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Statues, Dalits and Mayawati - The other side

The statues in Lucknow are all over the news these days. I, like everyone else, have condemned the expenditure of crores of rupees on these in the past. However, I'd like to posit some thoughts from the other side of the argument here.

On being asked the reason for building these statues, Mayawati said: "Why doesn't anyone raise a finger at the memorials at Rajghat where the land itself would be worth crores of rupees?"

And right she is.

People criticize Mayawati for building statues at the expense of development. If you give it some thought, the total amount spent on Gandhi-Nehru statues and memorials across the country is far greater than what Mayawati has spent on memorials for Dalit leaders in Lucknow.. and to add to that, all that money was spent when the country was less developed and much poorer. Development must have taken a greater hit back then than it is taking now.

We have grown up in a post-liberalization developing and progressive India, and have never experienced the underdeveloped nation with a downright hypocritic society that we used to be; we've only heard of it.

Starting right from our primary school text books, we have been Gandhi-washed; we've been made to believe that Mahatma Gandhi is the only national leader worth praise and that the Congress alone got us independence.

There is a plethora of unsung heroes who were sidelined by the dominantly Congress government we had till the 90s.

As an example, all of us had read about Bhagat Singh in school, but how many of us appreciated his life, his work and his sacrifice before watching a movie on him? Would you mind if somebody erected a statue of him today? Of course not!

Has anyone bothered to read about all the work done by Dr. Ambedkar and Kanshi Ram for the upliftment of the underdeveloped before criticizing their statues?

Scheduled Castes have always been mistreated, subdued and ignored. Their leaders have never been given the respect they deserve, except by the Dalits themselves, who have always been, rather have been kept, at the bottom of the development ladder.

If Mayawati, a dalit who is at the top of the ladder today, is making it up to them by honouring their leaders, shouldn't we be supportive?

For my part, I respect the woman for what she has accomplished inspite of belonging to both the caste and the gender looked down upon by rest of the society.

In merely twenty years, BSP has risen from nothing to holding an absolute majority in the most populous state of the country, an achievement attributed to the work done by them for the Dalits.

From a more psychological point of view, we have the habit of judging people, specially women, only by their looks. We have branded Lalu Prasad Yadav, who holds a bachelor's degree in law, as 'illiterate', evaluating him only by his bucolic looks and accent.

Similarly, most of us have subconsciously hated Mayawati ever since the day we've seen her on a poster, not because of her work or her policies, but because she is, excuse me, an unattractive woman. In our mentality, this by default means uncouth, untalented and evil. We have simply ignored her capabilities, her educational qualification and the struggle she has faced in life as a dalit woman.

Lastly, stop criticizing her for focussing more of her work on Dalits. Their support and their votes have got her this far. It's her duty, like it is for all other leaders, to work for them and keep them satisfied.

And yes, Mayawati is a 'goddess' to that part of society.

If I was a dalit and somebody finally paid attention to my people's development and my caste's leaders after they've been despised for over fifty years of independence, I'd consider her a goddess too.

Cynical Cyanide

"I have been repeatedly told not to use my blog as a medium of communication. However, I can't resist the temptation at times.

I lack the skill of articulation. Today, PP managed to articulate the problem in humor prevalent in our circles. Most of our humor revolves around criticizing others.

We love being cynics. Identifying things that do not work. Making fun of people's munjis. Talking of change. Conjuring up visions. Hiding behind excuses. I am happy about slowly shedding off the cynic's glasses which shroud your eyes. Now I am a lot more positive.

And as a result, I stay away from the cynics. They are injurious to my spirits."

We love criticizing others to hide our own shortcomings.

We contrive faults in them, find excuses to mock them, conceal our hypocrisy as tafri.

We feed on their misery to make ourselves feel better.

If sitting in a group and speaking foul about those not present is what having "fun" in Social circles is all about, I despise You.

Sarcasm is good, but it breeds Cynicism.

I am glad I can see things positively again.

Thank You Prakhar Prabhakar, Rachit Chandra.

The Saksena Limit

This just in:

Scientists at Xero0ne Labs have finally calculated a criteria for evaluating human behavior.

The theorem, named after its founder Ayush Saksena (BE MSc), classifies all humorous or attempted-humorous actions into two categories:

• Tafri
• Chutiyaap

According to the theorem, above a certain limit, all so called nautanki ceases to be Tafri and becomes Chutiyaap. This limit, derived empirically through repeated experimentation on the Maturity Levels of test subjects from the Despo Doodh group, has been named 'The Saksena Limit' in honor of the founder of the theorem.

However, The Saksena Limit is highly stochastic.

It depends on factors such as:

• Whether or not the joke is cracked by Ayush Saksena
• Whether or not the joke is on Ayush Saksena
• Whether or not a girl Ayush Saksena could have slept with would change her mind because of the joke

The current value of The Saksena Limit has been estimated at 0.8 NPM.

Also, when we examine the graph of the derivative of the function, we can notice that there is a steep change in the function near the Saksena Limit, which indicates that a joke intended as Tafri can easily turn into Chutiyaap, if the almighty Saksena so decides.

Thus, we can also conclude that "There is a thin line between Tafri and Chutiyaap."

Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh Kumari Sushri Mayawati Ji has announced a prize of rupees 1 lakh and four marble statues for the founder scientist Ayush Saksena for this remarkable discovery.

About Last Night

Top ten reasons why last night was awkward:

• Ayush Saksena wore a sparkling gray shirt.
• Arjun Krishna took a fifty minute walk on a dark lonely road with another guy.
• Ayush Saksena displayed paedophilic tendencies.
• Arjun Krishna pee'd on the LMGC gate.
• Ayush Saksena was sexually assaulted by two men.
• Arjun Krishna flirted with another guy in his mother's presence.
• Ayush Saksena shamelessly described how he takes care of his pubic hair.
• Arjun Krishna slept with a soft toy.
• Ayush Saksena had a one hour long romantic conversation at One in the night with his "cousin".
• Neither of them was under the influence.