A post and a trend

This was an opinion on the just announced Railway Budget 2015

" Swacch Bharat is NOWHERE to be seen in Railways stns. Pigs and Rabid and leprosy Dogs are roaming free in Main cities like Chennai Central stn etc.

In shatabdi express, the attenders and vendors are openly asking for tips at the end of the journey for passengers and they offer extra food or ice cream after getting tips..
After Suresh Prabhu took over, it has gone from bad to worse..Such intellectual beings who are white collared policy makers shd never be there in railways,..We need earthy rough n tough Laoo yadavs actually..BTW I am a BJP voter, so its a neutral view point" by opposing_voice • 8 minutes ago

I was taken by the qualification at the end of the post "BTW I am a BJP voter, so its a neutral view point."

I suppose if he didn't post the the qualifier of being a BJP voter he would be hounded as an anti-national!!! Hmm.... the times we live in!

Found a para on Caravan Magazine...

Hindutva allows Modi to speak of inclusiveness without spelling out that Muslims and Christians are less than equal by definition. Exclusion is built into the term, and his record in Gujarat bears this out, as do his party’s first few months in power in Delhi. Only those commentators who have tried to project their own longings for an Indian inclusivity onto him have missed noting this consistency. 

Hmm.... 

Offensive Language - FIR

Today some guy on the road called me a b****. I am offended by the language.
I am going to file and FIR to get that b****** arrested!

I am Scared

Where are we going with our stupidity?

Forced to withdraw novel, Tamil author announces his ‘death’...

PERUMAL MURUGAN is a well-known contemporary Tamil writer and poet. He has written six novels, four collections of short stories and four anthologies of poetry. Two of his novels have been translated into English to wide acclaim: Seasons of the Palm, which was shortlisted for the prestigious Kiriyama Award in 2005, and Current Show. He has received awards from the Tamil Nadu government as well as from Katha Books.

He has decided not to write anymore, and has withdrawn all his books. His decision comes on the back of raging protests against his latest book. 

In 2010, he published the book Madhorubagan... which was subsequently translated into 'One Part Woman,' This is the book that has been deemed offensive by Hindu and caste-based outfits.

This tiny, vocal, rabid fringe that thinks nothing about hounding people who go against their view of what is right has such a small 'Taliban' like view of the country and are busy driving people to their narrow view. They have said that no writer who dares to touch the Hindu sentiment will be able to live in Tamil Nadu. 


It scares me that this State that has given rise to the best social reforms movements in the country is emerging as a laboratory of casteist and religious fundamentalists in South India. These are people who are in their very mental makeup are an antithesis to the idea of a plural, and diverse nation and want this country to embody their narrow view of religion, culture and nationhood.

It scares me that the Government Machinery has facilitated the hounding of a much felicitated writer by people whose protests should have been put down in the first place.

It scares me that the changes I see are likely to get worse and the state defined by its pride in its cultural heritage, its history and its advancement in various spheres including - Literature and education, Inclusiveness and industrial development is slowly going down the Gujarat Model of development.

Second Class Citizen

I am debating - is it better to be a second class citizen in a foreign country?

We seem to be progressively moving towards a conformist, anti - other society. The dividing lines based on religion and region have become more vivid - and people more intolerant to differences.

Earlier this attitude was hidden beneath niceties and coloured as secularism. Now with the new government at the helm there is a perceptible change in dispositions/ attitudes.

So the question - to be a second class citizen in a foreign land, derided/ looked down upon for brown skin any better than being treated as second class citizens in your own country for a religion one is born or cleaves into.... hmmmm?

Stop all the clocks, cut off the telephone

Stop all the clocks, cut off the telephone,
Prevent the dog from barking with a juicy bone,
Silence the pianos and with muffled drum
Bring out the coffin, let the mourners come. 

Let aeroplanes circle moaning overhead
Scribbling on the sky the message He Is Dead,
Put crepe bows round the white necks of the public doves,
Let the traffic policemen wear black cotton gloves. 

...

The stars are not wanted now: put out every one;
Pack up the moon and dismantle the sun;
Pour away the ocean and sweep up the wood.
For nothing now can ever come to any good.

by W H Auden

O Captain, My Captain

Robin Williams is dead.

I am scared to shed tears, it doesn't seem right to cry. Somehow - I wish I'd never read this news.
He who brought so much cheer be it the  mawkish bicentinneial man or funny Mrs Doubtfire - so full of life.

Its....

To quote Walt Whitman:

O Captain! My Captain! our fearful trip is done;
The ship has weather'd every rack, the prize we sought is won;
The port is near, the bells I hear, the people all exulting,
While follow eyes the steady keel, the vessel grim and daring:

But O heart! heart! heart!

O the bleeding drops of red,

Where on the deck my Captain lies,

Fallen cold and dead.

O Captain! My Captain! rise up and hear the bells;
Rise up—for you the flag is flung—for you the bugle trills;
For you bouquets and ribbon'd wreaths—for you the shores a-crowding;
For you they call, the swaying mass, their eager faces turning;

Here captain! dear father!

This arm beneath your head;

It is some dream that on the deck,

You've fallen cold and dead.

My Captain does not answer, his lips are pale and still;
My father does not feel my arm, he has no pulse nor will;
The ship is anchor'd safe and sound, its voyage closed and done;
From fearful trip, the victor ship, comes in with object won;

Exult, O shores, and ring, O bells!

But I, with mournful tread,

Walk the deck my captain lies,

Fallen cold and dead.