How far are these reality shows REAL?

Posted by Phoenix on Jul 4, 2008 in Society | 2 comments

The trend started around two to three years back to facilitate the exposure of hidden talents but now it has taken a drastic commercial turn ensuring big financial bonanza for television channels.

I still remember Abhijeet Sawant and Amit Sana competing each other for the first Indian Idol crown in an healthy atmosphere. The people use to enjoy the talent feast and moreover it generated great deal of interest in the minds of Indian youths.

But the next part of the story is very saddening. After the high profile success of first Indian Idol there came an era of reality shows with almost every television channel toeing the same line. In between commercials at crucial junction to maintain the suspense, hot dialogues between the judges to make the show spicy, asking the candidates to request for votes in order to earn money almost every thing was done that is hardly related to talent search. The modus operandi is same of every channel and the purpose is very clear, to earn maximum by banking on the fates of the candidates.

The worst part of it came when a sixteen year old Shinjini from West Bengal suffered partial paralysis and refused to speak after being publicly rebuked by a judge in a reality show .The parents have alleged that the television channel is solely responsible for the critical condition of their child. It came at a time when nation commission for the protection of child rights has already set up a committee to frame guidelines for children’s participating in the show .The commission has requested for the opinion of labour ministry to tackle with this menace which it calls as new age child labour.There are few sections in the society who are in favour of penalizing parents for pushing their child in these shows to earn publicity.

There are frequent tense moments and the channels have exerted enough pressure on the participants which ends up hampering their mental development up to a certain limit. Every year few candidates win the crown and remain in the lime light for few days until they are forgotten, as it is very rightly said public memory is very short. But at the end of the day the channels earn huge amount and look forward to another show.

At last there some reprieve as the child rights commission has taken up the matter seriously and hope the results are witnessed soon. Let’s pray we don’t meet any more shinjini in the same manner.

Do we need reservations?

Posted by Phoenix on Jun 24, 2008 in Society | 0 comments

Reservations on the basis of birth is a crime against humanity.With the reservations already touching 49.5% mark ,I am afraid whether we are heading towards a divided or united India?

Further demands of reservation being raised up consistently it would not be a surprise if there will nothing be left for the general category youths in the government sector. Nowadays they are demanding reservations even in the private sector.

How can you think of providing reservation to rich scheduled caste candidates bypassing below poverty line forward classes just on the basis of birth? Further shocking is the fact that we repeatedly keep shouting for the welfare of backward classes without genuinely doing anything for the them at the grass root level.Still number of them are forced to child labor and have never been to school.

Moreover our politicians never care for the true representations of backward classes in their personal offices which was recently disclosed by and RTI filed.why don’t we provide good quality education for them upto senior secondary level like in private schools and then allow them to face the test ,which would result in the fair selection.

Another sad part of it is that we are providing reservation in higher education as well as in job sector,which is highly uncomprehensible move.If there are reservations, it should be only in one sector.When the reservations were implemented for the first time they were meant to be for a stipulated time but now it has become an issue for politicians to meet their political dreams.

These days there is a huge uproar over the reservations being implemented for a particular community in the most reputed institute of the country,it is almost unacceptable to implement 50% reservation for a community which comprises less than 3% of the population.But then we need to digest that.

In an another move, the rajasthan government toed over the reservation demands of a community after they adopted violent means ,paving way for further more violent demonstrations by other communities.

Well its really paining but we need to live up with it,until we don’t stand united.Else our politicians will keep scoring the wrong goals.

Terror attack in Jaipur and it’s ramifications

Posted by Phoenix on May 18, 2008 in Politics | 0 comments

After month of lull of any fatal terror attack in the heartland of India this time on the evening of 13^th May terrorists chose pink city as their target. Nine serial bomb blasts near the world famous Hawamahal took 63 human lives.

Just few days back I was thinking that probably things are changing, hoping that in future our life would not be exposed to such brutal face of death. I though our children would again grow up without looking at such bloody scenes in their childhood. I think I was too optimistic about the augmentation of the tolerance level and the patience of those insane people who taking the excuse of religion or painful past don’t hesitate to plant bombs to take away the life of common people.

This time it’s another small outfit named Indian Mujahideen who has claimed responsibility for carrying out this deadly attack in Jaipur. It’s good to know that this outfit also launched a diatribe against Muslims who do not support terrorism, calling them a ‘bunch of coward’ and vowing punishment to them unless they sought forgiveness.

So such radical outfits acknowledged the major presence of liberal Muslims and their resistance within. They must know that whatever happens such large fraction of the community won’t ever support the shedding of the blood of innocent and will stand forever against such religious freaks whose ideas are based on intolerance. By organizing this fatal bomb attacks they not only killed 63 innocent common people but also the entire humanity.

Yes they might have forgotten to learn from the Quran itself where it is written clearly that killing of even one innocent person is akin to the killing of entire humanity. No, if heaven is there they must stop dreaming of finding a place there by committing such heinous crime.

Well it’s truly disappointing to see how politicians have indulged themselves in the blame game. So many saffron politicians and other intelligence officials are holding responsible the lack of any tough law to deal with the terrorist. Already the issue of revoking of POTA (Prevention of Terrorism Act) can be heard in high pitch from the parties which implemented it in past. But it has been proved that BJP led governments always used this impious act against a particular community.

One intelligence officer points out to the ineffectiveness of the general law showing examples of delayed justice in case of Mumbai bomb blast, Hyderabad Bomb Blast, Varanasi Bomb Blast etc. But everyone is emphasizing more on the curing of the symptoms but not the disease itself. Sri Krishna Commission even though said that the Mumbai Blast was due to the violent repercussion of the Mumbai riots happened two months back, but its recommendations are still not implemented. Though we are successful enough to punish the culprits of Mumbai Bomb Blasts after long 13 years but we are yet nab any of the murderers in the Mumbai riot cases. Same goes with the Gujarat riot cases where state itself gets involved in the killing of its citizens.

We want to live in a more secure India; we want a place where fear of life won’t be a regular thing. India must strengthen its internal security system by better networking and probably by following the federal system that has already been advised by the experts. And moreover justice must be given to every victim so that the faith remains there on our judicial system. We believe change is possible.

Who will bell the cat?

Posted by Phoenix on May 12, 2008 in Society | 0 comments

In recent times a controversy is very much in the air and that is fuelled by the Union Health Minister Dr. Anbumani Ramadoss. He has literally attacked the smoking on screen and also complained that the surrogate advertisements have increased with the latest platform as in Indian Premier League cricket matches which have a massive viewership. He has argued that creativity as an art should be used for improving lives instead of taking them and claimed Tobacco and alcohol together make a perfect recipe for early death.

Well about me I would like to say that neither I drink nor I smoke and I vehemently oppose both as a part of our lifestyle. No, not for the reason that my name sounds Muslim but for the fact that since childhood I had experienced the adverse impact of these on the society and I find it hard to acknowledge that the major source of energy of a nation the youth community would be under the curse of unhealthy practices. Many of my friends have embraced smoking and drinking with the course of life. Mostly since the school level and some after coming to this Aligarh Muslim University(AMU) where smoking is a commonplace. Now among all my old friends only as little as 5% are untouched by these harmful practices. I am proudly one of them.

I unquestionably find it a matter of concern that over a million deaths in India occur due to Tobacco use, and according to the World Health Organization study 15% of the school children here in India use Tobacco. It is also proved that 52% of youngsters start smoking after being influenced by movies. Being the Convener of University Film Club of AMU I had noted some interesting figures given by the Health Minister and if things are judged too closely then I personally believe there must be a line drawn between creativity in the film and the present scenario regarding drinking and smoking. It is stated that India produces the largest numbers of movies in the world (900 in year 2001). In the 1950’s, 30 percent of films had smoking scenes with an alarming percentage touching 89 in 2004. Yes indeed it’s true earlier the characters depicted as smokers in the movies in 1950’s were only villains or ‘bad guys’. Now 76% of smoking scenes are done by heroes or lead characters. And yes from my personal experience I have seen that the idea of a ‘negative hero’ is quite alluring for the youths these days. Today it’s very much true that drinking is characterised as macho, youthfulness, and acceptability in elite social circles. The idea is indeed futile. The average drinking age in India from the average age of 28 now it has come down to shocking 19.

It’s really interesting to see that the latest two movies by Tamil Megastar Rajnikant were smoke free and biggest hits in the history of entire Indian Film Industry.

We will have to build a new India which will be free from all evils. And India has not turned into an individualistic society, and so many times harmful practices like this affected the entire family. A youth is very much liable to his family and all the responsibilities to the nation. So he must need to be educated and aware of everything.

Let’s address on these issues boldly and find a better solution.

Dreams should not be merely there

Posted by Phoenix on May 10, 2008 in Inspiration | 0 comments

We all love to dream. And definitely being optimistic sometime catapult someone to a coveted status. Great Poet Rabindranath Tagore said that whatever one will think that definitely will happen. And I also accept this fact that to achieve something one always needs a starting point. And it doesn’t come merely as it is there. We can call the dream that starting point. But how you will carry it to the next level that’s very much dependent on the ground you made up in the past.

Management Guru C K Prahlad addressing over 700 members of the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) at a conference dreamt of India at 75. According to him, India in 2022 will have 30 firms in the Fortune 100, produce 10 Noble laureates, have the largest pool of trained manpower and corner 10 percent of the world trade.

No as a starting point I would sure like to praise him for the dream he cherished. But I really feel with their blurred vision of India sometime our elite classes like to satisfy their ego. To be a world leader in 2022 means to be allot, shouldering the responsibilities as a world leader too. I don’t believe India as a transparent democracy which has a shameful record of human development index till now. In a country which will be counted as world leader the rule of law and democratic values must prevail. Whereas till now we are yet to deliver justice to state sponsored riots in past, human rights violation in Kashmir being questioned every time. Indian economy has done well in the recent years but it just created more millionaires and could not benefit the populace. More than 800 million of Indian people forced to leave on less than a dollar disgracefully points that the rich-poor divide is going to be very high in 2022. Cases of food riots already reported at some places in India last year. Which world leader we are talking of when the Govt. cant even stop farmer suicides in the regions of Vidarbha. A country where religious bigots given much more importance than to let logic triumph over the petty beliefs cant show the world a new way.

India is not only the tale of few cities and the change happening there. From Kashmir to Kanyakumarika and from Arunachal to Gujarat, every nook and corner one day will have to speak about its success in all the fronts. Yes things can change. But before that let be the change.

The Story at a Mall

Posted by Phoenix on May 9, 2008 in Business | 1 comment

Today was just another hot day in Delhi , so we just wanted to chill at the nearby Mall.

We were in no mood to get back to our room by the mid night, as the present days are quite frustrating for both of us. Me and Sourav, have nothing to do but battling the hot weather of Delhi.

At the Mall, we had so many things to kill our time. ( when I say things, it means the Crowd ). So, hanging out with friends at the Mall with cold drinks in hands is the best part of my life. As the time passed by and the darkness of night started taking over the evening, the crowd started moving out and there were only few people left out there.

Suddenly we noticed two guys with a book in their hands, trying to make a small conversation with the pseudo intellectuals, but no one cared to get tempted about what they were trying to say, not that thing was our time pass.

They were polite, they were well dressed, they were so down to earth, as they were salesmen, trying to sell the latest edition of Oxford Dictionary, an Encyclopedia.

After two hours of game, neither of the two was able to impress anyone with their hot deal of Oxford Dictionary @ an unbelievable price of Rs. 500/- (approx. $ 12), which is tagged MRP 49 UK pounds.

I and Sourav decided to get a brief introduction of them, not with pity but with concern, walked up to these folks. Both of us were welcomed with the scripted pitch which was almost by heart to us. We made one thing very clear to them that we were not talking to them to buy their stuff. To this Amar refutes saying, “What makes you walk up to us?”, which sounded very rhetorical as he continues “Is it out of pity??”

But, it didn’t shock us as we knew that those words were the most suitable words in that situation.

After a small conversation, it revealed that they don’t get incentives or commissions etc, unlike most of us. Its just a part of their job to sell these books to people. This is what we call dedication, that most of us lack. At one point of time, we felt like buying it, but our pockets didn’t allow us to do so.

Now, it was time to take off, we shake hands. It was a good experience to talk to someone like this, however, the conversation gave us few more info about them, their names and numbers, just in case if we had any references, so we thought to help them in our way, by blogging about them. We clicked their photos and seek their permission to publish their contact info across the globe online, and they were more than happy to it.

This gave us an experience as these Malls are not always about sipping colas, enjoying air conditioned and watching chicks. it is also place for strictly work and no pleasure.

A new world of hunger

Posted by Phoenix on May 4, 2008 in Contemporary | 0 comments

So the time has arrived at last when we are talking of hunger, we are talking of basic food necessities like two ends meal. Since childhood we had been said that those days are gone where generations were lost due to famine, people shifted to cities for food and died there like insects. We read about the famous Bengal famine of 1776 where the majority of the population of south Bengal were wiped out due to scarcity of food. I think few readers know the fact that this famine also inspired famous writer Bankimchandra Chatterjee to write ‘Anandamath’. We again get reminiscent of the classic flick made by Satyajit Ray about the famine of 1942 which also affected the then Bengali generation badly. The whole Calcutta was painfully haunted by the horrifying scenes of stick like mother-child figures roaming around door to door and begging with the words ‘Fan(the water remained after cooking rice) dao’ . So many days streets had witnessed their corpses piled up on them and Vultures and crows greedily took out fleshes from their bodies. Amartya Sen famously researched on this famine and concluded that people don’t die as there is no food but because they don’t have money to buy them.

Well we are the post-generation of green revolution; we just can’t imagine such dreaded scene in front of our eyes. But this is painfully true we are forced to talk about the new world of hunger these days.

Now the specter of world hunger is looming, with sharply rising basic food prices and unnecessary food shortages sparking food riots in places like Haiti and Egypt. Officials with the U.N.’s World Food Program (WFP) are alarmed. The WFP has put out an emergency appeal for more funds, saying another 100 million humans have been thrown into the desperate hunger pits.

Well first it was US secretary of states Condoleezza Rice and then the most unpopular US president ever George Bush attacked the appetite of Indian Middle Class with the words” There are 350 million people in India classified as middle class ..When you start getting wealth, you demand better nutrition , that causes prices to go up”. Wow! What an observation by an American President. Probably he also doesn’t know that 70% of the total Indian Population live on 1$ per day which is even lower than the poor nations like Haiti where food riots continued for 7 days. But lets take account of the US president role in solving the issues rather than putting charges on the developing nations.

Directly under Bush and the Congress is the authority to reduce the biggest single factor boosting food prices—reversing the tax-subsidized policy of growing ever more corn to turn into fuel at the expense of huge acreages that used to produce wheat, soy, rice and other edibles.

Corn ethanol is a multifaceted monstrosity—radiating damage in all directions of the compass. Reducing acreage for edible crops has sparked a surge in the price of bread and other foodstuffs. Congress and Bush continue to mandate larger amounts of subsidized corn ethanol.

Republican Representative Robert W. Goodlatte says: “The mandate basically says [corn] ethanol comes ahead of food on your table, comes ahead of feed for livestock, comes ahead of grains available for export.”

So Mr. Bush first you decide should we change our diet and instead of chapattis or daal chawal we should have ethanol prescribed by you?

Cyber dissidents and Govt’s apathy

Posted by Phoenix on Apr 27, 2008 in Society | 0 comments

Some always say that internet is a bad thing. We can witness the increase the no. of cyber dissidents around the globe. They are victims of governments who fear that the very technology needed to promote investment and economic competitiveness–the World Wide Web–also allows their citizens access to unprecedented power to make their voices heard.

One year ago Amnesty International launched the irrepressible.info campaign to highlight the plight of these cyber-dissidents and to celebrate the people’s fight for freedom of expression even when the consequences are dire. For Internet repression is rapidly expanding. According to the Open Net Initiative, five years ago serious and systematic Internet filtering was applied by three countries–China, Iran and Saudi Arabia. Today they have detected filtering in more than two dozen countries.

The most talked about example of Internet censorship still remains China, a country surrounded by “The Great Firewall of China”, a filtering system which prevents tens of thousands of political, social, religious and cultural Internet sites reaching people inside the country. The firewall is backed by a matrix of control including a force of net surveillance police said to reach tens of thousands in number.

The Chinese government has promised “complete media freedom” surrounding the Beijing Olympics in summer 2008. But so far movement has been backwards. On 24 January, 07 President Hu Jintao had ordered officials to “purify the online environment” ensuring online information is “healthy” and “ethically inspiring”.

Meanwhile reports of various means of cyber-censorship and intimidation are reported on the Internet nearly everyday–from Russia and Uzbekistan to Pakistan and Fiji. In a new development, ONI recently reported that Cambodia ordered mobile phone message services to be cut off during elections. Iran is reportedly also considering targeting multi-media phone messages.

What has really shocked campaigners over the last year is the growth of Internet repression. Experts speak of the export of the ‘Chinese model’: extensive use of the Internet for economic purposes, with severely curtailed political potential. The latest Open Net Initiative (ONI) Report on Internet filtering shows that at least 25 countries now apply state-mandated net filtering including Azerbaijan, Bahrain, Burma, Ethiopia, India, Iran, Morocco, Saudi Arabia, South Korea, Thailand and Tunisia.

But filtering is only one aspect of Internet repression–politically motivated closure of websites and Internet cafes, as well as threats or imprisonment, are reported far more widely.

Around the world human rights defenders and activists are using the Internet to report, mobilise and campaign. We have got be on our guard against those who want to control access to information and take that free speech away. We must not let them stop that promise being delivered.

Teaching Humanity to Human.

Posted by Phoenix on Apr 23, 2008 in Photography | 0 comments

If you are a Keen Observer, look at the photograph, taken by a Vinayak , The Got is already dead. Please leave your comments of what your think about this picture.

We the people and our princes of the land

Posted by Phoenix on Apr 18, 2008 in Politics | 0 comments

Americans feel proud of their history, of their revolution, of the dream and all those hope that had been infused in them as Great American Dream. The dream that if anybody works hard he can make scratch to stars. But here in India the situation is so much different. Parental lineage, family system is a commonplace in Indian Politics.

So Rahul baba is in news again. Recently most of the veteran Congress politicians cum ministers lined up and proposed to promote Rahul Gandhi as the next PM in the upcoming elections. Though again Congress high command in haste defended itself by saying that it’s up to the Congress Working Committee to decide on these issues. Whatever it is it seems like eyewash.

The 1^st question is the credibility of Dr. Manmahon Singh as the PM(yes even after the inflation fiasco). And the 2^nd question arises how much Rahul Gandhi is qualified to be the Prime Minister of the largest democracy in the world. Few months back he made an irresponsible comment hailing his family’s contribution to Indian Politics and declared they created Pakistan. Pakistan Foreign Affairs Ministry leave no time to make this diplomatic faux pas as an issue.

Well one of my friend said few days back that whatever it is but Rahul Gandhi is destined to be the Prime Minister of India if not today then tomorrow. Probably that’s why slowly it is getting embedded in the Indian psyche and people accept all the craziness going around him.

In spite of the economic growth and all the glitz and glamour spreading all the across the country am very much cynical about India. First till now major Indian politicians don’t talk about 21^st century issues like Human rights, Women empowerment , freedom of expression, civil liberties but they chose caste, religion , regional , superstitions as their issues. Yes in such country a child during his upbringing will learn more about the family and held people of certain class or clan or family in high esteem. Media is also become a part of it.

Whenever the son of former Member of Parliament get becomes politicians and given ministry media hails as youth power slowly coming at the front. Yes in a country where Prime Minister is not an elected representative of the people and Rahul Gandhi winning the traditional seat like Amethi without addressing the issues of the common man. Let Mr. Rahul Gandhi take any constituency where Congress has so little power and fight from there in the upcoming elections. Before that he must work there with the common man addressing their concerns like basic human necessities, schools, hospitals, roads etc.

I don’t want tomorrow we will let our children learn to deviate from the true value of democracy and let them accept these Rahuls as politician just as they belong to a family with special surname. Or I don’t want those headless chicks to whisper at the Page 3 parties or discs,”oh! He is so hot. He must be our PM”

Even now I dream that even in India tomorrow a magnificent persona irrespect of anything like Mr. Obama who was unknown even in last year will come up with his ideas and values but not from certain family and will give a speech in front of the innocent minds despaired with hunger starting with the words tinged with hope ‘We the people…’.

A Pic Worth Thousand Words

Posted by Phoenix on Apr 16, 2008 in Photography | 1 comment

I just don’t require to write what i want to tell you, this picture itself say a thousand words, its up to you what you understand. please leave comments below teeling what you felt or understood.

Say No to Reservation in Education!

Posted by Phoenix on Apr 15, 2008 in Society | 1 comment

Reservation, such a wonderful word, you are never worried about  your journey to Mumbai, you had reservation in the train, you never face any problem in Mumbai as you had a reservation in a Hotel. Life is so Easy, you should have a reservation in Heaven. Go fight with GOD,