Today's mass media is ruled by Politicians!!!

Newspapers, Television Channels, Magazines & Radio -wherever, whichever mode that reaches the mass has too many biased owners these days !

Giving it a thought ,when i thinking about all the different Radio channels- i realised that one of them belonged to the ruling party and there again i thought of newspapers ...more than 1 ....belongs again to the ruling party ....

They did not leave the television mode either ...the ruling party ,opposition party and many other political parties have their own television channels .... latest to the list is Mega TV .

Each one of them potray themselves as the good and are selective about showcasing the news from the other Political Party movements which has to be defenitely a negative potrayal .....

Don't we think its hightime the MASS MEDIA gets some unbiased people to manage them than the politicians dominating them and bringing people selective news about what is good in them and bad in their opposition leaders....

We, the people also should not encourage or support such biased news / opinions from these particular parties for good journalism to survive in this state.

A Mighty Heart

"A Mighty Heart " is a book written by Marianne Pearl .In her book ,she narrates the real and most horriblest incident of her life - Abduction of Daniel Pearl ( her journalist husband ) by the terrorists.

Though it was such a sad story , the way she has written and narrated the entire episode leaves you with so much hope in life .As when you finish reading the last page , you tell yourself if this woman could carry on in life inspite of what she has gone through , i better look at this world in a positive light

Am not a very voracious reader and pretty slow in reading books .But this book kept me going , in about 2 days i read the complete book as i fell in love with Marianne and adored her explicit way of expressing the little things that happened between them as a cute couple. And not to forget the way she is explaining the anxiety in finding her kidnapped husband at a place like karachi and trying to do justice to her unborn by experiencing the initial days of motherhood....

Initially, she speaks a lot about how she met danny - her loving husband , their lovable love and daring journalism ( they both loved their profession as much as they loved each other ) .Then the story moves on to exactly what happened in those few days of January 2002

I was glued to the book those three days of my life ,reading ....reading and reading ....sometimes with tears rolling down empathising with Marianne's emotions and sometimes fuming inside as to how cruel terrorism is......

This book has influenced me so much that i started reading more about terrorism , Journalism, Danny , Marianne, the hatred between Jews and Islamists & of course the Al-Qaeda .....

To Sum up- It is a beautiful story of a woman who won in the battle of terror and love .... she mentions that the people who executed Danny might think that they have won but actually they lost as they could not take away her love but only his body!

Danny , wherever you are ...my heart and this little article goes to you !!!!

"Those Little Fingers "

"Diwali " ......New clothes , diyas ,sweets , greetings from friends and family .....what more ...??? the essential in everyone's list "Fun with Fire "-Bursting Crackers !!!!

To me - Diwali reminds me of all these including those little fingers who make these explosives called "Crackers" .Even today , we read so much about children burning their self and soul in this making of crackers at sivakasi. Whether it is an NGO who is trying to popularise their beleifs in the name of Child Labour or it is the business minded people out there refusing to accept this , no one can deny that Child Labour at Sivakasi exists. If we need to see it , we have a choice to visit and visualise what is happening there....So many little fingers rolling papers, fixing fuses to the crackers ,and dyeing them - All for 30-40 rupees for those long 12hours. Most of these children are between 11 - 13 years of age !!!

Some may ask why should i bother about these little children and give up my fun and frolic of bursting crackers

My question to you is ....."A small little sacrifice (an act which actually leaves us with a momentary happiness) ..is that too big Vs the permanent damage that happens to these little children's lives?"

Let's think , our choice can make a difference to someone's life .......

I made a choice -10 years back and am glad that in these 10 years , there were many who shared the same interest & determined to give up buying crackers for Diwali and we stuck to it !!

And trust me,we have had more happier diwalis in these 10 years when we look back ........

Wish you all a Happy and Cracker-Free Diwali !!!