Eternal Blogs

Today’s feature-

If Thomas Paine were alive today, there’s little doubt you would find him blogging from www.commonsense.org, challenging concentrated power, conspicuous wealth, and a culture amusing itself to death. Paine would likely have cherished the chance to engage his readers in debate, and spur them to direct action for better government and a more equitable economy. When people pick up a newspaper or view it online, they need to feel that the multitude of voices within are devoted to them: a democratic people determined to stay that way. One man, with one voice, did that for the American colonies—and it changed the world.

No matter what form journalism takes in the coming years, it will only remain relevant if it follows Paine’s example and treats people like citizens worthy of serious conversations. The profession forgets this at its own peril. Or, as Paine would say: “Character is much easier kept than recovered.”

-Matthew Harwood

A good solid read at Columbia Journalism Review. The name ‘Thomas Paine’ has crossed my eyes much too often recently, no wonder since it’s his death anniversary week. But first things first- Who is Thomas Paine?

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the cast and crew at Golden Globes

Rahman wins the best music score, ‘Jai Ho’ indeed

Here’s the trailer

Also won Best Movie, Best Director and Screenplay (what else matters anyways!). A phenomenal run. Lets see how Academy treats it (the voting process is altogether different and over the years, the favorites at Globes are not necessarily the winners at Oscars).

The devilish terrorist attacks resurfaced the wounds. The picture of sole terrorist captured must have circulated a million times online and will keep haunting the Indians for a long time. More pictures here.

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Some things cannot be forgotten.
Some things should not be forgotten.

Mumbai has my sympathy for bearing the brunt of massive terrorist attacks and the insanity of lunatic politicians, standing against the unimaginable floods and nursing millions in slums. When people talk about the spirit of Mumbai residents, I can not help but applaud it. But for past one year, the things have turned so nasty that one wonders whether Mumbai is still a part of India or has grown above it? The last time I was visiting India in Feb’08, Raj Thakeray was fueling the hatred against north indians, a stale move used by the veteran Bal Thakeray in yester years against south indians. Constantly, politicians have tried to use regionalism for petty votes but situation in Mumbai got to a scary extreme. People became too blind to realize the nasty motives of these politicians and played into their tricks by burning many vehicles containing north indians. One can’t help wincing when you hear stories about Bachchans apologizing to Marathis! What the f***!

That was not all, soon Thakeray was interfering with companies who announced lay offs because they simply couldn’t sustain the employee population in a receding economy. But what do they know, when the innocent employees went to the ’sharan’ of Thakeray, he blessed them and warned the companies to not make any layoffs. Great, this is the kind of environment we need to attract global companies to set up their businesses in India. After all, Thakerays are above law. Somewhere down the lane, a deep trench was being dug between Mumbai and rest of India and Mumbai residents stood mute. Wasn’t Kashmir enough of an issue that we needed this?

And then, the terror struck on 26th Nov and Mumbai witnessed one of the bloodiest attacks after 9-11. The battle that ensued saw many senior and respectable officers giving away their lives. Ironically many of these were north-indians. But that is not the point; the point is when will people realize that its not a Mumbai tragedy, its a tragedy for India and for that matter whole world. And there’s no doubt that every Indian stands united in this time of tragedy but why cant people have the same sensibility when someone attacks Mumbai from inside, someone like these ignoble politicians.

When will I just talk about Indians and not north-indians or south-indians or mumbaians?