Why I didn't know Kailash Satyarthi ?

Why did the media ignore Kailash Satyarthi ? It was barely hours after the news broke that I stumbled upon this post by none other than Mr Kingshuk Nag, TOI's Hyderabad editor', on a popular social media portal. Nag goes on to explain it further in his blog which was carried prominently by TimesofIndia.com. “I have a confession to make. I have not heard of Kailash Satyarthi till the news broke about him...,” the first line explains it all about our media, more so our elite English media of this country. Irony is you hardly expect such a story under the banner of TOI. Thanks to Nag, it created quite a flutter on the day.

Interestingly, there were many such voices on social media who were quite vocal about their ignorance. As reads one of them, “I too had not heard or read about him. Isn't it sad how our media spend all their time discussing politicians and completely ignore the good things people are doing!.” As sums of another observer, “ We are late-lateef: Gandhi first got recognition in South Africa, Vivekananda in the US...so the Govt of India's turn to do a serious think about it!!!.”

A quick glance of news channels would tell you how our media fraternity is good at making up. Series of stories on Kailash Satyarthi and there was no end to it. As if, all of a sudden, the reporting on child rights became so fashionable on Indian soil except for Times Now which was still discovering the mystery behind Sunanda Pushkar's death. Coming to the story, while most of the reports be it print or electronic were passing the news, there was hardly any story explaining why media had shut the door on the matter of Kailash Satyarthi earlier or it was just a coincidence ?

The following update from a little bird on Facebook suggests an exclusive yet to come. “I had tried to help his media person a friend of mine about ten years back..very few journalist wrote on NGOs.. however I was very politely told as Satyatri had broken from Swami Agnivesh who had lots of friends in media...he may not be covered......this may answer many ???

Prominent Hindi daily Dainik Bhaskar though mentioned that Kailash Satyarthi used to write for the newspaper. Incidentally, the newspaper also repeated the editorial of 10^th October 2006 on Child Rights issue the same day. Social media, like any other day, had quite a few interesting updates on the person. The man was recognized by the US State Department in 2007 as a "Hero Acting to End Modern Day Slavery", said one post by Ch Sushil Rao, a media professional based in Hyderabad while another on sharing stage with Jairam Ramesh and the likes for a programme in the same city a couple of years back.

A common check with an IT engineer sharing the home town and the school with the person would give a better perspective on the entire episode. “He was one of us doing his job caring little for any tangible and quick benefits including media coverage,” that's how sums up Vijaya Shrivastava, an IT engineer at NTPC Korba, who hails from Vidisha in Madhya Pradesh.

So it was truly ironical that Kailash won it without most of us knowing him, forget the media and then international media. It was ironical he shared it with a Pakistani when firing was on along the LoC of both the countries. It was ironical even that Malala's rise to fame put her in a context opposed to Kailash's journey so far.

For many, Malala has been western media's blue-eyed girl whose story fits well into the western narrative of the oriental oppression, in which the context underlying the creation of the oppression is left out. “The Western world can feel good about itself as they save the native woman from the savage men of her home nation. It is a historic racist narrative that has been institutionalised,” comments Assed Baig, the Pakistan-origin journalist based in the UK, adding “the actions of the West, the bombings, the occupations the wars all seem justified now. See, we told you, this is why we intervene to save the natives.”

Elaborates a fellow thinker, Another reality is the story of Abeer Qassim Hamza al-Janabi, 14-year-old Iraqi girl, who was gang raped by five U.S. Army soldiers and killed in her house in Yusufiyah (Iraq) in 2006. She was raped and murdered after her parents and six-year-old sister Hadeel Qasim Hamza were killed. Also not irrelevant to mention is that Abeer was going to school before the US invasion but had to stop going because of her father’s concerns for her safety. And while the West applauds Malala (as they should), I am afraid it might be for the wrong reasons, or with a wrong perspective. It feels like the West wants to gain an agenda that suits them or the policies they want. That is also why Malala’s views on Islam are rarely presented. She uses her faith as a framework to argue for the importance of education rather than making Islam a justification for oppression, but that is rarely mentioned.

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All of us are habituated with a free and fair media that asks question to almost everybody with an objective to uphold the basic principles of democracy. We are often used to extensive coverage on certain issues in the media, at times trivialisation of news. Media points fingure at many things since it is its job. But who is out there to point fingure at media when media itself is caught on wrong foot, or misses something to cover, or jumps the gun ?

In the end, my question largely remains as it is. Why I didn't know Kailash Satyarthi ? Why I knew it from Reuters the other day, not from TOI or HT or Bhaskar or Rediff.com before ?

Swachchh Bharat

For the beginners, Rat was to spearhead the Swachchh Bharat drive in the absence of Cat and was thus reporting directly to Wolf these days. Though Rat wanted to give it a miss like previous occasions citing his presence before a Commission of Inquiry, he had reasons to stay back so that he could well utilise the absence of Cat and give Wolf a new hope which had been missing for quite some time.

My goodness, this 2^nd October, it was a bad day. I started at 6 am and it took me till 1.30 pm to take a breath. That's precisely one and half hours late as the deadline to upload the video on Swachchh Bharat Abhiyan onto You-Tube was fixed at 12.30 pm sharp. In between, the Rat had superimposed a confusion called the preponing of the live broadcast of the PM's speech, thus putting my PR-skills at toss. As employees of a Govt Undertaking, we had to watch it live and the recorded footage of the same was to be sent to our Corporate counterparts so that the same could be made available to the minister concerned by 4 pm of the day. In between, we had organised good number of programmes, such as shram dan for cleaning at public places and awareness campaigns. Despite it was Maha-Astami day of Goddess Durga, I had to be on my toes. Out of say 1500 people, may be 50-60 participated in all these programmes and were free once they are over. But, my job was extended till my Corporate counterpart received the email, till the newspaper fellow opened my press release, till the edited footage reached its destination, till some additional banners were done with the new logo in the twelfth hour.

But before I could complete my breath and start preparing my breakfast-cum-lunch, it was Rat on the other side of the phone. This time, Rat wanted eight more banners as the name of the schools under Swachh Vidyalay (read Toilet) Aviyan were changed by our Corporate Mahanuvabs. For a second, I could not understand how somebody sitting in heaven could decide in which schools at Korba the toilets should come up ? When the symbolic foundation laying had been done in two schools and the reports/photographs had been sent to the higher-ups, where was the need for this hurry ? Even if you work on a marathon speed, the banners could be at your disposal only after 2-3 hours, which means by 5 pm. After that, if you start visiting all the eight schools, you can complete the symbolic foundation laying puja by 8 pm. Then if you send the photographs, who's going to open it in the first place? But Rat has an answer. It was not him, the Wolf wanted this. At this, I politely conveyed my inability to carry out at this juncture citing my points-men were all on holiday and are not available for this service. Neither had I any assistant to get this job done, thus pointing him to explore other options. However, I assured him that the official photographer would accompany to capture the visuals.

Because I knew from my past experience, it was not Wolf. It was Rat himself. Rat's unprecedented Thanks Giving to Wolf after the morning pledge-taking was an eye opener that day. Mrs Wolf and her clan were there in the august gathering. Anyway, Rat again remembered me at 8.30 pm as photographs were obtained from all the eight as per his commitment to Wolf and I quickly logged on to email all of them, knowing well why Rat was doing it, and why I was doing it.

Tail Piece : Finding Fanny was easier than finding a right photograph of our Ladies Club's Swachchh Bharat Aviyan. All they were doing was gigling, grabbing a jhadu, posing with their fancy sarees, to the camera fellow. What's their to clean when you chose a place having no garbage ? But I had a bigger problem. Which photo should I send to the media so that it should not contradict that they were the better-halves ? As always, here also, Rat can have an idea to throw!!

Being a 'Laggard'

When some of my fellow-beings ask me, or rather pinch me, these days to change the long-time Nokia handset to a brand new smart phone, I return them with a well-extended smile and with the usual tagline "m a poor fellow". In some occasions though I had to elaborate.

My present job profile, to my understanding, does not need a smart phone at this stage since the job can be well done without having a facebook, a twitter or a watsapp on the go!!  You cannot adopt smartness by purchasing a high-end gadzet. Or else if you think that you can, it no way helps in my work in the present context. To elaborate it further, when you can't expect a reply from your higher-ups through email, when you have to take print-out of 12-15 pages to get approval of many tiny things on daily basis, I don't find any logic of using a smart phone resulting in any help to my work. The fellow who has experience of working in PSU or Govt sector can well imagine the fate of  rhetorics like paper-less office or to that extent, digital India!!

The point I would like to draw here is all I need is to call a person or send sms. That's well done through the handset I have.I don't need an Android phone for that.

Despite my take on social media, I do visit facebooks to get a glimpse of what's happening around. I do it occasionally, when I have time and have nothing creative to do, which is again a rare occurance thesedays. I would love to be the father and husband in me, then being with any virtual  'other'.

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Alas, comments like "nice pik" on the wall (of others) spoil my mood. The average updates on the Wall will be like somebody uploads a selfie while brushing his/her teeth and 97 others like him/her line up to like it within a hour.

I can't do that and that's why I only navigate to update myself, sometimes get to read good stories and nice quotes which is easily accessible on the same platform. At times, I think that people opt for facebooks as it provides them with an alternative to their love, relationship, infedility. It's titillating to that sense and that's why they love to spend most of the time regardless of what they are doing, what they are eating, talking and where they are standing.

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In the long turn, this trend may cause a sure setback to our culture by creating a population of loners. The social loners!!!

Tail Piece : Incidentally, I got to read the story of the Washington Post. It was like what I wanted to convey long back. Thanks again to Facebook, courtesy one my old pal of Times Days. Read on.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-intersect/wp/2014/10/03/back-up-husbands-emotional-affairs-and-the-rise-of-digital-infidelity/?tid=sm_fb