SUNANDA PUSHKAR MURDER CASE

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It is deplorable to see Sunanda Pushkar murder case not reaching its logical conclusion? In addition, I’m even shocked and surprised to see the horrifying and poltroon attitude of Shashi Tharoor who isn’t seen pushing for justice for his slain wife. Any other politician husband who still happens to be the Congress spokesperson would have gone hammer and tongs to town and would have threatened to go on fast until death till the culprit is nabbed. But the situation out here is tragically quite different. As he is trying to maintain that stoic silence, but in whose interest no one knows. And one loosely feels the family is in no hurry to get her justice.

     On the other hand look at Delhi Police. They appear to have botched up the entire case, as per TV reports, of certain channels. And what to talk of Home Ministry, that is incubating over the matter as if to assess the political gains. Least they could have done was to hand over the matter to CBI. Very sadly … this happens to be our callous India that loves, playing around with dead and fractured souls. What a pity. Mare hua ko bhi nahi chodte (They don’t even spare the dead).

    One wonders how easy it is for the state to dump a murder case and that too of a socialite coming from high society. So, then what happens to the lower and the downtrodden, and of course the whole thing is reeking of filth in our high social circles.

    And last but not the least. The likes of Agatha Christie, Arthur Conan Doyle and Erle Stanley Gardner who made crime as their mission of life must all be churning in their graves over the alleged bungling up, by Delhi Police in this high profile murder case. Now let us see how Subramaniam Swami takes the lead.

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By Kamlesh Tripathi

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http://kamleshsujata.wordpress.com

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ARTICLE: THE UNWIELDY SIZE OF NEWSPAPERS

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By Kamlesh Tripathi

    When you calculate or plan the ‘capacity’ of a crowded place, in terms of a frolicking crowd in a building or a mall you normally take an area of nine square feet per person (3 x 3 feet). In Delhi Metro this painfully gets reduced to four square feet per person (2 x 2) or even less because of the nagging crowd.

    In big cities and booming metros preference of real estate in terms of size has only reduced because of the size of the pocket, so much so in very expensive areas three bedrooms have become two and two have become one. And so, one or a small-size or a compact unit is the-in-thing.

    In the auto industry also sedans have become compact sedans and compact sedans have become hatchbacks. 350 CC bikes have reduced to 125 CC.

    But even with all the stinginess of shapes and sizes all around, the size of newspapers continues to remain as generous as ever and the thickness has only increased because of the advertisements and the complexity of the world at large that needs to be covered.

    Now, let us for a moment run through the unwieldy size and spread of the newspaper. Take for example the size of Times of India which is 32.9 cm in width x 52.5 cm height = 13 x 21 inches respectively, which is around 210 square inches or 2.09 square feet and if you open the newspaper holding the two ends in your hands the width increases to 2.2 feet and the area to approximately 4 square feet.

    Today, India has a literacy level of 74%. Most homes subscribe to a newspaper, be it may in English, Hindi or any other local language. And with the rise in population the density of people living per square kilometer has only increased. Places have become crowded to overcrowded and people are unable to read their newspaper in crowded places, when most of them are forced to spend a majority of their time during the day in crowded places, because of its unwieldy size, and time immemorial folds and pleats that is extremely inconvenient to spread and read even with a swirling fan above you and this has led to:

-         Increase in number of subscriptions but reduction in actual reading, as most subscribers have only become ‘Head-Line’ viewers because they don’t get an opportunity to read the newspaper during the day in crowded locations and while at work to their hearts content, which over a period of time has become an onerous exercise only because of its size and folds.

-         Most office goers would love to read newspapers in the morning while travelling to office to utilise their time effectively, in a public transport but the unwieldy size of the newspaper doesn’t allow you that convenient privilege.

-         Once you are in office you are on the grind and newspaper is soon forgotten as—RADDI.

SO WHAT SHOULD BE DONE

-         The size of the newspaper should be made more slim and precise so that one can open and read it in crowded niches, in metros and in other modes of public transport where even INTERNET doesn’t work, and so you can’t think of reading e-papers.

-         The correct design could be a ‘newspaper’ that could be opened and read with a single hand more like a book in crowded places.

-         One can think of compartmentalizing the daily newspaper into various chapters that can be sold separately if the subscriber doesn’t want the full newspaper, for everyone doesn’t read everything in the newspaper, such as:

-         Only Headlines

-         Politics

-         Sports

-         Current affairs

-         Page 3

-         Movies and entertainment

-         Spiritual

-         Medical and Health

-         Corporate and Industry

-         Crime

-         International affairs

-         Education

-         Jobs

-         Children

    I understand the paper of the ‘newspaper’ is subsidized and the same can continue irrespective of the size and compartmentalized contents as this is one of the widest and most effective ways towards a literate India and even if GOI has to spend extra it should not mind and the citizens and the newspaper lobby should push for it.

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SHORT STORY: FTII: WHY DID KALCHAKRA HAVE TO PUNISH GAJENDRA SINGH CHAUHAN

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By Kamlesh Tripathi

Long time back I had read a story about a small sparrow; that goes as follows:

THE STORY OF THE SPARROW

On a beautiful winter day in Siberia, encouraged by the warm rays of the sun in a clear blue sky, a little sparrow left the security of his nest to fly and frolic in the air, but the 40o below zero temperature quickly overcame the imprudent bird who fell on the ground, frozen, and found himself buried in the snow where he would certainly have died in an instant. But by chance a cow trotted by at that moment, and at the very spot where the sparrow was struggling for his last breath, she dropped a large soft cow-dung on top of the bird. The warmth of this dung-bath resuscitated the moribund sparrow. He was so happy, he raised his head out of the cow-shit and started to twitter joyfully, which drew the attention of a wandering homeless cat who delicately pulled the sparrow out of the shit and devoured him.

The moral of this story: Your enemy is not necessarily the one who shits on your head. Your friend, however, is not necessarily the one who pulls you out of the shit. And besides, one should never twitter when one is buried in shit.

The recent controversy in FTII in which actor Gajendra Singh Chauhan got caught up reminded me of the above story, where for no fault of his, Gajendra is in the cross fire. Can we call it the wrath of Kalchakra?

    For Gajendra too like the little sparrow was perched in his warm nest, quite away from the limelight doing small roles in movies and television serials, is when the GOI approached him as the warm rays of Siberia and Gajendra then dared to fly out of his nest, quite unaware of the Siberian winters—in this case being the sting of FTII- students.

    The new job like the cow-dung covered Gajendra for a while when the wandering cats of Bollywood, Social Media, TV-channels and some Political Parties and so also the students union of FTII, who thought he did not have the tall stature, and moreover, he had committed the grevious crime of acting as Yudhistir in Mahabharat, thereby promoting Hinduism was definitely not suitable for the post. Because, in current day India even talking about Hinduism is considered non-secular by some.

    While the wandering cats have so far not devoured the so called sparrow—Gajendra, but the Kalchakra has definitely crushed his film career. For Gajendra Singh Chauhan will now be known more for his poor stalk in Bollywood than the hard-work he has put in to make a career in Bollywood. And quite unknowingly and unintentionally he has antagonised and estranged many bigwigs of Bollywood and the social media; and has emerged as a full-fledged victim of Kalchakra.

    But what was his fault in all of this; that the electronic media almost stripped him naked as far as his career credentials went, that people who didn’t know about his average career also know about it now.

    Kalchakra is not in the business of compensating losses and therefore won’t compensate Gajendra Singh Chauhan, for having torn apart his career and making him a laughing stock. I don’t know about GOI how they will view it. But the reality is,

    In life you often don’t get into problems because of your own doings, but it could also be the doing of others and in this case it was clearly the Kalchakra disguised as GOI.

    For in life you really don’t know what will come and hit you, or who is friend and how distant is your enemy. But mind you Kalchakra spares no one, not even the wandering cats.

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GLAMOUR, SHOWBIZ, ONEUPMANSHIP - the veiled face of facebook

Copyright@kamleshsujata1

By Kamlesh Tripathi

‘A steadfast and voracious facebooker’ - is what I called him, till I met this old friend of mine Harish, recently in Mumbai, is when I came to know he’s gone off Facebook. I swallowed what he told me with a pinch of salt as it sounded incredible. Did he? I reminisced. And asked why?

‘Because you brag without being asked to; for how does it matter where you’ve been for a holiday, which car you drive, in what kind of a house you stay, how well connected you are both professionally and socially, how many jobs you’ve changed, how does your new office look like, how you look in that dress, how many promotions you’ve got, your career path or even your designation, how grand was your birthday party, how well groomed and aristocratic you look while standing in the plush lounge of Mumbai or John F Kennedy airport or in that swanky lobby of a five star, and number of flights you may have undertaken last week to show how busy you are, or how big and pedigreed is your dog or for that matter the brand, colour and size of your underpants?’ as all of this fairly bugging.

‘But then what is so wrong about bragging? One can only brag, if he or she is accomplished and has possessions and achievements to show around.’ I enumerated.

‘Definitely, but not by making a public announcements; it’s like inviting everyone to snoop into your worthy life. I value the privacy of my achievements and possessions and would like to limit it to my family, relatives and some close friends. But in Facebook, I find most talk only about their newly acquired possessions and achievements of life, and that to just for some digital ‘likes’ and appreciative comments.

CULT OF FACEBOOK

Point made by Harish had rattled me for a moment, as there was a point in his point. Is Facebook taking us away from our vedic and ancient culture of sadgi (simplicity). And will Bapu, the strong supporter of non-violence and sadgi like and approve of this I thought for an instant, as all websites have a domain culture; where members of Facebook appear to be drifting away from simplicity. Facebook, allows anyone above the age of 13 to open an account, and after registering the users can create a user profile, post status updates, pictures, share videos and receive notifications when others update their profiles. Also, users may join common-interest user groups, organized by workplace, school or college, or other characteristics and categories such as people from work or close friends. So the intent is very noble, exciting, knowledge building, innovative with perks of a global reach. But, I guess the gravity is moving towards mere showoff and showbiz. And, it is about time the members come up with something more mentally nourishing where Facebook can chart the way. Remember what our ancestors always said, ‘don’t brag and showoff- nazar lagti hai

IS BRAGGING GRADUATING TO A REIGNING CULTURE IN FACEBOOK?

Yes as most notifications in Facebook, are about self aggrandizement and digital announcements of achievement and accomplishments, perhaps the longing vent of modern day etiquette better understood in otherwise traditionally starved India; and that insinuates about Facebook’s gravitational pull towards newfound consumerism of India. I guess it is now a war of between two cultures; the ancient aging culture of India that teaches you sadgi versus the materialistic web-culture mobilized via Facebook. Sure enough the soft world is taking on the hard world and maybe reason enough for China to ban Facebook?

A converse point of view also describes the young emerging India through Facebook that brings along day to day transparency by digitally describing even minor activities through notifications, pictures and videos which at times might even put your spouse in trouble for those occasional furloughs. And, last but not the least.

Harish needs to get back to Facebook but no one shall tell him when, as he will figure out for himself, the smart bloke he is. I know him well enough and he is not the sort to give up something so easily- and that too his first love, Facebook. For I know he will still login at broader intervals to see how the war of cultures is brewing and the day he feels the tangy slant of cultures has lessened he will write again, what’s in his mind; to once again bring cheer, laughter, knowledge, information and accomplishments to others and that too in abundance.

#PRIME #TIME #TV #DEBATES- keep hearing the #speaker but eye-- movements, facial expressions of others on the #screen to get a better sense

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 Hear out the #speaker but eye-- movements, facial expressions of others on the #screen to get a better sense

Of late participants on prime time TV debates have increased. All put together they go right up to eight on the screen, and some more join for special effects either at the studio or any other location. And, anticipating the intensity of the hot ensuing debate I often find some participants with parched throats, sipping water; as I wouldn’t dare to call it Vodka. Prime time TV debates have replaced some entertainment channels as every individual is now eager to understand what is going on, and where these debates are better understood both by literates and illiterates, unlike newspapers and magazines.
Also, prime time TV debates have become more cut throat, because many political parties are competing in the same political space, and have therefore become multiparty. In any debate we find time 3-4 party spokespersons. Most prime time debates start around 9 pm when office goers return from office after a hectic day’s of work, is when they want to analyse and know what all has gone right in the country and what all has gone wrong.
And, how cleverly or daringly their elected representatives from Karnataka and Telangana are hoodwinking the voters by going on a foreign junket, to how shrewdly BJP government is keeping the TRAI discussion paper alive because Modi has to return election favours to Corporates, or how Congress’s Anand Sharma in his own arrogant manner is spiking Prime Minister Narendra Modi because he said something awkward in Canada about the country, but preferred to keep quiet when the scams were being committed by Congress under UPA regime, as if that didn’t spoil the country’s reputation, or how PDP is kowtowing with separatists and how deeply is Mamta Banerjee involved in Sarada Chit scam and how J Jayalalita’s case on disproportionate asset is progressing  or how Srinivasan is fighting his BCCI battle. The list is on and on and on.
But the debate becomes daggers drawn when one spokesperson of a party criticizes a party supremo of another party, such as Narendra Modi, Sonia Gandhi, Rahul Gandhi, Mulayam Singh, Akhilesh Yadav, Mamta Banerjee or for that matter any party’s top boss. The defending spokesperson as if goes into a tizzy and loses cool as if they are about to lose their jobs and are being monitored by party bosses; debate to debate and channel to channel.
So, in all of this there is but another way of viewing these TV debates which I find is more gauging, engaging, absorbing, interesting and even revealing on a lighter note. And, that is when the anchor or a panel participant, like a party spokesperson or a journalist or a lawyer or anyone else is making a point, don’t concentrate on that person visually. Just keep hearing him and look in the eye of the person he or she is attacking and also take a quick glance at others in the panel and you’ll find the debate to be more interesting and revealing on a lighter vein. For example, let’s take one of the prime TV channels ‘Timesnow.’
Where, when Arnab Goswami anchor of Timesnow taunts on, ‘Azam Khan’s buffaloes getting lost and police personnel being suspended,’ one should notice the taut and staring expression of Gaurav Bhatia, spokesperson of Samajwadi Party; as if wanting to say, ‘if stares could kill Arnab you would have been dead by now.’ And in the adjacent box Sanjay Jha of Congress with a smug on his face and in extreme silence and patience, as if wilfully intending, ‘That’s a good one Arnab.’ And Sambit Patra in a fizz and gulping down, ’Arrey maza aa gaya.’
Yesterday, when Narsimha Rao, the BJP spokesperson was being cornered by Arnab for likely six fold increase in mobile NET tariff by corporates. I was watching AAP spokesperson Somnath Bharti whose expression, as if said, ‘Dear Arnab you have made AAPs job easier.
And, in several land bill debates, the expression and eye movements of many Congress spokespersons only said, ‘Thank you Modi ji, you have once again made us relevant and greater thanks to Arnab for getting us to limelight.’
But, there is a converse also. With Nepal tragedy, did AAP get off the hook, on the tragic death of Gajendra Singh. Perhaps, Arnab will have to invite Kejriwal or Ashutosh or Raghav of AAP along with spokespersons of other parties and some journalists and lawyers for the viewers to gauge and find out in a different way.