I don’t want to be this person anymore

Powerful words of Maya Krishna Rao, at Reclaim the Republic, 26/01/14

I don’t want to be this person anymore
No, no, no, more
Who sits and waits
Waits waits 
To see what happens 4 months down the line
I walked all of last year, 
We covered the earth last year
With our footfalls…. last year
The sound resounds in my ears, from last year
We walked…
Where we walked we walked we walked
We didn’t sit, we walked
We lay 
We changed the law, we changed the talk, we walked
We changed the sit, we changed their stand
changed hearts… minds
we walked
So now how do we sit, how do we say nothing
Do nothing, 
I don’t want to be this woman
I want to be this woman in 2014
The one I was in 2013
I saw a girl put to death in a bus…out of a bus… in 2012
We changed the law in 2013
So let's get rid of a man in 2014
4 months down the line
we can't sit, we can't walk we must run
all of these 4 months 
There’s a stalker amongst us
there’s a stalker who walks

who a stalker who stalks 
he walks, we must run
lets get rid of him
not let him walk in 2014, 
not let him talk 2014
not let him lie in 2014,
what lies, what lies, lies 
not let him lie, not let him walk 2014
4 months down the line

so why don’t we just sit and think about what we can do
what we should do
they call it a ‘wave’ 
every 30 secs on television 
which ever channel you break
and you break 
and you break and you break ….breaking news

post why don’t we just post
by the minute, by the second 
on every social network site
what bite? Where’s the fight….? 
Lets just bite…get on the net, fight
Evry second That much we can do
Why don’t we post?

So how can I let a man who looms so large
Let his shadow creep over this same land…. so large

So we got rid rid of stalkers
And we’ll let a stalker walK all over us
Let a stalker walk walker all over us????

Whether its education
Farmers, women, per capita consumption
Women’s literacy, 
water, electricity
Just post, talk, 
walk, talk….
numbers walk
post nos.
Numbers talk
Minimum wage: Gujarat - Rs 276 for men and Rs 213 for women.
National average- Rs 332 for men and Rs 253 for women
Lets post every second, every minute
Lets post our bite
Have we ever known such brutality
Singling out the cruelest ways to attack women
Have we ever seen it in any fight…
Any so called riot?
Have we ever seen numbers talk?
Numbers talk
Post a number -
69.7% of children up to the age of five - anaemic 
44.6% malnourished 
In 1951, Gujarat had 954 women per 1,000 men 
In 2011 it was 918 women to 1000 men
Why, in 2002…. he killed them in the womb himself.
Why… have we ever seen in any riot so many women 
Singled out for such brutality, ever ?? 

In 2011 with only 760 girls per 1000 boys 
In 2009 58% never made it to class 10
15 lakh youths in the state are still unemployed today 
He promised one crore job opportunities but generated just 5.62 lakh

Let's post little stories….here’s one
Manjula Vaghela, a domestic help in Pardhol village just outside Ahmedabad has been applying for an electricity connection since 2002.But 10 years on, she still has no connection at home. Her family is registered as BPL, but she has not got any facilities from the government. “I was forced to shift my two sons to a community-run hostel so that they get a better future”, she says. We can barely manage two square meals.



*Another performance from this woman of inspiring words

No jokes please. We're Indian (and we're dark)

 Doesn't take much for us normally racist Indians (so comfortable about - all Gujjus are penny-pinchers, these Panjjus/Biharis have no culture, these Bongs speak with a rasgulla in their mouth, oh god these Ghaatis, do business with a snake but not with a Sindhi, oh lord these Madrasis [everyone from beyond Maharashtra] are always dripping with coconut oil, these North Easterns are all shameless/drug addicts - sorry if I left someone out) to turn self-righteous.

This time it took a 5 year old video of a stand-up comedian/poet -turned politician dug up conveniently by political parties (who have been ideologically vacant for many decades, which we never noticed) to get us all riled up - again.

It isn't funny that we are the same group of people who have forgotten the pogrom of 1984 sparked by two Sikhs killing a PM which targeted many of the same people who had wanted to escape the separatist insurgency in their state.

That case is still pending but we'd rather be devastated by a joke.

The same party who has been shielding the instigators of murder, rape, arson, and barbarism has enjoyed the privileges of power and in the past 10 years declared open the Great Indian Clearance Sale (strictly on commission basis). All thanks to us. But please, no racist jokes.

We are the same group of people who stared nonchalantly as the another party sought to revitalise the 'divide and rule' policies of the British through archaic symbols like chariots and bows, reminding people that minorities should be scared regularly else our 'culture' will suffer. Let's put them in their place, they said, by demolishing a mosque and refreshing old wounds.

Footage of that incident is invaluable material for any corporate trainer in the vast industry that is international terrorism to use to brainwash Muslim youth.

That case is pending too and the man who played on the weaknesses of one religious community against another is still speaking from the high stages of morality and ‘Indian culture’ hiding his failed ambition of leading this nation. (Insert a convenient “a Sindhi is worse than a snake” reference here.)

But we’d rather be devastated by a joke about dark-skinned nurses conveniently being dug up out of context by highly biased news channels who in turn are supported by advertisements of fairness creams. If they had any sense of sarcasm they would cue the joke and ads back-to-back. Alas!

We are still the same group of people who scoff at the ‘antics’ and ‘theatrics’ of a chief minister who takes the unorthodox approach of protesting on the streets to get what the above-mentioned parties have only paid lip service to – control over the only police force in the country not under state government purview.

In fact, the concept of being on the street after being elected, leave alone protesting after becoming CM, is an alien to the Indian psyche. “You got power. Now why are you creating a ruckus? And please don’t make me late for office. My petty office politics needs me more.”

We’re the same group of straight-faced people who stayed cosy and warm in our heated home, enjoying the amazing softness of imported quilts while criticising a bespectacled man who chose to sleep out in the open so he could begin reigning in famously corrupt police force. The same police force whose bribes have to be factored in in the accounts of all businesses – legal, quasi-legal and illegal – in the city.

But please, bring about change about some other way. Don’t disrupt my day and don’t indulge in theatrics. And what’s this thing about not needing those famous signs of power – the red beacon on a white car (make it a SUV while you’re at it) and a long trail of bustling, bristling security? Why the heck did you run for office? Never mind that you say you didn’t. That’s what they all say.

You know, the joke’s really on us and not on dark-skinned nurses. We are all the straw men (and women) that Winston Churchill talked about – easily blown about and scattered, our purpose petty if not unclear and very snug in our post-liberalisation comforts. Prick our sentiments about religion, colour, community (long list of buttons to push) and you’ve got us. Common sense and memory is something we are a bit less susceptible to.

We’re pretty ridiculous. But please – don’t joke about it.