The Ant works hard in the withering heat all summer
building its house and laying up supplies for the
winter. The Grasshopper thinks the Ant is a fool and
laughs & dances & plays the summer away. Come winter,
the Ant is warm and well fed. The Grasshopper has no
food or shelter so he dies out in the cold.
Indian Version:
The Ant works hard in the withering heat all summer
building its house and laying up supplies for the
winter. The Grasshopper thinks the Ant's a fool and
laughs & dances & plays the summer away. Come winter,
the shivering Grasshopper calls a press conference and
demands to know why the Ant should be allowed to be
warm and well fed while others are cold and starving.
NDTV, BBC, CNN show up to provide pictures of the
shivering Grasshopper next to a video of the Ant in
his comfortable home with a table filled with food.The
World is stunned by the sharp contrast. How can this
be that this poor Grasshopper is allowed to suffer so?
Arundhati Roy stages a demonstration in front of the
Ant's house. Medha Patkar goes on a fast along with
other Grasshoppers demanding that
Grasshoppers be relocated to warmer climates during
winter . Human Rights group and Koffi Annan criticize
the Indian Government for not upholding the
fundamental rights of the Grasshopper. The Internet is
flooded with online petitions seeking support to the
Grasshopper (many promise Heaven & Everlasting Peace
for prompt support as against the wrath of God for
non-compliance) .
Opposition MPs stage a walkout. Left parties call for
'Bengal Bandh' in West Bengal and Kerala demanding a
Judicial Enquiry. CPM in Kerala immediately passes a
law preventing Ants from working hard in the heat so
as to bring about equality of poverty among Ants and
Grasshoppers.
Lalu Prasad allocates one free coach to grasshoppers
on all Indian Railway Trains, aptly named as the
'Grasshopper Rath'.
Finally, the Judicial Committee drafts the '
Prevention of Terrorism Against Grasshoppers Act'
[POTAGA], with effect from the beginning of the
winter. Arjun Singh makes 'Special Reservation ' for
Grasshoppers in Educational Institutions & in
Government Services.
The Ant is fined for failing to comply with POTAGA and
having nothing left to pay his retroactive taxes,it's
home is confiscated by the Government and handed over
to the Grasshopper in a ceremony covered by NDTV.
Arundhati Roy calls it ' A Triumph of Justice'.
Lalu calls it 'Socialistic Justice '.
CPM calls it the ' Revolutionary Resurgence of the
Downtrodden '
Koffi Annan invites the Grasshopper to address the UN
General Assembly.
Many years later...
The Ant has since migrated to the US and set up a
multi-billion dollar company in Silicon Valley, 100s
of Grasshoppers still die of starvation despite
reservation somewhere in India,
.
..AND
As a result of loosing lot of hard working Ants and
feeding the grasshoppers,
India is still a developing country.
© yankandpaste® from an email forward i got last day
Showing posts with label Middle Class. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Middle Class. Show all posts
Thursday, May 29, 2008
Sunday, January 13, 2008
Tata writes its name in History
$2500 car - is that the only reason for Tata name to be written in History.
read more :
Tata top bidder for Jaguar, Land Rover .
So Jaguar and Land Rover going to in Tata stable.
Is that enough ? nooo, tata makes smart moves on next gen technology. MDI web says "The agreement between Tata Motors and MDI envisages Tata’s supporting further development and refinement of the technology, and its application and licensing for India. "
- About MDI ( the air car company )
MDI is a small, family-controlled company located at Carros, near Nice (Southern France) where Mr. Guy Negre and Mr. Cyril Nègre, together with their technical team, have developed a new engine technology with the purpose of economising energy and respect severe ecological requirements – at competitive costs.
What this means - Tata is all set to be future GM or Toyota
© yankandpaste®
read more :
Tata top bidder for Jaguar, Land Rover .
So Jaguar and Land Rover going to in Tata stable.
Is that enough ? nooo, tata makes smart moves on next gen technology. MDI web says "The agreement between Tata Motors and MDI envisages Tata’s supporting further development and refinement of the technology, and its application and licensing for India. "
- About MDI ( the air car company )
MDI is a small, family-controlled company located at Carros, near Nice (Southern France) where Mr. Guy Negre and Mr. Cyril Nègre, together with their technical team, have developed a new engine technology with the purpose of economising energy and respect severe ecological requirements – at competitive costs.
What this means - Tata is all set to be future GM or Toyota
© yankandpaste®
Monday, June 18, 2007
Indian Presidency: Symbolism and Beyond
Of late, presidential election has become a topic of popular debate in India. So much so that our mail boxes, TV channels, newspapers, and magazines are full of campaigns and debates on who should be the next president. From Kalam to Narayanamoorthy, the popular imagination has never been so lively about a presidential election. After all, as a friend reminds us on one of the chain mails, electing the president has always been the prerogative of the Electoral College and not of the general public. And, all said and done, it has always been a political appointment too, no matter how much ever you dislike that fact. So what brings in the new interest in presidential elections?
24/7 TV? Maybe, yes. But there is one more thing that you need to factor in. The Kalam effect.
Like it or not, APJ Abdul Kalam made presidency a thing of popular imagination. He played to the middle-class galleries. He delivered inspirational speeches that would give the motivational gurus a good run for their money. He spoke about dreams, vision, and hope. And, the middle-class India never got tired of dreaming and hoping; they never got tired of giving standing ovations to Dr Kalam, either.
Kalam seldom spoke of the hard realities (did he ever?), he exhorted the newspapers to play down the negative stories (read the hardcore news), he wanted the media to paint a rosy picture (a.l.a., the India Shining campaign, perhaps), he vividly narrated how the Israeli newspapers dumped all that Hamas killing and suicide attacks to inner pages and celebrated the positive stories of growth and development, of hopes and dreams on their front pages. Well, there is more. So many more speeches that vie for the most-forwarded speech honor along with those of the Narayanamurthys and Bill Gateses of the world. Kalam's speeches keep coming back to us from people whose only contribution to the democratic process is selective forwarding of mails. So, when the time to think of our next president came, his fan club started campaigning for his second term through chain mails and blogs. They even asked us to sign an online memorandum seeking a second term for him. Mails kept flooding our mail boxes, until Kalam himself put an end to it saying he wouldn't seek a second term.
Then suddenly something happened. At some ceremony hosted by Infosys and attended by Kalam, an over-enthusiastic Infoscion asked the President, what did he think of Narayanamoorthy as the next President. Of course, playing to the gallery once again, (or was it just a matter of courtesy?!—courtesy, which the Infoscion, who threw such an embarrassing question at their guest, lacked), Kalam responded: “Fantastic!" Rather he chanted that three times, I read. That set the tongues wagging again. And, yes, Narayanamoorthy fits the middle-class aspirations, he lives one of the most colorful dreams of middle-class India, and yes, once again, the forward-mailers, the new opinion leaders of the great Indian middle class, were back with their campaigns, obscenely rigged surveys, and chain mails. Fortunately, that failed to go beyond the initial hype and died a slow death and the mailing middle-class went back to their daily routines, chasing their rainbow.
But, now the focus is back on the presidential election, once again. Prathibha Patel’s nomination set up the new debate. People from the opposing camps suggested that it was symbolism and nothing else. They said she was chosen because of her gender. Some others said, she was pliant and would make a female Fakrudheen Ali Ahmed. And the middle-class felt disillusioned to see one more political appointment at Rashtrapathi Bhavan.
Suddenly people seem to have developed a problem with political appointments to Presidency. They respond as if this is the first ever political appointment. In fact, it has always been political appointments, of people whom the ruling parties thought would fall in their line, sign on the dotted line as and when needed. One doesn’t need to go too far in our history. Zail Singh, R Venkataraman, S D Sharma, K R Narayanan, all of them had affiliations with the leading parties of their times. And many of these nominations had symbolic value too—Zail Singh as president when Punjab was burning; KR Narayanan, in the post-Mandal India. (Beyond symbolism, Narayanan deserved the seat as much as any of his illustrious predecessors. Many a time, he proved that too. He spoke up whenever required, and proved that the constitutional figurehead does not necessarily be a rubberstamp always. )
Then came Kalam, the poster boy of middle-India. And what a symbolic act it was. A Muslim: celibate, vegetarian, veena-playing Muslim. So different from the Muslim Other that the then ruling Sangh Parivar was trying to project as the spoilsports in this holy land. Kalam was celebrated for he was so unlike a Muslim, for it suited the BJP, smarting from the Gujarat pogrom, to have a Muslim as the President. And, Kalam, with no political background, no inclination to deal with the hard questions, happily went around the town preaching vision statements. He evaded the hard questions, avoided confrontations, and happily parroted the Sangh Parivar line that India as a country had never invaded any country and that India had always been a victim to invasions and intrusions (he’d conveniently forgotten the fact that the concept of India as a country happened much later, evolved during the struggle for independence, and that we were just another bunch of infighting kingdoms till then).
Kalam was celebrated as a Muslim who reads Gita everyday and has tremendous patriotism. (I fail to get the connection there. I don’t read Gita, does that mean I’m less patriotic? Or is it that only Muslims have to read Gita to affirm their patriotism?) People with saffron undies jus exclaimed over their sundowners: why can’t THEY all be like him? And, a most sought after symbol was created: A Muslim, so unlike a “Muslim”. And the middle-class India, who are so eager to hit forward to any mails that suited their political interests, didn’t have any problem in celebrating this symbol.
Now coming back to Prathibha Patel and her candidature, what if it is a symbolic gesture towards the women folks in India, who have been fighting for 33% reservations all along? Or are we trying to say that they don’t even deserve this symbolic support, appreciation for their rights and abilities? Why are we so worried about its symbolic nature? Is it just because it doesn’t suit our ideals, the values of a depoliticized lot that is looking for motivational gurus, people who share their dislike for politics? Prathibha Patel is a politician, and ours is a democratic country with strong political affiliations. And if you think you can elect the president or the government of this country through e-mail campaigns, without ever bothering to vote in an election, well, sit back and relax. There are others who actively participate in this political process and have their say in the way our democracy works. Let them decide. Or, stop this armchair activism and join the queue to vote next time.
© yankandpaste®
24/7 TV? Maybe, yes. But there is one more thing that you need to factor in. The Kalam effect.
Like it or not, APJ Abdul Kalam made presidency a thing of popular imagination. He played to the middle-class galleries. He delivered inspirational speeches that would give the motivational gurus a good run for their money. He spoke about dreams, vision, and hope. And, the middle-class India never got tired of dreaming and hoping; they never got tired of giving standing ovations to Dr Kalam, either.
Kalam seldom spoke of the hard realities (did he ever?), he exhorted the newspapers to play down the negative stories (read the hardcore news), he wanted the media to paint a rosy picture (a.l.a., the India Shining campaign, perhaps), he vividly narrated how the Israeli newspapers dumped all that Hamas killing and suicide attacks to inner pages and celebrated the positive stories of growth and development, of hopes and dreams on their front pages. Well, there is more. So many more speeches that vie for the most-forwarded speech honor along with those of the Narayanamurthys and Bill Gateses of the world. Kalam's speeches keep coming back to us from people whose only contribution to the democratic process is selective forwarding of mails. So, when the time to think of our next president came, his fan club started campaigning for his second term through chain mails and blogs. They even asked us to sign an online memorandum seeking a second term for him. Mails kept flooding our mail boxes, until Kalam himself put an end to it saying he wouldn't seek a second term.
Then suddenly something happened. At some ceremony hosted by Infosys and attended by Kalam, an over-enthusiastic Infoscion asked the President, what did he think of Narayanamoorthy as the next President. Of course, playing to the gallery once again, (or was it just a matter of courtesy?!—courtesy, which the Infoscion, who threw such an embarrassing question at their guest, lacked), Kalam responded: “Fantastic!" Rather he chanted that three times, I read. That set the tongues wagging again. And, yes, Narayanamoorthy fits the middle-class aspirations, he lives one of the most colorful dreams of middle-class India, and yes, once again, the forward-mailers, the new opinion leaders of the great Indian middle class, were back with their campaigns, obscenely rigged surveys, and chain mails. Fortunately, that failed to go beyond the initial hype and died a slow death and the mailing middle-class went back to their daily routines, chasing their rainbow.
But, now the focus is back on the presidential election, once again. Prathibha Patel’s nomination set up the new debate. People from the opposing camps suggested that it was symbolism and nothing else. They said she was chosen because of her gender. Some others said, she was pliant and would make a female Fakrudheen Ali Ahmed. And the middle-class felt disillusioned to see one more political appointment at Rashtrapathi Bhavan.
Suddenly people seem to have developed a problem with political appointments to Presidency. They respond as if this is the first ever political appointment. In fact, it has always been political appointments, of people whom the ruling parties thought would fall in their line, sign on the dotted line as and when needed. One doesn’t need to go too far in our history. Zail Singh, R Venkataraman, S D Sharma, K R Narayanan, all of them had affiliations with the leading parties of their times. And many of these nominations had symbolic value too—Zail Singh as president when Punjab was burning; KR Narayanan, in the post-Mandal India. (Beyond symbolism, Narayanan deserved the seat as much as any of his illustrious predecessors. Many a time, he proved that too. He spoke up whenever required, and proved that the constitutional figurehead does not necessarily be a rubberstamp always. )
Then came Kalam, the poster boy of middle-India. And what a symbolic act it was. A Muslim: celibate, vegetarian, veena-playing Muslim. So different from the Muslim Other that the then ruling Sangh Parivar was trying to project as the spoilsports in this holy land. Kalam was celebrated for he was so unlike a Muslim, for it suited the BJP, smarting from the Gujarat pogrom, to have a Muslim as the President. And, Kalam, with no political background, no inclination to deal with the hard questions, happily went around the town preaching vision statements. He evaded the hard questions, avoided confrontations, and happily parroted the Sangh Parivar line that India as a country had never invaded any country and that India had always been a victim to invasions and intrusions (he’d conveniently forgotten the fact that the concept of India as a country happened much later, evolved during the struggle for independence, and that we were just another bunch of infighting kingdoms till then).
Kalam was celebrated as a Muslim who reads Gita everyday and has tremendous patriotism. (I fail to get the connection there. I don’t read Gita, does that mean I’m less patriotic? Or is it that only Muslims have to read Gita to affirm their patriotism?) People with saffron undies jus exclaimed over their sundowners: why can’t THEY all be like him? And, a most sought after symbol was created: A Muslim, so unlike a “Muslim”. And the middle-class India, who are so eager to hit forward to any mails that suited their political interests, didn’t have any problem in celebrating this symbol.
Now coming back to Prathibha Patel and her candidature, what if it is a symbolic gesture towards the women folks in India, who have been fighting for 33% reservations all along? Or are we trying to say that they don’t even deserve this symbolic support, appreciation for their rights and abilities? Why are we so worried about its symbolic nature? Is it just because it doesn’t suit our ideals, the values of a depoliticized lot that is looking for motivational gurus, people who share their dislike for politics? Prathibha Patel is a politician, and ours is a democratic country with strong political affiliations. And if you think you can elect the president or the government of this country through e-mail campaigns, without ever bothering to vote in an election, well, sit back and relax. There are others who actively participate in this political process and have their say in the way our democracy works. Let them decide. Or, stop this armchair activism and join the queue to vote next time.
© yankandpaste®
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