Candlelight tamsha
Candles have always been associated with romantic dinners, aromatic baths and love-making sessions for the rich. For the rest of us though candles are the first thing our hands reach to in case of a power cut during the long summer evenings. Almost each one of us has studied for atleast one exam under the light and warmth of a candle. It’s a different story however where morons like me spend time perfecting shadow animals instead of reading about Lord Dalhousie and his ‘Doctrine of Lapse‘. Candles were a welcome replacement for people tired of lanterns and bulbs of petromax lights. Our moms miraculously always could reach out to the candle whenever the power snapped, it was almost magical. I’m sure each one of you can relate to the scene where the darkness of a hot sticky evening is broken by the glow of the candle on your mothers face. We’ve all played with the flame of a candle as it dances like a courtesan when you run your fingers through it. The advent of affordable emergency lamps has hampered the candle business in cities though one might suspect a candle-maker and electricity board nexus in the smaller towns! This post isn’t about the different layers of a candle flame nor is it about modern day aromatic candles. The former an be found in a 5th grade NCERT textbook and only heroines of yesteryear who are desperate for invites to Page3 parties indulge in the latter.
In the past couple of weeks my inbox
has
been flooded
with pictures, messages
and invitesmy inbox has been flooded with pictures, messages and invites to various candlelight marches in various cities of India. The slide shows that accompany them are sure promising and strong enough to evince interest. There was one wherein protesters were requested to bring a picture of themselves that would be burnt in an act of self-immolation. Why you may ask, well the answer was that it was supposed to send a message to the two favorite worms of the society, terrorists and politicians. We love to find a person to blame and when we do find one, we have a go at them with everything we’ve got. I don’t mean to support either here but rather stand and watch the events unfold. One thing was clearly evident from all these mails, people were angry and wanted urgent action. They more seemed like out of personal insecurity rather than expressing sorrow. There were however strong emotions attached that made people emote and this ensured strong media presence. There was plenty of media fodder like posters and t-shirt carrying vocative messages and plenty of slogan shouting. I still remember the day I woke up to live coverage of the candle walks in 6 cities with media personnel getting bytes from highly effervescent protesters.
Candlelight walks are the new in-thing and newest form of silent protest after human chains. I see a lot of tweets where people ask each other if they are attending one of these. Gives me the feeling that it’s become like a social responsibility and a lot of people are expressing their solidarity only because they don’t wish to be left out. It’s sad that such meets lose their cause the moment people attend only for bragging rights at next weeks party or office gossip. It’s cool now to go out and be part of such a protest and even better if you’re caught on camera. There is a lot of interest in these events and every group vying for some airtime, that results in multiple candlelight vigils at different times of the day in different landmarks of the city. They are also the easiest and cheapest means of protesteasiest and cheapest means of protest all you need is a bunch of people to conglomerate near a landmark with a candle in their hand, a slogan on their lips and an hour at their disposal. For those of you who feel that I have sinned in attacking this gregarious display of emotion, let me clarify that I have no problem with ones right to protest but I only wish to see the other side of it and whether they really make a difference. There is also a feel good factor associated with these candlelight protests for your shirts maintain their crease and they don’t get soiled or stink in sweat. There are no burning stomachs, parched throats or bruises of a police lathi, atmost you might sound hoarse after some slogan shouting. Protest is a word we associate with acts of civil disobedience like the satyagraha and hence calling these candlelight vigils as a protest is like demeaning the very word.
Calling Malaika a matured actress might sound like sacrilegeCalling Malaika a matured actress might sound like sacrilege to many, especially when the term is often associated with divas like Madhuri Dixit, Sridevi etc. Mature yes, but of a different kind(NSFW) and my feeling towards such events is somewhat on the same lines. All you do is loiter around for some chitchat and vent your frustration in life by shouting slogans and spewing hate on the politicians. The attention span in these cases is shorter than the short-term memory of Ghajini for both the viewer and protester. Let’s just safely put their expiry at the melting candles or till the TV cameras hop onto something more interesting. There is no followup nor does anyone pick up the pieces and take it forward, it’s just like that movie you downloaded that your friend recommended which now lies orphaned in your downloads folder. People hold them just for the sake of holding them without any afterthought or strategy to channelize this anger and they are just like dangling pointers in C++. My initial thought was that these vigils were meant to express solidarity in a time of sorrow and showing support for the victims. It however turns out that they were instead targeting politicians and either wanted to offer them to the sea god or turn them to the firing squad.
Mind you that this is the voice of the working and educated middle class, who will shape the future of our country. I fail to comprehend how this mass genocide of the lawmakersmass genocide of the lawmakers would solve any of our problems and the culling of the very political system that gave us the right to protest openly. War is never an option and that should be pretty clear by now, having observed our brothers in the west. Acting in haste in a fit of emotions always seems the right thing to do then, but we fail to stifle our emotions and think if we would ever repent in the future. I followed the broadcasts religiously for it was my morning dose of news but I failed to see even one constructive message that showed any promise or looked at the larger issue of accountability. All they yelled in unison was the need for an authoritarian rule that would keep people in the fear of a sword hanging above their neck. This is very similar to the emergency rule where trains and buses ran on time and the streets were always promptly cleaned. I’m quite not sure if that is what we should be rooting for, though it may seem logical to a few.
You may argue that these vigils were successful as the backlash of angry protesters led to resignations of the Chief Minister and the Union Home Minister. Think all you may but the fact stills remains that these were a result of political calculations. The Govt had to outscore the oppositionGovt had to outscore the opposition that was going to use this as a weapon going into the polls in summer. Also few heads had to roll to suppress the anger of the people and ensure that it didn’t spread beyond Mumbai. For a long time there have been discussions about the incompetence and inefficiency of the two men and the attacks were just a catalyst. The protesters have nothing to cheer about all the anti-politician hate that was spilled in the streets as the replacements were again politicians, with a cleaner image maybe. What do we gain from these marches? An hours worth of live media coverage, a couple of panel discussions at prime time, some articles in the paper and letters to the editor! This doesn’t include the traffic snarls and tonnes of molten wax on the streets. Molten wax isn’t degradable and is just unnecessary pollution the way I see it. Since nobody is going to achieve anything this way and this is all going to be forgotten pretty soon. I’d be happy if the elder leadership gives way to some young blood at cabinet posts for then we can atleast hope for some radical changes. Again it’s all going to be forgotten and people will get on with their lives.
The anti-politician anger was at it’s zenith when drama took place at the residences of the slain officers. The chief minister of Kerala was humiliated and the reason being that he visited only owing to his political compulsionshe visited only owing to his political compulsions. My question here being, don’t all politicians visit sites and families for political compulsions or are there any other reasons? Didn’t the Karnataka CM visit them out of political compulsions or did he know them personally? Personally I don’t subscribe to the ideals of communism but irrespective of all factors I’d still expect some respect for an 86yr old man of the same age as my grandfather. Again I don’t approve of the language used by them CM who in the anger of being turned away brought canines into the equation. In times of death, enmity is momentarily atleast forgotten however things got worse here. A quick flash to remind us of the women dancing in the ecstasy of lament during the pantheon games held to honor the death of Patroclus. It was quite contrasting to see the reaction in the Karkare household when the same man who spat fire against the officer for his investigation of the Hindu terror links, stood at their doorstep as the CM of Gujrat. He was treated as an elderly man and graciously shown his place. Now as I think of the sums of money handed out to the families of of the brave, isn’t that again a political compulsion and more like public pressure?
PS: Long post, kindly adjust…
(Image Courtesy : Frank Boenigk)
Hey thanks for those highlighted large fonted sentences on the right. That gives the gist of the post for lazy bums like me 🙂
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me: See i knew someone wud atleast find them usaeful!
Some of those thoughts crossed my mind too. The one about candle light vigils and the other on Achut. It was a controversy that could have been avoided by both the men involved.
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me: great minds think same same
“PS: Long post, kindly adjust…”
As long as there is a link to Malaika Arora, I’ll always adjust.
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me: I knew someone was bound to get that!
Great post, Max. For the revolutionary that I’m, I am no believer in candle-light vigils. I do not see the sense. We have to move away from just holding candles to death and do something about it, I think.
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me: Ejaatly my point, ppl think they have done their bit by burning a few candles!
One of my friends works for NDTV and wanted me to come for the candle light vigil here…i dint see the need for it and i refused…n then he actually told me ‘cmon, atleast tv la varuve’….pissed me off, though i dint say anythin out…
After the initial shock, it’s all just show…
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me: It’s all a stupid media exercise I say!
Great post again max…your posts are always thought provoking and refreshing, to say the least!
About the emails, yes I got a lot of those too..i feel like a bunch of empty vessels who have nothing better to do in life send them out with politically correct language..probably fearin that it might actually reach a high power person! seriously, neither do politicians, nor terrorists care two hoots for such messages. And also, once we get them, beyond using them as references for out blogs (no offense meant here), or chit chat conversations they serve no other purpose….
About the candle light thing too…i understand if the families of the victims carry out such marches..but for everyone else, specially celebs its just a way of gaining attention…
sorry for the long comment…but good post again! i’d love to qute specific lines of this post that i loved, but there are too many of those 🙂
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me: do you see me complaining? go ahead make a comment longer than the post itself! thengyoo again!
I read somewhere that ‘Democracy is where the people get no better than what they deserve’.
I totally agree with you. these candle light marches were initiated from the movie RDB. like in Jessica lal case people used it. Then came Munna bahi with his gandhigiri and that became a hype. now people attend these candle vigils & feel as they are in some satyagrahas for revolution.
i feel it is a good initiative but it seems to be going nowhere but to the primetime slot on news channels. showing how Indians are uniting. not very keen on that. though feel that results will come when educated youth enters politics. but that seems like a distant dream…..
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me: eventually that is all we want, but there seems to be a disconnect!
If you notice, these things are organized by 1) political parties, 2) washed up celebs/ near-lebs that need some free publicity and 3) the media outlets that need “exclusive” news- a trifecta of BS’ers that the rest of us would ignore if only we didn’t care about looking less caring than our neighbor.
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me: true, valid point. it’s sad though
Max,
On the candle light vigil:
As you said,it is a media exercise.The loss of life is only for the near and dear ones of the dead.
read this.
http://indiauncut.com/iublog/article/zen-and-the-art-of-mumbai-maintenance/
And media,it just makes a “senti situation” out of everything now.The Chennai cricket win brought our spirits back after Mumbai attack it seems.Hey! Whats the connection?
SRK is still acting.Sachin is still scoring centuries. The show must go on.
Media is just after TRPs. Thankfully, they did not talk about Parvathy Omanakuttan ending up as runner up at Miss World bringing back joy to all the Indians post 26/11.
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On the VS Achutanandan issue, the Major’s dad had shouted what meant “no one need to come here” The tone was bad, pardon him for his mental state.The literal translation of what he said would be “I do not want even a dog here”
Times Now which is nothing but the TOI with all its nonsense,asked VS about the comment the Major’s dad made.For this,he replied that had it not been the Major’s house,not even a dog would have visited.The word dog was in reply to a question referring to a comment that had the word dog.
The channel repeatedly showed the reply which amounted to quoting out of context to say the least.
A media stunt that gave them good number of viewers,became food for many bloggers etc.
-Nikhil
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me: Yea i got the ‘patti’ reference. Pretty sad that it was blown out of proportion!
I think one of the things that the terrorists want is political and social instability in the country. They have successfully stirred it and we have successfully fallen prey to it. It is the natural human reaction to be angry when you are hurt. It doesnt matter and nothing can be done about it.
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me: And we are running around like headless chicken!
The only time i studied under a candle light…i flunked hopelessly and had to write the exam 2 times over.!! 😛 😛
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me: result not imp, the act of candlelight study is!
This whole thing is confusing, no? This nebulous feeling that these candlelight protests are a nonsense though we are hard pressed to explain just WHY. My elder son asked me, the other day, why I thought candle light marches were stupid (they had had one in their school and I was heaping scorn on it). I could think of no honest reply. Just that I thought it was stupid. Meaningless, ineffectual, namby pamby. But then, what SHOULD we do? I think we need to make some very major fundamental political and constitutional changes but the question is HOW?
I think we need to think hard. Great post!
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me: everybody wants to do something but donno what to do. It results in something like this
dangling pointers? 😐
PS: maybe terrorists r scared of candles?
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me: Go read C++ again. if they are Arsonphobic it may help
Candlelight vigils are more than just a tamasha, they’re a post-tragedy revelry of sorts, for media, page-3 and other jobless people. It has become a fad. Who gains out of them except the candle-makers?
And about the resignation drama, there was a time when in the face of such tragedies, resignation of politicos was construed as a sign of acceptance of responsibility, in which I don’t really see a point. Today, the same act is carried out under pressure, again, to show what? I will never understand the logic behind resignations following national tragedies instead of more stringent action.
I don’t even want to talk about the comments these so-called netas make. It’s just a waste of time.
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me: angry young man! The govt needs you!
So true… I really cannot fathom how a bunch of people holding a candle can make any difference to those grieving families… But thinking again, how else do u get together with a hoard of like minded people to condemn what’s happening? Its almost like holding our own anti-political rally! (The desperados of the tinsel world are a different ball game altogether! But I did see hundreds of college students and aam aadmis holding nasty placards in the background!!)
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me: I agree that people should condemn the activities but we need to do something productive rather than just burn candles!
If my memory serves me right, it was post 9/11 that I saw for the first time many people light candles, as a mark of respect to honour the dead and to express grief, at the twin towers.
For some reason that has transmuted to express resistence/protest in India in recent years-especially by the middle class and elite who find it quesy to sit on a hunger fast/ silent protests or take a full-scale march and the like. The middle class act squeamish about protests as they seem to represent some form of anarchy that they discomfited by.A pre- Independent kind of bloodless protest of courting arrest is physically abhorrent for us, leave alone the fancy people.
I’d like to think this is a beginning even though it may seem superfluous. Earlier PLUs would protest and cuss in our comfortable drawing rooms;society folks would down their drinks and get into their limousines. Now candles are being lit and people are congregating -on the streets- to do it. Hopefully, more meaningful forms of people’s protest and resistence will emerge in the years to come in India out of these candle lit vigils/marches and mor pro active forms of protest will emerge.
Thought-tossing post this Babbu.
I agree people are congregating are are being drawn out of the comfort of their living rooms to the streets. This however needs to be channelized to something productive but in the present form is just another form of tamasha.
Though I agree that candlelight vigils are useless, ppl do not have any idea of what exactly they can do. Everybody wants to do something abt the Mumbai attack and hence the candle light vigils. If there is no proper direction or guidance for the populace, that if they do this so and so will happen, not much can be done and will be done.
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me: hence this post!
And what do we suggest we do?
My two cents on this is for India to become a Presidential democracy, summarized in my blog at http://disjointedlaptop.wordpress.com/2008/12/08/presidential-democracy-for-india/ , because it allows ppl to choose their own government, rather than politicians and it will allow a stable government that can rule confidently without worrying abt losing majority when a major decision comes to the table.
Hai U candlelight extinguisher,
When the Britishers lit candles to mourn Diana’s untimely death and the Americans lit candles at Ground Zero to mourn the 9/11 victims; the world world shared the sorrow of the people who lost their beloved and departed ones. But when we Desis light candles to mourn our 26/11 innocents, u mock and make fun of them.MOCAMBO KHUSH HUA. I recall Elton John’s “Candle in the wind” song. U must listen to it and try and become a little more human.
I just read nanditadasonline and this is what she had to say, “But the question still remains, what now? Should I carry on with business as usual, not out of apathy, but to defeat the desired impact of the terrorists? Their agenda is to get us into a panic and create an atmosphere of fear. What if I refuse to give them what they want? But on the flip side, what if I am unable to go on with business as usual? What if it is anguishing me in a way that I cannot ignore it and want to engage with it. As there is always a danger of becoming self absorbed in our own narrow world. In fact that is what is increasingly happening to many of us, the privileged Urban class. Often that is the reason given to me for not watching “serious films”. Conveniently it is said, “I have enough tension, why would I want to see more of the reality instead of some escapist fun.” But then when other existing realities intrude the calm of our realities, we are unable to deal with it. So what do we do?
Well written by one one of the finest thinking actors of our era.
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me: Well my gripe is against ppl who are making a fast buck and grabbing the spotlight in a time of grief and sorrow.