Alka Dwivedi

Category: media

  • Aruna Shanbaug

    Aruna Shanbaug
    Aruna Shanbaug

    Today Supreme Court has struck down the mercy killing plea of Aruna Shanbaug filed by Pinki Virani . But a debate on euthanasia. has started in the country. People are voicing their opinion on social media sites such as Facebook and Twitter actively. Columinists like Bachi Karkaria and others are showing their outrage at the condition of Aruna Shanbaug.
    As Sify News says, “Aruna Shanbhag, a nurse from Haldipur, Shimoga, Karnataka, was assaulted by a Sohanlal Bhartha Walmiki, a ward boy at Mumbai’s King Edward Memorial Hospital in 1973.”
    Since then Aruna Shanbhug is living like a vegetable. The Nursing Staff of KEMH is taking care of for more than three decades. You can’t spot a minor sore in Aruna Shanbaug’s body. Aruna’s fiancé had waited for four years to improve her condition. But ultimately moved on with his life. Today he is happily married with grown up kids.
    As petitioner Pinki Virani says, ” I worked like a woman possessed. Eventually, all the necessary documents found their way to me. I would make the effort, jump for it, die for it, and the damn file would turn up. That is how I got her personal file in KEM, her special neurological file and even the names and numbers of people who knew her.”

    Actually my mind was not with Aruna Shanbaug but with Sohanlal Bhartha Walmiki. What happened to that guy? Was he punished? Had he suffered too? Or only Aruna Shanbaug was condemned to be imprisoned in her own body? What happened to the rapist? He was booked under robbery and served seven years in jail for the crime. THEN? He coolly served his sentence came out changed his name and city and worked in another hospital. Every pore of any conscious person will scream that’s so U-N-F-A-I-R.

    What does current scenario tells about our society? We GO for the victim. Bachi Karkaria, Pinki Virani have done so much for Aruna Shanbaug someone else could have put the same effort and clout Pinki Virani has written a book Aruna’s Story. The part of the royalty from this book goes to Aruna Shanbaug and after her death it will go to some women’s organization.

    But one question can’t escape my mind. Why no one tried to reopen the case and tried to punish the guilty? Even today we all are talking about Aruna Shanbaug’s death or right to live. A SURE SIGN OF A COWARD SOCIETY. We specialize in going for the victim. What about Aruna Shanbaug’s right to justice? What about punishing the aggressor? Actually we have not moved away much from the history. If aggressors used to abduct our women, put them in veils. If aggressors used to abduct brides, shift the wedding timings from dawn to night. If abductors defeated us, tell our women to perform Johar or Sati. We might have started frequenting pubs and discs but mentality is still more than six hundred centuries old.

    Aruna Shanbaug we are sorry. We can’t give you justice but worry about your D-E-A-T-H. Why you chose to born in this cowardly society?

    PS: Aruna Shanbaug died today on 18 May, 2015. She was world’s oldest comatose patient. May her soul rest in peace. Hope she is in a better place now.

  • What Ratan Tata did for the Mumbai victims

    Ratan_Tata

    Ratan Tata (Image Source: Business News)

    What Ratan Tata did for the Mumbai victims of 26/11…. a every Indian should know. i AM COPY PASTING THIS POST FROM Small Strokes… Why main stream media is not interested in publishing this? I leave it to figure it out yourself.

    Ratan Tata is the chairman of Indian Hotels who own the Taj Mahal Hotel Mumbai, which was the target of the terrorists last year . Hotel President a 5 star property also belongs to Indian Hotels.
    The following is really touching.

    • All category of employees including those who had completed even 1 day as casuals were treated on duty during the time the hotel was closed.
    • Relief and assistance to all those who were injured and killed
    • The relief and assistance was extended to all those who died at the railway station, surroundings including the “Pav- Bha ji” vendor and the pan shop owners.
    • During the time the hotel was closed, the salaries were sent by money order.
    • A psychiatric cell was established in collaboration with Tata Institute of Social Sciences to counsel those who needed such help.
    • The thoughts and anxieties going on people’s mind was constantly tracked and where needed psychological help provided.
    • Employee outreach centers were opened where all help, food, water, sanitation, first aid and counseling was provided. 1600 employees were covered by this facility.
    • Every employee was assigned to one mentor and it was that person’s responsibility to act as a “single window” clearance for any help that the person required.
    • Ratan Tata personally visited the families of all the 80 employees who in some manner – either through injury or getting killed – were affected.
    • The dependents of the employees were flown from outside Mumbai to Mumbai and taken care off in terms of ensuring mental assurance and peace. They were all accommodated in Hotel President for 3 weeks.
    • Ratan Tata himself asked the families and dependents – as to what they wanted him to do.
    • In a record time of 20 days, a new trust was created by the Tatas for the purpose of relief of employees.
    • What is unique is that even the other people, the railway employees, the police staff, the pedestrians who had nothing to do with Tatas were covered by compensation. Each one of them was provided subsistence allowance of Rs. 10K per month for all these people for 6 months.
    • A 4 year old granddaughter of a vendor got 4 bullets in her and only one was removed in the Government hospital. She was taken to Bombay hospital and several lacs were spent by the Tatas on her to fully recover her.
    • New hand carts were provided to several vendors who lost their carts.
    • Tata will take responsibility of life education of 46 children of the victims of the terror.
    • This was the most trying period in the life of the organisation. Senior managers including Ratan Tata were visiting funeral to funeral over the 3 days that were most horrible.
    • The settlement for every deceased member ranged from Rs. 36 to 85 lacs [One lakh rupees translates to approx 2200 US $ ] in addition to the following benefits:

    a. Full last salary for life for the family and dependents;
    b. Complete responsibility of education of children and dependents – anywhere in the world.
    c. Full Medical facility for the whole family and dependents for rest of their life.
    d. All loans and advances were waived off – irrespective of the amount.
    e. Counselor for life for each person
    1. How was such passion created among the employees? How and why did they behave the way they did?
    2. The organisation is clear that it is not something that someone can take credit for. It is not some training and development that created such behaviour. If someone suggests that – everyone laughs
    3. It has to do with the DNA of the organisation, with the way Tata culture exists and above all with the situation that prevailed that time. The organisation has always been telling that customers and guests are #1 priority
    4. The hotel business was started by Jamshedji Tata when he was insulted in one of the British hotels and not allowed to stay there.
    5. He created several institutions which later became icons of progress, culture and modernity. IISc is one such institute. He was told by the rulers that time that he can acquire land for IISc to the extent he could fence the same. He could afford fencing only 400 acres. He also made a condition that the TATA name should not be used (ironical in a country where half the roads and buildings bear Gandhi tag although they may not even have seen them)
    6. When the HR function hesitatingly made a very rich proposal to Ratan – he said – do you think we are doing enough?
    7. The whole approach was that the organisation would spend several hundred crore in re-building the property – why not spend equally on the employees who gave their life?
    This was not covered by any news channel. The channels are busy showing cast politics, Sania Mirza’s wedding, Shahrukh Khan’s wedding. But these stories need to be told to the nation.

  • Mona Sarika’s Short, Disgraced Career, Thanks to Plagiarism

    If you are writing blog for Wall Street Journal what a “normal” writer would like to do? of course he / she would try to give his/her best. Or would you try to plagiarize matter from another website, like BBC? One might be out of mind to do that. But shortcuts in life seem so tempting and rewarding. It seems Indian blogger Mona Sarika learnt nothing from Kavya Viswanathan ( Thanks to Kaavya, everyone’s a suspect.)  One moment she was considered as a hero and next moment she was a zero. I have never seen such a live example of everything going on for you to a journey into literary nothingness. Now writer Mona Sarika. Read what she has done. Here Wall Street Journal is apologizing to its readers: 

     

    “Notice to Readers: A Nov. 10 "New Global Indian" online column by New York City freelance writer Mona Sarika has been found to contain information that was plagiarized from several publications, including the Washington Post, Little India, India Today and San Francisco magazine. In addition, Ms. Sarika re-used direct quotes from other publications, without attribution, and changed the original speakers’ names to individuals who appear to be fabricated. The column is the only work by Ms. Sarika to be published by the Journal, and it has been removed from the Journal’s web sites.”

    Hope people realize that we live in a connected world and its just a matter of time that sooner or later it will be out in the open.

  • JAI HO!! A. R. Rahman Wins Oscar for Slumdog Millionaire!

    Music maestro A.R. Rahman has added another first in his cap. Rahman has become the first Indian composer to win an Oscar for his music in Slumdog Milllionaire. Rahman was nominated in the Best Original Score and the Best Original Song categories for the Oscars and he won both. He has won best original score along with lyricist Gulzar. Rahman has already received the Golden Globe Award for the same.

    Another Indian documentary film by Megan Mylan, “Smile Pinki” won an Oscar in the Best Short Documentary category.
    It seems the 24-hour news channels and Internet has really converted this planet into a small global village. Its not that we didn’t have great composers before Rehman or “Jai Ho” is Gulzar’s best creation. But these days we have better means of exposure, communication, transportation and event management companies. These things put concerned people at the right place at the right time with right people. A “JAI HO” for technocrats who make this connectivity possible!

  • Blogger Silenced by NDTV

    I read this post here.

    Here’s the apology published by Chyetanya Kunte, and here is how different bloggers have responded.

    I’m reproducing here a part of his unconditional apology:

    Consequently, I hereby repudiate and withdraw my post dated November 27, 2008 titled "Shoddy Journalism" and, more specifically, the following allegations / statements made in the post titled "Shoddy Journalism" namely:

    • a lack of ethics, responsibility and professionalism by Ms. Dutt and NDTV Limited;
    • that Ms. Dutt and NDTV’s reporting at the scene of the Mumbai attacks during November 2008, resulted in jeopardizing the safety and lives of civilians and / or security personnel caught up in and / or involved in defending against the attacks in Mumbai in November 2008;
    • that Ms. Dutt was responsible for the death of Indian Servicemen during the Kargil Conflict.

    See how cleverly he has repeated everything in the apology :-).

    I think he has taken the right decision to take down the blog post because he wanted to make a point and he made it and now he is getting ample coverage. Had he been sued by Barkha Dutt and company he would have had to bear the cost unnecessarily, unless of course there were people to help him out or if he himself had enough resources. “Big-shot journalists” like M/s Barkha Dutt wouldn’t have to spend from her own pocket because the TV channel would take care of the entire hassle while she carried on with her routine job. In fact they must be having a separate legal department for such things.

    About the freedom of speech thing: I think many bloggers take this too far. Freedom comes with responsibility and like any other medium, when you say something that sort of accuses another person you have to back it up with enough data and evidence and shouldn’t base your blog post on unsubstantiated facts. But of course you can refer to other reports claiming the same things and this shouldn’t be illegal. I am not writing this in support of Barkha Dutt, I’m writing this so that bloggers don’t get in such kind of tight spots. Blogging being free or cheap doesn’t mean that you can publish anything. You have to be responsible if you are publishing something and your message is being read by many people and is publicly available. Whenever you are publishing insinuations on your blog always link to the source that you are basing your insinuation upon. This way you can always say, “I didn’t say that, I simply said what he said, how would I know it is not true?”

    Regarding people like Barkha Dutt trying to throttle freedom of speech, I think by attributing such expressions to journalists like her is plain stupid. Even a kid would know that she and the news channel she works for don’t care a hoot about freedom of speech. They are simply mouth pieces of the pseudo-intellectual mafia that has been screwing the country ever since…forever.

  • Cool Dudes?

    I read this screaming headline. Girls assaulted at Mangalore pub

    The activists of Sri Rama Sena entered the Amnesia Bar and Restaurant on Dr Shivaram Karanth Road on Saturday evening and threatened the women sitting inside. The men, who took objection to women drinking alcohol, pushed them outside, many women falling to the ground while they were being driven out.

    Well what happened at Mangalore is a condemnable incident and events like this shouldn’t happen in a liberal society. But I am wondering about one thing. What the cool dudes accompanying these hapless girls were doing? Or for a change imagine, that these girls were visiting the bar alone or in a group. But what were the males present in Mangalore bar having higher conscious level than these hooligans were doing? Watching those girls being beaten up and pushed around? Or they were thinking on the similar lines of the goons of Sri Ram Sena, since they were drinking so they deserve such treatment? Come on cool dudes, you must had outnumbered those gundas at the Mangalore bar. So where were your biceps at that time?

    What the media was doing apart from filming the Mangalore bar incident? Capturing the Sri Ram Sena’s Ravans’ act was more important than dialing to police? Where was that type of chest beating when Taslima Nasreen was attacked? Do they ever understand that this kind of selective reporting takes away their credibility?

  • News Channels Being Stupid?

    This guy/ Guys/ gal/gals is /are simply amazing. I admire the way he/she/they really makes/make an effort to write and before writing, does/do some actual research. After reading his/her/their post, it seems that news channels are still living in some fools paradise. They still have to feel the impact of internet how they can’t fool the common public (netzians) now.
    Here is what, Padma Vidushak, Rajdeep Sardesai’s channel, CNN-IBN, felt about Madame President’s birthday celebration:

    It was the first Presidential birthday in many years to be celebrated outside the grandeur of the Raisina Hill. First Lady Pratibha Patil celebrated her 73rd birthday with the destitute and the mentally challenged in their homes, in complete contrast to her predecessor Kalam, whose birthday celebrations looked more like Children’s Day celebrations inside Raisina Hill.[link]

    Now what barbarindians did? He/she/they posted five links. Each links describes where and how ex-president Kalam celebrated his birthday. And surprisingly none of his birthday was celebrated in Raisina Hill!
    I am just copying and pasting his work.

    2006: New Delhi, Oct. 15 (PTI): The President, A P J Abdul Kalam, today celebrated his 75th birthday with spastic children in Bangalore. [link]

    2005: Governor Sushil Kumar Shinde greeting President A.P.J. Abdul Kalam on his 74th birthday at Raj Bhavan in Hyderabad on Saturday. [link]

    2004: BANGALORE: President of India, Dr Avul Pakir Jainulabdeen Abdul Kalam today turned 73, celebrating his birthday outside the Rashtrapati Bhavan. [link]

    2003: SURAT OCT. 15. The president, A.P.J. Abdul Kalam, today celebrated his 73rd birthday among religious heads and children at Surat in south Gujarat. [link]

    2002: CHENNAI Oct. 15 . The Governor and the Chief Minister have conveyed their greetings to the President, A.P.J. Abdul Kalam, on the occasion of his 72nd birthday. [link] [Oops! Finally it looks like he is on Raisina Hill! We found one!]

    If you try posting all these links on CNN-IBN’s site they will “moderate” it. 🙂