House arrest

Saturday, April 25, 2009 , 9 Comments


















Bandh - Closed
12 hours of forced house arrest.
closed sign everywhere

Closed hearts?
Closed minds?
12 hours of doing nothing
tell me how we helped those
who shed their blood?

Ask me to work 8 hours extra.
8 hours labour and 8 hours pay
from every individual
would help a long way.
12 hours of doing nothing
tell me how we helped those
who shed their blood?

what did you gain?
few votes?
What did we lose?
few millions? few lives?
12 hours of doing nothing
tell me how we help those
who shed their blood?

May be I don't understand
the concept of closing down
make me understand
how we won?
how we helped?
By 12 hours of doing nothing
except for staying inside
watching TV that claimed
the Bandh, a successful one.

Don't quote Gandhi,
Don't imitate his tactics
for both of us know
it's a silly joke.

ref: pic Caturday reminded me of Saturday
We are working this Saturday to compensate Apr-23rd forced holiday.(Bandh day in Chennai)

Viji

Some say he’s half man half fish, others say he’s more of a seventy/thirty split. Either way he’s a fishy bastard. Google

9 Candles:

Anya said...

by closing shops in tamilnadu, do they think that the srilankan govt is gonna hand stuffs for free...

silly govt of our state.. still undertaking some old cut mechanisms of strikes and bandhs.. the whole meaning of bandh is lost in meaningless strikes like this..

nice way to put it across in poetic words

Viji said...

that's quick Chriz... Don't know when these people will learn...

Damn. I am angry..who the hell cares for my opinion or yours for that matter.

Opaque said...

Ah, this one is related to politics and I love it. You can turn this to some rebellious song. I am so with you on this thought.

A strong message delivered here for or on the behalf of the masses!!! Great job!!!

Viji said...

Thank you Ajey...i m clueless when it comes to songs :(
Am I not supposed to stick to meters (or is that for poems?)or something... whew it's beyond me i guess :D

Shadow said...

oh i don't understand it either. and here we have an official workers day... and no-one works. i just don't get it...

Viji said...

Hi Shadow,

Let me explain.

"Bandh" is a protest which political leaders carry out in India. When a Bandh is declared, the public are expected to stay indoors and strike work. Shops will not be open, the public transports like buses and cabs will not run.

when the city would come to a standstill position, then the Bandh is called successful..there are times when people are terrorized into participating in a Bandh at times even ambulances are not allowed to run and so many have lost their lives.

On the said day, at our place a Bandh was declared to protest against violence in Srilanka. Our chief minister gave an ultimatum to the Srilankan Govt to declare ceasefire. Don't ask me if they yielded to it.

Modern "Civil disobedience" is called Bandh. Hence quoted Gandhi.

Please don't think I am bad mouthing my country, I love India. It is election time and our politicians play such games to gain vote. I hate such practices.

On May 1st we have the official worker's day and we don't work. That is entirely different.

Cheers
Viji

ELAINE ERIG said...

The Bandh is called successful? I don't understand still the whole meaning of bandh is lost in meaningless strikes. He declared to protest against violence in Srilanka and to declare ceasefire.

Viji said...

Thank you for the read Elaine...

When a city ceases to function for a day, forcibly or voluntarily, they call the bandh successful.

The Bandh should be called a success only if and when the Govt of Srilanka declare ceasefire. If we think a Bandh in a small city is going to influence in changing their mind, how naive we are.

Declaring protest against violence in Srilanka is a good cause. But the means by which you show your protest should not be this.

1. Imagine a city cease to work for one whole day, how it affects the normal life? People who stuggle financially - take a person who sell fruit or vegetables, the perishable lot, he cannot afford this one day Bandh. There are people who work as labourers, who lives on daily wages. This should be voluntary, but here we are forced to take part, if we don't co operate, your personal belongings is at stake.

2. A bandh should be announced well in advance. They announced it just the day before.

3. It leaves a bad taste in the mouth when you know that this violence is happening for quite sometime and the leaders conveniently remember that just 15 days before the election.

4. Indian Supreme court has banned this concept of Bandh in 1998. It is surprising to see a political party in power carry this out. How can a Chief minister(One who heads a State) is not following the legal tennets?

Google the word "Bandh", it will give you an idea what this is all about.

Thanks again for dropping in :)

PS:
By "meaningless strike", Chriz means the strike action - refusing to operate. Usually strikes happen only in big factories, but here the government and its opposition parties announce them. Why "meaningless", on an average 60 - 80 bandhs happen in India.

Anonymous said...

Talking,Talking,Talking,.....and more of talking for what we are meant for....today,we are jus showing or agony and anger amongst ourselves by jus passing the bug...!!! (am not pro-to Eelam).But we never thought of saying this to others,...!!!

And with your lines,ur taking a step forward to speakout,...kudos to ur move...

And i guess,..speaking is better than scolding,....hope a great future atleast for the next gen...

Vandhe matharam!!!!

Cheers,
$undar

wisdom comes with experience

At one, I learnt crawling was fun. At forty one, I still feel crawling is fun #blamemykneesnotme