10 seconds

This is information age. Yes. But it just got too easy.
We have news from across the globe minute per minute on our palm.
We are never disconnected. Writing an email has almost strictly become an official act.
Distances doesn't matter any more. News doesn't excite any more.

Now, before you judge me let me tell you something I am not a pessimist. There are definitely positives about this connected world. But somehow I feel that the world/people are falling apart than ever before and the reason seems to be the constant awareness and access to everyone and everything.

Wael Gohnim, whose Anonymous page on Facebook helped spark the Egyptian Revolution of 2011. In his Ted Talk he start of with saying; I once said, "If you want to liberate a society, all you need is the Internet." I was wrong." And ended his Talk with; "Today, I believe if we want to liberate society, we first need to liberate the Internet." 

Opinions are posted not formed. As very rightly pointed out in Talk, social media is polarising the people than ever before. And this is happening to every strata of the population quite unknowingly to most of them.

This first hit me, when recently my father asked me; "So you are pro-Congress" . I have been hearing this many times off late but this time was different. I collected myself and told my Dad that it is not about BJP or Congress but I am just not as hopeful of the current Government as everyone else are.

2014 was the first election in India which was largely won on Social Media campaigns and rightly so; because everyone is there. But it has tainted the timelines with extreme opinions. Today if I question a decision of the current Government and tomorrow praise some other move by them; I will be called unstable. Neutrality is lost in the fight to gain more likes/retweets and comments. No wonder most of my posts go unnoticed because it doesn't 'evoke' a response.

We all see how easy it has been for ISIS too with Social Media. Wasn't it scary to see Jehadi John posting pics? 140 Characters is all it takes.

Headlines are created by Tweets. People are jailed for posts. Revolution is triggered by a Page. Polls are won online. And sales are done through Trends. Whatever happened to the physical world? To the real human connection. The social media offers the great possibility of creating a phenomenon which could be completely delusional. The influence factor is exponential. You can't be spared to remain neutral.

What is the solution? 10 seconds. We need to give time. We are doing it all too fast. Reading the post and clicking on like button too fast. Didn't like what we read? - commenting too fast. Similarly with tweets. Give that 10 seconds, think of what you really make of the topic. Sometimes we might realize that it doesn't concern/impact us a bit and hence making an opinion might not be right thing to do. Give that 10 seconds before you discuss with somebody what you just read online. Stop before you click the share button and read the content again and give 10 seconds, All I ask of each one of us is to not rush into forming and spreading our opinions. Let's give that 10 seconds.

Indian Democracy - Independent Judiciary?

In school, we were taught as a part of Civics subject that India has independent judiciary.
Rather the constitution makers foresaw not only a judiciary which is independent but one which is also competent in itself.

On papers our judiciary is independent of the executive but is it competent in itself?

The laws in place which should be self sufficient to prosecute a criminal still needs aid of media.
For an open and shut case like Jessica Lal Murder it took years and a huge media involvement to get the very obvious guilt of murder behind the bars!

The laws that should protect our freedom have Secition 66A under IT Act which is so open perception that it leads to arrest of two girls posting their (devoid of religion) opinion on FB arrested.

Judiciary that should be the supreme most body in the society in now a game in hands of Media.
It seems as if Media is the most powerful body in Indian society.
And it has become more evident with the shocking 'reverse sting' by Naveen Jindal!

If you want justice today; approaching Judiciary might not help much but a hype in media definitely one.
This is not democracy; this is chaos!

Law makers and Law abider; high time time tight up that grip!

The EQ in Shanghai

"Shanghai is good, not great.But it is an important, relevant film that demands to be watched."

This is all I have to say when it comes to review.

The best review of the movie according to me is :

http://www.indianexpress.com/news/shanghai/959572/0

Just come back after watching this film and it makes me think of my emotional journey as I sat through the narration.

Yes emotional. Why because one flawless aspect of the film was the fact that it was very Indian in nature. Though, it is inspired by the French political novel 'Z', but the aggression, character, flow of the story was so close to the reality!

I can still feel the sadness and remorse I felt when the song 'Bharat Mata ki Jai' comes up. The placement of the song very much like it's lyrics was satirical and the dance on it more so!

The grey shade of each character is another reason you can relate the instances and plot to the real incidents in Indian political framework.

The one man inquiry commission like the many setup in Indian political system the intentions, the framework all the same like we know of from the newspaper. In the story; when the commission closes in, it is suggested by the CM to handover the case to crime branch. Reminds you and me of so many pending CBI cases of political importance!

Read somewhere: “हमारे देश में ऐसे कमीशन अक्सर बैठते हैं. फिर लेट जाते हैं. और फिर सो जाते हैं.”

Also Read somewhere that the character of Anant Jog in the film represents silent India. Not only is that true but it is the most disturbing truth of our society!

'Shanghai' or 'India Shining'. The grass root issues are veiled by these metaphors forced on us by the politicians. This is when movies like Shanghai show us the truth, the ground level facts. However, flawed this movie might be but it demands to been seen!

Kashmir and Ms. Roy

The status quo in Kashmir seems to be one of the most difficult problems for the present government. With hardly any positive vibes coming from government's panel of interlocutors, Ms. Arundhati Roy alongside Geelani manages to steal all the media attention by her extremist view on Kashmir issue.
A successful author, novelist and known-activist from Kerela Ms. Roy stated that in her opinion, Kashmir is not an integral part of India and she goes on further in stating that,"After attaining freedom from the British, India itself has become a colonial power."
So much so from the think tank of India. And the opposition, did the better for the hype of her statement by reacting in rage and demanding her to be charged with sedition.
And the headlines spurs through all the channels - "Democracy or Sedition".

We are a pluralist society, and a successful one which has no parallel in the world.
India as a country in itself always represents a nation with balanced attitude. We as one country have never ever displayed any extremist behaviour. We have extremist views proliferating in numerous political parties, extremist groups. institutions and among individuals themselves. But as a secular country India is supposed to respect each and every individual's opinion.
In this case, BJP's reaction spurred many emotions globally. Instantly there were blogs from London Muslim Society and eminent people like Fatima Bhutto tweeting against the India's will to suppress the voice of a well-known Indian author in the name of sedition.
While being proud of our secular and democratic society, it was very irresponsible of the BJP to be impulsive of Ms Roy's statement.
Personally even I felt outraged to hear her comments. Many people will agree here that her statement clearly reflected her ignorance of history. Yet let us not forget that many Indians actually agree with her and majority of them are Kashmiris. Let us not deteriorate the Central Government's image in the eyes of valley people by calling it an act of sedition.
Why can't we like mature citizens respect the freedom of speech and accept another citizen for whatever opinion she has and try to fight the presumed ill-effect of her statements by the same tool - "FREEDOM OF SPEECH"
Let us play it all fair and square!

Salman Khan apologises!

Yes another controversy to the credit of Salman Khan. And this time he was made to apologise for his words.

For those unaware, Salman in an interview to Pakistani channel was asked about the anti-Pakistan feelings that has aggravated post "6/11"; to which he replied, "Everybody knew the (Pakistani) government was not behind it and that it was a terrorist attack.... it was the elite that was targeted this time, five-star hotels and all. So they panicked. Then they got up and spoke about it. My question is why not before. Attacks have happened in trains and small towns too, but no one talked about them so much."

Masters of reaction, Shiv Sena dutifully opposed his statement which were "ill informed and insensitive" and demanded an apology. BJP acceded with Shiv Sena.

Even people from Mumbai Police Dept. felt hurt as they believed that Salman's statements was an insult to the memory of the martyrs who died 'battling the Pakistanis'.

Now this all was just about right as it was the auspicious day of Eid and Ganesh Chaturthi when this drum roll was played!

Now this is how Salman reacted to the hyped controversy:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wmHREC5Sg3Y

He apologised! Partly because his 'dabangg' statement actually had put the future of Dabangg at stake!

The reason I am pointing this one out of many such cases is because I think that Salman had just asked a question - A very valid question. And the ones who are supposed to at least be introspective have to the norms strongly opposed Salman's views/statement.

I put this question forward again.

Why do we have a 26/11 but not.... wait... what was the day Mumbai local trains were bombed or when Akshardham temple was attacked!!!!

Yeah we all know when Parliament was attacked!!

War on nation!

Kasab is costing Maharashtra govt. 2L/day. And 35 crores have already been spent on him!
So much for a person who is loathed by the entire population of india, from 10-year old girl disabled by Kasab's gunshot, Devika (who showed amazing courage by being a witness against him in the court) to Shirish Karkare,brother of ATS Chief Late Hemant Karkare; who puts the murder of his brother as a loss to nation first and family second!.
He is found guilty of killing some 166 people in the 26/11 attack. What about these crores of rupees that is very much a right of the citizens of this country!
Each and every single citizen has monetarily compromised unknowingly in bringing him to this date that court has FINALLY found him guilty!!
Why was their even a trial for so long? Why do we even need to follow the court's hirarchical order for the final say?
One court session, evidences were crystal clear! Every single person from a child to a grandpa all have seen the video of kasab blindly opening fire at crowded CST. That would have been just the fair trial from both ends!
I feel sick, to see him alive till date! I feel highly agitated to feel that, Kasab's life past 26/11 would have been such a hope for all those terrorists, who know no humanity leave apart religion!
When an Indian national is caught for any crime in another nation; even before the allegation are proved, it is such a difficult task for even the goverment officials to have access to the accused allowed!
And what we do... We saw kasab giving statement in media! Why is he allowed to glorify himself! He should have no access to the normal walks of the world (which will remain normal only when people like him are out of sight --> out of mind!) !
Well this is even acceptable, as we finally feel that Kasab's D'Day is approaching soon.
What about Masters of Master David Headley. It took a PM's visit to US to be allowed direct access to a person, who is charged with such a high magnitude of crime!
We need a change here! A serious change in attitude of the government, towards the whole process of dealing with accused, that are charged with the intention of raising war against OUR nation!