Paper Love

How a blind man saw

2009-09-13T22:22:00.000-07:00

How a blind man saw

Little did Sonali Kulkarni think it possible when she met Naseer Khan and Rohit Nayyar in Hotel Marriott in Mumbai that a movie with visually challenged Naseer Khan as a sharp-shooter. 'Shadow' produced by Naseer Khan himself, is the first time a blind person is playing the lead role of a person who can see.

If films are to be a grand spectacle, then this film promises to be so. The USP of this action thriller is that stunts like jumping from a car on fire, riding the jetski, shooting a man in an airplane and jumping into the sea with a jetski, ridding a horse, racing a car and bike in different sequence are performed by Naseer without the aid of a double.

Naseer Khan plays the lead role of Arjun Sherwat, a serial killer whom the police is not able to nab for six months. Sanjana (Sonali) is the cop who is entrusted with the task to capture The TV reporter Sheetal Pradhan (Hrishita Bhatt) who is in love with another reporter Rahul(Milind Soman) passes a report to the cops about the next target of Arjun Sherwat. Sajana shoots down Arjun, only to know in a short while that real the Arjun is still alive and kicking.

The movie is not just a motivator for visually challenged. “It should be a motivator for all those who are down in life” says Naseer. The movie is but an extension of the personal triumph of Naseer, who has

Naseer whose hometown is Kanpur , was born with cataract. Though being operated several times he could only regain 15 to 20 per cent sight of one eye. At the age of eight a house tutor was arranged for his basic education. Later he completely lost all eye sight, after dropping in and out of school several times. He learned to repair electronic goods,then went on to leather tanning business(and became one of the best known tanneries in Kanpur), became the first blind person to pass all the four Microsoft certification and stated Computer education centres(IIHT and Inset chains are owned by him), and later ventured into real estate, detergent, and cosmetic business.

Stepping into the Tinsel Town, he faced difficulties as all new-comers would. Besides, acting itself posed an unique challenge to him. Nasser says that it was almost impossible to keep his chin down while saying a dialogue. He used to tie a strap around his neck to keep the chin down while sleeping and he tried to practice it even when talking to people otherwise. The movie, half of which was shot in Thailand captures very beautiful locales; some very perilous locale for shooting. There is a particular water-fall scene and he walking amid several lions which would give even seasoned actors jitters. But Nasser managed it with ease. Sonali says it all through “trust” he places in others. According to her the reason for his success is his success is nothing but trust.

Siting along with his co-star Sonali Kulkarni and director Rohit Nayyar in the Gold Class lounge of Spice Cinema in Noida for the press conference of his film, he grabs the microphone as it is passed to him without fumbling for it. Director Rohit says that such was the energy while shooting for the film that many scenes were done in a single shots. “This gives the movie more natural feel”, he adds.

“Just before entering the conference room Naseer told that I am looking very beautiful today” quips Sonali.

Drought and variable rain to be heeded as climate change impact: World Bank report

2009-09-13T22:14:00.000-07:00

A recent world bank report says, the drought or drought-like situation that prevails in India, points to the larger picture of climate change and India's efforts for adaptation. The low monsoon in the current kharif (summer crop) season, is but a wake-up call to the fact that India's farmers will be be one of the worst affected sections of climate change. India with its 57 per cent workforce engaged in agriculture and 20 per cent of the GDP attributable to agriculture, climate change impacts will adversely affect the growth of the country. The report, first of its kind in South-Asia looks at two drought prone regions in Andhra Pradesh and Maharashtra and one flood prone region in Orissa.

India which has extremely varied climatic and geographic conditions, droughts and floods are not uncommon; but what is alarming are its increasing frequencies. From 1900 to 1950 there were six droughts in India. But in the following 50 years there were twelve. In 21^st century alone we witnessed three droughts. 2009 could be the fourth year with the Indian Meteorological Department(IMD) probably declaring it a drought year if the monsoon withdraws by early September. Areas affected by by flood has also doubled in the last 50 years. Floods have occurred every year since 1980 and has substantially increased in 2003 due to which even some drought prone areas were affected.

The report predicts that in Andhra Pradesh a “moderate to harsh climate change scenario” will result in rise of temperature of 2.3 C to 3.4 C and a modest but erratic rainfall of 4% to 8%. This would means a a decline in farmer income by as much as 20 per cent. The worst affected will be kharif crops like rice and jowar. Whereas, in Maharashtra while the yield of jowar and millets will boost farmers incomes by 8% to 10%, the yield of sugarcane which is hugely subsidised, will decline by 30 per cent. A shift to less water-intensive crops will be a solution to this, the report suggests. The report predicts that in Orissa floods will increase dramatically, especially in the coastal regions, leading to decline in paddy yields by as much as 12 per cent.

The report says that there cannot be one solution to agricultural vows and it must be tailored for local conditions. In drought prone areas, climate change impacts should be countered with better water management, besides promotion of climate resilient agriculture, smart subsidies to promote environmentally suited crops and diversifying income by way of micro-credit or insurance to cover initial business risks. The study says “Greater attention must be given to hybrid approaches that emphasize the efficiency of groundwater use and increase the effectiveness of watershed activities to conserve soil moisture and harvest rainwater.” Grand projects for water conservation must be complemented with a people inclusive efforts. The report also says, in the flood-prone areas promoting rainfall-tolerant and shorter duration crops, more careful land-use planning and flood zoning and strengthening system to detect and forecast flood will be the way forward.

Asset development key to development policies: World Bank report

2009-08-25T02:40:00.000-07:00

A recent World Bank report calls for retrospection on a slew of developmental policies that have been implemented or are being deliberated in the country. It emphasises on asset creation and a “free and fair” economic playground at the grass-root as the key factors, without which the developmental policies lose its real significance. The research is based on the premise that mere aggregate statistics on poverty leads to sub-optimal policy framing; while some manages to climb out of poverty, others fall into it.

The report, 'Moving Out of Poverty: The Promise of Empowerment and Development' was conducted in four states of Andhra Pradesh, Assam, West Bengal and Uttar Pradesh. It reveals that West Bengal has the highest per cent of people who moved out of poverty. At the same time it also has the maximum number of people who slipped into poverty. In West Bengal 18.8 per cent moved out of poverty, whereas it was 12.8 per cent, 10.6 per cent and 7 per cent in Uttar Pradesh, Andhra Pradesh and Assam respectively. The “fallers” per cent for West Bengal is 7.7, Assam and Uttar Pradesh 5.5 and Andhra Pradesh 3.2. The statistics represent a lack of comprehensive policy framing and implementation. The viscous cycle of poverty gets played out, with some communities recovering from poverty while other slipping into it.

Through the report people cites strengthening of the local governance as an important factor in overcoming poverty. The study finds that in Andhra Pradesh SHGs have remarkably empowered people to overcome caste and gender biases. Regular elections and availability of information is the key to achieve this. The partly successful NREGA has at its worst exposed the criminal nature of Indian bureaucracy and the deplorable state of local governance in the country and at its best proved that people are ready to struggle for their rights, once the basic mechanisms are in place. “NREGA will need to support creation of new economic opportunities in local communities, that contribute directly to asset creation for poor people,”says Deepa Narayan, director of the study. Twelve per cent of the people said multiple income generation in a family is a way to tide over poverty. Kudumbashree, a women's neighbourhood programme in Kerala was a successful in creating multiple incomes to the families.(ELABORATE)

Health,death and social shocks were sighted in the study as a major factor precipitating the fall into poverty. In Assam 51 per cent of the people surveyed said, death and health shocks pushed them into poverty, whereas in Andhra Pradesh it was 32 per cent. The study suggests that health insurance programmes and better access to savings and credits as the cure. Recently, TDP in Andhra Pradesh had made an election promise to directly transfer money to the poor to tackle poverty if it is voted to power. Once in place, through Conditional Cash Transfer(CCT) the government can transfer money to the poor families for a “social contract”--i.e sending children to school or using primary health centres. The money will be transferred electronically and the female member of the family can receive it. Recently Centre for Sustainable Agriculture, endorsed by farmers union and some 100 NGOs has demanded for the same, to all cultivators. This would help in developing of assets such as house and land which the study cites as an important factor in preventing people from descending into poverty.

There is also an increasing need to rescue people especially farmers, who live dangerously close to the margin of poverty. The new policies must not just treat farmers as “primary producers,” but as “a part of the value addition activity.”The report backs M.S Swaminathan's recommendation for Farm Income Commission to the 2009-10 Union Budget.(ELABORATE) The commission could ensure a minimum income for agricultural operations. The study says that the farmers who permanently moved out of poverty were those who invested in building some assets like a house, a tractor or even a bullockcart or a irrigation pump.

The report interviewed 30,000 men and women from across 300 villages. It is a part of 15 country research effort in East Asia, South Asia, Africa and Latin America. It was conducted over a period of ten years from 1995 to 2005.

Mayapuri --a suburb of reality

2009-06-14T07:32:00.000-07:00

Mayapuri presents a picture far from what its mythological name connotes. Mayapuri is another name for Haridwar-- “ gateway to the gods.” But this Mayapuri is the gateway to a reality different from that of Lutyens' Delhi. Incidentally Mayapuri, in West Delhi constituency, is from where the richest candidate of Delhi contested the 2009 Lok Shaba election.

As I walked on the Naraina- Mayapuri flyover, I could see the gambrel-roofed FCI warehouses below arranged in rows. Next to it is a bus depot where the monsters basked in the hot sun with their front grills raised, like alligators. Railway tracks separated FCI warehouse and the effluent treatment plant. I held my breath as walked past an open drain running into the effluent plant below.

Next to it is a water-body, which is so nondescript that most residents of the area are not aware of its existence. (I had a harrowing time asking direction to reach it.) I lurched down a pile of glass shreds and concrete rubbles to reach the banks of what is now left of the Mayapuri Lake.

Death of Bhoomian and the loss of innocence.

I felt I had come to keep rose on the tomb of a close friend. A few gulls that flew over it suggested that there were at least a few fishes in the lake. Plastic bottles and human wastes lay on its sides. The bright green grass on one side eating into the lake was in stark contrast to the lack of vegetation where I was standing. I stood there for sometime and I walked along its banks and out through a gate to the main road.

Many years back people in the area used to believe that a powerful spirit called Bhoomian, who lived deep inside the lake, frolicked on its waters. The spirit was believed to have saved many people from drowning. Kids passionately believed in him and elders loved to tell stories about him.

But today, he is definitely not there. He was not just banished but was gradually poisoned to death. The myth now exists only with a few older residents and conservation agencies. Many consider the lake a mere depression “which fills up with water during monsoon.”

Mayapuri Lake, which has a 16.52 acres rich aquifer, first figured in the 1936 Survey of India. And it was there in all the subsequent surveys conducted till 1996—after which no survey was conducted. It is one of the 629 lakes identified to be revived for 2010 Common Wealth Games that is to happen in Delhi.

The lake was a more than five hectares. Now little more than three hectares remain, after DSIDC (Delhi State Industrial Development Authority) built its CETP (Common Effluent Treatment Plant). DISC had initially disagreed that the lake was a water body. But after being proved that it is a lake, the DSIDC compensated by giving an equal amount of land in the nearby Bawana for developing a water body. But the damage was done.

Last year the PWD declared the lake “non-existent” in an RTI reply. In response to this Vinod Jain of the NGO Tapas filed a PIL in the High Court. The petition claims that the lake was under PWD’s jurisdiction till 2003.

The issue was first brought up in 1998 by the NGO, INTACH. Conserving water bodies in Delhi is one of their major activities. Manu Bhattnagar of INTACH says bureaucratic apathy and public detachment, makes conserving natural resources tough.

“They deliberately choose not to know about it.”

“Unless it affects them directly they don’t care,” he adds.

From near the lake I got into another bus that would take me to Mayapuri. After fifteen minutes of ride, the bus-stop names told what the place is about. I passed the bus-stops by the names of “Metal Forging”, “Bobby Soaps”, “Gulab House” (which is an offset printing press) and then “Junk Market” I got down there realizing that Mayapuri was half a kilometer behind.

All the King’s men

I felt a hot whiff of automobile-oil and dust. On one side of the road was a line of tow-trucks, and on the other side were tents made of used vinyl banners and tarpaulins. Hammers, pick-axes, trowels, shovels, frying pans, spades and other odd assortments of iron utensils, were kept outside the tents for sale. They also sold it at the weekly markets. A frying pan is sold for as less as forty rupees and a spade for eighty rupees. There can only be rough estimates how many of them were in this pavement. Police constantly chase them away. The cycle of chasing and returning goes forever. But there could anywhere between 25 to 40 of them in these pavement tents, at a time. Most of them are immigrants from Rajasthan.

Fifty something Vijay Kumar sat in his tent hammering hinges for metal suitcases. Vijay had been foot-loose all his life and had been in the pavements of Delhi for 30 years.

“We are the decedents of King Maharana Pratap Singh (of Rajasthan). My ancestors were nomads since the King went to exile” he claims.

He is a proud grandfather also. His son who is just twenty-two is married and has a kid who is one and a half year old.

He says “I sent my boy to school till seventh grade. But after that the school cancelled his admission because I don’t have an address.”

“What is meaning of education when I don’t have a fixed place to stay?” he asks.

The summer sun was at its peak and I took a autorikshaw back to to “Gulab House.” I got down at the main road I took a turn and headed to a scrap metal factory. Machinery parts lay on the roadside. There also were some makeshift teashops . A dog, curled up under a shop’s vinyl sheets to escape the heat. The roads wore a dusty haze and looked deserted, except for a few vehicles that brought scrap metal into these factories.

The scrap metal capital

Here, the work time is about 8 hours; but most of the workers do an overtime of four hours a day. They pedal to and fro from where they stay --in the nearby slums or in the nearby places like Vikas Nagar and Hari Nagar, or Prem Nagar

“There is fixed salary for eight hours of work. But for over time the payment is arbitary.” says Sreedhar Singh; forget double pay for over time.

In effect these people work for twelve hours a day, for a monthly pay of around 4000 rupees.

Sreedhar told me that he sends all his children to school, and that his eldest one is in ninth grade. So, I was compelled to ask how many kids he has.

“Five” he told, trying to conceal his embarrassment.

His family of seven are squeezed into a 8 X 10 square feet of room in Hari Nagar for which pays 1200 rupees as rent per month He says when he came here 17 years ago from Bihar, he was staying in a “jugghi”(slum) and that now his conditions are better.

Textile and scrap metal industries are the major life-sustainers of this area, though the latter is more. They work on contract of four or five years in a company. After that they will have to shift to another company. There are people who lived like this for more than 20 years.

On the 20^thof December 2007, there was a huge strike that completely numbed the area

“That day the traffic from Mayapuri to Dhaula Kuan was clogged,” says one worker

The protest march was the high point of a dharana that lasted for two months. An issue of transferring 500 textile workers to another unit in Manerswar in Gurgaon, had flared up. The protest spread to workers from other industries and they say around 25,000 people took part in it.

But they say it was not just the company’s idea of transferring the workers that led to the protests; the issue had been simmering for quite sometime --the companies had backslid on their promise of payment of yearly bonus of 20 per cent. The company, after many deliberations, has agreed to provide bus-service to its 120 of its workers who will be transferred.. But the future of the remaining 300 odd workers hangs uncertainly. Hearings are still going on in the court. Around seven textile units were closed down since then.

After her six-year contract ended, Seema Gupta joined another textile unit. She had been working there for barely six months, when a fire broke out.

Burned in hell—the case of Seema

“I had hair till my back. Look at it now,” she says tilting her head to one side and holding her short hair in her hand.

A month ago a fire had broken out in the room where she was “cutting threads.” A short circuit had caused around 50 liters of industrial solvent stored in the room to catch fire, with four of them trapped inside.

As she ran out through the flames, her burnt skin dropped on the floor. And her charred clothes stuck onto her skin. The company took her to a private hospital, where they promised to pay for her treatment. She was admitted there only to be discharged in four days.

“ I just came out of the hospital and sat on the road side. I was too weak even to stand.”

The company paid for her medicine for four days and a compensation of 1500 rupees, of which 1000 rupees was deducted from her salary.

“I had to make at least 500 rupees of phone calls to the company to get the compensation,” she says.

“At least my face was not burned” she sighs. Her co-worker Rajeev was not so lucky.

The sun eased its stare, but the land refused. The baked land continued to radiate heat. From where I met the scrap metal workers in the afternoon, I walked straight through the side of a puddle of sewer water to reach a slum.

Ache Lal and his friend

“Mayapuri Jugghi, Rawandi Line, Phase 2” Rajaram told vivaciously when I asked him what this slum is called.

Most people here do not have a permanent job. They do whatever job comes along. They work as masons, loaders of scrap metal, rickshaw pullers—whatever their health lets them to

Ache Lal sits outside his house pedaling a sewing machine with his feet bent inwards by polio paralysis. He introduced me to his friend Ambika Prasad, who is a rickshaw puller.

Ambika is known in the slum as “Naata”(which means the short one). His tan skin was tanned even darker by being out in the sun constantly. His tooth was stained red and he smelt of cheap liquor. He was very animated and invited me to his house. I wound my way through a maze of single roomed houses. All the houses had two floors. I climbed a worn out metal ladder of a bus to reach his room. The floor was made with plywood laid over iron pipes and was covered with used vinyl banners—a common building material in Mayapuri. He and his family of four stay here for a monthly rent of 500 rupees.

The plywood creaked as I stepped on it. Ambika sent his eleven-yearold daughter to buy me “cool drinks.”

Ambika is as philosophical as any other Indian.

“All the fingers in the hand are not equal. But each has its purpose. People are not equal. But each one has to do his work.”

What is most striking in this slum is its complacency. People here don’t complain much.

“I get money to buy food and I’m happy with that” says Ambika.

Rajaram’s only worry that he has not received his electricity bill for two months..

“How will I pay if I get an accumulated bill of six months?” he asks.

I boarded the bus to back home. As the bus sped over the fly-over near the lake I could see the gulls and egrets returning to their nests. The factory workers too pedaled back to their home—some enthusiastic some down cast.

It Hail Stormed

2009-06-06T08:46:00.000-07:00

The sun guffawed.

By evening he laughed into weariness

And the weary sky grew grave,

The buildings stood lonely spectators.

Leafless trees swayed in protest,

And then, she lashed her abuses on earth.

I smiled inside, for she finally spoke.

I wanted to console her and learn from her.

I opened my window to catch her pearly explicits

I didn’t see them for the sun had resigned

Half-blind, I saw them as white glows.

But I felt them.

The earth ate all her wrath,

But I still have a few of it.

Let it sink into my soul.

Is the “fruit-bowl” only for show?

2009-06-06T04:44:00.000-07:00

“Van Thana” is the latest word in policing in India. “Van Thana,” which means forest Police Station, was introduced in Himachal Pradesh in May this year to check the timber mafia that is becoming increasingly rampant in the state. The state which is 66 per cent covered by forest timber is an irresistible opportunity for the mafia.

It is no surprise that the first exclusive green task police stations of the country were in Himachal Pradesh—the state had been in the forefront of energy conservation and efficiency for quiet sometime. In the last quarter of the 2008 alone, the state witnessed three major energy efficiency initiatives:

In August that year, the state planted about one million saplings on a single day and in October the state introduced a voluntary “green tax” for automobiles. The money thus collected would go into planting indigenous varieties of trees across the state.

When the BEE (Bureau of Energy Efficiency) had reduced the CFL price to 15 rupees(same as that of incandescent lamps), Himachal Pradesh government supplied CFLs free of cost; four per household.

These initiatives though not revolutionary by itself, represents a public concern to the cause of environment and energy efficiency, something which is which is sadly lacking in rest of the country. Though the state was ranked only 7^th in power sector performance out of 29 states, this public mandate is the basis of sustainable and clean energy development.

Here, in this “fruit bowl” state, the life of the people is intertwined with its ecology. In the recently concluded General Elections in India, Himachal Pradesh was one of the few states where environment was an issue.

Though the government’s energy efficiency initiatives worked in paper, it often failed to work in the real world because larger social and economic aspects were overlooked.

Consider this: the states hydroelectric projects are facing delays because of protest by tribal. Besides environmental issues, livelihood of the people are a major cause of these clash. The Karcham Wantagoo Hydroelectric project on Sutlej river by construction major Jaypee Group, is a case point.

The hydroelectric projects are no doubt, a commercial viable clean energy source, especially for Himachal Pradesh which earns revenue, supplying power to the neighbouring states. The ADB’s Multitranch Financing Facility for the Development of Clean Energy, which in the last year ushered major hydroelectric projects in the state, over looked the water shortages its run-of-river projects will cause, besides the concerns of cutting down trees. Had the capacity development agency formed under this project focused on the environmental aspect of the construction, there wouldn’t have been so many hitches to its sixteen odd projects, and the resentment of the local people could have been avoided.

In India, the fact that Energy Efficiency does not stand in isolation seems to be often forgotten by the policy-makers. The Himachal Pradesh state governments promised “Enviornment Master Plan” should bring in a much broader perspective.

Playing the culture vulture

2009-06-01T13:20:00.000-07:00

(Apparently culture vulture is an overused expression in America. But it is rarely used here in India. )

I was doing exactly that today. I had to meet some people who were in central delhi. The meeting was at 7 in the evening. Since my cousin stays nearby I went very early. By 2’o clock I was there. But I found their house locked. And their phone was not working and I couldn’t contact them earlier to tell them I’m coming. Sometimes the phone works..i don’t know... it’s confusing…

I had lot of time to kill time. So I went to Connaught Place. I intially thought I will go to Coffee Day and sit there sipping something cold. But I thought why waste the money? Instead I opted for a fountain Pepsi from the road side. I sat on the roadside bench drinking it, I was completely oblivious to the people around. These days when I roam around I’m completely lost in thoughts--thoughts about myself…whether it is too much introspection or self obsession I don’t know. Then suddenly from out of the blue, the old Beatles’ song came to my mind—I hadn’t listened to it for a long time:

"Why don’t you help me brother,
I’m a stranger in your town,
Why don’t you help me brother,
May be i'll settle down. "

What terrific song! It never occurred to me that this song is song is so good. Yeah it suited well the situation that I’m in now.

I walked looked at the roadside books and and did window shopping. I went to Jain’s book depot there and sat there for more than an hour, reading book. The book store guy was giving a buy- it or- leave-it kind of look. I waded through politics to military and defence to economics.I was going through one of Ramchandra Guha’s book, India after Gandhi wondering about the time effort and skill these people have. I found Steve Coll’s The Bin Ladens is also very interesting. I also saw one of Arun Shourie’s book.. I don’t remember the name..I could make out from his writing that he is not a writer.

(Though he is BJP’s writer and was earlier working with Times Of India and Indian Express,his skill is not as honed as that of MJ Akbar's or Guha's or Coll’s. I'm not prejudiced, I'm just commeting about the writing skill, not the content--though it is better for me not to comment about people like them.I know it will be amusing to hear my comments)

Writing is a skill that has to be perfected over time with discipline. Good writers don’t just write. They entertain. This is something I knew earlier but it is here in Delhi that I’m understanding it from a close quarters.

Finally I chose to buy M.J Akbar’s Nehru..

My roomie on seeing the book said “gimme a break”

I think I’m becoming a Gandhi family admirer; most times my roomie feels I orthodoxly argue for the Congress.

Ramchndra Guha’s was a very thick volume..I promised myself that if I finished reading Nehru soon will buy it. From there I also picked up Tehelka and The Caravan—the magazine whose ad says—

"Weight that carry words" ...eh …I mean..." words that carry weight."

I really love that magazine…Anybody I see I talk about it…I have told it n number of times to my dad..he used to read it when he was in college.. a really text-heavy magazine. They are developing it on the lines of The New Yorker and The Harper. What its ad says is really cool and whacky:

"As a food for thought it’s (The Caravan) is the cerebral equivalent of full service, multi-course, sit down dinner; not a bun-on-the run for casual snacker."

Bun on the run… hehehe…

Then I checked out some music cds at music world which is right opposite the Jain Book Depot…I mentally selectd the cds I will buy when I get a job…Then I went to Fab India..checked out the shirts and even tried one..but left without buying..

Went to a tea shop and sat there having tea and reading caravan, and laughing to myself if found some articles that tickled the funny bone.One cartoon said:

“Rahul worked really hard for election. But his second name worked even harder!”

I laugh alone. I shout if I feel desperate or happy. And I sing aloud while taking bath..’

But I’m loving it.’Earlier I cribbed inside me being alone; now I scream:

"leave me alone."

“let me be a ‘lonesome crow’”,

"Leave me alone...Let me figure out”

I met the people and was returning in the bus, I was in I think it was the bus number was 640,hit a biker…the guy collapsed on the road.. . death and accidents are such a common place things here…I came home and saw the news that 200 odd people had died as Air France plane crashed over the Atlantic…the kind of accidents that happen around gives me jitters.

P.S: Does this post of mine look like a collage of ad captions?-- "words that carry weight," "lonesome crow," "i'm lovin it."

The problem with the intellectual man.

2009-05-28T13:06:00.000-07:00

The problem with intellectual man is the his feeling that he's intellectual.

This may sound archaic--straight out of Emmerson's or Thoreau's essay--but this is derived out of a everyday concern...

Let me explain-- it is human tendency to fix oneself either with the intellectual or the common man..

But there is also a path...neither that of the intellectual nor of the common man....

the answer is to answer your own voice.

Torn between the voice of the masses and that of the intellectual is our own voice craving to be spoken...but we are scared of its legitimacy..

We are confused about our own legitimacy ..

What delhi has done to me so far

2009-05-28T06:38:00.000-07:00

May be the 'wise ones' will say that i must ask what i have done for delhi instead of what delhi has done to me. Let me explain from the places i have been to and what i was doing there

I was a confused person from the time i can remember.

I did graduation from Christ college bangalore.What can I say about three years in Christ College, Bangalore…

the sky was blue, the grasses were green, weather was pleasant, there were dustbins( dustbins, becausethis is in stark contrast to Chennai. All indian cities are equally unclean--there can be no clear winner. But what is striking in chennai is its people complacency with uncleanliness and garbage)
and I was in love, and lo, I was a poet…those were the really careless days… careless but not reckless as I’m now…I think the time there was well spent…

Towards the end of the course, I was getting even more reckless..without me actually knowing it…the ambience in the next college I attended only made it worse.

In Chennai i did masters in communication…madras christian college…the college was thoroughly de-motivating for me…the only good thing i learned from thereis the habit of watching good movies and appreciating it.

May be I found the college de-motivating because I came to Chennai de-motivated…but the college was no help for a person like me.

Delhi had shown me in one year what Chennai and Bangalore hasn’t done for six years..To put it simply it changed my idea for hardwork and perfection…

It taught me how much hard work is real hard work.

Meeting with Vinod K Jose was a really a significant one. He didn’t exactly motivate me: simply because I was far from being motivated. I was just fumbling around—with my own notions about journalism.

He showed me what journalism is and what it entails. Delhi helped me to some extent unlearn what my education has so far done for me.

I took Hathway internet connection—64kbps

2009-05-28T05:26:00.000-07:00

My laptop is in a mess: name any virus, it has it. On top of that it just survived a fall from my shelf to the floor—the corner is dented. But thank god it is still working.

(It just shows how careless and reckless I have become.)

Earlier I used to care so much about it, that many of my friends have said that it looks new. I had installed antivirus and that too after much research on which is the best one, never allowed any of my friends to plug in their pendrives, unless I knew that he also was using antivirus..

But over the few months I have treated my laptop very roughly…

Yesterday I took internet connection and I’m in love with my laptop again… doesn’t mean that i’m hooked to the internet all the time…but at least the internet cable is hooked to it 24x7. It feels like my laptop has got a new lease of life. Just seeing the internet cable is very reassuring for me.

I took Hathway 64kbps connection—500 rupees per month and 700 rupees security deposit… I didn’t think whether it was a good deal or not...Jim told that I could have paid 200 rupees more and taken an airtel 256kbps…but I Amit told airtel 256kbps is 900 rupees…and on top of that I will have to show a salary slip or pan card or something of the sort which I don’t have..Anyway I didn’t want waste too much time mulling and hearing opinions or searching for the real deal. I wanted a connection and a cheap connection…I took it…with the hope that I can change it anytime i find out about the ‘real deal.’

The Hathway guy also provides cable here in my paying guest…so the documentation drooling were also minimal.

"Serious blogging "

2009-05-13T20:34:00.000-07:00

My nephew was doing his home work. He asked me what does the word "oxymoron" mean?

I said "pretty ugly is an oxymoron; half done, seriously casual..." (that's when you are in trouble and people want to show they are concerned, but are happy inside that it didn't happen to them).

And another example of an oxymoron just slipped out of my mouth--- "serious blogging."-- it was Freudian slip.

Yes "serious blogging." All other oxymorons are possible. But "serious blogging" is an oxymoron that's practically impossible.

How can anyone seriously blog???, i thought.

Blog is a casual medium. It can't take the weight of seriousness. The blog begs to be relieved off the weight of my philosophy, analysis and poem.

blog is not a medium for wannabe writers or armature philosophers like me.,. If i'm serious about writing must find other media. Blogging means that i'm just not serious enough.

the best thing about blogging is it helps to rid the mind off rubbish...it should be treated like a dustbin...only when the nonsense is out something good can come out... maybe everyday we have empty the thrash...

yes,no wonder it is called blog--- blog= web + log.-- a place for regularly taking out the garbage.

I had put my blog-address in my reume..ahhhhhhhh.......

what would anyone who read the resume would have thought about meeeeee?????????????????i would have looked so armaturely stupid...

A blog has to be moronically unique....My blog was insipid because it was not moronical...to hell with grammar, spellings and my "serious thinking"...

Anyways what happened has happened.....

Good riddance, I'm going to stop take some weight off the internet. May be that's when the oxymoron "seriously blogging" comes close to possibility of existence.

Movable Sensibility of the Fierce One

2009-05-08T06:07:00.000-07:00

There was a lot of anticipation in the air. How he, will he look like? The man, who was ‘waging war for them’ for a decade, was known only through a single photograph of him taken in 2001. There was jubilation as, people could positively walk in the streets after a decade long civil war. They said, “he is the one we need.” On June 14^th 2006, the maoist leader Pushpa Kamal Dahal known by his nom de guerre “Prachanda”(which means the fierce one) made his first public appearance in Kathmandu after 25 years underground.

He later recollected: “that day I first appeared in Kathmandu, I wore a light blue suit. I like light blue colour the most.” There was hope. People saw Prachanda as a harbinger of a fecund economy and peaceful life. Reporters who first interviewed him described that he looked more like a popular neighborhood “uncle” than a maoist-guerilla.

Two days later he, with the other parties, Prachanda’s Comunist Party of Nepal(Maoist) --CPN(M)-- formed an interim government. Prachanda lavished praises on the Nepalese Congress(NC) chief and former Prime Minister Girija Prasad Koirala. Many were surprised. Such was the exhilaration during the time that lot many cadres of the Communist Party of Nepal (Unified Marxist-Leninist)—CPN(UML)-- deflected to CPN(M). Amid all the ruckus and celebrations people continued to wonder who he was? The party he headed told something and his demanour something else.

A couple of days later the government headed by Koirala signed a comprehensive peace agreement with Prachanda, which promised to keep the soldiers of People’s Liberation Army (PLA) and Nepalese Army in cantonments or barracks and their weapons locked in containers. The United Nation’s Mission to Nepal (UNMIN) will over-see the whole process.

Analysts were proved wrong when the Maoist won the constituent assembly elections in April 2008, after the insurgency that left almost 13,000 people dead. In fact, the Maoist won more seats than the NC and CPN(UML) combined. Prachanda headed the Constituent Assembly(CA), which was to draft the constitution of Nepal in two years Skeptics, who considered his beliefs redundant and his war an old world war, were clueless when he shook hands with the chief of FNCCI (Federation of Nepalese Chamber of Commerce and Industries) and when he himself intervened to halt trade union strikes.

In fact it appeared that it was the arguments of the skeptics that were redundant. Prachanda’s homegrown form of Maoism, called “Prachanda Path”, does away global supremacy of China, inhumanness of Peru’s Shinning Path at the same time incorporating the tolerance of democracy.

Prachanda says “communism being a science, it deserves continuous and consistent development.”

Prachand’s singularity of character and a ceasefire were a good reasons enough to impress people in the constituent assembly elections, but not the opposing parties. They wanted this political party with an army to be fenced.

Then there was the planning for presidential election. This is where the people’s mandate will boiled down to. Maoist or not, everyone for the time being seemed to believe that power emanates from the muzzle of a gun. (Though President is the ceremonial head he will hold the reigns of the armed forces.)

Now, Prachanda said he wouldn’t form the Government if Koirala were NC’s presidential candidate.

This, Prachanda said, “this dishonours the mandate of the people.” He knew well that Prime Minister and President from two different parties would create lot of pushes and pull in the administration.

To make a long story short, after of long drawn out altercation of 55 days, the election was held. Ram Baran Yadav of the Congress assumed presidency--Kingdom Nepal became Republic of Nepal and the King became a common man. CPN(M) sympathiser, Ramraja Prasad Singh was swamped; 23 out of the 25 parties in the CA voted against him.

“Dual power”(a term coined by Lenin during Russian revolution) is how Prachanda describes the present coalition of Nepal; the Maoist bloc pitted against the Nepalese Army supported by the opposition parties and the royalist.

This translates to ground reality that tough-talking Chief of Armed Staff (COAS) General Rookmangud Katwal , who is the foster child of King Mahendra, won’t accept the integration of the Maoist force into the Nepalese Army; not even a few thousands who pass the requirements of the army, as said in the CPA. And that other political parties will support the army.

What is more unsettling than the “dual power” in Nepal is the dual nature of Prachanda himself. What he calls “socialism and communism” in centrist circles becomes “people’s war and maoism”, in extreme-left circles. “Democracy” ” in centrist or right- media becomes “an unfinished revolution” in left-media. And “policy” is used interchangeably with “tactics,” depending on the audience. If this is the hotchpotch called the ‘Prachanda path’ then it tastes a little weird; he forgot to add salt. (Read “trust”)

Prachanda may look as a bamboozling politician to an outsider. But analyst say that it is to keep his cadres within the party fold and the confusion is more within the party than with the NA or opposing political parties. Ninety per cent of his cadres comprise farmers who will understand only the lingo of “people’s war.”

The footage released by a private channel of Prachanda speaking to the PLA combatants in Chitwan district (where there is one of the seven cantonments) more than an year ago, must be seen in this light. He tells them how he befooled the UNMIN by showing them less number of combatants and how their numbers have actually increased.

“You and I know the truth, but why should we tell others.” He quipped.

People joined CPN(M) for a different reason than they would join any other party. Caste equations are not present in the party, women could participate freely, and they could live without the repression of the police and army. Noga a twenty six year old women in the Rolpa district says,

“The Maoists would come and just ask for food and shelter. But when the army came, they would kill and torture people. This happened every day.

“For this reason I joined the Maoists.”

“There were always problems with the police and the army. But I didn’t just join because of that. The Maoists had visions for the future, for liberation.”

The Maoist had vision. At least, that was what they thought or is still thinking. But the vision is as seen through the barrel of a gun.

“The war has encouraged and spread a culture of intimidation and violence,” admitted a Maoist reclusive leader.

Prachanda seems to have realized that running a government is difficult than leading a revolution. Power-cuts were as high as 14 hours, businessmen were dissatisfied trade union strikes were rampant. Anarchy was let-loose, Prachanda watched helplessly.

He pointed them the way, but they stare and sniff at his finger. Nanda Kishore Pun aka Pasang, who now heads the PLA after Prachanda assumed the post of Prime Minister, had made had spoken about the intention of the Maoist to downsize Nepalese Army to 50,000 men. He considers the present strength of 90,000 too much for a small country of Nepal. There is a growing disenchantment of PLA with the army.

General Katwal also got impatient with the ambiguous number of people enlisting as PLA at the cantonments. He began recruitments in December 2008 citing the reason that they were not new recruitments, but filling in posts that were vacant. He became more vocal about not including “indoctrinated” people in his army.(Prachanda calls them “politically aware”.)

Massive upheavals caused by relatively insignificant events. The two events that directly led to the current political turmoil are trival:

The army had requested the Defence Ministry an extension of service of eight brigadier generals, by three years, whose term were to end by mid-March this year. Earlier the Moaist Defence Minster Ram Bahadur Thapa had approved the extension of service of one brigadier general. But this time the ministry refused to approve. Things took a serious turn when the General Katwal got a order from Supreme court quashing the ministry decision. The other one is even more trivial—the army refusing to take part in the national games, because PLA is participating in it.

Prachanda send an ultimatum of 48 hours asking for an explanation from the defiant general. The prime Minister impeached the general saying his explanations were not satisfactory. But President Ram Baran Yadav, asked General Katwal to continue in his position. Prachanda felt insulted and resigned.

There was lack of restrain on both sides. Prachanda’s actual show of grit lies in tiding over this crisis. He must see that the people of Nepal are not exactly happy, his own men and women in cantonment can’t be kept happy for long and that in Nepal besides Maoist, and men opposing him, there are normal people without any affiliations--people who look forward for peace. He must do a tight-rope walk. On the left is the chasm of self-contradiction, that will tear his efforts apart and on the right is danger of sterility and ineffectiveness.

Confession of a Hobo

2009-05-02T11:51:00.000-07:00

Just before leaving to new places, I have felt a strange calm and have sung to myself many times the CCR chartbuster, “Someone told me long ago/There’s a calm before the storm” It is a calm that has some practical uses too. This calm draws my attention to details; like, have I taken the ticket for my journey? , how much money do I have with me, have taken my toothbrush etc.

It is a heavy calm that also. It weighs down on me so much that I would have preferred a little disorderliness and haste to this meticulousness. It is a terrible calm that calls to be torn apart.

I have used both trains and buses equally for traveling and flights sparingly. Buses and trains were the ones I enjoy travelling by. Flights bore me. There is nothing in flying. Travelling by land makes me see the familiar move past the window, to give way to the unfamiliar. Though bus makes me feel claustrophobic, it helps to reflect. I remember once as I travelled from Chennai to Bangalore in a late-night bus, my thoughts ran like train. Sitting in that bus with constant flashes of neon lights on my face through the glass window, I thought and I thought. I don’t remember what I thought; but I treasure those sensations. And I know that those sensations have gone into making me. That night I readied my self for the hypothetical question, that when I travel or if marooned in an island whom would I like to have as company? I would prefer no one.

Train on the other hand, in my opinion is travelling and destination combined. As I see the world move past, I also have an option to pretend what I am not to the co-passengers. This is a freedom that I can hope for only after arriving at the destination. This may be the freedom for which I find excuses to move from place to place. But to make this excuse is very essential too. To quote Gibran: “For to stay, though the hours burn in the night, is to freeze and crystallize and be bound in a mould. Fain would I take with me all that is here. But how shall l? A voice cannot carry the tongue and the lips that gave it wings. Alone must it seek the ether. And alone and without his nest shall the eagle fly across the sun.”

To pretend, not to be judged by your past, a new-identity are actually way afar. The moment I step out of the bus or train, I suddenly become like a whiff of smoke or wind—unidentifiable, formless. Looking for an address, or sitting in a bus-stop, I become nobody. But soon I realize that, it was also for this I traveled. The calmness that hanged so heavily on me has imploded into this nameless thing.

Nights that don't Kill

2009-04-28T04:04:00.000-07:00

Days are where we live.
Nights are where we die.

The day wearies me;
But the night doesn't kill.

May be the evening,
Doesn't stab me enough.

"Even in spring leaves fall. Some for ever"

Adventures in the Boundary of Darkness

2009-04-28T04:01:00.000-07:00

I ran out into the night,
I hope,
I’ll encounter creatures that dwell there,
Will feel them
And they will whisper stories,
Which will whirl my senses

I shouted for them.
But they hid themselves in light:
They expressed their inability from their caves.

Desperate,
I waded through dark,
Into darkness.

I gasped for breath
I understood I crossed the boundaries of darkness.
The air became thick.

When I opened my mouth to breath,
I tasted coagulated darkness.
Bitter it was and I swallowed it.

I had a faint hope of turning back:
Found that the air behind me freezed.
I closed my eyes with my inability
I couldn’t open it again.
I knew I was getting freezed.

I prayed to the creatures of the dark,
To come from there caves with little light To melt the void around

The Shoe-Sport Fever

2009-04-28T03:17:00.000-07:00

The recent fever that grips India seems to be neither IPL T20 nor the general elections. It engages old and young alike. It is shoe-throwing. There were some speculations in the media on whether it will be made an Olympic event.
Shoe-throwing in India has a very recent history.

But competitive boot throwing has it's origin in New Zealand, where famers throw gum-boots. The one who throws it the longest wins. In America a similar sports called “shoefiti” is the one which involves throwing a pair of shoes with their lace tied together on to electric lines. It is a less competitive sports and serves the symbolic purpose of showing the availability of cocaine nearby or a gang turf.

The Indian version, no doubt, is a far advanced one, combining the best of the two worlds--the sportiveness of gum-boot throwing and the symbolic function of shoefiti.
The Indian version, or “Indian shoe-throwing”, as it is aptly called will be held mostly during election campaigns. It has its origin in America. It was invented by a Iraqi journalist named Mutander al-Zeidi on December 14, 2008.. Like all manias it crossed it's 'tipping point' within no time. It too had its share of rough time, as it is the case with any iconoclastic art forms or ideas. In February 2009 a shoe was thrown at Chinese premier Wen Jiabo, when he was speaking at the Cambridge University. But the news was censored in the local Chinese media.

SHOE-THROWING HALL OF FAME

The first game in India was held at the Congress headquarters in New Delhi. Jarnal Singh, a reporter of the Hindi daily, Dainik Jagran, is one of the pioneers who brought the game to the masses by throwing his shoe at home minister, P.Chidambaram. He was criticized for being fool-hardy by ultra-orthodox sports haters and for lacking enthusiasm by fans of shoe-throwing. Despite being thrown from close quarters it not only did miss the target but also lacked vigor and purposiveness to hit its target—a negation of the spirit of the game. It is said, it was thrown not to hit. But it served the artistic and symbolic purpose. Times of India aptly highlighted this with a heading:"Shoe lobbed at Chidambaram, misses him but may hit Tytler."
Just three days later on April 10th, a shoe was thrown at Congress MP and industrialist Naveen Jindal.
The game also promises to unite people like no other sports have done before. On April 16th, Pawas Agarwal a former district president of the BJP threw his wooden sandal at Advani, during a public meeting in Madhya Pradesh.
And on April 26th a shoe was thrown at prime minister Manmohan Singh, in Ahmedbad. Hitesh Chauhan, a engineering student turned show-thrower demonstrated his on-field aggressiveness. He shouted "stop telling lies" and threw the shoe (analyst see this as the latest tactic of the sport, in order to intimidate the opponent)
But there is no arguing the fact that the game is in its infancy in India. Many remain divided on what the rules of the game should be .Is throwing itself is winning or should it hit the target? What is the distance the thrower has to maintain from his target while throwing the shoe? Still others argue t about the very nature of the projectile--stinking socks, aimed at the nose of the target, they argue, will be a better option than shoe.
Often, cops play a spoil sport. But thanks to the steps taken by the Chidambaram and Manmohan Singh, show-throwers are pardoned and let-off—a sign that the game is here to stay, at least during elections. At the worst the game will lie dormant in public memory and can be revived during elections.

Wondrous by Design

2009-04-28T03:13:00.001-07:00

What is a religion worth which costs you nothing? What is a sense of God worth which could be at your disposal, capable of being comfortably elicited when and where you please? It is far, far more God who must hold us, than we who must hold Him. And we get trained in those darkness into that sense of our impotence without which the very presence of God becomes a snare.
FREDERICH VON HUGEL

At certain time in our life we think of our identity and our role in this world. Today I was constructing an identity through the things I had done or has happened to me. Did these things just happen to me or did I do it? What is the role of God in it? Or does he exist at all? Later I began to consider what all I have been through in my life. It didn’t make any sense to me because I was not sure through which perspective I should see it.
Then I began to see it clearly. It came to my mind suddenly that what is more important than answers to these questions is the fact as to why I ask these. Do I really need the answers to the questions or some explanations to justify my actions to a hypothetical friend?
The answer to any question will depend on why you ask the question. Mostly our questions are not questions at all. We’re just cribbing! We ask why such and such thing is happening in our life and not in others life. We think things would have been better if we had done it some other way or we had planned everything before hand. We ask because we don’t have control over things and we want to have control over our life and most of the times others life too.

This not just the case with individual people. It is also true when we consider the human history as a whole. And explains why there are so many ‘alternatives’ in the world—religions, atheism, communism, Epicureanism, capitalalism and so on. These answers were a product of the spirit of the age of its origin.

Bible says ‘you ask and not receive because you ask wrongly to spent it on your desires’. Meaning, God expects us to ask genuine questions. Adam sinned because he didn’t ask God why it was wrong to eat the fruit of the tree. And Job—he challenged God! And he was answered. We ask genuinely when we have insight and wisdom. That should be our actual prayer (...”that love may abound more and more in knowledge and depth of insight so that you may be able to discern what is best and may be pure and blameless until the day of Christ.”)
“Ask and you will receive”: God expects us to find out for ourselves that God exist and he will answer our questions.
The underlying meaning in the verse is that we should have the insight to ask with an open mind. We don’t receive when we ask for things that reinforce our identity in the world—that’s true for spiritual gifts and material gifts as well. And when we receive such gifts that we ask with a genuine heart we gain more insight.
People ask whether God exist or not. After sometime they abandon the question and drift into their own way of life, because they can’t find an answer. They don’t find an answer because they don’t expect an answer. They are asking for an explanation. Some find an explanation and believe in God; after sometime because of some life situation they reassess their explanation and on finding that it is unsatisfactory they relapse in their belief. Others float in their belief because of the culture and surface slush. This happens because their question is not genuine. If God were to come to these people and say, “ yes I exist because of so and so reasons” they still will have their own plans for their life. And if God doesn’t answer also they have another set of plans. It is a question through which they can base their life style and identity in this world.
God never explains. He only answers. He sings. He convinces. May be when God answers, you can’t explain it to your hypothetical friend. We can’t digest this fact. We can’t believe that God answers through our life. That the life of those who believe in God is itself an explanation that God exist.
This is faith--the answer to our question (or prayer).

A way to find out whether our question is genuine is to consider when we ask it. Do we ask ‘does God exist when we feel inadequate; when we feel that our identity in the world is jeopardy; when we secretly and uncomfortably feel that there nothing great about us? or when we feel that we don’t have control? Think about it.

If we ask questions or hold it in mind with no other intent than knowing the truth, God will answer. God answers when we start wondering.
As a matter of fact, it is true with any question we ask—whether it is regarding the nature of light or the foreign policy of America or whether God exist.

Quote that saved a day.

2009-04-24T04:21:00.001-07:00

This qoute by Paulo Cohelo saved a day for me. It was a real audacious mood -lifter.
"Hollow calls for patience. All of a sudden the river entres a sort of hole and stops running as before. At such moments the only way put is to count on the help of time. When the right moment comes the hollow fills up and the water can flow ahead. In the place of the ugly, lifeless hole there now stands a lake that others can contemplate with joy."

"Is There Anything in the World Sadder Than a Train Standing in the Rain?"

2009-04-24T03:33:00.000-07:00

Nothing has talked to me as much as the trains did. I had gone to the beach many times with the intent of listening to the sea.But such sublime things never happened.

I lived near to a suburban metro station in Chennai for almost two years.Neither friends, nor fun or studies have moved me as much as the trains did. During the stay their I developed my innate child-like curiosity for trains.It never became a commonplace thing to me.Everyday of my stay I used to open my doors to see trains as they pass by . To see a goods-train idling on then track, when I go for a evening stroll or a cup of tea, delighted me more than anything.

I feel, there is nothing more representative of life as trains. It moves on whatever happens.

My life in that small cramped room was incessantly punctuated by the noise of trains.It has broken my silence innumerable times.Trains have rammed into my dreams when I was half-asleep. I have clinged to their doors and tops and it had taken me to valleys overlooked by mountains with mist running down it. And the full-moon steadily and persistently glowing over it.

I feel trains are not just means of transport but a principal life-mover.People lead their life depending on trains.People beg, people sing.People get entertained.People fall in love. People get killed.But how much ever their lives are changed by trains, it never stops.It keeps running and generates more stories.

One of my unforgettable experience was when I was crossing the railway tracks.I was on the middle of two tracks. And trains were going on both of them. It trembled me.The wind, as the trains moved past almost stuck me down. I simply closed my eyes. It was a scary and sublime feeling.

Most of the times I tend to think of trains as a living-creatures. Much like a super-anaconda with many sub-species.And that it is possible zoologically study the trains and it's evolution from a single primitive ancestor.
If we were to regress to superstitious beliefs with our technological advancements intact, I think trains will be worshiped as deities. And myths will be made about. It is only our reason that keeps us from doing it; not our instincts.No wonder Pablo Neruda said in one of his poems "Is there anything in the world sadder/than a train standing in the rain?"

So, Who Needs Secularism?

2009-04-15T01:15:00.000-07:00

When Kamala Suraiya converted to Islam from Hinduism, she was asked in an interview why she converted to Islam, when the religion is notorious for not granting freedom to women. Her reply was,” who needs freedom?” A considerable portion of India also seems to ask “who needs secularism?” Being communal in India can be considered "natural", in the same vein as gay rights activists say that being gay is "natural” for them. Non-secularism is a better option, for a majority of the population and often the only one.
Consider this—the story of an average Kannadiga born in Bangaluru, (it is a cliché, but to one has to embrace different clichés time to time to understand human psyche and society.):
"I was born in Bangaluru in early eighties. My father is a daily wage laborer. He managed to give me education till twelfth standard. After that he could not afford my education. So I took driving classes to work as a driver. I thought I was qualified enough to make a "decent living". I went to IT companies to drive their cabs, or work in any job to make a comfortable living. But I could hardly find jobs. I was enamored by how my city has grown--grown big and grown strange to me. People around have been speaking languages, which I am not comfortable with. I became insignificant. I struggle to eke a living doing all kinds of jobs. I am estranged and confused. But I tried to pick up the strange languages around me.
I often sensed that I was been derided and mocked at; I am not sure whether it is because of my demeanor or because I was not conversant enough in their language or because I was not at par with them. But I used to dismiss these thoughts just as my gut feeling. Later, I managed to open a pan-cigarette shop-- very much below my expectations for a decent livelihood. I converse to the customers in the strange languages I had picked up.
They seemed condescending again and again. But I justified it as my feeling every time I felt it. Nevertheless, these feeling clouded my conscious and unconscious alike. My parents have been saying that, this is our place, and that they have lived here for quite a long time. But why do I find this place more and more distant from my needs, and me as days pass? My identity was being pulled and drawn thin like a gold foil, so much that I don't exist.
I couldn't brush it aside--because I encounter it on a daily basis. Neither could I forget it because, I my meager earning didn’t give any material comfort indulge myself in. So I made up my mind and I said "enough is enough."( I said it much before the terrorist attack in Mumbai.)
I don't know exactly when I did give up trying to speak in the strange languages. But I remember that on when a customer argued with me in his strange language about the price of a pan, I lost my nerve and asked him to get lost. It was so spontaneous that it took a minute or so for me to realize that I had spoken in Kannada, which he would not have understood. I was speaking the language of my soul. I was speaking my soul out.
Understanding that there is no-point arguing with an arrogant person like me, he went away. He may or may not have had his reasons for arguing with me. But why will I care? I had been trying to understand people of his kind for years, just to fit in. But they never seemed to take any effort to understand me. Now, I gave up on understanding them and on my own sensibilities. Neither do I expect them to understand me. All I need is a dignified life. I don't want to argue or debate with them. They would have understood it long time back even if they had half-a-brain. I will make them understand in the tough way. Soon I found that many of my peers share my view."
With majority of political parties contesting the election having made their USP secularism, the issue has found place in the heart of the public morale of progressive India. But what do we mean by secularism?
True secularism starts from the grass-root, not from utopian ideologies. Our idea of progressive India’s secularism is vague and skewed to suit our narrow goals. Thackery and Muthalik wouldn't have existed, but for Mumbai and Bengaluru. Frustrations in a metropolis easily finds echo through out the state.
Identity is not an optional extra, but is a function of a dignified life. The less privileged are the most vocal and aggressive about their identity, though privileged class of the same ethnic or linguistic group do reflect it with lesser intensity. Greater one’s dignity is at peril, the more intensive will be the struggle for identity.
To say that people at the helm of communal and regional political parties started the divide is not true. They merely give it a national expression and identity. The problem was already there. Whether they capitalize on it or not is a different issue.
India is divided on numerous linguistic and ethnic lines which need regional solutions. There can be no one universal secular agenda for India. The litmus test of India's true democracy lies in formulating and implementing it's indigenous secular policy.

Deciphering the Antulay Conundrum

2008-12-21T09:29:00.000-08:00

AR Antualy was a name relatively unheard of in the national political scenario, until recently. The Congress Cabinet Minister for Minority Affairs, to put it inomplexly, has simply asked for a probe into the death Maharashtra ATS chief Hemant Karkare and two other officers during the Mumbai 26/11 terrorist attack.

Though Mr. Antulay was asking for a probe into the suspicious circumstances of Karkare’s death his remarks have insinuated a conspiracy theory that the Hemant Karkare was deliberately targeted as the organization he headed was for the first time bringing up Hindu names for the in Malegaon blasts. Vague premonitions in the public opinion could find consummation with his remark. This was a theory which many Urdu media pundits were also contending for sometime now.

Mr Antulay’s remark is dealt in the mainstream media in one of it’s pet fashions—politician bashing. Typical media sentiment was that India should not give Pakistan a chance to think that we have dissident voices just as Nawas Sherif is trying to nail President Zardari for restrictions in entering or talking to anyone in Amir Ajmal Kasab’s village in Pakistan. The talk shows are scrupulously scripted so as to avoid spinning the debates to uncomfortable realms. Media which apparently acted as a third party neutral observer pandering to public opinion throughout the 60 hour encounter, is now cautious.

So is the Government. It cannot muster enough will to suspend Mr. Antulay, especially when he has found support along many party lines as his comment found support from Muslim community. With the JD(U) MP Ejaz Ali has also voiced his support for Mr. Antulay, means the Muslim vote bank of one or more allies of the UPA coalition is dented. At the same time, the government is losing it’s diplomatic credentials to leverage Pakistani government to act on LeT camps in its soil. No doubt the government is treading on thin ice.

There is an increasing need in the Muslim community to militate against the insecurity that is plaguing (especially in employment and housing) after the Bombay riots and Barbari Masjid demolition. The condition has worsened with anyone with a Muslim name becoming possible terror suspect. In 2005, Assam United Democratic Front founded by Maulana Badruddin Ajmal won 10 out of 126 assembly seats. The same experiment is also being done in Maharahtra by Badruddin Ajmal. Antulay’s remark makes more sense in relation to these developments.

Even Antulay is mincing words carefully. In the interview with Rajdeep Sardesai in CNN IBN, he said that he is not a fool to say that Hemant Karkare was not killed by Pakistani terrorist, that he was asking for a probe into the killing not only of Hemant Karkare but also that Ashok Kamte and Vijay Salaskar. And he has not even raised Malegaon blast issue. M.J Akbar in his column, ‘The Siege Within’ in TOI (dated 21/12/08), has said that in a democracy there must be a balance between the “freedom of expression” and “freedom of impression” and that a “clever politician is a master chef in cooking up a broth of impression and expression.”

AR Antualy who was an Indria Gandhi loyalist, was the Chief Minister of Maharashtra for a two year term and had to resign on corruption charges. Antulay says he is not eyeing the Muslim vote and that his constituency of Kolaba has a mere eight per cent of Muslim voters. Whether Antulay’s stance help him or harm him needs to be seen. But it is going to bring political upheavals like never before as this conundrum unravels.

The Dog, the Martyr and the Chief Minister

2008-12-19T09:26:00.000-08:00

“The more I see the representatives of the people, the more I love my dogs” , said Alphonse De Lamartine. These words reflect public sentiments after26/11 Mumbai attacks, especially after the remarks by Kerala Chief Minister V. S Achutananthan.
Mr. K. Rajeev, relative of the NSG Commando Major Sandeep Unnikrishnan who was killed in the encounter, pleaded with the media to end the controversy over the remarks of the Chief Minister. On behalf of Mr. Unnikrishnan, father of Major Sandeep, he apologized for his unruly behavior at the Chief Minister and his colleagues. With that, ‘the dog’ issue was put to rest.
As the fog created by the media lift, we can clearly see the facts—that a man lost his son and left a vacuum that no words, ex-gratia or musical tribute can suffice. And, greatest of all tragedies, that we as a nation has not learnt from our mistakes. It is banal to talk of media hype and media fuelled controversies. Common man seems to know as much about the media construction of reality as communication theorist does. And it has become habitual for the public as well as politicians to place the onus on the media for their own incompetence and lack of sensibility.
This is not to deny the role of media in the present controversy. They are only the catalyst of the controversy not the fuel of it. At the worst, media can be considered as pesky intruders.
The Chief Minister was replying to a question by a reporter as to what he had to say about being not allowed in Mr. Unnikrishnan’s house. One can easily make out from his words that he felt insulted at the house of Mr. Unnikrishnan . Speaking to the media in Malayalam Mr. Achutanandan said “Karnataka Chief Minister reached his house earlier than us. Was it agreed upon by the two CMs to go together?” And then he uttered those calamitous words “Had it not been for Sandeep, a dog would not have visited the house.” Media immediately capitalized on this as it promised higher TRP ratings. The sentence was promptly highlighted in the subtitle of the video and aired again and again by news channels.
To use a word like “dog” is not becoming of a Chief Minister. Further, there were efforts to clarify the CM’s statement as a colloquial expression. Anyone who knows the language will find these remarks as uncouth. Mr. Achutanandan was simply playing into the hands of the opposition and the hawkish media.
E.K Nayanar was known for his quirky comments and retorts which at times created controversies. When the idol from a temple in Kerala (Ettumannur) was stolen, he was accused by the opposition that the heist occurred because his government failed to ensure police security at the temple premises. Nayanar retorted, “ Does God also need police protection?” It will be remembered not only for the controversy it created, but also for the uncomfortable truth it drove home into the minds of the masses.
Mr. Achutanandan’s words were not just insensible but unhealthy for a democracy. His words could be misinterpreted as comparing the armed forces of a country to a dog.( And this misinterpretation was almost achieved.) Cumulative insensitive comments of this sort could actually weaken the morale of the armed forces. But let us hope that the harm will undone, thanks to short public memory.

Still

2008-12-07T06:55:00.001-08:00

Shattered splattered
Still I lie, mute.
Muttering, why I threw my hue around,
And burned my blameless world.

In a blemished world
Still I lie.
Black jig-saws jostle around,
Remance of light that brought the black and old-yellow,
To the ends of my world,
Unto where my leg streches.

Still I lie mute;
But alive.

I have kissed my lot and wished the winds,
Oh, happy times!
Do they still send a wish after me?

Shattered splatterd
Still I lie.
Still true, still beautiful;
With my legs streched to the ends of my flaky world.

Who Said Folk-Music is Dying?

2008-12-03T08:12:00.000-08:00

He got on the bus from the IIT-gate stop. And he started playing the his string instrument.(Later when I googled for stringed folk-instruments of India, I found that he was playing 'ektar' one of the main accompaniment of Baul songs of West Bengal.)
He simply stood just behind the bus-driver, leaning against the steel railings. As he played his ‘ektar’ it rang crisply and clearly inside the bus. May be that's when I would have noticed him. Because I never thought that an instrument like that could sound so loud.
After doing up and down from my room to college for an year, by the suburban trains of Chennai, I am used to seeing blind people sing and beg. So much that I recognize some of them. Most of the time, their songs are attempts at arousing pity. Though I don't understand Tamil well, I have observed that people gave money to those who managed to evoke pathos through the lyrics. I consider them a nuisance or sometimes take pity on them, as my whim; but have never tossed even a single coin to them.
I am no music pundit. But listening to him play ‘ektar’ was an intimate and personal experience. It seemed to add life and meaning into the predictable life of mine. I was enchanted. The music seemed to percolate everything around. As bus moved past the Delhi Metro constructions, it added a rhythm into the work in that sultry afternoon. This may be common description of the effect of music, but I experienced it in its full bloom for the first time.
It was pure music. Music without any pretensions. So was the musician--he was just another tramp. Age between 40 to 50, disheveled hair and dirty clothes are ample description of him. His only striking feature was that the tip of his forefinger which was deformed by pressing against the string of ‘ektar’.
He played for twenty minutes before he got down somewhere before Safdarjung airport. There was a sense of generosity that flowed out from him with the music. I said to myself "freely you have received, freely you shall give". There was no haste to collect money and get into another bus. He went to those he saw taking out their wallets or fumbling their pockets. I gave him a generous three rupees. But it took me a little more to realize that he was not a beggar, but a musician. He didn't need no generosity of people like me.
Well, this is not a comparative study of the quality of music among the poor vagrants of India, saying that one should be prudent when giving to them, because economy is in recession. What I am saying is that unadulterated music is sadly missing in popular culture. People are willing to shell out thousands listen to folk music held at a five-star hotels. But it is not just music that is appreciated here, but the paraphernalia associated with such a elite gathering. Who said folk-music is dying? It is well and alive in streets.

Is Money the Root of All Evil?

2008-09-14T05:32:00.000-07:00

The mental health of the in America is worsening. Oliver James, a media analyst cites the new disease Affluenza as the cause. James defines Affluenza as "a contagious, middle-class virus causing depression, anxiety, addiction and ennui'. If the virus of reason during modernity said, "god is dead", this virus says, "man is dead." Anxiety, depression boredom and deadness are its symptoms.
He argues that in present system of democracy means the right to vote for people who make you richer. Meaning the cause for the disease is in the society. Many poor Scandinavian socialist countries have good mental health.
James Hillman a couple of decades back argued with similar sentiment that human illness are caused in the violent individual conflicts between human desires to live and think in a rational ways and the requirement of the society that we live and think in ways that are absurd. And not by sexual repressions in childhood as believed by Freudian psychoanalytical school.
The most obvious and clear answer to this argument is that the mental condition is worsening because there are more psychologist in the country. Behaviors which were seen as normal sometime back are pathologised today. Is Affluenza a product of society awash with therapy?
Richard Easterling's research in 1974 shows that the happiness level of American's after the post war boom in 1945, and in 1974 remained the same. Experts at that time ridiculed his work. In 1900's the economist at Warwick University rediscovered his work. They found out that affluence had no-correlation with happiness level. Unemployment and lack of good life style didn't make people any happier. Andrew Oswal reviewing the book Affluenza on national review.com says "On one thing he is right. There is evidence that all is not well. Mental health in the UK is getting worse, according to an annual survey of 10,000 Britons analysed by myself and Nattavudh Powdthavee at the University of London" But points the cause of illness to the childhood poverty rather than the emotional maladjustment and misery because of affluence.
Easterling in his paper Is There an Iron Law of Happiness published in 1995 says that "although genetic factors help to explain individual differences at a point in time, survey evidence demonstrates that over the life cycle economic circumstances, family life, health and work are important in determining the course of happiness. However, life events do not necessarily dominate life cycle satisfaction in different domains and economic theories would benefit from following psychologist lead by incorporating goals and adaptation."

The dream of walmartization

2008-09-14T05:31:00.000-07:00

Wal-Mart which has been one of the favorite picks for anti-globalization campaigns, trade union agitators, environmentalist and feminist, is coming to India. Wal-Mart, is to launch it’s first cash and carry or whole sale shop by early 2009. Reports suggest that the first Wal-Mart will be in West Bandra in Mumbai. The retail giant was looking for a close to 100 per cent ownership as in China. But the Indian Foreign Direct Investment(FDI) guidelines prohibit foreign multi-brand operators. And single-brand operators are allowed 51 per cent stakes in the joint venture.

Dubbed as the “biggest retail launch in India”, Reliance has forayed into hypermart and business to business services with Reliance Fresh in 2006. Besides, Reliance would do anti-FDI lobbying to pre-empt the multinational’s entry into India’s retailing sector. To evade these problems, Wal-Mart has entered into a 50:50 joint venture agreement with Bharti Retail, the subsidiary of telecom major Bharti Enterprises.

The higher price of Indian goods and low design quality of its products, had made China a favourite sourcing destination. But, the gradual increase in cost of Chinese goods had made Wal-Mart to source more and more from India. Today, Wal-Mart sources goods worth INR 15,00 cores from India, most of which comes from the states of Punjab and Haryana. The joint venture above all, will serve to boosts its exports from India.

The idea is to open up Bharti Retail franchisees backed by Wal-Mart, simultaneously investing its capital in cash and carry stores, which will cater to the shopping instincts of the urban elites. The cash and carry facility will procure produce from manufacturers and farmers directly and will supply to local retailers as well as Bharati Retail. Wal-Mart which is the fourth largest employer of the world, has one of the best inventory system in gauging what consumers need; besides its costs cutting supply chain management and logistics. The GPS enabled trucks, minimal packing process are some of them. This technological support will build the MNCs presence in India, and serving the purpose of cost-effective retailing. Sunil Bharti Mittal, head of Bharti Enterprises is optimistic about opening 10 to 15 whole sale facilities in over seven years.

Wal-Mart had tough lessons in South Korean and Germany and it will not be looking for an immediate ‘walmartization’ of India. In fact its opening of its shops will be without much fanfare. The Bharti is planning to bring in the chain in phases.

The UPA government is careful to avoid any legislation that will trigger mom and pop shop agitations. With the left allies out of the picture the government has shown signs of easing up FDI regulations. The recent move is, the relaxing of curbs on overseas capital in key areas. Once the inward FDI norms are also relaxed, the Wal-Mart will be move closer to a more strategic alliance with Bharti. This would result in the voluptuous Wal-Mart Inc., controlling even the thermostats of Indian shops from its headquarters in Arkansas.

There had been appallingly shallow comments from the Ministry of Commerce and Industry, supporting the joint venture that the coming of MacDonald and KFC has not affected the business of local chat shops. They have seem to forgotten the simple fact that a plate of samosa costs ten rupees, at the most and a McBurger a minimum of Rs. 35. And that one can’t get samosa chat in these Mcshops.

The press-release claims of the transnational agreement that, their cash and carry facilities will benefit local kirana shops, is a lie on face of common-sense. Besides the big-box cash and carry, the chain will also open Bharti retail shops. Coupled with its wholesale supply chain, it will effectively cut-down local competition.
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Organized retail market which accounts only for four per cent of total Indian market, is expected to touch 22 per cent by 2010. Wal-Mart with its effective supply management chain will “organize” India’s retailing market in a more dramatic way than Reliance Fresh has done in two years. Indian local retailers are bound to be displaced.

The cause developmental problems need not be necessarily pinpointed at the policy of the ruling government; it is most often traced to the policy of preceding government.Prime Minister Manmohan Singh had spoken in length about the no-nonsense in opening to globalization during recent ASSOCHAM conference. But, in the present scenario, when the ruling coalition approaching its end of tenure, it is not in the pragmatism of Mr. Singh to be proactive when it comes

Smokes of prejudice rising in Khandamal

2008-09-14T05:24:00.001-07:00

The Sangh Parivar, seems to be muddled up with words like christians, maoist, american culture, ten commandments, congress, world vision and bible. Behind the tepid pronunciation of the Kandhamal violence as “regrettable” lies vague and malleable dogma. The typical Hindutva sentiment is that American are sending in money through organizations like world Vision and alluring poor dalits to convert to Christianity. All this coordinated by one single person (probably George Bush). Congress,(the Indian National Congress) and UPA government is facilitating this. And Maoist and Christians have link-up and conduct joint operations for conversion. People who have converted to Christianity will naturally have allegiance to America as Christianity originated in America and most Americans are Christians. And CPI (M) CPI-ML and Peoples Liberation Guerrilla Army are almost same things with headquarters in China. (Prakah Karat must be chief of its operation in India, or is it Sitaram Yechuri?)

Today as I write this fresh violence has broken out in Khandamal. The Hindus are apparently avenging the murder of Swami Laxmanananda Saraswat, on August 23rd, who had been spear heading anti-conversion movement since 1960s. All the Christian quarters have condemned the murder of the seer and one week after the murder CPI-Maoist claimed responsibility for the murder. Azad, spokesperson of the CPI-Maoist, in an interview to an Oriya daily, said, "We killed Swami Laxmanananda Saraswati to avenge his villainous role in Kandhmal". Azad said ever since the December 2007 riots in Kandhmal, Laxmanananda and VHP Secretary General Pravin Togadia portrayed Christians as Maoists and attempted to defeat the revolutionary movement. "Laxmanananda was taking the lead in Hindu fascist activities", Azad said.The Maoist are concerned about diluting its revolutionary credentials among masses by comparing the party to christian missonary work. A few days later a press release warned the VHP of more punishments if it continued its persecution of minorities. Further it called Swami Laxmananand “a rabid anti-Christian ideologue and persecutor of innocent Christians.” After all these the Sangh Parivar likes to believe that Christian missionaries committed the murder.
The Sangh Parivar’s obstinate adherence to this has only one logical conclusion. It is arousing religious sentiments, to gain grass root level workers in view of the forth coming elections. the Shiv Sena and Maharahtra Navinirman Sena(MNS) are not doing any thing different in Mumbai, in the name of Marathi sentiments by picking up Bollywood stars as their targets. By accusing Radhakanta Nayak, a Congress Rajaya Sabha MP and a dalit Christian who heads World Vision in Orissa for backing the murder attempt o Swami Laxmananda Saraswati, in 2007 reveals the outfit’s political inclination. Soon after the murder locals caught the “murderer”, Pradesh Kumar Das, an employee of World Vision and handed him over to police.
Four days later World Vision in a response to the comments made by RSS spokesperson Ram Madhav on CNN-IBN condemned the murder and made it clear that two of their employees were apprehended by a mob and later rescued by the police were trying to flee to Bhubaneshwar because of rumors regarding impending violence as in 2007. The police verified their identity and purpose before they let them go.

Much energy on the inter community dialogue was wasted arguing for and against these misunderstandings. Christian arguments were along the lines that “conversion” is not a challenge to the majority community and that the percentage of Christians actually dropped from 2.8 in 1961 to 2.3 in 2001.Christians also need to do their share of introspection. I personally have heard about conversion in which the missionaries take advantage of the ignorance of tribals. I heard from a missionary himself that in certain areas the tribals are converted just by the change of name of them and their gods. These efforts to increase the Christian population should stop altogether, though all the churches are unequivocal officially that no such means should be employed for conversion
Anti-conversion laws
Presently the states of Orissa, Madhya Pradesh, Arunanchal Pradesh and Tamil Nadu and recently Gujrat, has anti-conversion laws. The spirit behind the acts was that conversion would affect the harmony of society and disturb the public order and status quo. These Acts define the terms “government”, “conversion”, “indigenous faith”, “force”, “fraud” and “inducements” By late 1960s it had become clear that the purpose of anti-conversion laws were to keep the dalits within the fold of Hinduism. It is a cognizable offence to convert to any religion other than Hinduism. But re-conversion is not an offence. The Act remains dubious as it says that propagation of religion is not an offence but conversion is. The Acts maintains that Article 25 (1) of the Fundamental Rights does not give the right to expose the tenets of ones religion to convert another person. At the same time a person has the right to choose the religion according to his free will. But propagation of the religion if it results in conversion will amount to infringement on the free choice of an individual.
The Act in practice negates the Fundamental Rights of a citizen not because of the vague definition of the terms “force”, “fraud” and “inducements” etc. But because of the the narrow legal premise on which it is based. The assumption underlying the Act is that coversion happens only through external influence and the person converted has no role in conversion. Further it makes it mandatory for the person converting to produce his reason for conversion before the district magistrate. The Distict Magistate who is empowered to pass judgement on people facilitating conversion and passes judgement on the subjective reason of the person converted. In Madhya Pradesh two priest and a nun were sentenced to imprisonment in August 2002 following charges of forced conversion. But repeated appleals to senior police officials that the conversion was voluntary fell on deaf ears.
Communalism is such a prevalent in India that it is intertwined with politics The Hindutva outfits are just the favourite whipping boy of the media. The Meenakshipuram mass conversion of dalits to Islam in 1981 and has reportedly resulted in the then ruling party Congress(I) to issue notice to all the states to pass anti-conversion laws. It may be maintained that the notice was issued because of the give-us-benefits-or we-will-convert attitude of dalits, it points to the inseparability of India politics and religion.
The smoke of prejudice is so thick against the backdrop of continuing violence that there are no constructive dialogues remain possible.

An apology for mediocrity

2008-09-13T00:48:00.000-07:00

What an individual actually needs to dread is neither mediocrity nor excellence but the utter absence of thought. Mediocrity is the stepping stone of originality.

One should have a good grounding in mediocrity to graduate to originality. The articles written here are a part of my graduation process; a part of my effort to learn mediocre views-- only to ‘de-learn’ it gradually. I understand the risk that I take—the risk of getting grounded in mediocre views. But where else I have to start with?

Mediocrity results from a limited knowledge or reasoning. I don’t hold on to reason as the ultimate infallible guide. But I do believe that reason is the only way forward. Reason in my opinion is not wide and limitless. On contrary it helps chart our way and set the limits. Any effort to outwit mediocrity leads to an intellectual void—where reason is sacrificed at the altar of agnosticism. Mediocrity can only be undermined only by first learning mediocrity.

Our world is permeated with superfluous words and actions that excellence is rarely appreciated. Originality is like a pot of gold hidden in earth. One digs on till he finds the gold. The articles I write are like searching for gold. And once I recognize that I have hit the gold, I may not dig any longer. And so I fantasize that one day I will cease to write and “will go for a pilgrimage to Jerusalem or burn up a city.”( like the peasant Dostoevsky describes in Brothers Karamazov )

Bernard Shaw was once asked if he was willing to die for what he professed. His reply was: “No. I may be wrong.” Likewise, I’m under no compulsion to prove or defend my arguments. The articles are only a part of the process of my self-discovery and not the product of my enlightenment or self-discovery. The greatest mistake of the intellectual man is the false-consciousness that he is an intellectual. It is then, that he gets caught with the intellectual snare of mediocrity. So let me assume no assumptions. And let me remain a layman—simple and pragmatic.

A few words about gazing

2008-08-30T02:35:00.001-07:00

I am reading Brothers Karamazov.I have identified so much with Dostoevsky's rendition of Dimitry Karamazov that I had intially decided to name the blog Rijo 'Karamazov' Jacob's blog or something of the sort. But equally appealing is Dostoevsky's brief of the Russian painter Ivan Kramskoy's work, The Contemplative. I have unconsciosly and compulsively feinged as a "forlon peasant," and gaze at nothing in particular.
.This blog will intermittently vent the "sensations" I have "accumalted" during the gazings.
Here is the picture (which I surfed out from http://www013.upp.so-net.ne.jp/hongirai-san/yomou/meisou.html l) and Dostoevsky's description.
The painter Kramsky has a remarkable painting called "the Contemplator": a road with a wintry forest in the background and on the road, wearing a ragged coat and felt shoes, stands a lonely, forlon peasent who has loft his way , and who seems to think hard about something, but actually not thinking at all, but just "contemplating." If you pushed him, hewould give a start and stare at you uncomprehendingly as if you had just awakened him. True he would collect his wits right away, but if you asked him what he'd been thinking about as he stood there, he would be quiet unable to remember. He certainly would remember, however, the inexpressible sensations he exprienced during his contemplation. And these sensation would be dear to him and he would treasure them without realising it himself, indeed, without knowing knowing why or what he would ever do with them. Perhaps, having accumulated in the course of the years a great many sensations he would suddnely leave everything behind and go off on a pilgrimage to Jerusalem to seek salvation, or he might just as likely to set fire to his own village, or possibly both. There are many contemplators among simple people.