Shoe-kriya : The Shoeing Act

On 7 April 2009, India's home minister P. Chidambaram was shoed by Jarnail Singh, a Sikh journalist who works at the Hindi daily Dainik Jagaran on the issue of clean chit to Jagdish Tytler.

Unfortunate........ very unfortunate the whole melodrama was. Neither it seems nor does it sound good. Yes, it does not left me feeling good to see a gentle and responsible person from the soil of Gandhi drawing wrong inspiration from the land of Saddam.

What the shoe-thrower Jarnail Singh communicated to media is that “my issue was right”. But what I believe is an issue is neither right nor wrong, that is why it is an issue. It can only be represented and the representation depends upon the acceptability of one of the thoughts or convictions underlying the very issue, by an individual or a group. And this representation should lead to sorting out of one ‘logical conclusion’ acceptable by all. An issue like an idea is always bigger than an individual act but a wrong act cannot be and should not be justified under the shade of one’s conviction about the correctness of an issue.

What I liked about this incident is Mr. Chidambaram’s response: he greeted the shoe with a smile on his face. The home minister ordered security to "Please take him away... Gently" and said to the gathering “Let the emotional action of a burnt person not hijack our press conference.”After few moments Jarnail Singh was released. This was quite different from the treatment given for same act to the person who have thrown shoe at Mr. Bush and this did not go into vain.

Later the journalist apologized to the minister and also came in media to say he is sorry for what happened. Moreover, he declined to take the money offered to him by the Sikh political party. Indeed, the right response from the minister has made him realise what he has done. This for sure would have delighted Gandhi.

This incident has one more aspect associated with it, ‘the general feeling of anguish over our judiciary system’. This Anti- Sikh Riot 1984 case took twenty-five years and many commissions and investigations to come to its final verdict. One more truth is there will be culprits who are not punished and innocents who got trapped. This in addition to the sloppy spread of the case over a quarter century is something really terrifying, alarming and adding to the dubious credibility of our judiciary. Certainly, this is the only aspect of our modern civilization that the Litchavians will not take by surprise and surely will not appreciate. We cannot blame them as we still rely most on not-so-reliable words of witnesses for justice, like done two millenniums ago. Very few things have changed and definitely they are not sufficient. There is an urgent need to revolutionize our system for the swift flow of justice. 

Hoping that we and our generation could help this cause...................

                                                                                                                    Bhargav

Something to Remember

A nice movie. There is a quote in the movie from ‘Holy Bible’ that I think is worth-quoting here.

“Love is always patient and kind. It is never jealous. Love is never boastful or conceited. It is never rude or selfish. It is not take offence and it is not resentful. Love takes no pleasure in other people’s sins but delights in the trove. It is always ready to excuse, to trust, to hope and to endure whatever comes.”

I have heard many definitions of love but this is the one which seemed most appropriate, complete and ideal. I believe this can also help the ones who are perplexed and confused to find out whether they love someone or not. But surely the thing in the quote is something very hard to achieve, like any other ideal condition.

This definition tells that one always grows in love, always get enriched. Each moment it makes us more human and takes us to new heights. I do not know why people say it ‘fall in love’.

So, friends “don’t fall........only rise in love”.

                                                                        With love.........

                                        Bhargav

On My Tongue

I have just completed reading this book. This is a chicken soup like book where the author Preeti Shenoy has shared her experiences and views about different delicacies of life. The debutante author has produced a non-fiction dealing with simple things in life that one experiences every day.

Now my view. For me, life is more like a science and I believe we all are scientists in a way or another. We all learn from our experiences and form our own hypothesizes based on our knowledge and experience to move ahead in our life, knowingly or unknowingly. That is why we are human. But most of the time we think that we know our hypothesizes very well, it’s the best and only we own it. Alas! Fortunately or unfortunately this is not the truth. Sometimes we fail to understand our own hypothesizes completely and have to suffer from its side-effects.

In the last bubblegum (as she was left with a sticky mess after her father’s death) she (Preeti Shenoy) says that she had a tough time after her father’s death when everybody left her alone. Even her so called best friends refused to listen and share her grief. It was really pathetic to read it.

I doubt if she has not found the reason (at least she has not made it clear). But I found the ‘why’ in the 5th candy titled ‘Radiators and Drains’. In this, she says that she had read somewhere that people can be classified into radiators (who leave you feeling good, happy, positive and recharged) and drains (emotional vampires, who leave you sad, hopeless and despondent).

I would like to quote her words “I am very certain that I do not want to waste my time with the drains”. And I am pretty much sure that her friends are smart enough to have the same opinion. And that’s why everybody had avoided her. Situation had changed a radiator into a drain.

One cannot claim to be a 100% radiator and surely will not wish to be called even as 0.000001% drain. But the reality on an average lies somewhere between them. A person is both radiator and drain. It depends on the situations over which we do not have our own control. Yes, the magnitude and degree varies from person to person. And when you are a drain you come to know that everybody that laughs with you is not your friend (don’t suspect Astha). But do you think this reason is sufficient enough to leave our friend when he/she needs us the most. How selfish we can be at times….what all I can say is, this is the reality of our life that will confront us a day or another; whether we like it or not.

So………… how many friends you have ………and you are friend of how many?

What will you prefer: sticking to your hypothesizes or suffering for humanity?

Do you think you can suggest any way to be a good friend without getting drained in such a situation?

Take a break and give a thought to them….

………

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Now some positives of the above mentioned episode. Apart from revealing the truth about her so called friends this suffering period of isolation has also made her firstly a blogger and now an author. She also made friends who helped her to come out of her pain. Although her wish to be visited by her father was not fulfilled, she got something that she had not even dreamed for.

So, to sum up what I can say for sure is, help is always available in this world and God always have bigger plans for us than we have for ourselves. So, whenever you feel uncomfortable just “Look up, look around and look in” (my hypothesis) and enjoy each moment of your life because whatever happens, happens for the good.

Thanks for bearing me so long.

Your one and only
Bhargav