The Brand Ambassador??

Hi

Its been a longggg while since I wrote...I was not too busy but was a bit out of this to write down something. But am back with a new post. Hereafter, I thought I am gonna add one picture that I clicked for every post of mine...I hope you'll like it.
Today's picture is a rainbow that popped up after a long rainy day at London UK. Dont forget to get your lens ready when the rainbow pops up.

Digging in to the topic I want to express my opinion about....celebrities and controversies go hand in hand...no matter how trivial the issue is, it can be blown out of proportion in their case. The same has been happening with the Indian Tennis ace Sania Mirza. Since she has entered the limelight, many controversies have been floating around her....be it the choice of her dress or her outspoken attitude or her choice of life partner. 

While being a public personality its quite common to be surrounded by gossip mongers and rumor columns and several unwanted opinions and advises, it isn’t right to be scrutinized and judged because she chose someone from a country that the nation had been rivals with for a long time. The nationality of her partner has been a topic for discussion every time she comes out on the public platform. Her achievements have never been able to save her out of these controversies. Whom she wants to choose as her life partner is entirely her choice and anyone except her family should have nothing to say. Using her choice of getting married to a man from a rival country as a reason to show that she doesn't suit to hold any positions in this country is absolutely ridiculous. 

And now, the Telangana CM choosing her as brand ambassador for the state has been the most discussed topic in the social networks and in the media. This included unwanted comments and hateful opinions criticizing her for several reasons. The reasons to oppose her as the brand ambassador turned out too harsh and became another reason to expose the mean insecure remarks our people can resort to. The way she had to prove her identity time and again to answer such people is also not encouraging. Whether her being chosen as brand ambassador of Telangana is justified or not, the hateful remarks against her are not appropriate at all.

But, coming to the discussion of Mr.KCR choosing her as brand ambassador of the state,...there can be several reasons why he shouldn't have chosen her in haters opinion but there are definitely many other reasons why she is not the right person to be where she was chosen to be. 

First and foremost reason is comparison with other eligible people who seem to be appropriate to hold the position better than her and who may not be opposed by majority of the public. But Mr.KCR always has been the dictating kind of person who hardly cares about the public opinion and this decision is no less an evidence to that. The questions like what was her contribution to Telangana in particular?? how does she precede many other eligible people? why does she need to be given a huge amount of money if this was something an act done to support the newly formed state as she mentioned in her comments? were answered. The cheque worth Rs 1Cr give to her became equally critical as the person chosen. At the same time, the Olympic medal winner Saina Nehwal who also belonged to the state was not even paid the prize money she was promised. How come this act seems justifying? Instead they could have paid Saina Nehwal her prize money before going for this. But this did not happen leading to more controversy. KCR however seemed deaf ears to all the comments that were being hurled across. Also the hypocritical version of this issue is that, KCR issuing citizen cards to core Telanganites raised questions like when other people who have stayed out of Telangana for different reasons/were not born in Telangana but brought up in there do not fall in to Telaganite category how come a person who was not born in there and is married to a man from different country and stays outside the country is eligible for an honourable post?? Learned Mr.KCR only should answer this.

There were also comments that there are strong political motives behind choosing her...especially to appease the Muslim vote bank, which I think is true. But again, brand ambassador should be a person who can be relatable to the common man of the state...unlike a person who is mostly known only among educated circles. Keeping in view that many rural areas of Telangana are still underdeveloped and disconnected to the happenings around the world, the person should be able to connect with everyone as such only then the brand works…else it would be a namesake post. 

I personally think, though not a Telanganite...this decision of the state to choose Sania Mirza as brand ambassador is not justifying for many reasons. However, hurling abuses and hateful remarks against her nationality is also not right.

The hypocrisy of this topic is that, the people who called Sonia Gandhi as an Italian even after her being married to Rajiv Gandhi and after living in this country for several years, also called Sania as Pakistani….why is Sania who is born and brought up here and won medals for this land not an Indian??? When Sonia who was also born and brought up in Italy an Italian? If Sonia remains an Italian because she was born there, then Sania too remains an Indian by origin no matter where she lives or whom she marries. When Satya Nadella was choosen as CEO of Microsoft, we rejoiced that he was Indian more than anything, in spite of the fact that he is an American citizen although originated in India…and works outside India. Why were we able to acknowledge him as Indian when he doesn’t live or work in India and holds an American Citizenship?? This remains the biggest hypocrisy of our country.

 I think the remarks to oppose the decision should be sensible and secular...otherwise it only proves our intolerance and insecurity. 

Cheers

Jyostna

"In"sensitive Rant

Hello Readers,

Its been extremely long since I wrote anything. I had written couple of posts but really missed to post them in this space. I couldnt post them later as they dont seem relevant anymore. Anyways I do miss this space and will try to be regular.

What really motivated me to come back and write this post was the recent Beas River Tragedy at Himachal Pradesh. The students who lost their lives were being mourned by the entire country. While it is really sad to know so many lives were lost due to an unfortunate incident, I do think the media has been extremely crazy with this incident. The amount of attention given and the way it was all twisted and presented cannot be appreciated. It is certainly so tragic to the families who have lost their hopes, but it is not because of a negligent instructor or an official of the Largi dam. In any excursion trips, it is quite common that students do get over excited and tend to break rules. Breaking rules is not always safe. Incidents like this could happen. How can anyone blame others for this sort of incident. What if there was no dam and it was natural gush from the upstream who would the media blame? the instructors for not monitoring them or the college authorities for organizing a trip like that? or the parents who sent their young ones to the trip?. I may appear insensitive making these comments. But I cant agree with the media's over enthusiastic and biased reporting. Also the families, I do express my heartfelt sympathies for them but I dont think they should start blame game to make it worse. And of course the co-students of the trip and college authorities shouldnt really be biased when they judge situations like this. 

Its a river with dam upstream and there could be a sudden surge at any time. This might be unknown to the students but the flow that started coming can be clearly seen. Even in the video released revealed that the first few seconds clearly show a very low level of water and ample space for the students to escape the flood. But only until the water level rised the students did not start to make a move. This was clearly seen. How could this act be some one else's responsibility? When you are visiting a new place its a common sense fact that you need to double check your personal safety. One's personal safety cannot be responsibility of a second person. Students were not school goers but matured enough to understand what is safe and unsafe. They were just pretty excited to see natural scenic beauty of the place that they ignored the safety issues. At least the first instance of flow was not ferocious to not be escaped. It was either the delay in plan or spontaneity or sheer excitement that ruled out options for escaping. However, it was brave of some students who risked their lives to save their friends. I have been seeing Facebook posts from the students of the college posting that this was an injustice act done to their friends. I am seriously in doubt that if these students were blindly carried away by the media attention. There has to be some common sense judgement before we get into allegations and that too allegations that involve other people's lives. Those students and youngsters who blindly support this because you think its human to do so, please do give a second thought. Are you not aware of incidents where people get washed away in gushing waters and should know your limits while crossing such borders?? Are you not aware of escaping a flooding channel as soon as you realise it may rise?? Are these not common sense thoughts??? Am sorry for those students who lost lives but I wish you guys were a little more careful and alert. As a saying goes "Time and Tide wait for none"...this was nothing but unfortunate.

But what about the announcements of exgratia by the ministers?? Does that seem a valid justification for the parents? What about people who have been washed away in floods? Has the government or media been so concerned in such cases? Every now and then, we witness incidents like school kids being washed away in flooding waters of small creeks in villages, but have they been compensated for those incidents? This was a fun trip and they wantedly went beyond danger points spotting no sign of water. And unfortunately water started flowing and claimed lives. Had they been a little more alert and quick, at least another 10 people would have been alive. RIP dear youngsters. Again I may sound rude but I dont see a point why they should be compensated?

I had a discussion with one of my colleagues who worked for long in the Himachal/Uttarkand region researching the quality of soil, ground and nature of rocks etc. He opined that this region is an extremely sensitive region and is not suitable for heavy habitation. Whereas our people have ignorantly over developed it to spoil the eco-system of that region. Uttarkand floods last year was the best answer we humans could get. However, we are still going for more and more irresponsible development. While this is not completely the reason, the infrastructure development has brought in immense tourist attraction for this place, but its often ignored that there are many hidden dangers too. One such is this. Although this is not a natural disaster, this could have been avoided. 

Coming to the authorities and their negligence to inform, don't we know how well the system in those regions has functioned all these days? And how could we risk our lives trusting some unknown authorities? What happened to signals given by the locals? Why were they ignored? I think its high time we stop blaming different people for the incident and erase the negative propaganda that the media has been making. It was not anyone's fault but misfortune. My deepest condolences to families and friends who have lost their loved ones. 

Jyostna