Satire on Holi

-
Illustration by Mario Miranda

NK SINGH

Reporting Holi, Published in Frontier, 15 March 1969.

To read the PDF of the article please click on the links below:


Former Resident Editor, Hindustan Times, Indian Express; Editor, Dainik Bhaskar, Peoples Samachar; Associate Editor, India Today; Sub-editor, Nai Dunia, The Hitavada, Pratipaksha, Secular Democracy

Comments

Post a Comment

Thanks for your comment. It will be published shortly.

Popular posts from this blog

काम-काजू बच्चे : 'हम फुटपाथ पर आँख खोला', 'पता नहीं अमीर-गरीब क्यों?'

-
Image
टोकरियों में बैठी मानवता: घूरे के दिन भी जागेंगे! NK SINGH देश में कितने ऐसे बच्चे हैं, जिन्होंने स्कूल का मुंह नहीं  देखा। जिन्हे बचपन को जी भर कर निहारने कर मौका नहीं मिला।  इनकी धधकती जठराग्नि ऐसी होती है जिसमें सारे अरमान जल कर राख हो जाते हैं। काम का बोझ नाजुक कंधों को तोड़ देता है। ये काम-काजू बच्चे हैं।  कानून में 15 वर्ष से कम उम्र वालों को काम के लायक नहीं समझा जाता। इस काम-काजू लड़के-लड़कियों की अपनी दुनिया है -- अंधेरी दुनिया। जेब काटने से लेकर जूठी प्लेटें धोने, ईंट ढोने से लेकर सर पर मैला धोने और भीख मांगने से लेकर शरीर बेचने तक के काम की दुनिया।  काम-काजू बच्चों पर पैट्रीअट (हिन्दी) के 11 जनवरी 1970 के अंक में छपी रपट   A feature about working children published in Patriot (Hindi), 11 January 1970 Patriot (Hindi) 11 January 1970
Read more

कैसा होगा कोविड के बाद का मीडिया

-
Image
  Courtesy Deccan Herald एनके सिंह संकट आज नहीं तो कल ख़त्म होगा। हर स्याह रात के बाद एक सुबह आती है। किसने सोचा था कि दूसरे विश्वयुद्ध से तबाह युरोप इतनी जल्दी खड़ा हो जाएगा या ऐटम बम से नेस्त-नाबूद जापान दुनिया की आर्थिक धुरी बन जाएगा। कोरोना संकट ने मीडिया को एक सीख दी है – अपने सारे अंडों को एक ही टोकरी में नहीं रखें। अखबार, टीवी और डिजिटल मीडिया को एक-दूसरे का पूरक बनाना पड़ेगा। उन्हे कन्वर्जन्स की तरफ और तेजी से जाना पड़ेगा। कोरोना काल ने साबित किया है कि पिछले एक दशक में तैयार नए पाठक वर्ग को अखबारों की विश्वसनीयता और टीवी का आँखों देखा हाल अपने स्मार्ट फोन या टैबलेट पर चाहिए। कोरोना से अस्तित्व का संकट मीडिया के लिए कोरोना की मार बुरे वक्त पर आई है। गूगल और फ़ेसबुक सरीखी कंपनियों की वजह से उनकी कमाई पहले ही कम हो गई थी। कोरोना ने अस्तित्व का संकट खड़ा कर दिया है। मसलन, अमेरिका में 2008 के मुकाबले पत्रकारों की तादाद आधी रह गई है। न्यूयॉर्क टाइम्स के मुताबिक कोरोना के बाद अमेरिकन मीडिया संस्थानों ने 36,000 कर्मचारियों की छटनी की है। दुनिया के कई बड़े अख़बार अपनी परछाईं ...
Read more

2020 लोक सभा इलेक्शन : वोटकटवा के नाम रहा बिहार का चुनाव

-
Image
Nitish Kumar and Tejashwi Yadav. Pic courtesy Bhaskar.com     Bihar Assembly Election 2020 NK SINGH   यह चुनाव वोटकटवा के नाम रहा।  बिहारी नामकरण में माहिर हैं। मूंगफली यहां चिनियाबादाम हो जाता है और टमाटर विलायती बैगन। पुर्तगाल से आया समोसा, सिंघारा कहलाने लगता है।  शरद जोशी बिहार यात्रा से लौटकर आए तो हिन्दी शब्दकोश को एक नया शब्द मिला- नरभसाना। 2020 के बिहार चुनाव ने एक और शब्द से परिचित कराया- वोटकटवा। जब टक्कर कांटे की हो तो ये वोटकटवा पार्टियां महत्वपूर्ण हो जाती हैं। चिराग पासवान की लोजपा ने और हैदराबाद से आए ओवैसी की एआईएमआईएम ने इस चुनाव में यही भूमिका अदा की।  एआईएमआईएम के उम्मीदवारों ने कई सीटों पर महागठबंधन को नुकसान पहुंचाया। जिस ओवैसी को भाजपा फूटी आंख नहीं सुहाता है, उन्होंने भाजपा उम्मीदवारों की जीत का मार्ग प्रशस्त किया।  दूसरी तरफ जदयू को एंटी इन्कम्बन्सी के अलावा लोजपा ने काफी नुकसान पहुंचाया। तेजस्वी यादव हमेशा चिराग पासवान के शुक्रगुजार रहेंगे। कांटे की इस टक्कर से साफ है कि न समोसे से आलू खत्म होगा, न बिहार से लालू। राष्ट्रीय जनता...
Read more

What has Scindia gained by leaving Congress

-
Image
Jyotiraditya Scindia. Pic credit Picasa NK SINGH Almost overnight, Jyotiraditya Scindia has become a power to reckon with in Madhya Pradesh politics. With no party securing absolute majority in 2018 assembly election, he and his group of 22 followers are in a position to make or mar any government. Using that bargaining clout, the Scindia group has become adapt in cornering disproportionate share in power in every Government that it is part of. The group commanded the loyalty of only 19 MLAs in the 114-member Congress Legislature Party when Kamal Nath Government came to power in December 2018. Yet it managed to get as many as 6 ministerial berths in the 29-strong cabinet! The group pulled off an even better performance after it crossed over to the BJP side. In Shivraj Singh Chouhan government, it has managed to corner 14 berths in the 34-member ministry – almost 40 per cent share! More significantly, none of these 14 ministers are MLAs at present, having resigned from th...
Read more

Bomb attack on anti-Maoist rally at Patna

-
Image
Representational image courtesy Foreign Policy   NK SINGH Bomb attack on anti-Maoist rally at Patna on 7 August 1970 kills one, injures nine. In retaliation, Vidyarthi Parishad attacks Muslim shops, burns one, loots three. CPI(ML) takes responsibility for bomb attack. Earlier, they had bombed Gandhi Darshan train at Patna, attacked a rightist convention at Patna on 25 April 1970 and assault RSS student leader on April 30 1970. They also hurled bombs on the house of the Principal of Patna Commerce College. Police have arrested some students in the Commerce College case. One of the arrested Naxalite students had topped the secondary school examination in 1969.  Excerpts from Frontier 29 August 1970 To read the full article, please click on the link below:
Read more

Naxalite in Bihar: Rich Grab Land with Govt Help

-
Image
Gandhi's arrest at Champaran. Pic credit India Today NK SINGH Champaran – here Mahatma Gandhi started his first mass movement. Land inequality is sharper in Betiah area because of land erosion by the Gandak river. The problem begins from both ends; either land has been eroded or a new piece has come out of the belly of the river because of the change in its course. Usually, the latter type of land is forcibly occupied by big landlords. If a landless peasant (who had probably lost his land in erosion) tries to get a piece, officials backed by landlords act against him. An enormous number of applications from landless peasants and sharecroppers are pending in Government offices, demanding Government land. But bureaucrats are indifferent. But farms of big people are opening daily on the Government land called “Kaiser-e-Hind Zamin” . Naxalite or no Naxalite, Champaran, which consists of 40 per cent landless peasants cannot remain peaceful for ever. In Lakhaur...
Read more

Nostalgia: Frontier & Utpal Dutt

-
Image
Utpal Dutt with Satyajit Ray NK SINGH In the late '60s and early '70s,  Frontier , the Left magazine edited by Samar Sen , used to carry regularly advertisements of E pic Theatre , a magazine devoted to theatre.  Like Frontier, Epic Theatre too was published from Calcutta, now Kolkata. T he Editor of Epic Theatre was the leading light of Bengal's vibrant theatre movement,  Utpal Dutt .  The magazine's name was, apparently, based on Bertolt Brecht ’s Epic Theatre movement . Dutt was not only an advertiser, but also a frequent contributor to Frontier , particularly in its early days. Epic Theatre’ s April issue, whose advertisement is carried below, was a Lenin special, containing inter alia, the full script of Dutt’s firebrand political play Leniner Dak , Lenin’s Call. (The link takes you to a song , Leniner Dak Shuni. ) The association between Samar Sen and Utpal Dutt goes back a long way. In the '60s when Sen used to edit Now, the magazine's Deput...
Read more

Naxalites in Bihar: Fight for Land

-
Image
Charu Majumdar. Pic source Wikipedia NK SINGH The police have registered a large number of cases of looting of crops in many areas of Bihar. Local newspapers carry daily reports of some incident or the other under the headline “Naxalite terror”. The Government reviewed the increasing activities of Naxalites in the districts of Bhagalpur and Tirhut divisions and decided to post additional police force in these areas. In Bihar several groups of Naxalites are active. Three important groups are: CPI (Marxist-Leninist), which accepts Charu Mazumdar’s version of Maoism, Prithviraj Singh’s group, which is attracted to T Nagi Reddy , and BK Azad’s group in Khagaria, which declares even the CPI (ML) as “ neo-revisionist. ” Prithviraj Singh’s group is not affiliated to Nagi Reddy Revolutionary Coordination Committee. It is active only in Gaya and Dhanbad districts, though some of its supporters can be traced in Naugachia and Bihpur of Bhagalpur also. CPI (ML) is more a...
Read more

Genesis of Jharkhand movement

-
Image
Tribal agitation in Chotanagpur. Pic Credit Cultural Survival NK SINGH   Last year a militant Adivasi movement was stated by Birsa Seva Dal in Chotanagpur area of Bihar. Even the villagers were influenced by this movement and they demonstrated in Ranchi town carrying their traditional arms. Naxalites were active in Birsa Seva Dal because they saw Chotanagpur hills as a good place for guerrilla warfare. The movement was an expression of the new militant mood of the tribal people. The movement took a violent turn when the police lathi-charged Adivasi girls in Ranchi and opened fire on Adivasis in which 6 tribals were killed. Mundas and Oraons were the first to come to Chotanagpur when it was merely a vast tract of jungle. Then came the Dikkus (non-tribals) who became Rajas and zamindars of the area. They took to trade and owned up every means of production. Tribal versus non-tribal Ninety-nine per cent of Rajas and zamindars of the area are non-Adiva...
Read more

Chaibasa Riots: An On The Spot Study

-
Image
A painting by M. F. Husain N .K. Singh CHAIBASA - district headquarter of the adivasi district of Singhbhum - is being inhabited by about 30 thousand people, of which 8 thousand are Muslims. Besides, a considerable number of East Pakistan refugees too live in this clumsy town. Being not an industrial area, Chaibasa has not got many working class people. In the last mid-term elections, the Jharkhand Party had captured the seat of Chaibasa, which is a reserved constituency. No municipal elections have been held here for twelve years. Mr Sita Ram Rungta , a local bigwig is the city father. The Jana Sangh and RSS are quite active here and Shakhas, rallies are being organised by them regularly. There had never been any communal riot at Chaibasa. It remained unaffected even during the widespread riots in 1964 which enveloped the district including the steel city of Jamshedpur. Background of Trouble The Chaibasa communal riots which started in the wake of Ram Nav...
Read more