Mini-catalyst for Change: Rock the Vote

What do you want to do to be part of change? Do you want to sit on the sidelines and watch the show OR Do you want to be part of the show?

Get off your lazy asses and Rock the Vote. Welcome to Rock the Vote, the show everyone wants to be part of but no one has the guts or are just too lazy to come and Rock it up on stage. Sing your heart out let your voice be heard, make a difference, be part of change.

I think those kids from Southpark put it the best:
“Vote or die muthafucka, You can't run from my .38 go ahead and try;
Let your opinion be heard, you gotta make a choice;
Cause after I slit your throat, you won't have a fuckin’ voice.”

VOTE OR DIE!... apt according to me, it has a lot of meaning this line, one is well that southpark kid could blow your brains out if you do not vote, second is you as a member of society would be killing your right to make a difference to be part of change, you killed your right to allow your voice to be heard. If you do not raise your finger to back up that gab then the best is to shut up.

Most of the youth seem to want to raise their middle finger against any government or politicians, “fuck the government” and “fuck the politicians”. My advice to these expressive younglings is to – RAISE YOUR INDEX FINGER and Rock the Vote.

In Abraham Lincoln’s words democracy is the “government of the people, by the people and for the people.” This pretty much means the government is here to serve us and not the other way around; so this gives us the right to decide who is best suited under OUR employ. Note - they work for us not the other way around.

One of the greatest rights we have is the ‘right to vote’. Voting is a right that, throughout history, many have fought for and sacrificed everything to achieve. It’s a right that people continue to fight for and that millions of people throughout the world still do not enjoy. We have the great privilege to live in a free society and voting is the right that makes us free.

Why Vote?

The lacklustre attitude towards voting is what plagues our society today. Countless times have I heard the same old phrase “My vote does not count”, if everyone said that then well there would be no government and no one would be accountable. Maybe you’re asking yourself, “With all the millions of people who vote in any given election, does my vote really count?” Or perhaps you feel like you can’t really make a difference, so why bother? The truth is that your vote does count and you do make a difference every time you vote! Yes Individual votes may not count as much, but collectively we can throw out a government or reinstate their power. Simply put if you vote you have the right to complain, if you don’t stop whining about how bad the government is because you did not play a part in making sure that this government did not come to power.

Your vote holds your local and national leaders responsible for the decisions they make. Your vote sends a message about the issues you think are important. Your vote affirms our rights as free citizens to elect our government and take part in democracy. Without voting, there could be no democracy. As more young people register to vote and head out to the polls, the more you will see your elected officials taking an active interest in what’s important to young voters. This is already happening and you can make a difference by casting your vote and encouraging your friends to do the same.

Change starts at a grass roots level whether you live on a farm with holi cows or in the aamchi Mumbai city, and all change starts by electing people to implement change, whether it is the prime minister or local panchayat.

Whether it is that we are just lazy or the complete apathy and disinterest towards the government; the democratic fundamental privilege to vote that we are guaranteed has been taken by too many of us for granted. There are countries where people do not have a choice in anything they do, from the number of children they can have to the choice of who runs their country, ask them I am sure they would love to exchange places with you. Maybe it is time to stop thinking of this as a privilege that we can misuse and take for granted. Go out and vote this election.

Blood Votes and Vote Bank Politics: Who do We Vote for? Choosing between the Devil and the Deep Blue Sea

I have noticed what we as a community have started voting against and not for a particular party. Most of us think that all parties are bad, so we choose the lesser evil one, and make sure the others do not come into power. Politicians are put in this restrictive political agenda where their individual agenda seems to take a back seat to garner populist votes on the basis of the political agenda. For instance one of the major political parties seems to give a free ticket to those people who make racist public rants, why because they want to stir up people’s sentiments, to win on the basis of their so called religious agenda. They allow a young 29 yr old to go out and make anti particular community slurs, and he gets to walk free in a democratic country like ours, why because the party allows it. Parties need to leave communalism behind and focus on the real agenda, especially in today’s economic situation. They need to encourage their youth not to stick to the restrictive populist political agenda and focus more on the important issues; we can make this happen by Voting against parties like this so that they get the hint and maybe change their political stance.

Communal, caste factors, muscle and monetary power dominate elections. This is unfortunately the truth in India. All political parties swear allegiance to the constitution, make tall claims, few deliver. All of them claim to be secular but baring a few, most pursue a communal or caste agenda. Most of them are too selfish to care once in power to tackle issues like corruption, growing crime rate, terrorism, unemployment, or even provide basic amenities like food, water to the people who put them in power because of their tall claims. To make sure they deliver on their claims…Go out and vote.

There are many types of voters, of various hues, most who know the value of democracy, who look for a clean, liberal government that promotes communal harmony and works towards the nations progress as a whole; however there are the few who are threathened or bribed into voting for a political candidate that looks for personal gain over communal gain. Elections are around the corner in India and we keep reading about articles of women being beaten up, communal killings, simple these are ‘Vote Bank Politics’ it is these sick individuals that we must make sure do not come into power. So please your vote counts, to make sure that one of those women getting beaten up is not your sister, your mother or your girlfriend; one of those priests getting killed is not the one that probably taught you in school. Never think that you do not have the power to change, you do.. Go out and vote.

Unfortunately there are many voters who think so much about themselves and their own gain by electing a certain party that they shut their eyes to their corrupt and non communal practices of these parties. Nani Palkivala put it well he said "If democracy is to survive in India, we must go all out to grant the highest recognition to ability, knowledge and integrity." So again…. Go out and vote.

Politicians and criminals go hand in hand, however there are the few who are not so predictable who mean well and do want to serve our nation, but they find it tough to swim against the current, lets change the tide and help these well meaning politicians by voting for them. The quality of democracy depends on the ability of the voters to elect proper representatives and the ability of those who are elected to govern and lead. Yes it is tough to secure the nomination of a clean and capable candidate, as finding them is like finding a needle in a haystack. But it is our sovereign duty to ensure that we do our best to secure this. We can with the help of like minded individuals groups and media, not only expose the antecedents of bad candidates but also prevail upon political parties not to field them. This may be a long short, but a better tomorrow as the ultimate goal is a cause worthy enough for our sincere attempt.

I thank those who vote, but maybe its time to take the next step, mobilize public opinion, put pressure on local political candidates to serve their people better. Assert yourself through blogs, debates, discussions, throw a political themed party.. make change happen.

Vote because you care about your community. Vote because you believe in free government and want to add your voice. Vote because it will make you feel good to participate and have a say. Vote because it’s the right thing to do!

The power to Vote puts more of the power in OUR Hands and has the ability to send a message! Together We CAN CREATE CHANGE!

Mini-mill

Nehru and Gandhi chartered a course for post colonial India, a course that did indeed stay of track for a while; it had a purpose to deliver post colonial India into the new era. Now lets fast forward to today, we are ‘biggest democracy’ not the greatest, size matters I guess (stop over thinking this statement), however today the biggest parasite on post colonial democratic India is its ineffective politicians playing with India like puppet masters. Do they know that over 300 million Indians do not have enough to feed themselves or their starving family? No but these puppet masters do not concern themselves with such petty matters; they are there to make great’s like Aamir Khan or Al Pacino acting skills look amateur in comparison to their own, no wonder so many actors are joining politics, after Slumdog Millionaire’s success please all you talent scouts don’t look further than our great Politicians who when viewed on HD tv will probably make 15 time Oscar nominee Meryl Streep quit Hollywood for good. I remember Nehru’s words when we won our Independence “The ambition of the greatest man of our generation has been to wipe every tear from every eye. That may be beyond us, but as long as there are tears, so long our work will not be over." Brilliant words by a brilliant man, well our politicians have tried to stick by this promise of our great leader, they have ensured that with their brilliant acting skills they move us to tears so much so that even after voting for them we do not stop crying, with all due respect to Nehru we have a long way to go for that work to be over just as long as we have corrupt politicians at the helm. As you read further you will realize that I am not generalizing politicians as corrupt no good scoundrels, I have a lot of respect for quite a few of them like Manmohan Singh and many more, but unfortunately the goods ones are a mere drop in the sea.

Someone described India as a ‘kleptocratic society’, if you do not know the meaning of a kleptomaniac please Google Winona Ryder and you shall understand, it is the obsessive compulsive need to steal even though you do not actually require to, mostly stealing something without having the economic need to steal it. I guess our fat corrupt politicians are not actually Kleptomaniacs, but misinterpreted ‘Robin Hoods’ stealing from the poor to feed their increasing girth, poverty has never looked so well fed. Greed would also not be accurate to describe these valiant men, who risk their lives everyday by committing thievery all for the betterment of society, I mean come on those shows they put up cost a lot of money, please do not expect to get entertainment of such calibre for free, one needs to literally empty their pockets to deserve what these personalities deliver.

Yes as I have mentioned earlier my sarcasm and cynisism should not encompass all individuals, some actually do give a damn about this country and have tried to make a difference, however these few individuals of worthy character cannot change the structure of society single handed as long as the reigns of power remain with the corrupt majority. We are lucky to have many sections like the armed forces that do our nation proud, one cannot help but recap the brave men from all over the country and every religion who stood together to help Mumbai when it was under siege in November; however unfortunate and sad the circumstances their brave acts were a refreshing and remarkable change from what we are accustomed to read in the papers or watch on the news and provided that ray of sunshine in a very dark and bleak tunnel. These are role model sections of society, and must be analyzed to perhaps help us bring about change in our behaviour and more so our expectation of other’s behaviour, in previous articles I have written about how we have become desensitized we expect things to be as they are and do not lift a finger to change it, but we do have the energy to grumble incessantly and point that finger to others. All sections of society, all organizations all do have an incorruptible minority who will not stand down, whose morals are so imbedded in who they are, that they will never flow with the tide but stand up for what is right. However the rest however morally forthright they may start off in their respective organizations eventually recoil, allowing the corrupt to take over, and these minor blimps eventually cause a domino effect that cause the organization to descend rapidly down the moral ladder; they eventually cause those forthright few morally ‘dyed-in-the-wool’ individuals to reassess their outlook and creating the ‘I don’t care the world is as it is and I as an individual cannot do anything to change it’ attitude, thus they now develop a certain apathy towards their surroundings and an acceptance to the way things are. They take responsibility towards their own behaviour but rationalize everyone else’s; these people soon become soft targets and fodder for the corrupt; the corrupt thus manage to create fear in the eyes of these individuals and many of them disappear way under the radar to avoid conflict, they do not waiver from their moral standing but do not interfere in the status quo. I don’t think what we really require is for these individuals to be foolish and show valour when uncalled for; however what we require from them is not to let their backbone become malleable and let it be held up strong.

Today Christians begin length to mourn the death of their messiah, and then continue with their wait for him to rise again. We do not been to await the coming of the messiah to save us, I fail to understand why we cannot save ourselves. A billion Indians must come together and break the shackles that seem to bind us from taking a stand. We must know that our spirit our voice is all that we have that live on forever, we cannot leave this society for our children to live in, we must speak out, take a stand.

The herd mentality of us Indians will always perplex me, why can’t we think for ourselves, why do we need others to think for us and tell us what is right and wrong. I know it is so very easy to lose one’s way, the forbidden fruit is ever so tempting, after all we are the children of Adam and Eve, bowing down to temptation is in our blood. However I do not ask of you to fight a war, I do not ask of you to become Mother Theresa, I do not ask of you to give up worldly pleasures and live it a mountain of righteousness, I do not ask of you not to be human, after all we all have our flaws our kinks which need ironing out otherwise we would not be human. However I do ask of you to speak up, not to bow down to the mob mentality, to listen to your conscience - We can create change one voice at a time, and soon those voices will come together to become one big voice and a force to be reckoned with.

Minicam

We live in a bubble, escaping from reality, each one immersed in their little world. Lets take a look around us the only thing we are attuned to listen to is the affair going on in the office. I want that bubble to burst, all it needs is a prick and I hope that what I say will be that prick for you.

The self realization that anything can happen to you, ‘black incidents’ by which I mean the bruises that they caused those poor women, have been happening all over the country lately whether it be Mangalore or Bangalore.

I mean how much more desensitized will we get before we realize that things are hitting too close to home. Do we need to read about the death of some college boy for money, the road rage shooting..what I ask do we need to wake us up, maybe what we need is a kick in the groin and the different fanatical political groups are literally doing just that. They have kicked women, beaten them up and for what for attending pubs, and we all know that these are the same men who visit dance bars and prostitutes, kill people, bribe, these hooligans are supposedly going to teach modern India about culture.

Mangalore, Bangalore, these hooligans have gone beating up women galore.
Let us dwell into the crimes of these so called wanton women, they were working, went out to a watering hole, some probably were smoking some were drinking, they would have been gossiping about what some other woman wore and how cute the new guy in the office is. They stand outside this watering hole, and in the case of Mangalore they were inside, then out of thin air these bunch of hooligans/mafia/goondas come at them brandishing their fists and ready to hit. Of course all the women were in shock, a mundane day at work or life could not end like this, they were panic stricken and probably too shocked to move. They must have yelled and screamed tried to get someone to help or try to appease to common sense of these men. I mean we are talking about the modern Indian woman, self made, successful and not used to being submissive, they would have protested strongly. These rabid dogs would have probably run at these women, giving them gaali’s (obscenities in Hindi) or whichever other language, with their fists flying all over the place. All those strong enough to defend stepped up; however the blows started to rain upon them. The few well meaning bystanders who wanted to help these women step up and get thrashed as well. Slaps rained down, punches in the gutt, kicked in the groin, grabbed and thrown around, all this going on with the constant stream of abuses in the background. Now comes the best part the pandu’s (our well fed corrupt policemen) come sauntering in, with a wada pav (an Indian hamburger) in their hand, they are happy because they are here to watch a show, not to be part of it. So the women and the few brave men who dared to try and protect these women get beaten up relentlessly, a punch after punch is thrown, the bloody carnage continues and is even caught on tape, so that the other pandus can watch it with their popcorn on a nice big screen tv paid for by these hooligans. When help does come if any, the women are made to look like the heathens and the hooligans ‘the true sons of the soil saving the Indian heritage’…please applaud with me. The cops take these bulky goondas word as they are the true sons of the soil, because in their mind the lathis in these men’s hands needed a place to rest so why not on these poor women’s faces. Now the piece de resistance is that the bloodied barely conscious women get picked up and arrested and some get beaten up while being pushed into the vans, again pause to applaud... Hooray!!! our justice system prevails (kindly denote a tinge of sarcasm). The hooligans get into their fancy cars paid for by these women’s taxes. When they reach the police station the pandus and the goons are on first name basis and tea is promptly bought in to quench these men’s thirst, because beating up women is a rather tiring job. Complaints were not registered from some of the women who dared to stand up as the pandu’s they were intoxicated (from a single beer hmm). The goons relate their side of the story to the cops over chai, while the women tender to their wounds and their black and blue bodies.

The media then steps up and finally actually sensationalizes something that ought to be sensationalized because it makes me sick to my stomach that something like this could happen.

The human spirit was battered, bruised and bloodied but not broken even while staring at the face of hooligans hiding behind the thick veil of corrupt political power.

The goons tried to put all this across as a drunken brawl, ignoring the women beaten up. These men in packs, mob mentality think they are so strong, bring them out one by one they have no balls, their bravado and machismo will just evaporate into thin air, and standing there would be these man who uses his fist to cover up the fact that he is of no use in this world and that women are stronger and doing better than him. However nothing till date has happened to these men, nor do I expect it shall ever; even though the media and women groups all over have brought these cases to the limelight and are doing their very best to bring these political parties to justice.

All you men out there please think about it, these men would be the reason for your wife, mother, daughter to be scared, to be apprehensive every time she walks freely in this pseudo democracy, afraid of future attacks and victimization.

Don’t just let this pass, stand up, we can make a difference, in your small way despite how insignificant you may think it is, let us back up these women and show them our support. We all know it is easy to accept things as they are - there are terrorists, people die, people get beaten up…why not do something about this instead of just taking things lying down. Speak Up, don’t fall prey to this escapist trend, try and make a difference. Do not be submissive to the system, own it, we are part of this system lets make a difference lets bring about change. Whether it be as meagre as what I am doing that is posting a blog on what I feel, lets bring about change, lets step forward expressing our feelings and make it clear that we are not taking any more crap lying down. We cannot blame circumstances if we refuse to do anything to change them, we are the problem and the problem is our long accustomed view to let everything go, the more we do this in our own way we are encouraging these hooligans, these goondas. We turn a blind eye, they get that much more encouraged because they feel and soon enough they know they can get away with anything and everything, they push the evil envelope and try something new more dastardly than the last.

An interesting campaign that came about following these dastardly acts was the “Pink Chaddi” campaign where women had to send the Shri Ram Sene who were responsible for the Mangalore attacks a Pink chaddi (underwear) in protest. The group responsible for this was the ‘Consortium of Pub going loose and forward women’, which started this as a group on facebook but soon the campaign took on a life of its own. This is a humorous way to voice your protest, thousands of people joined the group on facebook, many voiced their opinion and even more actually went and sent their pink chaddi’s, one hilarious note written on one of the pink chaddi’s sent was “This must be Mutalik’s cos it stinks”. This creative way to revolt against these ‘sons who soil’ their pants woke up a lot of people normally asleep to the world around them.

WAKE UP AND MAKE A DIFFERENCE. YES WE CAN.

Mini-um Writing

Let me start with Martin Niemoller’s (a German theologist) most haunting poem:

First they came for the Jews,
And I did not speak because I was not a Jew.
Then they came for the Communists,
And I did not speak because I was not a communist.
Then they came for the trade unionists,
And I did not speak because I was not a trade unionist.
Then they came for me,
And there was no one left to speak out for me.

In his youth he was an anti-semite and admirer of Hitler. As Nazism took over Germany he saw Nazism for what it was not just the Jews Hitler sought to eliminate it was anyone with an alternate point of view. He spoke out and was incarcerated in Sachesenhausen and Dachau Concentration camps from 1937 to 1945 and was nearly executed. He wrote this during his time in these camps.

These words once read haunt you. Yesterday I had drinks with some colleagues and one young man decides to make a statement that he is pro a certain politician that stood by and watched while carnage engulfed his state, his reason this politician is good for the economy and then the piece de resistance was that he stated that people dying was ‘ok’ as long as the country prospers so such politicians should be encouraged to become our country’s next leader. The words of Niemoller resounded in me and my anger got the better of me, he is so lucky I don’t throw a good punch; I tried arguing but alas arguing with morons is of no use they will bring you down to their level and land up beating you cause they are have so much practice at being idiots.

Someone once asked me if I thought that writing a blog or rallying would actually make a difference, they are not aware of the power of youth and the power of words. Words have the power to transform, they can create CHANGE, they can persuade or inspire and in cases like above with Niemoller words they can dissuade a young boy from rattling off without using his commonsense.

I truly appreciate the magic of language which allows us the ability to communicate with many people or maybe even just the few of you that read this blog, it helps contextualize our own complex ideas about race, religion, war, communalism and help shape your idea of who exactly you are and what exactly are your beliefs and ideals. Words and language according to me is the mirror to our souls, and they show us that sometimes that image is not as pretty.

However language must be used carefully as said before one must think before one talks or writes about anything controversial as language is a political instrument, it is the crucial key to ones identity, it reveals over a couple of drinks ones personal identity and helps us the bystanders connect with or divorce from the speaker or the writer. It also helps the speaker realize if his views are part of the larger community, in the case of the boy his views were not. They were divorced from our views, I use a strong word like divorce because I find it critical to the description.

Someone once said the tool and the tool-user become inseparable; here language is the tool and it become part and parcel to ones identity.

Obama used his words to galvanize a nation and the world reeling from hard times with a new vision of hope and reconciliation.

In conclusion I would like to say that language and words create thought process and a thought; this thought can be disagreed with, it can be opposed…but it cannot be unthought.

Minnie-course on Change

Plagiarism warning: “Yes we can” “Change”; I must congratulate Obama’s campaign manager for these very words brought about revolution, it helped bring about a black president in the white house (no the irony does not escape me); it helped bring about a ‘Hussein’ to the white house; if America a predominantly white supremacy state can change so drastically and create history well then lets use these words and try bringing about a historic change in our country. When he won the historic election the world cheered with him, the words “yes we can” struck a cord with one and all.

However this change will have to be for one and for all, the young the old, the rich the poor, the Hindu the Muslim the Christian. There have been many people who until now never knew that they could make a difference, the youth neither knew about voting nor who is standing for votes nor who their prime minister is and what his party represents. However these very orkut and facebook addicted teens are coming out of their shell and seeking change. They are rallying for change. Everyday I get many mails on different mails forwarded on speeches, pictures on 26/11.

Election season has come knocking and I can’t help but think that this incident and anti incumbency could effect the current party in charge chances of being re-elected, one political party for another does not seem to be the way out. We need to be reminded that a change in party is not what we are looking for, according to me this will achieve very little if nothing at all; what we are looking for is a change in this political status quo – whereby every party uses the same old tactics whether it be divide and rule or any other age old dirty communal trick up their sleeves. Remember this change will not be easy by far, we are up against corrupt ministers, corrupt bureaucracy, and mostly grass root lack of education. The norm has been that politicians that head India are put there because of their longevity in the Indian political scenario. Remember I say all this with utmost respect for our leader the great Manmohan Singh, he is by far one of the most intelligent men India has to offer, he is not a politician so lets stop making him one; I cannot help but wonder that had politics not come in the way of two extrememly brilliant men Manmohan Singh and Chidambaram maybe India would not be seeing the days we are currently seeing? We need to let our greats lead instead of attacking them and bringing their level down to playing dirty politics. However in the same breath I acknowledge that Indian politics is dirty politics, here it is acceptable to say anything and make as many false promises to win a vote, the youth are losing faith in this mass misleading but unfortunately we are not their target vote bank, so our lack of faith “ah well they give a damn about it”. The youth are no longer indifferent to the politics that uses Religion as wedge, politics that does not let us think, we are only allowed to think and vote within certain confines for certain people that supposedly represent us? I would like everyone to know that neither does Modi nor Chaggan Bhujpal nor any of the other conniving leaders that we ourselves have elected represent me. I am eager to see a young, dynamic leader. It is refreshing to observe that India is seeing a new generation of leaders – Pilot, Scindia, Deora or even Gandhi; however the pessimist in me does question whether they are just a new package for the same old thing? Let us hope not.

Media even though has the power, has played a dirty part in sensationalizing stories, the saddest story I heard was that these reporters on live tv let know the location of prominent people in Taj; then they showed on live tv operations at Nariman house giving information to those heaviliy armed terrorists inside as to how our brave men are entering – brilliant what coverage (if you detect sarcasm in what I said then you are bang on; as I watched this all that went through my head was “give me a bat so that I can break their camera’s”, they put innocent lives at stake for an ‘Exclusive’ story). Then during the peace march I noticed all the media channels taking credit for a movement the youth started, they had nothing to do with it apart from cover it. The media also covered Taj, Oberoi making them the landmarks of our city, Come on what about VT station (now CST) this station is magnificently beautiful the gargoyles, the magnificent bricks used to build it wow – what about this? How could they not think of this as a landmark and the 60+ people who died inside there, where was the coverage for them?

The politicians and the media tried to milk people’s grief; one for ‘Exclusive coverage’ the other for ‘exclusive votes’. I saw this Amul ad while I drove home it showed a politician in between a whole bunch of armed security men, and the slogan was “who are the real terrorists?”; hmm come to think of it I do not know. In India a country of over a billion, the amount spent on security of VIP’s is much more than the amount spent on the security of the rest of us.
When I went for the 3rd December Peace rally at Gateway of India I saw many many faces some old many young, some poor some rich; all these people coming together reminded me that we ourselves will have to fight and speak up for the change we are seeking as this change will not come easy. I think it is time we become more pro active instead of reactive, we do not need to wait for something bad to happen to us before we take action. There are options open to us; for instance we could pay less tax to the government and part of that tax should go to fund local security, then part of that tax should be used to fund local infrastructure, each of these bodies answerable to prominent locals – then maybe we cannot blame anyone but ourselves for the countries Infrastructure and Security woes. Also bombing another country will not solve problems, never start what you do not know how to finish, and we cannot preach to other countries to destroy their terrorists unless we practice and destroy our own, what about India’s religious fundamentalists? Was it not a mere few months back that we read about ethnic cleansing in states like Orissa, Madhya Pradesh, Karnataka; where many minorities were slaughtered, raped, houses were burned…Introspection – we seriously lack it.

Minnie-stry : My opinion of 26/11

Yesterday I was at the peace march, there were many people angry - blaming the government, blaming Pakistan, they wanted security. Someone came up to my friend and innocently asked -"what is this for?", his reply was "where are you from?", the truth was that he did not know like all of us gathered there that what exactly was this for. 1,00,000 voices - One Spirit One Mumbai - yes it was One spirit but one voice?? Everyone had different agenda's and opinions, some wanted to start full fledged war with our neighbours, they wanted the government to fall, some wanted answers to various questions, some said 'Ram Gopal Vermas next movie - Deshmurkh, starring you know who'; so what exactly was the purpose? Based on these questions numerous others will follow - Will Ram Gopals next movie make a difference? Will the government falling make a difference? Will this government changing and the next coming in make a difference, will it not just be a choice between the Devil and the Deep blue sea? Won’t war mean more harm than good? None of these voices knew what the answers were, they all came with questions, all of them were angry, but not a single soul had a solution put up on his poster. However what I felt made a difference was debate – we debated at Indigo Deli, we debated in the car on the way home, we all had our opinions and we voiced it hoping that in this there would lay a solution. However for all the pessimists who thought that yesterday had no purpose, they were wrong for there was a subtle purpose shared by all these 1,00,000 voices namely “CHANGE” – Obama won an election based on this very word. People may not have a solution but they are determined to keep searching for answers, they are determined to fight, to start a movement for change; I only hope that for a better tomorrow we find a solution or an answer sooner rather than later.

However one aspect deeply saddened me, the media sensationalized the stories and included Taj, Oberoi and Nariman house, the 40 people who died at CST what happened about them? Among the hustle and bustle of various stars trying to garner media attention, at a corner at gateway you found a few families of not a very affluent background lighting candles and had a poster for the lives lost at CST, we keep talking about families who lost everyone - at CST a Muslim family lost 7 members, three generations of the family were wiped out, where do we hear about them? Media should unite not be impartial in their coverage, make this movement a movement for all classes, this movement should not take precedence because all of a sudden it has hit really close to the middle class home. Yes I go to Oberoi and Taj often and know of many who lost people there, but I still am not closing my mind to those who lost their loved ones at CST. Let us unite for a common cause "PEOPLE FOR CHANGE", the politicians, the terrorists, the British have always had one way to garner power – ‘divide and rule’, lets make sure that this will not work this time. Yesterday among the 1,00,000 people many were Muslims, infact a group of Muslim students of about 500 maybe walked through carrying poster's saying "Pakistan should be declared a terrorist state", the roaring applause followed by hugs from many and pats on their back was extremely moving.
Solutions or answers can be many, however what is the right answer I do not know and am willing to admit that I am at a loss for words here. However I do know something, we cannot keep blaming others, it needs to stop, the famous saying 'charity starts at home' should be changed to ‘CHANGE STARTS AT HOME’ - do something about all this yourself, start a movement, stop bribing, stop littering. What really impressed me about yesterday was how social networking sites, sms's made 1,00,000 people turn up not considering the security risk, so use this medium and spread your opinion just as I have.