Still Life....

Fascinated by the dynamism of inanimate objects and hence the snaps. No particular order or theme or preference. Please do suggest your interpretations and titles.

Genocide

Genocide (defn) : ...any of the following acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group, as such:
(a) Killing members of the group;
(b) Causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group;
(c) Deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part;
(d) Imposing measures intended to prevent births within the group;
(e) Forcibly transferring children of the group to another group.

– Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide, Article II

Burned, charred to black as coal
entire people, a culture little different
what for was never questioned?
what for, was never answered.
Source of hate, i have never seen
hatred we hold for our kin
colour of skin, colour of flag
colour of things so myriad
Colour of my blood and yours is same
the same deep red
then why scar your skin with my sword
or my land with your pen
Generations lost in entire madness
subject to whim and vengeance
for material rewards ever so transient
quickly washed away by the blood that was spilled
made nauseous by the putrid stench

Question the reason of my flawed existence
if i deny that right to my neighbour
Anger in the futility and the helplessness
while pictures recount the horror and Holocaust
Account for all the hatred
Source of all hatred is Us
Slay the demon inside
and then we think alike
Blood warm pusling through the veins
spent in labour of love and life
is more valuable than
blood spilled in the name of skin, land and religious strife.

Zen in oBzen....

*Zen is a school of Mahāyāna Buddhism. The Japanese word Zen is derived from the Chinese word Chán, which in turn is derived from the Sanskrit word dhyāna, which means "meditation"

*oBzen is an album by heavy metal band Meshuggah.

For relevance, please read this post by Shrikant Narayanan . 

World Cup 2010 for free...Enjoy!

Shame! India sold its dead cheap......

Around 22,000 dead. More than 1,20,000 injured. Rs 1 lakh for each body. Rs 25,000 for every poisoned lung and damaged heart and blinded eyes. 26 years of long wait. And just 2 years in jail for the men who committed the worst crime against the people of this country. And this mockery of justice after such a long wait. Twenty six years after 40 tonnes of lethal gas seeped into the lungs of Bhopal, families of some 17,000 men, women and children are still waiting for the so-called compensation. Thousands more are still waiting to be accepted as victims. People of Bhopal are still drinking toxic water poisoned by Union Carbide in December 1984. And the main culprit is living life kingsize in a mansion in New York. 


No country sells its people so cheap.
No country sells its poor so cheap.
No country sells its dead so cheap.


Today – on the day of Bhopal disaster judgment -- if there is a failed state in the world, it’s India. It’s not Iraq. It’s not Somalia. It’s not Sudan. It’s India.


India – its government, judiciary and corporates – accepted the ridiculous amount of $450 million dollars for the people killed and maimed by methyl isocyanate leaked from the Union Carbide factory in the heart of Bhopal three decades ago. In all these years, the poor victims have done everything they could to get justice and compensation. They have cried and died on streets, sat hungry and faced police lathis on roads and filed court cases in the hope that one day they will get justice.


Today, they were denied justice. Today, they were told that they should be happy with the peanuts thrown at them by Union Carbide. Today, India proved once again that it doesn’t care for its poor. Today, it was proved all over again that those who do politics in the name of poor in this country, always rule for the rich.


What justification does CBI have for not being able to produce Warren Anderson in court. The chairman of UC at the time of the gas attack (it was not an accident, the gas leak was caused because of cost-cutting steps taken by him) on the people of Bhopal, Anderson was arrested and later released on bail. He ran off to US in 1986 and we have not been able to find him or ask the US to extradite Anderson to India. Why? The government says it doesn’t know where Anderson is. What a lie. What a shame.


Last year, on a balmy July day, a bunch of victims danced on the streets after hearing news that the Chief Judicial Magistrate of Bhopal had ordered the CBI to arrest Anderson and produce him before the court without delay. The court also asked the CBI to explain what steps it had taken since 2002 to enforce the warrant and extradition of Anderson, who was declared an absconder in 1992. Though the CBI and US government failed to track Anderson, supporters of Bhopal victims traced him to the elite New York neighbourhood of the Hamptons. In 2003, Greenpeace activists paid Anderson a visit at his home and handed him an arrest warrant.

Today’s ridiculous judgment in Bhopal didn’t say anything on Anderson as he is a “proclaimed offender”. This status suits him fine because he doesn’t have to bother about coming to India and answer some very crucial questions:


*Why did Union Carbide not apply the same safety standards at its plant in India as it operated at a sister plant in West Virginia, US?


*On the night of the disaster, why did the six safety measures designed to prevent a gas leak fail to function?


*Why was the safety siren, intended to alert the people living close to the factory, turned off?

The victims have always alleged that Bhopal happened because of negligence by the Union Carbide and that was caused by cost-cutting measures taken by Anderson. Is it because of this reason that Anderson has been 'hiding' in the US?

A criminal has a reason to hide, but what reason does our government have to let a mass murderer like Anderson go scot-free. Is it because he is an American? Can an American come to India kill people in this country and run away with no consequences? That seems to be the case. We are still struggling to get a chance to question David Headley Coleman, an American citizen responsible for the worst terror attack on an Indian city in 2008. Will we succeed in getting Headley extradited to India? No way. Never.

Today, India proved that it doesn’t really care for its people, particularly if they have been slaughtered by powerful people from the most powerful nation in the world. Instead of taking on America and fighting for justice for its poor, India is more than happy to sell its dead cheap.

Rs 1 lakh for every body. Rs 25,000 for every blinded eye. This is the cost of poor life in a failed state.

==>Courtesy : Shobhan Saxena (Times Of India)

"Justice has been done"

I could not, but shake my head in disbelief when the verdict for the Bhopal Gas Tragedy was announced. 8 convicts, each handed a 2-3 year imprisonment and also immediately given bail. This paltry leisure of a punishment for the crime of genocide! A mass murder of 15,000 (....an official figure, significantly lower than the actual number of deaths...) innocent civilians over a period of years because of the Methyl Iso-Cyanate that leaked from the Union Carbide factory. A judgement that was delivered 23 years too late! I have been swearing ever since I read the judgement and what made me livid was the statement by Magistrate Mohan Tiwari , "Surely justice has been done". No sir, it really and surely hasn't been done!

A certain Metallica lyric will make my thoughts extremely clear in the aftermath. Sarcasm, bitterness, anger and violence in perfect chaotic harmony. From their legendary album released in 1988 of the same name, it does reflect that things have not changed one bit.

...And Justice For All

Halls of Justice Painted Green
Money Talking
Power Wolves Beset Your Door
Hear Them Stalking
Soon You'll Please Their Appetite
They Devour
Hammer of Justice Crushes You
Overpower

The Ultimate in Vanity
Exploiting Their Supremacy
I Can't Believe the Things You Say
I Can't Believe
I Can't Believe the Price You Pay
Nothing Can Save You

Justice Is Lost
Justice Is Raped
Justice Is Gone
Pulling Your Strings
Justice Is Done
Seeking No Truth
Winning Is All
Find it So Grim
So True
So Real

Apathy Their Stepping Stone
So Unfeeling
Hidden Deep Animosity
So Deceiving
Through Your Eyes Their Light Burns
Hoping to Find
Inquisition Sinking You
With Prying Minds

The Ultimate in Vanity
Exploiting Their Supremacy
I Can't Believe the Things You Say
I Can't Believe
I Can't Believe the Price You Pay
Nothing Can Save You

Justice Is Lost
Justice Is Raped
Justice Is Gone
Pulling Your Strings
Justice Is Done
Seeking No Truth
Winning Is All
Find it So Grim
So True
So Real

Lady Justice Has Been Raped
Truth Assassin
Rolls of Red Tape Seal Your Lips
Now You're Done in
Their Money Tips Her Scales Again
Make Your Deal
Just What Is Truth? I Cannot Tell
Cannot Feel

The Ultimate in Vanity
Exploiting Their Supremacy
I Can't Believe the Things You Say
I Can't Believe
I Can't Believe the Price We Pay
Nothing Can Save Us

Justice Is Lost
Justice Is Raped
Justice Is Gone
Pulling Your Strings
Justice Is Done
Seeking No Truth
Winning Is All
Find it So Grim
So True
So Real
Seeking No Truth
Winning Is All
Find it So Grim
So True
So Real

P.S.: Fuck you Union Carbide, fuck you Warren Anderson, fuck you Rajiv Gandhi, fuck you Magistrate Mohan P Tiwari, fuck you Keshub Mahindra....may you fucking burn in hell!

The First Rain......

Welcome, O winds from the South
carrying the moist essence of life

you have travelled long miles
to the parch miseries of the great land

you send cool winds, to signal
your coming, auspicious arrival

the breeze carries your message
to longing eyes, to parched throats

their eyes are fixed on the horizon
for the winged bearer of the confirmation

for when the day does finally arrive
and the leaves stand still in raptured obeisance

O Indra, you shall strike first
Accompanying the thunderous music

Send down your bolts as a curtain raiser
To the dance of new life

One drop, followed by many more
strike the grateful many standing below

where the scent of the mud, enlivens all
Goads them to cross their doorstep into the open

Make a grand entry, O Varuna, Jaldeva
Bring your powers to bear, to bless

Bhoomi, furnaced by the heat, is exalted
with erotic freshness and emanating scent

From the Ganga to the smallest rivulets
Thank for the replenishment, roar with new energy

Leaves and bark, covered with dust and brown
Set free, show their true hue again

Sprout life, tell a story of hope
same hope, which keeps them alive till you come around again, O great showers!

A proper song

Writing around a given topic is not what i am really good at. With me, stuff usually comes more with a flow, a certain mood, a certain frame of mind. This song, had been in the making for almost 10 months. Does not make for good reading, but trust me, a kick-ass riff and machine gun tempo and some nasty vocals would make it a good, hard , fast metal number. (Wish that would happen some time soon.....:|....)

Get drunk on the energy within
on the vials of adrenaline
Be one, go with the flow

Feel the shiver of your hand
Feet unsure on trembling sand
A chill run down your spine

Throat runs dry, hurts bad
troubles up front, no time to be sad
Grab it by the scruff of its neck

The blur vanishes into crystal clear
You know now, there is no place for fear
Charge up and lock horns yeah

Feel the energy in your veins
your muscles hurt, but there ain't no pain
Turbo heart unleashes itself

Sweat trickles down your brow
Skin glistens, vigour does grow
You are ready for more, much more

Addictive,every dose of it
Strength to get up after every hit
Get high
Unravel and fly
Antidote, don't stupefy
Adrenaline...........Energy...........

Keep on rocking in the free world...

Somehow this song has managed to stick fast into the audio channels of my cerebellum and shows no signs of abating. The original composition is by Neil Young and is about US soldiers killed in Iraq. Heard this for the first time on Bon Jovis' One Wild Night 1985-2001 compilation. Loved it ever since. And right now its the G3-Denver 2005 jam version that i am big fan of. Great lyrics, cracking opening riff  and good tempo...all the ingredients of a good song.

Keep on Rockin' in the free world.

 

(piece of paper with the lyrics penned by neil young himself....click for a larger image)

Death, The Leveller

A poem from the childhood days, more relevant today, especially after the Kasab judgement was delivered.

Death the Leveller


THE glories of our blood and state
Are shadows, not substantial things;
There is no armour against Fate;
Death lays his icy hand on kings:
Sceptre and Crown
Must tumble down,
And in the dust be equal made
With the poor crooked scythe and spade.

Some men with swords may reap the field,
And plant fresh laurels where they kill:
But their strong nerves at last must yield;
They tame but one another still:
Early or late
They stoop to fate,
And must give up their murmuring breath
When they, pale captives, creep to death.

The garlands wither on your brow,
Then boast no more your mighty deeds!
Upon Death's purple altar now
See where the victor-victim bleeds.
Your heads must come
To the cold tomb:
Only the actions of the just
Smell sweet and blossom in their dust.

By James Shirley
1596-1666