From: Sachin Shyam Deshmukh
Sent: Thursday, April 28, 2011 2:45 PM
To: Dnyaneshwar Daspute; Gaurav Rajendra Navgire; Deshpande, Akshay; Chetan Jivanrao Deshpande01; Gopal Sharma; Kedar Arun Kashikar; Pravin Dattatraya Patil03; Shobhit Bansal; Vikrant Vijay Mahajan
Subject: RE: Hell with the World Cup; to hell with the celebrations; to hell with all the free land and money being showered by different governments on the players
Yellow wali line par to mai bhi fida Anna…ekdam dhasu!!
And what I don’t support is , we cant stop praising those who hav brought glory to our country just becoz the other part is not happy enough.
Yes we don’t celebrate when someone is not well at home but the situation our country is going through is not a common illness. Consider a family with two children , one suffering from paralysis attack nd the other one fit nd fine who is good at whatever he does. If the parents stop praising the other one , then where from will motivation come for him.
Of course we can’t neglect farmers but at the same time we should not neglect our heroes too.
What I hated most was the topic of the article. After all we should not forget ours is a socialist country and not a Communist one.
From: Dnyaneshwar Daspute [mailto:dnyaneshward@cybage.com]
Sent: Thursday, April 28, 2011 1:10 PM
To: Gaurav Rajendra Navgire; Sachin Shyam Deshmukh; Deshpande, Akshay; Chetan Jivanrao Deshpande01; Gopal Sharma; Kedar Arun Kashikar; Pravin Dattatraya Patil03; Shobhit Bansal; Vikrant Vijay Mahajan
Subject: RE: Hell with the World Cup; to hell with the celebrations; to hell with all the free land and money being showered by different governments on the players
Yellow wala sentence bahot mast laga bhai… J
Aur haan don’t forget that though farmers or whoever are suffering due to government’s mismanagement, almost all of them cheered for world cup victory… so as they cricket is India’s religion… it has ultimate power to make people forget everything else…. J
Regards,
Dnyaneshwar Daspute,Sr. Database Administrator
Cybage Software Pvt. Ltd. (An SEI-CMMI Level 5 assessed & ISO 27001 Company)
Pune, India
Phone(O):91-20-66041700, Ext:6035
Fax:91-20-66041701
From: Gaurav Rajendra Navgire [mailto:Gaurav_Navgire@infosys.com]
Sent: Thursday, April 28, 2011 12:41 PM
To: Sachin Shyam Deshmukh; Dnyaneshwar Daspute; Deshpande, Akshay; Chetan Jivanrao Deshpande01; Gopal Sharma; Kedar Arun Kashikar; Pravin Dattatraya Patil03; Shobhit Bansal; Vikrant Vijay Mahajan
Subject: RE: Hell with the World Cup; to hell with the celebrations; to hell with all the free land and money being showered by different governments on the players
Well said Janya!
Sachya why don’t you support? The Mercedes loan thing can be a bit exaggeration to make the context more promising.
The author expressed his intense anger/dissatisfaction concerning farmer’s condition with respect to the urban society and the government. It’s his personal view, which makes sense.
If I have to add up to the article and to what Janya said then I will say that, our society is divided into subsets and each subset is blind to the other. The subsets are: the government, the service class people, the media and the agriculture class people. Its because of the government and media that we, the service class people , come to know about the agriculture class people and vice versa. So it’s the job of the media and the government to make sure that if India is winning a world cup then the farmer and the worker stand together and cheer. What happening since past years is that these three subsets, excluding agriculture class, are not doing the job they ought to do and hence the inequality and farmer suicides.
The solution for this is simple, do justice to your duties. If a person is there at a position where he makes the strategic decisions then he must do his duty to the extent of his excellence. And our duty is to elect that person. And the duty of the media is to give us the report to the best of their work. And then only the duty of the farmer will be simple enough to deliver the food we eat and cloth we wear.
But the only thing that disturbs this solution is mans thirst for Money and Power.
From: Sachin Shyam Deshmukh
Sent: Thursday, April 28, 2011 11:56 AM
To: Dnyaneshwar Daspute; Deshpande, Akshay; Chetan Jivanrao Deshpande01; Gaurav Rajendra Navgire; Gopal Sharma; Kedar Arun Kashikar; Pravin Dattatraya Patil03; Shobhit Bansal; Vikrant Vijay Mahajan
Subject: RE: Hell with the World Cup; to hell with the celebrations; to hell with all the free land and money being showered by different governments on the players
Thank you for taking out time and sharing your view, I would love if others too contribute their bit .
P.S. : Is it true that u can get a loan for buying Mercedes at 6 % ?? I doubt it.
From: Dnyaneshwar Daspute [mailto:dnyaneshward@cybage.com]
Sent: Thursday, April 28, 2011 10:59 AM
To: Sachin Shyam Deshmukh; Deshpande, Akshay; Chetan Jivanrao Deshpande01; Gaurav Rajendra Navgire; Gopal Sharma; Kedar Arun Kashikar; Pravin Dattatraya Patil03; Shobhit Bansal; Vikrant Vijay Mahajan
Subject: RE: Hell with the World Cup; to hell with the celebrations; to hell with all the free land and money being showered by different governments on the players
Ideally the guy is right. We don’t feel like enjoying ourselves or celebrating success if someone from our family is ill. So ideally I feel the author is right in saying that “how can we celebrate when farmers are committing suicides”.
However it would be not wise to feel endlessly sad about whatever mess is all around. We can celebrate good thing and work towards betterment of bad as well. I think responsible citizens do it. I also think that the awareness about this responsibility is increasing otherwise Lokpal bill wouldn’t be in process and Raja and Kalmadi wouldn’t be in jail. Media has a significant contribution in this.
I am seeing so many channels continuously bringing corruption topics upfront. If some channels are still concentrating more on glamor it’s just because some of us still don’t give a damn to social issues and enjoy watching fashion shows than repeated farmers stories and maybe rightly so. People seek entertainment when they are come home stressed and not an opportunity to do social work.
Personally I feel no bad in awarding cricketers as they have made us proud and happy. It just doesn’t seem good in current circumstances because politicians suck in overall development otherwise few crores is no big deal for India.
Solutions is to just become aware of all good and bad and get ourselves involved in the betterment process. People complain that they don’t have enough power to do anything. Thank god every Indian don’t think so! J
Regards,
Dnyaneshwar Daspute,Sr. Database Administrator
Cybage Software Pvt. Ltd. (An SEI-CMMI Level 5 assessed & ISO 27001 Company)
Pune, India
Phone(O):91-20-66041700, Ext:6035
Fax:91-20-66041701
From: Sachin Shyam Deshmukh [mailto:Sachin_Deshmukh@infosys.com]
Sent: Thursday, April 28, 2011 9:52 AM
To: Deshpande, Akshay; Chetan Jivanrao Deshpande01; Dnyaneshwar Daspute; Gaurav Rajendra Navgire; Gopal Sharma; Kedar Arun Kashikar; Pravin Dattatraya Patil03; Shobhit Bansal; Vikrant Vijay Mahajan
Subject: Hell with the World Cup; to hell with the celebrations; to hell with all the free land and money being showered by different governments on the players
What do u guys have to say abt it…..????
I don’t support this article, what’s ur take ??
THE HINDU 24th April Sunday – Open-Page Article
Yes, you read it right; to hell with the World Cup; to hell with the celebrations; to hell with all the free land and money being showered by different governments on the players. How can I jump, scream, have gallons of beer and cheer for the nation when a few kilometres away the farmers and feeders of my country are taking their own lives in hordes?
Do you know that, on average, 47 farmers have been committing suicide every single day in the past 16 years in our shining India — the next economic power, progressive with nine per cent growth?
Last month, on March 5, Friday evening, when Bangalore's watering holes were getting filled up, when all the DJs were blaring out deafening music, when we were busy discussing India's chances at the World Cup, sitting in CCDs and Baristas — just 100 km away from Bangalore, Swamy Gowda and Vasanthamma, a young farmer couple, hanged themselves, leaving their three very young children to fend for themselves or, most likely, die of malnutrition.
Why did they do it? Were they fighting? No. Were they drunkards? No. Did they have incurable diseases? No! Then WHY? Because they were unable to repay a loan of Rs 80,000 (a working IT couple's one month salary? 2-3 months EMI?) for years, which had gradually increased to Rs. 1.2 lakh. Because they knew that now they would never be able to pay it back. Because they were hurt. Hurt by our government which announced a huge reduction in import duty for silk in this year's budget (from 30 per cent to 5 per cent).They were struggling silk farmers and instead of help from the government, they get this! Decrease in import duty means the markets will now be flooded with cheap Chinese silk (as everything else!) and our own farmers will be left in the lurch.
On average, 17,000 farmers have been committing suicide every year, for the past 15 years on the trot. Can you believe it? Most of us wouldn't know this fact. Why? Because, our great Indian media, the world's biggest media, are not interested in reporting this! Why? Because they are more interested in covering fashion week extravaganzas. They are more interested in ‘why team India was not practising when Pakistanis were sweating it out in stadium on the eve of the match?' They are more interested in Poonam Pandey.
The media are supposed to be the third eye of democracy and also called the fourth estate, but now they have become real estate. Pure business.
So any attention from the media is out of the question. Who is left then? The government? But we all know how it works. The other day, I was passing by Vidhan Soudha in Bangalore and happened to read the slogan written at the entrance, “Government work is god's work”. Now I know why our government has left all its work to god!
Karnataka Chief Minister B.S. Yeddyurappa announced plots for all the players. But land? In Bangalore? You must be kidding, Mr. C.M.. So he retracts and now wants to give money. But where will it come from? Taxes, yours and mine. Don't the poor farmers need the land or money more than those players who are already earning in crores?
A government-owned bank will give you loan at six per cent interest rate if you are buying a Mercedes but if a poor farmer wants to buy a tractor, do you know how much it is charging him? Fifteen per cent! Look at the depths of inequality. Water is Rs. 15 a litre and a SIM card is for free! For how long can we bite the hand that is feeding us? The recent onion price fiasco was just a trailer. Picture abhi baaki hai doston!
In 2008, Lakme India fashion show venue was in a Mumbai five-star hotel and was covered by 500 journalists and the theme was ‘Cotton'. A few hours drive from there, cotton farmers were committing suicide, 4 or 5, everyday! How many TV journalists covered this? Zero!
Sixty-seventy per cent of India's population is living on less than Rs. 20 a day. A bottle of Diet coke for us? The electricity used in a day-night match could help a farmer irrigate his fields for more than a few weeks! Do you know that loadshedding is also class dependent? Two hours in metros, 4 in towns and 8 in villages. Now, who needs electricity more? A farmer to look after his crop day and night, irrigate, pump water and use machines or a few bored, young professionals with disposable incomes, to log on to Facebook and watch IPL?
How can we splurge thousands on our birthday parties and zoom past in our AC vehicles and sit in cushy chairs in our AC offices and plan a weekend trip to Coorg when on the way, in those small villages, just a few minutes' walk from the roads, someone might be consuming pesticide or hanging himself from a tree for just Rs.10, 000? How can we?
There was much panic when there was swine flu. Every single death in the country was reported second by second, minute by minute. Why? Because it directly affected our salaried, ambitious, tech-savvy, middle-class. So there were masks, special relief centres, enquiry centres set up by government to please this section. On the other hand, 47 people are dying, every single day for the past 15 years. Anybody cared to do anything?
It has been observed that within months of a farmer taking his life, his wife follows, either by poisoning the kids first or leaving them on their own. In Anantapur, Andhra Pradesh, a distressed woman farmer went to the government seed shop, bought a bottle of pesticide, on credit, went home and drank it. She was under debt for most of her life and now — even her death was on credit!
Centuries ago, there was a Roman emperor, called Nero. He was a strong ruler and also very fond of parties, art, poetry, drinking and a life full of pleasures. Once he decided to organise a grand party and invited all poets, writers, dancers, painters, artists, intellectuals and thinkers of society. Everybody was having a great time eating, drinking, laughing, and socialising. The party was at its peak when it started getting dark. Nero wanted the party to go on. So he ordered and got all the arrested criminals, who were in his jails, around the garden and put them on fire! Burnt them alive, so that there was enough light for the guests to keep on enjoying! The guests had a gala time though they knew the cost of their enjoyment. Now, what kind of conscience those guests had?
Nero's guests
What is happening in our country is not different from Nero's party. We, the middle-class-young-well-earning-mall-hopping-IPL-watching and celebrating-junta are Nero's guests enjoying at the cost of our farmers. Every budget favours the already rich. More exemptions are being given to them at the cost of grabbing the land of our farmers in the name of SEZs, decrease in import duties in the name of neo-liberal policies, increase in the loan interest rates if the product is not worth lakhs and crores. Yes, that's what we are, Nero's guests!
I'm not against celebrations. I'm not against cricket. I'm not against World Cup. I would be the first person to scream, celebrate and feel proud of any of India's achievements but, only if all fellow countrymen, farmers, villagers also stand with me and cheer; only if they do not take their own lives ruthlessly, only if there is no difference between interest rates for a Mercedes and a tractor. That would be the day I also zoom past on a bike, post-Indian win, with an Indian Flag in hand and screaming Bharat Mata Ki Jai. But no, not today. Not at the cost of my feeders. Until then, this is what I say. To hell with your malls. To hell with your IPL. To hell with your World Cup. And to hell with your celebrations.
BUT WHATS THE SOLUTION!!!
