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RECALLING SOCIAL INSPIRED ARAB SPRING! By Rajan Narayan
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RECALLING SOCIAL INSPIRED ARAB SPRING! By Rajan Narayan

June 06- June 12, 2026, Stray Thoughts June 5, 2026 , by

AND a few stray thoughts for yet another Saturday. For a Saturday following the week when we discover that it is taken 16 years for India to catch up with social media-inspired revolts by young people. For a Saturday following the week when we found hostility towards Girish Chodankar, who has just been appointed as the president of Goa Pradesh Congress Committee. For a Saturday following the week when the seating even in a five-star restaurant can be injurious to the spine and the lower back. For a Saturday following the week when we discovered how competitive exams provide social and economic mobility.

ARAB SPRING
AND a few stray thoughts on discovering that it has taken 16 years for India to catch up with social media-inspired revolts by young people. People in the Arab countries, where a free press or electronic media did not exist, were the first to realize the power of social media. The Arab spring was a series of anti-government protests and uprisings, the aam aadmi rebellion spread across the Arab world beginning October 2010. The provocation was high unemployment among young people, economic hardships and lack of political freedom and human rights. The main vehicle of protest was social media. The movement began in Tunisia in Africa after a street vendor, Mohammad, set himself on fire in the month of December 2010 to protest against the harassment of officials. This led to the resignation of the dictator Zine El Abidine Ben Ali.
The revolt spread to Egypt, Libya, Syria, Yemen and Bahram. In Egypt, President Hosni Mubarak was forced to quit. In Libya, the dictator Muammer Gaddafi was assassinated. In Syria the protest escalated into a civil war. In Yemen the Shaikh had to resign. The Arab spring demonstrated the power of social media.
IN more recent times, there have been social media-inspired mass youth revolts in Nepal and Sri Lanka. In Sri Lanka, the old family control dynasties were packed off. In the new Sri Lanka that emerged in 2024 after the elections, it was young left leader Anura Kumar Dissanayake who became the president in 2024. The new government promised anti-corruption measures, political reforms and the system change improved governance.
Nepal, following the mass protest by young people, elected a young rapper, Bhalendra Shah, popularly known as Bhalen Shah, to be the new president of Nepal. Among the first steps taken by Bhelen was to force his ministers to give up their first class and travel economy class travelling. There is also a crackdown in corruption. Though it has taken 16 years the National Cockroach Party in India is draws inspiration from the tradition of the Arab spring, in the youth revolt in Nepal, and Sri Lanka changeovers. The leader of the National Cockroach Janata Party Abhijit Dipke, is returning from Boston in the United States, on June 6, to launch a movement to demand the resignation of the Union health minister, Dharmesh Pradhan, following the NEET and the CBSC crises.

GIRISH IS BACK
AND the few stray thoughts on the hostility towards Girish Chodankar, who has just been appointed as the president of the Goa Pradesh Congress Committee. Girish Chodankar has been a loyal Congress worker whom we have personally known for over 40- years. Girish Chodankar has spent most of his life teaching Maths at the Guardian Angel High School at Curchorem. Girish Chodankar is the best and the most honest political organizer in Goa. Social media posts are attacking him for the defections from the Congress in 2018 and 2022.
On both occasions, Girish Chodankar happened to be the president of the Congress Party. On the first occasion in 2019, ten MLAs, including Babush Monserrate, Filipe Neri Rodrigues, and Alina Saldana, defected from Congress and joined the BJP to support the Manohar Parrikar government. Ironically, the party had won 15 of the 40 seats in the 2019 elections. Vijai Sardesai of the Goa Forward and his group of four MLAs promised to support the Congress to form the government. This was on the condition that Digambar Kamat was made the chief minister. The Congress High Command, led by Priyaranjandas Munshi, chose Luizinho Faleiro instead, driving the Goa Forward into the arms of the BJP. The second time around in 2022, eight of the Congress’s 11 MLAs joined the BJP led by Digambar Kamat and Michael Lobo.
I don’t understand why Girish Chodankar is being blamed for what is the High Command decision. Girish has proved himself by securing the entry of the Congress into the Tamil Nadu government led by Vijay. I am inclined to believe that the attacks on Girish are instigated by the BJP. The BJP in Goa and in Delhi is aware that Girish is one leader who will not defect or tolerate any dirty tricks by the BJP at the Centre and State.

RESTAURANT SEATS
AND a few stray thoughts on how the seating even in a five-star restaurant, can be injurious to the spine and the lower back. In all the five star signature restaurants which offer a fancy brunch for Rs2,000 plus, the furniture offered by way of seating is a utterly impractical and painfully uncomfortable. There may be a wide variety of food and desserts. The decor may be very pleasing to the eye. But anyone who has had a buffet at the Taj Cidade de Goa or similar restaurants in the Taj hotels must have by now have realized that the chairs and sofas offered are far too low for comfortable eating. The sit down furniture has no support for the back, there are no arm rests very often and it is difficult especially for seniors to get up and sit down every time they have to go to the buffet stations.
The dining tables are positioned in such a way that you have to bend to eat or drink. This is unlike the tradition dining table at home, where are the chairs are straight backed and well cushioned, have much higher seats, so that it is perfect for sitting down and lunching or dining. Low armchairs are particularly awkward for senior citizens who are the only one who can afford the expensive buffets of five star establishments.
The banquet halls are a bigger scandal. All the 5-stars have huge banquet halls. The 5-stars charge fancy prices for the use of their banquet halls. Goa being MICE (Meetings and Conference) destinations there is a huge demand for the banquet halls. The 5-stars are obsessed with making as much money as possible. Which means it’s time to accommodate as many tables and chairs or they have these auditorium-style sitting arrangements in the banquet halls. The chairs used have minimal padding on the seat and no back support. Uniformly, they do not have arms. They are built that way so that they are easy to move around to permit maximum accommodation of guests.
Such arrangements mean wholesale cruelty as many meetings and conferences go on for six to eight hours, with a brief break for lunch and tea time. It is no consolation that the 5-star hotels in London and New York have much better banquet seats arrangement.
All event organizers should boycott 5-star hotels which do not care about the health of their guests. We are requesting senior orthos and physiotherapists to do an audit on furniture used in five-star hotels.

FROM HUMBLE TO TOP CLASS
AND a few stray thoughts on how competitive exams provide social and economic mobility. For instance, all the top three IIT joint entrance exams this year are from humble middle-class families. Whenever the results come, we hear stories of daughters of auto-rickshaw drivers and sons of manual construction labor scoring high ranks in the medical and engineering entrance exams. Increasingly, a lot of people from small town poor families are becoming collectors and IPS officers. The competitive exams offer perhaps the only opportunity for young people from poor families to graduate to a higher economic status.
The only other area where only merit matters seems to be sports. Like the example of the 17-year-old Suryavanshi in the latest IPL who has emerged as the top scorer. His IPL auction price was Rs1 crore and he won a fancy car as also Rs45 lakh in cash prices. Sports offer opportunities to women also as dramatized by Shafali Varma of the women’s cricket team. Both her parents were daily wage laborers.

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