Putra - child ; shoka - grief.

My paternal grandmother had 7 children. 3 survive. The remaining 4 died between the ages of 3 months and 2 years. She accepted it as Karma. But, despite that she couldn’t help grieving, every so often I would find her with tears in her eyes. And one day she told me that the worst kind of grief or pain that a person could face was ‘putrashoka’ - grief on the loss of a child. In later years she amended that statement - she saw a whole bunch of next to next generation go awry. Her reaction was that ‘putrashoka’ was grief on the loss of a child not just to death, but to ‘adharma’. She had a very strong definition of dharma and adharma.

My maternal grandmother lost her son - my mama - when he was 58. He died of cancer. She was broken. She told me pretty much the same thing - putrashoka is devestating. and, then she referred to someone we know who was addicted to narcotics and said, I am sure that the boy’s parents are facing worse putrashoka - even if he is still alive. Atleast, my son did his duty.

Putrashoka is not an absolute - it, like most other emotions, falls in a spectrum. There is grief caused by death. There is also grief caused by a ‘child’ who has gone astray; grief caused by a ‘child’ who doesn’t care anymore (perceptually); various kinds of grief.

Somehow, over the last few of days the term ‘putrashoka‘ has been floating in my brain quite a bit. All of us, in different ways cause our parents hurt and grief. Hopefully, these are out of thoughtlessness rather than deliberate desire to hurt. A phone call not made, a visit that doesn’t happen, a raised voice, shutting them out of our lives … my parents face it, yours may too. They may say something, or say nothing. Depends on their own pride. My parents will not say anything, but i can sometimes see it in their eyes.

This morning’s report in the Indian Express on two different grieving mothers brought home the concept of putrashoka.
This is from the mother of Inspector Mohan Chand Sharma - who died in the shoot out in Delhi:

“I won’t cry any more,” she said. “He did not die in an accident or of any disease. He is martyr, and if everyone is raising slogans for him I will do the same.”

And, then there is the other mother. the mother of Atif, young man who was killed in the same incident. (aside : the word incident is so inadequate to describe what happened at Jamia Nagar, but for now it has to suffice). The young man who was allegedly planning to blow up innocents across the country.

“How can anybody kill innocent people? Everybody’s life is precious, everyone loves their children. If he was in the right, then let Allah take this daag (blot) away from him,” she says.

One mother has the answer to why her son died. Mohan Chand Sharma’s mother knows and has the pride that her son gave his life to protect more innocents from being blown up. It may give her solace when grief overwhelms her.

Atif’s mother possibly knows that her son’s death would prevent more people from getting blown up - and that’s because he was the one blowing them up. and, her grief may be exacerbated by the guilt that she couldn’t do a damn to prevent his actions. She couldn’t have — but guilt is not very rational…

And, then there are those mothers whose children don’t come home because a bomb blew them up….

Putrashoka — grief on the loss of a child….

Tags: Atif Amin, grief, India, loss, Mohan Chand Sharma, musings, terrorism

Sometimes Media Bias can come through in something as simple as a the difference between the headline and body copy.

This from CNN IBN

The Headline reads - “Cong Not in Favour of PM-BJP Unity : Khursheed”
And the content of the article
(refer to the part that has been highlighted)

Rajdeep Sardesai: You can’t make this battle, Narendra Modi vs Congress.

Salman Khurshid: No, it is not a battle between Narendra Modi and the rest of the country. It is simply a battle of being transparent, open and accountable. I have to be accountable and Narendra Modi has to be accountable. But I think what is important is that everytime there is an incident like that, if Salman Khurshid picked up his phone and rang Arun Jaitley and Arun Jaitley rang me, things would be different. But we don’t do that. Our parties dont allow us to do that.

Rajdeep Sardesai: That’s interesting. You are saying that your parties wont allow you to build consensus? Right be honest.

Salman Khurshid: I know. I’m telling you our parties don’t allow us to build consensus.

Rajdeep Sardesai: I am glad that you have been as honest as that. Arun Jaitley would you be equally honest and say that? A Barack Obama and John McCain can stand on the same platform at least on terror.

Arun Jaitley: I think it’s about time that all of us spoke on terror in the same voice. It’s ultimately a campaign to save the country, otherwise the way you are headed is not a great path. With almost 170 distrcits under the grip of Naxalites, you have regions all over where terrorists can strike at will. This is not the time to show differences on the issue. The issue is not Gujarat. You denied that law to Rajasthan. You have a problem with Gujarat. What about Rajasthan, what about Madhya Pradesh? The fact is that India today needs an anti-terror law. Since you talk of consensus, Home Minister Shivraj Patil has been saying he needs a federal investigative agency. We are willing to look at that demand provided the federal agency has substantive powers.

as usual the option is that the person who put up the story headline, doesn’t know their job !

Tags: CNN IBN, India, Indian Media, Media Bias

This morning I was in class teaching Media Studies. We were looking at different aspects of media — especially the ‘filtering aspect’. Dennis McQuail - media theorist - defines this as

…selecting out parts of experience for special attention and closing off other aspects of experience, whether deliberately and systematically or not…

And, then i got down to explain the nature of filters. For example, the ToI does not really believe in publishing news that will impact the self image of Indians on the front page. Senior members of the news industry have told me and all of us - go to any media event like FICCI Frames - that Indians don’t like watching news on Caste murders, political maneuvers and minority harassment. It does not jell well with this notion of India - the seat of tolerance, the seat of equality, the seat of culture, the seat of living in harmony. And, anything that takes away from this image is unappealing. So, Muslims or Christains attacking Hindus will make frontpage or lead story, where as the reverse will be tucked away. An Indian taking over a firang company will make front page news, and a firang taking over an Indian company will not. The Oscars or Brangelina will make front page news, but regional films that win a National Award or Caste murders will not.

The example that I used was of Priyanka Bhotmange - the 12th standard girl who wanted to grow up to be someone and join the army.. she and her mother were gangraped and murdered. And her brothers were brutalised and hung. It was just another murder that could happen anywhere in the country. Somehow filtering the gory and gruesome pictures off the front pages (or even the inside pages) helped to sanitize the crime. It also seemed to make us care less. If more people saw the pictures, then maybe the outrage would have been more.

The MSM didn’t even pick up the news, until it got too big to be buried. A couple of days after the verdict that denied the existence of caste in the murder of the family .. the story is as dead as the protagonists. No one - including the judiciary - wants to admit that maybe, just maybe - caste played an issue. We will rest content knowing a family was massacred and ‘justice’ may have been done. And we move on.

And, then one of the girls piped up and asked - why is the media quiet on Orissa ? And, the answer is the same. The bulk of the population are like ostriches - we don’t want to believe that ‘our’ people will kill, burn, rape and loot. Other people do it. Not us.

There could be another reason. And that is media bias. It is that news agencies are so infiltrated by Hindutva supporters that they spike the news that is unfavourable to the cause. Either that, or they are being run by morons.

I have suggested that my students go beyond the ToI and news channels for news - and look at other sources as well. And, while the whole truth may not be represented in the MSM, it is the start point to understanding any story. Read the Indian Express, Read the Hindu, read Tehelka, Read CounterCurrents, Read Atrocity News. Read what ever you can lay your hands on. All of them will contain biases - that is natural, the only unbiased person is a dead one! The truth will lie somewhere in the middle. What else could i tell them?

do check out Shivam Vij’s blog - he broke the Khairlanji story - and has stayed with it since.
Read the Tehelka coverage on Orissa.

And, Finally on Orissa -
if you are Hindu and reading this - maybe you would contemplate sending a message to the RSS and its allies. And, that is “This is not happening in my name. As a Hindu, I oppose this violence and hatred”. Just look at countries like Iran . Ordinary people didnt’ stand up against religious fundamentalism and look at the result. I hope and pray that India doesn’t become like that!

Tags: India, Indian Media, Khairlanji, Maharashtra, Media Bias, media filters, Orissa, Priyanka Bhotmange

.. and we (as in the online community) click a lot. Yahoo News had an interesting piece on audience trends.

….surfing for p*rn had dropped to about 10 percent of searches from 20 percent a decade ago, and the hottest Internet searches now are for social networking sites.

“As social networking traffic has increased, visits to porn sites have decreased,” said Tancer, indicated that the 18-24 year old age group particularly was searching less for porn.

“My theory is that young users spend so much time on social networks that they don’t have time to look at adult sites.”

Other things that interests people - disasters, celebrities….

…the current obsession with celebrities was also reflected through web data, with celebrity websites garnering more attention than sites devoted to religion, politics, well-being and diets combined — and no sign that this is waning.

But,

..the speed at which information spread on the Internet had meant in some cases it was consumers generating the story and the media is last to record it — or fact-check it.

the need for virtual social bonding and virtual social interaction is greater than the need for virtual vicarious 2nd hand gratification !

Tags: Internet, Media, social networking

I have been having fun with the Olympus E-510. It’s a great camera and very user friendly. It’s manual mode doesn’t require a Phd. in photography

I have been practicing shooting macros - but there are two things that i need. a macro lens. a tripod.

here are some I shot earlier….

(this one is best viewed full size)

(having fun with lightroom)

(more fun with lightroom)

(just fun with the camera)

Who would have thought that Andheri East could look this way …..

last week sometime….

In the tradition that I have been brought up in, Ganpati is a nitya bhramachari (an eternal celibate). His brother Kartikeya has two wives. Legend has it that he is cursed by his mother to wander the shores till he finds a mate.

My father, ever the soft hearted, refused to perform visarjan of Ganpati, and thereby condemn him to walk the shores of the sea for ever. So in 45 years of marriage - my folks collected a fair number of Ganpati idols in every shape and size.

If you keep the idol at home, you have to follow due process in taking care of it. It’s not a show piece. It goes into the prayer room and gets taken care of with the remaining Gods.

A few years ago ( it could even be a decade ago) my mother threw a fit. No more ganpati’s - there was no room in the prayer room for any more. And, when mom throws a fit, we all tend to listen. it can be fairly harmful to health if we don’t. She decided to make her own every year - that would be dunked in Ganga jaal post the pooja and given to the tulsi plant….

So for the last 10 years or so — mom makes these lovely ganpatis’ made of haldi and chandan. Installs it in her pooja — and the following day dissolves it in Ganga jal.

(amidst all the flowers is a ganapati made of haldi and chandan)

Nita has a good post here that looks at Mayawati and Obama, there is an interesting discussion that is also taking place. I began putting my two bits in and it just got so long that i decided to blog about it (thanks Nita, it has been a long time since i posted anything that i thought too much about

When we look at Obama, we need to look at him beyond his colour and see him for what he is - the child of two post graduate students, who has seen the world - not as immigrant labor or an army brat — but as part of the academic intelligentsia. His father was from Kenya - and the elite there, foreign education is not for the truly down trodden. His mother was an anthropologist and development worker. That is his background — and his value systems have possibly been shaped by that. If the US was not such a colour conscious country - they would look beyond the colour and see him as another one of the ‘upper class’ elite. If he was typically African American - he wouldn’t have got this far :). If he was typically white working class - he wouldn’t have got this far either

Contrast that with Mayawati. She is the second generation to gain from reservations. Her father was a government clerk. Her origins have more in common with the mainstay of the BJP vote bank. She was the protege to Kanshi Ram - possibly one of the most charismatic leaders of India post independence. In a way she is also part of the political elite. which is why she has got this far ….. the question is whether she will go further. Will she become Prime Minister ?

For me, caste and gender are not the only defining factor here. You possibly also need to look at region. She is a UP leader. If you want to be more charitable - she is a North Indian leader. Talk to the electorate in Maharashtra (even the ‘dalit vote bank’)- and she doesn’t have too many takers, talk to them in TN - they possibly would not even have heard of her. Talk to the in West Bengal - and she possibly does not even feature in the top 20. The problem with Mayawati is not that she is woman or Dalit or autocratic or corrupt. She faces the same problem that Sharad Pawar and MGR had, that Mulayam and Lallu have — they are regional heroes. Unless Mayawati positions her party and herself beyond where there are now — she will not be the PM. It has nothing to do with being either Dalit or Woman.

The Dalits in India are as diverse as any other community - in terms of language, culture, rituals, gods, heroes and even voting patterns. Pan Dalit identity is as difficult as a Pan Hindu or a Pan Muslim or a Pan Christian or even a Pan Indian identity. Unless Mayawati or anyone else overcomes their regional & caste persona and project a national persona - it is going to be difficult to be even a pan Indian Dalit leader . And, i am not sure that she should be positioning her self that way. If she has to succeed then she has to be a pan Indian leader and the BSP has to be a pan Indian party.

It is difficult in India to have an Obama or even a Clinton or a McCain. Our system is different. Our nation is different. We may follow the same broad principals - but our cultural variations make it impossible to project the one ……

btw - when all commentators talk about where is our Obama, he happened 70 years ago … despite the variations in culture, and the complete stranglehold of caste ……he was called Dr.Babasaheb Ambedkar…..:)

Tags: Babasaheb Ambedkar, Dalit, India, Indian Politics, Mayawati, Obama

i have been out of sorts. generally. maybe it is the fact that i was shooting with vast expanses of nature, maybe it is that i am tired of waiting; maybe it is that those closest to me are getting on my nerves and vice versa … maybe it is all of that … maybe it is something else.

There is this sense of listlessness, lack of drive, lack of anything — there seems to be nothing that i am working towards, there is nothing that really bothers me anymore, i seem to be in limboland in a zombified state. it is like a bad trip and a bad hangover. There is a part of me that tells me that it will get over and there is a nice bright day that will follow. the other part of me tells me that it will wait till that arrives rather than trying to break out of the zone that i am in.

In anycase, JD tried to get me out — he burst into my room, last evening and told me that the world is sepia and i should take a look at. i hemmed, hawed told him that i wasn’t in the mood…. but the world did drag me out of the cocoon that i have built up over the last 3 weeks. the sunset was gorgeous — there was even a rainbow….

and maybe the world will be better tomorrow

Tags: India, Mumbai, Photographs