Talking about Change: about then and now

Aakar Patel is a weekly columnist in Mint. I try to read whatever he writes and at times some of the interpretations he makes seem completely ridiculous but at times be brings to the fore some very useful insights. He has an amazing taste of reading and therefore collection of books/magazines etc which he shared in one of his posts sometime back. His work drew extra degree of attention thereafter.

Last week I came across this post of this on what makes the business class truly unique. The article brought home some interesting insights on some of the feats of the business community in India. He also gave reference to an essay by Dr Ambedkar on 'Maharashtra as a Linguistic Province'. My interest in language and its role in politics made me read it as well.

One of things that really interested me was the history of Gujratis in Mumbai. Anyone familiar with Mumbai and Gujaratis would realize that they are really good at trade. They are entrepreneurial and quite professional about their approach to business. The most expensive part of the city, the South Bombay (where none of the flats woudl be anywhere less than 5 cr) has several of Gujarati residents. However, what made them come to Mumbai?The article tells that they were made to come there because of trading compulsions of the British.

In the essay by Ambedkar there is a reference of a petition filed sometime in 1680s where some Nima Parekh. What were the privileges which the Gujrarathi Banias had asked for from the East India Company ? The following petition by one Nima Parakh, an eminent Bania belonging to the City of Diu, gives some idea of what they were:

"1. That the Honourable Company shall allot him so much ground in or near the present town free of rent as shall be judged necessary to build a house or warehouse thereon.

"2. That he with the Brahmans of Vers (Gors or priests) of his caste shall enjoy the free exercise of their religion within their own houses without the molestation of any person whatsoever; that no Englishman, Portuguese, or other Christian nor Muhammadan shall be permitted to live within their compound or offer to kill any living creature there, or do the least injury or indignity to them, and if any shall presume to offend them within the limits of their said compound, upon their complaint to the Governor (at Surat) or Deputy Governor (at Bombay), the offenders shall be exemplarily punished; that they shall have liberty to burn their dead according to their custom, also to use their ceremonies at their weddings ; and that none of their profession of what age, sex or condition whatever they be, shall be forced to turn Christians, nor to carry burthens against their wills.

" 3. That he and his family shall be free from all duties of watch and ward, or any charge and duty depending thereon; that neither the Company nor the Governor, Deputy Governor or Council, or any other person, shall on any pretence whatsoever force them to lend money for public or private account or use any indirect.

"4. That in case there falls out any difference or suit in law between him or his vakil or attorneys or the Banias of his caste, and any other persons remaining on the island, the Governor or Deputy Governor shall not suffer him or them to be publicly arrested dishonoured or carried to prison, without first giving him due notice of the cause depending, that he or they may cause justice to be done in an honest and amicable way and in case any difference happen between him or his attorney and any Bania of their own caste, they may have liberty to decide it among themselves without being forced to go to law.

"5. That he shall have liberty of trade in his own ships and vessels to what port he pleases, and come in and go out when he thinks good; without paying anchorage, having first given the Governor or Deputy Governor or customer notice and taken their consent thereunto.

" 6. That in case he brings any goods on shore more than he can sell on the island within the space of 12 months, he shall have liberty to transport them to what port he pleases, without paying custom for exportation.

" 7. That in case any person be indebted to him, and also to other Banias, and be not able to pay all his debts, his right may be preferred before other Banias.

" 8. That in case of war. or any other danger which may succeed, he shall have a warehouse in the castle to secure his goods, treasure, and family therein.

"9. That he or any of his family shall have liberty of egress and regress to and from the fort or residence of the Governor or Deputy Governor; that they shall be received with civil respect and be permitted to sit down according to their qualities; that they shall freely use coaches, horses or palanquins and quitasols (that is barsums or umbrellas) for their convenience without any disturbances ; that their servants may wear swords and daggers, shall not be abused, beaten or imprisoned except they offend, and that in case of any of his kindred or friends shall come to visit him or them from any other ports, they shall be used with civility and respect.

"10. That he and his assigns shall have liberty to sell and buy coconuts, betelnuts, pan or betel-leaves, and any other commodity not rented out without any molesiation on the island."


India was not a nation per se at that time and one can see a strong feeling of community centeredness in the petition.

The interesting part is that I am writing this post from Ahmedabad where yesterday i had a meeting with an organization which has been working towards bringing about securlarism, democracy and equality with a strong focus on Panchmahal district after the Godhra riots. According the head of the organization, the caste feeling runs very strong even in urban Gujarat. You can't really get a home a home easily in a society where traditionally people from a given caste or group have been staying. Its impossible for Muslims to live in the same society. Please refer to point '2' in the petition above to understand the sentiment even during that period.

One wonders that even 350 years of journey (since 1680s and may be centuries before it) are not sufficient for us to get rid of our caste feelings. Corruption issue is still very very young. Barely few decades old.

The field workers took me to a site where predominantly displaced Muslims and Dalits are staying. Do note that Ahmedabad is a fairly rich city otherwise. I won't get into the details of what all work they have been able to do there etc. Though that is where the actual substance of efforts really lies.

Slum at Vatva- 10 kms from Ahmedabad

 One can imagine the brink of disease and death on which many a children lead there lives. How susceptible would little ones be to catching some really nefarious germ in such a site that too during rainy season?  
 
I won't necessarily want to blame X or Y political party over here since i have been to slums in both BJP as well as Congress governed states. But i guess, all these facts really need to be put together as one tries to assess, are we getting it really right?

Ignoring the voice of experts

Ramchandra Guha makes some very important points on the lack of adequate attention that is given in India to the advice of experts by both the political class and the bureaucracy.

The article has been written in the wake of Uttarakhand natural disaster.

I guess this is more of a cultural issue than anything else and is a common problem with our society. Enough has been written or deliberated on social ills, but public behaviour tends to ignore it without a hitch. Though the reasons for not paying heed by political class may be different from the reasons of public at large.

Pseudo heroism?

The above image has been taken from one of the protest in a European country in the year 2011. A close examination of this visual struck me from the point of view of the number of people who were trying to capture images at the moment. Several people can be seen weilding cameras, phones, ipads or some other gadget. One thought that came to me was possibly that there are people from the media. But the sheer number of such individuals as seen in the visual makes me wonder whether they are all from the media.

There are two aspects to it-

• In the age of social media, we want to feel good about ourselves and what we have been upto. Sharing of images from such protests when one is part of it is one aspect of this self love. 
• There is a sense of romanticisation about fight against state which has been glorified not just by media but also by entertainment industry. Films like Hazaron Khwaishein Aisi, Hazar Chaurasi ki Ma, Rang de basanti are all testimony to it. There are some movies from India. There are several from the west too where the oppresive state against unarmed citizens makes for an engaging story. Remember the iconic image of the revolutionary Che that we have seen on many a t-shirts?

A genuine revolutionary whose image became iconic amongst youth

An image from Rang de Basanti signifying the attitude of 'letting go'

In a state of extreme emotion, do we really feel like pulling out our camera to capture being present there?

There is a sense of high that one feels by claiming that one got hit by police or else when one was caught by the police. But isn't it totally different from the kind of struggle that freedom fighters did or else people like Suu Kyi and all have gone through. Shouldn 't people try to be more genuine when they seek to be in the middle of such movements.


Movements require passionate people and the passion should be towards the cause and nothing else. But if one enters into these protests for the sheer appeal of being captured in the press or sharing it on facebook, it loses its essential value. And the same momentum can't last beyond few hours. All leaders who start such movements should be vary of such 'supporters' as it is very difficult to guage from the crowd as to who is supporting what at that point in time.

This is one reason why Gandhian followers (in the true sense) and on extreme level terrorists never care to come in front of the media. Media searches for them when possible. They are committed to the cause because they believe in a given ideology, they understand its roots, history and possibilities. They are not there for bubble fames. And such people will aways be few.

It is important to distil true heroism from pseudo heroism. The former gives you numbers but the latter is about sustained strength.

Team Anna's troubles

I expressed my thoughts on the challenges for Anna Hazare's team in my post yesterday.


The editorial today in Indian Express from Shekhar Gupta is a scathing expression of the point  of trying to hold a sky high moral ground whose foundations are not totally rock solid.  Though i find him biased on a lot of matters otherwise, in this section I feel the questions raised do hold water.

Whatever is happening is not good at all for the cause by any standards.

Mallya's values are so clear

Vijay Mallya has all the wealth for sustaining his great 'image' through his Kingfisher calender but wonders what to do when it comes to paying salaries to the employees of Kingfisher airlines who are facing 'red' now.

Check out these two contrasting information pieces that appeared in the span of 5 days

Kingfisher says capital crunch hurting salary payments

                                 Vs

The hunt for Kingfisher calender 2012 is back

Inviting a la wall street protests ?

Shameless to say the least.

Whats your Mt Everest?

I happened to listen to the talk from Apa Sherpa organized by NHRDN Mumbai and two other Sherpas who have in a way conquered Mt Everest by cracking the enigma of scaling its awe inspiring altitude not just once but multiple times. Apa has been successful in scaling Mt Everest 21 times. I am as far removed from mountaineering as he might be from probably what I am into. But its not so difficult for me to imagine what kind of an adventure it must be.  Sherpas are basically natives of the mountains who have braved their lives to scale the Everest and now they share their knowledge and efforts with people who want to realize similar dreams. In a way they are leaders amidst the mountains.

His story is about someone who is humility personified and comes from a very struggling background. He grew up amidst difficulties and drew his strength from the experiences that he encountered as a result of those difficulties.

Lets look at what Apa Sherpa is not? He is not flamboyant, he is not verbose, he is diminutive, he maintains a low profile and if you meet him along the road, you won’t find any halo over his head. Yet what makes him a prolific leader is worth reflection.

Few things that struck me about Apa Sherpa:

1.       His leadership is about DOING:  He is not a great story teller who will talk to you about metaphors drawing Sun Tzu type analogies between war and business or mountaineering and business. He has never dived into the topic of business parallels to quote instances from the industry.He has done what is considered one of the most difficult feats and everyone reveres him for that. One can’t read a book to scale up the mountains. There is no book that can equip one to the feeling that one can get on base camp 4 where they say temperatures go as low as minus 40 degrees celcius with wind velocity close to 200km/hr.

If you are on the mountains and you need to know where you have to go, just listen to him.

He is going to be your leader there.

2.       When we do something multiple times, we make it appear even simpler:  You scale a danger once and you are somebody to listen to and you make a habit of scaling up dangers and you become an expert at it for anyone to approach you. Thus when leaders repeat their performance, it doesn’t translate into monotony because in those multiple experiences they are proving that it may not probably be as difficult as you think it is.

Also when he was  asked about whether he also finds mountaineering monotonous after having done it so many times, his answer was- if you are monotonous in your cubicles come to the mountains for trekking. It seems that he is naturally aligned to what he is doing. The motivation is completely intrinsic. His message is his life as Gandhiji famously remarked.

3.       A child of hardships:  Apa lost his father at a tender age of 12 and then he had to support his family for a living. He had to drop off from school and become a porter which made him carry more weight than his own body weight. He laughingly states that probably that may have hampered his height since he appears not more than 5 ft few inches. He struggled his way after that and only after a few years the same capacity to carry more weight than his body along the heights became a vital quality which is a prerequisite of a Sherpa. Thus when we try something unique in the middle of difficulties, it can become one of greatest differentiating strengths of ours. We should try to listen to the lessons of difficulties with patience.

4.       Contextual nature of leadership- As outlined above, Apa’s leadership is what it takes to be a leader in those terrains. It is different from a business or political leadership. He is driven by feelings and connects to people along their aspirations. He has some very prolific young people from Asia Trekking company who deeply respect his greatness and value that he brings to the lives of people for whom scaling Mt Everest matters a lot. He doesn’t appear to be a person who would get ruffled up quickly and that is such a vital trait when they are meeting trekkers from various parts of the world who may have risked a lot in their aspiration to scale up the mountain. Thus leadership qualities vary as per the demands of the situation in which you are required to lead.  There is no fixed template for it. Probably that’s what makes it such an enigma.

We salute you Apa for your attainments and probably your persona that those attainments have given shape to. 

Guess we all in our own domains of work can figure out models of excellence in our conduct and become shining examples like Apa. His story left me to think about ‘What was my Mt Everest’. Do you know yours?

Disability?

Celebrating our 2nd July's- Time to go beyond

I start with the disclaimer that this topic actually calls for an elaborate essay than a blog post. 

Lets try to see how an individual's progress is typically understood in our society-

• Birth
• Education resulting in Physical, Social, Psychological and Intellectual development
• Employment- Economic success
• Marriage
• Family expansion
• Material milestones- home, vehicle etc
• Professional growth
• Children's education
• Children's marriage
• Retirement from service
• Demise/Voyage

A nation's growth would look like this I guess considering that a nation is more of a concept, a continuum.

• Freedom from any external political hegemony (this is not equivalent to birth since no one one knows when a nation took birth since then we have to go back to development of civilization (not talking in political context here)- One time
• Journey towards Democracy - One time
• Development of Governance machinery- Executive, Judiciary and the Legislature - One time
• Development of institutions of public service- education, healthcare, water, sanitation, infrastructure etc- Continuous
• Design of the economic engine- Continuous
• Constant striving for improvement of public life- Continual
• Protection of rights of people- Continual
• Propagation of peace and amity through cultural discourse with the help of religion- Continual
• Creation of environment that fosters economic and cultural richness for all- Continual
• Establishing the nation in a global context- Continual
• Inclusive growth- Continual
• Establishing an environment that characterises nurturing human enterprise, balance of economic growth and protection of nature, protection of rights, political vigilance on the part of citizens, religious pursuits, cultural development through nurturing art- Continual

 I may have surely missed out on a lot of other aspects in this list but the point is that the birth and growth of a nation is far more complex and also painful than the progress of an individual. The latter becomes complex when the person is economically marginalized or else when the state fails to deliver on several accounts. Also, the journey of individual's growth is characterized by a lot of struggles on account psychological issues, social complexities, at times physical challenges, knowledge gap etc. The other difficulty about the latter is the fact that mostly it is a very lonely journey unlike a nation's journey which entails the commitment and energy of millions of people over a period of time.

At the outset it is difficult to understand how nation's progress can be ensured if you merely look at the individual's growth journey. So how do you map the progress of the complexities of nation building with the conventional line of growth of individuals as expressed above. Probably thats the very reason it calls for countless experiments and human efforts for hundreds of years to reach a mark where it is looked at respectfully by its own citizens first and then by other nations. 

Now where does 2nd July stand in all this? 

Last year 2009, July the 2nd, Justice Shah delivered a landmark judgement to decriminalize homosexuality and to uphold the rights of people people who are different on a specific level. If means a lot for someone who on account of having a different sexual orientation has lead a life of shame and ignominy for long. Gautam Bhan has taken a wonderful perspective on this by bringing to light the importance of upholding Constitutional morality in matters which should be considered purely personal in any civilized society. He has rightly pointed out that our examination of these judgements becomes all the more critical in the light of growing intolerance as being seen through Khap Panchayat idiosyncracies of Haryana and 'honour' killings.

The importance of these days has to be seen in the light of the fact that it takes several years of struggle to bring about a legal change and then probably another several decades to translate that change onto the social reality. Its just like dowry. It may be illegal but still there are instances of dowry related violence that one gets to read on a day to day basis.

Thus if we want to examine the progress of our society, we need to celebrate those moments which can be construed as inflexion points or milestones in the progress of a nation. Such episodes of important judgements or government policies should be included in the curriculum of schools and discussed thoroughly by students if one wants to create a community of people to gauge how one should position one's private growth pursuit amidst the larger pursuit of nation building which would call for several thousands of such changes spread over probably few centuries to see that dawn that makes one feel proud of one's country.

Has talking about 2nd October or 14th November really lead us anywhere?

Language and us

Took an auto-rickshaw for a local travel within the city of Mumbai. Its important to name the city as thats important to understand the relevance of this light anecdote.

The route that we took was diverted as people from the Islam faith were doing their namaz (prayer) near the mosque and that being small, some portion of the road gets used for it. The driver without any complaint diverted the vehicle. For me it was not new since i am familiar with this practice. Its like a tacit understanding where some persons would gently ask you to use the adjoining road as this road is being used for prayers.

Then we took the main road from an alternate route (without any hassle) and travelled along. We met some traffic at a distance. The auto brushed past one person and he started shouting at him in the local Marathi language. The driver very politely used the same language in responding and admitting that he didn't do it intentionally. After some grumbling that person left.

With his fluency I felt that he was also a Maharashtrian. In this city politicians are trying tooth and nail to assert their muscle on who is going to be the better safe guard of the local population (Marathi speaking) who according to them have a threat on 'culture' and more importantly jobs which are getting diverted to the outsiders. The issue is more complex than that but will park it for perspectives on some other day.

In this context, autorickshaw drivers in the city are majorly from the states of UP and Bihar and they have faced the brunt of this linguistic politics and it seems that their travail is only going to become worse with time.

After the person (who had the brush with the auto) left, the driver explained to me how he had learnt the tact of using the local language to appease such people though he knew that he himself was not completely at fault.  He also stated that response in any other language would have inflamed the person further on the name of someone from outside coming and literally pushing him.
I asked him 'So aren't you a Maharashtrian ?'. He stated with a smile no 'my mother tongue is Telugu' though I was born here and hence know this language quite fluently.

I acknowledged the driver for his sense of secularism in terms of agreeing to take a different route by showing respect to the sentiments of  another section of society (without any element of not being happy doing so), his willingness to pick up both his native language and also the local language. The humorous aspect was how a particular act becomes relatively less abominable when the person who has committed it can speak your own language.

I guess people learn to position themselves in whichever context you put them in. As much as this can be termed street smartness, it is also about recognizing the divides, acknowledging their presence and abiding by that.

Thats where it leaves a doubt in the mind.

Human Sphexishness

Sphexishness. Heard of this term before ? Interesting read

Changing morality of humour

Saw this movie- 3 Idiots the other day. Its an interesting movie and can be discussed on a number of lines. For example- What makes it a hit, The use of emotional moments, The actual issue on education that it deals with, Super performance of the artists, Average music scores etc etc.

I feel like expressing my thoughts on the changing morality of humour over a period of time. In the years to come i will try to keep pace with changes and how they stand on the axis of time.

What struck me in the movie was the fact that it didn't have any bounds on what can be laughed at. For one, funny teachers (or masterji) with a chari in his hand has been a subject of humour since b/w movie days.

• A paralytic father being shown in a humorous way
• Friends poking fun at each others parents
• Poverty in the home of one of the characters has been depicted humorously though actually speaking there is really nothing humorous about poverty or else people would have loved to experience it regularly
• Middle class norms have been very blatantly laughed at e.g. daughter waiting to get married for want of dowry
• A speech where the word 'balatkar' (meaning rape) has been inserted in the wrong place excites huge laughter in the crowd
• Ritual of immersion of the last remains of one's life
• Certain social beliefs like wearing rings for a safer tomorrow

The acceptability of humour in aspects which actually are not fundamentally humourous can mean the following:

• Increasing acceptability of humour in 'holy cow' areas indicates mark of a more broad minded and liberal society. Assuming that society is equally broadminded when something it holds dear also gets scoffed at publicly
• Mark of a society that needs to just let-go when it comes to entertainment

We are talking about shift of times of mid 50s when there would be a seperate comedian in the movie accompanying the hero. The hero would always be wise and responsible like Guru Dutt (how can he be a subject of laughter? :))  to gradual shifts where the key protagonist becomes comical like in Chupke Chupke, Andaz Apna Apna, Golmaal or Namak Halaal to raw below the belt humour which is quite common these days to broad based humour that we see in a movie like this one- where anything can suddenly inspire laughter.

If this movie is just an indicator of the two factors stated then probably it seems innocuous. But does it also somewhere serve as an indicator of a society which is gradually losing its sensitivity. In a metropolis, witnessing insensitivity is a norm. In fact seeing display of sensitivity becomes an event especially in public places. Can we imagine the impact of such humour on kids?

Or does it somewhere imply mocking of the shells that have enveloped and defined our identity since several years of hollow unchallenged practices like women should not be financially independent, an economy growing at 2.4% for decades hence majority remained poor etc.  Does this humour somewhere echo with the changing mood of the economic growth of the country and the upwardly mobile youth of today who wants to laugh at his own past and just come out of it? Is that the right way to do. Is there a moral question that we can't skip answering?

As someone expressed in an article that i read, are we also, in the process somewhere becoming part of the larger joke or probably it just means that the author of this blog has a weird sense of humour.

Anything can be true :)

For want of a symbol?

Whenever I read about terrorist activities being perpetrated in the name of religion and specifically when it comes from Islam, I get intrigued whether a presence of a religious symbol that would have depicted peace and love would have been of any value for people who really can't understand abstract thoughts.

Abstract thinking such as internalizing the subtleties of universal brotherhood are really not easy concepts for a raw mind. Its very very difficult to go beyond the confines of the structures and historical events that impose a certain kind of perspective on the minds of people. While just emulating the symbol in some form can help in a very simple way.

Certain religious symbols inspire a certain kind of virtue. Eg. the deep stillness and highest form of sacrifice in  Jesus's image encourages one atleast not to ignore these values if not emulate them on a daily basis. Similarly, Buddha's image in meditation inspires the need for internal deep dive. In Hinduism, Lord Krishna's image goes to a large extent in encouraging the virtue of dharma and prosperity- (though the latter ideal is what is generally seen to be understood by the simple minded and the former conveniently ignored).

At times I would say that if the image doesn't inspire the actual act it surely challenges the contrarion line of thinking. For example not all Christians may believe in sacrifice and surely not in living a life of non-materialism but the symbol would surely contest any feeling on the contrarion side, of say killing others in the name of religion. Similar would be the case with symbols of other religions. Which means that just because Hinduism has symbols doesn't imply that all Hindus embrace love and peace. But surely it mitigates and challenges people who want to perpetrate violence in the name of religion.

While when we look at Islam, we find that being a monotheistic religion, it differs from Christianity in not having any symbol of worship. I would surely want to understand the reason of this design but I wonder if some symbol signifying the virtues of love, unity and universal peace would have done some good to the raw minds of terrorists and in turn impacted the larger world in several positive ways.

The most positive negative emotion?

Can there be anything 'good' about anything 'bad'?

A very meaningful message in the latest edition of Harvard Business Review where it is suggested that its fine to have regrets since thats what is going to give us better perspective towards good decision making in future.

Many a times people tend to pull others out of this mode without thinking that there is a time which is a must spend for actually critically evaluating a decision which has gone bad. Just stating that you need to 'chill' and forget is a probably the most naive way of dealing with any kind of failure in life. Its important to feel bad about one's own judgement (if it has gone awry), learn from it and then move on.

Just wondering if Tiger Woods has taken break from professional golf  for this reason?

Economics lesson from the local kirana storewallah

High inflation has been the order of the day in our country since past few years. The other day I went to my local grocery store to buy some rice. The grocery store by the way has a very funny name - Jai Gurudev Chana Bhandar. :) He offered few variety and I narrowed down to the one being sold at 44 Rs/kg. (almost 1$/kg)

I felt like chatting with him for a while and got to learn that the owner of the kirana store came to Mumbai in early 80s from Uttar Pradesh. One of two states from where maximum immigrants come to Mumbai on account of low economic growth and also poor quality of life that the largest state offers to its people. I told that person that 'yeh bahut mehenga hai' (this is really expensive). He said there is no way that the price would come down.

On poking a bit further about the basis of his assertive statement, he started explaining his understanding of economics. He mentioned that when he came to do business in the city, the cost of toor dal (a popular variety of pulses) was Rs 3/kg and since then the price has always risen and today its being sold at 90Rs/kg. He said that people are fools to say that its because of Congress that the price is high. Using an interesting swear word he states that irrespective of which government comes, the price just can't be low for the simple reason that the interest in farming as a means of occupation is losing popularityin the villages now. When they go home every year, they get to meet villagers who want to see cities, work there and ensure that their kids get a good education.

When there are no producers, prices are naturally going to shoot up. There is nothing to get surprised about that. That was the crux of that few minute conversation.

The interesting part was that, this person has not completed his formal schooling and in his conversation, you can get a light understanding of a basic principle of economics, trend towards urbanization and the limitation of public policy in certain food prices.

Though there was nothing to bank upon but its really nice to see how each individual despite his limited formal education, tries to develop some understanding of the reason why things happen in a certain way.

I found it really interesting. This also points to the fact that we can never take for granted the opinion of the common man on political matters. No wonder his vote wins at the end of every election.

Celebrity endorsements or Mockery of Human Intellect?

I admire Aamir Khan for his acting but I wonder at this concept of celebrity endorsements. In fact I really find it asinine to say the least that something like Earth Hour needs his image.

Global warming is a major area of concern with loads of data on it available over the internet. It is a problem which has attracted the brightest brains in the world. I wonder as to why is it that despite all the efforts put in by researchers, activists, NGOs and even governments of the world we still need an image of the above nature with one of the popular actors carrying a candle to signify shutting off power for an hour and that his support to the cause gives it an extra ounce of seriousness.

How does this problem gain in significance on account of this image???

Does that imply that unless such people who are not anywhere related to the cause come and just stand infront of the camera for a shot, our educated mass will not get convinced. Doesn't that somewhere imply that the underlying assumption here is that educated mass has actually lost all its grey cells? The same is the case when we see Amitabh Bachhan offering polio vaccination drops.

Media guys may argue about the importance of perception but again what does it mean in terms of something which is so real and talked about. Why on earth do we still need IMAGES to inspire us? Can't we take the effort and do something about things which are real just because we understand and believe in the cause and feel strongly about it???

I recollect a group of students from an undergraduate college approaching me for the walk they were trying to do on 1st Dec'08 towards AIDS day. They mentioned about their difficulty in getting a celebrity as otherwise it was difficult to convince the media. How very insane!! Is AIDS such a small issue that it needs to be backed by someone from the film/tv fraternity to come and endorse? Can't the students have faith in their own selves and march because they themselves feel that the cause is worth their sweat and time?

The same public mindset is well taken advantage of when we see actors who have had their popularity time on the screen switch to the political circles. The idiotic junta would flock them from all corners to get a glimpse when Sanjay Dutt stands for Samajwadi Party or when Chiranjeevi launches Praja Rajyam.

I am afraid that unless we ignite the candle of passion and knowledge in our own hearts, we will continue to depend upon the candles held by images which probably may have altogether different 'causes' that they hold dear than what they are trying to represent there.

Symbols of Strength- One of the many ironies of our times

He did whatever he felt was important and did it well. The rest of us can quibble endlessly about who should own his possessions.

Vijay Mallya, chairman of the UB group, bought articles belonging to Gandhi which were being auctioned in New York. He paid 1.8M$ to get those items and then gave them to the government. A nice gesture no doubt.

When great leaders pass away, generations to come can pay homage to them in several ways through the years. I feel that the appropriate way to do that would be to 'understand' those principles that these Himalayan individuals stood for and to attempt them to constantly visit the relevance and applicability of values in the fast changing times.

According to me Mr Mallya is a complete irony to the values that Gandhi stood for as he leads a life of excess and indulgence and glorifies it by all possible means, but when it comes to enterprise, Mr Mallya may be a good example as well. Yes, his Kingfisher Airline does breath the words that 'customer is the king' and this was something which Gandhi believed in as well.

Having said that, the hollowness of certain events is at times too difficult to really accept. In NY probably these belongings might have gone to some rich businessman who again would have scant respect for Gandhian way of living but then what difference would it have made to treasure those possessions? What value do these items have if they don't bring along with them to the actual possessor, the principles which defined the life of the person.

If the keepers of these possessions of great people (Mallya or Mr/Ms X whosoever wanted but could not buy) really want to understand Gandhi and treasure his thoughts, a very simple way would be to get hold of his books which till today in an age of high priced books, still would barely cost anyone over 150Rs (approx 3 US$). There are books worth 5Rs (ya 10 cents) which may provide us more value than some non living objects which were those bare essentials which he could not do away with.

Slippers- for walking on rough earth

Specs- so that he could atleast see properly

Bowl- to have his meals and

a Timepiece- to keep track of his schedule which he observed religiously

Don't these items stand as tall symbols of what support system is actually needed for an individual who wants to move the world around him. Its a clear dictum against the relevance of a society which worships acquisitiveness.

What are we all waiting for?

Jai Ho !

A R Rehman's attainments by winning the coveted Oscar is a clear testimony to the significance of values like Passion for work, Innovation, Perseverance in the field of Music. Such awards more than anything else are strong symbols for what goes into attaining them. Lots of lessons for the emerging talent to keep striving for the best.

In the midst of assembly line songs churned out by the Bollywood with almost nil memory life, his music (along with some other talented and genuine artists of the country) would continue to mesmerize the generations to come.

Hats Off to You, Rehman!

Review of Reviews of Slumdog Millionaire

No. Its not about Aparajito.

I have not seen Slumdog Millionaire yet but reading the reviews have brought more entertainment value to me than I guess what the movie would be able to provide.

Here are some of the opinions I came across. (not using the exact words though)

• Lot of people have praised the movie in terms of the starkness with which they have shown truth and also for the entertainment value that the movie provides through a nice storyline, great music score, direction etc
• India has been shown in poor light while this is not the real India
• We come up with so many films but our good movies always tend to get ignored while here we have a western director who takes a snapshot of slum life in India and aims to get an Oscar. These hollywood guys know how to pat their own backs.
• Some have stated that movies where India is shown in sad light are always preferred for awards. They have remembered Ray and Mrinal Sen's movies in which many a times the director has tried to cover the dire state of people and how those movies got several awards
• Jagjit Singh vents out his frustration on seeing Rehman getting an award for coming out with great music score for the movie. It was really in a very bad taste
• Some people have criticised on why the director has projected that the victim in the movie was at the receiving end of Mumbai riots and why has he shown to be a Muslim particularly.
• Some have stated that they should not have used the word 'dog' as it is derogatory

I will not talk about all perspectives here, but we as Indian viewers should admit that we really are not great promoters of really nice artistic movies. Somehow in the midst of drudgery of daily life, movie is only seen as a medium of entertainment which in turn has been crudely defined by songs, dance, comedy and drama. Anything which remotely tries to touch upon the finer aspects of human emotions, be it tragedy or serious themes, tends to go down in viewers category. And media doesn't feel like talking much about such movies after that.

We still see no brainer movies like Singh is King raking good moolah in the industry.

The great sign is that experiments in lateral themes have started and we are seeing some wonderful work emerging as well but in general as an audience we fail to see the beauty depicted by previous directors who were really able to successfully showcase strong human emotions through richly carved themes. The people who comment on poverty being glamorised are the ones who never go to watch Aparajito by Ray, Meghe Dhaka Tara by Ghatak or Dweepa by Kasravali because these movies have projected poverty. The thing is probably they havn't yet developed the eye or the sensitivity to understand what the director is trying to show. If we observe minutely, poverty is just the context. The lens is always on very subtle and profound human sentiments.

Thats the very reason why a movie like Maine Gandhi ko Nahin Mara which was an amazing depiction of the death of Gandhian values after his physical death by not just one person but by people at large. Or for that matter a movie like Khuda ke Liye from Pakistan which was brillliant on several accounts from the point of view of the pain of the director which drove him to make the movie to which he did phenomenal justice, music, cinematography and performance.

A movie like Tingya where the director had to approach over 23 producers after getting acceptance of one, failed to draw any footfalls to the theatre while the same won international recognition. Yes. The story was again based on a poor child from Vidarbha- an area in Maharashtra which is more in the news for the farmers who have commited suicide on account of harsh economic state. The performance of the child was amazing in the movie.

I don't know what the western panelists have in mind. Maybe they are biased or maybe not. But the point is, the question we should ask ourselves is, as a society have we been able to promote good quality movies based on rich stories, great performance which can appeal to the sensibilities of not just few people in a nation but viewers from across cultures. That is a hallmark of a great movie. Unfortunately one of the biggest entertainment industries in the world- Bollywood, can't boast of many such works since it has always catered to populist tastes.

Will a movie like 'Children of Heaven' by Majid Majidi get support from the audience?

State kills a Hero: Assassination of Lasantha Wickrematunge

Lasantha Wickrematunge, the editor of Sunday Leader was killed by two gunmen early this year.

In this posthumous editorial, he predicts his death giving a vivid account of the atrocities of the State in Sri Lanka against free press and individual liberty.

As can be understood from the editorial, the person sensed the risk to his life but didn't give up in the face of terror which was ironically sponsored by State.

At the end of this touching editorial, he mentions:

An example that has inspired me throughout my career in journalism has been that of the German theologian, Martin Niem”ller. In his youth he was an anti-Semite and an admirer of Hitler. As Nazism took hold in Germany, however, he saw Nazism for what it was: it was not just the Jews Hitler sought to extirpate, it was just about anyone with an alternate point of view. Niem”ller spoke out, and for his trouble was incarcerated in the Sachsenhausen and Dachau concentration camps from 1937 to 1945, and very nearly executed. While incarcerated, Niem”ller wrote a poem that, from the first time I read it in my teenage years, stuck hauntingly in my mind:

First they came for the Jews
and I did not speak out because I was not a Jew.
Then they came for the Communists
and I did not speak out because I was not a Communist.
Then they came for the trade unionists
and I did not speak out because I was not a trade unionist.
Then they came for me
and there was no one left to speak out for me.

This poem has such vital lessons for all.

Lasantha died a hero's death for the sake of values that he cherished, which were not just dear to him but also values which are central to the growth of a free society.

Thousand tributes to him.

The better we are placed, the more visible we become

When we have plenty of anything with us, our real character surfaces.

To explain my point, when a child takes birth in a prosperous family, the level to which he or she can make use of this life of convenience, decides the inner substance; similarly a politician who has highest authority to take decisions would show his intellect and character by what he/she does with that power; again when all means of communication are available to us, our interest in communicating with people indicates the presence or absence of interest in conversing with them.

Another way of understanding this is by studying people who could achieve much more with certain limiting conditions. That would give a comparitive viewpoint to the possibilities of human spirit.

Its only when we are short of certain conditions that we feel like attributing the blame of our state to external factors. The moment these external limitations are gone, there emerges the individual with his strenghts and frailties of mind. An image which is no more veiled by limiting circumstances.

Thus if you have to test the potential of any person, give him all that is required to work comfortably. His work will then be his true signature.