Cartoons Against Corruption

A lot has been said about Aseem Trivedi.

I have checked most of Aseem Trivedi's work on his blog. If one has some basic understanding of political cartoons or cartoon strips or comics in general; at first glance, one can understand that the his work is amateurish and merely stating what we all know. A good political cartoon evokes thought.  It shouldn't necessarily state things 'the way they are' - for that we have prose left to lesser mortals like us .

(Branching out to make another point, even R. K. Laxman's 'Common Man' is observational or 'merely stating what we all know'. However his cartoons have a sixty year legacy hence nobody ever talks about it openly, albeit it is done very tastefully)

Trivedi's cartoons seems like a work of an angry school kid who is venting out his anger/frustration against his repressive school system.  

Whatever little bit I have read about him in papers and journals, cartoonists, artists and writers unanimously have said - Aseem Trivedi is high on anger and low on talent. (unfortunately I do not have any link to support this but you would have to believe me)

Have you noticed that his cartoons are just expressing what we all speak in crude Hindi? 

In a newspaper, a cartoonist who didn't wish to be named said, Aseem Trivedi shouldn't have been jailed for sedition charges, he should have been jailed for bad art. 

Another confession. At least he did something which got the people talking and the world interested about the corruption in India. For that he needs to be saluted.

If I may offer an analogy to express Aseem's standing.

Aseem Trivedi : (Political) Cartoons :: :: Poonam Pandey : Twitter

God, Please Introduce Accountability to Indians!

As usual after waking up, I take the newspaper and browse through the front page. I hardly ever read the front page because it is filled with gross, nauseating and heart breaking negative news, which, if I read, will surely make my day worse!

But today a headline grabbed my attention.

Wrongfully arrested, diplomat's daughter sues NY for $1.5m

A certain Ms. Kritika Biswas, daughter of Debashish Biswas, vice counsel at the Indian consulate in New York, was arrested on false charges of sending obscene and threatening anti-Semitic hate mails to teachers of her school in December 2010.

For a change I read the whole story under the headline. You too can read it here. 

Now most of the people who would read this story would be enraged that how could the administration arrest an innocent 18 year old girl? How could ‘they’ mistreat one of ‘us’? I’m sure Indian media would take this story and play it for a while and will surely give a racial undertone to it. Everybody will make a hue and cry about mistreatment of Indians by the Americans, etc., etc.

After reading the whole story, I didn’t feel enraged or think there was racial discrimination. I felt good about Ms. Biswas! No I’m not a sadist!

Ms. Kritika Biswas is in a country where she can actually sue the administration of a city for being mistreated. And if she is innocent, then I’m sure she will receive compensation, not necessary the entire $ 1.5 million. This compensation is for mental and physical stress undergone due to the unfortunate incident.

Now, picture the same scene in our glorious motherland, India. You don’t even need to picture it in your mind; this is the story of thousands of people in this country. But it is not reported in the papers. There are no cases filed against the administration. Because we, the people know that nothing will happen. THERE IS NO ACCOUNTABILITY in our system.

Accountability: The Indian Style...

Ms. Biswas can appeal because she knows that she is in a land, where accountability is of the highest importance and where it is expected; it is something that we Indians can just dream of. A citizen there can sue the administration if he falls into an uncovered manhole and breaks his leg. But here, people have died and nothing has happened.

Aah! I want this for my city. But this wonderful city of Mumbai is nothing but a whore for the pimp-politicians who come every year, do some business through it and leave it bleeding for some other mother fucker to do business with it. And we Mumbaikars are its kids who helplessly watch this whore who provides for us. I think it is true for the entire country, not just Mumbai!

All of us are fed up potholes. The potholes are of all shapes and sizes, all depths, at all locations. They are so prominent that you can find them even on flyovers and highways. I even wrote a satirical post about it here. 

What I’m going to enlighten you will blow your minds off. Do you know that a UK citizen can claim for damages if his car has suffered mechanical failures due to potholes? Do you know that UK pays out more than £ 50 million as compensation claims due to poor roads? Don’t believe me, check it out here.  

It feels so great to read and know that these countries are accountable! As an Indian citizen, I do not want a lot from the government. I just want accountability. Simple! But the people of this country were enslaved for over 3 centuries and went scot-free on 15^th August 1947. For over 3 centuries there was somebody else who was accountable to us. We went to ‘them’ with our problems. We forgot what it means to be accountable. We still do what we did in those three enslaving centuries, we blame each other and want somebody else to come and clear the mess.

The majorities of people choose to stay mute and try to make a living and do not pay heed to things like potholes even though it is the cause of their botched up cars, injured backs, stress, high blood pressure and rage. This majority stays silent because it is busy trying to make a living.

Amongst the miniscule minority who pays heed and are aware, who tries to change and does something to change, are unfortunately defeated by the system. They end up feeling sorry for their standard of life and sorry for their country and insulate themselves.

And then there are the smart ones who do not want to compromise! These people in search of nothing but good standard of life move out of this country to some place where they do not have to worry about petty issues. The media calls it brain drain. I call it ‘Accountability’s Gain’.

I feel, I do not know what to do. If there is someone who knows how to bring accountability in our system let me know. Maybe we can start something which can be a spark a revolution which will lead to this country’s latent metamorphosis.

Like any other of the few ordinary educated, informed and well read citizens, it pains me because I know that the grass indeed is greener on the other side.

Harvard Invites BMC to Lecture White House!

In a world where governments try hard to work within deadlines and provide world class solutions to the public, BMC stands apart. Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation or BMC is a body which has some credentials that nobody can match with. 

The constant year round digging of roads and perfectly imperfect patchwork was noticed by Harvard. They were totally amazed to see the year round precision in digging roads and the amateurishly ingenius ways of filling it. What attracted Harvard was the true artistic blend of tar and dirt in patching up the road. 

The dean of Harvard said, "Even a 10 year old American kid would know how to make a straight levelled patchwork on the roads. What truly amazes me is that how do grown up Engineers, Contractors and Supervisors not make a levelled road! It takes true courage, grit and determination to forget one's basics to create art in simple contracting and engineering." 

The dean's eyes swelled with tears of sheer joy when he spoke the above words. He continued by wiping off a tear, "And the sheer act of filling up potholes with gravel, mud and very rarely tar makes me think, why don't we have artists like these in America? Why? There are so many good things that happens when the potholes are filled with gravel. And even better things when they are left in peace as every pothole has a story to say! I've come to know women undergoing labour pains have felt so relieved when their ambulances pass through the gaping potholes. So many families have saved money because these women gave birth on way because of the crests and curves of the artisitic patchwork and unique strategically formed potholes! In our country people go to the gym for boxing. In Mumbai they just fight on the road because of these one of a kind inventive, crafty roads lead to beautiful traffic snarls.We want to study the benefits of roads like Mumbai. In Mumbai, cars die down in maximum 4-5 years because of the roads whereas here even when someone sells it after a decade, it's almost perfect. No wonder car companies are lining up in India. We have to save our car companies and save them from bankruptcies. People will buy cars when their old cars wear down. We need roads like Mumbai to revive our industry. There are so many parallel industries which will be supported. For example the fitness industry, especially the back pain specialists will thrive. Shrinks will be overloaded with frustrated people. I can't imagine the endless imagination. I'm so happy that I want to cry!"

He continues, "We have always been Consumerism driven country and we want our countrymen to spend more. With roads like Mumbai, businesses in USA will sprout like weed and grass." (apparently the dean was high, I guess)

The Americans will save USA by building Mumbai like roads! We wanted to be the Shanghai of India, but destiny had other plans. BMC has put Mumbai literally, in USA! The American people have filed a petition to rename Washington DC to Mumbaston BMC. It's said that there will be a paan spitting competition inside the White House to make all corners glow in red to welcome the BMC delegates so that they feel at home.  

Mr. Roadaala Phaadkar, Mr. Jantaala Chodkar, Mr. Paiselaa Khaakar, Mr. Khawoon Dakaarmaarkar and Mr. Yeda Banaakar visited for a guest lecture at the White House organized by Harvard.(Don't ask me how!)   

Mr. Yeda Banaakar felt very proud today. People put a city on the map of another country, but BMC literally put  a whole country in his city! He started his speech, "We don't do anything special to create art on roads. We follow one simple rule that defines us. This is the first time that it is been shared with the common public. It's our life's motto and it goes like this. HUMEIN SIRF KHODNAA AUR CHODNAA AATA HAI. (we only know to dig and fuck) Jahaan hum raaste mein khadday khodtay hain aur public ki khushi chodtay hain!"

Listening these golden words the President of USA Firaaq Yedamaa leapt out of his seat and started hitting his head like Nana Patekar. Why? Because he realised his mistake. He wanted to bring change for the good to revive his country. But actually his country needed change for the bad! The Indians knew it. This is the reason of India's lightning fast progress. DON'T GIVE A FUCK ABOUT THE PEOPLE. JUST GET BUSINESS! Simple. It wasn't a Nana Patekar moment, it was a 'why didn't we think of this' moment. 

How shameless we Mumbaikars are? We should spit on each other's face for accusing BMC to do a shoddy job all round the year. If they had not been so artistically creative, USA couldn't have saved itself. We are so selfish to think that a huge chunk of our tax money goes to some ingenius officers' pockets. Don't you know, they deserve this money. They put so much time to think and create 'art on road'. We are so narrow minded that we wanted precision of levelled roads. How stupid we all are? It's only with open minds we can understand that when we were expecting basic contracting, simple engineering jobs which required minor child like planning, the geniuses of this great agency were creating art and subconsciously saving USA! 

Move over M. F. Hussain, BMC is here! 

P.S. I'm just too frustrated by Mumbai roads, thought to vent out 'artistically creative' way :p (I know I have used these two words a lot!)