Forget Pakistan, Kill The Kasab Within

Terrorists came, saw, and killed. That’s the story in a nutshell. So did they achieve all this without internal support? The answer is NO. Then why is it that we as a nation are so keen on getting Pakistan to admit guilt while doing nothing to catch and/or eliminate the facilitators of the attack at home? That is the question we should be asking our Government in particular and all political parties in general.

How does it matter whether Pakistan admits its complicity or not? How reasonable and sensible is it to expect cooperation from a people who could not be true to their own motherland, leading to the formation of Pakistan. And logically speaking is the guilty ever going to accept his/her crime, more so when the party is Pakistan?

Successive Indian governments have been demanding the extradition of Dawood Ibrahim, Masood Azhar, Mohammad Hafiz and many others. My question is what do we expect to achieve even if we manage to get them to India? We could not hang an Afzal Guru in spite of the highest court of the sentencing him to death. Then is the government telling us they would do so with Dawood and the gang if the highest court of the land was to sentence them to the gallows? I would say, please spin this yarn elsewhere other than India. Maybe you will find a few takers!

For a change, let’s forget Pakistan and stop giving so much importance to a near-bankrupt megalomaniac neighbor with regional aspirations. That country has always maintained: “I don’t care if I lose an eye, but will ensure that India loses both”. So instead of crying for Pakistan’s blood even if Prime Minister Manmohan Singh gets a cold, let’s find ways to set our house in order.

For starters, instead of trying to extradite Dawood, let’s go after his networks and cronies in India and finish them. Sitting in Karachi, Dawood will only be as effective in India as his network lets him be. No network, no Dawood in India. And I refuse to believe that our government does not realize this small fact. As a bonus let Pakistan enjoy Dawood, for a man who could not be faithful to his own motherland is never going to be faithful to anyone else.

The problem is if the government guns for Dawood’s network, a whole lot of white ants will start falling out of the woodwork of all political parties, including the one in power at the Center and in Maharashtra. If the government is serious, then finding proof and bring the guilty to book will not be difficult. But no government will even attempt, so all we will do is cry hoarse of Pakistan’s evil intentions and actions.

As I have written in many of my earlier blog posts, our problem is corruption. And all we commons can do is not subscribe to corruption to achieve our goals. The corrupt exist only because they have takers. But will we be willing to do so? There in lies the answer to all our problems. And I don't see us collectively as a nation doing anything to address this issue. Each one of us will individually swear that we are not corrupt, but collectively we are among the most corrupt nations on Earth. That is some achievement, I must say.

All we will do is fight over land, water, religion, caste, creed and many non-issues. And when a country stands so divided internally, then do we really need a Pakistan to destroy us? I would say no. In my opinion Pakistan should look to strengthen its economy, work for the betterment of its people instead of wasting time, money and energy on trying to destroy us. Leave that job to us, we are quiet capable of and willing to self destruct.

Mourning Over, It’s Back To Politics

Mumbai’s dead have barely been laid to rest and for politicians it’s back to business. Forty eight hours and counting, the country’s oldest political party, Congress, is yet to arrive at a consensus candidate to replace the outgoing chief minister in Maharashtra. For a country grappling for answers about the readiness and capability of our governments, central and states, to fight terror and protect its people, this impasse is extremely reassuring.

And more reassuring it must be to see one of its leaders on national television running down his party colleague as being not fit to be chief minister and the adding, as an afterthought, that he is not interested in being chief minister. I guess this leader in question is just trying to apply pressure on the party high command to act quickly and he has nothing but the good of the state and country in mind. It also must just be a matter of small detail that this very leader left a party that he had been with for decades to join the Congress three years ago, all because he was not made Chief Minister then.

But then the people of the state want him to be chief minister, and I am not saying this, but the venerable leader himself. And the leader’s language… very colourful, I must say. His style reminded me of a certain Raghu bhai in the movie Vaastav. For the uninitiated, Raghu bhai was enacted by Sanjay Dutt, who played the role of a gangster in the movie.

And to know that this very party is ruling the country is again very reassuring. But then our other political parties are also making hay while the sun shines. Each party is busy accusing the others of incompetence and concluding with the statement that it will do anything for the country, to protect the sovereignty of the country, and again as an afterthought, to protect the people of the land. Elections are round the corner is just coincidence.

If the Congress and its leaders can conduct business in such an exemplary manner amid all the people anger, then I must say our country is in safe hands. After all, our ancient texts do teach us that everything is predetermined, or a matter of destiny. Hence, we must believe that all those who have been felled by terror bullets and bombs until now were anyways destined to die, so why waste money on providing security to those who are anyways destined to leave their mortal cage at a destined time and place.

When one thinks of how our country has survived and progressed in the more than 60 years after independence, I am led to believe that God does exist. For if not, then there is no way on Earth that we could have survived as one country all these years. And that after we, as a people, including our politicians who are a reflection of our society, have done every possible thing to self-destruct.

At a time when the government should be focussed on securing our country from such attacks, we are witness to the same government using its resources in trying to quell the revolt in its own house. My question: How will a government and a party that are so divided be able to unite a country and protect it from outsiders? But then I seem to be forgetting that it is always about the power and never about the people. So what if on paper it is people power that is believed to make or break a democracy?

A Billion Indias, But Where Is The Indian?

A thousand and three hundred million India we stand, A thousand and three hundred million India we bleed, A thousand and three hundred million India we die, A thousand and three hundred million India divided we fall. That dear friends, is India’s woe.

As I watched for 60 hours the spirit of a city being blasted into submission, I felt a sense of sadness, gloom, and loss as people groped for answers. We kept asking the same question over and over again, Why us? But even in this dark hour what we really wanted to know was Why me? That dear friends, is our problem.

On the map we are a nation, we are India. On the ground, we are a thousand and three hundred million independent nations fighting to establish our right of ownership. And when so many people stand divided, fall we must and fall we will.

We are Hindus, Muslims, Christians, Maharashtrians, Tamilians, Gujarathis, Bengalis, Bhaiyaas, Biharis, Malayalees, Kannadigas, Telegus, Kashmiris…the list is endless. Unfortunately and sadly, we are everything else but Indians. We describe ourselves as all of those and more and as an afterthought, an apology, we add Indian to ourselves. That always sounds like filling a column in a visa form of a foreign nation, and that’s it. We need a nationality for the form…so we are Indian.

We live within our four walls giving a damn to whether our neighbour is dead or alive. We make friends, so that we can name a few when needed, but rarely are friends. We see a person dying on the street, but move ahead because we have more important things to do in live. Isn’t life the most important thing on Earth?

We can remove leaders, change governments, enact new laws, but nothing will change for a government is the reflection of a society. Unless we change as a people our governments will be no different.

For that, we need to shed the Chalta Hai attitude, for that is our problem. Only when we stand for what is right, do away with what is wrong, and stand together to uphold the law can we survive as a nation.

Five of Mumbai’s own are believed to have provided support to the terrorists. What can be more shameful? When our own stab us in the back, why blame Pakistan, the LeT, or any alien for our misery.

Over thousands of years we have paid the price for standing divided. The Mughals, the Portuguese, the French, the Spanish, and the British, how can we forget them, ruled us over the centuries, not because we were incapable of ruling ourselves, but we were incapable of ruling as one.

Our freedom fighters fought for a free India and gave up their lives to set us free. Unfortunately, they set us free for us to chain ourselves again to narrow ideologies, personal gains, and selfish goals. And the results are there for us to see. A democratic nation groaning under the weight of its own abuse of that very democracy that was supposed to set us free.

I have no suggestions, no prescriptions for how to set things right. All I can say is if each one of us looks within, we will find the answer. If we live a life in which we do not hurt others, no one will and can hurt us. Everyone knows this simple fact of life, but then each one of us dismisses it as hogwash. For our collective sake and for the survival of India, I hope we start practicing what we have been taught in schools for decades—Unity in Diversity.

Prayers for Mumbai

Mumbai is facing the deepest of crisis the Island city has ever been witness too. In these times my heart goes out to the people who have been caught in the middle, those who have died and those who have been injured, or ar being held hostage. I offer my condolences to the families who have lost loved ones. To those whose loved ones are missing, I will say do not lose hope.

The whole country is praying for the crisis to end soon and for people to come out of it safely.I pay my homage to the policemen, army personnel, and NSG who have lost thier lives in the line of duty. And I salute all those taking who are putting country before personal safety and fighting the terrorists.

Glod Bless India

Living In An Upside Down World

Barak Obama’s wife thinks that he would make an extraordinary president. Maybe so, but then which wife would not think so about her husband, more so when the guy already has half a foot into the White House door. My only worry is that when calling her husband extraordinary, I hope she did not have extra ordinary in mind, meaning another in the long line of ordinary presidents that America has had since Nixon.

Closer to home, politicians are divided over the Kashmir issue. Again what is new, that has been the case since 1947. Some won’t tolerate even the thought of an autonomous Kashmir, forget an independent one, some won’t settle for anything less than an independent Kashmir, while a few others would only rest once Kashmir becomes a part of Pakistan. The irony is no one is bothered about what the average Kashmiri wants. Oops shouldn’t have said that for I could be tried for treason.

In the state of Orissa, the followers of two religions are at war, each trying to prove their God’s supremacy. But then what’s new again, we as a country have so many Gods that competition is bound to be intense. I guess if not for us our Gods would have been orphaned for we are the ones who protect them. But isn’t it supposed to be the other way around? Who cares for there is only one God that people realize and that is money and with money comes power. And whoever has power is God, right? The rest is all just a matter of detail.

Staying with religion, I have never understood this idea of killing one’s way to heaven. That is the terrorist ideology and terrorists belong to no religion. But then don’t these terrorists need to thank the people whom they target for if not for the hapless victims, how would these killers reach heaven? And the most logical question in my mind is how can these killers hate a class of people so much when they are the ones who supposedly lead them to heaven? Or maybe these terrorists are doing the others a favor by killing them, for who knows the dead may be going to heaven while these terrorists are still roaming the earth in search of their elusive heavens.

Amid all this chaos the Olympics have come and gone and for a change India has three medals to show. Politicians are touting this as the sign of India Rising, business and media houses are busy milking the medals for their own benefit, the Indian Olympic Association is busy feeling offended and offending people with its myopic way of looking at things, and all this when none of the above-mentioned classes have contributed in the success of these sports persons. But again what’s new for we, as a nation, have always been good at hanging on to winners and milking their success for our own gains. And unfortunately for a nation of over a billion people, our success to failure ratio is heavily tilted towards failure, making success a commodity as precious as Gold, and where there is Gold, will diggers be far away?

Want to Win the War on terror? Act

Has Modi won the war on terror? screamed the main headline on the IBNlive website. Won the war on terror? What on earth are we talking about here, I asked myself. For one, we have seen millions of such wars that have been claimed won by politicians and the police fail to pass the muster in courts of law. And more important: will catching a bunch of people with little thinking ability and who have aligned their loyalties to unknown, unseen masters for the promise of a place in heaven help us win the war on terror?

Are we fighting a war against a faceless, nameless enemy? Yes, we are. What are our chances of winning this war? None I say, as long as there exist a bunch of people who are led to believe by cunning masters that either people are with you or against you. And if people are against you, then they do not deserve to live.

I can pontificate as much as I want but little will come of it. Our leaders, political and religious, have unleashed a Frankenstein monster and now the world will have to wait patiently for this monster to die its natural death. And for that to happen, it will take time and lack of cooperation from people at large. As long as these killers continue to find support among common citizens who sympathize with their cause but do not have the guts to do what these guys are doing, even the best of governments with more than 100% intent and will to eliminate terror will fail.

As long as fundamentalism and the spirit of one-upmanship continue to prevail, rest assured that all of us will keep running the risk of being blown up by a bomb or taken out by a bullet. And no government, military, or police force will be able to protect us beyond a point. We have opened the Pandora’s Box by unleashing the power of collective religion on the people, and now it will be up to us to remove it from the public domain and take it back into our homes where religion should belong, if it has to belong in the first place.

So I would request the media, politicians, the government machinery and people at large to stop flying kites by asking stupid questions such as Has Modi won the war on terror? Sounds nice but both you and I know that it is one big lie, and lying ain’t going to prevent us from being killed by a coward.

What we need first is the acceptance by the common people at large that terror can achieve nothing, and hence, supporting it, tacit or otherwise, is going to achieve nothing other than lives lost. Once these cowards, misguided souls, whatever once chooses to call these killers, realize that they have no support and place to hide, they will be forced to come out in the open, and that’s when we will be able to eliminate terror for good.

Now it is for us to decide if we are ready to stick our neck out for the larger good of mankind, or are we happy sitting in our homes at the end of the day for having survived death by terror? The choice is ours, and blaming the government, police and other people for our miseries is going to get us no where. So friends we can either start by not supporting such ideologies or be resigned to the fact that our life is just a bomb or bullet away. The choice is ours to make and I hope we make a sensible one.

Fighting Crime The India Way

Anees Ibrahim held in Jeddah; breaking news on prime time television news. A couple of news anchors were at it hammer and tongs telling viewers that Anees Ibrahim is the brother of dreaded don and D Company head honcho Dawood Ibrahim. Thanks for blowing the lid off Anees Ibrahim’s identity, I told myself. It is another story that even four-year-olds in the country know all about the Ibrahims and their misdeeds.

Now channels are debating the possibility of the government trying to extradite the Bhai ka bhai (Don’s brother). Suddenly one of the reporters with an air of importance around him says, but India does not have an extradition treaty with Saudi Arabia. O yeah, I said to myself, if we had a treaty Anees would be in Tihar by now.

Trying to get back these Dons is something that I have always failed to understand. What do we achieve by getting them back? We got Dawood’s brother Iqbal Kaskar back from Dubai, and now he is free man contemplating joining politics. The cases against him fell through you see, how very convenient. Don’t we have enough number of criminals in politics that we need to import them too?

We keep on crying hoarse that Pakistan is sheltering the Ibrahims and other criminals. I say, good for them. If someone wants to keep and grow rotten apples, why should we object? Same was the case with Abu Salem; the Dutch court would have sentenced him for 20 years and we would have been better off. But no, we had to spend taxpayer money and get him back. Now in a year’s time, I won’t be surprised to see him sitting in the Lok Sabha. We sure believe in Democracy, I say.

Who knows may be 10 years down the line, we may be a country run by these very Bhais, we might be the biggest exporters of drugs, weapons, women, terror, and Bhais (read Dons) to the rest of the world. Our economy may be growing at about 20% GDP; nothing rakes in more money than terror and drugs, you see.

I know that you may find this post rather pessimistic. Please don’t, for when rape is inevitable, it is better to lie back and enjoy. And once it is done and over with, tell the rapist that he simply wasn’t good enough; just joking. If our leaders continue to be so inept and self-obsessed, and we as a nation so impotent in fighting crime, terror, corruption, and general bad behaviour, enjoying getting raped day after day, dear friends, will be our only option.

In The Name Of God

A bomb blast, people dead, a lot of grieving souls, and a bunch of joyous dimwits who engineered these explosions. This sequence of events is no stranger to people across the world, and the world is informed by a bunch of trigger and bomb happy morons with great pride that these acts have been committed in the Name of God. What an irony, I say.

If these people knew what God stood for, we won’t be mourning the loss on innocent lives. And on that point I introspect as to why is my God so different from their? For one, isn’t God supposed to be one not matter what name we call him?

But if these murderers, yes that is what they are to me, were clever enough to understand this simple fact that no God will ever be happy if people are massacred in her/his name, then we won’t be writing such posts, would we?

To me these people are just plain losers who are non-believers in God and are resorting to killing indiscriminately in the name of God to vent their frustration at not being able to fulfill their material desires. The logic is if I am not capable enough, or if I haven’t had the opportunity to go on and accumulate what I want, then the rest of the world should also not be allowed to do the same. And what better way to go about doing it than killing people in the name of God.

I know that most of you will rationalize that the guys who are indulging in such acts are poverty-stricken youths who have been misguided by a few cunning for their personal gains. I agree. But by that logic all of us have many desires that remain unfulfilled in a lifetime. So does that mean that all of us should go about blowing up people and places and then lay the blame on God’s doorstep?

I also agree with the argument that most of these killers are recruited at a very young age and are taught by force to believe in a reality that is totally different from reality. But does that absolve them of the crimes against humanity? No. And if these guys at 18 and 20 have been raised in an ideology of blood and death, then they cease to be humans and lose the right to freely move around civil society or whatever is left of it.

Last, all top politicians and intelligence agencies across the world know what they are up against and who the perpetrators of these crimes are. But unfortunately they chose to play politics over dead bodies. Instead of finding a permanent cure for this virus, they keep finding temporary patches. The permanent cure is to eliminate the source of such radical thinking. If the source is gone, then the thought will die its natural death.

I know that it is easy to write but difficult to execute. But can’t we put aside petty politics and at least make a beginning in the Name of God and show these people what God stands for? If the answer is No, then what can I say other than let us all be bombed to glory until kingdom comes.

Politics OR Politricks

Below is the profile of a Politician who ran the country aground. Readers, can you see anything so out of the ordinary in the man’s profile that qualifies him to hold a country to ransom and push it toward economic ruin. More so, does the profile qualify this person to be an expert on nuclear technology? For someone with a non-descript profile, it’s quite an achievement that this person has managed to bring down a government that is partly elected by the people. I say partly because the lead party never had a two-thirds majority. I guess that is what we call democracy where anyone can piss on the hopes of over 1 billion people and be self-righteous about it on camera.


PROFILE

A communist politician in India

College educated; thank God for that!

Involved with student politics. Spotted and noticed by a leading Left Politician. Worked with many more communist politicians

Heads a publishing house and has written a few books.

Married to a comrade.

Are We All Racist At Heart?

The world is all in black and white. And according to me, brown, yellow and any other possible color too. I am not talking about environment here; I am talking about race; Racism to be precise, of color, religion and all possible denominations.

I was reading an article in the New York Times about the US presidential elections that delved in detail about the color of Barack Obama’s skin and his Muslim middle name, all the while emphasizing that he was Christian. Apparently, the article claims that people in the Arab world and Muslim states are excited that Obama may become the next US president. And all the excitement because Obama’s middle name is Husein.

As I thought of the article, a pattern started forming in my mind about various articles written by the global media, the actions of people and reactions of politicians and governments to the same. A pattern of separation by race, by color, religion, by social status.

I guess we, human beings, like to think of ourselves not only as better than the rest but as better than one other too. If we map conversations, we will realize that there is so much need to differentiate. America has color, while we have religion, caste, geography, etc., etc., etc.

The key question then is, how right is one country OR a set of people in terming others racist. In my opinion, most of us are racist at heart. There will be a few, who do not differentiate, but then they are evolved souls and if all people across the whole world were so evolved, we would be living in Paradise, won’t we?.

I have so often heard people in India or Indians living in the US, or elsewhere in the world, refer to Africans as kallus, the Orientals as chinks, the whites as goras, and Pakistanis as bloody Pakis to cite a few. And I am sure people from other countries will have their terms to depict people from different parts of the world.

If all this is not being racist, then what is. In India, we call people from the south as Madrasis, from UP and Bihar as Bhayyas, so on and so forth…the list is endless. And we still get offended when people from other parts of the world call us racist; this trend applies to people across countries.

As a reader your question would be, where am I going with this line of thought? To them I say nowhere. I am just trying to understand all the brouhaha over the term Racism when 99% of the world’s human beings are racist at heart. Therefore, do we take offense to being labeled a racist because we believe the allegation is unjust and a lie, or is it because it is the universal truth that 99% of us are closet racists and we feel offended and go on the defensive because we are living a lie?

It’s for you to look into your hearts and find the answer. And believe me, 9 of 10 times the answer that comes from our heart may jolt our conscience.

Laughing Gas

These days Gas is king. And for now I am not talking about the byproduct of an inefficient digestive system. The government did not want to but had to hike prices of petrol, diesel, and LPG. The Opposition knows the government had no choice but will protest the hike. Businessmen do not want to harm the poor, but will have to for self-preservation takes precedence over Nation. So where does it leave the common man? In a Gas chamber, I guess.

That was the serious part of the story. But there is no point in worrying about it now, is there? For there is very little that people like you and me can do about politics, largely a preserve of the demented mind. The only time we come into play is once in five years, when he the humble politician barges into our building, knocks on our door surrounded by 8 to 10 ruffian looking men, and demands our vote. It is our franchise, but their right, you see!

So I resort to humor in trying to find ways of how we can solve our Gas, as Oil is called in America, problem. This may sound crude to most, but one way is to recruit people with ample gas reserves (read ability to pass wind at will) and use them to fill our LPG cylinders. We can call it HPG, or Human Personalized Gas. Anyways when gas burns, it rarely stinks. These cylinders can also serve as stink bombs that we can throw at politicians to tell them how much they stink. But I am not sure if it will work, for pigs thrive in slush, don’t they?

Maybe housing societies in Metros can erect sheds in their compounds and rear cattle. This will be dual purpose: a) daily supply of milk, b) Gobar (cow dung) gas. Maybe we can even collect cattle urine in a big covered pit. Over time, it will emanate fumes similar to public toilets in Mumbai. We can use those fumes to fire our burners in the kitchen.

A city like Mumbai must be generating huge amounts of human waste on a daily basis. The city already has the Dadar Malpravah Prakriya Kendra (Dadar Waste Recycling Center) where human waste is converted into potable drinking water. And that water is supposed to be cleaner than that which runs through our taps. Water aside, maybe we can look at ways to convert the huge amount of human waste into gas, and add a dash of perfume, if needed.

Here the migrant population could be of great help; opponents of migrants to city, this is mainly for your consumption—the information, not the gas. Mumbai has at least 7 million people living in slums or on sidewalks. I can see a huge opportunity here. We can build a few more Malpravah Prakriya Kendras for harnessing their bowel movements to our advantage. I can taste water and smell gas already. And the migrants can be paid to defecate in customized toilets. It will be win-win situation for everyone. We will get gas and water, the migrants will get money to crap—I think that would be a first in the world—and we can walk on streets and sidewalks without the fear of cutting cakes daily.

If I apply my mind to it, I can come up with many more such ideas, but I guess there is a limit to how much crap readers can digest. So I end with the thought that if I cannot change the world, at least I can laugh it off. Laughter is the best medicine, isn’t that what we have been told since time immemorial?

‘Bush’whacked

A rich rogue nation can flaunt the will of a disparate majority. New York Times columnist David Brooks uses these words to describe the Bush government’s aggressive views on Iran. I reread the article to figure out if the columnist were talking about Iran or the US. After my second read, I realized that it indeed was Iran.

The columnist talks of how the Iranian government does not know what it is doing because there are four factions at work there. The logic being how can the US understand what the Iranians are up to when the Iranians themselves do not know what they are up to.

Then the talk veers to how the Iranians have armed the Hezbollah in Lebanon against the wishes of the UN, how they repeatedly flouted international rules by going ahead its nuclear program, and how China, India, Russia are by cooperating with the Iranians are making it difficult for the Americans to make the Iranians see their point of view.

Ah! I said to myself, that is the crux of the problem. While I was reading the article I was mentally replacing Iran with the US and found that for a country that has repeatedly ignored international voices in the name of national security, they sure are behaving like whining bullies.

Let us look at the US’s history since 1945. That was the year they dropped Atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki in Japan citing the need to do so to humble an expansionist Japan. By dropping those bombs, the US became the first country to explode Atomic bombs in the world and to this day remains the only country to have done so.

Then came the Cold War era when in the name of national security, the US indulged in an arms race with the erstwhile USSR, stockpiling nuclear bombs and arms, which America continues to own to this day. But it is again a case of one rule for the King and another for the commons.

When India under the Vajpayee government conducted a Nuclear test, the US went around the world screaming murder. I think the Americans forgot that India as a country has never attacked anyone in the world, while the Americans have a history of engaging in wars (e.g., Vietnam/Afghanistan/Iraq) on fictitious grounds of national security. I guess America has a right to worry about national security but others do not.

Since America decided that Communism was bad, they unilaterally decided that it was bad for the rest of the world too. Since America feels Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez is a menace, it wants the whole world to concur. Since America feels that Iran is a potential threat, it wants the whole world to think so too. Since America thinks that China and India are the reason for the spike in food prices, the rest of the world has to agree. In short, the world has to see through American eyes, or opt to be blind.

I am no supporter of Iran, nor do I believe that Communism is the best thing to have happened to the world. At the same time, I do believe that for America, America has been and continues to be its single-biggest enemy.

The foolhardiness of American politicians in propagating the either you are with us or you are against us theory has caused the American people and the world at large the most grief. And American politicians, even after 60-odd years of following this policy and achieving little in terms of peace and more in terms of war, continue to walk the same path.

That forces me to think that Americans should, before pointing fingers at the Iranians and everyone else in the world, look inward. If they do so, they will realize that their problems are a result of years of their government not knowing what it is doing, but continuing to do so with foolish conviction, rather than the rest of the world knowing not what they are doing.

Want To Save India? Divide & Rule

Is India as one country in its present form a good idea? The answer is NO. Before you jump to conclusions, I am not advocating disintegration of the country. What I am proposing is India as a country with the Central government responsible for defense and foreign policy. The states will function as independent units within a larger country with their own governments setting growth plans and targets minus the Central government’s interference.

I know that most people will dismiss me as crazy, and I do not blame them for that. For the average Indian, the very idea would sound preposterous. I understand them, for all our failings we still manage to put national interest first when the country is under any external threat. Unfortunately, most Indians do not feel the need to react as one to counter external entities threatening the country internally by proxy. By that, I mean leveraging discontent within to foment trouble from the outside.

Given the size of our country, the hundreds of languages and thousands of dialects that we speak, it is no mean task to protect ourselves as one large entity, especially given the prevalent corruption. And anyways we are constantly fighting against one another for land, water, air and many such issues: a) Maharashtra is fighting the entry of outsiders; b) Maharashtra and Karnataka are fighting over who should own Belgaum; c) Chennai and Karnataka are fighting over the Cauvery waters and now the Hogenekkal Dam; d) UP and Bihar think that they are a different country and a law unto themselves; e) the North-East does not consider itself a part of India—Central neglect is the culprit here; f) Jammu and Kashmir wants to be a separate country. I can go on and on about the widespread discontent across the country.

When I look at all that is happening across the country, I find it extremely difficult to be proud of being an Indian. The question is what is there to be so proud about other than a perverse sense of jingoistic nationalism?

If we want to save India as a country, I believe that the time has come to let states be independent but part of a larger federation. The logic is that when states are independent, and are not dependent on the Center for financial aid, then they will be completely accountable for their actions and, hence, stop indulging in counterproductive activities; states will be forced to cooperate with each other to survive as island nations. When there is no Center to blame, then automatically local politicians will start seeing their bluff being called more often.

Another benefit of this exercise would be the end of regional parties with a handful of votes having a say in National politics. The reason: only national parties will have the right to fight Lok Sabha elections. Then we will have a government with a clear-cut majority that will not dillydally on issues of National Security as seen in the UPA coalition’s handling of the Nuclear deal.

This formula will also solve most problems caused by unbridled migration to regions that are more prosperous from regions that have failed to keep pace. With visas/permits required to work in a state other than that of birth, it will then be in the hands of individual state governments to decide whom to let into the workforce and whom to keep out. What this will do is force governments of states low down the development chain to pull up their socks, get their house in order and give development the much-needed impetus. When that happens, jobs will be created across the country, automatically eliminating the need for people to venture out of their states in search of a livelihood. I will not be surprised if the very states that oppose migration today try wooing the qualified labor force in other states.

Anyways the Indian Premier League (IPL) has shown us how parochial in mentality we Indians can be. If you ask me, the IPL has come at the right time, showing us the mirror. Even after seeing ourselves in this mirror, if we continue to live in a Fools Paradise, then generations that follow us will end up paying a heavy price—the price of disintegration. Our neighbors are working towards and waiting for the country to disintegrate. It is now for us to decide whether we want to stay ahead of the game, or grant them their wish.

Coalition—Frankenstein Personified

The biggest and ugliest of monsters unleashed by politicians and political parties in India is the politics of coalition. Coalition, according to me, is a mechanism using which politicians subvert peoples mandate to usurp power. And all in the name of saving state and country from disintegration.

Coalition politics is the single-most corrupt political practice prevailing in the world today, more so in India. I guess only Italians can claim to be more experienced in this art of governance of convenience; now we know why the Congress is leading the way. I know that politicians will immediately cite the Constitution and the Law of the land, stating that such politics is legally permissible.

It is legal is something that all of us know and we as a nation are suffering because of this legality is also something that all of us know. Sadly, I do not know if any of us citizens of this democratic country can do anything to put this coalition genie back into the bottle other than voting any one party to power.

That again is like asking for a miracle in a country where politicians and religious leaders have managed to fracture the thought processes of people to a level of great minuteness that in the 21st century when science and technology have made giant advances, we are busy dividing the nation on the basis of caste, religion, and geography.

Thanks to coalition politics, we now have hundreds of thousands of parties in the country who manage to secure a few seats each and then enter the political ring for their pound of flesh. So what we now have are governments in power that are rendered impotent by selfish individuals following different ideologies driven purely by personal greed.

Cases in point are the UPA government at the center and its predecessor the NDA. If we are to look at the working of the UPA government over the past four years, it is evident that nine of the 10 decisions taken have been motivated by the pressures of coalition and/or appeasing vote banks or whatever is left of them post all the fragmentation. That dear friends, is a sad reflection of what our political class has come to be over our 60-plus years of independence.

I know that people will cite the list of achievements since independence. To them I say, that we have managed to achieve so much in spite of political impotency is more of a tribute to the resilience and enterprise of our people than the result of government planning and political will.

Any country where a hand full of MPs elected from just two of our 28 states and 7 union territories manage to derail the plans of a government by holding it to ransom, claiming that they represent the thought process of the entire nation, is testimony of the failure of coalition politics.

I can understand people coming together to do good for the country, to take the country forward. But when political parties start coming together with the sole aim of keeping their rivals in the Opposition, then I believe that the country’s political process has failed and politicians have wronged the very voters who entrusted them with the task of nation building.

Finally, when these same political parties lose elections, they start saying things like our opponents misled the voters, which is akin to rubbing salt on the raw wounds of the electorate. The reason: politicians are directly calling voters i.e., you and me Idiots. Subverting the mandate and then calling the very people who gave that mandate Idiots can only happen in a great democracy like India.

In times like these, I am left wondering if we still are a Democracy or have we mutated into Coalicracy, an ugly breeding of Democracy and Coalition politics. I think the time has come for voters to realize the futility of giving fractured mandates. If we cannot think on those lines, then at least we need to find a way of preventing politicians from entering marriages of convenience where getting a divorce does not even require the mandatory period of separation.

Forget Living, We Love Existing

From the time we are born we sleepwalk though life. And when I say we, it’s me included. Until the time we learn to speak and walk, we are curious of things that adults attach no importance. Once, we learn to speak and walk, we become no better than adults. That my dear friends is where as a kid, you and I experience corruption for the first time; the corruption of thought.

In an average lifespan of 60 years, we may end up doing a billion things. We may have a trillion thoughts. And most thinkers, sages blame our miseries on these very thoughts. But not one of us ever pauses to understand why they say so.

My wife the other day was describing conversations that she had with or heard fellow passengers have in Mumbai local trains. At the end, I realized that all they did was crib about people, complain of what they want but couldn’t have, and moan of what life should have been and what life has become. After listening to her, I had just one question—isn’t there anything in life that people appreciate and I am not talking about ownership. She looked at me, thought for a minute, and agreed that most conversations were vents of dissatisfaction than appreciation of life.

That is what I meant by corruption of thought. These thoughts are not there with us when we are born, but we pick them along the way hearing people communicate, seeing people behave. We take immense pleasure in running others down either in their presence or behind their backs. The person who is being targeted feels hurt, but will do the same thing to someone else he doesn’t like.

In all the cribbing and complaining, what we do not realize is the small joys of life that we end up not appreciating until we die. How many of us can name a bird other than a crow that flies past? How many of us know the many species of ants that exist? How many of us bother to find out the names of the various species that roam the earth? How many of us stand to admire a rainbow? How many of us take pleasure in a tree that blooms and admire the falling leaves in winter? How many of us have the time to appreciate the mountains that surround us and protest their breaking in the name of development? And how many of us pause to thank God for what we have, rather than visit temples to ask for what we don’t?

Then to say that life is not worth living means that we haven’t understood the true essence of life; that of learning to appreciate and enjoy nature, of being happy with what we have, and striving to live harmoniously with one another. Until then, we always will just exist, let living be damned.

No Sex Please, We Are Indians!

News has just come in that the Maharashtra government has changed its mind on introducing sex education in schools. Now, it won’t. The reason: opposition from MLAs cutting across party lines. The BJP went a step further and claimed that introduction of sex education is anti Indian culture. Yeah, sure! I guess BJP members are all products of Immaculate Conception.

Going by the logic of sex education offending our traditional beliefs, shouldn’t we be doing a Bamiyan at Ajanta, Ellora, Khajurah and other ancient monuments of importance for they dare to depict gods and goddesses in the nude or in various stages of undress?

Or is the logic that when we have Band Stand, the beaches and other places where young kids can have practical sex sessions and discover the secrets of nature themselves, why waste time and money trying to teach them the very same things in school? These places are in Mumbai and I am sure similar places exist where readers live.

And lest I forget, autos and cabs are other places where semi-grown kids can experiment, albeit under the watchful eye of the much experienced drivers. I guess the argument is that these drivers can correct and may be personally teach kids if they get it all wrong.

Humor aside, when will politicians realize the virtue of education, education of any kind? Our cities are brimming to the full with people, space is at a premium, and frustrations are running high. Adding to that would be lack of knowledge leading to misconceptions and the eagerness to experiment without fully realizing the consequences of actions.

These were the same politicians who yelled from roof tops of the ills of Dance Bars and their degrading effect on our culture. The result, dance bars shut down, and dancers turned into fulltime sex workers. And now we have the Indian Cricket League and the Indian Premier League having women wearing next to nothing dancing in front of a billion Indians of which children form a significant part. But I guess nudity with Political blessings and permission (read Sharad Pawar) is not offensive to our traditions. In fact, we may be upholding the values of the Ajanta era, right Mr. Politician?

And last but not the least, for a country with over a billion people, isn’t it surprising that our politicians find the very mention of sex taboo? I guess we are all children of Immaculate Conception, and sex has nothing to do with us being the second-largest populated country in the world. No wonder the West still thinks of India as a land of snake charmers and rope trick magicians.

Hungry Kya, Eat a TV

The hungry and impoverished in India are likely to shift to a new diet—television sets. At least that’s what seems to be the idea of politicians cutting party lines across the country. First it was Karunanidhi in Tamil Nadu, then YSR Reddy in Andhra Pradesh, and now the Congress in its quest for power in Karnataka is promising a TV set to people below the poverty line. How blessed are we to live in such enlightened times.

On Tuesday, there was a photograph in one of the national dailies where Naxals in the Warangal district of Andhra Pradesh were being given TV sets. It was then I realized that people had turned Naxals and picked up arms and killed people because they did not own TV sets. Until then, I always thought that they were protesting hunger and lack of opportunities to earn a decent living. How wrong was I! And I have the humble politician to thank for clearing my long-standing misconception.

Earlier, the self–appointed champion of the masses, M Karunanidhi, had promised TV sets to the poor and is still busy fulfilling that promise. Yes Mr. Karunanidhi, like Marie Antoinette you say, if you don’t have bread to eat, try a TV set. How very sensitive. People do not have food to eat, jobs to earn a livelihood, but TV sets they must have.

And now the Congress is planning to do the same in Karnataka. Distribute TV sets to the poor if elected to power. Yeah sure, it isn’t your money anyways, right. All parties realize that the tax payer is stupid and will not fight for his rights. So to fulfill their poll promises they will dip into the pockets of the tax payer. That’s a nice way of doing business, I say. Zero investment and five years in power. I guess it pays to be a politician in this country more than anything else.

For a change, how about preparing workable plans for poverty alleviation through providing gainful employment to the poor? How about devising strategies to ensure that the kids of the poorest of the poor have access to quality education? How about thinking of ways to provide drinking water and electricity to the needy? And for a change how about visiting your constituencies at regular intervals and ensuring that these plans are implemented properly and the benefits are accruing to the target audience and not their own lackeys and yes men? And by all this, I do not mean Reservation.

If politicians are ready to do all that and more, I am sure every single tax payer will happily pay his/her taxes, not look for ways to fudge and cheat, and will every year not end up feeling that his/her hard earned money is being extorted from him and then squandered on foolish, unworkable schemes and that a large part of the tax collected is not ending up in the pockets of ministers, their henchmen, and the babus.

Also, every single tax payer realizes that growing inequalities are not good for society as a whole and is a harbinger of violent revolution. And no one wants a bloodbath on their hands and their conscience. So dear Mr. Politician, it’s high time that you and your ilk stop preying on other’s fortunes like vultures for personal and political gains and assume the responsibility that it promises while assuming power. The promise of building a nation and ensuring that each citizen gets to live a life of dignity.

Have Old Parents? Throw Them Out

My mother and father are old. They can’t do most of the household work that they used to a few years ago. They remain sick for most part of the year. Their memory is failing. Even normal tasks like cleaning themselves up when they defecate have to be performed by others. Thought of sending then to an old age home, but that would be an ongoing financial commitment, and why waste money on something or someone that will fetch no returns? Killing them is fraught with legal trouble, for why spend time in jail for killing someone who may die any day soon? So what’s the way out? Just beat them up repeatedly until they can bear it no longer and leave the house on their own accord. If that doesn’t work, just throw them out of the house.

These dear friends are not my sentiments but certainly seem to be those of a growing set of people who do this and more to infirm parents as they are no longer of any use to them. Newspapers, TV channels are filled with such stories and the regularity with which such stories are appearing is frightening as well as depressing to say the least.

I can remember my parents fussing over me when I was little, cleaning me up when I defecated. Feeding me when I was hungry, accompanying me to school and bringing me back home safely. Staying hungry during lean times but ensuring that I did not stay hungry. Burdening themselves with loans so that I can have a good education, and working hard, sacrificing their own wants and desires so that they can fulfill mine.

And I think the parents of these people who are ill treating their creators would also have done the above-mentioned things and more so that they do well in life. After all that it beats me how can people be so cruel. Forget our own parents; we shouldn’t be so cruel with anyone in life. So it beats me as to how come people have the heart to do these things. How can they eat their meals in peace, sleep well at night, and fuss over their own children even as their creators are reduced to a life that even a stray dog should not be made to live?

Have we as a people become so selfish and inhuman that we fail to see anything beyond self? Why do we fail to understand that as time passes and we become infirm, our children will do the same thing to us, as they will follow in the footsteps of their parents? And then we will have no one to blame for what goes round comes round.

India Split Wide Open

We are in the last leg of the Congress-led government’s five years at the center and all signs point toward this lame-duck coalition failing to return to power. And I say so because this government has managed to do more damage to the country than all previous Congress governments have collectively done in the past.

Five years in power and all the government has to show are schemes, many of them. The only problem being most of these schemes have failed at the ground level. Implementation has been laughable, and rife with corruption.

The Congress through out its tenure has been more worried about not rubbing the juvenile Left the wrong way than ensuring correct and productive implementation of plans that would help the people that need government help the most—the poor of the country. And for all its pro-poor shenanigans the Left has repeatedly displayed that it is no better than its opponents whom it likes to accuse of wrongdoing at the slightest of opportunity.

Farmers are committing suicide, prices of essentials are continuously hitting new highs, corruption is rampant, government projects like the highways project are running way behind schedule, the nuclear deal with the US appears to be going no where, and acts of terrorism are on the rise…the list is endless.

I think the Congress and its allies got it all wrong. Their sole reason for coming together was to fight communal forces (read BJP). And when any coalition is formed solely to keep one opponent out of power and progress of the nation is just one of the things in its long list of populist agenda, then that government cannot harbor hopes of getting reelected.

As shown by Narendra Modi in Gujarat, people will vote for progress. I am no fan of Mr. Modi and I condemn the 2002 riots. But one cannot deny that Mr. Modi has also done much for the progress of Gujarat as a state. And his personal image as a clean politician (read near zero corruption) is a huge plus. How many in the Congress can claim to be even 50% clean?

Gujarat has one of the best road networks in the country. The environment for business is very fertile and friendly, and the government has by and large acted as a facilitator of growth and not the guardian and guarantor of growth. The government has to realize that its job is to facilitate growth and not rig growth.

Another problem is the servile image that senior Congress politicians have portrayed in front of the public by falling at Sonia Gandhi’s feet and showing lack of decision making capacity without sanction from the High Command (read Ms. Sonia Gandhi). Forget what anyone else has to say, for me, personally, the capability of any party that can’t find a president from over 1 billion Indians by birth to take this country forward is debatable. That for me also shows the level of decadence in the thought process of the party and its leaders.

Did our freedom fighters sacrifice everything to drive out the British, only to give power back to a foreigner? And to make matters worse, hand over control to a person with no political experience other than being the daughter-in-law of the Nehru-Gandhi family? That to me shows the capability, or the lack of it, of the party leadership.

And now we have senior politicians singing praises of Rahul Gandhi, a political non-entity who has done nothing worthwhile in life that warrants the party to project him as a future prime minister. I have just one question—what is Rahul Gandhi’s qualification other than his surname to lead the Congress and at some point of time, the nation?

Looking at the larger perspective, are our political parties so intellectually bankrupt that they can’t find about 545 qualified, well educated, clean candidates from a population of over 1 billion to send to the Lok Sabha and take this country forward?

I guess the answer is no. There is no political will to upset the corrupt, money making ways, be it the Congress or the BJP or any other party. And we people also are to blame for the current situation that we find the country in.

If memory serves me right, veteran journalist Abhay Mokashi had contested either a Lok Sabha or Assembly election as an independent from the Mumbai North-West constituency on the plank of good governance and willingness to fight corruption. He lost his deposit.

That to me shows how our people fail those who want to work for the country’s progress and not the self. So I guess we deserve to be ruled either by a Congress led or a BJP led coalition that will continue to milk the country dry of its last drop of humanity and we individually will continue to remain happy in our 600-square-feet islands of tranquility that we like to call home, while our real home, the nation, bleeds to death.

Rules Are Meant To Be Broken

Rules are meant to be broken. I guess, a more politically correct word would be circumvented. This is more so if we are from India. And before patriotic souls take my comment to heart and cry foul, I would say at least read me out before you bring that frown on your face.

We do follow rules, but those set by us. So each individual decides what is right for him or her and behaves accordingly. If that is what we call following rules, then we do follow them to the T.

I am driving on a four lane highway and my lane is moving slower than the one to my left. So what will I do? I will just veer left. I don’t have eyes behind my head, so it’s for the guy behind me to be careful. Cutting lanes is against the law, but my personal law book doesn’t say so. So there i go.

I am walking on the road and suddenly I feel the urge to urinate. What do I do? Find the nearest wall, aim and shoot. So what if I am wrong, it’s nature and nature cannot be controlled. But if someone else is peeing on my wall, then the laws of nature change. And I reserve the right to decide what’s right and what’s wrong.

I will cross the road when the traffic light is green. It’s the duty of the drivers to wait until your lordship crosses the road. And if someone honks or abuses me I will let loose a volley of expletives. And why shouldn’t I do so when my fundamental right to cross the road has been questioned? Damn the traffic rules, did the lawmakers consult me before framing them?

I will use public transport but will not pay for it. And why should I? I have helped elect the government, and hence, government property (read public property) is mine. And if caught, I will either feign ignorance of the need to have a ticket, or thrash the ticket checker for having questioned my very right to use public transport.

I will stick bills on walls, write slogans, spit betel leaf, and indulge in many such creative pursuits. It’s my country and I will do as I deem fit. No questions asked.

And when I am asked as to what happens to responsibility that comes with ownership, I will say it should be a collective feeling. And collectively we choose to act independent. Hence, many a time I am left wondering if Democracy is the best thing for juvenile delinquents like us.

For, if being independent means behaving thoughtlessly and selfishly, then we won’t last for long as one nation. It’s just a matter of time before someone else colonizes us and then we will follow rules, because we understand only one language, the language of fear.

Politics Rocks, Literally

Politicians’ sons and daughters are getting married in seven-star hotels. The guest lists read the who’s who of the power circle. Fifty or hundred course meals are served and government machinery is seen serving its political masters at the tax payer’s cost. And in villages across the country the growling sounds of empty stomachs are growing louder by the day. I know politicians are doing nothing illegal, but how ethical is splurging on personal celebrations by a class under oath to uphold the basic rights of their countrymen? If that’s ethical, then what’s the difference between a Monarchy and a Democracy?

In metros and large cities, the moral police are busy clamping down on couples, opposing Valentine’s Day, enforcing dress codes for women, and giving lectures on morality. A few hundred kilometers away, women in villages don’t have enough cloth to cover themselves and lead a life of dignity. And I don't see any moral police there upholding the dignity of these women. There’s no gain in trying to save those without voter cards, is there?

Political parties and religious organizations are on the ball ban movies, plays, and books that they think are obscene. Reasons given include rape scenes in movies infringe on the dignity of women, the story offends the sentiments of the religious, a book can affect the psyche of young readers and negatively alters their outlook to life, and the play violates the spirit of humanity. Every time I switch on a news channel, all I can hear of is some woman being molested, people killing each other in the name of religion, and the list in endless. And I don't see these people who are so eager to clampdown on art anywhere in the picture trying to protect these real life victims or ensuring justice for them. No one wants long term commitments, I guess.

Every business worth its salt talks of corporate social responsibility. Every NGO claims to be helping the poor. Every government claims it is the messiah of the masses. If everyone is so busy helping the poor, then why on earth is the number of poor increasing by the day. Or are we to believe that the poor are leveraging the benefits of being poor? I guess aimless charity is a fashionable and visible way of building brand equity. That it benefits no one is a different matter.

And last, if political parties and leaders spend the money that they waste on election campaigns on improving the life of the common man, they wouldn’t have to campaign in the first place. But then what’s the fun in helping people in need. The law of life is to help those who don't need it and condemn those who need it. It’s akin to gifting a Mercedes to Mukesh Ambani. But that’s what people do, don’t they.

The Business of Eradicating Poverty

Politicians are making generosity with public money a habit. Finance ministers keep waiving off loans, PSUs keep waiving off debt, babus keep getting pay hikes for doing nothing, and now even a political non-entity called Rahul Gandhi appears to be unhappy with P Chidambaram’s Rs600 billion largesse. Gandhi wants the waiver spread to be bigger.

Yes why not, it ain’t going from his pocket, is it? And not for a second am I saying that farmers shouldn’t be helped. Any citizen in distress should receive comfort from the government. My question: is waiver of loans the correct way to go about it? My answer: No.

By indulging in such political gimmicks all we are doing is relegating the farmer from the farmer class to the beggar class. And what makes the government think that a one-time waiver is going to prevent the farmer from assuming additional debt? Or does this and successive governments plan a similar or larger waiver every 10 years?

As for Rahul Gandhi’s demand, I have one question for the not so young leader. If you loan out a million dollars of your personal money to someone, would you so willingly waive of that amount on humanitarian grounds? Your political answer may be yes, but all of us know that you won’t do so and nor would any other politician.

That brings me to the question of are governments right in using public money for political gains? Again the answer is NO. And the waiver in this budget is just that, vote bank politics.

The Congress which always claims to be the messiah of the poor has been in power for almost 50 of the 60 years since independence. And they have shown similar largesse many a times in these 50 years in power. Then why is it that the number of poor has increased? If largesse works then shouldn’t the number of poor have declined significantly?

Indira Gandhi raised the slogan Garibi hatao (eradicate poverty) about 35 years ago. Sadly in many cases we have seen the party and its members eradicating the poor for personal gains (read real estate) and most of the times resorting to tokenism.

So when Rahul Gandhi talks of increasing the dole, it makes my blood boil. Why should I, a tax payer, fund these hair-brained, politically motivated flights of fancies of politicians, be it Rahul Gandhi or LK Advani? Tax payers do not work 12 to 14 hours a day so that political parties can keep milking the country dry for narrow personal and political gains.

It would make greater sense for politicians to use this money to build irrigation systems for farmers, teach them alternative professions that can help generate a livelihood in times when farming is not an option. Use this money for building roads, bridges, dams, airports, rail networks, the list is endless.

People can argue that these things are being done. I agree. But is enough being done? The answer again is NO.

I guess it’s time for us the commons to wake up and start asking the government to be accountable for the money that they spend, cut wasteful expenditure, stop resorting to political gimmicks, and build a nation that can compete with the best in the world.

It’s high time we stop just wearing our patriotism on our sleeves and start showing it through our actions. What say friends, are we game or are we content with things the way they are and wait for a white knight to come and save us, rather than assuming the responsibility of nation-building?

Of Crime & Criminals

If we know something is wrong and if we still do it, isn’t that equal to committing a crime? Ten of ten the answer will be yes. But when we look around us as we go about with our daily lives, the reality becomes starker that all of us are law breakers. We commit crimes and move on as if everything’s normal. That’s when I realized why we keep spouting pearls of wisdom, such as a law is meant to be broken.

For us, talking about crime is just a matter of hiding guilt and conveniently convincing ourselves that what we are doing isn’t wrong because everyone else is doing the same. The logic: two negatives equal a positive. Fight fire with fire; steel cuts steel, so I guess the way to fight crime is by committing a counter crime.

And I am not even talking about murder, rape, theft and the likes. I am talking about small things that are considered wrong but where the line between wrong and crime is invisible or at best blurred beyond recognition.

Smoking most likely kills; secondhand smoke kills. But we continue to puff away and nonchalantly blow smoke in the faces of unsuspecting bystanders. The government plans of ways to curb smoking but will not stop the manufacture and sale of tobacco products for anything that generates revenue is fine. Then why call contract killers criminals? Charge a tax and make killing legal.

Prostitution is a crime; prostitutes are criminals. But we have millions of women in the trade 99% of whom have been forced into it against their wishes. And we justify the continuance of this trade with absurd logic such as they provide an outlet to desperate souls who if they do not have this outlet could go around raping our women. To save our women, letting other women suffer is fine. I guess people who think so have the larger good of mankind in mind and are Saints. And again people who visit these sex workers are no criminals either. There we turn capitalist; if a service is available for a price, then we must make maximum use. Yeah, right!

We are in desperate need of a Gas cylinder. That justifies bribing the delivery guy to ensure out of turn delivery. That’s called enterprise, I guess. And what’s so criminal about getting what one wants? By hook or by crook, what’s so crooked about it?

While driving, my goal is to reach my destination in the quickest possible time. So what’s wrong in cutting lanes, jumping red lights, and maybe on a really good day knocking down a pedestrian, cyclist, or a motor cyclist or all three? The government should have made a special lane for me. Since it hasn’t, it’s the government’s fault that I have to resort to these tactics to reach my destination as fast as I can. So I guess the government is the criminal here. And in our political masters’ understanding of democracy, the government can never commit a crime. Hence, none of us are criminals.

In short, what I am getting at is we do so many things in a day that are ethically incorrect and technically qualify as a crime that somewhere we have lost our sensitivity to doing things right even if it is going to cost us a bit. It is high time that we shed this cloak of convenience and start doing the small things right and we will see that the larger things will automatically start taking care of themselves. The logic: if we stop committing smaller acts of indiscretion then we will not think of indulging in extravagant ones. The question is, are we as a society game to give up our little luxuries for a bigger luxury—a zero crime world.

Saving Tibet Is All About Saving India

1. The issue of Tibet’s independence has been in the collective global mind-space for over six decades. The world in-principle has acknowledged China’s indiscretion and supported the right of Tibetans to be an independent people. But sadly, ride with the horses and hunt with the wolves is all the rest of the world has done. And ironically, the rest of the world feels it has done its bit for the Tibetan cause.
   
   I for one am not getting into specifics of history though it’s acknowledged fact that Tibet until the early part of the twentieth century was an independent kingdom, hidden from the eyes of the word, a la Shangri-La. So how and when did Tibet become a part of China is something even the Chinese capita-commie rulers will find hard to explain and prove.
   
   Yet, the fact that the Chinese could annex Tibet and have continued to rule this land for over decades now is a testament of how the world views China and how little value the world has for Tibetan life and values.
   
   But friends, in Tibet, the rest of the world has a lesson to learn. China is hosting the 2008 Beijing Olympics and in the name of this mega event the Dragon is busy expanding road and rail networks to Tibet and also along the territories bordering the Indian state of Arunachal Pradesh. So what, you will ask, for what China does within its boundaries is its concern.
   
   My question is considering what happened to Tibet would it be wise for India to wait for China to do a Tibet with Arunachal Pradesh? Skeptics can laugh at my reasoning, but make no mistake, when China does make its move, we will be forced to redefine our map to reflect an India minus Arunachal Pradesh. You can call this being alarmist, but I believe that being alarmist is better than losing India.
   
   India has supported Tibetans by letting them live in Dharamsala and by allowing them to form a Government in Exile. But what use is that help when the people have no hope of deliverance?
   
   The world has turned a blind eye to Tibet. Believe me, it will do the same if China were to attack and annex Arunachal Pradesh. And if that were to happen, our dear politicians will end up doing precious little other than playing the blame game. And Arunachal would be gone, and it’s people prisoners of an alien regime.
   
   And if that were to happen, then what would stop Pakistan from annexing Jammu & Kashmir with Chinese help. China is Pakistan’s closest ally after the United States in the global political arena. Then we will have Pakistan and Bangladesh with the help of China attacking and annexing West Bengal, Darjeeling and the North-Eastern states.
   
   So do we get the picture here? Do we see the map of an India minus all these territories? There is no point in waiting for the US and its allies, which means practically the whole of the Western world, to wake up to the designs of the Chinese and support the Tibetan cause. They will do no such thing because their economic welfare lies in the hands of the Chinese, what with even miniatures of the Statue of Liberty sold on Liberty Island being made in China. The symbol of democracy, equality, freedom, and liberty being made in a country that knows not the meaning of any of these words, let alone practice them.
   
   So dear friends, it is in the best interest of India that we Indians support the Tibetan cause, not with any noble intention of helping Tibet, but with the selfish motive of safeguarding our borders from an expansionist China and its ally Pakistan. Are we going to realize this reality or are we going to settle for selling Made in China miniatures of the Taj Mahal? That is for you my fellow countrymen to decide.

Life Simplified

I was walking on the beach, the sand tickling my feet, oblivious to the world around me, in a happy world of my own. The world was a vast expanse of nothingness, walking along the sea, water colliding with my feet and then retreating.

The sky was bereft of clouds. The land was vacant as far as the eye could gaze. Time immaterial, deeds did not matter. The world inside me was swaying to the tune of the sea. I was one with the universe, no care in the world, free and footloose.

I did not think who I was; I did not bother about what I was; life had a completely different meaning. There were no planes to catch, no money to be made, no people to tend…life was one huge state of bliss.

The world hadn’t decided that we are here to create, achieve, and possess. The world hadn’t created God and so nothing was forced in the name of God. The mind was always meditative, one with the universe.

The tongue hadn’t tasted salt, the stomach knew no hunger. The mind was pure, the thoughts clear. There was no untruth, love meant not procreating. Home was where night fell; each individual in isolated splendor.

Sleep was sans dreams. No demons to be fought within or without. It’s a life of peace, the state of nirvana that I lived. And death was not feared for I know not what it means. For I lived without passion for life that afterlife was not of concern.

There are no devils. For when the mind is tranquil devils have no place to drop anchor. Keeping your mind occupied to keep Satan away is living life in fear of losing life. Why fear of losing something that I do not own. All fears arise from the fear of losing, then why strive to own.

Analyze This

Research is a hot space today. Everyone from companies to the common man is basing decisions on research; decisions ranging from which toothpaste to use to when to buy or sell property. And companies operating in the research space are raking it in big time. And it’s an ever evolving process as the beauty of research findings is it can always be disputed or proved wrong at a later date by another research study.

The Americans have been good at this for decades and the Indians in their new found liking for everything American are clued on to the idea. And I am not saying this in a negative sense; even I love all good things American.

So much so that even kids base their demands for all things from pencils to computer games on research. A friend’s son recently wanted a particular brand of shoes citing research which said that if worn they facilitate height gain. Wow I said to myself, the guy can barely get his foot into a shoe on his own, but knows what brand to buy. That’s the power of research.

And what’s funny is a large quantum of research generally tends to flow in one direction. The stock markets are the biggest example of this trend. When the market is doing well every research house worth its salt will recommend a BUY even on loss-making companies with the logic that it is likely to make a turnaround in the near term. And this logic will be backed by a string of hypothetical assumptions which read far-fetched but are difficult to dispute. It’s just one of those things.

However, what amazes me is the regularity with which research houses want us to buy shares of companies that are quoting at $25 as they have a target price of $40 a share. My question to analysts is where were they when this share was trading at $5? The company is the same, its business is the same, and it would have talked of its growth plans back then. So what prevented them from discovering value then? Or is it that they bought at $5 and now recommend it at $25 so that they can make that extra $20 at our cost?

And these same research houses will recommend a SELL on the same stocks the moment the market tanks. So are we to believe that the fundamentals of a sound company are hostage to the fickle sentiments of the market? Or is it that by imploring us to SELL they are creating a buying opportunity for themselves and their friends? I leave it to you, the readers, to analyze this.

Talking of research reminds me of a study that I read a few years ago that advocated the use of tissue paper in the crap room over water for better hygiene reasons. I subscribed to that and in less than two days ended up with a sore butt. The reason: it takes some getting used to. And by the time I got used to it came another study which said that water was a better option. Moral of the story, research poured water over my sore butt.

In short, the point I am trying to make here is research is important but at the end of the day commonsense should prevail. And that is something we are all gifted with. It’s a different matter that most of us seldom choose to heed its call.

The Rape Of Mumbai

Mumbaikar or not, that seems to be the question on everyone’s lips these days not only in the city of dreams but across the country. I am no Raj Thackeray fan nor do I align myself with any political party. But I do believe that the question of should the uncontrolled migration be allowed to continue needs to be addressed as in yesterday.

I can see politicians and people from other parts of the country jumping to wring my throat at my wish to get the question addressed. I can hear voices of freedom of movement, and the constitution being thrown at me.

But that does not answer my question of whether migration should continue unabated?

My answer to that question is an emphatic NO. The reason: every city--its infrastructure, legal system, ability to provide effective governance--is capable of supporting a certain number of people. And when the limit is breached, we are increasingly looking at chaos, anarchy, corruption and all the other ills that go with lawlessness.

I understand that people will flock to where they can earn a livelihood. And of late politicians are increasingly flaunting this argument to support mass exodus from villages to cities such as Mumbai. And believe me these politicians do not give a damn of the Constitution or of peoples’ rights.

They, dear friends, are just saving their own skins. Otherwise why is it that people of the ilk of Amar Singh, Lalu Prasad Yadav, Mulayam Singh, Abu Azmi, Kripashankar Singh—the list is endless—not touching upon the core reason of why are people from states across the country flocking into Mumbai.

The reason why people are rushing to cities such as Mumbai is lack of employment opportunities, governance, water, electricity, law and order and such issues in their villages and towns. And who is responsible for providing these facilities in the towns and villages across the country? It is that of the very politicians who now are fighting for the right of people to migrate.

To me it is shameful on their part that they are unable to take care of people in their own constituencies and are now forcing them on a city that is already overburdened and where people are reduced to live like sardines in a can.

Today these politicians are advocating the right of people to migrate. And a time will come in the near future when Mumbai will run out of place where slums can be built. At that time I have no doubt that these very politicians will advocate the rights of migrants to forcibly enter and occupy homes of Mumbaikars claiming right to a roof over the head.

Can Mr. Lalu Prasad Yadav and Mr. Amar Singh answer a few questions? Lalu ruled Bihar for 15 years and if he is the champion of the oppressed as he claims to be, then why is it that he did not create employment opportunities for residents of Bihar? Mulayam was in power in UP. And Amar Singh was his advisor. Then why didn’t he see to it that the government created enough jobs for the people of the state?

I am sure that these leaders will have no answers to my query. But I am sure that they will find a way to term me anti-national for raising valid but sticky queries.

For the problem of migration to stop, the country needs political will. The will to create opportunities that will allow businesses to flourish across the country. That will create jobs and opportunities. When that happens, migration will automatically stop.

I do not think that people coming from anywhere in India to cities like Mumbai love the thought of living in abject poverty and squalor. They do so because they have no option back home. But that does not mean that people should be allowed to just climb into trains and buses and swamp cities.

So the option is clear and the onus lies with the Political Class. Instead of trying to divide people for narrow, near-term political gains, these men in Khadi, or should I say synthetic Khadi, should work towards national progress. That will automatically stop this problem of migration.

But the question is do politicians have the will, and ever important, the decency to put personal gains aside and work for the betterment of India. As of now, the answer is NO. And that is a sad testament of a country--rich in culture and heritage—that is increasingly looking to the world like a bride decked up but nowhere to go.

Waiting to Exhale

Life feels like it's stuck in a bottle. What happened to freedom...freedom to do what one wants, freedom to think and behave the way one wants?

Freedom sounds good but where is it to be found? Freedom of speech, thought... seems like a mirage. Administered in doses at the whims and fancies of others, I am let out of the bottle once in a while just to be bottled again.

Life seemed so different when in college... the world was there to conquer and life was raring to break free. Then life took another turn... I made choices and chugged along those chosen paths. Twenty years on, life looks, feels different. Things that made sense back then don't anymore.

Twenty years have zipped past and I have a lot to show for the time gone by. A house, a family, money in the bank. Yet why do I feel bankrupt emotionally? I have everything yet seem to have nothing. There is a vacuum. And there is nothing else.

If given a chance and the time gone by would I do things differently? I don't know. I may , I may not.

There should be more to life than the routine. One has to feel the excitement of walking on new roads, taking unknown turns... free from dependence while taking decisions, freedom to take those decisions minus the variables attached.

I know all will say that's ridiculous. Maybe so, but is walking on chartered waters the meaning of life? We claim to reward genius, innovation, the ability to do the same things differently. But do we really do so? Can I turn my life 360 degrees without being called selfish? I don't think so.

You will say that's life. I ask is this how life is supposed to be? Who decided that we are part of a larger gameplan? I may have taken a path in life back then, but why am I forced to walk those same paths day after day? Don't I have the liberty to change things around without being accused of treachery, selfishness, cruelty?

We formed laws to create order. But did we want laws to rule out lives? You can do this as it is legal. You can't do this because it is illegal. And I am not talking about wanting to blow up people or steal or maim. Is life one never-ending treadmill on which once you climb, you can't get down?
Nothing makes sense anymore. Living in the moment is fiction. In life we end up living other peoples' lives, dreams... and in the process lose our sleep and the dreams turn into nightmares. Is this life? My thoughts may sound bizzare to most of you, but can most deny having such thoughts. Yes, most may feel comfortable locking the genie back in the bottle..I don't.

I am just Waiting to Exhale.