the burning flag...

The true spirit behind Rang de basanti seemed to be fading the minute i see it as a promotional tactic used by the media,clearly visible in the protests that took place on the India Gate grounds very recently.

The radios were at it...the televisions came out with the most arguable hosts,with the best convincing powers....

There is something i agree with here...n things i disagree with...

I not only agree but also support the cause of getting justice.....there is no alternative to justice....but ive realised it was a hyped issue coz the victim involved was a known celebrity....(correct me if im wrong).....but literaly hundreds of unregistered rape cases,fake encounters,molestations,murders,domestic violence,child abuse,take place in the city EVERYDAY.......not once have i seen this spark ...that ive witnessed during the Jessica Lal case....

Honestly,we've made a joke out of this.....All the media channels were trying to get hold of the best shots they could.....for the youth it was like a -Self help technique......Loud cheers of "We want justice"......I know a 7year old girl named rosy who moves in and around my posh colony asking people to pay her fees coz the school teachers wont let her in....most of the people turn their backs to her thinking its a lie....not one has made an attempt to actually go to her school and find out the truth....the world was sleeping when two boys threw acid on two sisters faces,leaving them emotially and physically scarred for the rest of their lives...im not sure how many page -3 ites would come forward to help my maid whose a regular victim of domestic violence and rape....

The movement towards justice seemed to me like a page-3 event....singers in search of free promotion were found playing on the tunes of "We shall overcome".....the designers,the celebrities,the whose who....everyone all of a sudden realised that the spirit of Revolution that was supposedly dead for centuries....came alive weeks after the film Rang de Basanti hit the box office....

There are millions and millions of such stories....not one voice to support it....not one soul to stand by it...

We havent lived up to the Rang De spirit....i dont know for how long will this flame survive.....what we in sufisticated terms call "Voicing our opinion",is plain and simple noise......

I remember the dialogue from the film which said...
"Humare paas do raastein hai...
Kuch galat ho raha ho to ya to chup raho...
Ya khud zimmedari uthao,aur use badalne ki koshish karo"

I recieved an e-mail today....n i wanted to share a few lines from it...lines that live up to the term-"zimmedaari"

These are extracts from President Abdul Kalam's Speech:

Why are we in India so embarrassed to recognize our own strengths, our
achievements? We are such a great nation. We have so many amazing success
stories but we refuse to acknowledge them. Why?
We are the first in milk production.
We are number one in Remote sensing satellites.
We are the second largest producer of wheat.
We are the second largest producer of rice.
Look at Dr. Sudarshan, he has transferred the tribal village into a
self-sustaining, self-driving unit. There are millions of such achievements
but our media is only obsessed in the bad news and failures and disasters.
I was in Tel Aviv once and I was reading the Israeli newspaper. It was the
day after a lot of attacks and bombardments and deaths had taken place. The
Hamas had struck. But the front page of the newspaper had the picture of a
Jewish gentleman who in five years had transformed his desert into an
orchid and a granary.Do we not realize that
self-respect comes with self-reliance? I was in Hyderabad giving this
lecture, when a 14 year old girl asked me for my autograph. I asked her
what her goal in life is. She replied: I want to live in a developed India.
For her, you and I will have to build this developed India. YOU say that our government is inefficient.
YOU say that our laws are too old.
YOU say that the municipality does not pick up the garbage.
YOU say that the phones don't work, the railways are a joke,
YOU say, say and say. What do YOU do about it?
Once in an interview, the famous Ex-municipal commissioner of Bombay, Mr.
Tinaikar, had a point to make. 'Rich people's dogs are walked on the
streets to leave their affluent droppings all over the place,' he said.
'And then the same people turn around to criticize and blame the
authorities for inefficiency and dirty pavements.We sit back wanting to be pampered and expect the government to do
everything for us whilst our contribution is totally negative. We expect
the government to clean up but we are not going to stop chucking garbage
all over the place nor are we going to stop to pick a up a stray piece of
paper and throw it in the bin. We expect the railways to provide clean
bathrooms but we are not going to learn the proper use of bathrooms.
Our excuse? 'It's the
whole system which has to change, how will it matter if I alone forego my
sons' rights to a dowry.' So who's going to change the system?
What does a system consist of ? Very conveniently for us it consists of our
neighbours, other households, other cities, other communities and the
government. But definitely not me and YOU. When it comes to us actually
making a positive contribution to the system we lock ourselves along with
our families into a safe cocoon and look into the distance at countries far
away and wait for a Mr.Clean to come along & work miracles for us with a
majestic sweep of his hand or we leave the country and run away.

When the Gulf is war struck, we demand to be rescued and
brought home by the Indian government. Everybody is out to abuse and rape
the country. Nobody thinks of feeding the system. Our conscience is
mortgaged to money.

To end it i can only think of the following words:

"Dhua jhata khula gagan mera...
Nayi dagar naya safar mera...
jo ban sake tu humsafar mera...
nazar mila zara......
Rubaroo roshni..."