How much is enough?

The good news from India is not only that those with 10 houses (cars and planes for that matter) now have twenty, but these achievements make the headlines. This could mean many things - they are an indicator of how well the economy is doing, that there is no other news worth reporting, that these players are becoming the ‘who’s who’ in the world map, that they want to do more things with money other than accumulate it (never share it though), that the only criteria for success is the number zeroes to a name, that the media thinks they are the next role models or they a more interesting economic index than the Nifty 50 and other such indices.

They may not all be true, but they are all making the transition to becoming truths and relevant today. A friend of mine tells me about this 24 year old who wants to own a Maybach by the age of thirty. There is a growing belief that the degree of success is directly proportional to the ability to flaunt it. Sure, as children success was guaranteed to get a prize, a mention in the roll call, or a gift from the parents, the size of the prize did not matter, what was of consequence was a new standard was recognized.

Does this point to a lack of imagination of the current work force? For everyone to choose and even recognize the same criteria for success points to either a society getting dumb (okay numb) or society taking the simplest way out (success is valid only if it can be economically measured and therefore recognizable and if others aspire to it). So we have advertisements that hark on success in terms of a big car, a big house or reports such as those mentioned. Take for example the stories that ran when Tendulkar got a Ferrari- papers made it out to be that one world champion was recognizing another, but the fact of the matter was that Schumacher had very little idea of cricket and for that matter Tendulkar. But there wasn’t a peep when Tendulkar refused to pay customs duty on the car, the government had to acquiesce and allow the car to come in without any duty – which means that Indians lost out on money that would have benefited them – in some ways the car belongs to every Indian and therefore it wouldn’t be a crime if each one of us went put a little dent into the car. But the point is because we Indians thought that getting a car as a gift was evidence of this mans success he was allowed to make demands on the government that actually should have put him and everyone else to shame.

But getting back to our lack of imagination in defining success, it has consequences in just about everything we do. Take for example the case of Medha Patekar does society consider her and her achievements as a success. How many parents would want their children to emulate her? How many parents would state proudly that their children work for her organization, or for that matter how many youth would work for her cause? Now take the case of the Ambani brothers and get the same questions answered. It has become so bad that Pogo, a children’s TV channel, asks children to choose actors and their movies for awards – both which have no relation to children, and then the likes of MTV Youth Icon awards have nominees like Orkut, a Rang De Basanti (a movie) and the only human Abhishek Bachan in their list of nominees – Orkut won, the previous awardees included Anil Ambani (a businessman), Shah Rukh Khan (an actor), Rahul Dravid and Dhoni (cricketers).

And recently there were headlines around India about the billion dollars spent by a few mega rich Indians to buy cricket teams in cities around India. The Indian Premier League created by the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) is truly a defining moment in Indian history – never has so much money been spent by so few Indians on so few Indians. No body has questioned the need for the BCCI to create another league when there are already cricket leagues. Nobody has questioned the appropriateness for these few people to spend so much money on a group of players who are already extremely well off.

Nobody does it because everybody wants to emulate this form of success. There does not seem to be a price that one has to pay when one is so rich.

It is not good enough that these people are feted when they pay taxes – the reason they can pay so much in tax is because there are others who are not earning an income, because there are others who sleep in slums, because there are others who cannot afford to send their children to school.

Fortune and fame go hand in hand and maybe the Indian government should provide other avenues for these fortunate ones to add to their fame. These rich should spend a certain percentage of their money on the public good and they can name the roads, the free schools and hospitals they build after themselves. This for one would ensure that these things would never go into decay because the egos of the rich would ensure that their names were not associated with anything moribund, more importantly because this would truly make India a country which is built on the foundations of equity, justice and equality.

Small towns and a little bit of fish

When fellow Indians ask me where I am from, I say Nagpur and then to make things interesting I say that it is in the very centre of India and that all North-South and East-West trains pass through this city. Impressed, they ask me a little more about it and I speak about the two flyovers we have and the 3 malls and I end with ‘Nagpur is a small town with big city dreams’.

All small towns and their people have that ambition; it can be seen noticed in a variety of ways. I was in Orissa recently and observed some of the ways these places attempt to make their dreams reality.

The use of English in advertisement boards and the type of food sold are two of the most visible ways. A food stall built over a hand cart has boldly writ ‘Indian Chart’ over it. One is not sure whether the entrepreneur’s intention was to point out the engineering innovations and wanted to write ‘Indian Cart’ or was intending to advertise the cuisine served -‘Indian Chaat’ or was just showing his route to success. The presence of a food outlet serving Chinese (or what goes as Chinese) surrounded by others that serve the local cuisine is a pointer to where the town is heading. The place I saw had the necessary accoutrements that indicated the food served – a big wok, large bottles of soy sauce, chilli sauce, tomato sauce and a mound of boiled noodles.

I spent time on a fishing trawler, fishermen are known to be good cooks and I was looking forward to some good fish curry and rice. We passed a variety of fishing boats as we headed into sea. Our progress into bluer water coincided with the progress the cook was making in the kitchen. There were constant updates from the kitchen – the breeze brought us information of the oil being heated, the aroma of freshly frying onions hit us next, the addition of turmeric and red chilli powder was duly announced - we followed every addition to the evolving curry with our noses. These aromas were interspersed with offerings of freshly fried fish that the kitchen would send over.

These offerings resulted in the a paucity of fish for the curry – so the captain took matters into his hands and radioed other trawlers and asked them if they had any fresh fish – soon we had trawlers stopping for us with fish that we bought.

So at around 3 pm we finally got to eat what our noses were telling us about – it was delicious.

Coming Back

One of my colleagues played Ozzie Osborne’s ‘Mama I am coming home’ when I told them I was going home for the holidays. I am not sure if the lyrics reflect this simple journey but it seemed to be a momentous occasion.

There is an innate sense of anticipation on the journey home, an eagerness that has got to do with a sense of familiarity that encompasses known faces, familiar terrain and other things that act as happy leitmotifs.

However, there is a stage in life when these leitmotifs get to become a little more sober. It does seem that the time gap between two home comings shrink and it was just yesterday that one was making the same journey. But the vast sweep of impact, of that time, on peoples life’s is breathtaking it gets personal – more grey hair, more spines that are bent, more sickness related to age, memories of once lively and healthy people created by their current debilitating bedridden state. A general question about somebody gets the overtone of whether the person is alive or is on the way out.

This is what struck me when I got back home. However there also was this scent of freshness from the youngsters who I saw last as babies, of youngsters who are now parents with children of their own.

The shoes remain the same but there is a production line of people who fill them over time and I am part of that production line.

Its Narendra Modi once again

So the psephologists got it wrong, the Congress (I) built castles in the air, while Modi and his multi masked multitude romped home to another win.

There were many cooks to spoil Modi’s broth – there were dissidents, there was the incumbency factor and there was the communal divide. Such was the relief at the outcome that Advani (of the BJP and the Prime Minister in waiting) called it a victory that had repercussions at the national levels, while Kapil Sibal (Minster of Science and Technology ) stated that even fascists come to power.

Political analysts have called Gujarat the laboratory for the right wing. They have been myopic in only calling Gujarat a laboratory – its India that has become a laboratory, it’s the politicians, the judiciary, police, and the common man across who are guinea pigs. The Saffron brigade want to see how far they can go before something happens. Well 5 years have passed and nothing has happened and the party and people under whose rule the genocide took place have retained power.

Which brings me to the question of should these people be actually allowed to vote at all. Yes, yes we are a democracy and all that. But the question is how does one deal with an inefficient democracy and with people who know how to usurp democratic principles for their own benefit. These people have to be re-schooled in the tenets of democracy, of fundamental rights, of respect, of equality and justice.

During the Emergency it was said that the trains ran on time. Media analysts state that Modi retained power because he gave the people of Gujarat a government free of corruption. For the media to repeat this and even agree shows the myopicness of the naiveness of the media. Corruption is not only about transaction of money and monetary profiteering it is also about a government’s high handedness, in this case to get its police to kill people, or to ensure that police do not act during riots, or to provide information and addresses of minority communities to rioters.

The next thing that this election has raised is Modi entering national politics. The BJP and Congress (I) hum and hawed with their answers but the very idea is frightening. Instead of someone belling the cat and stating categorically that this infected person should be quarantined and an antidote found for him, everyone spoke about whether Hindutva would become BJP’s election platform and the Congress (I) happily stated that if the BJP used the Modi model the BJP would loose its allies.

Modi has been called Hitler. This state is like pre-second world war Germany with the Gujarati’s, like the Germans, blinded by the promise of a 1000 year rule and the rest of the country like Chamberlain and others allowing a weed to grow and spread.

Looking back

As the sun slowly sets on 2007, a ritual is followed - time is taken off to complete, end, think back, review, mull and choose memories for the coming year. Much will be written and said (yes this is one of them) about the year and how it could have been improved

One of the things that should be done at the end of each year is to see the choices news papers made in terms of news. There is no doubt that the chicken and egg argument can be made – do newspapers make opinions or reflect the opinions of the masses. The truth is that both feed off each other. Readers can tell off newspapers and newspapers can change mindsets. However, in the end what is printed provides a peep into the nation’s thinking.

For example there were just about three cases of ‘phamous’ Indians who claimed they faced racial abuse in the UK.

1. Shilpa Shetty with her televised cooking and eating habits on Big Brother was not only able to win the reality series but got an award for her work on AIDS (Richard Gere’s on stage kiss put AIDs back on everyone’s radar), she supped with the Queen and also got a university to award her with a honorary doctorate – and the entire saga was put in print. There were no questions about her actual work on AIDs or what induced the university to present her with a degree. But everyone was happy, proud they believed that India was finally being taken seriously.
2. Salman Rushdie claimed he was the target of racial slurs in school in the UK. If this made news in Indian papers then the paper employs people who are far removed from reality or worse still they haven’t been to school. But this was reported too – not too many inches.
3. John Abraham and others who make a living by hamming on the silver screen stated that he and others faced racial slurs while shooting for a movie. The news did not help the movie the box office.

Then there were cases where we proudly made ours what was not ours to have. Sunita Williams is supposed to be an Indian but she was born in Ohio, her colour and name do not make her an Indian, but India proudly adopted her it became worse when she visited Gujarat the BJP and Congress I wooed her as she represented a vibrant Gujarat (click the video) for some and for others an example of an India on the move. The fact that she was not an Indian, but an American, was lost on everyone.

Then a lot of ink was spent on another set of stars that killed or possessed weapons that could kill (yes a car is included). The press trailed them as they went from court house to jail and then home and occasionally traveled in a government car to a shrine in the Himalayas. There were interviews on why the judges should go lenient on them and how these star criminals have transmogrified into better humans. The fact that the courts took years to come to a decision and are still taking time was no where in sight, that time adds a tint of sympathy and forgetfulness was brushed aside.

Later in the year there was the Tehelka Expose about those involved in the riots of Gujarat. The magazine had the murders/rapists and other such people who profess to be the bastions of Hindu morality brag about their conquests. So what were actually confessions was convoluted to a debate on the timing of the expose. Was the expose supposed to hurt BJPs electoral plans in Gujarat or was someone trying to tarnish the image of the Gujarati’s?

The question is everyone and their dog knows what happened in Gujarat so what is the harm if Tehelka used the expose to remove a government (if that was what they were trying to do). Which brings me to the elections in Gujarat and the question whether a people who are blind to a situation in their midst be allowed to vote.

So what we have here is BJP and its Hindutva bandwagon romping all over the place, the Congress I unable to say anything (remember the Sikh riots).

If the Congress I and everyone else really have cojone’s they would hand over those who participated in the Sikh riots to the police, yes it also includes the CPI perpetrators in Nandigram.

Yes there was a lot of talk about the Indo-US nuclear deal.But the actual debate on the false promises and starts of the Indian nuclear industry the need for nuclear energy never made it to papers.

I could just be happy about this deal because it just may ensure that some far away Indian villages in the states of Andhra Pradesh and Meghalaya are saved from the fate that was handed down to the people of Jadugoda. Right, this actually is quite shortsighted because wherever the uranium is going to come from it would have adversely affected some piece of land and people.

I have a surmise - the social value of a story is proportional to the level of response it gets – Shilpa’s and Richard’s effigy got burned, Gujarat was intellectualized and Modi is being touted to become the CM again and what to say about the Indo-US deal? Hmmmm---

These boots were meant for walking---

One of the things that hit me as I walked through the transit at Charles De Gaule airport were the women --- in their boots.

There were all kinds of women in all kinds of boots, long haired blondes in black stiletto boots to brunettes in velvet boots.

Unfortunately I had to catch a plane to Amsterdam.

And in Amsterdam I got the mother load of boots and what goes in them. I tried to capture those moments but the cheap camera I bought could not take the pressure of the assignment. My friend had a handy camera phone that was put to good use.

It’s cold in Amsterdam and the boots offer protection against the cold. However, what would you call a woman who wore these fabulous pair of boots with a micro mini and no other form of protection – BRAVE.

That’s when the camera failed me and taking no chances I trashed it.

We were passing a beauty school and the lovely ladies were outside smoking I had to induce my friend to whip out his camera phone and click the first set of snaps. We had to almost crawl on our knees to get those boot clusters.

I hadn’t yet given up on a camera so I walked into a shop but hurried out to tell my friend to have his camera ready because another spectacular pair of boots were walking out.

We tried to capture boots on cycles and the closest we came to such a photo was when a pair of boots was unlocking a cycle.

So pretty soon we (my American friends and I) were looking down - as if guilty to check out what the road had to offer. We did not go on the looks of what was in the boots, but focused on the character of the boots. Thus you will notice that there are no faces. we were tempted on occasions but stood fast to our aims. We went to pubs to quench our thirst where the variety beers and boots competed for our attention. And this continued till the lights turned unfriendly.

Mumbai

I survived – another visit to Mumbai. I haven’t come to grips with the city, and I don’t want to. The city is a veritable book of synonyms for the word ‘ostentation’ - of poverty, need, tunnel vision, selfishness.

As the plane makes its approach to land it flies over islands of sky-rises surrounded by slums. In weathers other than the monsoon the rooftops of these little hutments are weighed down by a dull brown of dust. In the monsoon these are covered with fresh blue tarpaulins, actually TV shows that herald monsoons with updates on Mumbai Municipality’s ability to cope with the coming showers by their efforts to remove the last year’s sewage could change to a study of the change in colors of roofs.

Seeing it now, just like any other jungle, Mumbai changes colours for each season.

On Saturday I walked round Nariman Point on work, it was lunch time and therefore was hungry, there wasn’t a single roadside eatery in that area. Mumbai’s street food (ex. Vada pav) is its only endearing quality. A literal buffet of cuisines has been shut down in attempt to keep the city clean and healthy.

Those who got the decision were the rich and ex officials of the municipality – people who never eat in such places. Instead of providing garbage collection facilities for these eateries and safe drinking water they chose the easy way out – take away a source of income and food.

I had the opportunity to meet a very interesting person in Mumbai. Ashok Datar is an urban transport specialist who is trying to promote car pooling as a method to solve the growing problems of traffic congestion and resultant pollution. His idea of car pooling uses the internet and the mobile phone to bring people going in the same direction together. He made a brilliant observation about the growing number of cars he said that the poor are subsidizing the car owners. His argument is that the car owners do not have to pay for parking almost everywhere in the city and the space occupied by a car is same that of a small dwelling in a slum. That space occupied used by the car should be given to the poor or the car owners should be made to pay for it.

One of my colleagues went to shop in Mumbai and immediately fell in love with the city. Okay it wasn’t only the shopping, the sea had something to do with it too. But that’s the whole question how many can actually enjoy the sea, how many can actually enjoy the shopping. Mumbai is a city that provides people with goggles that darkens the glaring reality of inequality.