Modi or Rahul ? Neither !

Modi or Rahul ? Neither !

I am not a fan of Narendra Modi. Even if his dubious claims of development are true even 10% , he has to still answer for the post-Godhra riots in which 2000 muslims were killed. And now he has to answer for fake encounters as well. We cannot afford to have such leaders in India…or anywhere else for that matter.

When I express my opinions on Modi, I am immediately told by Modi sympathizers (read as ignorant BJP/ VHP/ RSS bigots ) about how Kasmiri Pandits were / are being killed and have been exiled from Kashmir to live in refuge camps. Stories about the corruption of the Nehru-Gandhi family, their “non-Indian” origin are also brought out. The latest is some  fantastic story on Sanjay Gandhi’s paternity.

I am often left wondering about the intellectual morbidity and hopelessness of the people who parade these arguments.. and I am sure some comments to this post will bring more. Some BJP idiot went to the extent of saying Amartya Sen had no right to say anything about Godhra/ Modi as he (Sen ) was neither Indian nor a Muslim. It is like saying that no non-German/ non Jew could logically criticize Hitler for the millions of Jews he killed.

My response is simple>

Just because I do not approve of Modi does not automatically make me a supporter of the Congress / Nehru Gandhi family. I am NOT their supporter. The congress and its ruling dynasty have also a lot to answer for, the topmost being humongous corruption and the killing of 3500 plus sikhs in Delhi. I am hoping a strong non-Congress government will soon punish those guilty.

Two wrongs do not make a right. We cannot hope to balance the deaths of Hindus with the deaths of Muslims… they were all Indians and they were all human beings .. and no one should have been killed.

I do not believe in the Modi or Rahul debate. It is NOT Modi vs Rahul for me . Neither is fit to be a PM. One for his communal sentiment and the other for his inexperience.

PS: extremely sad to see Manmohan again saying he thinks Rahul is fit to be PM. Manmohan has not only mis-managed the government , he is stooping to new lows in chamchagiri. Wonder how much he is being paid to make these starements.

Milk and maids

Milk and maids
When I first set up house after getting married, the white revolution had not yet happened in India. It was not easy to get a good milk-supply. We lived in Pune and someone mentioned a college that also ran a dairy and supplied good milk. I spent a day getting “registered’’, buying coupons and so on. 

The milkman came early each morning and rang the bell. And I heaved myself out of bed all groggy to take the milk packets and give him the coupons. Depending on the season, the milkman came in anytime from 5 to 6.30 in the morning. So on many mornings I and my wife lay awake since 4.30 too scared to go back to sleep lest we miss the guy. And so it went on till I mentioned this to a friend. He had a good laugh and said the solution was very simple. All we had to do was to hang a bag or basket outside and leave the coupon in it. Imagine, something so simple and it had missed us. Of course the milkman himself never mentioned it to us , though he must have been working with it in many other homes. Anyway we were finally able to sleep better. Though one of the things I was always curious and regretful about was, what if the college had employed Smita Patil to deliver milk and I had been missing seeing her every morning. So one day to set the matter to rest, I intentionally did not hang the bag.

We followed this hang-a-bag thing for many years since then. And every few months I would check out if the milk was being delivered by Aishwarya Rai or Sushmita Sen or Kareena Kapoor and so on. Of course it wasn’t. But as Mirza Ghalib said “Humko maloom hai jannat ki haqueekat lekin, dil behalaane ke liye Ghalib yeh khayaal achhaa hai” (I know paradise does not exist, but tis a good hope to live with)

But we have now switched to tetrapak milk pouches . It can be kept for long. Does not need boiling before use. One doesn’t have the hassle of accounting for coupons. If you are expecting guests you don’t have to go through the trouble of informing the milkman a couple of days in advance. The quality is good. And finally, there is never any doubt about who is delivering it.

Ageing with dis-Grace.. India: A 5000 year old civilisation

Ageing with dis-Grace.. India: A 5000 year old civilisation
This idea has been knocking around in my head for sometime now. There was a time in the 60’s and 70’s when only the Jansangh (predecessor to the BJP) leaders used to proclaim the greatness of India by constant reference to the past. I guess they had nothing else to counter Nehru’s forward looking rational “western” outlook. But nowadays its not only the BJP/ VHP and their ideological brethren, but people from all kinds of political and non-political backgrounds who keep mentioning and praising India as a 5000 year old civilization. Sometimes one even hears foreign publications and authors using this concept...(and this of course delights us Indians to no end)

Now, we certainly have a 5000 year old history. But the question in my mind is, does that make us a 5000 year old civilization ? In my opinion, NO. I must add that if I were to pride myself on being a member of a 5000 year old civilization, I would think it was an unbroken 5000 years of cultural and social development. Now my specific problem comes with the word “unbroken”

I look at this issue with 2 view points. The historical/ chronological and the empirical.

Historical: The Indus Valley Civilization (IVC), which “makes” us a 5000 year old civilization, certainly existed in 3000 BC, but how much did it contribute to its follower the Vedic civilization? Now I haven’t done a great amount of googling on this, but I know a few things

•   Historians are not clear how the IVC dwindled. Was it the rivers shifting course ? Or were they massacred and obliterated almost completely by the invading central Asian “Aryans” who then laid the foundation of the Vedic culture? Or some other reason? In any of these cases, is it logical to assume that a people who disappeared so mysteriously and so completely would leave a major influence on the next culture that came along? What I am trying to say is that if a culture disappeared so anonymously, their impact on the succeeding culture would have to be negligible. So we have a break in cultural lineage,
• Do we see any influence of the ICV in our day to day life, as we see the influence of Vedic culture? Again the answer is no. An example I always remember from school is that the IVC had under ground drainage. Now if IVC had really influenced us, why didn’t we have any underground drainage till the idea was imported from Europe and executed only in the 19th century in India.
• Another point, though perhaps not a major one is that all the IVC sites are restricted to a few places in Pakistan, Punjab, Rajasthan and Gujarat. It wasn’t really a pan-Indian phenomenon.

Thus, on the historical count I am not so comfortable in including the IVC as a part of a 5000 years of unbroken civilization in India. So my friends, I am sorry, but I have just made us at least 1000 years younger.

Empirical: When we say with pride that we are a 5000 year old civilisation, what we are also saying that as far as membership to civilisations goes, the older the better. So it’s better to be 5000 years old than to be a mere 2000 year old. This pride also assumes that a 5000 year old civilisation is a good thing and is better than a civilisation which is 2000 years old. Now what is “better” ? I would say that a civilisation or culture is “better” if it has highly developed forms of art and literature, architecture, philosophy, technology, etc. But above and before all this, for a civilisation to be better, it must provide for its citizens a life without want or fear, with justice and equity, and with opportunity. Now let’s take a look around and see how India is doing on this score as a 5000 year old civilisation

• In our country we routinely kill people in the name of religion, caste, community, political affiliation and for a hundred other things. You name anything and we kill people for it. The State blatantly sponsors the killing of innocent citizens as happened in Delhi and in Gujarat.
• We allow, through our inaction and complacence at all levels, people to die of hunger, disease and accidents. This in a country which now has its citizens swamping the Forbes Top 20 billionaires list !!
• For a 1000 or more years , we have kept 65 percent of our people deprived of education and participation in the mainstream. These are the people in the Scheduled Castes, Tribes and Other Backward Classes.
• We consistently elect political leaders about whom the less said , the better. We recently (in 2008) had the sad case from Bangalore of a young man who committed suicide because his vehicle met with an accident with the vehicle of a political leader , and the young man felt so terrorized that he saw suicide as the only way out.

In many ways , I can say that India is a place where human life is not valued at all. Surely a civilisation that does not value human life cannot claim a 5000 year heritage with any pride whatsoever.

Have you ever been conned ?

Have you ever been conned ?
This happened on a weekend somewhere in the year 2002. My wife and I had gone to Shoppers Stop one evening. It used to be then in its old location on Magarath Road. As is usual, parking space was difficult in Bangalore and I followed my rule of “park in the first available slot even if it means walking half a kilometer.” Once parked, we were walking towards the store, when a man stopped me. From his appearance and demeanour, it was obvious that he was asking for some kind of help. He spoke Kannada, a language that I do not understand. (Kannada goth illa, saar). He looked about 40, balding, malnourished and wearing a shirt and trouser which were frayed at the edges. Rubber slippers nearly falling apart. Over his shoulder he had a jhola bag. His eyes were watery as he spoke to me, and his voice was almost cracking with helplessness. Since my wife knows Kannada well, she stepped into the conversation. Well this guy’s story was that he was going from Hoskote to Whitefield and did not have enough money to take a bus. It seemed a little odd that he should be at Shoppers Stop, since it was neither on the way nor near a major bus junction. In any case he wanted 20 rupees. My wife told me that I should give him the money. To his luck, the smallest note I had in my wallet was 50 rupees, so that’s what I gave him. He thanked us and went on his way. Moving on, my wife and I briefly discussed the rather unusual place (Magrath Road) this man had come for his journey between Hoskote and Whitefield and then forgot all about him.

That is, I forgot about him till about four months later. I was driving and was at the corner of Manipal Centre road where it meets MG Road. I had slowed down to take the turn and who should I see on the pavement but the same man! He was similarly dressed, complete with the jhola and he was in conversation with a young couple, no doubt telling them about his aborted journey. I think I even saw the young man reach for his wallet.

For a moment I thought of stopping and asking the trickster to refund my 50 rupees, but I did not, and drove on. I had no intention of taking him to task, or exposing him to the young couple. Just to get my own money back.

At home I told my wife about this and we had a good laugh. I must say I still admire the man’s acting ability. His act was so damned convincing! But more than that, I thank him for giving me an enriching experience, which makes for good conversation. I must have spoken of this incident to so many people. Not a bad return on 50 rupees !