In-your-face(book)

From Morocco to Yemen the Arab world is burning, and fueling this fire of change is the 21^st century panacea ‘The Social Networks’. These agents of change helped the Arab civilization achieve what they couldn’t, for decades, in just a few days or weeks. Be it Facebook, Twitter, Google or usual blogosphere, they have found themselves central to the action in an unprecedented way. Lets us take a look at how some of these new found tools have spurred the actions on the ground.

Facebook and Twitter – The cradle that rocked the despots

#Sidibouzid, this twitter hashtag gave rise to a movement which toppled not only the Ben Ali regime but also inspired a dozen other mutinies. The picture of Mohammed Bouazizi, the youth who set himself on fire in the Tunisian town ‘Sidi Bouzid’ in protest against the unemployment spread like wild fire on youtube and other social media. This was for the first time the internet spawned a feeling of enough is enough among the Tunisians.

Soon after Tunisia happened, Egypt was getting ready to herald in to the new dawn of democracy, the first salvo being “We are all Khaled Said” facebook page. Khaled Said was the young Egyptian man who was beaten to death by police in June 2010. The online activists began protest groups with Khaled as their ‘martyr’, some anonymous activist also came up with the Arabic version of the facebook page, who was later revealed as Google executive Wael Ghonim. #Jan25 made its presence felt on twitter, the day Wael called for young Egyptians to take to the streets. Twitter was abuzz with videos, pictures, data and links tagged with #jan25, which became an effective way to group together online information about the protest. The influence of social networking was such that, an Egyptian man named his newly born child as “facebook”. By now one thing was very clear, that the social networking websites have become a force to reckon with.

The events in Tunisia and Egypt inspired a whole lot of generation and Yemen was no different. The “Yemeni Anger Revolution” group has almost 20000 members on facebook, those who were not bitten by the social network bug were encouraged to pass on the word via traditional methods like SMS and cards. After the Yemeni government cracked down on internet, many nonresident Yemenis settled outside Yemen shared their contact numbers with their friends and relatives in Yemen in wake of internet shutdown, to help them share news about Yemen, many of NRYs tweeted and retweeted news and also links with the international media.

The hashtag #feb17 has categorized the Libyan movement and given a fresh identity to the Libyan protest amid unrest across the Arab world. Feb 17 is the date when the Libyan protest against the megalomaniac colonel began. Information – what little is accessible from the country – has been pouring in on Twitter and Youtube, where activists are uploading news the minute they are able to get online. A dedicated facebook page for the Libyan revolution has more than 82000 members and another key facebook page by the name of ‘RNN Libya’ has 22000 members. Libya being the most oppressed and closed nation of the region has caught the fever of Internet-driven dissent passed on from their friends in Tunisia and Egypt, as young Libyans are been exposed to the power of YouTube, Facebook, Twitter to voice opposition to the regime.

Just like the #feb17 Libyan protest, the Bahraini activists have #feb14 as their identity on twitter. Internet providers were shut down and facebook accounts were deleted across Algeria as thousands of Pro-democracy demonstrators were arrested in violent street demonstrations. President Abdelaziz Boutifleka’s government first cracked down on the internet to nip the protest in the bud.

In Morocco, the facebook group “Movement of freedom and democracy” has attracted more than 90000 members. The Iraqis had their own twitter tag as #iq4c but many of them tagged news of protest in Iraq with #feb25 so as to reach a larger audience of the internet by linking their cause with other popular revolts.

In Syria, the case is bit different; people are still learning about the arab revolution through facebook, media, twitter, newspapers and blogs. The facebook page “Syrian Revolution 2011” has received more than 25000 followers. People in Syria have slowly started to come out in open against the Syrian authorities.

Google: ‘Don’t be evil’

True to its slogan, Google as a company showed character in the Arab revolution when its CEO, Eric Schmidt said that he was ‘very proud’ of Wael Ghonim and the company has made it clear that it would welcome him back to his old job. Even when the Egyptian authorities cut off internet access, Google developed a workaround that allowed users to send twitter messages over phone lines. Youtube, which Google owns, also created a hub to promote videos from protestors in Tahir square.

As the crusade for democracy and basic human rights rages on, Today’s youth have a lot of tools at their disposal which the earlier crusaders didn’t posses. The Internet has become a conduit for disseminating the idea of democracy which was till now alien to the Arab civilization. For a change the Internet is applauded for its power to influence and change history for the better.

The Lost Games

With under 40 days to go for the biggest extravagant sporting event in this country, The Commonwealth Games. India has already lost it, going by the series of revelations & campaigning by the media, it seems more of a curse than a matter of pride. Everything from paper rolls to colossal stadias has come under the ire of media. If you go by the media every second person in this country is a rapist, a corrupt, a thief, a goon, a murderer in short a Criminal. My problem is not with their revelations about the inadequacies in the run up to the commonwealth games, my problem is with their timing for such a campaign. Almost the world will descend upon our national capital to be a part of history, will those guest (athiti) take away those paper rolls, chairs & umbrellas with them as a memory of games?? No, what they will take back is the warmth of Indian hospitality which the world has been indoctrinated since decades, they will take back the gesture of an ordinary Delhite to make space in their homes when all the hotels are packed. But sadly, the environment around doesn’t look like it will ever happen that way, The ordinary delhite following the series of negative campaigning by the media has started to disassociate himself from the games, I am not supporting Kalmadi & his team, if anybody guilty they should face the ramifications of their actions but only after we have wished our guests a nostalgic good bye. The Media needs to understand that this is the moment India was waiting for years, this is the moment where the world will see us through the prism of our ability & stature, It is this time that we cannot do away or shy away from the games because a handful of the people have used it for their benefit, Its time we all put our shoulders together & stage the best ever Commonwealth Games in the history of sports. And how can India do that??, we Indians do not need world class Infrastructure or ostentatious grandeur. What we need is to just be our self, and rally around in numbers supporting our games. Why can’t a Normal Delhite in his capacity buy tickets & sheer for Saina Nehwal when she bears the Indian Flag at the games, Can an ordinary delhite not support Gagan Narang at the shooting ranges, and why not an ordinary Indian along with his family think of a week holiday to Delhi to be a part of the National festival. Remember only stadiums & glassy roads won’t make it the best ever, we all have to contribute with media taking the baton in its own hand, Common we don’t want to hear the Lacks & Crores being looted, that is not something new, after few days nobody will give it a Damn whether it was 10 or 1000 Crores, what we want to hear is “Mehman aa rahe hai, Swagat kijiye”. This is Our Commonwealth Games & it’s high time the Media & we all realize that!

MNIK is Innocently Sincere!

The thing which i believe makes MNIK outstanding from other films is that this one got a soul of its own, very few films in India have a soul attached & MNIK is one of them, At first one may get a feeling that this film is a must watch for every Muslim but i beg to differ, i suppose this film is for every one who believes he has seen enough of life, When the character in the movie 'Rizwan Khan' chants his gospel from Quran using a rather unconventional stones & lands himself in the trouble with the authorities at the san francisco airport that conveys a very welknown fact abt just how ur language & religion which is of utmost awe to you becomes suspicious for others and very importanly MNIK tears apart you when u see them happening to a man which understands rarely abt life & world.

Rizwan Khan is some one who has very simple rules to lead life which will make many of us envy, for the matter of the fact that we all tend to make our life very complicated but here Rizwan has only 1 rule i.e. Good ppl & Bad ppl thats it. No other rules nor does he understand & nor he wants to follow. wish we too could have our life sorted to such an extend, He dosent understand why ppl make fun of him, he dosen't understand why his wife hates him, why ppl all over America hate him & to add to it he is even given to understand that the President of America hates him too. Inshort the Aspergers Syndrome (AS) which the character is affected with become his greatest strength.

The Most inspirational moment in the movie is when he is out to meet the president & has no money either to feed him or travel etc, he then poses with a placard reading 'Almost Repair Anything' , that is the moment which i believe we all can take home & remember for life, coz if a man who is not even 100% mentally & physically fit dosen't give up & fights for his survival believing that he will meet the most powerful man in the world then why we individuals blessed with every right thing frm god cry foul & loose hope in pursuing our own dreams?

Rizwan & MNIK teaches us that the less number of rules u have the less complicated ur life is.

Rizwan Khan is High on ethics & character, never lies, never cheats, never manipulates even when he is an underprivileged & knows he's not normal.

The film innocence is Rizwan Khan, he impishly demands what ever he believes be it sex too. thats the innocence of the character, the film is sincere coz it never losses its plot, it was determined to show us what it takes to be a Khan or Muslim from a person who is an Autistic.

The film reiterates the fact that may be ' All Terrorist are Muslim but not all Muslims are Terrorist'. MNIK if understood & empathized will leave you numb.

Sagarika Ghose's Take On 3 Idiots!

Should Read this its worth reading!!!

Strongly Recommended!!

http://www.hindustantimes.com/Idiot-is-as-idiot-does/H1-Article1-497911.aspx

Love Has Hope, Hatred Is Hopeless.

“There will always be a battle between the sexes because men & women want different things. Men want women and women want men.”

- George Burns

According to the Greek mythology there are sundry kinds of Love :

Eros – A haute couture kind of Love.

Ludus – A Selfish Kind of Love.

Storge - A love based on familiarity between the sexes.

Pragma – A more Practical kind of love.

Mania - Shahrukh Khan kind of Love precisely depicted in movies like Darr,Anjam.

& the purest of all

Agape – A parent child love.

There’s one common thread that binds all these loves’ together – Hope. All of them have hope as the genesis of love. Ofcourse in India we have a more prolonged & diversified kinds of love.

My mom & dad are possibly the two most rank opposite people I have seen. Decades have passed since marriage but they still grumble on petty issues, even on daily chores. If mom says east then dad says west. One fine day I spontaneously happen to ask my dad “dad,u and mom have grown old now, I think you people need not trouble each other so much.” My dad replied “those who love never grow old, they may die of old age but they die young.”

That day I realized that love is not only about compromise, dedication or sex but also lot about Hope. This Hope has made their relation infrangible. It is because of this hope that my dad deliberately does everything which makes my mom see red.

Moving out of my house, Love has done wonders on international borders. There is a ‘change’ in the White House. The new President of the United States has promised to bring in change by restoring his country’s bruised image on the international stage. He has vowed to change the way world looks at the world’s most powerful democracy – not with contempt but with respect, not as threat but as partner.

Walking the talk, barely few months back into his presidency, Barack Obama ,the U.S. President, has made an unconventional offer ,in an video message, to the people of Iran and its leaders. Given the decades-old animosity between the U.S. & the Islamic republic of Iran, this kind of video diplomacy is nothing short of a major move to initiate a meaningful dialogue.

Said Mr.Obama :”for years three decades relations between our nations have been strained but at this holiday (Nowroz – A traditional New Year Day in Iran) we are reminded of common humanity that binds us together. Indeed, you will be celebrating your New Year in much the same way that we American mark our holidays – by gathering with friends and family, exchanging gifts and stories & looking to the future with a renewed sense of hope.

With Mr.Obama having clearly expressed his support for reconciliation with Iran, this becomes an internal Iranian battle, and unfortunately, it won’t be resolved anytime soon. But Mr.Obama shows in the video that instead of tipping the scales in favour of the radicals, as the bush administration did, he will pursue diplomacy to undermine their narrative that a hostile U.S. government is bent on oppressing Iran.

Hatred on the other hand is like self punishment, it is the coward’s revenge for being intimidated. It is said that hatred is a boomerang which is sure to hit you harder than the one at whom you throw it.

Kim Jong II of North Korea is a perfect example of abhorrence. North Korea is a source country for men, women and children trafficked for the purposes of forced labour and sexual exploitation. North Korea’s own system of political repression includes forced labour in a network of prison camps where an estimated 1,50,000 to 2,00,000 persons are incarcerated. The illegal status of North Korea in China and other countries increases their vulnerability of trafficking schemes and sexual and physical abuse. North Koreans forcibly returned from China may be subject to hard labour in prison camps operated by the government.

All this by virtue of Kim Jong II, the Supreme Leader of North Korea, and often referred as “The Recalcitrant Pugilist” .His repressive & repugnant policies has brought North Korea on its Knees. It is probably the most politically isolated country in the world. Perhaps no other country other has as few friends as North Korea has. Far from having even to sustain any engaging relationship with the outside world, today North Korea shares working relationships with only two countries – Russia and China. Since the early 1990s, over two million North Koreans are reported to have died of starvation and malnourishment following acute famine and distorted economic policies. Even today there is a widespread hunger & famine. The UN and its agencies – WHO – have recently declared that North Korea is on the verge of humanitarian disaster. In the midst of these circumstances, the North Korean leadership is spending billions of dollars on building missiles and pursuing nuclear dreams. In fact, North Korea spends over one-third of its GDP on military expenditure, which makes it the world’s most militaristic state.

Clearly, the worst case scenario must be taken into account, and policies should be rooted in realities and not on the basis of wishful thinking. Only after a relaxation of tension with North Korea, through step by step mutual concessions, should definitive action be taken to put North Korean nuclear ambitions back into the freezer

This World is in a dire need of love, which will give them hope & efforts to do away with Hatred which is hopeless. To summarize

“Love is an exploding cigar we willingly smoke. Life is a canvas furnished by nature and embroidered by imagination. Love is the master key that opens the gate of happiness. True love is like a fine wine, older the better.”

ALL I NEED IS A LITTLE APPRECIATION!!

It’s been 8 months of my Leadership at NSS & i m possibly in my last lap as a leader for this ever flourishing & flamboyant organization. NSS has been a alma mater for me, for me NSS has always been my top priority from the day 1 of my leadership, there’s no giving back to NSS which has trained me to be a person of various dimensions, a personality & above all it brought me dignity & respect.

What does it takes to lead a workforce of 250 volunteers? This was the very first question I asked to myself when I took over as a leader in august. What I wondered was, i will organize various events, camps, competitions, awareness programs & we'll win over every hurdle that is thrown as a challenge to us. But it didn’t take me much time to realize that this rosy picture that i was anticipating will turn out to be my greatest failure!!!! Yes i failed! if i have to go by my programme officer Dr.Satish kolte's word then i was the worst leader that NSS ever had!

now that is what i hear after working non stop for more than 7 months, after completing may be more than 350 hours of jostling, head cracking & blood sucking hard work just to make it big.

This is what i receive after organizing NSS foundation day, NAAC display, 10 day residential camp for more than 80 volunteers, blood donation camps, Red Ribbon Club for aids awareness, debate, poster & a host of other events single handedly. Yes i can say that all these events i have organized single handedly & no body can dare to raise any question against that because everyone knows this.

Do u know what’s the most painful part?? That i have to list all this & say it with my own mouth rather than my programme officer. I realize that i made mistakes, I know that i was not able to give NSS as much as i wanted & it also may be possible that i make the worst leader but during all this at any given point of time was my dedication & commitment less??

Did it ever happen that i didn’t give my 100%??

Did i perpetually want to make the show unsuccessful??

I think even my non NSS friends would give me a fitting reply for all those questions. I can bet that this year not even a single event organized by NSS has gone flop.

All these 8 months what I did not receive from my volunteers was their ever important support, I realize this & I know my mistakes & in capabilities but why couldn’t my work got appreciated even once??

Why cannot my Programme officer ( P.O.) appreciate my endurance, my perseverance & my endeavor??

Why my efforts & my struggle went un noticed??

I m so useless?

Was my work so lackluster??

My confidence is dented & to such an extent that now when I go to organize some event I look myself in to the mirror & appreciate myself to gather strength & enthusiasm!!

I don’t want a Noble prize or a Bharat Ratna for what I have done, but I demand for a little appreciation, Appreciation for keeping me going, for my conscience & for my soul which now questions my ability as a leader.

I pray to god that I never back down & keep fighting as I have done till now because now I can only expect him to appreciate me!

Since this being my first ever blog i just hope i pursue that for what i m here!!!