i accuse

now that

the hurly burly

is done

and the battle

is half lost

and half won

you can all return home

back

to the jobs you hold

in those tall glass buildings

Friedman and Nilekani taught us

that your world is flat as mine

but your buildings always seem taller

back

to your H1B forms

and work permits in the Gulf

you need them to pay your credit card bills

Lokpal or no Lokpal

back

to your colonies

with those high gates

and security guards protecting 2 crore houses

on 3k salaries

back

to calculating

the rupee dollar rate

and the lowest ticket to London

for a holiday

in the name of corruption

you held the country

the parliament

and 800 crore people

to ransom

those people

who had nothing

to gain from this fight

their life remains the same

we will keep squashing them

this was all a charade

for you to feel good about your selves

the next time you will be there for the temple

and the Parliament may have to bend down again

the question is not

is this country going to wake up to a new dawn

just answer

are we going to not bribe

the next time we jump

the traffic light ?

as he broke his fast the old man said :

There should be no difference in what you say and what you do, you should possess clean and honest thoughts, have a clean conduct, clean character, have a feeling for sacrifice and should have the strength to take humiliation

are you up for that pardner?

many years back

our elders

got behind an old man

to get Independence for this country

we found out later

that freedom was a false one

the Mahatma was betrayed

this too will go the same way

do me a favour

just throw away that cap

you wore for the last 12 days

so that it does not embarrass you some day

Why I am not there

i am
as a rule
skeptical of crowds

each time they gathered
i was found wanting

1984
i did not love Indira enough

1990
i did not love my caste enough

1992
i did not love the temple enough

i cannot be like Anna and his company
because like all crowds
they want you to be on their side
else
you are the other

i cannot be like those in power
who say – come lets talk again
they have been leading us through
a circus
for six decades

i cannot be like the skeptical journos
whose current fashion is to attack
the middle class
tomorrow it will be
someone else

and i cannot be like those
who say
this bill will not solve all problems
so will not
the UID
it will just make us into a number

but then
as a rule
am skeptical of crowds
who ask you to be on their side
else
you are the other

each time
a crowd gathers
they seem to remind me
that
i am the other

Birkin diplomacy

Yesterday the Alligators called emergency session of their pressure group NSOMB – No Skin Of My Back. The Snakes were present and so were the Crocodiles. The Beavers were special invitees.

“What have you called us here for ?” the Snake asked.

“Haven’t you read the news? The Pakistani foreign minister carried a Birkin handbag to the Indo- Pak meet.” said the Alligator.

“So?” asked the Crocodile.

“Well apparently the meeting was a huge success. Everyone is attributing it to Birkin diplomacy. The Indian media is all excited about it.”

“This is good news for Birkin. They will sell a couple of more bags in India. How does this concern us?” the Snake said pointedly.

“Hillary Clinton has taken note of this trend and ordered 300 bags. She will gift it to women leaders all over the world. She feels that no two countries with leaders carrying Birkin will go to war. If there is a crisis, they will just hold a summit and discuss the latest trends in handbags.

There was pause as the Snake and the Crocodile looked at each other.

“Birkin has already ramped up its production. The first bags are scheduled to be delivered in the UN session in September” the Alligator continued.

The Beaver looked around and smiled.

“So why did you call me for this session?”

The Alligator turned to look at him.

“ Did you think that men were going to carry handbags? Not to be left out, the Indian foreign Minister has ordered a beaver hat from Birkin for the next Indo-Pak summit. Now the Chinese delegation to the UN is demanding beaver hats too.”

“But so many bags and hats are going to cost at least 10 million dollars. Who is going to foot the bill?” argued the Crocodile.

“That’s a small price to pay for world peace.” muttered the Alligator.

“What can we do ?” asked the Beaver.

“Pray that some crazy from Norway or Iraq detonates a bomb and the world is distracted by a War on Terror for another ten years.” said the Snake.

Birkin Diplomacy - To use a fashion accessory to distract from the real issue

The Norway Incident

After all the speculation about different Islamic groups it finally emerged that the guy who pulled this one - Anders Breivik - was a white European. As he views became public, journos abroad have started building a strange case. They say that right wing parties or groups in Europe are not to blame for this attack.

The Atlantic has this observation:

Breivik may have come from the European anti-Muslim right wing, but he certainly does not represent it.

Behavior, ultimately, is a product of one's environment: ideas, yes, but also social pressure, family pressure, norms, constraints, inspirations, barriers, and expectations. Sometimes, these constraints push a man to do any number of heinous things. It doesn't excuse the man himself (at the end of the day, you always have the choice and the responsibility not to react to your circumstances violently), but it makes the question of "why" terribly difficult to understand. It is deeply complex.

WOW. I have never seen such clear lucid thinking coming out immediately after a terror attack. Take a look at these lines again:

Behavior, ultimately, is a product of one's environment: ideas, yes, but also social pressure, family pressure, norms, constraints, inspirations, barriers, and expectations. Sometimes, these constraints push a man to do any number of heinous things.

Funny that they never seem to think of these lines when there is a Islamic terror attack. Would the same reasons listed above not apply to them?

The Future Migration

About five decades ago a man left his hometown to go to a city to study. His journey takes him to several cities before he takes up a job in Delhi. Enroute he learns several languages – Tamil, Kanada, English but never really masters Hindi. In the four decades he is in the city he cannot quite get rid of his Malayalam accent.

He gets married and his wife moves to Delhi with him. She has been to city earlier as part of the Republic Day Parade but to live in the city is a different experience. She learns the ropes quickly, bring up two kids and then begins a working career that lasts almost three decades. Now its time to go home. But where is home? Is it Delhi? Or is it the village where you were born?

Like my parents, lakhs of people in India often ask themselves this question at some stage in their lives. For my grandparents the answer was simple. They lived in their village most of their lives. For me Delhi is my home although I could easily fit into some other city. But for the generation in between – who followed the dreams of the founding fathers, traveled to distant places and settled there, the answers are not easy to find.

And it is going to get complicated as we go along. P Chidambaram wants 85% of country to live in the cities:

In an urban environment it is easier and more efficient to provide water, electricity, education, roads, entertainment and security rather than in 6,00,000 villages.

Does he realize what this means? Given today’s statistics, almost 50 crore (500 million) people will have to shift to the cities. Where are the houses, the infrastructure and the rest of the stuff to support this migration? As is it the urban centres have less to go around as more migrants rush in every year.

Very often grand ideas are floated and even acted upon without a thought. After 50 crore people have lived in the city for their adult life what happens to them? Will they be allowed to go back to their villages? Or will they continue to stay in the cities?

Four decades ago the numbers were not huge. We could still manage it (to some extent). While it is true that rural to urban migration will continue for some time, our policies should focus on creating jobs nearer home. An interesting experience was in Bihar with the NREGA where farm labour that migrated to Punjab during the harvest season, decided to stay home since they were getting paid enough money while working near their village.

Migration is not an easy process whether temporary or permanent. And there are many costs – financial, social and personal. New technologies should help find solutions for people closer to where they are rather than force them to travel in search for a better life.

Now only if we can get Chidambaram off his grand plan……

The culture of protest

Reports coming in from Kolkata tell us that people in the city have taken to the streets in protest of inadequate relief and the collapse of civic facilities.

None of this is news for people in Delhi. Here we protest against everything - water supply, electricity breakdown, demolition drive, CNG and of course Sanskrit. And I am not even including the hundreds of political parties, trade unions or other groups who come to protest in the city every year.

In contrast, when I was in Mumbai during the 2005 floods I was surprised by the lack of anger in the city as electricity and water was not restored even after four days. A friend and I went down to the market to get drinking water. The local neighbourhood shop was selling bottled water at four times the price. When I pointed out that in any other city the shop owner would have been beaten up for doing that, my friend smiled. Further discussion provoked a response that violence is not a solution in a crisis situation and only complicates matter.

Mumbai has always had a culture of protest. Right from the Royal Naval Mutiny, to the taxi unions strike in support of the Railway strike of 1974 and the mill workers strike in 1982. The 2005 floods saw a breakdown of civic infrastructure on a huge scale and the bureaucrats and politicians kept passing the buck for the entire month after.

There was not one protest. No one was bothered. It seemed like people had become indifferent. As long as their immediate problems were solved and they could go about their work they were not interested. To protest means to bring things to a standstill and drawing attention to your self and your problems. It seems like people in Mumbai do not want to do that any more. But we easily tend to forget it was the culture of protest that helped us win our freedom a few decades back.

When did it become unfashionable to protest for what we think is right?

PS Google disagrees with me. A search for "Kolkata" and "protest" yields much less results compared to "Mumbai" and "protest". But most of the "protest" results for Mumbai are the ones after the terror attacks which were not really protests. Where were the bricks and lathis man?

In which I voted

So came the morning when we hear old trucks rattling into the colony and drop off tables and chairs with food stains from the previous marriage functions. Residents were told to move their cars 100 metres away from the primary school that has always been the polling station in this area. Of course I had half the mind to ask how my car interferes with the march of democracy but the sight of some serious looking CRPF made me turn away.

At ten, people turned up and stood in line as if they were going to change the destiny of the country and (hopefully their future) with this one act. But here is the strange thing.

All this talk of the largest democracy and the importance of YOUR VOTE is OK as far as the media campaign goes. Since this breakdance of democracy involves millions, it takes time to organize. By the time my chance came to vote, 80 percent of the country had voted and gone to sleep out of sheer boredom of TV debates. Most of them are like – please tell us who won so that we can get on with our lives.

The other thing is when you go to the polling booth, you realize how makeshift the whole system is even today. The tables are rented out from the local tentwalah, the chairs are rickety and there is a two feet high cardboard surrounding the voting machine. I took one look at the set up while standing in line. This piece of cardboard is going to protect my vote? Then again I thought of Florida. At least we do a better job than them.

In the line we were looking at the party symbols of lesser-known candidates (also available for the blind to read in Braille!). Someone had an ice-cream symbol, another a lamp post. The Pyramid Party of India had a hat much like what you see in Bhagat Singh portraits. If only the voting awareness campaigns had highlighted this aspect. Half the people would turn up just to look at and vote for the funniest symbols.

A boy and his mother were arguing. He wanted to ask for the 49 – O form in protest and not vote for any candidate. The mother was urging her son not to embarrass her in front of her neighbours. Of course this scam has been doing the rounds of the internet where we were told that one could protest against all candidates by using 49-O option. While this is not true and 49 – O does not disqualify candidates or force a re-poll, we have enthusiasts who want to mark their protest.

Just to add to the drama, an old man walked in to see the polling officer and asked for the same form. He too did not want to cast his vote. The polling officer was flustered and tried to dissuade him. But the old man would have none of it. He was willing to wait the whole day he said. That was his idea of democracy. Or fun. Or both. In the meantime, my name was checked twice, my fingernail marked and a button was pressed. As I left the old man was still arguing.

Did my action change anything? I don’t think so. But if we can count better than the Americans and announce the winner correctly it was time (ours) and money (ours again !) well spent.

The dumbing of India

In Seinfeld there is an episode where everyone is going gaga over The English Patient. That is everyone except Elaine. She just can’t understand what is the fuss about. I have been feeling like that for the past one month. Only in my case the fuss is about about Dumdog Millionaire.

I had heard about the film in Goa where several people who had worked on it were gushing about it. So even before watching I came with a few expectations. The first fifteen minutes blew me away. Let me elaborate :

1. The kids are natural and fantastic
2. The music is really good (although not Rahman’s best) and is able to infuse a lot of music influences from all over the world
3. The sound design and camera work adds to the crowded, rushed and edgy feel to the story

After that it was downhill all the way. In fact ,the minute Dev Patel came on the screen pretending to be from the slums of Mumbai, the film turned into a 21st century version of a Merchant/Ivory production. I was overwhelmed. How could they go wrong with such as simple story? For example:

1. What is with the accent of the lead character once he grows up? There is an explanation in the original book how Jamal learns to speak in an accented English. He gets adopted and works for a diplomat’s family. Simple. This is not there in the film.

Instead we are told to believe that he picked up the language and the accent working around Taj Mahal. Those kids and guides do know multiple languages but have a vocabulary of ten or twenty words. They also keep repeating words like – “Ya right” or “Cool” when they are not sure of what to say. Jamal does not. He is very confident of his language.

2. The Quizmaster meeting him in the loo during the contest and giving him a clue. There are better ways to help your candidate. Watch Quiz Show.

3. Most of the explanations to how he knows the answers (the source for the bhajan – Darshan do Ghansyam & identifying Benjamin Franklin’s face on the dollar) do not look convincing enough.

4. Of course the glaring sore thumb that everyone (including the constable) in India speaks English and the film uses millions to describe numbers instead of lakhs or crores. Grow up.

5. The song sequence in the end that is supposed to be a tribute to Bollywood, is silly. It is something a student would shoot in his first year of film school. All the director should have done is called an Indian choreographer and the sequence could have become a tribute. Right now it looks like a series of physical movements trying to copy a dance from an Indian film.

6. In the book the character has a multi religious name and the story is told in the tradition of Amitabh movies of the 70s where an underdog becomes a success against all odds. Maybe the scriptwriter should have watched a couple of those movies before. When Jamal wins the jackpot, I did not feel the joy.

In many ways the film says nothing new about India. It is neither a critique nor is it a tribute. The surface that the film scratched in the beginning is the greatest depth to which the story goes. Films made by a white director about a third world country at least centres around a crisis - Hotel Rwanda or the Killing Fields. You are swept away by the horror and tension in the story. Dumdog shows you poverty and then expects you to feel happy since the hero wins a million bucks at the end of it all.

In the Seinfield episode that I mention in the beginning of this post, Elaine’s boss decides to send her to Tunisia to experience life over there so that she appreciates The English Patient. I am waiting for someone to take me on a guided tour of Danny Boylewoodland so that I can appreciate the finer points of Dumbdog.

ps Four years ago Danny Boyle made Millions - a film about how a boy accidentally finds a bagful of money. That had a nice feel to it. How come he could not recreate the same magic.

Things to do as recession bites

With President Obama having made a suggestion that top executives should only be allowed a salary of 500,000 dollars, there has been much debate in the US about how much money is actually needed for these families to maintain their lifestyles. This write up has a fun take on the expenses while living in New York.

Here no such salary restrictions have been suggested and even in these times people imagine that recovery is around the corner. But with layoffs increasing and what options do you have in cost cutting?

1. Shift to the suburbs

Rents will be lower and in any case you do not have to travel every day (You got fired, remember ?). But in Delhi this does not seem to make sense. In some cases, rents in Gurgaon are almost at par with south Delhi. In case you plan to move, think what you will tell people when they ask you at the next party - Where do you stay? Your answer is important how they place you on their social order. But then if you were already staying in Gurgaon what do you do?

2. Avoid your Coffee Shop
The next time you walk into Barista take a deep breath and count till ten before you decide to order. Instead enjoy it at home. If you need to have a meeting go to the nearest chaiwala. Nothing like a meeting standing up. It will be short and you will arrive at decisions faster. And the expenses will be loose change.

3. Walk
This one is fairly simple. You will save tons of money on fuel by doing all the small errands on foot. In addition no wasted moments trying to find parking space. In a week you will be in better shape too.

4. Collect change
I have often wondered how come there is always a paucity of change everywhere in Delhi. Anywhere you go you end up loosing 50p or a rupee. Start collecting change and carry it around . You will end up saving a lot better still approach paanwalahs and offer them tons of change at a premium. You will be surprised how many of them will take up the offer. And sell the old 10p & 20p to the guys at Daryaganj who deal in old coins.

I am trying out two of these. What are you doing to beat the reccession today?

Throwing shoes & Protesting

Soon after the event there were many articles on why a shoe was thrown and what it means in Islamic societies. It set me wondering what do you do in India if one is angry with someone - apart from landing on a panel discussion in a news channel and venting your protest?

Mostly it involves giving family related abuses or spitting at the person. In some extreme cases you may end up rubbing boot polish on the person's face. NY Times has this to say about how people protest in different communities. The practice in Bhutan is the funniest. It apparently involves coloured paper.

Meanwhile the SMS jokes going around in Pakistan is that the shoe throwing incidence has been linked to Pakistan. There is apparently nothing that can escape the US Intelligence.

Bush's reaction about the whole thing has been the most surprising. He did not declare another War on Terror on Cobblers (yet). Nor has he warned Al Qaeda. His statement - All I can report that it was Size 10 - says it all. It took him eight years of presidency to find a sense of humour.

5 things I learnt from the mumbai terror attack

They came. They attacked. We (the police and NSG, not us) fought back. The ICON was reclaimed. I felt humbled. Lots of candles came out. And I learnt some things along the way.

1. The camera is mightier than the gun
The man with the gun can kill you once but the man(or woman) in front of the camera can screw your brains day after day and you will still keep paying to watch cable. For once it was not the politicians who decided what to do next but the news channels. God help us when there is a real war.

Always remember the correspondent under a hail of bullets is speaking the gospel truth. And the TV anchor is God. Very soon the government is coming up with the protocols for the correct way to address them (Your Highness etc) when you meet them (in a kneeling position).

2. Some people are more equal (or the Idea of India resides on the edge of Mumbai)
Never mind that we had transistor bombs going off in buses in Delhi twenty years back. Never mind that terrorists have attacked every town in the country (Delhi, Hyderabad, Jaipur, Bangalore,Ahmedabad, Hyderabad) in the last ten years. Never mind they bombed the trains in Mumbai some time back. But if they attack the Taj we shall come down on them like a ton of bricks with a lot of NSGs and news correspondents.

3. The Taj Hotel = India's Icon
The less said about it the better. Although the VT station where many people were killed is older than the Taj and more people from Mumbai have been through VT than had coffee at the Taj.
Last heard the government was trying to replace the Taj Mahal with Taj Hotel on the Seven Wonders List.

4. Facebook can help deepen our democracy
In the last ten days we have seen many decisions taken on Facebook without involving the Parliament and our bureaucracy. This seems like a good way to save money we waste on elections and our MPs.

Also we realised that ours is a dynamic constitution that we can make up/change as we go along. The politicians cannot fool us anymore. We can not only remove you but also refuse to vote ! (We know there is no such rule but we can make it up...)

A fortnight later, after the hangover I had this thought: This is not our 9/11. It has been happening since the 80's. Only this time the rich got hit.

All I can say is this. Engage with people around you. Debate what is right and wrong. But please vote. And pay taxes.

After all how are they going to find insurance money for the Taj...

All the corners are filled up...

With the arrest of former ABVP members suspected of the Malegaon blasts and the killing of the young boy from Bihar on a Mumbai bus the players are all in the ring - the WWF Royal Rumble India Edition (Multi Language Version).

To one side you have MNS led by Raj Thackeray taking on the Bihari public. On the other there are the Muslim terrorists vs Hindu terrorists. Sometimes I feel like Rip Van Winkle waking up from a slumber after many years. What has happened to this country? When did we become so intolerant and ready to blame/kill someone if we feel threatened?

Problems such as unemployment, lack of opportunities and even HIV(!) are promptly blamed on the OTHER. I remember while producing a show on HIV AIDS awareness two years back, the group claimed that it is the outsiders who brought the virus - before that our city was clean(!). It was as if no one indulged in unprotected sex or had multiple partners. This urge to blame some one else for our faults or things beyond our control is a typical Indian habit we learn from childhood. And it has rich rewards.

If you get caught at home blame your brother. In school you can choose anyone who is a rival as long as the teacher believes your sweet innocent face. At work there is always a scapegoat that you can find. Even in the Metro I can see someone who has pushed me accidentally but refuses to apologize but points behind to blame someone else.

Its simple. If we stand Together and blame the Other, none of us feel bad or responsible for the situation. The politicians love this game since it shifts the responsibility from them. No development? Blame the slum dwellers who come from outside. No water? Blame the farmers in the neighbouring state. Unseasonal floods or drought? Blame Amrika for bringing on Climate Change. Climate Change? Not us - it is the methane produced by polar bears farting in the Artic.

This may not be a bad idea. If all my failures can be attributed to a Bihari who is buying a ticket to Delhi at this very moment, I do not have to do anything more. Just wait for him to land up. Raj Thackeray will take care of the rest.

Where The Migrants Live

In the centre of migrant country on the way back from Muzzafarpur to Patna last evening we stopped at the Ganga Setu. Its official name is the Mahatma Gandhi Setu and this used to be the longest bridge in the world some when (remember the question in your school quiz days). Twenty five years on it is on its way out. The driver told us that for almost a year one side of the bridge has not been functional.

This meant the traffic has to alternate and often the wait is long. As we sat waiting on the bridge we felt a gentle sway each time a truck passed us. This is not the vibration one feels standing on a flyover. The concrete bridge was swaying and had been doing so for many years. Elsewhere mobs were kidnapping train engines and burning down railway property in protest against the attacks on Biharis in Maharashtra.

The wait on the bridge took an hour. It was the right place to discuss and analyze why Bihar was in the shape that it was. Politicians, middlemen, upper castes, lower caste, Maoists, you, me - everyone was blamed. When we finally crossed the bridge we were tired. Happily we rushed towards our dinner, the discussion a distant memory.

At the simplest level migration depends on both lack of opportunities back home and also availability of jobs at the destination city. Ten years ago we would argue about rural to urban migration and often experts would point out that if people found jobs near their home they would not need to migrate. When you migrate are exploited since you may not have the skills for new jobs and you live in abysmal conditions hoping to send enough for your family back home.

In practical terms this means that if I were to get a job where I am paid a 100 rupees everyday near my home, I would not travel to Delhi or Mumbai for a job that pays me 200 rupees a day. Only recently because of the National Rural Employment Guarantee Act we have seen some reduction in migration. A popular case this year was that of Bihari farm labour that was refusing to travel to Punjab because they were getting jobs back home.

But this is only a small number. A vast majority still travel out for jobs. In this sense, in the last ten years Bihar has become the Village for our Cities. And at the first opportunity people will land up in Mumbai.

Whatever Raj Thackeray says...

Fear and Suspicion in Kashmir

The minute you land you can feel the difference. Actually when they asked to identify our baggage at the Delhi airport we were surprised. Who does that kind of stuff anymore ? That is so 80's.

The plane touched the tarmac and I was thrown back about five years when I went to visit Jaffna. Bunkers dotted the ground half hidden or wearing army camouflage.

People tell you things are now normal in K. Tourists are back and business is up. Well if that is the case what is with bored army personnel standing at every corner and bathroom entrance? Would that be normal in Delhi?

Actually deep down everyone is suspicious. The locals are suspicious of the sarkar. The sarkar is suspicious of both the locals and the militants. The militants are suspicious of the army. The army is suspicious of the locals. Visitors are suspicious of anything that moves. When asked the locals will tell you things are normal. The visitors of course claim that this is actually paradise but then after a torturous plane ride anything would be.

Why I compared this to Jaffna was that five years there was ceasefire in Sri Lanka then. But everyone was unsure. In such a situation it just takes a single bomb or an ambush to throw us back to the earlier times. What looks like there-is-nothing- wrong-here is actually we-are-bracing-ourselves-for-the-next-attack.

After many days of good food and hospitality we had developed an amnesia but as we returned the security checks at the airport woke us up again.

Yes things are becoming normal in K. But it is still a long journey.

Another question for Mr. Bush

This report says:

Prosperity in countries like India is good but it triggers increased demand for better Nutrition, which in turn leads to higher food prices (according to) United States President George W Bush (who says)

"when you start getting wealth, you start demanding better nutrition and better food, and so demand is high, and that causes the price to go... "

So what is the solution?

Should we:

1. Eat less nourishing food
2. Import food from you
3. Become poor again

Also could you explain the economics of it to a lay blogger like me because your statements in the report really confuse the shit out of me. Speak English dude not Americanese.

A sample for your thoughts :

"There is (food) scarcity in the world, and I happen to believe when we find people who can't find food we ought to help them find it...."

Who writes these things for him?

The U turns of Tehelka

I had commented earlier on a piece in Tehelka which had supported Aamir's point of view on the Olympic torch. The article had pointed out that there was no connection between the Olympic torch and the Tibetan struggle.

This week it seems that the same writer realized her mistake:

In a misjudged column in TEHELKA last week, this writer asserted the furore around the Olympic torch was a flash in the pan that would typically die out without lending the struggle any real momentum. But clearly, it has been a tactical masterstroke.

Well what can I say ? Is that true realization or just a habit that journalists cultivate? Yesterday she felt strongly about Aamir Khan. This week the flavour is Tibet.

In any case both the magazine and writer need to be complemented for admitting their mistake. Very rare in India for anyone to do that publicly.

But what does Aamir think of this whole issue? Has he decided to relook at his stand ? Or does his body run for China and heart still beat for Tibet?

The Olympic Torch is not a symbol?

You got to hand it to Tehelka. Once it a while it comes up with such gibberish that you take a step back and think - do the editors ever look at what they print?

In this week's issue Shoma Chaudhary has defended Aamir Khan's decision to run with the Olympic Torch. I can think of many reasons (India, Coke & Samsung) but she has of course a different perspective. Invoking Mahatma Gandhi she says :

The art of public symbolism is famously a difficult one to master. Few men in recent time have been as adroit at it as Gandhi. A fistful of salt, retrieved from the sea. Mass bonfires. Civil disobedience. The charkha. These symbols became powerful change agents, a moral force that unseated an empire because their inspiration snaked back to a deep search for truth, a clear goal, a massive ambition. And most importantly, a readiness to back symbolic gesture with suffering. There was also a direct correlation between these symbols and the oppression they sought to highlight. The Olympic torch — the most debated public symbol today — has none of those virtues.

Bullshit.

When he began, no one took Gandhi seriously. The charkha or salt had no meaning attached to it before Gandhi associated it with self reliance and freedom. In any case was only by the 1940s that his ideas and philosophy started to grip the entire nation something that we have preserved for over six decades now.

The Olympic torch has existed for some time now as a symbol of the Olympic spirit. The very fact that it is paraded and carried to all countries of the world it means something.

Of course it has nothing to do with China's policies in Tibet. Right now.

By snuffing it out, protesting or creating an environment to boycott the Games, the Tibetans are following the tradition of the Africans in 1976, the Americans in 1980 and the Russians in 1984. The Africans definitely achieved their objective against apartheid South Africa two decades later.

If by chance in the future, Tibet were to get independence, would not these protests be a significant step in that direction? Would not the Olympic Torch have a new meaning ? Of course this has to be part of larger strategy of boycotting Chinese goods etc. but snuffing out the torch has the maximum impact media wise. There can be no denying that.

Later the article says :

Perhaps Aamir Khan thought of all this when he rejected the grand dramatic gesture — emotionally satisfying, televisionfriendly, but ultimately hypocritical — and settled for a more nuanced and personally honest stand.

And what is this nuanced and personally honest stand ? Neither did he come out with a clarification (on China's Tibet policy) nor did he criticize anyone. His sponsors were happy and so were the Chinese who came to cheer him.

So much for not being hypocritical.

How to be a 100% dilliwalah (Suggestion No. 5)

Putting on your training shoes. And Run.

I am not talking about serious running like the Hutch marathon. I am talking about jogging a few metres for a CAUSE. HIV/AIDS, the environment, girl child... In fact today is the ideal day. The Olympic torch is town.

Of course a lot has been said why you should not run. Tibet. China's human rights record. But think about it - Aamir would be there and so would be Saif. And a host of cheer leaders promoting all kinds of products rights from coloured water to mobile phones. NDTV reports faithfully :

Out of 70 torchbearers, 47 have been chosen by IOA and five by the Chinese organisers of the Olympic Games, while Olympic partners Samsung, Lenovo and Coca Cola has selected 19 runners..

I know what you are thinking. There would be a long wait. And then there is the heat. But look at it this way. Many of the celebs have already dropped out. News channels would take a bite from any one. They are desperate. A new face would help salvage their story. This is your chance to launch your Page 3 career.

At the next party you can proudly say : I was there !

Whatever happened to good old fashioned...

... protesting? Right to freedom and expression?

Bhaichung Bhutia has refused to carry the Olympic torch in protest over China's handling over the recent events in Tibet. The minute he announced this people from left, right and centre have started criticising or belittling his decision. What is with our establishment that we are hell bent on keeping everyone else happy (Chinese, US) but not caring about the rights of our own citizens?

Bhaichung feels that carrying the torch would send a wrong signal or he feels that since he is a Buddhist he must take a stand in the case of Tibet he must take a stand. Whatever. That is his right.

Its strange that we are OK with people who are carrying the torch - Leander (I am proud to be an Indian) Paes and PT (politics and sports should be seperate) Usha, but we do not praise someone like Bhaichung. In any case there have been times when we have refused to play countries due to political disagreements.

PS Does someone up there love Aamir Khan? He keeps making these politically naive statements and then ties himself into knots. But the media never takes him to task. Every time he opens his mouth they wait as if pearls of wisdom are going to fall again.

This time he is carrying the torch not for China but with a prayer for the Tibetans. On his blog he defends himself by saying :

In fact if we were to try and find on this planet a place to hold the Olympic Games where the government of that place has not been responsible for human rights violations (in one way or the other), then I suspect that we would be left with very few options, if any at all. If I am not mistaken almost all societies have been responsible for human rights violation either directly or indirectly, sometimes in seen ways and sometimes in unseen ways, sometimes physically, sometimes economically.

Wow! What?????????????????

Its funny that the more educated we are, we can defend even the silliest of behaviours because we have mastered the language and argue better...

I think I will buy a ticket to Beijing and get away from it all.

February is the silliest month...

This is that time of the year where grown up, sensible men will sit in front of their television or discuss in the TV studios about that vague document called the Budget. On the last two days of February we are waiting in anticipation as if the budget is going to make break our lives.The leap year makes it extra special - you get tortured for an extra day. (Thankfully I was spared this stress since i had no cable)

Strange words like fiscal deficit and public debt are thrown around and we pretend that we understand them. And whoever is the Finance Ministers gets us to hold our breaths for a day or two. So now that the party is over, lets sift through the hangover.

So Rs. 60,000 crores have been waived for farmers. Wow! Wow? How many of us have even worked on a farm in the last twenty years?

Shit ! Cigarettes prices will go up. But were you not planning to quit this year?

Rs. 16,000 crores have been allocated to cover National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme? What is that? When did you want one? In any case IT and services sector do not come under that !!!!

Cars have become cheaper by about 2-5000 rupees. OK great, but you were going to buy on an EMI anyways.

Lets be honest. None of us - urban middle class, upper middle class and upwardly mobile (any of the above) are affected by the budget. But the show we put on during this time it seems like that our life depends on it. Just for this brief moment we all become experts on what is the right budget for the country.

My suggestion is that budget discussions on television should be simplified and should only be in Hindi. That's one way to keep them short and not let the experts meander on.

The rest of the stuff you can read on the net or the newspapers tomorrow.