A week from now, lovers the world over will be going completely mad. But on Valentine's Day, guess who'll be laughing all the way to the bank? Florists! While i don't plan to send guldastas to India's heart-throb (the Dimpled One, who else?)I am all set to pen him a prem patra reflecting the ardent feelings of his panting admirers.
Dearest, Chweetipie Rahul,
Mwaah! Mwaah!
I'm writing this on behalf of thousands of young girls across India, who are totally fida over you. For now, i'm leaving out the young boys. That is your special appeal. I believe you are known as the 'unisex hottie' by your adoring fans. All this is good for any young person's ego. But as a former agony aunt and current "grandma Moses", let me tell you, being a heart-throb is not all that easy. Especially for someone in your unique position. "Dil ki dhadkan" is one thing. But you have to deal with "desh ki dhadkan". And this desh is vast and varied, Rahulji. As you well know. Your helicopter chakkars all over the place must have given you a pretty good idea by now. To say nothing about your impromptu visits to chhota villages, with or without foreign diplomats in tow. In fact, it was your very first photo op in a jhopdi, sharing a frugal meal with the poorest of the poor that broke so many female hearts. 'Cho chweet', chorused all those girls, as they watched you sit awkwardly on a khatiya before you turned in for the night, wrapped in a rustic razai. Chicks go for such stuff big time! It brings out their motherly instinct. They feel protective and mushy. They love a man who can rough it out it proves he is made of stern stuff. Your mama must have been worried, but that's what mamas are for. And even though you do come across as a maa da ladla, the girls who love you believe you are definitely not spoilt ("bigad nahi gaya", they coo). Plus, independent minded, too. I mean, at close to 40, mama has not managed to bully you int! o marria ge. That's unusual in India. A feat!
Now to the crucial question: when is the big day, Rahulji? There are only two bachelor boys left in your super league, and one of them is saying, he isn't interested in getting hitched since he already has babies! Go figure. Yup. That's a Salman original, and if Sallu Bhai's trail of broken hearts gets any longer, there will be a line going up to the Himalayas and beyond. The other eligible bachelor boy is still a baby and rumour has it he is taken. Sid Mallya just may beat you in the Valentine stakes this year, especially after Baby Mallya ripped off his ganji, post-Mumbai Marathon. But there are years to go before he gets hitched. Unless . There is Ness, of course. But we guess, he has a lot on his... err mind. The others don't really count. Pundits (political and the other astro kind) are predicting a shaadi for you in 2011. In fact, those in the know in Dilli claim the date is set, and the dulhan is getting her trousseau ready even as we speak. Bol Rahul, bol, sangam hoga ki nahi? If wedding bells are about to clang, you'd better beat the British royals to the altar. We don't want our prince to receive less international coverage than what's his name, again? Yes, William.
Of late, you have been talking very sensibly. Mothers of prospective brides like that. You want to bring back all the black money stashed away in those secretive Swiss banks. The money you say belongs to India's poor. While we don't really understand how India's poor were looted of their money, which is now accumulating in foreign accounts, it sounds very noble and honourable. We really like noble and honourable young men, considering there aren't too many of them around. We also liked all that stuff about rooting out corruption and cleaning up the system. Your father used to say that, too. But a few unfortunate deals got in the way. Most of us have forgotten, but not Ram Jethmalani, God bless his memory. The thing is, our youngsters ! have wha t is known as ADS (Attention Deficit Syndrome). They have no time for history and that's why they love you. You also don't bother about history and boring stuff like that. You prefer action, like changing the life of that orphan boy in one minute. Nice! Looks good. Feels good. Reads good. Lucky boy. And your humility! Mummyjis really appreciate that quality and keep saying how simple and humble you are even though you belong to such a great family and all that. It's true. You asked for 10 years to clean up corruption. That was simple of you. Another hot-headed, impatient, show-off politician would have demanded 50. See? Indians are sentimental and understanding. They know you are not a magician. But they also know if anybody can do it, it is you.
Rahulji, you have no rival, no equal. Even Rajni can't match you. If there is one hero Rajni cannot take on, it is you. Mind it! So, on behalf of those million hearts going dhak dhak for you this Valentine's Day, let me wish you a super romantic, pyaar bhara time ahead. Cupid is standing by with several arrows ready. India awaits the most anticipated reality show of all time 'Rahul Ka Swayamvar'. All are invited. No presents please. Only blessings!
Fida factor: Rahulji, will you be my Valentine?
Mesmerising city of Alwar welcomes you!
During the British regime it was known as Ulwar but, was changed to Alwar with the change in the rule. This wonderful city promises you with a full time enjoyment and that too in less expense. Covered with the beautiful Aravalli Ranges from all its sides, Alwar can be said as the most exotic place which certainly fits in ones budget.
You can reach there by your own mode of transport or else can hire a taxi and if that too doesnt suit you then you can opt for the service of Northern Railways. Train, which is one of the fastest modes of transport, would take just three to 3 and 1/2 hours to reach Alwar but, if you are a person who wants all the luxury and has opted for Fairy Queen, a special train which runs between Delhi Cantonment and Alwar, then it would surely take a day or two of yours. This train has some fixed stations and will provide you with all the royal treatment that you cant even dream of. An advice is that prefer this train only if you have ample of time and you are not in a hurry.
This Kingdom of Rajputs has a well- working government but it still has a Maharaja, who is, Jitendra Pratap Singh. Many rulers from time to time have worked their best in developing the beauty of this city and have succeeded too in developing its enthralling scenic beauty. It has a tiger reserve which is famous as Sariska Tiger Reserve which reserves not only tigers but also leopard, hyena, sambhar, nilgai, chinkara, species of monkeys, peacocks and other birds too.
Monsoon season adds to the tranquility of the place. During monsoon, places like Adaa Pada, Taalvriksh, and Naldeshwar are at their best as natural waterfall can be seen over there, which looks heaven for your eyes. One can even go for trekking if you w! ant some adventure.
Other places worth visiting are Lal Diggi, Pandupol, Neemrana, Silliserh, Ajabgarh, Bhangarh, Bhartariji, each of them have a very deep history behind themselves. Certain temples and other tourist spot which one can explore are Sagar, which is surrounded by 12 chhatries or cenotaphs built of red marble slabs, behind it is the Moosi Maharanis Chhatri, built in the memory of Queen Moosi and close to both of them is the old Government Museum, which exhibits all the weapons that speaks about the bravery of the kings over there. The Alwar Fort, known as Bala Quila has six entrances to it and is standing erect. One would come across many Kunds, a source of water, found usually between the mountains which pertains the natural water in them and many peacocks, deers, monkeys, langoors doing all the mischievous things.
Once you go there, you might want to visit there again and enjoy the scenic beauty of the Gateway of Rajasthan, whose gates are always open for its tourists but, if you dont want to get burnt in the summer heat then prefer visiting there in monsoons or winters and enjoy the seasons.
Reframing the Green movement
Jairam Ramesh has deepened the divide between those who believe that we need to do everything possible to save the environment and those who think of the Green movement as a fad perpetrated on the human race by a bunch of soft, left-leaning bleeding hearts forever looking for a cause to adopt that helps them express disaffection with the dominant discourse of growth and development.
His supporters heave a sigh of relief that we finally have a minister genuinely interested in the environment (Posco notwithstanding), one who is enforcing the laws that have existed for long on our statute books.
For the others, he is an indulgence the country cannot afford, particularly at its current stage of development. Worse, this side feels that it marks a return to the licence-permit raj of yore, albeit in today's garb.
It is particularly interesting that the 'soft' narrative surrounding the Green movement continues in spite of the fact that it receives overwhelming support from the world of hard science. This has to do in part with the fact that environmental consciousness asks us to sacrifice significantly in the tangible today for intangible and uncertain benefits in the future, an entity in which our stake is a somewhat abstract one.
But another factor is that the Green movement has become a lightning rod for all kind of anti-establishment concerns. The most vocal opponents of environmental degradation also happen to take predictable positions on other issues giving rise to a feeling that they are pre-disposed to opposing the mainstream, no matter what the subject.
Even the manner in which Jairam Ramesh is pursuing the cause adds weight to this feeling for it seems like a lonely crusade by a single individual, rather than as a part of a coherent long-term vision. It is almost certain that with a new minister, the government's apparent interest in this cause will abate substantially, re-inforcing the feeling that the issue of the environment is at best an erratic indulgence! that th e government occasionally gives in to.
The characterising of the Green-minded as soft idealists uncomfortable with the pragmatism realities of the day is not restricted to India. Although a lot of progress has been made in enhancing the environmental consciousness of different sections of society, the narrative around the environmental movement has always been the same- it has always been cast in opposition to the hard-headed pragmatists concerned more with human beings in the here-and-now than with rain forests and exotic species of blue-bottled finches. Rather than worry about saving nature and miscellaneous animals we have barely heard of, we are better off, this argument goes, on focussing on generating employment, growth and generating prosperity. The earth has always looked after itself and always will, is the implicit certainty.
But is the framing of environmental concern as a 'soft' issue meant for people who like their world all touchy and feely as inevitable as it appears to be? It could be argued that the human race does not really need to preserve the environment or offer protection to nature. There is nothing intrinsically good or bad that can be done to the environment for it exists as a value-neutral condition. Nature is the word we use for set of conditions that prevail on our planet and these will have been subject to change since the beginning of time and will continue to be so.
There is nothing fundamentally desirable about forests and nothing that terrible about rising temperatures insofar as the planet goes. Other planets have their own environments that are violently different from ours and the planets continue to survive. The problem is not about saving the planet, it is about saving us, the human race. And since the human race is part of an unbroken chain that binds everything in this planet, the interest in the environment is a consequence of our interest in self-preservation. Concern for the ecology is nothing but the absolutely hard-headed and completely pr! agmatic concern about saving our skins.
We tend not to see the issue of environment protection through the lens of human selfishness, because the movement is almost exclusively owned by people who are uncomfortable with this characterisation. Of course, we need environmental activists with strong, sometimes extreme views, for only then can a change of this magnitude, one that involves making sacrifices today for an uncertain pay-off tomorrow, be possible. But when the issue gets framed exclusively by this group, then it serves to exclude others and set up a conflict that is larger and more entrenched than it needs to be.
Organic food is another examples of how framing distorts meaning. Given that food in its natural unaltered form enjoys wide cultural currency, the idea of organic food should have many more takers than it currently does. This is true everywhere, but more so in India, where the idea that food today is artificial and hollow is part of our everyday vocabulary.
The myth of a time when food was plentiful and bursting with the goodness of natural nutrition and which bred a generation of hyper-healthy people is alive and well. Most families would have their own stories about the hardy robustness of some family members- my grandmother for instance loved climbing lofts on rickety ladders till she turned the age 0f 90 and she was no means a stray exception. It is interesting that we tend to see organic food not as a return to a healthier, more traditional life, but as a fastidious form of modernity, where the dominant motivation is a heightened concern for maintaining the presumed preciousness of the individual. Instead of representing a stripped -down return to a healthier, whole some and more naturally connected style of living, organic food today lives in the world of post-consumerist sophistication.
Dominant reactions to ideas often result as a consequence of how these notions are framed. Since the framing is implicit, it tends to be taken as being the most natural and almo! st inevi table way of seeing the issue. Perhaps the reaction to the green movement would be very different had it been framed differently. It is still not too late.
Every dog has its day! Here they have a temple too
It might appear aberrant to you but its true that the people of this village trust their canine god profoundly and have made a temple to worship him.
People of this village have a strange faith in their canine god and it is believed by them that they will save them and their village from all sorts of troubles. Dog God is famous by the name of Sri Naayidole Veerappa among his followers. The popularity of Sri Naayidole Veerappa could be imagined from the fact that his temple has been made next to the temple of the village deity Sri Veeramasti Kempamma as dog god is trusted to be the most trusted lieutenant of the goddess.
The Dog god is considered to have some celestial power which guides villagers to cope up with each and every problemin the village.
But it is not this factor that makes the Dog God so much important; rather it is the immense faith and devotion which his followers possess in their hearts towards him that makes the entire thing more significant.
Like devotees of other Hindu gods, devotees of Dog God too follow the tradition of naming their first child after him. In case a male child born, he will be named as Veerappa and if the girl child is born then she is named Veeramma.
Dog god has able to bring a substantial transformation in the mindset of the villagers towards the social evil of caste system also, as the priest appointed for performing the daily religious rituals for the Dog God belongs to Dalit caste.
Whatever the reasons would be for the faith of A V Halli people in their Dog God, but this is true that god has some celestial connection with God as a dog.
Steam Boat Express
I was at the Steam Boat Promotion at the Empress of China, in the Intercontinental Eros, Nehru Place this past Thursday. Commonly known as hot pot and less so as Chinese Fondue, Steam Boats allow one to cook at the table by dipping meats, vegetables, dumplings and noodles into a simmering pot of broth and serving the cooked product in bowls accompanied by a range of sauces. You say eating at the same table is about togetherness? I say this is even more so!
A few minutes after choosing the mixed meat and vegetarian options (there's a seafood option too), two copper coated boats, you've seen them before every time you've ordered a Mongolian Hot Pot, were laid on our table. They were essentially tube like structures to hold hot coal, surrounded by a moat of sorts that contained the simmering stock. Accompanying t
So there we were, raw food placed in simmering, fragrant stock in bubbling containers on our tables, conversation wafting from topic to topic interspersed with stolen aromatic whiffs and quick pleadin! g glance s at the stolid steam boats, waiting for the first serving that wasn't long in coming.
Here's the interesting part. I'm not sure if it was the waiting and watching, or the act of placing the food in the boats... but the stock was exceedingly delicious! Alright, so you've eaten one stock you've had them all. Not so here. Unlikely as it may sound, I liked the vegetarian stock too, which could well be called an annual event!Each bowl had a smattering of meat, bright green patches of vegetables all surrounded by a very tasty liquid, further flavored from the assortment of dips and accompaniments. Conversation was replaced by clinks and slurps and was only allowed to return after the bowls were emptied.
Should you visit? Definitely! Traditional methods of dining are nice, but a change in format once in a while will not only be novel but will probably turn out to be an event to remember.
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Raja's arrest wrecks Sibal's 'zero loss' theory
The arrest of former telecom minister A Raja, on the basis of a CBI FIR of 2009, is a welcome testimonial for the CAG, which has been under attack from telecom minister Kapil Sibal.
Allowing custodial interrogation on the basis of the FIR shows that the CBI court has reason to believe that criminal conspiracy led to a loss. This confirms that the 2G spectrum matter is not about procedural impropriety alone.
The CBI FIR also mentions that "criminal conspiracy led to award of licences to companies for a heavy consideration by putting a cap on the number of applicants against the recommendations of the TRAI". This means that the CBI is proceeding on the fact that illegalities, not just procedural lapses, were committed in grant of licences.
Acting against the recommendations of the TRAI without referring the matter back to the regulator amounts to violating the TRAI Act. In this case, it was worse. Raja said he was implementing the no-cap recommendation, but did the reverse.
The CBI FIR came in the wake of a CVC direction and a high court judgement of July 1, 2009, which had also held that the advancement of the cutoff date for applications was "illegal and arbitrary", and that the DoT had accepted the recommendations of the TRAI in its press note, "but acted contrary hereto by amending the cutoff date and thus placed a cap on the number of service providers".
The CBI, in its FIR of 21 October 2009, had mentioned that the loss to the exchequer on account of the 122 LOI's alone, given through a criminal conspiracy between DoT officials and private companies, amounted to "more than Rs 22,000 crore". This figure was based only on the grant of 122 LOI's on January 10, 2008. Further, the CBI loss figure, which also became the basis of the affidavit submitted by the investigating agency to seek Raja's custody, did not take into account the TRAI recommendations which came much later, on 11 May 2010, linking 2G spectrum prices to the 3G auction price.
The CAG, in its cal! culation of the Rs 1.76 lakh crore revenue loss as a result of spectrum sale in 2008 at 2001 prices had added an additional loss on account of 35 dual-technology licences which also received pan-India 2G spectrum as well as the 2G spectrum allocated to existing operators beyond the contracted spectrum of 6.2 MHz.
The CBI FIR relates only to one of the three items and does not base its loss figures on the 3G auction price, since at the time of the FIR in October 2009, 3G auctions had not been held.
With the CBI now sticking to its figure of "more than Rs 22,000 crore" from the 122 LOIs alone, it is clear that the loss figure will be far bigger and perhaps closer to the presumptive loss figure presented in the CAG report.
On January 7, 2011, Sibal had attacked the CAG by calling its calculations "utterly erroneous" and submitting an alternative calculation supporting a "zero loss" theory.
With the latest affidavit still upholding a significant loss figure from the 2G spectrum scam, it is clear that the CBI investigation, contrary to the government's claim, will continue to focus on both the loss to the exchequer and illegalities rather than mere procedural lapses.
The CAG has maintained a dignified silence on the subject except that it stands by its report. This new development helps further CAG's credibility, and provides fresh fodder for the PAC, for the opposition in Parliament, and perhaps the JPC, if it is set up.
Reservation for women: A step in the direction of progress
P T Usha in race,
Sushmita in face,
Kiran Bedis endless chase,
Dont forget Latas case,
Let us bow to the women of our desh.
Defending to die
Mid-November last year, M Karunanidhi started digging the DMKs 2011 electoral grave when he told his partymen to profess A Rajas innocence. Raja had just put in his papers as the Union telecom minister after the 2G spectrum controversy threatened to consume him.
On Thursday, a day after the Central Bureau of Investigations arrested Raja, Karunanidhi wrote the partys 2011 electoral epitaph through a resolution endorsed by his partys general council: Merely because Raja is arrested, he cannot be considered guilty.
How a leader considered a master strategist could commit such a double fault in quick succession beats me. Had it been from someone with principles, I could understand the suicidal tendency. For a leader who has dropped alliance partners and party lieutenants before one could spell d-h-a-r-m-a, principles cannot be the reason for the systematic hara-kiri.
The problem with such irrational acts of self-proclaimed rationalists is that you cant make out if they are born out of fear or foolhardiness. But once you come to understand that foolhardiness is often the flip side of fear, you see things clearer. And the seemingly irrational acts suddenly have two legitimate parents!
So, what does Kalaignar fear? Of being labelled guilty, apparently. When the spectrum issue was hotting up in November after the Comptroller & Auditor General put the loss of public money through 2G at Rs 1,76,000 crore, and pointed to several irregularities by Raja, Karunanidhi refused to remove him from the cabinet or the party post of propaganda secretary. His fear: Rajas removal would amount to admission of guilt, which he had to share with his prodigy.
For not just the party, but part of Chennais first family too, Raja has been an obedient young man who earned more than just brownie points. That was a good reason to support him. But why did the leader not support him in private and disown him in public? Realpolitik, yes, wouldnt that been a smart thing to do?
That would have s! ilenced the political rivals and the media for a while, and even taken a bit of steam off the controversy and, probably, the probe. And the DMK would have got some time to devise new distractions before the poll bugle sounds in a couple of months.
Karunanidhis fears compounded when Raja was forced to quit as the telecom minister on November 15, 2010. It has now manifested as a reckless show of courage to move a resolution supporting Raja, though he was removed from the party post. This reverberated at an impressive DMK show at Saidapet in the evening. But lost in the din were some political realities-present and impending. The arrest has given more ammo to the Opposition, myriad stories for the media, and more than a migrane for the DMK.
Now, Congress, which never got to taste power since 1967, will become more demanding with the DMK. Karunanidhis other probable allies like PMK may try to put their feet down. When the poll bandwagons start rolling, DMKs ousted propaganda secretary would be at the centre of the Opposition propaganda. And, if J Jayalalithaa has turned any wiser, Rs 1,76,000 crore could be the astronomical number that could be printed on placards and posters across the state.
However, it is still too early to say if DMK would go on to drive the last nail in its own coffin. For, Indian politics has shown that a foolish Opposition can bring back a foolhardy ruling party from brain death.
The power of silence is infinite
Did West Indies lose the 1983 World Cup final?
Unlike the T20 generation, the early generations of India's cricketers played the game more for fun (the word love unnecessarily implies sacrifice) and less for money. The team gave us ultimate glory by winning the 1983 World Cup, and that by beating the seemingly-invincible West Indies in the final.
I have immense respect for cricketers of yesteryear. But I'm sick of theories (team spirit, horses for courses, a number of all-rounders, Kapil's positive leadership etc) being floated in the media about why they won the World Cup. Maybe it's necessary to dig deeper into the truth, jingoism permitting!
West Indies LOST the World Cup final. India happened to be their opponents. Like they lost a 1996 World Cup match in Pune (Kenya happened to be their opponents). Or more recently, Misbah-ul-Haq losing the 2007 World T20 final for Pakistan with a silly pre-determined shot off Joginder Sharma. Jana Novotna choked in the Wimbledon 1993 final and lost it. Steffi Graf just ensured she had enough resolve to hang in there and be proud beneficiary. But have you come across an analysis which says that Steffi's backhand slice or frauline forehand' on that day were winning shots?
When the scoresheet says so-and-so team has won the match by so-and-so margin, it's not necessarily speaking the whole truth. And it applies to India's defeats too. When Sachin Tendulkar scored 175 against Australia in Hyderabad, India LOST the match by three runs in November 2009. The Aussies didn't win it. India lost the 2007 World Cup league match to Bangladesh. The latter didn't win it. Ditto with the Windies failing to overhaul 183 in the Lord's final.
Of course, like Sachin's 175, even Kapil's 175 against Zimbabwe is fascinating and invaluable. A crowning jewel among great ODI knocks ever. But before we run out of adjectives, it's worth remembering legendary cricket commentator Bobby Talyarkhan's words (said in relation to forming an opinion about any sporting event) vis-a-vis ! Kapil's knock in 1983: "Did you see it?"
We didn't, as the match was not recorded for some reason (theories: BBC boycott; another match scheduled for the same day).
Of course, Lady Luck and Mr Pluck are part and parcel of any sport. It's the very reason lesser-fancied teams challenge stronger teams. I'm only urging that theories of the Indian team's supremacy in 1983 should not be floated. Of course, India defeated Windies in the league phase of the World Cup then as well, and, not to forget, in the Caribbean's own den (Berbice) a few months before the World Cup.
But if India were such a balanced, fascinating and you-name-it outfit, they wouldn't have got hammered 5-0 in the ODIs by the same West Indies team in India six months later. It should be noted that Indian team got their much-celebrated adjectives AFTER they won the World Cup. So, it's an after result' invention. Before the World Cup, the bookies gave India low odds.
Like the 1983 Indian team, even other World Cup winners had a fair share of luck going their way. Allan Border's Australia in 1987 (batted first in seven games they won; toss went their way in last three games and Mike Gatting's reverse sweep in final lost it for England). Even Imran Khan's Pakistan in 1992 (dropped catches, umpiring blunders); Steve Waugh's Australia in 1999 (Gibbs' howler in the Super Six game of Steve Waugh and South Africa run out in a tied semifinal) were not convincing winners.
However, the Australian triumphs in 2003 and 2007 were really awesome. For, they didn't lose a single game. And they are unbeaten in 29 successive World Cup games. If lady luck smiles that long, I'm sure she will lose her cheeks!
It should be noted that the Indian team who won the 1985 Benson & Hedges World Championship of Cricket in Australia was voted recently as the greatest ODI team ever, ahead of the 1983 team. And this was not a run-of-the-mill poll. Some of the voters included great Indian playe! rs of ye steryear.
We have to respect all World Cup winning teams. Their fans must party long and hard. Marvelling at champion outfits and attaching virtues to them is just part of the package.
Fleet Street on British India and the partition
Aman ki Smasha
The Indo-Pak veggie war: tamatar makes a noisy shor-ba and dopyaza becomes no-pyaza
At the Wagah border jingoistic crowds from both sides gather every evening to cheer/boo the belligerent posturing of the Indian and Pakistani security forces as the respective flags are lowered for the night. Now a real battle is in progress there, with the maidan-e-jung soaked in blood-red tomato juice and onion-induced tears.
And to think that it started as a gracious, neighbourly gesture. Seeing their Indian brothers reeling under a skyrocket attack of onion prices, the Pakistanis rushed nearly 500 tonnes of emergency supplies to India and the relief of grateful housewives. Aman ki Asha was alive, well and spreading its comforting aromas.But then came a diktat from Islamabads Commerce Ministry. Citing the likelihood of onion prices shooting up to over Rs 100 a kg in Pakistan as a result of exports, it decreed that no onions could be sent to India via the land route, which is the most economical one.
This flashpoint was no flash in the pan. The very next day, the Indian side retaliated. Some 50 Amritsari traders announced that they would stop the export of tomatoes and chillis across the border. Rolling their sleeves and their eyes, they hoisted Pakistan by its own padwal, saying that prices of these vegetables in India might skyrocket too if such exports continued. Then, putting their muscle where their mouth was, they stopped some 150 fully loaded trucks from crossing over.
It is not known if a slugfest began, using the rotting tomatoes and chillis, but one thing is certain. An eye for an eye will not only make the whole world blind, but could leave it broke and hungrytoo. Since capsicum is also a major item of export from India, this eye-bulb to eye-bulb confrontation on the border will hopefully end with a Shimla Mirch Agreement.On the other hand, trenchant positions on both sides could Agra-vate the conflict.
If butter sense prevails, we could see a new version of the dinn! er diplo macy now used to stop war by more palatable means. It began with Nixons audacious bid to thaw Sino-US ties. Maos supporters had condemned him as a gangster who wielded a butchers knife, and a stunned Kissinger had reportedly spluttered to General Haig, Al, this fellow Nixon wants to open relations with China. I think he has lost control of his senses. Yet there was Tricky Dick knocking back mai-tais with Zhou Enlai in Beijing in May 1972.
Hu knows how much things have changed. The Chinese Presidents first engagement in Washington this January was a White House dinner. And, when President Obama visited us, Manmohan Singh showed that he could be as adept as a Delhi socialite when it came to using a fine table to turn the global pecking order to ones own advantage.
Actual eatable, excretable food is also a serious ingredient of bilateral relations, even of superpower-dom. Witness the hegemony of US agricultural exports. We had our own PL 480 dependency in the early decades of independence. In the 1970s, the Nixon administration was embarrassed by the great grain robbery when the American people unwittingly ended up subsidizing wheat exports to the USSR. In the 80s, Reagan banned these to punish Russia for its invasion of Afghanistan.
To return to the veggie war at Wagah, as always, the fraternal ties between the two peoples have not been fried; the conflict remains only official. As an Amritsari sabzi saudagar said, We are not against Pakistani traders, only against their governments position.
Nevertheless, as Shri Kauliflower and Janaab Auberjinnah dig in their roots, you can be sure that no visiting cultural troupes are crooning Jab pyaz diya toh darna kya.
* * *
Alec Smart said: Is the Karmapa a Chinese pawn? You could Tibet on it.
Education decides how our future is shaped
When Hairy Met Sally
I really try to stay away from all things intimidatingly feminine. This was of course helped in no small extent by the fact that all things feminine stay away from me . That's just the way it is. These "things" (and that includes you, Karuna Thapar, SIES college , HSC 1988) recoiled from me like I was some kind of out of control Ebola carrying leper. Talk about judging a book by it's cover. So you can imagine my surprise when out of desperation for a haircut, I stumbled the other day in to a ladies hair dressing salon for a trimming of the black weed. Normally speaking I do not attend to my haircuts like I attend to appendix operations. This is because my hair grows with the languid pace of Bengali art movies and it takes me precisely 2 months between haircuts and usually it sends me a very clear cut signal i.e. my side burns start turning floppy with sweat and resemble mini bunny ears and when that happens I just have to go to a barber shop with the enthusiasm of a banker to the fed and let the scissor hands work on me.
My preferred establishment is a barber shop where the men (Oh yes, it is always men) look at you with the sweet emotionless charm of a barbeque charcoal. They don't talk much and ask you to take a chair with their chin pointing in the direction and almost as if it were a legal requirement sport horrendous hair themselves. Once they have my head in their hands, they know precisely what I want when I tell them, "short on the sides and long on top". They do not perform requests which my friend Prashant always requested. Prashant planned a hair cut with the same precision they plan satellite launches. He needed his side hairs the same length as the ones on the back of his head and the ones on top should be long enough to float when he blew upwards but not long enough to rest on his forehead. The ones on the side should gradually have an increasing length upwards from his temple. In short Prashant did not need a barber, he needed an architect. B! ut these guys worked for me.
But when I stepped in to these ladies salon, no question of mine was answered without me feeling like Clogo, the clumsy clown
"Sorry do you cut men's hair?"
"yes..."..giggle...giggle ."we cut mens '......giggle ...giggle
"Ok ...do I have to wait ?" I asked with some nervousness. Men get easily nervous by the sight of giggling pretty women. My first reaction was to see whether my fly was open. If the US ever has to reach a trade agreement with China, they rather send some giggling teenagers than Condoleeza Rice or Hillary Clinton. The chinese would immediately capitulate. I can't really imagine Hillary Clinton giggling and with Bill Clinton for a husband, can you really blame her?
"No..""giggle ...snort ..giggle " No Waitings" GIGGLE ...HAR (please note the usage of Singlish )
Once I sat in that chair with that incredibly huge beehive thing on top and magazines like Vogue, SHE and Vanity Fair in front of me, I just fervently hoped that she go through the haircut faster than an incontinent Cheetah running to the loo. The amount of care that the ladies were devoting to my hair was more than what my wife's gynecologist gave to our daughter. I was offered a buffet of blow dry, shampoo wash, plain wash, perm etc for my cranial topiary, most of which were really pretty much indecipherable to me. All I wanted was a gardening of my roof top, which made sure that I didn't look like I was a participant in the show Haircuts gone wild.
But that is us men and that's why we have the good old barbers who deep down have no real way of differentiating between a skull and a garden hedge. But obviously with women, every single hair seems to have it's own identity and it's own name. All around me were women who were studying with furrowed brows and discerning expressions, their own heads in mirrors as though they trying to value museum pieces. I was ! just hop ing that Sally and her colleague, who were attending to me with the careful devotion of a breast feeding mother finished their operations quickly and spare me death by embarrassment.
After all the cutting, trimming, shampooing and blowing, when I went to pay the bill, they charged me an amount which was my annual budget for root canals. For that amount, they should have included my eyebrows and my dog (and his eyebrows as well) and I still did not look like any of the guys in the photographs. To pay this kind of money for this kind of a result, you have to end up in hell
To expiate this sin, I have to visit a place of worship, bow my head in utter subjugation and say the redeeming words short on the sides and long on the top
No one killed Cipriano
I was compelled to write this headline after I watched No One Killed Jessica, a movie inspired by a TOI headline and based on a real-life story. While the killers of Jessica Lall were brought to book, thanks largely to a resolute Sabrina Lall, Jessicas sister, media pressure and public outcry for over a decade, hundreds of murder cases and custodial deaths have remained unsolved for years in our country. And the ordeal the victims families go through cannot even be imagined by the rest of us who lead our busy lives.
Cipriano Fernandes died in police custody nearly three weeks ago in Goa, yet the policemen have gone scot-free so far, being protected by every stretch of the arm of law. While the law is supposed to protect the rights of individuals, most often, it is bent to suit and protect the offenders.
On Friday, the sub-divisional magistrate and deputy collector, Sabaji Shetye, deposing before the judicial magistrate first class (JMFC) in Old Goa, stated in no uncertain terms that Cipriano died due to head injuries sustained in police custody. Shetye, who is conducting the probe into the alleged custodial death of Cipriano, said that according to medical reports and other material on record, it was clear that two of the injuries on Ciprianos head were fatal and were caused while he was in police custody.
This has been confirmed by Goa Medical College and Hospitals forensic department head, Dr Silvano Dias Sapeco, who said the death was caused due to two head injuries sustained by blunt force which led to the swelling of the brain.
Time and again, killers have got away in India and many a time, justice delayed is justice denied. Police have a poor track record in matters of custodial death.
The way police have attempted to manipulate public opinion in Ciprianos case from the time Panaji Police picked up Cipriano and the conflicting stories they have tried to project on where they picked him up and why they arrested him in the first place, clearly p! oints to foul play. When pressure built on them, Panaji Police tried to character-assassinate Cipriano. How does it matter what character Cipriano Fernandes had?
Here are the facts of the case: Cipriano was arrested on January 7, 2011, from his aunts house in Porvorim across the Mandovi River, based on a complaint by his girlfriend, Georgina Nunes, who stays in Caranzalem. He was taken under preventive arrest for threatening to kill her, police say.
The inside story goes that Cirpriano was having an affair with Georgina, a widow, and wanted to marry her. He was so passionate about the woman that he threatened to harm her if she did not marry him. Agitated by his behaviour, it is alleged, the woman complained to a powerful politician in her area, who is also a minister in the Congress government in Goa, telling him of her woes.
The minister is known to protect his voters no end, like a Robin Hood figure. He has the money and the muscle power to accomplish whatever he wants, it is said. If he feels the problem is genuine, he will go to any extent to resolve it.
Thus the minister wanted Cipriano to be taught a lesson. He told one of his confidants and close police aides to teach Cipriano a lesson. So, while the Panaji police team went to pick up Cipriano in a jeep, the policeman who was given the task of teaching Cipriano a lesson by the politician accompanied them in plain clothes. On record, he was not on duty at the Panaji police station on the said day, sources said.
It is said Panaji Police inspector Sandesh Chodankar, since suspended in this case, was at home at that time. He, sources say, was not at the police station at the time of the crime. His mistake was he had not put a station entry that he was leaving his office that day. But he cannot abdicate his responsibility.
The government has since suspended police inspector Sandesh Chodankar, sub-inspector Radesh Ramnathkar and head constable Sandip Shirvaikar, in the case involving Ciprianos death. ! There ar e others who were on duty at the police station against whom no action has been taken so far.
Another interesting fact that has since come out is that the alcohol detection test report which has been received a couple of days ago from the forensic laboratory, Surat, Gujarat, where the sample was sent, has confirmed that Cipriano was not under the influence of alcohol at the time of arrest, as alleged by police. This makes it clear that another fact had been concocted by police. The police had stated that Cipriano was misbehaving under the influence of alcohol.
The histopathology report, which too has since come out, clearly states that Cipriano had neither consumed poison nor alcohol as alleged by the police. All these stories being planted by police in the media clearly show that they are on a cover-up operation. And the experience is, policemen are often good at cover-ups.
Interestingly, Georgina Nunes, who had first complained against Cipriano had accompanied the police when they picked up Cipriano. She has since alleged in the media that police had tortured Cipriano in the jeep. He was hospitalised on January 8 as his condition was bad, and breathed his last on the morning of January 9.
Ciprianos cousin, Cosme Fernandes, has demanded that action be taken against all the culprits and they be put behind bars. He has also demanded that the driver of the police jeep, in which Cipriano was taken to police station, be questioned.
The family is now doing the familiar running from pillar to post seeking justice. Human rights activists have started making some noises. Police say they have done nothing wrong. Investigations are on, they say routinely. But will Ciprianos killers be punished? Will the real culprits be caught and convicted? Only time will tell. Until then No one killed Cipriano.
Our microbial stockpiles
When Dr Richard Horton, editor of Lancet, expressed a surrogate apology, on January 12 for coding New Delhi, in an article in his journal, for the most dreaded superbug of the day, he probably also had a blame to share on that account. As editor, he may not have control over scientific facts that are peer-reviewed. But he does have powers to keep contentious issues of nomenclature at bay if they amount to offending countries, communities and practices of belief, because as a matter of fact, they do not take anything away from science.
On the contrary, a community or political bias may actually blunt an essential part of the scientific message. Science uses nomenclature for its own furtherance in a different way. For instance, Philadelphia chromosome (for chronic myelogenous leukemia), Jarvic heart valve (an artificial heart named after the inventor surgeon) and Raman effect (a physical phenomenon discovered by Sir CV Raman) encourage science all over, but it may be unwise to call HIV an African virus, in spite of published literature.
To be honest, I would still congratulate him for having taken the pains to pass on the undiluted scientific message that this part of the world may be more conducive to the proliferation of the superbug, and its implications worldwide.
The article published in the August 2009 issue of Lancet is brilliant, because it discovers a new trick bacteria may unleash on humanity. It is assiduous science, chasing up a case of such an infestation in a man of Indian origin in Sweden, after he underwent a procedure in his country, in 2008. To unravel the whole story at a genetic and epidemiologic level of proof, in a years duration, is indeed composite science. It is by no means the first such alarm of a threatening bug, simultaneous reports being mostly focused on the MSRA (methicillin resistant staph aureus), on innumerable studies that were conducted in the western populations. No one took umbrage to that, but no city, state or community hospital w! hich suf fered the most was named. The message was well accepted as good science should be.
Most antibiotics act by weakening the cell walls of bacteria during replication, leading to their annihilation in a particular tissue. As bacteria adapted, antibiotic research grew. A major frontier was crossed when antibiotics like vancomycin could break the beta-lactum shield of some resistant bacteria. There was truce for a while. The bacteria could not evolve further protection, and pharmacology had no further puzzles to solve.
The study in question isolated the bacteria that could crack the beta-lactum-destroying enzymes from frontline and the only effective antibiotics known for those bacteria. A number of cases were reported from Chennai, Haryana, Pakistan and the UK. The striking and scary finding was that a single species of bacteria had evolved a genome, coded bla-NDM-1, that could defy the hydrolyzing enzyme to render the most potent antibiotics ineffective. The more scary part was that this genome, or enzyme-processing unit that makes antibiotics ineffective, could be horizontally transferredfrom one species to another, without actual exposure of the other organism to the particular antibiotic. Its something like upgrading your laptop, irrespective of the brand, by putting in a more advanced chip, other functions being equal.
For instance, if a patient is being treated by a sensitive antibiotic for a bacterium in the lung, the resistance could be passed over a rather innocuous organism in the urine, which may become a reason of serious therapy weeks after discharge. In other words, a particular dreaded bacterium identified and treated in a hospital ICU may transfer its properties of resistance to other normal bacteria in that individual, either during therapy, or even later. This, in essence, is the magnitude of the danger. With unscheduled usage, there is a distinct danger of converting otherwise less harmful bacteria into life-threatening ones. It is a question of hospital usage of anti! biotics. It is a question of environment and community parameters of retaining hygiene. That is the New Delhi-metalo-beta lactamase for you. An irk in the nomenclature, but a wake-up call all the same.
The recent report of hemorrhagic fever in Kutch that caused three deaths was followed with the news that many more livestock are affected than previously estimated. This region in fact sits on an epidemic bomb, unless strict quarantine methods are put in place.
It is estimated that around $50bn is the nations annual expenditure on diseases that can be prevented by hygiene alone. India has been tipped to be one of the likely warehouses of biological weapons. At the moment it will take some effort to deny the statement in the presence of available data.
It does not require a complicated plan to keep water clean. Sewage technology is pretty constant. Plenty of funds have flowed under the bridge that were probably phished downstream. We need an intense ministry of hygeine with powers to enforce and penalize, and a high-grade centre to sample hospital bacteria, with world-class facilities to fingerprint bacterial genomes and their changing structures. Nothing less will do. The present regional centres may feed restructured and upgraded national centres.
For once, the Indian politician sets a wise example. Wash your hands of every scam, or just dont forget to wash your hands!
Today, the cultural Namaste has more medical recommendations than a handshake!
And though you may have a soul-cleansing holy dip, you may just like to wonder if you have hitch-hiked a bacterial genome on your insensitive hide!
Walking on thin ice
Even if Muslim Brotherhoods upsurge in Cairo is an Islamist war cry and Hosni Mubarak remains Egypts last hope as a liberal, secular Muslim ruler, the message is welcome the old must give way to the new.
A time comes in the life of every nation when the accumulated anger and frustration of the people makes them say lets choose a new path. I love this spirit. The spirit of an angry Chanakya helping Chandragupta overthrow Nanda.
Muslim Brotherhood may prove to be a talibanizing force in Egypt. The radical group has been kept away from mainstream politics since the days of Nasser, who brought land reforms, nationalized the Suez canal and rose to become the undisputed leader of the Arab world.
There are fears that soon we may see the destruction of pyramids, mummies and the remaining symbols of Egypts pre-Islamic past, as was witnessed in Afghanistan. But Muslim Brotherhood representatives are taking care not to spread fanatic messages. Reassuring Coptic Christians, a note on the organization's website says: Prophet Muhammad declared that Christians and Muslims the world over are his citizens one people albeit with different faiths. The attack on Christians and churches is condemned by Islam. of course, they have warned the US not to lend support to another puppet regime and instead help the democratic movement. Commenting on an attack on Christians on New Year, in which 21 people were killed, Hesham writes on the MB website: Suspicion falls upon Al Qaeda, which has attacked churches in the past, most recently in Iraq. I pray, those responsible are swiftly brought to justice and rot in jail for the rest of their lives. If this is indeed Al Qaeda, who proffer themselves as holy warriors, they have committed treason against Islam and the Prophet Muhammad in the vilest manner.
We can only hope that this will not be the kind of phony rhetoric we used to hear from the butchers in Kashmir and the Taliban in Afghanistan. For Kashmirs Yasin Maliks and Geelanis, using globally acc! eptable terminology becomes a tool to gain mass support. Once they are suitably placed, the real intolerant hands begin to act.
Do we have a lesson from Cairo for the rulers in Delhi? The nation has never experienced such a low before. Our students are humiliated and radio-tagged by an arrogant US, but the government fails to protect their honour and dignity. A deputy collector is burnt alive with the connivance of black-marketeers having strong political support. Chiefs of the forces, whom we used to revere as epitomes of bravery and patriotism with their pictures hung on school walls, appear before politicians to explain their conduct in corruption cases and the retired top brass is put in the question box for shady deals shaming Kargil martyrs. The judiciary is mired in questionable money-making charges and senior journalists turn lobbyists. The Supreme Court characterizes the black money of Indians stashed away in Swiss banks (several lakh crores) as theft and plunder, yet the government of the day chooses not to do anything about it. The Prime Minister is one who is not the real one, and the real one has no accountability to the people of the nation. The present regime is walking on ice thinner than what we see in Cairo.
Yes, hope was generated when we participated in a demonstration against corruption in New Delhi last week. Maybe something would be done by those who are apolitical and still enjoy some credibility in the hearts of the people. But it looked as if they were targeting someone from the Mars or Saturn for the crimes of corruption, and shielding the corrupt. The well-intentioned people who gathered and provided an engine to such a mass expression of angst and disapproval to corruption couldnt make up their minds whom to put in the question box.
At least the Egyptians are not so vague and circumspect.
Unless the Indian movement rises against the unholy regime that has protected and nurtured the corrupt and is trying to foist on the nation a family rule actively support! ed by me dia houses with a blinkered vision, neither would its credibility percolate to the common rural folk, nor would it gain momentum. It could at best get into coffee table books.
The leader of any such uprising has to take a risk on his head, like JP, and call for the complete overthrow of the regime. The looters and the plunderers are in our neighbourhood. The same tribe that testified against Bhagat Singh and the revolutionaries of 1857. They rule like Hosni Mubarak, like Saddam, and award the yielders. Unmask them ruthlessly. The political system that nourishes them is voted to power by us. Rip it apart and have a new system injected into the ruling mechanism, which is not colonial. A whitewash over the already crumbling walls wont help. Blood in the veins that move the caravan of change has to be fresh.
The rest is all hogwash, including the fashionable admiration of the Cairo upsurge.
Future now!
If you are a regular here you may know about a piece that I did in October, 2010 on the not too distant future when our digital lives may revolve around super smartphones. As I see it, in a few years we will carry just one or two devices that will metamorphose into various devices according to our needs. This is based on an assumption that, soon, hardware in a smartphone will be powerful enough to comfortably handle basic tasks like fast web browsing, watching 1080P videos, editing office documents and some level of seamless multitasking.
I assumed we would take around two to three years to reach there. But I think I miscalculated. Innovation is happening at a dizzying pace in mobile computing industry and super smartphones, used in conjunction with docks, are soon going to be real. In the beginning, the result may not be perfect and such devices may not be very affordable but its a clear indication where the world of personal technology is heading.
At CES this year, Motorola showed its Atrix phone to the public and the device is everything that I had imagined. How good or bad it is, we dont know yet Atrix is yet to come to the market but from the look of it, it seems slick and polished. And I am sure that soon we will hear from other cellphone manufacturers about their plans for similar devices.
For now, just watch this video to see what is possible:
State of confusion
Is the government in office the same as the state? Not at all. Finance minister Pranab Mukherjee's raised more than hackles last week when he suggested opposition parties who were stalling parliamentary proceedings 'should join the Maoists'.
The FM's remark also implicitly raised a point of constitutional nicety that is often overlooked in the hurly-burly of politics: namely, that the government in office is not the same as the much larger entity of the state. Mukherjee's comment was set against the backdrop of the demand by the opposition to form a JPC (Joint Parliamentary Committee) to go into the scandal of the 2G spectrum scam.
The Congress-led UPA government's refusal to set up a JPC, and its argument that the already-formed PAC (Public Accounts Committee) was competent to deal with the issue, led to a logjam in Parliament bringing legislation to a grinding halt.
The finance minister accused the opposition of 'destroying Parliament' and likened them to Maoists who try to undermine the Indian state. While Mukherjee's remark might make for good political rhetoric it makes for bad constitutional law, confusing as it does a particular government currently in office, which is a coalition government at that, with the state, which includes not just the ruling coalition but also the opposition parties, as well as the bureaucracy, the judiciary and the defence services.
The Maoists are indeed against the Indian state, in all its ramifications. Can the opposition parties be described as being anti-state or anti-Parliament? Most emphatically not. In fact, in any worthwhile democracy the opposition plays as important a role in the functioning of the state as a whole as does the party, or coalition, in office.
True, in the present case the opposition's persistence in its demand for a JPC, and the UPA's stubbornness in refusing to allow it, led to a gridlocked Parliament at a particularly bad time for the country when seemingly uncheckable inflation is threatening to put! a brake on economic growth. Both the opposition and the UPA are to blame for this paralysis of governance.
That said, the finance minister's accusation evokes the political conjuring trick of which Indira Gandhi was a consummate exponent. Her slogan 'Indira is India, and India is Indira' sought to create an optical illusion, a smoke-and-mirrors stage effect, in which the party of which she was the undisputed leader and the country were seen to be one. Her call for a 'committed' bureaucracy and judiciary (committed to the interests of her party) and her authoritarian intolerance of any form of dissent inevitably led to the declaration of Emergency, the closest that India has come to dictatorial enslavement since throwing of the yoke of British rule.
Dissent and disagreement with the governing party or parties - provided this dissent is conducted by constitutional means - is not merely permissible in a democracy but is a prerequisite. Any attempt to stifle or jeopardise legitimate, non-violent dissent - by the opposition, the media, minority groups, trade unions or any other constituent of our polity - in the name of stability of governance, or for any other reason, undermines the foundation of democracy. Dissent is not the price we pay for democracy; it is the guarantor of democracy.
And the first rule of democracy is not just the right but the duty of all citizens, and not just opposition politicians, to question and disagree with the government in office. By doing so we're not subverting the state - as the Maoists self-avowedly are seeking to do - but strengthening its democratic foundations. In other words, UPA-II is not synonymous with the Indian state, any more than the NDA was before it. Let's not mistake one political tree for the entire Indian forest.
The curious case of the overseas Indian student
The lure of the far off land, the thrill of crossing the seven seas, the dream of studying in a foreign university is still most sought after for many fledglings. Adding litres of aviation fuel to the earnest fledglings own ambition, are boisterous parents and well meaning relatives who shove the fledgling hard to spread its wings and fly away from its nest. Until the time the fledgling lands squarely in the midst of its dream, life remains a bed of roses.Early birds dont catch worms easily on transoceanic soil. Indian students who pursue their academic dream overseas need to be mentally prepared to rough it up. Most importantly, they need to follow a legitimate path in pursuit of excellence and exercise necessary precaution to avoid getting duped, lest they have their wings clipped, their beaks bent, their claws tagged, ankles radio tracked and their flight path monitored by immigration authorities.
The recent case of Trivalley University in California that offered bogus degrees and spurious methods of obtaining immigration to the United States must serve as an eye opener to aspiring foreign degree seekers. The Times of India has reported that an estimated 1,500 students, some innocent, some not, have incurred severe financial setbacks, loss of credit and face after enrolling with Trivalley. The bogus University lured students on the basis of waiving the GRE/GMAT tests and fraudulently providing optional practical training that serves as the primary step towards immigration. Succumbing to temptation, these students now bear the humiliation of being radio tagged by the United States Immigration authorities. SM Krishna is livid and the Ministry of External Affairs is raising a ruckus over the radio collaring of students. Like live stock cattle, the students movements are closely watched, their passports impounded and several face deportation. But is the MEA addressing the crux of the issue here? Why and how do these students pursue a useless degree overseas under such desperate circ! umstance s? Sense also asks the question, how does the consular office of the United States issue student visas when they cannot find Trivalley in their database? What check is the Indian immigration doing?
India sends the maximum number of students to the United States and is the second top source to Australia. If the student has pursued the competitive path to secure admission in foreign universities, there is not much to worry. These Indian students frequently twinkle the most in a star-studded foreign sky. The problem arises when one has not followed a competitive path and has dished out several thousands of dollars to unknown universities. Unknown foreign universities are allowed to set up promotion stalls in major and second tier cities across the length and breadth of India without any validation of either the courses and programs offered or a check on the campus recruitment promises. Sense must remind us that a good university does not require vulgar amounts of marketing. Credibility of the universities can be easily checked on the Internet too. It is best to carry out maximum due diligence ourselves.
Frustrated over not being able to make the competitive cut even in the second rung Indian institutes, unknown foreign universities appear as an alternative bypass. Peer pressure, parental pressure and most times the lack of self confidence in a society that judges you by your erstwhile qualifications, the Indian student grabs the first available alternative to fly away and pursue the dream. Options here collapse like a pack of cards; the only door that is slightly ajar is the one that leads to Wollongong or Trivalley. Not to forget, this society still loves the word foreign. Parents love to gloat over the fact that their child is studying abroad. An expensive undergrad program in Home Science that is being pursued in the University of Wollongong can make many hearts swell. If one is rich, its fine, but it is not fine when loans are taken and jewellery mortgaged to p! ursue an education in a useless university.
Having lived in Melbourne for a few years I have witnessed the emotional upheavals of these students. These fledglings dont get their worms easily even if they are awake at 4 a.m. They illegally work at seven-eleven or wash dishes in restaurants to make ends meet. Some so inundated in loans that they have taken for hefty tuition fees for a Masters program, drive cabs at night, long after they have graduated, exposing themselves to deranged skinheads. Some wish never to return back to their nests, even if they are radio collared and couped up in a cage. Dont let these fledglings leave their nest in the first place under such circumstance Ministry of External Affairs. Keep the fledgling safe and worry about the collars later.
Cairo - then and now
The last time tanks had rolled on to Cairos Midan Tahrir, or Tahrir Square, I was nearly shot. It was October 14, 1981 and a tumultuous day for Egyptian political history. Anwar Sadat, the president had been shot as he watched para-troopers drop from the sky at a military parade on the outskirts of Cairo. The Muslim Brotherhood was blamed and in the knee-jerk reaction that was seen again in the past week, authorities blacked out TV and radio news on the assassination. The word on the Arab street all day was ``coup. Late afternoon, tanks rolled on the streets of Cairo, parked themselves on Tahrir Sq and around the government-controlled radio and TV headquarters. As an impetuous undergraduate looking for excitement and frustrated by Koranic verses and static on the radio set, I had rushed to the huge villa on the bank across the Nile from Tahrir that was the official home of the Indian ambassador. No envoy was posted there, so an IFS probationer was allowed to make it his temporary home. After ringing the outer gate bell for several minutes, I did the next intelligent thing climb the wall. As I landed with a thud on the grass, I was staring at the barrel of a revolver with its holder screaming in Arabic how he had nearly shot me and didnt I know there was a national emergency. Well, I was only looking for the IFS guy who had a better short-wave set. Nothing happened to me and it was amazing that nothing happened in Cairo in the days that followed. There was no coup, Hosni Mubarak, who had a reputation of being a fiery Spitfire pilot and adept at the controls of huge Russian transport planes, smoothly took over and cracked down on the Brotherhood. If anything, people seemed to be glad that the scenes that followed the overthrow of the Shah of Iran werent being repeated.
Egyptians are not prone to swarming out to protest a despot nor are they typical Arab street. They are very political people but also tolerant and polite. Politically many Egyptians might align themselves to Arab po! litics b ut Egyptians hate being called Arabs. Its almost like a slur for people who have grown up in the cradle of civilization. That these people have suffered the harsh rule of Mubarak for 30 years is a tribute to their patience and a measure of the Mubaraks sophistication of suppression, something he and Sadat learned from the Soviets. It had grown to the point where even the countrys baksheesh-loving cops are allowing the young protesters to march through without resistance. In the decades, Mubarak has used the secret police to build dossiers on potential threats, destroyed the party system and used the cops and courts to jail opponents. If the fragrance of jasmines sweeps off Mubarak, Egyptians will have to get off the streets and get down to building institutions.
The meek will inherit the earth
THIS VERSE from the Bible has been variously explained ever since and here is yet another humble attempt to understand this.
I was reminded of the above verse for this topic by a recent Supreme Court verdict which re-established the truth that the original inhabitants of this sub-continent of ours ie India were the tribals scattered over Bihar, Orissa, West Bengal, Madhay Pardesh, Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand, Maharashtra, Andhra and some parts of Karnataka. All others namely Aryans, Dravids, Mughals, British etc were late entrants and hence migrants. The court stated that tribals have equal rights over the natural resources of this country and cant be whisked away without their will. Today, tribals constitute some eight per cent of Indian population. Except The Hindu, the media both print and electronic didnt report it because of obvious reasons. How could they annoy their moneyed and powerful bosses? Dr Binayak Sen, who dedicated his whole life in the service of these humble souls is being haunted by the courts. But then it is a very large issue.
History is full of tales of oppression of the meek by the strong. Trail of Tears is the most pathetic one. During our trip to the Smoky Mountains, Tennessee, United States of America, we were told about this sad story.
In 1838 and 1839, as part of Andrew Jackson's Indian removal policy, the Cherokee nation was forced to give up its lands east of the Mississippi River and to migrate to an area in present-day Oklahoma. The Cherokee people called this journey the Trail of Tears, because of its devastating effects. The migrants faced hunger, disease, and exhaustion on the forced march. Over 4,000 out of 15,000 of the Cherokees died.
This picture, The Trail of Tears, was painted by Robert Lindneux in 1942. It commemorates the suffering of the Cherokee people under forced removal. If any depictions of the Trail of Tears we! re creat ed at the time of the march, they have not survived.
There is huge difference between meek and cowards. Meek are not cowards. It is just that they have been conditioned to believe that justice will be done one day. They have yet to learn the maxim of tit for tat or eye for an eye. The greatest example of a meek and resolute person was our own M K Gandhi. He asked the British to leave and let India be governed by Indians. He reasoned out with them with passion and compassion and even when they tortured him did neither flinch nor hate the tormentors. Instead, he launched a peaceful agitation which he called Satyagrah and finally India had its freedom.
A common man or woman is not Gandhi. All what he/she wants is a peaceful life, live and let live. But day in and day out this person is denied the rightful dues. If one is not arrogant or violent, he is considered weak and coward. The sharks in the streets are ready to strike and kill. The meek is pushed in a queue, thrashed for no fault, ridiculed all the time and denied his rightful dues.These tribals of India or the Indians of USA to my perception are the meek. They are gentle, humble and considerate. People who are displacing them are arrogant and violent. And the Lord said the meek will inherit the earth so why is it that the meek often become the target of oppression and exploitation.
In our own Epic Ramayana, Lord Rama was on the side of the meek-the saints and sages, starting from the tribas, the boatmen Kewat, the eagle Jatayu, the dethroned Sugreeva, the outcast Sabari, the harassed Vibhishan.
In spite of all this his prophesy doesnt seem to be present on the ground. As someone said in frustration, the problem with God is that He has no father, no family and no roots. We His creation, have a biological father, a family and roots that we have to care about. The God would not know what the meek are suffering in the hands of the strong, both of them being His creation or does He?
Peopl e are hackled and shoved just because they cant be as aggressive or violent. Cheats and cunning flourish. Honest and sincere get punished. One may be tempted to say that this is because of the bad karmas of past or present life. One may say the oppressor should be dealt in the same coins. What would you say?
Oh, for a Noodle Soup
Landing at Vietnam's Ho Chi Minh City makes travel-weary Indians feel right at home: the airport chaos is sooo like Delhi's older T2. (Actually, it's not unlike T3, though the latter is glossier, so the chaos reflects better.) A 30-minute hold-up after landing (no aircraft parking bays!) and a 45 minute delay for a visa on arrivalohh, a second home.
Saigon, now HCMC, is Vietnams Mumbai, and the capital Hanoi is their Delhino, wait, the contrast is even more stark. HCMC is bustling, crowded, life- and commerce-packed, and generally overshadows the capital tucked away far north, though Hanoi has its own charm and cuisine. I guess NYC vs DC is a better analogy.
We reached the Equatorial hotel in District 5 sometime after noon, driving through the much-more-happening District 1. Skipped the business buffet (sushi, smoked mackerel, beef in various forms, and a nice range of flora and fauna) and headed straight out into the hotels city tour mini-bus, to get down at the almost-grand Notre Dame.. which was shut till 3 pm, so we browsed around for F&B (or, do wakt ki roti).
We skipped the Lazazza and Coffee Bean genre, and headed right for the little roadside places in the bylanes. Thats the way to go in HCMC.
And so I had some great Bn b Hu their hallmark beef noodle soup, with lots of mint and other leaves and bean sprouts on the side,while my wife stuck to Chicken Pho (chicken noodle soup). The hole-in-the-wall eatery had a total of these two dishes on the menu, and coke and coffee. What a meal. For all of 80,000 Vietnamese dong...which sounded staggering, but it was less than Rs 200 for two.
My prawn soup in Kuala Lumpur (at Miss Kwan's, in Suria KLCC).
Fiery...the red stuff is chilli...but de! licious. Big soups are a great diet plan.
These massive noodle soups are a big reason for most of chopstick Asia staying so slim and trim, despite the sheer volumes they eat, and all the red meat. The soup bowls are huge. You feel stuffed...for many minutes. Then it settles down. And they're mostly water. And there's greens in there, along with the reds.
Exactly 1,000 km away as the crow (a supercrow?) flies, the soups in Kuala Lumpur are more fiery: at least the Malay ones. There's red chilli, and coconut milk, and it left my eyes watering. But they're still as healthy, filling, and lean. They're still over two-thirds water.
So here's the thing: if you want a serious diet without starving go to the Far East. Stuff yourself with their enormous noodle soups, for at least one major meal a day. (Cheaper diet: try some of the authentic, but non-star-hotel genre, of Japanese and Korean restaurants in Indian metros.)
My steaming beef noodle soup at a Vietnamese hole-in-the-wall.
Distinctive, tasty, cheap, filling...soup keeps the Far East healthy
Meanwhile, back in HCMC, we headed back to the Notre Dame, which had opened up by then, and the charming old City Hall and post office, the Opera House, and back to the hotel for the evening Japanese buffet. Oh, what a spread...but thats another story.
Of Dr Yum Yum Singh and Sonia GaXdhi
Netizens have found a new source for their fix of political satire: They get it on Twitter. The recent cabinet reshuffle was a case in point. While rest of India debated over who was going out and who was coming in, those on the microblog service were enjoying a few chuckles. They were lapping up the tweets of Dr Yum Yum Singh and Sonia GaXdhi satirical profiles of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and UPA Congress chief Sonia Gandhi that lampooned political absurdities.
Just some time before the reshuffle, Yum Yum Singh tweeted Dear @Sonia-GaXdhi No matter how much I reshuffle, the same jokers turn up! much to the delight of his followers who number in the thousands.
Sonia GaXdhi and Dr Yum Yum Singh give me a much-desired laugh about politicians and daily events, says Gagandeep Sapra, aka The Big Geek, who follows Yum Yum Singh on Twitter. People feel the need for a responsive government. But despite regulations and despite the RTI, many things happen behind closed doors. Satire is a way to let off steam and makes for interesting and light-hearted conversation.
But Yum Yum Singh and GaXdhi are not the only faux accounts modelled after desi politicians on Twitter. Apart from the big two, there are several accounts targeted at Rahul Gandhi. And there is one named Raja DiggVijay Singh for, well, Digvijay Singh.
With UPA in power it seems most of the spoofs are targeted at its leaders, and for now, at least, BJP leaders have escaped the lampooners.
The account for J_Jayalalitha claims she is the only hope for TN in 2011 while an account called Muu_Kaa has been created as a spoof for DMK leader K Karunanidhi.
Of course, the quality of satire varies from personality to personality.
Not all spoof accounts are funny; some of these guys resort to cheap antics! . Tweets from Raja DiggVijays, and those targeting Rahul Gandhi are bland, avers Tarun Sreevats, an advertising professional who has been on Twitter since 2008.
But tweets coming from Dr Yum Yum Singh and Sonia GaXdhi can make for a few good laughs, he says.
A look at Yum Yum Singhs Twitter profile where he claims to be in her majestys service reveals how popular he is among his countrymen. Singh is followed by over 6,300 users.
Sonia GaXdhis account is followed by over 3,000 members.
But the true significance of the accounts reach is not in the numbers. Its in the quality of followers and how well connected they are. According to Klout, a website that measures influence of Twitter users, Yum Yum Singh scores 70 point; just one point shy of what Shashi Tharoor, the most widely followed Indian politician, scores.
Besides, Yum Yum Singh has been retweeted over 5,000 times. An impressive figure when you consider that the number of posts on the account are a little over 2,500. This means that on an average each of his tweet is retweeted at least twice.
In a country like India where being politically correct always scores over political satire, Twitter characters such as Yum Yum Singh and Sonia GaXdhi are a rarity. But Shrivats fear that as they get more popular, real leaders may not find the antics too amusing.
Gagandeep, however, is confident that Yum Yum Singh and the likes of him are here to stay. The real leaders cant do much about it. The internet is dependent on noncensorship However, anything that is reckless, against the society norms, and hurts public sentiment is avoided and will be shut down by most service providers, but this is just humour A crackdown on these accounts could also have a bad effect politically, he says.
Some leaders may not like it, but they just have to live with it. Its all for a laugh and people like Yum Yum Singh are doing a great job of it. Now Id like to see our politicians d! o their job, which is running the country effectively.
This article was printed in Sunday Times Of India dated January 30, 2011
The New Melas for the Moneyed
Every year, we get to see a bunch of spiffily dressed anchors interview a set of spiffily dressed business leaders against a backdrop of snow. The occasion is the annual picnic for the truly well heeled that goes under the name of the World Economic Forum and takes place in Davos.
The people on both side of the microphone remain more or less the same as do the subjects of their conversations. But that does not stop the channels concerned from issuing hourly updates on the latest from the fur-lined trenches.
Looking back on the last few years, it is difficult to think of anything vastly significant that happened at Davos, but by now this annual trip has been pencilled in the calendars of the journalists involved and besides, what will they do with all those designer winter clothes?
At one level, the Indian media interest in Davos is understandable for it is an important showcase event for countries from emerging market. The congregation of world leaders of all hues make this a power bazaar of considerable importance and it is natural for media to go where the powerful do. And yet, as Swapan Dasgupta points out in his column in this newspaper, not only does the annual Davos jamboree raise questions about why the same interviews could not be carried out with Indian business leaders in India but also begin to work against the country as the gap between verbiage and action continues to grow.
But at an even more fundamental level, the reason for looking at the annual Davos outing with some suspicion comes from the fact that we seem to have an irrational fascination for all forms of ornamental melas, particularly where we get to hang out with the rich, famous and the well dressed.
Something similar is happening with the Jaipur Literary Festival. Starting off as a small gathering of the literary minded, it has today, by virtue of some expert curation and inventive marketing, become an event of monstrous scale. The people it attracts today are of all kind! s and so me of them continue to be interested in literature. But for most, the Jaipur festival has become a Davos-on-the-cheap, where the primary motivation is to be present, to be seen to be present and breathe in the heady fumes that the famous emit. That is not to say that the event no longer has any literary merit, but merely that by now what surrounds the festival is more significant than what the content that it contains.
And then are sundry award shows, film premieres, art summits, marathons and leadership conclaves where the same phenomenon is at work. Every year the same people converge on these and kiss the air around each other's cheeks in rotation and get photographs clicked with each other, dressed in event-appropriate costumes. Each of these events is breathlessly covered by media , in fact most of them are created by media houses and it is no accident that the most airtime in these shows is taken up by sundry anchors who well, anchor the show. The awards shows in particular carry virtually no weight and are transparent devices to promote a small group of people, who take turns in receiving these and giving speeches about leadership and vision.
Perhaps these are harmless affectations; after all if we think of these as fancy dress parties for the grown-up, we could perhaps learn to look upon them with benign indulgence.
However, perhaps there is something deeper at work here. The creation of a self-contained cocoon inhabited by the important serves to operate as a subtle and often insidious form of seduction that gradually consumes those who seek to consume it. We saw that at work when we heard the Radia tapes; it was clear that the lure of hanging out with the powerful rubs off on those who ostensibly seek to question them. The media has over the years, unbeknownst to itself, defected to the other side and it has done so largely so that it could wear better clothes and get to have important people on their speed-dials. The breathless and uncritical coverage of these! events make the media unwitting accomplices when they should instead be open-minded but critical observers.
The overall climate of self-congratulation and the unwavering interest in making India look good to the outside world has made the media agents rather than auditors of the political and commercial establishment.
More importantly, jamborees of this kind slowly suck the original meaning out of these events. The event itself imposes an internal logic of its own for it must keep upping the ante year on year. It needs to become larger and more spectacular and it can only do so by getting in bigger ticket names and ever larger crowds. It must become a ritual that does not require thinking about; it must be attended regardless of what happens there. Over a period of time the primary concern becomes cast in terms of who else attended rather than what it was fundamentally about.
Nothing seduces as magnificently as scale. Our perpetual quest for personal significance means that we seek out the neighbourhood of those that are already significant. In India, particularly, we are going through a phase where we are dazzled by all those that glitter. Our obsession with attending global economic events, literary festivals, art summits and film award shows might have indicated that we are taking greater interest in the finer things in life. Instead what they probably show is that our greatest lies in the figure that appears in the mirror. In a designer suit of course.
