Wednesday, January 26, 2005

Temple Tragedy

More than 300 people were killed in a stampede at the Mandhardevi Kalubai hill temple in Wai (Satara district yesterday). The stampede was caused when some devotees slipped and fell near the entrance of the sanctum sanctorum, sending a wave of panic through the other 2 lakh devotees. Apparently, the floor became slippery because of excess oil near the deepmaal and water from the coconut-breaking ceremony. Panic stricken devotees tried to rush down and continued slipping on the surface, people coming up also fell down and were trampled upon. When I read the news yesterday I felt terrible. But a few questions also came to my mind - the hilltop temple attracts 3-4 lakh pilgrims in Dec-Jan (Paush) *every year*, especially on the Purnima Day(as was yesterday). The temple is located on top of a hill with and the only access path is a narrow,steep, unkempt winding road. So many people and a single path is a disaster waiting to happen. Could the local authorities/state govt not taken precautions? I understand this is easier to say in hindsight and managing large crowds is tough, but some basic regulations could have been made atleast to prevent stalls (for the mela) from cropping up on the path and limiting the already confined access to the temple.
Its not as if these stampedes at pilgrimages are a rare phenomenon, they happen all the time aj Haj .. and the last major stampede occured in Maharashtra in 2003 during the Nasik Kumbh Mela where *only 41* people were killed.
Maharashtra Governor SM Krishna expressed his *shock and anguish * and *graciously cancelled* his Republic Day reception at Raj Bhavan. CM Vilasrao Deshmukh announced a *judicial enquiry* into the incident and announced compensation for the victims- *1 lakh to relatives of the dead, 25000 to the seriously injured and 10000 for those with minor injuries *
Is a judicial enquiry going to help anything .. even if they find out how the stampede was caused (theres plenty of speculation on that already), will it prevent future stampedes( considering that we haven't learnt from past stampedes)? As for the compensation.. who knows when people will get it , if at all they do. After all victims of the Bhopal tragedy are still waiting after 20 years..
This news made the headlines yesterday.. but today most news papers preferred to focus on the Republic Day celebrations where the "country showcased her military might". On one hand we have sophisticated weapons and fighters and on the other hand we have 300 plus poor devotees who were killed for no fault of theirs. Their moment of glory in the headlines is over, as more sensational news items prepare to replace them.Probably signifies that life is really cheap in our country, where 300 lives being lost really makes no difference. I hope not...

Monday, January 24, 2005

G'bye Mr. Safire

William Safire, an Op-Ed columnist for the NY Times since 1973, wrote his last column today. Safire , formerly a senior speech writer for Nixon, was one of the few "conservative" columnists who wrote for the Times. Although he was conservative and a Republican supporter, his political leanings were more to the center than some of todays "right-wing" columnists. He didn't hesistate to take a stand and write about issues he felt strongly about.. he criticized people he disagreed with without being abusive (a pretty rare phenomenon today). This made his columns good reading even if I disagreed with most of what he said in his political columns. His columns about protecting the freedom of press and about the Tsunami were wonderful. I didn't like the column he wrote last week about Bush's inaugural speech.. the only thing I agreed with was that it could be called the " Freedom Speech" (because he used the word freedom so many times), but it definitely was not among the top 5 inaugural speeches in history!
Safire's written 3 columns today , of which the column titled " Never Retire" is a must read. I thought it was well written and truly inspiring.
Adios Mr. Safire .. and Never Retire!

Thursday, January 20, 2005

The Apprentice - new season

Donald Trump seems to have become more pompous than ever. He's shown in his private jet, helicopter and limo. When the limo pulls up outside Trump Tower and he gets out, people around start clapping. Jeez , how cheesy is that?
Caroline and George are just the same .. C's as bitchy as ever .. her smile is getting more and more diabolical and evil .. shes a good candidate as a vampire (if she goes brunette) in a horror movie..
The contestants - theres a slight difference this time.. 9 people are college graduates and professionals and 9 are high schools graduates/ college dropouts who risen because of hard work etc etc. The women seem like bimbos, guys are very weird and seem either like jocks or total nerds. The first two seasons had better lookers/personalities as far as the men were concerned.
I really feel that the show is predictable and totally dictated by ratings , you know whom they're going to fire...
I guess it still runs with high ratings because of morons like me who will continue to watch it despite all the shortcomings ..

A few thoughts on the Inauguration ...

1) Totally unnecessary -he's a sitting president , shouldn't waste so much money in war time. Also when he was so stingy about giving money to the tsunami victims (increased the amount only after arm twisting by the UN and Powell) its quite shameful that he would want to spend more than double (the original amount pledged) on celebrating his own victory.
2)A damned inconvenience .. road closures due to "security" have forced me to sit at home (which is not too bad since I have flu ..)
3) Its so bloody cold outside ... I can see the snow and the frozen monuments from my window ..totally admire the enthusiasm/idiocy/compulsion of people who have to go outside in this weather to view the event
4) everyone seems to be bundled up .. and forcing a smile on their faces..which then freezes in that position. I feel so bad for the soldiers and the band conductor.. they have shaved heads (no hats) and no gloves .. now thats torture !(Maybe all the soldiers * and their superiors * who were responsible for the naked pyramid in Abu ghraib , should be made to march naked on the national mall .. that'd be appropriate punishment.)
5) I just heard the cannons go off in the distance, when Rehnquist finishing administering the oath of office to W.. can now hear the music. Just realized how close to downtown I live .... maybe I should be glad for all the security measures they take in this area..
6) W's speech is crap .. has been going on and on .. about "liberty" ( appears atleast once in each sentence) , "freedom" (same as liberty) with many cliches thrown in like "america will not bow to bullies" (irony??), "the only way to have freedom and liberty in our world is by spreading it in other worlds." (didn't quite understand the distinction between " our world" and "other worlds" .)
7) Yay .. he's finally done .. they're playing some church like music. Revd. Colwell is about to deliver the benediction (another prayer.. there were quite a few earlier in case I forgot to mention it) and then it'll finally be over when the national anthem is sung.