Itch of Writing

As a Bihari, I want to thank Raj Thackeray and team to have attacked Bihari students gone to take exams in Mumbai. They chased Bihari students away as stray dogs are chased by watchmen. They beat them up as donkeys are beaten up when they refuse to move. I loved it. I loved it as a Bihari. No no, neither am I a demented soul nor am I attempting any Gandhigiri. But as a hopeless optimist, I see a silver line in the clouds. As a Bihari, who studied in Bihar from kindergarten to my bachelor’s degree, I had tried several times to leave Bihar and go for higher studies or employment outside my home state. I ultimately succeeded in 2001 when I came to Delhi to study journalism. I never went back to Bihar since then. So these attacks are inspiring me to go back to my home state and do something for ‘my own people’? Not yet, I have to get rid of my insensitivity a little more to do that. So I am thanking Raj because I believe it will inspire more sensitive Biharis to go back to Bihar and do som...

Recently some comments of Raj Thackeray over people hailing from UP and Bihar created a lot of noise and nuisance. Superstar Amitabh Bachchan’s house was attacked and some poor taxiwallas were beaten up and their taxis smashed on the roads of Mumbai, the financial capital of India. Raj Thackeray is the nephew of Shiv Sena’s supremo Bal Thackeray, and heads his own political party Maharashtra Navnirman Sena, which means a party that is out to build a new Mahrashtra. And they are out on roads. Experts say that Raj Thackeray is apparently following the kind of politics that his uncle practiced in 1970’s and 80’s – Maharashtra for Maharashtrians. He seems to suggest that most of the problems Maharashtra is facing are due to usurping of rights of Maharashtrians or Marathis by Non-Maharashtrians. He avers that Non-Maharashtrians, especially Bhaiyyas (people from UP and Bihar) are infesting their land and taking away their jobs. They are depositing Marathi money in Bihari banks...

Just around when some people wanted Taslima Nasrin to leave India on ground of her actions (described as ‘behuda harkat’ i.e. indecent antics by one of the MPs) hurting the sentiments of people of India, I was engaged in a reading “The God Delusion” by Richard Dawkins, where Dawkins bats passionately and logically for atheism. My decision to read that book was not inspired by the ‘controversy’ around Taslima but out of a friendly, yet animated, discussion with a friend who is deeply religious. My friend believed (as per my comprehension) that all things in this world, including our lives, are governed by God and it’s our duty to submit to him/her and act in deference to his/her wishes/teachings/ commands, even if our own good sense/convenience/desires tempt us to act the other way. I was not pretty sure. Well, I must admit that this was not something very unique or strange that I had come across in my life, but maybe coming from a very close friend, it suddenly caused me to think deep...

“The first human who hurled an insult instead of a stone was the founder of civilization” – Sigmund Freud Sometimes this man (Freud) doesn’t leave you with any option but to admire and agree with his assertions. And I couldn’t agree more with this one. So basically what does this sentence signify? That transition between uncivilized world and the civilized world was brought by simply a change in tool – from stone to insult. And for what was/is this tool used? Uncivilized man (hmmm) hurled stones on fellow men to control territory, to gain upmanship, to win women, and to become the leader of the clan. And a civilized man (HMMM) hurls insults on fellow men to control territory, to gain upmanship, to win women, and to become the leader of the clan. [I stopped here for almost 10 minutes not knowing what to write next… I had come across that interesting quote and thought I’d write something… and I was clueless in which direction to proceed] Well, well, well. I just realized that I have used...

Around two weeks back, media reports informed us that Taj Mahal was ‘lagging behind’ in the race for New Seven Wonders of the world. It was a national shock for some people, which had potential of translating into a national shame. So suddenly patriotic fervor went up and some people decided to act. Our inboxes and websites like orkut got spammed with ‘Vote for Taj’ messages, we started receiving SMS to do the same, A R Rehman composed “India Unites for the Taj”, News Channels suddenly became aware of their social responsibilities and exhorted people to vote, small time leaders campaigned for support and criticized the government of not doing enough to protect the honor of India. Government didn’t respond. Wow! We felt like Indians. We needed to. With India out of cricket world cup in first round itself, we needed something to drive us along as Indians; perhaps for many of us ‘New 7 Wonders’ provided that opportunity. Around seven years back, Swiss businessman Mr. Bernard Weber also s...

Why could Buddhism not stay as the popular religion of India for long? Not because Brahmins ganged up to smother it, because it was a philosophy that was not perfectly appealing to the Indian psyche. Buddha told, "app dipo bhava" i.e. be a lamp unto yourselves - be your own light, your own authority, your own Buddha. Buddha was perhaps the first one who preached 'individualism', much before the French political commentators and socialists coined the word in 19th century. But individualism is not the cup of tea for Indians, or for that matter, for most of the traditional societies of the world. We like to live in herds, in groups, in colonies, in castes. We need a sense of belonging. That's why Khushwant Singh, who claims to be an atheist, doesn't shave off his beard and removes his turban (I'm not asking him to do that either). That's why Shabana Azmi, whose ideas would be more respected in a religion-less society, assertively calls herself a...

Coming to study at IIM Ahmedabad meant setting a foot on Gujarat's soil - a state that has been in news for most of the times in the last three years or so, and on most of the times, for the same reason again and again. Of course I'm talking about the riots - a subject that attracted dozens of documentaries, hundreds of editorials, thousands of news articles and millions of murmurings. And so when I arrived at Ahmedabad airport, a mix of excitement and curiosity grabbed me. Excitement that I was going to be a part of an institution that was inarguably the best in India, and curiosity to find out how much "ground reality" was there to all the documentaries, articles and murmurings. Well, in the last 20 days that I have spent here, I have not been able to find out much. In fact, I've hardly made a conscious effort to find out or talk about the riots that took place in February-March 2002. I've moved out of IIM campus either to buy something for my personal ...