“What’s in a name,” said William Shakespeare, “a rose by any other name would smell as sweet.”
Without digressing from the sentiments expressed by Shakespeare, it has been established that we Indians care two hoots for any name. Look around yourself, a Suresh would go through all his life being referred to as ‘Ramesh’ by his Boss, without so much as flinching. The boss is always right, you see. However we carry these sentiments of calling a Rose a Mushroom to other realms of life also. For us life is such a Que Sera Sera that we ride in dilapidated buses which pass off as public transport, two people are reserved the same seat on a train journey and both manage with the same felicity without a murmur of protest. Both ‘adjust’ on the same seat with each sleeping with his feet touching the head of the other, we even manage with smelly socks at such times.
Protest! No Sir, that is reserved for times when Saurav Ganguli is dropped from the Indian team (we miss those times since Ganguli retired) or when the Marathi Manoos like the Dinosaur, faces extinction and definitely not when a Cabinet Minister’s claim for thousands of crores of profit through his fodder management theory is rubbished by his successor (Nano bhagao Bengal bachao fame). That on both occasions the Prime Minister remained the same economist, who is a firm believer in the laws of probability where your moto remains ‘Probably Madam wants me to speak or probably she wants me to remain mum’. With a theory like this, you cannot fail! Accountability!!! What’s that??
Therefore it is absolutely disgusting to witness the grumblings from a minority about the Tricolour not being unfurled at the Lal Chowk in Srinagar on the 26th of January this year.
Big deal!! I tell you what is difference between the Tricolour being or not being unfurled at Lal Chowk ! As it is, it was taken down within a couple of hours after being unfurled at the Lal Chowk during the last Republic day, ostensibly because a large crowd approached the area in protest.
What difference does it make anyway, Baba? Flag or no flag!!
Let’s not grumble about the effect of symbols on national life. As it is, we are used to leading a symbolic life. Have a doubt? Look around, what passes of as the holy Ganges, is nothing but a flowing mass of sewerage, dead bodies, chemical waste. The water has turned septic at places. But that something called faith, keeps us going, doesn’t, it? You still have people using the holy water on auspicious occasions. So you call it the Ganges or septic water, what difference does it make?So why this hullabaloo about the tricolour!
I hate this minority who whimper that the tricolour was being unfurled by the security forces for the past 17 years, and this decision to give the ceremony a go by is an insult to the nation and the freedom fighters who gave up their home and hearth for the sake of the nation.
Oh come now, didn’t the great Arundhati Roy (my salutations to her) describe the national flag as something best suited to be used a shroud. What brilliance, isn’t it?? So what are we cribbing about? We should be happy that somebody had the wisdom of consigning the shroud to the best place possible……..(let’s skip the elaboration, your guess is as good as mine). In case of any doubt, please contact the Goddess of the Final word.
But the sentimental fools still don’t take the hint. The freedom fighter laid down their lives for the flag they say, hundreds of thousands of soldiers and common folk have done the same after freedom, they carry on. Fools!! you still don’t take the hint, do you? Laying down their lives and shrouds!! Don’t get the connection!
Some worthy remarked that since the area of Lal Chowk had been taken over by the J& K police the ceremony was deliberately skipped, as previously the area was under the control of the Central para-military forces . Now you can take your Tricolour alongwith you, as you vacate this place, somebody must have said. That the same somebody had never even as much raised a whimper when their land has been infiltrated by mercenaries from Pakistan Afghanistan, Chechnya and other such exotic lands and their people looted and raped, is obviously a trivial.
I was moved to hear some great politician (my General awareness is so limited that I could not identify the gentleman or was it lady in with a Kashmiri scarf over her head?) say that the act of raising the tricolour was “an act of needless provocation” to the people of the city and that it was good that it was given a go by.
BARVO! BRAVO!
Let us all give this person a standing ovation for stating the truth. Such a needless provocation it was, year after year, for 17 long and horrible years. Watching it go up and flutter for one day in a year. Oh, the pain! The insensitivity! Acts of such and similar ‘needless provocations’ are a part of our mores it seems.
Remember the ‘needless provocations’ indulged in by the Kashmiri Pandits on the hapless people of the state and their ‘foreign guests’ which continued since centuries till those glorious nights in 1990, when the brave ‘secular’ muezzins from the mosques, supported by equally ‘secular’ politicians and bureaucrats in New Delhi let loose the chivalrous call for the Kashmiri Pandits to pack up and leave the state in one hour and leave their women folk behind. For centuries these people had lived in their homes and indulged in ‘needless provocation’ by just being there. Shameless people!! Rightfully were they driven away in perhaps one the biggest exodus in human history. And even more rightfully the government of the day looked away. After all nobody supports the ‘provocateurs’, do they?
The best part is that some ‘secular’ politician (glory be to them) some day is sure to pick up the ‘needless provocation’ bit and say that the brave Kasab had been ‘needlessly provoked’ by the Mumbaikars into visiting the city with his ‘friends’. Even Afzal Guru had been ‘needlessly provoked’ by the hungama being created in the Parliament.
I love this stuff, we can go on and on about ‘needless provocation’! But let us leave it at that, and let the readers (if there are any) come up with more ‘needless provocation’ stories.
But the award for The William Shakespeare “What’s in a name” award, goes to………………….
No, not the Lal Chowk warriors or the bravehearts in New Delhi who did not raise as much as a squeak over the issue, but……
The ministry of Women and Child Development, who in their advertisement for the Girl Child day placed a photograph of the former Vice Chief of the Pakistan Air Force, Tanvir Mahmood Ahmad alongwith the photographs of the Lady with a sphinx like silence, the Prime Minister (yes they are separate people, whatever your smirks might say). The other personalities blessed with honour in the Advertisement were Kapil Dev, Virender Sehwag, Amzad Ali Khan.
I fully agree with the Minister for the department, Krishna Tirtah, who defended the mistake with a spiritual ‘we should look into the spirit of the Ad’. Attaboy, or Attagirl, Madame Tirath, what’s in a name or a photograph after all. We could have placed the Great Kasab alongside a snap of Yuvraj Gandhi, Musharaff alongside Mahatma Gandhi. What’s in a name or photograph, after all? Aren’t Obama and Osama only a word apart.
But as usual, the fuss over this ‘spirit’ is remarkable. Heads are being called for, by the same useless people who shout over Google China showing Arunachal Pradesh as part of China, or fret over the web site of the Commonwealth Games Federation showing parts of Kashmir and Punjab as Pakistani territory.
I ask you guys, don’t these ‘mistake pointers’ have nothing better to do? I mean how can you call printing a Pakistani officer’s photograph in a Govt. ad as being a mistake? Imagine a minister or a bureaucrat finalizing the entire lay out of the ad. Who then will care for the strategic positioning of their individual photograph as near as possible to the Lady who matters. As it is, the Prime Minister is spoiling the entire layout by being sandwiched between them! Now having to care for the entire layout!!
What a waste of time!!
Imagine how hard some bureaucrat must have worked in locating a photograph in a Uniform for being placed in the Ad, and now this ruckus. Only a person who has helped his/her kid with homework will sympathise with this poor man. You work so hard in locating a suitably decked officer and these ungrateful wretches crucify you! What difference does it make anyway? How many countrymen will be able to identify their Air Force Chief anyway? He is no Rahul Mahajan or Rakhi Sawant, is he? Anyway KBC stopped a long time ago and we are not updating our knowledge for free, are we?
So let us all give a standing ovation to the inheritors of the great bards saying, “What’s in a name?”
And will somebody please tone down the volume of that song, “Woh Tiranga Umra Bhar Lehrayega”
