Wednesday, December 12, 2012

Spinning T-20, Khare style

I've been a long-time reader of The Hindu, a well-known and respected daily based out of Madras, Tamil Nadu. A particular article on today's paper seemed like a very spin-doctorish, lopsided and biased analysis to me.

http://www.thehindu.com/opinion/lead/t20-politics-has-run-its-course/article4188766.ece

The article be Mr.Harish Khare, former media adviser to the PMO talks about the deploring standards of parliamentary behaviour in particular and the steady fall of debate standards in the country, in general. Yes, I agree with the issues raised about the fall in quality but I don't agree with the examples he quotes so eloquently and the inferences he draws therein.I'll attempt a point-by-point rebuttal.


Sushma Swaraj, Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha, otherwise a mild-mannered leader with a becoming sobriety, gave in to this mood — with totally unintended consequences. Not satisfied with being personal and offensive to the Congress president, she shrilly suggested that the Uttar Pradesh-based parties — the Samajwadi Party and the Bahujan Samaj Party — were obliged to help the government out because the Central Bureau of Investigation had been unleashed on the leaders of these two outfits.
As she saw it, the issue was not the presumed merits or deficiencies in the government’s initiative; rather it was a simple matter of “FDI vs. CBI” — a classic T20 formulation.

As it so happens, I happened to watch Mrs.Swaraj's speech in full. She spoke in chaste Hindi for almost an hour on, what in her opinion, were the possible fallout of introducing FDI in retail without due deliberation as to the consequences. In fact, I could see that the ruling party MPs constantly interrupted her, raising hullabaloo which forced her to raise her voice to be heard. This fact Mr.Khare comfortably white-washes and portrays Mrs.Swaraj as shrill. And, as far as I could remember there was nothing remotely close to a personal attack on Mrs.Sonia Gandhi. I wonder what Mr.Khare is referring to here. To be honest, I felt Mrs.Swaraj made an excellent job of her speech. She was not all eloquence, backing all her claims by solid evidence. It was no mere rhetoric. And, talking about the CBI angle to the issue, I think the entire public is well-aware of  the CBI being used as an ally by any ruling party in the Centre to witch-hunt opponents. We need no remainder of the vacillating issue of the Taj Corridor case involving Ms.Mayawati where the temperature raises or thaws based on BSP's proximity to the Centre. Mr.Khare need not pretend to be a saint. The Aam Aadmi knows that the vote also hinged on the FDI Vs. CBI factor.


The BSP leader framed her argument in an institutional context: a government defeat would embolden the BJP to continue its two-year-old strategy of parliamentary disruption, a technique that had already eroded parliamentary institutions’ credibility and respect.
Like everyone else, Ms Mayawati knew that a setback on the FDI issue would have been much more than a defeat for the Manmohan Singh government. It would have advertised to every stakeholder at home and abroad that the Indian parliamentary system was no longer able to generate for the executive the requisite legislative sanction behind any kind of policy coherence. She unwittingly ended up providing a much-needed refurbishing to the basic scheme of our constitutional arrangements. 
So, Mr.Khare is OK when Ms.Mayawati thinks that the stability of  the government takes precedence over an issue of far-reaching national importance? How else would one justify this stance where one votes in support of a particular policy decision which, in many countries has known to unsettle the indigenous social setups, arguing that a defeat would cause a collapse of the government? The very ideal enshrined in a parliamentary approach to government to keep a check on reckless policy decisions by the executive. A dismissal by the legislative is in fact a opportunity to re-examine the policy and re-work it to suit the needs of the people.

It is indeed somewhat mystifying as to why Ms Swaraj, who otherwise has the temperament of a one-down batsman in a five-day cricket test match, got seduced into recklessness. Perhaps the only explanation is that the BJP (as also its cheerleaders in the media) has been taken in by the success notched up by the Gujarat Chief Minister in the style of a limited overs-swashbuckler.
So, if someone is opposing FDI that someone is reckless?? Is that what Mr.Khare is implying? And, cheerleaders in the media? For the BJP?? Mr.Khare, that in anybody's opinion has to be the 'joke of the decade'. Well, BJP is one party that is at the receiving end of the most biased and agenda-driven of media coverages. Anything BJP is equated to Hindutva, Saffron terror, what not! I wonder if Mr.Khare lives in India only. I'm not even venturing into the Gujarat cottage industry of NGOs working against Mr.Modi.

In fact, Narendra Modi is the first political leader of some consequence who has built up an aura around himself by rough-talking. His handlers have crafted a macho image for him, which now critically hinges on his perceived ready and uninhibited willingness to bad-mouth anyone; he has been projected as having the ability to “take on” anyone, and that he is unafraid of any holy cow. Mr. Modi is loud and immodest in self-praise and self-promotion; unrestrained in his nasty comments about Sonia Gandhi, Rahul Gandhi and Manmohan Singh. He tickles our baser instincts, makes us feel good in our small-mindedness. So invidious a toll has the Modi-type aggression taken on our collective sensibilities that a gentle, soft-spoken Manmohan Singh is dismissed in middle class conversations as a namby-pamby.
Well, Modi-bashing is the flavor of the season. Mr.Khare adds his 2 cents' worth. It has been a while since India saw a strong, decisive figure as a ruler of the state. After almost two terms of Manmohan Singh anyone with a remotely strong and decisive approach seems macho. Mr.Khare talks about bad-mouthing, Well he should remember the "Maut ka Saudagar" comment in the last Gujarat Assembly elections, by none other than the Congress President. So who is bad-mouthing, Mr.Khare?  Mr.Modi, has demonstrated in not one, but two consecutive elections, with thumping majority, that his agenda of development-driven and strong leadership is what people of Gujarat aspire for. The statistics speak for Mr.Modi. His much-touted "Gujarat model" is desired by everyone. For a public, that has seen only major scams as the highlights of 10 years of UPA rule, Mr.Modi's assertive style is a whiff of fresh air. Mr.Modi is not tainted by charges of corruption. His wife/son/daughter/brother, etc. are not part of the government, unlike the Congress' style of dynasty as politics and politics as dynasty .Nasty comments about the Gandhis? So if someone is alleged to be corrupt, asking them to come clean is nasty? That is Mr.Khare's logic? Manmohan as namby-pamby eh? Well, no matter how much spin doctors like Mr.Khare can try to make it sound good, the people know for a fact about the stoic silences of our Prime Minister on various issues. 2G scam? Our PM gratefully acknowledges Mr.Raja's letter where he arbitrarily advances the date of submission. That the Supreme Court cancelled all licenses, isn't that a slap in the face of our "decisive PMO"? I agree that the Prime Minister is personally clean. What use? Facts are facts.

Mr.Khare is right when he asserts "Violence in our daily political discourse is bound to breed violent proclivities in political society".


But my request is, please state facts and don't try to spin issues. The daily debates on late night television is enough to gauge the quality of debates. There is an overflow of loud-mouthed, no-holds-barred rhetoric. Shouting down the other person is the strategy. It is one thing to deplore the state of debates and other to manufacture imagined perceptions and inferences. Mr.Khare has blurred the line.








Monday, December 10, 2012

Experience on rails

I happened to travel in the special compartment for disabled people , on a recent trip from Tirunelveli to Trichy, as an escort for a relative of mine. I'm writing this post to basically place a few observations on record.

The compartment was make-shift, a part of the coach having the Pantry was walled off on one end and marked as Special. The first thing that struck me as I entered was the roominess. The authorities had taken care to make the small area spacious , by not having the aisle seats. Just one cubicle was there with large seats, seating up to four people. There were two such seats, facing each other. So the place could house eight persons. There was a berth on top, where if need be, the escorts could move to, in case quite a few disabled persons happened to be there. But, on this trip the place was empty. Just two other persons with their respective escorts were there. 

Initially, while boarding, I was shocked to notice, that although the compartment prominently displayed the sign "For Disabled" it had no special arrangement for people to board. I mean, one had to climb the same steep vertical steps (three of them) like any normal railway coach. It stumped me to think, how this was dis-abled friendly? What if a wheel-chair bound person happened to travel? Was he to be lifted up? Having said that, the interior was designed sensitively, there were railings in the coach walls so that they could be held by people while walking. The toilets were also large and spacious. One complaint I had was that the water outlet was hard to operate even for me, leave alone challenged people. The emergency-stop chain also was placed lower so that it will be easier to reach. Good thinking, that. India, is not the most disabled friendly of countries. Its record is miserable. So, considering that, it is quite a thing to see a well-designed Disabled compartment in India Railways. It will be even better if care were taken to incorporate further amenities, especially the one with the entering stairs.

Friday, December 7, 2012

A startling read!


Melvisharam: “Darul Islam” of Tamil Nadu

An article by Chennai based senior journalist on Vijayavaani.

The Supreme Court’s Order

November 9, 2009 is a significant day in the religious, political and demographic history of India in general and Tamil Nadu in particular. The Supreme Court directed the Tamil Nadu government to consider within three months the representations filed by “Keel-visharam” (Lower Visharam) villagers for the de-merger of their Panchayat from the “Mel-visharam” (Upper Visharam) Panchayat of Vellore district and forward them to the Governor to act upon. The SC Bench comprising Chief Justice K G Balakrishnan and Justice P Sathasivam also directed the Tamil Nadu government to communicate the same to Janata Party president Dr. Subramaniam Swamy, a respondent in the case.
Islam, its concepts and character
Before going into the facts of this important case, one needs to know the facts about the fundamental character of Islam and the Muslim community. This revolves around six important concepts – Ummah, Darul Islam, Darul Harb, Jehad, Taquia and Kafir – which are practiced and executed as per the Koran, Hadith and Sura.
Ummah is an Arabic word meaning “community” or “nation”. In the context of Islam, ummahmeans the “Community of the Believers” (ummat al-mu’minin), and thus the whole Muslim world.
Darul Islam is an Islamic term for the Muslim regions of the world under the system of divisions of the world in Islam. The term appears in the Quran in 6.127 as a name of Paradise. Islamic Nations fall under this category.
Darul Harb is a term classically referring to those countries where the Muslim law is not in force in the matter of worship and the protection of the faithful and Dhimmis. For much of Islamic history, this is the preferred term used to describe non-Islamic societies, emphasizing various Islamic countries’ aspirations to conquer such territories and render them part of Darul-Islam.
Kafir in the Islamic doctrinal sense refers to a person who does not recognize Allah or the prophethood of Muhammad (i.e., any non-Muslim) or who hides, denies, or covers the “truth”. Quran, Sura 2 Verse 256, asks them to take upon themselves the action of “Kofr” of all unjust idols, persons or powers. It is translated in English as “unbeliever,” “ungrateful,” or “obliterator,” and is seen as derogatory(Wikipedia on Kafir). People of other faiths are addressed as Kafirs.
Jihad, an Islamic term, is a religious duty of Muslims. Jihad appears frequently in the Qur’an and common usage as the idiomatic expression “striving in the way of Allah (al-jihad fi sabil Allah)”. A person engaged in jihad is a mujahid, plural mujahideen. The four major categories of jihad are – Jihad against one’s self (Jihad al-Nafs), Jihad of the tongue (Jihad al-lisan), Jihad of the hand(Jihad al-yad), and Jihad of the sword (Jihad as-sayf). Islamic military jurisprudence focuses on regulating the conditions and practice of Jihad as the only form of warfare permissible under Islamic law, and thus the term Jihad is usually used in fiqh manuals in reference to military combat.
The word “al-Taqiyya” literally means: “Concealing or disguising one’s beliefs, convictions, ideas, feelings, opinions, and/or strategies at a time of imminent danger, whether now or later in time, to save oneself from physical and/or mental injury.” A one-word translation would be “dissimulation”. The Taqiyah doctrine is based on Qur’an 3:28: “Let not the believers take for friends or helpers unbelievers rather than believers. If any do that, in nothing will there be help from Allah; except by way of precaution, that ye may guard yourselves from them”. Sunni commentator Ibn Kathir explained that “believers that fear for their safety from the unbelievers… are allowed to show friendship to the unbelievers outwardly, but never inwardly”.
From the above, we can see that to convert the world into an Ummah, Muslims wage Jihad using Al-Taquiya against Kafirs to convert Darul Harbs into Darul Islam. This prompted Dr Prithipal, Professor Emeritus, Professor of Comparative Religion, University of Alberta, Canada, to observe: ‘Muslims will only live as an oppressive majority and turbulent minority’.

Introduction to Melvisharam

Visharam is a town in the ‘Arcot’ Assembly constituency in Vellore district. It has a considerable population of Muslims, who are largely concentrated in areas like Ambur, Vaniyambadi, Arcot and local Vellore as well. Initially, Visharam had two panchayats – Melvisharam dominated by Muslims and Keelvisharam dominated by Scheduled Castes (Adi Dravidas) and MBCs (Vanniyars). The panchayats were constituted in 1951. While Melvisharam had 17 wards, Keelvisharam had 4 wards. In 1996, the then DMK government, yielding to pressure of Melvisharam Muslims, merged Keelvisharam with it. Later in October 2004, the then AIADMK government upgraded Melvisharam as Grade-III Municipality. Later in August 2008, it was merged with Vellore Corporation.
Melvisharam being a predominantly Muslim town, the Urdu-speaking community was quite wealthy with an economy largely based on Tanneries, while the SCs and MBCs of Keelvisharam were dependent solely on agriculture in the water-starved region. The merger of Keelvisharam with Melvisharam has brought immense difficulties to its people, who were forced to approach the courts due to the total indifference and arrogance of successive governments, Dravidian parties and self-styled Dalit and Vanniyar leaders. Dr. Subramaniam Swamy took up their cause, and there is now hope for permanent relief to the hapless Hindus of Keelvisharam.

Melvisharam as Darul-Islam
Journalist Puduvai Saravanan made an ‘on the spot’ investigative report way back in 2005. The Tamil magazine “Vijayabaratham” also published an investigative story on this.
Only Urdu gets prominence in Melvisharam. In Municipal sessions, the Chairman and members discuss all issues only in Urdu. The Municipal Library contains only Urdu books, magazines and newspapers, and has very few Tamil newspapers, that too as a formality. The Muslim majority of Melvisharam speak Tamil only with strangers visiting the town. The only street with just 10 Hindu families is named “Tamil Street”! The names of all other streets and even the names of shops and other trade venues and business establishments are written only in Urdu.
Melvisharam has “Abdul Hakim Engineering College”, “Abdul Hakim Arts & Science College”, and five schools run by “Melvisharam Muslim Educational Society” (MMES). A landmark is Masjid-e-Khizar whose minaret is 175 ft (53 m) high. In 2003 K.H. Group of Companies and Apollo Group of Hospitals set up the Apollo KH Hospital. Banks and other establishments are aplenty. But, it doesn’t have a police station! Everything is decided only by Jamaat (public – as told by Amjad Hussein, who runs a fruit juice shop).
Keelvisharam is also called ‘Rasaththipuram,’ and since its merger with Melvisharam, the Panchayat election has never been conducted democratically. The local Jamaat decides the Chairman and Councillors and only they can file nominations. Nobody else can.
In 2002, the four councilors of Rasathipuram were beaten black and blue by the other Muslim councillors and since then the people of Rasathipuram (four wards) have been boycotting the elections.
The Melvisharam Jamaat had the practice of choosing an influential Muslim of the ruling party as Chairman of the Municipality. The proceedings of the Municipal session were never known to the Hindus. It is alleged that most times the sessions were conducted in wealthy Muslim homes and not in official municipal premises.
While most of municipal jobs were given to Muslims, menial jobs like sweeping and scavenging only were given to Hindus (SCs and MBCs).

K.L. Elavazhagan of PMK is the present MLA (Arcot) and hails from Keelvisharam. His father K. Loganathan was murdered in 1991. Though the murder was projected as ‘political rivalry’, it was learnt that the killer was saved and converted to Islam by an influential Muslim from Melvisharam. He is presently living with his Muslim wife leading a cushy life. (As PMK leadership was always pandering to minorities, Elavazhagan had no option but to toe the party line and couldn’t proceed against his father’s killers).

On the banks of ‘Palar’ river in Keelvisharam, the SCs had their burial ground on poromboke lands, which was encroached by Muslims who built around 300 houses there illegally. The Melvisharam municipality named it “Sadhik Basha Nagar” and gave electricity and water connections and issued “Patta” for the owners (sic). A few Dalit hutments situated in nearby were not given power and water supply.
The wealthy Muslims forced the SCs and MBCs to sell their lands for paltry sums and built Tanneries on those lands. The used water and wastage from the tanneries polluted the water resources of Keelvisharam, resulting in agricultural lands becoming infertile and useless. A few years back, the Jamaat issued an order that the lands (worth Rs.10,000/- per ‘cent’) in Keelvisharam must be bought at the rate of only Rs.1000/- per ‘cent’.

The Melvisharam Municipality had passed a resolution to set up a “Waste-water purification plant” in the land (Survey 256/2 – 31.66 acres) at Rasathipuram which comprised a Cashew Farm and an open air temple with “Ganesh Murti” and “Village Amman Deity”, where Hindus (SC Dalits and MBC Vanniyars) have been celebrating Pongal and other festivals for hundreds of years. Due to stiff Hindu opposition, the Muslim Municipality couldn’t set up the waste water treatment plant, but they destroyed the Cashew farm worth 10 crore rupees completely and demolished the Ganesh Murtis. Representations to the district authorities fell on deaf ears. Now the Muslims are trying to encroach on this land in the guise of laying drainage systems. The Hindus are determined to save their land and temple. The only Ganesh Temple in Melvisharam is used as a store room by Muslims to store old equipments and worn out things.
Hindus are allowed to run only ‘Saloons’ and ‘Laundries’ in Melvisharam. Many families in Keelvisharam roll beedi leaves for Beedi factories owned by Muslims of Melvisharam.
Muslims are trying to settle in Keelvisharam and build Mosques there, to change the demography of the small Hindu area. Government schemes and concessions are not passed on to Hindus of Keelvisharam. Every facility (drainage, water supply, power supply, roads, etc.) is enjoyed by Melvisharam while nothing is passed on to Rasathipuram.

The New Indian Express reported on 10 November 2009 that all Muslim functionaries of the Panchayat have denied all administrative and developmental facilities and even basic amenities such as drinking water to the four wards where Hindus reside. Adding insult to injury, when Hindus demanded their rightful share, they were asked to convert to Islam. Muslims of Melvisharam have discriminated against Hindus of Rasathipuram by violating Article 15 (1) of the Constitution.

The Hindus (SCs and MBCs) of Keelvisharam have been oppressed for years and no Dravidian party bothered to attend to their grievances. All Tamil political parties have been acting like beggars for Muslim votes, showing scant regards to Tamil Hindus. Sadly, neither English nor vernacular media in the State bothered to report the problems and misery of the hapless Hindu victims of Islamic oppression. But for Dr. Swamy, journalist Puduvai Saravanan and magazine “Vijayabaratham”, the facts of a “Darul Islam” in Melvisharam would not have come out into the open.

The legal course

Subramaniam Swamy filed a PIL in 2007 in the Madras High Court, seeking a direction to the government to constitute the revenue village of Keelvisharam as a separate village Panchayat instead of being part of Melvisharam Panchayat (now upgraded as municipality).
The High Court issued an order on February 5, 2007 saying that the various Melvisharam public grievances petitions and the demand for partition be considered by the Governor. The Tamil Nadu government, instead of abiding by the HC order, approached the SC against it through a Special Leave Petition, and on 16 January 2009, the SC stayed the HC judgment and issued notice to Dr. Swamy.
Now disposing off the state government’s appeal, the Supreme Court directed it to consider within three months the representations filed by Keelvisharam villagers for de-merger of their Panchayat from the Melvisharam Panchayat of Vellore district and forward the same to the Governor to act upon.

Conclusion

Melvisharam is not the only “Darul Islam” in Tamil Nadu. Dr. Swamy says there are forty panchayats across the state in similar conditions: “In TN there are 40 Town Panchayats with Muslim majority and the minority Hindus there are living with the same Hobson’s choice or Catch-22. Hence, Melvisharam was a test case. With the help of VHP, I shall now visit all 40 Town Panchayats from Melvisharam to Thondi (Ramnathapuram) and see that the minority Hindus get their due share and are not harassed for conversion of their faith to Islam. So this judgment will trigger similar demands in all 40 Panchayats and lead to state-wide Hindu consolidation. That is Karunanidhi’s nightmare” (the ruling DMK tends to discriminate against Hindus for minority votes).

Wednesday, November 28, 2012

In retrospect

Today is the last day of college. It has been a long four years. As I write, people, my batchmates are leaving for their home. A sense of great relief is palpable in almost all their faces- at having graduated, though unofficially; the atmosphere is filled with sounds of photo-snaps and good-byes. Some of them might not see each for a long time, for others it is a short good-bye, they'll all re-assemble for the last semester to finish their projects here. Yet, all won't be at the same place once again, at the same time.

Personally, the last four years have been good for me. Though engineering wasn't my first option, I've taken a liking to it. So this post, is just a reflection of things the past few years. I've had some of the greatest times of my life here; met some truly good people; been part of a lot of things; and more importantly, grown as a person. I'll not venture so far as to say, college taught me everything. Far from it. I've, like so many other people before me, filled myself in as per the scheme of things.

When we come to college, the mindset varies depending on the person and the situation that brought them to the place. There are three categories:

1. Those that aimed higher, say an JEE/ AIEEE, but fell short
2. Those that came through AIEEE
3. Those that came here because they had this in mind.

And not surprisingly, I know people in all three categories. Of course, the general mindset once you get in the atmosphere is of cynicism and apathy. Yet, the degree of cynicism varies as per the category. I've seen that, those that came through an AIEEE score were less cynical about college and its functioning. They never really complained as much (to the best of my personal knowledge) as the other two sets.

Any hostel has a lot of varied and colourful characters. I'd even say it is a great place to sociology based research. The variety is such! To develop bonhomie, we had four in one rooms in first year. Shared rooms help people to ease into college life, developing a sense of community and friendship. I was fortunate to get some really nice people as room-mates. Two were from Andhra Pradesh( I picked up a good amount of Telugu from them), and the other a Tamil.

The English Club or ELS played a big role in helping me ease in to a comfortable place, socially. It was a group of like-minded students who gathered every evening, right after classes to do fun stuff like Quiz, Charades, speaking, JAM, etc. ELS gave me my first contact with seniors. They helped us settle into our college life, with a helping hand. It was club that kept me going, made life interesting for the first year of college. I'm no stranger to competitions and cultural fests, having participated and won many in my school time. ELS helped me continue that and set the bar several notch higher. My primary aim when I started going to club was to participate in quizzes, as I was primarily a quizzer. Club gave an opportunity to widen my bases and develop skills in other events. I've made a lot of great friends, thanks to Club. I regret not participating in speaking events more at club. I had some stage fright, though it has almost vanished now.

For some reasons, I think my college life so far , is incomplete. I don't really seem to have done anything remarkable here. When I came in I thought I'll learn a lot of new things. Learn I did. But practically I know precious little. I think, most of my batch mates will agree with me when I say, inspite of theoretical knowledge, we have poor applied/working knowledge. It is easy to blame it on the system; it does promotes such learning. Yet, I've seen people who have excelled both in theory and practice. Not all can do that.

No college chronicle is complete without mentioning the numerous trips taken to participate in quizzes and culturals.They were a wonderful learning experience. Over three years, I've been to Pondicherry, Vellore, Coimbatore and Chennai (most often) with friends.

As I sit and recollect, lots of incidents/events/memories come to my mind. It'll be stupid to put them all down here. College certainly could have been better. A lot of things could have gone/ turned out differently. But then this is life, not the realm of ifs and buts. We can only work with the chips on the table. Considering that I'm moderately happy about the past three years. There's this quotation that I love from Futurama, a TV show. The character says," You gotta do what you gotta do, no more". I think I did exactly that in college. No more.   

Friday, November 23, 2012

Pakistan, Peace and Penrose

Pakistan and India share a past that goes back to a time far lost to antiquity. They were once part of an undivided India or Bharat called Jambudweepa then. Undivided India or Akhand Hindustan extended from Persia in the West to Burma and beyond in the East. The rulers may have differed from place to place, yet the entire region was connected through the umbilical cord of a common culture. Even a cursory scan of the Vedas would not fetch the reader a reference to the name India. India was never called India. The name is a corruption of the Sindhu. In Arabic the 'S' sound is replaced by the 'H' phoneme. In Mahabaratha,  Gandhari, the mother of the Kauravas, was from Gandhara Desha. It is the modern day Qandahar in Afghanistan. The national symbol of Mongolia is called SOYOMBO. It is eerily close to the Samskrit- SwayamBhu (meaning, being of it own). Arjuna was married to Ulupi who hailed from Nagaland or somewhere. I assert all this here in a bid to establish, the long standing, hoary tradition and cultural heritage the people in the sub-continent shared. ( share?). Much to my surprise, I even found similarities between Korean and Tamizh ( of which I'm a native speaker). For example, the personal pronoun I in tamil is "Naan". Guess what it is in Korean?- "Na". You in Tamil is "Nii" and "Ni" in Korean. More. Wa and Vaa for come in Korean and Tamil respectively. For day it is Naal in both languages. There are a few more. I'm not claiming here that both evolved at the same place, that would be impossible. I'm saying that the sub-continent has unimaginably intricate cultural similarities, leading to the speculation of a common origin.

My point being that even in an age which is characterised as primitive such a vast majority of diverse people managed to forge bonds, but sadly today we have no peace left. Particularly, the Indo-Pak relations , and the course it has taken over the 60 odd years after a blood-soaked partition would be written down as one of the darkest chapters in human history. That the British had sowed the seeds of division is obvious. But a deeper, more subtle reason for this mutual antagonism is the religious divide between Hinduism and Islam. They are vastly different in terms of their ideology and philosophy. Yes, one can rightly point Sufism as a syncretic evolution combining the best principles of both religions in a mystical environment. But Sufism was a happy co-incident rather than an evolved consensus. There has been a historical divide among Hindus and Muslims. That is undeniable. Partition unleashed this suppressed undercurrent of enmity. The Kashmir dispute is the cornerstone of the present state of affairs of relations. Post partition relations are pock-marked by an on-off cycle of war and enforced peace. A chess game between Gradmasters fades in intrigue when compared to the geo-political equations in Indo-Pak ties. So, first, immediately after Partition there was the Junagadh dispute, followed by the Kashmir standoff. I'm no scholar in History/Politics, but I can assure you that a cursory glance at the points set the stage for a riveting novel. Such is the nature of power play involved. Then, after that there was a United Nations brokered peace settlement. After a few years of calm came the dispute about sharing the water from the Indus river. International pressure and help forced the two parties to arrive at a mutually agreeable solution. World Bank was instrumental in engineering the deal. Once again, peace prevailed only to be rudely broken by a military operation in 1965 by Pakistan to take back Kashmir. The Tashkent Declaration was signed to restore a semblance of peace. Then came many more hostilities, and an equal number of attempts at peace. 

The title says Penrose, where does he fit into this mess? Well, he supplies us with the metaphor to characterise this state of affairs. You must of heard of the Penrose staircase? No? Well, here's a picture for reference.


It ascends in some parts, descends elsewhere.  It is an impossible object, really. But it perfectly describes the Indo-Pak relations. Goes up sometime, comes down the next. But, essentially, goes nowhere. Talk of going in circles. In a circle, one doesn't find ups and downs. That’s the only difference. So, is peace possible between us? I've no answer, it is a trick question. The result is predicated on so many factors. I'd love to see the old ties restored but one would be in fool's paradise to think that this can possibly occur anytime in the foreseeable future. In fact, to my understanding, I see tensions escalating. Both parties are nuclear, so that adds to the worry. We've uncertain times ahead. That much is evident.

Wednesday, November 21, 2012

Of hard disks and movies

Back then, when I was in first year of college, I had this crazy impulse to get an external hard disk. It was the thing then. I was a film buff, saw at least three movies or so a week and couple of TV shows. So, I thought it would be prudent to get one and store things. It was a fashionable thing to have a film collection, mostly English movies. In hindsight, I realise now that half the movies that people waxed eloquent about were hardly impressive. But then, its like modern art, even if you don't understand it you say a word or two to praise it so that you can show how refined your tastes are. So back to the story, I did get a hard disk, and in my childish over-enthusiasm stocked it with movies. The process in itself was fun, I admit. Asking your friends, comparing notes with others on what were "The Maasest/Beshhtest...(fill any superlative)" movies. In six months I built up a decent collection and came a full circle when other people started asking for mine to copy those movies they did not have. That was a proud (seems shameful now, but hey we all do crazy things) day for me.

No discussion on movies is complete without the "IMDB 250" the GODFATHER ( pun unintended) of all best movie lists. No hard disk collection is complete without the Sacred 250. I was different in one aspect, I could never accept that a list of best movies could ever be made. Common, think of it, it is highly subjective, varies person to person. That people could vote for movies made in different generations I couldn't agree. So I steered clear of it. I'm not carried away by words like cult classic and all that. For the record, personally, I found Thuppaki far more engaging and entertaining than Goodfellas. I watch movies for what they are and not what is told about them. Some people say Blade Runner is the greatest Sci-Fi movie ever. I beg to differ. Most of it is hype, I've seen the movie. It is a painfully slow script, the book was far-more engaging (Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?) Primer, a little known indie film, by a Physics graduate is far superior.

Coming back to my hard disk, well, although the collection has grown and has saturated now, there are a lot of movies in it, that I never got around to see. I refrain from erasing it, telling myself that someday I'll get around to see them. I'm sure there are many out there with a similar tale of a disk full of movies they haven't seen and will never see in all probability. More than movies, I like TV shows slightly more. Can't think of a rational explanation, but I think it has got to do with the shorter length of a TV drama. I'm proud that I've seen all the TV shows in my hard disk collection. That offsets the guilt of not having failed to see the movies.

Tuesday, November 20, 2012

The Maratha Warrior


It has been two days since Balasaheb Keshav Thackeray's death. Not that his death was a shock to people, he was long suffering. With him comes to an end an era in the political dustbowl of the Maratha Land. Balasaheb was unique and intriguing in many ways. He was not your quintessential politician- someone for whom a plum post mattered. No. In fact, he never stood for elected office in his entire political life.  He was a backroom operator, the hand that controlled all actors on the stage. There also, unlike a sly agent, he never kept himself from the public's eyes. He was a band apart. But, that he was simultaneously much loved and much hated was an endorsement of his originality.

I hardly have followed much of Bal Thackeray, politically. After all, the Shiv Sena is not any major national party and I've never lived in Maharashtra. Whatever I know of him is through readings. I've also seen his television interviews. Well, to be frank, I loved the grit of the old man, voicing his opinions (however biased they may be) fearlessly, with a conviction that only comes from deep belief. His rise in politics is quite the story. I want to discuss, in brief, about how he placed himself in the place he was and the unique characteristics of Indian polity that made it possible. I'm no scholar in political analysis, so read ahead with that in mind.


Thackeray's politics was bequeathed to him by his father, who fought for the unification of Maharashtra through the Samyukta Maharashtra Movement. Thackeray was primarily an artist, a cartoonist specifically. He worked for the Free Press Journal during the late 50s rubbing shoulders with the likes of R.K.Laxman.  Laxman was a lifelong friend. Those were heady days of politics in a young democracy, so naturally a cartoonist had a field day. Not many know this, but Thackeray had his own version of The Common Man, called 'Kakaaji'. Regionalism had a strong flavour in his politics. The Shiv Sena, he launched in 1966 to counter the Communist trade unions' influence in the Bombay factories. It has been a much-debated issue, but many feel that the division of Indian states along linguistic lines is largely responsible for regionalism in Indian politics. Tamil Nadu is a classic example. In its early days, regional Dravidian-identity based politics held centre-stage. It does today also. Parallely, the Maratha Manoos was the fulcrum of the Sena's philosophy. He conceded to it himself in an interview. To give Thackeray credit, he never, ever promoted/played politics on caste lines( a major pain in the Indian political ass). Political analysts are foxed to explain this, as to how he made it possible to run a caste unpolarised regional party. Another important feature/character of Indian polity that Thackeray adopted and evolved to a fine art was the art of public speaking. Public speaking is foremost on any politician's arsenal. The Sena Supremo always spoke impromptu and people thronged to listen to his candid yet venomous talks, sometimes going non-stop for two hours. The annual Dussehra Rally in Shivaji Park is proof of that.

Thackeray was a vociferous proponent of Hindutva. He had a strong anti-Pakistan views and charged successive central governments of soft-pedalling on the issues of terrorism and conceding ground to Pakistan. Post 1947, Indian politics has been dominated largely by the Congress and its brand of socialist, welfare-state type politics. Hindutva is a much-misunderstood concept. Its essence is nationalism, to put the greater good of Bharath, the nation forward. Hindutva does not mean a Hinduism biased politics. But operationally it has been made out to seem so. There's even a Supreme Court judgement on this. It says, Hindutva can't be defined to mean anything related to Hinduism, but in fact is a way of life of the people who have continuously inhabited this land over thousands of years. If you think of it, Hindutva is an evolution of Thackeray's regionalism, to give priority to those from Maharashtra against perceived outsiders, while Hindutva advocates putting the nation's interests foremost. 

Thackeray's critics also hold him responsible for the violence that was unleashed post the '93 Bombay blasts against Muslim community. The SriKrishna Committee lay blame on him. But, many also credit Sena for protecting Hindus against retaliatory attacks from Muslim mobs. Riding on that incident, Sena won the Maharashtra assembly election in '95. Apart from all this, Thackeray held an iron-grip on Mumbai City. A phone call from him could turn things for/against you, depending on whether they were proximate to him or otherwise. The Bollywood revered him. It is no secret that Amitabh Bachchan's  Sarkar was a celluloid adaptation inspired from the cigar-smoking, wine loving Thackeray's life. The verdict may be undecided on the impact of his xenophobia driven brand of politics but his legacy on Mumbai City is unquestionable. The reverence in which he was held by the people of Maharashtra was well-evident in the massive crowds that turned up to bid farewell to his mortal remains chanting slogans of "Balasaheb Amar Rahe". His polarising nature and the popularity he enjoyed among people is proof of the dichotomy in the politics of India. But, somehow, Shiv Sena couldn't translate the cult around him to electoral success across the state. 


Friday, November 16, 2012

Confusion- From Big Bang to Karakaatakaran

Entropy is a very intriguing concept.  It is a measure of disorder in a system. I find it quite incredulous that randomness can even be measured and studied like any other physical phenomenon! Well, doesn't that go against the very definition of random? If you can study it then it means there's an underlying order, right?? But it gets stranger. For some reason, Nature always prefers that entropy increase. I find this fascinating. It is unbelievable, but in our own lives we've seen examples of it. How often have we seen the room we so painstakingly cleaned revert back to the same state of haphazardness, in spite of all our wishes to keep it clean?? Even the expansion of the universe as explained by the Big Bang Theory exhibits this preference for multiplying entropy. It started as a concentrated point mass with very little randomness, yet today it is a mind-bendingly random and spread out.

Not just the physical universe, entropy applies to human activities too. There's a concept called Social Entropy. It measures the natural decay of social systems. In Sociology, a related idea is "dumbing- down". It refers to the over-simplification of things, over a period of time. It is not exactly a counterpart of entropy, where randomness increases. Dumbing-down results is degrading of quality, over time. I've seen a lot of this dumbing-down in my college. As a techie, I know the practical importance of some of the concepts in Mathematics  vis-à-vis  engineering. But, when one of my teachers explained it, it lost all significance; the person simply put it up as an abstract equation whose only purpose was to help us finish the given problem. There's also this public outcry that over the years even competitive exams seemed to have dumbed-down. Every year I've heard people say that JEE is not what it used to be; that formulaic teaching and cracking the pattern have made it lose its pedigree. I've no idea how far it is true, since I never gave JEE a shot. Appeal some reader of this blog, to please educate me on this.


Mass Media is a classic example where dumbing down can be seen. In order to reach a wider audience, complex topics are expressed in the most mundane of language in talk shows. In some ways it is good, but scholars say that the inner purport of the idea is lost when broken down. Sensationalism is also a side outcome.


Talking of sensationalism- the bane of today's mass media. In the name of making quick money and boosting viewership, channels have resorted to over-hyping petty, irrelevant  issues. The Western media is a trendsetter in this, and the Indian media is playing catch up. Gossip columns are longer than the editorial pages, reports on which film released where, who wore what in high parties rule the roost over issues of price rise and poverty in the pecking order of newsworthy items. There is a conscious tendency to focus interest on the perverse, base, cheap issues. I'm tempted to coin a new term to describe this. I call it the "SwapnaSundari Syndrome". Tamil-speaking readers can relate easily to it. 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=krptuzbFh3I&feature=related


Film: Karakkatakaran. The comedy duo Goundamani and Senthil.(G and S, hereafter)

 G&S are musicians in this movie. They have gone to a town to perform when their ramshackle car breaks down and they are forced to push it. The hero, who is also part of the troupe asks Goundamani what is so special about the car that he still keeps it. G recites an illustrious list of past owners including the Maandurai Maharaja, Trivandrum Highness, Hyderabad Nizam, a Minister, an MLA and  cinema glamour actress Swapna Sundari who was the last owner. Now Senthil, who is also pushing the car whispers something in G's ears which causes him to rise in anger and slap S. After sometime, he slaps him again and then again. The hero reprimands G and asks for the reason. G says, "He asked, we have the car now, but who’s having the previous owner Swapna Sundari now? (as a mistress)".

This is what I'm hitting at. The issue here was of the ramshackle car, yet Senthil concentrates on the gossip item. Most of our channels are doing this. Leave out real, burning issues. Go after the perverse. There by hangs a tale.
 

Thursday, November 15, 2012

An analysis of Soap


I watch this US television show called Homeland. It is one of the most popular, critically acclaimed and decorated shows on TV currently. Dealing at once with the different concepts of geo-politics, espionage, terrorism (both home-grown and foreign) and crime, it has a gripping narrative. President Obama called it his favourite TV show of the year (last year). Without giving out too much, I'll briefly explain the plot.


The show is actually an American version of a popular Israeli show- Hatufim.  A US prisoner of war (Sgt.Brody) , declared MIA for more than eight years , is found at Iraq. At the same time a CIA agent (Carrie Matheson) gets secret information that a US POW has been turned into a double agent by Al Qaeda and is being unleashed. Brody comes back to a hero's welcome at home. Carrie's seniors don't take her warnings seriously. Things get further complicated when Brody is offered a chance to be a Congressman. 



The script is well-researched and executed. It packs the intensity of a movie in terms of screenplay, yet keeps you hooked week after week. Now , my object in this post was not to attempt a review of this TV show. I'd like to digress and discuss my views on why certain TV shows work while others don't.

If you took Homeland, apart from all the gripping action that comes naturally with terrorism based thrillers, it has in its core a story, a simple yet powerful story. That, of a man who struggles to adjust to a society after years of isolation and torture; a soldier whose patriotism is tested in the face of physical and mental abuse.  I think, more than anything, it is this core story in a TV show that determines its success. How much the viewer relates to it, to what degree s/he is able to emotionally invest with the narrative. This tug at human emotions is vital for a soap. Homeland's success lies there. Post 9/11, the threat of terrorism is everywhere. Everyman is forced to question his loyalty, whether his primary allegiance is to his Faith or to the Nation. This is brought out in     Sgt. Brody's character. Another classic example in support of my line of reasoning will be "The Simpsons". All of us have heard of Bart, Homer, Marge and Lisa. It is America's longest running sitcom. And it is the ability to connect emotionally with the audience that has led to its run. Come to think of it, Simpsons typify any normal American family with all their idiosyncrasies.

Looking at our own backyard, Chitthi-the uber-popular Tamil soap. No emotional stone was left unturned- may it be appa sentiment, amma sentiment, thangachi sentiment, thatha sentiment etc. etc. Many call it boring and uninspiring, but I strongly disagree. The majority of people across the state loved it. It was a trendsetter in many ways giving much fillip to women empowerment by portraying a strong lady character who faces her life with strength. It was a stark departure from earlier soaps that hardly had strong women-characters.  Audiences loved this novelty.

When any show lacks this emotional content, it fails. Sometimes a successful show in one country may be remade elsewhere. It is important that the story is suitably altered with the new audience in mind. Else, it'll bomb. Best example is the successful British show The IT Crowd. It bombed in the USA because the viewers found it artificial and couldn't connect emotionally. On a more general note, the TV shows are a reflection of the zeitgeist of the times. A show that failed at a particular time might in fact garner a slow, yet steadily rising fan base over a few years as public discourse evolves. Such shows may have been "ahead of their times" so far as making an emotional connect. Firefly is one such show. It traversed genres of space travel mixed with the American West. It was cancelled before it was fully aired, yet today it has a phenomenal fan base.

So such are TV shows and their complex relationship with audiences.
So, whats my rating on TV shows and viewers' relation ? Well, Its complicated.




Wednesday, November 14, 2012

FreeEconomics-1

Economics has always fascinated me for various reasons, being a banker's son being the least of them. It has a certain beauty to its construct. In my opinion, economics was one of the first of the social sciences to emerge once humans settled into civilizations. Come to think of it, trade was fundamental to civilisational presence; exchanging what you have for what you need. Barter. So, it is imperative that the human mind developed a rudimentary notion of value and its varying association with different goods.

I will deal with the anthropological connect with Economics in a future post, but right now my mind is fixated with a more pressing notion. The economics of exam preparation.

We all know how stressful it can be to study for exams.  It is an enormous co-operative effort by the different faculties of the brain-

a. The faculty of remembrance - to help us know there is an exam
b.The faculty of recognition - to help us recognise the portion from the syllabus
c. The faculty of discrimination - to help us discriminate important from the unimportant questions

... etc, to quote a few.

But the motivations to perform well in exams are many and varied. The most obvious one being the promise of good marks. That promise is largely driven by parental pressure. In India, parents exert an extra-ordinary amount of pressure in their child's education. I'm not saying its bad. But sometimes it is enormous and can be stressful. In a college situation, exams get relegated in the importance scale. The outcome calculus is binary. Pass or Fail. No one talks on the basis of a linear system of ranks. That binary nature is liberating, in a certain limited sense. The hope of a good performance is also driven, in college situation, by the need to make your resume look good to a prospective employer who comes to shop you. People generally don't accept it, but placement fear plays a big role in a student's attitude to exam preparation. Of course, I am stretching it here; people always don't look at long term consequences. But I'm arguing that the short term fear is, in turn, fuelled by its long-term counterpart.

Now, if one gets placed in a company at the end of three years, the entire equation is altered.

S = A +B -C

S= mood in exam preparation
A= parental pressure
B= personal ambition, motivated by various things- ultimately placements
C= distractions( internet, cellphone, pesky friends, boredom, etc)

So you see, once placed B vanishes to zero(almost), A is also absent since parents are happy you got a job.
All that remains is C. A negative influence on your mood. You get it??

Law of diminishing returns is a concept in economics. Wikipedia says:

 It is the decrease in the marginal output of a production process as the amount of a single factor of production is increased, while the amounts of all other factors of production stay constant.


So, in our analysis, the exam preparation mood is the output. The guarantee of job is the single factor that has changed. Rest all remains same. So, as the number of your job offers increases, it leads to a corresponding decrease in the motivation to study. QED.

Exam preparation follows this law strictly. That gives me a vague sense of  peace.
Hello world.

I love putting the above cliche in- HELLO WORLD.. It has got to be the most ancient sentence in the Digital world. Its simplicity is its USP. More so, it stands testimony to the human mind which although capable of creating complex machines, always starts with the simplest of stuffs to test the beastly machines with. A tech equivalent of Lao Tzu's famous- " A journey of thousand miles, begins, but with a step". "Hello World", thy art the single step of many a maze-like programme.

With that nostalgic infusion, I welcome myself to blogging.