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:

  1. We need to ban all loud-speakers in open-air during all festivals and respect the right of privacy of the silent.
  2. 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.
  3. Religious sentiments need to be expressed in manners other than by making noise and in competing with others in making the biggest noise.
  4. 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.
  5. 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?
  6. 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.
  7. 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.

Courtesy: topnews.in

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.

NIGHT WATCH

We were cadets on the Cadet Training Ship (CTS) cruiser Delhi. We were learning the skills required to do a Watch on the Bridge of the ship, from where the ship is controlled.

The watches on board a ship are divided into four hourly watches dependent upon the time of the day; ie, Forenoon Watch from 0800 to 1200 hrs, Afternoon Watch from 1200 to 1600 hrs, First Watch from 2000 hrs to midnight, Middle Watch from midnight to 0400, Morning Watch from 0400 to 0800 hrs. That leaves the time from 1600 to 2000 hrs; instead of calling it the Evening Watch, it is usually divided into two watches of two hours each called the Dog Watches. It is done so that in a three watch system there would be odd number of watches and people wouldn’t end up doing the same watch over and over again.

In the officers’ roster on Delhi, there was this Lieutenant (Lets call him Lieutenant A in order to maintain anonymity) who had a bad reputation of closing up late on his watch (generally one is supposed to close up fifteen minutes earlier so as to facilitate proper handing/taking over between the outgoing and incoming watches; but, Lt. A had the reputation of closing up 30 minutes or more late. This was especially true for the night watches, ie, First Watch, Middle Watch and Morning Watch.

Once when he was required to close up on Middle Watch, ie, Midnight to 0400 hrs, the officer who was closed up on the First Watch, ie, from 2000 to midnight, sent one of the cadets to wake him up one hour before his closing up time, ie, at 2245 hrs (10:45 PM) so that, for once, Lt. A would be on time. This has to be imagined to get the true flavour of it. Cadets were under mortal fear of Lieutenants on board as they could take it out on the cadets at the slightest pretext. The difference or the seniority gap between the cadets and the Lieutenants was perceived by us to be more than between the Lieutenants and the Admirals.

Now, you imagine a Cadet going into the mess of the Lieutenants, finding the right bunk and then waking him up with all dexterity at his disposal without causing inconvenience and annoyance to the other Lieutenants sleeping there.

Our brave cadet entered the mess and by hook or crook managed to find the bunk of Lieutenant A and whispered to him to wake up. There was no visible effect. So, he raised his voice a bit and said, “Sir, it is time for your watch.”

This earned the Cadet a few angry “shhhs” from the adjoining bunks and no reaction from Lieutenant A.

So, he thought of going back to the Bridge and informing the Lieutenant already on watch that Lt. A was sound asleep. But, he disposed off these thoughts as impracticable since, one, 15 minutes had already gone by and he himself was getting close to being relieved by another cadet; and two, the Lieutenant on watch had already warned him to return to the bridge only after Lt. A had fully awaken and out of his bed.

Hence, our man realised that this kind of challenge was what separated men from boys. He thought of the tales of resolve of intrepid Captains of ships who stood on the decks of burning and sinking ships and unflinchingly went down with the ship rather than abandon. Cadet M decided to stand bravely there and do everything by word or gesture to wake up Lieutenant A.

Some of his exhortations are now famous nautical poems:

“Sir, sir, sir, sir, sir
Please, please, please, please,
Wake-up, wake-up, wake-up
It is time, time, time,
For your watch, watch, watch.”

To his horror, he found that Lieutenant A’s mother had really given birth to a very stubborn child who was as far from waking up as our politicians are in the parliament when discussions on defence budget start.

Cadet M, at this time when more than 30 minutes had gone by, decided that he had to quickly decide whether to be slanged by the incoming OOW (Officer of the Watch) or being sent on the Crow’s Nest (the highest point on the mast) by the relieving OOW. Sterner action was, he concluded, required.

So, he shook the sleeping figure of Lieutenant A hard and started a much louder version of the nautical poem mentioned above.

Cadet M told us later that with this even Kumbhakaran, the sleeping God, would have been awake. But, Lieutenant A was undeterred by this rough treatment and continued to sleep like a baby in its mother’s arms.

Now, for Cadet M, it had finally become a matter of ‘Do or Die’, the kind of challenge that real men serving the nation sometimes face.

He spotted a tumbler lying there, filled it up, and returned to the bunk where the modern-day avatar of Kumbhakaran slept. He poured a handful in his right hand and sprinkled it on the face of Lieutenant A.

Eureka! There was a small movement and Lieutenant A stirred in his bed and in his heavy droll asked Cadet M, “Whhhat isss ittttt?”

Cadet M was close to success and had started seeing visions of being nominated for the gallantry award. So in his best, loudest, firmest voice he said, “YOUR WATCH SIR.”

The stirring in the bunk hadn’t totally died down. Lieutenant A, took out both his arms from under the white sheet, and with the right hand carefully removed his wrist-watch from the left wrist, gave it to Cadet M, and went to sleep again.

Can you picture Cadet M, standing there in Lieutenant’s mess, after 45 minutes of cajoling, being rewarded with having one more watch at his hands than the one he was doing?

PHEW – WHAT SIGNALS!

Communications within visual range (or Line of Sight) between ships are maintained on radio nets on VHF (Very High Frequency) or UHF (Ultra High Frequency). Between warships this radio net is called Tactical Primary or TP. All signals on TP are for such tactical purposes as manoeuvring, station-keeping and tactical exercises.

In order that ships would easily understand the purport of the signals, these are either coded in a standard code or use a language meant especially for signals called Signalese. If anyone gets tempted to use non-standard language, this often results into ridiculous situations and sometimes disastrous results (Also read: Anything For Me).

This happened with me on INS (Indian Naval Ship) Ganga. I was the Signal Communication Officer. In one of the Fleet Manoeuvres, we passed very close to a Durg class corvette at high-speed. The latter uncomfortably tossed around in our wake and felt it was rather a close call. So, the ship made a message on the (TP) Tactical Primary which read, “Phew”. Our Signals Yeoman not familiar with the word or its meaning, asked for repetition from the Durg. That started a spate of signals that went on like this:

Ganga: Durg this is Ganga (of course tactical call-signs were used), say again your last, over.

Durg: Ganga this is Durg, I say again my last: Phew; I say that again Phew; over.

Ganga: (Imagining that the word was ‘few’ and hence it was an incomplete message) Durg this is Ganga, say again all before few, over.

Durg: Ganga this is Durg, there is nothing before phew.

Ganga: (Even more perplexed): Durg this is Ganga, say again all after few, over.

Durg: Ganga this is Durg, there is nothing after phew.

Ganga: (Suddenly realising that Durg must be wanting to know the whereabouts of FOO (Fleet Operations Officer): Durg this is Ganga, FOO is embarked on Rajput.

Durg: (It was his turn to be flummoxed now): Say again all after Phew, over.

Mercifully, the Fleet Commander’s yeoman intervened before a few more phews and FOO could be exchanged.

By the way, ‘Say again your last” was the most frequent message exchanged between the ships. There used to be many jokes about this use. One day we had a high-ranking team from the US Navy visiting us in the Staff College. In a lecture about Tactical Communications, one of them mentioned that the most common signal in the US Navy was: “Say again your last.”

Phew!

GOOD NEWS FOR MUMBAI

There is good news for Mumbai and indeed for most Indian cities. No, no, this is not to do with recent hike in Diesel rates, which proved that the UPA government indeed has spine. Indeed, bolstered by the “success” of the hike and its aftermath, UPA government has now decided that they would be hiking the prices of all essential commodities, if only to prove the existence of the back-bone or the vertebral column. Speaking on the occasion, the Finance Minister said, “We shall not allow the UPA Spine to become a bone of contention between us and the allies and other parties and the nation.”

Nor is the good news for Mumbai due to the fact that UPA’s spinal recovery did wonders to the health of the stock-markets. “Come on, Sunbyanyname” you are bound to say, “Tell us quickly what’s the good news for Mumbai and by extension for most Indian cities; the suspense is killing us?”

Alright, alright, here it goes:

Scientists have now discovered that human waste or excreta can be used as fuel for transport. Isn’t that wonderful news for Mumbai and Indian cities? Our efforts haven’t gone waste, after all. For years we have been gathering filth and excreta in our cities and people abroad thought that we were just being dirty, filthy, uncouth people. Now only they would know that India would have great energy potential. We might just become the energy capital of the world.

And to think that we were trying to get gas by TAPI (Turkmenistan-Afghanistan-Pakistan-India) pipeline or other pipelines that are, well, in the pipeline for decades now. Now, realizing our new potential as having more human waste than any other country in the world, we can start supplying gas to the neighbouring countries. They were getting free gas from our politicians on important international issues. Now, for the first time, they can start getting gas that can actually be used.

Some of the readers can speculate that this may fuel speculation in other countries to produce more human waste and it may result in competition. Let me put all anxieties on this count to rest by bringing out that we, in India, are years ahead of them in our spread of human excreta and they have no chance in hell of catching up with us. Every one in six person in the world is an Indian; now, we shall have every one in six vehicles in the world run on Indian Gas.

Open defecation in Dharawi (Pic courtesy: ens.newwire.com)

 

I don’t know why it took the scientists so much time to discover this simple form of energy. The Law of Conservation of Energy should have already brought home the fact to them that Indians couldn’t have been wrong. Indeed, if this gas can be used for cooking, it would complete one full cycle; and, there won’t be any need to get those two cylinders of gas from the government on unsubsidized rates.

 

Great ‘Energy Sources’ (Pic courtesy: tripwow.tripadvisor.com)

 

One more fallout of this discovery:

Already sedition charges have been dropped against the cartoonist Aseem Trivedi. However, he still has to face other charges for insult to constitution etc. Now, all he has to say is that he was only being ahead of his times by portraying the true energy potential of our people.

This discovery will have various other fall-outs; and all for the good:

Do you remember the time you used to sit in a railway compartment or aeroplane or at a public place and there would be this burly man who would, without warning, break wind? Do you remember how you would immediately change seat and hold nose with thumb and index finger of the right hand? Now, if only scientists would come up with portable gas cylinders and you are able to tap this source, your car might be able to go an extra mile, thanks to the burly man. Breaking wind in public may just become a public utility exercise. Bandra Park where people used to gather (until intervention by the court to put a stop to such gatherings) to laugh their guts out in order to recharge their energies, might just become the meeting place of India’s Energy big-wigs.

Also consider how we get after the BMC for having heaps of filth everywhere. Now, people might just be thanking them for the energy source. Our BMC councilors might suddenly find themselves elevated from Zero to Hero. Indeed, I won’t be surprised if someone like Ram Gopal Verma has a forthcoming movie by that name. I won’t also be surprised if they come up with a sequel to Slumdog Millionaire, showing the energy potential of Mumbai’s slums and many millionaires in the making by doing what they do everywhere.

Now, if only they can make energy out of noise too, Mumbai would really become the Energy Capital of the World.

STATE SPONSORED NOISE

Mumbai authorities keep dreaming of Mumbai becoming a world-class city; but, there is a huge gap between dreams, fantasies and reality. A few months back I wrote how far were we from the Mumbai authorities’ dream of converting Mumbai into another Shanghai (Read: ‘Can Mumbai Become Another Shanghai?’). Most people agreed with my opinions but there were some die-hard loyalists who said that though they agreed Mumbai was largely unlivable, they didn’t like it that I hadn’t written anything good about Mumbai. They failed to realise that I had given practical steps for Mumbai’s dream to be realised and hence it was necessary to show Mumbai, warts and all, the way it is; I am not a politician or a diplomat and hence I call a spade a spade.

Just why is Mumbai becoming unlivable? It is not just the ubiquitous filth but also lack of infrastructure, discipline and will to do something about it. Lets take the case of Noise Pollution. I have lived in Mumbai for the last forty years and I have seen the decline of this once great city. The noise levels were not so deafening as now. In southern part of Colaba, for example, there is still a sign declaring it to be ‘A Calm Zone’. However, it is now just a sign with no meaning. The noise levels are at the level of crescendo especially during the festival season that follows immediately after the rains. So, whilst during the rains we have to reckon with the misery of pot-holed roads and water-logging everywhere (Read ‘Why Must We Love Indian Roads?’), just as the rains start getting over we have to reckon with pooja-pandals coming up right on the roads, together with ear-splitting noise (Read ‘A Quieter Mumbai – Is It A Pipe Dream?‘)

Following the principle that majority has to be right and can’t be ignored, we crouch and cringe but have no voice against this invasion of noise and our liberty and safety. Whatever decibel and time limits are set by the authorities are followed more in exception than in observance. Most of us would want the authorities to somehow control the unwanted noise, chaos and unsafe conditions. We have a charitable trust and non-governmental organisation called Awaaz Foundation which has done an enormous dedicated work to keep the authorities and others under check so as not to have unfettered environmental pollution. However, it is always a losing battle. The Foundation was started on 26 Feb 2006 by Sumaira Abdulali and has many successes against “environmental villainy” at personal risk to the founder. Wikipedia has this to say about Noise Pollution:

“Noise pollution can cause annoyance and aggression, hypertension, high stress levels, Tinnitus, hearing loss, sleep disturbances, and other harmful effects. Anti-Social Behaviour such as uses of Loudspeakers is a highly sensitive social issue in India.

Among the major forms of pollution in India is noise pollution. There is no parallel in the world to the noise pollution generated during festivals and religious celebrations in India. For Indians, making noise is a sign of happiness. For politicians the ability to make a big noise, by using huge loudspeakers at any opportunity, is a sign of strength. Festivals in India have become political battlegrounds as politicians try to score brownie points over one another by attempting to host the noisiest festival.The use of loudspeakers, permitted by the courts on certain occasions, often exceeds the permissible decibel limit, causing a great deal of stress and anxiety to the neighbourhoods.”

Pic courtesy: lewisgreek.com

Maharashtra and Mumbai ain’t amongst the success stories of reduction of Noise Pollution. Governments here, following the dictum of “people’s sentiments need to be respected“, often turn a deaf ear towards any pleas to reduce the noise levels. This year, for example, the state government has decided to extend loudspeaker deadline for Ganpati mandals for one additional day. Earlier, whereas loudspeakers were to be switched off by 10 PM and on two days during Ganeshotsav up to midnight, the government has now permitted one additional night of loudspeakers up to midnight and “traditional musical instruments” through the night on Anant Chaturdashi (the tenth day) with decibel restrictions in place.

All this news, as above, was in The Times of India 12 Sep 12 issue. To enable this, another news item said that the BEST (Brihanmumbai Electric Supply and Transport, a government run body in Mumbai, has offered “concession of nearly Rupees 8 per unit on power consumption to Ganpati pandals.” The news further went to add: “The mandals will save a lot of money towards power consumption. Also, they can light up the pandals and use brighter light for decoration” said a BEST official. The BEST electricity, of course, is also used for loudspeakers and generating noise. So, we have a situation where we have state sponsored noise. The very next page in The Times of India had another news item titled: ‘BEST reels under Rs. 3,300cr losses.’

The Awaaz Foundation page on Wikipedia covers instances where the state government was reluctant and even opposed to making rules and laws against Noise Pollution. But, even though these laws, as with most laws in India, are mostly on paper, people are always looking at ways and means to by-pass these too.

I, and I am sure there are many like me, pray that a day will come when people and authorities would realise that Noise Pollution is as bad as any other form of pollution. The festival season is just starting and with one reason or the other will continue almost until the end of the year. Read my take on the Diwali, for example, on ‘In The War Zone‘.

Festivals should be happy occasions for all. I wonder who is happy with loudspeakers and crackers and drum-beats late in the nights?

A DANGEROUS PROFESSION

I visited my friend yesterday. He was sitting morose, with his head in his hands; as if all hell had broken loose. What are friends if not help and cheer up a soul in need. So, I asked him what was the matter. He said his 19 years old son had decided to join ‘A Dangerous Profession’.

I remember about forty years back when I wanted to join the Indian Navy what was the reaction of my father about my joining “fauji” (military man). So, I asked him knowingly:

[lineate]Me: Army?[/lineate][lineate]He: No.[/lineate][lineate]Me: Navy?[/lineate][lineate]He: No[/lineate][lineate]Me: Ah, I got it now; he wants to be a sky diver?[/lineate][lineate]He: No, it is more dangerous than that.[/lineate]

Pic courtesy: lasvegastours.info

[lineate]Me (resuming fresh): I got it; he wants to be a professional bungee jumper?[/lineate][lineate]He: No, nothing as simple; it is more dangerous.[/lineate][lineate]Me: Perhaps he wants to be a worker at Sivakasi Fire-works factory?[/lineate][lineate]He: Even that is safer in comparison.[/lineate][lineate]Me: Maybe he wants to be a nuclear scientist working for Al Qaeda.[/lineate][lineate]He: No, no, no…[/lineate][lineate]Me: Perhaps a driver in Mumbai?[/lineate][lineate]He: That’s dangerous but we still survive on an everyday basis.[/lineate][lineate]Me (I knew this time I was close): He wants to go to Pakistan to teach democracy?[/lineate][lineate]He: No; it is frightfully more dangerous…[/lineate] [lineate]Faujis don’t give up so easily. So I tried again:[/lineate][lineate]Me: River rafting?[/lineate][lineate]He: No.[/lineate][lineate]Me: Deep-sea diving?[/lineate][lineate]He: No.[/lineate] [lineate]I tried for next fifteen minutes, and still the reply was no.[/lineate][lineate]Me (resignedly, finally): What then?[/lineate][lineate]He (with an expression that said, “You will never understand”): He wants to be a cartoonist.[/lineate][lineate]Me: That’s bad; but, at least he confided in you about that. I know nothing can be worse. (remembering friends are there to cheer up friends in difficulty) But, things are a-changing. Who knows, a few years from now, even this profession may just become safe?

[/lineate][lineate]All of us live on hope.[/lineate]

SALARY FOR HOMEMAKERS

I was late in reading the newspaper today. Hence, I hadn’t yet read the item regarding the idea mooted by Women and Child development and supported by the government for husbands to share a part of their salaries with the wives for “services provided”. Hence, I wasn’t prepared for her response when after the breakfast I simply said, “Thank you; the poha was great.” She looked me straight in the eye and said, with her new-born confidence fortified by the WCD, which could have been WMD in this case, “That would be Rupees Two Hundred and Fifteen; the tea is on the house.”

It is only when I reached the office and glanced at the TOI that the true import of what she said hit me like a wet towel. Now that she too is going to be salaried, it won’t be far-fetched if she maintains a full account of all the services provided by her to me and the family and make me pay for them. Fortunately, I am old now and she often has headache; else, I won’t have been able to afford those bedtime luxuries.I would also have to be careful about inviting friends home; it might just be cheaper to take them to the wayside ‘Bar and Restaurant’ where “ready snakes are available” on 24/7 basis.

Musing about this I also reached the conclusion that this can work both ways; I can now demand better service since I shall be paying for it. Bye, bye, cold meals and hot wife if I turn up late. I am wondering if I can also approach the Consumer Court for those occasions when in her annoyance she bangs the crockery and cutlery and the meal on the table. More than anything else, I wonder if I can seek income tax rebate on such items that I do out of sheer chivalry, which would now be covered under charity and grants.

How do we work out remuneration for common tasks that we both do and tasks that I do for her. For example, I can’t be paying for the lunch if I had to go to the mall for vegetable shopping. What about bringing up children and dropping them at school? Will a wife have to share some part of her “salary” or “profits” for these common tasks? How much leave will she deserve under the Wives Domestic Employment Rules, which are bound to be decided in the parliament when they meet next after the Coal Break? Do I have to pay for the maid-servant, dhobi, sweeper etc or is she expected to pay them through her “salary”? What would be the perks involved with the job?

I can see one very good fallout of the proposal by WCD: when the boy’s family makes their unavoidable dowry demand, the girl’s family can come around and say that the former, indeed, owes them monies; ie, her services for so many years minus the dowry demand.

However, my mind was working overtime: will Lyn and I be called DINKs now that she would be earning too and both the kids are settled independently. Will I be responsible for paying increments?

I have lived most of my life, but, I can imagine the plight of the young husbands paying for the delivery of their children and for utilising the services of the mother-in-law during her pregnancy.

Just then the phone rang and it was she on the phone, “I will give you a free advice (thank God, I thought, something is still ‘free‘), don’t waste your time thinking of how much you owe me for having married a dumbo like you; you will never be able to pay.”

How to tell her that is something any husband pays through his nose?

THE GREATNESS OF INDIA AND ITS DECLINE

A few days back, there was a very good news item in The Times Of India titled ‘Dictionary traces maths concepts to the Vedas’. It brought out how, for eight long years, a few mathematicians and Sanskrit scholars of the Calcutta and Jadavpur universities had been working on a project to establish the veracity of the claim that at least 5000 basic and advanced modern mathematical concepts have their roots in Sanskrit and most have Vedic antecedents.

Some of the fascinating findings of this study or research are:

◾India discovered not just zero but it wasn’t discovered as late as in 5th century AD by Aryabhatta but in the period of Rig Vedas. Even the number Eka or one has its roots in Rig Veda.

◾Most solutions that can be found through algebra, geometry, and trigonometry have Sanskrit roots.

◾A large number of formulae developed thousands of years ago in India are valid even today.

I have a close friend Krishna Varanasi who too does original research in Vedas and Sanskrit etymology. Over a period of last about two years, since the time I know him, he has been able to establish to me that the roots of many modern concepts, science including nuclear, astronomy, aeronautics, and weaponology etc are in our Vedas. A few days before the findings of the research at Calcutta and Jadavpur universities, he wrote on our Facebook group called ‘Jai Hind’ about the Vedic concept of Infinity. This is what he wrote:

Concept of Infinity in Vedas: The concept of infinity was also known during Vedic times. They were aware of the basic mathematical properties of infinity and had several words for the concept-chief being ananta, purnam, aditi, and asamkhyata. Asamkhyata is mentioned in the Yajur Veda, and the Brihadaranyaka Upanishad as describing the number of mysteries of Indra as ananta. These two statements are elaborated in the opening lines of the Isha Upanishad (Shukla Yajur Veda). This shloka is as much metaphysical as it is mathematical:

[lineate]pûrnamadah pûrnamidam pûrnât pûrnamudacyate …[/lineate][lineate]pûrnâsya pûrnamadaya pûrnamevâvasishyate[/lineate]

(From infinity is born infinity. When infinity is taken out of infinity, only infinity is left over.)

Krishna has established, for example, that the modern world owes a lot to Vedas for physics and quantum physics. None of these things are in the nature of speculation. Here is a video to support that claim put up by Krishna:

https://youtube.com/watch?v=c7dAShZCjEY%3F

Here is the one about atomic weapons of the ancient Indian era, much before the world became aware of these:

https://youtube.com/watch?v=dK5qG6bKLCM%3F

Similar is the case with Theory of Creation as given in Vedas, Vedic Mathematics that even our school students are discovering now and theories regarding the age of the earth and the universe. Our people like to see to believe. You merely have to go to You Tube with just two videos that I have put up on top and you will find suggestions about many more to watch regarding our ancient and especially Vedic greatness.

Read Histoire de l’océan Indien by the historian Auguste Toussaint or its English translation ‘History of the Indian Ocean’ and you would be made aware of the fact that India didn’t just have fertile lands but fertile minds who discovered many a nautical concept, instruments and means to traverse the oceans.

The fact of the world’s oldest civilisations of Mohan Jo Daro and Harrappa is known to most people in India and abroad. However, how many people do know about the ancient city of Dwarka, a little distance away from the present city of Dwarka? The city was built by Lord Krishna and I mentioned about it in an article: Lord Krishna Beckoned – We Visited Dwarka.  Here is a mention of it in Wikipedia:

“After Krishna left the earth for Vaikuntha, about 36 years after the Mahabharat War (3138 BC), and the major Yadava leaders were killed in disputes among themselves, Arjuna went to Dwarka to bring Krishna’s grandsons and the Yadava wives to Hastinapur, to safety. After Arjuna left Dwarka, it was submerged into the sea. Following is the account given by Arjuna, found in the Mahabharata:

…imposed on it by nature. The sea rushed into the city. It coursed through the streets of the beautiful city. The sea covered up everything in the city. I saw the beautiful buildings becoming submerged one by one. In a matter of a few moments it was all over. The sea had now become as placid as a lake. There was no trace of the city. Dwaraka was just a name; just a memory.

On May 19, 2001, India’s science and technology minister Murli Manohar Joshi announced the finding of ruins in the Gulf of Khambhat. The ruins, known as the Gulf of Khambhat Cultural Complex (GKCC), are located on the seabed of a nine-kilometre stretch off the coast of Gujarat province at a depth of about 40 m. The site was discovered by a team from the National Institute of Ocean Technology (NIOT) in December 2000 and investigated for six months with acoustic techniques.

Krishna Varanasi put up this video to support the claim:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z5ucTxS2Vx0

India had the world’s oldest concept of cities and kingdoms. Here is a map showing the mahajanpadas or great kingdoms during the Vedic Period:

Why is all this and more considered mythology by our countrymen? Westerns have had vested interests in dishing out theories about Indian mythology and we believe in these since we don’t have original research in these except for isolated incidents like the ones I have mentioned. Indeed, it is now rumoured that if you want to do original research or soak in fruits of original research in Sanskrit and greatness of ancient Indian heritage, you will have to go abroad.

We were a land of people who were absorbed in scholarly pursuits and hence the name Bharat (a combination of bha: knowledge and rat: absorbed). Kashi (the city of Varanasi or Benares) before it became a kingdom, was the centre of scholastic excellence, rubbing shoulders with such centres in Greek and Roman civilisations. During the Golden Period of Indian civilisation, we were the pioneers in the world in mathematics, astronomy, literature, medicine, and political philosophy. Even until as late as in 1962, we chose a great scholar as Servapalli Radhakrishnan as the second President of independent India. But, many decades later, in 2007, we chose a politician Pratibha Patil as the 12th President.

Lately, our people are as far from the concept of a great India as they could get. There hasn’t been an innovation by an Indian in India that has changed the world in any significant manner. Our people have no idea of our heritage but, consider that a highly parochial and at times Hindu revanchist movement is probably the answer to fill this gap and salvage lost ground from other civilisations and religions. In movies, literature, music etc we simply either plagiarise or come up with something that is touted as ‘fusion’ in the mistaken belief that if we piggy-ride on the more popular western idea, we would be able to sell our own (bastardised) culture.

What went wrong? I have pinpointed five main reasons for the decline of India’s greatness. I am sure historians and researchers would have enumerated many more; but, I shall stick to these five. I shall be grateful if you can cover, in the comments below, what you feel are the reasons for our having fallen from the pinnacle of excellence in various fields to the present nadir. Curiously, our current state of affairs has come about when we take pride in having made great strides in GDP growth.

1.  Population. The average age of Indians is now 29 and we are proud of being a very ‘young nation’ with considerable potential to become a world-power. The 2011 census showed our population being 1.21 people, the second largest in the world. In 2025, it is slated to become the largest population in the world overtaking that of China. Thus, we are not only having fertile lands but fertile people too. India had abundant natural resources but with the population explosion, the resources were not adequate for everyone. This, together with Indian caste system (jati and varna) and subsequent neglect by the rulers divided the Indian society into haves and have-nots. As per the 2010 UNDP report, 37,2 per cent of Indian population lives below poverty line while 68.7 per cent of our population lives on less than $ 2 a day. This has forced a large percentage of our population to take shortcuts to seek “necessities of life”. Thus, a large percentage of our population lives on greed and corruption. Our media fuels it further by reporting how such and such IIM graduate gets salary in crores rather than portraying what he has to change the lot of the countrymen. A few months back, I wrote a humorous article titled ‘India – Too Many People’, wherein I tried to bring out the several ‘advantages’ of having a large population. However, humour aside, if in the next few decades we are not able to provide employment to crores of people, our young population, instead of being an asset to the nation, will turn hostile and violent. Already, one-third of India’s 630 districts are under the Maoist rule/influence. The population explosion and greed have overwhelmed our rulers. We wake up to a threat only when the water goes over the head in the form of large-scale killing of people due to plague and accidents both natural and man-made. For example, with traffic, noise, filth and chaos, most of our cities are now unliveable. However, we are unlikely to discipline people to bring some order and safety and security in our lives until a disaster takes place. It is waiting just around the corner.

2. Lack of Strategic Culture. I don’t want to go into the details of this; but, the fact is that fertile land, prosperity, scriptures, Hindu way of life, and lack of – what our ancestors felt as – any perceptible threat to our country (Auguste Toussaint, for example, brought out that with the abundance of resources in India, the rest of the world brought gold and silver to our country; whereas we had no real need to venture out anywhere. Even when we did, eg, in the period of Ashoka, it was only to spread religion and culture. After the foreign invasions took place with the Moghuls and British, and French, Dutch and Portuguese; we were kind of surprised that someone could usurp our land and territory. This belief that people would see the essential morality and goodness of things and treaties made us too passive and complacent. In a certain way, our culture of being reactive to situations after these would take place continued with the debacle of 1962 War with the Chinese, Kargil War and finally 26/11 and series of terrorist attacks anywhere, anytime. The country’s greatest strategist K Subrahmanyam essayed to bring about this strategic culture and IDSA (Institute of Defence Studies and Analyses) recently brought out a book called ‘Grand Strategy for India 2020 and Beyond’. However, the Indian culture of immediacy and expediency still overpowers any genuine desire to think of a viable grand strategy for India.

3.  Lack of Quality Educational Institutions and Think Tanks. Somewhere along the line we lost stress on quality education and shifted to vocational institutions only. The stress on legitimate and illegitimate means of livelihood took the focus away from innovative ideas that could be truly called an Indian innovation rather than such things as IT revolution that were really re-engineering of western ideas. On the strategic side, not a single Indian institute figures in the top ten Asian think-tanks, let alone Global think-tanks. We are now a nation of copy-cats; eg, BPOs, English literature, songs, music, engineering and technological duplications. There are isolated examples of brilliance but the entire culture has been that of quickly assimilating what the westerns have invented or discovered. We lay no stress on education of our society but have adequate stress on academic brilliance that can be translated into a high-earning job; often this brilliance is as a result of learning by rote. Hence, when it comes to producing clones, rather than innovators, we are miles ahead of the rest of the world. Many Indians now head multi-national companies thanks to their excellence at being clones. There is no incentive in India for academic innovation and education that results in problem-solving. As an example, you will find Indian students doing very well in spellathons or mathematics Olympics where they can demonstrate their excellence at learning by rote; however, in tests like PISA (Programme for International Students Assessment), where the stress is on problem solving in everyday scenarios, our students do poorly.

4.  Caste System, Religious and Spiritual Corruption. No one has any clear idea of when did we become slaves to thousands of endogamous clans and groups called jatis. To start with we had a system of varnas (categories). It kept a sense of order, and peace among the people. There were five different levels of the system: Brahman, Kshatriya, Vaishya, Shudra, and Harijans. Within each of these categories are the actual “castes” or jatis within which people are born, marry, and die. They all have their own place among each other and accept that it is the way to keep society from disintegrating into chaos. This system worked well for Indian people in olden days. However, our over focus on caste and religion made us so parochial that we fought against each other rather than showing such resolve against foreign aggressors. The British, were very quick to exploit this and they came up with a brilliant policy of ‘Divide and Rule’. Mahatma Gandhi and several nationalist leaders won us independence by uniting us into a cohesive movement. But, no sooner that the British left that we resumed our fights. This time through, our own politicians realised the advantage to themselves if they divided people. We see signs of these tendencies everywhere; the latest being a certain Raj Thackeray who is convinced that Maratha pride and sons-of-the-soil policy gets him more votes in Maharashtra and power than a strong India. A RAND study has shown that by 2030 India would comprise as many as 50 states. We really have no time and propensity for national integration; it doesn’t earn votes. A weak centre and strong regional parties has been the result of fanning of such divisive forces.

5.  More Focus on Material Things than Societal Values. This took some time in finding its roots in India but now is firmly in place, Such rampant consumerism at one plane suddenly increased our desire for luxuries of life such as cars, refrigerators, televisions, aircraft, electronic items, cell phones and beauty products. On the other plane, by making these things available, the multi-national companies laughed all the way to the bank and are still laughing. Somewhere along the line, the victims were familial and societal values. At the present juncture, for example, collectively as a nation, we are the farthest away from values. Many people, for example, opined that the reasons for Anna Hazare movement to have failed was because of the skulduggery of the wily politicians. The real reason is that we are all corrupt one way or the other. A rich person, irrespective of how he made money, is respected and emulated. Many of the Indians, if they haven’t become outright corrupt, is not because of any strong values; but, simply, because of lack of opportunity.

I don’t know how long this cycle would last. The solutions are obvious and inherent in the five reasons I have given above. We can either regain our ancient greatness or slip more hopelessly into the morass that we are in.

THE BEST SAD SONGS OF DEV ANAND

When I wrote about Dev Anand in another article Hindi Songs And The Age of Innocence, I wrote about Dev Anand who had the toothy smile, tilted walk, and a way of being totally at ease with his heroines, especially those who sang those light-hearted, lilting and melodious duets with him. However, there was another Dev Anand in the Hindi movies; the sad, lonely, forlorn Dev Anand, forever looking for love, companionship, togetherness and happiness. Just like he did in his chirpy roles, Dev Anand excelled in melancholic roles too. Lyricists must have loved to write such numbers for him because he enacted them so well. Some of these songs, the sad songs, that is, came about by his acting in movies to prove his talent after an unsuccessful romance with a singer – actress Suraiya who was bigger than him in the Hindi movies and hence rated before him in the credits of the movies. They acted in seven movies together from 1948 (Vidya) to 1951 (Sanam). She fell in love with him and wanted to marry him but her mother opposed the match because they were of different religions: Hindu boy and Muslim girl.

Just as it happens in the movies, Suraiya fell in love with him whilst shooting one of Vidya’s songs ‘Kinare kinare chale jayenge’. She fell in water whilst enacting the number. Dev Anand, forever chivalrous, jumped right after her and saved her from drowning.

Dev Anand and Suraiya

It is not known whether Dev Anand’s perfection in lugubrious roles was as a result of unsuccessful love affair or not, but, the lyricists and directors seemed to have worked on the theme very well for him. Indeed, there is a 1963 movie Kinare Kinare with Dev Anand opposite Meena Kumari. The title song of the movie ‘Chale jaa rahe hain mohabbat ke maare; kinaare, kinaare; kinaare, kinaare’ is one such desolate song.

However, my effort tonight is to give you not just the best sad songs of Dev Anand but also to give you songs that seem to ask the questions ‘What have I got of my own?’; ‘Is it worth wandering through the world without love and happiness?’ and ‘Why can’t I have a single friend, love, companion and mate in the world?’

Here goes then. The songs that I give you all ask these questions; they are all the top sad songs of Dev Anand; but they are not in any particular order – either chronologically or in their popularity or in excellence. The first song is from the 1960 movie Bambai Ka Babu in which Dev Anand acted opposite a young Suchitra Sen. The story was written by Rajinder Singh Bedi and hence you could expect an out of the ordinary story; and yes it was because the story hinted at incest between Dev and Suchitra. The film was directed by Raj Khosla (remember him in such movies as C.I.D., Kalapani, Ek Musafir Ek Hasina, Do Badan, Do Raaste, Mera Gaon Mera Desh, which, some say, inspired Sholay. Majrooh Sultanpuri wrote these lyrics but the actual life in the lyrics was put by Sachin Dev Burman (who gave music for most of Dev Anand movies and thus took his favourite hero’s name as his middle name) and heart with Mohammad Rafi’s passionate singing. The song is ‘Saathi na koi manzil, diya hai na koi mehfil’:

In the 1963 movie Sharabi (Drunkard), Dev Anand excelled himself in a melancholic role. The movie had Raj Rishi writing the story and screen-play and as director too. Keshav (Dev Anand) lives a poor lifestyle in a small town in along with his ailing father, Dinanath, mother, and a much younger sister, Munni. He is an alcoholic but after the passing of his father promises to abstain completely, much to the relief of his mother as well as his sweetheart, Kamala (Madhubala), as well as her businessman dad, Laxmidas, who arranges his employment at his Coal Mine, and arranges for them to get married . Less than a week before the marriage, Laxmidas cancels it and Keshav relapses and his mother threatens to leave the town, and even Kamala refuses to speak with him. Shortly thereafter Laxmidas, on his deathbed, gets Kamala to promise to marry someone else, while Keshav, blacklisted by the entire community is well on his way to self-destruction as well as endangering lives of hundreds of coal mine workers.

The movie had some of the saddest songs of Dev Anand; eg, ‘Mujhe le chalo phir aaj us gali mein’, ‘sawan ke mahine mein’ and this number: Kabhi na kabhi, kahin na kahin, koi na koi to aayega’. Lyrics are by Rajinder Krishan who wrote the maximum lyrics for Madan Mohan and music is by the latter:

The name of this 1956 movie is Funtoosh and in this to help Dev Anand express these feelings of despair and despondence are Sahir Ludhianvi, SD Burman and Kishore Kumar. Dev Anand acted opposite Sheila Ramani. The movie was inspired by Meet John Doe, which was a Frank Capra movie about a man agreeing to impersonate a non-existent person who said he was committing suicide in political protest. The number ‘Dard hamara koi na jaane, Apni garaj ke sab hai deevaane, Kisake aage rona roye, des praaya log baigaane Dukhi man mere sun mera kehhana is the one I have chosen for you since it meets the theme that I have set for the evening:

Two years before the above song and the movie was Dev Anand in and as Taxi Driver. This 1954 movie was directed by his brother Chetan Anand, who directed quite a few of his movies under the banner of Navketan Films. Dev Anand acted opposite his would be wife Kalpana Kartik. The movie, if watched, offers a nostalgic journey through Bombay of 1950s. Same combination of Sahir Ludhianvi with SD Burman in this song too but this time it is Talat Mehmood singing this forlorn number. Maayusiyon kaa majmaa hai dil mein, Kya reh gaya hai is zindagi mein; Rooh mein ham dil mein dhuaan; Jaayen to jaayen kahan kis ko kahen apna yahan?

Talking about Talat Mehmood, who can ever forget this disconsolate number by him for Dev Anand in 1963 movie Kinare Kinare on similar theme? Nyay Sharma wrote the lyrics and Jaidev composed the music. Mere Malik kya kahoon teri duyaayon ka fareb, Mujh pe youn chhaya ke mujhako ghar se beghar kar diya. Dekh li teri khdaai, bus mera dil bhar gaya:

I know all this while you have been waiting for this song from Hum Dono on similar theme and, ladies and gentlemen, how can I ever forget it? Hum Dono has, as depicted by the name, Dev Anand in double role opposite Nanda and Sadhan. Music director Jaidev came up with some of his best music and songs in this movie, many of them having been penned by Sahir Ludhianvi and sung by Mohammad Rafi, who had such magic in his singing that he could actually step into the soul of actors for whom he sang. There were songs like: Abhi na jaayo chhod kar, allah tero naam, main zindagi ka saath nibhata chala gaya and this great number with the ending stanza: Kaun rota hai kisi aur ki khaatir ai dil, Sabako apni hi kisi baat pe rona aaya; Kabhi khud pe kabhi halaat pe rona aaya.

Yes, Dev Anand was popular for his light hearted songs, especially his being totally at home with his heroines in duets, but, he was also outstanding in melancholic roles. Here is one with my favourite singer Hemant Kumar in Manzil. Dev Anand and his childhood love Nutan, are separated at the hands of fate. Thinking that Dev is scandalising his relationship with her, she confronts him at a function where Dev is being honoured as a composer. What follows in the confrontation scene is drama, dialogue, acting, and picturisation at its peak. Dev and Nutan simply excel in their roles. One cannot but mention the classic song ‘Yaad aa gayin woh nashili nigahen’, composed by maestro S D Burman and penned by Majrooh Sultanpuri. Main in zakhmon ko seeke, Kya karun hosh mein jeeke: Yaaro tham lena tham lena meri baahen Yaad aa gayin vo nasheeli nigaahen. I have given for you the scene leading to the song so that you may see their acting at their best.

 

As late as in 1973, Dev Anand sang on the same theme in Joshila. The movie was directed by Yash Chopra who was ever fond of making movies with a triangle. In this movie the triangle was between Dev Anand, Hema Malini and Rakhi. Dev Anand is imprisoned for a murder that he didn’t commit but it was pinned on him by the evidence of the same witness whose life and honour he had tried to save. The movie, therefore, opens with this song by Dev Anand in the prison. The combination of Sahir, SD Burman and Kishore was the most abiding combination for Dev Anand. Enjoy the song: Kiska rasta dekhe ai dil ai saudaayi, Meelon hai khaamoshi, barson hai tanhaayi…

Lets get back to Sharaabi and I am now going to put up the most romantic and beautiful number sung by Dev Anand: ‘Mujhe le chalo phir aaj us gali jahan se main betaabiyan le ke aaya’. An equally good song from this movie is ‘sawan ke mahine mein, ik aag si seene mein, lagti hai to pi leta hoon, do chaar ghadi ji leta hoon’. However, this one is special to me. Rajinder Kishan, Madan Mohan and Mohammad Rafi have together not just created a song but a complete era; an unforgettable era of such adorable pulchritude that you feel like helping Dev Anand to go back in time and live his love life again…this time with happy ending:

I shall do grave injustice if I don’t choose this number in the top ten sad songs of Dev Anand. The 1965 movie Guide is regarded as a classic, the best of Dev Anand. It was directed by Vijay Anand and starred Waheeda Rehman opposite Dev Anand. The story was by RK Narayan about a man with whom nature conspires to make him a great swamy, after he is betrayed by a woman whom he thought he had won in love from her husband who neglected her. The name Guide, therefore, applied on two planes; one in reel life where Dev Anand as Raju was a tourist guide; and the other as a Guide for the villagers who were dying of hunger and thrust and take him as a saint with miraculous powers. On another plane, Guide is all about finding the guide within ourselves to direct us towards a path of goodness and sacrifice. Once again SD Burman has given outstanding music on Shailendra’s lyrics. ‘Pyaar mein jinake, sab jag chhoda, aur hue badnaam,
Unake hi haathon, haal hua ye, baithe hain dil ko thaam,
Apane kabhi the, ab hain paraaye’. One more reason for selecting this is to bring out the great melancholic singing:

Shall we end tonight with the 1958 movie Kaala Pani? And why not? Majrooh Sultanpuri penned some of the best songs for Dev Anand movies that were composed by Sachin Dev Burman. The scene here is farcical since Dev Anand only wants to play to the good sense of the courtesan Nalini Jaywant so as to get to the secret about his father’s disappearance. He borrowed the song, the tunic, the baton and the cap from his room-mates. Nevertheless, it is a great sad number of Dev Anand.  Tum to naa kaho ham, khud hi se khele, Duube nahin ham hi youn, nashe mein akele, Sheeshe mein aapako bhi utaare chale gaye. Ham bekhudi mein tumako pukaare chale gaye.

SD Burman composed it in Raag Chayanat, Tal Kaherava and see how beautifully Mohammad Rafi delivered:

I have given you the top ten sad numbers of Dev Anand on the theme: what have I got of my own? Should you feel your list is different or I have forgotten your favourite number on the theme, please do write.

“Kaun rota hai kisi aur ki khatir ai dil,
Sabko apni hi kisi baat pe rona aaya”

WHO SHOULD RULE INDIA?

Less than a week back, the Chief Justice of India, Shri SH Kapadia cautioned that judges should not rule the nation. He said, “Judges should not govern this country. We need to go by strict principle. Whenever you lay down a law, it should not interfere with governance. We are not accountable to people. Objectivity, certainty enshrined in the basic principles of the Constitution has to be given weightage.” He said this whilst delivering a lecture on ‘Jurisprudence of Constitutional Structure’ at the India International Centre at New Delhi.

This got me thinking: who should actually rule India? Over a period of time I have made a short list of those who shouldn’t. Here goes:

1. Judges. They can’t be ruling India for the reasons given in Justice Kapadia’s speech. Before the British gave us a central legal system based on Indian Penal Code in 1860 and Indian Evidence Act in 1872, India’s justice system was based on laws as given in The Arthashastra dating back to 400 BC and Manusmriti dating back to first century AD. Indeed, the caste or religion based codes of laws, eg, Hindu code of laws and Muslim code of laws were prevalent even after independence. Then there were – what is known as – customary laws. It is taking India a very long time indeed to become a civilized nation whose people respect the rule of the law. Many archaic laws and rules took considerable time in changing with changing times. Amongst other reasons, we have rampant political exploitation of the masses and thus – as came out in the infamous Shah Bano case – even after four and half decades of independence, we are nowhere near a uniform, easily understood civil laws. Everything is left to interpretations, technicalities and the like. Folklore says that it is better to sort out things between the people themselves rather than going to police, judges and lawyers. All these three categories are not averse to taking money from both the parties and prolonging the cases until the grandchildren of the original contenders opt for compromise (to sort out things between themselves). Then there are certain categories of people in India who consider themselves above the law. When a politician is charged with scams worth crores of rupees, he/she initially says it is “political vendetta” but later says, “Iska faisla to ab janata ki adalat hi karegi” (Only people’s court (mob mentality?) can now decide on this. You may feel that it is contempt of the court to even make a statement like that. However, since the politician feels that he is above the law, he has scant respect for the courts or the judiciary except for those who are on his payroll. India faces another problem in that, for a long time in history, the Judiciary, the Executive, and the Legislature were the same person. It is taking us a long time to get out of this. Our people are, by nature lawless, indisciplined, and prone to taking short-cuts.The reason for me to tell you this reality about the justice system in India is that our judges have hands-full (in more ways than one). We have lakhs of cases rotting in the courts for decades. Our people require newer laws every passing day but have scant regard for laws already enacted. In such a scenario, where is the time, energy, inclination etc for judges to rule the nation. If they are able to sort out the judicial mess we are currently in, that itself is too much to hope for.

2. Military. Sorry, we are very clear about this; we don’t want military to govern India. We don’t want to become like Pakistan. From the time of independence when our Prime Minister Pt. Jawaharlal Nehru had this obsessive mania about keeping military far removed from governance to this year’s ‘exposure’ in a reputed Indian daily turning a routine movement of troops from Mathura and Hissar to New Delhi as likely design by Army under General VK Singh to take over governance of the country, our politicians and people at large have this unexplained mortal fear that one day military would take over the country. We ourselves call military to fill up lack of governance in many parts of the country, which we conveniently cover up by a term we have specifically coined for this purpose, viz, “law and order situation”. But, let alone giving the military a modicum of say in matters of governance, we disdainfully question even Armed Forces Special Powers Act in such states where we expect military to thanklessly sort out mess caused by politics and lack of governance. The armed forces chiefs are now 13th in the Order of Precedence in our nation. When Admiral Joshi took over as the 21st Chief of the Indian Navy, The Times of India, used to giving six column ‘news’ for Yuvraj having hit six sixes in an over, gave it as a small news on page 15. Indeed, Delhi Varsity or St. Stephen’s College not promoting Unmukt Chand, the Captain of the Under 19 team winning world cup, making it a bigger news. Our nation is now in a state that our cricket team winning a match is bigger news than the armed forces winning skirmishes, battles and wars against the enemy; many a times losing their lives (“the ‘b——-s’ are paid for it, so what’s the big deal?”) No, Sir, military should never be allowed to rule India.

3. Politicians. They should, if you really ask most people, be actually ruling India provided they are not corrupt or criminal. Regrettably, there is no other variety of this animal found in India. He or she has proved the English saying wrong, which ended with ‘but, you can’t befool all the people all the times’. There are many who have written volumes about how did the Anna Hazare movement ‘India Against Corruption’ fail; and why a strong Jan Lokpal Bill is still not around the horizon. My reason is simple: how can the corrupt be asked to make a Bill that curtails their own powers and take punitive action against themselves? It is like asking the thieves to lay down traps for themselves. Another big reason for the IAC to have failed is because it was wrong to assume that in our country only the politicians and big-wigs are corrupt. India is at an unfortunate period of time in history when people at large are corrupt and opportunistic; there is a race to somehow become richer, more powerful and more influential. In a democracy people not only get the government that they vote for; they get the government that they deserve. We can never expect and trust such politicians elected by such people to rule India.

4. Babus or Bureaucrats. Many people feel that when the British gave independence to India, it wasn’t complete independence as such. They had already created something called a Babu or a Saheb who, they were sure, would keep India from competing with England or rest of the world. As Winston Churchill said, “If the British left, India will fall back quite rapidly through the centuries into the barbarism and privations of the Middle Ages. If India becomes Independent power will go into the hands of rascals, rogues and freebooters. All Indian leaders will be of low caliber and men of straw. They will have sweet tongues and silly hearts. They will fight among themselves for power and India will be lost in political squabbles.” What an accurate prophecy? By endowing India with the scourge of babudom, in one stroke, the British curtailed the power of India by several centuries. The makers of the Constitution of India defined a term called ‘civil-servant’ or ‘public-servant’. I have finished living nearly six decades in this country; I haven’t yet come across a single babu or bureaucrat who regards himself as a ‘servant’ of the people or in ‘service’ of the nation or public. If you, dear reader, have come across these species kindly mention his/her address in the space provided for comments.

5. Police. No, Sir, we don’t want to become a police state. In 1948, after India became independent, the erstwhile Imperial Police was replaced by the Indian Police. If at one time we used to hear horrible stories about the excesses of the Imperial Police, we had no idea of what our police was going to do to us. Over a period of time, the police by itself and through political and bureaucratic interference, became completely corrupt. As an example, after 26/11, one of the recommendations of the Experts Committee was to have 6000 networked cameras installed at important points in the city. The city policemen, used to taking bribes as with the rest of their ilk, are more fearful of the cameras than the potential terrorists. Indeed, the terrorists know that they don’t have to fear being caught red-handed on the cameras because the police and the babus would make sure that the cameras even if installed would never function. The Indian Police is in dire need of reforms but it suits the politician, the bureaucrat, and the police itself, to continue pussy-footing on the reforms. Police have largely garnered powers to themselves and whilst the Director Generals are now equated higher than C-in-C’s of the armed forces, one has lost count of how many DGPs are there in each state. How can such people be trusted to rule India?

Courtesy: snagesh.com

6. Industrialists. Even though, after independence, mainly to prove ourselves as a society forever fired by the need and zeal to see upliftment of and empowerment of people, we selected a socialist model of economy for ourselves, we soon realised that it was only making poor poorer. So, Manmohan Singh, the great spin doctor, came up with ‘reforms’ and we resumed being a capitalist society that we always were. Capitalism is an economic system that is based on private ownership of the means of production and the creation of goods or services for profit. Look back in the last few decades and you will see the truth of this statement. Recently, whether it was 2G spectrum allocation, or Coal Mining auctions, or even Common Wealth Games, the common wealth of the people quickly went into the hands of ‘private ownership’. As the infamous Radiia tapes brought out there is now an unholy nexus between the politician, industrialist and the media. When John Kenneth Galbraith said, “Under capitalism, man exploits man; under communism, it is just the opposite”, he wouldn’t have ever known how true would it be for India. Irrespective of the type of the economy, in India, the industrialist, in cahoots with the politician (from whom he has to get crores of rupees even to fight elections), makes sure that the goose of the common man is cooked. Quite a few of them have now come out openly in support of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) and some like WIPRO’s Azim Premji have donated crores for welfare projects, but it is still miles to go before we can think of an industrialist in India fired by philanthropic intents rather than profit making plans. In such a scenario, it would be asking too much of them to rule the country.

7. Filmstars, Godmen and Cricketers. carried away by their mass-appeal, some people of these categories dream of or are nominated to enter politics, eg, Dhirendra Brahmachari, Hema Malini and Sachin Tendulkar. Some others such as Anna Hazare and Baba Ramdev dream of changing the corrupt system; but, if you ask the corrupt politician he too would tell you that the ‘realities of politics’ made him corrupt whereas earlier he wasn’t. Ruling or governing India is not merely showmanship. These categories of people can pull the masses but what exactly can they promise them other than dance and drama, religious mantras and sixes? No, ladies and gentlemen, these won’t do to rule India.

Sachin Tendulkar as Rajya Sabha member (Pic courtesy: thoughtfulindia.com)

8. Media Personnel. At first glance they appear to be ideally suited to rule the nation; more so, when on debates on telly and talk-shows, they project themselves as the only people who have any idea of how to rule or govern the nation. However, look a little closer and deeper and you will find that they too have been rendered unfit for the job. Even as respected a figure as Padam Shri Barkha Dutt, as seen in the Radiia Tapes, was not beyond degeneration of soul for earthly gains. Collectively or individually, they haven’t shown great penchant for what is good for India. Being slaves of TRPs and industrialists and foreign powers who control the media, they ain’t expected to be more than watch-dogs and poodles of the people who feed them.

Barkha Dutt of NDTV on Radia Tapes (Courtesy: blogs.wsj.com

What’s the Choice? We started off with Justice SH Kapadia telling us that judges shouldn’t rule India. But, in the end, we are left with no choice as to who should rule India. We require the following in men and women chosen to rule India:

  • He or she (henceforth, when I say ‘he’, it would mean both) should place country above his or her own interests and those of his or her family, friends and cronies.
  • He should realise that in our constitution there is a term called ‘Civil Servant’ or ‘Public Servant’ but there is no term called ‘Public Ruler’.
  • The only power sharing formula (our politicians are constantly working on these) he works out would be with people.
  • He would instil discipline, nationalism, religious tolerance, uprightness and honesty in the people through personal example.
  • Every decision taken by him would have people of India as its basic concern.
  • He would make India a corruption free, equitable society.

Any takers? Instead of ruling India, how about serving India and Indians? If you have any suggestions of your own, please feel free to pen them down.

GIVING AWAY MEMORIES

After retirement we moved into a small two-bedroom flat in a far suburb of Mumbai; this is as big as the one that I could afford after being an officer in the Navy for close to 37 years. In my last house whilst still in the Navy, my wife and I took months to sort out things and pack. We knew that we had to give away lot of stuff that we had accumulated. This invariably used to happen with our frequent postings in the Navy.

I saw this 1957 Hindi movie with my parents; one of the earliest ones that I saw with them. The movie was named ‘Bhabhi‘ (brother’s wife) starring Balraj Sahni and Nanda. Rajinder Krishan wrote these most appropriate verses:

[lineate]Toone tinaka tinaka chun kar nagri ek basaai,[/lineate][lineate]Baarish mein teri bheegi palken dhoop mein garmi khaai,[/lineate]Gum na kar jo teri mehnat tere kaam na aayi[lineate]Achha hai kuchh le jaane se dekar hi kuchh jaana[/lineate][lineate]Chal udja re panchhi ke ab ye des hua begana[/lineate]

[lineate](O’ bird, twig by twig you picked a complete nest of a world[/lineate][lineate]Rain wet your brow, and sun made you sweat[/lineate][lineate]Don’t rue that you couldn’t enjoy the fruit of your labour.[/lineate][lineate]It is better to give and go then to take and leave[/lineate][lineate]Fly away bird, now this place is not yours anymore)[/lineate]

So, as we move house, what do we finally end up giving away? Most often we give away junk that was only gathering moss, mildew and dirt. This would include all those notes and dockets from the Staff College that I’d assumed I couldn’t ever do without and which, I had never cared to read even once after leaving the Staff College. Then there would be those mementoes of “love and affection” given to me at farewells without any particular emotion other than the relief at seeing me go. However, like the Master Card ad, there would still be a lot of things that we’d wince if we had to give them away; those things that money can’t buy; because there are so many memories attached to them.

It is not my intention to bore you with a list of such things. I know each one of us has a list of such dear and precious things. However, I shall give you some examples of what it means. I gave away the first vehicle that I ever owned: a Yezdi 250 cc mobike. I still remember the number: KEE 438. I bought the mobike in the year 1980 when, as a lieutenant in the Navy, I was undergoing my specialisation course in communications and electronic warfare at Navy’s Signal School in Cochin (now Kochi). My would-be-wife was at Coimbatore and I made many a trip up and down between Cochin and Coimbatore on this bike during its (my?) running-in period. Once, on a long weekend, we went to Coonoor together.

When she visited Bombay where I got posted, we decided to go to Goa on – we called it – our donkey. One officer had named his bike ‘kilometer eater’; but, we were quite happy about calling it donkey for not only carrying our weights but many other things (for example, at one time we carried a complete cooking gas cylinder on it since waiting for the delivery boy would have been too much). What a trip it turned out to be. We returned from the Navy Ball at about 1 AM and suddenly, without any plan, I asked Lyn if she wanted to visit Goa. Knowing my capricious moods, she was fearful of asking me “when” but, I solved that problem for her by saying, “Tomorrow morning”. We got up at 5 AM, hurriedly packed up a rucksack and off we went “for a few days”, which finally turned out to be almost a month.

Oh, to be young again. Love teaches you togetherness and we were not in any hurry to reach anywhere. We clicked pics, admired the scenery and I even tried to teach her driving. Together with our donkey, we owned the world. Here is Lyn on the Bombay-Goa highway as it used to look in 1980 (not that it is better 32 years later):

We reached Belgaum at about 10 PM and that’s the time Lyn asked me if we should finally find a shelter for the night. At about midnight we found the Military Engineering Services Inspection Bungalow (MES IB). The Major-in-Charge saw our blackened faces (with the soot from the lorries), gave us a room and had only one request: “Please have breakfast with us before leaving tomorrow morning.” We were wondering why; but, the mystery was solved over breakfast. Apparently, just before they turned in for the night, the Major’s wife had a debate with her husband that the spirit of adventure was dying down in the armed forces. Just then we landed up.

The three of us: Lyn, donkey and I, had a most adventurous Bombay-to-Goa trip and stay in Goa. On the way back, we loaded our donkey on a ship (for 90 bucks) and returned to Bombay.

Our donkey instinctively understood us and never gave us any anxious moments. When Arjun, our elder son was born in 1984, that was the first vehicle he rode, perched up between Lyn and me. For one year after Arun was born in end 1986, we still managed on donkey with Arun held in her arms by Lyn and Arjun sitting on the fuel tank. God always gave us enough; in the year 1988 I was sent to Spain on duty and I returned with enough money to buy a car. Good bye, donkey. He went for 3500 rupees. All of us were saddened to see him go and the children even cried. I took solace in Sahir Ludhianvi’s lyrics:

[lineate]Jiyo to aise jiyo jaise sab tumhaara hai;[/lineate] [lineate]maro to aise ke jaise tumhaara kuchh bhi nahin.[/lineate]

(Live in such a way as if everything belongs to you; but die as with nothing belonging to you)

During our days there used to be a song by Trini Lopez with the title: ‘What have I got of my own?’ In the end, life and particularly life in the navy with its frequent transfers has taught me how true are these words:

https://youtube.com/watch?v=ICeHLkaolyI%3Ffs%3D1

Then there was this playpen we got for Arjun. He was never alone there; he was there with his cat and toys. It was large, painted lavender and Lyn even made a mosquito-net for it. The front side could be slid down for helping the baby in and out and, though large, it even had wheels to move it around. Arjun used to love being inside it; the problem was that Lyn and I hadn’t made peace about not having him with us on our own bed. The Friday movies on the doordarshan and Benjamin Spock had prompted us to spend Rupees 1000 in getting this cot cum playpen. Arjun, in the vein of most babies who won’t be neglected, knew when exactly to wail endlessly during our watching the movie on doordarshan that used to start at 7:30 PM. Once evening, when a repeat of Rajesh Khanna’s Anand was to be aired, we planned to play with him in the afternoons so much so that at the appointed hour, Arjun would be fast asleep in the cot-cum-playpen. The movie began and we watched about 30 minutes of it without any interruptions from Arjun. However, both of us knew that our minds were elsewhere. Finally, I uttered what Lyn wanted to hear all the while, “Go and get Arjun; it is no fun watching the movie without him keeping us from watching it.” We moved to Delhi in 1987 and the cot went with us. Arun couldn’t use it initially because we didn’t have a house; we lived in one room with all our baggage lying around us in unopened boxes. When we finally got a big enough house to open the cot-cum-playpen for Arun, it was time for posting; this time for undergoing Staff Course in Coonoor (Nilgiris). We finally had to give it away without Arun using it much. However, we still wistfully remember the fun it used to be to put first Arjun and then Arun there in the first world that was entirely their own:

In the meantime, when it wasn’t possible to open the cot, we had to buy a smaller one for the smaller one. Lo and behold, even the elder one used to like me taking them for a ride in this cot-cum-pram-cum-swing (it had a stand from where it could be hung and the baby rocked to sleep). This was even greater fun for them than the playpen since they could put their toys in it and push it around the house. It was sad to see it go. But, then the relief was that the children didn’t require it anymore.

What a lot of fun they had on this cycle for a few years. Arjun felt like a big boy taking his younger brother around and telling him reassuringly, “Don’t worry; I am a safe driver”.

It was nice to see Arjun grow into a boy on this cycle from an infant. But, our heart was in our mouths when we had to give it away:

I remember giving away my complete collection of Hemant Kumar’s songs on audio cassettes, my PG Wodehouse Books, my collection of Readers Digests, flower pots that had started looking deliciously verdant just when the transfer orders came, photo frames and even paintings each one of those had a story to tell. Would the new owner have guessed how much we paid in terms of minutes of our lives (and not money) in maintaining them, cherishing them and looking after them?

Curiously, there were also things that we didn’t feel a thing about losing; electronic stuff, eg, music systems, televisions, fridges, clothes, shoes and the like. This only goes to prove that things acquire life of their own because of priceless memories attached to them and not because of their money-value. I still miss our first telly: Dyanora 14″ B&W portable, though.

The other day I read a story by a fellow blogger Anupam Patra who writes very imaginatively. In the story a man gave away his eyes to his killer’s son. That got me thinking how can giving away anything inanimate be so hard or difficult?

As Elton John sang in ‘Talking Old Soldiers’:

[lineate]Just ignore all the others;[/lineate] [lineate]you got your memories….[/lineate]

Finally, the pictures – both in the sepia and on the mind’s screen – are still with me; the memories are never given away. I can still relive even my own childhood without any of the material things associated with it let alone that of my children.

Mujhe ab bhi yaad hai kitana ameer tha main…..jab paani mein mere jahaz chalte the (I still remember how rich I was then….when my ships used to ply in the waters):

GODS MUST BE CRAZY

[lineate]
She was black
And fast and feline
“Stop” I screamed,
“Don’t cross and spoil my day”.
She heard me
Looked at me innocently
And stopped as if rooted.
“Now what?” her shining eyes seemed to ask.
“Don’t you remember”, I asked her,
“The first time you cast your spell,
It augured ill for me
I nearly failed in my exam.”
[/lineate]
 
[lineate]
She cooed sweetly,
They always do.
‘Practised innocence’ I thought.
“And the second time”
I continued, and in response she only sweetly purred,
“I nearly got me killed.”
Her eyes shone
She looked lovely.
[/lineate]
 
[lineate]

Just then a huge dog came
And looked at her menacingly.
She gave me a look
And made a dash
Without sharing any more of her
Looks and thoughts with me.
The dog went after her
In determined chase.
[/lineate]
 
[lineate]
But, what she shared
Was enough for me.
Each one of us have
Survival instinct against all threats
If you ain’t clever, cunning, deceiving
Against the larger dog in your life
You are finished.
[/lineate]
 
[lineate]

A snake is born out of an egg
And left to fend for itself
Without the parents nurturing it even once.
Poison is all that it has to survive.
It is limbless
No hands to ward off danger
No legs to kick and run.
Human beings are born differently,
But, are we really so different?
It is a cat and mouse game:
The survival of the fittest.
[/lineate]
 
P.S. Three days back, a man in Nepal bit a snake to death; angry at having been bitten by the snake.

INDIBLOGGER AND I – REALITY CHECK

I joined Indiblogger about two years back; indeed soon after I started blogging. It, willy-nilly got me in the habit of worrying about the popularity of my site: Alexa rank, Moz rank and ranks higher and better than those in the armed forces (Read ‘Blogging – Race or Stampede’). Today, after I finished 75000 pageviews, I wanted to do a reality check of how much Indiblogger has helped me to stay afloat. I was stunned when I got the results:

  • I put up 145 posts on Indivine.
  • I got 2288 pageviews. This makes it an average of 15.7 pageviews per post.
  • Indibloggers, therefore, accounted for merely 3.05 percent of my total pageviews.

The sober inference that I drew from this confirmed my earlier suspicion that Indiblogger is all about ‘You scratch my back, I scratch yours’. For al practical purposes it is a popularity contest, an election, in which others vote for you with the hope that you’d vote for them too. If, for some reason, you omit to vote for them, that’s the end of their interest in your posts. Imagining and saying that all 2288 pageviews from my fellow bloggers would be for the purpose of reading my posts would really be too much. Just like the Indian democracy, one is happy that others voted; but, whether they voted on issues or otherwise is a moot question.

Courtesy: gillettsggg.blogspot.com

Having said that, I agree with a fellow blogger Jayashree that I discovered some great bloggers through the portal of indiblogger and not many of them were actually having very high on the Indi Rank. Without the indiblogger directory, I won’t have even known that these bloggers existed.

I have this deep desire to connect with the younger writers; to know what ideas they have, their emotions, expressions, aspirations, critiques, likes, dislikes. Here is what my ‘Reality Check’ has brought home to me: most younger people have values, love India, have very fine expression (many times better than mine) and are passionate about writing. As Jayashree predicted, I like their comments even on someone else’s posts. I have to be profoundly thankful to Indiblogger for discovering there are others who like to discover play of words and search for newer ideas.

On the subject of new ides; I must acknowledge that Indiblogger helped me to get interesting ideas from other blogs, some of which were very practical and appealing.

Therefore, I’d still keep posting, still keep searching for newer, better, more ineresting blogs and shall be grateful to Indiblogger that voting or no voting, it is fun being a part of it.

I like Indiblogger motto: I blog; therefore I am. But, the more befitting would be:

I blog; therefore, I discover other blogs and people.

Blogging is a great discovery of not only what lies within me but within other bloggers too.

Congratulations Jayshree for your having got another award: The Liebster Award. Thank you also for passing it on to me. However, as I wrote earlier, I am not into this sort of thing. Since, you asked me to repeat on my blog (what I wrote as a comment on yours in response to your Liebster query about 11 things that I feel would make a happy and fulfilling life), I am doing it now. For the other readers, let me tell you that as soon as the question was put to me by her, I wrote it down (in about ten minutes) as it came and I am reproducing here without any editing:

I don’t know what to say since it is not something that I am used to. Thanks for thinking so high of my blog. I am going to respond to your ‘Eleven things required for a happy and fulfilling life’ without too much of thinking. Here it goes:

#1. Good health. Without this, all others are but impracticable.

#2. Enough. All the money in the world cannot buy it. I have copied this from Joseph Heller’s response to Kurt Vonnegut, when the latter brought out the opulence in a billionaire’s party they were attending. Joseph said, “But, I have something that the b doesn’t have. I have enough.”

#3. Friends. If you are happy without friends, you must be abnormal. A man was nearing hundred and he boasted, “I don’t drink, womanise, smoke, don’t like music and friends….and in a few months time I shall be celebrating my 100th birthday.” At this, one reporter had a simple thing to ask, “How?”

#4. Simplicity. A complicated or complex life is not worth having even if you have tons of it…it weighs on you.

#5. Music. A life without music is…..well, life without music. Music is simply the soul of life.

#6. Imagination. An idiot is the happiest. However, if you can see and perceive beauty in God’s world, in the simplest of things that He or She or even It made, life can e suddenly most enriching, most satisfying.

#7. Ability to Listen. There is no point in having music if you can’t listen, can’t feel. Remember Wordsworth?

“The stars of midnight shall be so dear
For her and she shall lean her ear
In many a secret place:
Where rivulets dance their wayward round,
And beauty born of murmuring sound,
Shall pass into her face.”

#8 Gratefulness. God, (or whosoever you want to thank), thank you for giving me the gift of yet another day, for eyes to see, for ears to listen and for heart to feel.

#9 Love. This is not listed low. It is the essence of all the points above. Life can NEVER be fulfilling if one goes through life without loving. As they say, it is better to have loved and lost than not to have loved at all.

#10 Work. You have to find something that your hands can do: write, row, dig, paint, cook, anything. However, if you are work less, you are sans happiness.

#11 Outreach. If you can’t reach out to people who have less than you, you cannot be happy. There is great happiness in giving. It lessens your burden. As the Bible says, “I lamented I had no shoes until I saw a man who had no feet.”

Jayashree, when I started writing about ten minutes ago, I didn’t even know if I could finish eleven. I am not going to edit or even read back….since the most fulfilling life is one without regrets…I have no regrets that I have missed out many seemingly impressive things from my list.

Unsaid response from Jayashree: Thank you, sunbyanyname; I am glad after all these months you got the spellings of my first name right.

“GIVE THEM MOBILE”

There is hardly anyone who is not familiar with the infamous utterance of Marie Antionette during a famine in France whilst her husband Louis XVI was the monarch. When it was brought to her notice that people didn’t have bread to eat, she responded, “Qu’ils mangent de la brioche” (Let them eat cake).

It is said that this story of the princess is apocryphal and that she didn’t say so. It is said Jean Jacques Rousseau is the one who attributed these words to her in his autobiography ‘Confessions’. However, Queen Sonia Gandhi actually used these words for the poor rural people, knowing pretty well that they don’t have food to eat, “Give them mobile phones”. I am reproducing Kureel Manoj’s cartoon on the subject, which says more than any words:

Courtesy: Kureel Manoj

Here are the facts that I picked up from Wikipedia:

“A study by the Oxford Poverty and Human Development Initiative using a Multi-dimensional Poverty Index (MPI) found that there were 650 million people (53.7% of population) living in poverty in India, of which 340 million people (28.6% of the population) were living in severe poverty, and that a further 198 million people (16.4% of the population) were vulnerable to poverty. A startling 421 million of the poor are concentrated in eight North Indian and East Indian states of Bihar, Chattisgarh, Jharkhand, Madhya Pradesh, Orissa, Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh and West Bengal. This number is higher than the 410 million poor living in the 26 poorest African nations.”

Source: Wikipedia

What’s he use that the UPA wants to put these mobiles to? It is said that giving mobiles to the poor will make government policies to be easily disseminated to them through mass sms. Once again I am reminded of a man trying to sell a transistor radio to a Soviet farmer. The farmer kept resisting it. Finally, the man said, “Look at it this way comrade; with this you can be in any part of USSR and still be able to hear Moscow.” The farmer responded, “No I don’t want it; but do you have something by which Moscow can hear us?”

Why is there so much of disconnect between the people and the government that they choose? I brought it ou in an article on the 2011 Republic Day ‘How Proud Should We Be Of Indian Republic at 62?‘ that we ain’t really a functional democracy. That’s the reason why the above figures from UN 2009 report doesn’t compare well with our “stupendous GDP growth”? Just consider that the richest 10 Indians have 10 percent of GDP between themselves; and the richest 50 Indians have 30 percent of GDP. Politicians are known to have multiplied their income 1100 times in 5 years of their “rule” and decide on ridiculous figures such as Rs. 22 per day to decide whether or not a person is Below Poverty Line. This is a huge challenge. Many government policies such as ‘subsidy’ are meant for the BPL. However, such policies don’t reach their intended targets and funds are siphoned off elsewhere.

Here is an eye-opener about the value of an Indian life:

Infant Mortality Rate is the number of deaths of infants up to one year of age per 1000 live births. Singapore has only 2.60 deaths (average of five years of data released by UN last year) per 1000 whereas India has 60.82. So whilst Singapore is #1 in the world, India at 150 (out of 194 countries) is tucked in between Bangladesh and Ghana ahead of it and Eritrea and Zimbabwe below us. Aamir Khan’s Satyamev Jayate is trying to make us aware of the real problems that are our challenges as opposed to politicians and vested interests telling us that we are nearly there as a super power and hence our people require mobile phones so hat they can be educated about the “glorious achievements” of the governments in India since independence.

As the elections draw closer, such doles from the “rulers” in exercise of their “powers” shall become more and more frequent. I don’t suppose following would then be beyond the scope of the government and the other parties.

Party A Man: Sir, Sonia ji is thinking of giving mobile phones to the rural population. This would be of great disadvantage to us because hey would be smsing the government campaign in the garb of educating people all the while.

Party A Boss: If I were you I won worry about that too much. Phones need to be charged periodically. Fortunately there is no electricity in the villages and hence people won’t be able to use them.

Party A Man: But Sir, we should have a Plan ready of our own. People are fed up of receiving blankets, sarees, TV sets and bicycles jus before the elections. We must promise them something different. Chandarbabu Naidu even distributed the CDs of his government’s glorious achievements.

Party A Boss: Let me think; how about giving them one year free subscription to our latest magazine ‘Hoodwinking People All The Time’; or two free tickets to Canary Islands or Isle of Man?

Party A Man: Brilliant Sir; to a select few, eg, the Panchayats etc we can even give cars. They won’t be able to use them like UPA’s mobiles because hey don’t have roads and buying even a litre of fuel would make them jump above the Poverty Line and hence ineligible for retaining the cars.

Elsewhere:

Party B Boss: Have you come up with a suitable counter to UPA’s mobile policy.

Party B Worker: Yes saar; we intend to promise the people Induction Cookers and Neon Signs to put in each village announcing our party’s new policies.

Party B Boss: You will have to give them gensets too to run these on.

Truly, it is going to be a challenge to win the elections by average candidates in view of high-tech gizmos being offered to the common man by the “rich” parties. One party is even thinking of offering people downloadable video on ‘Exotic Recipes for the Common Man’.

The people’s goose is almost cooked.

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