To Be or Not to Be!

Most of us might have seen CNN flash news of the shoot out at the Soldier Readiness Center at Fort Hood , United States Military base at Texas on 5th Nov 2009. This army officer i.e a US Army Major killed around 13 people and ended up injuring another 30 of them. Horrifying!
(For more: http://www.cnn.com/2009/US/11/12/fort.hood.wounded.soldier/index.html )

This whole incident is terribly sad. Imagine what must have gone through the minds of the soldiers who died in the shoot-out: 'Hey this is one of our own guys, how could he????'. They must have never imagined what was in store for them. The guy has done the damage & whether he is punished or freed, why he did it etc etc only further investigation will tell. Whatever the reason may be, killing innocent people is just not acceptable. He has destroyed so many lives associated with the ones killed in the process! Its extremely agonizing!

The other day I was watching the memorial service for all the people who lost their lives in this shoot out and it made me wonder: How long will such kind of killings continue? Don't the killers realize these families are destroyed?  No amount of sympathy or money will ever replace their loved ones. Their lives are changed forever!

I read somewhere in the aftermath of these attacks that men who return from the military invariably become weak psychologically, total lunatics as they start seeing themselves as murderers who are authorized to kill. They kill in cold freezing blood for their countries demand it! Terrible but true!
War & Hate always beget War & Hate and its high time we all realized it!

USA changed after 9/11 just like how India changed after Kargil. And this change of theirs has changed how people are looked at or treat each other entirely. Now after these attacks, there are so many questions on why he did it? Some attribute it to the fact that he did it because ever since 9/11, his ethnicity was under suspicion. Others say he was transferred to Iraq and he wanted to get out of the army and so he did it. People may have thousands of questions for him once he wakes up from his coma as to why he did it? But will his answer bring about any change in the way the world operates? I doubt it!

This will go the same route too. Another Man->Another Case-> Investigate-> Relate it to all possible scenarios happening in every part of the world-> Public Appeal to Punish->Court Appeal to follow the law->Acquit or Convict->Case Close.
Bottomline: Lesson Learned: NONE!

Few questions popped up in my mind after this incident:

• What makes people do what they do? 
• Why do they do it?
• What does it beget?
• Is there a deeper trouble here than what we see? Psychological? Environmental? 
• What war does to people?
• Is one war an answer to another?
• Will this ever end?
• Terrorism or Hate? Bombs or Knives? Guns or Poison? Aren't they all the same? Aren't they all responsible for the destruction of humanity?

Well, I don't have answers in the literal sense to these questions. If there is one thing I know and if there is one thing I always wished everybody knew, that would be: No amount of hatred, intolerance or terrorism would be the end to the miseries of this world. Violence always begets violence. But again to be tolerant or not is in itself a paradox! My two examples below: USA & India

USA might not be tolerant but India is, some say it is good cause we do not want to go to war, some say it is bad for our silence is what that is killing more and more people everyday.

For those who say we shouldn't be tolerant? USA is an example. They bombarded Iraq in the name of nuclear weapons and to this day, has it really ended? They ended up awaking more otherwise innocent people in taking up war just to avenge Iraq. For all their good intention of ending terror, it might just backlash & create more havoc in the world!

For those who say we should be tolerant? India is an example. We have been tolerant since ages on issues like our prized Jammu & Kashmir, our neighbours continuing to cause unrest in our country, terror attacks, massive killing sprees, hostage dramas etc,we have seen it all. We have lost more lives than any other country & continue to lose lives everyday! Cause for this: Our Tolerance.
We come from the land of the Mahatma & we are supposed to follow his ideals of peace & Ahimsa i.e Non-Violence but where has it taken us? Even today, after more than 50 years of our independence, we are still fighting against the same issues everyday!

So war or no war? Tolerance or no tolerance? Love for Hate? or Hate for Hate? What EXACTLY do we need to make this world a better place to live in? To be honest, I don't know! I have no answers. No religion or science preaches killing people & no man is good or bad, it is always education & circumstances that make him so! The sooner we all realize this, the faster we can get our world back in the right order!

In the words of Pierre Omidyar, the founder of E-Bay:
" Every man is good & if given a chance to do good, he always will"

Miracles or no miracles, may the world be blessed with peace!

Irresponsibility Again -Media, Are you listening?

'Duke Of  Hazard strikes again' screamed the headlines of the famous Britain Daily newspaper 'The Sun'. It reported that Prince Philip of England, the Queen's better half  had insulted the Patel Community in England when he remarked 'There's lot of your family in tonight' to Business Chief Atul Patel at a Buckingham Palace reception for British Indians to celebrate the state visit to Britain by The President Of India.
(Source: http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/news/royals/2700630/Prince-Philip-makes-a-joke-about-the-Indian-name-Patel.html)

Good ol' Lord, what is happening to our people? Have we lost the ability to appreciate humour, by large a seemingly harmless one! The Sun further went on to add that this joke appeared to suggest that all Patels are related. Did the correspondent really think the Prince was thinking all that while harmlessly greeting someone. C'mon Sun, give the old man a break! It's very obvious he meant no vice or harm!

Media, get a grip! You exist because of the normal public. You exist because we expect you to give us sensible reporting. C'mon you have the power to almost make or break a nation, do not sensationalize trivial things like this!

• Do you really understand the significance of the information you pass onto billions of readers? 
• Do you realize the huge responsibility that is vested upon you to ensure that international relations are in good shape? 
• Do you realize that due to one single mistake of yours, you can actually turn the entire human mankind against one and another? 
• Do you realize you hold the reins to peace in the world? Leaders will always be there but its you who share an equal responsibility in ensuring thy are doing their job well
• Don't you think its high time you break out of the 'Breaking News' or 'Glossy pretentious Headlines' category by being more responsible in giving us better content?

I know there is competition among you guys as to who has more readership or who makes the most money, infact its all commercial interests, TRPs being the biggest draw for you but to falsely misuse the power given to you just for TRPs is not fair.

Well, there might be critics who think that its we, the readers or viewers who crave for such sensationalizing news but c'mon if you find such kind of people on one side of the coin, you will also find the more serious kind of audience on the other side who believe in ethical reporting.

'So what if we did it, so is everyone else?' might be your line of argument but if one of you takes the lead, days will not be far when everyone will follow. When the democracy trusts you to be responsible & gives you a free rein to report in your own way, don't you think you need to respect that & reciprocate similarly?

Its not difficult for the democracy i.e people like us to raise an objection & have the government put a stop to this by dissolving you of this power. One fine day, all the privileges might just be taken away from you & you might be forced to report under stringent rules & guidelines like how we have in some of the communist or under-developed countries. In other words, the government might just rule your content.Would you like that? Think about it!

When the politicians or leaders or the government intervenes to put a hold on anything you might have done unscrupulously, you make a big hue & cry about not being able to report unbiased, about not being given a free rein or being suppressed. That time your conscience suddenly awakens & you remember the definition of 'Democracy' just like how you were taught about it in 4th grade! And what do you do? You protest about Right Of Information? Duhhhhh!!!!

Nobody stops you from doing your job but do it with certain amount of responsibility. If you think, people have the right to know something wrong that you witnessed, go ahead & report it, we will appreciate it & it might even prompt the wrong-doers to put an end to their mis-givings & give us better governance. Just please don't sensationalize irrelevant or innocent stuff like the above example. Your reporting should bring the entire world closer, not drive them apart!

We have more relevant issues to deal with like Development, Infrastructure, Education, Economy, Terrorism etc (Again, do not sensationalize this issue, it only makes the terrorists crave for more media attention!). So its high time you look at the bigger picture & act with ethical conviction & inculcate a sense of moral behaviour!

We love you, make it stay that way!

The Curious Case of "Amari's Prejudice"

'Prejudice', 'Bias', 'Preconception'....No, I ain't rattling off some random words from the dictionary but rather teaching myself how I should not be a victim of these words in the future! I write this post as I just finish watching a Reality Show on American television....

I've always been a lover of the Idiot Box! Since childhood I have always loved the TV! Be it the cartoons while I was a kid, be it the movies & sports while I was growing up or be it the spate of new-age sit-coms or reality shows through my youth, I've loved watching them all. I count myself among the category of people who appreciate good content, originality or for that matter innovative programming. I know most of us do, but in addition to that, I also find myself fascinated with everything that exists on earth & question how everything works the way it works i.e in a word 'Curious' :-). And it is during this stint with TV, that I realised how biased I was! Thanks to the mighty television, I now know :-)

Back home in my country, without a single iota of doubt I believed we had some of the best creative gurus at work on television. Most of the programs that were being churned out caught my imagination.

I was amazed as to how beautifully these shows were being made! Though I did read critics slamming some of them saying that they were a rip-off from shows telecasted in other countries, I didn't pay much attention or rather refused to believe that we were lacking in the area of 'Creative Programming'! My line of argument was simple. 'The shows are 'Inspired' and not a straight 'Rip-Off' so what's wrong with that? See, its ok to be inspired by someone or something, we all at some point in our lives look upto a role model to take us through the path of life, isn't it? So what's wrong? But well, a straight outright copy or rip-off? Isn't that a brilliant medicine for putting our minds to sleep? Yes it is! I believe we are a country of creative brilliance so what happened? Am I being patriotic,fanatic or simply being ignorant? I don't know! An example for television programming, read on....

Column1:The Original
Column 2:The Rip-Off
Celebrity Get me out of here-> Iss Jungle Se Mujhe Bachao
Big Brother-> Big Boss
Megan Wants a Millionaire-> Rakhi Ka Swayamwar
My Antonio-> Splitsvilla
Are you smarter than a 5th Grader-> Kya Aap Panchvi Pass Se Tez Hai
America's Got Talent-> India's Got Talent
American Idol-> Indian Idol
Dancing With the Stars-> Jhalak Diklaa Jaa/ Nach Baliye

etc etc etc....Uffff! I've lost count! There are juz toooo many of them to put them all here!

I never quite took it this way before I watched the originals. Come what may, I usually refuse to believe what I read or what critics say until I take a look myself! For the simple reason that critics are not always fair & all what you read on the net may not be true! I am shocked! For all the great history we have, for all the 1000s of years of civilization, are we making a mockery of ourselves?

We have had some amazing people from various fields of creativity like Satyajit Ray, Bimal Roy, Rithwik Ghatak, MF Hussain, Rabindranath Tagore, Vikram Seth etc who have not only time & again proved their creative brilliance but have also ensured our country got its due share of International Recognition! So what happened along the way????

Have we lost our creativity or the ability to innovate? Are we giving in to commercial interests thereby killing original creativity? Are we simply scared to put our feet into untested waters? Are we victims of TMI i.e Too Much Information at our disposal to actually sit down and think innovative? 'Google' may be the best thing to have happened in a long long time in an era of technological revolution but has this revolution slowed us down in our ability to get curious or work hard to get information by making it so easy to have answers to anything on earth! Yes, No, I don't know! Depends on how we use it for our growth! Like they say 'TMI can either make us or break us'! Lets get the best outta it than allowing it to render our neurons useless!

Now you may ask me why I have such a title for my post? Why I have the word 'Prejudice' out there? Well, before I opened my eyes & ears to what other countries are doing or rather how far ahead they have gone, I thought we were the best! I thought we were unique & did most of the things better than others. I got angry whenever someone had something nice to say about other countries accusing them of not being patriotic. But little did I know 'Patriotism' is not just about loving your country but doing something that stands out! Not saying that we don't have people out there who are accomplishing great stuff but let the numbers increase and that starts with each one of us!

The other developed countries have proved that they are brilliant, the fields may be different for each one of them but they are definitely innovating & coming out with amazing stuff! We are brilliant too, so why copy? Why not learn from the experiences of what it took for them to reach this level & turn around our country too?

My apologies for all the prejudiced, biased, mindless, immature statements I made till now.I realize I need to think more liberal, give credit where it is due, gain more knowledge, and yes, definitely stop being 'Prejudiced'!!!! :-)

So let's get creative folks, for once, why not just 'THINK DIFFERENT'!