The Politics of Love

I am dealing with three separate cases of my near and dear ones who are trying to cope up with the repercussions of their broken heart and home, reason being ostensibly love, pyar wala love, calf love, mature wala love as well.

One of the most basic instincts, love, has triggered epoch-making events and turned the course of history. It is way beyond what biology textbooks would like us to believe and hence nothing surprising if right wing nationalists have seized it as a weapon to wield power over the masses and have forced its own version of “what love should constitute” and strived tirelessly to determine how it can be indianised and expressed. Ends and employing means to achieve them, both have found little resonance with today’s youth except few indoctrinated ones. Reassuring as it may sound, the recent dictat of VHP have met few takers. Few state actors have tried to provide their backing and announced Valentine Day as Matru Pitru Diwas (Parents Day).

At times, I wonder why there is so much public outcry, real or staged, over such a tender and intimate feeling. Is not the path of love is already so complex that these bloody fellows are hellbent to make it more so by their stupid ways and turning it more meandering and narrower, So narrow that not even being one lets u pass through the highway of love and thereby proving proposition of Kabir false:

प्रेम गली अति संकरी, तामें दाऊ न समाई |

जब में था तब हरी नहीं, अब हरी है में नाहीं ||

(The street of love is very narrow, two can’t pass through it at the same time

When I was, there was no God(hari), now there is God but I am not)

Giving every incident a stupid religious undertone has assumed ridiculous proportions. “Love Jihad” is a case in point. As far as I know, this so called love jihad has enabled some of the most beautiful love stories I know. People involved have braved all odds and overcame all obstacles and finally emerged lover in the true sense. One glance at them to make any heart melt, one tale of theirs is sure to change any heart. They are no less than our own legendery Laila Majnu and Romeo Juliet. Only pairing is novel: like Laila Romeo and Majnu Juliet.

Let love find its own path, grant it its innate fluidity, make society break manmade artificial barriers and embrace love in its myriad forms: be it between different religions or castes or between same sex, be it between rich or poor and be it between people of different colours!

The one who are so opposed to the idea of love are themselves not immune to it. Cupid (ok ji kaamdev) must have struck them some time somewhere someway too. Is it Freudian repressed suppressed feelings that are rearing  ugly head in the form of meaningless protests and violence!

Commercialization in its crudest form has gripped not only the concept of love but many other joys of life. So for that reason only, should we stop loving and expressing. Should we stop buying cards because its origin is foreign and company is American! Choose not to buy them if you don’t wish so but why to stop those couples exchanging such cards with a sweet little peck if they believe this is how love is expressed!

In a time where bonds of romance is being often smashed by money and power and nihilists are appearing to be winning the fight of life, there is more the need to reinforce feeling of love among ourselves.

So when the day of valentine is coming to a close, it seems nothing untoward has happened as such but their nefarious designs have succeeded nevertheless, design of engaging public discourse and claiming space more than they deserve. Would they care to help my near and dear ones overcome their lovelorn heart or will they keep causing more such cases, choice is theirs.

If love is so liberating, why try to shackle and limit it! On this Valentine Day, let us express our love to everyone who is opposed to the idea and way of love. Just I wish they try to change themselves a bit, be a bit more tolerant and accommodative. 

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Mufflerman has Swept Delhi Clean with a New Improved Broom!

My chance encounter with an auto rickshaw driver, who took me to my meeting venue, had foretold me the Delhi election verdict in August, 2014 itself. He was all praises for then disgraced and seemingly hopeless arvind kejriwaal post Varanasi debacle and predicted with dead certainty that Kejriwalji will return to power. I listened to the Autowallah, maybe because I was stunned by his pronouncements of declaring a spent force to not only take note of but also emerging as a winner. Blinded by the BJP onslaught of everything AAP did and stood for, I, like many, chose to downplay and almost laugh off the the Autowallah.

As it stands, the Autowallah has proved more correct that he sounded that time. AAP has caught not only the imagination of aam janta by its ubiquitous and soon-to-be legendary muffler but has set a new standard for political parties in all areas like canvassing strategy, leadership projection, perception building, manifesto making and everything related to Indian election. The canvassing approach of Mr. Kejriwal has the ring of a familiar style of an apologetic yet sincere next-door guy who comes to us after a tiff and says: Yaar galti ho gayi, ab jaan loge kya (Bro! I made mistake, would you kill me for that!). It seems this style has worked on Delhi electorate. The landslide victory of AAP, as newspaper headlines would scream, has cleansed every single sin of Kejriwal and the electioneering of Yogendra Psephologist Yadav has been vindicated.

Amit Shah, the Chanakya of BJP, must be wondering what went wrong when almost everyone saw the writing on the wall for BJP in advance from the moment Kiran Bedi was foisted upon the party. This self-professed master stroke of his has turned into a reason of stroke for many leaders within the party. Delhi electorate, disappointed by the ever increasing communal voices of wayward leaders and failing in promises made by BJP, has spoken and spoken loudly and clearly. BJP would not have thought that even leader of opposition post would become such a distant dream! What a mirror image of Loksabha election of 2014 in Delhi election of 2015! Has the magic of Modi fizzled out or is it Bedi who could not take the heat of either television interviews or election campaigns. In between her campaign, she lost her voice literally and post election, she has lost her face as well.  How prudent a decision of Bedi was to decline the one-to-one debate offered by Kejriwal. She appeared to be constantly avoiding a direct face-off with Kejriwal. Voters must have taken it as her fatal frailty and not as feminine modesty.

Ascendancy of AAP can find its parallel only in the downfall of the Congress. It seems the hidden agenda of both AAP and BJP was to take congress down to zero which they have achieved without much effort on their part. Certainly, Grand Old Party has refused to learn its lessons but Ajay Maken and Kiran Ahluwalia must be congratulated for taking up the gauntlet and keep trying to turn a clearly bilateral fight into a tripartite one.

Short period of forty nine days was wasted in staging Dharna, tackling alleged prostitution ring, lamenting over non-cooperation of opposition parties and scoring brownie points. AAP will have to be cautious not to repeat the past mistakes and be diligent in implementing its transformative agenda as pledged and not indulge in political posturing and non-significant issues. It has come on the tall promises of lowering electricity rent, ending corruption, promoting liberal politics, reining in corporates-politicians nexus and so forth. It is right time and bold opportunity to meet those promises. No more hanky panky, please.

Listening to Aam Admi does pay off as it has done for AAP Party. I would be now more willing to pay heed to my autowallh Bhaiya, they clearly are more clued-up on the pulses of Aam Janta than Chanakya surrounded by too many wannabe Chandraguptas. 

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So Vogue is “Magazine of the Year”!!

How many of us have heard of the Ellies awards (interestingly named after elephant shaped trophies) being given every year in America. Not many I guess in India. At least not as many who know about the Oscars and Emmy. So, when some random browsing on the internet landed me on the page of American Society of Magazine Editors (who sponsors this award), it was a pleasant surprise. So, at least there is some institution which recognizes the worth of printed words somewhere, somehow. But the next moment, this ephemeral satisfaction was gone. Vogue has been chosen the magazine of the year (2015)! There was a boring unanimity in the shocked response across the board. Is it not the same magazine which unabashedly promotes fur and anorexic models? And what is there to read except looking at photoshopped models in their weird haute couture and giving a blank stare. 

Whatever be the responses, I was thrilled by the fact that Americans still have some institution to show their solidarity with magazines and I started wondering if there is a corresponding arrangement here in India! Perhaps we don’t have. And my immediate proposition was: can’t we handover the charge of awarding our poor magazines to one of those multiple award dispensers who are too enthusiastic to honour the pampered Bollywood fraternity. Come January and every second guy appears to organize glamorous extravagant Nights for our much derided yet exalted Bollywood industry where awards are fixed just like our cricket matches!

My-magazine-awards-in-india Google search threw obscure printweek India awards which was entirely off the mark for my intended search. I was just expecting that there must be some wannabe Indian version of this award in India just like The Caravan is that of The Newyorker.

In an age which is witnessing growing apathy towards reading in general, it is heartening to see people recognized for their contribution towards the promotion of magazines. Mode of entertainment has seen a topsy-turvy. Who knew just few years back that WhatsApp would be so much claiming and shaping our life for better or worse? The emergence of “10 most wonderful shits to worry about” format of articles has also perhaps contributed to less of reading and more of couch potato type instant impatient entertainment where we have more to look at .gif images with oversimplified generic pronouncements well tailored to make us agree while our attention is divided between silly pictures and ping of WhatsApp.

These awards, however much rigged and fixed it may be, act as a guide to fish best piece of writings from the ocean of worthless ones and saves our labour which we can put into use by reading the already chosen ones. There may be probable dangers in this approach though. In already chosen piece of write-ups, we may miss out on equally deserving but somehow not awarded works. But, let us have faith in the judgment of the jury of these awards. Won’t it be worth spending our time in relishing some of the best pieces rather than puzzling over what to read and what to ignore. Anyways, who stops us to have a look at those works which have failed to impress the jury! We cannot give award to everyone anyways.

At a time when reading is on the wane in USA, there are still a number of quality magazines being published there. More importantly, they influence and shape the public discourse. Does this proliferation of magazines because of America being a rich nation and full of resources and can afford to publish these many magazines despite their untenable circulation. May be this is one of the factors but it needs a deeper introspection to analyze the reasons of existence/survival of so many quality magazines in a single country.

So which are the other countries which have such award? Not many and this may be matter of dubious relief for us, but if looked holistically, it is not a good trend. Almost every country worth its name will have some kind of award for its film fraternity, so why this generousness is not extended to the wordsmiths of magazines? If not for any other reason, Canada and America must be congratulated for felicitating their magazines which I guess must be one important factor in making this industry flourish there.

I crave for a magazine like the Newyorker or Granta in my country too. Perhaps that’s the reason as well that Jhumpa lahiris, Upamanyu Chatterjis and Hari Kunzrus prefer sending their write-ups to The Newyorker and Granta than a desi magazine. So even if I am not elated at Vogue being declared magazine of the year, I m glad that there is something called “magazine of the year”! More power to them. 

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