Ananth Venkatesh

I was in a condition of emotionless disquiet on hearing the news of Roebuck’s suicide. When I became acquainted with the events triggering his suicide, my thought immediately revolved around the Hindu/Indian notion of ‘Kali Yuga.’

Eminent cricket writer Peter Roebuck’s suicide in a South African hotel in the paradisiacal city of Cape Town has been a source of copious astonishment for the cricketing society in general, which includes present and historical cricketers as well as writers of the game. Roebuck, whose wordsmithery about cricket was polished, thought-provoking, informative, and learnedwas present in South Africa recently in order to provide coverage for the Australian media of the ongoing exhilarating Test series of cricket between South Africa and Australia.

Suicide of such a prominent observer and communicator of cricket is, in itself, a development that rattles the mental steadiness of cricket followers. But what makes the suicide by Roebuck additionally sordid, unpalatable and tasteless is the circumstance allied to his suicide. Roebuck had been the recipient of an inquisition by the South African police over his supposed participation in an act of coercive carnal strike against the unwillingness of another male, whom Roebuck had supposedly befriended on Facebook. That Roebuck was, apparently, endeavoring to perpetrate homosexuality is not relevant here as that is a matter of personal preference. But what embitters the situation is the accusation of the South African police that Roebuck tried to implement carnal assault on the abovementioned Zimbabwean man despite the refusal of that man. This, of course, is tantamount to legal illegality, which is the source of his inquest by the South African detectives.

Roebuck seemingly couldn’t countenance the inquisitional sessions with the South African police force over his supposed forcible sexual strike on the abovementioned male. He probably deemed that the ramifications of the divulgement of his investigation would be acutely catastrophic for him and his career, which would be equal to an unwholesome public skinning of his personality. Hence, unable to countenance this possibility, he chose the path of suicide.

I was in a condition of emotionless disquiet on hearing the news of Roebuck’s suicide. When I became acquainted with the events triggering his suicide, my thought immediately revolved around the Hindu/Indian notion of ‘Kali Yuga.’ Roebuck’s demise and the bawdy determinant of his demise made my mind an even stronger proponent of ‘Kali Yuga.’ ‘Kali Yuga’ i.e. the epoch of behavioral impiousness, dissoluteness and contamination, is what exists today. Simply eye the case of Roebuck’s decease. ‘Kali Yuga’ also symbolises the capitulation of the civility in human persona to the malicious seductresses linked to behavioral pollution. Roebuck’s case epitomises this too from the looks of it.

The murders of the blameless individuals by their ungodly kith and kin over frivolous issues, promiscuous terrorism mutilating innocents as manifested by the poisons of terrorist outfits, unmitigated carnal crimes (in certain corners of India) committed mostly by persons known to the victims, carnal maltreatment and battering of bodily impaired children, traitorousness, etc. that exist in the world today are reflective of the liquid of malevolence that has seeped into human behavior. These behavioral corruptions in humans have existed ever since the era of the fascinatingly complex ‘Mahabharata’, a vital event in the Hindu/Indian history. ‘Kali Yuga’ has definitely existed since the time of the ‘Mahabharata’ and, perhaps, even before that. As per the accounts of several evaluators of Hindu scriptures, we are living in the ‘Kali Yuga.’

‘CWG Scam’, ‘2G Scam’, ‘Cash-For-Votes Scam’, demonisation of Hinduism that is labeled as ‘intellectual modernity’, sympathising with foxily hideous terror in the name of human rights, persistent vilification of the national armed forces that safeguard our national borders from the toxic fangs of national neighbors, etc. are all embodiments of the ‘Kali Yuga’ in India. This depravity in India today, which can be seen in newspapers and news channels, is in addition to the outright degeneracy that exists in certain quarters of the entertainment community. This degenerateness is provided to the audience here as entertainment, which can only serve as the contaminator and corruptor of the popular psyche here.

Globally also, the genocidal behavior in history commanded by national autocrats such as the Holocaust, the Stalinist genocide in the USSR, the Ottoman extermination of millions of Armenians in the 20th century, etc. suggest the operational efficiency of the ‘Kali Yuga.’ WW 1, WW 2, countless other barbaric international wars, invidious ethnic depopulation, etc. that were features of the 20th century also indicate the potency of the ‘Kali Yuga.’ The wicked ethnic depopulation affected badly the Kashmiri Hindus due to the barbarousness of Islamist terror while ethnic cleansing also bloodied the Bosnian Muslims because of the poisonous zealousness of Christian Serbia. 9/11, the savageness of Islamist terrorism, the gory tribal warfare, horrendous atomization of Japan in August 1945, the nuclearization of certain nations, etc are examples of the hardship and devastation that the belligerence of ‘Kali Yuga’ has caused.

Roebuck was an able English cricketer, who represented the Somerset cricket squad in English county cricket in the 1980s. He had residence subsequently in Australia. His slimy personal past may or may not be revealed in the coming days. But, already, a radio jockey named Gus Worland, who was a younger teammate of Roebuck in the 1980s in the Somerset squad, has stated that Roebuck’s behavior with him was highly unbecoming and unpleasing on one occasion. It is still difficult to accept that Roebuck has been accused of carnal assault. But the assertions of the South African police seem to be based on credibleness. Roebuck seemingly became a prisoner of the perilous deficiency of uncontrollable lustfulness.

So, the belief in ‘Kali Yuga’ continues to grow for me.

Kartikey Sehgal

Foreigners are silly. They are not very smart. I don’t deny this assertion by certain Indians used to traveling the world villages. Instead, I accept that foreigners are silly.

And therein lies their charm and power. It takes a certain silliness to live life merrily. And to know life.

This ‘foreign silliness’, which comes across to Indians as ‘lack of intelligence’, is simply a case of delayed mental boredom.

They don’t know as much maths and science at a certain age as we do -  I hear. This is true to an extent and I consider this a positive civilizational trait.

An average Indian student may know more mathematics than the average foreigner of the same age, but the average foreigner need not know more than the Indian. It doesn’t matter.

What we overlook is that at any given time, there are certain foreigners who know as much – if not more – than the finest Indian students. While the other average foreigners don’t care about math and science. Why should they? They will spend their time elsewhere.

Indians seemed obsessed with the term ‘average’. How does it matter that the average foreigner, whose field of interest is not mathematics, knows lesser than the average Indian who may invariably force himself to a job out of a social compulsion of status?

The average foreigner, with lesser mathematic skills, will employ himself in other fields of his liking, for which his society will praise him and his government will provide him with opportunities. If at all his job is not to the society’s liking, then the law will protect him.

This perceived silliness is a mixture of courage and wisdom – interdependent qualities.

Symbolically, imagine the European countryside with its young children frolicking among green forests and lakes and ponds. That’s the image that is often presented to me; ‘they are just not smart like Indian kids’.

If silliness were a failure, then Europe wouldn’t have green fields and ponds and rivers and electricity. They seem to have done well despite their history of conquest and plunder.

If they were a failure, then immigrants wouldn’t have settled there in vast numbers and used their measures of social welfare to their advantage.

This silliness is an attribute you would want to see in children and your self, if you were not blinded by fear and aversion to creation. Fear of failure and an imagined life of penury. Fear of social shame.

Silliness demands multiple perceptions of life. Whereas fear makes you stick to the books and journals and other socially approved artefacts.

Consider the silly foreigners – babbling about and talking inanities – as freer and braver (and not stupid). They have more opportunities than Indians in discovering and pursuing the streams of their choice. They can take failure better as they can perceive it in myriad ways. Hence, their art and cinema has myriad expressions whereas Indian architecture has diminished.

Kartikey Sehgal

[Anna Hazare anti-corruption movement: reference]

So these people are not the anti-corruption heroes? Ask around, see how many of the supporters know about them.

J. Gopikrishnan, second from left (with mic) [photo source]

Subramanian Swamy [photo source]

Without the brains (head), how does the body function?

Or is it just easier to support whosoever is ‘in the picture’.

We complain of the caste system, but is it not ‘the legs’ that gets the most mileage? [Along with the arms?]

Mumbai is a beautiful city.
Apparently.
Her citizens take care of its roads and pipelines.
Commuters travel like human beings in trains.

Nobody throws garbage on the roads.
They pass by their monuments while rallying against corruption.

Mumbai is dirty so what?
Garbage goes when corruption goes.

No, corruption goes when garbage goes.
If this is a Gandhian movement, then don’t the protestors know this?

[and the legs score over the brains again. if brains score over legs, is it casteism?]

People are frustrated with personal corruption.
Good time to come out and vent.
Lokpal or not – doesn’t matter.
Anti-corruption – the term matters more.

I saw a girl walk in dirt and muck. Pro-rally.
[End to corruption.]
Around her lay shanties with frail sickly women.
Sitting inches above sewage water.

What colour is your garment.
Of what hopes do the eyes sparkle.
If you are beauty, then of what value is beauty.

I passed her by.
Cursing the anguish wisdom brings.
[but segregates lust and life]

He who can see life, how can he love a woman?

Does wisdom not know, she [wisdom] brings anguish?
Or does the seeker not know, she brings anguish?
What then, is, wise?
[At this, Goddess Kali laughs]

Maya.

Kartikey Sehgal

Commenter Kay wrote detailed responses on the story ‘What the slut-walk is really about’. 

my dad was an attorney, and had more flexible hours than mom, yet it was mom, every evening who came home from work, cooked, cleaned, helped us with homework, and on the weekends did an entire cleaning of the house, my dad always got the full plate of food ready, before any other member, he on the other hand never handed a glass of water to her…..the fact that in most homes, girls are ‘groomed’ for the domestic life after marriage, whereas the boys aren’t even asked to pick up after themselves.

Kay is referring to what I have called the ‘lesser man’. [link]

Let’s be clear. It is not a man’s duty to do house-work. Man by nature is independent. His upbringing spoils him. Men are feminised into being lazy; scratching their thighs and rubbing their eyes simultaneously while smiling ‘cutely’ and in turn, getting their cheeks pulled apart by older women.

The problem is not that man is not helping woman in house-work. The problem is that he has been brought to this state of dependency. And women are an important part in this complicity of enfeebling him.

Kay further writes that men care about their own families and not their wife’s parents. True.

However, Kay, note that these men don’t really care about the ‘family’. If they understood and cared for ‘the family’, then they would understand and care for the system; instead they ‘care’ just for their family. Naturally, these men don’t really care. They bear. A ritual, a responsibility for life.

And how can they care? They have been overburdened and bored to death. All that time you thought you were helping them by locking them up in rooms in front of books, you were actually preparing them for being living zombies. Heartless creatures who validate themselves through ‘marks’ and promotions.

These men don’t care much for their parents. They won’t care much for yours (if at all). And while women are blaming their husbands for being heartless, they may be preparing their sons for leading the same life.

We are preparing for a society of weak men. The ones who don’t do much while their country is bombarded regularly. Who are content to live amidst social indicators of wealth. Who scorn at men who are smarter but poorer. The ones who look at a man and think, ‘does he have more money than me? Should I talk to him nicely in the case he does?’. These same men then spit on the roads and throw their empty soft-drink cans on the road and reach out for their car, all the time scratching their thighs and heads in unison.

There are variants of such men. The serious ones. Who don’t scratch anything publically and are given to rules and mores. Who are depressed. And sad. And responsible to their family. Sadness and strictness takes up so much of their time, that they care little about their wife or her parents.

Behind all such men is almost always the weak family, characterised by the weak father and the weak (but seemingly strong) mother.

Kay, you must note that women are equal (or higher) contributors to the sufferings of women. I need not tell you that women are not good friends with other women. In society, the good woman is left behind by other women. She doesn’t get much support from most men as they are, well, lesser men, destroyed and unable to identify real worth.

The slut-walk movements do not take this into account. Which is why they come across as moronic. They will not be able to help women. If you really want to investigate the condition of women (and men), then read this very long essay by Thomas Ball. What applies to America can apply here.

You need action* and not needless drama to come out of any problem. Slut-walk is pure drama. Running and playing under the sun with children is action. Toughening them up is action. The second-rate/lesser men can’t do it. Those who know the ‘truth’ can. It is imperative they act.

Make ‘real men’*. They will not curb the wit and talents of any woman.

*action:  this is the ‘voice your dissent’ query of your response
*real men will have ‘real’ daughters. The witty ones and not the ‘bitchy’ ones.

Kartikey Sehgal

How the people of Mumbai (and India) are stagnant

When we are attacked and killed, we look for ways to humiliate ourselves. This Indian habit is seen through the media, particularly the newspapers. Hindustan Times carried out a series on potholes in Mumbai roads. They did not investigate the habit of terrorism in Indians. That is a difficult and a controversial topic. DNA invited arm-chair columnists to make up for their lack of investigation. They printed an article by Subramanian Swamy and then spent all their energy on criticising him. Their job was done, all well and good.

Take Hindustan Times (HT) and their fondness for Mumbai roads. It is a topic that angers the citizens; almost everybody is affected by the bad roads. Taking advantage of this ‘natural Mumbai phenomenon’, HT carried out a series of stories on the condition of roads. I say they chose the topic to deflect attention from terrorism. They made the people busy in voicing their anger over Mumbai roads.

They bothered little about the roads before the onset of the rains. Despite the knowledge that the roads will turn bad during the rains. And this shows the stagnancy of Mumbai.

• Roads go bad every monsoon – every year
• politicians do nothing about the roads – every year
• media criticises the politicians – every year
• people get angry over the roads – every year

Nobody does anything about this condition. As long as people are busy, everybody is happy.

• The people are happy that they are angry and can voice their opinion. It gives them a feeling of being useful.
• Politicians are happy that the people are idiots. They can be controlled if given a chance to voice their anger.
• Newspapers are happy that the people are stupid and that the politicians do nothing about it. It gives them the opportunity to reprint the same story every year. It prevents for the need to indulge in hard-core journalism.

Why do we indulge in this cycle?

Because we are meek. We are scared. Every act of violence has an impact on the nation. But we have been conditioned to look away from the violence. Ignore it. We operate in the illusion that if we look away we will be happy.

Kartikey Sehgal

So says a poster – “Boy’s Just Eat Grape And Stop Girl Rape”. Here is the slut-walk (s-walk) movement examined and ‘uncovered’ [wink].

Remember: S-walk is not against terrorism or rapes. It is in favour of women bossing over men – or so it seems. If you had to really stop rapes (or generate ‘rape awareness’ as they say) would you do such a thing?

There’s a poem at the end that tells you what the movement is really about.

A defining photo from the ‘movement’. The drums are phallic symbols, appropriately placed; you boys are left to beat your self off.

By being mere followers of women, participating in a lousy copy of a foreign-failed movement, you will not improve your sex-life and get yourself hordes of women. That’s what you are really after. If you cared for whatever you are preaching, you would have come up with a better idea.

Some/Many women are ashamed when they have small breasts.
Women are ashamed when they have big breasts and they are always stared at.

This girl has nothing to be ashamed of – she says.
Replace body parts with short skirt/tank tops – skimpy dresses.
She was ashamed when she wore them – men stared. The opposite of shame is – no shame.
Ask her that when nobody notices her dresses then would she like it?
When nobody notices her wouldn’t she feel ashamed?
Is shame the factor here or safety?
Title: Logic and beauty

Are they in favour of women or are they against the high-testosterone men who like to gape at women?
Are they in favour of women because they are repressed, don’t look at them anyway and are angry at other men?
Are they in favour because this is a chance to be near them and talk to them?

Five pretty ladies in a line.
The yellow poster says: ‘A girl is not your father’s property. Do not act (behave) like you can claim her.’
Later, after marriage…
Boy: You are my girl. You can’t meet other men just because I am busy with work at home.
Girl: Remember the s-walk movement? And that yellow poster? You can’t claim me.

This photo and that poster offer no solution to the reigning crisis of love and marriage.

Start Loving Ur Taboo? Seriously?

How about ‘Someone Loves Ur T**s’?

‘This is not an invitation to rape me’ – the poster says.
No, it is not. It looks more like an invitation to send you crayons and a ‘Beginner’s Guide to Drawing’.

This is awesome. Boy’s and not Boys. ‘Boy’s Just Eat Grape and Stop Girl Rape’.

By eating grapes, you can stop girls from raping. Do you see a vicious girl who is about to rape a hapless boy? Don’t worry. Just eat grape and stop girl rape.

If you write such lines, then all you’ll be eating is grapes. While the mangoes and melons will be taken care of.

Is that a short-skirt she is wearing? No, it’s not.
This means those shorts have something to do with me?

Obviously, the real meaning is that what a girl wears has nothing to do with you men. Whether you are rich or poor. Girls don’t dress for men. Or to please them. They dress because Mr. Tree likes it. Sway sway sway…

A ‘revolutionary movement’.

So bored are lady beings
All they want is lovely weengs
To fly high in the sky
And then say ‘Oh my’!

I am being repressed
Solidly un-dressed
By their menacing eyes

But I am so wise
I will throw in their eyes
Chilly powder and curd

Men are bastards
Men are bastards.

Kartikey Sehgal

Indians have a lot to learn from the Norway blasts and murders. Indians – that’s you, the middle-class to urban category; the rest of the Indians don’t have to think so much – they have to look for food and survive.

Norwegian police arrested 32-year-old Anders Behring Breivik, a right-wing extremist who rocked Norway in twin attacks Saturday. Breivik is responsible for Friday’s bombing and youth camp massacre in Oslo, Norway. source

Such attacks will happen when society is closed for discussion. When political correctness and the elitist idea of status quo takes over the society and shuts it to reality. India is one such society.

Everything gets covered in India under the blanket of secularism. Society likes to feel comfortable. When it pours, they hide under the umbrella of certain words; secularism, peace, Gandhi – without understanding any of them.

India is closed. And attacks such as the ones seen in Norway may happen anytime in India. Already, we are reading about the trials of Swami Aseemananda and Sadhvi Pragya for their alleged involvement in acts of terror. It was expected that these incidents would be a chance to understand the psyche of the Indian people, a part of which is being seen through movements by Anna Hazare and Baba Ramdev. But. No.

The media is content to give it the name of ‘Hindu Terrorism’ and most of the ensuing discussion is an argument over the term. That’s all what the discussion is really about. Both sides keep fighting over the term and nobody checks out the anger.

What is this anger. What is the story? It is this:

There is a growing number of Sikhs, Hindus, Parsis, Buddhists and even Muslims who are tired and angry and willing to take action over terrorism. They do not trust the government and the police. They do not want to be slaughtered pigs. They hate it when a politician tells them that nothing much can be done about terrorism. They hate it that after every attack, the media and the politicians begin their ‘oh but there’s also saffron terrorism’ trite. They hate the media.

They realise that the only way to be heard is to do exactly what the terrorists do. Blow people up. Blow the Muslims up. And if non-Muslims get killed, then consider it collateral damage; exactly like how the terrorists consider the death of Muslims as collateral damage.

And how does it really matter what name you give this phenomenon; terrorism or reaction or revenge. It’s happening and it might kill you. You might end up as collateral damage. That’s all your life would be worth. You should take the media and society to task. And that happens when you critique (as I mentioned in my previous story about the newspaper DNA) and when you distance yourself from the romance of peace and secularism. The media is happy to use these terms because they are either mentally inept or lazy.

Remember, Netherlands has Geert Wilders who prevents the occurrence of Norway like attacks by speaking for the people who are tired of crimes perpetuated by the immigrants. America has a-rate intelligence services.

India has neither. It is a closed society, and attempts at opening up are brushed under the carpet of secularism by a toothless media.

Kartikey Sehgal

[The proposed series on Male Ego and Feminism has been postponed. Read on India’s first ‘slutwalk’, here]

DNA (Daily News and Analysis, a newspaper) has successfully deflected the entire blame of the Mumbai blasts onto one person. They have successfully indulged in the Indian habit of deflecting from issues and indulging in needless drama and theatrics.

No, the person who planted the bombs at bus-stops and bazaars may have been an Indian local (an Indian Mujahedeen Muslim), but what DNA’s self-flagellating subs think is that “Dr Subramanian Swamy has inflamed passions through blatant falsehoods”.

DNA’s entire operation of ‘news and analysis’ consists of this: print an article by Swamy knowing very well that he does not favour present-day secularism and does not mince words in condemning Islam; then spend the next 3-4 days condemning Swamy for his views. This makes up for the need of serious efforts to analyse the situation and unearth actual reasons for repeated attacks on Mumbai. (links to all articles at the end of story)

This is self-flagellation. Masochism. When you are given pain, you blame your self for the blame. You say that you deserve the pain. It’s pointedly telling the parents who lose their child that they deserve it. And since this sounds a tad insensitive, and doesn’t sell copies, you use other means to say the same thing. You pick an individual (Swamy) or a philosophy (‘Hindutva’), neither of whom go around killing people (including Muslims), and tell those parents that these are the reasons why your child deserved to die.

And since we are dealing with Indian parents, they won’t ask you the ‘hows and the whys’. They will ignore you; wait for the next bomb blast in the case they have more children to offer. Or they will get angry. Not real angry but “Indian angry’ that culminates with is desh ka kuch nahin ho sakta (Nothing good can happen to this country/this country will always stay the same).

Indian parents will suffer, get angry and bothered, but they will do nothing about it. Until they get angry after the next bomb blasts – and do nothing about it. DNA and others can thereby continue with their game-plan.

And the plan is masochistic. Reeking of the Stockholm Syndrome. Whatever be their problems with Swamy or his ‘brand’ of Hinduism, this surely cannot be the sum-total of the analysis of the bomb blasts.
”Dr Subramanian Swamy has inflamed passions through blatant falsehoods”

If any amateur student of psychiatry wants to prepare a hundred per cent successful dissertation on the Stockholm Syndrome, it is this. Read the DNA coverage following the blasts. Meek and lazy journalism.

We will decode later why the newspaper didn’t come up with something substantial. First, let’s see the topics they didn’t think worthy of exploring after terrorists chopped off body parts and blew the brains out of ‘middle-class Mumbai at the bus stop’.

• The recruiting standards of RAW wrt standards of other such agencies internationally and lack of intelligence co-ordination at the national level (suggested by Siddharth Kurien).
• Extreme shortage of police officials and their disoriented and unorganised plan of action (dependence on politicians)
• Poor morale among police constables wrt inhumanely long working hours and delegation of silly ‘cattle-like’ jobs (‘class’ barriers)
• The education of hatred and racial superiority provided to young Muslims going unchecked (story may coincide with point 3)

DNA writers ignored such topics to indulge in torrential word-lashings against Subramanian Swamy, who, even if you know nothing of him, has not killed any Muslim in his entire 70-something years in India and Harvard. Neither has he advocated the killing of Muslims.

He is not good with tiffin-box bombs and not adept at planting bombs at bus-stops, or he would have missed the attention of DNA columnists, just like the hate-spewing killers have.

He is also not a part of SIMI, and therefore not worthy of featuring in DNA’s ‘pity books’. If the ex-SIMI members are being questioned by the police over any possible complicity in the case, then it’s condemnable according to DNA. How dare the police suspect former members of an organisation that aims to Islamise India and maim the non-Muslims and the constitution, just the kind of people Swamy talks about in his story? Instead, let’s aim for the Swamy guy. That’s simpler!

Therefore, ladies and gentlemen of meek India, if you have lost a family member in the blasts, then do not (‘do not’ imagined in caps) think of questioning the ex-SIMI members. It pains them. How dare you give them pain. Instead, join the jargon. Contribute to the one-page blabber-age on a guy called Subramanian Swamy. That will give you relief. No? At least it will relieve DNA staffers from their responsibility.

Why do they do this?

Or, why have they disbanded their editorial page. Why do they indulge in arm-chair column writing? Wait!
They do go out in the sun and make hay while the bank shines, don’t they? But here’s the caveat (full of meat); anybody can do that.

What marks journalists as different from the others is vision. It’s like singing. Not everybody is a singer. You have that musical box tuned inside and you can indulge in an alaap. The others can’t.

And so the journalists need vision. A strong imagination and a strong gut to not let imaginations rule over facts.

Just like it is not enough to simply walk into a college to be educated, it is not enough to travel and talk to be a journalist.

Otherwise we’ll have the phenomenon of arm-chair journalists; they sit back, get a ‘controversial’ figure, and simply react to him. And the reactions are illogical and non-factual. (makes for another story)
And so, once again, why do they do this?

1. Indians are dramatic; they need their dose of ‘emotional output’. They don’t need solutions. They need to cry and complain and then get back to whatever they were doing. What respect can a newspaper have for a population that travels in degrading conditions and hails the traveling as an identity of their culture. The Mumbai local trains, which kill 6-7 people daily, are over-packed, filthy and frighteningly humid.

What respect would any body have for a population that travels on potholed roads, every monsoon, every year, for decades, with the brilliantly faulty sewage pipelines decorating the roads with their recipe of human faeces and animal waste, that runs on to the potholes, filling them to the brim, so that the walkers soak their feet in this water, go to their homes and announce that they lived through another Mumbai adventure?

What respect would any foreign civilization have for a population that makes adventure out of depravity.

And so the newspapers don’t give you insights and solutions. The arm-chair columnists know your nature and won’t work out their gluteal muscles for you. Their muscles would eventually sag, and so would your intellect.

All they need to do is write emotional stuff about the constitution, Bhagavad Gita, Gandhi and secularism. That’s enough to tingle the Indians.

2. Vision
You have vision when you have self-respect, esteem and other such ‘human stuff’. The way you live – in filth and dirt – you don’t have these qualities. You don’t have a vision. What you possess instead is an escapist attitude. ‘Let me be free of hassles’. Or even funnier; ‘We should not let the external disturb our inner peace’ -  this is read as the definition of wisdom and spirituality. And it is garnished with the sure-shot label of Hinduism.

That is so easy. Just use peace, love and Hinduism in the same sentence. Or add in a few Sanskrit shlokas to appear like a refined writer.

Vision requires the courage to see. And if you depend only on poor definitions of your own dharma, at the cost of common sense and factuality, then you have no vision. Men without vision look for familiar constructs in life; familiar sentences in newspapers; familiar words; familiar expressions. They don’t like being challenged. They are happy with a story that tells them that Bhagavad Gita means peace and Hinduism means blind adherence to non-violence. It does not matter if it does or it does not. They are happy to read what they have forever been reading and assimilating without enquiry.

And that’s what newspapers sell them. Familiar tales of secularism. Familiar sentences, words, idioms. Which is one reason why Swamy’s article has been disliked by the columnists and some of the readers. Because it is not the familiar. Not one columnist has been able to argue with Swamy on his points. They simply bring in the constitution and familiar concepts of ‘love all’ into the picture.

They just don’t have the vision. The DNA columnists offer no solutions or alternatives to Swamy’s declarations. Except the f-a-m-i-l-i-a-r.

Newspaper-wallas come from the population. From the same set of people who have done nothing about their local trains and filthy roads.

3. No-critique culture
A naval officer told me: "After a terrorist attack you go after Muslims. You don’t go after Hindus, Jains and others. It’s hardly probable that they would do it. That’s how it is"

He was reacting to DNA’s report titled: "Mumbai serial blasts: Witch-hunt for usual suspects"
He dismissed this front-page report as inconsequential. Which it is. It complains of how the police is questioning ex-SIMI members.

He is educated – this naval officer. Knows his job. Knows his country. Knows "how it is". Doesn’t mince words. All signs of a leader. Signs lacking in economically middle-class fathers aiming to make their children ‘English’.

These fathers have recently risen from years of poverty – from their lower middle class days – spent in cramped rooms in Nashik, Sangli and even Mumbai. They have recently seen some prosperity through inter-state job transfers or they have inherited a dead relative’s home. In any case they are now here – in Mumbai. The land of ‘hosh-posh’ liberalism. Where 55 per cent of the population lives in slums and the remaining boasts of cultural synthesis. These fathers are now among the ‘upper lot’ of the city. They have to aim higher. And higher equals ‘English’ – not the language necessarily, but the attitude – surely. Look up to the English news anchors and writers as role models. Switch on BBC, learn their pronunciations. See how elegantly they dress. Spoon and knives. So why can’t they pick and choose, these fathers and their children? Say, pick the best from either cultures?

How can they, when there’s only one culture on the table? References to indigenous culture have been wiped out from the school curriculum. Except the token few kept in the loop as symbolic references. You don’t know about Indian music, architecture or dance. You know about Laxmi Bai, Gandhi, Shivaji and a few more and you think that makes up for your culture. And you bring in only these as your arguments. You make them the part of your familiar and look for their references in newspapers.

So you don’t know about your roots, about your self.
You can’t critique when you don’t know.

In such an uninformed environment, you are presented with the views and news of the arm-chair columnists and ‘vision-less’ reporters. Since you are human and don’t live in a vacuum, you will take these views as culture and build your idea of India around them. When these role-models criticise the ancient kingdom of Vijaynagar, you will follow suit. When they call for emancipation for women, you will make human-chains and do slut-walks. They own you.

And slaves don’t critique. They have little options as such.

But there’s an India – a group of fathers – not affected by the prevailing newspaper culture, not very prominent in the metros but present in the rest of India, who see this slavery and detest it. Lest you think I am talking about hope, let me tell you what this group does. It takes up alternative ideologies; it doesn’t think for itself.

Freedom is a habit. And this group suffers in confusion while trying to attain freedom. The people in this group can’t point out what’s wrong with the country. To discover the same, they pick up, say, Marxism, that claims to know what’s wrong. They do exactly what their counterparts in Mumbai do. They repeat what the ideology tells them. They do Marxist versions of slut-walks. But they think they are better-off; they imagine that they are free.

The remaining poor ‘food-less’ fathers become something like, say, the Maoists. They don’t have the luxury of ideology – no food in their mouth. They do exactly what their masters tell them to do – no questions asked. But they think that they are free and that they are fighting for freedom.

So a day comes when everybody is fighting for their version of freedom. And in actuality they are fighting one another.

That’s a reason why, despite so many ideologies in India, we have poor hospitals, poor schools, poor colleges, poor roads; what is the use of these ideologies? How come despite so many brains we have nothing worthwhile to show to the generations to follow? Is it because, as the newspapers chant the f-a-m-l-i-a-r, we are plural and secular and all and that it takes time?

Real reason: Slaves don’t critique. And you have to be able to critique to progress. And Indians cry and complain. They just follow. They look for the familiar, feel comfortable, and then follow. 

They don’t really demand and build hospitals and schools and credible institutions. They complain. C-o-m-p-l-a-i-n. They dramatise and cry and complain. But they don’t build. And creators build. They are not creators. Indians are losing touch with creation.

Creation follows critique. And Indians simply follow.
So it’s simple for DNA and others to publish something that is worth crying over and criticising. That’s good enough for you.

The Americans create. The Europeans create. The Indians in these countries create. How come the Hindus are so successful abroad. Is it because they turn creators. Is it because a first-class society provides them with amenities?

To create, and to be a critique, you have to come out of the ‘familiar’ that has been fed to you since your school days. The familiar that the newspapers use to sell their copies. The familiar that the politicians use to make you emotional and get votes from you.

And to break away from the familiar, you have to question honestly and without sentimental concerns: Your parents and their life-long mention of ‘sacrifices’ and other subtly bullying notions. Your college’s claims of being a world-class institution. Hinduism as a religion of pure non-violence. Islam as a religion of peace. Missionaries as messengers of God. And then you may be able to question the DNA columnists, the politicians and everybody else.
Freedom is a habit. You have to build it.

I am not touching upon the content in the DNA columns. But here’s an example of what to make of it. When you read this:

"“Undivided India in 1947 was 75% Hindu even after 800 years of brutal Islamic rule,” says Dr Swamy’s article. Mughal rulers like Akbar and Shahjahan were well known for their respect and tolerance of Hinduism. This statement highlights the fact that for over 800 years, India has remained largely secular and non-communal."

There will be, broadly, two sets of readers; the first set will get affected, needlessly, by feelings of patriotism and ‘my-great-culture’ and move onto the next paragraph. They will be reading and assimilating constructs that are f-a-m-i-l-i-a-r to them.

The second set would find something amiss, but won’t know what is amiss. They don’t have a background; no roots. They will be angry, slam the newspaper, or post an angry comment on a blog.

We need the third set. That third set is of first-rate men. Who build and create. And critique. They don’t let media dictate their sentiments and lives. That will make them angry. They are their own dictators.

And the trait common to members of this third set would be a quest for honesty. A trait that defines men.

The DNA stories. [Click on photos to enlarge]

Analysis: How to wipe out Islamic terror (Subramanian Swamy)– Link

Subramanian Swamy’s article irresponsible & Islamophobic – Link

Dr Swamy, the Prophet taught us to kill evil with good – Link

‘Dr Subramanian Swamy, I strongly disagree with you’ – Link

Dr Subramanian Swamy has inflamed passions through blatant falsehoods – Link

Mumbai serial blasts: Witch-hunt for usual suspects – Link

Disinformation campaigns to divide Indians will fail – Link

 Kartikey Sehgal

Black leather shoes that casually stepped on a child’s yellow faeces spoke better of India’s problems. The faeces had more character than the men.
At best, these people will offer you condolences should you lose somebody in a bomb blast. That would be insufficient, considering that these are people with no vision, who choose to live in dirt and muck… What can they possibly offer you intellectually or spiritually.  

“Would you like to visit Dadar and Opera House together? I could get my camera. Will be a good journalistic exercise.”

I wrote to Ananth Venkatesh. We met the following day.

The journalistic exercise involved conversations between Ananth and I. Somehow, everything external to us seemed obvious; a woman and daughter feeding grains to pigeons; people rushing to work; media vans stationed near the blast site; malnourished humans begging or selling flowers; filth and dirt; faeces mixing with rain-water, stamped upon by the booted middle-class men. Common to all these was a sense of detachment.

There was no pressing need to speak to people. The roads and puddles were silent informants. Black leather shoes, that casually stepped on a child’s yellow faeces spoke better of India’s problems. The faeces had more character than the men. They were dirty, untouchables – and their personality was known to me. The personality of the huddling men, however, was difficult to grasp. They are men who want to be free of terrorism, or at least they don’t want to die. Do they want to live? That’s not clear. They see no relation between hygiene and terrorism. Between cleanliness and life. It would be fair to say that they want to get along; finish their quota of years. And only that.

These survivors are detached. That’s how they survive the depravity of the local trains, step on someone’s faeces and move on. It’s not that they didn’t feel angry. They did. Until they discovered detachment. Just like the early Indians did when first Muslims and later the Missionaries lorded over them. ‘I see no problem if I am detached’. This is the philosophy they preach to their children. This is what gets them respect in social circles as wise men. Life goes on, they say either ruefully or romantically. They don’t deal with problems; they just move away from them. These Indians, animatedly bickering over blood and deaths. Wondering why no one does anything for them. From among these people governments are formed. You tell this to them and hear their response.

They accept. They accede defeat. And so there is no more clause for discussion. They are saint-like. They know how to contort their facial muscles and express regret. For them the matter is over. That wickedness emanates from them is acceptable to them. If you don’t press them further, they will not offer you solutions.

“We have been staying/working here for God knows so many years. It has always been like that.” And then comes the winning statement. “Sabko apni padi hai” (Everyone is concerned about his self”)

He is right, this trader. The government is concerned about itself. Like the people. And they do a shoddy job at that. They don’t know how to look after themselves either. They have no vision. But looking inward is easier, even spiritual – so they say.

At best, these people will offer you condolences should you lose somebody in a bomb blast. That would be insufficient, considering that these are people with no vision, who choose to live in dirt and muck despite engaging themselves in crores of rupees of business. What can they possibly offer you intellectually or spiritually. Therefore, you are on your own in this modern Mumbai society. A defeated society that shelters under the umbrella of ‘spirit of resilience’, as the media terms the defeat.

If someone you love dies, then you cannot depend on the people and the government. These islanded people. You are on your own; unless you want to be one like them – a band of brothers wallowing in self-pity and momentary anger.

[The proposed series on feminism and male ego will be published after the completion of the current topic]

Kartikey Sehgal

[Previously written:
‘Misplaced Morality’ of Women
Women hurt Women through Feminism]

We said in the earlier story that feminists in power make laws to suit women and their followers change society to suit women. When society is changed to suit women, feminists come to power.

Who are these feminists? They are political leaders, writers, social activists and other women in power. They either make laws or exert considerable pressure to make laws.

Some of them do so in the belief that they are helping women. The others do it because they are jealous of women (as we spoke here). Why would powerful women do such a thing?

For more power. To constantly justify their power. Like a woman who constantly justifies her beauty with the help of mirrors and compliments. (story on this aspect here).

A powerful woman wants more. And she is damaged to see that other ‘lesser’ women are happy. Of what use is power if it can’t buy happiness and love from men.

And the ‘real man’, the one the feminists want, will not fall for power and money these women possess. That’s the trouble.

And if the feminists meet a man who is more powerful than them, then he will not bear their feminist principles. He would want a woman, not a constant competitor. He could, however, tame and control them.

In their effort to find the more powerful man, some feminists punish society and secretly hope for some one to stand up to them. A man who can, in turn, punish them. However, all this goes to waste. Why?

Because by creating a feminist society, these women ensured that very less ‘real’ men make it to the top. Feminism becomes a self-defeating system. Feminists don’t get what they really want, but they punish the society in any case.

The powerful women are left with second-rate powerful men who have made it to the top through nepotism, slavery and bribery, qualities absent in an actual man. These secondary men were raised by their mothers to worship women. The power-feminists now control these men to make changes in society.

The feminist system comes into place.

(Possible next story: How and why these men are controlled. Why do they listen?)