Last week I woke up to the news of SRK’s detention at Newark Airport. Too much heat, hatred, emotions and god knows what all were generated by the 60 minute detention of Shah Rukh Khan by the US airport authorities. The Page 3 crowd has been vociferous in condemning the 'evil empire' and the whole episode is being portrayed as if an assault to India's dignity. Wake up people SRK doesn't represent the collective honour of 1 billion people. (Nor does Dhoni or Rahul Gandhi for that matter!). After reading the paper and watching the breaking news (as portrayed by media) I couldn’t stop myself from writing the post.
Many of my friends flew to US whose names are neutral and they are neither Muslims nor their name ends with Khan. They don’t have a police records and they are not linked to any terrorist links also. But, still they are stopped, checked and questioned at airports. But they didn’t protest or cried like a crybaby and yelled or screamed-Discrimination! Racial profiling! Yankee dadagiri! Religious persecution!” Immigration Officials were just doing their job to keep their country safe that’s it. What might seem irrational for an onlooker is nothing but mere following of their responsibilities as immigration officers. Well its not India, where the rules are meant to be broken to accommodate anyone who confidently delivers: “pata hai main kaun hun?” or “pata hai mera baap kaun hai?” Come on- lets get real. SRK might be an icon to Indians; even to the desi Diaspora spread across the globe, but to America he’s just a visitor. We may be convinced he cannot be involved in anything that’s remotely violent, but the guard given the responsibility of stopping something like 9/11 from happening in his country again will want to take no chances. It is quite ridiculous that Indians feel their icons are everybody’s icons. What the heck? If Jet Li came to India tomorrow, very few would give him a second look. Matt Damon was here recently and there wasn’t a traffic jam in Delhi. These guys are huge back home. Moreover, America doesn’t have a culture of fawning the way India does. Mike Tyson was treated like a common rapist and spent most part of his youth in the slammer. Winona Ryder was sentenced to a three-year probation for shoplifting. We are actually aggrieved because we are ‘‘not like them’’. Guess what, it isn’t a virtue. We should be like them and take the security of our country with solemn, no-nonsense professionalism. Frisk Brad Pitt when he lands in India next. Give Tom Cruise the same dose. Don’t spare Bill Clinton either. Isn’t he an exprez, just like Kalam? Who’s stopping us and what’s stopping us? Colonial hangover? Or is it plain callousness? Looks like both. SRK says he’s ‘‘upset and angry because it was his Muslim name that caused all this’’. Countless Muslims are made to go through extra security checks everyday in America and other Western countries. Is he equally upset at that? He’s probably just miffed that it happened to him, India’s mega star. Well, America is a different country post 9/11, one that takes the killings of its people with the seriousness it deserves, unlike India whose record on this is shameful.
Does anyone recall the movie titled, Sarfarosh? The story revolved around a famous singer from Pakistan who was much loved in India and was a toast to the millions of Indian fans but he eventually turned out to be a terrorist. Now we all know that that was a movie but sometimes the reel life can resemble the real life. If a Hansie Crownie, the much-respected South African cricketer can be a match-fixing enabler then anyone can be anything. At least theoretically! Nobody should be exempt from detailed scrutiny if the initial checks point out that more detailed checks are required. After all who could have imagined that the lovable Munna Bhai once kept an AK 47 in his house!
Not long back if the former Defence Minister of India can be searched and the most revered ex-President of India can be frisked, then surely SRK can be detained too. Is a film star to be attached more importance than the former President of our republic? In India we take everything very seriously and attach our emotions to it. It is the country, which has temples for Amitabh Bachchan and Rajnikanth why?? because some people think they are great actors. We give undue credit to cricketers, politicians, and film stars. If they’re in a queue we let them pass through, if they are visiting a city the entire security and traffic is diverted. In India every 3rd person is a self proclaimed VIP asking for VIP treatment wherever they go. We Indians are too used to VIP treatment, even at the cost of security considerations.
We are just whimpering over here like hurt puppies because we feel, ‘‘Oh, but we don’t do it to them’’. Oh no, we don’t. And it’s a scandal. We should. Instead of making SRK’s detention an issue, we should think of upgrading our own security apparatus. There’s a lesson in this — a positive one. The bottom line: Stop fawning, shed the colonial hangover and make no compromise where the country’s safety is concerned. It is time our movie stars, politicians, cricketers and other ‘self-proclaimed VVIPs’ wake up to few international ground realities and think of themselves as mortals. The outside world is neither interested nor impressed by any individual’s local status or bank balance. It is not about fans waving and asking for autographs. It is not about claiming friendship with Hillary Clinton or Obama. You may be India’s biggest business tycoon or Desi Superstar. But out there you are an anonymous nobody - nothing more and nothing less than a name and a number – deal with it.Wednesday, August 26, 2009
My name is (NOT) KHAN !!
Last week I woke up to the news of SRK’s detention at Newark Airport. Too much heat, hatred, emotions and god knows what all were generated by the 60 minute detention of Shah Rukh Khan by the US airport authorities. The Page 3 crowd has been vociferous in condemning the 'evil empire' and the whole episode is being portrayed as if an assault to India's dignity. Wake up people SRK doesn't represent the collective honour of 1 billion people. (Nor does Dhoni or Rahul Gandhi for that matter!). After reading the paper and watching the breaking news (as portrayed by media) I couldn’t stop myself from writing the post.
Many of my friends flew to US whose names are neutral and they are neither Muslims nor their name ends with Khan. They don’t have a police records and they are not linked to any terrorist links also. But, still they are stopped, checked and questioned at airports. But they didn’t protest or cried like a crybaby and yelled or screamed-Discrimination! Racial profiling! Yankee dadagiri! Religious persecution!” Immigration Officials were just doing their job to keep their country safe that’s it. What might seem irrational for an onlooker is nothing but mere following of their responsibilities as immigration officers. Well its not India, where the rules are meant to be broken to accommodate anyone who confidently delivers: “pata hai main kaun hun?” or “pata hai mera baap kaun hai?” Come on- lets get real. SRK might be an icon to Indians; even to the desi Diaspora spread across the globe, but to America he’s just a visitor. We may be convinced he cannot be involved in anything that’s remotely violent, but the guard given the responsibility of stopping something like 9/11 from happening in his country again will want to take no chances. It is quite ridiculous that Indians feel their icons are everybody’s icons. What the heck? If Jet Li came to India tomorrow, very few would give him a second look. Matt Damon was here recently and there wasn’t a traffic jam in Delhi. These guys are huge back home. Moreover, America doesn’t have a culture of fawning the way India does. Mike Tyson was treated like a common rapist and spent most part of his youth in the slammer. Winona Ryder was sentenced to a three-year probation for shoplifting. We are actually aggrieved because we are ‘‘not like them’’. Guess what, it isn’t a virtue. We should be like them and take the security of our country with solemn, no-nonsense professionalism. Frisk Brad Pitt when he lands in India next. Give Tom Cruise the same dose. Don’t spare Bill Clinton either. Isn’t he an exprez, just like Kalam? Who’s stopping us and what’s stopping us? Colonial hangover? Or is it plain callousness? Looks like both. SRK says he’s ‘‘upset and angry because it was his Muslim name that caused all this’’. Countless Muslims are made to go through extra security checks everyday in America and other Western countries. Is he equally upset at that? He’s probably just miffed that it happened to him, India’s mega star. Well, America is a different country post 9/11, one that takes the killings of its people with the seriousness it deserves, unlike India whose record on this is shameful.
Does anyone recall the movie titled, Sarfarosh? The story revolved around a famous singer from Pakistan who was much loved in India and was a toast to the millions of Indian fans but he eventually turned out to be a terrorist. Now we all know that that was a movie but sometimes the reel life can resemble the real life. If a Hansie Crownie, the much-respected South African cricketer can be a match-fixing enabler then anyone can be anything. At least theoretically! Nobody should be exempt from detailed scrutiny if the initial checks point out that more detailed checks are required. After all who could have imagined that the lovable Munna Bhai once kept an AK 47 in his house!
Not long back if the former Defence Minister of India can be searched and the most revered ex-President of India can be frisked, then surely SRK can be detained too. Is a film star to be attached more importance than the former President of our republic? In India we take everything very seriously and attach our emotions to it. It is the country, which has temples for Amitabh Bachchan and Rajnikanth why?? because some people think they are great actors. We give undue credit to cricketers, politicians, and film stars. If they’re in a queue we let them pass through, if they are visiting a city the entire security and traffic is diverted. In India every 3rd person is a self proclaimed VIP asking for VIP treatment wherever they go. We Indians are too used to VIP treatment, even at the cost of security considerations.
We are just whimpering over here like hurt puppies because we feel, ‘‘Oh, but we don’t do it to them’’. Oh no, we don’t. And it’s a scandal. We should. Instead of making SRK’s detention an issue, we should think of upgrading our own security apparatus. There’s a lesson in this — a positive one. The bottom line: Stop fawning, shed the colonial hangover and make no compromise where the country’s safety is concerned. It is time our movie stars, politicians, cricketers and other ‘self-proclaimed VVIPs’ wake up to few international ground realities and think of themselves as mortals. The outside world is neither interested nor impressed by any individual’s local status or bank balance. It is not about fans waving and asking for autographs. It is not about claiming friendship with Hillary Clinton or Obama. You may be India’s biggest business tycoon or Desi Superstar. But out there you are an anonymous nobody - nothing more and nothing less than a name and a number – deal with it.
Thursday, August 20, 2009
The Last Past Week
I landed from my flight and to my dismay I felt as if I entered a blast furnace. That was my first feeling when I landed in Indira Gandhi International Airport on Saturday morning at 9:00 am. A drastic change from HOT looking chic’s (KF airhostess) to HOT weather, which I despise. Yes, I was in Delhi the capital of India. Few hours back in Bangalore I was searching for my jacket to keep myself warm from the weather outside. While traveling from airport to Noida where I was to put up for next two days I realized the rise in the mercury. Hot to hotter, hotter to hottest by noon hitting it to 46 Deg. August is blowing hot... like nothing seen for years in Bangalore. As I was admiring the expressways and the metro I realized that I was at my destination and had already traveled 41 kms in just a matter of 35 mins. That is definitely one thing that Delhi scores hands down over Bangalore even though it would lose in terms of weather.
New Delhi—the power hub of one of the world’s most vibrant democracies, home to fabled gali-kooche and multi-lane flyways and yes, one of India’s greenest cities! For most, Delhi is the face of India—an icon in its own right. As we get set to celebrate the 62nd year of India’s Independence I landed in the city for some leadership training from my company (not from our so called political leaders :P). I got in touch with some of my old buddies who were settled in Noida and Gurgaon (and yes this is definitely NOT Delhi – It is as Delhi as Mysore or Mangalore to Bangalore). Over the next one week I did the training in Gurgaon and tried all methods to beat the heat. Gurgaon, with monster malls and futuristic high rises, is frequently called the poor man's Singapore. Gurgaon lives up to its name of being Concrete Jungle with its high raised buildings and multilane expressways.
Finally after a week full of gyan on leadership in HOT weather and HOTTER chic’s around I was done with my training and it was time to leave and get back to namma bengaluru. Even though my stay was limited and packed with schedules I loved the place, people and the get together with old buddies. Finally, I am back in namma ooru and woke up to pleasant morning of Independence Day. Somehow I missed my home that day. My parents are old-fashioned patriots who ensure that special delicacies are prepared on the eve of 15th of August, since they felt it was exceedingly important to celebrate 'Freedom'. Freedom, not just from foreign rule.... but as a basic human right. They also believed it was important for them as parents to convey to us that this precious freedom was worth guarding with our own lives. There were no delicacies at home this year. It is yet another dull, uninspiring and listless day with only one hope that it was still beginning of Saturday and Monday was still far away.
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