CULLinary delights

Rumours of suspected bird flu attacks have resurfaced, and with that organized efforts to wipe out the virus. Only that it is synonymous with with wiping out millions of chicken.

Have we really begun considering ourselves to be God? What gives us the right to wipe out entire populations of these defenceless chickens? I have been a part of bloody and gory instances, and managed to stay pretty much composed right through. But i could watch the video of the culling for no more than a few seconds. I felt disconcerted and and downright sad at the ruthless efficiency with which the people were breaking the necks of the chicks and dumping them as garbage into bins/pits. I am certain that the chicks have the emotional intelligence to comprehend what was happening in front of them, and the certainty that the same fate is going to befall them as well. All this, because they are suspected of having avian flu.

Drawing a parallel, if humans were to be culled every time they got flu then population and environmental concerns wouldnt exist at all today. In fact it might be a worthwhile thing to do - every form of cold or flu in the world is incurable. See a human with cold? Wring his/her neck and dump the body into a pit at least 12 feet deep, else you might contract it too.

Without having to elaborate, the analogy is obvious for that human disease that scientists today all over are trying to battle and control. But would we do to them what we do to the chickens? No. Unthinkable. We try to bring them into the mainstream, and make consistent efforts to help them lead a normal life.

Which leads me to think: Probably the only mistake the chicks committed was in being born as chicks. Why would anybody spend millions in developing vaccines for chicken which are going to land up eventually on our plates anyways? Go ahead, cull them. But mind you, there may come a time when it might be man's turn to lie dead in that pit - only that this time it would be fellow humans themselves who have decided that funding for medical research to develop vaccines is simply not worth the (money) effort.

Reflections - 7/11

Exactly an year ago, serial bomb blasts on the suburban trains in Bombay ripped apart the lives of several innocent and unsuspecting people and devastated the livelihoods of several thousand others.

Back home, I sat glued to the TV looking at the gruesome images of destruction and death. And sat with bated breath when Western Railway declared that it is not going to bow down to the whims and fancies of the terrorists: "We will have WR up and running normally by the peak hours tomorrow. No matter what."

And they did it - at around 1:15AM on 12/07/2006 the services were resumed. And I silently rejoiced - a fitting reply to terrorism.

Word was beginning to spread about a Bombay bandh being called on 12/07/2007 by the political parties to protest the blasts. But they declared in one voice, in a rare display unity that there shall be no bandh. A fitting reply to their dastardly act would be to show them that nothing can stop us and that we would still go ahead and lead a normal day.

And that moment I was actually proud of all our political parties for displaying the grit and determinationt that they did. Balls to you terrorism!

Then, a week on, the entire city came to a complete standstill for 2 minutes to pay homage to the victims of the blasts. In silence, we made our message loud and clear to the world.

WR has repaired the one of the bogies that was impacted by the blasts and it will make its inaugural run today evening to correspond with the first blast.
And today, millions of us, travelling in the very same bogie would again give terrorism a fitting reply: "Do what you want - Nothings gonna stop us now".

The Nth Battle Of Independence

Pakistan is fighting a battle for its independence. Yet again...

And the person who started it all – The ‘non-functional’ Chief Justice of Pakistan, Iftikhar Mohammad Chaudhury.

Summoned by President Musharraf for alleged malpractices and misuse of his position. Sacked for challenging the government for its wrong doings and the innumerable human rights violations. He was beginning to become a pain for the Prez. Sack him. End of story.

But how wrong he was. Since things happened a little differently than what he had fathomed.

Chaudhury was asked to renege his post as Chief Justice but refused to do so. He was kept under captivity for several hours at the Army House where he was summoned, before being allowed to leave. Thence he was kept under virtual house arrest with him and his family being confined to a single room. Phone lines were cut. No one was allowed to meet him.

Dictators consider themselves to be smart asses, probably because the power they command blinds them of all sense and sensibility, and they live in the fantasy world that the position that they enjoy will remain unchanged - no matter what.

Article 209 of the Pakistani Constitution mandates that the President has no powers to remove from office a Chief Justice, or any Judge for that matter. The matter needs to be referred to a Supreme Judicial Council via a referendum.

In Chaudhury’s support, lawyers across the country stayed away from courts. It was a landmark first where lawyers and law enforcers clashed - lawyers took to the streets in a showdown with baton wielding riot police. Police beat Geo TV journalists inside the station’s studios in Islamabad because they had been airing footage of lawyers covered in blood from injuries they had received during a demonstration in support of Chaudhury. The studio was ransacked and the TV journalists were tear gassed. Several lawyers and judges began mass resignations. The Pakistani Judiciary was on tenterhooks.

Media, both local and international erupted with criticism. And after a long time, or probably the first time Musharraf was forced to offer an unconditional apology.

And then May 12^th happened in Karachi. Chaudhury was to be in Karachi to address the Sindh High Court. Government tankers were used to block off routes to the airport, police and rangers were conspicuous by their absence or standing idle as armed men ran amok on the streets of Karachi, corpses and wounded bodies lying by the wayside in pools of blood. Supporters of Chaudhury flocking the route were fired at by these armed men in civilian clothes. It looked like the beginning of army rule in Karachi. 46 lives were lost in the carnage. But Musharraf justified the carnage by terming it the ‘political activity’ of a party attempting to show its strength to its constituency.

[Information has been sourced from http://www.teeth.com.pk/blog/2007/05/30/eyewitness-karachi-may-12-2007/
Check it out, it’s a shocking read!]

Chaudhury was again the centre of another massive anti-government extravaganza on May 26^th in Islamabad that held the entire nation in thrall. Chants of ‘Go Musharraf Go’ that began in the rally have now become a rage all over the country. And for the first time Musharraf is on the defensive, and telling the world as to why he should not quit.

Musharraf has failed to see that the movement has gone way beyond the lawyers. From a fight for an independent judiciary, it has now turned into a fight for democracy, a fight for independence. From him.

He better count his days in office. As far his reign goes, if this is not the end, this is certainly the beginning of the end.

SIES Guys Seriously rock Together

Yesterday night a few of our college mates met up for dinner at Satguru's in Chembur. And boy, what a time we had!

It was a tradition that began in the 4th semester, and two such outings per semester eventually became mandatory, the first before the vivas, the excuse being that a long stint of studies was coming up. And the second, after the mains, the excuse being that a long stint of studies was just done with!

It all began with a discussion during the PCOM practicals about the quality of the Pav Bhaji that Satguru doles out. It was one of the most intellectually stimulating discussions that we had in the whole of our PCOM practicals, since we never ever had anything better to do. And anyways, getting the output was obviously out of question.

And thats how it all started. With a modest beginning of five people which eventually swelled to 24 once. By now all the waiters and the owners of Satguru know what is in store for them when they see even a couple of these so called clowns from SIES walk in. Coz they know that the rest of the pack cant be far behind, and watch with sinking hearts as we begin setting up our bunker to launch a vicious onslaught of the most pathetically amazing (or is it amazingly pathetic?) PJ's on the unsuspecting mortals around.

But yesterday's was special for many reasons.
For one, it was the first time that the get together was not about any particular class (wonder why we didnt do this before.....). The clan was equally represented by all the three streams, COMPS, IT and EXTC.
And it was a reason for celebration, twice over - of Sunil getting a well deserved break with his admit from IIM C. And of Ragha's birthday gone by. And for Vikas being under the illusion that the Nalanda Law College is managed by Shishu Shikshan Samiti!

And as I and Neeraj were discussing on our way back home, for the sheer joy of being with your college mates once again. Many of us are working now. We would have made quite a few new friends as well. Work might be great, and fun too. But being with your people at the home turf is really something priceless. Rolling with laughter over atrocious PJ's that seem funny only to us. Making plans to go for the first day first show of the greatest ever moviiee to be made. All is so unique to our batch.

Borrowing the tag line from Sony, its

SIES GST
Like No Other...

Mohammad Afzal - Verdicts and Beyond

The Verdict

The SC bench comprising justices P.V. Reddi and P.P. Naolekar said: “Collective conscience [of the nation] will only be satisfied if he is awarded death penalty.”

Or in other words: We can’t help it! People want him dead…..

Afzal was not even given the right of appropriate representation during the court proceedings – there have been several sessions wherein Afzal has had to defend himself in court. And we are talking about a police force that is amazingly adept at fabricating evidence….

The biggies of the Parliament attack are having a blast living it up in safety and luxury. Maybe because a nation that’s baying for Afzal’s blood has blissfully forgotten about them.

Or maybe the Indian Government always knew that they wouldn’t be able to touch them anyways – and when we are talking of such a high profile case – they had better have convictions. Who better than Mohammad Afzal to have as prime accused?

Isnt it obvious that there is something horribly wrong somewhere?
I am not claiming that Afzal is innocent - all I am saying is prove his guilt for gods sake!

What it means for us

Afzal might hang. Or maybe he might not.
But if he does, it would be a sad day for the state in general and the judiciary in particular.

Afzal is nobody special. He is just another Indian – like you, like me, like most of us. His execution will prove beyond doubt that justice is not for the common powerless Indian.

I do not intend, and hate to make this appear communal – but Indians of the minority community would just become a lot more vulnerable due to this. The police would be cracking cases at break neck speeds – and would be hurled praises by a media that sees all, knows all, but plays blind.

The victims – persons who end up being in the wrong place at the wrong time – it may be me tomorrow, it may as well be you too.

Now the entire nation will bay for our blood. And then the SC will again cater to the collective conscience of the people

Denying justice to the common Indian. Delivering judgments that are based on the perception of justice than justice itself.

Is this a sign of things to come?.......