Facebook

Everybody's favourite stalker song 😂

Between the Delhi violence and COVID-19, Holi तो मन ली...

Me: Wow, you called.

Caller: Yeah, I mean, we need to discuss, right.

Me: Yes, but you listened to that entire stupid recording just to talk to me. This discussion must mean a lot to you.

Caller: Just press 1 and the message goes away. Now do we discuss or what?

Me: 😳

It was Allahabad HC that took on the ego of Indira Gandhi and annulled her election in 1975, leading to Indira imposing the emergency.

Wow. Just yesterday I read MMS say that the government needs to fix demand. Economists and their fixation with demand, supply and prices.

I don't believe the planet is a Gaia retaliating to its exploitation. But this is fun. Right now everyone has a mask on their face. Soon my children will be able to breathe in Delhi without a mask. The cars will be gone and everyone will be home, whimpering and sheltering.

Facebook just suggested an Opindia article to me. ME!?

Friends of mine working at FB. Please take collective responsibility for this. Your site is now more broken than Chandrayaan II.

What a bomb!

Mom's exhibition has begun. Looks exceptional. Thank you Jitendra Padam Jain and the Gallery Sree Arts team.

https://m.facebook.com/events/238883240448308

How can you help the Delhi violence victims - Part 3 - Listen and be empathetic

There are thousands of families that have been displaced by the violence. Even as of today, new families are being discovered, hiding in fear. Does that surprise you? Imagine how terrorised these people must be to hide for over ten days. They have lost trust and faith in everyone. Their own neighbours have led the assaulters to their door. Their landlords have had their household goods burnt. Their children have been murdered by their own friends. They need comforting. We need to listen to their stories, provide them hope and comfort, assure them that it will all be okay.

It is painful work, but it comes naturally to the more empathetic ones among us. Perhaps you are practicing to be a counselor. Perhaps you studied psychology but never used that skill. Come, listen and write about their horrors.

If you wish to participate, you can meet any of the groups I have mentioned in my previous two posts. Or you can visit the relief camps, such as the one at Eid Gah Mustafabad. There is a lot of pain in the region - you won't have to try hard to find it.

How can you help the Delhi violence victims - Part 2 - help in documentation

The Citizens Collective for Peace is doing remarkable work. It is providing legal aid to victims - file police complaints, document losses to life, limb and property. They need people to help them with documentation, tabulation, etc. Lawyers are needed, but if you are a compassionate individual who can listen and document, that'll do just fine. If you have a laptop, take that and help them with tabulation of data.

This is actually the most impactful work. It helps victims get legal aid to them, records their video and photo evidence, and helps them get their due compensation from the government. It is painful and slow, but we have to make it work.

How to reach. Navigate to https://maps.app.goo.gl/N8eRFHabbxbRB9UT8. Then look for. Honda bikes showroom nearby, on the same road. CCP's banner is visible right opposite. Walk into the lane and you'll see their camp offices.

What can you do to help the Delhi violence victims - Part 1 - Donate funds for long term resettlement

I met with Sana yesterday. The group of very committed individuals she is working with, are helping ravaged families get back on their feet. One of the victims they are looking to support is a specially abled gentleman who purchased a three wheeled Scooty for himself on the 5th of Jan, after saving for years. If we can spend ₹60 to 70K in purchasing another vehicle for him, his livelihood and dignity can be (somewhat) restored. Here is a note from Sana.

Project Rebuilding Livelihoods

Once violence gripped Delhi from 24th February 2020 onwards it became apparent that individuals and civil society will have to put in a major effort in saving lives and providing relief. Many of us started to volunteer to assist people in extreme distress. As the dust settled and direct violence abated we saw the magnitude of loss and suffering. Our attention shifted from emergency relief to providing sustainable support to families who are in dire need of it. Concerned individuals from all walks of life have joined hands to make sure we document the trauma of victims and help in securing long term pledges of support for them. We are taking outmost care to not trample upon the dignity of families who are reeling under the shock of having lost everything. We are calling out sensitive individuals to come forward and support them. We need to provide financial security to help them recover from the aftermath of violence inflicted on them. The psychological trauma and pain that these families are going through is only exacerbated by uncertainty of future. The least we can do is not abandon them and help them build their livelihoods and support them. Project Rebuilding Livelihoods is all about providing that support to people, like help them find new homes on rent, help in paying rent, help in children return to school or if need be find new school, help in buying a scooter or a cart etc. If people fall sick help in medical expenses. The idea is to not let them slip in poverty due to extreme assault on their lives. While they pick up broken pieces of their trust, memories, friendships and love we can give support in rebuilding their material world. Please come forward to support this endeavour.

प्रोजेक्ट रिबिल्डिंग लाइवलीहुड्स

जब 24 फरवरी 2020 से दिल्ली हिंसा की गिरफ्त में आई, यह साफ़ होता चला गया कि ज़िंदगियाँ बचाने और राहत पहुँचाने के लिए नागरिकों और सिविल सोसाइटी को बहुत काम करना होगा| हम में से बहुतों ने बेहद कठिन हालात में फंसे लोगों की मदद का काम भी शुरू कर दिया| हमलों का सिलसिला जब थमा, नुकसान और पीड़ा का भयानक मंज़र सामने आने लगा| अब हमारा ध्यान आपातकालीन मदद से हटकर ज़रूरतमंद परिवारों को रोजी-रोटी उपलब्ध करवाने की तरफ है| समाज के हर तबके के लोग पीड़ितों की इस पीड़ा को दर्ज़ करने और उनको दीर्घकालिक मदद करने के लिए हमारे आगे आ रहे हैं| हम उन लोगों की गरिमा का पूरा ध्यान रख रहे हैं, जो सबकुछ खो देने का सदमा झेल रहे हैं| हम संवेदनशील लोगों से आगे आकर इन परिवारों की मदद करने की अपील करते हैं| हमें उन्हें हिंसक हमले से उबरने के लिए आर्थिक सुरक्षा उपलब्ध करवानी होगी| जिस मानसिक सदमे और पीड़ा से ये परिवार गुज़र रहे हैं, वो भविष्य की अनिश्चितता के कारण और बढ़ रहा है| कम-से-कम हम इतना तो कर ही सकते हैं कि उन्हें उनके हाल पर न छोड़कर और उनकी आजीविका को फिर से खड़ा करने में उनकी मदद करें| प्रोजेक्ट रिबिल्डिंग लाइवलीहुड्स उन्हें इसी तरह की मदद करने के लिए हैं, जैसे, उनकी किराये के नए घर खोजने में, किराया चुकाने में, बच्चों को फिर से स्कूल पहुंचाने में (और ज़रूरत हो तो नए स्कूल खोजने में), स्कूटर या ठेला खरीदवाने में मदद करना, यदि लोग बीमार हो जाए तो उनके इलाज का खर्चा जुटाने में मदद करना| हमारा उद्देश्य उनकी जीविका पर हुए हमले के कारण उन्हें आसन्न गरीबी के गर्त में जाने से बचाना है| जब तक वे अपने भरोसे, यादों, दोस्तियों और मोहब्बतों के टूटे टुकड़े जोड़ते हैं हम उनके भौतिक जीवन की पुनर्निर्माण में मदद कर सकते हैं| आइये, इस काम में साथ दीजिए।

...
If you wish to support this initiative, you can contact me. We will pool together money to support one or more families in a sustained manner, over a period of time, keeping in regular touch, till the family is back on its feet.

Folks, a reminder that the inauguration of my mother's painting exhibition is at 6pm today. Look forward to seeing all of you at The Habitat in a few hours. Please come over and extend your support.

एक और तबादला...

We, the well-to-do, do not like children scribbling or drawing on our walls (unless it is "good" art).

On the walls of Mustafabad, I saw children had scribbled all kinds of things. A lot houses had tiles on the walls of their bedrooms and living rooms. I've never seen this before. It is better than the most expensive washable paint. Children can do whatever they want and it just cleans off with a wet cloth.

Happy Women's Day

Yesterday I had the misfortune of walking the streets of Delhi with young and good looking women.

I had forgotten what the male gaze looked like. I had forgotten how to ignore it. I was unnerved at how these women were completely unmoved by it, while I was losing my mind. From boys to old men, all eyes were on us - how could these women not see what I saw?

I had all of the usual male reactions (which I suppressed with great effort). I wanted to chastise them for not dressing down. I wanted to tell them to get off the streets (We were walking around looking for addresses. While they were content with ambling around the place, I would have liked for them to just wait in one place while I did the hunting, and then escorted them). I wanted them to use the car rather than walk around. I wanted to drop them home rather than use public transport.

I did not want to address these men who were staring at us. Instead I wanted to exercise my (imaginary) agency over these women who I had only met once before, and barely knew.

मनाओ। आप लोग corporate Women's Day मनाओ।

This is an absurd, rambling post. It celebrates the absurdity of yet another corporate manufactured day, Women's Day.

The world is busily telling women how to be more woman. As I sit outside a relief camp, waiting for the opportunity to volunteer, I scroll aimlessly through my FB feed. All I see are more opportunities for women to doll up for the male gaze. A discount here, a voucher there.

So if the male gaze is really what you care about, you don't need corporations to tell you what they want. Ask a man. Let me tell you - the only two things men can gaze at endlessly are women and machines.

And so, randomly, I Googled for images of women driving tractors. https://www.google.com/search?q=woman+driving+tractor. Attached to this post are the top two images that showed up.

One image is from a stock photos site. A bunch of people put their heads together to figure out how a woman driving a tractor should look like. The other is a grab of a video from South India, where a woman demonstrates how to drive a tractor.

I follow the hashtags caravan and vanlife on Instagram. A majority of the pics are of girls juxtaposing their peachy bottoms against caravans or beautiful locales. Girl, if you're going to use that machine, use it. How does your derriere enhance the attractiveness of that machine for me?

Here are the women's day pics I'd like to see - women doing sexy things with machines - writing some tensorflow code, drilling a wall, fixing a car, riding a motorbike.

When you come home to the kid showing you his origami product of the day.

No glue. No tape. Just paper. And skills.

Tomorrow our motley group of volunteers from Gurgaon will be visiting Mustafabad. You are welcome to join.

One, we want to know the actual requirements on the field, so we can tweak our supplies accordingly.

Two, we want to begin work on long term resettlement. We hope to catch up with Chandra Mohan and the Iqra folks, as well as another group that is working in Mustafabad.

At dawn we ride. The metro. I don't have access to a car tomorrow. Also, not really dawn. We will congregate at the Sikanderpur Metro station at some point. You get the drift. Come come.

We've been had.

And how.

We have no one but ourselves to blame.

Today: "We counselled and transported through volunteers, 3 pregnant survivors to <redacted> hospital and one went into labour on way to the hospital and she just delivered a happy healthy baby boy. ⭐👏🥳"

Yesterday: "We have 3 pregnant ladies who need to go tomorrow to hospitals. They were quite traumatized by the riots and it has taken counselling by mental health counsellors to convince them to step outside to got for ultrasounds. Two of them will deliver this month only.

Tomorrow we need 3 cars to take 3 along with their family member and a volunteer to the hospitals and back to Mustafabad.

I feel if tomorrow is a pleasant and safe experience for them then I'll can be a personal win for us ✊"

People are working hard and getting results. Please volunteer, the weekend is coming. Please contribute in any way you can.

[ I was not involved in the transport of these ladies. This is just me sharing other people's conversations.
My focus is goods transport. Far less stressful. ]

My friend @[673082608:2048:Arnaz] asked me to share this, since she has been blocked by FB.

Sachin's wife claims that her father spent ₹50 lakhs on her wedding 12 years ago, and gave Sachin ₹11 lakhs in cash for a car. She has no evidence to support these claims. She also says Sachin's family is harassing her to transfer properties in her name to him. Sachin is worth over ₹7,500 crores after Flipkart was sold to Walmart.

There is something worth knowing about these two. Flipkart was incorporated in Singapore - it was never an Indian company. Per Indian laws, both under the UPA and NDA regimes, a foreign entity cannot be doing retail in India. So what did Bansal and Bansal, the founders, do? They did something very insidious.

Have you ever ordered a phone or something expensive from Flipkart. It is quite likely that the product was delivered by WS Retail. WS is not a courier company. It is the "seller" that sells a majority of the goods on Flipkart. Flipkart.com pretends it is a marketplace, and does not do any direct retail. The actual sale invoice is generated by sellers - and the cream of all sales go to WS Retail.

Where did WS Retail come from? It was created रातों रात, and was owned by the wives of Bansal and Bansal. This company, air gapped as it was from Flipkart by virtue of having different directors, started selling in bulk on Flipkart. It always ran in a profit, even though it did very little value creation. All the technology, process, order processing was done at Flipkart's expense. Investors burnt through thousands of crores in cash in Flipkart while WS turned a profit.

The profits accrued to WS' owners - the Bansal wives and their relatives. These people helped Flipkart circumvent Indian laws, at the expense of small Indian shopkeepers and large Indian retailers like Pantaloons that ran on Indian money.

Money corrupts. Lots of money corrupts irreparably. Now the Indian legal system will take precious time away from helping rape victims to massage the egos of these two, and helping them figure out exactly how obscenely rich each of them needs to be.

Here is another news on the same subject: https://www.timesnownews.com/business-economy/companies/article/flipkart-co-founder-sachin-bansals-wife-files-dowry-harassment-case-against-husband/561128

Something I just ranted on a school parents' WhatsApp group. You might find it useful.

Here are some graphs I made based on Statistics from WHO-China Joint Mission published on Feb 28. "Death Rate" represents the patient's risk of dying, if infected.

Mortality, if infected, for children under 10, is 0%. 11-20, 0.2%. Under 50, 0.2~0.4%. Mortality, if you do not have a pre existing disease, is <1%. There is pretty much no risk to children here.

Also note that most people dying of COVID-19 have been long term smokers or other folks with untreated lung disorders. If your lungs are fine, you'll be fine.

These mortality rates are about the same as for common flu and malaria. So basically, if a child is unfortunate enough to catch any infectious disease (malaria, flu), there is always a 0.2% chance they will die from it. This 0.2% rate is for the overall population. Since middle class children are well fed, treated in the best hospitals, etc., their mortality rate will be a lot lower than 0.2%. Same will be the case for COVID-19. All you need to ensure is that your child's BMI is in the normal range.

Now let me tell you what the real fear is. Your child goes to school, contracts COVID. She is sick for a few days, recovers just fine. But she has brought the disease home and passed it on to your parents. Those guys are above 70 years of age, mortality rates are 10%+ for them. Add to that the complication of pre existing diseases. Or maybe your father was a lifelong smoker. Boom. Trouble.

Your child isn't going to die of COVID. They're going to be vectors and spread it to vulnerable senior citizens. Basically, start at 10% mortality risk, and keep adding 5% for every ten years age over 70. Also add 10% for every pre-existing condition such as heart disease, BP, diabetes, etc. So if your 80 year old father has a heart condition and diabetes, that's 10+5+10+10 = 35% mortality risk if infected.

Now, your kids go to a very sanitised school. Their risk of contracting an infection at HXLS is very low.

Your parents are exposed to a wide variety of people at home. Most of them are poor.

Gurgaon does not have any public health infrastructure to speak of. When your kids get to grade 7, and they might do an expedition called "Be the Change". They will learn that there are no functioning dispensaries and hospitals - nothing in Gurgaon where the poor can get treated. And private hospitals are too expensive. So the poor go to RMPs for treatment. RMP's aren't even real doctors.

So, what happens? At school, 100% of the staff and students are constantly being checked. But are you checking your maids and drivers? What about at their home - will they report to you if someone at their home is sick? Most likely they will keep showing up sick at your home, because they are daily wagers and you cut their pay for the days when they take sick leaves.

There are ways to mitigate this. At my work place, we have medical insurance for everybody - from the white collar workers down to the office cleaner. The medical insurance extends to all people who reside with them - not just their financial dependents. Also, all OPD for all workers is covered by the company - consultation, medicine, tests, referrals to doctors - everything that our empanelled doctors recommend, we pay for. We have had this policy for some time now and we try and act on it as much as possible.

So if you want to save your parents from COVID, get interested in the health of everybody who enters your house. The security guards, garbage collector, the guy who sweeps the common areas in your neighbourhood. These people are living cheek by jowl in slums. COVID will spread like fire in those slums, and they will bring the disease to your parents. And just telling them to not show up for work if they are sick, won't help. They will simply under-report illness. You will need to pay them for sick leaves, you will need to pay to get them and their families treated.

[ Coronavirus is doing to be the great leveller of India society, I hope ]

I rant, therefore I am

Anti national BBC

The coronavirus COVID-19 is purging smokers

Looking for folks who can help source drawing books and crayons in bulk, either straight from manufacturers or through bulk dealers in Chawri. Deepam Agarwal

Saw this posted on a group today:
"In Kashmir esp. with younger kids (11 and below) crayons and drawing books have really helped them - to zone out, draw and to keep them occupied.

Considering in the affected places, survivors have no space for kids in camps and wherever they are staying, kids are also listening to the same stories over and over again. Can we think about this and get some stuff for them to draw."

Sherebanu Frosh like a boss. Missed taking a pic of Charvi Singh (because we were working not doing time pass OK).

Come help us today? We've got lots of supplies but we are behind on packaging them.

DM me if you can volunteer. Thanks.

Statistics from WHO-China Joint Mission published on Feb 28. "Death Rate" represents the patient's risk of dying, if infected.

The data is rather self explanatory. Here are the conclusions I drew: Males are twice as likely to die as females, if infected. Children pretty much don't die; in fact everyone under the age of 50 is pretty much safe. If you don't have a serious pre-existing condition, your chances of dying from this disease are under 1% (if infected).

If you're under 50 and healthy, you multiply your 0.20% mortality rate if infected, with the low probability of you getting infected, and get some miniscule number. Therefore, in spite of this pandemic, you're still on track to die from heart disease, COPD (air pollution, smoking, etc), diabetes, TB (if in India), road accidents - all the usual good stuff.

[ Source document that I used to make the graphs is here: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1UW6EdiDFZEU8YP24B3FhBiay_Rn9LZV9lRRZo6sKVJY/ ]

Overheard on a riot relief WhatsApp group.

New kid: What is Delhi government doing to provide victims homes?

Seasoned volunteer working in the field: They have created relief camps at rain baseras (night shelters), the closest being 4.2 km away. The camps have no stocks, zero security and it's not safe for any victim to be there.
They are mocking the victims literally.

...

AAP सरकार डूब मरो, डूब मरो।

AAP supporters/voters, if you cannot question the government you elected when it does something wrong, then you are unfit citizens in a democracy. Here is what Babasaheb BR Ambedkar said about bhakti:

"In India, Bhakti or what may be called the path of devotion or hero-worship plays a part unequalled in magnitude by the part it plays in politics in any other country in the world. Bhakti in religion may be road to salvation of the soul, but in politics, Bhakti or hero-worship is a sure road to degradation and to eventual dictatorship "

तो मालूम यह चला है, कि मिट्टी का इत्र होता है।

For the modest sum of ₹10,000, you can exude the heady fragrance of fresh rain falling on parched soil. Rain water is collected and steamed through clay in copper pots, a centuries old process to capture this fragrance. The fragrance is then bottled and sold at boutiques in Kannauj.

इस बात से यह ज़ाहिर होता है, कि वाकई इस मुल्क में कुछ लोगों ने इश्क फ़रमाया है, और ख़ूब ज़ोर शोर से फ़रमाया है। किसी ने ताज महल बनवाया, किसी ने उर्दू इर्जाद की। ख़ुसरों हुए, ग़ालिब भी बहुत कुछ फ़रमा गए। और कुछ लोगों ने कायनात की हर नायाब चीज़ को अपनी महबूबा के लिए बोतलों में उतार दिया।

अब भी मोहब्बत के यह सारे इन्तेज़ामात आपके लिए यहाँ मौजूद हैं। आप बस इश्क़ तो करिए।

[ The western world calls this fragrance, petrichor. How unromantic. ]

Listen to the man on the ground.

If you have doubts, see all the videos he has posted.

If you don't believe him, don't wanna see his videos, and reject what he is saying - then analyse your own biases first.

Yesterday, met an NRI visiting from the US. He has lived through the 1992 riots in Mumbai. Says he turned on the TV in his hotel room and there was this news channel called Times Now running. "Oh my God. That right there is your problem. If that kind of reporting exists then riots will exist. TV news, and social media, is the cause of all this."

Thousands of families have been displaced from their homes by the rioters. Either their homes have been burnt down, or they are too afraid to return. Most refugees are living in mosques and gurdwaras, which are also nodal points for relief material distribution. Some people have started taking refugees into their homes.

If you suddenly run from your home, without taking anything with you, some basic needs get impacted. After food, the biggest need for women are sanitary pads and underwear.

Some imams are progressive, and proactively asking rescue teams to provide sanitary pads and women's undergarments for the refugees they are harbouring. Others are queasy, and refuse to take sanitary pad.

For this second type, volunteers have come up with the idea of discrete packaging - pads and underwear sorted into sets and packaged in brown paper bags. Sherebanu Frosh, ever the feisty volunteer, is procuring these items in bulk from wholesale markets in Gurgaon. Then, she, my kids, and some other volunteers will make packages out of these.

If your relief team needs these kits, let me know. If you want to contribute money towards buying these items, DM me and I will share bank details with you. If you want to volunteer, direct message Sherry.

[If you are uncomfortable with feminine hygiene being discussed in a public forum, or you find it strange that kids will be handling sanitary pads, you could (a) grow up or (b) die and make space for better humans.]

Proud to have friends like Neha who are fearlessly reporting the truth from the ground.

I have removed a post from my page.

These were rumours. Everything is fine in Delhi. I apologise for spreading panic.

"कल पूरी रात सो नहीं पाई। लोगों की बातें disturb करती हैं। रात भाई ने बताया, कि कल सुबह सुबह ही उसके office में एक बन्दे ने उससे बोला कि तुम लोगों को चले जाना चाहिए यहाँ से। रात भर सोचती रही, कि कहाँ चले जाना चाहिए हमें अपना मुल्क छोड़ कर।

परसों, मेरी बुआ के घर के पीछे वाली मस्जिद में तोड़ फोड़ की। पुलिस ने FIR नहीं लिखी, कि सब ठीक है। वो भी शायद बंबई जाने को बोल रही हैं फ़िलहाल, उनका एक घर है वहाँ।"

मैं उसे कुछ ना बोल पाया। क्या जवाब दूँ उसे? बस उसकी आप बीती आप को बता रहा हूँ। Muslims in India, particularly in Delhi, are going through tremendous trauma. Reach out to your friends, colleagues, neighbours. Reassure them. Tell them that it is going to be OK. Believe that it is going to be OK. Work towards making it OK.

ज़मीन पर कुछ लकीरें हैं, जो दिखाई नहीं देतीं।

उन लकीरों के इस पार हमारे बच्चे हैं। जन्मदिन मनाते हैं, pool party attend करते हैं, तोहफ़े बाँटते हैं। उन के स्कूल मे एक छोटा सा हादसा हो जाता है तो लोग ऐसे overreact करते हैं मानो ज़लज़ला आ गया हो।

लकीरों के उस पार उनके बच्चे हैं। मस्जिद की ज़मीन पर असहाय, स्तब्ध, भूखे बैठे। इनके घर उजाड़ दिए जाते हैं, स्कूल बरबाद कर दिए जाते हैं, कॉपी क़िताब जला दिए जाते हैं, मग़र कोई कुछ नहीं पूछता।

सामाजिक न्याय नहीं तो कुछ नहीं। तुम स्कूल बनाओगे, वो तोड़ेंगे। तुम हस्पताल बनाओगे, वो उसमें लाशें भरेंगे। पहले इंसान को इंसान होने का हक़ दो, बराबरी दो। इन लकीरों को मिटाओ। इसके बग़ैर विकास और good governance का कोई मोल नहीं।

There's only so many visuals you can see of hungry children clamoring for food before your stomach churns.

Volunteers are not sharing videos of relief recipients out of respect.

Volunteers are asking for their own photos, videos, numbers to not be shared publicly due to fear of retribution from families and colleagues for helping Muslims.

We will bring Hindu refugees to India. हिन्दू राष्ट्र बनाएंगे।
We will make refugees out of Muslims in India. भारत माता की जय।

URGENT: Need volunteers who can drive automatic cars around in Delhi for the whole day, between Jamia and Mustafabad. If not volunteers, paid professional drivers will also do. But I need folks who can treat a personal vehicle with care and make sure it isn't damaged in loading and unloading. Also who can negotiate narrow streets.

Please share. There is material at one end, hungry children at the other. Cars are also there. We just need drivers.

Delhi Police is challaning personal vehicles carrying relief materials into East Delhi - 'this is commercial use of private vehicle'. Volunteer drivers now carrying smaller loads, ripping open cartons so the brown cartons aren't visible from the car windows, avoiding main roads, and taking other evasive measures.

Jai Hind 🇮🇳 🚩✊🏽

When folks say they need medical supplies, this is typically what they need:

Automatic oxygen concentrator
Glucometer
ECG machine
BP Machine Manual/digital
Monitor
Stethoscope
pulse hospital bed sheet
pulse oxymeter
Syrup Zikovit 100
BP monitor
Drop fem red 50
Syrup Dextromethorphan 100
Syrup Bromhexine 100
Drops Tricold Plus 70
Syrup Amoxicillin 50
Syrup Paracetamol 250 mg 50
Tablet Urimax 0.4mg 2 boxes
Tablet Udlivi 150mg 1 box
Gulco meter 10pic

When people say they need rations, this is the typical requirement:
Rice
Dal
Sugar
Aata
Oil
Milk
Tea
Biscuits
Namkeen

Hope this helps those collecting relief materials for East Delhi.

A number of you have evinced interest in donating money. As of now what people need on the ground is materials and volunteers. East Delhi is safe enough for people to go and do work. Converting money to goods is a bit of a pain - additional work for the limited volunteers.

That said, if you still want to donate money, I'm working with Balaji Sampath to get you details of an account to send money to. This org will convert the money to goods and send it to where things are needed. It will also further donate money to others working on the ground.

An update on @[100027580271807:2048:Chandra Mohan]'s work. He is working with a trade union providing relief work on the ground in East Delhi. It is a small but very dedicated group.

Yesterday they were in Mustafabad and Shiv Vihar, the worst affected areas. There was again unrest yesterday, so they moved to Chand Bagh. Tomorrow they'll be back in Mustafabad.

They are planning to set up a medical camp soon, for which they will need doctors, medicines, medical supplies, medical volunteers.

For now, they need money, men, materials. A person called Shakti (+919990203511) can be handed over cash. If you are going to find Shakti in Mustafabad and give him cash, you might as well volunteer too. They need as many people as possible volunteering. On the material front, Chandra will send me a list soon, and I'll update here.

(Shakti has poor signal - which is to be expected in the kind of areas these guys are working in. So WhatsApp and SMS work best to coordinate.)

This is in continuation to my earlier post about a collection center in GK. Today, I have visited the collection center in GK that I cited earlier.

I met Uday. He said that they are using this location as a collection centre for multiple organisations working on the ground, whichever org has permission or access into the community. Whatever various organisations need, they are providing them.

Khalsa Aid was the primary recipient so far, but they're temporarily overwhelmed. So tomorrow they will be dispatching their current stash to other orgs.

Uday's sister will soon relay to me a location and organisation in Okhla that would be a better place to send stuff, if we are sending truckloads of stuff in bulk from places like Gurgaon.

For tomorrow, Sunday 1 March, they need private vehicles to transport goods, and 4-6 volunteers to ride with hired tempos and load vehicles. They also need help sorting all their heaps of stuff.

At this time they need:
Sanitary pads
Baby food
Cooking oil

बाकी, they'll send out the stuff they currently have, tomorrow, and wait to hear from the organisations on the ground what further things they need.

These are good people. I've met them. I vouch for them. As of now, if you want to do something to help the victims of East Delhi, your best option is to donate material to these guys. It will reach the right and needy people, speedily. Their hearts are in the right place and they are as organised as someone can be. So, fire up your Amazon or BigBasket apps, and donate stuff to

M 76 Basement
GK2 M Block Market
Greater Kailash Part II
New Delhi

They are not accepting cash or online payments. No monetary collection of any kind.

दिल्ली में बिजली फ्री, पानी फ्री, इलाज फ्री, दवाई फ्री, और मौत भी फ्री.

कल रात मेरे घर, मेरे शहर मद्रास से एक सज्जन आए
आकर ठहरे
बोले
कल सुबह ही GTB हस्पताल जाऊँगा
मदद करूंगा
अरविंद से, मनीष से मिलूंगा
कुछ जवाब मांगूंगा
सुबह तड़के उठे
और बिना नाश्ता किए चले गए

कल रात मेरे घर, मेरे शहर मद्रास से एक सज्जन आए
और मेरा शहर दिल्ली बचाने चले गए

The situation in North East Delhi is dismal and delicate. The damage is larger than we know; there are homeless, hungry children and families huddled in safe houses. There is no electricity. Most can’t even charge phones. Children have gone without milk for 3 days. The following items are required URGENTLY and IMMEDIATELY by riot affected victims of ALL COMMUNITIES. Your political affiliations do not matter. Our city is under attack and we need to stand up and be counted.

(This is an independent effort organised by a family who are distributing through Khalsa Aid and other organisations on the ground. Friends have confirmed this is legit)

👆🏽 Sahana Mukherji has shared this information with me. If you wish to donate from Gurgaon, please WhatsApp me. I'll coordinate collection at my place and then drop off to GK or East Delhi.

यह साले मुस्लमान चुप चाप मर क्यों नहीं जाते? Why do they try to defend themselves, protect their children and homes, with whatever they can lay their hands on? Why do they have to leave their weepy children behind when they die? Bloody cretins.

🚩🚩🚩 #TahirHussain

Me, in a chatroom: I need to wake up at 5am again these days. Gotta get the kids to their sports practice. So I miss all the late night action in this group.

...

Me: That... came out very wrong. What I meant was that most of the activity here happens during the US and Europe day time, when I'm asleep in India.

...

Me: Also, I'm a nerd like the rest of you. So no night time action in my life either. Heh heh.

...

Me: I'm just going to go now 🚶🏽. And never come back.

Jeez. Don't log on to the internet without your morning ☕

Me: So no kid in your class has dentures?

Nilay: Dad, no kid in my entire grade has dentures.

Me: Strange. I thought this was about the age when kids got dentures.

Nilay: Dad, NO KID has dentures.

Me: (thinking hard)

Kavin: Dad, dentures are for old people. Do you mean braces?

When you're dumb compared to your kids. उठा ले रे देवा।

You are cordially invited to an exhibition of prints and paintings by my mother @[100001467904279:2048:Sadhna Jain] at the Open Palm Court of the India Habitat Centre in New Delhi, from the 8th till the 12th of March, 2020.

The inauguration is from 6 to 8pm on the 8th of March. You will have the opportunity to interact with eminent artists from Delhi.

About "Amidst and Beyond"
We live amidst the fascinating beauty of nature. We see and appreciate the tangible forms of nature, such as the flowers, trees, river and hills. All of these connect us to the infinite universe far beyond us. A river connects us to its origin in the mountain. A tree connects us to the Sun which gives it life. The drizzle of rain connects us to the depths of the ocean. The beauty of nature amidst us is the medium of taking us to the world beyond our comprehension. Sadhna attempts to create art without boundaries, which will transport the viewer into this mystique world.

"Megan's syncs were filled with discussions of cadences and connectivity and upleveling as well as the necessity to refine and iterate moving forward. The primary unit of meaning was the abstract metaphor."

For a brief while at the start of my corporate career, I just wanted to belong. Absorb all this corporate speak, perhaps attend an MBA program so I could learn to speak in nonsensical terms like the suits. And then I started my own company and realised that none of these words help you move forward and deliver. They are just words to hide the dystopia of the corporate world - its disconnection from humanity, society, ecology.

The AAP project is done and dusted. Six years have been wasted, nothing gained, a lot of time and opportunity lost. When stalwarts like Medhatai and Dayamani left the party, we were stupid enough to not listen to them.

Anyway, the sooner we completely dump the illusion that a party "without ideology" (but now blatantly soft Hindutva) can further India, the happier we are all going to be.

There is greater happiness in being rudderless and leaderless, than being led nowhere by a pied piper.

We need to start supporting those leaders who believe in social justice. We need to dump the leftists, the right wing, the centrists, the liberals. None of them are interested in shaking up the status quo.

The leftists don't believe in social inequality - to them everything is economic class. Indian leftists have only consolidated power in the hands of the same ruling elite that have lorded over India for millennia.

The centre, right and liberals all subscribe to neo-liberal economics, which thrives on social and economic injustice. Capital constantly hunts for the poorest and most disenfranchised to exploit (employ). It believes in the destruction of the planet's ecology and the privatisation of basic resources like water. It blames the poor for overpopulation, but never talks of the imbalance in resource consumption and pollution.

So, which leader can I throw myself behind? Who in the present times can take on the mantle of Ambedkar and Periyar?

The current situation, in liberalspeak: "Pro CAA protestors" and "anti CAA protestors" are "rioting" in "Delhi".

The truth: Hindu mobs are lynching poor Muslims across RSS/BJP supporter dominated neighbourhoods.

I am an anti CAA protestor. No one has come to my door to attack me. Thousands of CAA opposers live across neighbourhoods in South Delhi. No one has rioted there.

Don't let your sense of political correctness come in the way of stating the truth. The Hindu mob (because there is no such thing as a pro CAA mob) is killing random Muslims and burning their properties down. They are not targeting CAA critics. I speak so much against the CAA, I visit Shaheen Bagh regularly, but I am perfectly safe. I could drive around anywhere in Delhi right now, and I would be unharmed (except perhaps by a stray Delhi Police bullet).

This is a state sponsored pogrom. The government is stoking violence through its speeches and its entrenched media. It is telling the police to look away, to abet Hindu mobs. And it is rewarding terrorists, not prosecuting them.

Meanwhile, their educated apologists are busy indulging in whataboutery and other logical fallacies to confuse the narrative. These are the Nazi sympathisers we must name and shame. These "respectable" members of society deserve to be ostracised and censured. How much longer will we wait before we take direct action against the ground level supporters of these mobsters?

If you tell me to have a "balanced" view in these times, you are a Nazi trying to confuse facts. If you call a mobster and arsonist a "CAA supporter", I will boycott you and worse.

If you are Muslim and unaware of your caste privilege, this might help you get started.

Don't reject the thought outright. Don't get into the Indian mindset of arguing, debating, justifying. If you trust me, if you have chosen to follow me based on my previous posts, then give this thought some time. Google for the meanings of some of the more complex terms - it is OK to not understand what baman or savarna means.

It is not OK to ignore your privilege. It is not OK to ignore your sense of false victimhood.

You and I are the same. I am not Hindu. You are not Muslim. We are both just the ruling elite, inventing and propagating binaries to divide those below us in the food chain.

एक हमारी सहेली हैं, उनका ब्याह हो गया। उन्होंने हमारी एक post कभी मियाँ जी को दिखाई। मियाँ रहे मोदी के परम भक्त 🚩🚩🚩। अब वो करने लगे हमको FB पर follow. बात बात पर हों नाराज़। सहेली से कहें इसका नंबर दो, इससे बहस करनी है। सहेली ना दे।

पहले तो हम सिर्फ़ रिश्तेदारी में, दफ़्तर में कलेश फैलाते थे। अब नवविवाहितों के घरों तक में घुस गए। पहले से ही मेरे लिए नर्क में जगह रिज़र्व है। अब कहाँ जाऊँगा?

(Posting fiends-only so followers cannot see)

हाँ उम्मीद है। दिल टूट चुका है मग़र उम्मीद क़ायम है। अरविंद से नहीं तो मनीष से। कोई तो कुछ करेगा। इसीलिए बार बार गुहार लगाई जा रही है। मत खेलो साम्प्रदायिकता का खेल।

What can Arvind Kejriwal do?

What can he not do? Now that he is merrily using sarkari awaas, sarkari vahan, sarkari security, he can take this entire paraphernalia and park himself in the middle of the riots. His security detail will be forced to contain the riots with him in the thick of it. He and all of his ministers. And then the MLAs and the volunteers can follow. If all of AAP decides to go and carry out a dharna in riot affected areas, the riots will melt away.

This is just one of the dozens of suggestions I have. And I have no experience with governance. I am sure there are many better ideas that AK has access to. Sirf niyat ki kami hai.

We elected a CM. We expect the CM to act, even if he doesn't have powers. He tried to give free metro rides to women, even though he doesn't have the power. Didn't he? But everyone has the power to save lives. Just stand in the line of fire. Go park yourself in Muslim houses that can be targeted.

The coronavirus spreading to India is a certainty. Well before the vaccines are in mass production. Time to pull out the caravan, camping gear, inflatable boat and survival equipment, and head for the hills before the great purge sets in. Run run run and don't look back.

Too bad I just sold the generator I had been hoarding for all these years. But I still got the solar panels. Who knows what will happen to fuel supply lines, after all.