Simple Truths

The newspaper is carrying the story of a woman in Kolkata who had been gangraped at gun-point. The Chief Minister, a woman herself, said the story had been concocted by the opposition to malign the administration of her government. In a week’s time, it will be ten years since the Godhra happened and the fabric of life in Gujarat was forever ruined. The Indian cricket team is having problems, the senior players cannot seem to get along with each other. Meanwhile, Vedanta corporation has come out with a new 360 campaign to boost their PR. Guess killing the tribals and uprooting them their lands doesn’t do wonders for your PR. Fortunately the good folks at Ogilvy & Mather with their proprietary insight-mining tools can set the record straight. I look at their effort. A grimy little toothy rural girl, probably a child actress selected from a folder of atleast 200 other prospective candidates that the production house had on offer, runs around explaining the joy in her life because of Vedanta’s CSR efforts.

I wonder if the girl goes to school in one of those private schools where they have air-conditioned classes and teach horse-riding on the weekends . I wonder if she will want to grow up and become an actress. I wonder if she will fret over the food she eats and if the length of her skirt is making her look sexy enough. I wonder if she’ll frown at women who look frumpy. Would she judge them for not drinking, not smoking and not experimenting enough in their lives?

I wonder if she’ll think of joining a Facebook candle-light vigil event after reading a story like that of the Kolkata gangrape case.

*

3:29 PM

27^th February, 2012

PS: Additional viewing, Anil Thackeray's [some "ad-man"] review of the Vedanta ad | http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iqBDFlb_ea0

Some days I just want to rip this world apart, limb from limb.