When Noise degenerates into Rowdiness

I don’t believe in the caste system. At least that is what I like to believe. I do believe in the varna vyavastha, to the extent it is not hereditary.

But the varna vyavastha is indeed hereditary and hence what I say is indeed dichotomous. But I still clarify as I use the word Baniya in this piece and I am not alluding to any caste in particular.

I say this, quite so much in the perspective of Deepawali. In my high-school, I had read in my book of short essays, that Raksha Bandhan was patronized more by Brahmanas, Dussehra / Vijayadashmi was a festival of Kshatriyas as it symbolized victory in war, Diwali of Baniyas and lastly Holi of the shudras. Whether, the rest belong there where my high school essay book decreed them to be or not, Diwali is clearly a bania festival, not in as much as it marks the onset a new business year of the trading communities as in the flirtatious and flamboyant demeanor of its celebration.

One thing that is very cute about Hindu families is the multiplicity of faiths that live in the ambit of one culture system, one value system and one house. So ours in not an exception, with my father being a devout devi bhakt, my mother a shaiva, I with inclinations toward Ram, but funnily enough, all under the over arching penumbra of Vedic Arya Samaj. So, havan / yagna - invocations with the chanting of mantras around the sacrificial fire is a ritual that is practiced by us on all important festivals and even birthdays.

Today, if you would ask me, I would not know 95 pct of the Indian festivals. Even those that are national in significance and not regional. The only festivals that the generations with higher disposal income (DI) know are the shopping festivals. Nevertheless, I with Gizmo addicted kids (GAKs) do sit down to perform the yagna at Diwali. When we do so, we feel just like Vishwamitra would have with all asuras trying to obstruct the offering by their staccato bursts of fire-crackers and rockets.

The noise element seems to be rising unabaited with every passing diwali. It seems to do so in direct proportion to the DI factor. Despite Supreme Court, which while disposing off a writ petition made pro-bono in public interest set the limit of noise at 140 db at 4 mtrs from the site of burst, and other government directions, the Baniya enthusiasm sees no limits and its noisy expression of its festive mood seems never to ebb.

One rocket landed just 10 ft away from the ritual fire. Rockets are banned by a High Court. But my father leading the chanting plodded on un-dettered, just like Vishwamitra would have, saving the fact, that there was no Ram guarding the yagna from the asuras, and here in our case, we were at the mercy of 100 – the emergency number - at which a festival fatigued force we knew would find the complain too frivolous to respond or even take cognizance of.

In a lately liberated society, the definition of freedom takes a while to evolve. In the times of yore, when India was an advanced civilization, even kings’ rights and freedoms were checked by the council and also self imposed restraints. But in a civilization which is evolving, the definition of freedoms are also evolving. A free for all mindset does not see noise as infringing another persons freedom, but merely as a expression of his own freedom. More than noise, what peeves me is the spontaneous degeneration of this noise into rowdiness. The Ganesh Chaturthi celebrations in Mumbai are a case in point.

The local laws of the Montgomery County Noise Control Ordinance imposes “quiet hours”, in which noise prone loading and unloading is also prohibited. But for us to get there, it will take lot of public will and prudent legislation.

The Toddler learns to Walk

Rahul Gandhi is finally walking but sleep walking. He has come of age. At 40 plus he has learnt to read a speech in the parliament. He is genetically programmed to sway sideways for rhythm and empahsis while he speaks. He has also learnt to spend a night in a dalit home, he has learnt to court arrest and he has learnt to blame the opposition for all the ills that his party and government is responsible for and his family has presided on. He has finally learnt, that to become PM or PM in waiting, he does not need to lie about not having a Harvard Degree. It has finally realized – who cares.

So I would say, he is homo-erectus finally, and no longer a toddler crying for milk or pokemon cards or just attention. But he still needs that glance of approval of his mother, encouragement – “we all have done it, you can also do it” - of his sister and strategic inputs of Diggy uncle, Jayanti Aunty, Pranab dada ………………

So he is finally walking but still sleep walking. When he finally made an appearance in the parliament he took a line that was completely tangential to his parties line of which he is also the GS on the Janlokpal Bill. The Indian democracy is robust but not so cruel. But it is increasingly acquiring the ruthlessness or rigor that some of the other modern democracies have. Gradually, it could happen sooner than expected, that his family name, which is also assumed, his grandfather was not really a Gandhi, or his flawless complexion may not get him votes.

RTI in letter yet not in Spirit

There are so many issues that bug me no end and equal number that I wish to write about to vent my disgust. But the moment you delay writing, you actually deny yourself this fundamental right to express – write - as the thoughts are ephemeral and those that you would have liked to crystalize, vaporize. Spur of the moment is key. Such is my experience and wonder about others’.

The fundamental right to expression! Today we take this as a given. We were lucky that our constitution was born in an age, when this right was recognized unchallenged. But the Bill of Rights introduced through an amendment to the Yankee constitution happened in the late 18^th century, and although the yankee version was preceded by the French one during the revolution, the yankee one too gained credence and legitimacy not without struggle and bloodshed.

Compared to that, an equally revolutionizing right to information found its way in India as an act of Parliament in June 2005 relatively peacefully. Similarly, we hope that the Jan Lokpal will find its way into the country, again without bloodshed albeit after half a century of delay and deferment.

But the issue is not of the letter but of the spirit. I don’t think that the government has been able to imbibe the spirit of the RTI although I must admit, it complies commendably well with the letter. The spirit is - as much information as is reasonably possible shall be shared with the people – and mostly suo-motto. The time allowed for sharing this information is very tight and consequence of failing to share the sought information by an officer with the people dire. Interestingly, the procedure for seeking information has been unbelievably simplified. This most un-government like but true.

Nevertheless, the spirit of the act is yet to sink in the mandarins, who even today, try their best not to share than to share. Why? It is the culture of governance that the country has been subjected to from eons of time gave rise and then perpetuated this mentality. If the Mughals were trying to impose their culture as must as governance on to the Indian subjects, the British were trying to impose the most unfavorable economic policies, although not so much culture. But they did fall a victim of what most rulers do, even if not imposing, trying to establish the superiority of their culture over that of the subjugated. This is not only a common mistake but also a misconceived strategy that most hegemonizing nation states adopt – rule by aura and awe of racial and cultural supremacy.

In India particularly, since the British were chased out not alone by the resistance and revolution of the then 30 crore people of India, but also due to the setting fatigue and increasing frailty of the British Empire post WW II, debilitating their ability to hold on to the jewel in its crown – India; the Indians got self governance sooner than they expected. The elite of the society quickly stepped into the shoes of the gora saabs to provide good governance. The governance was seamless, unlike in many African countries where post independence there was anarchy, or as you will see in the Arabic world, where even today the biggest fear will be anarchy after the collapse of the regimes. However, the mentality of this Indian elite who stepped to provide stability and seamless governance post British-era, was not very different from the goras.

Today you will find increasing number of officers in the Indian bureaucracy feeling obliged to behave as the friendly face of the state technically by / for and of the people, the only distinction between them and those they are supposed to serve being a qualifying exam, yet many others sneer upon such colleagues for their lack of officer like qualities – OLQs. These OLQs are precisely not mixing, not being approachable, not being amenable or receptive to logic and embracing 24x7 an air of superciliousness.

So, an RTI application is often seen by the supercilious babus as an act of defiance, as erosion of their erstwhile unbridled and untamed authority and by some of more feudal descent even as increasingly imminent futility of being in the bureaucracy. This accentuates the mentality to not conceal so much, as withhold information. Mind you, the mentality of the minions of government is not to conceal but withhold information, as sharing seems to subject themselves to bourgeoisie scrutiny or Marxian triumphalism, which is unacceptable to their saheb mentality. So they seek refuge in the fine print, like not being obliged to respond to applications in question formats etc. But it is in our hands to change this attitude, and we all must set ourselves to doing so.