Week 4

 Hi everyone, welcome to Wild Wild Week.

This week was the wildest week of this year so far. Everyone is hoping for things to get better, but given the current situation, it looks like things are going to get worse.

This week Russia captured parts of Ukraine, causing massive tensions all over the world.

But, contrary to these, some “keyboard warriors” from all over the world, including India, shared a lot of memes for “lightening the mood” and for the “sake of humour”.

Firstly, wars are not easy. A lot of lives, young and old, are lost in the wars. And those who stay alive have to undergo the mental stress throughout their life.

Secondly, it’s very easy to make fun of something unless you are a part of it. You can make fun of the plight of the people and the soldiers there, but have you ever imagined yourself in their place? We are a generation who can’t imagine our lives without the internet even for a few hours, and the people in the conflict zone have to stay without electricity, food and other basic necessities for days together. We should keep all these in mind before talking about such events.

On the other hand if we have the privilege, let’s take it positively and learn more about the incident and spread information about the same. Also, let’s maybe watch or read some anti-war poems, books or movies to realize how dangerous such wars can be. Let us also read about the diplomatic relations that India has with other countries and also the history of Russia with India, the Cold War and he USSR and other such things.

Any episode of Wild Wild Week is incomplete without talking about our PM Modi.

As usual, our honourable PM Modi used the Russia-Ukraine crisis in the rallies for Uttar Pradesh’s Assembly elections. How low can you stoop as “a leader” that you will use such a serious war crisis for the benefit of just a mere Assembly election and not even the general elections!

According to an article in Scroll.in, Modi has used the Russia-Ukrainian war at least four times in his speeches for the UP Assembly elections in the recent days.

In an election rally on February 22, Modi said that countries are facing “global turmoil and the future seems uncertain”.

“In such a situation, India needs to be strong. This is important not just for India, but for the sake of all of humankind,” Modi said.

Yeah dude, all these lectures and all is cool, but how will it help UP? Will it help in developing UP in any way? Will it help in uniting the people of UP? Will it prevent oxygen shortage deaths and crimes against women? This is a state’s election for God’s sake! Why are we talking about international issues here?

Modi also said that in these uncertain times, again referring obliquely to the Ukraine crisis, India’s defence forces have to be upgraded every year. This work cannot be done by people who are “ghor pariwarwadi, ghor swarthi”, extremely nepotistic and selfish, he claimed.

Modi was possibly hinting at the Congress, which had been embroiled in the Bofors defence scam in the 1980s, and the Samajwadi Party which he has often accused of practising “dynasty politics”.

“Those whose history has been embroiled in taking commissions during defence deals and neglecting defence requirements cannot make the nation stronger,” he said, arguing that the Ukrainian crisis has shown that India needs a strong government like the BJP.

This makes me wonder how torpor have the top leaders of our country actually become that they avoid local issues altogether, not doing any research at all!

In his Mann ki Baat last Sunday, Modi called upon youngsters to make videos of famous Indian songs in different languages that will “not only make them popular but also showcase the country's diversity to the new generation.”

Modi praised Tanzanian siblings Kili Paul and Neema, and said that “have created ripples on social media” by lip-syncing several Indian songs, including the country's national anthem on Republic Day.

So, Kili Paul and Neema make a lot of short videos on social media platforms lip synching Bollywood songs, dialogues and other such things. What’s the big deal in it? Well dude, it is a big news. See those foreigners lip synching Hindi! Oh My God!!

I really can never understand this fetish of people falling in love with foreigners speaking Hindi or doing anything associated with any Indian language for that matter. It shows how low we have stooped for entertainment and for recognizing talents.

One of the biggest drawbacks is that the Indian embassy went ahead and honoured them. For lip-synching Bollywood songs! I am just waiting for short video creators to win Bharat Ratna or Padma Shri. Maybe the comedians on short video platforms would win it someday.

In the age where it is very easy to get distracted by the social media and OTT platforms as a whole, I think it should be the duty of the PM to encourage and influence people to read more about the states, maybe share the folk tales of their states to promote tourism. Short videos, and lip synching should be a big NO! But well, he’s the most unique PM in the world, and we here have got a great set of people, so why not use short video and lip synching as a form of promoting tourism?

I really liked the government’s decision to introduce the story writing competition on the occasion of Azaadi ke Amrit Mahotsav, in which the winners have already been announced and the awards will be given soon and their stories and articles will be published in an anthology in August this year by PM Modi.

The irony is that this comes in the week when the 16-year old Indian chess player R. Praggnanandhaa beat World No. 1 Magnus Carlsen in Airthings Masters online rapid chess tournament. And the PM instead of giving his example, gave the example of the Tanzanian siblings! Oh sorry, I tend to forget that he is the most unique PM in the world!

We should talk more about people like Praggnanandhaa. They are the real influencers, and not people like the Tanzanian siblings. Do you think they are promoting our culture? Like seriously? Where are we headed as a generation? What has happened to us that we consider anything and everything a part of entertainment and find pride in some random foreigners just lip synching and speaking our language?

This week I would recommend you to watch the show Rocket Boys on Sony Liv.

Rocket Boys is the story of the architects of India’s space program: Vikram Sarabhai, Dr. Homi Jehangir Bhabha and Dr. APJ Abdul Kalam, among others. The casting, the screenplay, the narrative structure, everything is to the mark in the series. And you will literally get goosebumps when Dr. Kalam is introduced for the first time. That’s what influencers are; only their name is enough to bring goosebumps.

That’s it for this week, I will be back again next week.

Cheers!