Jet Airways food had stopped being appetizing a long time ago. But one assumed it was healthy and hygienic. My immunity was in for a rude shock upon consumption of the snack served on board 9w 362. I was healthy and happy as I boarded at 1715 and was warmly welcomed by Varhsa the IFE. I looked forward to a pleasant flight and relaxing experience. ( In recent times food is often the downer in a Jet experience, you either don’t get your choice, if you get it the portion is too small and if the portion is ok it’s tasteless. On every occasion I have had to ask for “eco overflows” as I am still hungry after the consumption of my meal. I used to send out regular communication on mail to Jet Airways but have since given up).

I requested for the non veg continental snack and was served the Chicken tikka sand-which with waldrof salad at 1800hrs. Prior to that I had some diet coke. The food tasted ok, I felt the bread was a little stale so only consumed the filling(leaving out the bread) and the salad( the dressing was tasting funny). By 1830 my stomach was hurting so much that I woke from the nap I’d taken. The pain was excruciating. I don’t know how I lasted the remaining 40 minutes of the flight . Fortunately the flight was on time( another rarity) and I retrieved my luggage and Dog( who travels everywhere with me) and barely walked to my car before collapsing in the seat. The journey home was unbearable. I stopped at a chemist and picked up a painkiller. Upon reaching home I spent the rest of my night making trips to the loo . As I write this, I have started antibiotics and am still in a considerable degree of pain.

I am waiting for yet another indifferent and apathetic reply from Jet’s end saying “the concerned department will look in to it”. My endeavor from now on is to warn all and sundry against consumption of food on Jet at all public forums including but not limited to Face-book, twitter, my blog here ,etc. Better still advise them to carry a tiffin! I see this as such a sad decline of what was once my favourite airline. NEVER before has any airline food( Jet was out of the question) made me sick and you can imagine the mental and physical anguish I am feeling as i write this.

Some may feel I am making a big deal out of this bad food thing, the point is I paid a lot of money to fly Jet and if I can’t get value for it, I shouldn’t at least be falling sick.

I think any change good or bad is the result of effective leadership. When one has the opportunity or power to influence someone , that person by default finds himself in a position of leadersip. And the greatest quality of leadership is to be able to lead by example.People should not be unfair by expecting celebreties to take on more than an average citizen can or should. However in the realm of that, the single greatest contribution every celebrity- film sport or any other kind can make is to lead by example. What they choose to do in addition to serve society is their choice and and up to their discretion, and certainly not a compulsion

Often celebrities are accused of using social causes to gain publicity. That may be true in some instances, and even if it is as long as the cause gets awareness its not too bad a trade off. In times when most people are apathetic to what’s going on around them, its commendable that some celebrities take out time to support various causes and use their position to give a platform to issues they feel for.

In defense of the indifference of some , I feel it’s important to understand the changing structure of our society to understand what some describe as apathy. From a nation on which socialism was virtually enforced after independence to the rise of individualism in the 90s, we swung like a pendulum from one extreme to the other. And are now finding balance which is why one sees extremely successful people from different fields , giving up lucrative salaries to step into the murky world of public life.

Would love to hear your thoughts to take this forward.

Gul

I had a very interesting topic raised on twitter by Sandip, about the need to do away with regional parties by encouraging people to vote for national parties. I often find parties ( regional and national)nominating candidates that I personally would not vote for. The party ( and god)only knows what is the criteria for for giving nomination. This dubious method makes educated people loose faith in the party system. And instead of voting for a “party” the trend is to vote for a “candidate”. The uneducated masses usually vote blindly along party( read caste) lines with scant regard for the individual candidate.

I think at the outset it would be relevant to describe the term regional and national , since so many parties today are claiming to be ‘national’. That done one should attempt to go into the reasons behind the rise of regional parties. I feel there are times when a national party cannot adequately represent the issues of a particular area or meet the aspirations of the local prople and thus is born the “regional” party. The DMK, SAD and the AGP are examples.

The floor is open. Let’s get this started guys.

I am grateful to Creative Fusion studio for constantly updating and upgrading my site with new additions constantly. And for constantly urging me to blog!

So as I sit getting my hair and make up done fo my appearance on Sony’s Boogie Woogie to promote Straight, I am using my I phone to post for the very first time! On a more serious note, would love to hear your thoughts on the Tamil nadu lawyers demanding Indian intervention in Sri Lanka. Do bear in mind that the ‘intervention’ that Pakistan has been doing all these years in Kashmir is also at the behest of the Kashmiri brother hood in Pakistan’s Kashmir or Azad Kashmir or as we call it: POK. The floor is open!

By far  Shekhar Gupta’s is the best summarisation and assesment of the current scenario by any one worth his or her pen. The one thing that I’d like to add is, that yes this new found outrage of the middle class is a step in the right direction, but neither will it bring down the governent down nor will it change the system (specially by the ‘methods’ suggested) UNLESS they bring on board to support them  the people whose voice really counts-the countless living in densely populated areas such as  Dharavi, Ghatkopar, villages , rural areas and other places where the elites have never set foot. The poor people, the masses ,who were the first ( and current-remember CST) victims of terror in trains and  in crowded markets. The ones we didn’t give sound bites for, the ones we didn’t hold candle light vigils for. Because these are the people who are the majority of our electorate. It’s these people the netas come to ask votes to, and it’s these people and their support  that  will make possible a change. Not those who appear on news channels nit picking wondering about intelligence failure and NSG reaction time.( Thanks to them the NSG will get their own planes. Never mind the plight of  the millions in India languishing below the poverty line).

The answer is simple. United we stand divided we fall. We must make this a MASS movement. Sms’s and newspapers will help to some extent, but it’s is direct face to face interaction (the kind that our revered netas do in the form of rallies) that is the remedy.  There are millions who vote (who are illiterate , don’t read papers or SMS). And in time of war each man counts.

Poor and disenfranchised Hindus/Sikhs/Christians are not the ones being radicalized. There is no planned sustained movement in place to do so. India has the second largest population of Muslims in the world. Yet their representation in all walks of public life remains dismal (what ever the reasons). A disproportionate chunk of the Muslim population lives below the poverty line. These people are the ones the radicals target as their recruiting ground.

Yes, there are rich who also get involved. The percentage is small. The machinery in place that goes about recruiting these people is very advanced and unscrupulous. They are highly motivated by people whose full time job is to mislead these people. Their modus operandi is to show videos of Muslims being tortured /killed/women being raped, and other forms of propaganda. In Punjab ( I am a Sikh from a village in Punjab called Mahadian, Distt Fategarh Sahib), many youngsters from well to do families after seeing their relatives/ kin burnt alive by mobs, tortured and raped by the forces were badly shaken up. Psychologically numb. And were ready when extremists came knocking on their doors to garner support. As for the security lapses, I am sure there are many loop holes. We apart from being a booming economy are also a country of the poor and homeless, (who’s primary focus is two square meals). We are NOT the United States, where we can single mindedly pursue security. But having said that, it’s important to understand, that not even the best trained force in the world can be prepared for someone who is ready to kill himself. The terrorist wins by not losing/dying (for whatever short period he wreaks havoc) and the forces “lose” by not winning immediately (ultimately they do in a Mumbai like scenario, but not in J&K, Iraq). And how can I be biased? Because I am in Indian and believe that the same set of rules must apply to all? So Muslims who kill people are terrorists but Bajran Dal/RSS activists who burn Christian homes, rape nuns are “angry misguided youth”?? My father is a serving army officer; he has 40 years of service to the nation and is currently posted as Army Commander Central Command, at the very tip of the army pyramid. He also served as Northern Army Commander. I have been brought up in the most secular way possible, where I have observed at close quarters what the army does for the Nation. And it pains me to read about people pointing fingers at the forces being “inefficient” when they constantly give away their today for us to be able to blog like this, sleep peacefully and enjoy life as we know it.”

So it was with anguish that I reacted to the media blaming India’s no show at Beijing on KPS Gill and the politics in the team. It’s always easy to simplify an issue. Can any one name the players on the Hockey team?? Probably not. I am ashamed to admit I can’t. Ask any gali ka chokra about the cricket team and he’ll rattle of India’s 11. Cricket players set hair trends. But does any even one know about our celebrated hockey players?

I was in Malaysia, staying at the same hotel as the Indian hockey team during the 6th Asia Men’s’ Hockey Cup. I could not recognise a single face. (Forgive me for being blinded by cricketers as they endorsed everything in sight). I went and saw the semi final match where India beat Pakistan. But the next day, back in India, I was surprised to find all coverage of their feat (they went on to beat Australia to lift the cup) relegated to a miniscule corner on the sports page. How many times in the recent past has Hockey (they’ve won enough, their loosing streak is only 2-3 years old) made it to the front page? The only consistent Olympic medal winner was our hockey team. God knows how they achieved that with the apathy of our nation. All the money in sport seems to only go to cricket. The BCCI’s coffers are bursting. Why is it that cricket attracts more than its fair share of sponsorship? Its because of a careful brand building exercise that has been in place for the last two decades or so, resulting in Icons being created over night due to one century or taking a few consecutive wickets. Its a different matter that unlike other countries, our Hockey team can’t even count on the government for the much needed infrastructure it needs; from world class astro turf fields to, grass root training modules, hockey camps and finally getting good coaches. After all how can the government justify millions on Hockey (or for that matter any sport) when there are people with out clean drinking water, and other basic amenities?

Its up to private enterprise to step in and fill the gap. Mr. Subroto Roy Sahara made a good start by pledging to help Indian Hockey. But more needs to be done. How can a country of a billion strong not produce atleast 40 medals at the Olympics? Its shameful, that a country with a growth rate of more than 8% can’t put aside a little for sport. Investing in Sporting infrastructure will create employment apart from boosting the morale of aspiring athletes.

The media too owes it to the nation to put in the same energy sensationalising squash, weight lifting, shooting, hockey and football as it does with cricket. And lastly we the people need to look at all sportsmen and women through the same eyes. After all, whether a Sania or a Sachin or an unsung weightlifter or a hockey player; they all toil equally hard, put up with un fair politics and hold the country’s flag up high.

JUSTICE, social, economic and political;

LIBERTY of thought, expression, belief, faith and worship;

EQUALITY of status and of opportunity;

And to promote among them all

FRATERNITY assuring the dignity of the individual and the unity and integrity of the Nation

I think its time to amend this in light of the present scenario. While I can’t argue with the sovereign and democratic part, I question “socialist” and definitely “secular”. As the constituent assembly envisioned the giddying heights their beloved India would scale, this definitely seemed like a wonderful guideline for a young nation. But today, 58 years on how much of this are we trying to implement? How many of our leaders treat the preamble as what it is- a guide to see them through, a constant talisman? But no, that’s certainly not the case. Certainly not, if one takes into account recent developments in Maharashtra, and Bombay in particular.

Where exactly is the ideology of “ Maharashtra for Marathi’s“ coming from? To question the beliefs of a group of people just because they are different. To actually oust them because of their alien (only to the former) culture? Will some one tell these people this is the 21st century? We are looking at inspiring the confidence of the west, in the stability of our country, its economy, that we are mature enough to be a nuclear power so that our hunger for energy can be met. But no, these concerns are too trivial for some people. They’d rather nurture vote banks in the name of Mumbai for Mubaikars, or Hindutva or socialism.

Justice??
I think the word is a joke. Acquittal of the cops in the best bakery case?? The 1993 riot cases still in court? And what about the 1984 riot victims? What is Jagdish titler doing still walking around even after eyewitness accounts to the CBI have described him leading mobs to mercilessly massacre Sikhs? And this when a so-called secular government is in power at the centre? I shudder to think what will happen should a right wing party come to power.

Liberty??
Now this has got to be even a bigger joke. Liberty of thought, expression, belief, faith and worship. If Richard Gere decides to show his affection for Shilpa (in no way endangering National Security) it becomes an issue. In Orissa and many other states there is a sustained campaign against those who’ve converted to Christianity. Violence against Dalits persists in very state. Are they not entitled to their liberty? Or is it just the prerogative of the rich and powerful? And who cares for EQUALITY?? Certainly not the supporters of MNS . After all, some are more equal than others, right? How else can we explain what is happening in West Bengal? And promoting FRATERNITY seems to be the last thing on the minds of Mr. Geelani, Mr. Narendra Modi and Mr. Raj Thakre.

So who is going to stand up against these violations? Our Parlementarians ( average age 65yrs)? In light of the fact that the majority of India’s population is between the ages of 15 and 40, this is certainly a case of misrepresentatin, no? But since most of us are content with the way things are going( in the absence of any tangible protests), I can only agree with what a very wise man ( can’t remember who) said,we deserve our government:-)