Celebrity-(ec)centric Indian Media

God has shown especial favors to politicians. He has bestowed them with an art of exploiting any situation to their advantage, however difficult it may be. The latest example to this effect is Congress’s austerity campaign, which also included party’s rajputra, Rahul Gandhi’s latest journey to Ludhiana in ordinary class of Shatabdi Express. The publicity he got by spending just few hundred rupees as fare is worth more than many crores. Thanks to the media that went berserk.

Although, this is not the first time that street urchins have hurled stones on moving trains, but the hyper activity of our “great media” indicates that it was revelation for it. Perhaps, oblivious of the fact that such incidents are very common for our railways, our fourth estate has given overwhelming coverage to the incident. Now the big question is why media went overboard? Obviously, Rahul was inside the train!!!!!!!!!. Is he so important just because he is Member of Parliament or office bearer of the party????? This means all MPs and party functionaries would have been enjoying such importance? No, it’s only for Rahul “baba”, scion of Gandhi family (not Mahatma Gandhi), reigning ‘royal clan’ of a Democratic country.

The way media gone mad shows how much it has become celebrity-centered. We hardly see any news in print media, which relates to the plight of poor farmers, labourers or the other under privileged sections of our society. In electronic media height of stupidity is a common phenomenon. They can waste hours showing some cat sitting on the roof, unable to come down. These morons don’t understand that cat is much more intelligent than them. It remembers which route it took to reach there; it will come down by it on its own.

Coming back to stone-throwing incident, no doubt it is a highly deplorable and unpardonable act. Though it is punishable, but the law comes into play only when offence is committed against some important or influential person. Why the machinery keeps sleeping when same thing happens to an ordinary person? Every time you can’t bring Rahul Gandhi to wake up people who are entrusted with the job of keeping our system working safe and securely.

Malana — Shangrila in the misty mountains

Is Malana really the world’s oldest republic? Is this cluster of 12 villages in Kullu valley of Himachal Pradesh (India), among the first democracies of the world? Are the inhabitants of this sleepy village really the descendents of the Greeks?
A university in Sweden has given a proposal to Himachal University’s Institute of Tribal Studies to start a project to unravel the secrets associated with the Malana people, their lifestyle and history and especially their language, which is not understood by anyone except the Malanians. The proposal has come from University of Uppsala, one of the oldest institutions of learning founded by Nordic countries in 1477. It is known for preserving many antique items and symbols.
People of the village boast of Greek lineage. It is said they are the descendents of the soldiers who came with Alexander the Great in 326 BC, but could not go back with him as they were extremely tired or wounded. Alexander defeated Indian king Porus, ruler of Panjab.,
Director of the Institute of Tribal Studies Mr. P.K. Vaid says, “The dialect of the people is not mentioned even in the records related to the lineage or ‘Vanshavallis’ of the Kings of Kullu. It’s entirely different from the language of the region. The facial features of the inhabitants resemble more with the Romans than those of the Kullu residents.” In other words they have managed to keep their originality intact even after such a long period of time.
Mr, Vivek Mohan, who spent four years studying these tribals and produced a national award winning documentary named ‘Malana’, says although, they are still an enigma for him, but they have nothing to do with the Greek invador.
This solitary village is on a remote plateau by the side of Malana River at an altitude of 3029 m. Untouched by the modern civilisation; it has its own lifestyle and social norms.
Jamlu is the extremely powerful devta (presiding deity) of the village and commands unchallenged sway over its devotees. Malanians claim he is rishi (sage) Jamdagni, father of Parashuram of Hindu mythology. They say he stayed here and framed rules and regulations, which nobody dares to break.
According to a story Jamdagni’s intense prayers (tapasyaa) pleased Lord Shiva who appeared before him. Rishi demanded a secluded place with nature's bounty all over to live. Shiva asked him to go to Malana, which was already under the control of a Rakshasa (demon) Banasura who resisted the rishi. This resulted in a major conflict between the two. Finally both agreed on a peace treaty, which provided for separate handling of administration and justice in the area. While the administration was given to Banasura, justice came to Jamdagni. Any dispute arising in the administration was to be handled by the judiciary. Kanashi language was made compulsory for all. Initially the practice was to make first sacrifice to Banasura in case of festivities, but with the passage of time Jamdagni gained superiority. The shrine of Renuka Devi, wife of the rishi, is situated in lower Malana.
Language is one of the greatest secrets of the village and outsiders are not allowed to use it for communication. Even the Julaha (Weaver) and Lohar (iron smith) families who are staying there for the last sixty years are not allowed to speak Kanashi.
All non-Malanians are considered inferior; therefore they are untouchables. Outsiders, however, are not prohibited from visiting but they are expected to pay special attention to the do's and don'ts and should not touch any wall, house or people. If there is any violation then the visitor is liable to pay a particular sum to cover the expenses of sacrificial slaughter of a lamb in order to purify the object that has been desecrated.
Malana is said to be the oldest democracies in the world with a well organized parliamentary system, working for centuries under the guidance of the deity Jamlu. It controls the entire administration through an elected village council called Hakima having lower and higher courts. The decisions taken by Jamlu are final. Goor is the person who is believed to be possessed by the spirit of Jamlu. Since devta himself chooses his goor therefore any one from the village can be a goor. When possessed, goor listens to the problems of the villagers and tells them about the remedies. No outside interfence is tolerated. If any villager insists on taking police help he can do so by paying a fine of Rs. 1000 to the village council.
In most of the cases punishment is usually restricted to fine. Anyone found guilty of defying village council is shunted out of the valley, but in extreme cases of theft or misuse of devta’s treasure punishment can be extremely harsh and could be fatal also — a heavy stone is tied to the culprit and he is pushed down the mountain slope.
It is said it was the Mughal Emperor, Akbar the Great, who bestowed independence upon the villagers after being cured off the disease he was afflicted with. He put out an edict proclaiming that village inhabitants would never be asked to pay taxes.
Malana has its name on international scene too. Till couple of years back it was also famous for producing world’s best quality hashish (cannabis resin), known as "Malana Cream" and “Malana Tea” in the peddlers and user’s circuit. Many smugglers and users of different nationalities use to frequent the village. Some of them had clandestinely made their homes in the surroundings. Few years back Himachal Pradesh government along with the narcotics bureau people took action and burnt all hashish producing shrubs.
Malanians are extremely conscious of their ecological heritage too. They have framed strict rules prohibiting fire burning in the forests and even fixing nails on tree trunks. Only dry wood can be collected from the forests. Hunting is allowed only with the permission of the village council. Depending on farming and cattle rearing for livelihood collection of herbs from the mountains is another economic activity of the people.

Indoctrinating children into religion

Mr. Innaiah Narisetti, president of the Indian Chapter of the Center for Inquiry has reiterated a controversial and old thesis, which says that children’s rights should include complete freedom from religious belief or conditioning.

His point is when child marriages are prohibited and kids are denied voting rights then why the same restraint is not observed when it comes to conditioning of kids mind towards religion. Parents treat their offspring as their property and impose their belief system on them. It’s time they should refrain from indoctrinating the children into their religious beliefs so that they have the freedom to adopt or reject religion when they become adults. Mr. Narisetti claims that the conditioning renders children incapable of exercising their choice in religious affairs.

Now the questioning is did he himself not faced the same ‘indoctrination’ when he was a kid? Has it really harmed him?
If his theory is correct then teaching children in schools is also not a right thing to do because that too would mould kids in a particular fashion and they will not feel free to go beyond what has been taught to them. Perhaps he has forgot that parents try to give a positive direction to their kids and later on those kids take their own independent view on various issues according to their experiences.

There are numerous examples around us, which show that people could not be restricted in their pursuits of higher knowledge and goals despite their conditioning in particular way by their parents.

We Are Heading for Climate Disaster !!!!!!

American poet Robert Frost, once wrote, “Some say the world will end in fire; some say in ice.” Either, he notes, “would suffice.” Frost's saying will become truth if we don't wake up early.
According to the Indian Meteorological Department, Pune, last month was the driest June India has seen in the last 109 years. This is just a tip of ice berg that we are going to face in the future if we do not start realising the gravity of the situation now. It is the time that we the citizens of this world should start exerting pressure on our governments who are doing nothing concrete to save our planet. Developed countries, who are the biggest and the worst polluters are pressurising developing and small countries to cut their emissions, whereas they themselves account for more than half of the emission.
World Bank’s World Development Report-2009, says, phasing out of 25-40 million sport utility vehicles (SUVs) in the US alone would reduce annual global emissions by a whooping 36 million tones of carbon dioxide. In comparison, the report says, providing the very basic electrification to the poor of the world would add 45 million tones of greenhouse gases. If the SUVs converted to more fuel-efficient cars, more than 1.6 billion people in the world can be given electricity without any increase in the levels of greenhouse gases. This is one example of the “duplicity” of developed nations that the report has highlighted to prove that “carbon space” is inequitably powering the luxurious lifestyles of the rich at the cost of poor countries. Carbon space is a person or country’s share of greenhouse gases. Report says, 1 billion people living in the high-income countries are using 63% more carbon space than is their fare share on a per capita basis.
Earlier studies have shown that historical emissions amount to about 1,100 tones of CO2 per capita for the UK and the US, compared with 66 tones for China and 23 tones for India. Since 1840, seven out of every 10 tones of CO2 emitted has come from the rich nations.
According to the National Council of Applied Economic Research (NCAER), even if India maintains its 8% yearly growth with the current set of policies and technologies, its per capita emissions will not cross 2.77 tones mark even by 2031, which is almost 7 times less than the current per capita emissions of the US and almost 4 times less than the current per capita emissions of UK.

Netas deserve NSG protection?????

National Security Guards (NSG) was set up in 1984 to fight hijacking and terrorism in the country, but it has itself has been hijacked by the netas. Out of 7,000 NSG guards about 1,700 have been deployed to protect our good for nothing politicians. Approximately Rs.300 crores are being spent annually on the safety and security of the VIPs. Now the question is do these people deserve such a luxurious protection?
Delhi High court has recently made a very appropriate remark about our thick-skinned so-called leaders, who have no concern for the people. It said “politicians are not national assets that need to be protected.”
Interestingly the budget of Special Protection Group (SPG), which is exclusively meant for protecting PM, former PMs and members of the Sonia Gandhi family, has gone up from Rs.117 crores the previous year to 180 crores this year. Whereas NSG budget, which is entrusted with the task of protecting the whole nation against terrorism, has gone down from Rs.159 crore last year to 158 crores current financial year. This is the wisdom of our “great” Finance Minister Mr. P. Chidambarm who is now shifted to Home Ministry. God knows what he will do there!!!!!