badey sheraon mein chotti chotti batein hoti rehti hain), after the terror attacks , and who had been forced to resign, is back in his seat. He will take the salute on  the first anniversary of 26/11, as the nation watches in silence. Tribute or mute?

We don’t know. We don’t care.

I sit in front of my laptop, wondering, why should I spoil everyone’s mood so early in the morning. Good morning. Its time to discuss more important issues. Anyone travelling to Delhi? Anyone with a stomach ache? Anyone wants to play farmville? Anyone wants to check horoscope?  Facebook zindabad.

Last heard, Sabhyata was molested in one of the by-lanes of somewhere, called everywhere.

Zero…zero…zero…zero..zero..zero…zero…zero..zero..zero..

“Corruption is now a norm. We don’t even discuss this within  private parties. “  remarked a senior IPS officer, over a boring but eventful afternoon chai.

The cops spoke of how he had said NO to a lucrative posting. “They had asked 50 lakh for the post”. I believed the cop. He still remained posted in a rather ‘insignificant’ post, despite being fairly competent.

 

50 lakh for a posting? ? I should have sounded shocked. I wasn’t. Because, a few days prior to this chai session, I was privy to a ‘debate’ between a bunch of public servants. They  were discussing the asking price for a key posting in Mumbai. Reportedly, the ’shocking’  all-time high payment of 14 crore had been  paid for the  plum posting.  Folks, 14 crore may not be entirely true. It could be the figment of a cash-rich fertile imagination of a few disgruntled frustrated have-not babus.

But, it could also be true.:)

The same story I had heard from this chai-sipping cop and a few others. I may not believe it. But, I wasn’t entirely shocked. No longer.

Corruption stories fascinate me. I keep wondering  how do people stash so much of wealth away. Where:)??? The people who I know, don’t  have that wealth so can’t tell. Those who have it, they don’t.:)  They just brush it away.  The topic  I mean.:)

Take our Parliamentarian, Koda. Worth a whopping 600 crores. Stashed away in mining contracts. This, I can say is ’sound’ investment. Financial Planning they call it nowadays.

Not as exciting as the crores (and many more zeroes added at times) of hard cash which some of these people are known to travel with. “Black-ka-white types). Remember the infamous Sukhram case, where tons of loot, rokdaaa…was recovered from his house, stitched into mattresses, pillows, under the wash basin etc? Why go far. Close home, in Mumbai,  where a builder-IT nexus was busted and a vacant flat of the builder was found to have umpteen suitcases of  cash stored safely. I pity the senior IT official who was raided in Bandra and he had so much moolah in his house that he locked himself in and started throwing the notes out of his window. It sure was raining money that day.

There was a time when people turned their head the other way while accepting money. (In hindi they call it Aankh ki Sharam)…Or, remember the “under-the-table” money:)? Thats history.

The rule has been re-set. Look into the eyes and ask for it.  Speed money some call it. Some even hold debates and validate it through  ‘ethical bribes’:)..

 

No wonder, that it’s not corruption in Judiciary but, a Judge claiming he has one a two-wheeler ownership, that makes front page news now.

 

Remember the good ol’ days ki Bachchan movies? When the villain would say, “iskey badley mein tumhey  50,000 (fifty thousand) rupiye milengey..”…and the background  score would go a shocking dhan-ten-naaan…. It meant, Itnaaa saraa paisa:)?

 Now, we have come a full-circle. “Pachaas Hazaar?? Sirf Itna sa paisay)”)?

 

post script:  For those who think it’s the Home department (which controls police transfers and big bucks) or Urban Development,  which is the bone of contention between the Congress and NCP, wake up, Sids. These cows have been milked. Dry.

The new cash cow is the Rural Development ministry. Thousands of crores to be doled out. The pennies will reach the janata. The rest will stay in the durbaar.

 

In the line of Fire…..Lest we forget.

I have always loved my conversations with cops. Or Fire brigade personnel. Unusual experiences they have. So much to share. So much one learns from them. In dealing with people. And problems. And solving them.

I once saw a few firemen struggle  to pull out a pigeon, who had got entangled in a manja (kite-string) and  was perched precariously on top of a tree. They managed to free the pigeon, after six excruciating hours.  We all cheered. The firemen tripled up as rescuers, as keepers of law and order(ensuring the crowds are kept at bay and as traffic cops (maintaining the smooth flow of traffic around the area).

(For those who want to start their cops-are-so-corrupt rant, please take a short tea break. Or, just stand out in the middle of the road and guide traffic, for two hours if not more, in the scorching sun).

It is often a thankless job.  And then you hear of untimely deaths. Like the six firemen who sacrificed their lives. By day after tomorrow, these unsung heroes would be relegated to memory. Or beyond. Rs two lakh from the government. Five lakh from the Civic authorities. A job for a family member. For the rest, life goes on. As families continue to mourn.

Should we wait for the numbers to go up? All it takes is to fortify our own buildings. Have regular check ups. Install fire extinguishers. Have regular drills.

And for heavens sake, stop exploding crackers.(For those unaware, initial reports indicate that it was one of the fire-crackers which led to the blaze in Thane. Basically, one of the fire-crackers which took away six young lives.)

————

Here, reproducing an earlier though I had penned, some time after November 26, last year.  It is eleven months to that fateful week. Read on…Please don’t forget.

 

How long before one forgets the November 26 tragedy? Never, or Very long, I had thought.

Day after day, I have been seeing outpourings of emotion and unsung heroes being feted in words on front pages of newspapers. Slowly, it seems to have died down.

Wasn’t that so very obvious? The realist in me had argued. Was it? But its been less than two months. And we already have reams of newsprint on Amar Singh and Manyata and their new found friendship. And how Akshay Kumar’s travel from Chandni Chowk crash banged into the Great wall of China. But what we can still experience is the anger within one, and all. A Sunday visit to Leopold’s cafe saw the place packed to the brim. People lunching even at 4 pm. And every two hours, the voluntary donation box for kin of the cafe’s employees who had died in the attack, would overflow, to be replaced by a new one.

Am glad not every one has forgotten, that saying Enough is Enough, is not really enough. Happened to read a face book invitation, this one, called the 26 January movement.It is also a reminder of our Fundamental duties. For those who wish to enlist, just log on to www.fight-back.net.

 

ends

INDIAN (COPY) RIGHT

 

 This is a blog I had penned in March this year, 2009. Reproducing it here, as, once again, I realise, some things don’t change.  India continues to shine. Reflected or otherwise. What is mine, is mine. What is yours…ummm..is….Of course,  mine too:)

Vasudhaiva Bharata Kutumbkama. The world  is one large Indian family.

Now with (Indian) Venkatraman Ramakrishnan sharing the Nobel,  we go back to several debates which were on the back burner.

 Why did we allow them (these talents)  to go out of India? They have Indian blood in them and…..(Brain drain etc). Why were they allowed to settle in any other country? (Raj T Bhaiyya, please enlighten us).

Lets leave Raj and co out of our classrooms. Seriously speaking, isin’t it high time that we re-look at the higher education and research facilities in India.

We have an option. Annually, wait for the Nobel/Oscars/Grammy/etc etc and look for Indian roots. And then issue a standardised press release. Claiming ownership.

—————

blog dated 13/03/09

What’s common between Vikram Pandit, Kalpana Sharma,Vikram Chatwal and ummmm Bobby Jindal? A cursory Google check will tell you how big they are on the Who’s Who wire frame of the world. And yes, they have a strong India connect no doubt.

But ask the government in power, and it will not hesitate in staking ownership over their hard work. Don’t we remember how just everyone bent backwards digging out Pandit’s India-Mumbai and Nagpur roots the moment he was tipped to take over the Citi.

Now, take Slumdog for instance. No sooner than the Oscars were done with, the ‘CONG HI KAMAAN” , as Hindi news channels refer it as, excitedly claimed how “in the current regime, India has made it to the Oscars in such  grand fashion”…. Thanks to the UPA regime, I am sure that’s what they had wanted to convey. The BJP did say (almost) the same but, worded it differently.

So earnestly did the Congressi netas say it, that I wondered if Danny bhai should have in his acceptance speech actually thanked MADAM for her contribution to the movie as well. (Imagine if had he done that, it would have become part of the campaign manifesto)

But to each his own. One wonders where the same politicians disappear when their ‘desi’ heroes are down in the dumps. I remember how local leaders had gone to town claiming proximity to Mumbai/Nagpur lad and citibanker Vikram Pandit when he took over the citi which never sleeps.

 Now that he is spending sleepless nights, where are these leaders? MiD DAY’s stark revelation of Shafiq Syed, the star of Mira Nair’s acclaimed Salaam Bombay was then, a hero. Today drives an auto rickshaw. The Times of India has reported a shocking story of Preeti Mukherjee, who walked up the same podium at the Kodak Theatre when a documentary portraying her life won an Oscar four years ago.  The glory and limelight was shortlived.

Poverty struck-Preeti is  now into sex- trade in Kolkata.

 

ends

YEH HAI BOMBAY MERI JAAN…

“It is always amusing to see people suddenly bend backwards to accomodate you, when you use a kind word … and a Gun, than a kind word alone”.

I remember being fascinated with this line. Way back in 1989 when I first read it (it was a satire on the spate of airline hijackings which were taking place then, in India). And  every time that I would go through this particular ‘middle’, when it had appeared in an english language newspaper in Central India.

I thought I had forgotten about it. And then I saw this movie. Its called Double Standards. It has a hindi version, called Neta aur Abhi-neta.

Where, in the climax, the Neta, Raj, has the option of threatening the abhi-neta, Karan, with a kind word alone. But his marathi shabd-kosh (marathi word for dictionary, to all those who refuse to tow the marathi-raj) does not have the word “kind” and hence, there is a kind word AND a gun (his nav- nirman sainiks ransacking theatres and threatening to do same -same -but -different in other cities ).

All because the Abhi-neta uses the word Bombay instead of Mumbai. For those who wish to correct this blog, on factuality, that the person ’summoned’ with a kind word was a Nirmata-Nirdeshak  (producer-Director) and not an Abhi-neta, you just need to watch the news clips of that day. Or his interview to NDTV that evening.

“I respect the sentiments and apologise.I do not see this as political pressure at all”, one could see him remark, with a pleasant expression that would put even an SRK to shame.That was the abhi-neta in him at work.  A smile  (propped by a gun in the backdrop) can really work wonders.

But this is not about Karan. He wasn’t left with much choice.  Especially if you have a spineless state-head being caustic towards Karan. “He should have approached the cops”, said the Chief Minister. First take the cops off bandobast duty so that they get time for law and order,  Chavhaaaan saheb.

There is also the  Neta in the story. It is this Neta’s  loyalists who now want to train their wrath on anything  ’BOMBAY’.  ”If everyone is following the Law of the Land (sic) , who are these few to disobey? Remember how we POLITELY  asked people in the city to paint their signboards in Marathi and how everyone RESPECTFULLY did so, without a whimper”?

Of course it was a request with only a smile (oops…some of you noticed  the Gun as well, is it)..

But for the HMV sainiks,  while BOMBAY  in a movie is a four letter, a school with a BOMBAY  prefix,  is just fine.

Pray, why?? Because the Boss’s children study there. 

 (Apologies if I am giving them ideas…but then, this blog is in English…phew).

Wonder if  the school is already fortifying itself for the day the kids finish schooling.

 

p.s.  Did not really subscribe to Netaji’s logic of all interviews in Marathi…but loved his razor sharp  spit. I mean, wit.

p.s.(2): Uddhav Thakre in an interview to a national channel. Even we could have made Karan apologise because while BOMBAY  has been apologised for, there are still references to BAMBAI…and not MUMBAI….but we decided against it because people of Mumbai have bigger worries than these…

ahem…Uddhav…we bow to you for your generosity. (But please keep that gun away, its hurting. Will you??)

ends

A TRIBUTE TO THE “OTHERS”…

 
I had forgotten about this incident until YSR’s chopper came down. 
 
July 29, 2005. I had made a quick dash to Delhi two days after the watershed 26/7 and now had to return to Mumbai. But the skies had opened up again. The recovering Mumbai airport was deluged once more and flights had to be cancelled.
 
A resourceful friend who knew of the compelling reasons for my having to get back to work, suggested that I take a ride with one of his colleagues flying back in a ‘private’ jet.
 
I took up the offer.
 
As it turned out, the jet was an eight-seater. While I settled down comfortably, the jet’s owner came on board and soon after, four prominent Bollywood A-listers.  (Clarification: No, they were not from the same family). 
 
As the jet was airborne, I couldn’t help but wonder if the flight would be allowed to land in Mumbai – and if it was, how would it manage a touchdown in this turbulent weather?
 
As I toyed with the thought, the words of my colleague came rushing back. I had called him before take-off, to ask office to send an airport pick. When I told him who my co-passengers were, he was far from impressed. “Are you out of your mind? Do you realise what a stupid thing you are doing?” he shouted down the line.
 
I didn’t have to wait long for his explanation. The words tumbled out, much like the ceaseless falling rain. “First,” he yelled, “this fancy jet you are on may not be allowed to land. Second, the weather is so $$@@ bad, it may even go down like a rock.”
 
“So much the better,” I quipped, trying to make light of our conversation, “I will be in tonight’s news.”
 
“My foot,” came the swift reply. “In a  plane full of VVIPs,  you will be dismissed as the “one more”. The newspapers will say: ‘A,B,C,D and E perish in a crash. One more body recovered’ and no prizes who that “one more” will be.”
 
Since I am writing this blog, you may have guessed that the plane did touch down, and safely at that. I had all but forgotten about this episode until…
 
Until YSR’s chopper came down.

Even today, most of us are constantly reminded of YSR and his legacy. The “others” are all but forgotten.

It took a while, even on a web search site, to get the names of  Special  Secretary P Subramanyam,  CSO, A S C Wesley Pilot Grp Captain S K Bhatia and co pilot M S Reddy.  Most of the stories on the net still have the same headline: YSR and four ‘others’ found dead.
This blog is just a small mark of respect for all those who “also” died.
 
Continuing with short lives and shorter memories, do look up the obit page of the TOI, Mumbai edition, dated September 19, Saturday. A small picture, with a note from dear ones, conveys love to “dear Priya” who passed away this day, seven years ago, 2002.
 
That’s Priya Tendulkar, actress, social activist.  And in my opinion, possibly the first citizen journalist that Indian Television  has seen. Journalism students could learn a lesson or two, pulling out old tapes of Rajni, the serial she acted in.
 
We still remember you Priya Rajni Tendulkar.

If you have a line to write or a tear  to shed on an unsung “also died”, do write in.

Bad luck hi Kharaab hai….

It is not easy to make ‘friends’. Increasingly  tough as one grows older. 

I am not referring to myself:)  I am growing old(er) by the day, yes, but, am grateful to the (very) few friends I have made over the years.  They are an extention of one’s self.  And even more fun growing old with them.

Hence, it must be damn tough to lose a friend. Or a trusted aide. Tougher, if it is a sudden and untimely end.

Here, my heart goes out to Sonia (Gandhi).  Life, hasn’t given her a fair share of happy moments.

There has been Indira. Her mother-in-law who was shot dead. Then her husband and closest friend Rajiv. (These were preceded by the untimely air crash death of her brother in law Sanjay Gandhi, though there are no records to prove they shared any cordial relationship).

It surely must have taken a lot in her to enter politics and rebuild a party which was on the brink of extinction.  Rajesh Pilot (for the young and uninitiated, he was a veteran congress leader and father of young MP, Sachin Pilot) and Madhavrao Scindia were two names who were among the few who were instrumental in fine tuning the party. Pilot died in a car crash. Scindia in a chopper mishap.

As I write, YSR has been missing  for the last 27 hours. His chopper has been traced. Another young (by Indian political standards)  leader whom Sonia Gandhi had begun to repose much trust in.  Investigators are indicating at everything but  saying the worst aloud.

Life is not going to be the same for YSR’s family.  May not be to that extent, for Sonia Gandhi too,  it will be one more walk down a sad memory lane.

Saw a few news reports quoting a few pundits who referred to their “panchangs” (astrology calendars) and calculated the distance between saturn, mars, the moon, sun and a few other zillion situations. One remarked, uska to bad luck hi kharab hai.  Not so funny I must say.

post script 1.

“Friend” is an attribute used so casually now-a-days.  If you use it, for someone, anyone, live by the rules too.

Post script 2:

I am not a pro-this or pro-that party:) But it does take a lot to lose most of those around you, and still keep your head high. I admire that.

Post script 3.

One web site has gone on record to say that YSR was killed along with his four companions  in a chopper crash. An Andhra TV channel has been quoted by two national news channels, which claims YSR was seen alive not too long back in the dense jungles.

Rapid(ex) English reading course: Welcome back Journalist Shourie

Much has been said and debated on Jaswant Singh’s book. And as Bollywood scriptwriters would retort…picture abhi baaki hai mere dost.

But it was fascinating to see a normally cool and man of chosen words, Arun Shourie, strike at them with ammo they had least expected to encounter.
Am sure BJP president Rajnath Singh and national spokesperson Rajiv Pratap Rudy would be scampering to pick up their books on  nursery rhymes to figure out what Humpty Dumpty was notorious for. Or doing a google check on Alice in  ’Blunderland’. ”Me Tarzan”, quipped Shourie at one point, referring to the party big -mouths.
For those who watched Shourie live-on-tv, wouldn’t have missed his parting shot at Jaitley. He (Jaitley) says he read the (Jaswant singh) book and only after that did he  launch a tirade  against Jaswant singh. “The book was released at 7.30 pm and the statement from Jaitley came at 8.30 pm. In one hour, how could someone have read 669 pages, I wonder”, said Shourie with his wry grin.
That’s over eleven pages a minute. Arun Jaitley sure did a rapid reading course, unless ofcouse, he was reading between the lines. Before he put his foot in his mouth.  (Remember the radio jingle  of rapidex english speaking course, of the early eighties:)?

I have  always been a great admirer of Journalist  Arun Shourie. He was one of the reasons I opted to take up media and especially, the Indian Express as opposed to a job in the uniformed services. Ages ago.  Shourie may not have been a man of few words but, precise and carefully chosen ones for sure. Mondays attack, on TV, against his (soon to be ‘former’, if political grapevine is to be trusted) party colleagues is just one of many such examples.

“It was almost impossible a task to get Shourie write a short 300 word editorial in Indian Express, for he was always in love with writing essays”, veteran Journalist, Prabhash Joshi, founder editor of Janasatta, the hindi newspaper from the Indian Express group and then a Shourie colleague recalled recently, while talking to a few students of Journalism Mentor. “But what he wrote, stung”. Shourie was then Editor of the Indian Express.
Few may be aware that Shourie has plans to move to and settle down in a location very close to Mumbai, once he calls it a day from active politics. Suddenly, that day does not seem too far away.  That would be, to accomplaish his two full-time jobs on hand. Taking care of his son and tending to his wife . Both of whom, need his full-time attention.

And if he were to take Rudy’s advise seriously, Shourie could soon be  back as a journalist too. That should be good news for media students of this region.

Hello, Where have the ‘basic’ niceties gone?

Say cheese, you are on camera. We all may have heard this almost unfailingly, every time memories are to be recorded.

A quick surf of any channel (television programming , they say,  mirrors the society) and you know we have changed. At the very least, we  may be forced to believing so.  Take the case of ram-Laxman, the much talked and written about twin grouchos on MTV. They have made a fine art of scowling (and abusing ). 

In fact, if you see them smile, you know that they have had a bad day. Or worse, the person whom they are smiling at, has had it.

Then there is the grim faced Ashutosh Rana on a youth show and another 20/30/40 something female anchor on an entertainment channel who is ‘being nice’  to the participants when there are only three beeps in her 20 second monologue which makes it on air.

I must admit that I have become used to some of these scowlers. So much so,  that I wonder would these manner-haters even look nice if they smile.  Hence,  I was indeed  surprised  to see this baby faced  ’meanie’ on a stunt show on one of these fancy  youth channels, who, I am sure has a killer smile but may have been compelled (by the  show producers) to wear that growl on his face (complimented by a dark ill-fitting jacket).

But this blog is not about clothes. It is about the looks and behaviour you wear. It is about the basic niceties which seem to have an even rarer appearance than this years monsoon.

If one were to ask, most people, rather politely, “Would you mind parking your car a bit to the left” to the car owner along your vehicle, “kyon, nahin karega to kya kar lega”, would be the reply that would spit out.  When only a smile or a “sure, I don’t mind” would have done.

I remember reading,  not so long ago, that “Whats- up” is the new ‘Hello”. But I wasn’t aware that even this (whats up)   had been replaced by an ‘indefferent shrug’ bordering on ‘I am- doing -you -a -favour -by -acknowledging -your -presence’.

Some call it a cool attitude and genuinely believe that its their USP. To be rude. To be ‘heard’. I remember Rajdeep Sardesai once saying that on news channels, there is anyways such a clutter that to be heard above that din, one ends up shouting a bit. Point taken. But the shouting soon becomes a normal tone and when someone says something gently, the person is accused of being ‘very soft’.

How often do we we take the initiative to stop by and shake hands with a colleague? (Why should I do it, if he is not). When is the last time we greeted someone with a warm good morning (I repeat, the operative word is WARM).

When is the last time you smiled, genuinely and were naturally nice to someone? When ever we have that constipated look, why don’t we ever try to leave it behind,  in the washroom,  rather than spread the stink?

No, I have not had a bad car parking experience. Nor did someone growl at me with his looks without any fault of mine. No I am not promoting Raju Hirani’s Jadu ki jhappi nor trying to tell the Americans to be a little nicer to SRK.

I just hapenned to surf  a few tv  channels last night. And this morning, observed  faces in different moods as I was driving in. But just everyone seemed as if they had read a doomsday prediction.

Smile, you’re on camera seems passe’. Smile, you are no longer on camera is in. Or is it that SMILE just became a four-letter word:)?

My Name is Khan…ummm…..er…so?

Maybe it is too early to react. But then, I am reacting the way so many of us Indians and Ministers (pun intended)  end- up doing so at the slightest of slight.

At the outset, I have nothing against King Khan. I loved him in Swades. That, as far as I remember, wa the last movie he ‘acted’ in. Pun, unintended. For those who missed out on the Ashutosh Gowariker classic, it is about a young Indian who decides to return to India from the USA (I am not sure whether he takes a flight back from Newark or NASA…twio days ago it was Newark for sure:))

In the latest episode, SRK was stopped by US airline officials (allegedly) because  his last name was Khan. (I could not find a single print or TV report which used the word ‘alleged’ . This despite, not once, did the US officials accept to this claim. Hence, it still remains an allegation until proved.  Should SRK have felt angry? Well, he was the one  the spot so he would know best. But weren’t  the US officials not following norms laid down by their country for all visitors? Which applied to every one, Movie star or no movie star.

Humiliated, one sure does feel. Anytime one is stopped by a cop and questioned. Those rare occasions when I have travelled to the Big Apple, I have been questioned too. My name is Joshi, I almost told the quizzing gori-chamdi. Take off your shoes, belt and walk across quietely and put your credentials on a table and stay ready for questioning, he told me, but, very politely. The formalities over, I was asked to proceed. I could see so many others being subjected to the same, random check tests. None were film stars in that queue though. At least none of them claimed they were or worse, tried to escape the check  by claiming they were.

But thats the law of THAT  land. They have every reason to be paranoid. Because of what they have been through. We behaving high-handed is not going to help matters.Especially  for the rest of us travelling there.

We, have our own laws and we expect people here and outsiders to follow that. So why create a ruckus or even atempt to gain public sympathy when in someone else’s home?

I remember the not- so -recent case of an eminent political leader of India, who is otherwise exempt from a body frisk, when he travels within India. No I am not referring to former President Dr Kalam. This burly leader was frisked at the airport when he landed  in Australia and he threw a ruckus.  He didn’t have an illustrous last name like a Joshi or a Khan but he had a designation which commanded much more power. Officially. “I am the Speaker of the Lok…” he thundered… The officials refused to look the other way.

The eminent leader has since refused to travel to that country. Ever again. I repeat,  just because he is never subject to a body frisk in India. And his official position exempts him from such a frisk.

 By that logic, he should be allowed to travel to most countries without a visa (or visa on arrival) the way the US of A citizens do. No saaaar, Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam (the world is one family) doesn’t exactly translate into that.

For those who may not be aware, Heads of State (read, Presidents of the country under ideal circumstances) are the only ones exempt from certain security checks. Al others, be it a Joshi, Khan or an Anthony Gonzalves, would have to be subject to the Lex Loci. Law of the land.  Which includes random questioning or a mandatory Body frisk at the airport.

Ofcourse, until the title King doesn’t only refer to one given to heads of state. Then, King Joshi and King Khan can walk in and out, with gay abandon. ummm. Pun unintended.