No humour or sarcasm here.

I wasn’t really going to write anything today considering I am already in my finals week. But I wanted to write about a few things when the matter was relevant (and partly to make up for the guilt of having posted some humour recently).

The last couple of days I read responses by Rajdeep Sardesai and Barkha Dutt to allegations by the public that the media was irresponsible. Rajdeep’s response is here, while Barkha Dutt’s is here.

As expected they try to make sense and successfully defend themselves against having broken any rules.

Unfortunately, that is not what we were trying to tell.

Being stupid does not necessarily mean being wrong. While it made sense to argue that the media at all times respected the security cordon and hence prove that the media did nothing legally wrong, that does not prove that the media was ethically right (let us forget the stupid for a moment). I am sure you heard of something called ‘media discretion’ when you were studying to be serious journalists. How many times are you both going to stick to the ‘holier than thou’ attitude after every allegation ? I can assume for some time that the problem might be scaled down on your television channels (assume, I said), but somewhere, sometime let’s all own up our mistakes. Isn’t that what we are accusing the politicians of doing anyways ?

Composer Vishal Dadlani has started a campaign to not just bash the media, but help form guidelines for future crisis situations. Please spare a moment to let him know that you support the petition : smallchange.in

Let us shed our cynicism and contribute to the efforts of a united India, when it lasts.

On that subject, for readers from Pune, there is a rally this Sunday at Nal Stop around 10 a.m.somewhere in Pune sometime (someone please correct me here if I am wrong. Beat that). I am sure the rally might not change things overnight, but then again you could just be down the wrong thought process.

While on this point and mainly owing to the Mumbai attacks being hailed as India’s 9/11 (again something that attracts attention, but didn’t necessarily have to be so), here is a video everyone must see. It was Jon Stewart on The Daily Show, 9 days after the Sep. 11 tragedy, it is truly one of the most honest pieces of television you might ever come across :

Video

Jon Stewart, apart from being one of the most unbiased political commentators (which is quite a big achievement in the USA), is arguably one of the wisest men you will come across. For people who think war or violence is the only solution, here is what he quoted when British PM Tony Blair was on his show :

Jon Stewart: 19 people flew into the towers. It seems hard for me to imagine that we could go to war enough to make the world safe enough that 19 people wouldn’t want to do harm to us so it seems like we have to rethink a strategy that is less military-based, in general.

Worth stopping there for a second and thinking.

But the tragedy in all this :

Jon Stewart is a comedian.

His show airs on Comedy Central.

Lastly before I end, I heard this beautiful Kabir bhajan sung by Kailash Kher dedicated to the Mumbai martyrs at a recent function honouring them. Titled ‘Ud jayega hans akela’ , his version is here. Originally composed and sung by Pandit Kumar Gandharva, it is here :

The lyrics are pasted below for convenience and its meaning is here :

Ud jayega hans akela
Jag darshan ka mela

Jaise paat gire taruvar ke
Milna bahut duhela
Na janu kidhar girega
Lagya pawan ka rela

Jab hove umar poori
Tab chootega hukam hajoori
Jam ke doot bare mardoot
Jam se para jhamela

Daas kabir har ke gunn gave
Bahar kou paar na paye
Guru ki karni, guru jayega
Chele ki karni chela

P.S. : My posts heavily rely on the readers not being in China or who do not associate the term ‘Websense’ with their daily life.

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