The other day my sister offered me a discounted tickets to the opening ceremony of the coveted ‘Common Wealth Games’ and I could not help but wonder the unbelievable gullible and tolerant society we have.
After all that has happened, even in a corrupt third world society like India, this scale has been unprecedented. Everything that could go wrong did go wrong and the bureaucrats have the audacity to say its ‘Business as Usual’.
70 freaking thousand crores spent on a damn spectacle of charade in a country where people are dying of starvation, there is no water and electricity, and the basic ends are not met for the majority.
Just to put things in perspective, our country’s annual spend on education is 46,000 crores. Thats a different story, god knows where that goes.
Am I the only one who is crying foul, I hope not?
Dictionary does not have a word for this act? Closest would be ‘ostentatious’ but even in that the end result is spectacular.
I personally feel there is something seriously wrong with our upbringing. We accept the unacceptable with utmost ease and set a new benchmark for the exploiter.
Since birth, kids are taught to touch feet of elders; conformity is bread into our being. Non conformists are labeled and looked down upon. We are conditioned to accept things on ‘as is’ basis, no wonder we were ruled for a period of 300 years by foreigners.
Even in my daily life I see examples in abundance. I see married women with red bruise marks around their forearms wearing ‘chhuddas’ for freaking 01 year looking like clowns.
Speaking your mind is considered controversial.
Feeling comfortable and at home in exploitation is spelling doom day. For me that is a waste of a human life. Dogs feel comfortable, they are suppose to be loyal and faithful and conformists. As a human being it is our right and if you ask me our duty to raise our voice, not take anything on face value, not confirm to preset benchmarks and be independent of compulsions.
The question then comes what can you, with all your lack of authority and limitations as an individual do to change. I am hoping that people get this frustration and sense of helplessness, because that is the start. Only a non conformist, an independent thinker an unconditioned being would feel uncomfortable.
For me answer lies in individual awakening only. Society is nothing but a sum total of individuals. All the big revolutions start from an individual. It just takes one spark to ignite a fire. There is a free man/women hidden inside every person, just need to throw that black blanket of conditioning.
I have personally decided not to be part of this common wealth fiasco and use my energy in motivating more people to boycott this event which is nothing more than a symbol of day light robbery.
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5 comments:
Whenever there's a crisis — recession, price rise, terrorism or films like Radio starring Himesh Reshamiyya — SMSes start flying between mobiles, Twitter timelines get clogged and statuses get updated with dark jokes that try to turn the problem on its head. The idea is that if there's nothing that can be done, at least enjoy a good laugh.
The most recent subject of anger and frustration: staple news feeds of the embarrassing state of the Commonwealth Games preparedness (complete with graphic images of excrement-stained athlete rooms and collapsing foot-over-bridges), is no different. And for many it's become a fount of that most time-tested defence mechanism: black humour
There are text messages about three terrorists being caught with cans of dog food and premium laxatives in the CWG village campus to take a dig at the excrement-stained athletes bathrooms (which prompted several teams to raise serious objections and other politically incorrect ones that cannot be reproduced in this newspaper). Then there are the counter-jokes, those that try to nurse the country's wounded pride by taking pot-shot at others. For instance, 'Thanks to Guernsey and Jersey threatening to pull out of the Games, we now know these countries exist'.
Apart from texts and tweets, other creative forms of dark humour include comic strips and rap songs. One online comic strip has a taxi passenger giving birth inside the vehicle and another complaining of aging because of the state of traffic in Delhi thanks to the Games. Then there's Prozpekt, a 22-year-old rapper who believes the rebellious art form can sum up the frustration
Ages given to lay down structures and then we say we are not ready on time. Money spent is more than expected by developing country like India beside the fact that labor is not expensive. Rates of AC buses in Delhi is almost double than Chennai ...don’t know what kind of transportation was used to bring these busses. CWG tickets for INR 1000 are sold in less than 2 days ...I'm sure you can again get it at premium now.
Every one is making use of your money, accept you. It's your pocket which is buying luxury to Switzerland and politics. WAKE UP!
I just think the situation is blown a little too much outta proportion.
The things are not half as bad as portrayed by these stupid media buggers & the westerners cant digest the fact that they lost the bid to India.
Its our first World Class event & such errors are bound to happen. 1930 is when the commonwealth began & the westerners have over 70 years of experience hosting such events.
I am sure we are way ahead of them if you compare our arrangements to what they did when they were supposed to host it for the first time.
& abhinav talking about dark humor here are a few in the series :-
CWG - India's pay back time to the westerners for screwing us over 200yrs ;)))
I'm worried about 100 mts race at commonwealth games, they might fix a board near start line - GO SLOW, MEN AT WORK !!!"
as far as pulling out of the event is concerned this is exactly what these epitomes of Superiority complex did while Olympics was organised in CHINA & it was a Spectacular event.1998 Kaulalumpur Common wealth things were exactly the same but it was a fantastic event.
These countries have undergone an infrastructural evolution of 70 years & have reached where they are but we are catching up & im sure will be there if not ahead in the years to come.
This is despite the fact that we have a popultion in Delhi alone is equivalent to most of these countries --- So it doesnt really make a difference what the world or the media thinks we are the next emerging super power & we are going to bid for the 2018 olympics as well & dont be surprised if we win the bid too --- The ones who like are welcome to come the ones who dont can see me in the LOO when I do give a shit ;))))
CWGs is nothing but a big blow to our tax paying community !! if u can keep ur eyes shut to ths one then all i can say is b@#$!!!
Ours is still an Unequal Society: It is close to forty years since we first heard the slogan ‘garibi hatao', we have seen the green and the white revolutions, yet we have starvation deaths, farmers committing suicide, mothers selling off children in exchange for a bowl of rice.
According to the Planning Commission, 27.5% of the population was living below the poverty line in 2004–2005. And what we do is debate whether people who have the purchasing power of more than Rs. 560 p.m. in urban areas and Rs. 368 p.m. in rural areas are above the poverty line!! Rampant corruption at all levels, the insidious influence of caste, faulty planning priorities, all contribute to a situation where our development programmes remain only on paper.
WAKE UP GUYS !! high time my friends!!
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Why is it so hard to understand that this was an uncalled for expenditure. You say we complain that we don’t win enough medals in Olympics.. well who gives a rat’s ass to medals when half your population is below the subsistence level.
This is wat my blog was referring to.. I do not care whether CWG was handled efficiently or corruptly. I am saying WHY it was held at its first place.
1982 our esteemed prime minister was given a proposal to launch METRO system in the capital, instead she decided to host the Asian games. Just imagine the ‘Infra structure growth we would have had if metro was in place 2 decades ago’. Instead of knee jerk reaction growth, for a change we would have been ahead of time.
False pride that’s what it is. How can you feel proud as a nation by holding Games when half your population is barely able to meet ends. That is like a father taking loans to get his daughter married. Three quarters RIDICULOUS.
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