Operation Greenhunt I: Chidambaram, when would your violence end?

vi·o·lence (v-lns)n.

1. Physical force exerted for the purpose of violating, damaging, or abusing: crimes of violence.

2. The act or an instance of violent action or behavior.

3. Intensity or severity, as in natural phenomena; untamed force: the violence of a tornado.

4. Abusive or unjust exercise of power.

5. Abuse or injury to meaning, content, or intent: do violence to a text.

6. Vehemence of feeling or expression; fervor.

ethnic cleansing –noun

the elimination of an unwanted ethnic group or groups from a society, as by genocide or forced emigration.

• Seven per cent of India's children under five are malnourished.India ranks a dismal 66 out of 88 countries on the world's hunger index. That puts India even lower than the starved sub-Saharan Africa. Despite this, every year India lets substantial amount of foodgrains rot in FCI godowns. Last year, foodgrains enough to feed 10 million people for an year were let to rot while millions were suffering malnutrition and hunger.

• An estimated 200,000 people are displaced besides losing rich ecological resources due to the dam on Narmada.Between 1951 and 1990, 40 million people were displaced as a result of 'development' projects like this.

• Millions would be displaced in the central government's 'Operation Greenhunt', which is about to start with approx. 70,000 troops, against Maoists in Orissa, Bihar, Jharkhand, Chattisgarh and Bengal, incidentally the states with most poverty in the country (with exception of Bengal). See the map.

Going by the definitions of 'violence' and 'ethnic cleansing' marked in red above and considering that all people mentioned above belong to same group/category, all the 'people' mentioned in the above 3 scenarios are being subjected to unspeakable violence by the government's abuse of power. The people are forcibly evicted from their land and made to starve to death when there are surplus grains around. They have no employment, no schools, no hospitals, no water, no electricity, no transport. They simply have none of the amenities any government provides. By forcibly dislocating the people and making them lose their cultural and economical moorings forever, the government is conducting ethnic cleansing.

The 'people' mentioned in all the above scenarios are tribals, voiceless citizens of this country living in the major parts of India that, far from being shining, are reminiscent of sub-Saharan Africa in hunger and poverty. They form 8% of this country's population and yet see no benefits of governance. In fact, in the sense of the term, they are not 'governed' and they never were, not even in colonial India. So the fathers of our Constitution rightly envisaged some protection for them in the Fifth Schedule of the Constitution which grants the tribals complete rights over their traditional land and forests and prohibits private companies from mining on their land. The land is the only thing they own and it defines their culture and livelihood. And this land which is now labelled 'the red corridor' is rich in mineral wealth worth trillions of dollars. So the government is out to grab the land too from the tribals. The 'democratic' government unashamedly violates the constitution. And so we now have a full-scale war plan - Operation Greenhunt. The mandate for the troops is clear. Put the hills on fire and the tribals will automatically vacate the mineral rich lands.

It is in this context that it sounded ironical when Mr.Chidambaram asked the Maoists to "Halt the violence". Surely Harvard educated Chidambaram knows the implicit structural violence the state, of which he is now an important part, has been perpetuating over tribals for decades through its policy-making and so-called development initiatives. Even without firing a single bullet, the state with its actions and inactions, was committing violence of unimaginable scale, round the clock, against the tribals and against the letter and spirit of our own constitution. When would this violence end?

Doordarshan at 50: If there were a Ctrl+Z in life!!

If there was Ctrl+Z in life........

Nostalgic memories of those 'good old days' – world has changed and we also changed for the world !!!

Are you missing those days? Sometimes I do

Doordarshan Logo
Doordarshan' s Screensaver











Malgudi Days
Dekh Bhai Dekh


















Ramayan
Mile Sur Mera Tumhara



















Turning Point

Bharath Ek Khoj

Alif Laila

Alif Laila

Byomkesh Bakshi

Tehkikaat

He Man

Salma Sultana DD News Reader

Vicco turmeric,

Nahin cosmetic

Vicco turmeric ayurvedic cream

Washin powder Nirma, Washing powder Nirma

Doodh si safedi, Nirma se aayi

Rangeen kapde bhi khil khil jaaye

I'm a Complan Boy(Shahid Kapoor) and

I'm a Complan Girl (Ayesha Takia)

Surabhi : Renuka Sahane and Siddharth

Then were 'Mungerilal ke hasin sapane' and 'karamchand' ...'Vikram Betal', etc.

How did one survive growing up in the 80's and 90's?

We had no seatbelts, no airbags..

Cycling was like a breath of fresh air…

No safety helmets, knee pads or elbow pads, with plenty of cardboards between spokes to make it sound like a motorbike…

When thirsty we only drank tap water, bottled water was still a mystery…

We kept busy collecting bits & pieces so we could build all sort of things … and we were fearless on our bicycles even when the brakes failed going downhill…

We were showing off how tough we are, by how high we could climb trees & then jumping down….It was great fun….

We could stay out to play for hours, as long as we got back before dark, in time for dinner…

We walked to school, or sometimes we even rode our bicycle.

We had no mobile phones, but we always managed to find each other…. How?

We lost teeth, broke arms & legs, we got cuts and bruises and bloody noses…. nobody complained as we had so much fun, it wasn't anybody's fault, only ours

We ate everything in sight, cakes, bread, chocolate, ice-cream, sweet sugary drinks, fruits..yet, we stayed skinny by fooling around.

And if one of us was lucky to find a 1 litre coca cola bottle we all had a swig from it & guess what? Nobody picked up any germs...

We did not have Play Stations, MP3, Nintendo's, I-Pods, Video games, 99 Cable TV channels, DVD's, Home Cinema, Home Computers, Laptops, Chat-rooms, Internet, etc ...

BUT, we had REAL FRIENDS!!!!

We called on friends to come out to play, never rang the doorbell, just went around the backdoor…We played with sticks and stones, played cowboys and Indians, doctors and nurses, hide and seek, soccer games, over and over again…

When we failed our exams we were given a second chance by simply repeating the same grade…without visiting psychiatrists, psychologists or counselors…

Such were the days…

We had freedom, success, disappointments and responsibilities. ..

Most of all, we learned to respect others…

Once in a while we see something that raises mushy nostalgia and one such mail forward from my friend Tess about Doordarshan posted above triggered memories of the growing up years. That was the time when my consciousness, like that of everyone else in my generation, was dominated by what I watched on DD. incidentally DD completed 50 years of its enlightening presence the previous month. Recollecting how we chattered at school the next day after catching an episode of serials like Mungerilal ke hasin sapne' Hum Log, surabhi, knight rider,Giant Robot, Malgudi Days, Dekh Bhai Dekh, Turning Point, Bharath Ek Khoj, Alif Laila, Byomkesh Bakshi, Tehkikaat, He-Man etc amazes me for how simple were those things we were burdened with then. How it would have been if I were growing up in this age of Twitter!? Life was less complex for a kid then. I mean just imagine bearing all those ads only to catch a few songs or 'Chitrahar' or its Telugu equivalent 'Chitralahari'. Or that weekly-once Hindi and Telugu movie. They made our weekend. And we made sure we 'fixed' the antennas in the 'right direction' running up and down the terrace before the movies begin so that the images are steady on screen. Life was indeed very simple.

DD being the first broadcaster was earnest in its 'educational' mission. It literally tried to school the countryside on everything from personal hygiene to lessons in Trigonometry. Even while entertaining, it carried this zeal. My grandmother who can't understand Hindi watched not just a udaan, neem ka ped or a samandar but even Oshin, that dubbed Japanese masterpiece. DD opened up new cultures and triggered a broadmindedness to folks like her in the most unpretentious manner. Contrast that with all the dumb content like saas-bahu stuff the multitude of TV channels throw at us today. Prannoy Roy hosted a weekly show 'The World This Week' at 10:30 in the night and i almost never missed it. My elder sister would be asleep by then so as to wake up early for the morning tuitions. So I would keep the volume extremely low as I didn't want to disturb her. I used to strain to hear the low volume it would run on sitting right in front of the box. That was the easiest way to get world news then. Life still was simple.

I dutifully catched up with all Hindi, English and Telugu news bulletins of the Rini Khannas and Shanti Swaroops in school holidays while at my Grandma's place as that's the only activity that was possible as I was the only kid around. So I should say I was a victim of our government's propaganda and its spin doctors. All we heard was what the Prime Minister and his ministers said. And how all of them shaked hands with their foreign counterparts while in Delhi or their trips abroad. Same 'official' news about the Chief Minister, but far lesser coverage. Now considering that every party has an associated TV channel, I am subjected to far worse propaganda but, thankfully this one is more revealing.

From the days of DD to today's realty TV, life has become more complex. Black and White impressions about society made way to almost completely Grey images of violence, corruption, crime and bizarre entertainment. While its perfectly understandable why these channels cant produce 'brainy' stuff like 'Bharat Ek Khoj', its Ironical that these cash rich channels cant come with good productions like 'Malgudi Days'. While there is almost no honesty left in news channels, entertainment channels are competing to stoop to the lowest. There is little intellectual curiosity left in watching TV now. I still remember how I loved watching the saturday afternoon's regional cinema on DD. Whether Assamese, Gujarat or Malayalam, I watched it anyway with the subtitles. DD was a lofty dream of folks who made us sing 'Mile sur mera tumahara..' while in Todays' TV we are more balkanised, everyone safe like kupmundak (a frog in the well). BTW this is the word I catched in Satyajit Ray's 'Agantuk' on DD many years ago.

As years pass on, the world gets more and more complex with umpteen angles, viewpoints, stakeholders in a single issue so its inevitable our collective consciousness gets more insensitive, crammed and more mechanical. Doordarshan being a prominent player in an era pre-liberalisation and in our childhood reflects the then simple life as clearly as a mirror. We are lucky in this aspect to go nostalgic so vividly. That 'Rukhawat ke liye Khed Hai' is perfectly okay now. It would have given us a much wanted breathing space in today's mad mad world.

Rahman's Jai Ho Live Concert - Rahmania!!!

As someone SMSed to the giant screen, we had Superman, Spiderman, Batman. Now we have RahMan! Over the years, that is what an immensely talented and unwaveringly hardworking Rahman has become - a phenomenon.

AR Rahman performed live in Hyderabad yesterday at the brand new GMR arena in the Shamshabad airport premises. This Jai Ho concert is part of the worldwide tour Rahman embarked on. It was a treat to watch, especially for someone like me who missed his previous live here some 7 years ago. My beloved, myself and my buddy Harisha trooped in along with thousands of entertainment thirsty Hyderabadis and caused a traffic jam within the sprawling airport. Nevertheless, the organizers managed it well and pulled off the event successfully. Rahman rocked with his troop comprising of Benny Dayal, Blaaze, Rashid Ali, Sivamani, Chitra, Saadhana Sargam, Suzanne, Swetha Pandit etc.

The concert started just after 7.00 PM and lasted till 10:30 PM. Rahman started with 'Khalbali..' and then with 'adharani vadu' from Shivaji. Rahman was warming up and the crowds were settling in. Cops did a good job with crowd management thanks to the high-profile event managers. The evening was spiced up further by some almost comic singing from Vijay Prakash who, if i got it right, was introduced my Rahman as one 'who belongs to this land'. I am not sure though if Vijay Prakash is a local . He simply overdid singing 'Paruvam vaanaga..' from Roja and it was fun watching him doing that on one of the numerous screens mounted all around. He continued the same later with the 'O Cheliya Naa priyasakive..' number from 'Premikudu'. The song bought back memories how BEAUTIFULLY it was sung by Unnikrishnan. If God has a voice, that was it, that was it :) Too bad, he was not around yesterday. But then, this was more than made up with an explosive performance of 'Koncham Neeru Knocham Nippu..' from 'Donga Donga'. The dancers were amazing in the song.

Rahman who worked mainly in Tamil and Hindi and whose original Tamil songs are dubbed into Telugu invariably gets caught in language limbo when performing in Hyderabad. Someone who grew up mesmerised by Lata Mangeshkar's 'Jiya jale zaa jale' in Dil se would find it hard to take that song sung in Telugu. In fact, I was shocked when the beautiful 'Fiqraana' from Blue was sung in Telugu! I mean this movie, unlike Dil Se, didn't even work and no one knows it's Telugu songs. So the choice to sing in Telugu is baffling especially when the Hindi version of the song is so popular. Similarly, Jashn E Bahaara is sung in Telugu. In fact songs from 'Shivaji' should have been sung in Telugu instead of Tamil as they are popular here. This limbo somehow highlights the immense success Rahman enjoyed all over the country.

While the strictly Hindi audience revelled in numbers from 'Delhi 6 (Rehna Tu)',' Jodha Akbar ', Rang De Basanti, Rangeela and Dil Se (title song), Telugu and Tamil audience revelled in numbers from 'Sakhi', 'Roja', 'Shivaji', 'Bombay', 'Yuva', 'Premikudu', 'Amritha'. Some other wildly successful performances have been 'Mustafa Mustafa..' and a sitar instrumental. Blaaze simply rocked and almost everyone grooved wildly for 'Humma Humma..'. Talk about growing up years and their influences we carry forever.

Almost everyone would have felt bored with a GMR and Saakshi TV sponsered tribute for YSR with 'Sarfaroshi ki tamanna..'. I only thanked Rahman in my heart for sparing 'Lukka Chuppi..' for the same! In addition to this song, I missed some more like 'Masakkali', 'Thee Thee Thiyyani (Donga Donga), something from 'Iddaru' etc..But then not all from a 2 decade career can be accomodated in a single show. After all, we need another ARR Live :)

Rahman aptly closed the concert with 'Jai Ho' and 'Vandemataram' with some stunning fireworks lighting up the sky and the crowds grooving and clapping. Jai Ho Rahman. We trooped out, caught a cab, had a laugh about Vijay Prakash, and were discussing AR Rahman and his first name while the Muslim cab driver proudly chipped in. Rahman, what a leveller!