Has anything really changed?

One month has passed since the terrorists struck India, but has anything changed??? To begin analyzing this question, i would first like to clarify on why i used the term terrorists attacked India, rather than Mumbai. I did this deliberately so that the people who think Mumbai is theirs alone and not the part of the bigger sovereign country, can also have the exposure to reality.
Now, coming back to the question, there can be many answers to the question. There are many faces to it and different people will see it in different manners. Some optimists would suggest that it has made India stronger than ever before in uniting the people against the ghastly crime committed by the terrorists. Whereas some pessimists would say that nothing has changed and India is at the same point where it was a month ago. And, it is easy to see that such people would be far greater in number than the ones mentioned earlier.
My stance would be something in between these two. It is nice to have an optimistic approach in such adverse times. But when you are struck with reality, you have to seriously consider the other approach as well.
Things have certainly changed here. It was not seen earlier that so many people were unanimously raising their voices against one common cause. One more thing that was not seen earlier was that so many youngsters came forward, realizing their duties towards their nation. Many youngsters were seen voicing their opinions against the bureaucrats of our country. Many of them could also be seen suggesting that they wanted to enter politics in order to contribute their worth towards the well-being of the nation. So, definitely positive signs for India.
One more positive thing that seems to have occurred is that some of our politicians seem to have gone into exile as they should have probably done. The most prominent among them is obviously our great leader, Raj Thackeray. His followers were wondering why didn't he come out and stop the commandos from the northern states from saving the Marathis. Probably, they have got their lessons. But, the worrying factor is that the lessons are very easily and very soon forgotten over here.
When we talk about how much things have changed, we need to consider both faces of the coin. The war fever is running high these days. But, considering the history and the approach of our "noble" leaders, the run of events suggests that nothing of that sort is going to happen. Pakistan, as always has again proved that it is king in talks and zero in implementation. And after all these it is quite clearly visible that Pakistan army is completely in control of the country. And that is the biggest worrying factor for India. With the Pakistan army in control of the Nuclear armor of the country, India has to take a cautious approach before taking any big decision. So, if we consider the war option to be the last option, then what should be the other approach.
Well, i feel that if war is not an option then India has to be strict in all the other actions that it proposes. We have to put all the possible kind of pressures on them. To start with, we should first of all cut all the ties, be it trades or anything else with them (which i don't understand, why has not been done yet). Another important step that we can take is to try to stop the IMF loan to be granted easily to Pakistan, without any conditions. I believe that we can still make them do many things if we take a more tougher approach, be it diplomatically or through military actions.
So, if we see in this manner, nothing has changed and it seems like nothing much is gonna change. Pakistan is going to involve us in the talks and the diplomatic talks are going to lead us to nowhere if our approach remains the same. Everything will die down soon and neither Pakistan or India will gain anything through all these. But, the real winner will be terrorism, which nobody wants.
Hope, our leaders wake up very soon to make the optimistic vision of the citizens, a reality. Then, India will be the true winner.

The BREAKING NEWS syndrome

Media is the greatest prize that India could have got in the post-independence era. It is the only thing that seems to be enjoying the full benefits of the democracy. No, I am not joking. I know it is hard to believe after all the fiasco recently. But just have a look at their work. Just look at the kind of news they show and the way they show it, it is absolutely worth lauding them.
The true responsibility of the media is not to just broadcast the news, but to keep giving their own opinions, to show the people what they believe and not just this, to make the people believe what they believe. And this is what the big as well as small media houses of our country have been doing.
Another task is to do some research activity and show the people the results of the research in the most dignified manner. Just surf through any of the channels, and you will get to know the kind of research activity they carry out in order to extract the news from absolutely nowhere. These kind of researches being undertaken at the media houses will put even the NASA and ISRO scientists to shame. The media people have already found out the answers to the most complex mysteries of life. They have with them, the maps showing the ways to heaven as well as hell. They can very easily find out as to what happens after death. They can even talk to spirits. Yes, this is not an exaggeration. Just have a look at some of the channels, especially the Hindi news channels and you will believe each word of mine.
Now, apart from the research activity, the media people are also doing community services. They can be seen solving the household feuds in front of the entire country. They get the news of some mother-in-law beating her daughter-in-law before it reaches the ears of the police. Now, this is what is terrific about them. Sometimes, they also call the "disturbed" people to their studios so that they can tell their stories to the country exclusively on some of the channels.
The media never stands behind when the environment issues comes up. The news reader will shout at his/her highest vocal point whenever some important broadcast is going on, with the noble intention that if one person from one locality hears them, their neighbors need not switch on the television sets.
And look at the powers that they possess, they can turn the fortunes of any ordinary person in a single night and make him a national hero. If they find out a child drown into a pothole, the entire country has got something to pray for, for the next 3 days or so. So, see how they help the Indians in not letting them forget God and to keep their religious hopes alive.
They can also revive the fortunes of any forgotten hero at their wish. To quote an example, try and remember Saurav Ganguly. The media was the front runner in getting him removed from the playing eleven. And then after a year or two, the media came back and put their entire force together in convincing the team selectors to take him back in the team. The way they showed the presentations on Ganguly with the background music running that can bring get any macho-man to cry out loud, was simply superb. The revival of Indian cricket team can truly be credited to the media.
Then there is a peculiar way in which they entertain the general masses. Apart from showing just the news, they have many additional shows running for the public welfare. Most of the channels can be seen showing the laughter shows daily, almost round the clock, thus teaching people to laugh. And some others can be seen doing marketing of the saas-bahu sops on other channels of that particular group. And if some hit reality shows comes by at some time, the viewers will never get bored watching about them and finding the hidden realities about them, which probably they themselves might not know. How noble of them, really!!!
And lastly, they are at their best when some very tragic event occurs. The journalist risk their own lives to provide the live news to the people. And they are not at all biased in helping people. They consider all the people as same, be it general masses or the terrorists. They provide some vital information to these people as well. It could be seen very well during the recent terror attacks in Mumbai. The media provided the live shots from all the terror affected points. They gave a very detailed analysis of the situation from time to time. The details also included the locations of the snipers deployed by Indian Army, the positions taken by the army people, the rooms in which the hostages might be hiding, etc. Seriously, the terrorists are also humans like us only. So, it was really kind of the media to stand up and help them when the entire world was against them.
Oh, how can I forget the favorite phrase of the news channels "BREAKING NEWS". Whatever the news be, however trivial or anything the phrase is supposed to be shown on the screen all the time. This is a very inspiring phrase for the general masses.

Really, hats off to the Indian media. Its high time now that they wake up and stop all the non-sense being shown and truly live up to the expectations of the citizens.

Wake up yourselves, dont blame everyone else

November 26, 2008 will always be remembered as a black day in the history of India. An event, never thought of and for which India was never prepared, occurred in the most prominent Indian city and that too in the most high profile areas of the city. It was a terrible terrible incident and I, like most other people, have been left stunned by this.

A lot has been said about the dreadful condition of our political system as well as the role of the media in the events, but it can still surely be said that the situation is not going to change drastically here. The tragic incident was compared to 9/11 of the US and most people expect the Indian response to be similar to that of US at that time. But is that going to happen. I don't believe so and I think most of the people here will agree with me. Our great inspiring political class will still look for their votes and would refrain from doing something for the real benefit of the people. People can't even expect these people to provide them their basic right of security.
Whenever such things happen everybody tends to look for people to blame. Everybody seem to be having some or the other thoughts on what went wrong, what should have been done and what should be done. But are these thoughts ever converted into actions. I feel they never are. And that is where the major problem lies in. Everything dies down as soon as the incident goes off air and you start to wonder that something of this magnitude occurred.
I know it is not good to be so cynical, but when such incidents occur and when adequate steps are not taken to stop such events from occurring so frequently, it is difficult to stop yourselves.
While it is not completely wrong to blame the politicians for not providing us our basic rights, it is we who need to stand up for ourselves. It is we who make these politicians for what they are, they are people like us only. We elect them and we ourselves forgive them of their misdoings by not complaining about them. It is high time we stand up for our rights, for the people who have lost their lives for no fault of their own, for the families who have lost their beloved, for the police and commandos who fought without any fears of death, for the hotel staff who lost their own lives in order to save the lives of their guests and last but not the least for our beloved country India.
India has advanced so much in the last few years, to the level that it is now being called a super-power in the global politics. The term is generally associated with the developed countries only. But when you see the conditions here, you start to doubt that whether India is worthy of that position or we still need to improve a lot before being called a developed country. And the reason I feel so is that still most of the people here abstain from their right to vote giving the reason that they don't find any candidate worthy of their votes. But how many of us will even have the audacity of standing in the elections. And so the people left to vote are only the uneducated people who are quite easy to be pleased by our despicable politicians. At many places the votes are won by money. And at the other places it is caste based.
It is our responsibility to first to exercise all our duties well and then ask for the rights. If the politicians are not acting upon the promises made by them before the elections, it is our duty to keep reminding them and also complain about them. If all of us understand our responsibilities and stand up together, we will definitely bring about the change here.

"Be the change that you want to see in the world"
- Mahatma Gandhi