Have you seen scenes of major train and plane accidents in India on TV. I have for many years and have come to the firm conclusion that no one who matters have seen these gory scenes on TV. Here is why.... the most riveting aspect of these scenes is a few local carrying mangled bodies to no where and a few local state police poking around the debris with lathis. In ultra urban areas like Mumbai, the scene is no different. My first memories of such a scene on coloured television was the clash of two planes over haryana on the wee hours of a foggy winter day. And my lasting memory of the scene of the accident was haryana policemen covered in blankets probing the debris with lathis. These memories were refreshed the other day when I watched the post blast scene in Mumbai on TV. Nothing much seems to have changed.
Haven't we realised in the 60 years of independence that police is not there for accident and emergency response, haven't we realised that there is no point in calling the police to the accident scene they do not know and are not expected to know the abc of emergency response, haven't we realised that security forces are not not gods or not least paramedics..... Clearly we have not. The result is all of us call up a hospital and the police in case of a major accident, terrorost attack, flood, or at best the fire brigade.
Since independence, we have riased so many special forces from teh BSF to the CISF that most people in the Home Ministry has lost count. We have, however, failed to raise on force that would have saved the lives of millions in the last 60 years... India does not have a centralised force of paramedics to response to emergency and trauma... We have spent trillions of dollars on national security but when that security is breached and ordinary citizens fall victim, we have no one to respond.
Dont you think we should have a national emergency response team with paramedics as members. This should be like any of the central security forces the only difference being that they are not fighters but saviours of lives, their jobs? to be the first on the spot, deliver on spot treatment and take them to the nearest hospital... end of work. What would they need? Ambulances, are medical emergency equipement, a few helicopters for large cities, training in paramedicine, driving skills. Where would they be based? In all district headquarters to begin with and their performance would be based on their response time... They would be commondos in a different sense. Where will the money come from? 50 per cent central government and 50 per cent corporates. We have enough money for a good cause, in the last 60 years we have created enough wealth, it is time that we use it for some good causes. This one is on top of my mind. At least, aesthetically, I do not have to see dead bodies being dragged by localvillagers and debris being poked by Police lathis....
What do you think?
Friday, March 30, 2007
Wednesday, March 28, 2007
When Did you Last...?
When did you last look at a traffic light beggar in the face? when did you last travelled without with the windows of the car open? when you last buy a shirt from a street vendor? when did you last visit a subzi mandi? when did you last bought your own booze from the booze shop? when did you last visit a temple without any result in mind? when did you last cuddled a baby? when did you last petted a dog or a cat? when did you last have a one-to-one with your office boy? when did you last have a vada pao on the streets? when did you walked the streets without a definite purpose and destination? when did you last write a non-official letter? when did you last say "you are great" to your parents? when did you last asked your partner what she wants? when did you last ask you help at home "how were the kids doing are they still n school"? When did you last help your child with the homeowork or a show and tell? when did you last looked at a pretty woman and told her how pretty she was? when did you last smell a rose? when did you last make a friend? when did you last laughed out aloud?
The gas balloon goes up and up till the gas lasts, after that it comes down directionless, shrunken and rather sad looking and completely useless....
Cheers
The gas balloon goes up and up till the gas lasts, after that it comes down directionless, shrunken and rather sad looking and completely useless....
Cheers
Tuesday, March 27, 2007
Sorry, No Sarees, Please!
Shashi Tharoor lamented the demise of the ubiquitous saree from the cupboards of Indian women in a national daily last Sunday. And, appealed earnestly to Indian women to not let this ancient mark of our civilization die a quick death. One of the main reasons as one of his respondendents mentioned against saree was "try and catch a bus in a saree" - indicating the non-functional side of the attire and hinting that with women increasingly getting out of homes and into workplaces with all the attendant problems, sarees are best left to the moths in cupboards.
Another man, perhaps not as global as Tharoor, but certainly representing the best of Indian tradition in laughter, Raju Srivastava, has a more serious lament. In a recent episode of "The Great Indian Laughter CHallenge", Raju had this mock conversation between the jeans and the top.
Jeans: I seem to be going down and down and further away from you my friend
Top: Yes, mah dahling! I too seem to be moving up and up and away from you. It seems we shall only get further and further away from each other and never be able to meet in this life.
I am not here to moralise about what women should wear or not wear. Frankly I believe one should wear what one is comfortable in and what one can carry off confidently. Of course, within the larger societial norms in mind. In fact, it is a remarkable sign of our social progress that most urban women [I do not mean just the 8 top cities, but even smaller towns] are condifently wearing cothes which not only their mothers but even their elder sisters would have cringed at. Critics would call this a dubious sign of progress but they would forget that such small changes are harbingers of larger changes in society. Remember those days when you went out and bought cigerattes for your girlfriend who was a smoker but did not want to go to shops to buy the stuff and people who knew you slightly wondering why you - a non-smoker- were buying cigarettes? Gone are those days now, if you were to attend a large confenrence today on any of the new economy sectors, you would find that women lead the pack of smokers during breaks... and what more in most cities you can see women smoking in restaurants, pubs and other places. if that is not progress, I wonder what it...
But of course, there is always a twist to my tales.... and in case of women's smoking habits and sartorial tastes, I have two stories to narrate from rural India which so far as women empowerment goes, has been the trend setter since times immemorial.
The first story was told to me by my sociology teacher Dr Particia Oberoi an Australian national who had moved to India at a very young age marrying Prof Oberoi. When Pat moved to India in the early 60s folks back home warned her that she would not get any skirts in India and she should pack as many of those as possible. On reaching India on her first visit to rural Rajasthan she found much to her shock and pleasure, that women in those parts of India wore only skirts and very pretty ones at that....
The second story is from small town Bihar where I spent my childhood. My friend, all of 11 years used to frequently buy bidis and we knew he was not a smoker. He used to buy it for his own and our neighbourhood chachi [who was completely illiterate but married to to the Principal of the local college and the President of the District Congress Committee, th emuch educated, modern and revered Prof Singh...
Didn't I tell you earlier more things change more they remain the same
Another man, perhaps not as global as Tharoor, but certainly representing the best of Indian tradition in laughter, Raju Srivastava, has a more serious lament. In a recent episode of "The Great Indian Laughter CHallenge", Raju had this mock conversation between the jeans and the top.
Jeans: I seem to be going down and down and further away from you my friend
Top: Yes, mah dahling! I too seem to be moving up and up and away from you. It seems we shall only get further and further away from each other and never be able to meet in this life.
I am not here to moralise about what women should wear or not wear. Frankly I believe one should wear what one is comfortable in and what one can carry off confidently. Of course, within the larger societial norms in mind. In fact, it is a remarkable sign of our social progress that most urban women [I do not mean just the 8 top cities, but even smaller towns] are condifently wearing cothes which not only their mothers but even their elder sisters would have cringed at. Critics would call this a dubious sign of progress but they would forget that such small changes are harbingers of larger changes in society. Remember those days when you went out and bought cigerattes for your girlfriend who was a smoker but did not want to go to shops to buy the stuff and people who knew you slightly wondering why you - a non-smoker- were buying cigarettes? Gone are those days now, if you were to attend a large confenrence today on any of the new economy sectors, you would find that women lead the pack of smokers during breaks... and what more in most cities you can see women smoking in restaurants, pubs and other places. if that is not progress, I wonder what it...
But of course, there is always a twist to my tales.... and in case of women's smoking habits and sartorial tastes, I have two stories to narrate from rural India which so far as women empowerment goes, has been the trend setter since times immemorial.
The first story was told to me by my sociology teacher Dr Particia Oberoi an Australian national who had moved to India at a very young age marrying Prof Oberoi. When Pat moved to India in the early 60s folks back home warned her that she would not get any skirts in India and she should pack as many of those as possible. On reaching India on her first visit to rural Rajasthan she found much to her shock and pleasure, that women in those parts of India wore only skirts and very pretty ones at that....
The second story is from small town Bihar where I spent my childhood. My friend, all of 11 years used to frequently buy bidis and we knew he was not a smoker. He used to buy it for his own and our neighbourhood chachi [who was completely illiterate but married to to the Principal of the local college and the President of the District Congress Committee, th emuch educated, modern and revered Prof Singh...
Didn't I tell you earlier more things change more they remain the same
Tuesday, March 13, 2007
Bad Animals and Worse Humans
Sunderbans [the largest mangrove forest in the world: [12 March 2007] Home to the Royal Bengal Tiger and the Ferocious Crocodile
A Conversation Between A Tiger and a Crocodile:
Tiger How Many today?
Croc: Bad day mate only two
T: At this rate we shall never be able to cull them and free our habitat
C: How many did you cull today?
T: maimed and dead combine 15
C: That's a good day's work
T: Yeah I guess only you and I can do it here, others are all useless, you see they are vegetarians and generally do not kill or destroy something they do not eat.
C: Yeah that fat ass elephant refused to kill any humans saying that that was not his job and in any case he had not taste for human meat
T: Mate that is why we will never be able to score over humans, we are too logical
C: But look at the speed with which the buggers are breeding and encroaching on our property and getting aggressive and killing us
T: Mate it is a losing battle
C: Seems like only option for us is to behave like our friends the dogs and go and settle down in the cities
T: They are really remarkable, look how they have completely changed their habitat, they were once wild animals hunting in packs, now they either adorn and guard rich people's house or have become smart urban foragers
C:Mate I can't beg and eat left overs out of plastic bags
T: Me too, I guess we will have to control our bredding and finally disappear in order to make more and more room for the humans
Bangalore [India's silicon valley and home to large number of ownerles dogs] 12 March 2007
A Conversation between two dogs:
Senior dog to start up dog: Why the hell did you have to kill that child? Dont you know they are harmless?
Guilty Start up Dog: Boss, I said sorry so many times... to so many people
Senior Dog: Sorry does not help anymore my boy, look at what you have brought down on the entire community. you have given us a very bad name and invited the wrath of the most ferocious and intellectually superior animal in this planet.
Guilty Start Up dog: But even the baby's father said on TV that it was not my fault it, I am after all a dog he said and would get attracted to offals thrown out of illegal meat shops
Senior Dog: My boy, you are too young to know that rationality is the first victim when human bengs are hit by a situation, they are not like us... Now run and try to save your life as I would mine...
New Delhi [capital of India and home to many ex-celebrities looking for a cause to support] 12 March
Monologues of a Celebrity:
They have killed them like butchers, 1,500 of them, the local authorities are acting like Hitler and this will only acentuate the menace dogs will grow more feral and bite more people the best way is to make them incapable of breeding en masse, and kill the sick ones...
Mumbai 13 March 2007 [Richest city of India and home to a large number of stray animals and humans and also lovers of such strays]
Observations of an Idiot
Worli: No stray dogs and no mosquitoes.... Clean roads, proper garbage disposal systems, automatic control on breeding of strays.... Some cats in and around societies...
Andheri east: dirty roads, garbage on roads, overcrowding, full of stray dogs, stray people and mosquitoes... right envoronment for breeding... more dogs more sympathies... more food and more dogs....
Conclusion: Controlling dogs is really in human hands
Thoughts of an Idiot
Of course protecting habitats of tiger and croc are also in human hands, all they need to do is to control breed[ing] and greed...
Why can not we achieve both especially since both are apparently in our hands?
A Conversation Between A Tiger and a Crocodile:
Tiger How Many today?
Croc: Bad day mate only two
T: At this rate we shall never be able to cull them and free our habitat
C: How many did you cull today?
T: maimed and dead combine 15
C: That's a good day's work
T: Yeah I guess only you and I can do it here, others are all useless, you see they are vegetarians and generally do not kill or destroy something they do not eat.
C: Yeah that fat ass elephant refused to kill any humans saying that that was not his job and in any case he had not taste for human meat
T: Mate that is why we will never be able to score over humans, we are too logical
C: But look at the speed with which the buggers are breeding and encroaching on our property and getting aggressive and killing us
T: Mate it is a losing battle
C: Seems like only option for us is to behave like our friends the dogs and go and settle down in the cities
T: They are really remarkable, look how they have completely changed their habitat, they were once wild animals hunting in packs, now they either adorn and guard rich people's house or have become smart urban foragers
C:Mate I can't beg and eat left overs out of plastic bags
T: Me too, I guess we will have to control our bredding and finally disappear in order to make more and more room for the humans
Bangalore [India's silicon valley and home to large number of ownerles dogs] 12 March 2007
A Conversation between two dogs:
Senior dog to start up dog: Why the hell did you have to kill that child? Dont you know they are harmless?
Guilty Start up Dog: Boss, I said sorry so many times... to so many people
Senior Dog: Sorry does not help anymore my boy, look at what you have brought down on the entire community. you have given us a very bad name and invited the wrath of the most ferocious and intellectually superior animal in this planet.
Guilty Start Up dog: But even the baby's father said on TV that it was not my fault it, I am after all a dog he said and would get attracted to offals thrown out of illegal meat shops
Senior Dog: My boy, you are too young to know that rationality is the first victim when human bengs are hit by a situation, they are not like us... Now run and try to save your life as I would mine...
New Delhi [capital of India and home to many ex-celebrities looking for a cause to support] 12 March
Monologues of a Celebrity:
They have killed them like butchers, 1,500 of them, the local authorities are acting like Hitler and this will only acentuate the menace dogs will grow more feral and bite more people the best way is to make them incapable of breeding en masse, and kill the sick ones...
Mumbai 13 March 2007 [Richest city of India and home to a large number of stray animals and humans and also lovers of such strays]
Observations of an Idiot
Worli: No stray dogs and no mosquitoes.... Clean roads, proper garbage disposal systems, automatic control on breeding of strays.... Some cats in and around societies...
Andheri east: dirty roads, garbage on roads, overcrowding, full of stray dogs, stray people and mosquitoes... right envoronment for breeding... more dogs more sympathies... more food and more dogs....
Conclusion: Controlling dogs is really in human hands
Thoughts of an Idiot
Of course protecting habitats of tiger and croc are also in human hands, all they need to do is to control breed[ing] and greed...
Why can not we achieve both especially since both are apparently in our hands?
Friday, March 09, 2007
Tea and RedBull
There is a smallish railway junction near Kolkata called Naihati.. It is now a junction for suburban trains. But before partition it used to be on a trunk route to north bengal and assam through what is now bangladesh.. and it was this route which many of the wretched "coolies" took to reach the assam planations from the bridgehead of Brahmaputra. But I digress.
In Naihati station there is [still is] a tea stall as ancient as A H Wheeler books stalls which was licensed to be opened at least 70-80 years back. That tea stall has a large signboard in bengali which lists out "The Benefits of Drinking Tea" a) It stimulates the body b) It gives energy c) It is healthy d) It energises the mind
Those were early days of tea marketing in India [most of the tea before the second world war was for the export market] and simple marketing techniques worked on simple folks and the result is for all of us to see... bengalis at least have become prolific tea drinkers in the last 70-80 years and even today coffee is considered to be a treat in most of bengal to be had only on special occasions in the winter [I am discounting the consumption pattern of the Coffee House type Calcuttans here!]
That was way back in the past. Today, I had the pleasure of having a lovely thali lunch at a small restaurant in Worli quite literally at the heart of capitalist Mumbai and while I was savouring my rasam, an odd laminated poster drew my attention... Coloured in Blue and Red it was a RedBull advertisement, and guess what it said? Yes you are right... Alomost word for word it was same as the Tea advertisement I mentioned about... If you do not believe me you must pay a visit to Kalpana at Worli Naka and have a look for yourself:)
Is it true then that more things change more they remain the same?
By the way, in case you have missed it... Tea is marketed by the tea board now as a happening drink... teak drinkers are supposed to be smart, quick witted and fleetfooted... not stuffed shirts like the coffee drinkers... So choose your drink carefully
In Naihati station there is [still is] a tea stall as ancient as A H Wheeler books stalls which was licensed to be opened at least 70-80 years back. That tea stall has a large signboard in bengali which lists out "The Benefits of Drinking Tea" a) It stimulates the body b) It gives energy c) It is healthy d) It energises the mind
Those were early days of tea marketing in India [most of the tea before the second world war was for the export market] and simple marketing techniques worked on simple folks and the result is for all of us to see... bengalis at least have become prolific tea drinkers in the last 70-80 years and even today coffee is considered to be a treat in most of bengal to be had only on special occasions in the winter [I am discounting the consumption pattern of the Coffee House type Calcuttans here!]
That was way back in the past. Today, I had the pleasure of having a lovely thali lunch at a small restaurant in Worli quite literally at the heart of capitalist Mumbai and while I was savouring my rasam, an odd laminated poster drew my attention... Coloured in Blue and Red it was a RedBull advertisement, and guess what it said? Yes you are right... Alomost word for word it was same as the Tea advertisement I mentioned about... If you do not believe me you must pay a visit to Kalpana at Worli Naka and have a look for yourself:)
Is it true then that more things change more they remain the same?
By the way, in case you have missed it... Tea is marketed by the tea board now as a happening drink... teak drinkers are supposed to be smart, quick witted and fleetfooted... not stuffed shirts like the coffee drinkers... So choose your drink carefully
Thursday, March 08, 2007
Shall We Dance
If you have seen this movie [it is very watchable starring Richard Gere, Susan Sarandon and Jennifer Lopez] you would not have missed out on the character played by Stanley Tucci... A bald and non-similing lawyer by the day and a dressed up dancer with a fancy wig and a set of false teeth by the night.... The highlight of Tucci's makeover which he explains at length to Gere is a set of false teeth which is sparkling white and which is permanently held in the grin mode... Of course both come out at the end with much sadness and laughter revealing the real man...
Something similar has been happening to corporate India in the last theree years... the false grin on Budget days has been accentuated by a fancy flase wig of "affirmative action in the form of training underprivileged people and bringing them up to scratch"; to forsetall a veiled threat by the government to bring in affirmative action [read job quota] through legislation....
After the Budget this year the false teeth is out: Following a non-exciting budget from the industry perspective, directives have been sent out by some ministries to select sectors to the effect the the propsed tax hikes should be absorbed by these sectors and not passed on to users thereby initiating a cascading effect on prices... the sectors interestingly are steel and cement - basic commodities for the booming construction and auto sectors....
The wig too is at the verge of being pulled off: One active ministry has sent a directive to large industry associations stating that proposals for affirmative action submitted by them are not enough and are too slow moving... adding that all their members need to state in their annual reports what affirmative action they have taken [read how many underprivileged have been emploed by them in course of the year]
Now that the grin and the wig are out, will we see the real dance of India Inc? I wish we do not have to say "only time will tell" on this one....
Something similar has been happening to corporate India in the last theree years... the false grin on Budget days has been accentuated by a fancy flase wig of "affirmative action in the form of training underprivileged people and bringing them up to scratch"; to forsetall a veiled threat by the government to bring in affirmative action [read job quota] through legislation....
After the Budget this year the false teeth is out: Following a non-exciting budget from the industry perspective, directives have been sent out by some ministries to select sectors to the effect the the propsed tax hikes should be absorbed by these sectors and not passed on to users thereby initiating a cascading effect on prices... the sectors interestingly are steel and cement - basic commodities for the booming construction and auto sectors....
The wig too is at the verge of being pulled off: One active ministry has sent a directive to large industry associations stating that proposals for affirmative action submitted by them are not enough and are too slow moving... adding that all their members need to state in their annual reports what affirmative action they have taken [read how many underprivileged have been emploed by them in course of the year]
Now that the grin and the wig are out, will we see the real dance of India Inc? I wish we do not have to say "only time will tell" on this one....
Saturday, March 03, 2007
Holi Hai!
Holi, Bihar 1983:
Get up at seven change into torn clothes, by 8 paint yourself thoroughly with oil based aluminium paint so that no one can maul your clean face and get out. On the sly have bhang ka peda [ground bhang paste between two pedas] and get ready for the show.... By 11 am you are high and short on colours and that is when you thank the municipal cororpation for keeping the dains dirty and open... you are lucky if you save yourself a dip in the muck, if you are unlucky and very high, you start feeling that the drain is actually a comfortable bed... 1 PM back home to clean up with kerosene oil and a scrub 2 PM lunch and still very high.... 5 PM wake up change into Kurta Pyjama get out with friends to go house calling and catching up with the pretty girls who refused to come out in the morning... liberal use of gulal on the girls and bhabhi jis and liberal pet pujs of singharas and jalebis and gujias.... 8 PM back home still high but mentally happy.... have puris and sleep with gulal in your head... I just described one day, i.e., the main day of holi otherwise Holi stretches to one week in Bihar and if some enthusiasts are to be tolerated: "Holi Ka mahina hai, kuch bhi ho sakta hai"!
Calcutta 1987: Hindu Hostel
Holi is not for us, so kep that 12 foot door of the room closed.... reassuring because not even an elephant can break through that 100 year old door.... Lot of banging outside, much like Vandals at the Roman Gates, have a quick bath step out to see what the proletariats are doing from a safe distance... 5 PM after a long day's wait open the bottle of McDowell number one and dig in with room mates.... Oh what a day it has been
New Delhi 1991, JNU
The festival of proletarat is institutionalised here... bhang is served post breakfast in the hostel mess... 9 am every one is out on the Jhelum lawns with Bhang ka sharbat in waterbottles... Kavi Sammelan, leftie songs, keeping an eye on which babe is getting stoned with which hunk...some drunken brawls....2 PM no food in the mess, no shops outside open, no water, wait till 4 PM without food and water to clean up... End of the day....
London 1997
A day after holi: "did you know it was holi yesterday, shit man we missed all the fun, we should have stayed in Southall not in posh Russell Sqaure" Lot of nostalgia, four cans of beer in the evening, at last a new excuse to drink... Dinner at 12... 1 AM neighbours request to lower the volume of the music.... 2 AM more nostalgia as people go back to their flats around the square...
Delhi 2004, Posh College Campus
11 am, change into "Holi Clothes" there are only 24 flats on the colony start with the one next door and visit every one... every one visits everyone dabs a little blotch of gulal on the forehead... everyone gathers in someone's lawns, lots of good food which most can't have because food is too rich and bodies too old.... Lots of good scotch, canned beers and branded vodka.... can't have much... Lots of old songs 1 PM catch the watet and clean yourself... early end to the day.... Biryani and Kababs at home with a few friends....
Mumbai 2007
No idea... But Holi now happens on TV. Noticed how all the serials on all the channels have TV theme in them right from the morning... This is bringing Holi to your living room, no fuss, no dirt, no cleaning up afterwards, no gali, no mithai.... Just digitised Holi on the screen... It is almost like watching pornography... deriving vicarious pleasure by watching others play holi on the screen!
It's indeed been a long journey.....
Have a great Holi
Get up at seven change into torn clothes, by 8 paint yourself thoroughly with oil based aluminium paint so that no one can maul your clean face and get out. On the sly have bhang ka peda [ground bhang paste between two pedas] and get ready for the show.... By 11 am you are high and short on colours and that is when you thank the municipal cororpation for keeping the dains dirty and open... you are lucky if you save yourself a dip in the muck, if you are unlucky and very high, you start feeling that the drain is actually a comfortable bed... 1 PM back home to clean up with kerosene oil and a scrub 2 PM lunch and still very high.... 5 PM wake up change into Kurta Pyjama get out with friends to go house calling and catching up with the pretty girls who refused to come out in the morning... liberal use of gulal on the girls and bhabhi jis and liberal pet pujs of singharas and jalebis and gujias.... 8 PM back home still high but mentally happy.... have puris and sleep with gulal in your head... I just described one day, i.e., the main day of holi otherwise Holi stretches to one week in Bihar and if some enthusiasts are to be tolerated: "Holi Ka mahina hai, kuch bhi ho sakta hai"!
Calcutta 1987: Hindu Hostel
Holi is not for us, so kep that 12 foot door of the room closed.... reassuring because not even an elephant can break through that 100 year old door.... Lot of banging outside, much like Vandals at the Roman Gates, have a quick bath step out to see what the proletariats are doing from a safe distance... 5 PM after a long day's wait open the bottle of McDowell number one and dig in with room mates.... Oh what a day it has been
New Delhi 1991, JNU
The festival of proletarat is institutionalised here... bhang is served post breakfast in the hostel mess... 9 am every one is out on the Jhelum lawns with Bhang ka sharbat in waterbottles... Kavi Sammelan, leftie songs, keeping an eye on which babe is getting stoned with which hunk...some drunken brawls....2 PM no food in the mess, no shops outside open, no water, wait till 4 PM without food and water to clean up... End of the day....
London 1997
A day after holi: "did you know it was holi yesterday, shit man we missed all the fun, we should have stayed in Southall not in posh Russell Sqaure" Lot of nostalgia, four cans of beer in the evening, at last a new excuse to drink... Dinner at 12... 1 AM neighbours request to lower the volume of the music.... 2 AM more nostalgia as people go back to their flats around the square...
Delhi 2004, Posh College Campus
11 am, change into "Holi Clothes" there are only 24 flats on the colony start with the one next door and visit every one... every one visits everyone dabs a little blotch of gulal on the forehead... everyone gathers in someone's lawns, lots of good food which most can't have because food is too rich and bodies too old.... Lots of good scotch, canned beers and branded vodka.... can't have much... Lots of old songs 1 PM catch the watet and clean yourself... early end to the day.... Biryani and Kababs at home with a few friends....
Mumbai 2007
No idea... But Holi now happens on TV. Noticed how all the serials on all the channels have TV theme in them right from the morning... This is bringing Holi to your living room, no fuss, no dirt, no cleaning up afterwards, no gali, no mithai.... Just digitised Holi on the screen... It is almost like watching pornography... deriving vicarious pleasure by watching others play holi on the screen!
It's indeed been a long journey.....
Have a great Holi
Thursday, March 01, 2007
The Art of Forgetting
The art of forgetting is a well practiced art but quite popular in India and I have had first hand experience since I have studied one subject only form high school to my thesis: History.... When I attended the first History Honours Class in Presidency College in Calcutta, I was told that forget whatever you were taught in class 12: Aurangzeb was not a bigot, he did what was politically prudent, for example.... He was also the most honest and down to earth Mughal emperor.... Feudalism was not about knights and dames but about social processes.... OK so I forgot and moved on.... In my Masters Class in JNU I was told that forget whatever you were taught in your honours class.... history has been interpreted through narrow isms so far but it is really more complicated than that and keep your mind open... OK so I tried to follow the new guidelines and forget the old.... While doing my PhD in London [you will ask why do a PhD in Indian history in London, but that is a totally different subject for me to answer here]... I was told that PhD is the art of knowing more and more about less and less... So I had to forget larger processes that we shaping the history of the subcontinent and focus on my chosen area and time frames...
Now I see that this practice plagues most of the economists as well especially in our country and with disastrous results because economists as a lobby have more power over our lives than historians or political scientists or even physcists will ever have....
Inflation, when we were young, we were told is just a process of transferring money from one group of people to another.... in this case from fixed income groups to flexible income groups.. in our country from you to your shopkeeper.... and there is nothing inherently wrong and no one suffers during inflation if and only if there is a realtime indexed income.... so if the inflation is 7 per cent my salary automatically goes up seven per cent, so does my return on deposits, savings and everything else and the actual raise is over and above it I do not suffer at all..... so if the interest rate is 5 per cent and the inflation is 8 per cent I should get an interest of 13 per cent.... Similary if my annual salary hike is 10 per cent and the inflation is 5 per cent, I should get a salary hike of 15 per cent... But in spite of many sane economists suggesting indexation of income, savings and deposits, we have never sought this way out in our country and most of those economists probably have forgotten about their earlier solution... with the result that fixed income groups are made to suffer through indirect taxes which are passed on to them by the shopkeeper, merchant, industry, and false bank rates like 8 per cent , 7 per cent of which is eaten away by inflation.... Others are making merry and enriching themselves without moving a figer because whenever there is an indirect tax it is passed on to fixed income groups....
So the art of forgetting may be good for historians it certainly is not good for economists... for them the slogan should be back to basics...
Now I see that this practice plagues most of the economists as well especially in our country and with disastrous results because economists as a lobby have more power over our lives than historians or political scientists or even physcists will ever have....
Inflation, when we were young, we were told is just a process of transferring money from one group of people to another.... in this case from fixed income groups to flexible income groups.. in our country from you to your shopkeeper.... and there is nothing inherently wrong and no one suffers during inflation if and only if there is a realtime indexed income.... so if the inflation is 7 per cent my salary automatically goes up seven per cent, so does my return on deposits, savings and everything else and the actual raise is over and above it I do not suffer at all..... so if the interest rate is 5 per cent and the inflation is 8 per cent I should get an interest of 13 per cent.... Similary if my annual salary hike is 10 per cent and the inflation is 5 per cent, I should get a salary hike of 15 per cent... But in spite of many sane economists suggesting indexation of income, savings and deposits, we have never sought this way out in our country and most of those economists probably have forgotten about their earlier solution... with the result that fixed income groups are made to suffer through indirect taxes which are passed on to them by the shopkeeper, merchant, industry, and false bank rates like 8 per cent , 7 per cent of which is eaten away by inflation.... Others are making merry and enriching themselves without moving a figer because whenever there is an indirect tax it is passed on to fixed income groups....
So the art of forgetting may be good for historians it certainly is not good for economists... for them the slogan should be back to basics...
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