Window Seat |
Mrinal Chatterjee
Padma
Awards
The
Padma Awards are one of the highest civilian honours of India announced
annually on the eve of Republic Day. The Awards are given in three categories: Padma Vibhushan (for exceptional and
distinguished service), Padma Bhushan
(distinguished service of higher order) and Padma
Shri (distinguished service). The award seeks to recognize achievements in
all fields of activities or disciplines where an element of public service is
involved.
The Government of India instituted two civilian awards-Bharat Ratna and Padma
Vibhushan in 1954. The latter had three classes, which were subsequently
renamed as Padma Vibhushan, Padma Bhushan and Padma Shri on January 8, 1955.
The
Padma Awards are conferred on the recommendations made by the Padma Awards
Committee, which is constituted by the Prime Minister every year. The
nomination process is open to the public. Even self-nomination can be made.
As
these awards are considered ‘prestigious’, the awardees are generally held in
high esteem in public. However, of late there has been a growing tendency among
some of the awardees to flaunt these awards. Some even use these titles as
suffixes or prefixes.
My
friend Saral Das, tells me that the Padma Awards are called 'the National Awards' and do not amount to 'Titles'.
According to Article 18(1) of the Constitution, they should not be used as
suffixes or prefixes. If this is done, the defaulter will lose the National
Award conferred on him or her (Balaji Raghuram vs.Union of India). In spite of
this a number of awardees are prefixing the awards to their names as 'titles',
which is illegal. Even in both print and electronic
media, while addressing them, the awards are being prefixed to their names,
which is not correct. Media persons should not address a person as 'Padma
Shree' or 'Padma Bhushan' or 'Bharat Ratna'. The correct address is 'Shri 'x',
awarded Padma Shree by President of India and so on. In Odia media, we are
frequently coming across the addresses like Padma Shree Dilip Tirkey, Padma
Shree Haladhar Nag, Bharat Ratna Sachin Tendulkar etc. which is not only
incorrect but also illegal. If the awardees use these as 'Titles' they run the
risk of losing the National Award. Ignorance is no excuse. I am sure the same
is happening in other language media as well. We must be careful about using
these titles.
Confusions that people face in
their twenties
As my son reaches his mid-twenties, I find him
engaging with some confusion. So do, I am sure, most of the persons in this age
group. Let me detail the confusions:
Confusion number one: Am I Young Or Am I Old? It’s
during your twenties that kids start addressing you as Uncle/ Aunty and deep
down, you have the urge to sock them in the face but you obviously can’t do
that. You only keep questioning yourself whether you’re old or still young.
Confusion number two: Career Choices. There
are way too many options and that’s the whole problem. You might not know what
you want and at times, you might but what you want isn’t the same as what your
parents want and you don’t want to upset them with your choice. Urrrgh! It’s
complicated.
Confusion number three: Love. Heart breaks. More Love. Falling
in love and heartbreaks are a common thing is the twenties.Either
you have fallen in love or you are suffering from a major heartbreak.
Confusion number four: Marriage. Marriage
is another ball game altogether! People around you are talking about you
getting married and you’re just wondering what’s wrong with them. The moment
you hit your twenties, people start questioning you about marriage and you
really have no answers to their questions.
Confusion number four: Money. Seeing
people around you work and earn and you still having to depend on your folks
can be quite frustrating. You may also be earning but not enough, you just want
more. Oh! You might also be earning a lot and you might not know what to do
with all the money. Irrespective of whichever situation you’re in, you’re
confused.
Confusion number five: Where is my life taking me? You
have no idea as to where life’s taking you. You try hard to figure out but you
only end up confusing yourself further.
Tirupati Diary 1
I went to
Tirupati in Andhra Pradesh on invitation of Padmavati Women’s University as a
member of the Board of Studies of Journalism and Mass Communication (JMC) and
MBA in Media Management. It is one of the few universities in the country to
offer this course.
Established in
1983 in Tirupati, it is the first women's University of undivided Andhra
Pradesh, catering mostly to the rural areas. Spread over a hundred acres, it
has a very we'll maintained and green campus. The University did well and
continued to grow in stature. However, I am told that the division of Andhra
Pradesh had impacted the quality of student intake of this university, as many
students of the newly formed Telengana were taking admission in universities of
their state for different reasons including financial.
Tirupathi Diary 2
As I was taken
on a tour to rural Royalseema, I came across the carcass of a river. The
serpentine sand dunes and ditches of water at places were there, which once
used to be a river. Living river. And Swarnamukhi
or Suvarnamukhi was its name. It
used to flow from Tamil Nadu, through Royalseema area of Andhra Pradesh into
Bay of Bengal. There were many temples and maths on its bank. One such temple
is Parasurameswar Temple at Gudimallam, about 20 kms from Tirupati. It is an ancient
temple of 2nd or 1st Century BC and has one of the
earliest found Shiva Linga. This temple is presently maintained by Archaeology
Department.
Tailpiece
The title of Akshay Kumar’s new movie
is Toilet: Ek Prem Katha.
How would you ask your friends out
for the movie: Chalo, Toilet challenge
And FB status updates?
At Toilet with GF and four other
friends.
And comments after seeing would be
like:
Kya zabardast Toilet tha re…uthne ka mann hi nahi kar
raha tha… And jo sound effects the….dolby digital sound…
***
A journalist
turned media academician Mrinal Chatterjee lives in Dhenkanal, a Central Odisha
hilly town. He also writes fiction. mrinalchatterjee@ymail.com
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