Awareness

A mark of a good civilisation is awareness. Macro awareness is a sense of place, geography and time. In constructing monuments to stand the test of time, in records of books and art and other such remnants of pride.

At the individual level, civilisation has 'civilised' people. And that brings me back to India and Indians.

I wonder constantly at the constant chest puffing breast beating pride - chain emails that point to videos showing India's future in 2020 (Click the link at your own risk and get bored to death http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-4734602537631882606&hl=en#), or listing the great things Indians have brought to the world (Aryabhatta invented zero et al), or the great Indians (25% of NASA engineers, 10% of Microsoft employees), the endless news channels running repeats of the smallest achievement (Nobel Prize winner Venkataramanan Ramakrishnan feeling hounded and lashing out).

A nation that needs to beat its own drum. A people that need to reaffirm our greatness by stating it loudly.

Look around at us. We lack awareness. The necessity to be called civilised. And we must not criticise the uneducated or the rustic. This is across the educational, social, economic spectrum. We lack social awareness - how we must behave in the company of others. We lack contextual awareness - how we must act differently even in the same company in a different context. We lack physical awareness - the necessity to respect space, even in the crowded country that live in.

Add to this the disinterest, resentment even, to be told, to be educated by others who are aware. Arrogance and a disinclination to learn.

I despair. Tagore would (should) roll in his grave and rewrite Gitanjali.

Pavements and traffic

I could write a tome, more a diatribe on the state of our roads and us users of our roads. To decide whether we are a superpower, or even an emerging one, or then a to-become-one, don't read the Economic Times. Do not watch NDTV. You will get lots of emphatic pronouncements that we are..

Walk out, drive out. On our roads.

There are many problems. I don't know where to start. The list is long.

For instance, Why will pedestrians not use pavements? Granted, many pavements are poorly maintained. Many pavements are broken and discontinuous. They are used by hawkers. There are electric pylons on some. Trees on other parts. Broken stones on some. Drainage covers left open on others.

But I see good pavements. And pedestrians walking next to them on the road. Cars and buses missing them by inches on their right side. With 3-4 ft of clear pavement on their left side. And they will not step on it. I have seen puddles of water on the road, and 'walkers' moving to the middle of the road to bypass the puddle rather than walk on the pavement!

An already crowded road is worse off with those walking wanting equal use. It is not uneducated people. It is everyone - exceptions are rare, very very rare.

Dear reader, after reading this post, observe yourself the next time you go out. And be aware of your actions, and others' around you.

Into pavement walking heaven, oh father, let my country awake.

Media - Free publicity is oxygen to radicals' fire

Do we deserve our leaders? We elect our leaders. Do we deserve our society? We live and create our society. Do we deserve our media? We have a media which reports events, chews them and then spits them out contemptuously. We are dumbed down - how much is the cause, and how much the effect. We are deadened.

What is the role of a free media - In India, more often than not, the role is to sensationalise - capture eyeballs, raise TRPs. The media in India is often a joke. Witness the incessant wall to wall coverage of any radical action by fringe elements - a political party vandalising cinema halls in Gujarat showing Mahesh Bhat produced "Tum Mile" because his son has voluntarily given information of socialising with a terrorist.

Why does the Indian media provide free publicity? The media will argue - we highlight the pathetic nature of the event and show to our viewers the intolerant face of right wing facism. Well, then:

DO NOT Show to the public the hoodlums openly throwing stones filmed by cooperative cameramen. Refuse to air the film. Share the film with the police to identify the culprits and produce as evidence. It depresses all of us that this can happen in a free India. It scares all of us that we live in this society.

DO NOT name the political party concerned in public. Deny them any say, any interviews, any chance to explain, expound their view and get any opportunity for their propaganda.

DO show the police up for being influenced by politicians and not doing their duty.

DO follow up on whether the guilty have been brought to book.

NDTV hounding Manu Sharma to jail for the murder of Jessica Lal is terrific stuff but not often enough. There may be a few more cases they and other channels undoubtedly will bring up in their defence. In relation to the brazen doings of everyday India, these are few and far in between.

I want to challenge each news channel, every newspaper and all news magazines to take a new year resolution - one cause for each year. 365 days, 8760 hours, atleast 17520 bulletins. Enough space and time to relentlessly nail one issue, undo one injustice, raise awareness of one cause. Sustainability is key.

THE MEDIA IS THE WATCHDOG OF OUR DEMOCRACY. STANDUP TO YOUR RESPONSIBILITIES. FREE PUBLICITY IS THE OXYGEN TO THE RADICALS' FIRE.

What sense feeding it?