tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-86469559741829853352024-02-21T20:33:00.266-08:00Indrasishblog (You can contact me at banerjee.indrasish@gmail.com /
My Twitter handle: indrasishb)indrabloghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12797534131912600541noreply@blogger.comBlogger159125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8646955974182985335.post-55185121279459136962019-09-02T06:43:00.001-07:002019-09-02T06:50:12.232-07:00Musings on Arun Jaitley<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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Around two decades ago, during the Vajpayee government, a
bespectacled man good-looking in a studious way, was a regular on an NDTV
debate program, Big Fight, moderated by Rajdeep Sardesai.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>(Big Fight still happens on NDTV but has a
different moderator.) Those were the days of Congress consensus (some may call
it Nehruvian consensus) and naturally, a new non Congress government was
attracting hostilities from all quarters (the media, activist lobbies and the opposition)
<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>whenever & wherever it was departing
from the traditional ways of handling big and contentious issues (the economy,
Pakistan etc). <o:p></o:p><br />
<br /></div>
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Big Fight was among the most popular current affairs
programs those days. NDTV was the only English channel of note and there
weren’t too many current affair programs. In a way, for many like me, Big Fight
was the only way to watch televised opinions on important issues facing the
nation. Conversely, it was the only noteworthy platform for public figures with
an opinion to be heard. <o:p></o:p></div>
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Big Fight used to host debates on multiple subjects with
eminent figures from different walks of life participating in them. But the
ones on politics mostly used to have only one figure at the center of the
debates representing the BJP government – the bespectacled man. And every
participant in those debates would point their barrels at him.<o:p></o:p><br />
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In the spirit of the times, everyone had a bone to pick with
the government – journalists, activists and of course opposition leaders. But
there was something uncommon happening here. The bespectacled man was out arguing
everyone in smooth English laced with legal intricacies and in a suave manner. After
sometime I came to know it was Arun Jaitley.<o:p></o:p><br />
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It was uncommon those days because erudition, sophistry and
elegant arguments were expected only of people defending the left liberal side
of the fence. Arun Jaitley changed that perception in me and I guess in many
others. How he would defend some of the things that were quite indefensible
back then leaving a trail of outsmarted co-debaters gasping for words and ideas
– looked like a superhuman act those days. Nowadays the BJP line prevailing
over other lines of political thoughts, in TV debates, has become a common
sight and to do so, you don’t require Jaitley’s finesse anymore. <o:p></o:p><br />
<br /></div>
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But Jaitley’s superhuman acts wouldn’t save his party in 2004
general elections nor in 2009. 10 years would be a long time out of power. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The first five years in the opposition would
be rather uneventful for BJP. A Congress-led UPA 1 would gain momentum under a
somewhat steady leadership of Sonia Gandhi and Manmohan Singh. There would be occasional
hiccups but none big enough to upset the momentum. (The 2008 Mumbai attack didn’t
rattle the UPA government much.) In fact, by the time the Congress-led UPA came back to power
in 2009 to serve its second term, some of the pet BJP issues like the real
center of power being the Congress party president Sonia Gandhi and not the PM,
Congress being a family oriented party etc – had lost their traction on a pan
India level. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></div>
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<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"><br /></span></div>
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Then the scams came – one after another – 2G and many others
- and the momentum started slipping away. The rising chorus over the scams and
the opposition finally getting its act together set in motion a series of
things – leadership crisis<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>caused by internal
bickering among Congress leaders, leaders making their ideological leanings and
disagreement with the PM public, Gandhi Family loyalists looking for scapegoats
to blame everything on to protect the reputation of the Family etc. This led to
a rattled Government failing to function properly (which later came to be known
as policy paralysis). This is the time Arun Jaitley came into his own. <o:p></o:p><br />
<br /></div>
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In this chaos, there were many mainstream political parties
and activist groups (including Anna Hazare’s anti-corruption movement) trying
to monopolize the anti-Congress / anti-government space. <o:p></o:p></div>
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And if BJP eventually emerged as the only face of public
anger against the Government, it was largely due to the brilliance of Arun
Jaitely, the Leader of the Opposition in the Rajya Sabha then. His sharp
attacks on the Government both in the parliament and media made sure that in
public perception the Government always looked like a house caving in. This
public perception of a fumbling government only got stronger with time. <o:p></o:p><br />
<br /></div>
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In a way, Arun Jaitely was a politician of the television
era. He was never a mass leader. His core competency was being a spokesperson
and backroom strategist. In pre television days, such a leader would be permanently
in the shadow of another mass leader like Vajpayee, Advani or Modi. What helped
him step out of the shadow of a big mass leader and be known was TV. His
ability to give long interviews explaining BJP’s stand on complex issues, present
a sound political perspective on something, deliver sharp soundbites together
with his pleasant personality – made him very media friendly – and probably
that’s why we know him so well today. <o:p></o:p><br />
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When he passed away last week, I was finding it difficult to
imagine an unfolding political situation without a sharp Arun Jaitely observation
on it. I am sure many would have felt the same way. As time goes by we would
get used to his absence. A lot more is coming to my mind but the blog has to end
somewhere. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></div>
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indrabloghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12797534131912600541noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8646955974182985335.post-12077481765341292782019-07-23T00:30:00.001-07:002019-07-23T02:13:06.574-07:00Musings on World Cup 2019 & How Cricket Has Changed<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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World Cup 2019 was a cricket tournament I watched earnestly
after several years. The intervening years have changed cricket significantly.
A generation of cricketers retired. T20 became very big. New rules came in. As
much as everything has had their impact on cricket, T20’s effect has been most
transformative. <o:p></o:p></div>
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In the early years of 2000, anything from 230 to 250 was
considered a good score. Anything above was match winning. I was surprised to
see the ease with which teams, in this World Cup, were scoring 300 plus.<br />
<br />
Batsmen took more risks, there were more boundaries and over boundaries,
fielding seemed to have improved, there were fewer poor deliveries. The margin of error seemed to have shrunk. <o:p></o:p></div>
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The shortest format of the game, where teams get into tight
situations more often than its more generous cousins, has also got teams used
to handling adversities. In the past, it was rare to see teams batting second
win. Now teams seem to negotiate the pressure of chasing better and often come
up triumphs. How England chased in the final, moving in and out of the game almost
in every alternate over, is a good example of that. <o:p></o:p></div>
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I also saw lot of unconventional shots being played with ease
and success. Again, in the final, it was heart-stopping and delightful, at the
same time, to see Jose Butler spooning balls, with his bat, over the wicket for
boundaries. Most of the shots were played during tight situations when his
dismissal would have dealt a mortal blow to England’s Word Cup chances, yet he
took the risks, an indication that team leaderships are more welcoming of risks
taken even if they lead to setbacks. </div>
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<br /></div>
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And undoubtedly these are the bequests of
T20, allegedly the most vulgar of all forms of the game. <o:p></o:p></div>
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Only one bequest of T20 is not so good. And that is the ICC
rule that in case of a tie in a Super Over the team hitting the most number of
boundaries would win. This rule has been adopted from T20. After the match, the
Kiwi captain said they couldn’t complain because they were signatories to this
rule. Great professionalism! They wouldn’t have thought it would come to haunt
them in the final match and be the singular reason for their defeat or
England’s victory without outscoring them. The more I think of it, in fact, the
more life seems unfair. <o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
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But the bigger question is not the vagaries of luck, but
lack of judgement in adopting a rule from T20 which is not suited to its longer
counterpart, ODIs. The 50 over format was derived from Test – and it has the
languid characteristics of Test. One offers enough space to both the bowler and
batsman. The bowler gets as many as 10 overs to bowl. And if you are a batsman,
and you are not comfortable hitting the bowler, you can just play him off and
have your colleagues at the other end handle him. T20 does not allow this
space. You cannot plan your innings in a similar way. <o:p></o:p></div>
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The bowler can only bowl a few overs in which either he
takes wickets or he gets clobbered. T20, which is a derivative of ODI, is not
about intrigues but solely thrills and chills. Boundaries are a defining
characteristic of T20, but there is a little more to ODIs. Therefore the T20
rule, which takes the number of boundaries as the yardstick to decide the winner
in case of a Super Over ending in a tie, is reflective of the personality of
T20, a derivative of ODIs, but not ODIs, a derivative of Test. The personality
of a format is partly determined by its progenitor and partly by the intent
behind creating the format. One days were invented as a shorter version of
Test; T20s were invented as shorter versions of one days. <o:p></o:p></div>
<br /></div>
indrabloghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12797534131912600541noreply@blogger.com1Bengaluru, Karnataka, India12.9715987 77.59456269999998312.4764182 76.949115699999979 13.4667792 78.240009699999987tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8646955974182985335.post-82261681803344110822017-05-04T07:54:00.000-07:002017-05-04T09:19:18.827-07:00A Flight of Pigeons by Ruskin Bond<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgYNTOXua-EL-Z7z9_vcHD4HFioCWKPuPpBNOLNRBjerb49sFts66XNWtCIOQI6b2BzOGdrFLh5lNIJuFil_9wv6VRwECPMMyHQzBbL7JtW5eD3maxQB8_9PKpwkD20tsDz4L2mpiYEVAxi/s1600/FP.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgYNTOXua-EL-Z7z9_vcHD4HFioCWKPuPpBNOLNRBjerb49sFts66XNWtCIOQI6b2BzOGdrFLh5lNIJuFil_9wv6VRwECPMMyHQzBbL7JtW5eD3maxQB8_9PKpwkD20tsDz4L2mpiYEVAxi/s320/FP.jpg" width="240" /></a></div>
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">If a movie
is made based on a book you have read, watching the movie is a must. But if you
have seen a movie based on a novel you haven’t read, it’s unlikely that you
would read the novel. We somehow tend to believe it’s always a novel to a movie
and the reverse journey doesn’t excite us a much. But with The Flight of
Pigeons by Ruskin Bond I did make that reverse journey. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">I had
watched Junoon (based on the novel The Flight of Pigeons) many years ago and
liked it, the story of a passionate one-sided love of a Pathan for an English
girl in the wake of the Sepoy Mutiny of 1857. A few years ago I chanced upon
the book the movie was based on. A few months ago, after wanting to read it for
many years since I saw it the first time, I finally read it. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;"> In a foreword Ruskin Bond informs that as a
kid he had heard the story from his father, who, in turn, had heard it from Bond’s grandfather,
a soldier those days, several times. The incident which took place in a small
town in UP (Sharanpur) during the Mutiny had captivated a young Bond.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Many years later, when Bond
decided to write a novella based on the incident, he visited Sharanpur and found many of its parts,
especially those the British families occupied in the days of the Mutiny, unchanged from how his father had
described them. <o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">The action
starts with a church where a mass is underway being attacked by rebels inspired
by the hate wave that’s blowing across swathes of the country against the
British. Among others, the narrator’s (a British teenage girl) father is killed. </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Following the death the family takes shelter in a Hindu merchant’s house who
has braved the consequences of sympathizing with a British family amidst the
anti-British frenzy which has gripped the town.
<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">In the meantime,
a Pathan, a married man with a reputation for his dare devilry and cruelty, who
is wreaking havoc in and outside the town by killing and looting the British
and wealthy Hindus and setting their establishments ablaze, has taken a shine to
the British girl and coaxes the Lala to let the family go with him and stay in
his haveli. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">After
bringing them to haveli the Pathan does what was not expected of him. Instead
of forcibly marrying the British girl or dishonoring her, he asks her mother
for her daughter’s hand and the mother says the Pathan could marry her daughter
if the rebel side won the war. Finally, the British win the war. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">After some
time the British reenter the town of Sharanpur to the relief of its British
inhabitants and those who had persecuted the British families following the
outbreak of the Mutiny and the reverses the British had suffered, flee the town
to escape British retribution. </span><br />
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">However, after knowing that the lover Pathan has fled the town and gone beyond any possibility of return or been seen again, the
British girl, in a silent acknowledgement of her softness for the handsome and chivalrous
man, wishes him a safe passage.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">By reading
the outline of Flight you would expect it to be a romantic thriller, but it is
not. After the initial burst of action it settles into a slow pace and shows
reveals different layers of the story. </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">The reaction of the people to what the
Pathan wants to do, the transformation of the Pathan from a reckless troublemaker
to a lovesick man patiently awaiting the matrimonial permission of his muse’s
mother, the grit of the girl’s mother, who, despite the fact that she and her
family are at the mercy of the testy Pathan, manages to keep her wit and composure
in place. <o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">And then you
have the magic touch of Ruskin Bond to savour. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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indrabloghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12797534131912600541noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8646955974182985335.post-81967305685368168562017-03-06T01:24:00.000-08:002017-03-13T09:12:15.933-07:00One Year with My Maruti 800<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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This month my car – a Maruti 800
– completes one year with me and nine years since it rolled out of a showroom.
Yes, when I purchased it last March, it was eight years old. And as is expected
of a car that old, it did give me some troubles and caused me minor expenses
for the first eight months or so. But after the first burst of repairs, it
seems to have stabilized and functions smoothly without being an irritant. <o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
This one year with the car has
been a series of discoveries.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
One of the reasons for buying the
car was learning how to drive, which I had tried many, many years ago with a
cousin’s second hand Premier Padmini and had not been able to get the clutch
and brake coordination correct resulting in the car starting and then stopping
without moving an inch. <o:p></o:p></div>
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I was booed at. Frustrated, I left trying. After that unsuccessful
attempt, I never tried my hand at driving again until I joined a training school
last year. <o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
The first thing I learnt was -
driving is not easy. It is an applied art - where how good you are at it is
determined not by how well you know the theories but how deftly you apply them
when behind the wheels. You are told a few things at the school and many more
you discover on your own. <o:p></o:p><br />
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
It requires a mix of many skills.
You have to take quick decisions, you have to have quick impulses to react to
situations, you need what I would call space-ial intelligence, and as you are
doing all this, you have to remain calm and relaxed. <o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
That I am able to successfully
drive came to my mother as a surprise. A year ago, when I started learning, I
would be surprised to know that a year later I would be able to drive. <o:p></o:p>My personality traits run contrary to the prerequisites of driving.</div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
I am slow to react to situations.
I am a slow thinker. I am confusion-prone. And generally I place a chair or table right the second or third time.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
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It took me two months of training (10 hours) and six months
of practice to overcome my natural deficiencies. Probably it would be a little
longer had it not been for the fact that I had a Maruti 800 to learn with.<o:p></o:p></div>
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These six to eight months were not without pain. Once, while
trying to complete a 60 degree turn, I hit the bumper of an SUV and had to pay
heavily to get it repaired. The driver
of the SUV informed me, while we were returning from the service center, that there
was a new driver who had hit the car bumper against a pole while backing it. “Sale
ko chalana nehi ata.” I would be thankful to him if he had not told me.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The other mishaps were minor but enough to dent my
confidence for a while. Along the way, I also learnt a few life lessons.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
One of my friends, who learnt driving about four years ago,
told me the guy who shouts first in an accident and shouts the other guy out
generally gets mob support and prevails: “Yaar, a second later no one knows
whose the fault was.”<o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Seeing me appreciating his point, he shared a deeper human
insight: Following a crisis, we pretend to look for the actual culprit, but
actually we look for a fall guy - enough to quell our anger! <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
I learnt another thing: driving doesn’t get the credit it
deserves because it’s a poor man’s job.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
</div>
</div>
indrabloghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12797534131912600541noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8646955974182985335.post-16868661673201759332017-02-27T00:40:00.001-08:002017-05-26T04:23:12.561-07:00Silence - a Movie That Will Stand the Test of Time<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgP3qCVuOEx0B50dUqbizwnroo9Q6z9bgIB5cPsSCFJu2SOqntbM6NC3Nog8q9ueN1YgJ6vZAZQvtyMKmKpbzHZy1pNBllesaAVkADUyWNYPGCjIRXyWbY3YunsTR5n3YigVMshtcCbRM1a/s1600/Silence.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="166" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgP3qCVuOEx0B50dUqbizwnroo9Q6z9bgIB5cPsSCFJu2SOqntbM6NC3Nog8q9ueN1YgJ6vZAZQvtyMKmKpbzHZy1pNBllesaAVkADUyWNYPGCjIRXyWbY3YunsTR5n3YigVMshtcCbRM1a/s400/Silence.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
When a new arrival – a book or a
movie - is based on a piece of history you are familiar with, it does not leave
you with too many options – you have to devour it. So when in promo pics of
Silence, the latest movie by Martin Scorsese, I saw two guys with scrubby
beard looking like coming from another time in an exotic mountainous locale, it
piqued my curiosity. (I was not familiar with Scorsese‘s reputation and repertoire.) Upon digging deeper, I came to know Silence deals
with a piece of Japan’s past I had read about many years ago. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
The time is 16<sup>th</sup>
century and Japan is going through a period of extreme religious persecution
aimed at those who have embraced Christianity and Jesuits operating in the
country. Amidst this, two Portuguese jesuits visit Japan to find out about
their mentor jesuit – father Ferrero - who is said to have abandoned his faith in Christianity publicly, and also to help Christians facing persecution in the
country.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
This is the period which has a
parallel with post Nagasaki Hiroshima Japan: when the nuclear attack forced the
country into a shell – to rebuild a nation maimed by a war and nuke. Many say
these two incidents and their aftermath left Japan with a permanent paranoia
for the foreigner (much like what the Opium War did for China) which still
informs its public policies. However,
people familiar with the bit of Japan’s history Silence deals with will trace
the source of that paranoia a little further back in time. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
An edge-of-the seat suspense takes
you through the first half an hour or so of the film and then it slowly
dissipates and the film gradually settles into an easier pace but a certain tension
continues to characterize the narrative throughout, thanks to the subject, but
also how the director has brought that element to bear upon the narrative.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
Given the nature of the subject Scorsese
has chosen for Silence, a plaintiveness running across the film is
understandable. But the scenes depicting the dehumanizing treatment meted out by
Japanese officers to those who have moved to Christianity, mostly poor
villagers, leave you with a sour mood. And this I feel helps the evangelist side get sympathy with the viewer and win the
argument obscuring the viewer to the fact that
the colonial powers often hid sinister intent behind the guise of faith (many
advocates of the Opium War on China had used faith as their justification), a
point that Scorsese’s movie overlooks. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
In fact, many would say Silence
is a passionate argument for Christianity - one of the travelling Portuguese
padres dies but the other lives and goes through a forced public denial of his
faith in Catholicism following which he becomes a Buddhist and never
acknowledges his faith in Christianity in his lifetime only to be shown with a
cross in his rolled palm when he is being cremated as per Japanese customs - in
an apparent show of trump of his Christian beliefs. <o:p></o:p><br />
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
Be that as it may, I
wholeheartedly rooted for the characters undergoing persecution and the torture
scenes left me downcast for a long time. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
Silence is easily a classic,
something which will stand the test of time and be remembered respectfully many
years later for several things – great cinematography (some of the scenes are
simply breathtaking), authentic recreation of a period in history (the
monasteries, the wooden structures, everything looks so much like they have
leapt out of the period) and above everything else a film which powerfully tells a
story showing the two sides of religion – devotion and intolerance.<o:p></o:p><br />
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
It’s a must watch. <o:p></o:p></div>
</div>
indrabloghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12797534131912600541noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8646955974182985335.post-51066804094234242932017-01-17T08:57:00.000-08:002017-01-17T08:57:30.241-08:00Where Are We with Demonitization<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgrY-rdW04yS0oykUdVXaBJMG8Vz9lP13rD5k8PipJ2Z5mldVhUYpzIbvbhS2dcFywh3ESKQeU0qzEOcf_eEsdHGHl3MkQoQXd5m69KObc-08j3R48f6mLzqLEmT3raPmsoyXpM8Zj5uhOy/s1600/demo+2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgrY-rdW04yS0oykUdVXaBJMG8Vz9lP13rD5k8PipJ2Z5mldVhUYpzIbvbhS2dcFywh3ESKQeU0qzEOcf_eEsdHGHl3MkQoQXd5m69KObc-08j3R48f6mLzqLEmT3raPmsoyXpM8Zj5uhOy/s1600/demo+2.jpg" /></a></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
It’s been sometime since I wrote the earlier blog on
demonetization – and the situation has changed since then. We have got used to
the new normal – that ATMs will not be the same again, that some visits to ATMs
will be disappointing, some fruitful, that 2000 rupee notes will be in greater
use than 1000 rupee denomination ever was and therefore getting it changed will
always be a concern, that although a complete cashlessness may still be some
years away, more and more number of small shops, the most formidable bastions
of cashbased transactions, will offer digital options for payment. In sum, liquid
cash will become less and less part of our day to day lives. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Well, all this is good news, but is it the whole picture or
just an urban snapshot? From the reports that are emerging, rural India is
still smarting under the effects of demo. A few days ago a news portal solely
reporting on the effects of demonetization on rural India reported that in
Maharashtra prices of some vegetables have dropped substantially due to over
supply resulting from the inability of middle men to buy them due to lack of cash
availability (these transactions are
almost always cashbased). Some rural regions are not receiving enough cash
supply in their banks – and it’s a bigger concern in rural areas than in urban
ones. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
And even in urban areas, even by the standard of the new
normal, order has not completely returned. Most ATMs are still out of cash.
Most of those that are working are mostly dispensing Rs 2000 notes. Many have concluded that visits to banks to
draw cash via cheques is a better option than depending on ATMs; but then if
that is so, then does it not defeat the whole purpose of demonetization? <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
By now it is undeniable that the implementation has been a
disaster. How the government and various financial institutions have reacted to
situations suggests they were not foreseen and planned for earlier.
Surprisingly though, as it appears, demo hasn’t hurt the government
politically, although many would suspend their judgement about it until UP
delivers its verdict. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Apart from Modi’s thunderous speeches, what has helped the
government is that the opposition continues to be hopeless. To start with,
there is hardly any opposition unity. Some parties are ambiguous about their
stand on demo, some are half-heartedly supporting it by maintaining silence, some
are mindlessly hurling accusations none of which is sticking. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Amidst this chaos, though, one thing is becoming clear:
emergence of a new order of payment methods, networks etc. The problem is how
fast people can get used to the emerging order. The lightning speed with which
demo was brought by the government will keep people on their toes, causing them
to rush to the new transaction practices, in terms of learning them and making
them an integral part of their day-to-day financial transactions. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Good or bad, this attitude towards government-brought
changes is another bequest of demonetization. In the past, whenever it came to
matters relating the government, people felt things would largely remain the
same and they would be able to bypass the minor changes and survive the
effects. Such comforting assurances have become a thing of the past. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
In the meantime, stories will keep emerging, some funny,
some tragic. Let us look at this one from Karnataka. To raise funds, to help a
depleted exchequer, the government is invoking an old law where pubs will have
to achieve a minimum target of liquor sale set by the government, falling short
of the target will attract penalties. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
</div>
</div>
indrabloghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12797534131912600541noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8646955974182985335.post-91857352894047508032016-12-05T03:44:00.001-08:002016-12-26T02:45:59.644-08:00The I and We of Demonitization<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhmI0lxE8YQlXQD0xlRppAfT0Ruw50PjtmoiEprE1V1tpC4KSj6bJk3MY0_YvHVLZt7cJrp9q3chhpqq27ayO7qja2UTTewuvpV4U0kFIDJGZEmujsFdWwakGDikKVZn7JyZgc36bB39qGy/s1600/Demonitization.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhmI0lxE8YQlXQD0xlRppAfT0Ruw50PjtmoiEprE1V1tpC4KSj6bJk3MY0_YvHVLZt7cJrp9q3chhpqq27ayO7qja2UTTewuvpV4U0kFIDJGZEmujsFdWwakGDikKVZn7JyZgc36bB39qGy/s320/Demonitization.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">It’s been sometime I have been at the receiving end of the
effects of demonetization. I still am confused whether what the government is
telling is right, that it’s today’s pain and tomorrow’s gain. Or what the
opposition parties are claiming is true, that it’s not going to serve the
intended purpose of eliminating black money, that it’s legalized loot, that
nothing will prevent counterfeiters from counterfeiting the newly introduced
notes and so on. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Whichever side of the argument you are on, a few things are very clear. It’s almost a month since
demonetization and the situation on ground is still not back to normal.
Most ATMs are not functioning, barring a few located in prominent places per
area. The load on these few functioning ATMs is so high, as a result, that they
are running out of cash within a few hours of refill. I stood in long queues of
several such ATMs and the cash ran out when my turn was two to three people
away. The luckiest ones walked away with 100 rupee notes, the luckier with
2000, some (including me) had to return emptyhanded. Even if you are lucky to
get some cash, there is restriction to how much you can draw. Until some time
ago ATMs cards from banks other than the host bank were not working. Now they
are. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Like many of you, I am tracking this development closely and
have read several articles and heard some interviews. Posthumously, they say a
range of things which could have prevented or at least brought down the scale
of the crisis. Instead of banning both 500 and 1000 rupee notes, they say, the
government could have banned one – preferably 1000 – and left the other, which would
have given them time to replenish the banned notes and also the option of
targeting the 500 rupee denomination later. If they had taken some time to make
all the notes the same size, which is how it is in many countries, the ATM
machines would not require recalibration, they say. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">These ‘should have beens’ may not bother us much now that
it’s too late, but at a national and personal level there are a few possible
outcomes of them. The happy political consensus over GST seems to have
dissipated and reorganized itself as a pan India opposition against the
government over demonetization. No one seems to mind the purported goals – end
of black money, cashless economy etc - of demonetization; given their lofty
nature, they are slightly unchallengeable. The opposition parties seem to smell
a political opportunity in how demonetization has been carried out. And that
seems to be the bone of contention for the amm janta too…who may think, if the
mainstream media reports are to go by, that little bit of pain is worth the
long term gains. But as each day goes by without the situation coming under
control, the concern that’s becoming bigger and bigger is: how long the patience
will hold out? <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">The answer to that lies in several things. How long will the
government take to pull the situation under control? How soon, in what forms
and how tangibly will people see the benefits of the pain they are undergoing?
How long the government will be able to prevent the growing voice of a uniting
opposition into becoming a nationwide roar (something like the G scams)?</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">A lot of this will require perception handling. Also, as the government
works towards getting things in order, care has to be taken to make sure that nothing undermines the ground which is being covered on the way to normalcy. The
system has countless holes through which illegal money can travel back and
forth having a termite-like effect. And there
is enough evidence that this is happening. New notes worth over Rs 4 crore have
been seized in income tax raids in Bengaluru. Similar incidents have been reported from other parts of the country. And there are inherent challenges.
One of them is the unorganized economy in India is intricately entwined with
the mainstream economy and the former is mostly (unless it is illegal) cash
based. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">On ground a few things need to be made smooth so that after I
get a 2000 rupee note it’s easy for me to find change or there are enough 100
notes in ATMs. The number of functioning ATMs should start growing so that I
don’t have to stand in queues for too long. If the problem is to linger for a
few more months, then special arrangements should be made on payment days,
either by pumping in more currencies or devising ways to identify and move as
many as possible to crediting their stuff salary into their accounts. None is easy. And what makes it difficult is
this hydraheaded monster has to be tamed FAST.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</div>
indrabloghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12797534131912600541noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8646955974182985335.post-52548788799234345452016-10-26T04:54:00.001-07:002017-02-23T09:06:39.208-08:00The Great Derangement: Climate Change and the Unthinkable by Amitav Ghosh<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<div class="MsoNormal">
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjKk92zQLCR0YNoa1kPD4z3wz134eacF8baP1INEUhnAerE-luzz0h7WH2Q4GIwjp4JJLYmKT77s0xOVu-CkVUkwp7vleerV0LqauURO2POfjqg1T-qvZhz1Rx4Jo09JI0tQKrN0CV5_zfR/s1600/Degrangement.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjKk92zQLCR0YNoa1kPD4z3wz134eacF8baP1INEUhnAerE-luzz0h7WH2Q4GIwjp4JJLYmKT77s0xOVu-CkVUkwp7vleerV0LqauURO2POfjqg1T-qvZhz1Rx4Jo09JI0tQKrN0CV5_zfR/s320/Degrangement.jpg" width="208" /></a></div>
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">There are
very few books that fill you with a sense of urgency to write something on them
before it’s too late. Amitav Ghosh’s The Great Derangement: Climate Change and the Unthinkable, which marks the
author’s return to nonfiction after a long while, is one such book. The Great
Derangement…delves into history (literary and political), analyses contemporary
practices, our choices and preferences...and tells us how they are collectively
responsible for forcing the nature to unleash destructive forces - like earth
swallowing floods, monstrous earth quakes, gales with never-heard-of speed and
ferocity – and have brought us to the edge from where a return journey is not
possible unless we immediately stop the ‘march of modernity’. <o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">The book
blames several things for the climate challenges we are faced with – one is
history, another is indifference of serious fiction towards climactic matters,
another is the apathy of governments to climactic concerns, still another is
our lack of awareness about the havoc climate change can wreak in our lives
although there is no dearth of evidence around us.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Ghosh is
most morbid about the middle class when it comes to suffering from impact of
climate change. He says the rich will fly away in airplanes, the poor will go
away to their villages, but where will the middle class go given the fact that
they have built their lives in cities? In other words, Ghosh says cities are
most vulnerable to the effects of climate change. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">And
particularly those that are close to sea or other forms of water bodies, like
Mumbai, Hong Kong, Singapore, Calcutta. Most of these cities were built in
colonial period to act as good trade and commerce centers because of their
proximity to water. And somehow this preference for proximity with water has
crept into the elites of these cities, who tend to build their settlements
close to water. The richer the closer. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">This love of
the rich for staying close to water makes the sea-facing locations most coveted
real estate pieces. And, Ghosh observes, this desirability of these locations as
real estate properties, anywhere around the world, makes it difficult for
governments (or municipal bodies) to create awareness about the perils of
staying close to water bodies, thanks to the political clout the real estate
practitioners enjoy everywhere. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">For Ghosh the
peril of this proximity was best exemplified when he travelled to Andaman and
Nicobar islands to report on the impact of tsunami. He visited an army settlement located close
to the sea. He noticed two things: a) the higher the rank of the occupant, the
closer his dwelling was to the sea leading to the highest rank holder staying
closest to the sea (and vice versa); b) those closest to the sea were affected
the most by tsunami.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Ghosh
observes that in the pre-colonial period people lived away from water, but with
the city-building projects the colonial masters took up, the preference slowly
reversed. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">One of the most original points Ghosh makes in Derangement is
the indifference of literary fiction to the concerns of climate change.
According to Ghosh, some of the practitioners of serious fiction in the 19<sup>th</sup>
century consciously moved away from using fantastical elements – like flying
carpets or a rising sea gulping a landscape – as a means to tell stories, in
order to focus on more prosaic day-to-day affairs of life. This prosaic-ity
fulfilled the requirements of serious fiction. So describing minor details of
landscape and how people lived their lives became fashionable. Amitav Ghosh
says this shift from writing about fantastical occurrences to more mundane
motions of life had to do with the emphasis of the Industrial Revolution on
betterment of human lives. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">This shift made the fury of nature, like floods, cyclones
etc., an untouchable terrain for serous fiction – because, as Ghosh observes,
the gigantic scale of these furies of nature lends them a fantasy-like
incredulity not to be dealt with in the type of fiction which swears by
credulity. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Writing on furies of nature fell to less-respected a form of
fiction, genre fiction. And, Ghosh rues, it continues to this day. That is why
thrillers and science fiction have addressed climactic concerns; but sadly, the
author says, because genre fictions hardly receive any serious literary award,
the issues they address don’t receive the attention they deserve. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">One of the things responsible for pushing us to the brink is
replacement of coal with petrol as a fuel. Petrol is a more versatile fuel than
coal but that is not the only thing which explains why petrol usurped coal’s position
as a primary fuel: the reason is petrol is a politically safer fuel than coal –
and what makes coal a politically volatile fuel is the highly visible mining
process involved in it unlike the refinement process of petrol which is very
opaque.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Remember the blackened face of the 20<sup>th</sup> century coal
miner melancholically looking at you from a black and white photo? This
visibility of the plight of coal miners is responsible for the revolutions that
coal mining has led to unlike the plight of petroleum refinery workers which
suffers in obscurity. And the political elite of the Anglosphere the Churchills
and Roosevelts of this world knew about this disadvantage of coal mining, Europe
having experienced many of the coal-triggered revolutions, and ensured that
coal was replaced by petroleum as a primary fuel.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">But as
always Ghosh’s favorite whipping horse is once again colonialism. He says
Britain made sure that the benefits of the industrial revolution were denied to
its colonies – and that’s the kind of development that took place in the
Western world didn’t take start in Asia until the 1950s when the colonies
started getting independence. But, according to the author, the earth can’t
withstand the rigor of another round of Western-style development. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">That’s why,
in climate negotiations taking place among nations, the Western nations insist
the poorer nations to take a different route to development. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Ghosh says governments
across the world, particularly the democratic ones, come to power on the
promise of fulfilling people’s aspirations – and therefore are ill-placed to
ask their citizenry to view their actions in the light of their moral
responsibility towards saving the earth from going over the edge. It’s only
religious groups that can do that. And Ghosh praises the book Laudato Si
written by pope Francis in this regard and does a comparative study between the
papal book on climate and another important treatise concerning the same
subject, The Paris Agreement - and concludes that Laudato Si is much more lucid
and readable of the two.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">You can take The Great Derangement in many ways – as a book
which preaches, prophesises, disparages - by asking us to happily forgo the
type of modern development the Western nations have taken for granted. And I am
afraid seeing the book in any of these ways will obscure you to its merit as a
well-researched book which forcefully holds a brief for climate and makes some
unique points along the way. But it does so not without occasionally sliding into ideological
slots avoiding which would have ensured a wider acceptability of its views which are certainly worthy of attention.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
</div>
</div>
indrabloghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12797534131912600541noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8646955974182985335.post-87875355583420033972016-09-28T03:28:00.003-07:002016-10-21T05:10:08.544-07:00Making a Break with the Past with Enid Blyton <div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi9UzD2fmZ65VZez0XDRDvXvOJvPttglJarlnz0JFbb3aZAC6_KwHpo2rUp0Ep8_ojr-66owzRNnokfP1hrLqeuRV-mro3CA8dSeD_-eBeVG7j8kByybULjrvwPHOSi5Bw7gsHBNU0sirgH/s1600/EyidBlyton.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi9UzD2fmZ65VZez0XDRDvXvOJvPttglJarlnz0JFbb3aZAC6_KwHpo2rUp0Ep8_ojr-66owzRNnokfP1hrLqeuRV-mro3CA8dSeD_-eBeVG7j8kByybULjrvwPHOSi5Bw7gsHBNU0sirgH/s400/EyidBlyton.jpg" width="250" /></a></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Let me start with an admission: I have committed a literary
sin. While touring Chikmagalur I walked into an old ramshackle book store in
the corner of a street and found myself looking at dusty, cheap copies of
biographies, science books, old classics etc. Further into the shop, and I saw
a bunch of slim colourful books with glossy cover bunched up in a corner. They
were Enid Blyton books. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
I started reading novels very late. I read my first novel –
Five Little Pigs or something, an Agatha Christie one – when I was in class
eleven. Not sure what reader category that puts me in. And after that novel I
took baby steps in to the world of fiction - picking up new books liking some
of them not liking the others while not managing to get very far with some of
them. I tried out several commercial writers from America and England those
days – John Grisham, Arthur Hailey, Jeffrey Archer, Sydney Sheldon, Jackie
Collins. (I continued with John Grisham until very late – and even now miss
some of his books.) <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Back then I wasn’t bothered about writers’ reputation or whether someone
was a commercial or literary writer. I developed these pretensions in later years. Those days a good
synopsis was enough. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
But that day, at that bookstore, when I held up the Enid
Blyton bunch and drew out one from the middle of it, I wondered despite my lack
of class consciousness so many years ago why I didn’t try out Enid Blyton, a writer
of racy children’s fiction. The answer is I was age
conscious. I had taken to books to grow up – and a children’s author just wouldn’t do! In later years, when I developed a fetish for serious
writers, Blyton was naturally out of the question. But my indifference to Blyton
didn’t prevent my brushes with her.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
In my earlier reading days, when I used to buy or rent my
books from street side book stalls selling pirated copies, the sight of Enid
Blyton books stacked up in a corner was unmissable. In later years, when I
started reading articles and reviews in literary magazines (and still do), a
mention or two of Enid Blyton came in almost in every piece on Indian writers
writing in English - where Blyton was mostly recalled with nostalgia – as a
forgettable writer who had got the Indian English writers interested in reading
but was forgotten soon after. A few years back BBC called her the dumbest
writer of the 20<sup>th</sup> century (or something similar). <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
That day at that ramshackle bookstore in Chikmagalur I
decided to make a break with the past. Three Cheers, Secret Seven was…yes…no
great literary piece making timeless observations on society…or human nature…but a simple mystery story involving a
bunch of children (the Secret Seven) set in provincial England. Susy a socially
awkward girl who is not a part of the Secret Seven group but is a constant
presence in it, thanks to the fact that Susy is Jack’s brother, a Secret
Sevener, gets a toy flying airplane as a gift. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
It’s a beautiful gift which some including Jack fail to
resist. And Susy lends it to them to play with. They fly the miniature aircraft and
it goes and gets stuck on a tree located inside the garden of an abandoned
mansion. The Secret Seven approach the caretaker. He refuses to return it. At
night, stealthily, they go in and up the tree and retrieve the toy. However,
while atop the tree, Peter, the group leader, sees a
strain of light peeking through the slit formed by two curtains drawn together – suggesting that someone could be inside. But
who? And why? A lot of investigation later they discover it’s the mansion
caretaker with his wife. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The plot is simple and straight forward with a moral and social justice angle to it. The caretaker’s wife was suffering from poor heath due to the
cold and damp hovel they stayed in and the caretaker had been asked by the
doctor to move her to a warmer place – hence their presence in the uninhibited
mansion. But for all the moralizing,
there is that old school patronization for characters that don’t fit in to the
conventional mold. The character Susy comes in for occasional derision because of
her awkward personality. A modern author would have dealt with Susy more
gracefully. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
Complexities apart, I enjoyed the book and wish to read more
Blyton books – and mostly over weekends.<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<o:p></o:p></div>
</div>
indrabloghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12797534131912600541noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8646955974182985335.post-60626908787920210392016-09-20T02:14:00.000-07:002016-09-20T07:48:29.643-07:00Flood of Fire by Amitav Ghosh <div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgGdBMHO6PEckuvoeR1FMVYZHkCvkXGqZ_q4agIRoIF2LmoQWqcX969B_fb_I0ZYQxgIDr8nxntf-so1iEUMr0ctLUzW1wUR-EJPvBbePtteT-qgDwx8pX2FjlwU6FdzPS_nsCjYdr5zoWf/s1600/FoF.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgGdBMHO6PEckuvoeR1FMVYZHkCvkXGqZ_q4agIRoIF2LmoQWqcX969B_fb_I0ZYQxgIDr8nxntf-so1iEUMr0ctLUzW1wUR-EJPvBbePtteT-qgDwx8pX2FjlwU6FdzPS_nsCjYdr5zoWf/s320/FoF.jpg" width="209" /></a></div>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;">I
have read several trilogies but with almost all of their later versions in the
series I got the feeling that the narrative had run out of steam, that there
was hardly a second or a third installment and one was made only to capitalize
on the success of the earlier books. Amitav Ghosh’s Flood of
Fire, the third and final book in the Ibis trilogy, which started about seven
to eight years back with Sea of Poppies, never made me feel the same way. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;">The
first two books in the series deal with the period leading to the Opium War and
the third one – Flood of Fire – with the war. The Chinese authorities alarmed
at the damage opium has caused to the youth of the country has decided to stamp
out the British merchants dealing in opium from its shores little knowing that
about a year or two later the merchants will manage to get the British
government to invade China to force opium back on the Middle Kingdom. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;">And
when the invasion comes the Chinese find themselves ill prepared to face the
might of British attack. The period leading to the onset of war is revealing in
many ways. The man responsible for upsetting the apple cart of opium trade, Commissioner
Lin, an upright and incorruptible high official sent in by the Chinese
authorities to deal with the menace of opium, is abruptly removed from his position under fabricated charges
of foul play and replaced by his deputy, a pliable man, who is also awarded the
responsibility to conduct an inquiry into Commissioner Lin’s wrong doing. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;">What
a humiliation! But what is the actual reason for Commissioner Lin’s ouster? The British opium merchants had petitioned the local Emperor that Mr Lin
had been obstructing free trade (by preventing them from carrying on their opium trade). Defense of free trade, free will, God's will etc are the
ruses used by the British to justify the campaign of war. This is the larger point
behind Ghosh’s trilogy: unsavory means imperialism uses for its sustenance and
expansion. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;">Ghosh
had turned down the Common Wealth Prize because, as he later said in an
interview, it’s a commemoration of the Empire. Ghosh is one of those writers
whose subjects change but the central muse remains the same. Take any of his
works, and you can trace it back to the effects of imperialism, which includes
his latest nonfiction offering – The Great Derangement – where he has blamed
imperialism (or its less extreme version capitalism) for the environmental
challenges we are faced with.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;">Despite
this larger theme in the background, however, Ghosh has dealt with his
character and events with an ideological detachment, just narrating the events
as a raconteur avoiding getting self-righteous about anything. As a result, the
opium merchants come across not as evil souls but men of their times using a
business opportunity. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;">Almost
all significant characters have been carried forward from the second
installment – River of Smoke – and some are a continuity of the first. Ghosh
has brought them and their related sub plots (and there are many of them) to
conclusive end in Flood of Fire. In doing so, however, he has sometimes tried
too hard, reading a little contrived in the process. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;">He
has put three important characters to death because their prospects beyond the
plot were not too bright or clear. He has made two characters - who had existed
in the second version but hadn’t met - fall in love and marry because there was
no other visible possibility arising out of their meeting. Many characters
which had been given a short shrift in the first and second installments have
found sizable space in Flood of Fire. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;">But
that hardly takes away from Ghosh’s strength of characterization. In fact,
Ghosh has established his characters with his readers so well that it took me only
one or two introductory sentences to recall them upon their first appearance in
this edition. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;">Neel
a scion of a feudal family who started off as a debauch in Sea of Poppies and
is arrested for being a defaulter goes through a range of experiences in China
where he had ended up after fleeing the ship – the Ibis – which was
transporting him to Mauritius to be an indentured laborer – completely redeems
himself. Zachary a poor but personable American sailor, in the first book,
becomes a wealthy businessman in the last. Aaa Fatt an opium addict and a love
child of a successful opium merchant gets killed by a mafia don who had started
looking for him in River of Smoke – the second book in the trilogy - to avenge
the fact that Aaa Fatt had seduced his lover. And like them there are other
characters too whose lives are transformed in the course of the trilogy.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;">Flood of Fire is not bad but the second one of the pack – River of Smoke –
is the best of the three books, with its unhurried and intricate narrative
without any attempt to be a thriller. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br /></div>
indrabloghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12797534131912600541noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8646955974182985335.post-28352047459927404442016-08-26T04:49:00.002-07:002016-08-26T05:02:20.745-07:00Greatest Bengali Stories Ever Told - a Collection of Bengali Short Stories <div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgs-zVOMMJtqy9bKyeti09bufVIkCVlq49UM9_tKuWbg-0fbb0GNrNjjgs6gpeJMHhRAoX8sLn2QImttUeIWozEhJVv7sAJq2C6my3R43iR3IQqSZqxC-On3wYf8ztB-4szjFRZuuglPzs3/s1600/Greatest+Bengali+Short+Stories.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgs-zVOMMJtqy9bKyeti09bufVIkCVlq49UM9_tKuWbg-0fbb0GNrNjjgs6gpeJMHhRAoX8sLn2QImttUeIWozEhJVv7sAJq2C6my3R43iR3IQqSZqxC-On3wYf8ztB-4szjFRZuuglPzs3/s320/Greatest+Bengali+Short+Stories.jpg" width="209" /></a></div>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;">A
collection of short stories written by writers writing in the same language and
coming from the same place can often cover the past and present of a place more
widely than it is possible for a novel which, even those moving back and forth
in time to cover a long period, mostly takes a linier trajectory. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;">The Greatest
Bengali Stories Ever Told translated by Arunava Sinha do something similar: the
collection brings together the work of the most famous and not so famous
Bengali writers coming from different periods and places of Bengal and covering
a huge landscape from Bengal’s past and present.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;">Alas,
it is hard to understand whether it is by design or accident. Sinha informs us,
in the introduction, that his choice of stories isn’t based on any scholarly or
thematic consideration; instead on what he considers best stories or stories he
has been able to place himself. On a
more informative note, he informs us that Bengali short stories can’t be traced
to any particular period or group of practitioners of the form; they were
always being written; they were always there, evolving with time.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;">The first story
in the collection is Rabindra Nath Tagore’s famous Kabuliwallah. Having seen
its movie adaptations, which were lengthened by songs, I felt the story ended
too soon, although it read surprisingly
fresh. Mahesh, by Sarat Chandra
Chattopadhyay, tells the story of a Muslim man who owns a cow called Mahesh and
takes care of the animal with fatherly affection and care. One day, due to
Mahesh, misfortune visits him and enraged he hits Mahesh on its head killing
the animal. The village turns against him accusing him of cow slaughter. It was
written around a century back.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;">Einstein and
Indubala deals with our preference for entertainment over scholarship. Einstein
visits a small town to deliver a lecture. On the day the lecture is scheduled,
there is another event in the town which everyone is awaiting: a live
performance by Indubala, a cine sensation.
When Einstein arrives at the lecture venue he finds all the seats empty. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;">The guard informs him that everyone would have gone to watch Indubala
perform. Finally the scientist goes to
the place and finds the organizers of his lecture sitting there. Bibhutibhushan
Bandyopadhyay had written it based on a report he had read in a newspaper. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;">I found Sunil
Gangopadhay’s Post Mortem too incoherent. It reminded me of what the writer had
once told about writing short stories. In his initial days as a writer he was
reluctant to try out short stories, until a friend told him one day that writing
short stories was easy: write what you do in a day, from the time you get up to
the time you go to bed, and stop somewhere, and you have a short story.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;">Swapan is Dead,
Long Live Swapan by Udayan Ghosh deals with Naxalism, the only story in the
collection to deal with the socio-political issue which had rocked Bengal in
the 70s. I also liked Mahaswtha Devi’s Urvashi and Johnny which is about people
who call streets their home. There are a few more in the collection. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;">The literary merit
of the stories notwithstanding, the book’s title -<span style="background: white; color: #222222;">The<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span>Greatest Bengali Stories Ever Told</span>
- could be a little more understated as also the title of its introduction where
Sinha justifies putting together the collection – My Love Affair with Bengali Stories.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</div>
indrabloghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12797534131912600541noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8646955974182985335.post-72427245197282521582016-06-21T03:18:00.001-07:002016-06-21T03:18:52.179-07:00Gachar Gochar - the Problems Wealth Brings<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh_Lv_b2Pakqvtpo5w4p4vzZUoIKa1cwsCKmxrWYYkE0v0zZUvbXd1iuMJNnoSpjBm6wYbCLFW7qORw_jDCyuqq1qKNZCoLa4RgpiLI6V4hB-g_9xVigVNt3po9FpwyiyunKP7BJ1KgywM7/s1600/Gachar+Gocahr.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh_Lv_b2Pakqvtpo5w4p4vzZUoIKa1cwsCKmxrWYYkE0v0zZUvbXd1iuMJNnoSpjBm6wYbCLFW7qORw_jDCyuqq1qKNZCoLa4RgpiLI6V4hB-g_9xVigVNt3po9FpwyiyunKP7BJ1KgywM7/s1600/Gachar+Gocahr.jpg" /></a></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Usually we blame our problems on lack of wealth. Gachar
Gochar, written by Vivek Shanbhag in Kannada and translated into English by Srinath
Perur argues the opposite: wealth brings problems it its wake. Gachar Gohchar
manages to make its point very succinctly, in only 115 pages through the story
of a Kannada family which goes from lower middle class existence to prosperity
following the success of a spice business the family starts with the corpus
received from the forced voluntary retirement of its sole earning member. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The narrator, a member of the family, takes you through how
the family gradually loses its coherence as wealth comes in. The spontaneous
family gatherings stop, the dependence on each other goes, minor differences
which had found scant attention earlier start developing into prominent
fissures, some of its members scuttle their responsibilities and settle for
easier choices money and power can provide; gradually middle class values,
which had held the family together earlier,
erode. The narrator makes timely interventions stepping back from the
story and giving observations on the happenings to press home the point: that it’s
the new entrant money which is behind the changing complexion of the family.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Despite the seriousness of the topic, Shanbhag manages to make
you laugh for most part of the book with situations that are common to all
middle class joint families. But what impresses you the most is the rootedness
of Gachar Gochar into the world that it belongs to. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Vivek has captured the idiosyncrasies
of a middle class family excellently through their day-to-day habits and
practices, like a discussion started at the dinner table far outlasting the food
and the family members hearing engrossed even as the remnants of the food is
caking up on their fingers or a member absent-mindedly picking up grains of
rice from his plate and putting them in his mouth one by one as he his
listening to what’s being told. <o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The story is inconclusive, in that the family doesn’t lose the
acquired wealth and return to poverty; but towards the end, a sudden outburst by
the narrator’s wife, Anita, the only daughter of a professor, and ill at ease in
the atmosphere of new money that is her husband’s family, against the patriarch
of the family (Chikkappa) who takes care of the spice business and whose
authority in the family never suffers a dissent - throws the faultlines into
sharp focus: that new money also creates a certain power structure of which
others live and to ensure continuity of their vested interests they avoid
challenging it, however unscrupulous be its way of ensuring that
continuity. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Following the outburst by
Anitha the suffocating silence maintained by the family members on Chikkappa is broken –
and in a throwback to the old times, the family gets together again around
Chikkappa to hear his stories.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
The end is like outpouring of rain following a parched day. Gachar
Gochar is another example of the gold mine that is our vernacular literature. <o:p></o:p></div>
</div>
indrabloghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12797534131912600541noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8646955974182985335.post-44013053219996498172016-05-24T02:31:00.000-07:002016-11-10T02:27:30.174-08:00The New Type of Leader in the World of Politics <div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgLlV8l3VMAhYn8K8VNTdzTh1u4bbSMBVE2Ogo25xTAoyNfqfjQJp63wT1ubq085qIBtoknR4dl8xUdNoRT-gA9pLUUvchSvwQlDrU8VyABTTTEgfRH_9YZNn7FtzsFxXQqgJq-9SmFQzG8/s1600/new+leader.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="136" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgLlV8l3VMAhYn8K8VNTdzTh1u4bbSMBVE2Ogo25xTAoyNfqfjQJp63wT1ubq085qIBtoknR4dl8xUdNoRT-gA9pLUUvchSvwQlDrU8VyABTTTEgfRH_9YZNn7FtzsFxXQqgJq-9SmFQzG8/s400/new+leader.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">There is a new type of leader finding acceptability in the
world of politics. Political rhetoric has always been one of appropriateness
where conventional or traditionally acceptable views are considered safe. Issues
change but how they are talked about by the conventional political leader
remains the same. </span><br />
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">The new type of leader is breaking this mould. They don’t care
about traditional views. They are blunt. They say the unsayable. They often put
their foot wrong with their comments and earn all round derision, but get up,
shake off the dust and start walking again. They apparently don’t care about
their image but end up creating one for themselves. And surprisingly, this new
type of leader is finding political success. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">With every passing day, Donald Trump is inching towards
becoming the Republican candidate for presidency. And as the silver-haired
American millionaire spouts one politically blasphemous statement after another,
Indians are saying: “Doesn’t he remind us of someone closer home?” </span><br />
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Conservative
French politician, who is now an MP, Marine Le Pen, who is often called
xenophobic, is another example of modern day politicians who are not afraid of
expressing unconventional (or even unpalatable) views.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">A general brashness, though, is not the only attribute
characterizing all of them. Some of them, in fact, may appear like a chip off
the old block, in terms of general behavior, but occasionally, when an issue
warrants, they show scant regard for tradition. Roughly six months ago, David
Cameron said ‘it is because of these important religious roots and Christian
values that Britain has been such a successful home to people of all faiths and
none.’ And despite the instant disapproval of British intelligentsia, he never
apologized or tried to explain himself. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">However, if you see beyond the bravado and examine the
comments of the brave hearts in the light of current global realities, the
brave hearts will appear less foolhardy and more pragmatic. You will realize
they are making unconventional statements because they know they reflect the
opinion of masses, that even if they are lambasted by the cognoscenti, they will gain
politically. </span><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">And it is working. People feel these leaders are less
pretentious, that they say what is obvious but unsaid. When they speak people
feel heard. Elections after elections have shown that these sentiments convert
into votes. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">This trend is a fallout of mainly two geopolitical realities.
One is growing Islamic extremism and global financial crisis – which none of
the conventional political leaders and parties have been able to handle very
effectively. Growing Islamic terrorism has meant many things – security
concerns (as a direct effect of the phenomenon), cultural insecurities (due to
immigrants from Muslim countries pouring into Western countries that they culturally
share very less in common with), opposition to a common currency in Europe, etc.
<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">To address the fallout of some of these issues, conventional
parties have been seen shifting their ideological position. Conservative
European parties have shifted towards the left from their right ideological
position, and vice versa. Angela Merkel, in a move inconceivable of a
conservative leader, opened the gates of Germany to immigrants from Muslim
countries. Hollande, the French president, his socialist ideological moorings
notwithstanding, has had to resort to war mongering and strict security
measures (affecting the Muslims). </span><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">In
Britain, the Conservative Party led by David Cameroon has had to go soft on
some of the traditional conservative values. This shifting of ideological
position, particularly by the conservative parties, has left a vacuum on the
far right, which, many say, has led to the rise of far right leaders.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Although American politics is a little simpler than Europe
with only two parties occupying the entire ideological space, America shares some problems with Europe, mainly those related to security and economy. And
its conservative party – The Republicans – being an establishment party, has
not been able to veer too much off the beaten path on these issues. Donald Trump is a result of that. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">The number of the new type of leader will grow and the number
of people feeling represented (or their views and sentiments reflected by them)
by them will increase too if mainstream politicians and political parties
continue to be wishy washy when it comes to certain issues that directly affect
the lives of citizens. Conversely, it is also true that if these leaders become
part of establishments they will acquire a political sobriety which now typifies
the conventional politician. Either way the new type of leader will leave the political
firmament transformed in many ways. </span><o:p></o:p></div>
<br /></div>
indrabloghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12797534131912600541noreply@blogger.com0Bengaluru, Karnataka 560001, India12.9715987 77.59456269999998312.4764182 76.949115699999979 13.4667792 78.240009699999987tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8646955974182985335.post-64634361072899068632016-04-13T04:31:00.000-07:002016-05-08T09:15:41.191-07:00Bazaar of Bad Dreams by Stephen King<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgR-pp-rBwpt6Hox9rIsKZN8YAjYDX4FJJcB6K_jd-MPlE0ufpZQJw1-77f4KBG8tUekWV4OifXmcsO78RhNYPe5-z0NFwClK4pkHrMNe68vJ7DFPCONFoJ8UIfJDr28IocVI180F02o2sU/s1600/Stephen+King.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgR-pp-rBwpt6Hox9rIsKZN8YAjYDX4FJJcB6K_jd-MPlE0ufpZQJw1-77f4KBG8tUekWV4OifXmcsO78RhNYPe5-z0NFwClK4pkHrMNe68vJ7DFPCONFoJ8UIfJDr28IocVI180F02o2sU/s1600/Stephen+King.jpg" /></a></div>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;">The
Bazaar of Bad Dreams is my first exposure to Stephen King’s fiction. But not my
first exposure to his writing – I read his ‘Stephen King on Writing’ some years
ago where he advocates a workmanlike attitude to writing instead of an esoteric
approach the other books I had read on writing and related subjects had
advised. Does a writer stands stripped before his reader if he reveals the
tricks and methods he employs to spin his yarns? Well, King, among the most successful
authors in America, doesn’t think so.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;">The
Bazaar of Bad Dreams, a collection of short stories King has written over a
period of time and some poems, marks a re-manifestation of that belief. Every
short story - some of them are sometimes not exactly short running into enough number
of pages to be a novella - is preceded by an author’s note on the source of
inspiration of the following story and sometimes the author’s reflection on the
subject the stories are based on. I found these notes very interesting and
truth be told sometimes more interesting than the stories. He explains how an
incomplete idea, a rough idea, even a thought string - has the potential to be
developed into a full-fledged story. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;">Some
of the gems are. An idea can sometimes remain in the depth of an attic (of your
mind) and requires retrieving from there. Another is an idea sometimes come as
a cup without its accompanying handle – and the handle can come to you from the
most unlikeliest of situations without any outward appearance of being the missing
handle to the cup. <o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;">Once,
when King was shopping in a departmental store, he was approached by an elderly
woman who asked him why he didn’t write stories like Shawshank Redemption. When
King said Shawshank Redemption was written by him, the woman refused to
believe. Fame can be so limiting!<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;">One
of the stated purposes of the book is to show that King’s quiver of creativity
has more variety to offer his readers than scary stories to which King owes his
fame as a writer. I agree King can offer much more than ghost stories, which is
quite evident from the stories, but almost all the stories show a tendency to
return to King’s familiar turf: horror, some subtle, some a little gross, but
horror. But of course, they have a lot else to them than that. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;">None
of the stories is bald horror. They have properly developed characters with
their world explained in detail. And horror is not a persistent theme with most
of them. In some of them it’s just a ruse to end a story. In some horror is a plot
possibility King slowly builds up towards. And even those with the express intent to
scare have an interesting body of narrative which works without the smattering
of horror moments. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
</div>
</div>
indrabloghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12797534131912600541noreply@blogger.com2Bengaluru, Karnataka 560001, India12.9715987 77.59456269999998312.4764182 76.949115699999979 13.4667792 78.240009699999987tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8646955974182985335.post-6360926273330131642016-02-28T08:34:00.001-08:002016-09-20T07:53:41.504-07:00Many Threads of Hinduism - Evolution of a Faith<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh_sfSsaUBEAThdna6J3IiiBWa6W_hQyytwszTLEhin86jnxaZXOtdQpCgM2-35d1I8jHZnU7mej9PLnhqibVn6aa0fs4ELPMPkAm4oLXS79_OfC9Y5lOWysZQbgsxFoFDl4-Bm-zAjQzOR/s1600/Hindusim.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh_sfSsaUBEAThdna6J3IiiBWa6W_hQyytwszTLEhin86jnxaZXOtdQpCgM2-35d1I8jHZnU7mej9PLnhqibVn6aa0fs4ELPMPkAm4oLXS79_OfC9Y5lOWysZQbgsxFoFDl4-Bm-zAjQzOR/s1600/Hindusim.jpg" /></a></div>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;">There are many
views on Hinduism and Many Threads of Hinduism, essays on Hinduism by Bankim
Chandra, the famous Bengali novelist, compiled by Alo Shome, doesn’t contest or
confirm them but mainly aims to inform the reader about how Hinduism evolved
over time. The earliest texts of Hinduism, their hierarchical order, how
different political and historical forces have altered the position of Hinduism
in the society, the other spiritual strain of thoughts Hinduism has had to
share space with, the thinkers who have influenced it, the concept of one god,
all find place in the book. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;">The essays were
written by Bankim Chandra for a magazine and they essentially reflect his views
on Hinduism and as it stood vis-a-vis the society and polity of his time, the end
part of 18<sup>th</sup> century. Bankim is one of the most famed Bengali
novelists who probably is among the earliest practitioners of the art form in
India. His novels are on social
conditions and reforms with some dosage of religion. One of his novels, Anadamath,
where a group of militant Hindu monks rise against the misrule of Mir Zafar,
dealt with militant Hinduism and earned the writer the reputation of being anti-Muslim. Alo Shome has argued that the writer was anything but: militant
Hinduism came in for criticism in Anadamath towards the end. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;">There was
probably another reason why Bankim Chandra was unlikely to be out rightly
supportive of Hindu extremism – his rounded education. He went to a convent school in
Medinipur - and had a balanced world view.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;">This balanced
view becomes more apparent towards the later part of the book where Bankim
Chandra’s own Bengali tutor Iswar Chandra Vidyasagar, another iconic figure who
contributed to the development of the Bengali language, come in for criticism
for his insistence that the Hindu society be monogamous. Why? Just because our scriptures
have no mention to the contrary (taking their silence as their disapproval of
polygamy). </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;">I reread this
to make sure I was reading right – that Bankim was in disagreement with his
former tutor because of his insistence on monogamy – but later I realized it
was not because of his former tutor's insistence on monogamy, which is obviously a more
socially acceptable and progressive thing to do, but because of his insistence
of a practice just because it was in agreement with the scriptures. In other words,
following the scriptures for guidance on how we should lead our lives. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;">This, according
to me, underlines Bankim’s attitude towards religion. In the essays, he tells
several times that Hindus don't follow what’s there in the
scriptures nor is it possible to do so – because, he reasons, these books were
written based on the existing realities and beliefs of the times in which they
were written – and realities change over time. He says the very way the
society conducts itself or its hierarchy is structured, is at variance with
what’s recommended by the scriptures. And no one is going to change anything to
put them in sync with scriptural recommendations. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;">Bankim Chandra
says the idea of one god never and many gods has coexisted in Hinduism without
one cancelling out the other. What has helped them coexist is worshipping
various gods or powers representing different elements (like vayu, rain etc)
has always been seen as a means to reach out to one supreme being. In the Vedas
“sometimes the master of universe has been addressed as Indra, at other times
he is addressed as Varuna, Agni or Surya”. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;">Although
commonly four Vedas are believed to exist (Rik, Yajur, Sama and Atharva), some
ancient books hold that there are only three Vedas (Rik, Yajur and Sama). There
is another school of thought on the Vedas, that all of them were once one book
– and later they were divided into different parts. The fact that parts of mantras of one
Veda are often found in another Veda strengthens this belief.<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;">Each Veda (Rik,
Yajur or Sama) is not a separate book, but a class of knowledge. “Actually a
Veda contains so much material that each one can fill a library.” However, each
Veda has three parts – Mantra, Brahamana and Upanishad. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;">Through the
book, Bankim’s attitude towards faith, in general, and Hinduism, in particular, comes
across as tentative and questioning one which is devoid of any rigidity. This is
only to be expected given his scholarly temperament which would have led to the
tendency to engage with the ideas of faith and reason that were being dealt
with by Western thinkers (he quotes John Stuart Mill, 1806 - 73) of his time. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;">Charles
Darwin’s Origin of Species, published in 1859, which argued species evolve
through natural selection debunking the god as creator theory forced many Western thinkers to realign their thinking about faith and religion.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;">However, Bankim
didn’t completely throw away his faith in view of Darwin’s theory, although he
makes generous allowance for it. “But even if Darwin’s theory is true, it does
not prove the non-existence of God. Lack of evidence about something or
somebody’s existence doesn’t prove his non-existence.” <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;">The Gita
remained his soulful book (a moral navigator) and he had started writing his
interpretation of the Gita only to die before he could finish it. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;">Bankim
Chandra lived from 1838 -1894…and for most of his life the
Indian society was in a state flux…with big social and political changes taking
place. Supoy Mutiny in 1857, a historical event which marked the flashpoint of
religious acrimony festering with the natives for several years caused by
multiple factors - faiths jostling for space in the society, aggressive
evangelism practiced by Christian missionaries, the declining Mughal empire,
the administration and governance of India moving from the East India Company
to the Queen of England, the first faint
clamors for independence (which would
lead to a nation-wide crescendo with Mahatma Gandhi emergence as a national
leader about 12 to 15 years after the death of Bankim) among the educated elite
of India. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;">Understandably,
these changes had left the Indian society flummoxed with questions concerning
identities (national, religious etc), one’s loyalty to society and nation and a
search for a common anchoring (moral, religious, national). These essays, in a
way, try to find answers to some of these questions – not in Hindu religious
text but from within Indian societies, from past precedents and ideas of foreign
origin like nationhood and nationalism (nationalism comes in for considerable
criticism because of the example of hostility and warfare it was setting in
Europe) which had not reached the Indian mainstream until then. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
</div>
</div>
indrabloghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12797534131912600541noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8646955974182985335.post-70246387798821463632016-01-31T11:10:00.001-08:002016-02-17T00:29:15.011-08:00Another Assembly Election in Bengal<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<div class="MsoNormal">
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj_D2muT8zPZ6fDa87UmQVZyuLPiz7Yi6pGwYnb98EmptfZNoBCkm6Yh1yBuQRRHH42-f7jL1Sc0rsVrZ2vxQGU1ekUI1HQATBKOqAPFLYmu2A7zTZpXgdCw5UX66PN07lt8X-tGYICG9KL/s1600/BP.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj_D2muT8zPZ6fDa87UmQVZyuLPiz7Yi6pGwYnb98EmptfZNoBCkm6Yh1yBuQRRHH42-f7jL1Sc0rsVrZ2vxQGU1ekUI1HQATBKOqAPFLYmu2A7zTZpXgdCw5UX66PN07lt8X-tGYICG9KL/s320/BP.JPG" width="320" /></a></div>
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Bengal is going to go through an assembly election
very shortly. Before the last assembly election in Bengal, I had visited
Calcutta. On my way home from the Netaji Subhas Airport I had talked to two people
about the imminent assembly election - the man standing before me in the taxi
queue and the taxi driver - trying to catch the mood of the city on the
election eve.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">It was almost a foregone conclusion that Trinomool Congress (TMC)
would come to power, that the days of the Left were over.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">From my questions the taxi driver probably guessed I had
come to Calcutta after a long time (which wasn’t true) – and may or mayn’t be
very familiar with the city’s roads (which is true although I have grown up in
the city) – and therefore could be taken for a ride. To confirm it, he asked me
which route I preferred taking – and I said any road which would take me home
sooner. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">After 10 days, while returning to Bangalore, I was driven
to the airport by a taxi driver I and my family have known for a long time.
When I told him the fare I paid from airport to home, he looked back with
dilated eyes: “The bugger fleeced you by a long shot.” <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">During the 10 day stay, from my discussions with
people, I felt the cross currents of opinions and emotions about the political change
to come. Everyone I had small talks with was sure that the Left (led by CPM) was
on its way out and TMC was coming in, like that man in the taxi queue and the
driver (the bugger who fleeced me). But those were the only two things those I
spoke to were unanimous about; everything else differed from person to person. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">The anticipation abut a new party coming in was natural
given two things: (a) the Left had ruled Bengal without any beak since 1977, so
many, in Bengal, were going to see a new party in power for the first time in
their lives or the first time since acquiring political consciousness; (b) it
was the first time TMC would make the transition from a feisty opposition to a
ruling party. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Four years later, many would say that they did that transition
without an accompanying transformation in their attitude towards politics:
which continues to be one of wild belligerence we associate with oppositions
and not one of collectiveness and maturity we expect from a ruling party.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">The differing parts were truly varied. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Some said TMC would
only bring more hooliganism as the party was nothing but a group of rag tag
elements. Some had decided TMC wouldn’t be able to deliver on the changes they
were promising. “How can you give jobs to everyone?” They thundered. Some said:
“Let them come; things can’t get worse than this.” <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Some I spoke to were unambiguously unhappy about the
Left’s departure. They were equally uncomfortable with the possibility of TMC
coming in. This group needs taking a closer look at. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Most of them (except one) are not hard core Left supporters
in that they don’t have any ideological leaning towards the Left. Their support
for the Left chiefly comes from one concern: the belief that only Left is
culturally refined enough to represent them – and also that the TMC is a party
by and for the uncouth. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Even after the TMC’s stay in power for close to five
years now, these concerns have remained. The economy has not improved
substantially (Bengal continues to be a place with very few job opportunities).
Maturity and mellowness have continued to be elusive for TMC and Mamta Banerjee
(its leader). </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">There are many instances where the party cadre and the leader reacted
violently to provocations more mature political outfits would have ignored
(like a Jadavpur University professor who had drawn a cartoon lampooning a
recent political situation being beaten by party goons and arrested). The law
and order situation has deteriorated. The government often interferes with the
police doing its duty. Recently, in Malda, the government asked the police to
go soft on rioters. Communalism has received encouragement in many ways. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">But is this reason enough to yearn for a return of the
Left? No. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Partly the perception that the TMC hasn’t done
anything in the four plus years comes from the bad press the party and Mamta
Banerjee have earned due to what were mostly political and
administrative indiscretions (at least the law and order situations could have
been avoided). And people tend lose patience with any party which comes to
power on very high expectations too soon. The Modi Sarkar is a point in case.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">A closer look may reveal a streak or two of hope. Calcutta
has a better transport system now. The connectivity is much better than before
through new infrastructural projects TMC has carried out. The TMC has been
shopping for investments for some time now and although nothing much has
changed on ground, one needs remember that signed MOUs take time to convert
into reality. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Additionally the Left had left the economy in a shambles and a
complete recovery will take its time. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Although the TMC looks like to win, they will surely
lose some political ground to other contenders (BJP and of course the Left) due
to the mistakes they have made – and that may have a sobering effect on them. And
maybe in the second term we will have a better TMC trying to avoid repeating
the first-term goofups and working towards taking its unfinished tasks to
conclusion. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">One of the Left sympathizers I mentioned above asked
me a few months ago why they wouldn’t be able to come if they learned from
their mistakes. At that time for a passing moment I had felt he had a point. If
voted to power, what if a new Left resumed the industrialization agenda of Buddhadeb
Bhattacharya sans the mistakes he made?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">But the more I thought about it the less plausible it
seemed. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">The Left can but it won't for a few reasons. Probably
it will be able to bring some industrial houses but for a healthy economy you
require multiple players in each area. For this to happen, given where things
stand today, there needs to be a lot of changes...in government policies...
labour laws, tax structure etc. Tweaking them to help business houses will run
into heavy opposition from within and outside the Left...a pursuit of market
friendly policies will further dilute the credibility of the national anti-NDA
front of which the Left is a major player. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;"> So if we agree
that economic revival is the only thing Bengal needs, the TMC, being a
less-ideologically constrained party which hardly requires any internal
consensus being a one-man show, stands on a stronger ground to deliver. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br /></div>
indrabloghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12797534131912600541noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8646955974182985335.post-47970115747015711712015-11-09T06:10:00.000-08:002016-05-08T09:40:39.352-07:00Why Indian train travel still leaves a lot to desire<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgwiQIzMUgogXRqpXsPIjfXlqS74vGV0WYK7s93D4zudLyF8_crhemz4z8VhJ4P2b2nBA1ebgyV96OgzYomi5vRExZnUfof0XONWxruMW5OXwbcY1wICBaHkzZTXmLyRm86KV1oBCaT3pxf/s1600/IR.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgwiQIzMUgogXRqpXsPIjfXlqS74vGV0WYK7s93D4zudLyF8_crhemz4z8VhJ4P2b2nBA1ebgyV96OgzYomi5vRExZnUfof0XONWxruMW5OXwbcY1wICBaHkzZTXmLyRm86KV1oBCaT3pxf/s1600/IR.jpg" /></a></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;">Whereas
a flight travel is an anodyne affair, a train journey is always lively and
colorful. Through a train window you see a world constantly receding away. You strike interesting conversations (and even
friendships) with people who were strangers a little while earlier and would be
strangers again. You frequently eat things keeping your health concern on hold
as long as the journey lasts. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;">The
romanticism of the journey gets rudely interrupted when you visit the loo or
look at the litter caused by fellow passengers (us) on the tracks and inside
the train. This is the worst part of travelling by train. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;">Partly
the blame goes to us who travel and litter, but partly (and substantially) it’s
waste management to blame. When you travel by train you feel there is complete
absence of an efficient garbage management system. Either there are no bins in
compartments or they are so far from the seats, located next to washrooms, that
it takes quite an effort going to them and dropping something. Even if you make
that effort (at least while on your way back to seat from loos) there is no
guarantee that you will be able to drop anything into the bin: mostly they are
filled to the brim; their contents are not removed frequently enough. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;">So people just chuck things on the floor or out of the window. The latter leads
to another problem: filth on tracks. This practice is sometimes even encouraged
by train cleaning staff who often ask people to just chuck things out of the
window and themselves accumulate litter on the passageway between two compartments
and push it into the track. The old Indian practices of defecating on train
tracks is very much alive. The poor tracks are also recipients of human waste
offloaded by trains. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;">All
these make rail lines unsightly and a source of stench. Imagine being stuck interminably long, it’s hot and stuffy inside the train and you are not
able to open the window to avoid being hit by a blast of stink! <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;">As
far as discharge of human excreta on the rails is concerned, after doing a Google
search, I realized it’s a global problem.
An article reported that in the UK there is a concern over train toilet
sewage offloaded on tracks which hamper repairs and cause hygiene concerns. Some other countries, in the West, also contend with the same problem. Restroom
Association of Singapore, an association which aims to improve toilet behavior
in Singapore, ran a campaign called Let's Observe Ourselves (LOO) to educate
users about basic things related to public health, hygiene and toilet
etiquette. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;">The
UK article says that the solution to trains having to offload their fecal waste
on tracks is putting chambers underneath the toilets; but the problem is old
trains don’t have enough space between the axels to accommodate a chamber. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;">That
leaves us with litter disposal. One can say cleanliness comes at a price.
Travel in an AC coach and you will not find so many cleanliness issues. But
that’s not right. The cleaning staff for both AC and non-AC coaches are same:
just that they pay less attention to the non-AC ones, but they collect tips
from all the compartments nonetheless. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;">But
the good news is the Indian Railways has outsourced cleaning to private parties.
So you can see accountability with the cleaners – towards the end of the
journey they come and check if things were all right and ask for tips; but as
far as the non-AC compartments are concerned, that’s among the one or two times
they appear during, say, a one and half day journey. The non-AC travelers,
additionally, are approached by hijras (transgenders) at every station – they don’t
contribute to the lack of cleanliness, but surely are one of the reasons why
travelling by train in India is an unforgettable affair, albeit for the wrong
reasons.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;">But frankly, on a broader scale, trains have improved a lot since the 80s and 90s. You have fewer people without reservation onboard. Some trains, in fact, don't allow anyone on waiting list on board - and go at considerable length to enforce that. The bathrooms may leave a lot to desire but generally they are much cleaner than in the earlier decades. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;">There are more train options nowadays. Getting a ticket is easier, much easier, than before, thanks to the fact that they can be purchased online (and although many still prefer buying tickets the old way, the online option really works). And as my mini online research revealed many problems we traditionally complain about are also to be found in other countries. It's only that things could get better. </span></div>
</div>
indrabloghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12797534131912600541noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8646955974182985335.post-90084493840832806552015-08-03T22:22:00.000-07:002015-08-03T22:22:02.240-07:00Quiet, an Insightful Take on Introversion<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhPagi7kl_vAi15Vd2CrFlQLYOWLTanUM4Nkj6VbQzl17iQkUsrPox5pKDntQEzTn6GyuW_J83i8diC9zDg9jEIGZBywsMayzw20qdIgp6gDS_sSzz5HopxYu6CLPsEYaY8KyVi4kj9RGog/s1600/Quiet.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhPagi7kl_vAi15Vd2CrFlQLYOWLTanUM4Nkj6VbQzl17iQkUsrPox5pKDntQEzTn6GyuW_J83i8diC9zDg9jEIGZBywsMayzw20qdIgp6gDS_sSzz5HopxYu6CLPsEYaY8KyVi4kj9RGog/s320/Quiet.jpg" width="208" /></a></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif;">Have
you ever been told it’s all right if while at a party you like to occupy a quiet
corner to avoid socializing; that it’s okay to feel troubled by underrated
emotions like doubt and fear; that maybe you were overlooked for a promotion
because your colleague had the ‘right personality’ for the role; that there is
nothing wrong with you if you feel overwhelmed by some social situations and
take time to come to terms with them? Susan Cain argues, in Quiet, all this
means you are blessed with the personality syndrome that some of the most creative
and revolutionary thinkers have (or had): introversion. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif;">Quiet
makes a strong case for introversion (or introverts) by passionately arguing
that it’s the introverts who were behind some of the greatest achievements of
the human race (like the theory of relativity) and equally acerbically
ascribing some of the problems in modern times (like the subprime mortgage
issue) to our tendency to overlook introverts and place problems that require
deeper insights – which are more likely to come, according to Cain, from
introverts - at the service of exTaketroverts. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif;">But
is the barrier separating introversion from extroversion so simple? Aren’t we a
bit of both? A person who is gregarious while among friends can be reserved among
strangers. A person who is generally lighthearted can be surprisingly
insightful, in some situations. Haven’t we seen many shy and reserved types
excel in professional areas which are considered exclusive domains of
extroverts? <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif;">Cain
doesn’t challenge the theory of Carl Jung who said there is no such person as
absolute introvert or extrovert and such a person would have his place only in
a mental asylum…She says we share cross traits of introversion and extroversion
and your personality type depends on which side of the divide the traits that
are intense in you fall. To add nuance to this line of argument, she interviews
people belonging to both personality types and also draws from her personal
experience as an introvert.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif;">However,
Susan doesn’t restrict her research to interviews and personal experience, but delves
into the scientific aspect of her subject, too – and establishes beyond doubt
that introversion is a biological characteristic we are born with and not
something we acquire during our lifetime. Children who are very alive to their
environment – high reactive types - turn out to be introverts whereas those
with low sensitivity to their environments become extroverts, low reactive
types. Although introverts become more outgoing as years go by, they remain introverts
at the core. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif;">Courtesy
of the high premium we place as a society on extroverted traits, Cain informs, there
are many who hide their introversion and masquerade as extroverts only to wake
up to their real selves when they meet with a crisis . Not only society at
large but even corporations overrate extroverted traits and extroverts are
misconstrued as ‘natural leaders’, an error of judgement which caused the
subprime crisis where those showing risk taking capabilities (an extroverted
trait) where put in positions of leadership and decision making overlooking
those less inclined to take risks or prefer taking calculated and thoughtful
risks instead of plunging headlong into something they know little about. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif;">Cain
interviewed children of migrants coming from eastern cultures and concludes
that, unlike in the west, extroversion is not prized so much in the east
(especially in Confucian cultures) where silence is considered golden and
observation of hierarchies (age-based or social) appreciated. (It reminded me
of a Time magazine article which said that one of the reasons democracy doesn’t
flourish in Asia is that there is too much insistence on unquestioning respect
for people in positions of power - like a teacher, a ruling family or an older
person – which runs contrary to the very idea of democracy which bases itself
on questioning.)<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif;">The
introverted children Cain interviewed, in some of the most prestigious American
institutions, mostly said they wanted to be extroverts to be more in sync with
how their institutes want them to be. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif;">Being
an introvert herself and being very proud of being one, Cain sometimes reads a
little biased towards introverts. Almost all the introverts she interviewed and
mentions in Quiet are either stupendously successful (like Steve Wozniak, Steve
Jobs etc.) or hold promise for success (like those migrant children) – sometimes
reading like a motivational book for introverts rather than an analytical
effort on the subject.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif;">Cain
looks at cultures other than American but very briefly and broadly – and thus misses
a point or two about her subject. For example, in India, as in America, extroverted
traits enjoy greater social approval than their introspective counterparts, but
the virtues of quiet are not altogether overlooked. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif;">These
are the two flaws I found in what is otherwise a spectacular book. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
</div>
indrabloghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12797534131912600541noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8646955974182985335.post-86955248029105613482015-07-12T08:56:00.000-07:002015-08-06T23:09:15.164-07:00Corruption to stay the issue number one for sometime to come<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjTddv6DDJ2HwJ1ECE5U4bvIjZyDf_dS4ZBPMwxDE72hcWHoGQcAW6uGBZ6clvtUoKMiQ6OAyp52S9TcbzGvX1u-CRSeKSquY9K9Iip1TqNawEUTS_uZUpWbbe1a6ufuaNqAlZfVJE-tEnz/s1600/Corruption.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjTddv6DDJ2HwJ1ECE5U4bvIjZyDf_dS4ZBPMwxDE72hcWHoGQcAW6uGBZ6clvtUoKMiQ6OAyp52S9TcbzGvX1u-CRSeKSquY9K9Iip1TqNawEUTS_uZUpWbbe1a6ufuaNqAlZfVJE-tEnz/s1600/Corruption.jpg" /></a></div>
<span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">In the last few years, India has
indeed changed. At a very basic level, the retrospective impropriety scandal
which hit Vasundhara Raje and Sushma Swaraj as a result of Lalit Modi’s
revelations is nothing more than a person misusing his access to a powerful
politician. Lalit Modi had access to these ladies which he used to get favours
of them – and maybe the ladies received something in return which my or
mayn’t be establish-able. In other words, it’s a person misusing his access to
power and the powerful obliging. Isn’t
it something we in India have grown up hearing and seeing happen around us? <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">10 years back no one would
have bothered about it. We have always lived with the knowledge that politicians are
corrupt, that businessmen bend rules to make it etc. And this general awareness about their impropriety never kicked up a public storm or dented their popularity. In fact, there was
admiration for their ability to con and prosper expressed in private quarters.
Many said why complain about the means as long as the end is good. No one grudged
them their ill-gotten wealth. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Then what has changed us so
much in last four to five years? Why are political parties fighting elections
with corruption as their central issue? Why are the channels going bonkers over
what would have been dismissed as petty corruption issues a few years ago? <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Our tolerance about corruption
has shrunk in last few years. We have started asking questions about what we
had always taken for granted. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Couple of months ago, when
BJP’s land bill had just started being discussed in media, one day I saw an
elderly man being interviewed on a TV channel. He spoke with the simplicity of
a village elder. He blamed the government for forsaking the welfare of the
poor. He threatened to start a movement to raise aware around the land bill. It
reminded me of the chaos the elderly man had created only four years back. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">It’s been some time I saw the
interview and nothing of the sort we had witnessed </span><span style="line-height: 17.1200008392334px;">earlier</span><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;"> followed. Maybe Anna
Hazare held a meeting or two, following that TV interview, but they never
created the nation-wide stir his anti-corruption movement had four years ago. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">It’s to that movement four
years ago, which never reached any conclusion but brought corruption to the
center stage of politics, that Congress owes getting an issue which it can
firmly wrap its fist around since the formation of the new government. It’s to
that movement four years ago that BJP owes its coming to power at the center on
the strength of the popular despair it created against Congress’s corrupt rule.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">It’s to that movement four
years ago that Delhi owes its unpredictable chief minister Arvind Kejriwal. And
many more transformative changes that have taken place in India since that
anti-corruption movement spearheaded by the bespectacled elderly man on the TV
channel – have their origin in that movement four years ago. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Whether you think that in an
atmosphere where tiniest of misdemeanors by public figures can be orchestrated
into an over-blown national hysteria, there is always the possibility of the
political establishment misleading us into believing that all scams are same.
Or you believe, when it comes to corruption, size or type shouldn’t matter. The
politics of propriety as an issue has never had it so good. All earlier
movements with a social impact dealt with a bouquet of issues; corruption was
just one of them.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">So maybe Sushma and Vasundhara
will still get away with whatever they have done or not. But corruption as a political
issue is not going fall out of favour with the political establishment any time
soon. When an opposition dislodges dislodges a ruling party on the basis of
corruption charges and after staying in power for some time gets bored of
taking about corruption, it’s time for the former ruling party to attack the government
on corruption. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
</div>
indrabloghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12797534131912600541noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8646955974182985335.post-88874748531405986862015-06-18T11:10:00.003-07:002015-06-18T11:20:27.793-07:00How Momos Have Come to Rule the Indian Streets<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
</div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj51sx5fzpgGYm24jvdAafjX8UwhPVCVT6RI0JIf7d4WNP7lYOJmTva6LG-6M5psirUgxjvkD1GHgWQoFBWw00k4mohczqx5SPADybKB1QpPUEqRdBVFzAHCBy0o3Yn_TuyVrUHUwyz83lo/s1600/momos.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="192" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj51sx5fzpgGYm24jvdAafjX8UwhPVCVT6RI0JIf7d4WNP7lYOJmTva6LG-6M5psirUgxjvkD1GHgWQoFBWw00k4mohczqx5SPADybKB1QpPUEqRdBVFzAHCBy0o3Yn_TuyVrUHUwyz83lo/s320/momos.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
<span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif;">For
a few years now, in India, two types of food become popular: those with health
benefits and those without health hazards. Momo is a beneficiary of the later.
It is not known to offer any health benefit, but the steamed momos containing minced
meat or vegetables stuffing hardly can pose any health hazard. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif;">Roughly,
momos appeared on mainstream Indian foodscape about 15 to 16 years ago. Since
then, they have grown in popularity to become one of the most preferred snacks
of urban India. As a result of this phenomenal popularity, today momos are
available everywhere, from interesting small joints and street stalls run by
guys from the North Eastern states of India (they make the cheapest and best momos)
to costly Chinese restaurants. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif;">But
what is interesting about this is not so much momos’ success as a restaurant
offering but their emergence as a popular street food. Their acceptability as
street food is so high that even people who are prude about street foods flock
to street momo corners. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<b><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif;">There are a few reasons
for momos’ success as a street food.</span></b><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif;">
Momos are the most transparent food: their simple contents (some meat or
vegetables and flour) assure you that there is no scope to adulterate them and
get away with it. Momos, at least the steamed ones, are always ready to eat;
just pluck them from their pans and serve them with red chili sauce, no
preparatory period is involved unless you eat the fried versions. This is a
significant advantage as it makes momos something you can eat on the go. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif;">But
the most trust-inspiring thing about momos is that we find it easy to trust
anything that is well-heated – and in this respect, momos stand on a very firm
ground. They are always being heated in their multi-storey aluminum containers
and are served to you piping hot. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif;">So
how can you not trust the momos? But are they great to eat? <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif;">They
can be quite bland without auxiliaries but mop up some sauce and you can’t have
enough of them, as with any food with South East Asian provenance. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif;">I
bit into momos for the first time in Calcutta where you are served momos with
hot soup (the small joints serve chicken stalk even if you order veg momos) and
you add sauce separately. But after I moved to Bangalore, I was surprised to find
momos served without soup and only with sauce.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif;">It
reminded me of what my sister had once told me following a short visit to
Gangtok, that, in Gangtok, they couple their momos only with home-made chilli-garlic
sauce. The guys running street momo stalls, in Bangalore, mostly come from
Darjeeling, which shares cultural similarities with Gangtok. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif;">Driven
by an investigative zeal, I quickly went to Wikipedia to find out how momos have
changed since they descended from their places of origin and whether ‘what they
are served with’ differs from place to place. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif;">I
found that momos have traditionally had meat stuffing. Varied animal meats are
used depending on local preferences and availability. So the conclusion: veg
versions are later attempts at localizations, like Chicken Achari Pizzas. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif;">Wikipedia
couldn’t inform me particularly on whether momo accompaniments differ from
place to place, but it told that momo is served with soup in Nepal. As for
the other places which the momo traces its origin to, there is no consistency
of practice. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif;">But
frankly, who cares? <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" e="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<img class="bm-blog-post" src="https://www.blogmint.com/frontendUtil/openPage?page=blog-post-read&oId=81489b4f2b6d4195a48ab5408bc5d3d7&uId=36515041c9da421780df4caece32011e&count=1&image=one-pixel.png" style="border: 0; padding: 0;" />
</div>
indrabloghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12797534131912600541noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8646955974182985335.post-12605608627116601612015-06-10T00:28:00.001-07:002015-06-10T00:28:42.186-07:00Piku - telling a tale with subtlety and grace<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiGxzoQvNNrIvhHX67yLm77B84yCkL8fI2b6bqRr3Xa3bYyaEV8LqHzmNPioRaSLI1Yq8Dr8NyHbwJKOiVborNMHn8QY1Mz7UET9ksg5W3ilrPJFyMWGG5w2Ffs2KBH9lMVt6aht6-SiOaR/s1600/Piku.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiGxzoQvNNrIvhHX67yLm77B84yCkL8fI2b6bqRr3Xa3bYyaEV8LqHzmNPioRaSLI1Yq8Dr8NyHbwJKOiVborNMHn8QY1Mz7UET9ksg5W3ilrPJFyMWGG5w2Ffs2KBH9lMVt6aht6-SiOaR/s1600/Piku.jpg" /></a></div>
<span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif;">There
was a time when Bollywood was obsessed with Punjabi culture. Even if a plot was
located far off Punjab shores (London, New York etc), it had to have a Punjabi
family at its heart. Now, at least this year, that obsession seems to have
moved to Bengali culture. Piku is the second big movie this year to have a
Bengali setting. But, unlike those Punjabi-oriented movies which were
culturally Punjabi but geographically elsewhere (or everywhere), the
Bengali-oriented ones are either fully set in Calcutta (Detective Byomkesh
Bakshi) or partly but substantially set there. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<b><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif;">But that’s not the only
thing I liked about Piku. </span></b><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif;">The
movie is a refreshing take on a father-daughter relationship. Again, in a
departure from filial relationships shown in Hindi movies in earlier decades,
the relationship Piku has depicted is realistic with mutual love, concern and
respect and without unquestioning reverence. While Piku objects to someone
expressing contempt for her father’s senility, she shows understanding and accommodation
when someone is genuinely annoyed with Bhaskar Banerji. Sujit Sirkar has skillfully
avoided the clichés of parent-child relationship and has caught its nuances
beautifully. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif;">Bhaskar
Banerji (Amitabh Bachchan), a widower, stays with his daughter, Piku (Deepika
Padukone), in a Bengali neighborhood of Delhi. Bhaskar is old and grumpy and
suffers from constipation; the daughter is a working girl who takes care of her
father and is a little exasperated by his old-age tantrums, just as everybody
else inhabiting the world of Banerjis is, domestic helps, family friends,
relatives etc. Apart from constipation,
another old-age affliction keeps Bhaskar occupied: his belief that he has some
serious health issue, although for a seventy year old he is quite fit and
healthy. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif;">The
family travels to Calcutta (Bhaskar’s home town) and there, unbeknown to Piku,
Bhaskar goes for an extensive nostalgic cycle ride taking the viewer through
the narrow alleyways of North Calcutta and such famous landmarks as Dalhousie.
The cycle ride gives Bhaskar more than a nostalgic relief; after the ride, he
relieves himself to his heart’s content. The next day Bhaskar dies, his last
wish fulfilled.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif;">The
performances are masterful. Bachchan is excellent playing different shades of
the character, his age and crankiness, to perfection…but where he has
particularly scored is in emulating Bengali mannerisms. Deepika is very natural
as Piku and Irfan has almost made it a habit to be excellent movie after movie.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif;">Another
notable feature of Piku is it maintains a good pace without too many twists and
turns in the tale. With a subject like constipation it was easy to resort to
front bench slapstick; instead Sujit Sirkar has dealt with the subject
gracefully without missing an opportunity to tickle your funny bone reminiscent
of the Basu Chatterjee movies of the 70s. And like those Basu Chatterjee
movies, Piku has its share of social commentary, concerning women and
relationships, made in an understated manner. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
</div>
</div>
indrabloghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12797534131912600541noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8646955974182985335.post-50197273252196567242015-05-22T11:37:00.003-07:002015-05-22T11:39:11.659-07:00The Tell Tale Brain - Unlocking the Mysteries of the Mind <div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhh9cVw3zr9PXds5_Qqp9Wor2q6iLAOSya1iDUQE38wK1SdwMOg_iQcK9Dc_zmPmZUOe7kiIAhYq0lbwbk6Zdb2ZtL4I_jTyiMMQK5Un5iyerVI5juuRfPbvIXjsYpx19-bd3zS0IY99mhv/s1600/Brain.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhh9cVw3zr9PXds5_Qqp9Wor2q6iLAOSya1iDUQE38wK1SdwMOg_iQcK9Dc_zmPmZUOe7kiIAhYq0lbwbk6Zdb2ZtL4I_jTyiMMQK5Un5iyerVI5juuRfPbvIXjsYpx19-bd3zS0IY99mhv/s1600/Brain.jpg" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 11pt;">That our brain works in a complex way is a grand
understatement. The labyrinthine of neuroscience can completely overwhelm the
ordinary reader. Even after an understanding has </span><span style="font-size: 14.6666669845581px;">crystallized</span><span style="font-size: 11pt;">, the ordinary
reader may feel a nuanced appreciation has remained elusive. In The Tell Tale
Brain, VS Ramachandran has attempted to explain the intricacies (and sometimes
absurdities) of how our brain functions to the uninitiated reader.</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 11pt;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 11pt;">And although
he may not have completely succeeded in doing so, his attempt has surely
resulted in a fascinating read - bringing to the average reader such
intellectually stimulating things as how art evolved, why does an autistic
child draws better than a French master, why does a person feel the presence of
a missing limb, why seeing colour is special and what seeing different colours
means – and much more. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 11.0pt;">Theories in neuro science are always evolving
with old theories getting reviewed, changed, challenged and sometimes replaced
by new ones. Similarly, there is no single theory on anything – scientists
disagree almost on everything leading to the existence of multiple theories on
everything. Ramachandran has discussed every contemporary and past stream of
thought and argument on every issue he has dealt with in The Tell Tale Brain. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 11.0pt;">The Tell Tale Brain, a title inspired from
Edger Allen Poe’s Tell Tale Heart, also explores every angle of a brain problem
– discussing not just the technical aspects (with respect to brain
functionalities) but also their evolution, evolutionary purpose and how
differently something has evolved for non-humans, and thus arriving at what
makes us unique among those we share the planet with. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 11.0pt;">Ramachandran says the ability to copy, among
other things, an ability mirror neurons are responsible for, makes humans
unique. This ability is not available in animals or at least at a level as
sophisticated as in humans. So while a cub can learn from its mother how to
hunt, it can never learn subtler skills, like language, from its parents or
from other animals. Ramachandran says this ability to learn from others (or
copy) is at the heart of accomplishments that are unique to humans, like
culture, language (unless you are among those who believe dolphins have a
language) etc. And this ability is also responsible for empathy, which again is
among the core abilities required for something which is uniquely human – art. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 11.0pt;">A survey was conducted where the participants were
given two sketches of a running horse, one done by an autistic child and the
other by a French master without telling the participants which one is sketched
by whom. And the majority found the one done by the autistic child better than the
one by the French master!</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 11.0pt;">Ramachandran says there are two parts in our
brain (broadly), one of them is responsible for artistic output and the other
deals with logic-based activities. Since the autistic child’s other side is
completely dysfunctional (since autism causes loss of social or any other
skill) all his mental energies flow unconsumed into the part that’s concerned
with art, unlike in the case of the French master with whom some of the energy
is consumed by the non-artistic part of the brain. Read the book for more such insights
on how our brain works.</span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 11.0pt;">The Tell Tale Brain reads like a thriller V.V
Ramachandran’s erudition notwithstanding.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</div>
indrabloghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12797534131912600541noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8646955974182985335.post-16339642794045781132015-05-05T20:56:00.000-07:002015-05-05T20:56:41.140-07:00Thomas Hardy by Claire Tomalin <div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhW8k38Zzy130Or7U83CfLcaKRy2Y5CBcrwYx5kGTrcFmCTm6Vwx0zqWhZAm3U35y7UmSBnMtpk-X524Nr4U_GiczYhlj_ih-WwcDRgGsYF2firb_lauswYrp0YXcLlLS7C2bFTO-l_LXb5/s1600/TH.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhW8k38Zzy130Or7U83CfLcaKRy2Y5CBcrwYx5kGTrcFmCTm6Vwx0zqWhZAm3U35y7UmSBnMtpk-X524Nr4U_GiczYhlj_ih-WwcDRgGsYF2firb_lauswYrp0YXcLlLS7C2bFTO-l_LXb5/s1600/TH.jpg" height="320" width="209" /></a></div>
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">If
you read Thomas Hardy’s life you will know how the prose overshadows verse. Thomas
Hardy’s first love was poetry and he had taken to novel writing only to earn a
living. But most of us know him as a novelist, existence of several poetry
collections to his credit notwithstanding. Of all the biographies of writers I
have read or those I know about Thomas Hardy comes from a most unlikely
background for a novelist. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">Claire Tomalin’s Thomas Hardy “The Time Torn Man “
traces the life of the famous British Victorian writer his birth onwards going
a little further back in time, in fact, for a snapshot of his parents’ life and
their circumstances through his finding of literary fame, his love affairs
(most of them one-sided) and the trials and tribulations Hardy had to go
through to establish himself as a writer. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">Thomas
Hardy was born to poor parents in English countryside, in Higher Bockhampton
near Dorchester. His mother, Jemima, was a domestic maid with literary
inclinations. She had access to the libraries of the educated and read some
classics. She had modest ambitions
beyond her station but never achieved them. Understandably, Hardy took his
first steps towards literature holding his mother’s hand. Hardy’s father was a
stonemason and local builder. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">Hardy
married the woman he loved and it was a steady marriage, although they didn’t
have any kids and despite Hardy’s life-long mental philandering where he had
romantic feelings for women both older and younger than him and most of them
much married even as he remained loyal to his wife avoiding any mutually
acknowledged romantic or physical relationship with any other woman, although
failing to hide his mental infidelities from his wife, who, understandably,
bitterly detested it but also silently suffered it. Hardy married twice; the
second time when he was in his 70s and his wife, mid 20s. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">Hardy
extended this Jackal and Hyde character to his attitude towards religion. He
had fallen off Christian faith as a young man but maintained the outwardly
signs of devoutness (he visited church regularly), so that upon his death the
local cleric told that Hardy had lived life like a true Christian. Several
times his beliefs revealed residues of Christian beliefs. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">It
was not until slightly later in life, when he was in early 20s, that Hardy
started taking interest in writing, unlike those who wake up to their literary
call as children. There is no denying the fact that, though, the seeds were
sowed much earlier, only that they took time to sprout up and be seen. The
sprouting happened when Hardy worked in London as an architect, a profession he
was initiated into by his father and a craft he was not too bad at. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">His
days in London exposed him to a larger world and a wider range of experience and
became a canvas to compare his rural life with. He wrote a book based on this
experience but didn’t get a publisher. A few publishers showed some interest
only to back out later. Thomas Hardy’s first book, serialized like many others’
in his days and before, was Under the Greenwood Tree.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">Among
his novels, Tess of the d'Urbervilles, much ahead of its time in terms of the
values it dealt with, was closest to Hardy’s heart. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">Like
the other famous writers of his time, Hardy’s novels were serialized. But
unlike his contemporaries and they are equally mammoth-like figures in
literature, like Henry James, EM Foster (a little junior to Hardy), Rudyard
Kipling etc, Thomas Hardy specialized in rural England, fact which in proximity to Dickens; both
dealt with poverty, one with rural, the other with urban. The people surrounded by whom Hardy grew up
became his characters; the rural scene he had grown up amidst became the
landscape of his novels. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">Gradually
fame came to him and he came to be recognized as a great. Claire Tomalin has
said Hardy had a melancholic personality (confirmed by many who saw the writer)
but hasn’t drawn any connection between his personality and the melancholic
nature of his novels. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
</div>
indrabloghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12797534131912600541noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8646955974182985335.post-27034283932957474292015-04-15T06:50:00.000-07:002015-04-15T06:51:03.584-07:00Who was Luckier - Lee or Singapore?<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhrehNalJN8ysWszl8psw0vF3RmMNHpC4jq-zL7un6-E1-ODlv4W7v8Vx-RPneMNsBiEVG28tgZolL0ZZAWPz2gs1oGQic8att_RGr79ltl0KaLjq6_Y24G6kIBOV9ML8BUs3YHahZVLiYS/s1600/Lee.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhrehNalJN8ysWszl8psw0vF3RmMNHpC4jq-zL7un6-E1-ODlv4W7v8Vx-RPneMNsBiEVG28tgZolL0ZZAWPz2gs1oGQic8att_RGr79ltl0KaLjq6_Y24G6kIBOV9ML8BUs3YHahZVLiYS/s1600/Lee.jpg" height="213" width="320" /></a></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">Recently, Lee
Kuan Yew, the person responsible for making Singapore what it is today, died. We
in India, particularly those with scant awareness about foreign affairs, were
familiar with Singapore as a place of prosperity and aspiration, lights and
glitz, long before we woke up to the global significance of China and the
vulnerability of America as a super power. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">In India, various
political leaders at different times have told us they would be making our
cities like Singapore if brought to power but none have. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">But the
bigger question is why Asian countries aspire to be like Singapore? It is not
just Singapore’s economic success but the fact that it combines all the virtues
of a desirable place: cleanliness, discipline and great law and order. Even the great Western democracies fall foul
on some of these counts. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">Law and order
may be different and even cleanliness is achievable in many places but
discipline , as many of us know, may not be easy to bring about in a democratic
society, which is by nature chaotic. In fact, the existence of such societies
depends on absence of discipline. There is little doubt that Singaporeans had
to pay a price for the kind of economic success Singapore achieved, for which
you have to both thank Lee Kuan Yew and call him lucky. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">Thank Lee for
Singapore’s success because after its independence from Britain and following
its ouster from Malaysia in 1963, he steered his nation in the direction which
was unique in those days, the 60s, and also frowned upon by others. Among the
countries that won freedom at the time Singapore did, Singapore was the only
one to embrace market-economy, in its most unapologetic form. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">Call Lee
lucky because even with Lee’s sure-handed capitalism, Singapore would not be possible
without Singapore’s advantages – a largely homogeneous society, a city state, etc
–quite unique to Singapore. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">But many of
these attributes were disadvantages to start with. When Singapore had been
dispelled by Malaysia because of racial tensions (Lee its premier was in his
early 40s then), it didn’t have any army to defend its borders; it didn’t have
any economy to speak of. Its small size – and therefore less significance -
would have made it vulnerable to a takeover – or at least an invasion - by a
bigger power, particularly one from the Soviet bloc. Fearing it, Lee befriended
the US. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">To make Singapore
militarily strong, Lee sought the help of Israel. He created a police-judiciary
to eliminate corruption. To the same end, he raised the salaries of officials
to the level of those in high positions in private sector – and said, “If you
pay pee nuts, you attract monkeys.” He removed political opposition by reducing
Singapore to a single-party polity. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">He made spitting
on road, littering chewing gums on road etc. punishable offenses. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">(Remember, we
heard, in our growing up years, that in Singapore you would be punished for
throwing chewing gum on road?) He told Singaporeans to speak good English and
develop clean habits. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">He completely
muzzled the press. Singapore Herald’s license was seized because of a critical
article it had carried about Lee’s government and three years later the government
amended its constitution to make it mandatory for media houses publishing out
of Singapore to renew their license yearly. And publications of foreign media
houses critical of the Singapore government but without any production base in Singapore
were simply banned. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">Although
Singapore never saw the likes of Tienanmen Square or Capture Wall Street, winds
of change are blowing in the island nation. Living costs are very high in
Singapore and the gap between poor and rich has grown over the years. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">There is a groundswell
for more inclusive policies. It led to a slump in Lee’s party’s (People's
Action Party of Singapore) popular vote, following which Lee stepped down making
way for his son. Any nation, however successful, yearns for change in a passage
of 40 to 50 years. Singapore, however different it may be from the rest, should
not be an exception. But Singapore will always consider itself lucky to have
had Lee in its formative years and not the other way around. </span></div>
indrabloghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12797534131912600541noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8646955974182985335.post-55818472246791627942015-03-27T05:02:00.001-07:002015-04-06T00:29:05.128-07:00Absence of India Conservative Intellectuals - By Ramachandra Guha<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg94WEVt3NKULDf5c8QrSZq7SkHV-AH9pA-dMoSFmFFKaDS637cSwZhTzIwt1a8FohetPVmdrKup-7vXcgZXB_zsyNnhaffjSl4giUJqxA8RyrBuIMZJzTl3EJBQd50eckHRXPk667g7UbE/s1600/Cons.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg94WEVt3NKULDf5c8QrSZq7SkHV-AH9pA-dMoSFmFFKaDS637cSwZhTzIwt1a8FohetPVmdrKup-7vXcgZXB_zsyNnhaffjSl4giUJqxA8RyrBuIMZJzTl3EJBQd50eckHRXPk667g7UbE/s1600/Cons.jpg" /></a></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">Caravan
has carried a very interesting article by Ramachandra Guha, Where Are India’s
Conservative Intellectual? The article addresses what has long worried people who
see merit in the economic policies of conservative politics, in India, but at
the same time disapprove of their religious agenda. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">If
you remove the Muslim majority countries from the mix, India is the only major
democracy where religion finds an important place in conservative politics. Guha
attributes this to the fact that those who espoused this brand of politics in
India, mainly in pre-independence era, a time when the conservative voice was
quite strong, were affiliates of organizations with a deeply Hindu character.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">In
a post-independence India, Guha observes, conservatives gradually lost their
prominence in Indian politics as mainstream Indian politics gravitated towards
the Left – where both the ruling party – the Congress – and its principal
opponents – Nehru and his detractors (Jay Prakash Narayan, Ram Manohar Lohia
and the Communists) - represented socialist, liberal political orientation. This left-orientation was also found in
academia. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">Guha
dismisses the current lot of columnists and opinion makers with a soft spot for
conservatism on the ground that their body of published work is limited to 300
to 400 word articles. This absence of conservative intellectuals in India, Guha
concludes, is responsible for religion being a major part of the conservative
thought. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">Conversely,
he says, the West has always had intellectuals in conservative politics who
have always kept religion out of it. Western conservative thinkers, Guha says, base
their idea of identity around which conservative politics revolves on cultural
and geographical similarities. <o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">To
press his argument that the presence of conservative intellectuals would have
helped Indian conservative politics keep religious extremism at a distance,
Guha cites the example of Jagdish Bhagwati, the conservative economist who is
an economic adviser to the current conservative government in India, for
advising the BJP government to reign in the religious fringe if it wanted to
carry on with its development agenda.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">Guha
poses Rajaji (</span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">C. Rajagopalachari) </span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">as a model conservative intellectual. Guha says Rajaji was patriotic
who could rise above his personal differences with his political opponents and
unite with them in national interest, like he had supported Nehru on the
Kashmir problem despite his personal personal differences with Nehru. Rajaji
was religious but far from being an orthodox. His economic outlook was conservative
in nature and therefore opposed to Nehru’s. Rajai had argued for more openness
in economy but Nehru had dismissed his views calling them reactionary and
unsuitable for India only to be proved wrong a few decades later.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">Guha’s
analysis of Western conservatism is mainly theoretical and that’s why it misses
an important point. Although theoretically Western conservative parties have
kept religion out of their identity mix, the tendency of conservative politics
to be majoritarian, even if based on demographics, automatically excludes
communities following minority religions in Western societies. Identity and
religion are hard to separate, especially due to rising religious radicalism
however desirable it may be. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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</div>
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indrabloghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12797534131912600541noreply@blogger.com0