Satyamev Jayate...really???

No...I have not seen the 1^st episode of Satyamev Jayate, no plans of watching any episode either. But reading about the show made me thinking... Satyamev Jayate...really?

I must say before going into the post any further...Amir Khan deserves a standing ovation for this show. He showed that one can still talk boldly about social-menaces and move many hearts if one really feels for it. The people still feel strong emotions even if it is not some dramatic marriage on camera or some people leaving in a house doing crazy things, but simply a social cause that needs to be addressed. There were many alarming reports on female-foeticide on different media, but I have never seen them generating so much of emotion like this show did. Hats off to Mr. Khan, everyone associated with this show and the countless viewers who were touched by it.

But is that all...? I guess so. I am not a pessimist, not an optimist either. I am a realist. One Amir Khan and one episode would not be able to do anything to such social-menace. Female-foeticide is not some community disease that can be eradicated with some awareness programme, no matter how creative it is. One more week, one more episode and one more issue...after few facebook ‘like’s and ‘status update’s...it will be back to normal.

“You can’t handle the truth”...Col. Nathan R. Jessup (Jack Nicholson, from A Few Good Men, 1992) said and he was right...No, we can not handle the truth, but let’s face it once: female-foeticide is not a problem that can be solved with awareness. It is not an outcome of illiteracy or a prevailing factor among socio-economically backward population; so that once the main issues are fixed, it will be taken care of too. It is a mentality, an attitude, probably a mental disease caused by many factors but with no root cause to treat. Or else, how can one explain its prevalence among the affluent and educated, urban/semi-urban classes? I refuse to believe that the reason behind a person choosing to kill his unborn-girl is simply because of lack of education or awareness. It is just as same as the psychopathic mentality of few maniacs who once killed approximately 6 million people by terming them to be of ‘inferior race’, founding them ‘repulsive’ and sending them to gas chambers cold bloodedly.

Acts/laws against female-foeticide and implementations have also achieved very less. Hands of law, no matter how long it is, can not do much about involvement of the doctors, who have taken oath to serve and save human life, in sex-determination test knowing that it will lead to female-foeticide and then performing it. And then, the law can not do anything about the person willing go for this kill. It is a Rs. 2000-3000 Cr industry, if a service has such a demand, there always will be healthy supply of the helping hands. What’s more, here customer himself comes to the service provider and demands to be served.

Satyamev Jayate...really? What is prevailing...?

It is a Holocaust, different, but more systematic, more open, more daring and lasting longer than the World War II era...

Can such shows change this mentality/mental disease/attitude...? I doubt it. People who have the heart to go for foeticide, do not get moved by such emotional shows, they don’t have much emotion. People who get touched by such show, I don’t think they would ever think about such action.

If bitter reality of truth presented boldly could change the mentality behind some action, this world would be different. It is not, hence I have doubt what a programme of such kind and ‘O ri Chiriya’ could achieve in reality other than creating short time uproar online. If it takes a star like Amir Khan and a touching show to make people stand up and notice an issue that has been talked extensively in various media prior to this show without much outcome...then this time the same thing will happen again. What if the 1^st episode was of some other issue and female-foeticide never came on the show...? What if issues like eve-teasing, dowry, racism etc never come in any episode...? Will we have the same hate towards female-foeticide after the next touching episode on some other issue? The show has become bigger than the actual issue; there is not much of chance of any outcome.

Just like few months back almost every facebook profile and status updates were up against corruption. It cooled down faster than a cup of coffee. Corruption is not a disease of the system, it is in us, in our attitude...don’t we love to cut lines, jump signals, drive wrong way and break any rule possible when there is not much of chance of getting caught? That is why it can not be eradicated with some sudden movement. So much of online-uproar happened on India-against-corruption; the outcome...nothing. Even if a strong Lokpal was made, would it eradicate corruption...? Be a realist please.

Mentality/attitude is very difficult to change with sudden burst of online/media revolution. I read the term ‘Clicktivist’ in some article...aren’t we all. Many will argue...it is better to do something rather than doing nothing. May be, but without any outcome ‘doing everything’, ‘doing something’ and ‘doing nothing’ have not much difference. As I have already said, I am a realist, not a pessimist/optimist. So I like what Barney Stinson (Neil Patrick Harris from How I Met Your Mother, 2005 -Present) has said: “I just know a lost cause when I see it. That’s the reason I don’t recycle”.

Solution for female-foeticide menace...I have none. All I know is that with time if our mentality changes, it will be fixed by itself; or else this holocaust will continue, no amount of awareness/shows/law will be able to have any effect on it. I think when a boy grows up seeing that the girls/ladies in his family are getting treated equally, his sister/cousins are being brought up from childhood not as a perfect ‘homely’ bride-to-be girl but as an educated career oriented person, they are able to walk on street without getting teased, getting married without knowing the word ‘Dowry’ and living their life without any harassment or violence...that boy would grow up without any bias towards his unborn child. The true learning happens from the real life only, not from the TV/facebook.

“Salvation lies within”*...it really does.

*Warden S. Norton (Bob Gunton from The Shawshank Redemption, 1994)

Rani and her training

Rani is a semi-white rodatian in my neighbourhood. Few weeks back she had 7 puppies, with her mate Raja, a black rodatian. Two of the puppies have got her colour, one has got Raja’s colour and rest are mix of both of them. I think they have got Rani’s eyes too.

Rani and some of her puppies...

The puppies were growing up very fast within the 4 ft gap of her owner’s house and a factory boundary-wall at the dead end of the road...nice place to bring up puppies; no vehicle-no pollution, nice shade in this summer weather. The place is separated from the road by 4-5 bricks-high wall, with debris piled up at both sides and protecting the puppies. We all grew very curious and time to time peeked to see her puppies and she was so proud.

After some days all the puppies started running and playing within that place. I watched Rani feeding them every day in the evening by going down there. But that 4-5 bricks-high wall was too high for them to climb out and play on the road, even though there was a bag of debris, as high as half of the wall, kept right on the base of the wall at their side...they simply did not know how to use their feet and take the help of that bag to climb over the wall.

One evening I heard a lot of noise, curious I looked down. I saw Rani standing at the age of the road and looking down the wall but not going down to feed her puppies. The puppies were hungry and though I did not know their language, I am sure they did not leave any stone unturned asking her to come down and feed them. But all Rani did was sitting near the wall and peeking over it. After a lot of crying out, few puppies, the slightly bigger ones, tried to overcome the wall standing over the debris; yet, all they could manage was to keep their face over the wall, cry some more with those sad puppy-eyes and go down. After some 20-30 minutes, Rani went down there and fed them all.

Next day the same thing happened. But one of the seven has managed to stand up on the debris, worked really hard on its back legs and managed to put its front two legs over the wall. After another 10 minutes of doing ‘Tom Cruise in Mission Impossible-2’ kind of rock climbing it managed to climb the wall and jumped on Rani like it has just won a gold medal in Olympic. Rani fed it, played with it for long ignoring all other sad puppy faces that were coming and going with lots of protesting cries over the horizon of the wall. After drinking full, the puppy went to the wall, climbed with a lot of passion and ‘Tom Cruise’ effort and managed to reach its place. Then out of sheer joy of breaking the code, it started climbing the wall, coming to its mother, playing for some time and going back to its brothers and sisters. Within next few moments it found out the tricks of the trade...how to extract support and jump from its back legs, where the height of the wall is compromised, how quickly it can complete the entire sequence with ease etc. Others kept trying but all in vain. After sometime, feeling that others were unable to learn the same, Rani went in and fed the rest.

The same thing continued next few days and from one puppy, it became three that had learned to clear the obstacle with ease within next 3 days. Rani kept on her training schedule and process without any change. By the end of the week, every single puppy has learned to climb up the wall and go back down using the most compromised area of the wall. They are now exploring every inch of the neighbourhood under watchful eyes of Rani and Raja.

Simple and yet so effective method of teaching something so valuable to her puppies, yet, Rani has never been to any school, B-school for that matter of fact, she does not know about ‘positive reinforcement/ negative reinforcement’...all she did was to teach her puppies to use their instinct and find the way of life.

The day I saw all of them coming out with ease; I bought them a pack of ‘Parle-G’ as a prize...I am sure even ‘Shaktimaan’ would be proud of them.