Hyderabad
25th August 2010
We are known for this - PujyaPuja done from the ages in India, for often we see in Mahabharata an emperor coming halfway leaving the throne to receive or to see-off a Rishi. Some of such few rituals we continue by heart or habit, often being the later true.
Every year before the day; an aspirant looks for the List hot, fresh fried! This is usually followed by the stories of inclusions for the shame of a genuine. For a looser, there is hope - 'dear you lost, never mind to lobby for the next.' OopS, is that the truth?
Britishers used this tool to pamper some desis conferring titles like RayBahadur etc. In colonial days these titles had a glamour. I don't know whether British Raj was feeling proud of it. But, it was sure for the other - a one-way affair!
Very professionally done now. Award a celebrity - media is catchy and dress it up in prints and videos; need more of it? Than make it laden with ridiculous masala. Media goes agog 'ra ... ra'; as if wanted others to hear this, 'sare gama pa!'
Now this tradition is rampant for being too much concerned of PujyaPuja or publicity? An honest question in dead silence certainly would whisper and often question- what for are all these hungamas!
Is it sure? , Not, still a One-Way Affair!
Hrushikesha Mohanty
11 comments:
nice observation sir.... a one-way affair it sure is...
~sagar
I read your view on pujya puja. But to post a comment I had to clikc on pujya puja, which printed junk. Therefore, I am writing my comments here.
I agree with you that today's pujya pujas are of more for show than of truth. Even when there is no one worth the award, they are searched desperately and someone is found, upon whom the award is thurst. Sometimes, the deserving people are awarded for something they have achieved years back. Satyajit Ray was awarded by our Govt. only after he won the oscar for the movie pathar panchali. Milkha singh was awarded similarly after many years of his achievement, which he refused to accept.
Coming to pujya puja, it is good when prominent personalities who are truely serving the human kind and who are a model for the new generation, are honoured. Mahatma Gandhi, Mother Theresa, many leading scientists, leading writers, leading artists, and many such people, who by their act inspired the many people positively to create or do something in service of the humankind. Such people are really worth the pujya puja.
In earlier days if no one worth the award were found, it was not given. But, now a days, they find someone from somewhere, and that too those who have influence. Very few are worth the awards.
Therefore, to conclude at the earliest, I would say that the PUJYA PUJA has simply become mere PUJA.
Very appropriate comment on what now goes in the name of honouring the Great. Media hype and personal publicity are part of the menu. Three cheers for the modern day Award Mafia, Pujya Puja Mela.
Why this amongst all is so eager to confer on anybody who passes by?
Your essay is good. You can write regular features in newspaper as you have nice way of thinking as well as have the capability of expressing it in tune.
Apa
Your essay is good. You can write regular features in newspaper as you have nice way of thinking as well as have the capability of expressing it in tune.
Apa
Hi! Seems you speak in the same frequency as the article
From : Doctoring Doctorates
J. Sri Raman, Hindustan Times
New Delhi, August 26, 2010
Quoting Few lines from it ....
Indian universities can be influenced more easily than foreign ones. Doctorates are considered the divine right of CMs in a state like Tamil Nadu. Both M. Karunanidhi and J. Jayalalithaa sport their ‘academic’ prefixes before their names. Outside politics, from Sania Mirza and Yash Chopra to Amritanandamayi Amma and Baba Ramdev, a flurry of honorary doctorates has been given on personalities representing fields ranging from sports and cinema to spirituality. What must strike Sibal, as he reflects on the abundance of honorary doctorates, is the contrasting status of non-celebrity doctorates.
Here are some points for him to ponder over. India is seventh among nations in terms of the total annual volume of research papers submitted for peer review. The country contributes less than 3 per cent to world research. Only 1 per cent of students who complete their undergraduate degrees opt for doctoral studies in India. Thirty-eight per cent of papers produced in India never find a citation elsewhere. Sure, let us honour extra-academic achievers by giving them honorary degrees. But how about getting real doctorates for meaningful research?
It's like getting a bunch of coriander leaves and handful of green-pepper free from campus vegetable vender as a token of honor. Probably, a typical gentleman doesn't like it that way!
Oops! Can I have honorary Arjun Award / Dronacharya Award? Then why does one turn this to a ph.d vending machine ?
Sant Singh Chatwal, whose connections with us are so utterly twiggy that many invitees to his son’s wedding in Delhi had no idea why they were there. And when the government doggedly went ahead and gave him the Padma Bhushan this January, the uproar that followed showed that the public didn’t know why he was here either.
I read both Pujya Puja and that eariler essay on the state of Odia and the
Odia intellectuals' responsibility towards it. Both are well-thought out
pieces and both provide delightful reading.
Post a Comment