TEN THINGS TO AVOID AS A LEADER

Nearly five years back I did a comprehensive piece on ‘Leadership In The Navy – Past, Present And Future’ and then within a month, having retired from the Indian Navy, I joined a corporate on the civvie street. This article takes into consideration a number of things that I have closely observed in the environment around me. I am convinced that avoiding these things would make a person a much more effective leader.

The Number One Leadership tenet, of course, is that Leadership must be a secondary trait to Love. A Leader cannot be an effective Leader unless he or she is driven by a feeling of love towards his or her resources; the most precious of these being human resource. If you are driven by Love and in the corporate sector not the love for money, you are already on the way to becoming an effective leader. Regrettably, corporates think of a Leader as someone who commands not more respect but more money and many of these leaders actually end up being paid heavily in the hope that they would bring about the necessary change or transformation; which in turn results into being more profitable and hence earning more money. This is from my page ‘Make Your Own Quotes’:

Why is this important? I can give several reasons. However, two of these stand out. One is my favourite tenet: Good leaders have good men. Indeed, Good leaders have good all round resources. This doesn’t mean that their talent hunt is so good that they are able to get good men or women from the market or best resources. It means that what they have quickly become good men and women and resources by the feeling of Love that generates ownership and belongingness. Two, Love rules out an agenda other than to see the best development of your company and resources.

With this background, lets go straight into the Ten Things to Avoid as A Leader.

#1 Falsehood. A leader must have high Credibility with those he or she hopes to lead. False promises, both direct and implied, spell ruin. There can be falsehood in things other than promises too. For example, if the people read in your intent motives totally different from the ones proclaimed, your efforts at sincerity are likely to sound as hollow to them as the arguments of a lawyer who knows his client has done something wrong but still argues in his favour because of promise of fees or remuneration. You may cover up your intent by grandiose advertisement campaigns or HR blitzkrieg, but, you won’t have won people’s loyalty. Remember: loyalty is obtained by loyalty and not by spectacular campaigns. Another pertinent and prevalent example of Falsehood is when you promise to bring about a change and openly denigrate what your predecessor(s) were doing; but in the end, you do exactly the same thing, people below you think of it as a great falsehood perpetrated by you.

#2 Focus on or Driven by only Short Term Goals. From national leadership to anywhere in the corporates leaders are nowadays busy with short-term goals. New language evolves and we have a new and respectable name for this; it is called ‘quick-wins’. Regrettably, many leaders do not go beyond these quick-wins to think about long term development. When you go to South India, you come across temples, for example Somnath temple, that took more than 100 years in construction. Nowadays, people seek instant gratification not just in their lifetime but also in their tenures as leaders which are shortened due to frequent job-hopping. Nevertheless, posterity remembers leaders that look after the long term goals of the company, employees and themselves.

#3 Wasting Time on Unproductive Activities such as PPTs. Leaders should never forget that Meetings, Workshops, Brainstorming sessions and Conferences are means to achieve an end and not an end by themselves. Dissipating unduly time at getting PPTs right, for example, may sound impressive but would eventually result into micromanagement of such petty things as font-size, colour and slides layouts. I have seen many so-called leaders getting engrossed in the endless process of getting-it-right and devising new vocabulary to mask their penchant for petty corrections. Great leaders do not waste time in forever controlling everything in meetings, PPTs etc but demonstrate their ability to take in the real issues involved.

#4 Parochialism. Diversity is the flavour of the month in corporates these days; especially amongst those that desire to emerge as global players. However, we are at the level of paying lip-service to it whilst ensuring that increasingly people from our own backgrounds, regions and religions join and progress in the company. The best thing that I read about Bias is that you have a bias to prove your bias right. All kinds of reasoning finds its way into thought-processes why people of our background only “will be able to do justice to the tough requirements of the job.” The problem with such parochial thinking is that you lose the right yo lead all but your favoured lot. It is like a government coming into power and looking after the interests of only those who voted for it.

(Pic courtesy: goldenbridgeinmate39.wordpress.com)

#5 Different Rules for Different People. A good leader is consistent about the application of rules, regulations, procedures and practices. He doesn’t give orders that he cannot follow himself. Indeed, whenever he starts a new practice or wants to bring about a change, he leads the change. Everywhere in India we have already spoiled social fabric by inequitable application of rules and privileges. The moment you do so people assume their status to be different or privileged. The oft asked question if such people is: “Pata nahin main kaun hoon?” (Don’t you know who I am?)

#6 Previous Credentials. You join a new company as a senior leader. You denigrate all their previous experiences. You assume that you have been brought there to bring about a change. So, without even understanding how their system works, you jump headlong into imposing your previous experience on them. You must remember that nothing is more frustrating to your new team. It took them years to build up to the system and you straightway commenced throwing the baby along with the bath-water. You don’t just have a vocabulary to support you in your pursuit of bringing about a change, you have an entire philosophy at your disposal. You can quote hundreds of anecdotes and management principles about how Change is painful but necessary; and, how to bring the recalcitrant around to your point. Indeed, in addition to imposing your previous credentials, you now revel in gradually doing away with resistance to change. but, the fact is that you should have first studied the system that you were going to inherit before embarking on the Change Journey.

#7 Constant Change. This is another favoured phrase which is somewhat similar to ‘quick-wins’. You convince people that Change is forever and in order to stay relevant you have to constantly reinvent. Often a major change that you indulge in is followed by another and so on. You want to be counted amongst the well-read. You brought about a transformation and everyone works the midnight oil going through it. No sooner have you completed it that you read another few books and want to bring in more changes. Vocabulary and anecdotes to suit your current pursuit are readily available. You compare life to a river than to a pond and so on. Unknowing to you, people, always being on a roller coaster ride are confused. You never allowed them to come to steady state.

#8 Ruling By Mistrust Loyalty cannot be bought with money. It has to be won with the currency of loyalty. So, if you have built up an environment of mistrust and intrigue in your organisation wherein people speak in whispers and look furtively if the big-brother is watching; you yourself would be a victim of this mistrust. You are forever checking people’s private mails because you have the power to do so or because your IT policy evasively says so, sooner or later, the Spy versus Spy atmosphere that you set in comes to haunt you.

#9 Excellent Speaking But Poor Listening Skills. A great leader is not merely a good speaker well versed with great communications skills and story-telling; a great leader is first and foremost a great listener. A monologue by a leader is something that is not welcome. How many times I have come across so-called leaders who insist that the questions at the end of their talks should be short; but, they, at the shortest question launch themselves into longer and longer harangues. Hogging the limelight in meetings, conferences, seminars without listening to anyone especially dissenting views make for poor leadership qualities. Just as good oratory need to be practised, a good leader should have practised the art of good listening.

#10 All’s well that ends well. Ends don’t justify means. As you climb up the rungs of the ladder of leadership, the short cuts that you took would come and haunt you. In today’s world of transparency put into place by social media and other means, before you know it., your aberrations are made as public as Clinton’s aberrations with Monica Lewinsky. Just because you are in a position to meet the goals, just because you appear to have charisma, doesn’t give you the right to do the wrong things. Of course, these days, we see the wrong-doers ostensibly doing well, having ostentatious life-styles and privileges; but, you would probably win battles with this approach and lose wars.

WE INDIANS, NEVER TOO FAR FROM THE HUMDRUM OF LIFE

We have all studied Abraham Maslow’s pyramid of needs when we were in the school. We know that at the basic level are the Physiological needs, ie, needs of Food, Water, Shelter etc. As Abraham Maslow points out, only when the needs at one level are met that you can go up to the next higher level. To illustrate this, we had a Punjabi anecdote about a beggar being taught maths. He was asked: “Do ate do kinne hunde ne?” (How much is two plus two?) Promptly he replied: “Chaar rotiyan” (Four rotis).

I sometimes feel that however much we, as Indians, try to get to higher levels of needs: Safety Needs, Belongingness Needs, Esteem Needs and Self-actualization Needs, something constantly pulls us down to the Basic Needs.

A few months ago I put up an article extolling the virtues of walking outdoors as opposed to working out in a gym (Please read ‘Walking Or Gym? I Like It In The Open’). If you read the article, you would find that I have brought out that being one with the Nature, observing the sky, birds, flowers, hills, trees and breathing in fresh air would tilt the scale in favour of walks in the open anytime in comparison to being in the gym. The article has lovely pictures of all that I observe during the walks even though I walk very fast. Kharghar, in Navi Mumbai, is where I stay and I love these walks.

Many others, I mentioned, also walk and be with nature, dawn, breeze and surroundings.

However, two years back, a village woman spread a sheet on the pavement and started selling vegetables. Of course, walks were forgotten and people started buying vegetables. Seeing this success, now we have a full fledged vegetable and fruit bazaar at that spot. People now come for walks only so that they can buy fruits and vegetables.

I can imagine shops or kiosks selling screwdrivers, hammers, pliars etc outside fun parks such as Esselworld or Imagica. In India, these would do booming business. I can also actually imagine us Indians going to see the Taj Mahal and returning home after buying “really cheap and fresh vegetables and fruits” from pavements outside one of the Seven Wonders of the World.

Life goes on. We are never too far from the humdrum of life; not even for half an hour of morning walks.

I am reminded of Santa coming home after office and telling Preeto: “Preeto aaj maine 10 rupaiye bacha liye“. (Preeto, I saved 10 rupees today)

Preeto: “Vo kaise?” (How’s that?)

Santa: “Main bus ke beeche bhaaga aur bhaag bhaag kar office pahunch gaya“. (I ran after a bus and ran all the way to the office)

Preeto: “Paagal ho ji aap; taxi ke peechhe bhaagate to 100 rupaiye bach jaate“. (You are mad; if you’d run after a cab, we could have saved 100 rupees)

Imagine the same Santa coming home after buying 1kg of apples during his morning walk and saving all of five rupees; and Preeto telling him if he had purchased 10 kgs each of aaloo (potatoes) and pyaaz (onions) he could have saved up to 30 rupees.

Sample of conversation between two Kharghar ladies:

Lady One: “Pichhale char paanch dino se aap morning walk ke liye nahin aati, kyun?”
(For the last few days you haven’t been coming for walks, why?)

Lady Two: “Maine achhe rates par poore hafte ki subji khreed li. Khatam ho jaaye, phir aati hoon aur khreedane ke liye.”
(I have bought vegetables for the next one week. When they finish, then I shall come (for walks) to buy more)

Lady One: “Aa jayo naa, good quality ke cheekhu aaye hain…”

(Do start coming for walks again; good quality cheekhus (Sapota plums) have arrived in the market)

Or, taste this imaginary talk between two Kharghar men:

Man1: “Ham jahaan jaate hain mar kha ke aate hain“. (Wherever I go, I get beaten)

Man2: “Ham jahan jaate hain mar ket lagate hain“. (Wherever I go, I start a market)

Mera Bharat Mahaan!

Overheard a Kharghar man telling another: “Subah walk ke bahut fayade hain: Aloo pyaaz market se do rupaiya saste milte hain aur apples to paanch rupaye saste. Hamaare pitaji kaha karte the: ‘morning walks are very healthy’. Pitaji ko kaise pata yahan market khulane waali hai?” (Morning walks are very useful: Potatoes and onions are all of Rupees two rupees (per kilo) cheaper than the market and apples are five rupees cheaper. My father used to tell me: ‘morning walks are very healthy. How did my father know here (in Kharghar) they are going to start a (fruits and vegetables) market on the pavement?

I told the above to a few of my friends. They made light of it by invoking multi-tasking. Oh yeah? It is the same multi-tasking that makes us busily talking on the cell phones and even sending sms and whatsapp messages whilst driving; or playing video games whilst watching a movie in a multiplex.

One of the Golf jokes is about a funeral procession with a Golf-bag kept on a cortege. A passer-by remarked that the deceased must have been a great aficionado of Golf. One of the mourners said, “It is the funeral of his wife; he has a foursome immediately after the match.” In the case of we, Indians, the funeral procession could have carried a shopping-bag for buying fruits and vegetables.

One of the Hagar the Horrible cartoon showed Hagar in his full battle armour leaving his house and proclaiming to Helga: “I am going to invade England. Glory, honour and riches await me.” And Helga telling him, “On your way out, can you take the garbage-pail for emptying in the drum?”

For the Normans it might have been just a cartoon. For us Indians, it is a way of life.

P.S. I am contemplating shifting to quiet and peace of the gym as opposed to walks in the open.

IS COMMUNAL DISHARMONY A CHALLENGE TO INDIA’S MARCH TO GREATNESS?

Historically, and I am talking about many hundred years ago or so, the Indian record of racial and communal indiscrimination had been better than the world’s average. At one time in our history, we didn’t require the kind of advice that the US President Barack Obama gave to Indians through his talk to the Delhi students recently when he visited us as the Chief Guest for the Republic Day Parade. Obama reminded predominantly Hindu India about the rights of minorities and the challenges the developing nation faced about religious pluralism.

“No society is immune from the darkest impulses of men,” said Obama. “India will succeed so long as it is not splintered along the lines of religious faith.”

For many painful years the Europeans and Americans suffered the adverse and in case of Europe horrible effects of racial discrimination. The German concept of Master Race (die Hessenrasse) was adopted as a Nazi ideology. The German ubermensch (overman or superman) was a concept in the philosophy of Friedrich Nietzche and finally adopted by Adolf Hitler as one of the significant thoughts behind his desire to purge the world of other than pure white Nordic race. The end result was the Holocaust in which approximately six million Jews were exterminated by the Nazis. The “Final Solution” was a Nazi term used to refer to their plan to abrogate the Jewish race during World War II. The race extermination of the Jews was the summit of the Nazis anti-Semitic hatred. The massacre of the Jews was invoked in stages. Here is one of the many horrible pictures of the pogroms carried out by the Nazis:

(Pic courtesy: www.kalleiceberg.blogspot.com)

Barack Obama’s own country, the USA, had the concept of Master Race in the context of Master – Slave relations and even provided a pseudo-scientific justification for slavery based on superior race’s relations with an inferior race. During the colonising period, anti-Catholicism was at its peak. In 1915 the Ku Klux Klan re-emerged on a national level, preaching anti-Semitism and anti-Catholicism; it amassed more than 4 million members. In American history, it was as late as in October 1964 that Martin Luther King received the Nobel Peace Prize for fighting the racial inequality prevalent in the American society. Nevertheless, the immediate after-effect of 9/11 was that anyone of Asian origin and supporting a beard was targeted simply because the 9th September 2001 attacks in New York and Washington DC that killed nearly 3000 people were coordinated by an organisation called Al-Qaeda that had roots in Afghanistan and whose leader Osama bin Laden and many others in the organisation supported free-flowing beards. It is only later that it occurred to America not to alienate an entire community in reprisal for attacks by a handful.

Ku Klux Klan (Pic courtesy: www.time.com)

The European record of Wars based on religion is quite pathetic and indeed violent. From the 7th to 8th centuries of Muslim Conquests to Christian Crusades and finally Wars of Religion of 16th to 17th centuries killed millions of people. The Christians even fought a Hundred Years War between themselves, euphemistically called Wars of Reformation.

India, on the other hand, had a great tradition of religious and racial tolerance. For the first time in our history, we were exposed to large scale religious intolerance by the Muslim kings that ruled over us. It started sometime in the 11th century. These rulers, unlike others from Central Asia retained their religious identity and created legal and administrative systems that superseded the systems in India based on religious and racial tolerance. They, for the first time in the history of India, also indulged in the hated and much bandied about word: Conversions; that is, forcing, inducing, facilitating and motivating people of indigenous religions to convert to Islam. The cruel and violent exploits of the Afghan warlord Mahmud of Ghazni (early 11th century), Muhammad Ghori (from Ghor in Afghanistan), Mamluk, Khalji, Tughlaq, Timur, Babur, Aurangzeb and Nadir Shah are only too well known for their cruelty and atrocities. Even at that, some of the rulers such as Akbar the Great (11 Feb 1556 to 27 Oct 1605) found a way of merging their religion with the religion in India. He was as orthodox a Muslim as any of his predecessors. However, so impressed was he with the Sufi practice in India and the good in various religions that he integrated them all into a common belief called Din-e-Ilahi.

The Ibādat Khāna (House of Worship) was a meeting house built in 1575 CE by the Mughal Emperor Akbar (r. 1556–1605) at Fatehpur Sikri to gather spiritual leaders of different religious grounds so as to conduct a discussion on the teachings of the respective religious leaders. (Pic courtesy: en.wikipedia.org)

Therefore, if we really trace the seeds of modern-day religious Intolerance in India, these were laid during the century and a half leading to India’s independence on 15th August 1947. As is easy to visualise these were politically exploited for vested interests. The British openly propagated a policy of Divide and Rule, which served their political and military aims quite well. We were puppets in their hands. However, just as we learnt the system of dowry from the Europeans and then left them far behind in its practice; similarly, as soon as the politicians of the sub-continent realised the political advantages to be gained from dividing people along religious lines, they left their original exponents the British far behind. Mohammad Ali Jinnah, the founding father of Pakistan excelled in it before independence and the Indian politicians learned to stay in power through this after independence.

For several decades after independence the only ruling party in the country, the Congress, learnt to exploit the minorities and dubbed this appeasement of minorities as Secularism. It was so successful in this game of exploiting minorities that any voice even remotely critical of this pseudo-secular approach was promptly dubbed as anti-secular. It very often rallied all so-called ‘secular’ parties behind its plank in order to keep at bay any opposition to its rule.

Lets, for example, take the infamous Shah Bano Case of April 1985 in the regime of Rajiv Gandhi. Shah Bano Begum, mother of five children and an old woman (62 years old) was divorced by her husband in 1978 as per the Islamic practice prevalent in the country. She filed and won a criminal case in the Supreme Court of India. The court ruled that she was entitled to alimony from her husband as per the law of the land. However, since Muslims were an assured vote-bank for the Congress, the Indian Parliament reversed the judgment of its highest court buckling under pressure from Muslim orthodoxy. Since the Congress enjoyed absolute majority in the parliament, it caused to pass the Muslim Women (Protection of Rights on Divorce) Act, 1986 and diluted the intent of the Supreme Court in yet another act of appeasement of minority, in this case Muslims.

The infamous Shah Bano case (Pic courtesy: www.youtube.com)

The main opposition to Congress came from a splinter party formed in 1951 by Shyama Prasad Mookerjee and called Jana Sangh that was in response to Congress’s pseudo-secularism. The leaders of the party in succession after the death of SP Mookerjee were Deen Dayal Sharma, Atal Behari Vajpayee and then LK Advani. The party was widely regarded as the political arm of Hindu nationalist organisation called the RSS or the Rashtriya Swaymsevak Sangh. After Indira Gandhi imposed Emergency in the country in June 1975 when her election was set aside by Allahabad High Court on the ground of misuse of official machinery in her election campaign, in 1977, Jayaprakash Narayan led a successful campaign and a collision of parties under the banner of Janata Party came to power in 1977. This experiment didn’t last long and the Janata government collapsed in 1979. Bharatiya Janata Party emerged in 1980 from the break-up of Janata Party.

The formation of BJP was followed by a longish period of communal violence and it was widely perceived by the party under LK Advani that its Hindu revanchist strategy directly led to its forming the government at centre under Atal Behari Vajpayee. LK Advani, of course, was the mastermind of Ram Janambhoomi movement that eventually led to the Babri Masjid demolition in Ayodhaya on 6th Dec 1992. Waves of violence emerged in the country following this and over 2000 people were killed, at least half of them in Bombay riots of early 1993 that became, amongst others, the subject of Mani Ratnam’s famous 1995 movie Bombay starring Arvind Swamy and Moinisha Koirala.

Babri Masjid just before its demolition by Kar Sevaks (Pic courtesy: indiatoday.intoday.in)

Before that, the so called secular party Congress masterminded anti-Sikh riots in the capital New Delhi itself for four days after the assassination of Prime Minister Indira Gandhi in her residence at the hands of her own Sikh bodyguards Beant Singh and Satwant Singh. By an independent estimate approximately 10000 Sikhs including women and children were mercilessly massacred by frenzied mobs incited by Congress leaders. The worst was that her son Rajiv Gandhi was anointed as the Prime Minister and he tried to justify the massacre by his now infamous utterance, “When a big tree falls, the earth shakes”. Thirty years later the victims of this pogrom are still to find justice.

A scene of 1984 massacre of Sikhs in the capital of India (pic courtesy: www.en.wikipedia.org)

And then, of course, the Feb 2002 Godhara Riots took place. The initial cause was reported to be the burning of a train on 27 Feb 2002 in Godhara, Gujarat that caused the death of 58 pilgrims returning from Ayodhaya. The resultant riots in reprisal resulted in the massacre of approximately 1000 people, mostly Muslims. The case has been widely used as the cause of Muslim terrorism both indigenous and from across the border. In a game of pot calling the kettle black, the Congress took the government of the then Chief Minister Narendra Modi (now Prime Minister) to task for allowing the rioters free hand over the next 72 hours or so to settle scores.

Godhara Riots (Pic courtesy: inewsindia.com)

The fact of the matter is that political parties of all hues and leanings have found it expedient to play the communal card or the so called secular card in direct or indirect attempts to garner assured votes. Therefore, after coming to power, even though the Prime Minister Narendra Modi has assiduously steered clear from the manifestation of religious ideology of his party BJP or its ideological parent organisation RSS, the Hindu revanchists have started the process of Ghar Wapasi (Reverse Conversions of those Hindus who had earlier converted to Islam or Christianity) and many other controversial movements that have actually called to question our secular leanings. Recently, Prakash Javedkar, a BJP MP from Rajya Sabha and BJP official spokesman mooted the idea of dropping the two words ‘Secular’ and ‘Socialist’ from the Preamble to the Indian Constitution. These words were incorporated in the Preamble in the year 1976.

It is in this background that Barack Obama said: “The peace we seek in the world begins in human hearts; it finds its glorious expression when we look beyond any differences in religion or tribe and rejoice in the beauty of every soul,” said the president, who namechecked prominent Indian Muslims, Sikhs and sportswomen. “It’s when all Indians, whatever your faith, go to the movies and applaud actors like Shah Rukh Khan. When you celebrate athletes like Milkha Singh, or Mary Kom,” he said.

The present Prime Minister Narender Modi came to power as the 15th PM of the country in May 2014 with BJP winning 282 of National democratic Alliance (NDA)’s 336 seats of the Lok Sabha’s 543 seats. This means that not just the NDA, but even the BJP has absolute majority (272 seats required) in the Lok Sabha. During Obama’s recent visit, the media (both India and American) went ballistic about the growing personal relationship between the two leaders. However, Modi is the same leader who was previously denied a US visa following accusations that he tacitly facilitated the Godhara anti-Muslim riots in his state Gujarat in 2002 wherein he was the Chief Minister.

A series of attempts by rightwing Hindu groups to hold mass conversion ceremonies and somewhat mysterious fires at churches have sparked controversy in recent months. Last week the hardline Vishnu Hindu Parishad group claimed to have “re-converted” more than 20 Christians in the southern state of Kerala. The organisations come from the same broad political family as Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party.

In this background, lets ask the question again: Is there real danger of the latent communal disharmony blowing over into large scale unrests and violence that would undermine India taking its rightful place as an emerging economic and political power? The answer to this is sadly in the affirmative due to several counts.

The first is the tacit policy being adopted by Pakistan’s terrorist organisations supported both covertly and overtly by those in power to bleed India by a thousand cuts either by themselves or in collusion with home-grown terrorists and supporters to their cause. It is in their interest to cause as many communal unrests as possible and weaken India. Just like the 2002 Godhara Riots, every communal violence in India helps their cause.

The second is the success rate of using the religion and caste cards by political parties. They have tasted the blood of vote bank politics by exploiting the communal passions and are unlikely to see reason in a hurry.

The third is the revanchist attitudes by communities to undo the historic wrongs done to them. In this we would do well to keep in mind what Obama said: “No society is immune from the darkest impulses of men”. It won’t do any good to revert to a selected point in history when the others were on the wrong foot. Take the track record of both the major parties. The Congress, for example, has been calling BJP communal on the basis of such acts as Babri Masjid demolition and Godhara Riots. The BJP has been equally strident in pointing out the track record of communal riots in Congress ruled states including the national shame of Sikh Riots in the capital of India post the assassination of Smt. Indira Gandhi. Similarly, any attempts to alienate the Muslim community on the basis of historic wrongs done by Muslim rulers of erstwhile India are intrinsically wrong. Just as USA quickly realised post 9/11 that alienating and isolating indigenous Muslim community was not in the interest of America; similarly, sane thoughts should prevail in India.

The fourth is the emotional nature of religion as is practised in India. Every religion believes in one God but it has to be their God only and no other God. Surprisingly, even though our religion is decided for us by our parents at an age when we don’t even understand what religion is, when we grow up we are prepared to (somewhat blindly) give up our lives for it. A quote from my Facebook page ‘Make Your Own Quotes’ brings this out succinctly:

The fifth is the current situation. From all accounts, after nine months of being in government, Narendra Modi and to some extent his party have earned people’s appreciation for doing everything within their means to restore governance and India’s image abroad. In this scenario, Congress, that had been so far in India’s independent history triumphantly proclaiming that there is no alternative (TINA) to Congress, seems to be realising that it is headed for oblivion. There is only one hope and that is if BJP falls prey to communal machinations, riots and violence. This actually increases the probability of such engineered communal disharmony.

In the light of this, rather than brushing aside what Obama said, we should take it rather seriously and see to it that nothing comes in the way of India’s march towards progress. Neither political parties, nor ideological and militant organisations, nor even forces from across the border can do much harm without the help of people at large. If we as people resist being manipulated, we can yet make India into a great country, as visualised by Nobel Laureate Rabindra Nath Tagore as early as in the year 1910:

Where the mind is without fear and the head is held high
Where knowledge is free
Where the world has not been broken up into fragments
By narrow domestic walls
Where words come out from the depth of truth
Where tireless striving stretches its arms towards perfection
Where the clear stream of reason has not lost its way
Into the dreary desert sand of dead habit
Where the mind is led forward by thee
Into ever-widening thought and action
Into that heaven of freedom, my Father, let my country awake.

BEST OF ‘MAKE YOUR OWN QUOTES’ – PART II

It has been less than two years since I put up in this blog ‘Best Of ‘Make Your Own Quotes’ ‘. In these 21 months since the post and 23 months since I started with the Facebook Page called ‘Make Your Own Quotes’, a lot has happened. One, from a membership of just 30 or so, the Page has a membership of nearly 500 now. Two, a number of (nearly 300) new Quotes have been started.

Why did I start with the page? As I mentioned in the introduction of the first post, “I noticed that on the Facebook and elsewhere, there is a great penchant about putting up Quotes. These range from quotes about Love, Friendship, Politics, Life; indeed about each and every subject. Whilst reading these quotes I was stuck by the realisation that somehow we have this feeling that the sages, saints and wise-people of the past had abundance of sane-advice on all kinds of subjects; but, by a curious quirk of fate, we ourselves and fellow citizens have nothing great to offer in terms of such advice. When I started analysing this, I reached the conclusion that there is nothing simpler than giving sane advice; the answer is really blowing in the wind; it is everywhere. We only have to gather these pearls around us and weave them in a garland”. That’s how I started this Facebook page called ‘Make Your Own Quotes’ with an introduction: “There is nothing simpler than giving sane advice; you don’t have to follow great teachers. Make your own quotes and let others follow you.”

This venture started on the 25th of Feb 2013 and very soon it would be two years old. I have received tremendous interest from friends in these Quotes and I am told that around the world these Quotes are being circulated in all kinds of garbs. I have nothing against these since I shall never be making this into a commercial activity.

I like all quotes on Facebook; these provide quick and easy solutions to life’s seemingly complex problems. I believe life is as simple as Facebook; what you get is dependant upon your “settings”.

I started off by giving tips to people on how to make their own quotes, eg,:

Great Quotes Tip #1: Compare Life, Love, Relationships etc to something mundane and infer “great” sounding advice out of it.Here is an (original example): “Friends should be like electricity wires; opposite poles, running parallel and lighting up lives by meeting”. For effect, inscribe this on a totally unrelated picture of, say, a Frog in a Pond. Wanna try your hand at it; go ahead….nothing is simpler! Try comparing Life to Beans!! Go ahead, now that you have joined this site, you will eventually follow your own quotes!!!

Here is therefore the second tranche of Best of ‘Make Your Own Quotes’.

Going into historical background of things has been a favourite subject with me. We have documented some of our history whereas most of the important one is in the form of gospel, ie, passed down from one to other without being written. However, one important aspect of the history is the history of not just the events but history of our emotions. This is important since it has been asserted that God is beyond emotions. So, how then did the first man or woman get these emotions?

Now this is totally tongue in cheek and about my life in the armed forces which are largely hierarchal and authoritarian:

The subjects of God and Religion are close to my heart; both being the inventions of Man to keep sanity. I have written a number of articles about this in this blog. The most comprehensive is the one that tracks the origin of God and Religion, viz, Whose God Is It Anyway? I have argued that whilst we do need God, but Religion has to move away from being community activity to something personal. Here is a Quote about God:

I continue to indulge in Alternate Definitions of words, as in the previous edition. Here is one on Secretariat:

Rains always bring out the romantic spirit in me. Here is one about the rains:

Here is another:

As we move into a world where we are in crowds and yet alone and lonely, I have frequently given quotes on this subject. Here is the first one:

Here is another:

And yet another (though all these appeared at different times):

And a penultimate one on the same subject:

Finally, if we have ever examined sadness, we would have probably reached the same conclusion as me:

I frequently bring out the comparisons between Faith and Science; and, my way of looking at it is that both are the same except that the differences are more entrenched in our minds than similarities. Taste the following:

Whilst on this subject, I am often amused at the prevalent distinction between God-made and Man-made; it is as if the latter really have equal powers to make things as God!

I also frequently indulge in the witty, humorous and the light-hearted. For that, I have a running series called ‘My Moments Of Madness’. Here is one such post:

Here is another:

And another:

Here is one in which I have even expressed ‘Hope’ after Life!:

Here is another funny one, addressed to God:

Another running series is Alternate Definitions. Some of these are merely punning on words; but, these would make you feel. Taste the first one about my specialisation or field of interest: Maritime (I spent 37 years in the Indian Navy and am retired now):

Every one of us have heard the word Anglicised. Here is my definition of it:

Lets take a few about the attributes of the Indians. First of all, we are really very filthy people and litter everywhere with abandon. Here is a take on that:

Our traffic conditions are amongst the most chaotic in the world. Indeed, we kill more people on the roads than during wars. Here is a take on that:

And the third is the Indian Politics. But then, when I put it up, foreigners told me that it is the same in their country too:

As I told you, I spent nearly 37 years in the Navy and hence sea is in my veins. There are several Quotes on this theme; the most popular of these was:

Here is another one about the same romance of the seas:

Here is one about the sea itself and how it changed my life:

The four lettered word Life is a favourite topic with me. I give you a few quotes about this subject. Here is the first one:

Here is another:

And another since Life is such a vast subject:

And yet another:

This one about Life should make you think:

And a last one about Life:

Let me now give you three at random before finishing with this edition of Best of Make Your Own Quotes. There are, of course, many more and you can await the next edition. This one is about the limitation of Reason and Reasoning:

This one is being happy about what the sages and saints say; that is, Life is a Myth:

And to end this edition, here is a quote about my ability to make you look at God’s world differently:

I am sure by now I have convinced you to subscribe to ‘Make Your Own Quotes’. What do you have to pay for the subscription? Nothing; not a cent, pence or paisa. It is totally free. All that you have to do is to like the Page and these Quotes would be delivered to your timeline automatically. You can, on the page, make your own Quotes and share these too with others too. Dozens of subscribers have done it already.

WANT TO START A FACEBOOK GROUP? HAVE A REALITY CHECK

So, you are keen to start a Facebook Group with a particular purpose, aim or theme in mind? Does the idea fascinate you because it would not only provide an outlet to your creativity; but, would also provide similar outlets to others and would be viewed as social service?

Sounds great; doesn’t it? Let me give you a reality check:

First of all, it is almost like the idea of starting a new Religion; it would be subject to so many interpretations and variations that eventually what emerges will have nothing much to do with the original concept, except perhaps the name.

And, that is because we are Indians and immediately and spontaneously resist any attempt, even mild ones, at being focussed and disciplined. How can, we silently ask, there be a group with a theme and aim when we are totally used to Chalta Hai approach in life and this CH approach has held us in good humour all these centuries? Please notice Indians in an aeroplane. Even after the announcement for fastening seat-belts, keeping seats upright and switching off cell phones; we don’t do any of these. We keep waiting for the air-hostess to come to us and personally point out. And then, we reluctantly do so, our looks indicating that she is only being a stickler to some archaic procedures. We are like that only (Read: ‘We Are Like That Only’).

We look at any attempt at regulation as being against and killing creativity. The result is that we don’t have a free society but we have a reckless one that is adept at taking short-cuts to suit its own interests and styles.

Majority of the Indians won’t have visited China. But, that doesn’t stop them from extolling the virtues of Indian “free”, “open” “liberal”, “democratic” and “fearless” society in comparison to China’s “draconian”, “closed”, and “autocratic” society wherein people live in perpetual fear. It would come as something of a shock that we, perhaps, live in greater fear than the Chinese in our everyday lives. For example, because of our chaotic, reckless and dangerous traffic conditions, when we leave our homes in the morning, we have no idea whether we shall return home alive. We never let go of our creative and free-flowing spirit (if not spirits) even on the road.

Our creativity Is also hugely appreciative of easy availability of everything on the Internet that we can copy and paste as our own. Take three of my Facebook groups, for example: ‘Humour In And Out Of Uniform’ (HIAOOU), ‘Laugh With The Punjabis’ (LWTP) and ‘Dil Ki Nazar Se’ (DKNS) to promote respectively humour about Indian armed forces, humour about Punjabis, and love for old Urdu/ Hindi songs. The membership of the first two gradually reached 20000 each and the third one is at about 1500. In all three groups the number of people who write original posts is very small. Majority is copy-paste experts. Since the majority is like this, it appreciates copy-paste culture in others too. Hence, your original and painstakingly written post may fetch a dozen Likes, but its copy-paste post, even if being repeated for the nth time, doesn’t fail to attract hundreds of Likes and Comments. This is real humour, the majority says; the kind that should be there instead of the “long, boring (originally written) posts”. Even though the cover picture of HIAOOU advises that the group is about ‘Humour related to Indian armed forces and nothing else’; most members feel that the group should be allowed to put up all humour and non-humour posts.

Irrespective of the name, aim and theme of the group started by you, we like to put up each and everything. Our favourite posts that find places in almost all groups are: Greetings especially Good Morning, Happy Diwali, Happy Holi etc; Motivational Quotes; Pictures and praise of religious places and symbols, god and goddesses; Pictures and praise of the armed forces (these have to be liked by everyone lest they should run the risk of being dubbed as unpatriotic); Posts that show they are modern enough to be empathic about such social issues as girl-child, women’s empowerment and child-labour (these never fail to get dozens of likes and comments since others too want to be seen in the same light), riddles (such as 2+2×3-4×2-2 is how much? Or if your brother’s aunt is married to your sister-in-law’s father, what is her relation with you?) and romantic shair-o-shairi, pictures and quotes. On my group Laugh With The Punjabis, for example, I keep enquiring from members who put up such posts, despite norms clearly spelled out in the pinned post, whether such posts as that of gods and goddesses and girl-child are something to laugh about or at. But, that doesn’t stop the members from giving vent to such latent creativity.

In the end, most of the groups on Facebook just become friends’ circles wherein everything is fair game including “how are you, friends? “, “hope you have a great time”, “anyone from Shimla?” and “Add me”.

Then there are those who want to advertise free of cost. They put up ads about their products such as jewellery, shoes and even to like their pages and groups. Many of them flood your groups with dozens of such ads both as posts and comments and it would take you considerable time, sometimes hours, to get rid of these.

The new scourge on Indian Internet is pornography. Sexually oppressed and depressed Indian people have suddenly found virtual impunity in making profiles that are gay, lesbian, transgender, incestual, wife-swapping, cuckolds and open interests in such profound subjects such as Desi Gay Stories, Meri Bhabhi Ki —-, Hot Sisters and so on with explicit pictures. Whilst on the subject of profiles, my experience shows that almost half the Facebook profiles of Indians are either fake or have fake pictures; commonest being those of actors, actresses, foreigners, children, gods and goddesses, quotes, flowers and places.

On my group ‘Humour In And Out Of Uniform’, I tried to promote original writing of anecdotes since the Internet hardly had any material (including cartoons) on humour about Indian armed forces. But, I found that firstly there were very few takers and secondly even those who wrote originally decayed into writing on anything and everything and letting these pass as humorous posts. I then started a group, satirically titled Chalta Hai wherein such posts could be published. But, I should have known that the fun of putting up the forbidden stuff on a group with a specific purpose far outweighed the lure of putting it on a group wherein it is actually permitted. Hence, people kept on putting up Chalta Hai posts on HIAOOU and even tried to justify these. A senior member, for example, is convinced that everything that happened in his tenure in the armed forces in India and abroad and in the civvie street is worthy of being chronicled in HIAOOU for the benefit of the youngsters who are looking up for leadership and guidance from the armed forces.

With all this, your desired social-service of having a Facebook group suddenly becomes a punishment for you. You spend the whole day managing your groups, over and over again advising people to stick to norms (to the extent that they and you both start getting on each other’s nerves), removing and banning posts and members, getting into lengthy discussions with people as to why you removed a post/member without personally cautioning him and her (remember how they are used to being told by the air-hostess?), inducting and blocking members after checking their profiles, and hoping like hell there would be some time left for you to actually use your own creative spirit to write (the original purpose of starting the group). And all the while, the copy-paste artist spends all of fifteen minutes in doing his boy/girl-scout good act of posting his stuff and moving on to post the same in dozens of other groups that he/she has become members of. By the way, when I check profiles of members at induction I am surprised to see many of them being members of hundreds of groups.

Narayan Murthy in his address to students of the Jawahar Lal Nehru University at New Delhi entreated everyone to assimilate some of the attributes of Western societies wherein people invariably thought of the society before thinking of their own freedoms and liberties. But, we, in our Chalta Hai attitude, often consider ourselves as the centre of universe, and reason out how just our type of exceptions from the rules should be permitted.

Most Indians are also good at – nay experts at – giving advice (Read: ‘One Good Advice Deserves Another’). There are very few who mean well whilst rendering such advice; many of them use the medium of advice to gather as much attention for themselves as they can gather (after all, the very aim of Facebook is to seek attention, they reason out). So, whilst you need their active help to maintain your groups for the purpose for which they were created, these advisors would tell you that the simplest thing to do is to throw a person out who is putting up irrelevant and objectionable posts. They forget that you would have to spend hours reading all the posts even to decide which are the irrelevant posts. Ask them to help in this as co-admins and they would do the Mr. India act of becoming invisible.

What, then, are the solutions? You can try one of the following options:

Close down your group or groups. This is easier said than done. On Facebook there is no such quick-fix option available to deactivate a group. You have to physically remove each and every member and then remove yourself and seek closure. Hence if your membership is large (in my case the total membership of my groups is close to a lakh), and you spend only 30 seconds for removing a member, you may spend as many as 50000 minutes of doing it, if you don’t take a break. This is as many as more than 800 hours or 35 days!
You can restrict the membership of the group(s) to a manageable number and restrict entry by making it (these) either closed or secret groups. This defeats your original purpose of doing all-round social-service.
You can change the setting of the group to ‘All posts to be approved by an Administrator’ prior to posting.
You can increase the number of Administrators. This too is easier said than done since most of the advisors are actually very busy people who do not have sufficient time to do this public service. And in any case, if the norms are subject to individual interpretations (causing you chagrin in the first place), administrators’ duties then become another cause of individual interpretations.

So, finally, what are you left with? Perhaps have just one or two more trusted administrators and have the setting for posts to be approved by administrators prior to putting up. This is hard-work for the administrators but then it does away with all the heart-burn caused by removing posts, removing and blocking members, and being embarrassed by vulgar and pornographic posts being put up when you least expect them.

If you have any suggestion, please feel free to post it in the Comments below the post.

Thank you.

THE OTHER SIDE OF A FAUJI’S WORTH

A ‘fauji‘ is the Hindi or more accurately Urdu word for an Indian military man. Most Indians hold the fauji in high esteem. However, most of them steer clear from emulating the “impossible and impractical” virtues of a fauji, the biggest being: Service before self.

Last year in the month of June I did a piece on Armed Forces And The Indian Society. I had brought out that except for sporadic incidents, like the spat the soldiers recently had with their superiors in Leh; or General VK Singh, the 24th Chief of the Army Staff, trying to sort out the civil-military relationship balance through the curious instrument of his dates of birth, by and large, the Indian public holds its armed forces in great esteem. Many of our countrymen privately fantasize about the armed forces taking over the governance of the country and instil some discipline and accountability in our civic life.

However, in the same article I had brought out the increasing chasm between the civil society and the armed forces due to the decline of values in the former and due to an all time low having achieved in civil military relations (Please also read: ‘Admiral And Mantriji’) Therefore, after more than six decades of independence, we are in a curious state whence the politicians require the armed forces not just to deter and protect the nation from foreign aggression, but also to sort out the mess that they have made of the internal situation. The army lost its cutting edge by being sucked into insurgencies and law and order situations. Post 26/11 Mumbai attacks, the GoI in a contorted wisdom made the Indian Navy responsible for coastal security; thus making it one of the only leading navies in the world so charged. Surprisingly, whilst making the faujis responsible for things that should have been sorted out by good governance, the politicians and bureaucracy have relentlessly desisted from conceding even an inch to the armed forces in matters of governance.

In August this year, reacting to the killing of five Indian soldiers by the Pakistanis, Bhim Singh, a Minister in Bihar government, commented that people join armed forces to be martyred. Was this an apt description of the worth of the armed forces or faujis as seen by our netas? The sad part is that majority in our country would answer that question in the affirmative.

Kargil War - An Uphill Task against all odds for the 'fauji' (Pic courtesy: defenceforumindia.com) — Kargil War – An Uphill Task against all odds for the ‘fauji’ (Pic courtesy: defenceforumindia.com)

The life of a fauji is tough both in peace and during war and LIC. Anytime he/she can get killed. Even when alive a fauji, more often than not, lives the life of deprivation. So, how does the country honour him? No one wants to give him anything but all are vying to get something from him. The industry employs a highly skilled jawan (he becomes highly skilled because of years of discipline, training and technology that he is brought face to face with) as a security guard on abysmally low wages so as to exploit his inherent loyalty and integrity. For the bureaucrat, he is a headache since they have to think ways and means of denying what is due to him, eg, OROP or One Rank One Pay, Rank Pay and other allowances. As far as inter se protocols are concerned, a fauji has been deliberately pushed down the ladder far below the police and the bureaucracy.

Whilst the civilians fantasize about a military rule to end corruption and inefficiency everywhere, the military too fantasizes about war when the worth of the fauji is felt by the civilians. As the English poet Francis Quarles wrote in 1632:

Our God and soldier we alike adore.
Even at the brink of danger; not before;
After deliverance, both alike requited.
Our God’s forgotten, and our soldiers slighted.

The society at large doesn’t comprehend the life of the fauji that is not visible to it, eg, on the border, at sea and when he is silently engaged in doing what he has pledged to do. However, it sees the fauji during parades, in the clubs and canteens and it appears to the civilians that the faujis are having a jolly good time in their pomp and glory.

Here is a light-hearted anecdote about the worth of a ‘fauji’. This is a thirty years old incident and hence indicates that it is not now that the rot has set in though now it is worsened considerably.

I was on temporary duty to Naval Headquarters from Mumbai where I was posted. I was a LtCdr then. I was going to stay in the SP Marg Officers Mess (at that time it was a common mess for Army and Navy officers; much before ‘jointmanship’ dictated that we have separate messes) (Read: ‘Anything But Jointmanship)

I alighted at the New Delhi Railway station having arrived there by fauji friendly Frontier Mail. (Read: Crossing Frontiers In The Frontier Mail)

Chugging my suitcase (no one had heard of trolleys at that time) I located an auto-rickshaw. Delhi auto-rickshaws were notorious for not going by the meter and for overcharging. So, I wanted to settle the fare with him before the journey.

“How much?” I asked the driver deliberately in Punjabi so that he would know I was from that part of the world and not easy to be deceived.

“Forty bucks” he too replied in Punjabi.

Now I knew that the fare would be only 25 bucks but considering the night-time, he could add another 5 bucks. But certainly 40 bucks was downright cheating.

I protested and haggled. But he won’t budge.

Finally, I told him that I was a fauji so that he would have a modicum of respect.

“Ah” he said joyously, “Then you just give me a bottle of rum.”

I had to give him all of Rupees forty since the bottle of rum (though much cheaper) had already been given by me to the TTE in the train for procuring reservation.

After joining the Indian Armed Forces, it doesn’t take a fauji much time to realise his true worth to the civilians and yet he continues to serve selflessly.

ARE INDIAN ELECTIONS FAIRY-TALES?

No, I haven’t gone crazy; I am seriously asking this question even though I am well aware of the fact that the world over, Indian parliamentary elections are seen as the greatest exercise in democracy. But, for heaven’s sake, India or Indian democracy is not just about periodic elections even though the Indian political parties and independents have raised their ambition of fighting and winning elections as an end in itself. It is precisely this shortcoming in our system that has landed us in this morass (Read: ‘How Proud Should We Be Of Indian Republic At 62?’ that I wrote on 26 Jan 2011).

This article is, therefore, focussed on three things:

Our unrealistic expectations from elections.
How we are manipulated by the political parties?
Don’t we have to demand things from our polity and from ourselves rather than to just periodically vote?

Take the euphoria regarding the two Prime Ministerial candidates: Narendra Modi and Rahul Gandhi. In social media, in addition to electronic and print media, we have divided ourselves into two camps: the NaMo camp and Rahul baba camp. In public debates, the supporters of one or the other endlessly tell us that they admit that their party has made mistakes and done evil things; but, it is still not as bad as when the other party was in ‘power‘.

Lets take Narendra Modi camp first. As soon as NaMo becomes the next PM, following will happen:

1. Our netas, babus and people at large will shun corruption. All of us are waiting for a strong PM to be there so that we can all mend our ways.

2. Good governance will return to our country. It was last seen in 6th century AD during the period of the Guptas.

3. People will start being more efficient and punctual in offices. Right now we have a ‘chalta hai’ attitude only because we don’t have a strong PM.

4. Our trains and flights will be on time. With a weak PM, they have no choice but to be perpetually running late.

5. Industrial output and hence GDP would show a sudden spurt. Our industrialists are totally nationalist people. The industrial output, therefore, suffers only because of the indecision of the government.

6. Education and employment for all would remarkably improve. Even with the excellent(!) commitment of our teachers and employers, these have suffered only because the government didn’t have clear sense of purpose.

7. Long pending police reforms would be straightway implemented as they have been in Gujarat.

8. Our foreign relations would straightway improve especially with our neighbouring countries. After years of lack of vision by successive governments, suddenly, we shall have a visionary with commendable and proven clarity of thought in these matters.

9. Pakistan wouldn’t dare to send terrorists to our country because of zero tolerance of NaMo towards such people. Indeed, even though an earlier immature PM had declared with bravado, “Ham unaki naani yaad dila denge“; NaMo wouldn’t give such childish threats but actually make them remember their ancestors.

10. Modernity would reach our villages in addition to some basics such as food, water, roads, electricity and schools.

11. We would have a foolproof security and defence umbrella. It couldn’t have been there with a weak PM.

12. People of all communities will start living in harmony as they do in Gujarat!

13. Scientists and technocrats would start doing original research rather than reverse engineering of western inventions.

14. In short, India will once again take its rightful position as the Golden Peacock.

Are elections fairy tales? This is why we believe in gods and goddesses; irrespective of the mess we are in, gods will be reborn in our midst and suddenly set right decades of neglect, corruption, inefficiency and immortality.

Lets take another god-in-the-making Rahul Gandhi. Recently, in order to have a squeaky-clean image – the kind his antennae told him the Indian public wanted – he, whilst holding post as the Vice President of Congress, denigrated his own Prime Minister and the party for having moved in the parliament an ordinance that would allow even convicted members to continue in office.

Surprisingly, the Congress supporters hailed the ‘bold step’ of the ‘future-hope-of-the-country’ Rahul Gandhi who had shown as much sagacity as the retired Army Chief General VK Singh in publicly finding faults with the army he was commanding. People’s hopes – mixed as they are – rest on the following pillars:

If voted to ‘power‘ as the Prime Minister, Rahul would stand between the corrupt ministers and the nation’s interests.
He may be party to corrupt and dubious decisions, but he still carries a conscience; the one commodity that is lacking in others.
He has his fingers on the pulse of the people. Hence, if voted to ‘power‘, unlike others, he would listen to the people and do course corrections when required.
Eight years of Congress misrule now and decades of it earlier would be wiped out simply by electing him to ‘power‘.
The volte-face by Rahul Gandhi is a resounding victory for people’s power especially power of the social media.

Ain’t our fairy-tale expectations from our ‘angels’ far higher than what we are supposed to do ourselves in democracy? What is the difference between us and a certain minister Bhim Singh from Bihar who said, “Soldiers are meant to die”? Ain’t we expecting too much that any government or PM can set right the rot that has set in our society since they are being paid or voted to set them right?

I don’t like the way people on social media take sides with either Congress or the BJP for any issue of import concerning our country and its people. For example, on the issue of pogrom of thousands of Sikhs in the national capital, the pro Congress group blames the pro BJP group of being non-secular and vice-versa. On the issue of corruption, each group pretends to be holier-than-thou.

Every issue of significance, therefore, gets mired in vituperative politics and we never get to pragmatic solutions. What is true of Facebook is also true of debate, both public and in the media.

If we collectively or individually not lock our senses behind the façade of my-party-greater, we’d know that despite each fan club assuming posture of superiority and morality, there is nothing to choose between the two major parties; both have been there and done that!

Let me share some facts:

1.BJP had a major issue of Bofors when they were in opposition but didn’t do anything about it when they came to power.

2. BJP didn’t push for a white paper on irrigation scam in Maharashtra after Congress leaked it out to the media that some part of the loot went to BJP too.

3. Congress’s own record of secularism is even more pathetic than that of BJP. However, BJP never pushes debate on this issue since it is sure Ram Mandir will get it assured votes.

4. Both see advantage in postponing Lok Dal Bill and Women’s Reservation Bill in Parliament.

5. Both didn’t want to do anything about Wikileaks revelations about Swiss Bank accounts of Indian politicians and industrialists.

I can go on and on but isn’t it time sane and aware people in the country stop taking sides on the assumption of a false sense of loyalty? Lets start discussing what the country and its people need without getting into the internecine blame-game. There is nothing like a half-virgin or more or less virgin! Integrity has to be measured in absolute and ethical terms and not in the terms we are discussing now; eg, “Congress is bad but it is better than BJP or vice-versa.”

We are really playing into the muddy hands of these ruffians by adopting this attitude.

Let India win and not Congress or BJP.

Some of my good friends also debate and believe that we the common voters would be directly electing the Prime Minister. The fact is that none of us will be electing a PM; we have to only vote for the right candidate for our constituency. Everything else is just plain wishful thinking. Yes, our votes are important but we can’t directly elect a PM or even government. Whereas, from the public debates, and debates on social media it appears as if they would all be voting directly for NaMo or Rahul G and hence, whilst voting for the right candidate in our constituencies, we should constantly worry about the above fairy-tale wish list for these two worthies

And I am ashamed of the so-called intellectuals who take sides on every issue of significance concerning us. We believe in miracles and miracles sell like hot-cakes in our country. Why, it was only the other day when Lord Krishna produced endless rice from a bowl!

(Pic courtesy - www.hilltop.in — (Pic courtesy – www.hilltop.in

Here is the actual reality of majority of the people that we elect:

Neta1: So wrestling is back in Olympics.

Neta2: Yes, we now stand a chance to win medals.

Neta1: You don’t say that, do you? Medals for what we have been doing in the well of the house?

Neta2: Hmm…

Neta1: Do you think we can also win medals for thumping the tables every time Soniaji speaks?

How quickly we wash our hands off our responsibility and complicity in the ills of society; be these corruption or rapes or immoral acts by god men? The fact is that We the People are corrupt, and immoral. From where do Ponty Chaddhas and Asarams amass their stupendous wealth and power? We are so steeped in commercialisation of religion that we have lost the ability to listen to sane voices that such jamborees as those we witness in the name of religion periodically are actually trivialising the religion. We create Ponty Chaddhas and Asarams. We participate in mere rituals and tamasha in the name of religion. We fan the fires of an increasingly divided society in terms of religion, caste, creed and region. Some of us are trying to make every issue of morality into victimisation of the religion that we belong to.

Lets stop all this before we ask of the government, politicians, religious leaders and babus to set right the Indian society.

As Guru Nanak and Swami Vivekanand said, “Conquer yourself to conquer the world”.

How Naive Can We Get?

Whilst we prepare for forthcoming elections, we have conveniently convinced ourselves that Corruption and Immorality lies at some high level and that people at large seek to be rid of these evils. This is as naïve as ostrich burying its head in sand.

We, as people, fight for our ‘right’ to be corrupt and immoral. These are at all levels of society. You don’t become a Ponty Chaddha and Asaram overnight. People collude to make them so.

Tell the thekedaars of religion, for example, to stop extracting money in the name of religion.
Tell the railway conductors to stop charging underhand money.
Tell the office babu to stop asking for bribes to do the work he is supposed to do.
Tell the traffic cops to deposit all money that they receive for traffic violations.
Tell the patwaris, tehsildaars and kanungos to stop accepting underhand money for revenue records.
Tell the PWD people to stop charging 300 per cent more than the actual value of contracts.
Tell the doctors to declare every income that they receive.
Tell the oil and petrol lobby to sell pure oil and petrol in the market and not adulterated by about 30 to 40 per cent.
Tell the real estate people and constructors that all deals will be above-board.
Tell the industrialists that projects will be run only on declared costs.
Tell the teachers to stop taking private tuitions.
Have F.I.R.’s being lodged in police stations without charging underhand money.
Have a clean judiciary.
Have media who debate issues of concern to us and not the commercial interests of the owners.

I can go on and on. The fact is that whilst thinking of quick-fix solutions to our endemic problems, we tend to forget that we are involved. We have to put our own house in order. Elections are periodic phenomenon but the shortcuts that we take are everyday phenomena.

India cannot change with elections. We need to change first.

Suddenly, elections are not fairy-tale contests between parties and candidates anymore. Suddenly, these are about us.

INDIANS CAN’T BE COMPLACENT ANY LONGER

A few years back, in order to prop us up as a bulwark against China, the US, supported by the Western media, started a relentless campaign to obliquely praise India for its “spectacular GDP growth”. This suited our politicians and bureaucrats since all this while they had to face the wrath of the people for let alone their aspirations, but, even the barest minimum necessities of life not having been met. Soon the think-tanks in India and the intelligentsia took up the anthem of ‘the growth story of India’ and Indian self-serving analysts started working out the exact dates by which we would overtake the economies of Japan, China and finally the US. The feel-good factor made many people happy and excited.

What went wrong? Firstly, we forgot that all indices, particularly the Human Development Index, put us at the bottom of the heap, tucked roughly between Belize and Uganda. We forgot that GDP growth largely reflected how well are the richest of the rich amassing wealth in India.

Secondly, together with Europe, the US economy had slowed down to near recession and in comparison, isolated (and bolstered too) as we were with our ‘self-sufficiency’ of domestic demand, we seemed to have been unaffected by the global economic slow-down. Since this economic complacency was not based on any robust fundamentals, it was soon to take a hit; which it has done now that the US economy is recovering. The dollar is already at an exchange rate of more than 62 rupees. How low is the value of the Indian currency can be made out by this curious observation that the politicians have stopped accepting Indian currency in bribes and now accept only gold. As a result of this artificially raised demand the gold-prices have experienced a sudden spurt.

Indeed, even abroad, the perception about India being touted as an economic giant gave way to India being the most corrupt country in the world. One German business daily which wrote an editorial on India said: “India is becoming a Banana Republic instead of being an economic superpower. To get the cut motion designated out, assurances are made to political allays. Special treatment is promised at the expense of the people. So, Ms Mayawati who is Chief Minister of the most densely inhabited state, is calmed when an intelligence agency probe is scrapped. The multi-million dollars fodder scam by another former chief minister wielding enormous power is put in cold storage. Prime Minister Manmohan Singh chairs over this kind of unparalleled loot.”

This newspaper editorial is a bit dated and we have since had many cusecs of water having gone down our polluted and corrupt, but still sacred river of Ganga. Economically, nothing describes our state of affairs better than our perpetually pot-holed roads. Enormous moneys go into maintaining these. And yet, with the first sign of rains, life becomes hell for all commuters. A routine trip to the office that used to take only twenty minutes, then starts taking ninety or more accompanied by the mood of the computer having been marred for the whole day having to battle against the pot holes and fellow traffickers. But, curiously, those who reach the other end silently pat themselves on the back for having reached safely whilst fellow commuters are still stuck on the road. This is, hence, representative of some of our Indians complacency in the face of the disaster that stares us in the face.

(Pic courtesy: adayinthelifeofaphdstudent.blogspot.in)

The dismal economic scenario, accompanied by rampant corruption and lack of even basic infrastructure, have come about when the shadow Prime Minister, who is strong in economics, is repeatedly asked to indulge in politics, wherein he is a weakling. Isn’t it a shame that the only time he showed he had a spine was when, on behest of the US, he took a firm stand that nuclear power is what the nation needs most at this juncture and would automatically solve all our other problems?

Since the ruling Congress front has failed miserably, one would start hopefully assuming that the main opposition – BJP front – would come up with an alternate plan or strategy to buck up economy, provide basic amenities and infrastructure, and control corruption. Nay, on the other hand, BJP has come up with their oft-repeated clincher of Ram Mandir. Do you think they have gone bonkers? No, I think that they have done their mathematics well (I have shown this maths at a post ‘How Proud Should We Be Of Indian Republic At 62?’ in this blog). They know that less than one per-cent swing in the votes is all that is required to be winners and make a government. For obtaining this one per-cent swing they can either take the ‘risky‘ way of being idealists and mean well for the Indian society or obtain it ‘safely’ by polarising the Indian society. They would, therefore, invariably tilt towards such polarisation; knowing very well that Congress too is only pseudo-secularist and panders to the vote bank of the Muslims in a huge way.

With this, the voter is stuck between the devil and the deep-sea; and, the chances of Indian conditions improving are just a pipe-dream. It saddens me to know that this hopeless state of affairs has come about at a time when we should have done the best. It is because the country’s demographic profile suits high-growth. We are a young country with average age of an Indian being only 29 years. This youth could have been employed in rebuilding a nation. Gradually, our population will start ageing like those of European countries and Japan and then favourable conditions for growth would become even more scarce.

What should we do in this scenario? We don’t have the wherewithal and nor is it necessary to jump into the dirty world of elections by fielding candidates. I think the solution lies in this adage: ‘In democracy you don’t just elect a government, you get the one that you deserve’. We can have a voice through social media including blogs, Facebook and Twitter to let the candidates know that we can’t be fooled by promises of Ram Mandir or doles under Food Security Bill. Lets raise our voices so that it becomes mandatory for the candidates to shun corruption, crime, parochialism and come up with realistic and pragmatic plans for the betterment of our people and nation.

For this it is necessary that we choose the right candidates not emotionally but objectively; not merely by his/her party affiliations but by his/her own attributes and potential.

Lets spread the word around that next elections are the last ones before people become so frustrated and alienated from their elected representatives that they are forced to choose the path of revolution.

BEST OF ‘MAKE YOUR OWN QUOTES’

I noticed that on the Facebook and elsewhere, there is a great penchant about putting up Quotes. These range from quotes about Love, Friendship, Politics, Life; indeed about each and every subject. Whilst reading these quotes I was stuck by the realisation that somehow we have this feeling that the sages, saints and wise-people of the past had abundance of sane-advice on all kinds of subjects; but, by a curious quirk of fate, we ourselves and fellow citizens have nothing great to offer in terms of such advice. When I started analysing this, I reached the conclusion that there is nothing simpler than giving sane advice; the answer is really blowing in the wind; it is everywhere. We only have to gather these pearls around us and weave them in a garland. That’s how I started this Facebook page called ‘Make Your Own Quotes’ with an introduction: “There is nothing simpler than giving sane advice; you don’t have to follow great teachers. Make your own quotes and let others follow you.”

This venture started on the 25th of Feb 2013 and on the coming 25th of April, it would be all of two months old. I have received tremendous interest from friends in these Quotes that have not only advice, but, at times are humorous and even naughty. I give you here the best of ‘Make Your Own Quotes’ from my Facebook page for the last two months, with the promise that the best is yet to come as long as you subscribe to it by Liking the Page.

I started off by giving tips to people on how to make their own quotes, eg,

I followed this up with:

Great Quotes Tip #2
Take a famous Quote and make it stand on its head by a juxtaposition of words. They will really marvel at the quotes “great” and “pragmatic” message.

For example:
Where there is a way, there is a will!

Great Quotes Tip #3Simplify to the point of being ridiculous and you have a great Quote….especially if it is on a colourful picture.

Great Quotes Tip #4: Quotes about something called ‘LOVE’ will always be very popular; the best are those that don’t make any sense at all; for then they have this enigmatic quality about them, which is similar to the subject of the Quotes!

At a fairly early stage, I could make fun of my own quotes. Here is one:

Here is one of my early quotes about the reality of Poverty Alleviation Programmes:

Many times, My Quotes are regarding prevalent fads. Here is one of them:

I have made many that are simply ‘tongue in cheek’. This one was well liked. Indeed, a friend commented that in future she would think of this every time in a discussion:

I then started with Alternate Definitions of words. This one is my very first effort:

I have always been interested in Psychology and Philosophy. In this blog itself there is a section on Philosophy. Naturally, therefore, many of my quotes are on this subject. Here is one:

Some of my quotes are based on my observations and lessons that I have learnt in life. Here is one based on my observations:

I simply adored our dog Roger. I have made a number of quotes about Dog as the Master of Man. This is a simple one:

Half way through, I reminded everyone not to be rooted to the ideas of the sages and saints of the past by believing that somehow they are the only ones who could say wise things. Taste this:

Subject of God has also been favourite with me. This became my most popular Quote:

My love of dogs in general and Roger in particular is a recurring theme with me. Taste this:

I delve a lot into finding answers to Philosophical and Meta-Physical questions; questions about space, universe, God, Religion etc. I have a section called ‘Philosophy’ on my blog, wherein I give vent to these. Here is one of the quotes regarding this:

Love and Hate are subjects of Quotes for me too. Here is a genuine doubt reflected in a quote:

Whilst being on the subject of Love and Hate, here is one about Love and War and the uselessness of loving war:

All of us need some comforting thought or the other. For me, my most grateful thought has been that somehow God has not made me as miserable as He has made others. Thank God for that:

Here is a real tongue-in-cheek on the abundance of Free Advice available on the net these days, including my own!

Mahatma Gandhi believed in Simplicity. I have tried to reason out that most of Life’s lessons are simple indeed. Take a look:

Talking about Simplicity leading to Greatness, I genuinely feel that Being Poor at Heart is a great virtue indeed. The Quote below was as a result of this:

Here is my Quote on the Indian festival of Colour called Holi. This is totally tongue-in-cheek:

Love and Hate continued to fascinate me. One result was:

I considered that no subject is a taboo for me. The following is on the subject of Sex and it generated a fair deal of healthy discussion:

I also make Quotes on my observations. Here is one about great communication skills being mistaken for great knowledge:

http://www.dreamstime.com/-image21746016

Here is a bit of advice about giving and rendering service for others who can do nothing for you except to give you the gift of advice; but, it is the greatest gift.

Here is a humorous take on ‘forgetful husbands’. Is there another kind?

Here is another one on Free Advice:

I asked a genuine doubt if Heart has a Mind of its own. I received a number of smart answers:

And here is one about the place of Ego in Love:

Here is a real good one about the oft touted ‘Out-of-the-box’ thinking. Does it bring a smile on your face?

Here is one about taking on a popular saying and making the logic of it stand on its head. It was very well received:

Here is a dig on the ubiquitous and all powerful auditors: a necessary evil!

Ever heard of a word called Dililady? No? Well read the meaning:

Finally, let me end with one about the Mightier doing horrible things to those whom they find Meek and different; which is half the humanity or more! I cannot forget growing up as a boy belonging to a minority community in a majority state and being subjected to relentless taunts, abuses, innuendo and violence.

I am sure by now I have convinced you to subscribe to ‘Make Your Own Quotes’. What do you have to pay for the subscription? Nothing; not a paisa. It is totally free. All that you have to do is to Like the Page and it would be delivered to you on Facebook. You can make your own quotes and share these too with others.

Indian Media And The Dumbing Down Of The Indian Society

Many years back most of the national English language dailies gave prominent headlines about the elusive con man Charles Sobhraj having been caught by police in Nepal. It immediately earned the newspapers valid criticism that such news, considered ‘juicy’ by the media, wasn’t worthy of being of such value as being given in headlines in a country beset with problems of poverty, disasters, disease, infant mortality, lack of infrastructure and corruption. Right-minded people, angrily writing to the ombudsmen of these dailies, pointed out that whilst such news could pass muster in western countries who have gotten over their basic problems of subsistence and hence required such news to fight boredom; in a developing country like India, such news, at best, could find a small mention on an inside page.

A few decades later, some of these newspapers covered themselves in ignominy by giving a six column ‘news’ of the Indian cricketer Yuvraj having hit six sixes in an over; the earlier incidents of such six-columns news being to cover the 1971 War with Pakistan; and the 1975 Declaration of Emergency. Not many eyebrows were raised; the reason being that coincident with our GDP growth, the dumbing down of the Indian society had begun in real earnest and it was either gleefully instigated by the Indian media (with an eye on their TRPs) or reflected in their reports. (Read: ‘Indians – Bartering Character For Prosperity’)

The electronic media is even worse. With the rapid mushrooming of channels, there is an unhealthy race to break news irrespective of whether it is news-worthy or not and in many cases without even checking the authenticity of the news. (Read: ‘Breaking News – Indian Style’)

Therefore, three days back, by giving the ‘news‘ about a naval officer’s wife’s allegation that “navy officers indulge in wife swaps”, on the front page of the newspaper and repeating the story on an inside page, the media has displayed its penchant for scurrilous writing so as to remain a topper in circulation. The same newspaper carried the news about Lieutenant Commander Abhilash Tomy having been ceremoniously received by the President of India after his solo, unassisted, and non-stop circumnavigation around the world apologetically, almost as an aside. The feat accomplished by the young sailor surpassed any other sporting/adventure feat in the country but the media wasn’t impressed. Good news just doesn’t sell. We have seen the media personnel at their worst in the Radiia Tapes expose’, bringing out the unhealthy nexus between the media, the politicians and the industrialists. Radiia tapes were, once again, a reminder that News coverage is not a public service; it is a no-holds-barred commercial venture and the media-men are not averse to acting as power brokers and middlemen in Indian politics.

Lets therefore critically examine the news worthiness of media items and shun scurrilous coverage. How is it that an expose of Swiss bank accounts of prominent personalities is invariably accompanied by denials by the same people on the front page itself? It is these slants and nuances that make the difference in public perception; and the media is well aware of it. Lets say I have to write an article titled: “MOST MEDIA PERSONNEL ARE POODLES OF POLITICIANS AND INDUSTRIALISTS” and credit this quote to one of my friends and publish this in my blog and somewhere in between in the same blog I bring out the good work done by some of the media in exposing corruption, it is of no use because the title would have done enormous damage to the reputation of the media despite the fact that my circulation may be in hundreds as compared to lakhs of the newspapers.

A few years back the CNO (Chief of Naval Operations) of the US Navy visited Mumbai. Even though he is one of the most influential people in the world, very few media personnel attended his press conference. The reason was that most media personnel went to cover Abhishek Bachchan’s wedding with Aishwarya. Some of them were turned away from there since they were not invited but like poodles they didn’t want to miss the mega event. They are simply the most irresponsible media in the world now and their dumbing down is reflected in our society’s general dumbing down.

Manmohan Desai used to make trash movies about brothers getting lost at birth and getting reunited in the end through charms or tattoos on their arms. Trash or not MD laughed all the way to the bank because of the “popularity” of his movies like Dharam Veer and Amar Akbar Antony. In a press interview, once, he claimed that he was giving to people what they wanted. The same argument is given by our media for such scurrilous coverage. Their coverage has as much substance as Manmohan Desai’s movies. The liquor baron, Ponty Chadha, also “gave to people what they wanted”, ie, illicit liquor. The Indian media, Manmohan Desai and Ponty Chaddha all appear to be chips of the same block.

Lets, for argument’s sake, take it that there is some truth in the naval wife’s charge; however, the way the newspaper has covered it is still scurrilous. It is not worthy of a front page coverage unless the intention is to show navy officers in poor light and thereby maintain or increase the paper’s circulation. A few years back the same newspaper championed the cause of bar dancers in Mumbai on the front page for several days. And then it puts up claims that its national circulation is better than the combined circulation of the next two papers. Is it any surprise how they manage it?

About six months back they were taken to the court on a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) about the quality of their contents (dumbing down). They managed to win the case in the court but the fact of their being taken to the court is indicative of the gap that exists in the newspapers’ understanding of what the people want and what people really want.

In the year 1997, on 31st Aug, I watched the aftermath of Lady Diane’s demise and funeral on the BBC. Every time the camera caught a uniformed guard resting or relaxing, it instinctively moved away. For our media, a soldier resting on his bayonet, taking off his cap or lighting up a cigarette is the only ‘newsworthy’ item of their coverage of the armed forces.

Take the present front page ‘news’ for example; what is the message that the newspaper wants to send? That wife-swapping is a common practice in the Navy? That unless they voice it on the front page, the Navy would merrily go on with wife swapping with impunity? And worse, national security is grossly undermined by wife-swapping amongst naval officers.

There are many events nowadays that display the general dumbing down of the Indian society. However, two of the events that are representative of this phenomenon are the IPL and the Religious Fests. Both are supported in a huge manner by the media, both electronic and print. IPL has as much to do with a game of cricket as Shiela Ki Jawani has to do with Empowerment of Women. Similarly, our religious fests are also mega commercial opportunities and have very little to do with bringing us close to godly or righteous living. (Read ‘Who Are The “People” Whose “Sentiments Need To Be Respected”?’, ‘State Sponsored Noise’, ‘Greatness of India and its Decline’ and ‘A Quieter Mumbai – Is it a Pipe-Dream?’)

It can be argued that the Indian politician does not want Indians to become educated and more aware; because, if they do, they would certainly not vote for his divisive politics, hood-winking people, corruption and the like. Similarly, it doesn’t appear to be in the interest of the media to focus on real issues affecting the nation because then the trash that goes in the name of ‘news’ won’t sell and the media loses money.

What then is the solution? Our experience with the failed campaign for Lok Ayukta shows that the people who have much to gain from a corrupt society in terms of power and money cannot be expected to pass laws curbing their own powers. Similarly, the media cannot be relied upon to curb its penchant for the sensational and scandalous because of the TRPs that are translated into more money, influence and power. Therefore, people at large have to do the needful themselves. Fortunately, Indians are belatedly realising the power of the social media. We, the people, have to be our own watch-dogs and expose and repel any attempts to be scurrilous and scandalous.

I just did.

MEMORIES OF 2012 – A YEAR OF HUMAN SPIRIT SOARING AND CRUSHED

The year 2012 started with Laura Dekker, a sixteen year old Dutch/German/New Zealander becoming the youngest person to circumnavigate the globe single-handed in a boat. (Read: ‘The Lure of Going on A Limb’) That was on the 21st of January. The year ended with a 23 years old girl in Delhi being gang-raped in a bus (on the evening of 16 Dec); which finally resulted in her death (13 agonising days later). A newspaper called her Nirbhaya (Hindi for Fearless) not only in deference to the identity of a rape victim to be protected but also to express the hope that human spirit can never be crushed even by the act of the rapists.

Nevertheless, we in India, and especially our women, cannot be faulted in forming the opinion that it is easier for a girl to go around the earth in a boat; but, it is fraught with untold dangers and risks for her to take a bus-ride in Delhi, the (rape) capital of India.

Similarly, on 15th of Oct this year Felix Baumgartner jumped from the edge of space and had a free-fall so as to break the sound-barrier at Mach 1.24 or 833 mph. He jumped from a height of 128,000 feet or 25 miles and landed safely in the desert.

A week before that, The Times of India reported that one in every ten deaths in road accidents in the world occur in India; which is in sharp contrast to India having only 1% of vehicles in the world. This makes it 14 people dying of road accidents in India every hour. We don’t have to go to the edge of the space and jump to get the thrill of near death; we get it everyday on our roads. Yes, the authorities are to be blamed for the poor state of our roads. However, making driving dangerous in India is our own doing. We have no one to blame. (Read: ‘Why Must We Love Indian Roads’ and ‘We Are Like That Only’ and ‘If You Drive In India – Part I’, and Part II)

India now has some of the richest people in the world. We have as many as 61 billionaires (counting only those with declared income and not the Ponty Chadha types who grew empires under the very nose of the authorities). The Forbes magazine reported in Oct 2012 that the net worth of 100 richest Indians is $ 250 billion. The estimate of our GDP is $ 1.84 trillion. We are now the tenth largest economy in the world in real terms and third largest in purchasing power parity. And yet, we have the largest populations of poor in the world; a UN Survey in Nov 2011 showed that in the eight northern states of the country we have more poor than in the whole of African continent. Our farmers routinely commit suicide unable to pay loans they take for crops. We are ranked between 120 to 150 in all indices of human growth. However, our state arrogance routinely tout us as very close to becoming a “world power”. We have between 40 to 60 per cent of our people living below the UN designated $1.25 per day mark for poverty.

One in every six people in the world is now an Indian. Yet, in the Olympics, with our best performance ever in the number of medals (2 silver and 4 bronze) we were ranked 55th. (Read: ‘Olympics Are Biased Against Indians’) Cricket is the only game in which we are somewhere in the top; but, getting there makes us so complacent that we again start competing for the bottom immediately after reaching those heights. Indeed, a jamboree called IPL shows that we like to gloat in money power more than any finesse in the actual game.

Our judicial system is so bad (Read: The Great Indian Judicial Circus) that most Indians do not hope to get any justice during their life-time. The Times of India reported on 05 Oct 2012 that we have now 43.22 Lakh cases waiting only in High Courts. As far as numbers in lower courts are concerned one can only say that whilst in positive indices we are at the rock-bottom, in negatives (like road accidents) we are the toppers.

On 5th of Dec this year The Indian Express reported that despite all the focus on anti-corruption campaigns in India (Read: ‘Anna Hazare and the Indian Democracy’; and ‘Anna Hazare and the Indian Middle Class’; and ‘Indians Bartering Character for Prosperity’), India is ranked 94th in Corruption Perception Index (CPI)Ratings by Transparency International.

Our cities and towns are now unliveable with filth and chaos everywhere. Diseases like dengue are assuming alarming proportions (Read my humorous take on potential for energy through waste: Good New for Mumbai). Mumbai recently got ranked as the filthiest big city in the world and Delhi is not far behind.

I can go on and on. Lets see where the hope lies. Some said at the height of our anti-corruption demonstrations this year that the end of patience of our people has been reached and people are now prepared to show zero-tolerance towards corruption. My take on this was that corruption doesn’t exist only in higher circles in India; we are all part of it when we indulge in petty bribe taking and giving. We too have to stop this scourge from spreading just as we accuse those in power.

One of the best programmes that came about the problems that the country faces was Aamir Khan’s Satyamev Jayate. The programme research and presentation were of very high order. It cautioned people against seeking quick-fix solutions but wanted people to at least take the first steps towards putting things right. (Read: ‘Born Free? Satyamev Jayate? Lets Work Towards It’)

That outstanding programme shouldn’t be a distant memory with us as we show angry response from one issue to the other. As 2012 comes to an end lets all resolve that we shall actually do all those things that are necessary to make India a great country and Indians happier, safer, securer, healthier and more knowledgeable.

Here is wishing all my readers a very happy new year: 2013.

NIRBHAYA’S RAPE – A NATIONAL SHAME, TIME TO LOOK WITHIN

One of the media needs to be congratulated for naming her ‘Nirbhaya’ (Fearless). The epithet not just describes her spirit but also what we want women to be in India. While writing in his famous poem (that he wrote in 1910), ‘Where the Mind is Without Fear’ (nirbhaya), Rabindra Nath Tagore, wanted his country, India, to awaken “in that heaven of freedom”. A hundred and two years later, India has not awoken in such freedom as envisaged in the poem. Worse, Indian women, cower and cringe in fear constantly and are as far from being nirbhaya as can be conceived. Indeed, I had questioned in an essay two years back in this blog: ‘Is There Reason to Celebrate Women’s Day in India?‘ And, I continue to ask this question year after year.

With the brutal gang-rape of this 23 old girl in the capital of India and her subsequent tragic death in a Singapore hospital two days ago, once again our national consciousness has been agitated enough to demand capital punishment and stringent laws. The emotionally charged atmosphere in the country in general and in the capital in particular gives hope that perhaps a change through peaceful revolution is just around the corner; and the Nobel Laureate Tagore would finally have his dream come true and “the clear stream of reason” would once again find its way “through the dreary desert sand of dead habit”.

Nothing wrong in this; it is traumatic and intensely sad to be raped. It is equally abhorrent to think that there are people in our society who can think of raping someone and kill someone’s life and happiness for a few minutes of utterly selfish and vicarious enjoyment. However, stringent laws and capital punishments are never a cure; unless we dupe ourselves to believe, for example, that with the Jessica Lall murderer having been brought to book, lives of women at their job places became more secure.

For making women nirbhaya in our country we have to hit at the cause and not just tinker at the symptoms. We have to understand how did we reach this stage of social and moral depredation and degradation? Unless we understand this, we shall once again be wanting to achieve with laws and penal action that we should achieve through awareness, realisation and understanding.

What is the problem with the laws? Section 375 of the Indian Penal Code (IPC), 1860 would give a ‘legal’ definition of rape which is intended, with the assistance of other laws in Criminal Procedure Code (CrPC), and Indian Evidence Act, 187vv2, to being the guilty to book. The main pillar behind the Indian Law is: Let a thousand guilty get away but let not one innocent be punished. Hence, every accused has to be tried out in a court of law and his guilt established beyond “reasonable doubt”. Unlike the courts in China, whereat the Judges have been given freedom to ask any questions to the accused to establish ‘the facts’ having bearing on his or her guilt or innocence, Indian judges have to go by the evidence as presented in the court. Hence, a judge cannot be a prosecutor. Many cases, therefore, however strong they are held in the public eye or the media, fall flat in our courts “for want of evidence”. This can be due to the inefficiency and/or vested interests of the police and the prosecution.

Besides, due to the underlying principle of an accused to be treated as innocent until proved guilty beyond reasonable doubt, every accused is provided with the best defence possible (Remember Kasab?). It would be a travesty of justice if any accused in the country is to be hanged or given any punishment through mob or media trials. This often results in the defence exploiting every loophole in the law to secure the acquittal of the accused including such technicalities as whether ‘penetration’ took place or not as defined in the law. Understandably, the rape victims and their families have to go through this ordeal, which is often as traumatic, if not more, as the act of rape itself.

I noticed in the debates in the electronic media that the women panellists, suddenly sensing an advantage through mob response – an advantage that they never had – are not prepared to listen to anything coming in the way of immediate dispensation of justice for all women. Those essaying to vent any arguments that appears to them as specious or delaying justice are quickly pronounced as sad spectacles of typical male mentality and hence worthy of social scorn. Six years back I was a victim of an assault by a woman in my home-place, which is two thousand kilometres from my place of work, in the Indian Navy. She was trying to achieve through force what the courts had decreed as encroachment on my widowed mother’s land; my mother living there alone after the accidental death of my father 28 years back. They broke through the fence after we left out the encroached portion and I went to repair the fence. The woman charged at me with a stick. And when she was arrested it came out that there were five able bodied men in her house who were waiting to charge at me if I would hit back in reflex action. The police, media and the courts would then believe her story immediately and I could see the headlines: Uniformed Navy Officer, on Leave, Tries to Outrage Modesty of a Woman in his Village. My training stood in the way of their design. I did nothing of the sort as predicted by them. I merely informed the police. She was arrested and produced in a court. The prosecution’s (my) case automatically fell through after six months due to my non-appearance (I had already taken leave twice that year because of their antics). She filed a counter private complaint and for the last six years I am called every now and then to the court to appear as accused at considerable expenditure and agony.

If you think this is an isolated case, there are several I can relate where innocent men are victims of what has come to be known as ‘reverse dowry’. A few years back, in President Hotel in Mumbai, a lady judge accused the Chief Justice of South Africa with Rape after she visited his room at 2 AM. After the Chief Justice spent a night in the Cuffe Parade jail, it came out that the charge against him was palpably false.

Hence, there is no question of the courts letting go of principle of fair-play simply because in one or two cases (as in Nirbhaya’s case) there is overwhelming evidence against the accused. Hence, however stringent we make the Rape Laws and however hard the punishment may be, the rape victims and their families will have to go through this procedure, which may be quite humiliating and agonising to them; just as it has been to me having been wrongly and deliberately framed by a woman in connivance with wrong-doers. Even the retribution of humiliating the accused publicly would not be able to heal the wounds. My plea is that in this emotionally charged atmosphere lets not forget these harsh and practical realities.

Therefore, after having exhausted easy answers that our society sometimes seeks (for example in the case of corruption), sane voices would tell us to look within to make our society respect not just female rights but all rights better. And make our society less intolerant and less violent than it has become lately.

Besides the legal definition of rape, my request is that after the immediacy of Nirbhay’s case has died down, we have to consider two things:

Don’t be like Indian drivers who drive safely for about ten kilometres after seeing an accident.
Shun all attempts to make our society intolerant and violent.

The second point above merits some consideration here. Of course, Rape in the legal definition is a physical act against a female or male (in the recent definition). However, a sensible society should take a more holistic and inclusive definition: it is a mental or physical rape or both if a person or group of persons impose(s) his/her/their will on a person with the intention of killing, injuring, humiliating helpless victims or cause trauma to them.

This is a small essay and hence I am not taking you through my complete analysis of the present state of affairs in our country. However, I have reached the conclusion that conscientious law-abiding citizens in our country irrespective of their sex, standing in society, colour and creed, would never be nirbhaya; not in the near future, at least. We are now a certified intolerant and violent society both in our actions and in our thoughts. Not just stray aberrant elements in the society, the state itself could think nothing of arresting and putting behind bars a harmless cartoonist critical of the government: Aseem Trivedi (Read: A Dangerous Profession) under the draconian law on treason and sedition (Section 124A of the Indian Penal Code). We cannot forget the arrest of Shaheen Dhada and her friend Renu under section 505(2) (statements creating or promoting enmity, hatred or ill-will between classes), two Mumbai girls who questioned (on facebook) the state and people going into a tizzy post the death of Balasaheb Thackeray recently. Her facebook status was so harmless that one wonders if she actually had the courage to comment on the alleged lawlessness of his followers, whether she would have met a fate similar to that of Malala Yousafzai in Swat (Pakistan) at the hands of Taliban?

Of course we are in this miserable condition because of the selfishness of our elected representatives and indifference, inefficiency and corruption amongst our so called public-servants (Read: ‘How Proud Should We Be of Indian Republic at 62?’) and our ire is often directed against them in public debates, rallies and demonstrations. However, if we look within, we cannot escape reaching the conclusion that “in a democracy we not only get the government we vote for, we get the government we deserve”. There has been a general decline in our societal norms so much so that I wrote last year an article titled ‘Indians – Bartering Character for Prosperity’. The state and the people are fast learning to hold each other to ransom. Hence, against a rape or killing in Delhi, people goad the government to take immediate action; but, the government doesn’t have to do anything in a hurry against rape in the North East.

Within the national capital itself, approximately 5000 innocent Sikhs including women and children were killed, butchered, tortured (with burning tyres put around their necks) and all that the anointed Prime Minister had to say was, “When a big tree falls, the earth shakes.” This one unfortunate pronouncement by the most responsible representative of the government laid seeds for and sanctified a violent society seeking immediate retribution through violence. What happened in Godhra a few years later was another manifestation of this mind-set; both these being with the tacit support of the state itself.

Not just collectively, even individually, Indians are now, forever, on short fuse. In Mumbai, a driver killed another with a screw-driver when the latter jumped the queue at a Toll Plaza. In Gurgaon, a driver killed the Toll Plaza attendant because the latter demanded change.

Religious and parochial intolerance is so much on the increase that we perpetually cower in mortal fear lest some remark or comment of ours should be viewed as offensive by those whose blind loyalty to religion, region, party or community is often manifested in burning people, buses, vehicles, vandalising, killing and looting.

It is, therefore, being suggested that we now have two India: one comprises a motley minority of people with liberal, progressive thinking; and the other who are relentlessly being encouraged by politicians and other vested interests to stay medieval, parochial, and seeped in retarded thinking.

In Orissa, a few years back, a man called Dara Singh, was so convinced of his extreme religious ideology that he and his cronies burnt alive in a vehicle a Christian missionary Graham Staines and his two sons Philip (10 years) and Timothy (6 years).

Biases, parochialism, deep-rooted suspicions and vengeful tendencies are, through individual and collective designs, are now prevalent in Indian society more than ever before. We have no patience and no tolerance of others’ views. We commit rapes, in one way or the other, everyday and every minute. And, when shown the mirror, even our intellectuals gloat over our being better than China, Pakistan or other countries taking several steps backwards just as they modernise; it is as if being somewhat pious is considered better than being totally immoral.

I grew up in the state of Himachal. In my school, because of my having inherited my parents religion (which almost all people do without making a choice) and since that was and is a minority religion, the other boys in my school (physically stronger than me), relentlessly teased me about my long hair and being different in other ways. Most of these abuses are unprintable but they had to do with what they thought of my mother, sister and other female members of my family. I was physically and mentally abused on an everyday basis. I should know what rape is all about.

We are very far from being nirbhay, the dream of Tagore and of one of the media. We should learn to be less exploitative and more tolerant and do not allow ourselves to become pawns in the hands of manipulative parochial interests that rape us everyday and every few years we go to the poll booths to vote the same criminals back in power; or, look helplessly when medieval, backward, parochial India votes them back to power.

I am sorry but there are no easy answers to rape; just as there are no easy answers to other national problems that are fast becoming endemic. We have to start at the grass-roots level and liberate our minds of all violence, intolerance, parochialism and medievalism. Yes, laws, deterrence, and other steps to make our women nirbhay are necessary. Yes, exemplary punishment for Damini’s case is necessary. Yes, male mentality has to become better, more benign and less partial. But, simultaneously, we have to take strong steps to make our complete society nirbhay. This cannot be done by people who drive carefully for ten kilometres after witnessing an accident.

To start with, one of my friends has suggested and I endorse his view that in order to express our deep remorse at Nirbhaya’s tragic fate (a fate that could be of any one of us), lets boycott the next Republic Day Parade that is held to showcase India’s modernity and cultural diversity. How can we showcase these virtues when we are seeped in medievalism? Where, as Tagore wrote: Where the world has been broken into fragments by narrow domestic walls.

Rapes are committed in the psyche and the minds much before these are physically done; Abhijeet Mukherjee should know, a Minister in Goa should know, MLAs in Karnataka assembly should know (Guardians of Porn and Morality), ND Tewari should know and all those engaged in contorted moral policing should know.

AN ALTERNATE PHILOSOPHY OF LIFE

There is no stronger and more wide-spread philosophy than the Philosophy of Convenience. Indeed, I have proved it in another article: ‘How Innocent Or Unbiased We Can Get?’ that there is only one way to get pure innocence or pure un-bias and that is the Concept of Free Will, which can be achieved only outside this universe. We have self or as Sri Guru Granth sahib calls ‘haume’ writ large on the footprints of our lives. None of us can hope to get out of this loop of seeking something for ourselves, our interests, our family interests, our community, village, town, nation; indeed anything that is ours.

The Philosophy of Our Convenience was born the day Self, Ego, ‘haume’ ‘my or mine’ were born; ie, the day the universe was created. Lets take the Concept of Happiness for example and lets say you are one of those self-sacrificing saints who does ‘everything’ for others’ happiness. In the end, you still have to reckon with this claim: “It gives me happiness to make others happy.” There is no way you can take ‘me’ out of even seemingly ‘selfless’ deeds.

One fallout of this ‘Philosophy of Convenience’ is that most – if not all – of us wish to be regarded as virtuous, no matter what we are doing. The reason is that most – if not all – of us feel that people when they look at our deeds they don’t really understand what goes through our minds when we do what we do. At other times, we detest the tendency in people to misread the thoughts of our minds and give them a different colour than the one we had intended. And the best part is that our intention is also dynamic that keeps pace with our current and ever-changing philosophy of how to be virtuous and seen as virtuous.

Our collective and generational philosophy of convenience made us invent the following (Read: ‘Whose God Is It Anyway?’, ‘The Virtual World’ and ‘Absolute Virtue’):

God.
Religion.
Good, Bad, Virtuous and Evil.
Time.

Each one of these were and is necessary for community or societal living. The first three are easy to understand as the products of our desire to make rules about our lives in a society or community. The last one is also not difficult to comprehend: we invented Time only for our part of the Universe, ie, one rotation of the Earth around the Sun would be 24 hours and during the revolution of the Earth in an orbit around the Sun seasons would be there depending upon if the Earth is closer to the Sun (Summer) in its elliptical orbit, or away (Winter). Living in a society on Earth, Time and Seasons help us to convert a Relative Phenomenon (Time is dependent upon the velocity of light) into an Absolute one; so much so that we tick off people who are late for work by a few minutes; or, call it a New Year at the stroke of midnight, wherever we are.

The Philosophy of Hindu Religion is that God is beyond all emotions, biases and Time; and that if we are to be one with God, we have to detach ourselves from all worldly feelings, possessions, time and even thoughts. Finding Paramatama, therefore, calls for rising above – what we call as – worldly feelings and thoughts, needs and desires. In Sri Guru Granth Sahib this condition is called ‘Jeevatya marna’ (to kill (all worldly thoughts whilst living one’s life). Total abnegation of all worldly things and total surrender to the will of God is the biggest philosophy of convenience that we have derived for ourselves. Let us examine the lines in Sri Guru Granth Sahib:

[lineate]जो नर दुख में दुख नहिं मानै। [/lineate][lineate]सुख सनेह अरु भय नहिं जाके, कंचन माटी जानै।। [/lineate][lineate]नहिं निंदा नहिं अस्तुति जाके, लोभ-मोह अभिमाना। [/lineate][lineate]हरष शोक तें रहै नियारो, नाहिं मान-अपमाना।। [/lineate][lineate]आसा मनसा सकल त्यागि के, जग तें रहै निरासा। [/lineate][lineate]काम, क्रोध जेहि परसे नाहीं, तेहि घट ब्रह्म निवासा।। [/lineate][lineate]गुरु किरपा जेहि नर पै कीन्हीं, तिन्ह यह जुगुति पिछानी। [/lineate][lineate]नानक लीन भयो गोबिंद सों, ज्यों पानी सों पानी।। [/lineate]

It says, in simple words, with the blessing of the Guru, the person who realises and keeps himself away from worldly feelings and things, understands the Creation, and becomes one with his/her Creator just as Water merges with Water.

buddhism-a-philosophy-for-life-w — Buddhism or the Philosophy of Moksha or Nirvana

When we examine the Truth of this advice we realise that being beyond lust, anger, greed, belongingness, sorrow, grief, shame and pride brings us closer to our inner self and hence to God. Lets say because of one’s lust a son is born and one feels a sense of fulfillment and pride in having an intelligent son; one gets angry or ashamed when he does something wrong and one is full of greed for him to do well in life. However, he is killed in an accident and one is full of intense and indescribable grief and helplessness and even frustration with God for being unnatural in recalling the son before the father. That’s the time when the wise and the saintly, through collective and generational philosophy of convenience tell you the following:

He was never yours (Only God owns everything and everybody) so why are you sorrowful?
God’s creation never dies and hence your son is reborn as someone else’s son now.
Grief and sorrow, just like happiness and pride are worldly feelings and God keeps giving us periodic hints to rise above these.
Look at the entire srishti (Creation or Universe) as your own and you will realise that you neither gained anything when you had him nor lost anything when he went away.
God loves us all and will never do anything to sadden us; it is just that understanding of His ways is beyond us all.

Various rituals were and are born out of this philosophy of convenience. In my village in Punjab, women from neighbouring houses and families used to congregate at the house of a family whereat someone had died and they would beat their chests and do maatam (mourning) so as to help the bereaved to take out intense feelings of grief at their loss. Death is not seen as the final “end”, but is seen as a turning point in the seemingly endless journey of the indestructible “atman” or soul through innumerable bodies of animals and people. Hence, Hinduism prohibits excessive mourning or lamentation upon death, as this can hinder the passage of the departed soul towards its journey ahead: “As mourners will not help the dead in this world, therefore (the relatives) should not weep, but perform the obsequies to the best of their power.” The period of mourning, therefore, last until 13 days and has various stages such as Uthala (Rising), and Chautha (fourth day).

Now what if we have all got it wrong? What if God had given us various feelings and thoughts to face them and not to run away from them? A strangely rebellious thought? No, on the other hand, it is realisation of the fact that nothing can be created by anyone other than by God, if there is one. If He is the all-powerful and the only Creator than He alone made all worldly things, feelings and thoughts. Lets say, over a period of Time (our own invention; else, it doesn’t exist), since the beginning of the Earth, we, human beings, intensified these feelings a hundred times and brought newer thoughts and biases to these. However, nothing can be created out of nothingness; sometime or the other, however weak, these feelings originated and would have been given to us by God. We worship Earth, Sky, Water, Fire etc because these are God’s creations. However, why does our philosophy of convenience goads us to run away from emotions, feelings, thoughts etc in order to discover Him? Did God create these as obstacles so that we’d cross these and then find Him; a sort of cosmic Hide and Seek?

And who are we trying to please by abnegating these God’s creations? Our God, and for the good of our soul. I think the dichotomy lies in the fact that the world has evolved as a society or community whereas such abnegation makes us do something only for one person or one soul that is our own. Where do you want to stay; as an ascetic in the hills and caves or as a social being in the world?

Don’t seek God, therefore, for yourself and for the peace of your soul. It is a downright selfish and un-godly feeling. Seek kindness, and goodness for another person, another soul and leave the rest to God to give your just reward or punishment.

Let alone run away from feelings, thoughts and emotions; I am suggesting that you own someone’s loss, feel his or her grief, face his anger, pride and greed and be kind to him or her rather than at all times being worried about obtaining Paramatama for yourself.

Three years back, Mr. NR Narayana Murthy, the founder chairman of Infosys gave a speech at the Lal Bahadur Shastri Institute of Management, on 09 Oc 2009. The speech was titled ‘Learning From The West’. It is worth reading this speech and I have given you the link. See what a shift of philosophy from the individual to the society can do for us Hindus. It is the need of the hour; we need it more than at any time in our history.

WHO ARE THE “PEOPLE” WHOSE “SENTIMENTS NEED TO BE RESPECTED”?

Rape is horrible; indeed the most horrible of crimes against innocents. It scars the victim(s) for life. During rape one person enjoys and the other suffers and it lasts for a few minutes. Then there is gang-rape in which a number of people seemingly enjoy their having their way over helpless, innocent victim(s). The perpetrators of rape rejoice in their power over those who find themselves cringing in abject helplessness; whose sense of dignity and belief in the goodness of humankind have been torn to shreds.

Noise during Indian festivals is a gang-rape that goes on and on and the authorities respond to your complaints by saying, “People’s sentiments need to be respected.” So, in this rape, rather than the victim’s, the rapists’ sentiments are to be respected. It is a shame really.

Why are people’s sentiments to be respected? Simple: in a democracy, the majority elect the government and there is no way that the elected representatives and those who hope to become elected representatives can ignore the people who not only vote but vote en-mass in the same manner as they en-mass turn up the volumes of the loudspeakers during the festivals with scant regard for the silent sufferers. And that is precisely the reason that everywhere you go in Indian cities, you see large hoardings of political leaders sponsoring this pooja or that and small – much smaller, at least – pictures of the gods and goddesses for whom the pooja is to be held.

Commercial interests during the festivals seem to have overwhelmed religious sentiments. The media routinely reports about how the government keeps pandering to these “sentiments” by subsidizing electricity and making it easier in every which way to hold these super-spectacles whilst the organisers vie with one another as being the biggest gross earners. Some of them even give vent to the specious logic that the money thus collected goes into charitable organisations. It makes you wonder whether making unwanted noise is the only way in which we can be seen as charitable? Does religion have to be the one that is tilted heavily against the right of privacy of individuals? Or is that in this mobocracy individuals don’t matter at all?

Why did the heinous attempt to silence Malala Yousufzai by the Taliban shock the majority of us in India? It is because we intrinsically hate the imposition of an erroneous interpretation of religion by the Taliban on the general population. It is the same in India too. Most of us are deeply religious and have intrinsic reverance for our ancient religion, gods and goddesses. Unlike other religions that have been dictated by the religious originators, our religion followed a gentler evolutionary process. Thus liberalism of religious concepts and reasoning has been an essential part of our religion. The fact is that whenever such liberalism is sought to be done away with, great leaders and reformers have brought us back to preserving it. The foreign concept of aut concilio aut ense (either by meeting or by sword) has not been anywhere close to the essence of our religion.

We have a deep sense of deprivation in our people. More than six decades after the independence the aspirations of the majority of our people to have a better life have been denied (Read: How Proud Should We Be of Indian Republic at 62?). Our leaders have been responsible for this state of affairs in a significant manner. Afterall, if the idea has been prominently to fill their own coffers, then, the nation and the people are to relegated to much lower priorities. In such a scenario whence the conscientious people are increasingly asking questions (a la Kejriwal and Anna and others), the best bets for the political leaders are two. One is to garner the support of people by rallying them against foreign aggression. This ploy of obtaining public support by the fear of the insidious ‘foreign hand’ worked for a number of decades but doesn’t appear to be working any more. The second is to keep them seeped in religiosity (some of them willingly do that) and parochialism of state, region, caste, religion, and community. This appears to be working as it has been proved time and time again that people would do anything to “protect” their interpretation of their religion, caste, creed and community. Indeed, getting rid of all reasoning and logic and locking horns against “non-believers” is the heady ingredient that exploiters of people are happiest with. People when in large communities or mobs also tend to forget the simple fact that they are in that religion or community by birth and not by any intelligent choice.

This then is the truth about the “sentiments of the people” hogwash routinely dished out by the political leaders who themselves gain the most by unleashing of such sentiments. So, whilst most of us are reeling under abject helplessness against unbridled noise, these worthies promise the communities that whilst this year they would have to stick to midnight limit for making noise, next year, they would consider increasing the number of nights when noise would be permitted up to midnight.

Most of my posts always have suggested solutions. Here are the solutions for the ubiquitous bombardment of noise during Indian festival season:

We need to ban all loud-speakers in open-air during all festivals and respect the right of privacy of the silent.
Loud-speakers for religious festivals should also be only permitted indoors and after obtaining permits and licences in the same manner as with other cultural functions.
Religious sentiments need to be expressed in manners other than by making noise and in competing with others in making the biggest noise.
People on their own need to shun ostentation and noise in the name of religion and shift to better and much more effective and useful methods of appeasing gods by feeding the poor and donating money directly to such organisations. Indeed, rather than having awards for the most ostentatious ‘pandals‘, awards should be given to those who come up with novel ways of helping the poor and the needy, eg, by empowering people to earn livelihood by obtaining better skills.
Roads in our cities are already overcrowded and have the most dangerous driving conditions. Having pandals, processions and other festivities on such roads only complicates the problem. Do we want our cities and towns to be totally unlivable due to noise, confusion, chaos, filth and disease?
In the next elections, lets vote only for the non-corrupt and the upright and the candidates who steer clear from agenda that divide our people along the lines of religion, caste, creed, community and region.
Lets not just separate religion from politics but also religion from such commercial activities.

We are a democracy that has not yet put power in the hands of our people. Lets make use of this power now to set ourselves right rather than by a difficult choice being imposed on us; for example, the realisation of keeping our cities clean only after a plague. It is the same with noise: people are already feeling the pinch; a large number of people don’t have to become hearing-impaired or perish before we act.

Until then, I feel, there is one big commonality between the daredevil and recent feat of Felix Baumgartner and Indian festivals………..both can break the sound-barrier!

TEMPLES OR TOILETS?

First, let’s have a look at the commonality lest this remark by Jairam Ramesh, the Rural Development Minister should end up comparing two uniquely different things. I think the commonality lies in both being answers to one’s inner needs. Once the call of God or nature is heard, for some, it is difficult to have the feeling all pent-up without release.

But, why did the honourable (sorry, not honourable, since Pranab da has ordained that even the President shouldn’t be called honourable. Indeed, taking a cue from this, most ministers prefer to be called what they are, ie, dishonourable; but are afraid this might invite charges of sedition) minister place toilets a notch above the temples? I feel that the simple reason is that whilst you can satisfy the pressures of your inner voice and yearning for the omnipotent and the omnipresent right in the open; satisfying the needs of your bowels in the open is counted as uncivilised conduct in most countries other than in India.

Do the ministers really have this penchant to compare public edifices to toilets? If the answer is yes, as it appears to be, then why did they not take it sportively when one Aseem Trivedi compared the temple of Indian democracy, ie, the Parliament, to a toilet?

Temples and Toilets both are totally secular words; they don’t really give away the religious attachments or sentiments of the visitors: one can be in a temple of any religion; similarly, what you do in a toilet doesn’t give away your religion. Perhaps, the only thing that can be brought out through this attempt to compare is that even religion has outlived its communal stance. It is high time that it too becomes more private (Read: ‘Whose God Is It Anyway?‘). I would rather have my religion in the temple of my heart rather than wear it on my sleeve at all times. It is better to be Good than Religious in the way religion has come to be interpreted these days.

I am apolitical too and have no real bias towards any political party as such. However, I feel that the minister is not driven by the desire to scandalise through the comparison. He has, indeed, brought out a harsh reality of the Indian rural scene. It was only recently in the history of free India that carrying night soil was banned. It was indeed the most humiliating thing for a human being to do. Even after the ban, with our burgeoning population causing severe scarcity of toilets, the scenes of open defecation in our country are ubiquitous. I lived in a much cleaner part of Mumbai, near the Afghan church, when I was in the navy. Even there, dozens of people, from the nearby colony, did their things in the open at any times of the day. I was quick to draw a ministerial comparison that whilst Japan is called the ‘Land-of-the-Rising-Sun’, most of our villages and cities can be called ‘Land-of-the-Rising-Bums’.

Such open defecation doesn’t bring out equal rights of men and women; the former are seen to be doing their things by taking aims at the walls and bushes whereas the latter are handicapped in this pursuit. Women, as compared to men, do require toilets. They often expose themselves to derision and lust when their need overcomes their decency and there are no toilets around for them.

Similarly, lets look at the needs and civic sense of our children. In Dharavi, as of now, there are 750 people to a toilet and hence most children learn their first civic lesson from their parents; which is to consider the whole world as a toilet bowl. When Swami Vivekananda visited the USA and he was asked what regime or religious routine he’d recommend for children, he replied, “I think, for children, football should be more important than religion.” He wasn’t scandalising anyone, exactly how Jairam Ramesh isn’t. We need to build more toilets for our people, especially for women and children.

Why do we, as Indians, pretend to be shocked when someone makes a bold statement which is as factual as that we need more teachers than godmen, or more upright citizens than politicians? Would it have been alright if the minister had said we need more doctors than cricketers and more engineers than actors?

Why do we sulk and protest if someone shows us the mirror? And lets face it; if the Minister for Rural Development hadn’t used this comparison we would have refused to see the mirror.

Category: Opinions