Have you heard of Khudiram Bose ? (Uday Vikram)

Yesterday, I stumbled upon a poem that my elder son, Uday Vikram, has written and since some of my friends wanted to read it, I thought of uploading it on my blog. I was myself amazed at the sentiment that urged him to pen this poem on the birth anniversary of Khudiram ----what I wish and pray for is that such feelings live in this lad as he grows and the reality of the world does not kill this zeal and sentiment. 

Have you heard of Khudiram Bose
(Uday Vikram)

Have you heard of Khudiram Bose?

He sure has heard of you

Gave up his life with no remorse

To end your servitude

Lively as they say he was

A sharp and hungry mind

Troubled with the thought he was

Of enslavement of our kind

Orphaned at the age of six

But Bose had no regrets

Because the mother whose love he so relished

Was clearly under threat

Vande Matram, he screamed

A young boy of fifteen

Vande Matram, he screamed

Calling out to a nation asleep

A call that shook the tyrants

A millions laathis fell

But it took a lot more than violence

To have her sons quelled

Vande Matram in the town

The streets it did fill

Young boys scuffled around

Distributing hand bills

Have you heard of Khudiram Bose?

He sure has heard of you

Gave up his life with no remorse

To end your servitude

In  Medinipur, 103 years ago

Assembled a crowd of youths

Cast they maddened looks around

But the air was free of hoots

No hues, no shouts

The morning lay in peace

But in came, to drive them out,

Goons of the police

Blood stained the court of guns

Merciless, the laathis came

But up stepped a loyal son

Sushil Kumar was his name

He snatched the weapon from the brute

A boy not older than me

The coward trembled in his boots

While the crowd cheered in glee

He beat the scoundrel black and blue

Before his screams were heard

But our young hero was captured too

And produced before Kingsford

With each stroke of the whip he yelped

But not for help or for himself

Vande Matram, he cried

After each blow was dealt

And to everyone who shed a tear of pride

The fire so fierce had not yet died

For now each drop of teenage blood

Was building up a freedom flood

Have you heard of Khudiram Bose?

He sure has heard of you

Gave up his life with no remorse

To end your servitude

Kingsford feared his death was near

To Muzaffarpur he fled

But to the sons the aim was clear

Sushil must be avenged

Summer’s April 1908

The Jugantar leaders met

Chose they Bose and his mate

To reap the creeper’s death

Prafulla Chaki was chosen too

To repay our beloved mother

Whom they both were loyal to

And thus set out the brothers

The bombs and guns coincidental

To free the mother they both strove

Where only the eyes and heart proved essential

To find the path they roved

Bihar, the home of countless legends

Had given birth to yet another one

With teeming talks of Marx and Lenin

But his mind was ruled by none

Ninth grade, when he first rose

To the service of his mother

And then the anger just explodes

And conquers like no other

A sense of wrong and right

Was all that was required

To bring them all to fight

And leave generations inspired

Have you heard of Khudiram Bose?

He sure has heard of you

Gave up his life with no remorse

To end your servitude

The duo reached the town

With no shoes on their feet

After days of following Kingsford around

They planned an ambush on the street

Around 8.30 as planned,

The judge’s carriage was spotted

They bombed it and ran

They thought they had got it

But Alas! What a disaster!

The carriage contained not the judge

But the wife of a barrister

Who with her daughter was struck

They both ran in different directions

25 miles of running

Before Bose stopped at Veni Station

A sight quite stunning

Clothes unkempt, bare mud -caked feet

And at once police became suspicious

Grabbed him from behind, the cheats

But not against his wishes

Grinned he mysteriously

As the traitors bashed him around

The pistols flew out of his pocket

And Vande Matram out of his mouth

Have you heard of Khudiram Bose?

He sure has heard of you

Gave up his life with no remorse

To end your servitude

Meanwhile, Chaki received some help

A civil servant with regrets

Felt it his duty to treat him well

Gave him shelter, did his best

Mokamghat station

Chaki was discovered

And with no hesitation

He uttered a salute to the mother

And shot himself dead

The English stood in consternation

But they did cut off his head

And sent it home for confirmation

A pity he died among knaves

A great warrior and son

But if we can produce someone even half as brave

The battle is already won

Bose appeared before court

Death was to be his fate

And on the train of martyrdom he climbed aboard

11th August 1908

He smiled as they marched him to his death

What a grievous loss!

But while lived he fought with every breath

And so should you with yours

Have you heard of Khudiram Bose?

He sure has heard of you

Gave up his life with no remorse

To end your servitude.

Rashtrapati Hazir Ho

Once again the matriarch has made a mockery of the electoral system, spited a country and its denizens. But why blame her, it is we who are letting her do it. The highest seat of the country has always been awarded and not attained by those who merit it, having duly followed a process as envisaged in the constitution. This time it has been awarded to a person considered safe and loyal. Coincidentally, the incumbent also happens to be experienced and capable, but that was of lesser relevance. Though the arithmetic supports Pranab Mukherjee, it is to be seen if he is elected un-opposed. The melodrama is on.

As per the constitution, the President of the country has to be elected by the “elected representatives” of the Union Parliaments and the State Legislative House(s). Mark this. The constitution does not even empower / entitle the nominated members of the Parliament or Legislatures to vote. And here, a matronly widow of an ex-PM decides on who becomes the president.

Once upon a time, under the crown, a middling resident commissioner or if you go back further, a petty clerk of a trading company called the East India company, would decide who would ascend the throne of a princely state.

With mirthful contradictions, contortions and back room machinations, the process continues, with a legitimacy that is imparted to it by a specious interpretation of the constitution and a cloak of democracy.  

A bruised Mamta sulks at home, spawning a strategy to get even. Mulayam buys peace for his son just recently in saddle, BJP struggles with internal contradictions to come out in unison. The electorate meanwhile continues to be cheated and betrayed.

RAJNIFICATION OF BOLLYWOOD

Indian Cinema in the seventies - it was the age of rage - anti establishment social rebels, fighting the powerful for the underdog.

Today, steeped in imbecility, one after the other, Salman Khan movies have been making it big, actually huge on the box office. But now Akki too has done it. Rowdy has crossed 100 cr and seems to be going steady. This seems to be heralding a new age in Indian Cinema, and going by the action scenes I would say this is the Rajnification of Bollywood.

Normally I would see such shots in south Indian cinema, and would switch channel in disgust. But now similar super man like scenes, men flinging cars with escape velocity into the sky, are there in Bollywood cinema also, and it is not important if those scenes are relevant to the storyline, but they attract a public which has disposal income, seeks along with excitement instant gratification, and is a generation which does not feel guilty pampering and indulging itself.

More importantly and even creditably stars like Salman Khan have finally discovered their groove. If you are doltish, dimwitted, have theatrical skills worth jeering, compounded by lack of credible educational qualifications of any mentionable worth, it is best that you act real on reel. In all probability, that is the type of role the audience will accept you in. If with the persona of an intellectual midget, you try smarty on celluloid, then the fate will be akin to Vivek Oberoi – oblivion.

For Salman with his diminutive IQ and countenance, acting smart and intelligent would be disastrous. But in acting stupid, (Sanjay Datta is the father of this school), gives the audience a mirthful experience and fetches sympathy for being unpretentious. And Salman’s steroid toned torso brings him the legitimacy to pull off such stunts that any other actor with normal build may actually fail to pull off.

Why Compare Churchill with Gandhi

It peeves me no end, when Sonia and her family is called the Nehru – Gandhi family. She is neither the Nehru family nor the Gandhi family. It also peeves me when some researchers having pretensions of scholarship endeavor to comparatively analyse Gandhi and Churchill. To me, this exercise if not only misplaced but frivolous too, as it compares apples with mangoes. Whereas, Churchill was a PM par excellence, Gandhi was a yogi, with a mission more noble and methodology more exalted than all else. While Churchill slaved no end to ensure that the sun did not set on the  ill-gotten empire of the crown, Gandhi led a people to enlightenment and freedom. 

Churchill was a great war prime minister and perhaps key in stemming the destructive tide that Germany had become. He could see the designs of Hitler succeed only if the Island Kingdome would collapse. So if England was saved, Europe would be saved. And Churchill did save Europe.

But his analysis of Gandhi was quite shallow and misplaced. He would always oppose any dialog that the Indian Viceroys would have with Gandhi, and desired that Gandhi be ignored and marginalized.

Churchill detested Gandhi not only at the plane of philosophy, but found him unbearable even in conduct, demeanor and mannerisms. He knew, that the east of different. Self denial and abnegation were virtues that the east admired so much that nothing could be a stronger rallying point for the people than Gandhi’s simplicity and self denial.

He also understood, this "middle temple lawyer's" - Gandhi’s ( Churchill pejoratively called Gandhi so) fetish for half dressing could actually wreck the textile industry of Britain. Gandhi’s fastidiousness about food, and his demand for special vegetarian food and milk diet at the Viceregal lodge (whenever he would go to meet the viceroy) in India, would have a mesmerizing impact on the entire country. A simple act of eating vegetarian food and mild will take India closer to freedom. As per the cultural ethos of the country, the age old traditions it cherished, it meant, marking a definitive cultural victory. It was not merely about food. It was a mood that marked ones civilizational superiority. The west was materially much more advanced, but that material advancement was being eschewed and denounced by Gandhi. The east was supposed to be metaphysically more advanced, and that is exactly what was being wooed by Gandhi. Churchill could see this.

But where Churchill failed was, he even remotely in his dreams never did imagine, a diminutive half clad man could deliver the country from the British yoke. He faltered in his judgment of Gandhi.    

SOME QUESTIONS TO RAHUL GANDHI

CHUM, WHAT IS YOUR AMBITION IN LIFE?

WHAT IS THAT YOU LIKE DOING MOST?

PEOPLE CLAIM YOU HAVE LIED TO THEM ABOUT YOUR EDUCATIONAL QUALIFICATION, IS THAT TRUE?

THERE IS ALSO A STORY YOU WERE DETAINED AT BOSTON AND FBI WAS ASKED TO INTERVENE TO GET YOU FREE, IS THAT TRUE?

WHAT DO YOU BELIEVE IS YOUR SINGLE MOST IMPORTANT CONTRIBUTION TO THE COUNTRY IN YOUR 40 YRS OF LIFE?

WHAT DO YOU THINK AILS THE COUNTRY MOST?

YOUR SISTER APPEARS TO BE A BETTER CROWD PULLER, WOULD YOU LIKE TO VACATE IN HER FAVOR?

CAN YOU PROMISE NOT TO LET YOUR ‘GETS ON MY NERVES’ BROTHER IN LAW WILL NOT RIDE YOUR FAMILY EQUITY AND ENTER POLITICS?

WHY DO YOU OR VADRA HAS Z++ SECURITY COVER?

The Joke Presidentship is

Finally tonight, I listened to a debate on how lack-lustre and controversy courting the tenure of Pratibha Patil was as president of India.

The Congress spokeswoman Renuka Choudhary exhibited her hallmark uninhibited eloquence as highlighting Ms Patil’s contribution to the nation by way of improving the gardens of Rashtrapati Bhavan.

This is India, and here, peoples’ expectations of their leaders is so abysmally low, that it takes eons for disillusionment to set in and even longer for political perdition to catch up with these politicians. So for a large portion of their active lives, their indiscretions, their improprieties and often brazen pursuit of personal priorities at the expense of public exchequer go unpunished and un-admonished.

In the US the lady governor of South Carolina was hauled up for her jaunt to Europe, which cost the exchequer USD 127,000 only. Compare it with the per capita GDP of the US. In stark contrast, look at the USD 40 mn that Pratibha Patil spends on her jaunts, and compare is to the less than a dollar a day on which most of India survives. But the ledger of public accountability is so weak, you can get away with murder. You are safe and will do your term as president till the time Sonia Gandhi is merciful.  

To add insult to injury, the congress spokeswoman Renuka called it a learning curve for the first woman president. Come on have a conscience.

President of India

Now there is politics about the new president of the country. Consensus candidate or a contested candidate that is the question. A moot question indeed. But the political polemics notwithstanding, this position even though titular is clearly the highest office of the country. Last time we saw, a diminutive Pratibha Patil, insipid, unsung and verily vapid, catapult into the top seat of the country.  A proclaimed loyalist of the Nehru – Gandhi family. Intriguingly, a family, that has merely a matri-linear link to Nehru, and actually no link to Gandhi, has nevertheless managed to usurp and copyright the Nehru-Gandhi appellation and milk its equity.

If you would browse the CV of Patil, she is merely a bachelors in law. But it appears, she has fought elections only to win and has never lost one. But in India we all know, how elections are won. I have never one bit doubted the sagacity of the Indian electorate, despite low literacy of its sizeable majority. But the whole electoral systems needs an overhaul. A system that is throwing some most undesirable people into high positions of public service like MPs and MLAs, clearly is crying for an overhaul.

Scrap the first past the post system, or scrap the multiple party multiple candidate system without endangering the Ferderal Structure and without undermining the constitutional pillars of our democracy.

Hamid Ansari for president, will make another insipid candidate after Patil, if he manages to steal the race from others. But of course, his credentials are much better. A civil servant of a batch 7 years before I was born. Therefore old. And this is another phenomenon that I can never understand. Why do we hunt out such old people for such positions. In the parliamentary system, the president’s is essentially a ceremonial office, but its passivity gets compounded by the shear age of the incumbents. Who can deny, that with age, as much as wisdom may not get impaired but even enhanced, energy levels seriously are.

Take a look at the BRICS document of the Delhi Summit. It is a clear pointer of the fact that emerging geographies if they would open their markets to advanced countries, it would not be without extracting their pound of flesh. They would like to have a say in world affairs. They would like to participate in deciding the fate of Iran or at least protect their interest with Iran.

In this changing scenario, when India is, along with emerging geographies deciding to throw its weight in global decision making, and is keenly wanting to eschew its position of a passive or at best fringe player, the position of president assumes even greater significance.

In the new normal, as economic development and growth gravitate to Asia, as China cedes some growth to India, as other markets like Vietnam etc. wait in the wings to outstep the best in GDP growth rate, as Russia prepares for the presidency of the G20 in 2013, as India ramps up its trade with Africa to USD 90 bn, that we have a president who is dynamic and can represent us such forums is extremely critical. 

To Litter is my Birthright

It is all about pride in one’s country. Just as we have lot of pride in our culture, the same cannot be said about the country. Consequently when invaders  came and went, our culture stood unscathed (many cultures in the world were decimated by conquistadors) even though the country was enslaved and pinioned for more than a 1000 yrs.

In Shanghai I noticed, janitors standing by the side of spic span roads are not an uncommon sight. They are assigned a mile which they keep immaculately clean during the course of their duty. They pride in their work and make this small contribution to the country, in which they pride themselves too.

In India, cleaning is a relegated activity. Historically, the higher castes would never condescend to clear. Once the caste equations were upset by the modern economic equations, the higher castes were sometimes forced to clean to eke a living, but they would not do so near to their homes, but somewhere far from home incognito.

Cleaning is a shameful activity, conduct of which relegates your station to a lower one. But curiously enough, in India, personal hygiene is rated highly important. Ablutions are a part of culture. But that is again personal and a part of culture, not a social activity that would have a direct bearing on the country.

Lot of wannabes in the country have a acutely western orientation. That orientation makes them ape what they believe the western ways are. Their understanding of the western ways is sometimes extremely inept. If in their own perception, they have managed to ape the west, they feel elitist and superior to those who are have not yet managed to ape the west. Wearing skimpy dresses is one perception that Indian girls have about the west. I can tell you, educated women in the west dress with dignity. But that is not the Indian wannabe perception of the west. So there is a hot pant wearing elite driving around in Mercs and that is no less a litter-bug than a deprived harassed Indian struggling to have ends met.

Singapore is a favorite destination for Indians. There is not much to see their but for an immaculately clean and orderly city. And that obviously is an oddity for us. We spit, litter, urinate unhindered and then pay a fortune just to see a clean city. Let me call that “clean tourism”.

It is not about cleaning merely. It is about national character and psyche.

I don’t know how to describe our method of doing things. Our approach is always askance, never direct, vision nebulous, plan of action tentative and goals shifty. Explanations for failure always multiple, accountability never clear, and rationalization of failure always ready.

SRK in USA

Once again our Bollywood icon SR Khan was held nay, interrogated at a US airport. It must be a torment for a guy, used to being licked all over in India, but be subjected to a “who you” like treatment in land, where they are numbskull to India’s “phone lagaoon” culture – they actually don’t even let you call.

I did not see an equivalent media outrage, when Obama made a comment about Indians and Chinese consuming more food thereby causing a rise in food prices in the US. I have always argued, the quality of authorship is reflective of the quality of readership, and hence the attitude of the media is not so reprehensible as reflective of the Indian psyche, where, stardom, or VIPism need more preservation than culture or national security.

Try how much I may, I am not able to forget when in 1999 my colleagues, all without exception, were engrossed in some stupid cricket match, while the Indian army struggled in snow to wrest back parts of Kargil-Drass sector where due to a political blunder and bureaucratic inaction, Pakistani rangers had creepingly infiltrated.

Complete misalignment of national priorities has been my favorite theme. But I would not again harp on that here, although I don’t promise to spare you the torture in future.

Ironically in all this, while a lazy Indian diplomatic core scampered to the US embassy to lodge an apologetic and tentative protest at the discomfort of its Bollywood star (we cannot dare haul the USA), the ire of the star himself, who has of late been found posturing in his public appearances more as a muslim than an Indian lay somewhere else. He was a Khan but not a terrorist. It was not so much about his Indian identity as his muslim one. But let us grant him that.

On the flip side, a large section of upwardly mobile echelons of society, dreads if this incident should make them suffer a sequel to My Name is Khan.

Kiran Bedi ahaa

Kiran Bedi Aha

I took it as professional rivalry or our stereotypical disenchantment with challenge to status quo, when some of my bureaucrat friends would sneer when I would hold out the example of Bedi as a good, bold and effective officer. They having seen her more closely, felt she was none of that, but adroit at grandstanding or managing media to hog some limelight.

Tonight she was on TV airing her opposition to VIP’s security. Well this is one subject that I too have blogged enough on, and the bottom line is that the bull bodied safari clad PSO is not so much for security as an announcement of your station or for the purpose of bullying common people.

But while Ms Bedi an ex-Cop herself, sermonized in her typical high-pitched tone, I remembered an incident about her.

It was a flight to Calcutta. She was one of the last one to board and would sit next to me, escorted by a inspector, who departed having ensured she was comfortably seated.

Garrulous as she is, to make conversation, she asked me where I was headed? When I said Calcutta, she was startled as her destination was Mumbai.

On the airport, till you board, there are so many checks, it is impossible to board the wrong flight. But VIPs manage to skirt the checks, and their PSO escorts them unchecked / unfrisked right upto their seat. She had boarded a wrong flight, as her PSO, whisked her past all checks without any encumberance, but being limited by the IQ of a cop, he took her to the wrong aircraft.

The point is not her being on the wrong flight. The moot point is, she was sermonizing on conduct that she herself has been in some measure guilty of.

So if my friends say, she is a fraud, I would not disagree.

How dare Gen VK Singh Leak his Letter?

He lost his case in the Supreme court, and hence he is hitting back at the government. Since his term as Chief is coming to an end, he is raking up controversies. His motives are suspect, as he remained silent for 2 years and is whistle blowing only now.

How the hell could a letter leak? Did the general leak it himself? Should he be dismissed? The entire political landscape is not only rife with speculation, but also deeply intrigued not by the all pervasive corruption but by the leak.

In hours there will be an enquiry on how the letter leaked, but none on how the corruption continues in the most sensitive departments and most sensitive deals.

These are typical reactions that you would see to the This is the typical Indian psyche. Growing up in a maze of corruption, we find excuses to dismiss any action that could be challenging it. Challenging corruption is like challenging a way of life or fait accompli.

No politician or news channel is saying that even for whatever reason, if the conscience of a retiring general has finally awakened, let it be a golden opportunity to cleanse a system that has been festering for so long.

Cleansing is the last thing on the mind of all people. It is the infrastructure of corruption on which the rich and powerful thrive. If you are able curb or at least cap corruption, how will the various political parties fund their respective election campaigns? If by buying some in-appropriate or substandard equipment, some soldiers die due malfuntioning of equipment or the nations' fighting machine operates sub-optimally little does it matter. We proudly say, India trudges on.

Madrasas in the SP Raj

When I was a young lad, I would wait eagerly for the then fortnightly India Today, and would lap it up cover to cover, new sooner the newspaper man would fling it into the house, slicked into the newspaper of the day.

The same news magazine today is like a cheap tabloid that would at all costs avoid to read.

I remember reading a report on Islamic fundamentalism. The article had to a large extent taken the routes of this to the madrasas. There were about 75,000 then, nondescript, hidden in the womb of populous gullies of muslim dominated geographies. These have been imparting colloquial Islamic education to poor muslims who donot have access to modern education. The medium is Urdu and Persian, which are the national languages of Pakistan and Iran. Products of this system are misfits in the modern world. They cannot seek any mainstream employment and sitting ducks and recruitment pools for extremist organisations.

Hindu organisations also run schools, colleges and universities. But they are imparting the mostly modern of education. An RSS college merely implies, starting the day with Saraswati Vandana. Rest of the curriculum is just like any modern school. A record number of their students enter IITs and IIMs and the still so coveted civil services. Just imagine what would happen to Hindus, should Hindu colleges teach only the Vedas and no science. Or education be imparted in Sanskrit, which is hardly spoken anywhere in India, saving stray courses in academic institutions. Akin to madrassas imparting education in Urdu or Persian. To top this all, politicians like Mulayam Singh are going to encourage madrassas just to gain cheap popularity amongst muslims. How are these madrassas going to help muslims. They will but help the Samajawadi party for sure.

That Islam is intolerant I always knew. I had personal experience on the fate of the coptic christians when I was visiting Egypt and a story about Iran. During a trip to Tehran, my agents played a lovely host. While trying to make polite conversation at dinner time, I mentioned, India has a population of Irani origin people ( read parsis ) who are doing exceedingly well in the country. Pat came the answer - if they were to come back, we would kill them. I was aghast to here this.

The American Tips culture

Believe you me. When our PM MMS went on a state trip to US, Barak Obama served him masala chai. While MMS savored the Chai, oblivious of the written in blood, American tradition, he forgot to tip Obama. The latter was so upset at this faux pas, that he decided to not support India on the nuclear deal.

What corruption is to some emerging geographies, tips are to the United States of America. Ingrained and institutionalized. In America they demand tips as though, they work for tips and not for the consideration / salary and tips are not really a form of gratuity, but right.

The idea of service is also extremely warped. An average American believes, service is all about yapping. Fellows waiting tables want to stand by your side and yap while I am sure you want to savor the food with folks. You pay for the food, but the yapper comes along. They may forget parts of the order, may not remember to bring the salt and pepper with the complimentary bread, but would like to stand by your side and discuss your day, weather and your clothes may be.

This time, at the Radisson Manhattan, on room service, the messed up my order, added 3 times the charges and having done all this, of their own, added a tip on the bill, and booked it on my room. Disgusting is all that I can say. But interestingly, I noticed it and got it reversed.

Taxi drivers also want to chat with you, and would like to be tipped for all the yapping that you could very well do without. Having done so, they believe - they have delivered a great deal of service - and deserve the extras which if you deny, they may get indignant. The all prevalent and ubiquitous tip culture becomes even more obvious when in the movie Tower Heist, the cast so presumptuously declares the Towers policy of no tips.

Landing back home from the great USA, sitting in the Meru cab, you get a shock when the guy returns rupee 1 to you should he be owing you.

UP Elections

Sections of media and psephologists, self- proclaimed protagonists of people’s rights, and corner room political commentators. All seem to be in subdued tones debating, the Rahul phenomenon clearly proven to being devoid of charisma or popular connect, would the Matron and queen bee (Sonia), ailing with some serious medical condition, role her daughter out to spew life in a party which has time and again showed fatigue in a state (UP) that decides who wields the baton at the centre.

There are many ways to stay in power. Deliver to or beyond expectation, ensure a weak tier II of leadership, perpetuate and reinforce sycophancy, preside on factionalism. The congress high command practices all this individually and severally.

I am actually intrigued by the Nehru families almost 80 – 90 years of prominence on India’s political scene. Neither despots like the perverted Dhana Nanda could perpetuate their dynasty, nor benevolent kings like Chandragupta, Vikramaditya and Harsha perpetuate theirs’. How is the congress’ top family then defying such a telling truth or neglecting this learning from history. UP election result could well augur the downfall of the dynasty, and it goes without saying, I wish - at the cost of being presumptuous - it were imminent sooner than anyone’s guess is.

The political panorama is buzz with the success of Akhilesh. It is to be seen, if it is the enchantment for Akhilesh or the dislike for Mayawati. The people when straddled with lack of choice, often choose a lesser evil of the two. The sincerity of the congress was dubious, regardless of the credulous political posturing of the crown Prince – Rahul.

SP rakes in good numbers, 225 is tall, but of them, only 90 are without criminal record. Woefully, in this country, politics is truly the last refuge of the scoundrels.

While all else will continue to pettifog about what happened during the elections and what went wrong, Akhilesh will get into the driving seat.

Chamki Pedestrian Chameli

Hideously pedestrian! That is how I would describe the Chamki Chameli number that Katreena has done in one of the lately released films. Which those who know me, would not be surprised to know, I have not seen as yet, and I don’t plan to either, but I have seen the promos of the number and the gyrations are clearly crass and distinctly distasteful. But of course many may whistle. Nay, most will whistle. And that being the case, perhaps the objective is fulfilled. Today, pandering to baser instincts of an audience in a society where practicing repression in some measure, is normal, as it provides a legitimate outlet.

VADRA WHO?

Yesterday when I went to the Grand Hyatt, for my usual work out, some Ritesh Deshmukh was getting married.

Today using 5 stars hotels for marriages is in vogue but what peeves the regular guests, is disruption of their routine. Too many visitors, and too many photo-ops and of course chaotic parking.

And, all with aggravated severity if the context is of a VIP. And that it was, as the next day I saw the coverage of the marriage and all the celebrity invitees. The clown happens to be the son of the Ex CM of the Maharashtra.

There were about 100 pot bellied Maharashtra policemen lolling around in the lobby and entrance. They matter in numbers, as the purpose is not so much the security of the protectee, which actually they are not trained for. The objective is flaunt value and ego which the teaming number completely fulfill. If they were trained to protect, NSG would not be needed to handle just 5 Paki terrorist holed up in a hotel on the fateful 26/11. The entire Mumbai police witnessed the spectacle and in the process lost 2 brave officers without firing a bullet.

Today, Vadra's bike rally was stopped and the officer who committed the faux pax or let us say crime was promptly transferred. Who is Vadra, a small time Moradabad trader. And a CISF cop at the airport once told me, he has exemption from being frisked, and also immunity from his baggage being screened, a privilege reserved for heads of states. The President of India tops this list and it closes with Vadra at number 31, the latter being the total number exempt from frisking and the usual drill.

Woman raped in Orissa, and 4 months no FIR and no punitive measures taken against the erring officialdom. But in the same country, stop a VIP read Vadra and transfer is spontaneous. Shame on us!

If Dig Vijay Singh would read my blog, the stooge would order all departments to book cases against me. In minutes the income tax/excise, police or all that you can imagine would be chasing me and persecution would see a new high.

What I with particular poignancy regret is not about VIPs acting haughty contempt of rules or ultra vires to all principles and norms, the shame is about the people who jump with alacrity more than they show anywhere else to persecute on behalf of those who want to in some way or the other preserve their power.

Ironically, those who execute on behalf on their masters come from average and not VIP families. Yet they stop identifying and are not able to connect to the same background that they themselves hail from. If they could, perhaps they would never execute with brazenness and impunity, illegitimate demands of those who be in power. And this tacit resistance would eventually dissipate the demands put on them for meritless action.

How much longer will it take India to change.

THANKSGIVING

The Americans are good people. They kill Turkeys for Thanks Giving. Not horses or elephants or goats. So this confirms that they are good. Slaughtering goats is primitive and muslims do it and therefore Americans can’t.

Having worked with some Americans, I know, they are very systematic and really follow calendar.

As per that calendar, there is a day they earmark for remembering family and that they call Thanks Giving. So even if they don’t remember family for the rest of year, there is redemption. I pity the multitude of Turkeys slaughtered while they professes love for kith and kin. Now they are also getting more specific with Mothers day, Fathers day, and I am sure there will sisters’,cousins’ etc day following soon. Trust the merchants who find these days an opportunity to vend their wares.

I wish they pull a fig leaf from some more culturally evolved parts of the world and stop killing animals for emotional benefit.

But just before one of my puritan readers corrects me as much to write thanks giving as I have written to thanksgiving as it must be written, I must say, I mildly detest the way they maul language for their convenience.

This is one country, where they have a scant regard for grammar and yet have a multitude of Grammar schools.

Will a Mormon be the next President of USA?

I did argue with Nmemosyne, on why she did not endow me with better faculty. But she just smiled.

Long back, I did read about the Mormons. But forgot. Nmemosyne to blame squarely! Had it not been for Mitt Romney, I would never have remembered who Mormons are and what this sect is all about. It is indeed amazing to see, how such sects exist even today. Fidelity and chastity in marriage are founding principles of Mormonism. Also, polygamy is practiced and allowed amongst mormons. To me fidelity and polygamy are mutually exclusive. If they are not, it is hypocrisy. I wonder how such sects exist legally under the constitution of United States.

We need Jobs

I am not a great fan of Apple. All its inventions, human kind could very much live without.

But it is true, Jobs was a high achiever. Had he applied himself to more path breaking discoveries, a person of his creativity and manic perseverance, could well have changed the destiny of human kind for good.

If I were to cull out some of the diachronic contradictions from the life of Jobs, they would be a foster father, his knowledge of the same, and his obsession with the smartness of his father over the years as he grew. It was not that he was no longer attached to him after having learnt he was adopted, nor did he find his dad any less enchanting as he grew to realize that he himself was so gifted and smart. He continued to admire his foster father Paul Job while he excelled in his own new world.

At the cost of repetition, I reiterate, I am not a fan of the inventions of Jobs and believe that man of his drive and talent wasted himself in bringing to the world what he actually did, but I do know and with a certainty that leaves little to doubt, that more and more such people are needed in India, if we as a country must lead in some fields.

We need a Jobs in agriculture, where growth is dreadfully stagnating. We need a Jobs in supply chain which is perhaps the most inefficient in the world. We need a Jobs in power, the quality and condition of which will ensure, we are never a super power.

I live in the so called Millenium city of Gurgaon. In our residential complex we have a 24x7 power backup. Sometimes there is a change over 5 times in 5 minutes. This is ridiculous, and something needs to be done about it. Yes something will be done, the councillors will go to Bangkok or New York to see how their city councils manage their power distribution. That is how our system works.

We need a person who is as tough on others as he is on himself. Who sets himself to kill mediocrity, and would not take no for an answer.

SHADES OF SHELDON

Courtesy Chuck Lorre, I no longer feel that my elder son is weird. He just shows shades of Sheldon. Science and all that is esoteric excites him no end. Jostling with abstractions stimulates him more than anything else.

He also has similar sense of humor, guffaws at the bizarre. He vacillates so simplistically between the most vulnerable and most audacious. Sometimes he connects to instantly, and sometimes his aloofness seems to stifle the most earnest. When I saw the 4 napkin regimen of Sheldon at Dinner table, I was once again reminded of my pressingly persnickety son.

So it seems Sheldon is not a figment of imagination of a sitcom creator, but exists in shades in some people, and then of course there is a creators’ pardon, that can explain the concomitant exaggeration, but clearly it is that very exaggeration that engenders the punch in the prank.

But on one hand, while I quite like the Big Bang Theory, I find Mike and Molly or Two and Half Men, quite intellectually jading. All of them have one thing in common and that is their creator.

Come to think of it, Chuck Lorre, probably a failed guitarist, straddles a wide spectrum in sitcom direction. But notwithstanding, the merit I attribute to others, Big Bang Theory, is clearly to me a culmination of creativity for this director. One post-prandial ritual that makes me laugh. And the actor who plays Sheldon, does that to an emotive perfection.

Can't Diffuse it, Confuse it

We are masters in obfuscating issues. And we do this till the issues succumb to our softer skill of engaging in diversionary tactics.

Today, the age controversy of the serving chief of Army staff is hogging the headlines. The media is giving it an importance that I did not expect that it would. Luckily or unluckily, for the General, there is no bigger news that would eclipse this one for the time being, so he must smart in the public or media gaze, which will deny him and the government the opportunity to cut a clandestine side deal to close this murky issue.

So today, to retire or not to retire in May, that is the issue. While the General seeks subterfuge behind vague yet exalted ideas like honor and dignity, the government too is confusing the issue in bureaucratic fine print – in your letter you had agreed you will not rake up the age issue, you have given this in writing to the Defence Secretary, you had agreed that you will align your ambition to the Military secretaries records and relinquish the post of chief to whom we dole this to next as per your earlier DoB etc etc and etc.

But the main issue as to what is the correct date of birth, and why and how the mistake was made in some records, why over 40 years it should not be corrected and that he should retire as per the correct date of birth, regardless of whether he serves less or more than he was originally supposed to.

Well the matter is at the doorstep of the SC and mostly, its judgments or advisories to the government are comprehensive, aligned with highest standards of jurisprudence even if there is a tint of judicial activism sometimes.

Women in India

The fact is, we are still struggling to fulfill the most basic needs as per the Maslow’s need hierarchy. The lower social strata are struggling for two square meals. The middle class is capering to malls and markets, heaving a sigh of relief from the queues that they saw their parents make for a telephone, scooter, car or even a cooking gas connection. The higher class has it good now just as it had it then. How many times I would have heard, 1 pct of the population of the world has commandeered about 99 pct of its resources. Such is the stark reality, ready to stare you in your face, should you pause and ponder.

Given this, India is quite consumed with itself. There are enough things good and bad in this country that need to be highlighted. There are enough things good and bad in all other countries that need to be highlighted. Take any documentary made by BBC/CNN or any other news agency on India, highlighting an ill or something good, which has been made by an Indian. Such documentaries are always made by foreigners. That being the case, India is seen by the world never through its own eyes but through always the eye of the foreigner.

I saw a program on CNN once, where they were showing how sanitation is addressed in villages. I saw another program, on how maverick the traffic is in the country. I have also seen documentaries highlighting superstition in India. Such a list is unending.

I have never seen an Indian making a documentary on the growing number of peadophiles or rampant superstition in US or the perversion piling in the churches, or the increasing sexual harassment in American work places.

It is not that Indians lack creativity or entrepreneurial aptitude. It is about their being engaged in fulfilling still the basal needs.

Last time when I was in Poland I saw a local Polish channel air a program on the state of women in India. To my mind, in India women are more respected than in the west. Husbands are happy to feed them fat, mothers are taken care of no matter what. People don’t detest women being in positions of power and authority. Look at Sonia, Jaya, Maya, Rabri, Mamta.

In India I have never known a woman loose to a man for her gender. There are umpteen cases, where the woman opts out despite competence in favor of family, but not for gender bias.

Contrarily, Margaret Thatcher was called names. “Ditch the bitch” was a rhyme that echoed when she struggled to keep her second term . "Hilda", pejoratively, as her middle name did reek of her middle class parentage. Would anyone argue, one of the reasons that went against Hillary was her gender. Apparently, in competence she was no less than her president husband. But the stigma on India continues, as none of our tribe is venturing to discover the true west. While the westerner’s quest for the east stays unabaited, there is wool on our eyes with regard to the true west. It is time we got up to participate and even conduct the affairs of the world with confidence and celebration than be merely pranked upon.

Gen VK Singh

Well what triggered my previous blog? Of course it was Gen VK Singh, my namesake. His date of birth is a controversy that is hogging the headlines. And of course I don’t like him, for earlier when you would google for VK Singh, you would get some lines pertaining to me. Today he hogs the first 5 pages of the search, relegating me to anonymity.

He is a good thinker, plain speaker and bold officer. This is enough to make in not so popular. this is also enough to make him un-deserving. Besides, he is smart. He has a swagger about him. He carries himself in a manner befitting a 4 star general. He is not perpetually obsequious toward the political masters.

A son of an army officer, a Rajput by caste, an honors graduate from the Staff College, and Colonel of the Rajput Regiment, as my mother says, करेला और नीम चढ़ा.

So he swaggers. But in India, people are afflicted by what you can call the bechara syndrome. Take the example of our PM. He is very intelligent, very brilliant but looks like a bechara. He will secure one position of influence after the other. Gandhi perhaps would not have been as powerful, if he had the looks of Mountbatten or Gregory Peck. Indians like such bechara looks. They like to support becharas.

So despite the fact, that we have after 20 years maybe, after Gen Sundarji, a smart general, who carries himself well, he does not go down well with the all powerful bureaucracy nor the political pavilion.

So he will lose the case of the date of birth controversy. The media will not support him. They will underplay the episode actually. What a pity.

Hierarchy of Scorn

I have never been able to comprehend, the history and historicity of the scorn and hate relationship between the bureaucracy and brass.

I think the contempt is mutual and perhaps primordial. But today, the bureaucracy particularly the IAS is pretty much unionized. Operates as a bastion not easy to breach. On the other side, the quality of officers in the army has degenerated to such an extent, that they are unable to reciprocate the contempt in any significant measure. They seem to be destined to play the permanent second fiddle, till a revolution that calls for their leadership, rejuvenates their organization. In the battle in which the bureaucracy is gaining ground inch by inch, the brass seems to always lose.

Even in the vice-regal council, there were continuous conflict between the military member and other civilian members. Clearly, since the British were in India because of the army, the military member would usually prevail.

The mind of a typical army officer approaches a situation by attempting to identify patterns and then applying tactical solutions that maps best with the pattern that they see in the solution, minimizing slack, situational discretion, while continuously focusing on not obfuscating the ultimate goal.

The civilian mind world over, more so India, does not work in patterns, in fact it works to break patterns. When I say more so in India, it is because, there is a peculiar situation here. The brown bureaucrat stepped into the shoes of the white bureaucrat, on the midnight of August 15, about 60 years ago. The white one was exploitationist and the brown one inherited that mentality. But he was cast as a public servant. Eventually he morphed into becoming a political servant from public servant. But the politician was accountable to the public. So the bureaucrats job stayed exploitationist, but he was expected to make all irregularities appear completely regular. This makes the whole situation completely hypocritical.

I remember, my father narrating an anecdote to me. Entry without an ID card was not allowed at the IMA. It was no other than the commandant Gen Pandit, in uniform and official car, who had been stopped by the sentry, as he was not carrying the ID Card. The sentry informed the general, he had orders from the Subedar Major to not allow anyone without an ID card. So he wouldn’t. The sentry was rewarded. But that is how an army mind works and must work. But we all know, the civialian mind will never work. The civilian sentry would have found a clause under which he could have allowed entry. And the civilian superior would found a clause under which to fire the sentry for challenging his VIP status. Both minds would have worked to breach patterns.

Also one more reason could be, even though, as individuals, the military personnel may not qualify to be the best, but the systems that they run as a team, are indeed far superior to the civilian systems. More robust, more resilient, more dependable and with lesser leakages. This makes the situation really dichotomous and clearly one that would breed contempt.

Why do we move on??

Just as I was harping in one of my previous blogs, how one news or mishap in India eclipses the previous one. Calcutta fire got eclipsed by Lokpal, and the theatrical manner in which a insincere government skillfully contrived a midnight adjournment. Just before the tale of this gory Calcutta hospital asphyxiation could possibly get etched on public memory, there were about 65 deaths from the Thane Cyclone. Then came the mother of all, the death of 14 children in a bus accident in Ambala. Each story was more sordid than the previous one, and did the work of the making the previous one look small and incidental. And some stupidly eternal optimists call this moving on. The country moves on. Of course it does, as an apathetic people we don’t stop to fret.

There are some people like me, who clamor indefatigably that corruption is not unique to India and go to any extreme to not make their country look so stupid in the eyes of the world, trying also to in some measure banish the already so prevalent fatalism in the people. There are also some like me, who keep drawing from history tales of our past glory and how we are just poised to realize it once again. But each time I read about an accident like the one involving school kids of Ambala, I get too despondent to not eschew my trademark optimism.

It is easy to blame the system, but who makes the system. When we are supposed to elect a city counsellor, his commitment to work and country, his experience are last things that we see in the resume of the person.

As a people, we are so obsessed with authority figures, that we find it extremely difficult to question much less challenge. Did the parents of the children of the Ambala Bus accident not know the type of safety conditions in which there kids were being ferried to and fro from school. If they did not, they are fools and if they did, how many questioned the bus owner or the school. How many wrote to the school about the apparent cavalier manner that killed their loved ones. If in an exceptional case a maverick parent will question, the rest will side with the authority-figure who in this case could well be the driver of the bus or the school transport coordinator.

Making too much fuss about a non-issue, is the usual refrain of the pacifist Indian, but when tragedy befalls, he resorts to chest beating and wailing, but then moves on. He actually moves on another tragedy.

Why is the SP Traffic not suspended? Why is the counsellor and mayor booed out? Why is the principal of the school not arrested? Because the people don’t want it. Why is the resignation of the transport minister not demanded? If they would, they will participate in the process and make this land less hostile to normal living.

Each time there is an accident involving a school bus, the media goes hysterical about the Supreme Court guidelines not being implemented by the school. But what are the Supreme court guidelines? They are not about preventing an accident? They are a hotch potch of lay man thinking.

There is no training school for drivers. Almost anyone can obtain a license sitting at home. Brokers specialize in such service at door step.

I live in the so called millennium city of Gurgaon, where some office buildings are indeed samples architectural excellence, but the roads don’t have names, they are not laned, footpaths don’t exist, the pot holes on the roads emerge no sooner the roads have been completed, red lights don’t work, even big car owning educated people don’t respect even simple traffic rules.

In most countries the obtention of a driving license is so difficult, and one failure results in the date of grant being delayed by 3 months at least.

We are casual but who suffers. Not the children who leave the world. They are our children and we suffer. When would we get serious about our societal obligations, our duties toward our nation, which included demanding good governance? To me this question is best left unanswered by the self serving Indian.