Wednesday, August 29, 2012

Review of ‘Yeh Jo Hai Pakistan’ – book by Shivendra Kumar Singh…!



In this book ‘Yeh Jo Hai Pakistan’ writer  Shivendra Kumar Singh has written his memories about his tours to Pakistan while covering Indian Cricket Team. He is one of the most famous sports journalist in India. He started his career from his hometown Allahabad with print media and then shifted to the media hub Delhi and worked for zee news, star news and now he is a special correspondent with ABP news. 


In this book the title simply reflects that this book is related to the favorite debate topic of Indians i.e. Indo-Pak. But it is new as it is in cricket prospects and well as the ambiance of our neighbor country. It is a reflection of his visit to Pakistan with the Indian Cricket Team in captainship of legendary Saurav Ganguly . It was in the year 2004 when the Indian cricket team was in Pakistan after a break of 14 years. It was a wonderful experience not only for master blaster who started his career with Karachi- which is known as Bombay of Pak.

The writer expresses how he tried to chat with Tendulkar but stopped by the security. Since it was an Indian team security was very tight. While reading this book I must articulate that this is a very interesting book and we all know Indo-Pak is the favorite topic of every Indian right from the childhood. The tittle and initial pinch of the book is the panorama of his views and definitely attracts readers.

Sachin Tendulkar-Master Blaster was the only player in the team to have played in Pakistan before 2004.As we know the team went there after a long break. It was at this stadium in Karachi that Sachin also began his career. So like every player it was a good flashback for Tendulkar. Then came March 13, the first One Day against Pakistan. The National stadium was jam packed. The last over remained and Pakistan needed nine runs to win. Sourav handed over the ball to Ashish Nehra. India won that breathtaking match.

The flow of the book is very interesting. The day after the match, former Pakistan captain Zaheer Abbas invited journalists  for a dinner at his place. The writer expresses how on their way back, they  wanted to see the Karachi beach. Their taxi driver took them  to the beach. Until then he  does not remember visiting a beach before even in India. In no time he has shown his journalistic mind and he called his cameraman, they  took some shots and bytes from the perspective of cricket, security measures and the fast reaching waves of modernization in Karachi, and above all with an outlook of increasing the popularity of Indian cricket stars in Pakistan. The Indian team visited after 14 years and that too only stayed for a few hours in Karachi. That left people only wanting more as they could not even catch a glance of their favorite stars. Their story was ready. They wanted to experiment. He concluded the PtC with a poetry: “Umre daraz maang kar laaye thay char din - do aarzoo mein kat gaye do intezar mein”. At this point I must express that Writer singh’s PTC are very interesting and nice to hear. He still remembers that he  did not have much luggage while going to Pakistan, as the trip drew to a close and he landed at Delhi airport and was full of baggage- Partly due to his shopping and the fairly large number of gifts that he received from the people in Pakistan. The love and emotions behind the gifts outweighed his urge to refuse them. It would have been impolite too. The acts of gifting started in Karachi only when a friend’s Abba gave him a shawl and a trinket box saying “Son keep this as a souvenir from us, we will always be in your memories.” The box still occupies a place in his home and has been passed on to the next generation - his wife would keep her jewelry in it and now his daughter keeps her anklet their.


Writer Singh visited again in 2005 and 2006 and included these two experiences too in this book.  In 2005, the most beautiful memory he recalls is meeting the great cricketer Hanif Mohammad. When they  reached, the door was closed. Writer pressed the doorbell and Hanif Mohammad came out. They  introduced themselves, apologized for visiting uninformed and earnestly requested for an interview. The writer writes meeting Hanif  was like turning the leaves of Pakistan’s cricket history .  One would be amazed to know that of the first 100 Test matches played by Pakistan, there was not even one in which a member of Hanif Saheb’s family was not a part. The writer started the interview. Instead of putting forth questions to him, he humbly requested him to share anecdotes from his life. Hanif saheb shared how in his childhood days his ammi and abba would dress him like a girl: he would wear a frock and bangles too! I was an attentive listener while he recalled. This experience definitely connects readers as most of us have experienced an identical thing in our lives.

In 2006 when writer again visited Pakistan, he had a chance to visit Karachi third time. Even though the Indian team had lost the test match in Karachi, Irfan Pathan marvelled at taking a hat trick in the first over of the match. Later, the ties between India Pakistan turned unpleasant. The writer  has a great memory of playing a match against Karachi journalists, they  tried their  hands at cricket and the venue they chose was Mohamad Ali Shah Stadium. They played at the ground though writer injured his finger trying to take a catch for which his colleagues still have a great laugh together about it.
The writer has expressed how Karachi’s food was good, a bit spicy and oily. But, once he was familiarized with the city he got the food of his choice. He still have a strong desire to visit Pakistan with his family. To meet all those who gave him so much love that if he have to speak on Pakistan and its people He says he would need days to finish. Good or bad, He remembers every moment spent in Pakistan. As a journalist, the stories that he did he remember the backdrop of each piece. He recalls the streets and road.  He remembers Pakistan.  

Not only all this, the book have some interesting chapters featuring instances of the greatest cricketers of both countries like Inzamam-UL-Haq, Shoib Akhtar, Sachin Tendulkar, Saurav Ganguly, Dhoni etc.

I am sure since the writer has experienced all this in front of himself, his eyes must be in tears while writing at the end about SriLankan Team tour in 2009 and controversy related to it. It was certainly a black day as a writer puts it.  And on the other hand with the hope to write his next book when Indian team visits Pakistan again.

Certainly this book is a must read book. Very Interesting, good flow, excellent language and the novel bond which we discover between Indo-Pak after reading this book is superb. 



Prateek Pathak 
Student
B.A in Media Studies
University of Allahabad

Monday, August 27, 2012

Two silent revolution are sweeping India……..one is Media !




‘Allahabad has been the center of gravity for the debates how India should be, right from the freedom struggle of the country.


Defense is how the country should be. The people of this country including civil society and politicians are the stakeholders in the country’s security. We should take a look on holistic prospective.

I have great faith in the country but we should look into the challenges. Manufacturing output of India is declining from 1750 to 2012. 25% GDP currently is equivalent to twenty families in India.

Tagore was cynical on nationalism but later he became author of two national anthems. Firstly we should have peace then we can have security. Likewise when we will have peace we will havedevelopment.

Social economic inequalities with political aspirations is the reason for problems like Kashmir. Till 1930, world population would be more than eight billion in that water scarcity would be acute.

Two silent revolution is sweeping India, one is rising in technology of Media. In Delhi three million people live in slums in that 95% have technology but only 5% have toilets.

Democrasy is a positive point for us. A society which doesn’t have law and governance will become a jungle. We should consider strategical boundaries not the territorial.’

Above lines were said by Rtd. Air Marshal Kapil Kak, in the inaugural lecture of the two day national seminar on ‘Rising India’s National Security Strategy : Perespectives and Prospects’organized by Defense and Strategic Affairs Department, University of Allahabad at the guest house auditorium of the University of Allahabad.  

The seminar started with the welcoming note by Prof. R.K Upadhyaya, HOD,  defense and strategic affairs department, University of Allahabad. Dr. Sanjeev Bahadoria introduced the seminar and its prospects. The inaugural lecture was presided by Prof N.R Farooqi, Dean Research, University of Allahabad.


Prof. Farooqi explained the overall prospective of our security right from the mughul period and the future prospective. The two day seminar had wonderful lectures by brilliant defense experts like Prof. Shrikant Paranjpe, Pune University who spoke on political communication including the textbooks which are written according to the political supervision, Prof. R.P. Yadav, Gorukhpur University who choose Indo-China relations with overall prospects and Prof. R.N Swarup, Madras University who spoke on strategic affairs of the country.

At the end of the inaugural function Dr. Sanjeev Bahadoria mentioned the name behind the show i.e. Dr. Prashant Agrawal, who single handily organized the seminar. Many questions and outlook were presented by the audience. The seminar was attended by many students and researchers of the defense department and Centre of Media Studies with many teachers of the University of Allahabad which include Prof. M.N. Verma, Dr. Prashant Agrawal, Dhananjai Chopra, Prof. Sekhar Adhikari, Prof. R.K Tandon, Prof. R.N Swarup, Dr. Sanjeev Bahadoria, Prof. R.K. Upadhyaya, Amit Maurya.

The two day seminar was a pioneer in the field of defense and discussing the strategic affairs on internal as well as external security. Best experts from all over India were under one roof to discuss national security. 





Prateek Pathak 
Student
B.A in Media Studies
University of Allahabad

Wednesday, August 15, 2012

Why we celebrate Independence Day ?




It is an occasion to cherish, how we are transforming the independence we got after a long struggle into the development of the people. If we analyze through this phenomenon the condition is not excellent. Last year a movement was started during independence day and this year a movement against black money has just ended .


In spite of more than six decades of independence a Chief Minister of a state can send a professor and farmers to jail who raise questions,  a home minister of a state vanishes, frightening of his arrest, and a Chief Minister who has corruption charges, is able to remove an honest Chief Minister from its chair.

In an era when an Indian lady has reached the space station the very second time, girls in the country are commanded by panchayati rules not to wear jeans and keep mobiles.


 The population which is below the poverty line is equivalent to the number of population which we had at the time of independence.

Certainly we also have a number of things to be proud of and cherish including many achievements.
In spite of thousands of criticism, India is the world's largest democracy. The people of this country have the power to throw corrupt leaders out of power.

Our economy is still breathing because of its structure, in spite of the worst time in America-Europe. We have successfully got rid of Polio. The best performance in history of Olympics shows us beautiful future and hope.

With all of this social media which have emerged as the best tool to tailor the system which is being used by Judge of Madurai, an NGO which is bringing out engineers in Buster- a moist area and wives who left home because of no toilets in Uttar Pradesh along with many other examples.

May Be ! 

These examples could have worked as a laundry to tailor our system which is suffering from cancer.

Jai Ho India !

Jai Hind !

Jai Bharat !

Happy Independence Day !




                    


Prateek Pathak
Student
B.A in Media Studies
University of Allahabad 

Thursday, August 2, 2012

अन्ना पालिटिकल पार्टी v/s कांग्रेस v/s बीजेपी





क्या किसी ने सोचा था की हमारी राजधानी में एक ही समय पर दो गाव के छोरे छाए रहेंगे  जी हा ! एक छोर पर राष्ट्रपति प्रणब मुख़र्जी साहब तो दूसरी तरफ जिसे आखरी जंग का अड्डा कहा जा रहा हैं - जंतर मंतर पर समाजसेवी अन्ना  आज अन्ना के मंच से ये स्पस्ट कर दिया गया कि टीम अन्ना, पोलिटिकल पार्टी का गठन करेगी  पिछले वर्ष जब एक लेख में मैंने कहा कि यह क्रांति नहीं हैं बल्कि पालिटिकल पार्टी    बनाने का जुगाड़ हैं तब मुझे गलत कहा गया, यहाँ तक कि मेरी ट्विट्टर पेज पर मुझे देशद्रोही मानसिकता का बताया गया । मेरे गुरु धनंजय चोपड़ा ने जब कहा कि ये भीड़ नहीं समर्थको का ड्रामा हैं, तब उन्हें भी गलत करार दिया गया 



इसी तरह जब मैंने लिखा कि कलाम को नहीं बल्कि मुख़र्जी जी को ही राष्ट्रपति बनना चाहिए तब मुझे दोबारा पागल कहा गया, इतने कमेन्ट मुझे कभी नहीं आए जितने इन दोनों पर किये गए, और वो भी नकारात्मक । चलो कुछ दिन बाद ही सही मुख़र्जी साहब रायसीना गए राष्ट्रपति कि गद्दी पर विराजित हो गए तो आज  अन्ना  पालिटिकल पार्टी    के बारे में भी  घोषणा कर दी गयी ।

मेरा ये स्पस्ट मानना हैं कि जो दिखता हैं वो होता नहीं  । जब मैंने पिछले साल अन्ना के जन लोक पाल बिल को पढ़ा था तब मै एक और प्रसिद्ध इलाहाबादी, प्रेस कौंसिल ऑफ़ इंडिया के अध्यक्ष जस्टिस काटजू, के उस दृष्टिकोण से सहमत हू कि करोड़ से भी ज्यादा सरकारी अधिकारियों के लिए हमें कम से कम लाख लोकपाल चाहिए फिर उन लाख के लिए कुछ हज़ार फिर हज़ार के लिए सौ और उन सबके ऊपर एक प्रधान लोकपाल । अंत में होगा ये कि ये लोकपाल बयादोहन करनेवाले बन जायेंगे । हमारा भ्रष्ट राष्ट्र महा-भ्रष्ट हो जायेगा ।

ये तो सब जानते हैं कि जो समर्थक हमें दिख रहे हैं वो इस बिल को रामवाण मानते हैं और अन्ना को भगवान राम । ऐसी मुद्दों पर भावुक पैजामा पहनकर, ‘भारत माता की जय’ चिल्लाकर कुछ नि प्राप्त होगा । ज़रूरत हैं कुछ सार्थक कदम उठाने की । पर ठहरिये अब ये 'भारत माता की जय', ' अन्ना  पालिटिकल पार्टी    ' की जय में बदल गया हैं ।


मुझे तो डर हैं की कही अन्ना मोदी और राहुल गाँधी की तरह अगले प्रधानमंत्री बनने का सपना  देख लिए हो  खैर, अनशन की नौटंकी भी ख़तम होने वाली हैं क्योकि अन्ना ने खुद इसकी घोषणा कर दी ।

जय हो  ' अन्ना  पालिटिकल पार्टी ' की ।













Prateek Pathak
Student
University of Allahabad