change is good. change is permanent. change washes away the old, and welcomes the new... blah blah blah blah... and so shall it be, and so it shall come to pass... hmmm.this is what i feel about the horrific attack on mumbai - the aftermath and reactions from the people... this time things will change... because it's no longer the middle-class commuter on the train that has died... or the hand-cart pushers in a dingy alley... or just nameless faces with no standing in the social strata... things will change because the rich have lost friends and family, industrialists have been mowed down, and 5 star hotels in whichnthe elite hob-nob have been damaged... really a sad thing to say - but it's true... how many news reporters just went on and on abt the taj being the icon of bombay - and how it is being damaged!! screw you!! how can you even bother sobbing over a structure (historic, regal, much loved etc no doubt) when human lives were at stake... and we had a "peddar road" resident come out and say "oh i go to the taj when i feel depressed, and i had to come here today..." wrong thing to say - but guess what? this time things will change, and leaders will be pulled up. this one has hit where it hurts most. We have insensitive journalism, irresponsible politicians and leaders and the system is corrupt... and then we talk abt the "bombay spirit" crap! we pay the hoghest taxes in the country - do we get any back? and when we do it just disappears... did anyone notice Mod telling a person to shove off and not block the frame, as that person was standing in between the news cameras and Modi!!! the cheek and cheapness of it all - that idiot wanted the world to see that he had arrived and was mourning - when we have leaders like these... will there ever be salvation? when will our cops get proper equipment, when will our leaders stop passing the buck? on a show, barkha dutt asked shobha de about how the politicians for the first time seem united - shobha de replied - they ae not doing anybody any fvors - this is their job... how ironic but true - that we have a nation being torn apart by corrupt politicians and an inefficient system - who needs terrorists? in the USA, the different positions are given to leaders with credentials so that a banker does not get home ministry (as we have in India) - shouldnt the army/genral/armed forces be in charge of The Home Ministry - who else is better equipped or knowledgeable... a 75 year old man who has a criminal record or some such person who the nation has elected!! we are an incredible nation - we are doomed to say the least if we don't see change now!! because soon 26/11 will remain a piece of memory - or garlanding photographs of the martyrs where political leaders will show their "solidarity"... when will we change?

Indian Journalism at its worst - Mumbai Terror Attacks

Please get Indian news journalists off air
We have blamed politicians, we have pointed fingers at cops, we have asked questions about fire-fighters reaching late, and we have wondered who to blame for the security lapses. But have any of the TV news channels been chastised for being one of the biggest reasons behind the ordeal lasting for 59 hours?
Every move that the NSG commandos made, every tactical position that they took up, every detail of the hotel guests hiding, every arrival of fresh commandos and back-up was revealed with accurate detail by every journalist present at the Terror-Venues. In their bid to out-do each other, in the mad-rush to be first, some channels even gave out wrong information creating panic amongst citizens, only to retract it later with a lame apology. As representatives of the Nation’s News brigade isn’t there a code of conduct that they follow? Don’t the journos ratify the information they get? And one Hindi news channel even showed images of a head separated from its torso – one of the victims of the CST attack – on TV!!! What kind of journalism is this?
The Hindi news channel India TV (that recently did a news story about whether aliens too drank cow’s milk) had or claimed to have one of the terrorists calling them up LIVE on air. See it to believe it.
http://in.youtube.com/watch?v=CVI4Mdf1tE4
The militants followed every bit of news on TV, followed every Twitter update, visited web pages on their blackberrys – they knew every tactical detail that they required to know to aid them attack better. The news that NSG commandos were on their way to Mumbai just helped them to plan much in advance. This is what The Times of India had to say on their online edition http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/Mumbai/Blow-by-blow_breaking_news_breaks_viewer_patience/articleshow/3785897.cms
And no one delivered tactical info better than one of the most senior and Padmashree Award recipient television journalist – Barkha Dutt. She was in your face – loud, frothing, sensationalist and irritating. She did her walk-through the crowd, pointing the camera to them, pulling bystanders for sound-bites, and pointing to broken glass and curtains. When the NSG chief asked the crowd at Nariman House to disperse and be quiet as the operation was still under-way, Ms. Dutt pointed the cameras on the crowd and got them excited. Does every bit of news that she reports has to have a sensational angle? And at one point after the Taj ordeal is over she urges the commandos to give thumbs up sign and then shouting and asking him – “are there any more terrorists?” The NSG chief already told the world that... and then she turns to cam and says “I have just heard from the commando that there are no terrorists inside!!”
It seems that the online community is united in its opinion on the shoddy journalistic ethics of not only Ms. Dutt but of all the news channels. There are groups on Facebook like “Barkha Dutt for worst senior journalist on the planet” which has 834 members and growing - http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=37072947818
Yet another group on Facebook that boasts of 2409 members is called “Can you please take Barkha off air” http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=37072947818#/group.php?gid=37165432771
Chyetanya Kunte on his blog - http://ckunte.com/archives/shoddy-journalism has this to say about Ms. Dutt’s reportage:
“In another instance, a General sort of suggests that there were no hostages in Oberoi Trident. (Clever.) Then, our herione of revelations calls the head of Oberoi, and the idiot confirms a possibility of 100 or more people still in the building. Hello! Guys with guns, you’ve got more goats to slay. But before you do, you’ve got to love NDTV and more precisely Ms. Dutt. She’s your official intelligence from Ground zero.”
There is Raaj who reacts to Cheytanya’s blog with his comment http://ckunte.com/archives/shoddy-journalism#comment-16494
“I guess she made more damage (if there can be something like that) during her reporting in Kargil. My Brother-in-law was fighting in one of the operations ‘exposed’ by Barkha Dutt (the terrorists stooge in the media) and his blood boils at the very mention of this women as he says a lot of our brave jawans were lost because of this channels greed for TRP’s. The greatest irony is that she got an award for this ‘reporting’.”
And for all wondering if there are any rules and regulations that the News Broadcasters have to follow – there is. http://www.thehoot.org/web/home/story.php?storyid=3296&pg=1&mod=1§ionId=7&valid=true
Take a look at it for yourself and see how many of these rules and guidelines were broken during the onslaught of the media while Mumbai burned

Oh! Calcutta

Calcutta was a dream, and is a dream
To the teeming millions in the countryside.
A dream in stones – the Victoria Memorial,
Captured in plastic jerry-cans on the foot-path

The East India Company of the yesteryears
Built the city, the cathedrals, and the docks.
They left some customs on sitting rooms
Of Ballygunge and Tollygunge areas.

The Howrah Bridge is a world of its own
Where in thousands dwell, and young men wrestle.
The Alipore Zoo is a weekend family centre,
Depending on which side of the fence you stand.

In conditioned luxury, few are chauffer driven
For millions, life hangs by three fingers.
Lunch-packs under their arms, the world stands
And waits in the queue for the 420 bus.

The executive with his VIP brief-case;
The school boy loaded with his tuitions and text-books
The daily laborers push-cart their lives day through night
When beggars plead, and lepers chase flies.

Sorry Kipling, here East meets West in a nightmarish union
And history and science jostle for the first place.
For all this and much more, I love you Calcutta,
City of my birth, and centre of my civilization

Stand Back

No favors here,

When you take my hand

For a sense of direction

Or even just cold comfort.

No favors here –

Just a smile perhaps;

But you laugh

At the proverbial fool.

You laugh so loud,

I’m shocked awake to learn

Always keep my hands to myself.

the mad man by your car window

He sits by the wayside

The tide has washed

Away his mind

Be kind and don’t ask

What is it that he wants…

If he could just step back in time

The pantomime that plays inside his head

Is not his.

Strange dull ache is all that he feels

Because all that remain

With him are flash-cuts from

An Oliver Stone film

Which, has nothing to do

With what he felt, saw, touched or sensed

Or the life he once had,

Or did he have a life at all,

He doesn’t know.

 

He cringes in the dark

Like a rat that knows his end is near

But he wished he only knew

Who he was, what he was

And put aside his fear

Of dying a nameless death

On the side-walk

And get collected by the cops

With a toe-tag that only gives a count

Like the endless white screams

The mindless dreams

That he hears every night, every time

The sun begins to fade.

His little tattered blanket

Keeps him warm, dry,

And sometimes acts as a shield

From the prying world

When he begins to eat his only meal

Of half-eaten fruit thrown at the dogs

Which he grabbed for hunger’s sake.

He wishes someone would throw

His memory back to him

So that he could understand

The reason behind his pain.

 

Someone once said that

He carried a picture of a girl

Faded, now dirty

Like the old t-shirt which he wears

says Levi’s 501.

There was a time when he stared

At passing cars

Trying to match the picture to a face.

Till all that remained

Was a blur of wheels

Burnt into the depths of his mind

Where now,

The wheels have long stopped turning,

And it’s just a roar that remains...