The Politics of Innocence

In follow up of the post I wrote yesterday, I woke up to the news that the poor woman who had been raped, died, in a Singapore hospital after more than 10 days of fighting for her life.

While the concerned citizens will grieve and continue their protests for justice, the politicians of India will heave a sigh of relief. Their plan has succeeded.

"Plan?", you might say, "how did it work? They had taken the girl to be saved, and she died, didn't it not work?"

But that's the thing, the government conveniently sent the girl, the entire basis for the protests - the martyr - to another country. What this did, is that it that it disconnected the girl from the cause she has unknowingly created.

The government made the decision to airlift the girl despite her severely critical situation to give her a better medical attention. Personally, I find that doing this, as a government decision, is a declaration that Indian medicine is unable to save a life.

It's really disgraceful.

As I said, the main reason, the unspoken reason, is so that if something went wrong, which did go wrong. The girl was being cared to by foreign doctors, in another nation. Excusing the government from nearly all the blame. Their 'face-value' decision of sending her to a foreign hospital will be criticised, but it will still be labelled as a 'smart-decision'.

It's a shame that this has happened, however, as far as the cause for justice goes, the next few days will be most critical.

People had already labelled the protest as having already hit critical mass, which means with events like Christmas, and now New Years holidays would send people home. With the womans death, Protesters will soon grow disillusioned and pack up for home.

The fact that the girl is dead means that the singular driving force for this protest is now gone.

The Rape of India

I'm sure you must have heard of that rape that occurred in Delhi. I mean, who hasn't heard of it in India? (Unless they are some sort of nomad with no form of communications, etc.) For those of you who have been unable to hear of this event:

A week and a half ago, December 16th to be specific, a woman and a male companion were assaulted on a bus in Delhi between 10pm to midnight. The woman was raped brutally, both were beaten with iron bars and thrown out of the bus. Today, the woman is in Singapore in a fight for her life. The 6 accused have been arrested, one of them confessing and requesting punishment. However, this has started a wildfire amongst the people of Delhi.

Apparently, a rape occurs in India every twenty minutes. I may be wrong with the number, it may be more, it may be less. But the message is the same - that a so called 'future-superpower' still has one of the highest rape rates on the planet.

It's been a while since this happened. I'm sure that those of you who have been following the protests, and the discussions about it have seen people voicing their opinions, etc. I've waited, not for any other reason, but just to see what happens.

So what has been seen?

Mirror Mirror

In 2011, the year was defined by a series of protests that became known as the Arab Spring. These protests, were demonstrations condemning the current administration of various countries, most notable, Egypt, Libya, and today, Syria.

The protests in India were given national attention that was so massive, one might be convinced that India was heading into it's own Indian Winter. Sadly, we can all laugh nervously at the fact that we were soundly tricked by the media.

As a photographer, I know how easy it can seem to make a crowd of hundreds seem like a crowd of thousands. The Delhi protests had a couple, maybe several, hundred people, but that is IT.

The cynic in me reminds me of such a idealistic concept, that a hundred people can change the thousands of corrupt that rot India from the outside in.

With every protest, there are people that use it as an opportunity to beat some one or another and then get away in the confusion, and that was seen when a constable doing his job was attacked, but a seemingly peaceful protest.

What I really want to bring to light here is how hypocritical it is for India to call itself a democratic nation, for the Prime Minister to call for calm and peace, and for the Chief Minister of Delhi to say, and I quote "I'll do anything to help this girl". Why is it hypocritical? Because when all this is happening, the Police attack the protesters. On the very first day of protests, they were not prepared and they returned with a response that was adequately labeled, a 'knee-jerk" reaction; the police fired water cannons and lathi (bamboo sticks) charged them.

Can you imagine! Peaceful protesters being beaten by the police for the message they carry!

Hang on a minute, that did happen. It happened when India was in it's quest for independence, when those desiring freedom, underwent the pain necessary for a brighter tomorrow. I guess the dream of a Free India, died when Gandhi did.

Masses equal Might

Speaking of Gandhi, and the freedom movement. Let me elaborate to any would-be-protesters, why these demonstrations will never yield any fruit.

It's because, these protests lack the people that matter

Some will turn and say, "but we all care! we are voters! we matter!"

You don't. Deal with it.

India has a federal government, that means state and central governments. If a hundred people protest, it has no impact, because the country doesn't care. Yes, all us middle, and upper class people care. We can empathize with these protesters, with the family of the raped woman, with the victim herself. None of us want to be there. That is why we will condemn it.

However, if you see that a protest is happening, few of us will attend. Instead, we will sit indoors, watching on our plasma TV's, or angrily tweet about the injustice that is happening.

That is why we are the 1%. And you know what? The 1% doesn't count for fucking shit.

The lower classes, the less economically developed, they are the masses. They are the people who matter. They are the people who win elections.

They are the people who won us Independence.

If Gandhi, Nehru, Congress and the Muslim League has just had those followers that they did, they'd have never succeeded. What won the struggle was when the common man stood up and said, "Enough of this shit."

The only way for a protest to be truly effective, is for it to hurt politicians where it hurts. In the Vote Bank. If you get all those people who believe the politicians lies of equality, technology and wealth to actually protest in true outrage; then you will have results.

Hundred of protesters get beaten and news is ablaze with it. Does a farmer give a shit? No. But tell him that the same politician who isn't doing anything to make the streets safer for women, is also responsible for his plights, whatever they may be, crop failure, poor subsidization, substandard seeds, it can be anything. You give them something to connect them to your cause and you have a stronger cause.

Mice among Men

The Prime Minister, the Home Minister, the President's Son, the Chief Minister of Delhi and the Congress Leader of Andhra Pradesh, all have one thing in common. They are pathetic, awful, horrible, worthless, useless politicians.

Politicians used to be known for having some degree of integrity, that they actually gave a damn about they country that they are representing, but every day India gets to see that the driver of the car is nothing more than a perverted old man whose been getting fat stealing your chips, and he's gotten so obsessed in doing that, that he's forgotten to drive.

The Prime Minister: The leader of this nation, but has been time and time again accused of being a puppet of Sonia Gandhi, leader of the Congress Party. I can understand that he isn't a politician, he's an economist, but I've never seen a man act like such a pansy. During a speech on the rape issue, he ended by commenting, 'teek hai?" (Hindi for "OK?") The comment is said to have been made towards the camera man, but all it does is show that the PM was in such a rush for the speech to finish that he couldn't wait to get an all clear signal. He's been trying to show his empathy with the protesters by saying that he has daughters too. All I can say is that, he should grab every single Parliament Member who has a daughter, or who has a wife, or who has a mother and ask them a very simple question.

If it was your daughter/wife/mother would you not want to make the world safer for them and punish the guilty?

I'd be amazed if any of them said no.

The Home Minister: what a clown, he made the mistake of comparing peaceful protesters to Maoists. This is a man who isn't simply representing a party in the Lok Sabha, he actually holds a position in the cabinet, a damn important one too!

The President's Son: This guy should seriously leave politics right now. To be the son of the President is one thing, cause everything you do or say is going to be useful to the media. But to turn and crack rude comments on the protesters is just political suicide. (http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-india-20852513)

The Chief Minister of Delhi: This woman is responsible for the city of Delhi, a big responsibility no doubt. However, when being interviewed, she was having mood swings! In one interview, she was emotional, and in the other she wasn't! To top that off, she wasn't even taking the blame for it, but rather shifting the blame to the police! Nothing is worse than a politician who isn't woman enough to take responsibility of her shortcomings and overcome them. It's an act that voters appreciate and would make people feel safer.

The Congress Leader of Andhra Pradesh has really made a complete ass of himself and is proof that politics in India has fallen tremendously from the days before Independence, where men and women spoke with integrity and passion for causes they felt mattered for a nation.
This buffoon said that "Just because India achieved freedom at midnight does not mean that women can venture out after dark. They should ensure that they do not board buses with few passengers,"

Yes, he said that. He followed by commenting "Although it (Delhi gang-rape) was a minor incident, Soniaji made it a point to meet the protesters when they called on her,"

I mean, how much of an idiot do you have to be? to be that stupid about your job, to be that thoughtless and that emotionless as a father.

But that is the case here. Rape is hardly considered with the seriousness it should be treated with. People are unable to comprehend the horrible nature of rape. It's a sociological issue, and it will take ages to remove from our culture. That is a shortcoming that India can, and has to live with.

What we, what you as a citizen of India, do not have to live with, are inadequate and uncaring politicians. Are they helping India? No, they really aren't doing anything that will change the world. They are doing what they want to do, when they want to, and making enough money to never have to work again.

The saddest thing about this all is that we can't even do anything. I'd say, 'Don't Vote for them' but, the system is so fucked up that we can't even do that. We have to vote for someone. There is no abstention system in elections here, that sounds pretty backward doesn't it?

If there was a spirit of India, and if it was visible. I do believe that it would be a spirit that has been violently and continuously raped for the last 65 years. Raped by corruption and these pathetic excuses for human beings that exist as our politicians.

The rape in Delhi is nothing new, and it is fast on its way to becoming just another story for the media to cover and remember from time to time.

If we all believe that change needs to come to India, it needs to be with a resounding conviction that is echoed from the sweepers on the roads, to the drivers, to the police officers, to the college student, to the businessman, to the CEO's. People need to believe in the need for change so much that they will all, at their own will, not at the behest of some political party, stop the country. Stop the country, hold it ransom to the government and tell them.

"We'll let it go, when you change some things around here."

"People shouldn't be afraid of their government. Governments should be afraid of their people."

" - V for Vendetta

The Decline of Parenting

A couple of weeks ago, I was sitting in a Canon Service Center (had to get something fixed for my camera). While I was waiting, I noticed a family sitting on my right, a normal family; father, mother and young daughter, who had probably just learnt how to walk a few weeks back because the girl just would not sit still!

The kid was keeping herself busy by running to empty glasses and picking up their coasters and waving them around, you know, kid stuff!

The parents got a bit worried when the child picked up a glass, so they naturally stopped her. Thus the child immedately became more interested in the glass and kept running to pick it up.

After a few rounds of the child running, the parents grabbing her, etc. The father seemingly gave up, he put his hand into his pocket and removed his phone, turned on some nursery rhyme app and gave it to the kid.

Immediately the child was engrossed with the app and didn't move for the rest of the time I was there.

This simple act, of pacifying a child, scared me. Very simply, because the parents hadn't really done anything to stop the child, they'd don't nothing to make her learn that what she was doing was wrong.

I thought about this a bit more and realised that with technology that is available today, Mothers and Fathers are no longer 'Parents' for they have given up the basic lesson of Parenting, and that is to teach your child.

If any readers who were either children in the 90's (or below) or who had children before the 2000's, I'm sure you've seen the change. Now, children are not taught the value of products, they are simply pacified.

It's become a chore to properly bring up a child with some sort of value system.

Don't criticize me, because it's true. Parents today are much more content with buying their children an iPhone, or a Blackberry rather than make the child understand the importance and value of that phone.

Yes, there is massive amounts of peer pressure, but you know what, that will always be there. If you don't think you can handle your child coming to you and asking for a Rs. 40,000 phone, then don't have a child - you'd probably save a lot of money.

Parents don't seem to realize that this indoctrination to technology and screens is ruining their youth. They'd much rather get an Xbox or a phone than to get a cycle.

Something that my grandparents have noticed is that, Children have stopped writing. Schools now drive home the importance of using computers so much that my grandmother worries that one day, children will stop writing with pen and paper.

It's a terrifying future, and a disturbing notion to realize that we are becoming so reliant on technology that we can't even tell our own children a small song to keep them occupied.

I can't imagine what would happen if the world's technology stopped working. How would parents of the future cope with the overwhelming task of actually telling their children that they can't get them the iPhone 20 because technology doesn't work anymore! Imagine if suddenly parents had to come up with a bedtime story from their own imagination!

I think the prospect might make them rethink having a child - and that is a future that should never happen.

The Importance of Empathy

I've been a subscriber of a Youtube Channel, RSA.org. It's an NGO that has talks and NGO stuff... what I really find interesting however, is what they do with Cognitive Media, a media company based in the United Kingdom.

What Cognitive Media does, is that it takes the talks and essentially animates it. They have ten minute clips of a lecture and draw an entire story that is connected to the talk. It is truly quiet amazing as I've found it allows listeners to not only be engaged visually, but mentally too!

There is so much I have learned from those 10 minute videos that I might have never learned in college or school. You don't know the lecturer, but all of them are passionate about their topic which sends the message even more effectively, than and the BRILLIANT art that is done.

RSA Animate: The Power of Outrospection

This is one talk that I found rather interesting as a photography. A line that is often thrown at photographs of sadness and despair, of poverty and starvation is the seeming lack of empathy that the photographer seems to have.

To that, I feel that it is the empathy that the photographer has with those subjects that allows them to take such marvelous photos. You will never find a photographer who has not been moved by a subject they have photographed. They might not run around screaming it, but it touches them. It is what makes them take their job even more seriously. They are trying to allow you to empathize through space and time with that starving child, to empathize and help.

What do you do on the other hand? You dodge the question, you try and look at it from a perspective it wasn't supposed to be seen in, all to protect yourself from the chilling fact that you don't feel for the starving child in the photo, you'd much rather ignore them. They are at the end of a day, a face in a photo. Photographers who publish such photos on the other hand, have names, email addresses, fan pages, making your quest to criticize them much much easier.

The next time you see an photograph that depicts strong emotions; desperation, starvation, sadness, joy, happiness, or simply, indifference. Empathize! Try and see, try and feel for the person on the other side. You don't have to do it with a time limit, you don't have to do it with a bunch of friends. It's a personal connection you are forging. If you can do it with a photograph, you will be able to do it with a character in a movie, a person in a book and finally, you will be able to empathize with the people you know. With the people that surround you, and the people that have less than you.

Once you have done all of that, then try and criticize that photographer for taking that photograph.

The Hurdle

Tomorrow is my Birthday,

I turn twenty.

I must say, I feel that the prospect, the concept of getting older has really rattled me. I posted a long winding status on facebook about how it seems, to me, that in 20 years. I should have achieved something more tangible.

I've gotten comments, and most of them, honestly don't seem to understand what I was trying to say. I won't go into it. That's not the point of this.

With every passing year, the world gets smaller. I meet new people, I learn new things, all of them making my knowledge base wider and robbing the world of the last vestiges of mystery it clings to. I'm learning, through aging. which is good.

This is going to go back and forwards a bit, so bear with me.

After a bit of thought towards what I've done in the two decades I've been on this earth, I can say that I've not done a lot. But it must be said in the same breath that I haven't just sat on my ass doing nothing. (well at least I haven't in the last two years)

I started a blog, I began taking photos, I've helped people with their individual problems, I fell in love, and started writing a book (not in any specific order) I tried to make up for time lost and was greeted with comments of how I did so much. It made me glad that I was doing, what I did.

But a new decade has it's new opportunities, it's new problems, it's new dangers and thrills. I must say, I'm hesistant to jump in. Maybe it's like a cold swimming pool... Maybe I just have to jump in.

Sadly, I don't think there is anyway for someone to slowly edge into a new year...

The gamer in me keeps hoping, keeps hoping that at each birthday, a magical light will surround me, and a voice will announce "LEVEL UP" and suddenly, I'll be better off for the next year.

It's a hard truth to know that that doesn't happen, but rather that you have to run into the new year and grab it and scream at it "I AM IN CHARGE!" (throw a few swear words in, it can't hurt)

My blog is honestly something I am quite proud of. I looked back, and wow.

I mean, Wow.

I think it's safe to say that my writing style and grammar has improved, considerably.

Something that I've been seeing in plenty of comic books is the fact that being small is no longer enough. It's time to go big.

Twenty is a pretty big number. So I think that it's time to go big with everything else.

In the coming months, I'm going to launch a company, something that is my own design. (been planning it since October, this seemed like a good time to announce it)

I can't wait to share it. It will act as a platform for me to explore my photography, film-making and anything else that I wish to do. Sky's the limit.

I guess it always was the limit, maybe, just maybe, age is giving me some wisdom!

That or it's my wisdom teeth...

Twenty approaches.

I think it's time I look forward to meeting it.

It is after all,

The rest of my life.

See you on the other side.