Stories from Troy!

This morning I casually remarked to my domestic help that she was in with a chance to secure a pressure cooker or a goat for free in the near future. The lady goggled at me, puzzlement writ on her broad brow. She had been looking rather questioningly at me as I lurked around the house, wondering as to why I was not at work? The lady is well acquainted with IT folk and is quite aware of the cycles of boom and bust that they seem to go through. Well to cut a long story short, thanks to the good God Shiva, I was home. So, where does the goat enter the scheme of things? Well, apparently the incumbent Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu, Miss J.Jayalalitha has entered the race to be Prime Minister and has promised the masses’ freebies, amounting to gas stoves, pressure cooker's, cows, mixer-grinders and of course goats, if she does become Prime Minster heading a band of loosely bound political entities ranging from the extreme left to the left to the socialist. The issue is that this band calling themselves the third front have not identified Miss JJ as their leader as yet, though our venerable ex-PM Devegowda, seems to feel that the lady has it in her to be Prime Minister. Amidst the excitement the details or fine print are a little difficult to see, being how Miss JJ would finance these freebies considering that there would be great demand for goats and such offered free to the great Indian population. Interestingly Rome was not built in a day, neither was its demise sudden. As the Roman kings thought up of innovative ways to entertain themselves, they realized that they needed to keep restive bourgeois quite for them (king) to be allowed to continue to wallow in the fat of luxury. And how did they do this - well you have guessed right - by distributing freebies though the great Gibbon in his magnum opus The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire does not record that goats were distributed free to the citizens of Rome. Free bread and carnivals, where men slaughtered fellow men or beasts did little to improve the lives of the groaning masses, though it did divert their attention for a while. These shenanigans eventually weakened Rome internally and she imploded. What exactly does Miss JJ say in her battle of the ballot with her main opponent the DMK? Her manifesto offers a big bunch of freebies for the financially weaker sections. It promises free houses of 300 sq ft each, costing Rs 1.8 lakh, to three lakh BPL families. Other promises for rural areas include 60,000 cows for 6,000 families increasing milk production from 2.5 million litres to 10 million litres. Families below the poverty line will also get four sheep. Women remain at the centre of Jayalalithaa's scheme of things. Women's self help groups will get loans up to Rs 10 lakh, with a waiver of 25%. Pregnant women have been promised Rs 12,000 during four months of maternity leave. Marriage assistance for poor women would be enhanced to Rs 25,000, with a four-gram gold coin as a special gift. For those women with a diploma, the wedding assistance would be Rs 50,000. A few days ago the lady was at the centre of controversy for threatening to release those accused and indicted in the murder of former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi by throwing an ultimatum at the Central Government. On occasion the lady and her faithful band seem to forget that they are a part of a larger nation called India, which is larger than her and her followers. I'm sure all of us are aware of the story of Troy, of the Trojan horse and gifts that arrive gratis!

On Pepper Spray and other things......

Last fortnight was tumultuous to say the very least. The Congress lawmaker Lagadapati Rajagopal earned notoriety last week when he jumped into the well of the Lok Sabha, India's lower house of parliament and unleashed an aerosol from which he splashed pepper spray on his colleagues during an unprecedented five minutes of vicious, violence and vandalism. Members of Parliament rushed out the hallowed house of Indian Democracy holding handkerchiefs to their face. Many, including Mr Rajagopal, were taken to hospital. He said he acted in the heat of the moment and in self-defence. What nobody could answer was how did he have the chutzpah to carry the can into the house, in the first place? Later, Rajagopal was among 16 MPs from across parties who were suspended for the violence and so were not present in the Lok Sabha when the Telangana bill was passed. These MPs belong to Seemandhra - the non-Telangana regions of Andhra Pradesh that oppose bifurcating the state. Mr Rajagopal had vowed he would do all he can to block the Telangana bill in Parliament and has since quit politics as he says he has lost all interest in politics on the compromise of the Telugu Nation.Hailed as a hero in his constituency, maybe it is for the best. A couple of days ago, Celebrity Cricket League ( Film Folk ) team Kerala Strikers' members were deplaned at the Kochi airport after they allegedly misbehaved with the crew of a Hyderabad-bound flight. The flight, scheduled to take off at 1 pm, eventually took off one-and-a-half hours late. Apparently, the aircraft had taxied on to the runway when the incident happened. The captain brought the plane back to the apron, and ordered them to disembark. The team of about 30 members denied any wrongdoing but it is alleged that they kept applauding safety announcements made by the cabin crew and did so to announcements made by the Captain too.Construed as a threat to safety the airplanes Captain acted decisively and deplaned these seemingly unruly passengers. Two very different events, but in some ways it indicates the the lack of respect that people have for process or institutions, when they live in an unreal world. Both politicians and actors unfortunately feel they belong to a more exalted, different universe, where rules don't apply to them. Unfortunately too, both categories provide for extremely poor role models and it is going to get worse unless the Indian state decides that the penalty is going to be stronger than just a rap on the knuckles.....

Cricketing Diversity!

The recent Ranji Trophy triumph by the Karnataka cricket team was an awesome achievement for the young group. Even as the Indian National Team was receiving a pasting in New Zealand, the Karnataka team was making national news. What came out was that the team had excellent spirit and celebrated one another's success on and off the field. The mark of all successful teams. It was also interesting to see, Vinay Kumar, the captain who hails from the tiny town of Davengere, marshaling his troops with aplomb. Incidentally his father is an auto rickshaw driver who went through enormous sacrifice in letting his son pursue his cricketing dreams. However what was not evident was the diversity that this team had. A laundry list: Karun Nair - A Malyalee, Amit Verma - Ethnic UP, Manish Pandey - Ethnic UP, Shreyas Gopal - Tamil, Abhimanyu Mithun - Telugu, Stuart Binny - Anglo Indian, Abrar Kazi - Muslim, This is brilliant indeed and while the rest of the team may comprise native Kannadigas, the diversity is pleasing to see in an India that is starting to get increasingly connected.Bangalore is like a magnet that attracts the brightest and the best and is an extremely inclusive city. It is this that marks the city out as an outstanding one and causes it to be a beacon for the future. It is becoming increasingly evident that inclusive diversity is the path to the future and narrow parochial considerations have little space in a flat world.