harry potter and the full-blooded irony
hey...i wrote this stuff long back...but have blooged it just today...i dunno hows it but i find it good...
i wrote it wen harry potter and the half blood prince was released
HARRY POTTER & THE FULL-BLOODED IRONYThe world's a strange,rather silly place-& full of ironies !No i dontintend to flaunt my philosophical understanding of the world-not forany other reason but simply because i dont have any !Instead i want totalk straight,about things that matter!So,heres the story !
J.K.Rowlings 7th literary venture-HARRY POTTER & THE HALFBLOOD PRINCE-was released in the 1st minute of the english sunday inbritain & soon after,in the rest of the world-as part of a globalsynchronised launch.The event took place amid muchfanfare.People,specially children,were euphoric while celebrating therelease of their fav. book!The paparazzi too gave it all due (&undue)coverage.All major national & internationa newspapers & tabloidshad colourful pics of potter fans-along with their prizedpossession-splashed all over them !But even as "pottermania" gripped the "entire world" in its magicalcharm,humanity & its champions(read the G-8,G-4 & all other Gs thative missed out on while writing this article !!)were being staredright into the face by what appears to be one of the most ironicalironies of recent times!While on one hand,millions of childrencelebrated the release of theie fav. book,on the other hand,millionsof others wondered whether or not they would get their daily bread orwhether or not they would be able to see-off another day of thiemiserable lives.In fact, in most of the cases,they cant evenwonder.Malnutrition & maternal apathy tend to render their senses numb!And yet we celebrate.We close our eyes on them & read out theadventures of Harry Potter to our children,lying in soft beds,enjoyingthe snug comfort of our homes.We let our escapist tendencies take overour conscience & resort to strange defence mechanisms such ascelebrating the release of the new harry potter book in suchoutrageous proportions that it makes us blind towards the existence ofanother world-a world thats very much a part of our own world,our ownplanet!A world where children dont know whos harry potter,they dontknow what a book is or what it looks like,they dont know what a homeis,heck,they dont even know their names !Its a world that existeparallel to our own world & yet is so distant !Large parts of Africa &Asia & some parts of South America & Europe are home to millions ofsuch children,who are devoid of even the most basic livingrequirements! They "live" in unimaginably unlivable conditions ! Irony screamsout loud-at ever corner of life!11 yr. olds sellingnewspapers(detailed with pictures of euphoric potter fans) at trafficsignals,polishing shoes right below giant harry potter promotionalposters!Looking at all this,one is forced to draw a comparison;one isforced to ask a question to oneself-how can we nurture childhood toperfection in one part of the world and remain oblivious to it in theother part,where its dying a slow painful death?The fact that thecelebration of the harry potter book release is in a way a celebrationof childhood,makes the irony more ruthless & hitting,after all whatare we celebrating?childhood or its death ? Global sales of the 1st 6harry potter books have topped 300 million & the 3 harry potter movieshave grossed $ 2.5 billion,making the author extremely rich,in factone of the richest in Britain.But has it in any way ,helped the causeof childhood ,selling which,Ms Rowling has made a fortune.Not really!The gravity of the situation can be aptly illustrated by the facts-20children face death every minute on our planet,before even reachingthe age of 5!Thats 30,000 children a day & a mind-numbing 10.6 millionevery yr! In the sub-saharan african region alone,which accounts for43% of the worlds child deaths,9 children die every minute-thats 4.8million children every year.This implies that by the time a reallyfast-paced child reader finishes reading harry potter & the half-bloodprince-which could be anything between 2-3 days-about60,000-90,000children will have died !What are these?Mere stats gathered to satisfythe hunger of a number-crazy world?No,actually they are a strongreflection of the worlds apathy towards sensitive issues that mattermuch more than irrational wars & celebrations,which we never fail tojustify !The billions of dollars spent on the iraq war by the U.S.govt. could have been put to a better use,for a noblercause-considering the fact that (acc. to 2003 survey)36 millionamericans i.e 11% of the U.S. population experienced accute hunger orwere at a risk of a food crisis.Whats important is that out of these11 million are children.That means 1 in every 5 children in the U.S.suffered from hunger or experienced food insecurity!That more-or-lessclears the picture !Child related problems are not exclusive to theunder-developed or developing nations only,a fact that most of thedeveloped nations take plesaure in overlooking!This apathy of theresourcefull few towards the resourceless many -makes the problemworse & more rooted! J.K.Rowling'sliterary baby may have matured from a celebration of childhood to acelebration of adolescence;but the unimaginably horrific conditions ofmiilions of children worldwide has only deteriorated !In fact, it hashit its nadir in the recent yrs!The warning has been given-the writingis there on the wall for all world-leaders to see.Its high time,thesechampions of humanity took serious note of the situation & actedaccordingly;or the day isnt far when there wont be enough childrenleft ,to make these children's books the successes that they are!There wont be enough children left to celebrate! MAHIM PRATAP SINGH
posted by Mahim at 4:46 AM
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