Maya Rao at NOT IN MY NAME (delhi)

Not In My Name

In the name of a cow, my cow, you strike a knife through me

And In the name of Make in India you make me run, 
snatch the food from my mouth, 
chase me out of my home…..

One day, in the name of Jaimata you’ll drive, 
Drive, drive a tank hard over me

Swachch bharat ke naam pe mera safaya kar loge?

Chasme pe likh doge, tho Gandhiji ko Samajhjaoge?

Paliya Swachchta, Swadeshi, Swaraj, Ram Rajya?

Tum kya jano Ram ka naam?

Tum kya jano Siyaram?

Tum kya jano,

No, you’ll never know

What Jesus died on the cross for

What the Prophet fled his home for

What Budhha’s 8-fold path was

That Ram’s other name

That we greet each other

Every morning….

Jai Siyaram Jai Siyaram

That simply writing on Gandhi’s spectacles

Gives you not sight, no vision

Blind Blind

Turning a blind eye is a far, far cry from turning the other cheek

Theek?

Izzat bachane ke nam pe

Bataoge mujhe kya pehnna hai?

Saath kiske rehna hai, Dua kisse mangna hai?

Gau raksha ke naam pe roti mere haath

se chheen loge?

Chuppi saadh ke muh modloge?

Aur nahi, mere naam pe nahi

Chchoona mat mere chasme, kehte hain Gandhi

Yes don’t you dare

Not in my name

But don’t you dare

In the name of Allah, Krishna, Buddha, Jehovah,

Kalburgi, Pehlu Khan, Dhabolkar, Mohd Akhlaq, Pansare….

Junaaaaaaid

One last kiss….

You hear? Can you hear?

How come not a sound escapes your, their lips

In the name of making your India

28 Sept.2015 – 3 days after Eid 
Mohammad Akhlaq, a farm worker, asleep in a room next to his 22-year-old son, Danish

2015

7 days after Gandhi’s birthday, Zahid Rasool Bhatt, petrol bombs thrown on his truck

2016

Jan. 14 On the very day of Makar Sankranti, Pongal, Bihu several passengers on a train attaked, Harda distt, MP

Feb. 20 Muslim cops trashed, forced to carry a saffron flag, chant Jai Bhawani

You’ll make me run, snatch the food from my mouth, chase me out of my home, kill my son on a train…

For him one last kiss

All he had in his bag were gifts

Not in my name

Mere nam pe nahi

Lelo chashme wapas,

you hear him?.... Gandhi

In the name of making your India you’ll make me run, snatch the food from my mouth, chase me out of my home, kill my son on a train, slit my brother’s neck in a truck…..

2016

6 days before Holi, 2 cattle traders hanged

2016

Apr 5, 10 days before Ram NavamiMustain Abbas shot dead

2016

7 days before Ind. Day two brothers in Andhra tied to a tree, thrashed for skinning a dead cow

2017

Apr 1, 13 days before Ambedkar Jayanti, Pehlu Khan

attacked, died, for illegally transporting buffalo

you…you…you

Don’t you dare take my name

Not in my name, never in my name

When all he did was save his cattle from

dying on the streets, make shoes,  sell her,

feed his family, keep them from dying

in the streets.

When all he had in his bag were sweets,

gifts for his sister, brother, mother.

Will you wipe us all clean?

Bass

Bilkis

Where are you, Bilkis?

One last ….

In the name of making your India you’ll make me run, snatch my cattle, my  food from my mouth, chase me out of my home, kill my son on a train, slit my brother’s neck in a truck,…..you…you…you

You can you hear?

Does a sound….

All in the name of a cow

My cow

Not your cow, my cow

For her I gave hard earned money,

Fed her, cared for her, milked her

And when she’s ready to go

You'll let her die on the street,

Let her bleed, let me bleed?

Not in my name

No no no, not in her name

Chashme pe likh lete ho to samjh lete ho

Nazar pa liya?

You turn a blind eye

I’ve turned my other cheek

Time after time

Theek?

So it's like this -

If I’m a student, whose brother wears a uniform and fights for his country you throw fake video tapes in my face and tell me, we’ll teach you who a patriot is

If I’m a woman you tell me wear what we tell you, walk when we tell you, marry who we tell you,

you asked for it so raped you will be

If I’m a farmer you tell me - jai kisan nahi, jai jawan

If I’m a child you tell me it doesn’t matter, you don’t need to know who your first prime minister was,

I’ll give you fresh spectacles, read what I tell you.

If I’m a nobody you’ll still get after me

Tell me what to eat, who to meet, when to play

Hey, I say -

You’ll never know my name

Yes, you’ll never know my name!

If I’m a cow you’ll let me die on the street,

Let me bleed, my master bleed

Feeeed, what do you feed on?

breeed, do you only breed…… hate?

Not in my name

Don’t you dare

Not in that child’s name

You’ll never know that child’s name

Mere naam mere naam pe nahi, kabhi nahi

Lelo Chashme wapas, hear him? Gandhi

You hear? Can you hear?

How come not a sound escapes their  lips

For him one last kiss

Not in my name…bass

All he had in his bag were gifts

Sab ke saath, sab ka vikas

Bassss

So, so so I pray,

Oh god, may I be born next a goat,

not a cow, not  human,

You won’t chase me, lynch me, teach me, bleed me

Make me, make India,

Apr. 21. 7 days after Ambedkar Jayanti, a family, a small girl elderly attacked, beaten in J&k

And it goes on….

June 22, 4 days before Eid, Junaid….

June 27, yesterday, Usman Ansari, Deori, ranchi, thrashed

For a dead cow found outside his housssssse

Basssss

Don’t you dare

Not in her name, not in mine

Not his, not hers

Don’t you dare

All he had in his bag were gifts

His, hers, yours, theirs

You kill in the name of country

Stand up, Stand up India

Look, there’s Saira

There’s Bilkis, there’s Dhabolkar, Usman Ansari, 
Pehlu Khan, Pansare

Junaaaaaaid

Yes in his name, in hers, Bilkis

In his and hers, and ours

Get on a train, a truck, walk into the park,

Fill the streets

You hear….can you hear?

There’s a roar….. a shor

Today in my name

A last kiss

Bass

They shall not pass

(give many flying kisses….at the last one -)

Don’t you dare - you’ll never catch that kiss

Maya Krishna Rao
Performance made - Jun. 27-28, 2017

Delhi

http://mayakrishnarao.blogspot.in/p/about-maya.html

Journalist Veronique Robert dies of Mosul blast wounds

Journalist Veronique Robert has died after being wounded in an explosion while covering the battle for the Iraqi city of Mosul earlier this week, her employer France Televisions has said.

The landmine blast on Monday had already killed her French colleague Stephan Villeneuve, 48, and Iraqi Kurdish reporter Bakhtiyar Addad, 41. Another freelance reporter also suffered minor wounds.

The journalists were covering Iraqi special forces' operations as they close in on the last remaining areas held by the Islamic State of the Levant and Iraq (ISIL, also known as ISIS) group in Mosul.

READ MORE: Kurdish and French reporters killed in Mosul explosion

Robert, 54, underwent surgery in Iraq and was flown to France for treatment on Friday, but died of her wounds in the capital, Paris, on Saturday, the public broadcaster said in a statement.

France Televisions said Robert was an experienced war correspondent specialising in coverage of the Middle East, and particularly Iraq.

"The word sadness is not enough to describe how we feel," Nicolas Jaillard, Robert's producer, wrote on Facebook. 

Iraqi forces advance on Mosul's Old City

Emilie Raffoul, a producer who worked with Robert for 15 years, told the AFP news agency: "She was someone who was very determined.

"She was used to combat zones, she was a professional war (correspondent) who had covered several conflicts, a specialist in the Middle East."

Reporters without Borders (RSF), the Paris-based media rights watchdog, also saluted her.

Lamenting the death of foreign correspondents on the front lines of war, Christophe Deloire, the RSF secretary general, said there were "too many headstones in the cemetery of great reporters".

According to RSF's own tally, Robert's death brings to 29 the number of journalists killed in Iraq since 2014.

On Tuesday, the French president's office announced that Villeneuve would be posthumously awarded the Knight of the Legion of Honour, one of France's highest honours. 

Source: News agencies

http://www.aljazeera.com/news/2017/06/

Zulifqar Ali Bhutto Junior "A Queer"-Documentary.

https://youtu.be/2BNJXGzv2V4

Mandy Harvey is proof that you should never give up on your dream.

https://www.facebook.com/agt/videos/10155032444244760/

America's Got Talent

Down in Jungleland: Turmoil in the Treetops by Ranjit Lal

For at least koels and crows, this is a time for turmoil in the treetops. Gentlemen koels with their pinched, twiggy waistlines and black satin plumage, pour forth their songs, through night and day in dulcet notes that rise to a crescendo and make most of us believe they’re talented lady singers. A singer begins, “kuoo-kuoo- kuoooo!” and immediately another answers, louder and more insistent. You go out to the balcony and there they are on a nearby tree: two gentlemen in black, glaring at each other out of blood-globule eyes, yelling their heads off, telling each other to get lost, so they can focus on the object of their affection. The lady in question, alas, looks like an anorexic jungle special services commando — stippled and barred in brown and white so that it’s almost impossible to winkle her out of the dappled foliage.

"Winged termites are yummy" by Sowmya Rajendran

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One of my earliest lessons in food respect came from our family's domestic help when I was around six years old. We called her 'ayah' and I can barely remember her face now.

It was raining all day and by nightfall, the air was full of winged termites – what we call eesal in Tamil. The annoying insects beat their wings frantically around the tube-light in the drawing room and my mother dipped a sheet of paper in oil and tied it to the light source. The insects got stuck to the paper and I watched with fascination as she later removed it and kept it aside.