Oye Wo Dekh "Chinky"!!

The last time I went on a stroll with my friends to our favourite market we were on our usual inspection work and hitting on some street food on our way. Then one of my friends exclaims “Oye wo dekh Chinky!!” and I was feeling so embarrassed the moment he said that and no wonder he was so loud the girl heard it and gave us a “another bastard” look! That is when I turned on to my “friend” and advised him to not to use this racist term giving him some gyaan on where this term originated from.

Well, there are many people who think that all the people with Mongoloid features are called "Chinkies" and without even cross checking, start using the term. It is believed the word "Chinky" was originated in the west with reference to the Chinese people and was later deemed offensive as it was considered a racist term. However, the term became famous in India as the people with little knowledge consider North east people as those who belong to China. It is due to people like them the educated masses too started using the term thinking it is a collective name for the people with Mongoloid features. And why not, when a South Indian is called Madrasi, or a person from UP a bhaiya.. we always look for short names for people of a particular state or community. But what they fail to understand is in case of using the term “Chinky” a person is being questioned about his/her Indian-ness.

Sourabhee Debbarma of Tripura won Indian Idol 4

The north eastern states have always been ignored not only by the government but also by the citizens of the country due to which there has been negligible development over there and people from these areas come down to country’s capital only to see themselves being humiliated and considered as an alien. And we call Australians racists even when such things in India are no different. And we curse Thackerays when they are pro Marathis, why do we forget this when we treat north easterners or in fact people from other states the same way?

On the other hand, I have found the people from the north east too unfriendly, maybe that’s because they already have heard negative things about Delhi that they prefer to stay away. One thing that they are ignoring is the fact that this will further create more differences between the people instead of solving the problem. On my recent visit to Mc Leodganj, the residence of Dalai Lama, I was surprised to see the Inhospitality the Indians get at the hands of Tibetans. People from all over the country and world come there to get to know the Tibetan Culture and they just don’t care. In fact even more surprising was that the foreigners were more cordial.

And to the question “Kya farak padta hai yaar(How does it matter)?” I would like to ask how would you react when a person is still called a “Sharnaarthi” even after 60 years of India’s independence, even though he has never seen Pakistan. Man, you are still a “Sharnaarthi”. Many of my friends would consider this post as an impression of “my soft spot for the people with mongoloid features”, but tell you what its more than that.

A sort of joke comes to my mind as I conclude.

American: You Bloody Indian!
Indian: Why are you "white" people always racist? Saala "Angrez"!!

Who is more dangerous to India’s future- Uneducated Rural or Literate Urban?

I start by defining the 2 terms.

Ed-u-cat-ed
1. Having under gone education.
2. Characterized by or displaying qualities of culture and learning.

Lit-er-ate
1. Able to read and write.

Literacy simply means to be able to read and write. Education, on the other hand, means to acquire knowledge to enhance one's ability to reason and make sound judgment.

Scenario 1
A group of a thousand farmers rush to Delhi to protest against the Central government's Fair and Remunerative Price (FRP) resulting to a lot of traffic congestion throughout the city. They protested at Jantar Mantar for its proximity to the Indian Parliament. The media came out with headlines like “Capital's heart vandalised” and "Sugar cane farmers lay siege to Delhi as prices fall". This was because these farmers “broke electric poles, flower pots, roads signs, dustbins and even defecating and urinating inside Jantar Mantar as if it were an open toilet”.



Scenario 2
More than a 5000 odd MBA aspirants appearing in a major entrance exam in a college in a village. These guys are parking their vehicles anywhere they get a space both on and off the road, not a bit worried even if there vehicle would make it a trouble for the others to pass through the same road. The guard (an uneducated rural) there has been tired explaining these “literate” people to park their cars at a parking lot a few metres away from the centre as it might cause trouble for their fellow aspirants as well as the village people. But why would a literate urban person listen to this poor uneducated guard? The story does not end here. On way back, these literate people did every possible thing to annoy the poor villagers. They bought the eating stuff and threw the left overs on the roads. In order to overtake the large trucks, these literates made 4-5 lanes on a 2 lane road, making it impossible for the traffic from opposite side to come and leading to congestion. As if this was not enough, they even honked for the time the traffic was not moving.

So, what do you guys make out from this? The farmers were the uneducated lot who came to the capital to raise their issue, being an uncivilized lot they “vandalised” the city. But, the scars of such an incident can be erased within a day or two, for they will be back to where they belong to and do what they are good at- farming.

The literate MBA aspirants on the other hand are going to be the future managers of some MNC in a couple of years from now and they are here to stay, continuing their vandalism throughout the life. This is not just a one day experience. I am not saying that what those farmers did was acceptable. What I am saying that what we guys have been doing is even worse!

Even if this is not enough, one can experience the same in his/her daily life, be it when you are purchasing some ticket (movie or metro or bus) and there are some smart people posing themselves as VIPs ignore the line.The worst thing is that the ones in the line are the real losers. Or when you get on or off the bus or a metro, you can easily relate the same uncivilised manner which we guys experienced when the farmers came to the city.


So, does that conclude that the urban and rural both stand at same stage as far as being uncivilized is concerned? NO. We are far lower than them. The reason being, that we are the future of the country and we can’t just ignore the things as we have been doing right now. The person who has been littering around all over India blames the country for it being filthy, and the same person drops the waste in dustbins when he/she goes to a richer nation. In India, while the person who is civilised enough to look for a dustbin to throw the waste becomes a piece of joke for others. Why such step motherly treatment towards your own country?

And we say, that the “uncivilized”, “uneducated” farmers “vandalised” the city, as if “literate” people are the only ones licensed to “vandalise” the city. Please guys, don’t be just be literate. Become educated.

Bombay, the city of dreams!!

It was another cold night in the winters of 2008-09. I had been waiting for another b school result to come out, though this time I was expecting to get through to the next stage. Never mind, it was one of the best institutes of the country. But the motivating factor for me was that the next round of activities were to be held in Bombay... oops Mumbai.. Sorry Mr. Thackeray.

One of the netizen then posted on a forum that the results were out. This sent shiver down my spine making it even worse for me. Although I managed to get a passport for Bombay, but the chances of conversion were almost negligible. Next thing was to a call a friend in Ajmer and plan our visit together. He is as crazy about the city as I am.

I had been there with family when the city was called Bombay but what I remember of is just Chowpatty Beach and bus tour from Bombay to Goa. I booked the tickets next day keeping enough time to explore the city’s best places. This was the fourth time I was travelling on plane, still I wasn’t accustomed to air journey; one, for it drops us to our destination in just about 2 hours, two, we can’t just stretch our arms and legs on plane the way we can in trains. In a way, I don’t want to get accustomed to it. The first timer Rishab enjoyed the flight though.

The hot weather was very welcoming since Delhi had not seen the sun rays since days. Thanks to a local friend, we didn’t have to look for a place to spend our nights, and that too in the heart of city. We did not want to waste any moment of stay, so we boycotted our lunch, packed some necessary things and took the local to CST. Earlier, I was quite apprehensive about the local trains as Delhites are considered to be not habitual to the congestion of this sort on trains. But, it’s not as if only Mumbains have to face this. We can easily relate the Bombay local train rush to that in Delhi buses in office hours. Believe me, it’s my personal experience.

On reaching CST the first thing we did was get a map of Bombay and marked the major destinations we had to explore in coming days. Then started our pad-yatra from Dalal Street to fashion Street. Starting from the BSE, we reached the Gateway of India and The famous Taj that reminded of the recent attack here, still fresh in our minds. Any Indian would have a tear or two in their eyes on seeing the bullet marks on the gateway or the cordoned off area which gives the best view of the Indian ocean, where the film shooting used to take place. The pad-yatra resumed in search of the Leopold Cafe in Colaba, where we had ice cream shakes.


Not knowing where to go, as it was dark by now, we headed towards Fashion Street. On our way, we crossed the University of Mumbai, the Church gate Station where we saw a wave of people coming from nowhere as if they are a mob going to kill us for being northerners. Later we realized it was office hour crowd heading back their home from Churchgate, the CP of Bombay. The map we had indicated that we were not far away from the famous Marine Drive. So, at 8-30 in the evening we were there sitting at pavement and enjoying this awesome view of the sea, the rocks and the Bombay crowd, the thing which I never did in Delhi at 8-30 in the evening. This is why I like Bombay so much.

All this on the very first day, or should I say just in “An Evening in Bombay”. We headed to our hotel at 11 at night, another first. The dinner constituted of a couple of Vada pav from a food joint in a city that never sleeps, at least I didn’t see it dull any time. The second day was not as exciting as first, the big reason being last evening’s pad-yatra. The day began with a visit to Siddhivinayak temple followed by Haji Ali Dargah in the afternoon. Time spent at Carter road in the evening was amongst the best. I had never seen imagined places like marine drive, Carter road, Worli Seaface in my life time; wish they were here in Delhi, or I was there in Bombay.

The dinner at Only Parathas, recommended my foodie brother, made me forget about my interview the next day. After finishing off with interview in a quick time, I wandered around the college area to feel the college life of Bombay, and that too didn’t disappoint me. Evening at Juhu Beach reminded me of my childhood journey when I along with my brother and other kids made dome shaped structures of sand with straw on top. The sunset view was amazing. The only thing that troubled was we didn’t have a place to keep our shoes, so we had to miss out our bath in the sea.(Below is the pic of my friend Rishab with shoes in hand at Juhu Beach in Mar'09). As we went on to give our verdict on Gol Gappe Vs Pani Puri competition, we found there was actually no competition at all. “Gol Gappe” is the clear winner. When I thought the day was over, my brother came from Pune with different plans. At midnight we had to accompany him for the dinner and spending some quality time at the Worli Seaface.


Next morning was our journey back to home, this time via train. But before that was another surprise tour waiting for us. Nikki, my local friend, made our trip much more valuable by taking us to her college, one of the best Girl’s colleges in Bombay. Way back to station a quick stop at Gaylord’s (that reminds me how I and Rishab had laughed over the name at that time) gave us an opportunity to have a pastry of any flavour we wanted and yes, Keventers at CP was way behind this British era bakery.

Dasvidaniya Bombay!

Nehru-Gandhi exploited India

On the eve of Gandhi Jayanti, I am delighted to uncover a controversial story of Nehru-Gandhi parivar, though I can’t commit on the sources, since the Government of India does not like Indian public to be aware of anything controversial that happens. They want us to pay homage to Gandhi in the morning, have lunch with friends and then enjoy the latest flick in CP in the evening and shake our legs at a pub in Gurgaon by the night. And, the GenX does not disappoint them either.


Meanwhile, continuing with my story, recently I got an email raising questions on Indira Gandhi’s personal life. Papa Nehru was busy in his politics and his wife, Kamala Nehru being unwell, left Indira alone in London (Yea, yea.. at that time too politicians used to send their kids abroad to enjoy their time). She fell in love with Feroze and married him. What we know is that Feroze was a Parsi, what we don’t know is that Feroze’s full name was Feroze (Ghandy) Khan. His father was a Muslim married to a Muslim Persian whose surname was Ghandy. Indira converted to Islam after marriage and this upset papa Nehru. The father of our nation then advised Feroze to change his surname to Gandhi (a passport to enter politics) and the whole issue was resolved.

Well, if this was not enough for Indira Gandhi, the tensions escalated between her and Feroze, and like many in history he too died a controversial death. I don’t know if I am allowed to publish rest of the story here, citing a recent case in which a person is courting trouble in USA for writing against Bush. If anyone is interested to read on the full the story, leave your email ids in the comments section.

The full story exposes Indira Gandhi, her son Rajiv, her so called son Sanjay, Papa Nehru again. For those who don’t know, Lal Bahadur Sastriji was also born on 2nd October and he too died a controversial death at the hands of Indira Gandhi. Happy Shastri Jayanti!!

Whose Kashmir is it anyway??

There is a very famous saying on Kashmir by Jahangir. “If there is a Paradise on Earth, it is here, it is here, it is here.” And it is evident that wars are fought for money, resources and the most beautiful things. Wasn’t that the reason for the Europeans to come here in India?

I will move onto the year 1947 from here when at the time of partition, the princely states were free to join India or Pakistan or remain independent. While most of the princely states acceded to India or Pakistan; states of Kashmir, Junagadh & Hyderabad were a cause of trouble since all of them wanted to remain independent. Although the states were free to choose, Mountbatten- the architect of partition took the position that only states that shared common border with Pakistan should accede to it, but it was just an advisory. Both Hyderabad and Junagadh had Muslims as their rulers, none of them sharing its borders with Pakistan.

The state of Hyderabad was included in Indian Union through an operation carried out by Indian army in September 1948. The state of Junagadh though chose to accede to Pakistan. The riots broke out in the state which comprised of 80% Hindu population. The Nawab of Junagadh escaped to Pakistan emptying the state treasury of cash and securities. On various requests made by the Dewan (who comes next to Nawab), the Pakistani Government did not intervene to control the riots which forced the Dewan to accede to India and take control of the situation, which India accepted.

At the same time, another similar game was being played in Kashmir. Kashmir had 77% Muslim population and most people believed it would accede to Pakistan owing to the fact that it shared its borders with Pakistan. However, the prince of Kashmir, Raja Hari Singh wanted Kashmir to remain an independent state. It is believed that after Raja Hari Singh decided against acceding to Pakistan, The Pakistani government “unofficially” sent in its tribals to take over Kashmir, as it did in Kargil war. The raja wanted an intervention from Indian government but India could not do anything, keeping its words on “agreement of non-intervention”. There was no direct proof of involvement of Government of Pakistan.


When the situation went out of hands, the Raja acceded to India and Kashmir was now officially a part of Indian Union. But till the time Indian troops made their way into Kashmir, the tribals from Pakistan had taken control of almost one-third Kashmir. The situation would have been worse had the tribals not stopped over for looting. The Raja’s accession to India allowed Pakistan to officially come into the scene and its troops taking control of the occupied area. The UN at that point of time asked for ceasefire and a plebiscite had to be taken in the absence of Indian & Pakistani troops, which never happened.

So, what now? India, Pakistan & the whole world knows there can’t be any solution to this issue. Even after our grandchildren would have died, both countries would keep fighting over this little paradise on earth. Kashmiris still want their own independent state, which too seems impossible. But Pakistan has made much progress than India by taking advantage of the emotions of Kahmiris, by naming their part of Kashmir as “Azad Kashmir” and controlling the state the same way Sonia Gandhi has been decision maker here in India. We still have not come to the conclusion, whose Kashmir is it anyway???

Is the Recession really dying down?

Every day I read in newspaper about the latest status of recession as if its a hurricane whose future motives can be predicted. But, I am not here to put my views on the current financial situation.

While India is facing drought like situation with most of the states having around 30% deficit in rainfall this year & still unsure of the status of recession, we should not expect our MPs and MoS to stay at 5 star hotels since the formation of the government more than 100 days back. Neither can we expect the pilots of Air India (eying for a 15,000 crore bailout) to take their nap in another 5 star hotel. Seems the people concerned have taken the reports of recession dying down seriously.


Minister of External Affairs Mr. SM Krishna had been staying at ITC Maurya and Minister of State Mr. Tharoor at The Taj till the Finance Minister Mr. Mukherjee asked them to move to a government accommodation. As expected both the ministers excused that owing to the renovation being done at their official residences they had to stay in hotel suite.

They also said that the bills for their stay are being borne by them personally and not by the tax payer’s money. Well, how do we, the tax payers will ever be able to know about that? And, I don’t think the renovation being done at their official residence is also being borne by them personally. A renovation had been done at Somnath Chatterjee’s residence as well- An elevator in a two floor residence (unconfirmed sources). An RTI application will be of no use as the expected reply would be “details can’t be disclosed as laid down under Section XXX of the RTI Act” as was replied to an RTI applicant who demanded Lal Bahadur Shastri’s death related documents to be made public.

Meanwhile, coming back to the point, I don’t think Ministers like Tharoor and Krishna do understand the importance of money as much as I and you do. Tharoor, who has spent most of his life not staying in India, can he really sustain in the Indian politics for long? (Tharoor was born in London and had been staying outside India since his post graduation till he was offered ticket by Congress). He was recently found twittering in his office (seems he is out of work within a month), which you would complain to as the same is banned at your work place.

Someone is “investing” the money in statues in UP, another is opting for “No. 1 Haryana” ads in electronic media ahead of assembly elections. Guys, when would they realise that we can’t believe everything written in newspapers. We are still in recession. Go ahead with your irrelevant expenditure once the MBA institutes again mention “100% Placement” in their prospectus.

Lastly, if any of you want to criticise or appreciate my posts or blog as a whole, please make full use of comments section underneath. I will take everything in a positive manner. As I end this post I overhear news on a news channel titled “India best place for jobs”. Don’t know how do they come to those conclusions?

Pics!!

I am in no mood to write down something today so I thought of uploading quite a few of my fav pics!!














Jai Hind!!