I’m mad as hell and I won’t take it anymore!
I’m sick and tired of being resilient, of living my life like the blood of my brethren spilt on the streets targeted by a bomb or a bullet will not make me stop my life!
It’s time to press the brakes NOW!
The whole world watches in horror as my city is held hostage for 60 hours as I write this. We have our brave men dying on the first day because they are fighting highly trained terrorists equipped with sophisticated weapons with lathis, 303 rifles, and flimsy body armor.
We have innocent men, women and children held hostage and killed because our ministers don’t even know that the marine commando’s are based in Maharashtra, or why would they be deployed the next day?
A home ministry who does not even have the blueprints of the Taj and Oberoi hotel organized when the NSG lands from Delhi, delaying their attack by several hours!
We don’t have NSG in Mumbai because they are all in Delhi protecting the sweet asses of ‘supposed’ leaders and VIP’s whose job it is to protect us!
Leaders who don’t even have the sense NOT to come to this city when we need every security personnel deployed at the three fronts they are waging an attack on, instead of worrying about their safety!
Leaders whose security is paid for by our tax money!
In 1993 the arms came via the sea route! In 2008 they come via the sea route!
Lessons learned? ZERO
Bombay has had enough bomb blasts to have a crisis management infrastructure in place.
Lessons learned? ZERO
Politicians travel shamelessly across the country to give sound bytes when an incident occurs, not caring whether they impede the work of security and forensics.
Lessons learned? ZERO
The blood and sorrow of Indians is only to be capitalized by politicians to fight elections. My blood boils when the opposition takes out an advertisement in the newspaper using an ONGOING attack as their election propaganda!
My blood boils when Narendra Modi who bad mouthed ATS chief Karkare for his Malegaon investigation goes to his house and visits the fallen hero’s dead body and makes a speech and offers him a cheque of a crore which is rejected by his wife.
Karkare, Salaskar, Kamte died in the line of duty so did NSG commandos and jawans and police constables, they were from every state of India, they weren’t fighting a regional battle they were fighting for the country! And we have parties trying to create divisional lines trying to give terror a communal color!
I’m mad as hell and I won’t take it anymore!
It is time we stopped being the silent majority and minding our own business.
Let us as citizens of the city, of this country get together.
Let us do SOMETHING!
Let us start a non co-operation movement.
Something to show that we won’t take this lying down. Something that can tell these leaders protected by our brave commandos that we want safety of our family, our city, our country.
Let them see how many we are.
Let them see how angry and frustrated and tired we are.
Let us come together to ask for our right to live our life fearlessly.
Let us come together to remember the loss of our fellow beings.
Let us the people come together so that their loss is not in vain and lessons are learned.
I will be standing outside the Taj Hotel on Wednesday, December 3 at 6 pm.
Join me
Tags: blasts, India, mumbai, Suparn, terror, Verma
Anurag Kashyap
Abhay Deol
Dibakar Banerjee
Hansal Mehta
Khalid Mohamed
Kundan Shah
Anish Kuruvilla
Jaideep Verma
Manish Gupta
Navdeep Singh
Bhavani Iyer
D. Santosh
Onir
Ashvin Kumar
Ramu Ramanathan
Sudhir Mishra
Pankaj Advani
Revathy
Saurabh Shukla
Shilpa Shukla
Sujoy Ghosh
Suparn Verma
Santosh Sivan
Shashank Ghosh
Shivajee
Pavan Kaul
Partho Sen-Gupta
Prroshant Naryannan
Sam Langoria
Satish Kasetty
Hi Suparn, appreciate your initiative…lets do something..may be start a movement…being in media we have the advantage to reach out to people. I will be there at Taj on 3rd…keep me posted.
the problem with us is, nothing can make us stop cushioning out bottoms and get up. our blood boils for 30 secs before it again cools down to ice.
its true as suparn says we have to act now. do something, anything.
am from kolkata so cant be there. but my brothers and cousins will fill up for me.
Rusted Rick: It does not matter if u are in Kolkota or bangalore of hydbad or delhi or pune or anywhere! Choose a venue tel ur friends pass the word around and be there
Make a plan.
Go there every wednesday until this government does SOMETHING
count me in. i will be there. and i will spread the word. please inform me of any endeavour, i want to do my part in this.
i’ll be there….I came within three-inches to getting shot two days ago i’ve had enough and its time to take matters into our own hands. I have lost all faith in the so-called ‘establishment’ and we have to start taking measures to protect ourselves and our loved ones…..
they cant even provide a basic measure of security in the streets….the fact that the terrorists hijacked a POLICE vehicle and went on a rampage outside Metro Cinema simply boggles my mind….ours must be the only police in the world to have this honour
Mr. Raj’s regionalism, shortchanging of the Armed Forces, oh its all hitting me now…i met an NSG commando today at Bombay Hospital. He injured his foot on the first day but continued participating in the operation till it was over and got admitted only on Friday afternoon, risking amputaion. If only our politicians would have shown half as much commitment….
……and with complete filmy irony, our commando was from the state of Bihar
reminds me yet again of Rabbi Shergill’s song…”jinhe naaz hai Hind pe vo kahan they…”
Suparn..am forwarding this link to all my friends and relatives who live in Mumbai. Will try to gather as many as possible on Dec 3rd.
Suparn, i just want to share few thoughts with u. Political leaders dont act, until their arse is on fire.
And whatever they do is guided by votebank politics.
So lets say in every constituency( at least the urban and semi urban ones), we build up a pressure Group, a vote bank, which puts the demands simple.
We are not voting for you, unless you promise to set up a federal anti terror agency.
Unless you come up with a strong law, that can fight terrorism.
Unless you take a pledge, that come what may you wont interfere with the law doing its job.
Unless you increase the pay scales of the armed forces, the security forces, the cops.
Unless you actually go about and modernize the police force.
Most of us know what needs to be done, but it can be done only by political leaders. So can we build up as a votebank and make sure the political leaders act, at least for the sake of votes.
We have had Hindu votebanks, Muslim votebanks, Dalit votebanks, farmer votebanks, regional votebanks. I guess its time to form a citizen’s votebank.
I cannot join you in Mumbai Suparn, but I shall join you in spirit and I shall also make it known where I live.
Yes, we need a citizen’s votebank. In one of the previous posts, someone had suggested a rating system for our politicians…
Is there information that we can put up online on a web site which shows what politician has done what all in his/her term. What are his/her assets, poll promises and how many promises proven?
Do you think it is a good idea? I think it shall help me as someone to know about our politicians from an independent source…..
Track people who are in power day to day and put out the info for everyone to see…
May be there is something like that there already… I do not know… Please share your ideas and opinion…
There is going to be a rally in Chennai as well. Probably near Besant Nagar beach.
@ Sarang,
Yup, it was me who said about the rating system for politicians. I think we need it, I need to know the person for whom I am voting, how good she or he is. EC sites mention what the candidate discloses. Its of no use. I want a review and feedback system for every MP, MLA, Corporator and then take it forward for every government official. A 360 degree loop.
Saale, the government officials and politicians think they can’t be fired or lay-offed means they have right to rule on us and remain fucking incompetent till the rest of their lives.
@ Suparn,
Being in Ahmedabad, I am not there standing together in person on 3rd December 6 PM.
.
Along with Sarang, I am there in spirit and soul.
.
Umm, I was wondering if there can be a blog or website where all those who are outside Mumbai can register themselves for 3rd December event to show solidarity.
Mumbai has already started taking to the streets in protest. But our government will never ever fucking learn. Idiots are contemplating intensifying forces near the LoC instead of intensifying security, surveillance, patrolling etc internally. Morons!
HI Suparn
There is another meet by Hanmer same day/ same venue 6 pm onwards for the same cause. There is an SMS going around inviting people to join for the Mumbai cause. Are you part of the same event or your’s is another movement ?
I suggest clubbing the movement together with a bigger strength. I will be there.
Vijay…Do you have further details about the rally in Chennai? Would like to join.
Anand all I know now is that it is being planned for the same day, same time. Dec 3 @ 6. Will give confirmation as soon as I know more.
“I will be standing outside the Taj Hotel on Wednesday, December 3 at 6 pm.”
Yup, this is the line I was waiting to read i.e. are we as ‘a stupid common man’ (to qoute Mr. Shah from Wednesday) are doing something as well to ‘make things happen’!
Hi Ratnakar,
I agree with the direction of your views. There’s no point blaming the politicians. The mathematics of democracy makes them inept; democracy is not intelligence-dependent after all.
The netas didn’t come to power because of you and me, so they don’t owe us jack. They give a toss for terrorism because in lakhs and lakhs of dusty, backward villages of this country terrorism as an issue scores a fat, beautiful zero.
Drinking water unmixed with mud, educating people about washing hands after defecating, improving on the figure of 0.17 schools every 10,000 rural children and such more are the issues India is made of. We chose this path when we chose democracy all those years ago.
The educated lot have to become a votebank in order to have ‘their’ issues addressed. There’s no other way.
Suparn.
will be there. We need radical steps to be taken to get these politicos in line. they need to be like us to feel the problems and the fears we face. Special privileges should be taken away from them. no protocol. let them live on their salaries, pay rent for the houses they live in, travel in trains and buses and autos, nothing to be given to them. they choose politics as we choose what we do. NO PROTOCOL. no security of any kind A to Z. let them be as vulnerable as we are, face the same traffic jams and standing in lines like we do. take away all privileges. then they will know our fears.
Suparn..will be there
will be there
will be there
even i will be there
you know Im a bit far… but I am a member of the UN here. Once I get there I can try getting a network involved. This needs to be heard and felt. The sheer scale of impotancy on the part of the button pushers have been unbelievable.
- though be safe at the demonstrations because the audacious guys cant be eradicated. Only hope is better control/reaction.
-ultimately the root causes are important too.
-further more an angry reaction on a country wide scale although may seem suitable as a short sharp response can never in the long term solve anything…in nuclear times are best not to be messed around with.
but yes I agree the responsibility lies with every individual and their demands. There are inexcusable systematic failures here within Indian territory
Thanks for your concern and the note. Your anguish can be easily
understandable by many like me. We, the common man share exactly the same view
regarding the whole system, especially the politicians. Every time
some mishap happens, incompetence of the leaders get vividly exposed
at the cost of innocent lives. What’s worst, everything is then
camouflaged under the ‘undying spirit of mumbai’. Thats’ utter
bullshit in my view. There’s nothing left as the spirit of Mumbai. It’s only the sheer
disgust, cold reluctance and numb psyche of the citizen, which has lost all hope and
faith from the system.
Let’s reinstate hope.
will be there… important thing is to ensure that we are able to sustain this momentum… let this be the beginning.
also, i’ve been getting a lot of smses about gateway of india, december 3… are there many groups doing the same thing? would be a good idea to join hands with like-minded groups.
“Suparn Verma kick starts non-cooperation movement at Taj”
http://www.bollywoodhungama.com/news/2008/12/01/12252/index.html
Spread the link….
Wow… providing a link to a copied article right in the comments section of the original post. this is a first
hahaha…Oz…audacity..audacity!!
Considering the topic at hand lets focus on the urgent matter at hand, this blog has already been cut paste in many emails, that’s not the issue, the core issue should be Wednesday and every wednesday after that
Hi Oz,
I understand where you are coming from. Come on, I am sure you understand that it is a ’cause’ we are talking about. And btw, I had a conversation with Suparn ‘before’ actually going ahead with this piece.
For a change, let’s not look at who copied whom here! As a writer, I understand that one certainly don’t want the stuff to be ‘lifted’ and moreover hardly gets a ‘creative satisfaction’ if one end up ‘lifting’ someone else’s write up.
I guess we are talking about Suparn’s initiative here rather than ‘intellectual copyrights’. There are 1000 ways of rewording an article or re-presenting it differently but let’s leave that to gossips! We are talking about a ’cause’ here and the last thing you want here is making it look ‘different’ so that it doesn’t sound like a ‘lift’!
I am sure Oz that as a person who is running a respectable site, you are with me on this!
Joginder Tuteja
PS: The link wasn’t added here for publicity for the site or the author. Again, there are various other channels to do that. It was to show support to Suparn and his initiative and I am sure at the least he understands that. However, you may remove my comments if you will.
Suparn, our comments overlapped. Good you replied. Thanks.
Tuteja-jee, Verma-jee, it was a light hearted comment pointing out to Tuteja-jee that the event he is asking people to join in the above comment is actually the very post mentioning the event.
Hey Oz, it’s all cool! :-) Let’s continue to support Suparn. I may be speaking of more people (from the film world) about the initiatives that they are taking. Will post here about that so that the voice doesn’t die down!
I hope that the Indian people know that whatever Reverend Jeremiah Wright says it doesn’t represent the views of all of America. Lots of us in America see Jeremiah Wright as a source of shame and view him with contempt.
I don’t feel that this is a case of India’s chickens coming home to roost. Lots of us in America would be appalled at hearing Reverend Jeremiah Wright say “God Damn India”.
It really concerns me that such a low life is so close to our President-elect.
JJ
What the hell are you talking about??
And By the way, privately most intelligent americans know that whatever Jeremiah Wright said is TRUE.
And we are not saints either.
How about meeting at CAFE LEOPOLD to have a beer/coffee 1 hr before. Then walk to TAJ. This way we will show our support to Leopold not just symbolically but also materially.
Suparn Ji,
I wholeheartedly agree with this. A non-cooperation movement is what we need. I am not in India, but would like to contribute in my small way if required. If an organization is founded and we start collecting money, that may give me and millions like us one way to be part of the movement.
But first the movement should have some clear goals..
- How about resignation of Home Minister/Defence Minister/Police Chief of Mumbai/IB Chief/RAW Chief/Maharashtra CM/Deputy CM?
- Arrest of each idiotic journalist from different channels or at least firing of them for spewing out details of the commando operation?
- Firing of Chief of coastal gaurd, the ones on duty in Bombay and Porbunder?
Modus operandi..should be to not allow any politician to have any rally, press conference or any other type of public activity for at least 30 days. Go to every event that any political party organizes and stage a peaceful protest and not allow the event to be staged.
Go to every TV channel’s office and stage a dharna until they fire those morons they call as journalists.
I won’t be reaching Mumbai till the 12th of Dec, but I’ll be there in spirit and I’ll send this out to everyone I know in Mumbai.
Wish you all the best for your initaiting a movement on 03 Dec.
Wish I was there as would have loved to make it. Thought I share my thoughts of the incident
http://sunnyfernandes.rediffiland.com/blogs/2008/11/30/Bomb-ed-ay.html
May the force (people) be with you
my apologies
For the first time i identify myself with the readers of the same blog on rediff rather than pfc..i am pfc..heart and soul..when it comes to films..but i find the whole article by suparn veryyy cliched… and to see the way he reacted (and joginder too ) to a simple comment made by oz.. i was all the more convinced.. the heart of this lies on a totally different plane..
suparn u may be very honest in ur initiative.. but i’m totally disillusioned to share it boss.. i don’t have faith in the government, but i also dont have faith that any token symbol like standing in front of the taj or lighting candles in front of India gate would move anybody..
Too many incidents man..too many..we have done that and got back to our own ways.. this “let’s do it” doesn’t last for too long..the thick skinned are too thick skinned for our subtleties man.. and we are not up to doing anything more than that
mybe i’m lost for ideas..help me out
radical concepts..we all love to see depicted in films..any of those in reality?..
i’m no good also.. and i’ve used a lot of “i”’s in this comment.. don’t know how to put it..i’m also waiting for somebody to come and save us all.
people on rediff seem to believe modi is the man..i have no idea.. i dont know modi in person… what big asshole i am…
(please try to understand)
~~~Prasoon Joshi’s poem after the Mumbai terror attacks(it touched me, so i thought i should share with you)~~~
~~~~~Is baar nahin~~~~~
‘
Is baar jab woh choti si bachchi mere paas apni kharonch le kar aayegi
Main usey phoo phoo kar nahin behlaoonga
Panapney doonga uski tees ko
Is baar nahin
‘
Is baar jab main chehron par dard likha dekhoonga
Nahin gaoonga geet peeda bhula dene wale
Dard ko risney doonga,utarney doonga andar gehrey
Is baar nahin
‘
Is baar main na marham lagaoonga
Na hi uthaoonga rui ke phahey
Aur na hi kahoonga ki tum aankein band karlo,gardan udhar kar lo main dawa lagata hoon
Dekhney doonga sabko hum sabko khuley nangey ghaav
Is baar nahin
‘
Is baar jab uljhaney dekhoonga,chatpatahat dekhoonga
Nahin daudoonga uljhee door lapetney
Uljhaney doonga jab tak ulajh sake
Is baar nahin
‘
Is baar karm ka hawala de kar nahin uthaoonga auzaar
Nahin karoonga phir se ek nayee shuruaat
Nahin banoonga misaal ek karmyogi ki
Nahin aaney doonga zindagi ko aasani se patri par
Utarney doonga usey keechad main,tedhey medhey raston pe
Nahin sookhney doonga deewaron par laga khoon
Halka nahin padney doonga uska rang
Is baar nahin banney doonga usey itna laachaar
Ki paan ki peek aur khoon ka fark hi khatm ho jaye
Is baar nahin
‘
Is baar ghawon ko dekhna hai
Gaur se
Thoda lambe wakt tak
Kuch faisley
Aur uskey baad hausley
Kahin toh shuruat karni hi hogi
Is baar yahi tay kiya hai
Comment 41: Ankur, so many writing here about what happened in Mumbai, you have just put forth what I exactly feel (excluding the rediff part, havent read their take). Never could get the words..But u did..Thank you.
Will be there.
Suparn,
I appreciate your initiative and I hope it bloody drives a little sense into our corrupt politicians.
Unfortunately, I do not reside in India but I have fwded your article to my friends and family members in India. I hope your movement a resounding success.
Keep up the good work.
Regards,
Karthik
I offer step two:
- Demand that politicians work to principles.
A politician must declare the principle he/she is observing in response to the public’s question for any issue that comes into the public domain, like the Taj terror or the Afzal case or VR Deshmukh hanging on.
A politician found wanting on the stated principle must resign.
A culture for working to principles should establish an automatic control system.
We’ll be announcing the Act India Initiative group page on facebook with a charter of demands today. It also announces India wide rallies next week with the list of demands, and if the government doesn’t listen the GOI and the opposition face us giving them a no vote under article 49-O and if things come to an head we go for civil disobedience and stop paying taxes ALL over India.
What we need are right people at the right places in the govt. And prevent the entry of wrong people in the governance of the country. And there is one way that can be done…
‘Clean the Selection system’ or ‘Boycott Elections’
This is a movement that has been started by a Patriot, An Indian. The sole agenda –
Overhauling of the way elections body.
Why are ppl with criminal records allowed to lead our Nation?
Why are illiterates are allow to lead our nations?
Why are politicians allowed to call for bandh?
Why are politicians allowed to have NSG commando’s to guard them?
This movement is our perfect opportunity to bring a change. Indian parliamentary elections are due to take place in May 2009 and so timing is right too!!
An excert of what this PATRIOT believes.
“… I believe that, as in a family or a corporate the head or the CEO marks the progress and prosperity of the unit, so too in the matter of our motherland, it is the leaders who make or mar the nation’s destiny. Considering the Indian parliamentary elections are due to take place in May 2009, I have proposed a movement – ‘Clean the Selection system’ or ‘Boycott Elections’. This is the only leverage left with us Indians to save ourselves from yet another 5 years of ‘Fool & Rule’ regime of our present politicians.
NOTHING seems to get done or implemented in India. We lack a dependable delivery system the most. While thousands of people labour to ‘make a difference’ to the motherland, the fruits are few.
i know this is radical, but the soft approach has failed too many times! This is new and hot, there is a solid vision behind it and a solid plan of action to take it ahead!”
with a dream of a new India,
best regards!
GG
Dear Suparn Verma,
I congratulate you on this initiative. Hope i was there in Mumbai to be a part of this movement. My heartfelt wishes for the success of this movement.
I believe the success of this movement will depend only when the government agencies are held more accountable. I don’t have any hope on the politicians whose term is for only 5 years and at times less than that.
The government agencies should be more transparent. We need more honest, straightforward and bold officers. Remember they serve for atleast 35-40 years and will be better equipped to deal with things like this.
Instead of begging Pakistan to handover terrorist let us have an agency that will go undercover to these countries and eliminate these terrorist.
As much as the politicians are responsible let us also not forget that there are highly ineffective officers in the government department who are to be blamed for this failure. They need to be cleared first. Think about this even after all this mayhem you can walk today into the CST with a gun without any screening.
i am repeating my question again on this board…
why is it that we, the common people, are scared of the politicians we ourselves have brought into power?
why is it that there is no forum for any interaction between the government and the people?
why is it that the government shrugs its responsibilities after getting elected?
i think there should be a government interaction forum at every level. the politicians should be made to answer the questions from the public in the presence of the media.
we can have the local constituencies meet up once a week. we can have city level meetings once a month, state level – once in 2 months. and finally the centre should be made to reply to peoples questions once every 3 months.
its high time the government assume some responsibility towards its citizens. if the government is unable to give satisfactory answers to the publics questions there should be provisions for the public to give a ‘no confidence’ vote for the government. after 3 consecutive ‘no confidence’ votes from the public, the government should be made to resign.
its time i should stop rambling on, and wait for others comments.
and yes i forgot, i am leaving home for the gateway of india now. hope to see you people there.
Just been watching TV images of the rally outside the Taj. There’s a massive gathering out there as well as in other cities. I hope this initiative materialises into a movement that will kick start our Govt into taking the security of the commom man seriously.
These are one of those very few rallies where politicians are not welcomed.
it was an overwhelming experience to be there. hordes and hordes of people coming together, not as hindus or muslims or northies or marathis, but just as Indians. WOW!
everyone wants action. everyone wants change. the recent divisive politics notwithstanding, WE ARE STILL UNITED. united, yes. organised, no. lets get our act together people, lets form one common charter of some feasible and logical steps to bring about change. there were some very good ideas with the people, but there were the foolish ones too.
one guy near the ‘war on terror’ wall of messages was getting signatures on a letter. when enquired about the contents he said that it was a letter demanding an India without politicians. that was plain stupid. when i asked him, if not politicians then what, he abruptly changed his stance to removing all the bad politicians. needless to say he didnt get my signature.
this is a very good beginning people. we have gathered for a cause, now lets unite for a cause.
this is all i could catch from my mobile before the battery ran out.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-k1ccieWvKA
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w5bPRqpCs1w
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4IqwW7qeQfI
and here are some pics that i took
http://picasaweb.google.com/mr.mash/MumbaiRally?authkey=diVBRK07FBg#
PS: wasnt able to meet any of the pfc-ites. was hunting for known faces, mainly anurag kashyap and suparn verma (havent met any member previously), but couldnt locate any amongst the sea of people. tough luck.
NOTE TO MYSELF – next time, get the contact numbers of members who are going to be there. ;)
i have been fed up with these political parties.they spend crores of our tax money on their election campaign but cant give ak 47 to our policemen who fight bullet’s of terrorists with lathis.a cricketer in india earns crores and a commondo earns a few thousands per month.indian team arrives in luxury buses for a match & our brave commandos are provided with best buses.where is the system??.rather than cursing d system let us come together and form a youth party and take d task of cleanin up d system in our hand’s.COME TOGETHER.ITS NOW OR NEVER
Hello,
I read about your article today in Mumbai Mirror. And was glad to know you took the initiative for such action.
Indians need a common platform where they can interact and raise their voice for such and similar issues of this kind. The community you created and the website which is being launched will definitely help us to unite the people. Let me know if there is any help required for this and if my service can be of any use.
I am really glad that people like you have the ability to take such action and transform them in the right direction.
Hi Supern
Hats off to you for the gateway success.Thanks so much indeed.
Now do keep us posted on what next.The continuity is very important to keep this going.
If you are gathering opinions I would like to know:
1.Why the NSG took 9 hrs to arrrive ?
2.What is the bureaucratic procedure and who was supposed to give instructions ? Therefore who was responsible ?
3.Why did it take 3 days to accept the CM’s resignation ?
4.Whether this resignation drama is all that we will see ? Will the govt barr these 3 politicians from contesting or holding any oficial posts for the next 5 yrs ? If not,why not ?
Henceforth anybody who sits on that chair should know that his ass could be on fire if he neglects his duties.
The whole world’s problem is Saudi Oil – high prices, Saudi-sponsored terrorism. Mahindra Bijlee was a 100% electric car back in 2000. Why was it rolled back? Why does nobody promote YoBykes – electric bikes? Why do Mumbaikars have to sit in traffic jams every morning and evening? The sheer number of private cars on the road proves that Indian middle class has got its fundamentals misplaced totally. These are people with BE, BSc, MCom, MCA, CA, MBA, BMS degrees from a variety of institutions and universities. They do not mind buying expensive cars as status symbols and do not mind splurging on gadgets and laptops while they create traffic problems for themselves and the rest of us.
Adults with jobs and spouses tend to believe that “peer pressure” and “sibling rivalry” has to do with adolescents and teenagers. What then are the terms used to explain this kind of irresponsible consumption on the roads? Status, prestige, position, show, standard, lifestyle. All lead where? More and more of middle class will start getting respiratory problems. The daily continuous “stress” of waiting in traffic in frustration is exactly what leads to smoking, drinking initially, and then diabetes, blood pressure and heart attacks later on, when the entire body system is weakened after years of reckless consumption.
Where are our genius mechanical engineers who have not been able to invent a single means of clean transport with a profitable business model?
The more we decouple our transport systems from the Saudi oil grid, the less we will depend on oil, the less the Saudis will earn and the less the terrorists will get funded. Yet, in spite of this clear explanation, if you fail to keep your cars off the roads for “status” and prestige, I think you deserve the terrorists attacks that bleed you.
I am speaking from deep anguish at the complete loss of common sense that all of our esteemed middle class shows. You idiots, you have been killing yourselves and everyone else slowly and you dont even have common sense to see through the obvious fundamental blunders you are making. This tone is deliberately meant to insult your kool-aid laden spoon-fed brains into activity. It took a dastardly, brazen act of total butchery and defiance to wake you up. Now, the future is squarely based on your cooperation and – let me use the correct word – *sacrifice* – of your comforts.
I read a banner in the protest meet saying “Will I live till the next election?” The answer is in Mumbaikars control. If you dont buy petrol for one month in protest, see how the prices go down. If you have climbed down to the ground level after this harsh, disgusting, verbal barrage, try and figure out the ECONOMICS behind these terms :
* “Satyagraha” — “peaceful protest” in polished English
* “Swadeshi” — No Foreign Debt and Maximum Decoupling from the Global Financial mayhem
* “Ahimsa” — Eco-friendly “Green technology”
Gandhiji was a **Gujarati Baniya**, not a stupid philosopher. He spoke for our *economic* progress, more than anything else. His lofty Sanskrit verbiage is actually hard core economics.
I don’t have an MBA degree, I’m an engineer. Take that as an insult to wake you up to the fact that engineers, without expensive degrees still can think clearer than you stupid business bosses. If there are engineers among you and you think you deserve your degree, complete, formalise and **publish** your analysis and counter response to this without using heavy financial jargon.
I’ll give you a hint: “Derivatives, futures and forward trading” is heavy wording for “betting and gambling”. Economics is common sense made difficult.
Stated alternatively, the elite obfuscate common sense using jargon. Go look up “obfuscate” if your MBA degree has not taught you that. Shame on you who crowd the raods and suffer traffic jams. I’m sure NOT ONE of you have written to the local BMC official against traffic bottlenecks, out of plain lethargy and negligence.
Boycott Use of Personal Petrol Vehicles, then start pointing fingers at the Government. Gandhiji first stopped eating sugar himself, before telling the disobedient kid to do the same. I travel only by bus and train. I walk whenever I have the chance. I always make it a point to chat with the taxi driver.
Don’t just blame the Govt. Everytime someone asks you for a bribe, quietly go out, collect a few like-minded people, take out your cameras (dont go alone) and click snaps of the chap who was asking for bribes and post them on Flickr. One week of this will bring them straight to the ground.
Dont blame politcians because that is ineffective and a method not directly under our control. You have that sexy sleek 4 Megapixel camera, use it and use your head. Corruption can be challenged immediately if you so wish. Always go together for Govt office work and always with mobiles with cameras. Record the rogue and make his identity public. Shame them into submission and out of corruption. Nobody is going to shoot 3-4 for doing this. This is exactly why you have cameras in mobiles. Use those things. Make sting operations daily business till the scoundrels understand that they are public *servants* not dictators.
Let’s see how far you take this. The soldier out there must give his life for you and you cannot even click a snap of a corrupt official asking for a Rs. 100 bribe? Only if you compliment the soldiers courage with your own will you be able to ethically blame the Govt. Go on, i dare you to do this. If you’re such high society citizens, use your common sense, education, savvy and power.
Let’s fight the war on corruption while our soldiers fight the war on the front!
(And well – a thousand apologies for the provocative tone ;-) )
Suparn,
Congrats on the success of the initiative taken up by u, but do u really think this is going 2 move d politicians ???
Politicians r people who do not get melted away in the slightest in the way common man is being targeted & slaughtered by these terrorists/ insane people.
Every common man feels its high time they tested our patience & we really need 2 speak up & get going but don’t know how ???
The other 1 of r politicians was happy giving media bite that he enjoyed the 2 days he was being held up at Taj during the terror attack & he even prepared his agenda for future rallies. Isn’t this such a shameful thing to come from such a responsible person when even we glued in front of the T.V. were worrying about all been held up there, he first need to be pulled down from his chair !!!
Is mere resignation of politicians holding responsible positions going to help ? who knows the successor might turn up being the same or even worse !!!
The tenure of Govt. should be decided by us & not by they themselves, they should be given a chance of say 1 year to prove their efficacy & if not just resign so that newer ones can get chance.
Helding up caught terrorists for lengthy trials is merely wasting the country’s resources, just shoot them in the public so that those sitting at the other end will not take us 4 granted.
Why can’t our celebrities come 4ward & do something, as at the end of the day there r resting on the same piece of land as we r.
If Govt. is incapable of providing equipped machines to our force, even if every single man contributes his single rupee can turn out into crores of rupees ?
I have written all the above becoz the incident has really moved me & the lava inside me is waiting to erupt. I THINK THIS IS WHAT WE ALL FEEL.
HOPING 4 SOME GOOD CHANGE AT THE EARLIEST !!!
@Hinduthani khekda
Y’know, for the past year or so even I’ve been noticing how the bloody root cause of all trouble in the world seems to be the middle east oil barons. They can literally swim in money like Scrooge McDuck, but they won’t bally hell do anything but take oil prices higher and higher, and the bottomline is that this dominoes right down to the price of the dal and oil I buy. Masur dal was 32 bucks a kg just about a year and a half ago. Now it’s bloody 60! Mustard oil was 63. Now it’s 100!
Who Killed the Electric Car? is a US documentary made a few years back. I really would like to get my hands on it.
Why don’t you write a fully-researched post on Saudi oil and terrorism? It’s high time we realize that there being no alternative to petroleum is what’s making a puppet out of everybody.
Dear Suparn,
This is the 1st time I am visiting any Blog… Thanks to Mumbai Mirror (MM). & above MM thanks to U for initiating such a gr8 thing.. & I am thankful for the people who contributed in the success of this movement..
But with due respect to the movement, nothing has changed after Dec 3. we have not brought any changes in any body’s life.. I don’t know the number of people turned up at the venue..
What if each of the attendee has contributed minimum of 10 rupees.. (that must have raised a huge amount)….
We could have distributed that amount amongst the family of Karkare, Salaskar, Kamte, Unnikrishnan & police constables who died saving our life and not of Narendra Modi’s. I know we cannot repay their sacrifice by a way of cash..
but still… we could have brought a small change in the family of mumbai’s martyr. Hope we will keep this in mind in the next peace march on 10th Dec.
Secondly blaming to old polticians will not be enough.. what happened in Mumbai was not a attacked but a war in which young men died fighting & now old men got topic to talk on & gather votes.. I urge young people to come forward & take charge.
Thanks.
well, we cant pinpoint just oil and say thats the root cause of everything. lets take a look around ourselves, what do you see – mobiles, computers, vehicles, and what not. thats luxury my friend. with luxury comes comfort. with luxury comes peace of mind. with luxury comes status symbol.
BULLSHIT!
the best thing that comes with luxury is laziness.
lets rewind back to 40-50 years back. what have you all heard about that time. our fathers and grandfathers actually used to take the trouble to walk from one village to another. how did they fucking used to communicate with each other damn it, telephones werent so common. yes, they actually used to write letters. WOW! they used to sit with their neighbours, today we dont even know our neighbours. what went wrong in between?
in this race of catching up with the rest of the world, we have forgotten the basics of humanity, havent we? we no longer trust each other. actually, we have started betraying each other too much. we ourselves are responsible for losing the trust of each other.
we want to ape the west, yes. but what do we ape – their music, their fashion. why is it that we dont ape their ways of cleanliness? why is it that we are hellbent on making our cities and villages as dirty as possible? we want to wear the best clothes and ride the best fucking cars, but do we even think twice before spitting out of the same car? we want to live in the best apartments, but we still want to throw things out of the window, instead of the garbage bin. when walking down the road why take the trouble to find a dustbin, we will spit our chewing gum, when we like it and where we like it.
in fact i was appalled by this at the gateway rally. youngsters and old people, elite and the poor alike, everyone threw something or the other around. so many pamphlets were thrown there. so many placards, so many bottles were strewn about. let us first get our basics right, instead of pointing fingers everywhere. we will not be able to bring about any change without changing our mindset.
PS: 4-5 years ago, i read this article about the power of the words ‘thank you’ and ’sorry’. i never used to thank every person who did something for me or helped me (was very selective in giving out thanks), and almost never used to apologise for anything. that article changed me a lot. have you ever thanked your rickshaw/taxi driver, the guy who delivers groceries to your place, the garbage collectors, bus conductors, shopkeepers, paper vendors, try it…..you might just make his/her day (if not, you might atleast bring a smile to someones face). from that day on, i even started accepting my mistakes when i was wrong. i apologised whenever i was wrong to anyone, didnt matter, if he was a kid, or any of the people mentioned above. it changed my point of view considerably.
Hi Suparn,
This is indeed a really great move and thank you for initiating this wherein we all come together under one umbrella those share and feel the similar thoughts and can bring some change in our social life.
Regarding the unfortunate incident I personally feel that there was NO INTELLIGENCE FAILURE but sheer application failure as precautionary measures were taken by anybody be it Central Govt. , State, Mumbai Police and even Hotel Management even when they were alerted by security agencies (RAW & IB) hotel management should have asked govt. to give armed forces but they didn’t. Anyway I’m raising this point just because today also Mr. P Chidambaram accepted the lapse in security forces and intelligence agencies but he didn’t accepted the governments mistake for not allocating the resources on time be it centre or state. This show they are still concerned with Votes if they accept their mistake this will go against them in LS elections.
I don’t know when these people will come out of this and think about national interest.
This weekend people willenjoy in pubs and wherever they wish to and after few days everyone will be busy with their own work this WORRIES ME a lot.
WE DONT WANT TO FORGET WHAT HAPPENED IF WE CAN SO EASILY THEN FORGET THEN SACRIFIES BY OUR MARTYRS WILL BE A WASTE WE HAVE TO LEARN FROM THIS AND FORCE THE GOVT. TO TAKE STRONG ACTION WE JUST DONT WANT POLITICAL ACTION.
If you can see the news today there was hardly any check at IGI atleast outside. Security was beefed up yesterday what about today tomorrow. This lethergic attitude worries me. Our future is NOT SAFE.
Its a very huge challenge in front of us to keep this torch alive till we see any permanent solution from govt.
Jai Hind
Extremely sorry for grammatical, spelling and sentence formation mistake in my earlier post.
Hi Suparn,
First of all my warmest support to ur great Initiative.
Thru mumbai mirror i came to know and read ur aricle.
I will forward to as many as i can as i am not staying in india.I hope soon things can change.But we have to stand strongly, as a citizens of INDIA we all support by anymeans to this great initiative untill CHANGE touch the doors.
Change needed in our country we(common public) have to prove&show to politicians and govt that we wont tolerate anymore their failures.
Humbly requesting all the citizens of INDIA whereever you are please give incredible support by anymeans to this cause.
Thanks & Regards…….Suryachandra
Hi Supran,
Awesome work yaar, bt i guess u know dat’s not enough at all we need more such days 4 a fearless place 2 leave in…………n i know hum honge kamyab yek din kyuki man mai hai vishvas, pura hai vishvas hum honge kamyab yek din…
let tk up this war n win it as earliest as possible..n i’ll be there with friends & family….
regards—Darshu
I see a lot of enthusiasm here ,but how much of it actually translates into action is to be seen ,it’s like pre-independence time ,we need bright young people to leave their cozy armchair jobs and join the movement ,but who’s got the guts to do that .
Blogging on the net and writing online petitions won’t do ,get down on the streets and show your anger.
I for one have decided to quit my cozy IT job after some time and give IPS a shot. and in filmi style I ask ,who’s with me who’s bloody with me ?
cm on INDIANS show those bullshit people dat we r united n no maa ka laal can bend us down on knees….hp 2 cu all again on wednesday…
Hey Vineet bt i hv cleared my 12 n giving ma FYBA 4m SNDT univercity n doing my animation how can i do smthing like u plz adivise….
currently i can jst blogg n urge my frnz 2 cm wit me on the streets……..
plz help im feeling as if m good 4 nothing now a helpless girl..
@darshu
Some people have responsibilities ,and they can’t join the police or Army just like that plus I don’t think that joining the police or Army is the only way to contribute ,but it is important that a large fraction of India’s intelligent youth join the armed forces , police, bureaucracy and politics.
having said that ,don’t feel helpless ,you are in 12th so first finish your studies and then decide your career.meanwhile you can join some NGO’s like Times of India’s Teach India campaign and contribute to the country’s development.
hey vineet wazzup???
U MEAN NGO’s cn u plz giv me d detials plz…….
lk how cn i help them???
…
dear Suparn,
weLL i did read your article in the Mumbai miRRor on the 5th. I have a Blog asweLL.
I’d like to be of any help if required through my creativity.
weLL im a designer & make t-shirts & stuFF on iSSues both social / naughty
about the city & diFFerent things haPPening around.
I talk through my t-shirts.
We caLL ourselves THE DOERS
we woke up when the 7/11 bombblast tOOk place in 2006
we had made a tEE then asweLL
We are not just about t-shirts
But are using this medium / tOOL as it spreads faster +
targets especiaLLy the Youth who are the ppl who can bring change
So thats our USP, if i could put it that ways.
i’d like you to go through our Blog [link below]
check out the diFFerent sections there: t-shirts / smart products…
& then fEEL frEE to critic / coMMent / suGGest / coLLaborate…
my No. 9833 426 888
if you hav somethnig lined up for the 26th (months-mind) let me know. I just came back from ahmedabad. thsu cant make it today. Let me know.
Hey supran,
I want to learn film direction and want to become a director in future but i have no money to go to film school but i can work under any director for learning direction because its my dream to become a director.
so i request you to plz show me a way to film industry.If you do this favour i will never forget you in future.
Your Mallik.
Mallikarjun69@yahoo.com