au Contraire

The cabinet has been shuffled today. Some of the younger ministers have been promoted.

Who is Selja Kumari. She is a Dalit leader. Surprisingly, she does not look Dalit from any angle. But for her angular looks, she seems to be every bit a child of wealth and privilege. But in the absence of inner party democracy and supporting systems and processes, whim of the party leader will prevail in such issues. And the party leader may not always be working in national interest. She may well be working to perpetuate family interests.

Salman Khurshid, despite his faux pas and anger spats against Kejriwal, still is foisted to the top job in MEA.

I, as student had the opportunity of interacting with Salman, and he came across as very suave and polished and progressive. But the unbecoming manner in which he behaved in the last couple of weeks, a carrot is clearly not what he deserved. And should the allegations of team Kejriwal be true, clearly a very wrong signal is being sent to the country, and worse still is that all this is happening under the tutelage of a PM like Manmohan Singh.

What a gadfly he is. Manish Tiwari, a motor mouth. Suffering from chronic sinusitic congestion. But for ever ready to take on an adversary with a shamelessness that brinks on the bizarre. Also tipped for his loyalty.

Merit is secondary. 

The most critical aspect seems to be creation of a constituency for Rahul Gandhi. A coterie that will toil to cordon him from adversity catapult him into the saddle whenever the family desired. 

Confidential Letter to Madamji

Madamji,

Namaste.

I am aghast to see how stupid these Indians are. You came all the way from Italy to give to India its RTI act, just like Mohandas Gandhi came all the way from S Africa to give India its independence.

Indians are an ungrateful lot. The very RTI that you gave to them after so many people lost their lives, this Kejriwal fellow has used to malign Jijaji.

Just imagine, Priyankaji is so white, her complexion is so glowing, and she is so pretty, and that should make up for the pedestrian looks of jiju from Moradabad. But these Indian people don't understand. But now he has made a body shody and has rippling biceps and that should more than make up for his rickshawallah looks and his masterly golf strokes should have brought him the class to be worthy of Priyankaji. But the people stupidly don’t think so. They feel he is completely boorish and undeserving of any prosperity and wealth.

But I know how hard Jijaji has worked in the gym to make money, buy and sell land, impress DLF off his own and not due to the family and impel them to lend him a loan which he although will never repay but has since manifold multiplied. The country does not realize his talent. Instead of idolizing him, under the bad influence of Kejriwal, they are criticizing him.

Madamji, you have already told the country, you are aunty of RTI, and even the tiger does not attack billy mausi. But unlike your mother in law badi mummyji, you are good lady, else by now, Kejriwals children would have been orphaned. But let this not be viewed as your weakness. The people are appreciating your restraint against this Kejriwal fellow. For the moment only the party machinery whose weight you are throwing behind damadji, but if protests don't die down like most things in India do, you may have use more powerful tools like the CBI, RAW, Police or just let the Rae Barelli goons to lynch this devil.

I know madamji, when after Durga pooja, you will become avatar of Durgama, and slay this corrupt man who is just after the small land deals that Jiju has done.

I will pray to Durga ma for you.

Yours pathetically subservient child

Vimalendu kumar singh

SORRY ABOUT THAT

Sorry about that

The Americans have taken succinctness to a nether level. But they are relatively verbose when they say sorry, and usually appendage it with “about that”. That is how they say sorry in the land of Uncle Sam.

These days, I am grappling with a sagging paunch. The girth of which shows a hideously audacious stubbornness to any effort of reduction. And my younger son finds this appearance of mine challenging the concept that he has of his once fit dad. But visiting the United State is like redemption or even resurrection of a sagging self-esteem. Obesity and mind you, I am not saying being overweight, is a national malaise today in America. Today and average American is overweight to the state of being sick. The poorer you are more is the propensity to add casual kilos.

The reason for this is that a particular type of street cuisine (read junk food) is very cheap, And if you are less educated and poor, you are prone to gorge yourself more on such street food. And of course the consequence is in front of all of us. And a visitors tryst with this obese nation commences as soon as you board any American Carrier to reach the so famed land of opportunities. The stewards and stewardesses are all grossly overweight, and keep nudging you should you have chosen an aisle seating.

Having said this, it is a pity that some months ago, Barack Obama had the temerity to observe that Indians are responsible for the increase in food commodity prices. There are so many in India who go hungry days on end. Obama must visit their homes to see how they survive on a single meal in days, and how they struggle to feed their children. An average American is actually eating as much as a full football team in India would. More importantly, American is wasting enough food to feed the teeming millions who go hungry each day.

But who should explain this to an election bound Obama. The guy too has political compulsions and all he says cannot be practically analyzed on the altar of rationality.

What is Offensive about Aseems cartoon

Where is the disconnect? Is there something more than what meets the eye?

This young cartoonist from Kanpur, sketches something, and is charged under section 134 for sedition.

I am not for unbridled freedom of expression. My liberty clearly stops where someone else’ freedom starts. And this should veritably be the definition of freedom of speech of expression.

And of course the Hinglish speaking people scamper to debate the issue on TV under the stewardship of a high pitched moderator.

In the debate they debated no end as professional debaters. None of them tried to discuss what the cartoonist had drawn. I wonder if they were even aware of what had been drawn.

The Ashoka Emblem had been drawn with foxes instead of lions. In which way is this an insult to the symbol. This symbol is there on every MPs and bureaucrats letter head. It is on all official stationery, on which all types of irrational, corrupt and sometimes antinational notifications are scripted. This is same Ashoka which pips the shoulder of every police officer who is abetting smuggling of drugs and arms, or turning a blind eye to some antinational activity.

In fact in my view, the cartoonist laments, why the magnificent Ashoka has been so denigrated by corrupt politicians, and why the lions have been reduced to foxes by those who least deserve to be entitled to use such exalted state insignias. And by their actions bring disgrace the national symbols. He is only using satire to take his point to the corruption oppressed people.

Does this symbol not get insulted then??

And I would once again reiterate, all actions of the state reflect on the quality of the people

Just think about this??

I don’t think Indians are more patriotic or nationalist than Americans. If the Americans don’t decry the cartoon depiction of Statue of Liberty then why scoundrels like us who are selling their country at all forums become so overly sensitive.

India belongs to NE Indians also

The northeast was again at a flashpoint. The British took about 100 years to integrate the north east into the Empire and that too loosely in the form of autonomous regions, and Indian government in its typically hypocritical brinkmanship, wants to accomplish  this through the AFSPA (Armed Forces Special Powers Act).

In India, since most civilian systems are dysfunctional, the dependence on the army for solving a problem is quite natural. We believe, having called the army out of the barracks, the problem will get automatically solved.

Army is never a solution. It can maintain status quo or at best status quo ante, and temporarily freeze frame adversarial positions, but can never solve them. To solve a problem, statesmanship and political will are needed, which none of our governments exhibit.

The anniversary of the North London riots triggered by a cold blooded point blank shooting of a black Mark Duggan by the British police coincided with the London Olympics and hence got no attention. And the criminal consumerism, vandalism, bootlegging that colonies of London witnessed post the shooting of Duggan was seen by the whole world.

But the British government literally read the riot act. In less than one year, the rioters got sentenced. Mark my words, in less than one year. In India, in one year the investigation agencies will not even able to frame a charge sheet. The culprits were mostly blacks. The punishing committee was ironically chaired by an Indian origin person.

In such cases of looting and rioting, the max that you can sentence as per the British Law is about 3 to 4 months. But the accused on an average have been sentenced for 16-18 months. How and why? It is not about rioting, looting or vandalism, it is about challenging the state, and state retaliated. Those who will challenge authority, will not be spared. It is a message that the courts unambiguously sent.

And now you will see how the Maruti Udyog case will be handled. It will go on for years without conviction. Also the culprits responsible for the mass exodus of the NE Indians, one, may never get caught, and if they do, will never get punished.

I am for the freedom of speech and if facebooking is a modern method of expression, than I don’t want it to be gagged. But if the website is being used for anti-national activity, the managers should be jailed without bail. Do it once and then see the seriousness that it drives in for situations in the future. The British government tracked the inflammatory messages being propagated on FB and also tracked panic creating and rabble rousing tweets and detained the authors of them all. But the British can do it. The Americans can also do it. Because they love their country and we don’t. 

And the neo-intellectuals can debate no end to the detriment of communal harmony and national security.

Dont Hang Kasab

Ajmal Kasab’s sentence was confirmed by the Supreme Court. And now the Congress has another opportunity to play the minority card. It will trigger the pardon, neither grant the pardon nor deny the pardon, and let a terrorist live on state dole and protection. But I can tell you Indian jail, for those other than VIPs are worse than death.

If you would hang Kasab, he will become a martyr, if you don’t, he will die before he will die. But it is here that the muslim leadership should stand up and condemn delay in hanging and blow the steam out of the governments minorityism card.

It is actually not about the government. It is about Indian hypocrisy, our falsehood and self serving nature. I don’t know from where we imbibed such virtues. I am still trying to figure and the moment I am able to, I will share with you.

We write no parking, but don’t mind parking right underneath that sign. We write no diving at the pool, but continue to dive. Our stop lines only mean stopping beyond the line. If you will stop at the line, maybe people will protest. For this attitude I blame the government. In their attitude they don’t display sincerity. They give you the impression, even if you don’t obey, there is a way.

Drive Decently Mr MLA........

Today, an Innova HR 26 AY 0585 overtook me very rashly from the wrong side, while I was enroute Pathways school, to ferry my kids back home.

I like to give my boys a ride whenever I can to and from school, as that is one time that I get to spend with them. I also enjoy the chatter that they exchange about their time at school. It takes me back to my school days, when my brother and I would be doing the same.

Coming to todays episode, firstly, it is a narrow and winding road to Pathways, as it goes up the Aravalis and due to rain damage and water logging, it becomes further constricted. Overtaking therefore is completely contraindicated.

This Innova paced on to my side, almost scraping my car and tried to either intimidate me with its screaming hooter or merely tried to declare a VIP’s primary right to traffic.

I don’t have a problem if politicians don a beacon even on their heads why only on cars and a hooter on their hind-quarters and strut around noisily. But when their strutting around compromises my safety or nudges or jostles me, or displaces me from my place of priority which I have earned, I will react.

And I did react. I did not have a hooter to match my adversaries’ but I honked like a maniac, till he heeded and stopped. On closer questioning of the driver on the mis-demeanor, it turned out to be a car of a Haryana MLA.

This is one of the perils of democracy or should I say one of its ailments. Such goon like politicians are thrown up by a purely democratic process. So as much as they are to blame for manipulating the system to go up, so is the electorate responsible for anointing them to their own long term detriment.

But curiously, besides the sticker of MLA, the car also had a sticker saying authorized for Red Light till 31/12/2012. I wonder if this was genuine.

As common people, we must resist such behavior, as not resisting will reinforce it. Why should I bother attitude will make this country even more unlivable than what it is today. But just a word of caution, today, political patronage sometimes conveys to its beneficiaries a sense of immunity. Whipping out a gun on the flimsiest grounds and killing innocents is a matter of pride for them.

We need a Chanakya or at least a Churchill

The need of the hours is a Chanakya. A true Chanakya not of the type of Pranab Mukherjee who is lauded as a Chanakya but works for a party or for a family, or may be the party and the family are one and the same thing. That being the case, India's future is but quite bleak.

But it will not be easy to produce an ideologue, a statesman, an academician, a strategist, an orator or a transitional leader like Chanakya. May be we could make do with a Churchill. A politician adept at statecraft, willy enough to control the wicked, high on personal integrity and probity, and the with the interest of the nation above all.

In fact I am getting more and more convinced we need a Indian reincarnation of Churchill. Someone, who is on the brink of jingoism when it comes to his country and its interests. Someone, who believes in the great role that India has played in the past and is destined to play in the future. Someone, who does not get weak in the knee when he is obliged to allude to the ancient Indian Civilization read “Hindu Civilization” for some merits or learnings. Someone, who is sagacious enough to differentiate secularism from minorityism.

Churchill believed, that post war Britain would be beacon of the Christian civilization. So much for the western worlds claims to secular credentials. 

Someone, who instinctively knows, which the 3 gravest problems were that India needs to address. Someone, who can protect the territorial integrity of the country as though it was his ancestral land any one inch of which he will part only upon his death.

Someone, whose speech is as powerful as Nehru or Atal Bihari or Churchill. Someone, who can charge and inspire contradicting ideologies and fighting factions into a unified goal of economic prosperity and military supremacy.

Whose Independence day speech keeps you awake and not lull you to sleep like Manmohan's speech does.

Spineless Nincompoops and Hitler Didi

Mamta Bannerji gets a farmer arrested for asking questions in her rally (sec 332/334), alleging he was a maoist. It was a professor earlier this year, who the police had detained on similar charges.

This is indeed the real India, but I thought this was not the metro India. I believed, such high handedness was not possible in metros. But politicians wielding the power that they do, it is quite possible.

The media once again snuggled with the underdog. Highlighted the high handedness of Didi and the concomitant public outrage secured the release of the farmer / bus conductor.

I sometimes feel we are a country of spineless nincompoops. There is a well-written law in the country. There are a host of educated people at the helm in the form of the civil servants who make the permanent executive, who are supposed to implement this well defined law in the country.

Why then do they obey whimsical and autocratic dictates of truant and corrupt politicians? Why does the commissioner of police not tell Mamata B, that the farmer cannot be arrested on such charges? Why does the police not tell the political masters trying to delay the arrest of Kanda, that he needs to be promptly arrested.

Why is that at the behest of a senior politician the police let the entire top brass of Union Carbide scoot out of the country?

Because we are all corrupt, we have misplaced public values (I here make a distinction with personal or social values ), and we are a bunch of spineless nincompoops, who can bend backwards to those who we believe are in places of authority.

While I was growing up, I always believed, women genetically and also by virtue of their role in society, would be more rational, tolerant, empathetic and kind in their handling of situations. But Bahenji, Indiraji, Soniaji, Amma and Didi, are all women and all quite ruthless, quite high-handed and also quite autocratic.

I too am a critic from the fringes, and from the little I understand of what plagues our country, I thing it is lack of love for it, and a lack of pride in ourselves, and a abjectly vague sense of duty. Two very simple ways of stemming this rot could be, re-instating a compulsory moral science class and making NCC compulsory till class 10 in schools.

Why Not Ramdev??

A section of the masses is supporting Ramdev. I don’t think Ramdev is a great yoga guru. But clearly he has made yoga popular. And imparted it a popularity that veterans like Aiyyangar could not.

Regardless, of yoga lineage, Ramdev has mass appeal and the cause he espouses has merit.

Once again the English media is going beserk. I have said this many times in the past. They bring clowns like Suhel Seth, English reaking of an  accent of upstarts and with material success gone into their heads, they become quite omnipotent. Mediocre caliber and they feel they can be universal commentators on all and sundry happening around them.

Ramdev brought in focus on black money. An issue that had been shoved under the carpet by one government after the other as doing so suited them all. And for bringing this focus Ramdev should be cheered and not challenged. The English speaking sanctimonious elite, have cornered plum positions for themselves at the cost of a constituency that is lower in its proficiency in English. And having done so, they feel they are in their right to criticize any person or movement that is "earthy". Which means that is unpretentious.

Madhu Trehan asks TV channels to boycott Ramdevs movement. She expects the media to expose Ramdev. In a democracy what matters?  The numbers. How do you put pressure on a government? By showing numbers. What then is wrong if Anna or Ramdev show numbers. When they dont show numbers, media starts lamenting loss of popular support. When they tom tom numbers, media and self appointed critics cry hoarse otherwise.

I am convinced about one thing. This English chatterati, couched in the comfort of their airconditioned homes, take such frivolously sanctimonious postions that they make a mockery of themselves, show complete lack of understanding of fundamental issues irking the people, and come to debate to appear elite and evolved with personal agendas cloaked in garb of make believe erudition and social wisdom.

It would be amply appropriate for Suhel to comment on Lakme Fashion week, and he may even make sense there, but he must decline invitations to panels that ponder on privileges of democracy. I also don't understand why Arnab should invite such people.

The Indian Caste System………..

One thing is clear. The Indian caste system is an enigma to the geopolitically and demographically Balkanized west and Europe in particular. The western scholars find the caste system so very intriguing that they spend a lot of time in delayering its complexity and getting to its kernel.

In its current form or even in the form that it was practiced a century ago, the complexity of caste system and its protean nature has always befuddled the western mind. One reason for this is, the western scholar wants to be a universal commentator on all cultures which is humanly not possible. He tries crash courses in cultures with the endeavor to understand, dissect and dissert on them, tries to objectively categorize facts, sets and subsets, with an objectivity that any evolutionary phenomenon would clearly defy.

Imagine, if an Indian or Chinese would try and document the evolution of the various sects of christanity, and try and fit every sect and cult in some corner of a 2x2 matrix. Fitting sects like the Mormons or Scientologists, the various other sects of Christians or some other cults like the Cargo Cult would not be simple for anyone who has not experienced the society from within and analyzed it from without.

But since the Indians and Chinese have never undertaken this lofty task of meandering the maze of western civilizational evolution and analyzing the western world, particularly with the abandon typical of mediocre scholarship with which the western world has always attempted to dissect the eastern one, the tortuousness of the task will never be well understood.

In the late 1800s and early 1900s, the term used for the “exterior castes” was “depressed”. This is how the British described the nether of the nether castes of south, whose shadow on the twice born Brahmins warranted purification.

When the British were in India, they spent a huge amount of money and equal amount of resource in getting a parameter of caste incorporated in the censuses. Well, equipped with this, it was simple to follow the policy of divide and rule.

In the late 1800s and early 1900s, if you would ask a Sikh who he was, he would veritably say - Hindu. The British in their conniving trademark smartness which they called statecraft and I would call Machiavellian Statecraft, introduced Sikhs as a new feed in the censuses and forms of employment, and with ease created an new identity, and they granted on it a martial status (though the Sikhs had in their fold non martial castes also), something that the British to the hilt exploited till the terminal part of the their rule in India.

Similarly, an extremely scientific methodology was used to drive a wedge between the Hindus and Muslims. And Morley wired to Minto “ what you tell me about mohommedans is full of interest …………….and it has prevented them from any longer being representing the Indian Government as the ordinary case of bureaucracy versus the people” and the situation would not be seen as the British Government and the people of India, but as “Hindus versus Muslims”.

As an Indian, I really don’t understand why the caste system is so enigmatic for the westerner. If the South German is a better mechanic than the north, and French a better perfume maker, and Italians better tailors, and in Ukraine the Kozaks better warriors than the rest, then why is the caste system, the origin of which was in the division of labor, so enigmatic. So one would argue that these were not hereditary. But then the guilds once upon a time were indeed hereditary.

Whenever I am traveling in Europe, lot of educated European professionals inquire about the “Indian Caste system” and “arranged marriages”. Existence of caste system or social stratification is not so obvious in Europe and needs a discerning scholar to draw evolutionary parallels, but arranged marriages in Europe were happening till not too long ago.

The British also found the caste system intriguing, and wanted to use it to their advantage. If the country could be divided on caste and religion, their task of perpetuating a exploitationist rule would be that much simpler. And for this reason, they introduced caste in the censuses. Sometime I feel, if the French has colonized the country, the governance may have been poorer, but the effect of colonization may not have been so long lasting. The British, be it Israel or India or wherever they have been, have left bacterial strains which are all antibiotic resistant.    

               To be continued……………

A Victory for the Corrupt but Pyrrhic one

I have more often than not criticized the Indian Media, particularly the English Media for drumming up support for frivolous issues like the story of racial slur for an muslim ex army major.

More relevant and actually burning issues like Anna and Kejriwal’s fast against corruption or the turmoil brimming in the NE go under reported. Today most channels particularly the English ones, have been reporting the comparatively feeble support that Anna’s fast is getting this time. This conclusion is drawn from the crowds which are not teeming this time, as compared to last time.

The media is projecting this as a failure of “team Anna” or even their fading lure and popularity. How can this be deemed as failure of team Anna? Anna is fighting against corruption. If support of the people is dwindling, then it is defeat of the people, it is defeat of the fight against corruption and it is also a pyrrhic victory for corruption. The latter being usual for an India congenitally (birth in 1947) plagued with chronic corruption. 

Rahul Gandhi's Special Observer for Shopping Malls

I have been very verbose about the culture of VIPism so rampant in the country. And one of its most obvious manifestations is the beacon light on the car. Particularly in the NCR, adorning the car with a red beacon light is a disease symptomatic of a exploitationist political system poised to eventually collapse under its own weight.

MPs / MLAs mount these red beacons mostly without entitlement on their cars’ roofs, and emulating them, smaller wannabe ranks like Sarpanches of villages do the same. What advantage it fetches them is clearly beyond my ken.

Today I saw a red light on a Skoda Yeti HR 36 R 9799. This car also prominently displayed via a computer generated paper sticker “special observer deputed by Shri Rahul Gandhi”. I took a picture of this car, as I found this hilarious. And I am impelled to share this picture with you. One must have a disdainfully low IQ to be able to flaunt a signage of this sort on a car.

I believe, this is one of the many queer ways in which the Gandhi family could be rewarding unalloyed loyalty. But I only hope, Rahul Gandhi is aware of this observer who is already basking in the glory of such appointment. We saw this car parked prominently without a driver at the Spencers Mall in Gurgaon and then in Ambience Mall again in Gurgaon. It seems Rahul Gandhi appointed an observer to observe shopping pattern and habits of weekend mall trotters.

Barkha Spare Me.........

Just as an adulation starved star struggling to come to terms with the sun setting on his stardom, bid adieu to life, the press went in overdrive revving up un-foreseen nostalgia on television prime time, with chat shows hosted in admiration and honor of the dead actor.  I wish that the poor fellow who longed for this attention while he lived, should have had at least 2 more days of life, to experience that what he longed for - when it did finally fall his way.

What is interesting is that the media specially the supposedly suave English Media went ga- ga over the passing away of the star. It took this as an opportunity to revive the faded stardom, and of course in turn to resurrect its own TRPs.

The media is going berserk these days. I won’t mind living with Gabbar till  someone can save me the trauma that Barkha subjects me to through her high pitch anchored programs. Barkha Datta gets on my nerves. Yesterday, she took a harrowingly long program on Major ……  Muslim (who is clearly not a terrorist), who apparently faced racial slur from an airline.

We all face discrimination and all the time. We call it discrimination, but it is profiling. We call it profiling, but it is actually generalization. We call it generalization, but it is just human quest to seek patterns, and patterns that help us cope with or simplify complexity, and when you try to do this you generalize, and when you generalize, those who don’t fall in that general pattern will always feel persecuted, and that is what happens with some well meaning muslims. Brahmins may discriminate against others, hindus against Sikhs, whites against blacks, the black dominated government in S Africa against whites, the English against French, the latter against Germans.

I am sure, if you give 5 different ethnicity names to a group of muslims and ask to choose a name that could possibly be a terrorist, with a handsome reward for the correct answer, a majority from them would choose the muslim name. Not because they hate muslims, but because, they are humans and their brain also is continuously looking for patterns in behavior.

Again, if there is group of people, and from among them, you have to choose the Indian, then perhaps the one with brown skin will be chosen as Indian, which may not always be right, but that is how, in lack of prior knowledge, a person reacts.

Hear ten voices, and the ones high in pitch, will perhaps be the womans’, and would you call it profiling. What is the probability that a car reverse parked after many attempts was driven by a woman? High, is it not. Which does not mean there aren’t good women drivers. How can you deny, Islam is more aggressive than Christianity or Buddhism or Hinduism.

Why do then Barkha and her likes create a ruckus about issues of the army major type.

Can some one save me from her??

WHO WANTS TO COME BACK

I have done too much of travel in the last one month. Been out 3 weeks out of 4 and am flight fatigued. It is after many years that I embarked on a multi-country Europe trip, types of which I used to undertake as young business developer. But things are much simpler now, than then. Hotels can be booked via internet, you don’t have to depend on clients and agents. With the exception of the UK and Switzerland, you carry and use one currency – Euro, you monitor one Visa - Schengen. In the mid 90s, a 5-country trip meant as many visas and equal number of currencies. 

I was also traveling to eastern Europe after many years. When ever I am in eastern Europe, I feel more comfortable than I am when I am in Europe. The people look more relaxed. The architecture is syncretist - old communist with an abundance of red on the exterior with a fleeting presence of the Venetian as style journeys to the modern European, and the buildings are not yet monstrously sky scraping, people are smiling, the landscape verdant, mildness in mien - the body language is polite, and more than anything, there is hope in contrast to anxiety and anticipation that is writ large on the visage of the west European.

Well this was Slovenia, where I was for a day for a business meeting. And the architecture was a pleasant contrast to the heavy business architecture of Shanghai, where I was just 2 weeks ago. It seems the short Chinese want to make the tallest buildings. But that is China.

Dinner was at an Indian restaurant. An Indian couple travelled to Slovenia, and set up a restaurant there. The man came back after 4 years of living there, the woman stayed back, and re-married a Slovenian. The daughter / girl who runs the restaurant was born in Slovenia, and speak fluent Slovenia.

This story is not uncommon in immigrant familities, I can tell you. The man wanting to return to India and the woman wanting to stay back. I think we as a society give our women respect, but deny them on many counts their freedom. And this denial could manifest in multiple ways depending on which section of society she belongs to. For example, in the lower sections, you may force her to work in the field, but admonish her working in a public place. In the middle class, the man may work extra hard to provide for her, but disapprove her assigning priority to professional aspirations.

Besides, the very eco-system in India makes them lean on men for daily needs. The traffic snarls are so appalling, you need a lion’s heart to venture out to drive. For most women, reversing and parking being their Achilles heel, the over zealous parking attendant persisting to squeeze into the crevice of a parking space 2 cars where there is space for barely one is truly a nightmare.

And of course, the maze of relations and extended family and concomitant obligations are all very well to honor once a year, when you return to your country for a vacation, than to live in the whole year long.   

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.