Of pens and pencils

One of the things that change as you grow up, and progress up the ladder of your third decade on this planet, rather quickly for one's liking- might I add, is the number of trips you make to the stationery store. Today morning, while watching the Republic Day parade after God knows how many years, I again found myself escaping into the past, reminiscing childhood memories. As often happens with such train of thoughts, one led to another, and soon I found myself thinking of the dozens of trips I would have to make to the neighbourhood stationery stores not so long back. Then I tried to think of when was the last time I was there, and I was clueless! When was the last time I bought a pen? Again, Clueless! I somehow always have a couple of them around. But while in school, and even college, the stationery was like a daily pit stop. I would be there every other day, sometimes twice in a single day, because I forgot to get an eraser, or a compass or some other object which now seem like they belong in some other distant world. But then, life revolved around these seemingly miniscule pieces of paper, plastic, and metal. There was always the need for pens, pencils, erasers, sharpeners, geometry sets, maps - physical and political, chart papers, those colorful, shiny rectangular pieces of paper (I cannot recall right now, what were they called!?), ink pots, refills, covers, graph papers, sketch pens, water colors, brushes and a million other things. Children back then were often classified into two rough groups, one who would always have a surplus of these supplies, and those who would always be borrowing them. Oh wait, there would be another kind - the ones who would always have an extra pen, but would blatantly lie in your face that they don't, lest you borrow and never return. Every class always had a 'pen chor'. Half of the stress associated with exams pertained to having adequate stationery supplies. Do I have enough number of sharpened pencils? Will at least one of them hold on for the duration of the exam or the tip would keep breaking off? Does my pen have enough ink? Do I need more refills, should I carry the inkpot, should I risk using an ink pen in the first place? Do I need to carry my own graphs/maps? The stationery shopkeeper was a friend. Friendly familiar face one would see at least 5 times a week. 

Now when I cross those shops, the shopkeeper is the same, he's older, greying, and the teenaged helper of yore now manages the shop for the most part. I often cross, with my hands full of groceries, or vegetables, and have an urge to go the shop and buy something, just for the sake of old times. But do I really need anything from there? My stationery stocks are somehow always magically replenished, the need for them always reducing at an exponential rate. I honestly feel a bit weird when I have to actually write more than a couple of lines with my hands, it looks like a person learning to write with surgically attached arms! (ok, that's last night's episode of Grey's anatomy talking). Writing with hands has become so obsolete, and I am still involved in research and science! I have hardly any use for geometry sets, maps, chart papers and their like, and we all have printers and photocopiers at our workplaces. And worst of all, the stationery shop is not the first place I would run to in event of a friend's birthday, to buy a set of magic markers, sketch pens, a board game, a pack of playing cards, or a snazzy pencil box! Unfortunately those gifts will not cut with it now. Or maybe they will!? Whose birthday is it next? Maybe this nostalgic trip might even save me some money!  

The two faces of hate?

So the nation ushered in the new year on a sombre note, and the first two weeks of 2013 and have been volatile, to say the least. With the entire nation seething with hurt, anger, hopelessness, introspection and a keen desire to change over the 16th December Delhi incident, this year seems to have opened up the Pandora's box with respect to India's problems; from communal clashes in Maharashtra, dirty politics over the Delhi gangrape incident, hate speeches, to tensions along the border, miserable state of affairs on the cricket pitch, and a hostile weather across North India.

With intense outrage and serious debate carrying on for nearly a month now over women's safety in the country, and gender issues in general, one hopes that this incident serves as the inflection point marking the change in the country's psyche, as well as the administration, laws and policing. Its easy to point fingers at the management, but the need of the hour is introspecting and weeding out the flaws in our own attitudes, mending the cracks in the institution of family and marriage, and bringing in systematic changes and awareness so that the future generations are spared of this maligned, rotten and despicable part of our heritage. Education, of course is a key tool in achieving this goal, but the real change on ground level will come when it starts right in the family, for instance when women stop gossiping and pointing fingers at the girl next door for coming late at night in front of their sons, and men start actively teaching them that its not okay to harass a woman and lead by example - right in the household. 

Shoot! I had resolved not to write anything on this issue, as enough has been said and written already, but I guess I couldn't help it. What had bothered me off late was how the whole hate speech issue played out. An MLA from Andhra Pradesh, Akbaruddin Owaisi was under the fire for delivering hate speeches against the Hindu community, and the nation in general. His accusation, the outcry by the principal opposition party, the delay in his arrest and the soft handling of the issue by the state government and police were all issues that drew a lot of media attention. So did another hate speech, which resulted from political opportunism as a fallout of the Delhi incident. The head of a major political party in Maharashtra, blamed people from Bihar for crimes like the Delhi gangrape. This is not the first time his party has attacked North Indians, and more specifically Biharis, even venturing as far as literally attacking aspirants for a Railways exam arriving in the state through trains from North India, as well as autowallahs allegedly hailing from northern states in a separate incident. His comments on this occasion did invite the ire of media, and politicians form Bihar, but that is as far as it went. While Owaisi's speech was of a communal nature, and hence automatically attracted a lot of attention and criticism, regional and ethnocentric parties like this one have constantly tried to agitate and influence people against others of a certain community, state or speaking a different language. However, they rarely invite any political or judicial reprimand or action. They might have been arrested a couple of times, or might have been banned form contesting elections for a period of time, but these are drops in an ocean. They get away by paying measly fines and carry on with their ways.

I wonder, why these double standards when it comes to hate? Is inciting hatred against a religion a bigger crime or in some way, a more morally corrupt offense  than advocating hate against people form a particular region/ethnicity/state? Doesn't our constitution and its preamble denounce both regionalism and religionism in equivocal terms? Then why does one invite instant hue and cry and results in action, even if delayed, while the other just gets swept under the rug after ruffling a few feathers?  One doesn't have to dig deep to find the answer. While religion offers a bigger, stronger vote bank, regional integrity isn't so strong that flaring up these sentiments translates into large scale political gains. Also, it was easy to make Owaisi a convenient scapegoat, as he belongs to a minor party which doesn't hold much influence. But action against these powerful, towering leaders of ethnocentric parties in Maharashtra and other states for that matter, who enjoy massive clout and considerable public support, will definitely amount to a risk, and thus is conveniently ignored. 

There is an urgent need to instill fear into the minds of the people in position, that they can't just get away with saying whatever they want, especially when it causes grievous hurt to even an individual, leave alone a community, or the entire nation for that matter. We have all seen the foot in the mouth complex most of our public figures suffer from in the wake of the Delhi gangrape case, with every other person blurting out his worthless two cents without so much as thinking once as to the meaning and the consequences of their words. And this is a particularly dangerous phenomenon when such figures, whether political, 'spiritual', or in any other public domain, command a following of hundreds of thousands of people in a complex, diverse society like ours. It would serve us a great deal of good, if an example is made out of a few of them with harsh actions and retribution for openly flouting laws, or violating the principles of our constitution. Even better, we all should really start introspecting and take a closer look at who we are raising to such a pedestal.

P.S. - 50th post of this blog to inaugurate the new year!