Deeply saddened…

  

I have never been saddened like this for a long time, few minutes back I came to know from the Net that Wislawa Szymborska has passed away months back. It’s sad that mediocre and crude that Indian elite predominantly is (they control and feed all structures with incredible travesty), it is getting increasingly difficult to chaff rare piece of treasure from overwhelming muck. Don’t know how am I not aware of this…. 

“I don't know” she said “It's small, but it flies on mighty wings. It expands our lives to include the spaces within us as well as those outer expanses in which our tiny Earth hangs suspended.” Without it, she said, Isaac Newton would have gobbled apples rather than pondering the force that makes them drop. Her compatriot Marie Curie would have “wound up teaching chemistry at some private high school for young ladies from good families.” What a brilliant thought!! 

Wislawa Szymborska's poems left deep imprint and is a significant influence. I am so very saddened. Few lines from her poem…

Something doesn’t start

at its usual time.

Something doesn’t happen

as it should. Someone was always, always here,

then suddenly disappeared

and stubbornly stays disappeared.

Bush and Blair should face proceedings in the international criminal court

Former UN Secretary General Kofi Annan says that Tony Blair could have stopped the Iraq war had he decided to walk away from a partnership with the US. He said this after releasing his memoir, hope the book sells. But we people on the street don’t need any insiders story, we knew it all the way.  

Mr. Annan however said he did not agree with fellow Nobel peace prize laureate, Archbishop Desmond Tutu, over his suggestion that Bush and Blair should face proceedings in the international criminal court. Annan says “they were democratically elected leaders acting in what they believed were their national interest”. Really was there a referendum?!! Was it there in their election manifesto? Who admitted to 'sexed up' reports? So wy did they lose the election? Secondly, even if there was referendum, that doesn’t give any nation any right to attack another country. Furthermore it’s now very clear that attack on Iraq was manipulated for selfish interest of few, what is also very clear is that lots of innocent people died.

  

Wonder what more evidence does International Court of Justice wants? Or is it that they are only interested in brutalities by leaders in Africa. The neo-colonial white man’s burden, shall we.  Democracy (secularism/religion, freedom of expression...) have become convenient alibi for lots of disgusting acts in recent times.  

(courtesy Guardian Newspaper)

Correction: in my last blog...the line should read  "...must add here that his fiction does lack, where Naipaul glitter". Pankaj Mishra is amazing as non fiction writer, indeed he is arguably one of the best contemporary writers i have read.

Arab spring spirals dangerously as history repeats itself…

The events happening in Arab world specifically in Libya is not entirely unexpected. The radical elements are gaining much space in this region. Syria too is being sucked into the vortex. All this at the expense of livelihood problems of common people as also issues of environment, biodiversity so on…when stakes are high these are but minor impediments. Some commentators patronize it as “you get what you ask for” or that some societies are “not suited for democracy”.  It’s uncanny how the despots in Arab world hold on to power as the West fed them for immediate gains and the common people suffered. It is something that has happened before …

Pankaj Mishra’s From The Ruins Of Empire –The revolt against the West and the remaking of Asia is remarkable book. He used few significant personalities to weave a compelling history. Indeed a history that rather remarkably gives insights into contemporary happening. The reason why this is quite a major book to be published in recent times.  The life of Al-Din Al-Afghani is an important study on how a very concerned person’s world view gets radicalized as he deals with despots and is now very much exploited by the fundamentalist and competing forces. He is in many ways representation of common people, the people on the street who fight the modern day tyrant whether Mubarak, Gadaffi or Assad. Interestingly these rulers too adopted the western references –the kind al-Afghani was dealing with –to project their liberal credentials for the liking of West. These references were packaged by West to showcase these leaders as acceptable for dealing. People respond to the developing circumstances by negotiating what they think will give secure livelihood and dignity. It is this that is exploited by power brokers and vested interests (the organized section, the space taken over by the fundamentalists), as is happening in Tripoli or Cairo. Al-Afghani a very sane and rational man, his world view “was not a systematic thinker, and seems to have developed his ideas on the run…” The reason why ‘Arab spring’ is so much a legacy of al-Afghani as much it is of the common people. 

As you read the book that traces the history in an entirely new light by chartering lives of few significant people that was sought to be relegated in imperial version of history, you start to get a refreshing context to the contemporary events. The dictators like Mubarak, Assad, Gaddafi (and not very recently Shah of Iran, one may add the Saudi royals too)…were encouraged and patronized by West for their material gain. It was either the western political establishment or the big Corporate, sometimes clandestinely, sometimes openly, in most cases there wasn’t any difference, they never gave a damn. While despots role-played liberalism with rib tickling cadence that made good copy for market media, the profits were filled up in the Scandinavian banks (incidentally these countries consistently top the yearly list of corruption free world!!). Democracy was ruse that was sought to be trickled down. Indeed the dictators actively played on the fears of chaos. Correctly put, the West was an established partner in the loot. If this doesn’t shock what will really shock is the fact that this is repeat play of more than century back. It is a déjà vu moment of deceit. Those were heydays of colonialism and imperialism this is the heydays of democracy and market.  

It is also not ironical that in the last years of his life al-Afghani lamented the fact that he had wasted the seed of his ideas ‘in the salt and sterile soil’ of kingly sovereignty. The book quotes him “for what I sowed in that soil never grew, and what I planted in that brackish earth perished away. During all this time none of my well intentioned counsels sank in the ears of the rulers of the East whose selfishness and ignorance prevented them from accepting my word…Would that I had sown all the seed of my ideas in the receptive ground of the people’s thought”. Undoubtedly it took more than a century for al-Afghani’s ideas to percolate. The Arab spring has all the ideas of al-Afghani, as also the emergence of reactionary forces that can be traced to his experiences. It is an amazing insight on the history of the region. 

The life of Liang Qichao’s is another reference on the development of pan Asian response to imperialism as also how Japan adapted on the lines of colonial power. Even the recent tense situation between China and Japan could be traced back to the travesties of these periods.    

The book gave me insights that Macaulay driven Indian education system miserably failed. I recall in my school in the History subject annual exams we had to shade in the world map the British, French, Dutch colonies and so on. Our intelligence/talent depended on performance in these nonsenses. The teaching didn’t provide the context of depravity in these conquests, atleast a contemporary balance on these historical wrongs (even now the mediocre Indian elite –direct beneficiaries of colonialism, are in awe). Tang Tiaoding quite rightly defined it as “white people’s history”. The book quotes him “They provide plenty of indisputable evidence on the extent of primitive customs and ignorance of the native people, as proof of why these people deserve to be conquered.  This type of praise (of themselves) and condemnation (of others) is done with an eye towards the final judgment of history….but now I know that these books were written by white people, where truth and falsehood are confused…I know one thing for sure; if you seek the truth about Philippines in the history books of the Spaniards, you would not doubt for a moment that the country is ignorant and vile, and you would only wonder why it had not perished sooner…”.

Pankaj Mishra is undoubtedly an exciting writer (for the uninitiated he is the author of wonderful book Butter Chicken in Ludhiana), I have read most of his books. He surely reminds me of VS Naipaul in many shades. Take for instance brilliant crisp lines like “The advance of imperialism everywhere forced Asian elites into sideways glances as well as urgent self appraisals”. Must add here that his fiction does lack, where Naipaul glitter (I feel this as a reader). I have reached a stage in life where I know I really can’t be a good writer (English is too complicated a language!) but still Naipaul remains a reference and Mishra a path! I too have spent few days in JNU to know that the real history is history of common people, that which is being relegated as subaltern. The explosion of communication media in true sense is beginning of history, it is the end of elitist history of Fukuyamas and superstructures. It is in this context we can say that Pankaj Mishra is deconstructing history for us. It is the age of Derrida!!  

Condolences

Varghese Kurian was truly a Bharath Ratna, it is unfortunate that the incompetent government is not able to recognize his contributions. 

Mr.Thilakan was a tremendous actor, arguably one of the best in India. He played some memorable characters over the years, two of my favorite movies are Munnampakkam (legendary Padmarajan) and Perumthachan (scripted by MT)

                        

Paisa ped par nahi ugtha hai

We are quite grateful to CAG and SC for taking initiative to make policy makers accountable for their misdeeds. Corruption is rampant. The coal scam runs into billions of Rupees. This loot has been going on for decades, irrespective of political parties in power. It is not only about wanton greed but also destruction of land/environment in the name of development. This government has been ineffective and should be removed at the earliest, the more they stick around the more misery they create.  Aam admi (indeed Secularism rant) is a convenient ruse for corruption.

The hiroshima girl

It is me knocking at your door
- at how many doors i've been
But no one can see me
Since the dead are invisible.

I died at Hiroshima
that was ten years ago
I am a girl of seven
Dead children do not grow.

First my hair caught fire
then my eyes burnt out
I became a handful of ashes
blown away by the wind.

I don't wish anything for myself
for a child who is burnt to cinders
cannot even eat sweets.

I'm knocking at your doors
aunts and uncles, to get your signatures
so that never again children will burn
and so they can eat sweets.

'Hiroshima Girl' is the english translation of Turkish poem by Nazim Hikmet.

These lines by Oscar Wilde and an infamous image from Vietnam

A child can understand a punishment inflicted by an individual, such as a parent or guardian, and bear it with a certain amount of acquiescence. What it cannot understand is a punishment inflicted by society...

Bolt !!!

This was something you really cannot miss, the world stopped at 2.20am IST and the Bolt at 9.63sec. Effortless?!! Not really...  

some lives are just brilliant...

 Great work Mr. Khan

Aamir Khan is one of the hugely popular actors. Over the last two decades he has acted in some spectacularly popular movies. In the meantime he has also consciously sought to use his popularity to focus on issues that matters to common people, interestingly on popular platforms, and it has worked. Worked very well indeed!! The other day i was watching Sathyamev Jayathe, the issues related to water was handled in a manner that made common people aware of the problems and it was done sensitively without pontificating. 

I must add i haven’t watched all the episodes since last few weeks i have been travelling, and had to spent most Sundays on pressing issues (including Derby!!) but have watched some episodes for instance the one on alcohol related problems (also pesticides).  Aamir Khan must be aware that his program is popular and is taken quite seriously (it is unprecedented in Indian context) and therefore shouldn’t have resorted to cheap tricks of including “celebrities”. 

Though i am not against sale of liquor but promotion is unacceptable, of course there are rules against these but they circumvent it through surrogate ads like ‘sodas’. Undoubtedly it is unethical. Indeed after this episode articles start surfacing about the program being not very popular, as expected liquor lobby have dropped the biscuits for journalist poodles.  Crude woman says “aaj bhushan kal vibhushan parso kulbhushan!!”. Welcome to the world of wonderful Indian muslims...made just as ordered!!

Acha tho hum chalthe hai....

If you ask me what was my earliest recollection of watching a movie?

 It was Haathi mera saathi, in Jabalpur

If you ask on whom are my favourite songs picturised?....some really incredible songs

If you ask whose hairstyle many tried to emulate (including me, apart from ofcourse Bachchanmania)?

All these were Rajesh Khanna. Terrific!!! He was phenomenal, though i must admit when i started having understanding of movies it was Amitabh Bachchan phase all the way. And we wanted some ‘fight’ movies....it was much later that Rajesh Khanna caught the imagination, mostly because of the songs. It still does, some songs are eternal and it has Rajesh Khanna face. Condolences   

What happened to songs and lyrics in recent times? They are getting rare (i recently liked the song from Dabang, but these are getting very rare). Apart from Gulzar (he is eternal with amazing sensibilties) and few more...there seem to be not many in Hindi film industry (ofcourse the mediocre fellow who crept into RS, i cannot even recall a single song of this creep. Even the kuch na kaho song is because of the picturing/music rather than sedate lyrics. The Lagaan songs -specifically devotional one i have heard as a child growing up in North. I am not surprised. Some people have made it a habit of living on others, famous the better. As Crude woman says fluterring her false eyelashes “jab jab murga paidha hua hai thab thab biriyani bana hai”!!), hopefully the era of good songs returns.

Deeply saddened...i was so shocked to hear about Elinor Ostrom. I had met her only few months back in Bangalore and she looked quite hearty and healthy, and gave a speech that lasted about 40minutes.   Just couldn’t believe when heard the news. She really was remarkable. This is what she wrote in her last article published few days before Rio summit...

“The goal now must be to build sustainability into the DNA of our globally interconnected society. Time is the natural resource in shortest supply, which is why the Rio summit must galvanize the world. What we need are universal sustainable development goals on issues such as energy, food security, sanitation, urban planning, and poverty eradication, while reducing inequality within the planet’s limits”...... “We have a decade to act before the economic cost of current viable solutions becomes too high. Without action, we risk catastrophic and perhaps irreversible changes to our life-support system. Our primary goal must be to take planetary responsibility for this risk, rather than placing in jeopardy the welfare of future generations”.

.

'Animal spirit' can do meow meow if the monsoon fails

Indian subcontinent is very much dependent on yearly and timely monsoons, in particular the South West monsoons. It is an important source of life sustaining water that rejuvenates the ecosystem, it also is the source of rivers and precious groundwater. It breathes life into myriad forms of living beings, not to forget the agriculture crops and therefore food security of a nation. The Western Ghats is home to amazing biodiversity of flora and fauna. The intricate web of life that is playing its magic for millions and millions of years. These hills form an important source for monsoons pattern and distribution. They are the starting points of not only life but are also the cradle of culture, the folklores and myths. There are thousands of species that are endemic, many yet to be discovered, many on the verge of extinction. Western Ghats therefore is our heritage and needs protection. 

It is in this context Madhav Gadgil report becomes significant, it is a definitive starting point for public discussion in deciding how natural resources must be utilized. There is cartel existing who are exploiting (plundering is a better word) earth/nature for profit. They are gnawing on our future. They include the unscrupulous business, politicians, bureaucrats so on. They have been looting the nature for easy money for many decades now, but no more. It’s going to get difficult from now on. They have brought delicate balance of life in Western Ghats into serious crisis because of their myopic decisions for short term gains. The Western Ghats Ecology Expert Panel (WGEEP) has designated the entire hill range as an Ecologically Sensitive Area and suggested the formation of a Western Ghats Ecology Authority (WGEA), a statutory authority which enjoys the powers under the Environment (Protection) Act.

It has recommended to assess the current status of ecology of the Ghats region, demarcate areas within the region that were to be notified as ecologically sensitive ones and make recommendations for the conservation, protection and rejuvenation of the entire area. Also a comprehensive study on the impact of mining on the ecology, environment, human health, and biodiversity by a competent multidisciplinary team. The report has strongly criticized the government for its poor implementation of environmental laws, serious systemic flaws that help culprits get away with environmental destruction and how the benefits of many developmental projects never reach some section of society.

The Economists and Meteorologists are similar in that they live a charmed existence and are never responsible for their decisions. It seems to fall into benevolent nature of life they live, avuncular presences of 'underachievers' (pun intended!!). They are here, we are made to believe, trying to help. The question is not whether economists are competent as economists but are economists competent as human beings, do they have necessary quality as sensitivity to surrounding and sensibility to the context called life. Or has the insular life in pits of GDPs and fiscal deficits made them uniquely immune to existential realities. Forget Indian economy but the lives of most people (i haven’t even come to biodiversity) in this part of the world is connected to monsoons. The nature has been quite benevolent for last many years. One can safely say that Indian economy -the policy making hinged on pandering service industry and consumer products which in turn work because of the population –would collapse if the monsoon fails. The fact is human being live on food and plants needs proper climate and water. In case one forgets water is needed for drinking; high GDP can never compensate for water needs. Lakes, rivers, forests... are critical for our survival. 

 Western Ghats therefore needs protection, and immediate conservation measures need be adopted. The policies for short term gains by economists, politicians/business and bureaucrats need be checked by society. Policies that impact long time survival and are unsustainable need be resisted. Policies that accentuate social disparities should be prevented. Yes energy and power demands are high but focus needs to be on renewable sources and most importantly existing sources has to be made efficient (may i remind here that fuel guzzled in matter of seconds by formula one juvenilities took millions of years to produce and is depleting at a very fast rate). You cannot use resources to waste, that surely is criminal. This blogger doesn’t really want it but wishes that monsoons fails, and fails for many years, maybe that will be a wakeup call from slumber. Then these economists (who are having stranglehold on policies) and policy makers will realize the importance of sustainable development. Then maybe they will understand the importance of conservation and significance of Western Ghats.

Borsalino wins Bangalore Derby

It was a fantastic win by Borsalino (trained by Padmanabhan, jockeyed by young Sandesh). A rare start to finish in a derby, and wining by 8 lengths. Bravo!!!