Comments on: Candlelight tamsha

By: Dad

Dad — Fri, 26 Dec 2008 17:45:55 +0000

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.

By: Arby K

Arby K — Thu, 25 Dec 2008 11:44:53 +0000

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.

By: Arby K

Arby K — Sun, 21 Dec 2008 12:54:56 +0000

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!

By: maxdavinci

maxdavinci — Sat, 20 Dec 2008 15:17:04 +0000

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.

By: maami

maami — Fri, 19 Dec 2008 08:10:21 +0000

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.

By: padmaja

padmaja — Thu, 18 Dec 2008 04:43:53 +0000

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!

By: sthitapragnya

sthitapragnya — Thu, 18 Dec 2008 02:15:06 +0000

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!

By: buddy

buddy — Wed, 17 Dec 2008 16:30:14 +0000

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

By: narendra shenoy

narendra shenoy — Wed, 17 Dec 2008 14:35:50 +0000

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

By: silk smitha and disco shanti

silk smitha and disco shanti — Wed, 17 Dec 2008 14:20:19 +0000

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!