In Bihar, a teenaged Dalit girl was abducted, raped & brutally murdered. There are no marches, no candle light vigils, no media outrage. Sexual assault on Dalit women is considered banal, inconsequential. Outrage depends on caste & class location of the survivor / victim.
Outrage over any issue in India (unfortunately) depends on the social position of the victim/survivor. It'll sound harsh but most people are enraged over the Kolkata case because the victim was a "doctor" — someone considered an "achiever" in the most conventional sense.
Most of those (including influencers) sharing "all eyes on doctors" won't bat an eyelid if the survivor/victim in question is a woman from marginalised communities (Dalits, Adivasis, Muslims). That's primarily because we largely accept rap3 as a tool for political and social revenge.
Until we change this, there will never be justice — not for the doctor in Kolkata, neither for the 14-year-old Dalit girl from Muzaffarpur.
@rapidobikeapp sent a parcel via your app to the destined location and neither the driver is picking up the call nor are you guys responding to the complaints. It has been 2.5hrs.
5 Irritating things about Umar Khalid:
1. "Hmm hmm" If he is listening to you, he will say "hmm hmm" at least 20-30 times per minute.
2. He has a habit of standing with one hand on his back, pressing down hard as if trying to straighten his back.
3. Scholars cite sources in their books; he cites sources in casual conversations. Even if the subject is as stupid as Farts.
4. "However". Even when Umar agrees with you, he always manages to bring the conversation back to "However." (Those who know him understand what I mean.)
5. His chuckle. Yes, it's irritating.
These things could irritate those close to him. But the most vexing aspect of him is the questions he poses to the power. On a global scale, he irritates the authorities and the state.
The people in power, including the PM, HM, police, and Sanghis, are well aware that he is not capable of violence. But his questions, his voice, and his arguments have the potential to dethrone them.
And we adore him for being so irritating to the powers.
It's been 1400 days since he was imprisoned, and tomorrow he writes on a piece of paper that he will remain silent (like Savarkar), and they may even let him out.
But he won't because he's worked hard to be this irritating to the power. He has studied for it (Phd).
I hope he continues to be irritating for the rest of his life. I hope his annoyance multiplies many times over. I hope the world has more irritating people like him. I hope his annoyance makes the lives of the powerful difficult and the lives of the less fortunate easier.
(This is something I wrote after Umar completed 1000 days in jail; I'm reposting it to emphasize that nothing has changed.)
#UmarKhalid1400DaysInJail
#ReleaseAllPoliticalPrisoners
THE PEDESTRIAN VULGARITY OF THE SUPER RICH.
Copied from the FB wall of Usha Pandit.
“There is a reason why the super rich Ambanis look so comic in their desperation to find an audience in the social media with their choice of over the top dresses, celebrations, milling around guests, the Ambani kids looking like officious guides about to put up a performance directing people, ridiculous dancing on which they probably spent hundreds of practice hours to coordinate their two left feet, their need to bring in western pop singers because they cost more, plaster their rates all over to get people gawping stupidly, get famous actors to serve food and entertain guests with tasteless jokes, a sorry predication of their unintelligent minds hidden behind their cosmetic masks. The list goes on. The waste stuns.
Money can’t buy class. They collectively appear to be needing the ostentation to confirm their happiness. The rich often live in their bubbles. These need to put the bubble on social media for the watch and swoon unwashed masses. The social cells are instructed to add hundreds of comments on these videos that go ‘ very nice’, ‘good dancing’, ‘adorable’ and so on basically asking all others to follow in the same vein.
Any dip in the horn of plenty is fixed by raising recharge fees and getting all the spectators pay for their entertainment. It makes you wonder what might their thoughts be… Mukesh is probably scheming about how to make more as soon as this is over. Nita is bemoaning she has no more sons to marry off in a serial wedding spree. The bahus must, by now, be bored with clothes, jewellery, travel, no? Perhaps when your cranial compartment is low in matter, it can’t process more than the baubles amd trinkets of life. Their everyday life seems dreadfully humdrum in the fecundity of just same ol’ riches.
What might someone as privileged, and with a lot more class have done? Add a dash of Hindi sanskaar they are so proud of. Created history ofcourse.
A modest classy wedding of 5 days, great Indian culture and music for the world to see, sound and light shows of our great ancient architecture as background to the family photographs making the world salivate over our incredible country and the first business family who can afford to frame it for personal shoots. Vanity satiated. Tourism promoted. Contrast this with Justin in chaddi pants and the other chick doing uncoordinated moves and a few hundred dancers gyrating un rhythmically that they chose instead. Vulgar display of mediocrity.
They, clearly, are fools.
Each Ambani could have done charity. What would 120 crore pedas cost for all the children in India? Just what they paid these imported entertainers who looked like they didn’t do a day’s work for that money. What is the legacy you create in feeding the poor? Fools they are.
Nita could have opened a few schools
In each state. The kids used their own expertise to give back to the people. Built toilets, dug wells, built animal sanctuaries, financed clinics, created maternal counselling - all as Anant Radhika Centres. What a wedding that would be!
Alas! We have this tasteless jumboorie of the Ambanis grinning around like a bunch of jack rabbits. I dread to think of the food wasted, the costs on lighting, transport, security, traffic snarls, inflation in hotels. Down the drain, adding nothing to the family but contempt. Sad. Very sad.”
Hi people,
I'm looking for a single occupancy room in Mumbai. Preferably around Worli, Andheri East or Bandra.
Budget -15-20k
Help your girl out in figuring this out.