DailyOh! How Gunjan Saxena ducked missiles in Kargil, to why black is 'ugly' for a Bengal school
Hey there,
With 7,459,741 people having been tested positive for coronavirus worldwide, WHO chief Tedros Tedros Adhanom has said, “This is not the time for any country to take its foot off the pedal.”
Most countries, however, aren’t paying heed to the advice and are opening up faster than they closed down. The US, as you know, is not even paying the money to allow WHO to keep giving advice. There is no nationwide lockdown in any nation now because processes of unlockdown have begun. India is no exception.
The country is on the sixth spot on the global coronavirus tracker, behind Spain just by a whisker. India and Spain would keep exchanging that spot given the marginal difference, but there is some good news from Maharashtra’s Mumbai. Mumbai is showing signs that its curve could be flattening. Forget those telling you Mumbai has overtaken Wuhan because nobody knows the exact numbers from Wuhan, including the people of Wuhan.
That, however, doesn’t mean India’s curve is flattening because India is many ‘countries’ in one country and different ‘countries’ of this one country would have their peaks and flat phases at different times. But you can say of all the ‘countries’ in India, Mumbai is the most congested. In fact, with a population density of 76,790 people per square mile, it is the most congested in the world. Tokyo is the most populated but aamchi Mumbai is most congested. Proud? Of course not. In Tokyo, the population density is 12,296 people per square mile.
Some people will tell you you can’t talk about Mumbai without talking about Bollywood. Tell them there is no such national or regional compulsion in place. You can talk about this, while not talking about that. But we want to talk about that. We mean we want to talk about Bollywood. Actually one film in particular, which is ‘coming soon’ on Netflix, and the announcement about which was made by actor Janhvi Kapoor on Instagram just days ago – Gunjan Saxena.
Who is Gunjan Saxena apart from being the title of the film? A hell lot more. She is the woman the movie is based on but what was the need to make a movie based on ‘the woman’?
Gunjan Saxena is the first woman Indian Air Force (IAF) officer to enter a war zone in 1999. Gunjan flew a Cheetah helicopter in the Kargil war zone and rescued several soldiers. Before Gunjan flew in, women were refused permission to fly into war zones because it was thought they won’t be able to endure the extreme physical and mental stress that a war zone exposes people to. It has taken some time for the world to realise women are people too. Some still are a long way from getting there. But Gunjan has been there, done that.
Did Gunjan just go in, pick the soldiers and get out? No. You see they don’t make movies on such ‘easy’ rides. The enemy spotted her aircraft and fired a missile at it. The missile missed her aircraft because of her air maneuvering skills. Gunjan then went on to complete the task handed out to her. Not sure how the movie would do but for what Gunjan Saxena did, she received the Shaurya Chakra. The man who inspired Gunjan to join IAF was her father, an India Army officer.
It’s good to have parents who inspire their daughters to do what they can do, but people think they can’t. It’s also good to have parents who keep a tab on what biases their kids are being taught in schools. A municipal girls school in West Bengal was teaching students in the pre-primary classes, “U for ugly, ugly maane a dark complexioned person.” The illustration from which this knowledge was being imparted said letter 'U' stands for 'Ugly' with a person of dark complexion in the picture.
Some parents who were teaching their kids at home took objection to the illustration and reached the school to protest. Perhaps, they should set a school to give the school some lessons in racism and how not to teach discrimination to kids.
But what does ugly mean anyway? Who and what can we brand as ugly? Ugly, our Word Of The Day, means, that which should be feared or dreaded. It has medieval origin. In Old Norse ‘ugga’ meant to dread. It is from ugga that ugly originated.
At what point ugly started being associated with looks is difficult to say.
Samuel Johnson, a lexicographer, as in a person who compiles dictionaries, came out with one in 1755. Johnson’s definition of ugliness and definition of deformity are interchangeable; one is defined as the other, but it also has additional meanings of moral depravity and crookedness.
Now, Italian philosopher Umberto Eco came up with a theory that beauty is boring since it must follow certain rules, but ugliness is unpredictable and offers a range of possibilities. In the 18th century, some ‘ugly clubs’ were set up. Members of this club were people who were told by the members of society that they are ‘ugly’.
In the 21st century, we find the practice of branding people is the real ‘ugly’ thing. You see Derek Chauvin placed his leg on George Floyd’s neck and did not lift it till Floyd could not breathe anymore. That treatment meted out to one person by the other is ‘ugly’. Schools instilling such biases in the minds of children is also ugly. Parents pointing it out promptly, we believe, would beautify it.
From West Bengal, let’s hop over to Bihar because the birthday boy is in Bihar. The boy turned 72 today. He is currently under arrest but since he is unwell, he is spending his prison term in hospital. He was joined in the hospital by his son Tejashwi Yadav, who came in to wish ‘papa Lalu’. The reins of RJD from Lalu has been passed on to his younger son Tejashwi Yadav, who could actually be the older son. That is because Tej Pratap Yadav, who is the elder son, could be the younger son.
If you are confused blame the trio not us. In 2015, when Tej Pratap went to file his nomination paper from Bihar’s Mahua, he wrote that his age was 25 years. So far so good. But when the younger son filed his nomination papers from Raghopur, he mentioned his age as 26. So confusing is the situation that even papa Lalu seems confused about it. In one interaction he said Tej Pratap was his younger son.
To the nation, it matters little how old they are because age is just a number. Right? Wrong. Age is just a word. But we hope within the family they have clarity on who is younger and who older. Else it becomes difficult to delegate work responsibilities like getting water or claiming a right to the TV remote.
Sorry about the digression, we wish the duo’s father a very happy birthday. We wish the same to you, if it’s your birthday too.
That will be all for today, we will see you tomorrow.
Stay safe.
Also read: DailyOh! Why Line of Actual Control has failed to control Chinese aggression