Savraj’s Blog

Some rather unfortunate events took place last month in the wonderful British city of Birmingham.

A highly controversial play about rape and murder in a Sikh temple was cancelled after a few protesters clashed with police and descended upon the theater that hosted it.

Folks met peacefully before the whole thing went down, but the Sikh leadership emphasized that the show must not go on, and a few members of the largely peaceful crowd made sure it wouldn’t.

The playwright is a woman named Gurpreet Kaur Bhatti, and she said she had received threats on her life.

Without seeing the play, I know there have been many productions that also cover the issues that Bhatti brings up–I think this one in particular brought out protests because it was just for shock value–one liberal observer called her portrayal “…cold. It is a badly conceived, badly organised play that is out of context and could have grave consequences for the perception of Sikhs in Britain.” Observer article.

Is there a right way to tackle such issues? Probably. Was she really tackling issues or bringing them up for critical thought? Probably not–I would guess shock value was her primary motive. In this type of thing, we need to think carefully about the lines between free speech, slander, and racism, and decide where to draw them.

This is more of a note to self–incorporate trackbacks into the new design of this site. Here we have a pretty nice page, but it can be so much better. What is a trackback. Shout out to Big Ben Sharma for hooking me up with the link. Ben is the world’s greatest web surfer and walking library–you might have heard of him.

This is some high quality stuff. Check out http://www.harvardsucks.org. They’re probably getting a ton of traffic and making lots of money, but they truly did and excellent job. The level of organization and the sheer and pure deception involved in the whole thing is just amazing.

Well I better do something worthwhile now, before I tire and fall asleep.

This is what I say to my roommate each night before I go to sleep. It captures the pure hope that I have for my life and the future. Hopes and dreams of self-discipline, organization, athleticism, and spirituality. Hopes that I can wake up that early, go running, take a shower, meditate, and get to work.

Think big, people, think big. A great product starts with a great vision.