Week 1

 Hi everyone,

What a wild wild week it was! Or should I call it a week full of blunders? Not because someone committed a big blunder in the Tata Steel Chess Tournament in Wijk aan Zee. The blunders happened outside the chessboard, here in India.

Two of the major blunders were committed by our respected Prime Minister Narendra Modi and one was unknowingly done by UP CM Yogi Adityanath and MP Ravi Kishan.

A video of PM Modi virtually addressing the World Economic Forum went viral in the beginning of the week, which left the social media divided like always. Many people thought that Modi was using teleprompter and his stutter was due to the malfunctioning of the teleprompter, while many others said that he was interrupted by someone who told him to ask Klaus Schwab if his voice was audible clearly.

First of all, why is this even a trending issue? Even if it is a teleprompter malfunction, what is so unique or funny about it? It’s common, right? And this is not a rare case in the world, teleprompter malfunction (if it was) happens everywhere.

The main reason why this blew up is because of how we think is that we think that our PM is some kind of god, and of course, gods are always perfect, right? We Indians have the habit of turning everyone, starting from movie stars to politicians, into gods. And if you consider someone as god, you need to start taking note of their habits and manners, what they eat, how much time they sleep, how they have a habit of feeding animals and where they go. Being an over-obsessive fan of someone or turning anyone into god is amateurish. We need to understand that everyone is as human as we are.

Modi is also a human being, and humans make mistakes. You don’t always need to have a reason to give an excuse for every mistake you make. If it was a teleprompter glitch, it’s understandable. But going all out for something like that is really wrong. Modi is as human as everyone else, we don’t need to know how many hours he sleeps, what is the size of his chest, or what does he eat. What we need to know is what he does, how has the PM Cares Fund been used (because according to a recent revelation by the Union Health Ministry, ICMR and DBT, PM CARES didn’t give ₹100 crore for vaccination, as it had promised), why doesn’t he hold press conferences, and why doesn’t he condemn hate speech by his party members?

The second blunder was also committed by Modi, during the same World Economic Forum speech, where instead of “Beti Bachao Beti Padhao”, Modi said “Beti Bachao Beti Patao”, literally translating to save girls and impress them.

We shouldn’t make memes out of this, it’s natural too.

But what Modi said here was the truth, because according to a December 2021 statement by Committee on Empowerment of Women, more than 78% of the total funds have been used for advertisement. So, it’s Beti Bachao, Desh Patao indeed!

Now for the next thing which keeps raising its dark head time and again: The caste conundrum.

This is the 21^st century, we have developed a lot technologically, but have we developed even a bit mentally?

This week, as is common before the elections, Uttar Pradesh CM Yogi Adityanath and Gorakhpur MP Ravi Kishan ate lunch in ‘Dalit houses’. The ‘leaders’ had thought that this was going to be in their favour, but it backfired.

Some of the comments were: If they don’t believe in caste, why the hell do they need to announce that they were going to have lunch at a ‘Dalit house’? Do they ask the caste of the people around them every day and post such stories?

And if you are going to have food and “promote equality”, at least don’t make the discrimination clear in your photo ops. It was clearly visible from both Kishan’s and Adityanath’s pictures as well that they consider the “Dalit man” as being of a lower caste.

In Adityanath’s picture, the distance between the man and Yogi shows the discrimination, while in Kishan’s picture, the glass of water proved the discrimination.

If this is how our ‘leaders’ are, you can imagine how things would be between common people.

We try our best to hide our caste bias, but sometimes it comes out of us.

Let’s be honest, many people feel proud to belong to a certain caste. In the first part of this blog, someone had commented using the words, “True Brahmin”.

Many people also use words like “True Kshatriya”, “Proud Khandayat”, and “Proud Jatt” to identify their castes.

I was really shocked when our HoD had used the words “Paana” once, which is kind of a slang for the lower caste people. If the HoD of English literature, who has read and researched to earn a PhD uses such slangs, imagine where we stand as a generation.

Also many people call out the people living in slums as ‘low-caste parasites’, who are ‘spoiling the decorum of the city’, and ‘polluting the city’.

We maybe can act and tell others that we don’t believe in caste system, and even go to great heights to even say that “We even allow people from lower caste to sit and drink from the same glass as us”, but can we tell the same about our conscience? The very phrase of “allowing people from lower caste to sit with us” shows that you are discriminating someone on the basis of caste.

I am against reservation in educational institutions due to caste, but the way some people use reservation as a shield to speak rubbish about the lower castes is really egregious. Well, this caste thing is a long-standing debate, which we will tackle in a better way next time. Till then, let’s give it a thought.

Now, moving on to other news.

In other news, State president of the IT and social media cell of BJP in Tamil Nadu C.T.R Nirmal Kumar has written to entertainment channel Zee Tamil to take an episode of its ‘Junior Super Stars Season 4’, because some “obnoxious comments” were passed on PM Modi.

The skit in question was performed by kids. According to an article in The Wire, the skit was aired on January 15 and in the episode, two children dressed as the king and a minister from a popular Tamil historical political satire film, Imsai Arasan 23 am Pulikesi, are seen making fun of the ruler of a country named ‘Sindhiya’.

Our PM, who roams around in a ₹12 crore Mercedes Maybach S 650 Guard, one of the most protected cars, and is surrounded by bodyguards at all time, is scared of a satirical skit by kids?

(PS: Someone even compared the PM’s bodyguard to Hanuman, literally inferring that Modi is Ram!)

Modi, who has and follows a large number of trolls, whom many so-called torch bearers of journalism will come forward to justify even if he speaks against them, is afraid of children? Of jokes? What’s it with these people and art and comedy?

Let’s also talk a bit about COVID-19 in the country.

India is currently witnessing the third wave of pandemic, with cases increasing in lakhs every day.

But we have many events, where people don’t even care to wear a mask. Leave marriages and other such functions, some MPs forget to carry their masks to events, even while celebrating the first anniversary of some random youth action club.

I do understand that the performers and all can’t wear masks, but what about the MP? Is this how leaders actually are? What about the people around her? Was such a large-scale celebration necessary now? Couldn’t they have worn proper masks or have the courtesy to at least mention somewhere that they were tested negative for COVID-19 (if at all)?

Now on to the next one. Cris Galêra, a Brazilian model, who had married herself in September last year in the name of “self-love” and because she couldn’t find a fiancée. Interestingly, she has now filed a divorce with herself because she has found a partner. This thing is confusing on so many points.

Firstly, when she started seeing her partner, was she cheating on herself? Secondly, should people go to such extremes in the name of self-love?

This also brings me to the topic of confusion that people have in taking even important decisions in their life. We should remember that life is a one-way path and once we take a decision and start a particular journey, there’s no going back.

Some people are so confused that they sometimes put their legs in two boats and later wonder why they couldn’t reach their destination. Some so confused that they make at least 3-4 ‘final’ decisions within a day.

This maybe an unpopular opinion, but the main thing that you need in life is focus and a proper plan. One needs a goal in their life and then they need to sketch out a proper plan to reach that goal.

This week, I am reading the book Anxious People by Fredrik Blackman which is very interesting so far. I liked the modern way in which it is narrated, and I like how the author takes us into the mind of the character.

And that’s it for this time. All comments, criticisms and suggestions are welcome in the comment section, or wherever you are connected with me. 

Hoping to see you next week. Cheers!!