So then what can WE do for Priyanka?

A number of readers have written in to ask what we busy-with-our-own-lives guys can do to ensure torturers of Priyanka get their just desserts. And that already is a good sign… the fact that at least some of us care.
Well, my answer is quite simple: we need to put pressure on the three key constituencies that will eventually determine the fate of this case. The media. The State Government. And the Judiciary. Exactly what happened in the case of Jessica and Priyadarshini. And it’s important we do that, because we need to tell these people very clearly that we do also care for our people in the villages, that we are not immune to their problems. That, what happens in Mumbai and Delhi is as important to us as what happens in a Khairlanji or any other place in India. That, even if Priyanka wasn’t half as stunning looking as Jessica was, we still care.

What’s been happening till date?

Before I come to what we can do, here’s a quick look at the story so far.
Late last month, after sleeping over the incident for two whole months, Vilas Rao Deshmukh, the CM of Maharashtra, handed over the case to the CBI. Not just keeping vote bank politics in mind (the very angry Dalit community), but also because that was a firman passed by his boss, Soniaji. He has also, thank god for small mercies, ordered the case to be heard in a fast track court in Bhandara, a small town in Maharashtra.
A few days ago, the CBI filed a charge sheet against 11 individuals. The charge sheet was filed in the court of a judicial magistrate against them for murder, outraging the modesty of women, allegedly entering into a criminal conspiracy, unlawful assembly with deadly weapons, trespass and destruction of evidence as well as offences under the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act of 1989.
The CBI also plans to investigate the shoddy work done by the police so far, and has promised to file separate charge sheets against errant/corrupt officers.
The case is likely to come up for hearing early next year. So hopefully this atrocity won’t go down the Jessica Lall way… years and years of delay. However, what we need to keep in mind is this: in both the cases, that of Lall and Matoo, the Higher Courts in Delhi overturned the judgments of the trial courts, while casting serious aspersions on the efficiency and fairness of the latter. This is a significant observation for the Khairlanji trial as well.

What can we do?

Media: We need to exert sustained pressure on the media, both TV and Press, so that this case doesn’t vanish from their short-term memory loss suffering minds. Let’s also keep the issue alive on the blogs (as we are currently doing). Let’s send out provocative letters to editors, let’s shoot out mails and text messages to influential journos like Ms Barkha Dutt. I think the rest of us would have done a great job simply by aiming reminder darts at the media. And I say this cos as long as the media keeps the issue alive and hot, it will put pressure on investigating officers not to let up on the case, AND, it will put pressure on the judges to ensure fair and swift justice. We have learnt these lessons in the recent past. (There is a theory our judiciary cannot be influenced by the media, and I entirely disagree with it. Our judges haven’t landed from Mars, they live the same lives we live, they are one of us.)

The government and the judiciary: No, we don’t need to hit Bhandara to be heard by these segments. Instead, we need to do exactly what New Delhi did for Jessica. We need to carry placards and candles and hold peaceful demos at the Gateway of India. With simple messages like ‘WE CARE FOR PRIYANKA TOO.’ ‘WE DEMAND IMMEDIATE JUSTICE FOR KAHIRLANJI.’ I believe even if 50 of us do this on an odd Sunday morning, the media will catch on (most of them are content starved anyway), and through them, the message will get delivered to our mantris and our adalats. Write to me if this idea appeals to you, we’ll get together and ensure this happens.

However, I do admit I am quite challenged when it comes to ideas on such serious matters. My key strength, as some of you would know, is sensationalism. So if you have any bright ideas, please feel free to share.

Happy New Year!

Inside London’s deadliest mosque

A migrant from Somalia, 38-year-old Abdirahman Warsame has an unenviable job. He runs the controversial Finsbury Park mosque in London, from where the plot to blow up the underground trains was allegedly hatched. The mosque was associated with radical Islamism in the early 2000s, and many Al Qaeda terrorists, including ‘shoe bomber’ Richard Reid and Zacarias Moussaoui, are known to have attended the mosque.
On January 20, 2003 the mosque was raided by the London Police (they had to use a battering ram to break in), and a number of residents were arrested. And the hate-spewing Sheikh Abu Hamza al-Masri was removed from his position as Imam. Following the raid, the mosque was reclaimed by mainstream Muslims.
The extremists in London certainly don’t approve of Warsame’s accommodating ways, and the local white junta badly wants the mosque out of the way. You just can’t pass by the mosque without spotting police cars on stake out.
I meet the new chief in his office situated right next to the main prayer hall. Warsame has a computer, he has support from the trustees, he seems like a man to wants Islam’s image rectified. What I found most interesting, however, are his views on Indian Muslims. He finds them to be too chilled out for their own good.

Is there a great level of disconnect between the locals and the Muslims in London?
It’s not good. In fact, it’s worse now, especially after 9/11 and the tube bombings. Also, the rampant arrests of young Muslims is creating problems, people who are later found to be innocent. And there are the police raids on mosques, which is not good. Yes, the gap is widening between the Muslim and non Muslim communities. The fault also lies with a section of the national media, and politicians, who like to label Muslims as a terrorist community.

But can you really blame them? Most terrorists happen to be from the Muslim community?
I cannot deny there are a few extremists in our community, but that’s the case with other religions as well. So you cannot blame the whole community.

The truth is, both 9/11 and the London tube bombings were executed by followers of Islam.
That’s true, but we still cannot hold the entire community responsible for what some individuals do.

So what’s the solution to fill the cultural gap?
The solution has to come from both sides. The government has to correct its foreign policies. There’s the Iraq attack, then they have double standards on the Palestine issue. We saw the recent invasion of Lebanon, and Blair and Bush asking Israel to finish the job, which is not just.

But do military attacks justify terror strikes on innocent people?
No, absolutely not. Islam does not say to kill innocent people. That’s clear in the Koran. But we have to analyse the problem. These young people who carry out terror attacks have been brainwashed by extremists and so-called Muslim scholars. And what they use to brainwash these youngsters are the unjust foreign policies of our governments. And even if they don’t get brainwashed, they just have to follow the news to discover that it is only Muslims who are under attack all over the world. Iraq, Palestine, Lebanon, Kashmir, Chechnya… it’s the same story always.

So you are justifying terror attacks in different words…
I am not justifying terror activities. But at the same time, you cannot say there is no link between extremism and foreign policy. It would be very stupid and ridiculous to deny this link, that there is no connection between what happens in Iraq and what happens in the UK.

What activities does you trust undertake to strengthen bonds between communities?
We try to engage with the non-Muslim communities, we invite them to come to our mosque and be a part of it. We ask them to see it’s a place of worship, that it’s a nice place…

But the mosque has a very controversial past.
Definitely. Abu Hamza was here. He was promoting fanaticism and hatred, which was wrong.

You agree the raid on this particular mosque was correct.
I cannot say it was justified. But I totally agree this mosque was not good for Muslims.

So the government had no choice but to raid it.
I don’t know… they said there were terrorist training camps out here, but that was not the case.

They did find deadly arms and ammunition, though.
(Interrupts.) I don’t know about that. All I know is Hamza was not good, but that did not justify a raid. But he is in prison now, and we have a new management.

But Omar Brooks (a fanatic UK Muslim leader), who’s been making remarks supporting terror attacks, still visits this place.
(Skirts the question.) I don’t know about that. But the new management promotes a multi-cultural society. We understand we are a minority here, and we need to respect other faiths. We are actively trying to engage with other communities, including Christians, Jews and Hindus. We want to preach that Islam is a peaceful religion, it’s not violent. We are also trying to engage with anti people in our community, we are telling them there are other peaceful, democratic ways to protest. Some people think that by doing violence they create fear in the other communities’ minds, and that’s ridiculous.

Let’s get real about this. What options does the community have? If the government is not going to listen to the problems of Muslims, what can they do?
We have examples of other communities. The Jews were expelled from Europe, but now they are a very influential community. There are ways in which you can influence politics. You have to participate in politics, you can’t isolate yourself. We need to fight this mentality of victim hood.

It’s true the conspiracy to bomb the tubes was hatched in this mosque.
I can’t say for sure, I wasn’t here at the time. I had never entered this mosque before I joined.

But surely you must have information on this.
I have to go by what the police says, I trust them on this.

What according to you is the solution to the Kashmir dispute?
(Hesitates.) Lots of young Kashmiris are complaining about the policies of the Indian government, they say it’s not just. Lots of young Muslims believe the western countries are siding with India.

But America is blatantly pro Pakistan. You know that.
That’s a convenient alliance. They need Pakistan’s help to combat the Taliban and other terrorists.

What should happen in Kashmir?
They must give the Kashmiri people the choice of self-determination. If they want to join Pakistan, let them do so. If they want to join India, then let that be.

Don’t local fanatics dislike what you are doing?
Yes, they do. These people don’t have enough knowledge of Islam. I want to challenge them.

Do they threaten you to follow their ways?
They do. But we talk it out with them, we discuss things with them. That’s why we have established a youth club in the mosque.

Your comments on the whites in UK.
We live side by side, but we don’t talk to each other, we don’t even know each other! We can’t change that easily. And that’s the biggest problem.

Your message for Indian Muslims.
They must engage the government in a positive way, they must help in building their nation.

Are you proud that unlike elsewhere in the world, most Muslims in India tend to be moderates?
To be honest, what I dislike about Indian Muslims is that they go onto the other extreme! They just don’t get involved enough in matters of the State. I don’t think they try to influence decision making enough.

Who the fuck is Priyanka?

Priyanka was a nobody from a tiny village in Maharashtra, one that no one’s ever heard of and no one even cares about. She was an 18-year-old NCC cadet, she wanted to be with the army, but then who gives a rat's arse for such down market qualifications and ambitions? Worse, with a name like Khairlanji, her village doesn’t even merit a stopover for a quick piss when we zip by the countryside on our long cross-country drives. Even to unload, we city guys prefer familiar sounding places.

This is what happened to this luckless teen, and if you are already too bored to listen to her story, I don’t blame you, do go away by all means to more interesting stuff.

On the morning of September 29, 2006, 12 sloshed ‘upper caste’ men attacked Priyanka’s hut. They strapped her on to a bullock cart as one would a disobedient animal, and dragged her out to the village chaupal. Then, they took turns to rape her, following which they completely stripped her, and paraded their ‘trophy’. But this was only an appetiser. The main course involved beating her naked body with bicycle chains, and publicly gang raping her all over again, and this went on till the mutilated Priyanka stopped breathing. However, not satisfied, the goons went on. The teenage corpse was raped yet again. On realising the dead body was no longer rape-worthy, the men shoved iron rods into her blood clotted genitals, and used pickaxes to disfigure her face. Now at peace, they threw the remains into a ditch, and walked away in celebration.
An identical fate awaited Priyanka’s mum, Surekha, as her dad, Bhaiyyalal, hid behind a hut watching helplessly. And all this over a petty land dispute with Priyanka’s family, a dispute the teenager perhaps had no knowledge of, and was certainly not a part of.

Here’s what has happened since: all the onlookers say they saw nothing happen. The police, who as usual arrived long after, refused to file n FIR.
Though photographs of the mutilated bodies with rods in the genitals are believed to have been taken by a police patrol team, none saw the light of day. The post-mortem report conducted the day after the incident indicated no rape had happened. Under pressure from the Dalit community, the bereaved father has received some monetary compensation, but those bastards who tortured and mutilated an innocent young life, walk free.

Now here’s why I’m using horrible language AND boring the shits out of you: We, the so-called educated, evolved, wise, city slickers, seem to want to give a damn about Priyanka’s story. Because we are bloody hypocrites, all of us. We will send out text messages to news channels, we will shoot out angry letters to editors, we will hold candlelight marches when a Jessica Lall is denied justice. Because that crime happened in an up market joint in New Delhi, involved Page 3 animals and bada netas and bada names, and because the dead girl was an aspiring model. But we won’t do that for Priyanka because she came from a village unworthy of being even a pisspot, because she lived an unhappening life, because she was a nobody to the rest of us. In short, we don’t give a fuck for what happens to Indians who are not like us, the non-PLUs, as chattering socialites would call them. The media isn’t interested either, because Jessica’s tragedy sells, Priyanka’s doesn’t.

So, Priyanka’s case will go on endlessly. The rich and the powerful from the village will continue to do their bit to sabotage the evidence. The name Priyanka will totally vanish from our collective minds, that is if it’s registered in the first place. And another Priyanka will meet the same fate before too long.

A few years later, we will recall Jessica Lall’s story vividly and tearfully. And as for the village girl, we’ll be shrugging with, “Who the fuck was Priyanka Bhotmange anyway?”

Let me be me, too

(I wrote this in the latest issue of Marie Claire, am reproducing the original version here, in case you missed it.)

Marie Claire is a woman’s mag, or so I believe, and its core ideology, as the Editor matter-of-factly informs me, is, ‘Let Me Be Me’.
Sure, I’ll let you be you. Go right ahead and build a high-flying career, earn pots of bucks, and if you make more than me, I shall be prouder still. No, you don’t have to ‘adjust’ with my eminently unlikeable parents, you can choose to live with them, or away, I will entirely respect your decision, this is your life and your choice to make. I shall take at least fifty per cent responsibility of bringing up the kids, I will gladly change the wet nappies, I will spend quality time with them, I would take active part in their rearing, I would even cheerfully breast-feed them if nature permitted. Go ahead, wear the trousers at home, and if you wish to retain your maiden name, be my guest. And yes, I am more than delighted with the woman on top thingy, both literally and metaphorically.
And I would not do all these things because that’s the New World Order, I would because I recognise we are equals in every single way, so we must share all rights and duties in equal measure.
There’s more: I will also learn to respect your feminine side (what good is being a woman without one?), will understand your many mood swings, will learn to live with your untimely headaches. Yes, I will leave the toilet seat down (and very, very dry), will fetch you roses even when there’s no occasion to do so. Will happily watch chick flicks like Peggy Sue Got Married, Runaway Bride and What Dreams May Come, cuddling on the sofa, and I will always listen, listen, listen, even appear genuinely concerned.
And I swear to god I will never get upset with anything you do or say, will always strive be an understanding partner. Not just because that’s fair and correct, but now there’s a law against me using cuss words at home… I could get effing arrested, hon!

However, in return, I want you to let me be me, too. Because, contrary to popular belief, we men are human beings too, and we have our own set of quirks and characteristics. Allow me to mindlessly surf the television set on occasions, even if that drives you mad, I just love doing it. Allow me the luxury of a cigarette and Premier League after sex, that’s my idea of great after play. Not asking for much, I am sure, after all, I did all the kissing, canoodling, licking, whispering, smiling during the prolonged foreplay, didn’t I? Once in a while, when I travel miles to get you flowers, don’t frown when I return with cans of beer instead, I need to indulge myself at times. And yeah, I do want to be stuck with the blokes on Saturday night out, where I will talk dirty sex, ogle at other women, get pissed drunk, and generally make an ass of myself. Every man needs a break from buying decorative pillow covers at the mall, right? And if I am happy to watch saas-bahu wrestles all week long with you, why would you grudge me the WWF bout on the odd Sunday? And by the way, I detest moisturisers on my face, I find them to be sticky, gooey and itchy, and I don’t care if that’s an uncool thing to say.
Being genetically unengineered to multi task, there will be times I am focussed on another activity, and will fail to listen to your pressing problems with the neighbour’s wife. Please do go easy on me, mate, I am biologically incompetent of executing two activities at one time, that’s not my fault, surely!
Of course you can drive the car, but don’t sulk when I get into road rage on my turn at the wheel. There’s no definitive book written yet on what gets men going, but some testosterone on the road definitely does, ask your man.
And I’ll let you in on a secret no man will: the reason we men love blow jobs so much, is apart from being highly pleasurable, they bring some peace and tranquility in the house. Yup, I do like the sound of silence sometimes.

So, yes, love, I’ll let you be you. But please do return the favour. Surely that’s not asking for much. After all, what good is being a man without a masculine side?

The ‘I don’t like your face’ politics

“Hire people who are better than you are, then leave them to get on with it. Look for people who will aim for the remarkable, who will not settle for the routine. If each of us hires people smaller than we are, we shall become a company of dwarfs.” - David Ogilvy

If you hit google for ‘politics at workplace’, you’ll get 5,500,000 tumbling returns, like a Vegas slot machine gone crazy. Which means dirty politicking at workplace is an ancient problem, discussed threadbare inside boardrooms, bedrooms, self-help books, business management institutes, office cafeterias and urinals alike And yet, there seems to have been no real solution found to counter this universal organisational malaise.

All of us have encountered it or indulged in it at some point or another in our work life, and some of us have suffered because of it, and yet when it comes to framing organisational culture and performance evaluation parameters, we simply shove the P word under the carpet. And ironically enough, unchecked politicking leads to loss of talent, loss of employee morale, loss of productivity, but our traditional hierarchy run structures don’t even bother to account for this leaking hole, leave alone plug it.

And the greatest victim of politics is dissent, the biggest new idea generator in the organisation, because power ODIng managers, by nature and by force of addiction, show zero tolerance for employees who crave to break command and consensus. And the natural fallout is mediocrity and predictable output, as the ability to ‘bond’ with the superior takes precedence over trying to raise the bar at workplace.

I guess I am saying nothing new out here, politics seem to run in our blood, even the mass media, especially our television serials, both real and unreal, reflect this. Family members are seen forever manipulating one another, Sony’s copy of Big Brother is a good example. What intrigues me, however, is that our CEOs and HR heads behave as if this issue doesn’t exist, despite being fully aware of its cancerous dimensions (a dirty political boss will encourage production of his/her clones). And worse, crafty managers are allowed to get away because they conveniently disguise politicking as a team bonding activity, and those unwilling to join this fake club, are labelled as ‘he/she is not a team player’.

So can the misuse of politics be a criterion for evaluating managers? I guess most CEOs shy away from it for not only because it is quantitatively immeasurable, but because it’s a controversial step, no one wants to rock the boat, even it’s leaky. What I can’t understand is this: when it comes to evaluating employee performance, we DO get qualitative, whether we admit to it or not. Subjectivity does come into play, that’s the way it is. Can we not therefore use this route to safeguard against politics at workplace? I am no expert on this subject, but I do believe CEOs should exert pressure on their highly paid and often under-worked HR chiefs to find a way to suppress this disease, if not cure it completely. What’s the use of Gorai beach picnics, meditation rooms, pool tables and birthday cards, if, underneath all this, we are busy knocking employees who dare to think and behave differently?

I’ll leave you with this oft-quoted and brilliant Apple ad, wish more orgs had a similar work culture.

Here's to the crazy ones...
The misfits;
the rebels...
The troublemakers
The round pegs
in the square holes.
The ones who see things differently.
They're not fond of rules,
and they have no respect for the status quo.
You can quote them,
disagree with them,
glorify or vilify them
About the only thing you can't do,
is ignore them;
because they change things
They push the human race forward.
And while some may see them as the crazy ones,
We see genius.
Because the people who are crazy enough
to think they can change the world
are the ones who do.
Think Different.