Retarded?….. No way!

Some times, when you read an article or a book it touches a chord somewhere underneath. You sympathise with what is being said and are able to connect with it. You are amazed by the purity of the thought , its innocence and the pain under which it surfaced in a persons’ mind. Consider the example of the autobiography of Lev Zetssky. Lev was no ordinary person. He was an officer of the red army and had half a brain- yes, parts of the back of his brain were blown off , but he lived to experience life with a part of his cognitive mechanism gone for ever. The parts of the brain that Lev lost were involved in language functions – Lev lost the ability to read and write. Just imagine , an entire skill set just erased in a moment. But, fortunately his personality remained intact. And, interestingly he could sign his name perfectly well. Apparently , he was so used to signing his name that the specific function was considered as a natural action and designated to another part of the brain. The doctor who was investigating the case and goaded him on and he eventually wrote a 3000 page account of his life. A true story of grit and determination if there ever was one. The following is an excerpt from his autobiography.

“Many, people I know discuss cosmic space and how our earth is no more than a tiny partile in the infinite universe, and now they are talking seriously of flight to nearer planets in the solar system. Yet, the flight of bullets, shrapnel , shells or bombs, which splinter and fly into a man’s had, poisoning scorching his brain, crippling his memory sight , hearing , consciousness- this is now regarded as something normal and easily dealt with.

But is it? If so , then why am I sick? Why doesn’t my memory function,why have I not regained my sight, why is there constant noise in my aching head, why cant I understand human speech properly? It is an appaling task to start again and relearn the world which I lost when I  was wounded, to piece it together again frm tiny seperate fragments into a single whole.”

To understand what he was going through just imagine waking up one day and realising that you dont understand what others say, you cant read the newspaper and can only vaguely remember having been able to do so in the past.

To pull or not to pull.

Apparently, the CPI has decided not to pull the plug on the existing government for the time being. A plethora of reasons have been presented for this bold decision by our red brothers. No prizes for guessing the first reason, the ‘oh-so-communal’ BJP would benefit if the existing government were to collapse now. This ‘chanakian’ move is meant to ensure that the wave of popular support that the BJP seems to be getting quells down before the next general election. So, the CPI has decided to prolong discontent and misgovernance because no ground must be lost to the ‘communofascists’ even if it means destroying the economy and emptying the exchequer. Brilliant! I adore their commitment to the national cause.

The second reason is that it sees a ‘glorious’ opportunity for the UPA government to correct its policies in the wake of the electoral rejection in karnataka. Hmmm, so we might as well strap on our seat belts and watch another slew of superficial welfare programmes and schemes to benefit the common man being brandished to prove the ‘unequivocal commitment’ to the common minimum programme. The CPI has also warned the government not to raise petrol and diesel prices because the common man cannot bear such a large burden. You can bear bad roads, lack of proper health care, and a non functional and corrupt bureaucracy , but if  petrol prices are raised by 5 rupees a litre, all hell breaks loose. So who must bear the burden, the public sector oil companies ofcourse. Who cares if they lose 600 crores a day, the common man must not suffer. Who cares if the head of a public sector oil company announces that his organisation will go bankrupt by september if prices are not raised, the common man cannot be touched. It will be interesting to see how the common man reacts if he is turned away from petrol stations in five months. Petrol will be cheap, but there will be a catch- it wont be available. Despite the various steps that our comrades suggest to reduce the burden on oil companies (oil bonds, cut in duty blah blah), no significant improvement in the situation can occur unless the end user, the quintessential aam admi wakes up to reality and bears a part of the burden. Ofcourse one cannot expect the guardian angels of the proletariat to recognise that. They see only what they want to see, the rest is irrelevant or an imperialist conspiracy.

Ok, back to the topic, the real reason why the followers of the little red book wont pull the plug on the government right now, despite making threatening noises is that they know deep within that no one will ever  regard them as being important  after the next general elections. Their fear is not of a BJP victory, but of a loss for the left. To them 2004 was like winning a lottery. The possibility of that ever happening again, despite what our glorious media persons say is very very minute. The aam aadmi cannot survive another communist plague.

The news today.

Ansar Burney has been sent back , for no reason at all (according to him). Apparently he is heart broken at not being allowed into the country even after having fought bravely to the save the life of an indian national lodged in a pakistani jail. The Indian media has taken great pains in pointing out Mr. Burney’s grief and sympathising with him, while at the same time, presenting a ‘neutral’ picture. Ofcourse, most media reports dont present the immigration authorities’ point of view. Mr. Burney must be right. He has all the rights to walk into India even without proper clearances and papers(which I am assuming is the real reason for his deportation). We owe him a lot. He has saved the life of an Indian, while his country plots the death of a thousand more. Thank you Mr. Burney. Long live the secular , liberal and unbiased media.

The plague of a flawed ideology.

Recently peopled were massacred in jaipur for no reason at all. There was blood all over the place, children were killed and lives were destroyed. If this had happened in a nation that valued the lives of its people more than any flawed and useless ideology then, most of the suspects would have been in their prison attire by now. But wait, it happened in India. Just over a week after the blast, I havent seen one editorial, one opinion piece, one logical panel discussion on the real reason behind these happenings. Instead one sees articles proclaiming the need to keep in mind the secular traditions of the nation while dealing with terrorism. You have to keep in mind the innocent lives that were lost, not some bigoted ideology.

Everyone knows the reason behind these blasts, and all the other blasts that will occur in the future. But we cant act, can we? we are a secular nation. We cannot deport the scum that enter illegaly into our land and thank us for our accomodaton by killing us. We are secular and liberal- we cannot hit back. What peeves me is the fact that spineless pieces of jelly in power wont even acknowledge the problem, even if it means insulting and demeaning your own countrymen. Just recently I was watching a panel discussion on the ‘problem of illegal babangladeshis’. The fact that they are illegal immigrants is reason enough to shove them back to where they came from. It doesnt mater whether they are terrorists or not. Our country does not have the resources to grin and bear unwelcome guests. Instead of suggesting a means of solving the problem, the honourable spokesperson for the party whose secular credentials are untoched diverted attention to Indian illegeal immigrants in other countries. Why? What does he want to prove? Does he not realise that those ‘other’ countries will care a damn about those indians and kick them out because it is perfectly legitimate and legal to deport an illegal alien?  What prevents us from doing this?

There has also been an outburst of articles which seem to suggest that stricter terror control laws are unnecessary, because an effcient implementation of the existing ones can go a long way in solving the problem. There is some logic in this arguement. But when they go on to suggest that the laws should be implemented within the framework of secularism it destroys their case completely. Doesnt anybody realise that one of the many causes for the inefficient implementation of existing laws is ‘secularism’ itself? Secularism proposes equal distance between the state and all religions, it does not imply that the government can endlessly appease an increasingly militant relgion for the only reason that its followers are in a minority, while at the same time putting the rest of nation and indeed memebers of the minority community itself in danger. We have to wake up, or we’ll end up as bunch of people, not a powerful state.

The problem is not with the idea of secularism per se, it lies in the distorted interpretation of it. Any ‘ideal’ that ties the hands of the government in protecting its own people deseves a place in the gutter. What magnifies my irritation is the fact there is no shortage of ‘intellectuals’ in this country who have granted themselves the authority to judge the secular credentials of individuals and organsations. It doesnt help that many of these ‘intellectuals’ are media barons who must help the public in opinion formation. Instead, the common man, the much abused aam aadmi is treated to the nauseating judgement of these torch bearers of secularism who have no other job but to investigate every issue , every incident, every death, every robbery, every riot, every damn thing with a secular lens. We are stuck in a real quagmire. What do these intellectuals desire? what is their version of a ‘secular utopia’? I cannot dismiss their actions as an innocent mistake stemming from a lack of understanding. Call me paranoid, but there is a sinister conspiracy at work. Our enemies must be laughing at how we manage to hurt ourselves much more effectively than the terrorists.

 

Allo

I have entered the world of blogs. I wont stay for long if the only person who reads my posts is me.