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	<title>Blog of Pagal Patrakar &#187; Armchair Activism</title>
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	<description>Pagal&#039;s attempts at sanity</description>
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		<title>An open letter to Arundhati Roy</title>
		<link>http://blog.fakingnews.com/2010/10/an-open-letter-to-arundhati-roy/</link>
		<comments>http://blog.fakingnews.com/2010/10/an-open-letter-to-arundhati-roy/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Wed, 27 Oct 2010 10:53:54 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Pagal Patrakar</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Rants]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Armchair Activism]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Democracy]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Double Standards]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Freedom of Speech]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Sensationalism]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://blog.fakingnews.com/?p=94</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Congrats, you are back in news! You were trending on Twitter and featured in Google trends. And thanks, you made many guys look up dictionary.com to understand what sedition meant. You are really of some use! <a href="http://blog.fakingnews.com/2010/10/an-open-letter-to-arundhati-roy/">Continue reading <span class="meta-nav">&#8594;</span></a>]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>Hey woman,</p>
<p>Congrats, you are back in news! You were trending on Twitter and featured in Google trends. And thanks, you made many guys look up dictionary.com to understand what sedition meant. You are really of some use!</p>
<p>Well, I read your <a href="http://www.hindustantimes.com/Arundhati-s-statement-from-Srinagar-Full-text/Article1-618034.aspx" target="_blank">statement</a>, and I loved it because it was not a fucking 30,000 words essay! Anyway, I had some reactions, please find them below (in bold and in red, adjectives that you prefer?):</p>
<p><span id="more-94"></span>Kashmir, Oct. 26:<strong> </strong>I write this from Srinagar, Kashmir.  <strong><span style="color: #ff0000;">(Wonderful, you are going places woman, wished you had cared to write something from Bihar or UP; people are suffering due to neglect and bad politics there too, but wait, stay where you are.)</span></strong> This morning&#8217;s papers say that I may be arrested on charges of sedition for what I have said at recent public meetings on Kashmir.  <strong><span style="color: #ff0000;">(LOL! You read and believe newspapers? But I guess that’s what you do when you wake up in the morning – take up a newspaper and find if your name appears anywhere. If not, you plan how it can.)</span></strong> I said what millions of people here say every day. <strong><span style="color: #ff0000;">(Millions of people say <em>benc**d</em> in India every day, that doesn’t sanction that term any “social acceptance”)</span></strong> I said what I, as well as other commentators, have written and said for years. <strong><span style="color: #ff0000;">(Absolutely, you have NEVER said or written anything NEW. You just pick up issues, after reading the morning newspapers, and join the bandwagon.)</span></strong> Anybody who cares to read the transcripts of my speeches will see that they were fundamentally a call for justice. <strong><span style="color: #ff0000;">(Sorry, I didn’t really care to read the transcript of your speeches. Can you make them a bit shorter? I’ve an attention span problem.)</span></strong> I spoke about justice for the people of Kashmir who live under one of the most brutal military occupations in the world; <strong><span style="color: #ff0000;">(Oh, Kashmir is an area under military occupation? Thanks, will update my general knowledge and Wikimapia, but wait, how come you were allowed there? Don’t all democratic rights cease to exist in an area under military occupation? Or were you an “embedded activist” like those embedded journalists of CNN in Iraq during the Gulf War?)</span></strong> for Kashmiri Pandits who live out the tragedy of having been driven out of their homeland; <strong><span style="color: #ff0000;">(Really? Or are you fucking kidding me?)</span></strong> for Dalit soldiers killed in Kashmir whose graves I visited on garbage heaps in their villages in Cuddalore; <strong><span style="color: #ff0000;">(What the fuck is a “Dalit soldier” with a “grave”? I thought Dalits existed only within Hinduism and Sikhism, where there are no graves. Oh okay, next you are writing a 300,000 essay on why Dalits are neither Hindu/Sikh/Christian/Muslim nor Indian, and why the need justice and liberty from the tyrannous Brahminical Indian state?)</span></strong> for the Indian poor who pay the price of this occupation in material ways and who are now learning to live in the terror of what is becoming a police state. <strong><span style="color: #ff0000;">(Oh great, so this whole country is under some kind of occupation – police state – what the fuck, you opened my eyes, where is the red flag?)</span></strong></p>
<p>Yesterday I traveled to Shopian, the apple-town in South Kashmir which had remained closed for 47 days last year in protest against the brutal rape and murder of Asiya and Nilofer, the young women whose bodies were found in a shallow stream near their homes and whose murderers have still not been brought to justice. <strong><span style="color: #ff0000;">(Yes, “last year”, and you are visiting the place “now” because your heart bleeds for a common Kashmiri.) </span></strong> I met Shakeel, who is Nilofer&#8217;s husband and Asiya&#8217;s brother.  <strong><span style="color: #ff0000;">(Wait a minute; you were also in Delhi a couple of weeks back. Did you meet any Kashmiri Pandit, for whom you claimed to be seeking justice in the earlier paragraph?)</span></strong> We sat in a circle of people crazed with grief and anger who had lost hope that they would ever get insaf &#8212; justice &#8212; from India, and now believed that Azadi &#8212; freedom &#8212; was their only hope.  <strong><span style="color: #ff0000;">(Have you seen the Bollywood movie <em>Gulaal</em>? You can sit in such circles almost in each part of this country and listen to cries of <em>Azadi</em> from imagined powers. There are Brahmins in this country, whom you think control everything, who feel “trapped” in the modern state that is implementing reservations for everyone except them.)</span></strong> I met young stone pelters who had been shot through their eyes. <strong><span style="color: #ff0000;">(Did you meet that Indian policeman who lost his eye after a 5 kg stone hit his eye?) </span></strong> I traveled with a young man who told me how three of his friends, teenagers in Anantnag district, had been taken into custody and had their finger-nails pulled out as punishment for throwing stones. <strong><span style="color: #ff0000;">(I once traveled with a Hindu in Ahmedabad, who told me how Muslims had created an “acid pool” in “their area” and used to throw Hindus in them during riots; there have been many riots in Ahmedabad, not just during 2002, for your kind information. Of course I didn’t believe him and went out to write an essay or even a fake news article. I don’t believe people easily and form opinions. If the state can’t be trusted blindly, that doesn’t mean I’d trust every other non-state actor blindly. Oh, non-state actor!)</span></strong></p>
<p>In the papers some have accused me of giving &#8216;hate-speeches&#8217;, of wanting India to break up.  <strong><span style="color: #ff0000;">(Yes, there are idiots who take you seriously.)</span></strong> On the contrary, what I say comes from love and pride.  <strong><span style="color: #ff0000;">(ROFLMAO!)</span></strong> It comes from not wanting people to be killed, raped, imprisoned or have their finger-nails pulled out in order to force them to say they are Indians. <strong><span style="color: #ff0000;">(But you are fine and your conscience is not disturbed if someone does the same to people and force them to say that they are NOT Indians?)</span></strong> It comes from wanting to live in a society that is striving to be a just one. <strong><span style="color: #ff0000;">(“just” one or “just one”? People like you are surely not going to let this society be “just one”. It would be broken into Dalits, Tribals, Muslims, Brahmins, Christians, Poor, Rich, Women, etc. I want my society and country to be “just one” for god’s sake!)</span></strong> Pity the nation that has to silence its writers for speaking their minds. <strong><span style="color: #ff0000;">(Yes, yes, pity the nation that produces such writers. Today I’m proud of Chetan Bhagat, seriously.)</span></strong> Pity the nation that needs to jail those who ask for justice, while communal killers, mass murderers, corporate scamsters, looters, rapists, and those who prey on the poorest of the poor, roam free. <strong><span style="color: #ff0000;">(Yes, I’d pity the nation only if you were “actually” jailed, and you won’t be, dear, because this is a country that doesn’t need your pity.)</span></strong></p>
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		<item>
		<title>Let’s talk about Sex, SRK and Sena</title>
		<link>http://blog.fakingnews.com/2010/02/srk-sena-mnik-drama/</link>
		<comments>http://blog.fakingnews.com/2010/02/srk-sena-mnik-drama/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Sun, 14 Feb 2010 13:47:34 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Pagal Patrakar</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Politics]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Armchair Activism]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Bollywood]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Democracy]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Double Standards]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Journalism]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Marketing]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Mob Mentality]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Sensationalism]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Shahrukh Khan]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Shiv Sena]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://blog.fakingnews.com/?p=31</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Cricket, Politics and Movies have been the biggest newsmakers in our country. Every Indian is an expert of at least one of these topics, and the enjoyment that he or she derives from discussing them is paralleled only by the enjoyment derived from sex. And by these standards, in the last one month or so, Indians have indulged in mass orgy. Cricket was our foreplay, Politics was our sexual intercourse, and a Movie gave us the orgasm. <a href="http://blog.fakingnews.com/2010/02/srk-sena-mnik-drama/">Continue reading <span class="meta-nav">&#8594;</span></a>]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>Cricket, Politics and Movies have been the biggest newsmakers in our country. Every Indian is an expert of at least one of these topics, and the enjoyment that he or she derives from discussing them is paralleled only by the enjoyment derived from sex. And by these standards, in the last one month or so, Indians have indulged in mass orgy. Cricket was our foreplay, Politics was our sexual intercourse, and a Movie gave us the orgasm.</p>
<p>Now what do you do after having a satisfying session of sex? If you are selfish, you straightaway go to sleep. If you are sensual, you hold on and talk to your partner. So let’s talk how it was.</p>
<p>Let’s go back to the foreplay.</p>
<p><span id="more-31"></span>Foreplay has the elements of mystery and imagination in it. You might have known your partner for years, but you tend to touch him/her as if you are trying to explore something that was hitherto unknown to you. You might have kissed those lips a thousand times, but you have to feel a new taste every time. You have to use your imagination to make it happen. IPL auctions provided this element of mystery and imagination.</p>
<p>IPL auctions took place for cricketers to be sold (such a dignified achievement for a modern cricketer; apparently, as per the IPL rules, a player can’t negotiate his own contract amount, the franchisees must arrive at it among themselves. This was never deemed as ‘snub’ by any player). No Pakistani cricketer was sold. It was called IPL snub (sounds like snug – an ingredient of foreplay – okay; that was a PJ).</p>
<p>And it remains a mystery why it happened. Was it a pure business decision by the franchisees? Was there any Government pressure to do so? Was there any conspiracy by Lalit Modi against Pakistanis? Was there any conspiracy against Lalit Modi by Congress? Unanswered questions adding to the mystery.</p>
<p>And this mystery gave birth to vivid imaginations. Sohail Tanvir imagined that <em>Hinduon ki zeheniyat hi aisi hoti hai</em> (<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4iFiWmKYisw" target="_blank">Hindus</a> are deceitful and disrespectful by character). Our Home Minister imagined that Indian fans were the greatest lovers of Pakistani cricketers. Pakistani Home Minister imagined a planned revenge snub. Shah Rukh Khan imagined that Pakistan was a great neighbor to have. India was turned on.</p>
<p>Personally, I have no idea what was this whole IPL snub all about. All the unanswered questions listed above seem distinct possibilities to me. Seems like this whole IPL episode, which I am calling foreplay, was so good that I just enjoyed it with my eyes closed.</p>
<p>But Shiv Sena had their eyes open.</p>
<p>They had been looking for a partner for a long time. They courted Sachin Tendulkar. No response. They courted Mukesh Ambani. Again no response. They would have been heartbroken and hollering like this little kid seen here in this <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-zGrjpP-Alg" target="_blank">video</a>, whose advances were blatantly ignored by a little girl just the same way as Tendulkar and Ambani ignored Sena’s feelers. But they decided to test the ‘third time lucky’ theory.</p>
<p>They decided to court Rahul Gandhi. And voila! Rahul responded, although he snubbed them. But we have just seen that how a snub had turned on a whole nation, rather a whole subcontinent just a few days back. Rahul’s snub turned Shiv Sena on. Last time they had to break office of a news channel to turn themselves on. Hungry and horny, now they needed a partner for intercourse. They courted Shah Rukh Khan.</p>
<p>If Shah Rukh Khan would have joined the rank of Tendulkar and Ambani and proved to be the third idiot in Shiv Sena’s eyes, he’d have rendered Shiv Sena as the Chatur Ramalingam (selfish, conservative, and revengeful) in the rest of the India’s eyes. But Shah Rukh Khan was not out there to promote <em>3 Idiots</em>. His agenda was <em>My Name Is Khan</em>.</p>
<p>SRK had the demand, Shiv Sena had the supply. The twain met.</p>
<p>(At this point, let me make it clear – I’m not hinting at any pre-planned conspiracy hatched by SRK and Shiv Sena. I believe that SRK’s sentence on Pakistani players’ inclusion in the IPL was <em>not</em> aimed at garnering publicity for his movie. But once Shiv Sena gave him an opportunity to do so, he didn’t let it go.</p>
<p>That’s why Karan Johar, who had sprinted to Raj Thackeray to apologize for mentioning Mumbai as Bombay in <em>Wake Up Sid</em>, thought that freedom of speech was of paramount importance. And Shah Rukh Khan, who had, without much ado, changed the title of his movie <em>Billu Barber</em> after protests by some hairdressers, insisted that he didn’t need to change even a single word of his original statement.)</p>
<p>After foreplay, India was progressing towards intercourse.</p>
<p>Intercourse has the elements of dominion and passion. It’s best enjoyed when both the partners take turn to dominate, with the other one playing the submissive role at that moment. Whatever role you play, there has to be a passion in the act. India saw both of these elements in SRK-Shiv Sena standoff.</p>
<p>Shiv Sena took the dominant role in this political intercourse; they love being on top, don’t they? Shah Rukh Khan played along with passion; not submissive, yet not dominant. But to make this intercourse enjoyable and perfect, Shiv Sena needed to be dominated. And hence media and self-styled pro-democracy activists joined in, while voyeurs like me looked on.</p>
<p>The intercourse was just perfect. There was mass moaning and groaning on twitter. There were love bites with Shiv Sena biting off movie posters. And the media discovered the G-spot – cinema halls, which must be reached to achieve orgasm.</p>
<p>Going to a cinema hall to buy and brandish a movie ticket became the symbol of democracy and free speech. It was surely better than joining a facebook community to feed a hungry child or forwarding a chain mail to help a cancer patient. But not any better than buying a Durex condom on Valentine’s Day to oppose moral police (a campaign that has not yet taken off, but if it happens, Durex guys had better pay me for this idea).</p>
<p>But who cares about strictness and exactness of a <em>kamasutra</em> position while sweating with a partner in the bed. We were so busy with the intercourse that we couldn’t even hear a gunshot fired to kill a lawyer defending a Mumbai terror attack accused.</p>
<p>(Before the patriotic types point out that the lawyer himself had a dubious past and was once detained for anti-national activities and hence deserved to be killed, let me tell them to Shut Up – just like SRK had told those ‘<a href="http://twitter.com/iamsrk/status/8955889670" target="_blank">sickos</a>’ who hinted at him being hand in glove with Shiv Sena, and like Asif Ali <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hzuHD5x1fEU" target="_blank">Zardari</a> had told an inattentive student during a public rally.</p>
<p>Anyone, who doesn’t violate the constitution of India, and in fact makes it the basis of his or her arguments (which a lawyer is supposed to do), must be protected (more than release of a movie) for the sake of democracy. If a lawyer is able to release a terrorist, the solution is not to shoot dead the lawyer, but to create stricter laws. Yes, the patriotic types can now point out that Gujarat’s stricter anti-terror law was shot down by the UPA government.)</p>
<p>Not only the gunshot, we went deaf and blind to various other stuffs going outside our bedroom as we twisted and twirled during the intercourse. Rising prices, crores of cash in IAS officers’ houses (by the way, where is Madhu Koda these days?), alleged political protection to an arrested terrorist, and many other things that a fake journalist like me might not even know – they became irrelevant as we tried to achieve a perfect orgasm.</p>
<p>Stimulated by media, the moment of orgasm did arrive.</p>
<p>I won’t try to enlist the elements of orgasm. You can’t define it, you have to experience it. I thought the nation experienced it when the first lot of movie goers came (out), and declared to the waiting reporters outside, “it was awesome”.</p>
<p><em>My Name Is Khan</em> was superhit, the battle for democracy was won, and the orgy had ended.</p>
<p>So, thanks for holding on and talking. It was nice, but it could have been much better, much sensual, and much more meaningful. Next time, maybe?</p>
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