India vs Pakistan Semifinals- A war??
The media is very much projecting the semi-finals match between India and Pakistan as a war by itself. The Kargil war can take a bow in front of this match.
This media projection is surely is making the citizens of 2 countries very emotional and very „patriotic“ indeed!
One of our good friend and I can call him as my mentor in Infosys had quoted the below on facebook:
"A war tomorrow- India vs Pak. A world-cup cricket match in the capital of Punjab, watched by the Prime Ministers & some 1.35 billion folks. Hardly a battle of equals, as projected by media though. Pakistan's socio-economic fabric is in shambles. Check out this mullah court-martial on Pak TV, of an actress who appeared on Indian reality TV( http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pMnAmRa4NYw&feature=youtu.be)http://www.dawn.com/2011/03/29/no-one-bleeds-blue-or-green-we-all-bleed-red.html"
My comments:
It was very heart breaking .. The only difference in India is nobody dares to question about the way girls dress on media(there are exceptions like Pramod Mutalik who in the name of morals assaults girls in the pub), but the indian society does not anyway spare such women - the women who wish to be the way they want, who wish to dress the way they want. The Indian society cannot stand it.
We are democratic country and girls can either sue or ignore such comments by society, but no! they instead succumb to society's such remarks.The difference between Pakistan and India is the level of treatment to thier girls. I mean, we are only few percentage better. India too has long way to go when it comes to sociological problems which includes many other issues.
Coming to Cricket, media does such comparisons because millions of Indians accept such projection and are hungry too. I think we should just watch cricket as a sport and not like cricketers are representing each country like in a war. If Pakistan plays good cricket thats got nothing to do with thier socio-economic conditions. This is what I believe.
Good friend came back:
This media projection is surely is making the citizens of 2 countries very emotional and very „patriotic“ indeed!
One of our good friend and I can call him as my mentor in Infosys had quoted the below on facebook:
"A war tomorrow- India vs Pak. A world-cup cricket match in the capital of Punjab, watched by the Prime Ministers & some 1.35 billion folks. Hardly a battle of equals, as projected by media though. Pakistan's socio-economic fabric is in shambles. Check out this mullah court-martial on Pak TV, of an actress who appeared on Indian reality TV( http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pMnAmRa4NYw&feature=youtu.be)http://www.dawn.com/2011/03/29/no-one-bleeds-blue-or-green-we-all-bleed-red.html"
My comments:
It was very heart breaking .. The only difference in India is nobody dares to question about the way girls dress on media(there are exceptions like Pramod Mutalik who in the name of morals assaults girls in the pub), but the indian society does not anyway spare such women - the women who wish to be the way they want, who wish to dress the way they want. The Indian society cannot stand it.
We are democratic country and girls can either sue or ignore such comments by society, but no! they instead succumb to society's such remarks.The difference between Pakistan and India is the level of treatment to thier girls. I mean, we are only few percentage better. India too has long way to go when it comes to sociological problems which includes many other issues.
Coming to Cricket, media does such comparisons because millions of Indians accept such projection and are hungry too. I think we should just watch cricket as a sport and not like cricketers are representing each country like in a war. If Pakistan plays good cricket thats got nothing to do with thier socio-economic conditions. This is what I believe.
Good friend came back:
Sure, we hv miles to go but I dont agree wth your generalisations & comparison with Pak, on the issue of - lack of freedom for women to choose wat they wear. We hv a huge diversity of cultures & fashion trends, need to be seen in specific c...ultural context only. For eg. - in several parts of rural orissa, mp, tripura, women moving around topless, with just a saree drape, don't attract a 2nd glance, but some1 in a bikini, is likely to get stoned. The issues in India, are more to do with speed-of-change rather than change itself. There is no 1 big culture, trying to impose itself on other cultures. In Pakistan, all its 4+1 distinct provinces & their diverse cultures, are being systematically, talibanised. Not just religion, but all forms of music, entertainment, sport, are under threat from a mullah defined culture. Of course, there are larger women's equality issues in India, but you can only comment on them at a the level of each of the 30 Indian states & their sub-cultural context . In our neighbourhood of gurgaon/delhi , there is increasing corelation betwn GDP going up & Rapes goin up ( see - http://www.nytimes.com/201
My reply:
I am not speaking like a "literate NRI" who just speaks because I am safe outside India and hence I can shout out!
Media takes advantage of this kind of situations anywhere in the world!
Regarding the sociological issues, I am speaking mainly from my personal experiences than anything else because I have lived in one of the states of India and have faced issues while I was there. I have also heard of scary stories in our neighbourhood about dowry cases, not caring for girl child, giving more education only to sons, treating girls as doormat and as liability. Even if some parents gives education to their daughters,they want them to be home makers. If a girl is working then after marriage if her in-laws wants her to leave job then she should abide to it and many more issues. This is just from my neighbourhood. I can image how many other issues gets unnoticed. Girls needs to be brave enough to face all these issues. If not they will be stamped.
I have heard of rape >history< in India and it is very disgusting-> One Ex: systematic raping of daughters-in-law(father-in-law raping his newly wed daughter-in-law) and sisters-in-law(brothers of grooms raping the newly wed brother’s wife) after marriage because they think women are family’s property in some northern part of Indian towns!
So indeed as you said there are different sociological problems(women related issues) in different regions of India.
We certainly >cannot< compare the >Democratic freedom< which Indian constitution provides, to that of Pakistan’s dictatorship regime or mullah’s decision and that‘s why I said that Indian girls can either sue or ignore society’s remarks and stand against such issues. Instead they succumb to the remarks and adjusts to the society’s expectation. And girls like me who speak their mind becomes outcastes and loud mouths!
If you know/remember there was once a discussion on an NDTV Show (sometime in 2006) about why Mallika Sherawat dresses in a sultry way and lip-locks on screen. Mallika had to defend herself and her way of dressing in that show( talk about being in a democratic country!) in front millions of Indians and she too was almost in the verge of tears.
Mr Aamir Khan had lip-locked with Karishma Kapoor in Raja hindustani movie and Mr Vinod Khanna had lip-locked with Madhuri Dixit too. Why aren‘t these men questioned on NDTV shows too or why not question Emraam Hashmi himself? Hadn‘t he lip-locked Mallika Sherawat? Can you please tell me if this NDTV show is any better than that Veena Malik’s show? Is it fair??
Issues we are facing India are of similar nature but of different angles/dimensions. That does not mean they are any better or any worse.
I am indeed reading about the rapes in the capital city Delhi(or crime capital thats what it is called nowadays) and the latest being a 5 year old getting raped by her neighbour. This is not a problem which can be ignored just because certain Delhi girls are brave enough to do what they want. But can you imagine girls from villages or small towns doing the same and getting along without any problems? I do not think so!
I have heard many people say that "oh! These girls get raped because of the way the they dress, if they had covered their body parts then this would not have happened“. But There will not be any comments by anyone that the man who had raped HAD to keep his pants zipped instead! Cheers! :)See more
What are your thoughts??
Media takes advantage of this kind of situations anywhere in the world!
Regarding the sociological issues, I am speaking mainly from my personal experiences than anything else because I have lived in one of the states of India and have faced issues while I was there. I have also heard of scary stories in our neighbourhood about dowry cases, not caring for girl child, giving more education only to sons, treating girls as doormat and as liability. Even if some parents gives education to their daughters,they want them to be home makers. If a girl is working then after marriage if her in-laws wants her to leave job then she should abide to it and many more issues. This is just from my neighbourhood. I can image how many other issues gets unnoticed. Girls needs to be brave enough to face all these issues. If not they will be stamped.
I have heard of rape >history< in India and it is very disgusting-> One Ex: systematic raping of daughters-in-law(father-in-law raping his newly wed daughter-in-law) and sisters-in-law(brothers of grooms raping the newly wed brother’s wife) after marriage because they think women are family’s property in some northern part of Indian towns!
So indeed as you said there are different sociological problems(women related issues) in different regions of India.
We certainly >cannot< compare the >Democratic freedom< which Indian constitution provides, to that of Pakistan’s dictatorship regime or mullah’s decision and that‘s why I said that Indian girls can either sue or ignore society’s remarks and stand against such issues. Instead they succumb to the remarks and adjusts to the society’s expectation. And girls like me who speak their mind becomes outcastes and loud mouths!
If you know/remember there was once a discussion on an NDTV Show (sometime in 2006) about why Mallika Sherawat dresses in a sultry way and lip-locks on screen. Mallika had to defend herself and her way of dressing in that show( talk about being in a democratic country!) in front millions of Indians and she too was almost in the verge of tears.
Mr Aamir Khan had lip-locked with Karishma Kapoor in Raja hindustani movie and Mr Vinod Khanna had lip-locked with Madhuri Dixit too. Why aren‘t these men questioned on NDTV shows too or why not question Emraam Hashmi himself? Hadn‘t he lip-locked Mallika Sherawat? Can you please tell me if this NDTV show is any better than that Veena Malik’s show? Is it fair??
Issues we are facing India are of similar nature but of different angles/dimensions. That does not mean they are any better or any worse.
I am indeed reading about the rapes in the capital city Delhi(or crime capital thats what it is called nowadays) and the latest being a 5 year old getting raped by her neighbour. This is not a problem which can be ignored just because certain Delhi girls are brave enough to do what they want. But can you imagine girls from villages or small towns doing the same and getting along without any problems? I do not think so!
I have heard many people say that "oh! These girls get raped because of the way the they dress, if they had covered their body parts then this would not have happened“. But There will not be any comments by anyone that the man who had raped HAD to keep his pants zipped instead! Cheers! :)See more
yes Bhavana..it is heart-breaking.(ಯತ್ರ ನಾರ್ಯಾಸ್ತು ಪೂಜ್ಯ೦ತೆ..all in theory only..!)
ReplyDeleteToday in our office, I'm only the odd-man out!!!
anath