Celebrating life on Rs.32 per day

India is a country of odds! We are geographically diverse, with the majestic Himalayas on one end, all the way to the pyramidal south on the other. We have more than a thousand languages and dialects, and are home to some of the most prominent religions in the world. In a country where the colour of the soil apparently changes every 100km, we do have one unifying truth. We are all revelers in the joy of being an Indian! Heads instantly go up high, chests puff out with pride. 'I am an Indian'. These four simple words seem to bring out the collective pride of being born in one of the hotbeds of human civilization. Thankfully, a lot of us also make more than Rs.1000 per month. Imagine the horror of cashing only Rs.990 as your monthly salary, if you are living in a metropolis like New Delhi or Mumbai. Those extra ten bucks can change your life. They can uplift you, from being defined as a poor person by the government of India, to the next strata of the Indian society. And we all agree, nobody likes to be poor.

It therefore came as a gargantuan relief to the crores across the country, when the Tendulkar committee wrote in its report that India is getting richer, and anybody making equal to or more than the princely sum of Rs.1000 per month in an urban area is no longer poor. Crores of beggars and daily wage-earners became rich overnight. Never has such a miracle been conjured anywhere across the world! More joy to being an Indian, a not-poor one at that.

As is the norm in a happy society, there are naysayers and skeptics, who claim that Rs.32 is too small of an amount to live satisfactorily in an Indian city, and that the UPA government is trying to save face by fudging with numbers and statistics. To those naysayers I say, that first of all, the current government is not smart enough to fudge with numbers, let alone statistics. Hell, half of their MPs may not even be able to spell statistics! Secondly, an honourable government official, who lives in a humble abode, and has no access to the glamour of foreign trips and vacations, has said that Rs.32 is 'not all that ridiculous'. This gentleman never complained of inadequate bathroom facilities in his office in New Delhi. He simply thought that spending more than Rs.35 lakhs on fixing some toilets in his department, could help relieve the stress his team goes through in keeping India rich. 

Now, we have more proof that you can have two full meals easily within the limits of Rs.32 per day. First Raj Babbar, and then another gentleman, Rasheed Masood, has laid waste to the argument that you cannot have two square meals in this amount of money. Babbar said that you can have a sumptuous meal for only Rs.12, which also comes with the delicacy of Sambhar and vegetables. You can spend the remaining amount on his or his son's films if you wish. If only I knew the location of this reasonably-priced eatery in Mumbai, me and my friends could have saved a fortune on mess expenses during our IIT days. That amount of money could've propelled us to the upper middle-class (maybe, just maybe!). What a waste of money all those years! 

So there lies the proof to the argument that half of the beggars and jobless roadside dwellers in our country are not poor. They are simply lazy. Maybe they should learn from our efficient MPs and ministers, who work so hard to earn their money. They have kept the government running like a well-oiled machine. Such is our faith in their capability, that a lot of parents tell their kids to grow up and join politics. 99.99% of those parents are themselves politicians.

PS: I love my country, and I hope that we will all take a step towards cleaning up the mess of the last 5 years in next year's general election.

Mr. Advani, this is not 'Back to the Future'

Letting go can be hard, and even harder for individuals shored up in the lofty heights of fame and popularity. None of those criteria necessarily hold true for the Bheeshma pitamah of the Hindutva movement, Lal Krishna Advani. Advani, an octogenarian, who would be a nonagenarian by the time he retires from his dream of the responsibility of being the prime minister of India. Advani is, and will always remain a polarizing figure in the annals of Indian politics- often derided, yet well respected for stabilizing an opposition, to the Congress, and its Gandhi dynasty.

Getting back to the bidding adieu part, Advani has clearly missed a sizable chunk of the recent electoral results, for only then could he stubbornly stick to his demand of being acknowledged as the tallest leader of his party, the BJP. A party, which is facing somewhat of an existential crisis. A party, which has been reduced once again to ruling the hindi heartland, with virtually no presence in the south or the northeast. While the BJP has a plethora of local and national leaders of face value and recognition, it also has perhaps too many of them for its own good. Nobody saw the genesis of this crisis coming. After the shocking defeat in the 2004 Lok Sabha elections (which left me bewildered, and my friends at our coaching class confused), the outgoing prime minister, Atal Behari Vajpayee, was forced to step aside due to health complications. As has been well documented, the opportunity was ripe for Advani to take charge, and tide over the embarrassment coming at the heels of the 'India Shining' campaign. Instead, Advani ended up committing a mistake that made him persona non grata in the eyes of the RSS. Calling Jinnah a respected lawyer and founder of Pakistan is one thing, to call him a secular leader, when he split India along the lines of religion and led to a still-persisting unease at the border, is career suicide. The Indian public and media took those comments for what they were: the desperate attempts of a leader who was finally given charge of the main opposition party, but had spent his career under the shadow of the more affable Vajpayee, still beloved to most Indians. The UPA I policies favored the masses, while the BJP faltered in chalking out a clear progressive policy to appeal to the voters. The result: Congress sailed past the 200 mark for the first time since 1991, while the BJP shrunk from 143 to 118, in the 2009 Lok Sabha elections.

Any other leader would have seen the writing on the wall. Unfortunately, Indian politics fails to throw up new leaders, unless they have their father or siblings in positions of power, and such leaders end up playing to the whims of seasoned politicians (look no further than Akhilesh Singh Yadav, or Omar Abdullah). Hence, Advani persisted. He was booted out of the post of Leader of opposition, but made the chairman of the NDA parliamentary committee. In the meantime, Narendra Modi was doing his best to cleanse himself of the taint of the 2002 riots. Gujarat was consistently growing, investors were flocking in, and his own personal clout was now beginning to overshadow the party in the state. No further proof was required of his growing popularity, than when the UK government decided to end its boycott of Modi, and open negotiations about business possibilities in Gujarat. The urban middles-class voter, tired of buying milk at Rs. 40/liter and pulses at Rs 120/kg, knew that Rahul Baba and his trite 'Discover India' tour just won't cut any more. Modi thumped the opposition in Gujarat in 2013, and is now looking set to give the ruling dispensation a mighty tussle next year.

This brings us to the latest, and probably the last controversy, Advani would ever stir. Man, this guys career is a roll-call of controversies, right from his early career to the last elections, so this sounds odd to me writing it! Advani is hoping that Modi would be unacceptable to the majority of the NDA alliance, which would be the need of the hour post-elections. The BJP can hardly dream of winning 272 seats on its own, even if it wins every seat in UP, Gujarat, MP, and Chattisgarh. However, it doesn't need to. Previous experience dictates that the fickle regional parties, that have no loyalty to anybody, but only their self-interest in mind, wouldn't mind supporting the BJP in lieu of rewarding portfolios, if it can get to the 200-220 mark on its own. That would mean that the urban voter would need to vote heavily in favor of the BJP, more so than it already does, in order to make that possibility come true. As stated earlier, Modi has the public in his hands right now. He has an agenda, even though critics would argue that it is simplistic in nature, but an agenda nonetheless, to give a boost to the slumbering economy, and regain the faith of the public that actually pays taxes and faces power cuts and water shortages in return. Advani on the other hand, has no appeal among the youth, many of whom will be turning out at the voting booth for the first time next year, and more importantly, already had his shot at immortality in 2009. The fire that Advani displayed in 1991, seems to have vanished altogether (not that there is anything unnatural about that happening with age). Modi is just firing up on the national stage!

There appears to be a ceasefire called for the moment, but the NDA alliance is already starting to fizzle. JD(U)'s impending departure will leave a deep dent in the party's prospect in Bihar, a state that voted in large numbers for the alliance in the last election. Moreover, both the BJP and the JD(U) run the risk of cutting into each other's vote share, much to the apparent joy of the RJD, and maybe Congress. The message from the BJP cadres is clear. Modi's ascension is a risk worth taking, for another defeat next year would severely dent any hopes of making a comeback to power in the future. For us masses, this will condemn us to a long period of the Gandhi family rule, one that seems akin to surrendering your democratic choice at the doorsteps of a dynasty. 



PS: Summer is a great time for going to the movies and picking up a book. Here are two personal recommendations in each category.

http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/8908.World_War_Z

Domesticated warriors

The Border-Gavaskar trophy has changed hands again in the span of a year, and what a year it has been! After two back-to-back humiliating defeats, the Indian cricket team seems to have taken affront to the media ritual of labeling them as warriors only at home. How? Play like one and beat Australia in a home series. True, the current world number one, South Africa, have not toured India in a while, and the number two, England, left last year after extracting further humiliation on the test team and beating us at our own game. However, the fortress had to be resurrected, newly laid with a fresh set of soldiers to guard it after the old generals bowed out (or were thrown out), and most importantly, the Indian cricket fan had to be replenished with a cornucopia of hope and enthusiasm about our prospects in the crucial away tours coming up later this year. Let me just say, it has been a good one month of test cricket as an Indian cricket follower. 

The Indian cricket team, much like the Indian politics, is going through a period of major upheaval and shake-ups. While the UPA government is bracing up to the likely challenge of a Narendra Modi-led NDA in the parliamentary polls next year, the Indian cricket team is bracing up to falling expectations and glaring deficits in key areas of their game. The opening partnership of Sehwag and Gambhir, long been the Achilles heel of the Indian batting line-up, has been shunted out for a new-found Vijay and whoever-is-not-suffering-from-an-injury at the other end. Sehwag, who is now equipped with ultra vision and some extra inches around the waist, looked miserable the entire time he faced a delivery in this series, even during his rotation in the slip cordon. Never a bad time to consider other avenues towards optimizing your value to the team. Maybe he can turn into a Hafeez and work some spin magic! Gambhir, on the other hand, is still living in the Shahid Kapoor-fairyland: I will keep churning out bad movies and hope that you watch them, because you also watched Mausam and Badmaash Company with the expectations of a Kaminay. Vijay now has a golden opportunity to permanently scuttle Ajinkya Rahane's chances of upgrading from the 12th man to a regular in the test team, Poor Rahane! If he just collected the labels of all the bottles he has lugged on to the field in the last year and a half, he could have had a scrapbook thicker than all four years of an IITian's effort.

We have also reached a conclusion on the test future of Harbhajan Singh. Just in case you were living under a rock, he should cherish his 100 caps and not hope for another chance based on his current form. We are now living in the era of Sir Ravindra Jadeja, the goggle wearing, athletically daring, left-arm spinner who has taken more than a handful of all Australian wickets that fell in this series. I would not be shocked if Dhoni plays him as a specialist spinner in South Africa, where his batting would obviously fall well short of expectations. The Rajkot Ranji wicket, Jadeja's dreamland, is as far away from Kingsmead as Arvind Kejriwal is from Digvijay Singh. On a more positive note, Jadeja seems to have taken his online popularity seriously, and is on a mission to prove his detractors wrong. If only we could anoint Sir Rohit Sharma!

As a fan of the Indian cricket team, all I care for is some show of intent from our cricketers, which seemed amiss for the past year whenever we played a top tier test team. Remember how Australia are considered unbeatable at home, and how we complain about the English conditions favoring their bowlers every time? In my opinion, we should be unabashed in our proclamation of domination at home, once we are sure of it. One small step at a time towards the number one ranking!

PS: Siddle has done enough with the bat in this series to put Hughes and Warner to shame. In case you haven't seen this, he can also rip a mean one from the other end of the wicket. 

Walk out....and keep going

The Indian parliament seems to be in a state of gridlock again. Every time there seems to be an important policy issue on the table, the political players choose rancor over sanity and extortion over unanimity. The Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) bill in the retail sector is similar in magnitude to the disinvestment policy of the late 90's by all means, in that it hopes to open up the largely unregulated Indian retail sector to foreign chains like Walmart and Ikea, with benefit going to the government coffers and the consumer. Inevitably, the producer would be stuck in the middle, and while the Indian farmers are already burdened with middlemen and procurement failures, the entry of a global behemoth that has the cash and muscle to outrace the competition would indeed complicate the already tangled web of field-to-store delivery. 

It is therefore a subject that requires serious deliberation on part of every citizen and politician alike. The concerns of mom-and-pop shop owners are legitimate. Considering how much of the American retail market is dominated by chains like Walmart and Fry's, it is not impossible to imagine serious consequences for small shop owners, especially in the big cities and metros where these retail chains are expected to being operations first. However, one cannot deny the job creation and infrastructural benefits that will accrue once these stores start running their functions. And there can be enough check and balances built into the system so that no one feels cheated, and small business owners can thrive side-by-side with the behemoths. That would require raising issues and finding their solutions one at a time, which doesn't seem to be happening right now. 

The discussion on the FDI bill, expectedly, tuned into a free-for-all. There were moments of substance though, as the leader of the opposition in the Lok Sabha rightly addressed the current state of the Indian democracy as 'one of numbers' rather than 'one of trust'. Similarly, the Minister for Commerce tried to lob the ball back into the BJP's court and demanded why the once pre-reform party was reneging on its promise to invite foreign investment in the retail sector. The most annoying incident however was reserved for the climax. As the parliamentarians got down to vote, the two principal faux-opposition parties, the SP & the BSP, both trotting their socialist and secular credentials, decided to walk out altogether. The motion against the bill's passage was dead there and then. The government secured a 'victory', while the opposition was left staring at their fractured unity.

This is not the first instance of a walkout affecting the passage of a bill or a discussion in the parliament. Typically, it is a face-saving notion, where the failure to amass numbers by the opposition is drowned out by its PR managers outside the house. However, considering the significance of the FDI bill, the events surrounding this walkout demand some questions. Both of these parties are staunch enemies, and even at a personal level, yet support the same central government whose policies they detest at times. Leaders of both parties cried hoarse over the perceived loss business to the small shop owners. Co-incidentally, they also support the central coalition from the 'outside', which in simple words means that they can ask for favors without getting their hands dirty with the government's laundry. Could they have gotten a better occasion to make their displeasure at the government's proposal more clear? Could  they have gotten a better occasion to state which side of the aisle they stand on policy decisions? This walkout didn't help anybody, not least the Indian public. When people say that politics is a dirty business, behavior of this kind is what they often refer to. Walking out of the parliament before a vote is akin to walking out of an exam without even attempting it- it helps nobody involved. 

Should the legislators look at this problem more seriously, and make it compulsory for every elected member to vote on crucial policy decisions? Why not? We elect them to participate in polity, not be an absentee and sit outside the house. Indian parliamentarians are notorious for the marginal number of working days they put in (check out the statistics). They draw a hefty paycheck, yet participate close to negligible in the day-to-day affairs of the parliament. It is about time we bring in some systemic change in the way business is handled in the capital, so that  democracy can go back to 'one of trust' from 'one of numbers'. That is the least we can demand!

PS: Always a good time to revisit Yes, Prime Minister.

The difference an hour makes!

An hour is usually not considered prime estate by any means by most people. In fact, you would not realize that it has been an hour since you opened those multiple tabs side-by-side on your browser and jumped from one to the next without finishing your business on either. Why then, would turning back the clock by an hour make a difference to anybody at all? Daylight saving kicked in last night for most of the United States bar Arizona (still not sure about the logic they follow, but then, it is hard to go by logic in general when you are in Arizona). At 2:00 AM, Google automatically updated my Android device's time to 1:00 AM. So did the Windows OS on my laptop. I woke up feeling sheepishly proud of myself, having not wasted an entire Sunday morning in bed, but actually up and running by 9. And then it hit me!

You see, I never lived in a country where we fiddle around with our clocks unless the batteries run out. In fact, at numerous railway stations and government offices, we don't touch our clocks at all, deeming them sacrosanct and beyond the reach of human touch. But now, having moved to Colorado this July, I was unsure of what to expect when the clock strikes 2 on a chilly November night. The only calculation I had done was that I would now be 12.5 hours behind India, so calling my parents at 7 PM MST was okay, but not at 6 PM MST as I had grown used to. Then a friend texted me earlier today that sunset was around 5 PM, so a run after that would not be fun. I didn't pay much attention to it till I actually looked out of my window, and voila, it was pitch dark outside at 5:30 PM! 

If you need some context, most of my undergrad life was spent going for a run at 6:00 PM after the lab was done and the IITB campus was coming to life around the gymkhana ground. Darkness at 5:30 PM is comparable to the tragic ending of The Departed to me. Does this mean that I have to become a morning person now? More importantly, will dinner time actually move up from 9 PM to 7-ish since bed time will have to change disproportionately? A good friend of mine even suggested investing in a 'sunlight box' that is a commonplace in every Scandinavian household, since those poor folks are actually lucky to see any sunlight at all at that frigid latitude.

My day is going to be an hour shorter for the next 5 months, and I figure that I'll get used to it. But then, the clock moves back to daylight saving, and I'll be a confused Indian again!

PS: A public service announcement. Can we go easy on the Swedes please?

Dialing back to the 16th century

The past month has been especially shameful for Haryana, a state known for its falling sex ratio and increasing cases of female foeticide. 17 counts of rape in a period of 30 days is a matter of concern and shame for any government, both at the state and at the centre. While crime against women in this era of modernization is disconcerting, what makes matter worse is the lack of a clear political discourse as to how these heinous offences are to be dealt with. 

Haryana has been in the cross-hairs of female rights activists for a while. With a precarious 877 girls/1000 boys sex ratio, you would imagine that the government would be proactively taking corrective measures to deal with this societal tragedy. Yet, the sex ratio for children in the state is 826 girls/1000 boys, and by some accounts, it continues on a downward trajectory. What one is dealing with here is a catastrophe in the making! Then comes the horror of September 2012, when rape incidents in Haryana made national headlines and prompted some serious questions from ordinary citizens. Unfortunately, as has been the case in the past, the principal opposition party in Haryana chose to milk this sensitive issue for political gains. One would expect insensitive remarks from the khap panchayats, the self-proclaimed old guard against erosion of 'Indian culture', like suggesting a reversion to the pathetic system of child marriages independent India had to fight against. That khaps have a feudal mindset is no surprise to anybody- they are usually composed of uneducated village seniors who prefer their women to stay inside the house and devote their lives to the kitchen. But when this mindset creeps into politics, one has to be on their tenterhooks. The powerful opposition leader, Om Prakash Chautala, has suggested that early marriages can protect innocent girls and women from rapes. When his comments sparked a controversy, and rightfully so, he retracted his incredulous suggestion, claiming that he was simply referring to the prevailing customs of the Mughal era. Well, we are not living in the 16th century anymore, in case somebody missed their memo.

To make matters worse, the sham of a government we have at the centre suggested that it is a statistic in step with the growing number of crime against women all over the world. You know what else is increasing all over the world? Female literacy and social equality. How about that Ms. Chowdhary? The truth is that the Indian society still suffers from the patriarchal mindset that should've been phased out 30 years ago. It is hard to believe that we pray to countless goddesses during all prominent festivals, and yet girls do not feel safe stepping out after dark in some parts of the country. Who can forget the shameful incidence that occurred in Guwahati this year, and was broadcast fodder for weeks? In some ways, Indian women have to become more assertive in demanding tough answers and equal rights when they are kept away from these. There are numerous brave women in our society who have defied all odds and shone like a rising star in adverse circumstances. One such example is that of the Gulabi gang, a vigilante group of women that has all but eradicated crime against women in a backward part of the country. While their methods may be questionable, there is no denying that they have been effective. It is time for the government to act up or shut up!

PS: Aamir Khan had a wonderful episode on his show 'Satyameva Jayate' dedicated to the cause of preventing female foeticide. Worth a watch!

An inch closer to the future

In 1969, mankind affirmed its supremacy over the solar system as the first man step foot on the moon. In 2006, we launched our first probe towards the distant Pluto, no longer a planet, but still significant on scale of the distance between us and that tiny little glob far far away. And just last month, we landed a sophisticated robot on the red planet to further probe Mars' surface , using technology never seen before and risks never being higher. But really, how fast is the humankind progressing on the blue planet we call home? All these missions gave impetus for technological advancement and out-of-the-box thinking during their conception, and yet we still don't see the next big leap into the future happening anytime soon!

That we have come far from the day Alexander Bell called across a headset to his friend Thomas Watson would be an understatement. We have shrunk a computer from a resource-guzzling Goliath to a palm-fitting screen. You can even trace your lineage these days at the click of a button. And yet, some of the problems threatening our advancement remain unperturbed. The so-called megacities of the world are overburdened. The developing world remains at the mercy of the monsoons to feed its people and keep inflation low. The Arctic ice sheet just shrunk to a record minimum, and may keep shrinking for the next two weeks. And we are increasingly alarmed at the prospect of our energy dependence on coal and gasoline. 

Is this to say that science & technology has put global upliftment in hindsight as it marches on towards novel frontiers of innovation? Hardly so, but there are certainly more startups focused on improving your social life than those on improving your actual life. So while I was sitting 10,000 feet in air, thinking about those little rivulets down below you glance at once in a while, I came across an incredible IT tool in the back pages of the mundane airlines magazine. Streetline, a startup that lets you find parking space in a bustling metropolitan city and then navigates you towards it, is one of the most ingenious technological innovations I have seen in a while. We have all been frustrated at the lack of easily available parking at some point during our lives. Well, hook up a smart sensor to the parking spot and transmit that data to paying customers. Sounds easy, right? Similarly, technological innovations in the field of medicine have made it possible for a doctor to calculate risks associated with a patient's present condition 10 years down the lines. All basic ideas carefully crafted into profitable and humane technological tools. Apps like these amaze and puzzle me at the same time? Facebook and Zynga still dominate the front pages of any leading business journal, while few care to mention these fantastic small companies that are making a huge difference in the quality of life of numerous individuals. A difference of perception indeed!

PS: Everybody has heard about TED talks. Here's a personal favorite, and in my opinion, a must-see.