We the People

It was 11 pm and I was back from the Gym to my TV watching routine, actually my mindless channel surfing routine. In a row, 4 Hindi news channels were apparently engaged in what they believe is their reason of existence - raising TRPs.
One was obsessively repeating the 6 time dress pulling act of Katrina Kaif, a Bollywood starlet, apparently whose scarlet designer gown that wouldn’t give up slipping. Wardrobe malfunction it is called these days. Sometimes people say it is pre-meditated.
A second channel was showing how post debut, the leading lady of Dabang Ms XYZ (??) tripped on her heals as she sashayed the ramp. This shot was also repeated about 20 times.
Live India the third channel that hesitatingly I switched to was showing Malika Sherawat maniacally gyrating to a Nagin number. India’s love for the nagin continues to live through generations.
A fourth channel was showing how a old Fort in Etawah, was still haunted by ghosts of nautch girls, as one of the rulers some Thakur ABC Pratap Singh Maharaj, ignored the counsel of a sage and brought on the occasion of holi, nautch girls, despite the foreboding of the sage. Since then, the curse that befell continues to haunt and even 100s of years down when anyone mustered the courage to tip toe the ominous sound of the late night anklet he is destined to die. And many actually had, claimed one of the villagers who out of fear was abdicating the village. An act symbolic of a society still suffering from the scourge of cast, superstition and totemic supernaturalism! But, regardless, the manner in which this was being televised is reinforcing the superstition not dismissing it.

All societies, Oriental or Occidental without exception, have had some sort of witchcraft at some point of time. Some sort of shamanite tradition at some point of time. Vestiges of these can be seen in the most societies even today in varying measures. But extolling it by televising on prime time is weird.

Neils Bohr was once asked about the horse shoe dangling on his quarters. He is believed to have denied any belief in superstition. But went on to say, “believe it or not, it does bring good luck”. From the famous Pascals wager it is clear, keep God on the right side, because if he does exist, it makes pragmatic sense to keep him on your right side. The same logic may well be extended to the supernatural, and the demonic powers that be may best be avoided than challenged. But a prime time media campaign to reinforce the proposition is preposterous.

I have always believed that the authorship can be blamed or must be blamed only in some measure and not in full measure. The readership or viewership is also to be blamed. These channels are wasting precious airtime because they are convinced they capture eye balls, and perhaps they are right. Commerce sees no reason, and greed no bar.

AMERICANS WANT A PAPA

The Gallup polls for the mid term polls show an astounding erosion of goodwill for Barack Obama.

I always felt, unlike India which is constantly seeking a mother, regardless of how inept she be about childcare – Sonia, Behnji, Didi and Amma are just a few cases in point, the Americans want fathers. Therefore, their tryst with the much tom tomed egalitarianism testified - voting in a black president and their fancy for mother-like mild mannered, sensitive and polite ObaMA may be short-lived. In the same breath, a woman president, and I say this, as Hillary has kept no secret of her ambitions, is a far dream for this cowboy country.

Nehru, the tall and fearless internationalist too preferred showing in India his softer side more. A man whose presumptuousness would almost always put diplomatic nerds like the high browed Galbraith also at discomfort, his image makers tirelessly chose to project him more like soft Chacha Nehru than hardy Tau Nehru in India. India also elected to neglect or consign to the margins stalwarts like Sardar and Netaji – they were too much of a Papa for them.

We like Mamas, who would cajole and cuddle us more than Papas who deride or demand of us, chide or challenge us. And we like good babas would be willing to reciprocate to Mamas by glossing over their foibles and incompetence than punish them, quite contrary to Americans who would much rather forgive the archetypical male malefactor of a Lewinsky gate than condone callous neglect of statecraft. And they believe, good statecraft is the essential tool particularly for perpetuation of American hegemony delivered better by the Papas.

Whereas, Oba(Ma) from various statements seems reconciled to a single term Presidency, the minions, seemingly resigned to losing in the mid term elections are already crunching numbers, already seeking plausible explanations for the defeat from the study of similar past patterns.

This generation of Americans is witnessing an erosion of their global hegemony. A people that would not deign it necessary to really know where India or Thailand exist on the map, are now being challenged by the very lands they never acknowledged presence of. This is too much for this generation to swallow and of course, the one and only one to blame is the born Muslim Black mama Obama.

Today they are forced to acknowledge the Asian juggernauts. The Asians ( read Indians and Chinese ) are coming is a common board room refrain in the USA. I remember the CEO of an American Pharma MNC recount a dining table conversation that he had with his father, which testifies a paradigm that has indeed shifted. On one occasion when this man, then a young boy in his teens, left food on his plate ( today the Americans consign USD 150 bn dollar worth of food to the bins ), his father admonished him saying there are many people going hungry in India. Today the same guy tells his son, to not leave his homework as there many in India ready to take his job. Just in one generation the paradigm has changed so much. Obama is playing to this sentiment as well. Stop outsourcing. The very use of the word is a faux pas. But if the Papa like Bush senior and junior or the virile Clinton could not even stop human smuggling, and drugs how can they stop outsourcing. Outsourcing is an arbitrage, which can never be stopped as it makes perfect sense for both parties.

TIGER VISA

Tiger Visa

Very soon if not soon enough, some right wing party will write in its manifesto about piloting a treaty with China for tiger visa for Indians, who believe that goddess Kali rode the Tiger to supervise wars, destroy demons and run errands for her consort Rudra. China would by then be at the pinnacle of a uni-polar world. It may deign to allow Indians to visit its Tiger farms for Tiger Tourism.

Today there are more Tigers in the farms of China, by some estimates 5000, being bred in captivity, four time of those today in the wild in India - 1300. My children have wished to go to Sunderbans to see the Panthera Tigris Tigris before this majestic beast and its habitat are both wiped off the face of the earth.

Eventually the Tiger will be known as an oddity that inhabits China. It may come in all moulds, weights and sizes. Of course Chinese manufacturing has no limits. That it ever did inhabit India would be forgotten just like the world as much as we ourselves today have forgotten that martial arts originated in India. While our Kalaripayattu languishes, the martial arts once practiced by Indian monks, are now an art form attributed to the Chinese, Japanese and Koreans, and Indians go there to get 9 Dan Blackbelts. This is just one of the multitude of testimonies of our expertise in heritage destruction. Yoga would soon be a patentable product coming from the US. I remember, Ranbaxy conducted a yoga course and the instructor was a Dane from the US.

Just like we read about the silk route, our great-grandchildren will read about the Tiger route. Tibet, the autonomy of which India has been espousing, is actually the prominent participant in this pervert poaching. Lhasa is the high seat of this trade. You don’t need to avoid the swarm of Han Chinese police in Tibet or even the under cover police in Lhasa to get Tiger skins and other tiger parts that are so blatantly traded in open market in Lhasa. Vendors are willing to deliver them to your hotel, city country wherever. It is done blatantly and brazenly, and right under nose of the Chinese authorities, who chose to turn a Nelsons eye to the activity. Tiger skins and bones are displayed openly with certificates authenticating its wild origin as the farm tigers never fetch the premium that those from the wild do. Stuffed head are trophy possessions.

Years ago, in 2002, when we holidayed in Sariska ( close to Alwar ) supposedly a tiger reserve, all we were shown were spots where sightings had once taken place. There was actually no trace of the tiger there. I am sure there is some money being spent on the Project Tiger which was started in 1972, but how much of it is going to the actual conservation and how much in venal pockets is something that needs no investigation.

In 2008, coinciding with my joining Ethypharm, we took a holiday to Australia. In a theme park ( I don’t remember where ) perhaps Goldcoast, there was a show of the Royal Bengal White Tiger. He was named Taj. An 11 feet long strapping beast prancing about at the orders of its handler.

We all know the western way of life is full of Declarations and Disclaimers. Pretty much in sync with this mentality, the theme party had both to make. The declaration was that the tiger was the on verge of extinction Bengal Tiger, and the disclaimer was, torture was not used to train it. It seems that the tiger away from its Sunderban habitat was too shorn of his mother love and found the same in his handler and thus meekly followed instructions to jump and climb. A really emotional tiger he was.

The British killed some 80,000 tigers in India. They were primarily fox hunters before the Indian Maharajah trained them in this bravado - hounding the beast seated conveniently on a bedecked elephant, scaring it with the sound of the ludicrous drum beating and killing it with the breach loading gun. The largest one weighing 390 kgs was killed by a joker called David Hasinger in 1967 making a record of sorts.

As usual, "save our tiger" is a fancy rallying point, but affirmative actions still remains a distant dream.
Some estimates say, there are 12,000 tigers in USA and 4000 are kept as pets.