he sat here
in all humility
in extreme simplicity
and changed the world
his empty ‘chair’
a symbol now
of the lack of
leadership
Mohan Das Karamchand Gandhi’s room at the Sabarmati Ashram in Ahmedabad. Visited today by my daughter Kaveri and myself. To pay our respects and homage.
Are Indians too desentisized to change anything ?
Austere wrote (to the story of a person being tortured and killed because he refused to give a ‘gift’ for Mayawati’s birthday party) :
“The lack of my own reaction frightens me Too often repeated a story. Happens. Is desensitization a survival skill? I don’t know. But I don’t like it ”
Is Austere right ? I think she has a point. And if he is right, how do we overcome this inertia ? Or is India consigned to the same cess pool of politics for ever ?
Merry Christmas and a cheerful New Year !!
Am in Mumbai at this time and seeing a much more somber Christmas celebrations. The Churches and other places of worship are full, but the hotels and the partying is tentative. But perhaps thats the way it was intended to be ?
This last year has been dramatic. And there are somber lessons to learn. The year started with India being branded as the next great economic power and the stock market flying incredibly high. The year ended with a crash in the economy, a sinking stock market and terror attacks in Mumbai. And we go into a New Year celebration with the pall of nuclear conflict hanging over us. All within a year ?
Yet we go into next year with hope that the lessons of last year will put us on far steadier course, both in our personal and public lives. We understand better now the nature of the world, and look to concentrate on that which is sustainable like, love, relationships, friendship, environment and spirituality.
The changing of the world order with Obama being elected also gives rise to a hopeful new force in world politics and I am sure we look forward to his taking charge. We also hope the India will find a new leader that has the same trust of the people,
Have a great Christmas and New Year everyone
Drunken Cockroach
Does anyone remember the scene in India in Mr India where Sri jumped on the bed in alarm when she saw the cockroach ? And then realizes that unknown to her, the house was crawling with kids ? Well, I needed the cockroach to be very still for the camera as he/she eyed Sri Devi threateningly. Focussing takes a long time and the cockroach needed to be patient. So we got the cockroach drunk !! No kidding, we surrounded the cockroach in a pool of my favorite Old Monk Rum, and the cockroach was soon lolling around like a drunken sailor, giving in to the DP, Baba Azmi’s every demand.
Unbelievable, but hey – talk to anyone on the sets. It was true !
Happy Birthday, Mayawati ji
With the potential nuclear conflict looming at our borders, and our economy spinning out of control, thank God at least one politician had the sense to celebrate their own existence and her own birthday. Who cares that the system of government is collapsing and who cares that the country’s resources – even our fresh water – is being sold to the highest bidder, and who cares that gradually we are slipping back into the poverty ridden state we were 20 years ago in only a few months.
And who cares that politics now is the biggest franchise in India, where seats are ‘leased’ to the highest bidder. Not caring where or how they got the money. Who cares the democracy has become just another form of corporate business in your state, and it’s people trapped in the poverty of democracy. What we really care about is that you had a jolly good birthday party, with a beautiful resplendant white cake and we loved your ever charming beaming smile.
We hear that your goons that beat the engineer to death, for he dared to say no to give you a birthday gift, were singing ‘Hap Hap Happy Birthday” as they kicked him senseless.
Happy Birthday Mayawati ji
Forgotten how to write a letter ? Guest column from Neelesh Misra
“Quick! Help me! I have forgotten to write a letter!”
My wife, who generally does not think much of my slow moving brain until she needs its help, shook me this weekend as she broke a long silence as we watched the TV together.
“Huh?” I said.
“Do you write the date on the left or the right?” she said.
I took several seconds to soak in the deep meaning of what she had just said. I turned around slowly. There she was, cross-legged on the bed under the Rajasthani quilt, a pink letter pad on her knees and a pen in her hands.
I realised that this was some sort of an event which was in the works for half a day. When we had gone out in the evening to New Delhi’s suburb of Noida, she had avoided walking into her favourite stores dragging behind her reluctant husband (as she is prone to), and instead looked for a stationery shop. Stationery? When was the last time we bought stationery or went into a stationery shop? We have so long ago catapulted from stationery to Blackberry. But she wanted to buy stationery. She said she wanted to write a letter. My wife is a television reporter and one of India’s more prominent news anchors. She had received a handwritten letter of appreciation from an 80-year-old gentleman and she wanted to reply with a letter.
As she spent the next thirty minutes trying to write out her six lines, my mind leaped into a beautiful Bermuda Triangle of memory. When was it that I wrote my last handwritten letter? I rummaged through it – and found a lot of stuff in the letterbox of my past …
Ever since I was in school, letters were everything….
Continue reading “Forgotten how to write a letter ? Guest column from Neelesh Misra”
Slow poisoning of India
When death comes slowly, it does not create sensational news. We need to be vigilant on many fronts, especially on the environment, where corporations knowingly destroy communities and our land for short term profit. This is a difficult video to watch, but it is worth the effort
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-6926416900837431282&hl=en
Is War with Pakistan an option ?
It is time for the Indian government to take action. India cannot be seen as being led by indecisive leaders who’s thoughts are more on the coming elections rather than grappling with national security. We are sitting on the borders of a country who’s government is loosing control. Over its own armed forces, over the fundamentalist forces. Pakistan is in danger of being completely Talibanized. It was a process that started when the US government armed and trained the Taliban through the Pakistan Army and ISI to fight the Russians. Afghanistan was turned into a battle zone of the major powers and Pakistan too allowed itself to get caught into the game, hoping to gain a few brownie points and much aid for its armed forces. Well, the game has backfired and Pakistan itself is in danger of being turned into battle zone.
So what should the Indian government do ? Whatever it has to do, it must do swiftly, for time is not on our side. We cannot continue to be seen as a soft target, and our people cannot continue to sit back and await the next terror attack while the government looks at the options in light of the coming elections. If India needed to do surgical strikes, they should have happened already, sending a clear message to the fundamentalist forces that targeting India is not an option. It is now too late to do that.
More than that, no terrorist attack is possible without ground support within our own country. I am afraid this is where it gets really murky as money, vote getting etc gets in the way of a clear cut policy. I am amazed that Dawood Ibrahim walks freely after being implicated in the Bombay Blasts years ago, and even travels to Dubai for his birthday. I am convinced now that Dawood knows too much for some politicians in India to allow him to be repatriated and put in trial in India. Our politics is so corrupt.
But is War with Pakistan an option ? Consider this :
a. Who are we declaring war against ? The people of Pakistan, or the government of Pakistan, or the fundamentalist forces ? A general war is exactly what the Taliban wants. It desires a Pakistan weakened further by war, so it can take control. It can then rip up more rhetoric and recruit many many more terrorists to its cause
b. What are the ‘goal posts’ of the War ? How do you declare a war as won. What do we want by going to war ? I think the government of India must make a list of the leaders of the Lakshar -e Tayiba – and others like Dawood, to be handed over for trial in India for crimes against the indian people. But the Indian government has not made any such clear demand. It has not taken any affirmative action yet
c. A war like this must be won within a period of 3/4 days. Beyond that collatoral damage in the cost of civilian deaths on both sides is too high. Bombing of each other cities and even a nuclear conflict is a real threat in any war that becomes long and protracted.
So what are the options now ?
a. First the Indian government must make a list of people and operatives it believes to have organized the terror attacks on India, and ask Pakistan to hand them over.
b. We must put international pressure on Pakistan through countries like the US and China to hand these people over.
c. Ask the UN to step in and ensure that the terror camps are dismantled with in Pakistan. After all the UN has been sitting for 50 years on the borders of the two Kashmirs. Time for them to get more active.
If nothing works then Military action may be the only alternative. First we should try and put together an international force, and if that does not work, then India should go it alone. But Military action must be the last resort. I believe though that the Pakistan Government too would be thankful to be rid of the fundamentalist forces that are destroying the fabric of their own nation. It is just that they are unable to publicly state that view for the fear of the reprisals from fundamentalist forces within their armed forces.
It is difficult to judge who is in control right now in Pakistan,
China, Hinduism, Pakistan etc
Rudra wrote : I am surprised at your ostritch like worldview vis-a-vis China. If your three days in upper crust Beijing can whitewash China’s un-pardonable misdeamanors in your Head…
Dear Rudra, i beg to differ. This is my second trip to China and I find Chinese people on the streets far more aware and warm towards India than people in India towards them. We, I am afraid are victims of media and our own insecurities. The Chinese respect us more because Buddhism came from India. I am talking about students, artists, taxi drivers, intellectuals, film directors, actors, people who work in hotels, and even people in government. There is a new found respect for their own ancient culture in China too.
I am not of the same opinion as Brahmshastra either. I believe there is a misled arrogance in his views on Hinduism and what he calls a misplaced secularity . Our ancient culture was based on consciousness and humility. On nurturing. In searching and on yearning. Hinduism is a philosophy that does not deny other thoughts. Hinduism is based on the ultimate search for reality, beyond the five senses, the search for universal consciousness. And anyone that says that he or she ‘knows’ Hinduism without that search in humility is converting Hinduism into a dogma, a religion, a system, which it is never supposed to be. It accepts the power of ritual, but never accepts that ritual as anything but the search for the truth.
And he is wrong about everyone else being misguided and assuming that the rest of us have closed our minds to the past glory of the Indian culture. An addiction to past glory is also a form of defensive arrogance. ….
New directions in China : time for the Dragon and the Elephant to dance together ?
I have been in Beijing for the last 3 days, attending and speaking at a conference on the creative industries. Now I will take a day off to go to spend the day at the Beijing Film Academy and the Institute of Fine arts. I really enjoy being in Beijing, and its not just the food ! Its the architecture, its the warmth of their people and the sheer pleasure of interacting with a culture that is as ancient and as mythical as our own.
On the point of culture, China has now decided the next area of economic growth is in the fields of culture and the creative industries. And as China is prone to do, it stops at nothing to implement its plans and all over China new townships are sprouting up dedicated to the development of art, design, animation, film, literature and publishing and encompassing all of what the new media has to offer such as video gaming etc. The thrust is now to extend this idea of creativity into pushing for originality to be created and owned internally in all fields, rather than become the worlds largest outsourcing economy and the supplier of manufacturing goods to the rest fo the world based on patents or technologies bought from the western nations. Thsi is exciting and exactly the vision I have for India. There is a wealth of imagination and creativity that is sitting in both nations waiting to explode and express itself.
I have said this often – that culture defines the way we live, what we consume, how we consume it, and how we interact with the rest of the world and do business. Culture defines and underpins economic growth and any economic growth that does not take into account the culture and mythology of the people will ultimately cause huge contradictions and friction in that society.
I think the collapse of the world financial systems have been a great lesson to all of us on how a culture we all so readily accepted has come collapsing down. It is time for us to understand that we need to flow with our own paths and not so blindly accept Western ways, nor allow ourselves to be judged by Western points of view or goal posts of development. For example – what does gross domestic product really mean ? Does that mean that Tansen singing in Akbar’s court was an unproductive activity if there was no means of actually measuring its value in monetary terms ? We must now redefine how we describe the rise in wealth of our people, their happiness in terms of our culture.
It is also time for the two great cultures to come together now……