A sham masked as legitimate

Statement after statement emanating from 7 Race course road or the Congress headquarters speaks of the virtues of parliamentary supremacy and traditions, and how it is absolutely necessary to uphold them in the face of every vindictive attempt to drag their name into ignominy. There is a popular maxim in Hindi which goes like- Naach na jaane, aangan teda. Essentially, it means that if you fail at something, you try and find faults with the system which plays only a secondary role in your success. This is exactly what is going on in the ensuing drama between the government and the civil society leaders on the contentious subject of the Jan Lokpal bill. Many of us have been watching with bewilderment the brazen manner in which this current government, perhaps also one of the most corrupt and spineless in recent Indian history, is trying to stifle public opinion and protect the parliament's 'supremacy' over all matters related to national policy. Can you please get to the real issue?

As educated Indians, we are all in consensus that the parliament is indeed the seat of our vibrant democracy and a place for a billion people's voices to be represented in an organized manner. But any attempt to bypass those billions and forcing an oligarchic view of things that a group of parliamentarians see as legitimate, is rubbing salt into the wounds of the already hapless common man. Let's face it, irregardless of the reports from the IMD or the World Bank or McKinsey, Indians are facing an uphill battle to protect their right to a decent living right now. The poor are already overwhelmed; their misery cannot be sufficiently described in a blog post or a news channel debate. However, with rising inflation and all-pervasive corruption strengthening its hold on the system, even the middle class is starting to feel the brunt of government's inaction and blunders. All of us have had our tryst with corruption, while most of us await our tryst with destiny. It is a malaise that spreads like a cancer and preys on the minds of the corrupt and the corruptor.

And what exactly is this sanctity of the parliament that we are trying to protect. Last year, an entire session was wiped out due to a stand-off between an united opposition and an obdurate government. 2008 saw bundles of currency notes being displayed in the parliament as if it were a badge of honor. Scenes of disruption are an everyday sight. In fact, the government respects the parliamentary traditions so much that it objected to permission granted to the leader of opposition in the Rajya Sabha to speak on the issue of the Lokpal. Please, stop fooling us, stop this drama. Get on with business, or quit. We are more than capable of voting in a new government, albeit with a mandate of aspiration and transparency. Laissez faire can't go on anymore!

A better way

As I sit here in my living room, watching Watchmen, I cannot help but think about Dr. Manhattan's words-"The world is changing, and this new world is going to be hard to adapt to." The world is indeed at a precipice, where old ideas are being chucked out more rapidly than ever before. Therefore, it is prudent to identify the positives out of this as well as understand how some things are still unchangeable.

The first idea which springs to my mind is the communication revolution. Now much has been said and writers have waxed eloquent about the ever changing face of communication and its implications for the globe. I would like to go more basic than an optical fibre facilitated enhancement. 20 years ago, chances are that if you wrote a letter to a person in the next state, it may or may not get delivered. May or may not! That possibility was greatly supplemented by the fact the there was no tracking mechanism to check on the port-to-port delivery. So if I were to apply for a PhD in the United states 20 years ago, there is the possibility that I might have missed my shot due to a sorting error. Therefore, it is safe to say that manual errors are slowly becoming redundant. The era of the machines is here, or almost.

What are the other ways in which the world is changing? Ironically, the communication revolution and the detriment of barriers was supposed to unite the world into a more harmonious place. Yet we have seen more wars and insurgencies in the last 50 years than any documented time in history. The way I see it, with information being so easily available, it abets a nation to secure its interests in ways that were unheard of earlier. So you have things like cyber attacks on a country's information database, which is slowly replacing the conventional warfare as a more potent weapon. This is stuff of science fiction for now, but with the way technology is seeping into our daily lives, it is not ludicrous to believe that the future might be significantly different for the future generations. Once thing is for sure, education is going to be the currency of development, and investments will be earmarked for the national intellectual wealth.

And then, to the part which has remained static. The right to expression, our ability to speak our mind, has remain untouched, or rather, has been bolstered by the availability of tools both scientific and rational in nature. People today want to study tiny archaea, because they believe the answers to significant questions about life lie in there. And they go about doing it like nobody's business. The fact that basic science has braved the storm of application and commercialization is a fact oft overlooked. We as global citizens are also more empowered today, mostly because every vote is documented and every opinion is recorded. Dissemination of ideas is easier, and their harnessing is slowly becoming more inclusive. There is no single ownership to any idea anymore, a fact well illustrated by the IP wars being fought around the world.

So the changes are there to be seen and exploited. The end user will not care, the proprietor does not exist.

The Who and their generation!

Hello PM! Welcome to the orientation

Dear Dr. Manmohan Singh, I formally welcome you to your orientation as the prime minister of the Republic of India. I understand that you have not just assumed office, but surprisingly, have been at the helm for more than 7 years now. Therefore, as the famous maxim goes- Better late than never, we have decided to conduct an orientation for you to bring you up to speed with the fabrics of Indian democracy and parliamentary system. Well maybe we can leave out the latter, since that is all you and your cabinet seem to be adept at. But in our deliberations, we have concluded that it is of utmost importance that you also take some time out from your frantic consultations with Rahul baba to refresh your class 9th History & Civics.

Let's get started. So dear PM, it seems that you believe anything can only be done efficiently if it is completed in a time bound manner. Of course, your well grounded research of macroeconomic theory and your time at the helm of the Reserve bank of India can be attributed to have led you to this cementing of principles. Unfortunately, economics seems not to work that well in real life, as is evident from the runaway inflation plaguing the country at this moment. You also want to abrogate any attempts to impose pre-conditions on others, especially those who intend no harm to the country and are simply exercising their rights. You remember a certain man known as Mahatma Gandhi? He did it all the time, and the british, as gentlemanly as they were, never resorted to anything more than to arrest him and his followers. Yes sir, that is your government's prerogative, though you might want to balance it out considering we are an independent nation now.

Also, when you say that it is the parliament's prerogative to formulate policies and draft laws, you could not be more correct. But dear sir, as you must have been trained to do in your days as a grad student, you need to incorporate ideas to make them more effective. Your version of the Lokpal bill appears to be a portmanteau of what Raja would like and what Anna would dislike. You can't possibly be taking on two strong personalities, one who loves to taint his cabinet and the other who loves to serve his country. That is simply bad PR! And also, when you are giving important speeches, for example the national address, you must understand that you are not sitting in an auditorium of 50 people, all over 60, who came to discuss some deep lemma in the Keynesian model of economics. You need to show that you are the man in the driver's seat. For reference, check out Atal Bihari Vajpayee's speech on the Kargil war. You'll understand what I am talking about. And please, don't be shy of the media. They've made your party men stars, there is no reason you should allow your generosity to encompass the PM-public contact.

I hope that this session has been fruitful. The next session will be on how to keep a leash on the disruptive elements in your party, who like to have their foot in their mouth all the time!

Peace out.

PS: Arun jaitley shows Abhishek Manu Singhvi who's the boss.

The summer of Punk

The proverbial summer of 2011 is coming to an end. In true Indian color, and in the midst of all the chutzpah surrounding the boiling heat being dissipated by the cool pangs of the monsoon, another summer has passed from our lives. The summer metamorphosis goes through various shades depending on the stage of life we are at. A school going kid would want the vacation to go on and on, as I did. The first day back from the vacation would hurt as much as watching Harbhajan Singh go from being a world-class spinner to an ordinary slow bowler. Agony gives way to gratitude when one reaches the upper grades, and the prospect of bunking classes and having some fun in school appear more inviting than another month at home watching TV from morning till night. The situation remains unchanged till say the last year of college or so, when suddenly the pressures of a whole new beast in the form of the 'real' world, awaiting you, starts to appear a bit scary.

Yes, I have just finished college and will graduate honorably in 6 days to be precise. I also have a good option lined up ahead in the form of graduate school in the states. So have a lot of us, who will graduate this year from the 7 IITs, some 3500 in strength. More will be added to the alumni rolls next year, when the baby IITs shell out their first offerings to industry and academia. I am not going to delve into the big, endless, and frankly pointless debate on how IITians don't give back to the country in proportion to the exchequer's expenditure on their education. It is nobody's business to dictate how much is too much or too little when it comes to giving back to our alma mater. Not least the bureaucrats and politicians who are running amok our once growing economy's fledgling prospects via weak policy making and craven show of feudal mentality. Oops, I digress! Back to my point. So all of these shining new products, certified and approved by our symbols of world dominance in an area India needs to do a lot more, will be out on their own, without a support structure of mess workers toiling in the kitchen to prepare their 4 meals a day, without a round-the-clock security, and a serene campus to calm those fraying nerves when the end sem results go wrong, or when an election result goes the other way. Yes, that is the understated part of moving away from college. You are suddenly all on your own!

Is there a viable replacement for these institutions? Somewhat close mimes can be the HR department of your company or the department coordinator in higher studies, but they won't go out on a limb to ensure that you don't miss that tiffin even if you reach the mess counter at 6:10, 10 minutes past the closing time (Yes, H13 mess workers are so generous!). In the end, the so called hallowed portals should be indebted to the numerous small support centres functioning inside them day and night, with questionable efficiency at the times but functional nonetheless. We can curse them and mutter unsavory words all we want, but with college, the secure part of it is the thing we'll miss the most.

PS: To those wondering why this post is titled 'The summer of Punk', it is because I follow professional wrestling and a certain man recognized as CM Punk around the world is setting the wrestling landscape on fire. A toast to his awesome entrance music:

If we all sit idle...

Controversy is media's favorite child. Just let one erupt and they lash onto it. However, it is poignant to note that a major factor behind all the derision surrounding the fundamental nature of controversies is the idle mind. Yes, if we all sit idle, all we do is to conjure mindless chatter which ultimately blows up into a controversy. Nowhere has it been more prominently on display than the two 'stories' jostling for space on live television.

It is a well known fact that in India, nothing works better than the word of God. So people claim to have received divine intervention and suggest it as a means to justify their actions. The so called 'antaratmaa ki aawaaz'. First, a harmless directive from the honorable Supreme court constituting a special committee to prepare an inventory of the speculated wealth lying around in the holy confines of the Padmanabham temple in Thiruvananthapuram. The media didn't pick up the news when a retired IPS officer and a stout devotee of the lord filed a petition praying for the transfer of the control of the temple administration from the hands of the royal family of Travancore to that of the state. They didn't pick it up when the members of the teams were announced. They certainly wouldn't have picked it up if it weren't for countless artefacts of historic (and monetary) value that started teeming out of the underground chambers. The media went into a frenzy, and a controversy was born! The debate shifted from how to protect the wealth to how it got there in the first place and who should be the owner and protector of it. I have been to the shrine situated in the capital of Kerala. I remember it vividly because I had to buy a dhoti from a nearby stall to gain entry into the temple. Yes, the rules of entry to this shrine are as stringent as any other temple you could fathom. What wowed the attention of all present inside with me was not what lay beneath, but what lay above- the reclined statue of Lord Vishnu whose darshan could be taken from three huge doors. I would have loved for it remain that way.

The topic of frenzy shifts just as seamlessly to another god of sorts. Sachin Tendulkar is one short of his 100th international century, one that is of sentimental value to his billions of followers. Yet, the debate rages on. Is he the greatest of all time? Frankly, why should anybody care. Why not simply live in the present, when the man is playing in perhaps the best form of his life. Then came the announcement of the greatest test team of all time, to mark the occasion of the 2000th international test which begins tomorrow at Lord's. While the list is definitely not what a pundit would like it to be, it is what it is- a survey of the popularity of the players who live on in the fans' memory. The point of the matter is, the so called greatest team in no way undermines the greatness or the talent of any of the great players who happened to have plied their art in an era before the advent of facebook and twitter. Dear media, let it be!

$1.25: The magic number

Statistics is perhaps the greatest form of art available to the humankind today. It can adorn harsh realities with a radiant glow, and obfuscate the going on behind the scenes with mere numbers that ultimately lead to nowhere. In this latest report, the Wall Street Journal says that India has improved its standing in the world on the count of the maximum number of residents afflicted by poverty. According to the official United Nations statistics, the benchmark for a person to be considered above poverty line (APL) is an earning of $1.25/day, or Rs 56/day according to the average exchange rate of Rs 45 being equivalent to US$1. Hence, the number of citizens below poverty line (BPL) will fall to an estimated 22% of our 1.21 billion population by the end of 2015. More of a matter of concern than rejoice, for that $1.25 will fetch you jack shit going by the inflationary pressure in our domestic markets.

Let's do some basic maths. An average person has 3 basic needs in today's world- food to eat, a shelter to live, and means to commute. Clothing can be considered a luxury, a one time expense. A basic meal of potato with rice, and an occasional serving of lentils, would alone cost somewhere close to Rs 40 per day at today's market rate for flour and vegetables. That leaves 16 bucks to be spent on shelter and transport. The savings can very understandably be considered negligible. And this after our economy has opened up post the great liberalization of 1991. The poor has climbed out of poverty on the basis of numbers, not in reality. And thus the growing concern among policy makers and economists that the rich-poor divide is increasing is well founded, though it would be appropriate to separate it from the Left-propelled paranoia about wealth redistribution, which has left West Bengal among the poorer states in the country with little industrialization. So much so, that the hapless Industry & Commerce minister of the state has imagined a novel solution to the state's woes- changing the name to push the state up the pecking order of attendance at major national forums!

A retrospective view of our situation would gain us the realization that the pre-1991 times were particularly hard on the country, but the great divide wasn't as pronounced as today because the middle class and the lower class were bedfellows nudging each other all the time. Post-liberalization, opportunities grew, so did the number of scams, and central schemes became a means to siphon off public money for private welfare. Our GDP has shown remarkable growth compared to the base years, and yes, the economy is a hotbed for foreign investments. But all lip service is of no value to the poor soul who awaits his day at the turnstile when he can walk into the APL world in actual terms. Tightening leakages in the system, as the proposed cash transfer scheme intends to do, would serve us well. At least you would be sure that the usurping is going on at the other end of the deal. Middle men would be sniffing their chances in this exercise, and the complicity of government officials in propagating corruption has reached an all time high, even with heightened vigilance in public governance. More imaginative ideas and solution are needed if we are to benefit all those who share their voting franchise with us and then leave us to enjoy the fruits of our economy.

Peepli live- one of the more realistic portrayals of our situation

The battle of the Pukh!

Pukh, short for the revered Pukh nakastra in the Hindu calendar, is the day when according to the folklore, Lord Ram arrived from his kingdom in Ayodhya to the palace of his devout follower, Rani Ganeshibai of Orccha. It comes once every month, so unlike deepawali or holi, there are 12/13 pukhs a year at the revered temple in Orccha. Therefore, it is only natural that the devotees, believing in the maxim of 'the more the better', throng to Orccha every pukh in a windfall.

I have had a few brushes with the pukh previously, but the events were long erased from my memory due to my tendency of avoiding worship at temples as a ritual. However, this sunday, on one of our regular escapades to Orccha, things got serious. Exactly at the halfway mark on the 24km distance from my home to the temple, we came across a 2km long jam, which we thankfully avoided and parried in time. The reason- Lord Ram was visiting Orccha on the very day of my parents' wedding anniversary. Blessed be the name of the believer, and those thousands, who stood in the humid july weather on the serpentine road to the fortress of Orccha. It takes something special to reinforce your faith in our culture and traditions, especially if you have been used to the cosmopolitan way of life. This was one of those moments!

We promised to return later in the day in time for the evening aarti, otherwise the prayer service. Keeping our promise, and hoping that the morning rush from neighboring towns and villages would have subsided by then through the passenger train scheduled in the evening, we made our approach, only to find there were countless others who shared our thought. Nonetheless, the destination was nigh, and as we made our way into the courtyard, the sound of dholaks and folk songs reached a crescendo. The scenes inside were more colorful- men dancing in the sheer joy of the occasion; women making a frantic effort to extract the maximum possible out of the short darshan; and children adoring the deities which were richly decorated and kept outside the inner sanctum for all to see. To say that it wasn't moving would be a blatant lie, for I haven't felt such a strong connect to out traditions for quite a while. As somebody who abhors superstition, which is slowly becoming the staple of modern hinduism much to the chagrin of the learned scholars, I was beginning to believe in a god who is formless and needs to be discovered within oneself. This pukh changed it in a different, and dare I say, a better way. Faith needs a support structure to weather out the periods of calamity and bliss, both of which can be harmful to the conscience's battle against ignorance. And the sight of men and women, young and old, dancing and enjoying the mutual feeling of reverence to Lord Ram may just be that additive anybody needs.

A beautiful composition from our best performer at the Oscars yet!