AUGUSTE RODIN’S marvelous creation, ‘Thinker’ comes to my mind, when I talk about this week. I associate the image of a man in deep thought, as I look back at most of the write-ups, today. It’s no coincidence that we had ‘World Thinking Day’ recently.

 

Pratibha Parashar’s ‘A beggar-free India: A distant dream’ and MS Verma’s ‘Something about India,’ struck the keynote this week, with ‘Aggression in the air,’ (Shantanu Dutta) hitting the high note. These citizen journalists made us look within. They also helped expose the deep schism in the national psyche.

 

SK Saxena exposed the hollowness of the state in his article ‘Wither Mumbai ? Wither India?’ as he rightly pointed out: “There is a widespread belief that under Lalu, the Indian Railways are somehow manipulating recruitments to favour Biharis, even in distant Maharashtra and Karnataka. This needs to be seriously looked into by the centre, and justice should be done. Further, nobody is taking seriously the lack of development and employment in Uttar Pradesh (UP) and Bihar by successive governments. Former President APJ Abdul Kalam has been harping on this for a long time, but to no effect. In fact, a culture of siphoning off funds, extortion and kidnapping is being cultivated. This drives the scared and enterprising professionals to Delhi and the unskilled to places like Mumbai.”

 

In ‘Judicial intervention: A good sign,’ Ratikanta Pradhan rightly pointed out, “Judiciary acts and upholds the largest interest of the people. It has maintained its image as a protector of rights of aam admi (common man) in the process of governance. Primarily, the Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M), Communist Party of India (CPI) and Left parties have been accusing the judiciary of crossing the ‘Laxmanrekha’. Instead of accusing the judiciary of intervening into other two organs, they should strengthen their respective fields to provide good governance to the people.”

 

Urvashi Sarkar in her article, ‘Are we giving a dog a bad name and hanging it?’  She hit the nail on the head, when she wrote, “It cannot be denied that several of us are guilty of thoughtlessly slotting an individual merely on the grounds that he or she hails from a particular part of the country. Often, we are prone to prematurely sealing our verdict about an individual just by knowing the place of origin of the person concerned.”

 

‘West Bengal: Behind the sin,’ (Sagarika Roy) exposed the games people in power play.

 

The article, ‘Lincoln: No martyr to the cause of racial harmony,’ (Roberto Carlos Alvarez-galloso) exposed the vested interest beneath the veil of greatness of Abraham Lincoln.

 

Perhaps Sanjay rightly said, ‘Humans play God,’ in a different sense. He cautioned us against the danger of technological advancement. Damini Berry delved into ‘Indian TV strengthening stereotypes.’

 

If Vandana K Mittal’s ‘Cricket Mandi,’ was a voice of desperation and loss of values, Armstrong Vaz gave us hope in his piece, ‘Goan village freed from polluting industries.’ Shantanu Dutta’s agony of the decline of the circus industry was poignantly captured in his article, ‘India's vanishing circuses - death of the joker.’

 

Vaatupura A. Jayaprakash made us realise a thinking man’s agony, as he keyed in his article from his bed, recuperating from a simple disease like chicken pox. His article, ‘Chicken pox: Clash of superstition and sense,’ was perhaps an attempt at catharsis.

 

Two articles by Monica Davis, ‘Cultural and sexual victimisation of Canadian aboriginals,’ and ‘The Price of Fear: Scared teachers and social workers,’ shocked us into the realisation of cultural hegemony, of the white man’s burden of cleansing all aboriginal and ethnic practices.