Politics View All →
Hindi – Chini Bhai Bhai Again
Breaking News: The Chinese got thoroughly disheartened after realizing that even if they come 100 km inside India, the Indian public will still not get over this intrigue called IPL and give them even as much as a second look. Couple this with a total lack of reaction from the enemy and it was no [...]
Read More →And Sajjan Kumar goes free …
“Gawahi badal do, muawza milega aur flat dilwa dunga” “Change your testimony, you will get money and I will give you a flat” This sums up the 28 years of the quest of justice for Anek Kaur, a victim of the 1984 anti sikh riots in which more than 3000 Sikhs were butchered in [...]
Read More →Attack on Presidency College and the Rot in Bengal
Kolkata, April 10 – The City of Joy seems to have reached a point where merely saying that not everything is right with the city will be a gross understatement. The city as well as the whole state has literally gone to dogs. Yesterday’s attack on the Presidency College was unlike everything this university had [...]
Read More →Homeless – 23 Years and Counting
23 years and they are still leaving lives of Refugee in their own Country. If you raise question, ask what state Govt. and central has done – you are tagged communal because you asked question about Hindus Exodus. Questions start pouring like, forget Kashmir what about Gujarat. Dumb heads see Riots and ethnic cleansing by [...]
Read More →Latehar carnage: Maoist menace and brutality at its worst
Hands and legs chopped, tongue slit, eyes gouged out, beheaded … and if this was not enough parts of intestine removed from dead body of CRPF jawans to implant bomb inside. One of the booby trapped bodies blasted killing three villagers while they were helping CRPF personnel bring back the bodies of their fallen colleagues. [...]
Read More →The Politics of Gagging Social Media
After the Thane Police arrested a girl for questioning the shutdown of Mumbai after the death of Bal Thackeray on Facebook, and another for ‘liking’ here comment, a joke going around on internet was: Just how bad was Kasab’s Facebook Status Message (that he got hanged) ? This says a lot about our great democracy where Ban [...]
Read More →And the GoI finally blocks !
“I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it” When Evelyn Beatrice Hall wrote this famous line in 1906, illustrating the beliefs of Voltaire, Manmohan Singh and Sonia Gandhi were not even born. Hence there is no wonder that in 2012, they reserve the right to [...]
Read More →As the Kaamwali Bai completes her tenure, enters the Chauffeur
Will I be arrested for writing this ? But even at the risk of a possible arrest on charges of maligning the names of the high and mighty of the Indian republic, how can I not voice my opinion about the great Soap Opera of our Democracy – the Presidential Elections of 2012? After an [...]
Read More →Society View All →
Is there an End to the plight of the Vidarbha farmers ?
Two cotton farmers from the Yavatmall district in the Vidarbha region of Maharashtra committed suicide on the day President Pranab Mukherjee visited the region. The deaths of these two farmers, Prashant Sidhewar, 25 and Ramkrishnna Pandurang Kathale, 32, pushes the number of farmer suicide in this year to 176. To put this into perspective at [...]
Read More →Hypocrisy or Cultural Setback
There were lots of demonstrations and protests of late after the heinous rape incident of a 23 year old. Common people – men, women, youth, and celebrities took part in demonstrations across the country. Everyone voiced their opinion about the increasing number of rapes, pondered about the reasons behind the same and ‘Socially’ where we are [...]
Read More →No Country for Young Women
India has been a peculiar country for long. It is only now that it has started changing into appalling and sometimes disgusting. Incidents in recent past, from Khap diktats on mobile phones to molestation in Guwahati and beating up of girls in Mangalore have cast a big question mark on the way we are “evolving” [...]
Read More →No hospital in 8-km range of ‘New Jharia’
2600 hundred families have been shifted to 1500 quarters in Belgaria, 22 kilometers from Jharia town, a new colony surrounded by jungles with no basic amenities within commutable range. There is no hospital or medical care, no school, no shops, and, worst of all, no jobs at all. The people of Belgaria have to travel [...]
Read More →An Olive Branch full of Thorns!!
Jharkhand is one of the richest areas in the whole country, rich in minerals deposit and forests. Coal alone contributes about 92- 93 per cent to the total revenues from mining received by the Jharkhand government. Infact Jharkhand receives the maximum mining royalty among the coal producing states of India. Since its formation, the Jharkhand [...]
Read More →Life expectancy of coal miners below 40 – Jharia
As Jharia burns, the people who have chosen to make this place their home brave the fire and fumes to somehow make a living and feed themselves two square meals a day. Hardly any of the workers in the open cast mines wear any protective gear, no masks and no boots. Most end up with a film [...]
Read More →The Wistleblower from the ‘Rape Village’ of Bengal is dead
At around 7:45 PM on the evening of 4th July 2012, Mr. Barun Biswas, a 35-year-old school teacher at Mitra Institution, Sialdah was coming back to his home after work. As soon as he stepped out of the Gobordanga Railway Station, 3 young men on a motorcycle came from behind and shot him in the [...]
Read More →Kolkata shamed: Girl Molested and Assaulted in public
“Aamar Shonar Bangla” seems to be slipping fast. And now it’s not just an economic downward spiral but has become social as well. Kolkata, earlier thought of as one of the safer cities for women, seems to be striving really hard to compete with Delhi as far as the crime against women is concerned. Consider [...]
Read More →Economy View All →
The First Falling “BRIC” ?
The biggest news of today was not the spat between Modi and Nitish or what ICC had to say about the match fixing Bimbo, but about S&P threatening to downgrade India to – the worst possible nightmare – Junk grade. This “warning” comes on the back of slowing growth, declining IIP, a falling currency and [...]
Read More →Rs 32 for the Common man and Rs 35 Lakh for Toilets
Call it the heights of frustration! For past few days, the nation’s mindspace has been taken up by 2 toilets built by the Planning Commission, at the cost of Rs 35 lakhs ! By the way this is the same planning commission which decided sometime back that Rs 32 was sufficient to fulfill the basic [...]
Read More →32 ka Dum !
Long back in the 1960s, Mrs. Indira Gandhi, riding on the groundbreaking slogan of “Garibi Hataao”, became the Prime Minister of India. It will never be established how much “Garibi” was removed in those decades of the “Hindu rate of growth” but Garibi Hataao” remained the flagship of the elcetoral battle formation of the Congress [...]
Read More →History View All →
The story of the Seven Martyrs of Patna
If you take a walk through the corridors of power in Patna, you will see a life-size sculpture of seven men. Clad in dhoti kurta and a Gandhi cap, these men faces the gates of the Old Patna Secretariat and the one in front holds a flag while the others are falling or already fallen [...]
Read More →A tribute to Shaheed Udham Singh
India has always been a land of contradiction ideologies. While some believed that “an eye for an eye will make the world blind”, there were others of the firm faith that a wrong if not avenged, will not let the wronged die in peace. Today is the death anniversary of one such man for whom revenge [...]
Read More →Who was Captain Lakshmi Sahgal?
In a nation obsessed with Sunny Leone, it did not surprised me when someone asked on Twitter, “Who was this Lakshmi Sahgal who died?”. I would have been surprised if her death would have gone noticed by the mainstream media which devotes half page articles to Beti B when she gets her pierced. Since we [...]
Read More →Salute to Ram Prasad Bismil on his Birth Anniversary.
On 11-June-2012, we salute Amar Shahid Ram Prasad Bismil on his Birth Anniversary, the great revolutionary and one of the founding members of Hindustan Republican Assocation. Bismil Saheb, your life and deeds will continue to inspire us. Vande Maataram ! सरफरोशी की तमन्ना अब हमारे दिल में है, देखना है जोर कितना बाजुए कातिल [...]
Read More →Have we judged the revolt of 1857 failrly ?
The revolt of 1857 is often called a revolt of the sepoys for petty reasons like greased cartidges, a mutiny without a clear sense of purpose, an effort immature in its ambitions and ambigious in character. In my humble opinion, the time has come to when we dissect such beliefs and theories and make up [...]
Read More →Bharat Bhagya Vidhata?
The belief that the British were instrumental in building a nation called India is often a result of looking at the concept of Nationalism from a Western Point of view and failing to look at the nebulous nature of the eternal entity that has been India. Unlike the modern nation states of Europe which took [...]
Read More →Revolution ~ Bhagat Singh
‘Revolution’ does not necessarily involve sanguinary strife nor is there any place in it for individual vendetta. It is not the cult of the bomb and the pistol. By ‘Revolution’ we mean that the present order of things, which is based on manifest injustice, must change. Revolution is an inalienable right of mankind. Freedom is [...]
Read More →23rd March 1931-2009 – Legacy of the three Martyrs
I salute Sardar Bhagat Singh, Shivram Rajguru & Pandit Sukhdev on their martyrdom day which is 23rd March…….. Their ways and ideology may not get along with many, but what makes them respectable is their courage and the honest love for Bharat Mata, for which they didn’t hesitate to go to the gallows with a [...]
Read More →Musings View All →
फुलवा नहीं रही ..
वो हर रोज आता कभी सड़क पर मेरे आँचल को खींचता कभी सरेआम दुपट्टे को ले भागता मैं रहती डरी सहमी अपने आप में घुट्टी सोचती क्या बोलूं किस्से बोलूं कोन सुने ये हाल मेरा चुप रही आगे बढती रही मानो जीवन एक चोराहे पर आ बट गयी हो पर जब देखती माँ बाबु को [...]
Read More →मंटो के लिए ..
मंटो …एक कश्मीरी, एक पाकिस्तानी या सिर्फ एक कलम, जिसने अपने समय से आगे जाकर वो लिख डाला जो आने वाली सदी के लिए बीते हुए पल का मात्र एक दस्तावेज ही नहीं सब कुछ हो ..”मंटो ” का मतलब होता क्या है ? इसका जिक्र मंटो ने अपने ही शब्दों में बड़ा खूब लिखा है। मंटो कहते हैं [...]
Read More →हिटलर की नानी की जय हो!
इसके लेखे संसद=फंसद सब फ़िजूल है इसके लेखे संविधान काग़ज़ी फूल है इसके लेखे सत्य-अंहिसा-क्षमा-शांति-करुणा-मानवता बूढ़ों की बकवास मात्र है इसके लेखे गांधी-नेहरू-तिलक आदि परिहास-पात्र हैं इसके लेखे दंडनीति ही परम सत्य है, ठोस हकीक़त इसके लेखे बन्दूकें ही चरम सत्य है, ठोस हकीक़त जय हो, जय हो, हिटलर की नानी की जय हो! जय [...]
Read More →बर्बरता की ढाल ठाकरे
बाल ठाकरे! बाल ठाकरे! कैसे फासिस्टी प्रभुओं की, गला रहा है दाल ठाकरे! अबे संभल जा, वो आ पहुंचा बाल ठाकरे ! सबने हां की, कौन ना करे ! छिप जा, मत तू उधर ताक रे! शिव-सेना की वर्दी डाटे जमा रहा लय-ताल ठाकरे! सभी डर गए, बजा रहा है गाल ठाकरे ! गूंज रही [...]
Read More →The most insensitive ad on Indian Television
From the settings, it looks like a prison/ concentration camp in South East Asia. The prisoners have their hands tied behind their backs and they look clearly terrified. The Firing squad takes its position and at the signal of their chief, they start firing. The hapless men fall on the ground in a heap. No, [...]
Read More →पंद्रह अगस्त की पुकार
पंद्रह अगस्त का दिन कहता आज़ादी अभी अधूरी है। सपने सच होने बाकी है, रावी की शपथ न पूरी है।। जिनकी लाशों पर पग धर कर आज़ादी भारत में आई। वे अब तक हैं खानाबदोश ग़म की काली बदली छाई।। कलकत्ते के फुटपाथों पर जो आँधी-पानी सहते हैं। उनसे पूछो, पंद्रह अगस्त के बारे में [...]
Read More →Jinhe Naaz hai Hind par wo kahan the ?
No words required.. Rabbi has said enough. Spoilers: This song may stir some extreme emotions in you.
Read More →A Tribute to Mehdi Hassan
These are proving to be difficult times for Music. The legend of Ghazal, Mehdi Hassan who mesmerized generations in the subcontinent with gems like ‘Patta Patta Buta Buta’ and ‘Ranjish hi Sahi’ passed away in Karachi, Pakistan after battling illness for years. He was 84. Born to a family of musicians in Rajasthan, Mehdi migrated [...]
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