I apologise...

Over the last few years, I've written quite a few blogs which am not proud of right now on a second reading. Some of those blogs were written in a fit of anger, as reactions to some off incident. The lack of proper research shone through, as did the unwanted usage of expletives. There was lot of rhetoric and as much lack of substance. I would like to use this post to set some of those wrongs straight and apologise to some personalities who were subjected to unwarranted criticism due to lack of knowledge and proper research. And added to that, writing in the heat of the moment resulted in clouded judgement thus producing one sided articles. I would like to apologise to...(Not that any of these personalities gives a damn to what I write...Just that I thought its better to own up your mistakes)

1. Arundathi Roy

I've n't bashed anyone like I bashed her. From making noises about her supposedly pseudo-intellectual behaviour to calling her a bitch, I've done it all in this blog. Till sometime back, I was a firm believer in the unlimited goodness of the nation that is India that I failed to see the shades of grey or rather the total blackness on its part in several cases. And when she talked exactly about those greys and blacks, it made me uncomfortable. For me, anyone who questions the nation was equivalent to a terrorist and so it was easy for me to brand her as one. The idea of state sponsored terrorism was hard for me to swallow, until a certain Binayak Sen went to jail. That opened my eyes to a new world where the state was even worse than some of the so called terrorists or maoists. It was all there for me to see, just that I closed my eyes and shielded my ears to something which went against my beliefs, until a hard enough knock made me wake up. I used to view human rights activists as pests who were out to demean the nation and hog the international limelight. The idea that their presence is a necessity for a healthy democracy dawned on me much later. We need people who risk their lives and ask those hard questions. We need people who lays their reputation in line while expressing their views which might be mis constructed as anti national by vested interests and mis-informed bloggers! I still don't agree with many of Roy's views but now I know that atleast half of which she speaks is true as far as India is concerned. Sorry Ms. Roy, for all those harsh words. You didn't deserve any of those...

2. M.F.Hussain

Now, here comes a double flip. First, I started off as a flag waving member of the 'tolerance' club. I had seen only the 'bharatmata' painting and I found nothing wrong with it. Then I came across a site where some of his 'selected' works were featured. It consisted mainly of Hindu gods and godesses in compromising positions with titles which were formulated to stir up anger. There were one or two paintings of a fully clothed muslim lady(again titled). From that day, I been a strident critic of the man without ever caring to do a research on his body of work. I never had a problem with hindu gods painted in whatever positions he liked. It was the double standards that he supposedly displayed in portraying muslim ladies fully clothed which angered me. And then, recently he passed away. My first reaction was, 'good riddance'. Then, out of curiosity, I decided to dig a little and what it throwed up shocked me. His body of work was massive and the ones featured in the site were drawn sometime in the 60s. Most of those titles in the site(which were designed to stir up anger) were made up by the site owner. Until mid 90s, no one in India really bothered about these few paintings. That was when the Hindutva brigade came into limelight. Once the Ayodhya issue was milked to its capacity, they needed something new to latch on to. Someone digged up the old paintings and thus started an orchestrated campaign to kick Hussain out of India. Sadly, most of us fell prey to that game, hating the man till his death. A quick run through of his work will tell you how these few paintings were insignificant compared to his mammoth repertoire. The bigots never talked about the other beautiful paintings he made of Saraswathi, Gandhari or Mother Teresa. I am not an art connoisseur, but some of those paintings touched even a layman like me(although a large percent just flew over my head!). You can view some of those works here- http://www.mfhussain.com/paintings/ . I feel guilty as well as sad for inadvertently playing a part in drumming up hatred against a great artist. I am no different from those bigots of the Hindutva brigade!

3.V.S.Achuthanandan and the leftists

My criticism of Achuthanandan came with the package of being a staunch anti-leftist(for the first 24 years of my life). I could never empathise with the ideology of a party or a man who came with a red flag wherever some development was about to happen. I could never digest the fact that someone was making such a big fuss about a few huts being relocated for an IT park or some other mega development project. That was until words like corporate plunder, land grab etc entered my dictionary. Come 2008 and there was all the hullaballoo about Achuthanandan's 'dog' remark at late major Unnikrishnan's residence. The night I saw that, I sat down to write and all I could see was an old filthy useless politician making fun of India's slain hero. Once it was published, I got calls from many, including one lady from Mysore who was particularly emotional, asking me whether I've atleast heard of the land reforms that VS helmed. Truth be told, I didn't have an idea of the man's history in Kerala politics before the 90s. I didn't bother to read it up at that time too. It was after several months when I saw 'reason' and 'consistency' on the left side that I bothered to read some history. And boy, din't I repent! The anti-leftism is a thing of the past for me. The left and the few who still believe in that ideology(or atleast the watered down version of it) are an absolute necessity in the Indian political landscape, even if it is in a handful of states. The day the red flag bites the dust completely would surely upset the balance of our democracy.

Stop scrolling Barkha Dutt and everyone of that ilk....am not gonna apologise to you! My opinions on you still stands the same and I don't think I'll ever change it, because some more research did harden that opinion...

From today, I vow never to write anything without proper research. I vow never to use expletives in my writings, so that the message don't get lost in all the din. I vow never to write when I am angry. I vow, even after all this I won't hold it back in cases where it necessitate the presence of a raised finger...!

God Inc., Religion Ltd.

I am not a regular visitor of places of worship. The only time I do visit is once an year on my birthday after several requests from amma. The past week, eventhough it was not my birthday, I accompanied my friends to a famous shrine associated with the 'krishna consciouness cult', here in Bangalore. I had faint memories of visiting the place as a school kid with my parents. But, over the years, it had changed a lot. What strikes as soon as you enter the compound is how well maintained the whole setup is. The feeling I got was similar to entering a corporate office rather than a temple. Later I were to learn that its not only the exterior that gives this feeling. Infact, most of the big temples fail to give me that feeling of devotion. Its those nondescript small temples in the countryside which evoke such feelings usually. No amount of huge buildings or gold plated deities manage to do that.

The entry point was the biggest example of the 'business of religion'. A guy sitting at a counter called out to us and offered us a pass. By buying that pass for Rs.250, we can go straight inside and have the 'darshan'. Else, you have to stand in a long queue, chant 'hare rama hare krishna' at every step till you reach the temple door. Its a process which takes 30 minutes. By paying some money, you can sidestep that and get a direct appointment with God. Now, is n't that something exciting? Am reminded of how some bollywood stars gets a direct darshan of Thirupathi Balaji using their VIP status. They might be having delusions about buying a place in heaven too.

And so, after a long wait in the queue, we walked inside for the 'darshan'. I could see some people clicking the deity with their mobile cameras. And one of them was promptly driven away by the security. The ropes to regulate the queue were arranged in such a way that once you get the darshan, you are forced to walk straight to a counter selling devotional books and cds in all languages. While I was wondering at the business mentality at play here, I never knew that this was just a start. What followed was shocking for me. The ropes and barricades lead the 'involuntary' you expertly through an array of shops spread over several huge rooms. There's no way you can get out without passing through each of these shops. The items ranged from pastries to household stuff. There were shops selling bags, toys, stationaries and even a vegetable market! Everything you need to setup a small temple at your home are also available here. It was nothing less than a supermarket, all inside the temple complex. The Gods probably occupied 5% of the total area of the complex.

When everything around us is commercialised, we can't expect religion alone to stay away. Infact, Religion Inc. makes much more profit than most of the big corporates. Donations continue to pour in. Sinner billionaires donate a part of their billions in the hope of cleansing the blood from their hands. No higher authority dare ask a religious establishment on the amount of donations that they recieve every year. No questions are asked on how all that amount is spent. Its a free ride for many. When Baba Ramdevs become billionaires overnight, we can be sure that there's something wrong with the way many among us see their relationship with God. Atleast some does think that God can be bought.

And its best to end with this song from motherjane, which I've quoted in some old posts too..'

motherjane- 'Soul corporations'

The cross maybe the ultimate metaphor

For religion sold as a brand

A sacrifice exchanged for the almighty dollar

with the tacit blessings of the Vatican

we all have guardians trading faith for power

businessmen by whom we swear

betraying everyone from eshwar to allah

with their holy wars for market share.

We're losing our religions, entrusting our gods

to corporates that prostrate before balance sheets

Unsuspecting pawns inititating brethren

into the oldest MLM to stalk our streets

Behold the soul corporations, the spiritual supermarts

dispensing salvation with a price tag

mocking the truth that resides in our hearts

Paralyzing the human conscience with practised art

And of the various hues of desecration

this makes them the hardest to beat

the unsure can't endure the liberation

the pious don't discern the need

for if there's a truth to be told

religion's just a shadow of god

illuminated by thought and understanding

sullied by the ambiguity of words.

[you can listen to the song at motherjane.in]

Who will end Endosulfan?

A baby with an abnormally large head, people with deformed faces and deformed limbs, kids walking in crutches, bleeding skins, braindead souls...No, these are not scenes from one of those thousands of hollywood movies depicting death and destruction. Nor are these scenes from an affected village near a nuclear plant. These are scenes that will greet you in many of the villages in Kasargod, a district in Kerala. And the culprit? Endosulfan, an aptly named insecticide which was sprayed over these villages to protect the cashew saplings planted by the plantation board. The spraying over a long period of time contaminated these villages(Muliyar,Padre,cheemeni,bovikanam etc.) to such an extent that there's none around who is not affected with one disease or the other. The variety of diseases is alarming-from simple body pain to cancer, epilepsy and cerebral palsy. Many of the new borns are mentally unstable or deformed at birth. The depth of the horror is such that women in these areas are resorting to abortions to prevent giving birth to stillborns and mentally retarted babies. Besides humans, the chemical also resulted in the death of fishes and other livestock. The poor villagers at first thought all this was caused due to the displeasure of the Gods. All this changed at the end of the 90s when a group of committed individuals like Dr.Mohana Kumar and farmer Sri Padre found out the real reason behind this, spraying of endosulfan in these areas over a period of two decades. This touching photojournalistic work by mathrubhumi photographer Madhuraj throws light on this huge tragedy.

one of the victims of endosulfan(Kasargod,Kerala)

So, reading all that, what will you naturally expect? That this insecticide is already banned in India and the ones behind this behind bars? If you think so, its time to wake up and take in the reality of the new shining capitalist India. Right now, its banned only in Kerala and Karnataka, which the state govts did in their own capacity. But, at the same time there are some high profile govt agents batting for 'endosulfan'. Union minister for agriculture Mr.Sharad Pawar makes the expected appearance at the top of that shameful list of individuals. Few months back, he had told the Parliament that several states and farmers had written to him asking him not to ban endosulfan because it will affect their livelihood. But, earlier this month an RTI application by a journalist revealed that not a single state wrote to the centre against the ban. And the 6 letters recieved by the centre were all from organisations supporting endosulfan. This single incident reveals the vested interests at play here. The surprising thing in the whole episode is that its the govt owned Hindustan insecticides limited that manufactures Endosulfan in India. And, Pawar even made a statement blaming the lack of intelligence of the farmers, who 'doesn't know how to use the insecticide'. Remember, this is an insecticide banned in over 60 countries worldwide. Another high profile supporter of endosulfan is K.V.Thomas, minister of state for agriculture, who recieved a lot of flak for his speeches citing 'lack of evidence' against endosulfan. There's a big lobby at play behind the stage, including Pesticide Manufacturers and Formulators Association of India (PMFAI) and Endosulfan Manufactures & Formulators Welfare Association (EMFWA). They've spread this opinion that banning endosulfan will is against the interests of poor farmers in India as its the cheapest insecticide available in the market. They've cleverly suppressed the fact that there are cheaper alternatives available with none of these horrible side effects.

a man with deformed limbs, thanks to endosulfan

The Stockholm convention is an international treaty that aims to eliminate persistent organic pollutants(source-wikipedia), the ones which are resistant to environmental degradation. The latest meeting of this convention took place yesterday(April 25th). There's been calls from all over to the central govt to support the banning of endosulfan at stockholm. Kerala chief minister V.S.Achuthanandan went on a fast yesterday asking for the ban. The centre made its intentions clear at the outset with various ministers voicing opinions that it won't be banned all over the country. The point they made is the 'lack of scientific evidence' to prove that its endosulfan that caused the diseases in various parts of Kerala and Karnataka. And, this is at a time when there are more than 20 studies available worldwide on the ill effects of endosulfan. Even Jairam Ramesh(known for his occasionally tough stand to suppport the enviornment) washed his hands off. And as expected, at the stockholm convention yesterday, India opposed the banning of Endosulfan as a representative of the Asia pacafic region. The draft statement is availabale here. You can see statements like "Significant adverse health and environmental effects of Endosulfan is not established", "The fact that sustainable economic and social development andreadication of poverty are the first and overriding priorities of the developing country.Parties will be taken fully into account, giving due consderation to the need for protectionof human health and the environment.” Yes, our leaders have betrayed us again. India's plan was atleast to get the ban delayed, because the next stockholm convention takes place only in 2013. Our country's conduct in the world stage is beginning to look more like that of US these days, pandering to the whims and fancies of corporations and forgetting the common man.

For every Kalmadi and Raja arrested, we have 100 others like them still sitting firm in the ministerial chairs. Corruption doesnt mean just big money siphoned off in big scams. It also involves cases like these where there's a clear case of vested interests at play. Only this time, the devilishness of that self interest puts the life of thousands in jeopardy. As those kids walk on crutches, as the baby with that big overgrown head cries out in pain, as the adult man comes to terms with his kiddish intelligence, the greedy ilk does a death dance over their head with their own deafness and blindness to the plight of those suffering thousands. The brashness, the deafness and the cold bloodedness point to a rot in this system, which needs some serious cleaning, morally and literally.

What more proof they need to ban this? How many more deaths do we want? How many more should be deformed?

Milking suicides

Its the suicide season yet again. I don't mean those unremarkable suicides which end up as single column news in the obituary page. We are looking at those suicides which get national attention. This time its the Telengana issue. The floodgates were opened when a youth set himself on fire and succumbed to his wounds last monday. Three more people have committed suicide in the next 24 hours allegedly because of the Telengana issue. But a close look at the details of the deceased will reveal that this is a clear case of 'milking an unrelated suicide'. First one in the list is a class 10 student who committed suicide by consuming pesticide. There are enough reasons to believe that this suicide is for reasons other than Telengana. A class 10 student has more things to worry about than dying for such foolish causes. The other two teenagers left suicide notes purpotedly written by them saying that they are ending their life for the Telengana cause.

The reason to doubt the truthfulness of these claims is obviously because of what happened in Andhra after the death of former chief minister YSR. There was a huge wave of sympathy being whipped up about the tragic death of a 'great man'. According to the media, more than 60 people committed suicide because they couldn't bear this loss. But an investigation at that time did reveal that there's more to it than the 'sacrifice story' that we all so easily believed. Apparently, YSR's partymen went around the state in search of houses where suicides had happened around that time. And then they offered the surviving family members money just to paint these suicides as 'YSR related'. Even those who died of heart attack were said to have died because of the shock of YSR's death. The fact that YSR rose to power playing all kind of dirty games and goondaraj was conveniently forgotten as we were presented with a new HERO, for whom the masses took their own lives.

This new wave of suicides seems to be one in this direction. Suicide notes are being drafted in many undisclosed locations. And the hawks are waiting for the next suicide, to claim it as their own. We can only hope that the government wouldn't buckle under such manufactured pressure and cut our delicious cake into yet another piece.

your crusader Praveen

Year 2013

Yes, the earth is still turning. And all the alarmists who predicted THE END to happen one year back have gone into damage control mode saying that the clock at the 'Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change'(IPCC) was actually going anti clockwise. Self proclaimed climate man R.K.Pachauri was seen visiting the local watch repair shop in Himalaya. He now says that the deadline of 2035 that he set for the Himalayan ice to melt was not far from the mark. Just that he missed a worthless zero from the right side. And also his watch doesnt show the year.

'Dimes of India' is still the preferred newspaper in my home because of the 4 sheets of 'Bangalore dimes' filled up with hot pics of leading actresses. Now, with the government opening up media rights by framing more laws, we get to see a minimum of one nude pic a day in this four page supplement which is a staple read in some of the bachelor bathrooms here. Still, allegations of pictures copied from flickr pages persisted. And to stay connected with the roots, we still subscribed to the malayalam newspaper. As the 'Bangalore dimes' took its turns in the bathroom, the main newspapers will be lying useless in the couch.
Once in a while, I used to run through it and all it has given me is agony. You guys in 2010 will be happy to know that there wont be 'page 3' in 2013, just like there's no building 13 in some of the corporate houses. Instead, we have all the page 3 shifted to page 1. Today's lead news is about Speedika doublecone's 101st boyfriend and how they are planning to break up. The 40th part in the "My name is.." series is releasing this Friday. The series which started way back in 2010 with "My name is chan" stands out because the director-lead actor duos are all gay couples. The latest in the series is known as "My name is bland" directed by Karan blowhar and starring Humpman Khan. Bhetan Chagat has written his 9th book titled '69 positions', the title of which is inspired from the hard work he had to do for getting the proper credits in the movie adaptation of his previous book, directed by Karan blowhar.

The 2nd page has many ADs inviting tenders for various awards. You can be the best in whatever you want, provided you have the money. Sam Anderson won the national award for best actor after winning the auction last year. Ajmal Kasab was given Padmashri for 5 years of exemplary performance in Indian courts. Many other awards are on sale including the best in any category imaginable. There are separate columns for winners to indulge in self congratulation. Golit Toddy, the IPL commisioner says he'll run for president. Pakistani players are still not allowed to play in IPL. Chacrook Khan was seen shedding crocodile tears for not allowing them to play. "They should've atleast let kkkkkkkamran akkkkkmal play", he was seen saying. Afridi bit 3 stumps and the pitch at Lahore ground, in anger. The pitch was left with 3 big holes.

The obituary page is not my favourite. As I gave a passing glance, I saw a familiar face. Yes, its me. I checked again. Yeah, its me. It seems I died yesterday due to prolonged illness. No, wait...I have to wait till morrow's paper, because 'clarifications' are the order of the day. And yes , it came the following day- "Mr.xxx(yeah, thats me) is still alive. We regret the wrong information. We'll let you know as soon as he dies. Sorry for the inconvenience." Anyway my case is better than my neighbour Mr.yyy who has already died 4 times in the last one year. Thanks to the clarifications, he's still alive.

PS- Sad at the untimely demise of the gifted malayalam actor and scriptwriter Cochin Haneefa. May his soul rest in peace. The ugly episode yesterday, of the media announcing his death many hours before the actual happening made me write this post. Hungry for breaking news? Why not kill yourself and break the news first?

your crusader Praveen

Bathroom Graffiti:World's greatest artists

This is a literal translation of the post in my malaylam blog

If you ask me who's the world's greatest artist, I would never say the names of Picasso, Ravi Varma or Michaelangelo. Because all of them might have spent months or even years to create their masterpieces. They spent a better part of their lifetimes using high quality canvas and paints in pursuit of this art. There are some other type of artists who create masterpieces on any surface with any object they can get hold of, that too in a very short span of time. Most of the artists of this kind lets their imagination fly only in the confines of public toilets or inside the 'cleanly' toilets in trains. Just as We call those who sing only in the bathroom as bathroom singers, we can call these elite group 'bathroom artists'. Most of us think only of somehow getting outside fast when we enter the horrible public toilets. We must salute these guys who think and draw up amazing lines and jaw dropping artwork inside this place. Now, wherever I go, one of my hobbies is to read and observe all the graffiti in the public toilets. Afterall, you gotta have something to make yourself happy when you are doing something so boring.

The number of people who use the maximum of 5 minutes that we get in a public toilet to create world class art work is increasing day by day. If you have any doubts, just get into one of those filthy looking toilets. Both in trains and public places, the bathroom walls are now so artistically decorated that there's a shortage of space for new artists. Drawings which rival M.F.Hussein's in perversion to female drawings matching Ravi Varma's in artistic brilliance can be seen here nowadays. There are some who get philosophical on seeing the toilet. They scribble an one line poem or a world shattering truth on the walls before leaving. Recently, I saw something written in the opposite wall while I was busy using the closet- "India's future is now in your hands." On seeing thiss, I suddenly raised both my hands as if someone was pointing a gun at me. Guess the sudden thought on India's future made me do this.

There are some big time fools too among these artists. These are those who scribble mushy romantic lines for their sweet hearts. Some examples-
"Oh my dear Thankam"
"I love you kamalaakashi"
"You are my fire, but here am smelling bad air"

And the guy who wrote his and his lover's name inside a heart symbol takes the cake for ultimate stupidity. I donnow whether these romantic fools had any notion of their sweethearts getting into a gents bathroom to read all these lines. Also, only God knows which 'kamalakshi' is going to read it all.

In this 4x4 cube called the toilet, we can also see exchange of dialogues between strangers. There are some who scribble replies to some lines written by others. And yet another will give a reply to both of them. Recently I saw something like this in a public toilet in Alappuzha. Someone had written almost a long winded essay in malayalam on life's unpredictability and the vastness of the world. Just below that someone has scribbled- "Stop the gibberish, do your task and get out idiot"[translated from the original line in malayalam]. Someone else had written in english-"When you have the gun, shoot, don't speak", obviously a brilliant inspiration from the famous line in 'The Good, the bad and the ugly". There are some others who find out the mistakes in such lines, correct it and award marks and grades. People don't even spare toilet ceilings- "Stop sitting there and staring at the sky. You better start shitting and get out", is a line I saw in a train toilet. I wanted to tell this guy that I was just pointing my nose upwards to escape from the unbearable smell that is common in our public toilets.

I've seen some writings in hindi too. This one's my favourite- 'Philip ke dick'.[People who know the author Philip.K.Dick and have a basic knowledge in Hindi and english will understand the brilliance and wittiness of this simple line].

Toilet is the only place where man shows his real face outside. Its where he becomes himself. (Adding, 'she becomes herself' also to avoid the feminist wrath). And its the only place where the creativity that is sleeping inside him is out in full flow. People who are scared of proving themselves in front of the whole world become 'creative' inside the toilets, sometimes even forgetting themselves. When I conducted more studies on this, I also stumbled upon a site called 'Bathroom graffiti'. Its a collective effort to collect all the bathroom graffiti around the world. So lets keep our eyes glued to the public toilets[pun intended], where some of the dead artists resurrected themselves. Maybe, the next Ravi Varma might be born in one of these toilets. I love the art of these unknown artists than the craps worth crores of rupees churned out by the pervert M.F.Hussein.

Checkout the malayalam version here
your crusader Praveen

Deschooling:We don't need no education

We don't need no education

We don’t need no thought control
No dark sarcasm in the classroom
Teachers leave them kids alone
Hey! Teacher! Leave them kids alone!

-from 'Another brick in the wall II' by Pink Floyd

When Roger Waters wrote these revolutionary lines way back in 1979, he wouldn't have thought that its going to be such an enduring classic, the words of which still ring true. Yesterday, I read an article on 'deschooling' in the exciting new magazine 'Open'. This is a wonderful concept which says that a child can develop better if he's kept away from the school environment. If any teachers are reading this, wait before you pounce on me. Think about it. What happens with the kids in school? They are all taught to behave in a certain way. They are all taught the same things. They all are made to do the same things. But, are all the kids the same? Will you make an engineer do the things that an artist is supposed to do?(Here, am not considering the case of an engineer who's also an artist). Each one of us has an aptitude for certain things right from our kindergarten days. But, many times it happens that a kid is made to do things which he's not supposed to do and as a result when he grows up he ends up where he's not supposed to be. Just think of that superb artist who sat beside you and was spanked mercilessly for letting his imagination fly during class hours.

Fight!!!!!Bruce Leeyaaya Namaha

What we get as output from most schools is an assembly line of products which think and act in the same way. Remember, the input was as diverse a mixture that you can ever get. Now, think of a child who is free from school. He doesn't have any set time tables. He wakes up, interacts with nature, meets people of all ages, plays till he gets tired. Then he starts thinking on how he can make his life more interesting. He explores various possibilities and more often than not he ends up with a possibility which matches his aptitude the most. He doesn't need to conform to those set standards. Maybe, am getting too idealistic here. I do accept the possibility of the kid going the wrong way of bad influences, antisocial behaviour and such things. But, if you observe closely most of the antisocials ended up so because of the societial pressures. You will lose count of the goondas who have the '10th standard failed' qualification. That 'qualification' was enough to make many of them social outcasts, which is a kind of pre requiste to be a goonda.

See, there's also an artistic side to me

Deschooling or unschooling looks like a small remedy for the 'engineering else medicine' syndrome thats prevalent in India right now. If this trend goes on, we'll have a dearth of teachers, artists, craftsmen etc. Am not saying that just by not sending a kid to school, he will select one of these careers. But chances are more that he will find himself a career path that suits him most. As we all know many of us became engineers not by choice, but just as a result of going with the accepted flow. This thought is arrived at by discarding the cynicist arguments. Unschooling has its negative effects too. The child maynot necessarily acquire the social skills to survive. He may become a 'pre historic' monster, far removed from all the changes happening in the world. The lazy ones won't bother exploring new avenues and may spend time sleeping and lazing around. The real unlucky ones may die without ever discovering what is 'sex'(I pity this category of deschoolers the most :P ). The sexually hyperactive may get AIDS. The foolishly adventurous ones may end up getting beaten up badly. The highly intelligent may invent things that will threaten his own existence. But still, atleast more than half of the unschoolers are sure to chart a path for themselves. And when you choose for yourselves, you do it with all earnestness. You won't feel like working. Maybe, thats a stepping stone to a society where everyone does what they like to do, where work is passion and break is just an avoidable distraction.

PS- I don't advocate banning of schools altogether. It would be great if we could mix the good elements of deschooling into the current education structure and let students give more breathing space. Remove all those conformist ideas and let the kids be themselves. Throw out set syllabus and lets have custom made syllabus for each of the kids. Let imagination soar...

About the snaps- This is Yashas, one hell of a naughty kid and my neighbour at Coorg. He's still not old enough to go to school. Restless and always trying out new things, he's the perfect cute problem child. Hope he doesn't have to conform to set standards and be another boring school product :)

your crusader Praveen

Sach Ka Saamna: Truth unleashed

Truth - 1. Something you speak only inside the star TV studio;
2. An extinct practice, of which no written records remain;
Latest updation to the crebster's dictionary

Mahatma Gandhi, a man who fought the British with his non-violent methods, a man who inspired millions of Indians to follow his path in fighting the mighty empire, a man whose simplicity captivated the whole world and a man who found success in almost all the endeavours in his life. Yet, there was one thing that worried him immensely. Even after writing a whole book on truth or projecting his own life as an epitome of honesty, he couldn't get most of his fellow Indians to speak the truth all the time. Infact, the politicians plunged more and more into a well of lies after independence. And keeping them as model, the layman also had his share of lies. Atlast, after more than 60 long years, Rupert Murdoch has succeeded what Gandhiji failed to do. Mudoch's star TV has come up with 'sach ka saamna', ironically a copied version of 'moment of truth', to make Indians speak the truth.

Murdoch must've realised that the only way to solve any problem in India circa 2009 is through reality TV. The reality madness has reached such heights that there's no point having many of the things outside the tv studio. We have reality romances, reality races, reality fights, reality marriages, reality honeymoons, reality bedroom scenes etc etc. Some people are known to even eat reality food and do reality shit on a reality closet and clean up with a reality tissue to conserve the really scarce reality water. So, in this wild scenario, why leave 'truth' behind? The day the show was announced, Gandhiji's autobiography was sold out from all the bookstores. Many of the tv addicts aspiring to take part in the show were seen studying the book intently on how to tell truth. Some popular page 3 ladies were reportedly searching for the spelling and actual meaning of the word 'truth' in the latest edition of crebster's dictionary.

As expected from the show, we had wives talking about how they cheated on their husbands, husbands talking on how they cheated both their wives and their girlfriends and many more similar episodes. The lie detector had a field day and even after revealing uncomfortable truths, the participants had to go back home empty handed to be received by a wife with slippers in both the hands. And then one fine day, the great Indian politician made a grant appearance in the show. He began to shock the audience with his 'truthful' dialogues. He never has accepted bribes and he calls himself to be a man who's free from corruption. The lie detector was uncharacteristically silent when he spoke. In the end, they came to the final question...

"Have you ever had extra marital affairs?"
"NO"

The audience gasped. Lie detector didn't make any noise this time too. He won the show. The lie detector stopped working the next day. A lie detector expert was flown in from Papua New Guinea(where lies are still not invented) to fix it up. He said that the lie detector is no more usable because extreme pressure conditions has damaged the lie detecting capabilities of the machine. It shut down itself because it failed to find proof that the politician was lying even after knowing that he was indeed lying. The man was telling lies so confidently that the machine couldn't detect even a single change in pulse or blood flow. So, after 21 big lies, he walked away with the grand prize. That was also the last episode of the show...

PS- I completed 4 years of blogging on July 3rd. My ever failing memory failed me this time too. So am posting this info 26 days late. And, in case I forget to tell, my birthday is on coming monday, August 3rd. And that makes my age, 24!!!!

your crusader Praveen

Naming conventions

A page from my diary

Year 2019- My 7 year long world trip ended this year. Am returning to India from my last stop, Timbuktu. I got down at Mumbai airport to catch my connection flight to Trivandrum. The Timbuktu national airline 'boombakakku' gave me a rough ride and so I thought of catching some sleep on our good old Indian airlines. Hey stop, whats that name on the ticket? Na, Its not Indian airlines. Oh, they changed the national airlines name to Bajiv airlines. Whatever, Who cares anyway? Walking with sleepish eyes, I somehow managed to locate my seat. Even after travelling the world, I still love the window seat. And I love it even more when a beautiful lady sits beside me, which happened luckily this time too. She was carrying a cool handbag with 'Bahul bank of India' written on it. I thought it to be some local money lender or worse some new age bank. I started the usual 'sweet talk' without which no lady can escape from near me and thats when she told me that the Govt re-christened the state bank of India as 'Bahul bank of India'.

More sweet talks and then the food arrives. I take a glance at the glam airhostess. She didn't care to look at me and in her eyes, I could read a 'free from section 377' glow directed at my co-passenger. Seems like in 10 years, the law has done a lot of good, bad and bood. I finished the tasteless lunch and was cleaning my hands when the name on the tissue paper caught my eyes-'Driyanka caterers'. Aah! This is getting interesting. The next few days in my native country, I felt as if I was in an alien world ruled by a king obsessed with naming everything after his clan. Wherever I turned, the names of somebody from the clan was there. Travelling on the roads were a confusing excercise as Bajiv cross ended up in Bahul junction from where Bajiv double cross road started. The Driyanka main road was a stone's throw away from Jonia flyover which will get you to Bajiv circle. Its as if someone killed all our imaginative minds in the last 10 years. Did somebody mention thought police?

The old man at the pan shop told me that all this madness started some 20 years back. At first, it was some small roads which were named like this. Then, some big welfare projects also started getting these names. The turning point happened 10 years ago, when this big bridge over the sea in Mumbai ended up with one of these names. It was the work of some shameless sychophant. Our land boasting a big number of the sychophant creed, was not the same from that day. Almost everything in sight was renamed. There was no question on what the name of a new project will be. I felt like in a scary dream world which perhaps George Orwell would've articulated well if he had written '2019' instead of '1984'.

Depressed, I took a walk along that old road near the cemetry. This is the only place which has given me some solace and peace right from my school days. I plucked a rose from the wayside and decided to place it on the tombstone of our friendly old neighbourhood uncle. I walked in past the board of the cemetry, obviously named after the clan. But, I got the biggest shock of my life when I saw all the tombstones with a single name. Yes, one from the clan... Hey wait, did I just hear the clan's name being chanted from the nearby temple, mosque and church? I have to preserve this diary. I think this is the only thing in the whole of the country which doesn't carry the clan name..Oh No, What was I writing till now!!!

PS- Overheard from sychophant's house- "Lets ask Mayawati to name her statues after Bajiv!"

Image courtesy-cmpointer.blogspot.com

your crusader Praveen

Sakhi ka bhayankar Swayamvar

Sakhi Rawant. She's the heartthrob of millions. She has such a brilliant brain that the makers of google once visited her and requested her not to venture into the field of science and technology. Yes, they were scared that she would end their monopoly. She's so well versed in world affairs that she thinks Indiana is the capital of India. Take a look at this scene when she was reading newspaper last week. No, she doesn't subscribe to a newspaper. This bit of paper came to her wrapped around an aloo samosa.

"I ran elections a farce: Bush"
and now lets take a look at her thought process-
"What should I do if you ran the elections? And atleast learn the proper spelling of such a simple word as force."

One of her aunties recently gave an interview to dudlines today, India's No.1 newsentertainment channel. She fondly remembers Sakhi's childhood, when she developed this deep aversion to clothes. She was not always like this. Until she was 5 years old, Sakhi used to cover herself up from head to toe in woollen clothes even in summer. She used to even take bath with her clothes on. It all changed one day when she saw this rousing speech by a senior journalist in good old doordarshan. He was talking about 'press freedom' and poor Sakhi who was intelligent from birth heard it as 'dress freedom'. She threw away all her clothes and appointed herself as the world ambassador for dress freedom.

She had also developed many indigenous ideas to stay in the spotlight. One is obviously to follow the 'spotlight' relentlessly around the globe, until the tired 'spotlight' gives it up and rests upon her. Other ideas are like slapping her boyfriend in public, crying foul over lip locks and unlocks and ofcourse, item numbers. But all that pales in comparison to the latest master stroke from Sakhi Rawant- 'Sakhi ka swayamvar'. The wild lady has atlast decided to marry and being Sakhi, she wants to do it in her own crazy way. She has decided to do a reality tv style swayamvar in the latest entertainment channel, eNDineeTV unIMAGINEable*. Lakhs of intelligent good looking gentlemen from around the country applied to get into the show. In the end, Yamraj decided to give 'hell' to 16 of them. And, thus started the biggest spectacle in Indian television, the fineprint of which is "Will somebody please carry this burden home?"

The swayamvar reportedly started this week and is already topping the 'Tastelessly Rocking Programs(TRP)' charts. I was thinking on the various reasons for so many of India's youngsters taking this drastic step of applying for this show. The most obvious one is that the latest poisons available in the market are duplicate and ineffective. So, people are finding better ways to suicide, one of which is to take part in this show. Another might be a real bad girlfriend who slaps not only the guy but also his Father. Some might be there just for the spotlight. I really hope there's one guy who's there to pull a trick on Sakhi. And, I wish he somehow wins the show and when she runs with the garland towards him, he shows her the finger and walk off triumphantly. Only that will give peace to Vyasa maharshi who introduced the idea of Swayamvara in Mahabharatha. There was actually a report in HNN IBN, the official news channel in heaven, that Yama is planning to send Vyasa back to earth so that he could do a shift+delete of the 'swayamvara' part in Mahabharatha.

*eNDineeTV- literal translation in malayalam means 'what this TV is for?'

PS-eNDineeTV inIMAGINEable has no Relation with NDTV Imagine. The author has never ever heard of a lady named Rakhi Sawant or a show named 'Rakhi ka Swayamvar'.

pic courtesy-flickr

your crusader Praveen

How bad can the press get?

I was shocked after reading this article by Ajay on how one of Kerala's biggest mediahouses 'Malayala Manorama' played a stellar role in providing another roadblock for the Vizhinjam shipping terminal project. Its a must read article. Am saddened by the fact that the media which is expected to be a corrective influence are themselves playing the spoilsport. To fulfill their own selfish interests, medias like manorama are jeopardising the development of the state and the country. The basic standards in journalism are being broken by cooking up stories, false reporting and many such unhealthy practices. There's also selective reporting when they purposefully stay away from covering events which are not supporting their secret sinister causes. Seems like those ideals like media's commitment to the betterment of society have been sold to some street hawker who came to buy old newspapers. We have to stay away from newspapers like this. Please educate your friends and relatives on this.

Another recommended blog- My friend Rahul jumped into the blogworld recently with some meaningful posts. Do take a look here.

PS-One of my collegemates finished a 21 day trip around India some days back. He has covered places like Kargil, North-east etc. It was a small discovery of India in 3 weeks. I was surprised to hear about this trip since this been one of my dreams and its great to see someone actually ahving fulfilled it. And he did it all alone with awesome planning. Kudos to the guy. He has chronicled his travels day-by-day in this blog - One step closer to freedom

your crusader Praveen

I wish: An appeal to Racists

Racism is the buzzword everywhere these days. An ugly centuries old practice which died and got revitalised a thousand times has reared its ugly head again. For every Hitler, there was a Jesse Owens or Rosa Parks who stood up(or sat down) for their own self respect. Times changed, the Berlin wall fell, terms like reverse racism began to be heard. Neo Nazis were also seen in many mean streets around the world. Then came President Obama and the world believed that racism died its least death. But, let me tell you, this guy called 'racist' is a tough nut who lives inside each one of us. Some among us carry so much love that the racist in them dies an early death, drowning in that love poison. Many among us take our time to cultivate love and kill him. And, a handful among us cultivate hate and thus making him grow into a monster and take them over. He makes them do all kinds of nasty things like the ones we see in Australia these days, where Indians are finding it hard to just walk on the streets. And while we look and point fingers at those monsters, we shouldn't forget the monsters living within us and among us. Am sure no one needs lessons on India's ugly caste structure and the unhealthy reservations, which are supposedly magic potions which can wash away years of caste oppression.
Wherever it happens, lets just stand together and boot out racism. Hate of the highest order, the one set on blind and high principles, can be broken down only with love of the highest order. Lets make use of the ultimate weapon in this war which needs to end atleast in this century. Lets all kill the racist within us before we demand the execution of the racist under trial. Below is a poem which I wrote yesterday night regarding this subject. Its the story of 2 brothers. One is the son of a black man and the other, of a white man. But, they same out of the same womb, whose colour they didn't notice. The poem is an appeal from the black brother to his white brother....

*********I wish......... ********
I wish you saw your own eyes better
And looked inside your narrow heart.
Your black and white eyes know better,
than your white skinhead brain.

I wish these were physical boundaries,
instead of the thorny hate thoughts.
I can endure a torn bloody flesh,
But I fail before those invisible slurs.

I wish God was not such an artist,
Or somebody just stole his colour palette.
He should've coloured us all the same
Or just made us all colour blind.

I wish you gave a pat on my back,
than that shattering slap on my face.
O brother, I can take a million more of those,
Only if you could shower a drop of love.

I wish you saw beyond all those clouds,
I wish you saw the futility of hate,
I wish we all could live and help live,
I wish the world opened its eyes, atleast for once..



Pics courtesy- from the net.

your crusader Praveen

Assbook,Farkut and Shwitter-Networking unleashed

Year 2049 ( not taking 2050 because everything is uncool after Harman Bhaweja uses it)

"I saw my grandmother for the first time today"
- Raj, a 50 year old's status message on the popular social networking site 'Assbook'.

"I never knew my house had a door through which I can get outside. Hey, I never knew there existed a world outside my home. But, I didn't see anyone alive outside."
- Samir, a 20 year old's status message in the networking site 'Farkut'(the 2nd vowel and the alphabet preceeding it is silent in the name)

"God, I just heard about a hurricane that lashed all over a country called USA. I feel sorry for the people there. Thank God, am in America."
-George, a 30 year old's latest message in the micro messaging site 'Shwitter'. This happened to be his last message there.

"Daisy said its safe because she's on pills"
-Shanth, a 5 year old kid famous for his anger, puts this message in the site 'Parending'


Nowadays, many people spent half of their life in on or the other social networking sites. When the orkut fad started way back in college, I thought everyone's excitement about the new medium will die down in a few days. But, it has only increased manifold with even sites in local languages catering to the kuttappans and thankappans of social networking. Facebook overtook orkut in popularity. Then came the path breaking micro messaging service, twitter. All of a sudden every filthy celebrity worth his/her salt is seen on twitter, creating records with the number of followers. Its a syndrome of 'Oh-u-r-so-uncool-if-u-r-not-on-twitter' all of a sudden. People have started updating the status of whatever they are doing right then online, to be read by their friends as well as millions of others on the net. With the convenience of updating status even from a mobile phone, we have some really wonderful realtime status messages to view everyday. Some samples.

"Right now having a hard time at the loo. Hope to finish this by EOD(End Of Day, for the uninitiated)"-Software engineer updating from the nearest restroom.

"Sending this update under trying cicumstances. Girlfriend has got one of her legs on my chests and a broomstick in one of her hands."

"The patient is crying out of pain. Forgot to give him the anaesthetic. Anyway its late, so thought I would let you all know this"- update from a doctor.

"Just baffled the interviewer with my quick wit. He's waiting for me to finish this tweet update"- youth at an interview.


Its all going to a point where people can never even think of living without this. Every small thing you do is paraded before the world as a soap opera. People talk more to the PC than their immediate neighbour. As the world shrinks, people are also shrinking inside. I may sound pessimistic. The Orwellian fan inside me makes me think that the whole internet is a big thought control mechanism where slowly your mind is made a slave without you even knowing it. A 6 pack body with a slavish mind is useless and slowly but completely you fall under the control. You become the addict. You get withdrawal symptoms when you stay away. You submit fully to it. More and more people fall into the trap. The world will be full of thought controlled zombies who call themselves humans. Then, the real dark villain will arise and call himself the owner of the internet and thus in a way the owner of your soul too.

The previous para was a doomsday scenario which occurs in my brain right after 12 AM everyday. The reality may not come much close to this. But it can never be ruled out. A generation of social networking slaves who have never seen a human alive in real life...

image courtesy-contrib.andrew.cmu.edu

Overflowing pubs, Maiden spirit & Death of the culture vultures

crowd in front of Le Rock pub. Checkout the cutout of Bruce 'Maiden' Dickinson at the top.

The spirits are at their highest point as I write this. Just got back home close to midnight after a hectic valentine's day. No, I was not busy kissing and holding hands with my girl friend all day. That has happened only in dreams until now. The pub bharo campaign was a grand success today as evident from the sea of humanity seen near the pubs in Bangalore. The fact that the Iron Maiden concert is happening here morrow added to the normal crowd in the pubs.

The Kingfisher heavy metal blogger's meet conducted by indiblogger.in was the highlight of the evening. Me and my friend Narayan landed up there and proving ourselves to be the new Gods of punctuality. Never have in recent times I reached for a program at the scheduled time. There was only a small bunch of about 8 people at the stone's pub in Indiranagar when we arrived there. The free beer started flowing from the word go. As the intros wen on, the music in the pub had already changed to the 'Iron Maiden' flavour. By 4.30 almost the whole bunch arrived and the pub was filled with only us, the bloggers who were familiar to each other only by their screen names. Today, it was a task of matching the correct face to the correct blog although to be honest, I haven't seen most of their blogs. It was nice to see many non-rockers too among the bunch, who just came for the blogging part of it. Special mention must be made of the guys who travelled miles from far away cities just for this meeting. The Iron Maiden quiz was a great touch from the part of the organisers. Spend quite a long time chatting with many of them. Hope to see them all morrow there at Palace grounds as we chant 'Maiden Maiden'. Also hope to see the non-rockers at the next blogger's meets.

After the meeting, I headed to brigade road to meet all those old rocker buddies from Trivandrum. It was another round of the 'pub bharo' andholan which happened there. The whole street was filled with Maiden fans wearing all kind of Maiden Ts. In between, I bought my special Maiden T for morrow's concert. Couples were out on full strength, holding hands and walking along proudly. The members of the 'Indian culture club' wearing saffron robes were nowhere to be seen. There were so many waiting to show them the middle finger, nut sadly they didn't make an appearance. To, Ram sene and your saffron bros, remain in the same hole that you hid today for the rest of your life. Don't ever dare to come out. Our shoes are ready to smash your faces and kick your asses. BTW, You are always welcome to the Iron Maiden concert. You will get to see a crowd of more than 50,000 'western influenced' guys and gals. And do shout a slogan against that. That will be the last you see of this beautiful earth...

So, Iron Maiden fans...Up the Irons...The day of reckoning is here...

Fear of the dark...Fear of the dark...I've a constant fear that someone's always near...
Scream for me Bangaloooooooooooooooooooooooore!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

your crusader Praveen

Aghoris:The reliogionistic cannibals

Warning-The things that you are about to read are not for the weak hearted. It can be highly disturbing. Reader discretion is requested.

Aghoris, I first heard this word some months back from a video that I got as a forward. Aghoris are a sect of Hindu sannyasins who are mainly found in Varanasi around the banks of the sacred river Ganga. They call themselves as the worshippers of the 3rd eye of Lord Siva. What sets them apart from other religious sects is one horrible ritual which is an integral part of their belief system-eating corpses. Now, you know why that warning was put up there on top of this post. The sight of an Aghori itself can scare you no end. They cover themselves with the ashes that comes from the burning of dead bodies. The whole body of an aghori including the face will be covered with this ash and that gives them an eerie albino like whitish appearance. The hair and beard are grown to great lengths. The Aghori sect is very few in number but all the existing members are staunch followers who are prepared to carry out all the gory rituals required of an Aghori.

In Varanasi, many of the dead are not burned or cremated. Many of the poor people prefer to immerse the body in the Ganges. The water of this holy river is believed to have purifying powers which will remove all sins from the dead man and provide him moksha. These bodies which are immersed in water usually flow downstream. The Aghoris are settled in such places. They wait for days on end for a dead body to flow downstream. Once they spot one, they jump in to take hold of the body. Usually the Aghoris operate as single. The body is brought ashore. The items for an elaborate pooja are set. The divine lamp is shined. Now, the Aghori will proceed to sit on the stomach of the dead body. The chantings will start. After this elaborate ritual starts the gory part. The Aghori takes a knife and cuts the body parts one by one. Then he proceeds to bite off and eat it. In the video that I saw, an Aghori eating the hands of the dead body was shown clearly. It was so intolerable that I could hardly eat something peacefully for 2 days.

An aghori drinking water from a skull-another of their strage rituals

I was left wondering on what's the basis behind this ritual. The video didn't utter a single word regarding that. I did a short research on the net and checked out some old NGC videos too. From all those sources, I got the following reasons for their shocking rituals. The Aghoris don't have a concept of pure or impure. They believe in the oneness of things. So, they never distinguish anything as pure or impure. A rose in full bloom and a smelly corpse are given the same status by the Aghoris. One of these is not given a higher pedestal just because it appears beautiful or is pure than the other. So, to disprove the popular notions of purity, Aghoris accept such disgusting things like corpses and consume alcohol, behaviour which are considered unacceptable by normal people. They believe that since everything on the face of the earth is created by God, rejecting a particular creation of God is same as rejecting Him. Some members of this sect are even accused of practising necrophilia, the meaning of which am not writing here explicitly.

The American Aghori Kapalnath

Of the very few followers of this sect, a man named Kapalnath is the most famous. An American by birth, his original name is Gary Stevenson. He's popularly known as 'American Aghori' and there are many scary stories going on around about him, many of which he himself has denied. Whatever be the case, its a wonder that such things exist in the civilised society around us. A thing to note is Aghoris are found not only in India but at other parts of the world too. Many people are seen defending this sect by saying that they are not commiting any crime, they are just eating corpses. Not a crime by the books of law, but a crime in the true sense if the word called 'morality' still exists.

If you are not very weak hearted, do checkout one of the video clips here.

http://in.youtube.com/watch?v=W0bGrvKVxac

PS-Due to my recent researches on the Aghoris, my roomies have started calling me an Aghori :(

PPS-Forgot to mention about the upcoming Tamil move 'Naan Kadavul' being directed by Bala. It deals with Aghoris. Checkout the awesome soundtrack by Ilayaraja. Especially the song 'Om Siva Om' which captures the mood of the subject. The album is also lyrically excellent with some though provoking lines. My favourite lines are from the song 'Pichaipaathiram'. Waiting for the movie to do the rest of the research work.

Your crusader Praveen