The Antics of Smriti Irani

Lot of thinking people have been critical about Smriti Irani's speech due to the theatrical content and antics. They may not be wrong. I go a step further. I don't even like rhetoric. I like Just facts which also should be presented shorn of superfluous verbiage with an approach that is brutally rational. But demagoguery has existed world-wide. Hasn't it? Antics also prevail. The US Elections bear such an eloquent testimony to it. Look at Clinton and Trump how they dramatically gesticulate to the gallery and get even with each other. So why condemn Smriti?

The above notwithstanding, no one can say, she was not prepared. She had done her homework. She was thorough with her facts. She had even sequenced them properly. In a country where even the Parliament is rowdy, and rabble rousing is a pass time in which even the fully employed find time to indulge, where facts get morphed with fiction so quickly, such orchestrated rebuttals are the only way to get your point across. 

This time the walk-out was because the opposition was stumped by this sudden volley of facts, temper, emotion and sentimentalism. Kharge to khada hi raha gaya.

The Relevance of Mahabharata

Each passing day as events unfold, I become more and more enamoured by the Mahabharata. How contextual it was then 5,000 years ago, and how so relevant it is even today. If the Mahabharata took place, why has man not learned from it, if its importance is allegorical, how could Vyas so successfully perpetuate the context.

Sonia Gandhi I would imagine is worse than Dhritarashtra. Actually, Dhritrashtrianism is usually a male trait. Women are more sensitised to the limitations of competence of their children. They may love them with their life, but unlike men for whom a child is en extension of personal ego, they are always reluctant to foist them on a platform where they will not fit or worthily justify.

I was once on a flight with RK Pachauri. I think I was traveling to Frankfurt. I was in business class and he was in First Class. I wonder, what is contributes to be able to afford first class. It is quite an irony, that not for profit organisations can always spend more than those for profit.

By qualification, he is an industrial engineer.  Some of them are hoaxes in the name of engineers. He cooked up data.

He has managed weird awards including one from the President of Somaliland. This is called being resourceful in India and you should be able to manage the people who matter. And the people who matter can be managed in India only in one way : late jaao.

I am enamoured by the bold girl who is taking up cudgels against a figure like Pachauri. I pity her for her plight, as Pachauri is one of the ugliest persons I have come across in life. A 74 year old left side hair right side combing man, trying to use his position to force sexual favours.

Men : work hard. Do sport. Build your personalities, build some character, be bold and above all, be men of conviction, and you will have girls falling all over you right from your teens. In India, mothers coax boys to just study, and pass exams or wrangle positions by sycophancy. Then they use these positions to exploit girls. A small percentage of girls is willing to make a compromise in return for a simplified life at work place, most others detest. Some take a stand like this girl did.

But what a pity, she seems to be fighting a lone battle. Women are not supporting her, and shamefully, men are also not supporting her. A man not standing up for a woman's honour is like being a tacit accomplice in the molestation of your daughter, wife or mother. 

It is always an ecosystem that is to blame, but it saddens me nonetheless.

The Judiciary needs to Work more

Since in India, Judiciary is held in high esteem, and there are cultural issues of not questioning why the Judicial system of the country is failing the country, the failure of this arm of governance has far reaching consequences. 

While exoneration of a recklessly driving Khan is widely evident failure, there are many more nuanced ones that we don't see. One example is the NPAs of various banks. Today, particularly the PSU banks are sinking due to NPAs, their plummeting stock prices too have started reflecting this, but if the judicial processes were smarter and swifter and structure of the legal system not meant to protect the defaulter, the NPAs would have been less than half. 

What you treat as NPA to a large extent depends on the judicial / legal system of the country. In our country, it is almost impossible to nail the big defaulters. Then it is upto to the system, which loan it starts to recognise as non performing, and decides to no longer chase. If judicial system was quicker, what the banks recognise as NPA today would be perhaps less than half.

But who hauls up the judiciary. They are still taking 3 months summer vacations like nursery toddlers.

BEATING THE RETREAT : OUR SOLDIERS ROCK

Beating the Retreat : Our Soldiers Rock 

While historically and figuratively, it is the joy of retreating to the barracks after the last bugler sounds his bugle. But literally It is a musical extravaganza that I always treat my senses to. And this years' was a pleasant departure from the past, with stiffened by training soldiers deciding to showcase their own flair for the music more than just playing colonial era martial music. So it was excellent overall, with particularly the BSF's richly caparisoned camels charming me the most. It seems, they are fighting the sun from setting. 

But in public functions, I always wonder, why our politicians who are usually plonked on the front row seats, sit with such sullen expressions on their face. These politicians who don't tire smiling out of sycophancy infront of their bosses don't even twitch much less smile even on occasions like the Republic Day parade or the beating the retreat, where one is filled with pride for valour, training and excellence of our armed forces. 

A cadaverous Pranab Mukherjee barely managed to dismount his vintage carriage and kept his left shoulder drooping in a lousy posture reeking of mental disengagement throughout the function. Modi a media marvel was so overly conscious of his mien under gaze of the cameras that he kept tracking the cameras from the corner of his eyes. The stoic Rajnath Singh stuck to his arms folded posture, with never even a finger moving to acknowledge to the harmony, tonality or timbre of the beautiful music played. The fossilised Kalraj Misra. I don't know who invites him for all functions. He is always there with a constipated expression of when this misery will end. 

But who cares. The day was carried by the soldier who did it with the flourish that is expected of him. And of course the last tune - Saare Jahaan Se Achha - as expected, played together by all bands as the grand finale stole the show.