Garbage unloaded 1.0

Till I was eight, I never really saw garbage on the streets. There is a silent sense of pride the Arabs have in keeping their streets and city clean. While I was in Muscat, they even undertook many City Beautification Projects. So you see, it wasn’t just about cleanliness; it was about beauty as well. That part of the Middle East was like a mirage, like ones that appear in stories and movies.

When I moved to India, my first tryst with garbage and its abundance was at Malad Market, Mumbai. The entire area was filled with the stench of rotting produce. The landscape speckled with plastic bottles and bags, and all the garbage was piled away in a corner. It wasn’t in anyone’s direct view, so it was OK to let it be there without bothering with it for the next few months.

Later, as I moved around and travelled to various parts of the country, I found that this is true not only of a particular city. Every market, street corner or ally turns into a makeshift garbage dump. People in apartment buildings fling waste out of their windows.

It made me think. Is it possible? Could there be someone else to blame other than our ever-so-inefficient government?  Are Indian people to blame for this phenomenon?  Could it be something else; something other than the fact that for the past 20 odd years, our government has been concentrating on economic growth, forsaking developing better infrastructure?

I began observing people’s attitude to waste; it was not pleasant to discover that the problem is actually the people. We seem to believe that the country—its streets, its park and public areas—are our garbage dumps. Someone else will come along and clean up their mess.

It might come as a surprise that the “educated” English speaking middle class make up a sizeable number of the litterbugs. They think it is not their place to be concerned with garbage and its disposal. There is no sense of ownership and pride in the nation.

People say that they are patriotic; they will stand when the national anthem is being played and sung. The same “patriots” do not flinch or hesitate before defacing the very nation they so proudly belong too.

Telling them off doesn’t help either.

You get ridiculed and laughed at if you stop someone from throwing garbage around. “Will you pick up garbage from the whole state?” I was once asked.

What they fail to understand is that if each person took care of their own garbage, the streets would not be littered as they are now. We expect the corporation to clean up after us, so we leave a trail of garbage behind us wherever we go.

Why can’t we stop leaving the garbage trail to begin with? We keep waiting for the corporation to come up with a waste disposal plan or a recycling plant. Why can’t we work towards taking small steps ourselves? Compost your kitchen waste; stop buying or collecting plastics—these are some steps that can be followed instead of turning every street corner into a dumping ground.

Maybe then India has a chance to rise out from under this heap of trash.

A letter to my uncle Churchill*

*Author is not related to the politician though she has been accused of being so on numerous occasions, the only connection is the same last name.

Dear Mr. Churchill Alemao,

I write to offer my sympathy about the recent elections. Well actually I am not sorry you lost the elections. You had a good run with being an MP in Goa, you looted and plundered during your reign before that as well. 

You lost because the people of the state got smarter than to elect you for a few goodies once again. Blaming a parish priest or the ex CM might help you sleep better at night but everyone knows that is not why you lost the elections.

You were at some point during your political tenure had the portfolio of rural development. During that tenure is most rural areas in South and North Goa, mining corporations set up mines, most illegal and the land acquired by means fair and foul. What part of that destruction was development according to you?

You might say well it provides jobs to those who would otherwise have to travel to the city for work. Well once again, you were wrong. In the mining infested areas of Goa there are few locals that would actually want jobs in mines.

Their fields are not cultivable now, their water unfit to drink, their livelihood and health are compromised. In what way exactly do you think this better for them? Areas that sustained themselves entirely, water straight from springs, grew their own food, are now forced to be dependent on other sources for income.

As a public works and development minister you were accused of misappropriation of Rs. 300 crore, money that was actually part of the PWD funds. The case never came up in the papers again after a few days. That may lead you to think that the Goan people have forgotten about the incident. Clearly they haven’t as evident in the election results.

Your days of being the mastermind puppeteer were bound to come to an end at some point. You could only hide behind the secular banner of the congress for so long. The Goan people may have hoped while choosing between the devil and the deep blue sea, that you were the lesser evil.

I am glad the day has arrived when they have woken up, realised that voting you out was their only option.

It is a great day when an independent candidate can contest against a political thug like you and win. That surely must give you an idea of what the people feel about you now.

I do hope you never find a place in politics again.

Sincerely,

Desiree Alemao

On the verge of vegetarianism

I am Goan. Being vegetarian is extremely difficult, if not impossible. There are many homes and restaurants that will proudly serve you any meat you could possibly desire, except for well maybe dog meat, Goans like dogs too much. Wild Boar, Venison, Veal, Cat, Rabbit, Frog, well you get the picture don’t you. I grew up pointing at cows and calling them beef.

That was a bit of background information to give you some context for the shocking announcement that is about to come.

I, Desiree Alemao, feel a strong urge to stop eating meat.

Yes, you read right.

What happened to bring this on you ask? Well ever since I moved to Bangalore I have seen poultry shops that dot the road to college treat livestock very badly. Dozens of hens’ feet tied to the seat of a bicycle to be transported. While they are still alive, mind you so that they can feel every bump on the road, at which point they hit each other.

Just because they were raised to be someone’s meal does not mean they were born with no feeling in their body. While they are alive they can feel, we seem to conveniently forget this fact. This too is cruelty. Cruelty to livestock is also cruelty to animals.

I am a pacifist, hence seeing things like this makes me sick. I cannot think of eating something that has been treated so badly. In all this, where is the government to enforce its regulations on livestock farmers.

Where are the NGOs that care so much? Are the hens not as important because they can’t look up at you lovingly like puppies do or rub against your ankles like a kitten? Is it because they won’t look good on your brochures and calendars?

This is my way of standing up against this treatment and saying that I will not eat meat that is not ethically treated. If the demand does not go down then there will be no change in the way the livestock farmers treat the animals.  

Hopefully if enough of people who are concerned about these issues we will have concepts like free range poultry becoming popular in India as well.

It has been a difficult journey for me, not eating meat is not very easy but I think the cause is worth it. Are you willing to take a stand as well?

(This was a while ago. I couldn't give up meat but I try and make sure the meat I eat has been treated ethically. That is quite a task as well.)

Volver: a review

I had to write a review for a course I was taking recently. I thought it might provide a little variety, so here goes.

Film: Volver
Director: Pedro Almodóvar
Released: 2006
Cast:  Penélope Cruz, Carmen Maura and Lola Dueñas

The minute Volver opens, we know we’re in for a strange ride. A rural cemetery is the hub of activity for a bunch of cheery women scrubbing and decorating tombstones with almost festive enthusiasm. It could well have led up to a song and dance sequence. The scene though supposedly strange to our cloistered eyes is seems extremely normal in the context of the film. Like what could possibly be odd about decking graves and being extremely chirpy in a cemetery, right. 

As Raimunda (Penelope Cruz), Sole (Carmen Maura) and young Paula (Lola Dueñas) leave the cemetery we swept along into a fast pace film that largely revolves around women and the roles they are required to play sometimes.

This film mostly revolves around its strong women lead characters, women that stand together through anything.  They come together across generations, long separations and misunderstandings to hold each other up.

After Paula’s step father tries to rape her and ends up dead the plot unravels and the dirty linen begins to tumble out the cupboard. A very real ghost adds that constant element of unpredictability to the film. I was sitting on the edge for almost the entire film, and for someone who was trained to watch and review cinema dispassionately, that really means something.

Cruz’s performance in the film was undoubtedly one of her best ever. She radiates from the centre stage, bouncing between someone who has had to murder her husband and someone who finds out her mother was never dead, effortlessly.  Within the film itself she is required to put on a cheery face when the crew of a film approaches her to cater for the duration of their shooting. Every bit the gracious hostess while around the crew and in the cafe and when she is on her own her darker side and the burden she carries shows through her silent exterior.

The director also takes an occasional break from a capable verite approach to showcase cinematic artistry, which the subject of the film presents ample opportunity to do. You see that in the unexpected overhead shot of Sole when she is surrounded by mourners, or the extreme close ups of Cruz preparing the last dinner for the crew. The shots of the mint in the mojitos and of Cruz chopping peppers look so divine you want to frame them and put them up around your house.

Diversions from dark underlying plot are provided in plenty. The scenes of the crew’s party transport you into an entirely different atmosphere, the flamenco guitar and Cruz’s beautiful singing, shots of old cobbled streets in rural Spain and the character of the friendly befuddled sex worker that Cruz ropes in to help her.

The plot develops in such a way there is never a dull moment in the film. Toward the end the director ties up the film with Hitchcock-like revelations. Volver takes a very real story and portrays it in almost with extra ordinary finesse and classic storytelling. The aesthetics of the film and the director’s use of shades colour red through the film to indicate when things are about to change were stellar.

A great film to watch, I highly recommend it. If you do not usually watch subtitled films as they distract, trust me this really is worth the watch and the emotion will come through despite the language difference. Enjoy! 

To tell or not to tell…the story of Manipur

The topic I've chosen to write about is one that has not gotten its fair share of attention in mainstream media. It's an issue of immense national importance that should be debated and discussed in schools and colleges around the country. In highlighting this issue I strive to make a point that the media, though immensely powerful, doesn’t always get its priorities right.

Today there isn't really a lot of difference between much of the Indian media and the corporate world. TRP’s are more important than the truth. In the plethora of channels that spring up all the time, only the fittest will get the ad revenue required for sustenance. That comes by pandering to the advertiser rather
than to the reader. Thus, we see coverage of a Pink Chaddi campaign or who is Salman Khan's latest romantic interest more often than we see a serious issue.

A prime example is the lack of attention to the plight of the women in Manipur and other regions of the North-East who face state–sponsered atrocities in the form of the AFSPA.

It seems that most people in our country are struck by the NIMBY syndrome—Not In My Back Yard.
While rummaging through the countless stories that do not make it to prime time TV, one comes across people who possess the selflessness and passion to be perfect role models to society.

There are few in the world like Irom Sharmila. Perhaps it is becasue, a lady who has been on a hunger strike for more than a decade in a city most people only know on a map isn't as attractive as Rakhi Sawant. People like Sharmila, who are ready to die for what they believe in, live the ideals that made this nation.

Merely 28 when she decided it was her ‘unbound duty’ to take responsibility for what was happening in her state she decided to protest in a way that seemed fit to her, a non violent hunger strike.

In the midst of cynicism she had the audacity to hope. If I were to believe in reincarnation I would say without doubt, we have a M. K. Gandhi in our midst. This shows us how much the world has hardened, the present day Gandhi barely musters support for her cause.

Here is something to bring up to speed those who are unfamiliar with the arbitrary reign of AFSPA in Manipur. On November 2, 2000, ten people were killed when a paramilitary force opened fire at a bus-stop near Malom in Manipur. Most of those killed were women and students. The firing was followed by a brutal combat operation. The troops of 8th Assam Rifles were deployed in Malom to counter
the ‘insurgent’ attack in the area. Those killed at the Malom massacre were L Sana Devi (60), G Bap Sharma (50), O Sanayaima (50), K Bijoy (35) A Raghumani (34), S Robinson Singh (27), Ksh Inaocha (23), T Shantikumar (19), S Prakash Singh (18) and S Chandramani (17.)

This was one of the many incidents that have taken place in Manipur during the reign of the AFSPA

Thus began the fight of Irom Sharmila Chanu, the Iron Lady from Manipur whose fast completed 10 years last year.
Though Sharmila began her marathon fast in protest, the investigation into the Malom massacre is not complete after 10 years.

It has taken 10 years for the government to pay heed to the issue and respond by repealing the Act in greater Imphal.

This is not reason enough for us to rejoice, there are still many things to be achieved. People of the state have been oppressed for such a long time, torn between the devil and the deep blue sea, the militants and the AFSPA, and the state is yet to wake from its coma.

While the people of Manipur have been stripped of their basic rights for over sixty years, repealing the Act is not the final answer. It is just the beginning of what the Indian government can do to remedy the situation.

I believe militancy takes place due to socio-economic divides in a given state, the oppression of the common man and lack of opportunities to better their standard of living.

The first step that the government could take would be to provide better infrastructure and improve the conditions of existing hospitals, banks, schools and other basic facilities. Lift the state out of its hazy existence and make it live again.

I would like to end this essay with a stanza from a poem by Irom Sharmila that is in essence the situation in Manipur

“Let the gate of the prison be flung wide
I will not go on another path
Please remove the shackles of thorn
Let me be not accused
For being incarnated in the life of a bird.”
- Irom Sharmila

(College entrance essay that I found. This was written early 2011 hence certain facts may be different.)

The dawn of the theocratic age

As globalization accelerates and the barriers between countries fade, countries tend to cling to their culture and traditions. This has led to the rampant growth of fundamentalism across the world. Constant watchfulness and paranoia in governments has led to acts like SOPA, PIPA and CCTVs on every corner. It is turning states into cowards that bow down to fear and are way too willing to give up freedom in the name of security.

This leads governments to believe that they must eliminate any sort of threat to security, avoid controversy and play nice with all the minorities—especially when elections are around the corner. At the end of last year, we saw the SlutWalk being canceled in Bangalore as right-wing politicians decided they would never let something that would promote “cheap morals” take place in their state. They failed to understand that the walk was a rally to raise awareness about the real cause of rape and champion women’s rights.

Similarly, at the beginning of the year we saw the vice chancellor of Bangalore University blaming the way women dress for the crimes against women. She claimed that some women’s “inappropriate” clothing was the reason they are raped and asked how Indian men could be expected to close their eyes.

In the second week of January we even had the United States coming out with bills like SOPA and PIPA that would curb the freedom of the Internet and control content that one can view and post online.

If we view the Salman Rushdie incident in this light, it’s not an isolated incident, but just India following the new wave of theocracy that seems to have engulfed the world.

The Jaipur police actually invented an assassination threat to keep the author away from the festival. It is the same way we lost one of the other brilliant artists of our country—M.F. Hussain. I agree our country has a history of banning anything that has a slight hint of controversial content that might offend the sensibilities of the right-wing minorities.

This seems to be a first though—faking a threat to keep someone away from a literature festival. This incident I think has formally ushered in the theocratic age in India. The way the world is behaving today is shameful—we are running around like headless chickens under the umbrella of “protection” that the government offers us.

Like all the ages the world has seen this is the dawn of the ice age of our intelligence, sensibility and soon freedom. Living in fear is as good as not living at all.

“Avoiding danger is no safer in the long run than outright exposure. The fearful are caught as often as the bold,” Helen Keller said. I think we should pay heed before we lose control of everything, including our thoughts.

Originally published here

Is death penalty justified?

There are many points to be kept in mind when trying to answer this question. I personally am of the opinion that it is justified. I think crimes of a particular nature are committed with the awareness of the consequences and if you are aware of the consequences of your actions then you should also be willing to face the repercussions.

If the punishment for a particular crime is death penalty according to the constitution of India, then I feel it should be awarded. If you find cause to question the fulfillment of death penalty then you can surely find cause to question every part of the constitution and raise objections and send petitions to the president not just to repeal death penalty but anything for that matter.

Your right to freedom of expression is guaranteed in the constitution, among others that we fight for so passionately then if someone commits a heinous crime then we should fight with equal passion that they be given the punishment they are entitled.

If you take a look at the crime rate in India and compare it to a country where death penalty is awarded for certain crime you will see that there is a relation between the crime rate and whether death penalty is awarded or not. One such country is Singapore which has a very low crime rate. In 2010 for every 100,000 people there were 650 crimes.

In India if the same is applied I think that there will be a decrease in the amount of crime. It will act as deterrent. If you want to take right to life in consideration then with certain rights also come responsibilities. If you do not respect someone else right to life then why should the constitution protect your right to life.