Since the post of Forest Officer, Mohanan Krishnan went viral, the story has exploded with almost all media houses (save a few) reporting it as an action of miscreants and 'saddest picture on the internet today' cartoons being reshared widely!
Well, I'll be a monkey's uncle! If I remember correctly, the last time pineapples were this much in the news, was when the world was going crazy over Pineapples being on Pizza! And maybe the Pen-Pineapple-Apple-Pen. But unlike those, this is a tragedy.
Since the post of Forest Officer, Mohanan Krishnan went viral, the story has exploded with almost all media houses (save a few) reporting it as an action of miscreants and 'saddest picture on the internet today' cartoons being reshared widely! “We Indians are funny. Our patriotism level escalates from 0 to 100 during cricket matches and drops down to 0 during other days. Most of us consider Independence Day and Republic Day as holidays,” my father told me while watching India v/s Bangladesh cricket match. I decided to keep quiet because I was one of those who considered 15th August and 26th January as days exclusive for sleeping. I knew that my father’s crass remark was targeted towards me and he was right. When Sorabh Pant visited our college for Revels this year, there were two things that bugged him. In the university town that was Manipal, unlike the majority of college folk in the country, the students had absolutely no beef with the two people of power their peers in other colleges usually hated. The folk here at Manipal... The ethical dilemma surrounding free speech has always been a topic of debate among many. As a secular nation setting restrictions on opinion or belief of an individual or forcibly trying to change them goes against the very principles the nation is built on. While respecting the ‘freedom of expression’ that the country guarantees us, it is largely unadvised to give undue attention to every Tom, Dick and Harry who screams at the top of his lungs like a peevish child. Especially if he/she is spewing hate-speech or has a supposed ‘anti-national’ vendetta. “Now what happened? -_- ” A WhatsApp message out of the blue. That’s strange, because the usual asshat that I am no one ever texts me… I sent a subtle “?” Smooth. Right? “I saw your rant on facebook. About facebook’s free basics being against net neutrality…” “Yes, so?” "I kinda remember the big deal about telcos trying to eliminate revenue loss by charging the OTTs and Zero Rated Apps… But what’s your beef with facebook and internet.org? Aren't WhatsApp and Facebook essentially OTTs? Shouldn’t they be relieved?” Dear friends, I am asking you to bear with me for but 3 short minutes. This is a considerably important matter affecting every one of us who use the internet. Though most of us are aware about the recent net neutrality row we continue to ignore it mainly due to the complex nature in which the issue has been addressed in most media platforms and websites. So I have tried my best to keep it simple so that all of you are able to understand the seriousness of the situation. As the debate over BBC’s India’s Daughter documentary begins to get ugly, I’ve noticed that some part of our society have begun to point out that there are more cases of rape and sexual assault in the filmmaker’s own country than in India. I don’t quite understand the question behind the observation. Is it the fact that we’re saying Britain’s no more safer for women than India is or that why Leslee Udwin chose to throw light on this Indian incident than the choicest of cases back home in Britain. It was the II PU Math exam scheduled that day and I was nose-deep buried in my books when the phone rang. It was my best friend Sagar. I was seriously ticked off. Here I was with barely a half hour left for the exam and his call. Now! “What?,” I barked, with annoyance ringing loud and clear in my voice. “What are you doing?” he asked with his usual smirk. Big mistake wise guy! “What else do you think? I’m studying.” “Chill man. No exam today. It got postponed. An IAS Officer was found dead in Bangalore.” I shrugged. “So?” I asked with such nonchalance that I disgusted myself. Over the years, so many things have happened in this ‘Prachanda’ country of ours, that I’d grown to be indifferent to murders, rapes, suicides, protests and whatnot! Frankly, this absurd #FraudTeresa #RSSQuestionsMotherTeresa controversy has most definitely arisen due to a misunderstanding. Whether it was intentional or not, I have no idea simply because of the reason that I wasn’t even born then! |
Things that go on...It wont matter the least to anyone what I feel but I do have a duty and a commitment to myself to convince myself that I'm right. Call it conscience, call it morality, humanity but I need to know I'm right! My way of doing just that. We are not blind. We see things. We are not dumb. We talk about them. Archives
June 2020
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