Kukoo, Say Sorry To Momma

And he did, after pleading his case inside papa’s room. He did, after crying for an hour on that unforgettable night. And after he really said sorry and promised he would never do the unthinkable again, his mother breathed a sigh of relief. And after she really breathed a second sigh of relief, she was not surprised when she realised that she still couldn’t sleep peacefully that night. She discussed with Kukoo’s father if Kukoo handing over his resignation would help bring her an iota of peace to her. Or if Kukoo could go to the local community centre and apologize in front of the entire village. Kukoo did the latter and guess what, Momma slept well. But only for a few nights.

Loony tunes? (see Barkha Dutt’s ‘Loony Tunes’, 20/12/2008 Hindustan Times) certainly. From the atrocious amount of airtime given to the funny minister to articles in major newspapers expecting A.R.Antulay be hanged or given life imprisonment or stripped from his position, they all need a better platform. Cartoon network, Disney Channel or even India TV for that matter.

Our newly found obsession of seeking apologies is certainly not as ephemeral as candle light marches or slogan shouting or even those revolutions started by many ‘patriotic’ people in the aftermath of the Mumbai attacks. It started when we did intensive research for our nation-wide revolution. We recorded videos of many news channels, bifurcated them, took a part of them to the laboratories, applied some image recognition software and found that Ram Gopal Verma was at the ‘iconic’ Taj. Then in the same laboratories we brought in R.R. Patil and Abbas Ali Naqvi for careful examination of their statements. They were given injections of public outrage unless they apologized or gave away their coveted positions.

There is no point in discussing what we really gain by focussing on seeking apologies from such people. Resignation? Yes, no doubt it should be demanded when people cross the line. But in doing so, the media should not cross the line by giving unnecessary air time to people who don't matter much. It is very unfortunate that the news channels think that they are the only ones which a viewer is watching. The fact is that about 60% of all the 55 news channels in India are available to a common man subscribed to cable television. This means that the viewer will hear almost 30 news anchors demanding apologies from the same person in 30 minutes. And imagine when at prime time there are two faces at the desk pouring out news, in a childish turn-by-turn.

It is shameful to see that knowing Kukoo is relatively weak, we still spare not even a single second of airtime to embarrass him. Also, the fact that others like Kukoo have committed more heinous crimes and are still at large makes me hide my face, and no veil is sufficient, neither Manoj Kumar’s nor that of globalisation.

Going through pages of psychology books will certainly help in knowing better what effect do apologies have on both, the seeker and the giver. If this is the way we are going to focus and bring about a revolution, I feel sorry for Jai Prakash Narayan. He worked hard in his revolution and failed but we could have learnt a lot from that episode. If we think we’ll sleep better from now on after listening to apologies, I feel sorry for the All India Radio’s late night edition of ‘Puraane Gaane’, rendered out of fashion years back.

There are so many other things that momma can do to make her house and society a better place to live in. Firstly, by sticking to her values imparted to her by her ancestors. Then, by giving kukoo high quality education. Also, by discussing issues of national importance at the dinner table, rather than inflating Ekta Kapoor’s silk purse. If the argument is that kukoo has grown up and still behaving unethically, momma certainly should look at the way she has educated him instead of scolding him and pulling his ears till he gives an apology. The basic flaws in momma’s way of bringing up kukoo are just not confined to this one house in the village. The corner house in the same street paid less attention to Pragya’s upbringing. Little Narendra in his childhood was never allowed to sit with Suleman in his school bus by his parents. Raj was not stopped at school when he used to harass Rohit Yadav everyday. And most of all, the entire village community was busy buying tickets at the local lottery booth when their children picked up bidis to smoke behind their backs.

I don’t know how many calamities are required to make us look back at our system of bringing up children. Until then, Kukoo may keep on saying sorry for every wrong he does. After all, if he never felt shameful for abusing his brother that night, he may well never feel shameful at all when he is forced to say ‘Sorry’. But I do, because we don’t feel the same when we strive to hear this four letter word, and feel that battles are won or lost on such petty issues.

And Now...?

Another blog on Mumbai? Another 'Talk' and 'No Action' ? Maybe Not. Read On.
Initially I wrote the following to all the leading journalists, but only a few replied. But then I felt that I should address as many people as possible. Here it goes, and I welcome any criticism with an open mind and arms(not those arms ;) ).

By now, you must have read thousands of blogs and watched plenty of news where people are expressing their feelings about what happened in Mumbai. First and foremost, I have been watching almost every news channel and therefore have witnessed every kind of outrage from all sections of the society. What I wish to convey is something many have not touched upon till now. Shyam Benegal came a little close and I think he should have said more that day when Barkha Dutt asked him about all this happening around. What I wish to convey should be understood when the reader is calm and does not have a lump in his/her throat due to flashing of horrifying images in Mumbai. The subject of this e-mail is simple, there is a disease in our society, and any disease can either be cured or prevented or both. What follows is logical reasoning behind where I think we are going wrong and what should be done in future.

Firstly, I would like to comment on the reactions I saw on national television of some of the eminent people of our country. Suhel Seth & Shobha De went all guns blazing attacking the politicians. There is no doubt that politicians have defaulted big time and there is just no excuse for the mistakes which they have made. But by telling them to move out or stay out of the city and telling them to resign, we are merely aggravating the problem at hand. Here is where we are about to go wrong. Both, Shobha and Suhel, are looked upon as idols by many young people in the society. As a result, I have seen people in marches to Jantar Mantar literally abusing the politicians. My argument: Do we have politicians who can guarantee 100% security? If we kick the politicians out, do we have some replacement system by which these people wish to run our country? Akin to what happened in US, that many elites were accused of embracing the decision of Bush to attack war, and were unwilling to send their own children into the armed forces, the same question must be asked to those who are publicly abusing politicians. Can parents tell their children to study hard so that they can become politicians some day, instead of getting into lucrative careers after doing their MBA? Or can people like Suhel Seth ask their children to get into Navy or join NSG? My message in this regard is this: Start trusting them, start believing in them and you'll soon see the change in them. Even the most corrupt politician will come on the right track after he is labelled as "an honest man" in public. It may sound a kind of Gandhigiri, but sadly it's true, that Baapu would have given the same message had he been alive. We simply need to believe in them, just as we believe in our armed forces.

Secondly, do we really have enough time to indulge in criticizing people like Ram Gopal Verma for his visit to the Taj? Let's rise above these issues. Let's rise above Abbas Ali Naqvi's and R.R. Patil's statements. The reason to do so is because we are not solving the issue at hand through all this and we are unnecessarily giving publicity to people who are seeking it badly. Just imagine, can terrorism be stopped by telling Ramu and other people like him to stay away from these incidents? Can terrorism be stopped if Mr Naqvi and Mr Patil don't say these things on national television? I guess you would have a logical answer by now. It is here where we differ from the professional American nature. They won't get into all these time wasting activities.

After carefully analyzing our anger towards such an incident I am sorry to conclude that we only shout when people who sound or look like us face such situations. Where were Suhel Seth and Shobha De when hundreds of people died in Bihar floods and when so many people committed suicide in Vidarbha. Certainly the media didn't decide to have 24x7 coverage when these events were taking place. When these things happened, none of us came out with candles on the streets; none of us shouted slogans against politicians. The diseases are many, namely, poverty, education, terrorism etc. We cannot prioritize them based on the kind of people who are affected because of these diseases. If we do, we will unconsciously be indulging in economic and social discrimination. The disease is spread through worms in our minds, we need to get them out first, and what will follow will be a never heard of peaceful nation, where people shall live happily with each other irrespective of who drives which car and who bows down in front of which God.

Now what follows is the most important part of my message. There is an analogy to the current situation. The polio endemic in 1952 took thousands of lives. When everyone was looking to cure the patients who were struck by this deadly virus, a very unlikely person stood up and proposed that something can be done to prevent this disease. After facing a lot of criticism for their 'prevention' centric approach, Jonas Salk and Hilary Koprowsky came out with a vaccine which helped eradicate polio to a great extent. What we have at hand is a deadly disease called 'terrorism'. Yes, increasing security and destroying terrorist camps is the best and only 'cure' possible. But none of us are looking at ways in which we can prevent it, i.e. attack the roots of this disease for its eradication. This does not mean that we stop the curing part. But both curing and preventing must run in parallel for its complete eradication. To understand how to cure the terrorism disease, is to understand what makes these people join these camps and get brain washed. After a lot of analysis, I came to this conclusion that we really need to DO something, as so everyone else is suggesting. But contradictory to so many people, what we need to increase is 'Talking' which every one is condemning ("We only talk, we don't do"). We need to talk to each other more than what we have done ever before. For people like me, who do not have the power that media possesses, the authority which politicians possess, we can do our best by doing two things from now on. Firstly, we must behave as highly responsible citizens by voicing our concerns for increase in security and make the politicians do something this time. This is our way to contribute to the 'cure' of this disease. Now, the second way is the most important one, and you can do a lot to make this happen. Terrorism is no doubt a top priority issue along with poverty and lack of education. My point here is also purely logical. We must talk 24x7 about national issues. By talking I mean, debating and discussing in a professional manner. Just like the famous We The People, we need such debates to happen every minute and in every nook and corner of India. Till now, college students have been talking 24x7 about national issues like SRK or Britney Spears. If we involve more and more people in our debates about real national issues, our minds would only evolve. It is through these debates and discussions that we might find a politician's relative debating with us, which will have a chain reaction and ultimately influence the politician himself. We may have a young Muslim within our debating coterie and he may realize that all of us really want a secular India and that being a part of any terrorist organization is just the most horrible thing that can happen to anyone, and this further may have chain reactions. The point is simple. The more we talk about highly important things in a professional manner, the more we evolve. The more people we talk to, we lessen the probability of young people joining such horrifying camps run by totally insane people. How you can help here is by organizing We The People in every college and slowly then in every street. I think I am clear on this point, what I really mean to say is that we can start a revolution based on We The People, and at the forefront will be all the professional debate moderators like Barkha Dutt, Rajdeep Sardesai, Arnab Goswami etc. I guess this is the best way we can make people aware and also at the same time follow this Gandhian solution which would eventually give us very good results in the form of a peaceful society. We really need to get everybody participate in these debates and even if it takes a two months of planning and marketing for such a revolution, I would eagerly contribute with loads of ideas, one of them being, holding these discussions in monuments like Humayun's Tomb, where the ambience ensures peaceful discussions and patriotic feelings inside every participant.

If this seems to you a sensible solution then I would love to hear from you about some future planning we all could do to bring about such a revolution. And personally speaking, I made it my mission to chat one-on-one with at least 3 friends everyday after the blasts took place. They all were full of rage and their message was the same, 'Let's DO something now'. And when asked, what should we DO NOW, they felt comfortable because while chatting I could not see their blank faces. And then I indulged with them, in talking about the cure to all these things, and trust me, all of them, in total 15 now, have realized that they indulged in all the non-sense with their friends at school and college. My view in simple words is this : Young people need to talk about issues of national importance right now, and talk professionally for a meaningful evolution of their minds, so that we can reach meaningful conclusions which help us in the long run. This is the DO we can DO for now. I see every human being as a potential 'Pillar of Thought', if all of us can get together and think and talk, it will be half the action done. I hope it doesn't sound clichéd, but I firmly believe in this:

Action without thought is a form of insanity; Thought without action is a crime. –Einstien.

The following are some more suggestions and a short summary:

* NSG & Armed Forces: A problem of quality as much as of quantity. Make the defence forces as lucrative as the corporate sector is today.

* Socially conscious corporate sector: Companies specializing in building security products. Free and evolving market will ensure competition & hence quality. Encourage innovations in security domain.

* Let's rise above issues which do not have any relation to solving this major problem. For e.g. issues which recently involved Abbas Ali Naqvi, R.R. Patil, Ram Gopal Varma and K Achutanandan.

* Roots of economic boom we had can be traced to IIM graduates. On these lines, create a new Industry starting from B.Tech(Security & Intelligence). M.Tech (Security & Intelligence). Students should specialize in the security domain and trained in at least the most minimal course offered by Army, Navy or Air Force.

* A la Singapore: Compulsory service to the nation for 2 years after high school. Could be as scouts, employees at zoos, national museums etc.

* Make debates and discussions compulsory in every school and corporate house. A debate hour when the entire country debates and discusses issues of national importance in small groups in a professional manner, everyday at the same time.

* Increase awareness about IAS, IPS & IFS amongst the youth. Start publicity campaigns in colleges and schools.

* Gandhigiri: Start trusting, believing and appreciating politicians and you'll soon see the change in them.

Thank you for sparing your precious time and reading this.