The Great Bangalore Fiasco
4 Comments Published by Apocalyptus on Tuesday, April 18, 2006 at 11:47 AM.
I don’t really know to what extent Arnab's story of “Imran Kissme” will come true, but being at Bangalore, I can very well imagine what it could be like after the “Passing away of Rajkumar” fiasco.
With due respect to Dr Rajkumar, and the sentiments of the Kannadigas, I feel the public outrage was not only uncalled for, it was pointless, needless and extremely foolish.
It is well understood and accepted that Dr Rajkumar was not just a filmstar here, he was one of those very few people who played significant roles for the well-being , recognition and progress of Bangalore, Karnataka, Kannadigas and most importantly the Kannada language.
He was a person of as big a stature in Karnataka as NTR was in AP, MGR in Tamil Nadu, Sachin Tendulkar is in Mumbai, Amitabh Bachchan is to the whole of India and George W. Bush is to Tony Blair.
CORRECTION : According to my Kannadiga friend Archana "Dr Rajkumar had done nothing to the city of Bangalore, the state of Karnataka, the Kannadigas.....it is to the language he has contributed so much. As you might have already read elsewhere, we respect him for his humbleness, humility, his achievements being an SC/ST 3rd standard failure, inactive politics etc etc but yeah, the violence was not asked for...atleast not the deaths...."
How is a normal human being supposed to behave when he/she loses a near and dear one forever? He can cry, he can scream, he can curse GOD, he can faint etc etc. But is he ever going to beat up others who have nothing to do with it, throw stones at them, break window-glasses in buidings, set buses and cars afire? Well… this is what happened here for a couple of days killing at least 8 people (that’s the official record) and seriously injuring about 250 (officially again).
Shops were forcefully closed down. Shop-owners were beaten if they didn’t pull down the shutters fully. Cars , bikes and other vehicles were put on fire and drivers/riders beaten up brutally if they didn’t have photos of Rajkumar with a garland pasted at the front and rear of the vehicle. In fear, almost every company (including mine) gave each of its employees two print-outs of Rajkumar’s photo to paste in the front and rear of their vehicles.
Buildings, shops, vehicles, roads were damaged. In many parts of the city there were needless instances of violence.
I really wonder if these rowdies were really fans of the great man. No. They were not. Dr Rajkumar was synonymous with gentleness, politeness, kindness and simplicity. These uncouth vandals gave him the worst kind of farewell a person like him deserved. They were creating trouble for everyone else only for the fucking sake of it. Only they know what pleasure they were deriving from it.
Although Bangalore Police is one the most (if not the most) corrupt and irritatingly discriminative species on earth, the mischief-makers shouldn’t have beaten up the Policemen. I understand that they didn’t want to waste this opportunity to hurl stones at or beat the guts out of the damn Bangalore cops, but still, they have only put themselves in trouble because the electronic media has covered the whole incident of cops being beaten by some people. Though everybody watching that on TV has enjoyed it and relished every bit of it, the guys who did so are being searched for by the cops with their photos obtained from the videotapes. You can’t do anything to the cops although they can do anything to you anywhere anytime and without any reason. OOOPS…..did I say ‘cops’? Sorry….’Bangalore Cops’ that is....
*****MORE RIOT PHOTOGRAPHS
With due respect to Dr Rajkumar, and the sentiments of the Kannadigas, I feel the public outrage was not only uncalled for, it was pointless, needless and extremely foolish.
It is well understood and accepted that Dr Rajkumar was not just a filmstar here, he was one of those very few people who played significant roles for the well-being , recognition and progress of Bangalore, Karnataka, Kannadigas and most importantly the Kannada language.
He was a person of as big a stature in Karnataka as NTR was in AP, MGR in Tamil Nadu, Sachin Tendulkar is in Mumbai, Amitabh Bachchan is to the whole of India and George W. Bush is to Tony Blair.
CORRECTION : According to my Kannadiga friend Archana "Dr Rajkumar had done nothing to the city of Bangalore, the state of Karnataka, the Kannadigas.....it is to the language he has contributed so much. As you might have already read elsewhere, we respect him for his humbleness, humility, his achievements being an SC/ST 3rd standard failure, inactive politics etc etc but yeah, the violence was not asked for...atleast not the deaths...."
How is a normal human being supposed to behave when he/she loses a near and dear one forever? He can cry, he can scream, he can curse GOD, he can faint etc etc. But is he ever going to beat up others who have nothing to do with it, throw stones at them, break window-glasses in buidings, set buses and cars afire? Well… this is what happened here for a couple of days killing at least 8 people (that’s the official record) and seriously injuring about 250 (officially again).
Shops were forcefully closed down. Shop-owners were beaten if they didn’t pull down the shutters fully. Cars , bikes and other vehicles were put on fire and drivers/riders beaten up brutally if they didn’t have photos of Rajkumar with a garland pasted at the front and rear of the vehicle. In fear, almost every company (including mine) gave each of its employees two print-outs of Rajkumar’s photo to paste in the front and rear of their vehicles.
Buildings, shops, vehicles, roads were damaged. In many parts of the city there were needless instances of violence.
I really wonder if these rowdies were really fans of the great man. No. They were not. Dr Rajkumar was synonymous with gentleness, politeness, kindness and simplicity. These uncouth vandals gave him the worst kind of farewell a person like him deserved. They were creating trouble for everyone else only for the fucking sake of it. Only they know what pleasure they were deriving from it.
Although Bangalore Police is one the most (if not the most) corrupt and irritatingly discriminative species on earth, the mischief-makers shouldn’t have beaten up the Policemen. I understand that they didn’t want to waste this opportunity to hurl stones at or beat the guts out of the damn Bangalore cops, but still, they have only put themselves in trouble because the electronic media has covered the whole incident of cops being beaten by some people. Though everybody watching that on TV has enjoyed it and relished every bit of it, the guys who did so are being searched for by the cops with their photos obtained from the videotapes. You can’t do anything to the cops although they can do anything to you anywhere anytime and without any reason. OOOPS…..did I say ‘cops’? Sorry….’Bangalore Cops’ that is....
*****MORE RIOT PHOTOGRAPHS
Labels: Bangalore, Fun, serious, South India
"'> There's 'More' to it - 'The Chappel Way'
2 Comments Published by Apocalyptus on Tuesday, April 04, 2006 at 9:14 AM.
"The Chappel Way" - as the title of this post goes, is nothing but an extensive training program for young aspiring cricketers conducted by Australian International Sports Academy (AISA) and supervised by Greg Chappel himself.
For an Indian youngster the cost for taking part in this programme is about 90,000.00 Rupees, exclusive of travel expenses.
Now, there is an ex-Police Constable Sunil More in Mumbai who has got a 12-year sentence for raping a college-girl in broad daylight in a place like Marine Drive. During the trial, this culprit cried and said “Mujhe phansi de do, maine kuch nahin kiya. Badnam karne se achha hai ki mujhe phansi de do” (Hang me. I've done nothing. Instead of disgracing me like this, please hang me.) Sunil More got his punishment.The execution took a year after the young girl was molested by a drunken More. By Indian standards, it happened in real quick time. The judiciary and all the people involved did a good job preventing justice to be delayed because JUSTICE DELAYED IS JUSTICE DENIED. More got what he deserved. But what about the poor girl? If cops, who are supposed to come to civilians' rescue when they are in distress, themselves become criminals then where the hell will common people go to seek help? May be the Police Department and the Government will offer some compensation to the girl and her family but will that be enough to wipe out the scar this incident left on her body, mind and soul completely? This is just a simple question with no simple answer to it.
Okay. From Sunil More's case, let's get back to another More, I mean, Kiran More's case, that is, "The Chappel Way". Sonia Gandhi and Jaya Bachchan recently resigned from the Parliament and Bidhan Sabha respectively because they were holding "Offices of profit". Now, our BCCI Selection Committee's 'Baap' Kiran More also holds one. You can See here also. And, instead of investigating further in the matter, the BCCI just waves off the whole issue and says it doesn't know of anything of that sort.
The BCCI didn't take any action even when this happened two years back.
Now, even after the whole picture has become so clear (it was never clearer before), what do we get to see? Here is the list:
1. Different yardsticks being applied to different players.
2.Virender Sehwag is retained in the ODI squad in spite of consistent non-performance (34 matches without a ton).
3.Mohammed Kaif is still in the team in spite of scoring 17 runs in the last 7 games with 4 consecutive ducks.
4.Freshman Robin Uthappa being preferred as an opener over Sourav Ganguly.
So, the moral of the story is : The BCCI Selection Committee CAN PICK ANYONE BUT A CERTAIN INDIVIDUAL WHO LIVES IN A PLACE CALLED BEHALA IN A CITY ON THE BANKS OF THE RIVER GANGES. Why? Because if they pick him, the business collaboration between their baap and his pardesi saiyaan might cease to exist.
It is always good to see youngsters getting chances but that doesn't make the word 'EXPERIENCE' non-existent.With Sachin Tendulkar out of the team for quite some time and with the top and middle order consistently faltering, the expreience of a man who has 10,000 plus ODI runs and 22 ODI centuries to his credit would have been handy. There is still a substantial amount of international cricket left in Ganguly but he is being victimized again and again, making his chances of staging a comeback increasingly slimmer day by day. There would be a time when these people will realize Ganguly's importance in the team and will decide to bring him back but it might be just too late because he is already in the twilight of his career. Will that comeback call be a compensating factor for what damage the vindictive Kiran More has already done to him and his career?
Isn't there a striking similarity between the girl who was raped by Sunil More, a bastard and Ganguly's career which has been brutally damaged by Kiran More, another bastard ?
For an Indian youngster the cost for taking part in this programme is about 90,000.00 Rupees, exclusive of travel expenses.
Now, there is an ex-Police Constable Sunil More in Mumbai who has got a 12-year sentence for raping a college-girl in broad daylight in a place like Marine Drive. During the trial, this culprit cried and said “Mujhe phansi de do, maine kuch nahin kiya. Badnam karne se achha hai ki mujhe phansi de do” (Hang me. I've done nothing. Instead of disgracing me like this, please hang me.) Sunil More got his punishment.The execution took a year after the young girl was molested by a drunken More. By Indian standards, it happened in real quick time. The judiciary and all the people involved did a good job preventing justice to be delayed because JUSTICE DELAYED IS JUSTICE DENIED. More got what he deserved. But what about the poor girl? If cops, who are supposed to come to civilians' rescue when they are in distress, themselves become criminals then where the hell will common people go to seek help? May be the Police Department and the Government will offer some compensation to the girl and her family but will that be enough to wipe out the scar this incident left on her body, mind and soul completely? This is just a simple question with no simple answer to it.
Okay. From Sunil More's case, let's get back to another More, I mean, Kiran More's case, that is, "The Chappel Way". Sonia Gandhi and Jaya Bachchan recently resigned from the Parliament and Bidhan Sabha respectively because they were holding "Offices of profit". Now, our BCCI Selection Committee's 'Baap' Kiran More also holds one. You can See here also. And, instead of investigating further in the matter, the BCCI just waves off the whole issue and says it doesn't know of anything of that sort.
The BCCI didn't take any action even when this happened two years back.
Now, even after the whole picture has become so clear (it was never clearer before), what do we get to see? Here is the list:
1. Different yardsticks being applied to different players.
2.Virender Sehwag is retained in the ODI squad in spite of consistent non-performance (34 matches without a ton).
3.Mohammed Kaif is still in the team in spite of scoring 17 runs in the last 7 games with 4 consecutive ducks.
4.Freshman Robin Uthappa being preferred as an opener over Sourav Ganguly.
So, the moral of the story is : The BCCI Selection Committee CAN PICK ANYONE BUT A CERTAIN INDIVIDUAL WHO LIVES IN A PLACE CALLED BEHALA IN A CITY ON THE BANKS OF THE RIVER GANGES. Why? Because if they pick him, the business collaboration between their baap and his pardesi saiyaan might cease to exist.
It is always good to see youngsters getting chances but that doesn't make the word 'EXPERIENCE' non-existent.With Sachin Tendulkar out of the team for quite some time and with the top and middle order consistently faltering, the expreience of a man who has 10,000 plus ODI runs and 22 ODI centuries to his credit would have been handy. There is still a substantial amount of international cricket left in Ganguly but he is being victimized again and again, making his chances of staging a comeback increasingly slimmer day by day. There would be a time when these people will realize Ganguly's importance in the team and will decide to bring him back but it might be just too late because he is already in the twilight of his career. Will that comeback call be a compensating factor for what damage the vindictive Kiran More has already done to him and his career?
Isn't there a striking similarity between the girl who was raped by Sunil More, a bastard and Ganguly's career which has been brutally damaged by Kiran More, another bastard ?
