KaKuji, now what?

Young KaKu (Kanhaiya Kumar) was the media star all week, and he deserved to be. A victim of doctored tapes and hard-line approach by the government, poor chap spent many nights in jail. And when he emerged, the lad belted out an inspirational speech, a speech that went furiously viral, turning him into an overnight sensation. All very well, but now what? Although I am not too excited with his ultra-left ideology (it borders on the regressive), I really think our dude should get his focus back on academics, do well in his thesis, and then find a career in public life, a career through which he can try to change things, the kind of change he passionately speaks of. Arvind Kejriwal is a possible role model (minus the regular drama). KaKu has the political platform from which can take-off anytime, we also now know he has fantastic oratory skills, but he needs to sharpen his mind, broaden his world-view, get some real world experience, before he contests for mainline elections.

However, I fear this is what will happen: KaKu, encouraged by his newly-found media popularity, and cheered on by his fan club (his leftist co-students) will undertake more road shows and ferociously take part in TV debates on all sorts of issues. An opportunistic political party will offer him a ticket to contest in an assembly election, in which he will easily win. Raw and ill-prepared, he will get sucked into the very system he is trying to change, and eventually fade away into oblivion.

I know the politically-charged students of JNU don’t want to hear this, nor does the chirping pro-KaKu Twitterati, but KaKu must now do what a good student joins a university for in the first place: Get top-class education. Hope his parents have the good sense to tell him so.

(Image courtesy: Times of India. Perfectly spells out the temptation staring at KaKuji.)

It’s okay to see a shrink

It is estimated that nearly 10 million people in the US regularly consult psychiatrists for counseling/treatment. And guess what? No one scoffs behind their back, it is accepted in that country that mental problems are no different from physical problems, that both need medical attention, as simple as that.    

Figures aren’t readily available for India, but I suspect the number would be very low. That’s because there is a social stigma attached to mental problems, and most people therefore avoid seeking professional help. Saala yeda hai. Woh ladki ka screw dheela hai. Keep away from that paagal neighbour. If you think people would whisper stuff like this when you consult a psychiatrist, you are dead right.

The reason I bring this issue up is the slaughter of fourteen family members by a man suspected of suffering from schizophrenia. Or maybe it was debts that made him go on a murderous orgy, or perhaps there was guilt of incestuous activity (based on a Mumbai Mirror report). Whatever the trigger, normal people don’t do such things, you have to be completely mind-effed.

Many questions spring to the head. Was he regularly meeting a shrink? Was he attending counseling sessions? Was he taking his meds on time? Were his family members encouraging him to do all this? Perhaps we’ll never know. It’s possible the extended family did not take the man’s mental illness seriously, perhaps they ignored it. Most likely because of the stigma.

So how do we deal with this problem? Only one way. The government needs to sponsor a sustained campaign with the objective of removing the social stigma. If they can find funds to keep the nation swachh, surely they can find some to keep it safe and healthy.

Budget: Unfair & Unlovely

I don’t understand finance at all, so have no insights to offer on the budget. But it’s obvious the government is desperate to shed its ‘suit/boot ki sarkaar’ image, and therefore the rural focus. No problems with that, our farmers need and deserve every help they can get. My problem is: The finance minister wants to rob the urban taxpaying middle class and pass on the money to the villages. That is being both, unfair and lazy. He should have found a way to rob those people who duck taxes or don’t pay them at all. But that’s too much hard work, no?