Friday, October 10, 2014
The Bhaiya Letters: Kaidi number 4702
Posted by scorpio at 6:18 AM 1 comments
Labels: FRANK KRISHNER, GOOD stuff, HUMOUR, THE BHAIYA LETTERS
Wednesday, October 08, 2014
Buck Passing, buckshot!
On Dusshera night... the fateful tenth night after the nine holy days ... a Novena of prayer rituals and abstinence for Hindus of the North of India.... there is a big community display where an effigy of the ten headed demon king is set off in a blaze of pyrotechnics. In the capital of Bihar, this spectacular Guy Fawkes event erupts at the Gandhi Maidan, Patna's Central Park [where people, animals, street vendors, cricket playing urchins, and loafers park themselves with gay abandon, but's that's another matter].
Anyhow, this time after the event, a rumour that a live wire had fallen somewhere sparked off a stampede that ended in some 32 deaths and several injuries. The administration seemed unprepared, and worse still, there never seems to be any strategy or protocol on how to deal with such emergencies. Now that the blight of terrorism and such has come to Bihar, one thinks that there should have been a plan for quick response and evacuation in case of any contingency.
There was none. Pitiful.
Shouldn't the Chief Minister be the one to resign instead of merely passing the buck by transferring police officials and administrative heads?
We're tired of watching this man react to situations as though he's a deer caught in the oncoming headlights of a tow truck.
No wonder the opposition and some of his own colleagues are pumping him full of buckshot.
Posted by scorpio at 7:56 AM 0 comments
Labels: BIHAR, COMMENTARY, crime
Thursday, October 02, 2014
Dear Dear! Sister Joan ....
Apart from all the wonderful things that her many students and colleagues no doubt will recall about her, I for one will always remember the time one of her ferocious bloodthirsty hounds stalked me as I emerged from some NDCC late night production work and walked to the Notre Dame gate one winter night .
The brute promptly sunk its fangs into my new winter coat, ripping its sleeve. Had it not been for the prompt intervention of Ganesh, the night watchman, I’d either been eaten alive or probably have ended up pushing daisies, through sheer cardiac arrest. Within minutes the portly figure of dear Sister Joan emerged from the gloaming, she bore down on watchman, canine, and its victim reciting an unending stream of ‘Oh dear, oh dear, oh dear!’, and then she turned to me with an exasperated look, shaking her head.
“And what did you do to upset my poor baby?” she demanded, cradling and caressing that slobbering animal who would have surely bitten off my arm had it not been for the thick padding in the coat. The torn coat and the shattered and traumatised human being were of no concern to her. Her beloved dogs took pride of place. She was absolutely oblivious of serious the incident was. Her logic was simple. No visitors had any business being on the grounds of the convent once her dogs were let out. And if happenstance one of her pets bit you on the bum, then you were entirely to blame for having flaunted your bacon!
Sister Joan had absolutely no sense of humour when it came to animals and that’s what made her so delightfully comic and over the top. Many a harried former student of Notre Dame Communication Centre will have a quirky story about Sister Joan and her precious dogs, which, for a time were kennelled just outside our TV studio window!
There are a lot of us folk out there who can tell you that when it came to all God’s creatures, dogs were at the top of her list followed by cattle and pigs and squirrels and birds and she would stand up for them. And as for men, they were the one’s that fell from God’s grace. She clearly believed that they were usually guilty until proved innocent.
And the music!
You may get all mushy over how good she was at music. But let’s get real. Sister Joan was an absolute terror to several youngsters who would practice for the Sunday singing sessions. Impatient, impetuous, and imperious, she was as devastating as any diva of the Opera. But oh, how sweet it was on the rare occasions when one of the harried choristers received a smidgen of praise or a smile for finally hitting that impossibly high note! And Sister Joan’s smile, when it did make an appearance, was angelic.
Back from having laid her to rest, one gets the feeling that good sister Joan is probably comparing notes with my patron saint, Francis of Assisi, another songster and animal lover. I’m sure the two of them getting along like a house on fire.
Posted by scorpio at 10:03 PM 0 comments
Labels: People I Know
Wednesday, October 01, 2014
Gandhi... still rocks and rolls?
Shall we dance? Looks like Yul Bryner in The King & I |
It’s interesting to see that Gandhi’s visage continues to adorn Indian currency notes of all denominations, and that the current dispensation in Delhi continues to cash in on the memory of the man who stubbornly insisted that India must be inclusive, embracing people of all faiths and persuasions.
There are a lot of folk in the business of Gandhi glorification, with the express aim of earning a quick buck or two, all in the name of homespun ideas and swadeshi. We’ve seen several of these khadi-sporting thugs weave their oily ways around, attempting to get on the boards of various ‘Gandhian’ institutions, and even open up a few of their own.
One also hears of a misguided, muddleheaded, chappie running around wearing Gandhi caps and homespun trousers with a clutch of credulous Caucasians [read white-haired American non-violence enthusiasts and such] in an attempt to ‘bring swaraj’ to Champaran in the form of a college of social work, where American students would cross the seas to come to and work among the villagers. Good idea, but hare-brained, considering that the fellow is known for nothing more than ‘spinning dreams’ - that sound good at face value but on closer observation look like social work ponzi schemes. Beware of the broom-wielder from Bhitharwa, somebody told me, he’s the March hare who’ll lead you down a rabbit hole and you’ll find no wonderland, just a very hungry python waiting to be fed!
Okay, so here’s an argument for you. Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi wasn’t that great a visionary. He had some interesting ideas, yes. Charisma, yes. He could write well, definitely. A leader of the masses, he gave them something to believe in, and he walked the talk. But he had flaws. Oh, he was flawed! He used his fast-to-death weapon to blackmail Ambedkar from initiating action that would truly liberate the Dalits from Brahmanical dominance. I don’t want to really dwell on all his ‘experiments’ with truth and sexuality, some of which sadly, we will never know unless we can get our hands on the entire Gandhi-Kollenbach correspondence.
You women activists cry yourselves hoarse and want to bobbitize every full blooded male who eyeballs the desi Delilah. ‘Eve teasing’, ‘inappropriate touching’ ‘attempt to molest’ and what-not! You protest. You hold forth long on the primetime views that masquerade as news. What would you do if an old dodderer who insists on sleeping in his birthday suit beside two girls young enough to be his grand-daughters? Ignore it and say, it’s all for a good experiment? Seriously?
There’s a school of thought that believes that had he not been assassinated by that chap Godse, he would have probably grown older, weirder, and have lost all relevance in a few more years. But we’ll never know, shall we?
Let's face it folks, love him, hate him, you couldn't ignore Gandhi then, and you can't ignore him a hundred and fifty years on....
Posted by scorpio at 7:09 PM 0 comments
Labels: BIHAR, BRAHMIN, Gandhi, INCREDIBLE INDIA
Monday, September 29, 2014
Pink-eyed Ponderings
It's all over the city once the filthy pools of accumulated rain water have begun steaming their viral load into the air.
Patna has been invaded by the pink-eyed infection that's easier to catch than Puja fever. It's when people scamper all over the place looking rabbit eyed, and their noses go twitch because of the itch in the place they can't scratch... their eyeballs!
I don't know what Rajjo my partner in crime was up to, but the fellow came home the other day looking rather watery-eyed, and lo and behold... the next day I rose from my bed twitching like a frenzied zombie in one of those cheap-tack third grade tomato ketchup horror flicks.
They say that this affliction is rather like the common cold. It's going to torment you for four to six days, gum up your eye-lids, make you peer through slit eyes, and generally make you want to join a Jain nunnery -- which means to tear your hair out at the roots with your own bare hands. Honest, these Digamber Jain nuns don't shave their hair at their investiture ceremony, they actually pull it out at the root... gruesome. Buddhists, Catholics and such d have tonsures and they shave off their hair, but the Jains tear it up at the root. That's commitment!
You know, in the good old days Catholic nuns would be as bald as their Buddhist sisters, but nowadays, these nuns and priests only have 'token' tonsures. Wonder how many of their other vows are also 'token' with a pinch of salt?
Anyhow, back to the pink-eyes. Bathing the eyes in a brine solution helps a lot. But I certainly wouldn't go for what one home remedy expert advocated.. put a few drops of mothers' milk into the eye, and let the good pro-biotic bacteria fight with the bad itchy invaders! Some other wise dame said that a couple of drops of honey would do wonders. Applying sticky honey to an already sticky eye? No thank you. I'll just keep with the brine bath, the chloromycetin ointment and the frightfully expensive eye drops the doctor prescribed!
Posted by scorpio at 5:56 PM 0 comments
Labels: COMMENTARY, Health
Friday, August 22, 2014
DOES OUR EDUCATION SYSTEM BENEFIT THE TRIBES OF INDIA?
Posted by scorpio at 9:02 PM 0 comments
Wednesday, August 13, 2014
Goodbye Mr Williams!
Actor and comedian Robin Williams, who died Monday at age 63, will always be remembered.
He also won two Primetime Emmy Awards for Outstanding Individual Performance in a Variety or Music Program for Carol, Carl, Whoopi and Robin (1987) and ABC Presents: A Royal Gala (1988). His final television appearance was in the 2013-14 CBS sitcom, The Crazy Ones, which was canceled after only one season.
Williams won an Academy Award for Best Actor in a Supporting Role for his performance in the 1997 drama, Good Will Hunting.
Williams also appeared on Broadway in his own one-man show, Robin Williams: Live on Broadway, in 2002, and he made his Broadway acting debut in the play, Bengal Tiger at the Baghdad Zoo, in 2011.
Posted by scorpio at 5:46 AM 0 comments
Labels: MEDIA
Tuesday, August 12, 2014
Inner Voices and Autobiographies!
Well, well, well... this person called Natwar Singh, a so-called Nehru Gandhi 'loyalist', hung up his boots and then dashed off an 'autobiography', which he uses to hit back at Sonia Gandhi for not saving his skin in the wake of the Volkar report on the oil-for-food scam.
Sonia G, he says declined the Prime Ministerial Chair way back in the UPA one day because Rahul Gandhi, her son urged her not to become prime minister or she would in all likelihood be assassinated. It had nothing to do with any 'inner voice' that dictated a moral high road, the man says. It was self-interest, pure and simple.
Washing dirty linen, you may call it. And of course, I for one would expect the BJP and its spin doctors to throw some mud into the washing machine, and they did , hogging media space and time on a non-issue.
Mrs G is nobody's fool. She didn't need Rahul's advice anyway. After the results were announced and Sonia Gandhi's party having the most seats at the time, would anyway be asked to form the government, and that got a number of 'nationalists' riled. Sushma Swaraj threatened to do a Sinead O'Connor. Purno Sangma and others clearly didn't want a foreign born prime minister and so on. It made brilliant political sense for Mrs G not to step into that particular hornet's nest. And in a brilliant move, she gave India its first Sikh Prime Minister. No doubt she listened to her 'inner voice', which astutely told her that if she wanted the Congress to remain in charge of the rather unwieldy coalition, she needed to pull a rabbit out of the hat. Which she did, brilliantly!
Natwar Singh - he's credibility challenged!
Posted by scorpio at 10:18 PM 0 comments
Monday, August 11, 2014
AIR FM Rainbow :Playing it Uncool
I am particularly fond of English language music and therefore tune in to The Sri Lanka Broadcasting Corporation, BBC, Radio Australia, and of course the western music services of All India Radio.
For me, Radio has always been a source of learning and experience. There's always a wealth of information weaving through the airwaves. Radio presenters [or Radio jockeys] from national broadcasters usually do their jobs well, knowing that out there, they are the voice of their country.
It is particularly distressing to note that certain presenters of Western Music Programmes on All India Radio's 'National' channel AIR FM Rainbow appear to have no understanding whatsoever of their job. The chap who comperes the Matchless Music Hour on Sundays [9 am]prattles on about stuff totally unrelated to the music he plays, like trips to Ladakh or sports or whatever. He should get down and research the music. Sunday Mornings could be turned into a request show for Western Music. The guy should open up the programme for messages and such , instead of boring us with drivel.
As for some of the part time announcers on 'Play it cool' on the noon-time slot: they murder the English language, their mispronounce words, stutter, and hem and haw through the show.
It's a pleasure to listen to MMH on Monday and Tuesday mornings though, and the Saturday presenter is not bad at all. Weekday evenings 6pm -7pm are usually fine on Mondays, Tuesdays, Fridays, and Sundays. The phone in programmes are not so hot though, the RJs have to understand that all their listeners aren't in class 10 or 11!
Anyhow, thank God for BBC 2 on Sunday mornings!
Posted by scorpio at 6:40 AM 0 comments
Friday, August 01, 2014
John Travolta's 6 year same sex affair?
Travolta and Gotterba: the good old gay times.... |
In a National Enquirer story labelled “ridiculous” by Travolta’s camp, pilot Doug Gotterba said he first met the “Grease” star in February 1981 when he interviewed for a pilot job – and by September they were lovers.
“I know the date (the affair began) because I still have the log book and records,” Gotterba, 62, told the Enquirer.”
He said they flew to Monterey, California, together and shared a “fantastic” bottle of merlot wine over dinner at the Highlands resort in Carmel. “I got the sense I was being courted,” Gotterba said. “As we walked from the restaurant back to the room, John suddenly said, “Hey, would you like a massage?’”
Gotterba said he'd expected the invitation, and the massage quickly led to sex. “John was gentle but very passionate. The next day he told me with a big smile on his face, ‘I really enjoyed last night,’” Gotterba told the Enquirer. He said Travolta, 58, took him on more romantic trips to Hawaii, Amsterdam and Kenya.
“Sometimes he’d bring women along as beards, but he would ask me to join him in his suite and we’d spend the nights together. It was our little secret,” Gotterba claimed.The pilot said he encouraged Travolta to get a girlfriend as cover, and that’s when the actor started dating Brooke Shields.
“There was no chemistry between them. They’d smile for the cameras and everyone assumed they were a couple,” he said.The affair ended in 1986 after growing tensions, Gotterba said.
“He’d show up on my door many times, unannounced, to check up on me,” the pilot told the Enquirer. “He’d disappear into my bedroom and go through my drawers. He always tried to catch me cheating on him.”
He said Travolta would ignore him for days if he didn’t drop everything to be with him on a moment’s notice.Their last meeting was years later in 1992, after Travolta married actress Kelly Preston.
“We were making small talk when suddenly, I blurted out, ‘So, John, tell me. Now that you’re married, do you still prefer men – or women?’” Gotterba said he asked. “Well, Doug, I still prefer men,” Travolta replied, according to Gotterba.
The Enquirer report follows three months after two anonymous masseurs – John Does 1 and 2 – filed and later dropped federal lawsuits claiming Travolta groped them during massages. The first Doe withdrew his legal claim after Travolta proved he was in New York on the day of the alleged Beverly Hills attack. Travolta's camp immediately dismissed the Enquirer's interview with Gotterba.
“This ridiculous so-called ‘new’ story is a re-tread of a story published a few weeks ago by the same desperate supermarket tabloid – the same tabloid that impossibly claimed that John Travolta had an encounter with ‘Doe #1’ in Beverly Hills when he was actually on the east coast working on a movie,” Travolta’s rep said in a statement Wednesday.
So that’s the story… and let’s see how it unravels…. another myth bites the dust?
Posted by scorpio at 7:08 AM 0 comments
Labels: QUEER CASEBOOK
Sunday, July 20, 2014
A Hamasculation of Gaza
This is barbaric, and the Hamas game-plan seems to be to instigate even more Israeli reprisals so that the death toll on the Palestinian side mounts so much that the international community will finally have no other option but to step in and stop Israel.
Doesn't the killing of hundreds of defenceless men, women, boys, and girls add up to a 'war crime?'
And the answers, my friend, keep blowing in the wind.
The answers are blowing in the wind.
Posted by scorpio at 7:25 PM 0 comments
Labels: COMMENTARY, crime, culture vultures
Tripping through India Bhattarai Style
These two chaps decide to backpack through India today and the SAARC countries tomorrow. Ho hum! This is the 21st century and they’re probably hundreds of chaps doing exactly the same thing and they earnestly believe that they’re up to something unique, so seriously, what’s new?
Nabaraj and Narayan Bhattarai are two young fellows who claim a certain notoriety in their home country Nepal. They took a walk through the length and breadth of the country’s 75 districts between October 2008 and 2010. The jaunt that started with some 350 Nepali rupees in their pocket, pens , paper, a digicam and a handycam, yielded a 98 minute documentary and 508 page book on their 750 day experience. They describe themselves as village yokels with an interest in journalism, and are members of the Lalitpur chapter of the Nepali Federation of Journalists. Coming from rural Nepal to Kathmandu as undergraduate students, they met, clicked and began to ‘live together’. (This could have gotten interesting, only, they are really evasive about that part of their ‘bio-data’, but body language says a lot, boys!)
They were rather non-committal about events in Nepal, but one got the distinct impression that they weren't too pleased about the 'secular constitution'. A chance statement that Narayan let slip was telling, "Nepalis in Gujarat and some northern states admired Modi and the BJP for winning the election and Hindus in Nepal were very pleased about this." Probably reading the expression on my face, Nabaraj quickly stepped in to say, 'Many Hindus in Nepal support Modi and the BJP, not everyone'.
“Our visit to Bihar comes at the end of our year long travel through India, that started when we crossed the border to Sikkim on the 22nd of July,” says Nabaraj. “Our main purpose is to look at the Nepali diaspora, observe how they live, what are the changes and adaptations in culture, and to bring back that learning to Nepal. Real life stories of Nepalese people all over the world could inspire our own young people back in Nepal,” he says.
The two operate their tour on the ‘modern fakir system’: donations, crowd funding via facebook, and a lot of dependence on the local Nepali population. They accept the hospitality of local Nepalese usually belonging to Nepali cultural organizations within the city they visit. This has helped them gain insight as to how different strata of the diaspora live. However, when I interacted with them for over an hour, what I got was a lot of froth and very little beer.
What did they learn from their four day visit? After making the usual touristy noises about how impressive Bodh Gaya and Nalanda were (they spent two days sight-seeing and met only one Nepalese person there), they got down to the basics: “We haven’t met many Nepali people, but generally Bihari Nepalese are not doing as well as those in Assam or Mumbai. They aren’t many Nepali speaking people who are in good positions or in the media in Bihar. They are mainly labourers in restaurants and so on. The teenagers that we met did not know Nepali well and preferred to speak in English or Hindi. The irony is that they were the kids of a local man who is a community leader of sorts. Somehow we get the impression that the youngsters are a bit ashamed of being recognized as Nepalese,” says Narayan, the elder of the two. That’s a journalistic statement from the two travellers!
“We get a sense of disunity and squabbling among the local Nepali population in Bihar, which could be because of lack of higher education. For example in Mumbai, there are two Nepali dailies being published, and in Gujarat we met a highly successful Nepali businessman in the hospitality industry. Where there are well educated Nepalese, we have seen strong and vibrant diaspora associations,” says Nabaraj .
The two look forward to meeting the Nepalese ambassador in Delhi and hope to gain an audience with the President and Prime Minister of India. Another ‘book’ and a documentary are in the offing!
Posted by scorpio at 6:59 PM 0 comments
Labels: MEDIA, People I Know
Monday, July 14, 2014
A young man died...
David |
The Tirkey Family of Magadh University Campus Bodh Gaya |
God speed .....
Posted by scorpio at 12:03 PM 0 comments
Labels: People I Know
Tuesday, July 08, 2014
In search of the Bodhi Geese with the golden eggs
Kashaf Bin Shamim and his friends do not visit the Mahabodhi Temple any more. Neither do Arun Tirkey and Bajrang Munda. Nor do Anjali and Lily or Triratna Prasad. These people, aged 18 to 50 were once regular fixtures at Bodh Gaya’s historical landmark. You would find them walking quietly, feeding the fish, or showing off their world heritage site to awed relatives from other states. Once the town was placed on India’s ‘terrorist site map’ a year ago, the new-fangled security measures have sapped the spirit of camaraderie and harmony. The ten foot wall that surrounds the outer periphery of the temple, and the 200 strong police force and the new security measures are to blame.
“It’s as though the death eaters from a Harry Potter book has descended on the Temple,” says 19 year old Felix Toppo, a tall and lanky lad. “Sometimes the cops at the gates can be quite rude, and it’s dangerous to talk back, or we guys may end up in handcuffs!”
The 7/7 blasts have scared away Bodh Gaya's geese with the golden eggs: tourists of every hue and nationality, and there is tough competition as monks and merchants alike joust valiantly to snaffle the few unflappable visitors who do end up before the temple gates.
Triratna Gupta and Anagarika Dhamma Priya, who have lived in the town for decades say that the wall and security measures have driven away business, but there is a whisper doing the rounds that the Mahabodhi Temple Management Committee are in cahoots with the State government to load the dice in favour of certain unnamed business interests.
There is so much of frisking and inconvenience in the guise of security, that most visitors who visit the Mahabodhi once, are reluctant to go through the entire rigmarole for a second visit. "Before, the pilgrim would come back for a multiple darshans, once in the morning, and once in the evening, and remain there till quite late. These visitors would then take time to visit the surrounding shops and take in the local colour. Now that’s all finished.," says Triratna. The only organisation that seems to be unfazed about the dip in pilgrims seems to be the BGTC. The Chief Monk brushed off suggestions that this year there were fewer visitors around Buddha Purnima as 'unverified speculation'. It seems that the donations to the Mahabodhi temple weren't all that much affected by the tourist drought.
“A year ago suspected terrorists engineered four low-intensity blasts inside the main shrine complex. The Tregar Monastery of the Karmapa, Great Buddha statue and an empty tourist bus were the other targets. It’s strange that these explosions were about as powerful as very large crackers. The continued demands from the Temple Management Committee for more and more security measures, is intriguing, even though it’s quite evident that more policing brings about resentment and fear, not amity and harmony,” says Anagarika Dhamma Priya, a PUCL member, and one of the vocal critics of what is being perceived as the steady politicisation of the Bodhi Temple management.
The harmony between different religious communities and congregations have taken a beating after the blast, and the dwindling flow of foreign visitors that jolted the hospitality sector hasn’t made relationships any sweeter. Business fell almost 70 percent, locals swear.
Local Bodh Gaya inn keepers, lodge owners and hoteliers complain that the monasteries are nuzzling in on their turf. “It’s bizarre how these monasteries have added on rooms and are providing hospitality for a fee to more and more foreign pilgrims. After the blasts, the monasteries seem to be creating an impression that the regular hotels are unsafe, and they are in fact poaching on our trade,” grumbles Shamim, who runs a middle-of-the-road hotel not far from the main temple. “I wonder whether these monasteries are paying income tax on money earned from their guests?”
People who own real estate are unhappy as well, because after the blasts they are not allowed to build upon, sell or transfer their holdings. “The blasts are a convenient excuse for the authorities to tamper and tinker around with the so-called Bodh gaya Development Plan, which none of us have really seen,” says Ali Asghar, a member of the local shopkeepers union.
Prince Dwyer, and educationist and social activist is optimistic, though. “The government has its own perception of what ‘security’ is, and what it must do to assure the foreign visitors that Bodh Gaya can deal with any security threat. As for the drop in traffic, one year is a short span in memory. Let’s wait till October, and we may see increased footfalls and better days ahead. All of us have got to move beyond 7/7/13 ! ”
Posted by scorpio at 10:57 PM 0 comments
Monday, July 07, 2014
Laugh your Hee-haw off
Here is a good one that I have heard years ago at one of those old get-togethers....
Murphy showed up at Mass one fine Sunday. The priest almost fell down in shock when he saw him. He'd never been inside the church since he was a little bitty baby.
After Mass, the priest caught up with him and said, "Murphy, me lad, I am so glad ya decided to come to Mass. What made ya come?"
Murphy said, "I got to be honest with you Father. A while back, I misplaced me hat and I really, really love that hat. I know that McGlynn has a hat just like mine .And I knew the old son of a gun comes to church every Sunday. I also knew that he had to take off his hat during Mass and figured he would leave it in the back of church. So, I was going to leave after Communion and steal ol' McGlynn's hat."
The priest said, "Well, Murphy, I notice that ya didn't steal McGlynn's hat. What changed your mind?"
Murphy replied, "Well, after I heard your sermon on the 10 Commandments, I decided that I didn't need to steal McGlynn's hat after all."
With a tear in his eye the priest gave Murphy a big smile and said; "After I talked about 'Thou Shalt Not Steal' ya decided you would rather do without your hat than burn in Hell?"
Murphy slowly shook his head. "No, No, Father, when ya talked about 'Thou Shalt Not Commit Adultery' I suddenly remembered where I left me hat!"
Posted by scorpio at 8:19 PM 0 comments
Labels: HUMOUR
The WALLED BODHI TREE-PART 2
Are the fat cats of the Bodh Gaya Temple Management Committee quietly aiding and abetting the Bihar Government in its game plan to displace local vendors and create more opportunities for big business?
A local artisan: will he soon be displaced by the BTMC plans? |
Is the so-called 'Bodh Gaya terrorist attack' of July 7. 2013 the perfect cover to execute the destruction of the street vendors and the small and affordable service providers to make way for McDonald's, Barristas, and fancy high-priced salons, eateries?
Will the Bodhi Temple now manufacture a 'brand' through which it will hock trinkets and souvenirs from state Government projects after its 'ex-officio Chairman' the Honourable District Magistrate would have used brute force to chase away indigenous craftsmen and small business that have survived in the shade of the Temple for generations?
Entrance and Exit from the Western Side.. blocking out the market on the east? |
“Last year, after the July 7 explosion, the administration erected this ten foot extra boundary wall in front of the Mahabodhi temple for so-called ‘security’. This wall has benefitted nobody. It has destroyed our small Bodh Gaya bazaar that existed opposite the temple for more than half a century. This cursed wall has affected the market, the business and the livelihood of more than 400 families,” says Triratna Prasad Gupta, the chairman of the Bodh Gaya Vyavasayik Sangh (BGVS), a loose union of shopkeepers who have been in business around the periphery of the temple for decades.
There is no doubt that the bomb blast was a black day in the history of this town, says Ali Asghar who operates a tour and travel agency in the bazaar. “The bomb scared away visitors and incomes fell. On top of that, the wall is overkill. The fallout of the sanitization exercise was that the people who provided low-cost services to the pilgrims were kicked out. As pilgrims came out from the temple after their prayer, there were opportunities to buy cheap souvenirs, have light meals for as little as twenty rupees, and move eastwards to the market for other needs. These services were swept away when the entire space in front of the temple was cleared. The ten foot wall sprung up in front of our noses, and hid our shops from view. The result, business is down by almost seventy percent.”
In the meanwhile, local news reports say that the wall might be raised another five feet, and watchtowers along the sides are being planned. With the Bodh Gaya Temple Management Committee(BTMC) planning to sell stone images made in Nalanda under its own brand, the locals smell a conspiracy in the whole game-plan of displacing the small vendors, raising the wall, and putting in place obtrusive ‘security protocols’.
“Is the wall part of a larger game plan to squeeze out the locals, and drive foreign visitors towards the more expensive hotels and high-end restaurants that are beginning to dot the western side of the Mahabodhi temple?” ask some social activists from the People’s Union for Civil Liberties and certain members of the Shanti Sadbhavna Samiti.
The son of the late Ram Deo Ram, a graduate from the Sakya Muni College took over his father’s shoe-making business of 18 years at Pachetti locality, east of the temple , recalls that before the wall, several foreign tourists would purchase his pure leather handmade boots and sandals.
Ram Jr. says the wall is squeezing off his customers |
“It’s all because of the rules that you have to leave your mobile phone on the western side of the temple, so when you leave, you go back in that direction. The wall is so high that you don’t realize that there’s a whole market behind it.”
“The wall has effectively erased the low-priced artifacts and commodities, broken the backs of the local artisans, and obscured local businesses that have stood here for generations.
" Now the Temple management is tying up with artisans imported by Nitish Kumar who are creating soapstone carvings. So the cash inflow from foreign tourists will be cornered by the monasteries and the high end hotels. Raise the bogey of security threat, isolate the local competition, throw out the poor street vendors and encroach on common land.
" Who can challenge the BTMC, after all their chairman is no ordinary citizen, he is the District Magistrate with almost unlimited powers which can be used in ‘emergency situations’. The explosions are just the excuse by which all opposition to BTMC game-plan has been silenced,” a shop owner observed.
In 1958, several of the shops behind the wall had ceded their own frontage contribute to what became the open space around and in front of the temple. That land has now been usurped by the BMTC, say the affected merchants.
The BGVS has petitioned the High Court against the wall. Says Gupta, “With this uneven playing field, the judiciary is our only recourse to justice. We wait for our plea to be heard. Let’s hope it isn’t in vain”.
Posted by scorpio at 7:23 PM 0 comments
Sunday, July 06, 2014
The Walled Bodhi Tree- part 1
TEMPLE UNDER A CLOUD? |
Some explosives that had been placed inside the Mahabodhi Temple and the great Buddha statue had gone off. Bang! Sleepy little Budha Gaya found itself splattered across the daily newspapers- it had earned its place on the 'terrorism map'.
It's a curious case that is still debated ad nauseum in the tea shops and in parlours, with sighs of resignation and bemused shakes of the head. What an incompetent bunch of terrorists these chaps were. They struck in the early hours of the morning, when there wasn't any real bustle around. The devices didn't do more damage than extremely loud crackers: splintered a pane or two, scratched at the surface of the stone. No casualties at all.
The explosions caused fissures in the fragile balance of harmony, not only among the general population, but amidst those who ostensibly promote peace and non-violence. Buddhism’s holiest shrine may now glitter with some 290 kilograms of pure gold atop its dome, but its welcoming arms have been amputated, a literal ‘Berlin Wall’ policed by surly policemen, have alienated the Bodhi tree from the people of Bodh Gaya.
Editor of the e-zine ' Bo-tree news' Anagarika Dhamma Priya minces no words, “Fear stalks the ordinary folk living around the temple. Fear of the police. The overwhelming presence of policemen outside and inside the temple is unnerving for many visitors. For the ordinary person without a robe, sitting in contemplation or meditation is difficult, because it is quite likely that you will be accosted by some policeman asking you to move on. Moreover, people certainly aren't happy the way the district administration and the police has used the bogey of terrorism to demolish shops, clear out the vendors, and even intimidate young men from certain communities. There have been no protests because most people are fearful of being locked up under some draconian law or the other”
Of course there was both fear and resentment among the young men, says a young hotelier. “Who isn’t scared of the police? The police bully youngsters in the name of ‘security’ now. Bodh Gaya was never like this. All of us Hindu, Moslem, Buddhist, rich or poor would visit the Mahabodhi temple. Today, ask how many locals visit regularly? It doesn't matter whether you are Hindu or Muslim, the police have created such a havoc that Buddha now rests behind the Berlin Wall of ham-handed security. Before, we sit till late at night talking and chatting in the small tea shops near the temple. Now, they pack up by eight pm to avoid the unwelcome attention of the Bihar Police.”
RTI activist and Buddhist monk, the venerable Priya Pal Bhikkhu from the National Coordination Committee of Buddhist organizations in India (NCCBOI) mentioned two separate incidents where the Bihar police at the Mahabodhi have manhandled Buddhist clergy. “One incident involved a monk, and another rather ugly one flared up between the policewomen and a Tibetan nun from Nepal. The matter was later sorted out, but it has shown that the Bihar police are inept at handling visitors. That is why NCCBOI have been campaigning for a properly trained National security force to take over at the temple. The Mahabodhi is not the Taj Mahal, it’s not a mere historical monument, it is a functioning place of worship for lakhs of people across the world,” says Bhante Priya Pal.
The Shanti Sadbhawna Samiti, a collection of over 100 citizens from various affiliations, has planned to observe the 7th of July as a black day, with a day- long fast and a candle march. Anagarika Dhamma Priya wondered whether the peaceful protest would be allowed, or would they face police violence, but others, like Gaya YMCA secretary Prince Dwyer believes that the State government will not let police violence happen, because it would scare off whatever tourists remain.
Boorish Policemen keep devotees away? |
Says Jose Kariakat of the faith-based NGO Jeevan Sangam, “One cannot just brush aside an incident that has affected the lives of practically every resident of Bodh Gaya, and continues to do so. Mischievous elements tried to make capital of the explosions last year, and it took the concerted efforts of several people and organizations such as the Bodh Gaya Inter-faith Forum, International Buddhist Council, Gandhi Peace Foundation, All India Bikkhu Sangh, PUCL and so on to ensure that the fire of distrust did not burn in our villages.”
Chief Monk of the Mahabodhi Temple Rev. Bhikkhu Chalinda points out that none can fault the State government for protection of the temple.
Chief Monk of BTMC Ven. Chalinda |
There is a lot of scepticism as to what value Gaya's new district magistrate would add to the mix. "It's a state-sponsored function, nothing more," a resident told me. The secretary of the BTMC- the Bodh Gaya Temple Management Committee Nangtse Dorjee is staying away from controversy, currently on holiday in his native Sikkim.
Bhikkhu Chalinda will take no part in the candle-march however. “I have to perform my duties as Chief Priest of the Temple,” he reminds us.
Posted by scorpio at 5:18 PM 0 comments
Labels: BIHAR, Buddhists, COMMENTARY, Democracy
Saturday, July 05, 2014
The other side of 'Find me a Maid'
Is this the way mainstream India looks at Tribal citizens?
“Do you know what trafficking implies? It’s enticing young girls and women from villages to the city with the promise of giving them jobs. And yet, my non-Adivasi friends and colleagues don’t give a second thought before saying, ‘Jasmine, you are an Adivasi, find us a girl to work in our houses!’ So that’s my identity. They don’t see me as an educated, articulate and smart bank professional, but as some jungle-dwelling entity with such low self-esteem that she will willingly traffic her sisters to the city to work as servants,” says Jasmine Tigga, a bank officer serving at the State Bank of India.
What makes up one’s identity? Is it your birth-place, your blood-line, your language or beliefs, or does it lie in your achievements, your education, or is it just the way everybody else looks at you? What does it mean to be a tribal professional in the world today?
Let's call a spade a spade. The urban middle-class largely believes that Adivasis should remain in the jungles or continue to provide the unskilled and semi-skilled labour in our sweat-shops.
I remember, way back in my childhood days, how certain Hindi teachers at my school would look down on our third grade Hindi teacher, Miss Toppo, who, I learnt much later, had genuine BA degree in Hindi. You see, they were quite polite to her, but none of the teaching staff members except for a couple of Anglo-Indian ladies turned up at her brother's wedding. You see, Miss Toppo's own mother had worked as a maid (a 'maid-servant' was the term in those days), and the high caste women teachers just couldn't treat Miss Toppo as an equal. It was cultural, in those days. Miss Toppo retired after teaching brats at St. Xavier's Doranda for a good twenty five years or so. Forty years on, things haven't changed, have they?
“The strength of Adivasi culture is that we do not consider any work too low, or too mean to perform. We do not look down on others because of the job they perform. And so, this gives us tremendous scope to better ourselves. As a woman, I can assert that Adivasi men have no hang-ups about helping their wives with the housework or looking after the babies. So we have an egalitarian society,” says Jasmine. And that's a damn sight better than a whole lot of crass, rich, high-class Indian women who are really unpaid servants, catering to every whim of their husbands, and their husbands are usually boring, boorish louts....
Jasmine refuses to let anybody take advantage of her good nature. 'At first my boss thought that he could fob off extra work on me, just because I was a harmless submissive tribal. he now knows better than to try that trick again.' she says.
More power to Jasmine Tigga... you rock girl!
Posted by scorpio at 9:05 PM 1 comments
Labels: BIHAR, Human Rights, INCREDIBLE INDIA, Jharkhand, People I Know, SHOUT BOX
Sunday, June 29, 2014
Inside the Common Man's Classrooms
Here are some photographs of schools I have come across in Bihar. Government schools.
These child friendly blackboards around the classrooms help kids to participate in the learning process. Excellent tools for Continuous and Comprehensive Evaluation.
and below another view of the child friendly blackboards...
This is my school library- a school in Kesariya Block, East Champaran |
I can spell simple words and I do have a decent handwriting, see? |
Where there is no blackboard, or furniture, or even a floor, but there is a thirst for learning |
My teacher and I- a government primary school kid shows her grasp of numerical concepts |
Posted by scorpio at 9:10 PM 0 comments
Labels: BIHAR, PHOTO ESSAYS
With you, Without You
When the film was released a few days ago, Theatres in Chennai received anonymous threats over the phone, faced police apathy and reluctance to offer protection and so cancelled the film shows.
As is fast becoming the norm, intolerance has once again been allowed to muzzle freedom of expression...
Now a petition is doing the rounds supplicating Tamil Nadu Chief Minister Jayalalitha to intervene and 'allow ' the film to be screened.
Of course, it's common knowledge that goons with her political patronage are responsible for the threats and intimidation. It's a Sri Lankan Film, so it shouldn't be shown in Tamil Nadu... but can you call Jayalalitha and her ilk racist and still keep your head on your shoulders (literally?) not if you're in the Sambhar state!
So the film fraternity has gone to great lengths to draw Amma's attention to the following facts:
The film is a close collaboration between Prasanna Vithanage and the Indian film fraternity.
The National Award winning editor from the Tamil and Mumbai film industry, Sreekar Prasad has edited the film.
Documentary film maker from Delhi, Rahul Roy is a co-producer.
A scene from the film |
Anjali Patil from Mumbai has essayed the main role and won the Best Actress award at the International Film Festival of India (2012) held in Goa.
The film is a sensitive portrayal of post war Sri Lanka and the consequences of denial of justice to the Tamil population.
Instead of supporting the widest possible exhibition of this film in India we are today witnessing the opposite and all because some stray people have decided without seeing the film that it is inimical to Tamil interest.
A great irony indeed given the fact that the film is a scathing testimony of the suffering that the war has unleashed.
So what happens next? Will the queen Bee wave her magic wand, or will she look the other way and shrug?
We should be applauding the effort made by Prasanna Vithanage who has braved very difficult circumstances to bring to us a brutally honest account of war, suffering and the miscarriage of justice.
Posted by scorpio at 7:58 PM 0 comments
Labels: culture vultures, MEDIA, SHOUT BOX
Saturday, June 28, 2014
But Seriously, No going back!
Posted by scorpio at 11:51 AM 0 comments
Labels: FRANK KRISHNER, Human Rights, QUEER CASEBOOK, queer subculture
Friday, June 27, 2014
A natural thing...
Half the year has slipped by and I wonder, have I been moving around in someone else's coma?
Amidst the writer's block and sheer indolence, I find myself up to my eyeballs in missed deadlines.
And yet, June stares at me through the slats of my bedroom window.
Sun and rain... the met office has a field day mixing up its weather report
The rain adds to the sludge and the filthy water in the pot-holed lane outside.
The sun beats down and hot steam, heatstroke, and conspire with the air-conditioner to bring you irrationally high electricity bills...
Outside, my friends will be protesting and holding up placards.
Section 377 must go, they say....
'But I see a bad moon rising'... the one I wake up to every morning says
A blood moon....
Somebody whispered... does the Indian Gay community want their rights
so bad that they are willing to die and go to jail for it?
Or will the movement dwindle when the NGO funds dry up if the homophobic dispensation decides 'gay rights activism' is 'anti-national activity'?
But I will go out wearing my 'NO to 377' T-shirt anyway.... I tell my partner
Why? Do really I need to explain?
Because it is the natural thing
Because it is but natural to wake up beside you every day of my life
Because it is but natural to share our breakfast in bed
Because it is but natural to do the laundry, shop for food, and choose wedding gifts for the girl next door...
Because it is natural to love someone as beautiful as you
It's the law that is unnatural, twisted, and an aberration ...
But what we have is the most natural, wonderful, enabling, empowering thing in creation.
And nobody's got the right to tell me to be ashamed about it, not any longer... not any more...
ENOUGH!!!!!!!!!!!!
Posted by scorpio at 7:27 AM 0 comments
Labels: Human Rights, QUEER CASEBOOK, queer subculture
Friday, June 20, 2014
The Sphinx and the Hyenas
Well, now 1, Race Course Road has a new tenant, and the present Prime Minister constantly communicates and speaks his mind, he's visible, 'decisive', and outspoken, tweeting at the drop of a Gujarati turban.
But what's puzzling is his Sphinx like demeanour on issues like the murder of the Pune Techie, the locking up of harmless chaps who post criticism of him on facebook,..... and worse .... where's the Modi Byte on the epidemic of rapes that seems to have broken out over Eastern and central India?
It's a riddle indeed...
This go-getter, this much advertised mover and shaker, this curious mixture of man and lion( at least to his followers) ... do his eyes suddenly turn to stone, do his ears become wads of wax when the hyenas of patriarchy and prejudice have begun to attack the fabric of modern India?
Who's the intrepid news man or woman who will seek answers from the creature overlooking the Indian scene?
But beware of the Sphinx.... Sphinxes have this nasty habit of tearing you apart if they don't like the answers ...or in this case... the questions!
And if he doesn't dismember you , it's more than probable that the pack of hyenas who follow in his wake will.
Posted by scorpio at 6:57 PM 0 comments
Sporno-sexual? How I wish I was in that league?
he was talking about the 'new wave' lads.. the ones I refer to as the Andrew-Christian-innerwear types. He calls them the 'pumped-up offspring of those Ronaldo and Bekhamlunch-box ads, where sports got into bed with porn while Armani took the pictures'. Wow!
Anway, all our pals who like to instragram their naked selfies can now aspire to the new term, even if they don't have the 'chiselled pecs'.
Spornosexual... How I wish I was in that league.. but no chance... One has become decidedly pear shaped over the years.... but my new boyfriend definitely makes the grade... only he's very averse to posting his pictures in the buff anywhere... so sorry folks!
But one need a visual... or two.. to go with this post... so here are my hot Spornosexual pals for your perusal... and if you're from Shillong, you've probably seen them around...
And here's Sri.... so peeps, bye for now....
Oh, hang on... what's an Andrew Christian innerwear type, I her some of you ask curiously?
Really?
So here goes:
Andrew Christian is the unashamedly Gay apparel brand and believe me when I tell you that they have the most bodylicious boy candy ever on display.
The designs are absolutely to die for.... but unfortunately not made for pear shaped persons such as I.
So, for the benefit of the uninitiated, here are two AndrewChristian Innerwear Types:
Posted by scorpio at 9:50 AM 0 comments
Labels: culture vultures, Honey