When The Building Came Alive

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Kasturi Dhama Apartments — the play area where many evenings came alive. The lights would go out without warning. For a brief second, the entire building would fall silent. Then, from somewhere in Kasturi Dhama Apartments, a chorus would erupt. “Yayyy!” It is difficult to imagine children celebrating a power failure today. But in the Bangalore of the nineties and early 2000s, a power cut did not always feel like an inconvenience. Especially in the late evenings, it felt like permission. Permission to stop whatever we were doing, leave the darkness inside our homes, and step into the building outside. Before Kasturi Dhama became home, we had moved through a few different parts of Bangalore. My family had begun in Srirampuram and Vyalikaval before gradually cementing ourselves in Malleswaram for the next few decades. My earliest memory is of living in a vatara —a Kannada word loosely used for a building or a cluster of homes—on 15th Cross, near Karur Vy...

What freedom of Speech?

It is funny to see the Congress party harping on the Aamir Khan issue, saying that freedom of speech and expression has been violated. On the same vein, the Punjab Congress government has not authorised the theatre owners to play The DaVinci Code. Why does Congress always gets involved in double standards? We live in a democratic society and the same yardstick should be used to determine issues that fall on the same side of the argument. But, sadly political parties flounder badly on these issues and end up issuing statements that are hardly in sync with the previously issued ones.

Take for instance the Karan Thapar interview of Arjun Singh on the quota issue. One cannot expect worse answers from a person who is supposed to be holding an important post in the cabinet. Any question posed was met with a response: I am just following the instructions of the Parliament. I cannot comment on this now. The Parliament has taken the decision and I, as a member am just following it. Truly unbearable! I guess, the reason for his being mum on the issue is because maybe he does not believe in the freedom of speech!

Why talk about Aamir, DaVinci Code controversy and other things, when we have people who proclaim to dispense freedom of speech, but then end up with total disorientation and disarray leaving us wonder whether they are really for freedom of speech or freedom of mum!

Comments

  1. well praveen atlast i got to read ur blog...and i just loved the interview..thanks alot for the link...its amazing how ppl get to study in top colleges because they have privilege to be born as an OBC/SC/ST and i have seen so many of my dad's student in IIT how finish their Btech "aaram se"...well its high time things change ....
    Shweta

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