mY pEEPLI-LiVE mOMENT

Some were sipping tea before entering the court while others were talking to their clients but many of them suddenly turned eye-witnesses to earn their two-minute fame on national television. An opportunity at a time of disaster or was it Love in Times of Cholera!


It was almost the 'Peepli Live' moment outside the Delhi High Court on September 7 soon after a briefcase bomb exploded infront of the crowded reception centre near Gate No 5. The bomb exploded at 10:14 am, according to Home Minister P Chidambaram and in 15 minutes, all the injured were in hospital with area cordoned off.


Then came the lawyers, whom their colleagues claim were not near the site when the blast took place, looking for media crew as investigators were looking for that hidden truth. 


It was like a meeting of bats, all in their lawyer gowns and started talking imprompti. "I just heard the defeaning sound. I was just 10 metres away. I saw the smoke. I saw the man. What was police doing. We don't have CCTVs," everybody sounded similar.

At least three-four lawyers were seen giving their "eye-witness" accounts to each and every news channel which came their way but some of their colleagues were seen laughing at them saying they were no were near the site.


Another lawyer was seen taking his stunned woman client to TV cameras to tell that his clerk had taken her to get a pass made. When reporters started asking her, she was in such a misery that she could not speak but the lawyer kept going on and on to ensure that his two-minute fame does not fade away.


"This is their craze for getting into TV. They are trying to capitalise on a tragedy. These are not the real people who were there at the gate to help victims. I know at least one lawyer who lost his hearing ability for a while but did not want to be infront of cameras," said a lawyer laughing at the ongoing 'tamasha'.


By 1:30 pm, the media frenzy was over and Chidambaram had come and gone. Reporters and cameramen were lazing around as there was no work. The latecomers, the regional channels from Kerala, Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu, haven't got their eye-witness accounts. The litigants have gone. Then again came the same lot of lawyers to save the regional reporters from losing their job.


Mediapersons also had to share the blame as they kept pestering whoever was in a black gown asking whether they were at the spot and give an update on what was happening.

A TV reporter was seen pestering a young lawyer who was helping the injured and ask him to give his version. When he refused, she shouted at him, "it is your duty to help media" but the lawyer shot back, "I know what I am doing and now I should help the victims.


As reporters went searching for eye-witnesses, some went to a security guard who repeatedly told them that he had not left his gate though he was standing bang opposite the blast site. "I did not leave the gate. I cannot go. If I had gone to check, I would have lost my job," the guard, hailing from Bihar and in his late 50s said.


Did you see smoke? asked one reporter and he said "yes". The reporter, a senior in the field, told his colleagues, it could be potassium nitrate. Suddenly, the other reporters started dialling police officers to check the components of the explosive. It was just 10:45 am, just 30 minutes into the blast and officials were at the spot for 15 minutes. Experts were not there. Without confirmation from a police officer, the story was ran by a reporter and he was later heard telling his colleagues, this Deputy Commissioner of Police told me this information.

Don't play the victim card, Don't be a suicide bomber

Last night as I hit the bed well past midnight, I could not stop thinking those 17 people.

I don’t know them – their names or faces. They were not my friends or relatives, colleagues or neighbours. All of them were Muslims. All of them were killed in protests across the Kashmir valley. So told the newspapers.

The protests which led to the deaths were triggered following a conservative Christian in the United States tearing off some pages from Quran, the holy book of Muslims. A school was torched in Kashmir, a church in Punjab.

Outrageous act, it was -- the desecration of Quran (or any book, for that matter) and the torching of the school and church. Devotees and lovers of letters have every right to protest any such act. Everybody has the right to be outraged for one reason or other. But I could not fathom the loss of life in a distant Kashmir valley following a mad, I would say, conservative bigot's illogical and foolish act to counter Islam.

Condemn the tearing, desecration or burning of Quran or any book -- holy or unholy -- which is a violent act, anyway. I call it violence though no blood was then shed. But violent because it was a violent act committed on the minds of the faithful and on a philosophy, which one may agree with or disagree.

But my point is something else. How can one answer the deaths of so many people following the foolish act of an American Christian or Iranian Muslim or Indian Hindu or a Jew or anyone from any other planet?

Do the faithful think that desecration of Quran by a fool or an illiterate would jeopardise Islam, which has a standing of centuries?

Is Islam so vulnerable? Is the philosophy so vulnerable that it needs brawn rather than the brain to protect it?

Does the tearing of some pages from a copy of Quran in possession of a single man will erase the philosophy which has trickled down through centuries, which has withstood many challenges through the centuries?

My answer is no.

I read Quran for the first time 12 years ago. I tried to make sense of the Communist Manifesto 13 years ago. I eagerly witnessed the Mahatma's The Story of My Experiments with Truth 15 years ago. I finished Crime and Punishment 18 years ago. I enjoyed the first pulp fiction 23 years ago.

The impact it left, from the Malayalam pulp I read when I was eight to Quran when I was 18 to Dr Axel Munthe's The Story of San Michelle when I am 31, is still there.

Tearing a page or two from that Malayalam pulp fiction -- Anchu Sundarikal (The Five Beautiful Girls) by Mathew Mattom -- or San Michelle or the Manifesto or The Holy Quran will not take away that charm, which I experienced while reading. By just tearing a page, by burning a chapter, by spitting on a book, no one can take away the printed word and its impact on human mind.

Does the protesting Muslim think that his religion or his philosophy will become extinct due to a foolish act by some mad man?

If he thinks so, then he is mistaken and he is doing a great disservice to his religion. Just don't get provoked by a Terry Jones, the US evangelist who was little-known till a few weeks back. Then what will Jones do or the any other guy who tore the Quran pages?

If you just tell them, "brother, you burn as many Qurans as you can. Tear as many pages as you can. Nothing will happen to my religion, my way of life, my philosophy. It has withstood the challenges of so many centuries. Your ideology (Jones cannot claim he is a Christian and his philosophy has nothing to do with Christ) is going to die as your hatred is killing your faith. Your violence and ignorance is not moving me.” Give them a smile.

Oh! you may call me a fool who takes a leaf out of the Bollywood masala Munnabhai MBBS and his 'Gandhigiri'.

But just imagine, let your imagination go wild. What will happen, IF you do that? Think. Think. Think.

Does it will have the impact you desire? What will the Terry Jones variety feel? Will they be disappointed that you are not provoked? Will the ruthlessly anti-Islam fundamentalist be so pissed off with you that you did not fall into the trap?

The courage you show, the confidence you breathe into your religion will just defeat the Terry Jones variety. Just give a try.

That, I believe, is a better option than the stereotype role of a victim. Or a suicide bomber.

(PS: I know the 17 lives lost has more to do with the tearing of pages of Quran though a TV report on this triggered the protests. Hardline Hurriyat leader Syed Ali Shah Geelani had his agenda. He wanted to reclaim the leadership of the protests which for a brief while went to "softliner" Mirwaiz Umar Farooq.)
Shemin/Sep15-Sep17


(Thanks to my 'dost' Anand Haridas for careful reading and editing)

Kalmadification of Commonman's Wealth

"KALMADIFICATION of Commonman's Wealth" or is it "some people in ruling party converting COMMON WEALTH to INDIVIDUAL WEALTH" -- the first one is from a post in Face Book and the other from seasoned BJP wordsmith M Venkaiah Naidu. These remarks seem sum up what the upcoming Commonwealth Games is all about and nothing about sports at all.

It was incidentally the watermouth Congress nominated Rajya Sabha MP, Manishankar Shankar Aiyer, (India Today called him Mani Shankar IRE) who opened the can, the pandora's box with craftly worded utterings -- that he wants it to rain cats and dogs during the Games here and that he would be unhappy if the sporting extravaganza was successful. He was called anti-national by the Games Organising Committee Chairman Suresh Kalmadi. (Aiyer retorted, Suresh Kalmadi is Suresh Calamity).

Aiyer's ire is nothing new. He used to speak against the Games and was always against the huge spending saying it is not going to help in the growth of sports in the country. He was particularly angry that the government was not bothered about his pet project of developing sports infrastructure in villages across the country.

Then came the Central Vigilance Commission, the anti-corruption force, smelling rot in the projects, tenders, procurement and what else. Kalmadi hiring treadmill for Rs 9.75 lakh. Yes he is hiring one for this amount when he can buy the best in the world for Rs seven lakh. 

It is not Kalmadi alone who is under the scanner. The Municipal Corporation of Delhi, Delhi Government and the Union Urban Deveopment Ministry all are responsible for the corruption. 

Leaking stadia, substandard preparations, ongoing work -- a mess. The mess being there, everybody is confident that everything will be in place before the event. Before the event, yes on October two by 5 pm. Thanks to THE GREAT INDIAN JUGAAD.

But the question is should the Games be held here. Why not the Commonwealth Games Federation withdraw the Games? Not because the preparations are bad, leading no where. Because of the corruption.

Is this the way Kalmadi and Co bringing "prestige" to the country by pocketing millions and millions of rupees looted from the pockets of Actors and Accountants, Beggars and Butchers, Clerks and Comedians, Doctors and Domestic helps, Engineers and Enigmatists, Foodies and Fashion designers, Greedy and Gorgeous, Housewives and Honeymooners, Idiots and Idols, Journalists and Jockers, Keralites and Kashmiris, Lawyers and Librarians, Models and Musicians, Nurses and Novuveau Riche, Oracles and Opthalmologists, Pimps and Priests, Quacks and Quizmasters, Rickshaw pullers and Readers, Scientists and Soldiers, Teachers and Traders, Ugly and Utopians, Vegetarians and Vetinerarians, Writers and Wrestlers and all XYZ.

One of my friends, Sreeparna, told me, We are being BLACKMAILED to support the Games. We will be called names -- like anti-national -- if we don't support the Games. In the name of the Games, we are being asked to pay for more and have to pay more. Prices of everything has gone up. Name it, everything has become costlier in Delhi -- bus fare, petrol, daal, water, electricity, tomato, salt, milk...

Anand Haridas, another friend, tweeted: My God, earlier there were anti-nationals speaking only for adivasis and displaced, now they oppose Commonwealth Games! 

August four morning, my senior colleague Deepika told me about a sweeper working in my organisation. He might be earning something around Rs 3,000 per month. Before the bus fares were revised, she used to meet him in the same bus. But from one day, suddenly he disappeared. She used to meet him everyday in office and never found anything strange in not meeting him in bus or bus stop. He might be coming in another bus, his shift might have changed, reasons could be endless. She left it there but only to discover him, one day, cycling to office. Struggling to find some space, his way through the maddening traffic on the Vikas Marg. A long 12 km cycle ride through the rough Delhi streets where no driver care for anyone else (and even sometimes dont care oneself). She just rewinded herself. When did he stopped boarding the bus? Why did he stop travelling in a bus? The bus fares were revised and he had to shell out another extra Rs 300 per month. A Rs 300 extra to get to office, he would say sorry to that luxury. His luxury would mean less daal, less rice to his household.

Yes, he is living in a world class capital, Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit will remind him. He has to pay, if he needs a flyover, if he wants to see his city in flying colours.

Kalmadi is looting this Rs 300, Dikshit is snatching this Rs 300, XYZ in the power corridors are fleeing with this Rs 300.

Do we really need the Games here? I would say NO and you can hurl any abuse at me -- traitor, anti-national, ba@#&d. I won't object. 
Shemin/Aug 4

The Bihar Fixation

I think I have a fixation for Bihar, a place I never have been to. I have been thinking about Bihar and Biharis for the past few days. Whenever I think about writing about something for the Delhi Jottings, Bihar is what is coming to my mind. Nostalgia, girls, films, friends -- nothing fascinating me at this moment. It's Bihar and Biharis.

I don't know much about Bihar, other than Nitish Kumar is Chief Minister, Patna is its capital, Mohd Shihabuddin used to muscle his way around Siwan, Pappu Yadav's wife is an impressive speaker, Lalu Prasad ate a lot of "fodder" and became rich, a lean scribe Varghese C George posted in Patna by Indian Express became a hero because of his expose on Lalu's fodder. That Jharkhand was carved out of the state where the writ of Sibu Soren, the alleged messaiah of tribals, runs. Then the under-development, the usual contempt for "the uncivilised Biharis", the usual stories. Yes, my GK on Bihar has its limit.

So occasionally I talk to Biharis (I use it not as an insult, but to identify) about Bihar, their understanding, their feelings about their home.


The other day, I was talking to Krishnakumar, a "Bihari" colleague in PTI's legal bureau. The conversation somehow soon turned to and circled around Bihar and Biharis. A well-meaning, well-intentioned Krishna told me abruptly, "hei dost, from rickshaw walas to the mighty IAS wala, you name it and we have it from from Bihar." I had no option but to agree with him.

 I asked him why so? You are churning out the largest number of IAS guys and girls, then why these rickshaw walas, why can't they become something else other than rickshaw walas. I told him, we have a huge number of "Bihari" journalists and some so big name as Shekhar Gupta, the Indian Express CEO. He nodded and continued listening.

I became a little naughty and told him Biharis are so innovative. He laughed and said Delhi Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit has a complaint about them that they just take a train to Delhi the moment they have some money and get going here. Can she complain when you get some cheap labour, I wondered. Bihari labourers have now crossed the Vindhyas and even reached the southern tip. 

I stuck to my point on Biharis being innovative. I said, Soren when he was in undivided Bihar, gave suitcases a new status during the 1990s when Narasimha Rao was in power. He again laughed. I told him, you just come, get a rickshaw, or an auto, or go to JNU, or to a media house. You are here. Biharis have arrived.

Krishna brought back me from my sarcasm or poor jokes or bad humour. He said, we did have nothing there. Last 15-20 years when other states progressed, we were left far behind. Fifteen years, Lalu plundered and before that others. I countered, the IAS v/s rickshaw wala was there then also. So what is the problem? Suddenly, a telephone rings and he rushed. It was a call from his boss, another Bihari but now belongs to Jharkhand.

Many say, people flee from Bihar to get more education, facilities. Yes, those who can afford do so. Others flee to ply the cycle rickshaws and autos.

My friends who want me to get married soon always tell me that I should go to some Bihar village. I used to tell them that I am not getting a girl as girls don't like me (and the other option is not going to work as I am not interested in men). They say go to Bihar and announce your qualifications. Someone will kidnap you for their girl and get married.

What is ailing Bihar? My tryst with Bihar to continue.
Shemin/Jun 6

Bihar, Biharis: Saddam Opens a Window

For the past few hours, I was thinking of Saddam, a 15-16 year-old boy from Bihar. Which village, I dont remember. I was talking to  him around midnight two days ago. He had come upstairs to get some cold water from the  "fridge" (refrigerator) to beat the Delhi heat. The night temperatures were on a high. Next days newspapers were to say that the minimum has touched a 15 year  old high. But Saddam seemed undetered by this heat. He was upbeat about himself.


He suddenly started talking about his work, work ethics. And the provocation was my pleasantry "kaam  kaise chal raha hei?" (how is your work going?). I was just trying to be nice to him though I was in no mood to for a  conversation. I was talking to myself and at that point I did not want to talk to anyone. But Saddam suddenly struck me  with his conversation.

Saddam came to Delhi two-three years ago. He is now living in the "posh colony" of Priyadarshini Vihar near  Laxmi Nagar. Priyadarsini Vihar is a posh colony set up by a society formed by employees of American embassy long  back. And our landlord, an MCD contractor bought a bunglow. The ground floor is where around 15 teenagers and adults eat, work and sleep. They do embroidery on clothes and sell it at the cloth market in Gandhi Nagar.

Saddam cleared his throat after gulping the "fridge water". He says, I dont go to my house every year. Aijas  Bhai, who taught him the work, is now on a holiday. "Acha nahi lagta hei ghar jaaane mein (I dont like going home) ". I  was surprised. He says, "my friends don't recognise me there. I have become taller by one feet in two  years. I have become fair. If I go home, I become more darker."

I looked at the boy, lean as me, with astonishment. Is it just that he becomes dark makes him think so. No. 

He thinks, I am what I am now is because of Delhi. Delhi taught me a lot. I am good at my work in two years.  Here, the water quality is good, he feels. He said inserting some english words which he learnt  during his Delhi days. Saddam had madrassa education, learnt Urdu (or was it Arabic), he can't read it now. But  whenever he saw me reading English papers, he used to come and sit near me, watching me flipping through the  pages. He will then ask some questions. And many times, I have seen a sense of disappointment in his eyes. He can't read English and he is not a journalist, I always thought that he was thinking so. I used to tell him, start reading papers.

Suddenly, he starts talking about his work ethics. If you are working, work with passion. He did not say this in as many words. That was what we meant. He continued, If I am working, I am fully into it. My mind won't digress.  May be after two hours, I take a break and during that period, I do many other things. I don't mix work and fun.

He then told me about another guy who was there for the past six years and still not allowed to do work on his  own. "I was fortunate. I learnt fast. That too in two years. The ustad now does not check my work. He knows that I am  good at my work," he sounded jubiliant.
(I am not good at telling stories. So there are so many gaps in the story)

What struck me was his idea about Delhi. He says, like me, Delhi made me and I can't leave this city. It has  become a part of his/my life. But I never say I won't go to Kerala. Perumpally. Kochi. Yes, the other day I was missing  the rains. My friend Santosh Babu was telling me last night, it was raining. I just missed it. Fortunately or unfortunately, i  was the second person to know, other than the MET people, that the monsoon hit Kerala coast (PTI broke the story, my  friend and PTI Science correspondent confirmed it first in India from MET people. He phoned me to give the alert and it  was on wires within a flash of a second).
Shemin/Jun 3

I was raped and now I don’t want to be victimized by the Orissa Police

Sister Meena

On 24th August around 4.30 pm, hearing the shouting large crowd, at the gate of Sivyajyoti pastoral centre, I ran out through the back door and escaped to the forest along with others. We saw our house going up in flame. Around 8.30 PM, we came out of the forest and went to the house of the Hindu gentleman who gave us shelter.

On 25th August, around 1.30 PM, the mob entered the room where I was staying in that house; one of them slapped on my face, caught my hair and pulled me out of the house. Two of them were holding my neck to cut off my head with axe. Others told them to take me out to the road; I saw Fr. Chellan also being taken out and being beaten. The mob consisting of 40-50 men were armed with lathis, axes, spades, crowbars, iron rods, sticks etc. They took both of us to the main road. Then they led us to the burnt down Janavikas building saying that they were going to throw us into the smoldering fire.

When we reached the Janavikas building, threw me to the verandah on the way to the dining room which was full of ashes and broken glass pieces. One of them tore my blouse and others my undergarments. Father Chellan protested and they beat him and pulled him out from there. They pulled out my saree and one of them slepped on my right hand and another on my left hand and then a third person raped me on the verandah mention above. When it was over, I managed to get up and put my petticoat and saree. Then another young man caught me and took me to a room near the staircase. He opened his pants and was attempting to rape me when they reached there.

I hide myself under the staircase. The crowd was shouting “Where is that sister, come let us rape her, at least 100 people should rape.” They found me under stair case and took me out to the road. There I saw Fr. Chellan was kneeling down and the crowd was beating him. They were searching for a rope to tie both of us together to burn in fire. Someone suggested to make a us parade naked. They made us to walk on the road till Nuagaon market, which was half a kilometer from there. They made to fold our hands and walk. I was with petticoat and saree as they had already torn away my blouse and undergarments. They tried to strip even there and I resisted and they went on beating me with hands on my cheeks and head, and with sticks on my back several times.

When we reached market place, about a dozen of OSAP police men were there. I went to them asking to protect me and I sat in between two policemen. They did not move. One from the crowd again pulled out from there there and they wanted to take us in their temple mandap. The crowd led me and Fr. Chellan to the Nuagaon block building, saying that they will hand us over to B.D.O. From there along with the block officer, the mob took us to police outpost Nuagaon, other policemen remained far.

The mob said that they will comeback after and one of them who attacked me remained back in the police outpost. Policemen then came to police outpost. They were talking very friendly with the man who had attacked me and stayed back. In police outpost we remained until the inspector incharge of Balliguda with his police team came and took us to Balliguda. They were afraid to us straight to the police station and they kept us sometimes in jeep in garage, from there they brought us to the station. The inspector incharge and other two government officers took privately and asked whatever happened to me. I narrated everything in detail to the police, how I was attacked, raped, taken away from policement paraded half naked and how the plicemen did not help me when I asked for help while weeping bitterly. I saw the inspector writing down. The inspector asked me “Are you interesting in filing FIR? Do you know what will be the consequence?” At about 10 PM, I was taken for medical check up accompanied by a lady police officer to Balliguda hospital” They were afraid to keep us in police station, saying the mob may attack police station. So the police took us to I. B. (Inspection Bungalow) where CRPF men were camping.

On 26th around 9 AM we were taken to Balliguda police station. When I was writing the FIR, the I/C asked me to hurry up and not to write in detail. When I started writing about the police, I/C told me this is not the way to write FIR. “Make it short.” So I rewrote it for the third time in one and half page. I filed the FIR, but I was not given a copy of it.

At around 4 PM the Inspector In charge of Balliguda police station along with some government officers put us in the OSRTC bus to Bhubaneswar along with other stranded passengers. Police were there till Rangamati, where all passengers had their supper. After that I did not see the police. We got down near Nayagarh and traveled in a private vehicle and reached Bhubaneswar around 2 AM on 27th August.

State police failed to stop the crimes, failed to protect me from the attackers, they were friendly with attackers, they tried their best that I did not register a FIR, not make complaints against police, police did not take down my statement as I narrated in detail and they abandon me half of the way. I was raped and now I don’t want to be victimized by the Orissa Police. I want CBO enquiry. God bless India, God bless you all.

Sr. Meena
(Sr. Meena was working at Divyajyoti Pastoral Centre at K. Nuagaon, Kandhamal District, Orissa before anti-Christian violence broken out in Kandhamal district of Orissa after the killing of Lakshmananada Sarawati on August 23, 2008 allegedly by Maoists.)

Thumps Down --- Autos, Buses

Shemin Joy

New Delhi, Sep 23, 2007 (PTI) Buses and autos plying in the capital have got a thumps down from Delhi women, with a whopping 70 per cent of the fairer sex claiming that these were the high-risk areas for them.

Fifty per cent of the respondents of a government- backed study -- "How Secure or Insecure are Women in the City of Delhi" by the National Institute of Criminology and Forensic Science -- said they consider buses as most unsafe for women.

The study suggested that government should ensure that the drivers and conductors of blueline buses have no criminal background and get them registered with the authorities.

Autos came a distant second with 20 per cent in the study conducted for Bureau of Police Research and Development by interviewing 630 respondents in markets, colleges, railway stations, malls, ISBT, airport, slums and villages.

Ten per cent of the women felt that roadside was an area of high insecurity. Interestingly, Old Delhi ranked fourth in this regard with seven per cent of the respondents perceiving this part of the capital as scary.

The survey, conducted to stidy the perception level of insecurity among women in the capital, also found that market places and colleges are the places where capital's women feel most insecure. About 80.40 per cent of women interviewed at marketplaces said they felt insecure at the place while the figurefor colleges was 72.10 per cent.

Shopping malls came third where 60 per cent of respondents said they felt insecure. Level of insecurity was lowest among slum dwellers (8.70 per cent) followed by respondents from village (22.8 percent).

The study said personal factors like low level of confidence and alcoholic spouses made slum dwellers (80 per cent of the respondents) insecure.

The feeling of insecurity sank in 85 per cent of women in markets and railway stations due to low level of confidence, it said. In colleges, 70 per cent of the girls had lower level of confidence. Respondents from villages have higher trust in the police while those from markets and airport trusted police the lowest, it said.

The study suggested that small bottes of pepper spray be made available at a very low price for enhancing the security of the fairer sex.

"Every girl should carry pepper spray and it should beavailable in a small bottle at a very low price ... easilyavailable in the market," it said.

The study also recommended that women should always move in groups if possible and should carry contact numbers of women helpline and police besides having "some basic knowledge" of law.