कितना इतरा रहा होगा मुर्गा ?

मुर्गे ने कभी कल्पना भी नहीं की होगी कि उसकी ज़िदगी में एक ऐसा भी दिन आएगा । वो खाने की आज़ादी नाम की चिड़िया के लिए शहीद कहलाएगा । उसकी शहादत पर मर मिटने को नेता जुटेंगे । दबोचेंगे हाथ में उसकी टांग और लगाऐंगे बोली उसकी जान की , नोट नहीं वोट के लिए । जीते जी तो कुछ कर ना सका , मर के ही मुर्गा, बहस का मुद्दा तो बना । टीवी पर इतना चमकना यूं ही कहां नसीब होता । धर्म का तिलक कहां उसके माथे पर सजता । वो हिंदू मुसलमान कहां कहलाता । गर्व से सीना कई इंच बढ़ गया है , बताईऐ जो कोई ना कर सका, मुर्गे ने कर दिया।

 शिवसेना और एमएनएस एक साथ दिखे । दोनों ने अगल बगल दुकानें लगाकर मुंबई के लोगों की आज़ादी का विस्तार किया मुर्गी बेचकर । स्वाद पर मत जाईए, जज़्बे को देखिए । कहां तो मुर्गा किसी के हाथ में नहीं आता । पकड़ना तक दूभर, ऐसा भाग निकलता है आगे से । अब हाथ आया तो खाने की आज़ादी के नाम पर और हाथ हैं सियासत के । उसने अपने स्वाद से अच्छे अच्छों की तलब दूर की है पर जो राजनीति की भूख मिटा सके उस मुर्गे में कुछ तो बात होगी । वो लहुलुहान अक्सर हुआ स्वाद के लिए पर सियासत की बलि चढ़ना कहां हर किसी को कहां नसीब होता । उसकी जान तो जानी है, ऐसे भी जाएगी और वैसे भी । आज जाए कल जाए , उसने जान की कब परवाह की है । आज़ादी इन सबसे कहीं ज़्यादा बड़ी चीज़ होती है । उस आज़ादी के नाम पर मर मिट कर अब चैन से आंखें बंद कर सकता है मुर्गा । हर फिक्र , हर चिंता से मुक्ति । मुर्गे को तो मोक्ष मिल गया मुंबई में, अब आप सोचिए कि आप और हम कब तक खैर मनाऐंगे ..या फिर आवाज़ से हिचक निकालकर बोलेंगे कुछ।

 ...बोलिए सियासत ‘मुर्गा’बाद !

 मत नीलाम करो आज़ादी । मंडी में मत सजाओ निजी ख्वाहिशें । मेरे किचन से दूर रहो । मेरी थाली से भागो। खाने दो मन की ।

दोखना है तो हांफते रूपए की तरफ देखो, गिरते धंसते कारोबार पर नज़र डालो , नौकरियां ना मिलने पर युवाओं में बढ़ते आक्रोश को देखो , बिलखता किसान देखो। प्याज़ भी रूलाता है सरकारों को , मुर्गा बैन भी भारी पड़ रहा है , कहीं चिकन-दो-प्याज़ा गले की हड्डी ना बन जाए ।कौन सा वोटर किस बात पर नाराज़ हो जाए मेनू कार्ड से हाथ हटाओ। 

मुंबई में एमएनएस और शिवसेना की मुर्गी की दुकान 

Will Indrani face the Pari She was ?

Pari Bora of Guwahati is now a murder accused, Indrani Mukherjee. A life transformed beyond recognition . A life that stirs nightmares ! How far can you actually go in the quest for a vivid life ? Will the quest overpower you ? Strangulate your wisdom into making you a murder accused ?

Pori , she was fondly called in Guwahati. Pari wanted a fairy tale life and was convinced Guwahati could never give it her . She ran way from home when she was in class ten but unfortunately for her , she was caught at the Guwahati Railway station. She wanted to break free. Mundane was not her thing . Something was amiss ! There had to be a prince who would sweep her off her feet !

Her initial years were very tumultuous. Senior journalist Vir Sanghvi told TV Today that she had confided to him in later years that she was molested as a child by her stepfather . She had her children early . Indrani had her first child roughly at the age of less than twenty when most youngsters are heading towards their careers .This was a turning point . Pari was slowly Giving way to  Indrani Mukherjee. Her first child in a way became her first contamination with life values . No I don't intend to be judgemental. From here she realised she could lie to the world and severe all responsibilities she had towards those she gave birth to . She named the grandparents as the father and mother in their birth certificate . Left the children with them and moved on . Two failed marriages happened on the way .

Her quest ended and also began in a way with Peter Mukherjee , the media tycoon .A 15 year gap with the Prince dint matter to Indrani. Money , fame and power paved the way for a glamorous life , she always dreamed of  . She had built this life on numerous lies . The most dangerous one was making Sheena , her sister . This  Indrani  scares you.  This Indrani stirs hatred in a way for the life she thrust on her daughter . Sheena was forced to live in her Mother Indrani’s fake world on a fake existence . Forced to pretend that her mother was her sister.  22 years of Sheena's  existence were the most  heartbreaking one that you and I can imagine for any child . Sheena rebelled. Entered a live in relationship with her step brother , Rahul Mukherjee. And from here began the mother daughter bitterness . Wether it was the marriage plans of step siblings that led to honour killing or money dispute as many theories claim , the fake world built on a pack of lies threatened to destroy Indrani's world and she became a murder accused !

 Bill Gates said once "Success is a lousy teacher , it seduces people into thinking they can't lose ."

Success has  misled many . Complicated page 3 lives flirting with glamour , crime and money power have led to bizarre results. Many aspire for such lives . However,up close,very often , they are the rich and famous , yet ..ugly as hell are their lives . Murky and dingy. Devoid of sunlight! Ventilation is scanty. Outlets clogged . Incoming zone inaccessible . Current mood(read mood swing )  , the ultimate deciding authority on what is to be done next . Money and fame push them to live in a world of ultimate make belief which soon becomes fake by all human standards . Where children become a forgettable deed of the past , not welcome into the real world . They rise in money and power is meteoric but equally steep is their fall in valuing human relationships ! Relationships !

Husbands son and wife’s daughter , Step son and daughter out of wedlock !Stepson and sister/daughter ! The simplified version doing rounds on social media is - The second wife of her third husband is charged alongwith her second husband for killing her daughter from her first husband who was having an affair with her third husband's son from his first wife.... Relationships that sound like they emerge from some other planet.

 Indrani , once HR manager , once founder CEO of INX Media ,  once featured in Wall Street Journal’s list of ‘ 50 Women to watch out for" is now accused of murder . The murder of her own daughter in cold blood  . Motive will always be subject to various theories that emerge but the circumstances remain the ultimate and constant motive . The buzzing world of power and money , the fake world of the glitterati that leaves no scope for small things that bring real happiness. The ugly inside life of the powerful is the circumstantial motive .

Will Indrani face the Pari , she once was ! This crime will never die .

 “No man is rich enough to buy back his past.”

― Oscar Wilde

JUDGEMENT @ A GLASS OF WINE

You have inherited the XX chromosome ! You are a woman.
Step aside for a special check !
It will involve frisking the mind , forcefully staring at your behavioural patterns , digging deep into your thought process,nailing  in terms of percentage your audacity to live life on your terms , mapping why you like what you are not allowed to , then finally flashing it as the lead news in Big National dailies .In this country we prefer to keep two sets of morals , one for men and one for women and any women with the morals of a man is definitely up for scrutiny !
Really ? Alcohol doesn’t go down well with women, can surpass all national news and beat them to the prized position of the  first news in a leading national Daily ? There is news and there is sensationalisation of news but beyond that, there is now
a news category to propagate spicy stereotypes . To put it point blank , such prime postion given to a research based on gender to assert that women and alcohol make an unhealthy mixture , smacks of gender bias .Prioritising this piece of news is just an extension of the typical mindset which rushes to judge a woman at every given chance .

This newspaper must have been shoved up the nose of  many a a women with lengthy lectures on see I always told you this . For every man or father who 'disaproves' of a woman drinking alcohol , this prioritisation of news must be the final weapon .  Proudly , he would force his wisdom - "a woman's body can't take alcohol !"
I question the judgement to prioritise this news . The creation of a spicy gender biased research analysis to propagate stereotypes in a country like India . It forces one to question beyond intention , the very mindset that promotes such picking of news. Will there ever be a bias-level check for people who are suppose to be the pinnacle of informed awareness. Will they own upto the fact that they are guided by the same prejudices that judge a woman after she is eve teased , molested, raped or gang raped . The theories that float are a) She asked for it by wearing short clothes b) She was drunk , implying again that she had asked for it . Yes people in this country have the audacity to infer that it is ok to rape a woman if she wears small clothes and even more if she has consumed alcohol and specially so if she wanders out at night .
Why else would the headline scream on the compatibility of women and alcohol . Why would it be a verdict on her physical anatomy not suited for alcohol consumption . Tailor made for gender judging consumers ?
The very point of reference for deciding issues , their prioritisation, language to be used is slave to a very lopsided understanding of gender issues and biases . Even without any concrete intention we squeeze information into popular gender segments .
How will this mindset change ?
This could help . To just broaden the horizon a little . To Jerk even the self assuming wisest out of their narrow mindset . I would like to put forth the example of the nomadic Tuareg tribe of the Sahara desert which seems much progressive in comparision !
Take this ! Hope to see you blush at this . Their women are allowed to have multiple sexual partners outside of marriage . Yes, you heard it right .
In this Islamic tribe, women embrace sexual freedom. Would sound alien for most in India .
Listen to this .
Before a woman marries, she is free to take as many lovers as she wants.
'The tribe turns a blind eye,' explains Henrietta Butler, a photographer who has studied the tribe . 'The young girls have the same great freedoms as the boys' , he adds. Women in this tribe lose none of their power once they marry either.
Her tent is the power centre . So revered are women by their son in laws that the young men wouldn't dare to eat in the same room .
Many marriages end in divorce among the Tuareg. And when it happens, it is the wife who keeps the property ,both the animals and the tent. And it is she who normally decides that she’s had enough.
And there is no shame in divorce. Families will often throw their daughters a divorce party, to let other men know they are available once more.
The final eye opener is that it is is the men who cover their faces and not the women . Reason ? They say , their women are beautiful !
Young boys start covering their face at the age of six and later veil themselves as they grow into men .
I am not declaring any ideal situation . I am just requesting a re look at reference points for prioritisation , analysis and conclusion of gender issues . For some reasons, alcohol doesn't metabolize as quickly for women as it does for men ( part of the research flashed as lead news ) , is a piece of information that could well be a little piece in some lifestyle page .
Jane Austen in Persuasion wrote " I hate to hear you talk about all ladies as if they were fine ladies instead of rational creatures . None of us want to be in calm waters all our lives ."

TWITTER LYNCHING

‘You should be treated worse than Nirbhaya‘,wrote a troll on her timeline when a colleague tweeted on a Ministers fake degree.
 ‘Send your mother, what is her current rate for a night ?’,stared from his timeline when a friend tweeted on Muzaffarnagar riots .
 ‘She was sexually abused as a child so is against selfie with father’,is what she was told when Shruti Seth tweeted on #SelfieWithDaughter .
Trolls screeched ‘ I will make you sit on a broken wine bottle ’when a  Turkish journalist reported on protests at Istanbul’s Gezi Park.

Ugly, Abusive, Violent and Sexual . The Twitter experience is almost like public lynching for many .Within minutes, Rape threats to ugly abuses compete with your refresh button on Twitter . Cowards hiding in the dark spaces of the virtual world unleash their wrath on you , all because you have dared to dissent . You tediously crisp and chop to say what you have to in 144 characters and trolls swear they will make you curse the moment you decided to tweet  . The sleeping cell for crouching trolls rises to  inflict insult .

The abusive virtual world has become a reality. In India their obsession with mother, sister and the brothel make them so predictably ugly . They insult you and then dare you . They are desperate for reaction .They bait. Then wait . They then press the accelerator. They increase the vulgarity quotient .Perverse brains work overtime, dig from the warehouse of abuses to create new variations of old boring ones and whoa you are showered with further venom.  Degree varies. In a country where the Defence Minister’s contribution to social media is his coinage of ‘presstitute’, we can understand how twitter is more and more becoming a vent for people who are compulsive abusers but just lacked a medium to do so openly. They hide behind anonymity and strike from the dark. Their twitter handles lack real name and identity but their hatred is real, laced with racial slurs/comments on your physical appearance .They are unguided missiles.  They sure have made walking the virtual clouds a risky ride .



This is a worldwide phenomenon . A Turkish journalist filed reports on the protests and a fierce attack followed on Twitter . ‘ I received hundreds of tweets using obscene language , threatening to kill me , threatening to rape me . I am frightened for my physical safety when I am out on the streets ,"she says .
Back home from Shahrukh Khan to Salman Khan, such virtual mudslinging has actually forced them to take a sabbatical from twitter . Celebs come here to connect with their fans in a personal way,but it ends at facing wrath from those who dislike your work. SRK decided to quit twitter and his last tweet read" Sad,i read so much judgements, jingoism, religious intolerance on the net & i use to think,this platform wl change narrowmindedness,but no!(sic)" . He came back though when he wanted to reconnect with fans before the release of Ra one .Salman took a similar sabbatical from twitter with this tweet  “Don't want them to fight or turn nasty, ugly, abusive. Twitter shld also block abusive language, how difficult is that .”
Many journalists in India have faced relentless harassment for just doing their job . Coward minds hit where it hurts the most. Hindi abuses don't stick as much as the 'sold out ' tag . Gen VK Singh said 'presstitute' and trolls coined ' preshya' for hindi. Their mental horizon stands revealed .
 It affects. No denial. It reaches & it disturbs . The state of politics in this country has also made it vicious . Actor Shruti Seth wrote Her criticism of Prime Minister Modi’s #SelfieWithDaughter was met with death threats, racial slurs, derogatory remarks at her being a woman and a lot more. She criticized the campaign and called Modi ‘selfie obsessed PM’ and the floodgates of hell opened on twitter. 48 hours of ugly backlash from twitterati followed.
The mix of sexism and the misogynist attitude was as dark as it could get. She then wrote an open letter to the trolls .  She said it was like stripping her of all her dignity as a woman. Yes, if you are a woman celeb , you will be tossed around on forkpoint for being sexually abused/ sex starved/ sex worker with the most ugly creative permutations and combinations .

Does being a woman make the twitter experience even more venomous for a celeb?

Well,according to an analysis (quoted by Daily Mail)of more than 2million messages sent to celebrities, politicians and journalists - Men get more than twice as much abuse as women on Twitter, but they're also the ones behind most of the trolling. One message in every 20 sent to prominent males was abusive compared to one in 70 for females.
The study also revealed  Female journalists and male politicians are more likely to bear the brunt of bullying.


Now that Prime minister Modi has also said that politeness should be the hallmark of the twitter sena in a recent meeting with them , do I expect the onslaught to change . Well , frankly no .And  this one is to all the trolls from my side .You have actually sabotaged your own net identity.  You function with wired handle names like @FindingKhaini or @Desibakwaas or @hallagullaboy , just so that you can abuse others freely . You are actually abusing your own identity. Big companies now do a thorough check up of your web identity from Facebook to Twitter before hiring you .People are being rejected because of shady net activity.
Also do remember you can harass only till someone decides to complain . Beware . Section 67/67A of the IT Act and Sec 509  of the Indian Penal Code can put you behind bars for upto 3 years . Man whose tweet led to emergency landing of Jet Airways flight has been traced to Jaipur. You are traceable, dear trolls !
As for those at the receiving end of troll wrath , the abuse is designed to make you leave public places in the virtual world .The reaction to it should be ignore , defy , stay online and stay visible to shame the trolls into oblivion   .


 

24 घंटे जल रही हैं चिताएँ 

धधकता शम्शान ।
जहाँ जल रही है देह लेकिन धुँआँ कहाँ होता है वो दर्द जो इंसानी रिश्ते की बुनियाद है ।
नेपाल में बागमती किनारे जलती चिंताएँ कल तक हँसी अठखेलियाँ करती कोई बेटी थी । था वो कोई नन्हा सा बच्चा जिसकी मासूम नाज़ुक उँगलियों को अपने हाथ में लेकर माँ की आँखों से आँसू छलक जाते थे । माँ थी । पापा थे। ज़िंदगी थी। अब असीम दर्द है, बेइंतहां दुख है।

शम्शान बयां करता है किसी त्रासदी का दर्दनाक, विक्राल रूप ।  कंधा किसे देना था , कौन दे रहा है । अपने बच्चे की चिता को कंधा देने से बड़ा कोई बोझ नहीं हो सकता । पैर थरथराते हैं । काँपता है हृदय । जैसे ख़ुद अपने ही शरीर का एक अंग अग्नि में धधकेगा ।
ऐसे हज़ारों शव पहुँच रहे हैं बागमती किनारे । हम दूर बैठे आँकड़ों पर सहमते हैं  शनिवार को पता चला लगभग 200 । आँकड़ा बढ़ता गया , पहले 500 , फिर हज़ार के बाद रूका ही नहीं ,अब  4, 5 हज़ार ।

ज़रा सोचिए । पिता धंसी हुई इमारत के बाहर अपनी बीवी और 9 महीने की बच्ची की चीख़ती आवाज़ें सुनें और कुछ ना कर पाए ।दम तोड़ रही साँसों की छटपटाहट को थाम ना पाए । बचाओ बचाओ की वो चींखें , बेरहम हालात के सामने दम तोड़ दें । एक पति , एक पिता बस सरकती साँसों को मौत के आगे बेबस होता देखे । हर रात , ताउम्र बुरे सपने की तरह जगाएगी उसके पिता को उसके बच्चे की चीख़ ।

ये त्रासदी कुछ हज़ार लोगों की मौत के साथ ख़त्म नहीं होगी । ये क़ैद रहेगी उस राहतकर्मी की आँखों में जिसने चीख़ें सुन सुन कर बहुत मशक़्क़त की , फँसें हुए व्यक्ति के पास पहुँच भी गया, लेकिन वहाँ शव मिला । ये क़ैद रहेगा उस बच्चे की आँखों में जिसने अपनी माँ की अर्थी उठते देखी है । ये क़ैद रहेगा उस सवाल में कि खिलखिलाते घरों की ख़ुशी कैसे मिनटों में मातम में बदल गई । ये घटना जीवित रहेगी उस सवाल में कि कैसे क़ुदरत से मज़ाक़ ने आज हमें उस मोड़ पर ला दिया है कि हम उसके सामने बेबस निहायत हो गए हैं । 

देवी देवता, धर्म ! पूजा ! आस्था विश्वास आज मुक़द्दर नहीं सँवार सकते । उसके सहारे कई आगे बढ़ने की कोशिश करेंगे । फिर भूलेंगे हम आंसुंओं के सैलाब में कि खिलवाड़ हमने क़ुदरत से किया है । फिर भूल जाएँगे हम कि इंसानी ज़िंदगी को लेकर हम कितने लापरवाह हैं । फिर अपनी याद्दाश्त में पीछे धकेल देंगे उस सच्चाई को कि बेहतर तैयारी से भूकंप के ख़तरे वाले इलाक़ों में नुक़सान को सीमित रखा जा सकता है । 

शम्शान में धधक रहा है धुँआ । सिसकती वीरान गलियों की गवाही ये शम्शान ही देती हैं । 
आंसूं भी यहीं हैं । ढाढ़स भी । थामो जो ज़िंदा हैं उनका हाथ, समेटों दिल में अपने खोए हुए का दर्द , कि बढ़ते ही रहना है तुमको आगे । मन को ये दिलासा देकर कि वो संसार से गया है , तुम्हारे भीतर से नहीं । 

ASHUTOSH'S 'MEGHA'

AAP neta Ashutosh in tears .
AAP neta Ashutosh howling .
AAP neta Ashutosh begging for forgiveness.
AAP neta Ashutosh saying ' main gunahgaar hoon'

And as the country judged him with every word and every sob , Ashutosh was pouring his heart out on television for a good one and a half hour . What triggered it ? Well, Megha Singh , daughter of the the farmer Gajendra singh who committed suicide, asked him a humble question . She said , " I have no complaints , my father will never come back, but all I ask is , if all the people present there had shown some ( manavta ) humanity , my Father would have been alive! I have nothing against you , you can come and visit us ."
Such poise, such courage , such maturity, by a fifteen year old who saw pictures of her father hung from a tree become the national news is unnerving in many ways ! A fifteen year old who saw her 9 year old brother Raghvendra Singh perform the last rites of her father and has spent the last two days amidst high pitched howling and questions laden with anger by her grandmother was so COMPOSED .She spoke with a mildness that would have shaken the biggest hard nosed neta on  the planet. She asked with such humbleness that would have tugged at the heart of the most calculative neta !
Answering her was an emotional Editor who had spent decades on television asking incisive questions but was now in his new avatar as neta .
Ashutosh broke down .
The one question everyone is asking me is, were the tears genuine ? Yes they were . But they were the vent of a guilt that will not leave the AAP netas who witnessed Gajendra's suicide and did nothing . As they defend themselves on TV saying it was an error of judgement and vehemently put forth their argument  in front of netas of BJP or Congress that accuse, deep inside the past three sleepless nights each one of those AAP netas on stage knows that Gajendra's life could have been saved . Yes , Gajendra Singh would have been alive , if AAP netas would have taken him seriously . They know it .

Conscience .
Guilt .
Doesn't  let the heart live in a peace .But let it go to Ashutosh's credit that his conscience is alive . Politics usually runs havoc with the inner self . Often kills it !
Even as the world discusses Ashutosh's crying and #AshuCries trends on number 1 on Twitter , I salute Megha , I salute her courage . All I can say say is it takes such grace to be composed when you have lost your father like that. It was her humbleness , her softness which did Ashutosh in.

I TAKE OFFENCE, BBC

Needless ?
Offensive ?
Shameful ?
Insulting ?
All of the above.

The convict preaches us. "During rape the girl shouldn't fight back"
And this is courtesy BBC .Great mission achieved according to them -the world wil know a rapist's mind.
Not only is it deplorable , it offends me.

So is this a great piece of journalistc venture? Definitely not. It is a shameless attempt to encash an incident that shook a nation .

Every woman I knew squirmed at the thought of what Nirbhaya faced . It was a feeling of intense pain . It was like every woman was raped on the bus that night. Tossed and mercilessly beaten even as she faced the worst humiliation in her short life .Many of us woke up in the middle of the night , shuddering at the thought of her agony. How they tore her apart , took brutality to a new level by attacking her every time she resisted. Her vagina was brutally mutilated.  Soaked in blood they threw her off the bus .

In Safdarjung Hospital , as she fought the severe wounds and infection, her mother by her side , The braveheart just kept telling them, everything will be fine . 

I saw her mother go hysteric . She would not allow any male cleaner / staff  come close to her daughter's bed . Agony soaked tears never stopped flowing.

Nirbhaya wanted Justice . She wanted death for her rapists.

She breathed her last in Singapore .
For the first time an entire city was out on the streets and a Government was cornered on woman safety. I remember, from  MOS Home to the Delhi Police Commissioner, sounding frantic and desperate for a solution to the deadlock everytime I talked to them about their next step . Day after day, relentlessly people pursued the cause . India Gate was becoming an uncontrollable situation for the Govt.  Finally, the Govt  was forced into taking action.

Two years later Nirbhaya's mother still awaits justice, a rarity in Indian courts and specially if you want it to be on time . 
Aghast at the convicted rapist's interview she breaks down saying "My daughter has been raped again . This man laughs at us in the courts everytime he comes for the hearing and people are taking his interview ? I dont get dates in the court , I am still waiting to see them punished and they will show his interview ! Are these journalists ?"

Frankly , She is right in putting forth this question . Mukesh mocks us with this interview. His mind is no rocket science. His views being considered, is what is shocking . BBC knows its a story that has an emotional connect to Indians and this documentary will be seen out of sheer shock and anger . What they probably dint see was a ban . But here it is . A ban on a shameless attempt to make a buzz/hype around a story of Emotional connect . It is a ban on the right to mock a million Indians in the name of journalism . When Nirbhaya was desperately fighting death to live her dreams of a Physiotherapist, her version , her agony was left to the imagination . She died with her dreams , before She could tell the world what Mukesh / any other convict did to her. Her recorded statement before the magistrate is yet to get her justice in Indian courts and courtesy BBC , We get to read the rapists mind .

Not needed.
I take offence, BBC.