To

Dear Mr. Shivraj Patil

Home Minister

Government of India

For past few years whenever I see you on the television a hundred questions come to my mind. This time again when you were on TV after the heinous Mumbai blasts the questions were back in my mind. It’s just that today I want to put them down and want you to answer them.

After the Mumbai blasts the Prime Minister, the President and every politician worth a mention was in Mumbai trying to comfort the blast victims and the shaken Mumbaikers. You too were present in Mumbai with your party’s high command. But why is that your words sound hollow and your actions provide no relief?

I am reminded today of my mother who is the home minister of my house.I am amazed despite being a working women, how she knew exactly everything that happened in her house, right from our school homework, to the bills to be cleared, what will cook today, the money to be sent to my relatives in villages, meeting our tuition teachers etc. A thousand things to remember, to be answered and the home minister of my house seem to have solutions for everything and when she did not, she had the ability to reassure us that things will work.

I know that you have much larger game plan to look at and a country as huge and as diverse as India to manage. Sir, I do not expect that you will have quick solutions for every terrorist attack on our country, but how can we fail time and again so miserably?

What do we make of your latest statement after the Mumbai blasts:'we had some clues. I don't need to disclose all those things to you. We knew some such thing was going to come, but didn't have any idea as to the place and time,'

If you as the home minister of the largest democracy in the world and with agencies like CBI, RAW, Intelligence Bureau and many such organizations at your disposal do not have a clue then who should we look at?

Each time such cowardly act is forced on India the government screams from the rooftop that it is the ISI who is themastermind behind all the ghastly attacks. What perturbs is how come our intelligence agencies cannot sense it? What about our own intelligence networks, why can’t they penetrate the enemy network just like they do ours? Is the common man’s money spentto maintain all such high profile agencies only to see that terrorist attack India’s length and breadth? Earlier the terrorist had presence only in Jammu and Kashmir, but today they have spread the web through all the corners of India and our intelligence network seems to be totally at a loss in curbing this

As the home minister of my country I would like to know what measures is your ministry taking for the security of the common man and to foil/avoid such ghastly acts.

I would also like to ask why I should have any faith in you as my country’s home minister? Leave aside finding solutions, sir, you are not even able to reassure my countrymen and me!!

A lot of my lady/girl/friends believe if there is no Men’s Day why should there be a Women’s Day.

Some believe in being ‘sexless’ (read they do not believe in preferences to any one sex).

Some others say that why only on one particular day women are thought about and why not all the 365 days of the year.

Some even find it derogatory!

I agree to them.

Yet to be frank it feels good when you get up early in the morning and get wished for being the super-women who takes on innumerable responsibilities with a smile on face day-in and day-out.

It feels good when you come to office and receive flowers and gifts for being what you are.

Who does not like to be acknowledged? Not that I am dependent on somebody’s approval or appreciation for what I am. But tell me who does not like adulation once in a while?

Today urban-women like me don’t attach much significance to this day. But I feel it’s more to do with the fact that we have been able to shape our lives on our own.

Things have not come on a platter for us and we have worked hard to achieve our goals.

But guess the open outlook of urban India helped us. Education with economic independence has given us ability to take our own decisions.

But this is just one side of the story; the other is certainly not so bright.

The facts reflect the status of women in India:

~ Female Foeticide and Infanticide is on rise in India and according to UNPF the female infant mortality figures in India are 40% higher than male.

~Female Literacy in India is at 54%, which means almost half the females in the country are still illiterate!

~Violence against women is still rampant in form of Dowry, sexual harassment, rape, especially in rural India.

And maybe that’s the reason that days like International Women’s day still have some significance.
At least in our country it makes the rest of society realize that the plight of women still needs attention.
Women’s quotas and reservations in various areas might not be the solution but it is  more to do with bringing-in change in the outlook towards women.
 

Lets be not just look at the progressive and independent urban women and form our opinions. A large part of non-urban Indian women is still at the mercy of others.

Lets not forget that the least she deserves is a life and not get killed even before she opens her eyes to this beautiful world!

Just a few days back I was sitting in an office presentation on one of our newly launched service.

It was bunch of motley journalist who were discussing the pros and cons of the service and of course we were all expected to give ideas to promote it.

The colleagues from other department were busy explaining how they gave a similar presentation in US and impressed some people. During the discussion they happen to mention that in US they had given example of groups on water harvesting on the web and how journalists might be interested in it.

Suddenly a huge roar of laughter emerged from all the journalists sitting in the room! There laughter very obviously meant--what rubbish, journalist will never be interested in such insipid topic!!

The meeting got over, but it set me thinking.

WHY ARE TODAY’S JOURNALISTS (read media) NOT INTERESTED IN TOPICS THAT ARE MOST CRUCIAL TO LIFE OF MILLIONS???

Ahh right, there are far more glamorous important events for the media to cover.

Isn’t it more essential to find out why Aamir chose Panchgani for his wedding, to do front page stories on will Abhishek marry Ash?. The more recent one is the Bush Mania:media going ga-ga over what he ate,what he wore, his body language!

Who then is interested in covering unexciting issues like water woes of commoners, cities going dark minus power!

They never seem to take a note of the fact that many places close to Mumbai like Thane, Dombivali, Kalyan, Navi Mumbai face serious water and hours of power shortage. "Load-shedding" is the word, which governs their lifestyle.

The realization has come only now when Mumbai faces a similar fate in immediate future.

When you quiz journos about this pat comes the answer-- the majority "young readers"are simply not interested in such topics, so what do we do?

Scene 1: A teenager walks to ATM to get some cash and finds that the ATM is down because of load-shedding period.

Scene 2: A nice 6-9 evening show at a plush multiplex, cozying up with girlfriend, but alas the all the evening and night shows have been cancelled due to load shedding. Though he can enjoy a candlelight dinner!!

Scene 3: Its lazy Sunday morning and its time to the Laurel’s new protein shampoo, $#$&*^%*^ the tap is dry and water needs to be rationed!

Scene4: Tomorrow is the D-day-- my CAT exams and I am literally burning the midnight oil you see!

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Probably such frequent experiences will make ‘young readers’ and media aware of the daunting scenario.

Hopefully the media will not find such insipid and will take them up as issues of concern!