A Tale of Two Lakes
On a dry, sunny afternoon, the sun blazed its countless rays down, relentless. An unlikely brown lake received them in all joy, letting them sparkle like countless pearls on her surface, relentless. The silence was pervasive and persuasisve; neither did the goats dare tread hard nor did the leaves muster courage to fall. Seemingly telling us, one need not even whisper to feel alive.
While…
… at the lake-formerly-known-as-hessarghatta, desperate fishermen scavenge puddles of water for the next morsel of livelihood. Where water lay till the eyes could see, now lies barren green-and-brown stretches of land, like a mammoth unused cricket ground. Here too was silence, but the kind that asks questions of you. Is it the delayed monsoon? Or, is it sand-mining? Is it the excessive fishing? Or, is it climate-change?
High Hopes and Super Size Me
A delightfully charming and sardonic take on the English middle-class life in the Thatcher 80s, High Hopes struck some rare and personal chords of connection. The acting is top-notch, the script is water-tight and the direction is radical. Apparently, the director, Mike Leigh, delves deeply into character development, letting the characters evolve naturally over weeks. The effort effortlessly shows in the movie.
A documentary in the genre of Michael Moore’s, Super Size Me depicts the drastic effects of binging on fast-food for a month. Taking off from the legal suits against McDonald’s in the US for causing obesity, Morgan Spurlock, the director, goes on an all McD diet to test the effects for himself. In between, he criss-crosses across US, providing us an insight into the American eating habits and some of the information nuggets leave you shocked. For e.g., there is a lobby (in US, what is there not a lobby for!) that has ensured packaged, re-heated fast-food is served in many schools. Some of the kids are shown having just fries and coke for lunch. While in all such documentaries, you discount the biases, it will be some time before I’ll be reaching for a McD burger.
To wake you on a lazy weekend morning
Bilqis – Rabbi Shergill (2008)
Mera naam Bilqis Yakub Rasool
Mujhse hui bas ek hi bhool
Ki jab dhhundhhte thhe vo Ram ko
To maen kharhi thhi rah mein
Pehle ek ne puchha na mujhe kuchh pata thha
Dujey ko bhi mera yehi javab thha
Fir itno ne puchha ki mera ab saval hai ki
Jinhe naaz hai hind par vo kahan the
Jinhe naaz hai vo kahan hain
Mera naam shriman Satyendra Dubey
Jo kehna thha vo keh chukey
Ab parhey hain rah mein
Dil mein liye ik goli
Bas itna kasur ki hamne likha thha
Vo sach jo har kisi ki zuban thha
Par sach yahan ho jatey hain zahriley
Jinhe naaz hai hind par vo kahan the
Jinhe naaz hai vo kahan hain
Mujhe kehte hain anna Manjunath
Maine dekhi bhatakti ek laash
Zamir ki beech sarhak Lakhimpur Kherhi
Adarsh phasan jahan naaron mein
Aur chor bharey darbaron mein
Vahan maut akhlaq ki hai ik khabar baasi
Jinhe naaz hai hind par vo kahan hain
Jinhe naaz hai vo kahan hain
Mazha nau aahe Navleen Kumar
Unnees june unnees var
Unnees unnees unnees unnees
Unnees vaar
Unnees unnees unnees unnees
Unnees unnees unnees unnees
Unnees unnees unnees unnees
Unnees vaar
Looto dehaat kholo bazaar
Nallasopara aur Virar
Chheeno zameen hamse hamein
Bhejo pataal
Jinhe naaz hai hind par vo kahan hain
Jinhe naaz hai vo kahan hain
Indeed, vo kahan hai?
Check one of the best Indian singles in recent years. The most telling part of the song is right at the end. Civil rights and activism in India is abysmally lacking. And no, it is not okay to say it is “relatively better” than Sub-saharan Africa/Middle East countries.
CW’s War and Angels & Demons
A not-so-gripping account of the US machinations to support the war against the Soviets in Afghanistan. Charlie Wilson, an important US Senator, is convinced the US should release funds and wage a proxy cold war through Pakistan. It is interesting the movie was released now, two decades after the first Afghan war and to find the US waging a very real war against the same Mujahideen it pumped billions of dollars of weapons to. For a man who supposedly was moved to act after seeing the plight of the Afghan people, Charlie Wilson did precious little once the war ended to set things right. The movie does show him advocating for aid to rebuild Afghanistan, towards the end, but I doubt the sincerity behind that effort.
I watched a movie at the cinemas after a long time and A&D was bang for the buck . Entertaining, replete with terrific sound and visual effects, including some breath-taking views of the Vatican city, A&D continues to build on the purported mysteries and myths within Catholicism of ‘The Da Vinci Code’. A&D has similar ingredients – cracking codes, puzzles, messages, secret societies and scheming individuals. The twists in the tale themselves were pretty good, considering the overall lack of any cinematic memories to carry from this movie. I am just glad I spent two hours and half the money to watch the cinematic version than to have spent twice that amount to read what can only be a mediocre thriller.
And all the joy within you dies
three nights ago
under a fading moon
sailed my friend and his mentor
‘why are we here?’
inquired my friend
‘to talk and to hear’
smiled the mentor, asking
‘how are you?’
‘hollow, sir
i read, none the more wiser
i talk, to no one’s gain
i know
no small thrills
no little joys
no tiny fears
fond of others,
not loving
logical and sharp,
i cut others to size
i wake up
to sleep
i sleep
hoping not to wake up
i understand
without sympathy
i understand
without pathos
i follow
refusing to lead
i proclaim
unwilling to be told
i am the king
of all that i command
yet i command little
but for two shoes
and a vest’
so despaired,
so despaired
my friend.
the mentor,
grave as the night
responded
‘how we wonder about death
in our curious years,
obsessing over its mysteries,
asking how is it everyone,
every one of us
faces death whenever
it dawns?
yet age and time
readies you for it,
for what is not
a man like you,
if not dying?
my friend,
you
no longer
have the romance
in your heart
the spark that lights
your day
has faded
and so has the life
within your soul
a man devoid of romance
is a man dead, my friend’
Kumble nails it
The RCB skipper inputs a key strategic plan that would have done lot of other last-over chokers good in the IPL:
“As it is, whenever we chase, we make it a point not to go into the 20th over. When we are chasing a smallish total, we try and think of the 18th as the last over and when the target is bigger, we aim at finishing the game in the 19th, giving us some sort of a cushion. That message was also sent across as a reminder at the strategic break”
T20 games involve a lot of pressure-cooker situations and nothing can make it worse than taking the game to the last over. By ensuring a six-ball buffer, you effectively negate it out. Exciting? No. Clinical? Yes.
A country gets the government it deserves
Elections 09 ended with a resounding win for the Congress-led UPA. There has been clamour in my (intellectual) neighbourhood, signalling disappointment at BJP’s dismal performance. Few have ‘condemned’ India for another five years with statements on how ‘uninformed’ voters have led the country into a downward spiral. I am thrilled, on the other hand, that the present-BJP is nowhere close to any kind of power at the centre.
My grouse against the BJP run into many dozens. My two cents here:
1. Communalism – A party that blatantly and openly approves of intolerance for other religions can never be broad-based to take the whole country forward. Their existence, and hence, interest will depend on keeping the minorities at bay and suppressed. And, we have already seen with SIMI and IM that no good can come out of suppresison. A frequent line of argument to support BJP has been that the ‘pandering’ of minorities will only empower them and how the ‘islamic’ rate of population growth is a cause for conern. One only has to read the Sachar committee’s recommendations to banish themselves of irrational fears and understand the daily difficulties the minorities work with.
2. Leadership Bankruptcy – Apart from Arun Jaitley, there is not one leader of note in the safforn party who can stitch together two streams of thought, or even worse, articulate anything that is worthy. There is a clear absence of thought leadership in the party, visible throughout the two-month campaign. All their speeches tried to only belittle the previous government with scant mention of plans for their government, sans a few notes on the IT-sector.
3. Urbane-ness – India continues to be a nation of the rural and will be so for the many decades to come. Rural India encounters problems that are vastly different from their urban counterparts, solutions for which have to be now and here. NREGS and the loan-waiver schemes were hallmarks of such solutions. The latter, an economic waterloo and the former, an implementor’s nightmare. Divestment, Mandir and Uniform civil code does not matter to over 70% of the populace. My own (little) experience tells me that caste, and not religion, is much more deeply entrenched in rural India. It really does not matter to a farmer if a temple is built at Ayodhya or not. He is only worried about his upcoming crop and the debts he has to repay. So, is loan-waiver the best way to help him? May be not, but it was a political master-stroke.
4. Image Reality – My dad, a (an erstwhile, hopefully) BJP supporter, liked to go on about the ‘clean’ image his party enjoyed and how it was filled with incorrputible persons. The truth cannot be further than this. ADR’s latest press release summarizes the ground reality – politics in India is universally murky across parties. In fact, if you consider percentage of the total MPs elected, BJP has a much higher percentage of MPs with criminal background than any other political party in the country. In Karnataka alone, the party has been as political as any other, with various defection-engineering schemes executed successfully to tempt legislators from other parties to joining the BJP. The point being BJP is as political, clean and honest (or not) as any other political party in the country.
Frankly, I am excited about the UPA because of the promise it holds. Cynical, experienced old-hands might balk at my naivette but I see much potential for things to happen with the kind of likely ministers in the cabinet – Tharoor, Jairam Ramesh, Scindia Junior, Pilot Jr., PC and MMS himself. The initial statements on the economy, the cabinet structure and polity sounds encouraging and promising. I only hope the promises are lived up to.
Sa Jie and Pelican Brief
A regular legal potboiler minus all the thrills of Runaway Jury or the intensity of Erin Brokovich. Denzel Washington shines though, with his assured presence throughout the movie.
A lyrical romantic spy-movie set against the backdrop of the eastern theater of WWII. The lead actress, Tang Wei, is riveting in her role as an amateur spy who has the unenviable task of seducing a very shrewd and paranoid enemy. She eventually falls in love with him, tying up the movie in a dilemmatic and tragic end.
Images Courtesy:http://en.wikipedia.org/
Start-ups and Small Organizatons
I remember reading somewhere that stated one shouldn’t work for a start-up unless a part of the founding team.
It is a golden rule to follow. I would stretch it to include small organizations that have yet to transform into a process-driven structure. The biggest thing going for a small, growing entity is the constant state of excitement and challenges employees get to be a part of. The challenges are enjoyable as long as they have a fair degree of control over tackling them and tapping new opportunities.
The biggest leap of faith for the founders to cross is the art of delegation. Depending on how small or large is the power of delegation, employees will tend to be either inefficiently used or lack direction. This is, in my view, the most difficult and critical leadership skill. It is what separates the great, big organizations from the myriad number of small and medium-sized entities.
Before the founders reach this part of the curve, the tendency is for decisions, strategic and operational, to be taken by a set of individuals, arbitrarily and informally. Without a set process, there is redundancy with the group having to decide on similar points repeatedly. If the organization is lean, this can still be managed. But, once it grows beyond a critical mass, the employees further down the organizational chain leave decisions to higher-ups and/or are left confused on the organizational growth path. This structure also breeds sycophancy of types subtle to the obvious since decision centers are individualized rather than consensus-based.
Contradictions
Two ongoing theatres of conflict in the neighbourhood depict the contradictions the government has to straddle. The government lodged an official protest on the imposition of the Jazia on the Sikhs in Pakistan. The government also claims to be pressurizing the Lankan government to stop attacks on Tamil civilians trapped in LTTE-held territory in Sri Lanka.
Note the views expressed by the gentleman, also voiced by many others in TN about the role of government in what is essentially a civil war. As a policy, I believe, that citizens present in all democractically elected countries are first and foremost citizens of that country with ethnicity and religion rendered subordinate to citizenship. Therefore, the government of any other country has no business in interfering in the internal matters of another country, be it any outrage against the communities. The Pakistan government, rightly, dismissed misplaced Indian concerns. As a foriegn government, the Indian government can, both in Sri Lanka and Pakistan, should restrict itself to condemning attacks against innocent civilians, instead of selectively picking biased causes.
Taxing private transport
I often use public transport to stop tearing my hair apart navigating Bangalore’s wretched traffic. I believe the crux of Bangalore’s infrastructure woes stem from an uncontrolled surge in ownership of private vehicles, partly due to the poor public transport system and party due to the sudden increase of wealth in the urban middle class. This has imposed a heavy strain on the road system that has led to a slew of short-sighted measures such as one-way lanes, flyovers, under-bridges and widening of roads, often by chopping down trees that serve as lungs of the city.
One of the ways in which some countries, such as Singapore have circumvented the problem is by introducing a punitively high duty (as high as 100%) on purchase of private automobiles. This measure cuts off the problem right at the source by ensuring, maybe a bit autocratically, private vehicles are out of the majority’s reach.
Another way in which this can be done is by by imposing a heavy tax on commercial fuel. The tax, similar to the ownership tax, has to be high enough to deter customers from using their vehicle. While preventing the usage, the measure still provides you with the flexibility of owning and using the car selectively. This data, compiled in Oct 2008, shows that Singapore seems to have imposed a fuel tax too, in addition to the ownership tax. India, as can be seen, has one of the cheapest prices for vehicle fuel, apart the Arab and quasi-Arab (US and Canada) countries. Even more interesting is that fuel price in India is one of the most convoluted figures floating around. It is a complex amalgamation of subsidies and layers of taxes that ensure no one, including the government, I suspect, is sure of the economic impact a paise-rise in fuel price has.
Clearly, subsidies for petrol and diesel have to go to ensure oil companies do not bleed and that they reflect market trends realistically. Secondly, forget subsidies, the government should actually tax fuel sold through all commercial outlets to discourage private transport. Fuel for public transport should be sold only through depot outlets (which already happens). Commercial vehicles too can be provided tax-free fuel but I suspect this will lead to hoarding and black-marketeering.
But, this is easier said than done because it is slightly like bolting the stables after the horses have fled. The automobile industry has grown to mammoth proportions now with a lobby strong enough to affect policies. I doubt if it will go through easily but it must be introduced to solve urban traffic quagmires soon. This will deter private ownership, increase demand for better public transport and automatically improve the existing systems. Solutions of the supply side that include providing better public transport (like the Volvo buses in Bangalore) are prone to be not used as long as customers are not incentivized to switch from existing systems. I think it is criminal that I can choose to drive a four-seater car for a nominal cost, taking up precious road space and contributing to traffic quagmires when there is an alternative available.
Voter Turnout
Elections in India are strange. The one demographic that makes the most noise is the one that votes the least ( 44.73% in Bangalore South, for instance). Disappointing as it is, what with all the talk about voter activism, the apathy is well entrenched.
The other reason, I believe, for the low turn-out is the difficulty in getting to actually cast your vote. Every eligible voter is assigned to a polling booth and has to apply to be registered as a voter. Moreover, if you have moved in to a location within the last six months, you have no chance of voting at your new address. At least three people I know were not allowed to cast their votes because they had moved to a new city recently.
A possible solution is to allow anyone to vote in any part of the country as long as they have a valid ID and an address proof that proves he/she is an Indian resident. After all, the place one is currently staying in is what matters most. It will allow the swathes of migrant populations an opportunity to cast their votes.
While house-hunting
We met a gregarious lady who was keen to let us feel like we are at home. The bucket of mopey talk quickly overflowed. Before we knew, the conversation proceeded to:
Lady: So, you got married last year?
Us: Ye..
Lady (interrupting): What about children? (grinning like a cheshire cat now)
Us: Err.. not now
Lady: No, no. You should not do all this birth-control and all. If it happens naturally, it should. All these medicines and other ’stuff’, you shouldn’t use.
I, at this time, was desperately wishing I was outside. Both of us (me and the partner) quickly finished the niceties and scooted out. My partner, whispering urgently, ‘cupboard!cupboard’. I nodded my head in vigorous agreement.
PS: Cupboard is the crypt-word to utter when either of us doesn’t like the house we are seeing.
PPS: In all fairness, she was a genuinely nice lady, who just happens to consider everyone family.
In Bruges
Image Courtesy: aarkangel.wordpress.com
Brilliant comedy, dark at times, that does not have to try hard to spring surprises. A rare setting, unusual characters (namely, dwarves, principled assasins and hoteliers and a short-fused ticket-issuer) and number of unlikely images, such as the racist midget (sorry, dwarf), high on coke, sitting with two prostitutes, two men and discussing a world war between the blacks and whites.
Children of Men
Image Courtesy: http://blogs.tnr.com
Wayward movie that could have been much more, with a unique, meaty concept and a notable performance by Clive Owen
Read
Image Courtesy: www.amazon.com
An easy-to-read and entertaining account of India’s history, as titled, after Mahatma Gandhi. Veering his attention more towards the Nehru years, and with not-so-hidden admiration for the first PM, Ram Guha provides fascinating accounts on formation of the states, linguistic divisions and the mammoth exercises that were the elections. What stands out is the threads that Guha ties up across chapters and even, sections of the book. The thorny Kashmir issue, for example, veers between resolution, internal strife and wars under the stewardship of many PMs. Other topics, though not insightful, are interesting to read including the ultra-socialist tilt under Indira Gandhi, hesitant governance under Rajiv and the degeneration of leaders into politicians. Highlights of the latter include the blatant infighting among the JP leadership, post 1977, and the emergence of caste-based votebank farming under the Yadavs.
All in all, an entertaining read on recent Indian history, literature on which appears seemingly scarce.
burden
what is this burden
we carry
of our guilty past
actions ugly
let through
by the unseen hand
and the seen
Vile bonds
we inherit
Wretched new ones
we choose
by make or break
saddled by the deeds
of times this birth
and the previous?
the onus of which
leaves us,
standing
naked
Helpless
and a bag of excuses
facing one and all
Ashamed
and like a speck of crap
facing that
eternal friend
we call
conscience
It is getting dark. Turn off the right
In the past year, things around the world have decidedly taken a turn for the right and hence, for the worse. The right being, in this case, the politically conservative and economically lassiez-faire groups around the world.
Firstly, lessons are being learnt slower in the U.S than in a class filled with clan members of George W Bush. The debts are still increasing, conscience-less companies are still wallowing in payouts and the taxpayer continues to get screwed. As the President stands helpless, with his pleas going unheard, loss-making corporates are in a race with each other to give out the most bonuses in one of the worst financial years. Amidst all this chaos, you still hear the slow-witted Republicans clamouring for tax breaks for the rich and corporates as their simplistic mantra. The conservative Republicans continue to advocate scant government intervention, even as thousands in U.S and elsewhere lose their jobs every day. It almost is relieving to note that we have stuck to strong (but sometimes inefficient) regulations, ensuring no runaway disasters like the one unfolding in the capitalist world.
But, the relief lasts only for a moment. The right-wing polity in India works much differently than the right polity in other countries, albeit much more dangerously. Though economically, they still operate (or try to, in any case) as a populist leftist party (e.g. loans at 4%, advocacy of ’swadeshi’ indigenous goods), they occupy the fanatical right-wing space in the political spectrum. In a country that has more languages, religions and castes than you can care to remember, any occupation of this space by anyone is a sure-shot recipe towards disaster. In the last decade, we have witnessed a surge of support for communalistic parties, aided by increased prevalence of terror attacks. There have been a number of incidents that have left no doubt in my head at least on the path we will be led to if we are to have a rule under the “protective and strong” iron-hand of a communal party. The few shards of hypocrisy that were clad earlier in the guise of a promise of a secular country are being shed unashamedly to reveal the naked and ugly underbelly of religious right in India. What the underbelly shows is this – a fascist society with dubious promises of “protecting the culture” wherein protection = giving a free-hand to goons to clam up whatever they disagree with and culture = everyone has to live under a code of conduct as specified by the government. It also goes on to further promise that only certain classes of the population are to knighted as the saviours of the country, with rest of the populace subservient to these benighted few. Whatever questions may one have had in the past about the true and long-term intentions of communalistic parties, behind the foggy promises of a secure and safe nation, those have now been unequivocally answered. The path down this road is an unending one. It is so because once a particular community has achieved monopolistic dominance, the right-wingers will need to create a new space to fill in the void and will create a new villian to once again “launch a war” to protect the “culture and the nation”. Cylce repeats Ad nauseum.
The right-wing polity is surely a confused and misled group in India. With contradictory objectives, one is not sure where exactly to place them. While the right-wing in the West is actually ultra-liberal and Ayn Randian when it comes to individual liberties, in India it is the opposite. Likewise, the right-wing in the West is decidely pro-big-corporates and will wish for them to run even the country, the right in India is confused about privatization.
It is one thing to sit back and watch confused fools hit into each other but it is a whole lot serious when they start talking and walking about managing the country in the same way. Quite simply, it should not happen.
I am strongly opposed to the power, if not the existence, of right-wingers in the political space. The unfortunate truth is that I can never wish them away because they successfully continue to feed on individual insecurities to create a space for themselves world-wide. I can only advocate strongly against their rise to power and not vote for their presence in my government. May be you should too.
