A reply to mayank khurana....

loaded which way?

This is my reply to mayanks post in his yahoo 360 page....i first give his post and then my reply....



Maynak's post.....

Entry for August 13, 2005


i just dont know what to make of america?? i am sure all of you must be aware of the protests going on in front of Bush's ranch in texas...



on one hand we have a country of people who allow themselves to be cajoled by bush n company, straight into a war with no apparant reason.. a country which is fast becoming a police state.. a country which is arguably the instigitor of WMD and perhaps may even itself be called one...



on the other hand we have a country where one of the first voices of dissidence started to rise as the war against iraq was proclaimed by the head honchos..we have people like cindy sheehan, who are not afraid to take on the "most powerful man on earth" ..& a large community of people just like her supporting her stance..



strange isnt it.. bush faces the strongest criticism of his work from his country itself..n yet the country seems to support him! which is the real america? one controlled by bush or the one rallying agianst him?



furthermore i was thinking abt this scenario wrt India, can u stand in the front gate of Manmohan singh, accuse him of a crime and not be promptly whisked away by a large, long moustached uniform wearing gaurd to a nice and cozy cell, where you might be lost to teh world for a day or two, coming out only when u have seen eye to eye with our great sikh prime minister? well maybe i am exaggerating a bit.. but u get the point?



where is india? who is india? where are the indians who fought for their beliefs and rights? where are the people who knew the call of duty? from a population of 300 million in 1947, with lush green fields,rich minerals, strong leadership and huge promises... how did we turn into this stink infested , meager rathole of 1 billion impotent cowards? where did we go wrong?



my ire was raised today as it generally does near this time "indepence day", as we call it..... i went out today to CP, ... the shops, the whole market was inundated with the tri-colour.... i saw reebok store .... pardon the pun.. "sporting" our national flag and wondered WTF!!!


why now? shldnt we be thankfull every single moment of our pathetic lives to the greats who died for our independence? every single independence day the tri-colour is brought out of moth closets... our cars showcase neatly made, wooden flags.. Khadi gram udyog sells out.. we shout slogans in praise of martyrs.. esp if we are with other ppl.. our frnds!.. then we have a big grand bash celebrating our victory over the east india company n the queen.... never for a single moment taking care that the same queen's companies are now "sporting" our national flag EVERYWHERE in india? and i mean everywhere!! can i please see some indian companies doing it? o right i forgot.. there arnt many local companies suviving the mnc onslaught.. not where i can see!!! oops.. my mistake!



we are better off today we say.. ofcourse we are... we have so much better lifestyle.. just playing secerataries to dumb "angrez" who couldnt find his computer plug and called our "CALL CENTRE" to help him do it...



is this all freedom means? watching salman go shirtless in every movie..earning the right to see evry saas turning on her bahoo on telivision.. go to work in the "big corporation" from overseas.. while they are dumping toxic waste in our backyard??



am i free? are we truly free? or are we still enslaved by another east india company who was cut down only to rise like a hydra with multitude of faces????





And my reply....

hey buddy..

good strong post...a few points...

the line b/w real and imaginary america is more blurred than most of us can imagine...the real america for most yanks is what the mass media there wants it to be...i mean when yanks talk ab fox news as being liberal, u get the pt....they have created specious differences in the minds of the average man so as to give the illusion of choice and of diversity, when in actuality there is none...there is a underlined consensus on everything....the people like chomsky, vidal and rock bands (the real ones, not what passes as rock on most channels) are too few and too much drowned out by the deluge of voices on media to be noticed or even comprehended by majority of americans....if u look at the map of usa, its steadily turning red (republican ie)....these peoples voices are not being heard...and how can they be....chomsky is not even published by any major usa publisher...that guy is not heard in his own country, he comes on no discussion cuz u c if he coms, he wd shatter the illusion that media and the corporates with the cabal of bush hav so beautifully weaved...so where is real america? its alw been there but lately fewer and fewer people are hearing it....

the sec pt is ab india...u make a mistake ab calling us a nation of 1 billion cowards living as rat infested, filthy people who have inherted the sycophantic nature of our forefathers....i dont agree bec first of all, it is too big a generalization and secondly bec it coms of frustration and a innate cynicism in people like me and you who see the things as they are and yet feel powerless to do anything ab it....u c, we are the ones who are the impotents, the armchair revolutionaries...most of us can rave and rant and then go back, without a hint of irony, to our AC rooms, our six course dinners and yes to the very reebok and the queens's stores displaying those tricolors.....


the fact is that there is already a silent revolution underway, fragmented yes but growing in strength... a million mutinies....some are heroic, some are idealistic and doomed to failure, some are voilent and succeeding wildly....and not all of them are pretty and romantic...many are brutal and do not augur well for us....they are born of the same frustruation except raised to a much higher level because they have borne the direct assault of our "democracy" on them...they are activists of NBA, they are naxalites, they are the members of CMM and they represent the anger of more than 70 percent of indians...misdirected yes, utopian, perhaps but they are undeniable and we will have to reckon with them sooner or later...


and why dont we see the real india (except inadvertently...like the election results of 2004, the gurgaon mayhem, the sporadic reports of naxalites and NBA)? bec our we have a media that brings out magazines on golf accesorries and makes profit...bec our media is crisis driven and sensationalist (we need a new crisis everyday, we dont go into causes, we report on mayhem and move on) and yes hand in glove with the ones who are selling our very dignity to the new East India companies of the world....


history is a circle and whether it repeats as tragedy or farce, one thing is certain....if we have to break the back of historical inevitabilty, it needs a gigantic coalition of people who care....but what will be the cost that we pay before that coalition is possible? well that we have to c and i have a sneaking feeling that we will pay it in our lifetime....