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 !

Freewill or Destiny >> Part II

Freewill or Destiny >> Part II
In Part I of this post, I had tried to put in perspective our religious and cultural background on the subject of destiny In this part I will bring out the importance of action and effort.

I am believer in free-will. When someone dies in an accident or illness due to lack of medical care, or a natural disaster, it is not because it was due to “uparwala” (god/ destiny) but because those of us here (neechewala’s) refused to act.

Let me illustrate this with a few examples:

• When India became independent, the average longevity was 45 to 47 years. Now, 60 years later, it is 65 years. By any standards, this is a remarkable achievement. And how did this happen? Not by an act of god, but by the efforts of some dedicated leaders and men. India invested in better health care, nutrition, hygiene, vaccinations and so on. By no means is the job over, but the longevity HAS risen by nearly 50 percent. So what our preceding generations put down due to “uparwala” was actually due to the neglect of the “neechewalas”.. the Brits and the most of the Indian Royalty…

• Then again, the east coast of India (specially the Andhra Pradesh coast) is prone to cyclonic storms. Till the 70’s every alternate year, sometimes every year, there would be 1000’s of deaths in that area, and we would read about it in the newspapers. Many thousands more would be left homeless. To the immediate relatives of the victims and those who lived in surrounding areas, this was again “uparwala” at work. But then suddenly someone put him out of business, at least on the east coast of India. The government installed a coastal cyclone warning system. So when a cyclone is forecast, people are warned and they move to safer places. We still have occasional deaths, but the numbers are typically less than a 100 in any year. Unfortunately, “uparwala” is till in business in Bangladesh, because they don’t have a cyclone warning system.

There are still the tsunamis and the earthquakes which are unpredictable and cause large scale death and destruction. I guess it’s a matter of time till we learn to deal with that.

Look around you , and you will find that most of the tragedies  are the result of inaction at  various levels, and not because of the unknown forces of destiny. Life at the day-to-day level is governed by cause-and-effect and effort-and-result rather than the randomness of fate.

So what is the moral of the story ? The moral of the story is that in India , to progress, we should elect sensible people and parties to represent us, and we should demand more from our elected representatives at all levels. That is the way we will be masters of our own destiny. We should believe in the power of action, rather than leave things to destiny.

State elections Feb_Mar 2012 >> I TOLD YOU SO !

State elections Feb_Mar 2012
I TOLD YOU SO !
The elections are over and the results are out. Also over is the analysis-orgy on news channels, the exit poll results and their live-analysis. One channel (CNN IBN ) was quite accurate in the predictions. Elections produce the same media frenzy in India as IPL or World Cup and seem to have just about a much impact. Entertainment and no more. Rarely does an elected government , whether BJP, Congrss, Akali Dal etc etc make a significant impact on development and governance. But more on that in some other place. It is the UP elections which interested me most.

UP has a population of 20 crores.. so ranked among national populations, it would be the 4 the largest after China , India and USA. It sends 80 plus MPs to Parliament. A state election in UP considerably influences the formation of the Central Government. Therefore the importance of UP elections should not be under estimated.

Here is what we heard after the results came out.

Digvijay Singh (Congress loose canon) took “full responsibility” and offered to resign. He would have continued his resignation offer had not Sonia Gandhi exonerated him by saying that the congress infrastructure in UP was weak. I understand Digvijay always carries on his person a dozen readymade resignation letters.

Rahul took “full responsibility” , but unfortunately did NOT offer to resign. I would have loved to see him offer a resignation and loved even more to see his resignation accepted. It is time for India to cast aside the Nehru-Gandhi family and for Rahul to get a shave.

Sonia Gandhi , like her son, did NOT offer to resign. My comments on her same as for Rahul. She blamed the infrastructure in UP. Now even 4th standard students in India know that Infrasructure is a huge problem.. for the last 20 years. For gods sake we even have tax rebate on infrastructure bonds . So why did she wake up only now ? Really,  I exhort her to resign and start a Pizza shop (Called Asli Italian Gandhi Pizza.. branches in Switzerland) and I promise to eat a pizza every year. From Pizzahut of course.

Unusually, this time the Congress did something which normally only BJP does after a defeat. They, the Congress, said would do introspection. Is this a foretaste of a likely Congres BJP alliance in the near future ?They will jointly introspect !


Mayawati true to form blamed everyone / everything (except her own party’s corruption, poor governance) for the losses, though she DID leave out the CIA and ISI this time. Her defeat, she said , was a direct result of the communalization of the elections by the BJP and Congress. This forced 70% of the muslims to vote fro BSP>

Which brings me to my main reason for writing this post. << I TOLD YOU (BJP) SO !! >> In an earlier post I had written that no party in India can afford to ignore the muslim voter. That’s something the BJP refuses to learn depending instead on the hindu-hormone theory. Well, its let them down for the fifth time.

Akhilesh Yadav was the big winner.. and interestingly he has not been saying much.

Overall, personally I am happy with the results. It is the beginning of the rule of second generation Backward class leaders. Things will change for the better. The dynasty has a real challenge on its hands in the coming years. It might even get wiped out. 

Amen to that !

The M factor

The M factor

Some time back I bumped into this guy,let us call him Mr X, in the lobby of a hotel in Geneva. He was an NRI in the US and was in Geneva on a software project by WIPRO. He was a Kannadiga who had lived in Ahmedabad most of his life. After some time the talk veered to Muslims in India. He was of the firm opinion that most, if not all, of the ills in India could be linked to the M factor…as he preferred to call Indian Muslims, either in order to be politically correct or to ensure that anyone eavesdropping on us would not know what we were talking about. Of course the 2G scam had not then become public, nor the CWG or Swiss Accounts and Adarsh Housing (all of which involved mostly Hindus) or he would have found it difficult to substantiate his stand.

He was not only openly a bigot, he wanted us (me and another younger colleague) to share and participate in his bigotry. But then this is something which I have come across in many NRIs. They seem to have an impression, that “IF SOMETHING IS NOT DONE IMMEDIATELY” hamara Bharat would shortly become the Islamic Republic of Hindustan. He , as usual quoted the higher fertility of the Indian Muslims and the fear of being “SOON OUTNUMBERED”.

So in the lobby of that Geneva hotel Mr X thus exhorted my younger colleague “ You youngsters must DO something” .. what exactly , he did not specify but I have a good idea what he wanted. We listened to him patiently for a while, occasionally refuting his “logic”, but can u make ever straighten a dog’s tail ? After a while I grew impatient and let him have it straight between the eyes. I told him, if he was so concerned why was he sitting in the US and preaching us instead of coming back to India and fighting the battle? Also why was he working for WIPRO, an organization owned by an Indian Muslim? Well that was the end of our interactions. I never saw him again.

While X is probably still in the US and worrying himself sick on the M factor, what’s worrying for me is that I keep coming across many educated middle class/ professional people with the same ideas. Since, in India, saying anything against muslims (or other minorities) in public or private dialogue is politically incorrect , very few people actually do speak ill. So my guess is that the number of people who share Mr X’s views on the M factor is probably significant. And that is worrying.

Now the problem with the M Factor people is that while they blame the muslims for all the ills of India, they have no idea on how to solve the problem. Ask them and they twiddle their thumbs. The BJP , self proclaimed defenders of the hindu faith will repeatedly talk of “minority appeasement” and “pseudo secularism” , but ask them for a solution and they either go into a maun vrata or say something profound like “Muslims should convert to Hinduism”. As if a change in religion of Muslims will make the Indian economy sky-rocket. The latest joker to join the pack is Subramaniam Swamy who said something similarly asinine. And this comes from followers of Hinduism where “Vasudheva Kutiumbakam” is a tenet.

There was a recent TV debate on the Uttar Pradesh Govt giving job reservations to Muslims on the basis of economic criteria. The anchor mentioned that the highest levels of poverty were found among OBC and Muslims. Tarun Vijay, the BJP spokesman was one of the guests. He, predictably said, Muslims cannot be given reservations because in Islam there is no concept of caste. Hence only us (cruel) Hindus who have a caste system can feel righteously justified in giving reservations to Hindu SC/ ST/ OBC. If Mr Tarun had spent as much time on some facts as he does in oiling his hair, he would have come to know that most of the poor Muslims in India were poor OBC/ SC/ ST Hindus who converted from Hindusim to islam… and so great is the influence of the this 2000 year old system that they carried their castes into Islam. (The caste system still thrives among most Christian communities across the country. In Goa one can find Brahmin Christians not mingling with the non-Brahmin Christians) .

My advice to Mr Tarun , and other closet bigots, is to wake up, if not in the interest of the nation, at least in your own interest. The Muslim population in India is too large to be politically ignored and no party can hope to come to power by antagonizing the Muslims. Every time anyone in the Sangh Parivar makes such statements as Mr Tarun, they are shooting themselves in the foot. The BJP has already seen how Nitish Kumar, CM Bihar, kept Narendra Modi away in the last state election in Bihar. Also how Varun Gandhi’s stupidity cost the BJP. Only a moderate Vajpayi could lead the BJP to power. But alas.. kutte’ kid dum kaise’ seeedhi ki jaaye’ ?

So, Mr Tarun, if we see a benefit in bringing our Hindu SC/ ST/ OBC into the mainstream, we should undoubtedly see an even bigger benefit in seeing poor Muslims joining the mainstream. 

PS: This post was written several months back, prior to the UP elections . Subsequently the BJP fared very poorly in the UP state elections . Mayawati blamed it on the muslim vote getting polarised (away from her and in favour of SP/ Mulayam) because , according to her, the BJP hardline of Muslim reservations made the muslims feel insecure.