Tum Chalo To Hindustan Chale....

The Lead India initiative (the title is their tag line) of the Times of India group is perhaps just the thing that India needed in these turbulent times. Our political system, never the most reliable and credible of alternatives, has denigrated even further to unimaginable depths. The administrative systems continue to trudge along at their own pace, unmindful of the actual needs and requirements of the nation.

And somewhere in all this, the common man, the individual is stuck. He wants change, he wants improvement in the way he leads his life. But he is unwilling to do anything about it on his own. He is content to just wipe the sweat of his brow, to complain about the sad state of affairs, and if things are really bad, then even curse and condemn the nation.

The Indian polity was never about the individual. Society always has been at the crux of everything. To say the truth, this is the case with every society, so why condemn India? I do not condemn India as much as I fault Indians for her sad plight.

We won our freedom not because the masses were behind the idea. We won it because there were individuals who felt that their lives were unbearable and that something needed to be done about it.

In the post-independence period, with its heavy emphasis on socialism, which was good in one way, I feel individualism was stifled. Society matters, but what matters more is the leadership that guides society, and that doesn't come from the mass; it comes from individuals, from single people, who have a dream, who have a will, and most of all, who have the courage to bring that vision to fruition. Our single minded attention to the public good without care or concern for the leaders who are to create that good has brought us to this stage.

And so this initiative is commendable. The video below is the official anthem of the initiative and exemplifies the angst of the Indian people, and yet tells the people, "Enough of your sighing and crying, stop your endless complaining and whining. Get up and do something about whatever it is that bothers you. Don't worry; the world will follow you if you are in the right."

So when are you doing something to change this country's perception of itself?

Musings....

Sometimes you love someone with all your heart. You love her so much that you fear losing her company; that you never want her out of your sight. Every day, when you see her, you realize ever so much just how much you love her, and yearn to love her even more so. Her mere sight makes the sun shine ever so brighter; her laughter is like birds chirping in mirth; her eyes like jewels sparkling in the soft moonlight. You want to pamper her, hold her in your embrace for all time, to kiss her sweet brow and just caress her soft tresses, to blow away the locks which fall on her blushing cheeks, to watch her nose wrinkle up o so sweetly when she laughs.

And yet you fear that she might shrink away from so much love. Love is a strange thing. When it isn’t there, it’s like a vacuum, painless, your body numb to any overtures and sensations. And yet when it’s there, it’s like a tornado of emotions, just wanting to destroy all semblance of normalcy, to make you mad and insatiable for affection. And that is a scary moment for anyone. Anyone could feel suffocated in such torrid environs, and yet one hopes that one’s love is strong enough to overcome such a sensation of reluctance.

Image: Rodin's "The Thinker"

I await....

Once in a while, we await some things more than anything ever imaginable. Sometimes, we just want time to pass ever so fast so that we may encounter some distant joy, that we may finally come to enjoy what we most wish to happen.

There are many things that I await. I await the onset of the monsoon, with the sweet smell of the earth with the first showers, with the cold breezes that blow in from the sea, and the cuppa of hot coffee that I can enjoy sitting in my veranda. I wait for the summer for all the ice-creams and cold stuff that I can partake of, for all the mangoes that I get to relish, for the family vacation to distant places. I await the autumn, for Diwali, for fireworks, for goodies and sweets and all other savouries, for the softly cooling down of the air, for the mildly musty smell of last year’s woollens. And I await the winter, for the coldness in the air, the warmth of my blanket, the sweet slumber of the night, and the celebration of the Year. I await the beginning of the month for the chance to go to the local book store and buy the month’s supply of books.

I would await my results when in school and college, wanting to know whether I did as bad as I thought, or by some miracle, I had managed to pass. I would await the beginning of a new semester, for the chance to meet up with friends, to rejuvenate slumbering acquaintances, to realize how much we care for each other. (Even now I await Mondays more than Fridays. I am no workaholic; just that I miss my friends over the weekends.)

What do you wait for?

He Wishes for The Cloths of Heaven....

Had I the heavens’ embroidered cloths,
Inwrought with golden and silver light,
The blue and the dim and the dark cloths
Of night and light and the half-light,
I would spread the cloths under your feet:
But I, being poor, have only my dreams;
I have spread my dreams under your feet;
Tread softly because you tread on my dreams.

- W.B. Yeats

Image courtesy: Links2Love

Counting down....

Just one more day left before the big one. Just 37 hours before one finally faces one’s fears. While I am relaxed in the thought that this isn’t the beginning of the end for anything, it surely would the end of the beginning of my attempt to get into a management school this year. The previous statement could be misread to imply that the battle has been conceded before firing even a single shot. Au contraire, I just wish to say that on the 18th will be decided whether I am prepared enough to be called upon by some of the most illustrious management schools of the country this year. So, to Fate, and to Fortune! :)

P.S.: This isn't the only test that I am giving, so the Fates may smile someplace, if not here, though if they smile here, I would be most glad (who wouldn't?).

Where is the will of the commune....?

The Nandigram incident just doesn’t seem like it’s ever going to get over. More than eight months have passed, but the flames are just as hot, and the violence simply refuses to abate. The cadres of the ruling Communist Front government in West Bengal and the resisting Nandigram locals have been involved in a horrific ‘war’, to use the term in its most deplorable manner, which has caused the deaths of countless innocents, deprivation of the most basic forms of justice and law, and more than anything, has perhaps demonstrated the high-handed approach of the State towards its denizens.

The SEZ at Nandigram may be a harbinger of development, of the progress that has so far eluded the state of West Bengal, is all fine, but the people responsible for this sad state of affairs are not the common people of the state, who stand the risk of being asked to surrender productive agricultural land to industrialists; rather the ruling Communists, who have held the reins of power for the last 30 years are the worst culprits in this entire drama. They, by their intransigence, ensured that West Bengal was never perceived as a region of stable industrial growth, and in the process, ensured that the people remained poor and deprived, and hence dependent on the mindless political machinations of the Communists.

I have never found the Communists to be a reasonable crowd, and to those who should read this blog, this may appear to cloud or even prejudice my views on this issue. But the point is that the Communists could not have made a bigger mess of what was essentially a simple case to handle. The Communists often vaunt themselves as the guardians of the people, as the protectors of the weak and the downtrodden. I fail to see how compelling a group of individuals to surrender their livelihood is equivalent to protecting their rights. But then the Communists believe in the creed of ‘the commune before the individual’. And perhaps that creed has now been extended to ‘the party before the commune, the commune before the individual, and the individual before no one’.

Which in itself won't be a new thing, considering the forced migrations of Stalin's time, and the other expulsions in other Communist establishments. It isn't as if non-communist governments do not indulge in these acts, but then they don't parade themselves as the establishment of the proletariat, do they?

That CPI (M) cadres prevented the entry of the CRPF forces dispatched to maintain peace in Nandigram is a most deplorable and most reprehensible act, and surely warrants censuring the party concerned. Don’t tell us that this was a simultaneous act of expression; the Communists often have had us believe that nothing in their organization is ever simultaneous; they think out everything, discuss everything and only then act. So if the CPI(M) cadres are out, rampaging on the streets of Nandigram, then I hold the CPI(M) to be responsible, and by extension, the incumbent government of West Bengal.

The Congress curses and heaps with opprobrium the government of Gujarat, and only their lack of a significantly large majority in Parliament prevents them from dismissing it. But I am shocked at their silence at the carnage of Nandigram. Perhaps, the faults of an ally are permissible, but that of an enemy never so, no matter even if the faults of both are comparable. I am not an apologist for Mr. Modi, for I find his brand of politics to be equally reprehensible and abominable. But I implore upon people: at least, be unequivocal on what constitutes an abomination.

The Communists are losing their grip over what they had come to believe was their personal fiefdom. These acts of wanton disregard for the people will ultimately serve as their swansong, their last futile attempts at snatching victory from the jaws of defeat.

Beyond the pale...

Marcus Aurelius, the great Roman Emperor, and perhaps the last Philosopher King to grace the earth, says in his Meditations,

“He who fears death either fears the loss of sensation or a different kind of sensation. But if you shall have no sensation, neither will you feel any harm; and if you shall acquire another kind of sensation, you will be a different kind of living being and you will not cease to live.”

Indeed, death, in its most raw form, is something that mystifies, yet terrifies, all who should bother to think of it. To be mystified, that is an admirable quality, for Descartes has said “I think, so I exist”, so evidently illustrating that the ability to think, to imagine, to question why things were the way they were, is the supreme mark of a living and sentient being. The two words, though seemingly related, and in truth very synonymous, are yet very distinct in each other. We all live, we live amongst the billions of insects, animals, birds, fishes, etc., and yet what is it that distinguishes us from them? To those who would retort a brain that can think and distinguish between right and wrong, I would gainsay, for even these beings possess this ability, and often they are seen to use it better than what most humans can be credited with. I feel, and this remains my own opinion, that the real strength that humanity possesses within it that makes it so different from the rest is its ability to think and ponder over why the pattern of life is just so.

Descartes says that if you would be a real seeker after truth, it is necessary that at least once in your life you doubt, as far as possible, all things. If you do not care to query, then God denies you the right to call yourself a sentient being, although you are alive. A few may demur, that after all to live is to sense, and if I am to be deemed alive, it is but obvious that I am sentient. It isn’t so. Just to breathe isn’t the same as to celebrate the wonder that is the human respiratory system, to feel the sense of touch isn’t the same as to stand in awe at the miracle that is the nervous structure, to see isn’t the same as to bow down before the great marvel that transforms mere sight to the grandeur that is vision. Most of us take our lives so much for granted, that we simply forget to honour the spectacles that we see everyday. Only when a marvel is blemished by doubt, and I use the word here very specifically, does its wondrous nature become even more evident.

I started out with Marcus Aurelius and his thoughts on death, and have throughout the last few paragraphs, stated why being sentient is more important than just being alive. And yet, Marcus Aurelius was dismissive of death being viewed as a possible conqueror of the senses or the giver of new sensations. For, in Marcus’s words, if death is to take away your senses, then what is pain to you? Whence your senses desert you in life, whilst you still breathe, if you feel no compassion, no fear, no emotion, then why the morbid fear of death, which grants you the same “feeling”?

The beginning of the end, or the end of the beginning....?

So the cookie finally crumbled. A most excellent opportunity for the Indian National Congress to demonstrate once and for all that they are a people who will gladly give up power for the sake of their principles, has been whittled away into another episode of the Congress’s spinelessness. I have no regard for the Communist bloc; frankly, they may have good ideas, but their manner of presenting them just puts me off. That they have secured their highest-ever quanta of seats in Parliament shouldn’t have lead them to start believing that the country is ready for a Communist Revolution; rather, it is more like a swansong now.

Energy and development have never before been as closely related as now. While I am not exactly a die-hard fan of nuclear energy, it is an option that is available, which is somewhat cleaner than thermal energy (which forms the mainstay of India’s energy policy till date), and offers plenty of scope for sustainable development. The Indian State has frankly not been very proactive in investigating clean sources of energy, as also energy options which will enable us to become independent of blocs of crazed tyrants. It would seem that we are still stuck in an age when oil, gas, and coal are the core of the nation’s energy policy, and thinking otherwise is cause for institutionalization. That the nuclear deal is as good as dead is not so much a matter of concern for me, because frankly, deals come and deals go; what remains is the will of the people to better their lives.

And that is where the Union Government will find itself paralyzed. The Left, embittered after the nuclear deal fiasco, will not be ready to support any of the Government’s recommendations and legislations as readily as before, and would want to extract their pound of flesh more often than not. Crucial reforms in the areas of labor relations, infrastructure, education, healthcare, retail etc. will now be subject to political grandstanding.

A fine statement made by a BJP politico last week was that a marriage based on the hatred for a common enemy cannot hope to be stable for too long. The Left has now started complaining that the Sethusamudram (forgive my atrocious spellings) project is being delayed because of the Union Government’s 'pandering to communal interests'. I find that an amusing thought. I mean, they found it expedient to delay finding a solution to our energy problems on their own interests, and now when someone else tries out their tactics, they yell blue murder.

We may have avoided mid-term polls for now, but the matter really hasn’t completely ended here. Quo vadis, India?

An Ode to Books....

Thomas Carlyle once said, “After all manner of professors have done their best for us, the place we are to get knowledge is in books. The true university of these days is a collection of books.” No matter if Mr. Carlyle said these words during the Victorian era, but they still ring true in this age as well.

To my mind, there is no greater joy, no more divine bliss, than to have a book to read. There are good books, there are great books, and there are books which simply are unmentionable except as expletives. And yet, despite all this, each and every book has a story to tell, no matter how drab or dull it may seem. In this respect, books are like people; you have interesting people, beautiful people, charming people, boring people, obnoxious people, dull people et al. You deal with each one of them in a different manner, but you deal with every one of them, sine prejudice.

I have a habit of buying the books that I read. I find it most cumbersome to read a book and then return it to a library. The joy of reading a book is not so much in breaking the freshness of the print, as in revisiting the text, like one goes back to an old friend. One cannot take such liberties with borrowed books; it’s somewhat scandalous to think so.

Of late, I have spending a lot of money on books, to the extent that my parents are wont to boast that my salary seems dedicated to buying books and no more. I don’t find it a distressing thought; come to think of it, I recollect having read that when a habit begins to cost money, it’s called a hobby. So, buying books would be my hobby, though not one which I can list down in my curriculum vitae.

It is said that people don’t find the time to read books nowadays. I don’t know where the statisticians quoting these ‘facts’ are finding their data, but looking at the crowds in the local book stores and the bags of books that they buy, I wonder why they must buy them, if not to read them. Bibliophiles are, or rather have never been an endangered species. Au contraire, they are a flourishing breed; if not more overt, they are certainly more discriminating in their choices.

Whatever this may mean, I only see a good future for books, irrespective of distractions like television, the computer (read the Internet and e-books) and video games. After all, In the end, you can’t take a computer to bed, or snuggle into a comfy chair with a cup of hot chocolate on a rainy day with a television in hand.

Market business....

Finally, it happened. Crawford Market, once (and perhaps still) the heart of Mumbai’s shopping needs, where generations of Mumbaikars would trek to buy the precious mangoes of summer and the sweet grapes of winter, will go under the scalpel of the developer. While it is true that something needed to be done to salvage the Market from the morass it had fallen into, my worry is whether this was what the doctor had in mind?

Crawford Market and its precincts isn’t some far-flung suburban area, which could be played around with (and this is a rather strong usage here…) and then forgotten. Why, I say, such cavalier behaviour should not be tolerable for any area.

Imagine, the ‘honourable’ corporator proposing the redevelopment had no idea of the proposal. His excuse: The market’s name, post-independence, is Mahatma Jotirao Phule Market, and he respects the Mahatma a lot, hence his support for the proposal. One could hand him a decree, under similar conditions, sentencing the entire Corporation to death, and the chap would probably announce it with equal aplomb and glee.

The Mayor of the Corporation refused to permit any debate on the proposal, stating that the Corporation had debated the same ‘last’ year and doing so again would be a ‘wastage’ of public time and money. I say, madam, how considerate of you! I couldn’t have imagined that politicians gave a damn about saving public resources; I always was under the impression that politicians are like leeches, sucking away at the health of the people. But just a query from a naïve layman: wouldn’t a debate at this juncture assist the Corporation in evaluating the proposal with a fresh perspective? Maybe, a better scheme could have been thrashed out. But then, you are the ‘best’ judge of how things ‘should’ be done.

It is reported that the bureaucracy was keen on redevelopment, but not along the lines of the current proposal. It seems they wanted the precinct to be redeveloped as a heritage quarter, sort of like the Leadenhall Market in London. I say, aren’t bureaucrats a thick bunch? Do they really think the ‘people’ of Mumbai really give a damn about heritage? Hell, demolish all the fine buildings in South Mumbai and make towering skyscrapers! After all, we aren’t modelling our city on cities like London, Prague, Paris, Vienna, San Francisco, or even New York; we have Shanghai to catch up with. Who cares about history anyways?

What? You say that I am too harsh on the people of Mumbai? Well, if I am wrong in analysing my people, let me see some strong reactions from someplace, and not just reactions which seek to caution, but reactions which change the course of events. Then, I will take back my casks of vinegar; till then, suffer its acidic taste in the mouth!

We, the People...

When one speaks of ‘democracy’, one means ‘rule of the people’. How beautiful this concept sounds! For it implies that unlike in monarchies or plutocracies, the power to change or influence the course of history, of their own destiny, lies not in the hands of one singular person or a group of individuals, but in the hands of the people who live this destiny. Lincoln’s “government of the people, by the people, for the people” not only binds a democracy to the people but also implores the people to adhere to the values of democracy.

But then Acton has said “power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely”. Has this come to be true in India, a nation that prides itself on its ‘democratic’ traditions? Has our democracy lost its vitality, its zeal to work for the better of the people? And in truth, have the people of India lost their enthusiasm for democracy, for its institutions and for its mechanisms?

Two incidents stand out of the plethora of news flooding the television screen, incidents which serve to remind us that no matter how much we may tom-tom our democratic values, we remain a nation which has perhaps never really comprehended the true meaning of what it means to be a democracy. Two incidents, which may not seem out of the ordinary, and that they aren’t so isn’t a matter of pride or an excuse for their occurrence, but all the more reason for us to ponder over where we are headed as a nation.

At Bhagalpur, two policemen assaulted and dragged a criminal from a motorcycle till such time that he should become unconscious. And this was all done at the prodding of the crowd. That this occurred in a state notorious with the law being broken is no justification; that this occurred at the hands of the police, an institution already demonised as an unruly arm of the State, isn’t any defence. What is shocking, perhaps even more so, is that the people stood watching, encouraging the officials concerned to perform their dastardly act a little longer.

At Agra, famed city of love, an angry mob torched vehicles and brought the entire city to a standstill, all supposedly in the act of grieving for four young men killed by an errant truck-driver. And when the police went in to try and control the mob, the mass turned on them and proceeded to show them just who’s the ‘boss’.

Both incidents serve to illustrate that the people have perhaps lost their faith in the ability of the democracy that we have come to take for granted to deliver justice to them. They have decided that if justice will not come to them of its own, they will force it to come, but ‘justice’ will be done.

The two policemen have been suspended, which is a positive sign implying that no breach of the law will be permitted, especially by those entrusted with the responsibility of protecting it, but what about the mob? We are well aware that whenever we have the State committing atrocities, we have exact details on who did what. But when it comes to the masses, why is it that we choose to hide behind the illusion of the ‘faceless’ crowd?

That these incidents are but a mere footnote in our history is no reason not to wake up and smell the coffee. It is time that we decided the course of this nation, of how we will allow this nation to progress here on. And in this, we find ourselves bearing a most onerous responsibility. It will not be easy; it will certainly not be fast. But one thing’s for sure: the rule of the people must not be permitted to deteriorate into the rule of the jungle.

A deal to die for..or to die for a deal...?

The ongoing imbroglio between the Government and the Politburo is amusing, and yet at the same time, distressing.

Amusing because once again, the Left will do what it does the best: oppose the government in whatever it does. I mean, these blokes don’t have a hope in hell of ever forming the government at the Centre; their ‘appeal’ isn’t spreading beyond their strongholds (and from what I have read and understood, the term ‘stronghold’ is also becoming fast redundant in their case), and their performance in the current Lok Sabha is their best ever (and they don’t seem confident that they will ever repeat it either). So, who cares whether the Government is seen to be inept because of our interruptions and objections? We aren’t going to get this moment again, so we may as well enjoy it to the fullest.

Distressing because once again, an opportunity that might just solve our problems for generations will be thrown away by the needless posturing of politicians. Nuclear energy may have its disadvantages, but frankly tell me, is there anything on this earth, or for that matter in this universe, without its pros and cons?

The Left would have us believe, and ‘surprisingly’ (or perhaps not) so does the NDA and the rest of the ‘opposition’, that the 123 Agreement between India and the United States of America is inimical to India’s sovereign interests, that the Agreement places India firmly in the control of the United States, and does not give us any scope to demonstrate our freedom, that the agreement prevents India from ever pursuing the option of a nuclear weapon test.

First things first, are the mandarins in South and North Block bottle-suckling babies that they can be expected to take whatever their counterparts in the State Department serve them? And if the agreement places India in the U.S.’s control, then why on earth is there a lobby of Senators and Representatives eager to see this deal being scuttled? Why on earth are American citizens alleging that this deal gives India all that it wants and gets nothing in return (or at least nothing substantially) for the U.S.? (Maybe the Americans are mad, but surely not this mad?) As regards the prospects of a nuclear test, I seriously doubt anyone takes a nation which has conducted thousands of such exercises seriously when it tries to stop someone else from doing so.

All those who now accuse the government of playing into the hands of foreign interests and mortgaging the family silver have at some time or the other done the same. The Left Front suffered its greatest schism so far in 1962 during the Indo-China war over whether to support the Indian war effort or to be seen as receptive to Chinese overtures. The BJP-led NDA was seen as the party who ended India’s exile from Capitol Hill with its aggressive attempts to ingratiate with the U.S., especially with its offer to host the anti-Taliban forces during the Afghan offensive post 9/11. Hence, stop this holier-than-thou nonsense; we all know “kaun kitne paani mein hain”, as the adage goes.

That there may be some substance in the opposition to the agreement is undeniable. Sheer politics alone cannot threaten to bring down elected governments; they need a cause célèbre to do that, like the Jain Commission report in 1996 et al. The Government cannot be seen to be deaf to the objections being raised, for in such a stance lies the danger that we may not hear a conscientious voice, a valid point. The opposition must not try to scuttle the entire agreement, for in this agreement is not just the pride of the incumbent administration, but also the pride and honour of the entire nation. Clauses could be worked upon, words could be clarified, but don’t tear the entire sheet, for God’s sake!

It is clear that all the wrinkles in the deal must be ironed out not by grandstanding, but by explaining what is being entailed, in what is unclear, for things can be resolved in a much more dignified manner. Posterity will judge us for how we dealt with this opportunity; we cannot afford being seen to have let it go without due reason or cause.

Is this the right way.....?

Intolerance goes deep in our ethos. And there’s nothing that we are doing to ensure that our children are not affected by this malaise. Or perhaps we do not wish to. Whatever the reason may be, it is a sad day when thoughts and ideas are sought to be stifled at the point of a dagger, at the barrel of a gun, at the edge of a fist, and no one wants to do anything about it.

When the Faculty of Fine Arts at Baroda got embroiled in the most controversial act of permitting outsiders to enter the Faculty’s premises and beating up a student for his allegedly ‘disrespectful’ works, liberals and ‘moderates’ throughout the country rose to deplore the act. And very rightly so, for even if the student concerned was being disrespectful, that wasn’t justification enough for someone to go up to him and bash him up.

That the perpetrators belonged to an organization supposedly espousing the aspirations of the Hindu community should really have had no effect on the volume of the deprecations. After all, a fanatic anywhere is a fanatic, irrespective of his/her faith or lack of it thereof. The denunciations were heartening, because they illustrated that while the aggrieved had the right to be so, there was a ‘right’ way to resolve such conflicts, a more sophisticated and cultivated manner, if you please.

And yet, the silence when concerning Ms. Nasreen is simply shocking, nay, deplorable. Ms. Nasreen may be a controversial writer, or rather a writer who survives on courting controversy. Her writings involving her faith may verge on the edge of blasphemy and irreverence.

Nonetheless, to barge on her person, to threaten to kill her are neither reverent nor justifiable acts for anyone, no matter how sacrilegious her words may seem to anyone. Does Islam permit any man to injure or harm an unarmed woman on the mere pretext that she has dared to insult his faith? Is Islam so weak on its feet that mere words would shake its very foundations? I think not.

Frankly, politics and faith are two completely different things, and ought to be maintained so. That they have not been so far is distressing, but definitely no cause for the same being propagated through the ages. No faith teaches the path of violence, and if it does, then it is unworthy of being venerated.

Those who perpetrated these offences weren't ignorant buffoons. They were legislators, expected to know the law, and yet that they chose to break it should not be reason for letting them off easily. In fact, they should be prosecuted even more harshly. A threat to murder someone is no laughing matter, and a murderer must not be permitted to hide behind the authority of the Legislature.

There is a legal recourse that can be relied upon. It may be slow, it may be arduous, but it is the right thing. Fanaticism must not be accepted, if not for our sake, then for our children, lest they find themselves in a world where speaking itself offends someone.

How doth the moon shine this night....?

The moon stands resplendent
In her raiment of silver and gold,
The sweet mistrals blow
Her lustrous brown tresses,
And soft strings of light
Bounce off her curls.

Her face shines beautifully
Like Pallas Athena in Her Parthenon,
Her eyes sparkle
Like emeralds set in ivory,
Her delicate brow calls
For one to be lost in its expanse.

She smiles, ah, that glorious smile,
And her cheeks turn so red,
To shame the most brazen of roses,
The most precious of rubies.
Her laughter, have you heard one
More innocent, more melodious,
That even the nightingale stops
To recollect her tune.

I stand in her light,
Bathed in her glory,
I pray this night never end,
That she never forsake me,
That no cloud ever comes
Between me and her,
That the sands of Time
Flow ever so slow this night,
So that I may gaze in her eyes,
And be lost for all Time, For all eternity……

Right to abstain.....?

By this time tomorrow, India will have a new President. It might seem on the basis of sheer numbers that Ms. Patil will be the next occupant of Raisina Hill, but then politics and politicians revel in being as unpredictable as possible. The incumbent UPA government will gloat over how it managed to ensure that its ‘nominee’ becomes the Head of State. I used the quotation marks because no candidate in the Presidential elections is ever a representative of a particular political outfit or coalition; rather, each candidate is an Independent, whose nomination simply receives support from a cross-section of the electors.

Speaking of electors, the so-called Third Front, or as they would prefer themselves called now, the UNPA, have asked their MPs and MLAs to abstain from voting from either of the two candidates in the fray. Their reason for abstention stems from their reluctance to be seen to support either the ruling UPA’s ‘nominee’ or the opposing NDA’s ‘nominee’, for purely ‘ideological’ reasons. So rather than just allow its electors to vote as per their mind, the heads of the various outfits in the Front ordered their electors to stay away.

And in that is a distressing event. Can a political outfit be permitted to order public representatives from performing their duties? Can anyone presume so much authority as to command someone beholden to the will of the people that he/she may not exercise his mental faculties to perform responsibilities expected of him/her?

The Presidential elections may not be as important to the common people as they may be made out to be. And undoubtedly our Founding Fathers never intended to make them so either, for had so been their intention, they would have incorporated the proviso in the Constitution then itself. A popularly elected President and a popularly elected Legislative are somehow too explosive a mixture without proper safeguards.

But that’s beside the point. That some electors would not be voting in these elections doesn’t bother me as much as the fact that representatives can get away with not voting on matters of state, on important legislations affecting the people, people whose ‘will’ they claim to represent. The various state and the central legislatures are replete with examples wherein member attendance is sometimes as low as 30 percent. In recent times, important policies such as the Annual Budgets have been passed without much, or rather any, debate. Are we losing our touch at democracy?

I had written earlier this month about some electoral reforms that we should look at seriously. There is need for reforms here as well.

• Representatives incapable of maintaining an attendance record of more than 60 percent should be denied their pay, as is accorded to them.
• Walkouts being so common an occurrence nowadays, every time a representative takes part in a walkout, the pay for the said day should be denied, irrespective of when the walkout occurred in the course of the day.
• Whips issued to the effect of asking representatives to abstain from voting should be deemed as extra-constitutional and void; a representative cannot be permitted to be forced or coerced into abjuring his/her right to exercise his/her responsibilities towards his constituents in particular and the nation in general.
• The said right is not inviolable. If the said representative should be found to have violated parliamentary norms and regulations regarding conduct, both within and without the legislature, he/she may be debarred from voting.
• The period of debarment would also be applicable for the denial of pay.

As always, I would appreciate your comments on these suggestions of mine.

Answering the questions....

What is life? A question or an answer to a question? To those who believe in reincarnation, perhaps the latter, for one would come back to experience life only if one has found something wanting in one’s previous life/lives. And in truth, what indeed is life all about?

Is it the sweet feeling of togetherness and bonding with one’s loved ones, the warmth of love and affection, feeling secure in the arms of the one you care for the most and in turn holding him/her in your arms, or is it something else? Is life about grief, about the salty tears that splash down when it hurts, the sudden choked voice when one wants to cry out and no voice comes out? Is it about deception, about not being what the world sees you to do, about wearing different masks for different people, and never knowing who one really is? Or is it about just living life, one moment at a time, one breath, one heartbeat at a time?

For me, and I truly believe in this, life is a medley of all this and much more. To be happy without ever having experienced grief is to never truly realize the value of that joy, of that bliss. On the other hand, to have always been in the downs, to never have felt the warmth of affection, would make one so very pessimistic and so very dead. Can one truly appreciate the value of trust and belief when one has never been betrayed? So to enjoy a positive, one must suffer a negative, if just for a brief moment.

Sometimes, life must be lived alone, without anyone beside you. You could be surrounded by countless people, and yet be alone in your solitude. You don’t need books, or music, or someone special to lose yourself.
Just think of yourself as a raindrop, released from the dark, grey clouds. This drop is destined to reach the ground and then be consumed by the parched earth, and yet it never thinks, or rather it cannot think of ever stopping its descent, of ever turning back towards whence it came. It is surrounded by its brethren, so many like itself, and yet it falls alone. It can only see itself in them, a pale reflection of its soul in their eyes. There is a spot on the earth given to it to fall upon, a soul to enliven, and a heart to bring joy to.
Be like that raindrop; do what you must, bring joy to all whom you can, and leave the rest to the Fates. They will not betray your trust in them.

Voting for change or changing the vote....?

The recent statement made by Parliamentarians during the reservation debates and now the Presidential elections about them representing the ‘will of the people’ had sparked off a blog previously, and guess this would be just a continuation of the same.

The current political scenario and especially the incumbent administration is a consequence of a post-poll alliance. I feel that this in itself is a mockery of the ‘will of the people’. Individual parties and pre-poll alliances, at best, can be deemed worthy of the will of the people, as the people willfully vote in a said party or a certain alliance. But post-poll alliances are a backhanded way of getting power, come what may. That a certain party or alliance does not have the mandate to rule on its own should be sufficient enough to comprehend that it does not in truth represent the will of the majority of the people.

As it is, the ‘first-by-the-poll’ system of Indian elections allows for someone securing as low as 20 percent to be elected as the people’s ‘representative’. I find this a laughable prospect, and sometimes even disturbing. I mean, let’s say out of a total population of 100, 10 don’t come out to vote. So 90 people vote. Let’s say there are 10 candidates. Even if 18 people decide to vote for a single candidate A, and the rest vote for the remaining 9, such that neither candidate has more votes than A, A would be declared a winner. 18 people out of 100 voted for a candidate, and he becomes a representative of the will of the entire 100? And what about the choice of the remaining 82 people? Scary!

So, electoral reform is perhaps needed, whether urgently or maybe slowly is a matter of implementation, but it is sure that some reform is needed. I have some suggestions, and some possible fallout, as follows:

• Prohibit parties from forming any post-poll coalitions. Only those formations which were formed before the polls took place should be permitted to stake a claim for the government.
• This may lead to a minority government, but essentially if the largest formation has to come in power, then this will ensure that.
• Also, the proviso of a confidence vote can ensure that parties other than the claimant can certify whether the claimant has their confidence.
• This will also reduce the risks of horse-trading and defections, as no longer can legislators split their parties after the election on the basis of who wins the polls.
• The minority government continues till such time that it enjoys the support of the Parliament, both de jure and de facto.
• Discard the ‘first by the poll’ system, and adopt the runoff system, as in France. If no candidate secures a simple majority in a specific election, then the two candidates with the most votes proceed to a second round, from which all others are excluded.
• This may prolong the election process, and may increase costs.
• But, eventually, this might ensure that at least 51 people out of 100 have voted for a certain candidate.

These suggestions are neither infallible nor perfect; I am willing to accept that. There could be some measure which could be better placed to deal with my concerns. Therefore, I would appreciate your comments on my suggestions.

Reading:

• Two Round System
• Plurality Voting System

Soulful tunes...

Radio has seen a phenomenal return in India of late, what with the opening up of the airwaves for private players. Television and cinema were threatening to make the once-ubiquitous radio-set an artifact of the past, a relic of antiquity. The private radio stations were a breath of fresh air when they started out, and gave the government’s radio stations a run for their money.

And sadly, now each of these radio stations has become a clone of the other, with doubts about what exactly differentiates one from the other. Each station plays the same songs and sometimes even the same song at the same time. The commentary is sad, slapstick and barely managing to be funny, with the notable exception of Red 93.5, which still has a splendid repertoire of funnies, which are a delight to listen in to between songs.

But the point of this blog is not to lament the opportunity that the Indian radio fraternity gambled away. That is for another time and another mood.

Of late, I have become habituated to listening to broadcasts of the BBC’s Radio 2 station. These broadcasts are available on the site http://www.bbc.co.uk, and are an absolute delight. I have been listening in to two shows, Desmond Carrington’s ‘The Music Goes Round’ (broadcasted every Tuesday evening) and Steve Wright’s ‘Sunday Love Songs’ (broadcasted Sunday morning), and both are absolutely delightful, not just with reference to the songs played but the general feel of the show. There are many songs which I have heard for the first time, and have instantly fallen in love with them, songs which one so doesn't get to hear on radio in India.

The Beeb, as BBC is fondly referred to, has always been a paragon of quality and standards. India's radio fraternity would do well to take some lessons. (Although I think FM Rainbow 107.1 is doing a significantly better job than the rest, much better indeed...)

Will the people stand for this....?

Politics makes strange bedfellows, or so the adage goes. And perhaps no nation’s systems so very exemplify this maxim as India’s. Political outfits which swear by the inimical nature of their interactions at one moment, become the best of buddies in the very next. Sometimes, this change of heart is prompted by ‘national’ interest, sometime by ‘self’ interest, and sometimes because coming together will benefit everyone in the system. It is very rare for the political class to come together for something that will really go to work for the ‘people’, and therefore when they come together, it only bodes ill.

Just a day after the ‘executive’ President of the Shiv Sena, Uddhav Thackeray made a pronouncement that the Congress was the Sena’s enemy number one, the Sena, in a majority in the local Municipal Corporation, managed to get the Congress to join hands and pass through a resolution modifying the status of a huge plot of land from no-development to residential. The plot of land falls under the strict CRZ norms and hence development till now had been hampered by the environmental norms prevalent under the CRZ regime.

Politics and environmental concerns rarely go hand-in-hand, at least not in India. One reason for this could be that there isn’t much awareness about to what extent the environment affects us. And in a place wherein such an issue gets such low importance, it tends to be bartered away for trivial benefits. The benefits per se may not seem trivial, but in the context of what one is giving away, certainly comes out to be very trivial.

The BMC (Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation) has decided to de-reserve the aforesaid plot and re-designate it as a residential plot, in lieu of which the developer will construct, as ‘compensation’, primary and secondary schools, playground, a maternity home, a library, and a market. These all may seem good, but are we being bribed here? Are the people being told, “Sure, I am destroying the environment, but am I not building these facilities for you at the same time?”

Mangroves are the natural drains for Mumbai. After the cataclysmic deluge of 27 June 2005, their importance is perhaps even more emphasized, and yet it would seem that neither the State nor private enterprise is neither keen to appreciate this, nor are they ready to do something to ensure that environmental concerns are given a fair hearing before they are haggled away to satisfy developmental requirements. This deal is perhaps yet another breach of trust committed by those who claim to enjoy the mandate of the people, who claim to represent the will of the people. Given a choice between slower development and better safety during such adverse climatic conditions, I am certain that the people of Mumbai would be more in favour of better safety. Any initiative hindering or hampering such a need is clearly against the ‘will’ of the people.

That there were voices of protest against this move is still a good thing, a sign that there are still some representatives who feel for their constituents, for the ‘tired and toiling masses’. It Is only my hope and prayer that this minority become a more vocal and most powerful majority, so as to ensure that at least at the local level, our democracy can truly become ‘by the people, of the people, and for the people’.

Rumble at Raisina Hill....

The office of the President of the Republic of India is seldom seen as one which should cause much consternation amongst candidates or political parties. It is an acknowledged fact that the President reigns but does not rule. His powers are in only in name, but are exercised in right by the Prime Minister and the Council of Ministers. Even if every agreement or document issued by the Government of India or the State Governments bears the name of either the President or his representative Governor concerned, it is understood that neither person ever has had any say in the contents of the document itself.

After the cataclysmic Presidential elections of 1969 which would cause the split in the Congress Party, no Presidential election has ever been fought so keenly or in such an inane manner. Never before has a Presidential candidate been termed as a joke on the nation, nor has a candidate offered to step down if the incumbent President be acceptable to everyone.

And in the midst of it all, we have forgotten why the office of the President exists in the first place. The President was meant to supplant the icon of the King or Queen of the British Raj, and was supposed to serve as a unifying figure about which the nation could rally in times of crisis. The Prime Minister may be the Head of the Government, but the President, by virtue of being the Head of the State, was supposed to be an impartial figure that took no sides, but adjudicated in a manner becoming of his office.

It would therefore seem appropriate that the President be a unanimous choice, rather than be seen as a nominee of disparate groups. That in the Republic’s fifty years the President has rarely been a non-partisan figure, with the notable exceptions of Dr. Radhakrishnan and Dr. Zakir Hussain, and the incumbent Dr. A.P.J. Abdul Kalam, may speak poorly of the institution per se, but it no ways serves to indicate what is expected of the Presidency by the Constitution.

Mrs. Patil and Mr. Shekhawat are both seen as excellent contenders for Raisina Hill, both having their own supporters and their own detractors. Mrs. Patil’s detractors would have us believe that she would serve as a rubberstamp of the Congress Party and that Mr. Shekhawat is a more independent soul. Mr. Shekhawat, for all his geniality and his popularity across party lines, is termed a communal figure, a divisive individual. I don’t know which is worse. If Mrs. Patil were such a rubberstamp person of the Congress, then she wouldn’t have had a very nice time in Rajasthan where the BJP rules the roost. If Mr. Shekhawat were such a divisive figure, then I fail to comprehend as to why the angst in his case was not exhibited when he was serving as Vice-President.

The Left never did fancy Kalam, a fact that was exhibited in its token opposition in the form of Captain Lakshmi Sehgal’s candidature in 2002. It, being in the prominent position of dictating the course of the UPA government, seems to have effectively scuttled the chances of a man reckoned by many to have done a fine job. And yet, their demand for a women candidate has effectively ended all further discussion on the matter, ending a drama long drawn out. And perhaps rightly so as the thought of a woman as Head of State is an idea whose time has come.

The real issue is that political alliances today, as perhaps always, are about symbolism. Alliances cannot be seen to have lost ground on any front, no matter how insignificant it may seem, to the opposition. They cannot be seen to champion the cause of someone who is perceived as a representative of the opposite camp. And they cannot be perceived to give the throne to someone who might conceivably play into the hands of the ‘enemy’.

Whatever will be the outcome of the election, a new President (or perhaps an old one, given Mr. Kalam's recent statement) may sit in Raisina Hill in July for sure. It is my hope and prayer that he/she be able to deal with the demands of the office in a dignified manner, becoming of the stature of the post.

How doth the Cheshire CAT smile.....?

Enough is enough! Sloth is evil, one of the cardinal sins, and I have sinned as much as can be borne. Now it is time to gather my energies and start my preparations to slay the dragon (not that I am anywhere close to being a knight in shining armor; more like a fool on a donkey). The Cheshire CAT smiles and smiles to Kingdom come, taunting me. It is time I showed it who's the boss, or is it?
November's D-Day, and the weather's going to be rough till then. The seas will be treacherous and my boat is bound to spring many leaks, but there will be no one to assist me, and I can expect no one to assist me either. I don't know how to tie some ropes, how to pull up the sails and to navigate some straits, but there is no Divine Providence waiting to grant me that wisdom; I have to get wise on my own.

Shay was right when he said, "Depend on the rabbit's foot if you will, but remember it didn't work for the rabbit." I have neither a rabbit nor rabbit's foot; I hope something works out for me!

An eye for an eye....

I recently saw this feature film, Eye For An Eye (1996), which was basically about how a mother goes about avenging her daughter’s death by stalking the killer and then ultimately killing him. The daughter does not die because of any accident, nor is the killer a doctor whose negligence causes her death. The poor child is brutally raped and subsequently murdered by the demon. And all the time, while her daughter is being violated, the mother is doomed to listen to the entire chaos on the telephone, helpless, unable to help her child.

The film shows how the murderer is identified, but then acquitted on a technicality, something that is so very common in India. And this is what triggers the mother’s desire to see her daughter avenged, to get, in Biblical terms, an eye for an eye.

While the film ends predictably with the murderer killed, and the mother being seen as a victim rather than a perpetrator, I thought to myself that while this is all fine in the realm of imagination, but in reality, none of this ever could happen. Rapists are perhaps the worst of the breed of criminals that the human race can produce. I have always found them to be the most despicable of the criminal world, precisely because of the nature of their crime.

There is no greater offense against mankind, against society, than the one perpetrated by these sexual perverts. They fancy the whole world to be their realm, and the women in it their bonded property, to be used as they fancy, and when they fancy. They care not for the laws that bind people, nor for the niceties that govern societies, nor for the basic humanities which define us as a species (or perhaps not...)

The agony that the victim in this case undergoes is worse than that which a victim of any other crime, save murder, could conceivably undergo. A murderer, in his/her fury, may cut short a life, but a rapist does worse; he cuts short a life without giving the gift of death. A murderer seems humane in comparison to this demon, for he/she at least condescends to release the victim(s) from the pain that is entailed in the wounds that he/she causes.

But this deviant just doesn't wound the body; he wounds the very soul of the victim. He takes a living body, and leaves behind a sentient corpse. An irony, you say? Hardly. And yet, there are some who would plead for them to be treated in a 'humane' manner. I ask of you this, how does one treat these monsters, worse than even animals, for even animals have decency in them, in a manner contrary to their very nature? They ask that they not be hanged; that they be punished by being forced to serve a life sentence.

In India, and perhaps in many other nations, the system envisages a chance of the person reforming. Thereby, each prisoner is then given a chance to maybe show that he has changed for the better, and therefore can be sent back into society. But I submit that there are some who can never reform, who can never turn a new leaf. They are stuck on that same page of Life, and no matter how much the winds of change may blow, they simply refuse to look at life anew. Rapists are the prime examples of this category. And so, a life sentence is impractical.

Humanity is not just meant for the perpetrator. What about the victim and the victim's family? Are they not worthy of the warmth of justice, of the realization that even if their wounds could never be erased completely, that thorn which caused them injury will harm no one ever again? In the film, the mother hears, helplessly, as her daughter calls out for assistance. Imagine what a mother must feel when she looks at her broken daughter. Think of how completely useless the parents must find themselves for their inability to protect their beloved child.

Gandhi may have said, "An eye for an eye makes the whole world blind", but then when one is hurt so grievously, it is hard to remain so dispassionate. If there is a crime worthy of capital punishment, that is rape. Let there be no doubt about that. Let no more women suffer the scourge of such lustful deviants. Their crimes must come to roost, and they must realize that the law will penalize them, in a manner becoming of their horrendous crime.