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.

Pragmatism vs. Romanticism

There is much consternation with what is called the increasing vigilantism by the AAM Admi party in the state of Delhi. The one’s whining about it are mostly the different hued politicians from mature political parties that dot the landscape of India. The angst is understandable considering the fact that well established practices of corruption and poor service are now being questioned by the poor badgered Delhiwallah’s. The latest has been the initiation of a hotline for complaints on corruption and apparently it has been an instant hit with the phone lines being choked by callers. Group’s from the AAM Admi Party scour the countryside and visit hospitals and schools at random to check on the service or lack of it. This is a romantic new beginning and has caught the imagination of the common man. While the whole idea may lack pragmatism, it certainly is romantic and who can win, at least in the short term in the face of romance. The people of Delhi and their Government are still honeymooning and during the honeymoon all faults are swept under the carpet, even poorly articulated ideas like that of Prashanth Bhushan who seems to think that a referendum needs to take place, in Kashmir on whether the Indian Army needs to stay or go. Now with all due respect, this might best be left to the honchos in the relevant ministry’s to decide. This particular snafu takes me back to my days in the middle-east. Invariably I would hop on to a cab, driven by a gent from Pakistan, whose interest would rise the moment he realized I was from ‘Hindustan’. I would gingerly say that I hailed from the state of Karnataka and the connection to ‘Tipu Sultan – the Tiger of Mysore’ would be instantaneous. It goes to probably, show that our neighbour’s know their history well. The next topic of discussion would be Kashmir and the hackles would rise, with both of us taking extreme positions. As corruption is, Kashmir is just as emotive an issue with the AAM Admi and political parties mature or otherwise would be well advised to remember that.

In the Land of Equals?

Culturally, societies may be Achievement Oriented or Ascription Oriented. To cut to the chase the former is a society where meritocracy is the order of the day and your family lineage does not matter, while the latter does take into account, who your parents were or for that matter one's social standing is crucial to gain entry into elite institutions. The front runner's for India's political future are Narendra Modi,Rahul Gandhi with the new kid on the block Arvind Kejriwal a distant prospect. While that might be the case, both Modi & the scion of the Gandhi family cannot aspire to be alumni of an Indian Institute of Technology though they could aspire to be the Prime Minister of India. That honor lies only with Kejriwal. Well that's India. The United Kingdom, is in the midst of an interesting debate as Prince William heads off to Cambridge University, to pursue a ten week course on Agriculture. Normally this would have required top grades but apparently in an egalitarian England, the Prince with far inferior grades gets a place in the midst of some of England's brightest and best. Why is this happening? Well simply because he is a future King and third in line to the British throne. The Guardian's columnist, recent Cambridge grad Melissa Berrill, wrote that admitting the third-in-line to the throne is "an insult to every student, whatever their background, who got into Cambridge by getting the required A-level or degree results." Cambridge has adjusted its admissions standards in recent years to recruit students based on merit and not just class or family connections, she wrote. "I can no longer insist that 'it's not like the old days any more,' because the heir to the throne is about to be let in for no other reason than who his father is," she wrote. While this might be a case of the extraordinary,the name of the game in today's complicated world is that generalization's are made at one's own peril and would not stand a test on the ground. It would be of immense interest to me as to how the Prince performs at his academic tryst at Cambridge University and what grades he garners. Will this too be based on his family connections or will meritocracy prevail in the land of equals?

The story of an Indian behemoth!

One could not wish for a worse and more gruesome death than being burnt to cinders in a railway compartment. This unfortunately has been the fate of some of my fellow countrymen over the last few months, in a series of train mishaps. Particularly horrendous is the panic and confusion that ensues post a train in motion catching fire and hapless passengers running helter and skelter to escape pursuing flames, suffocating smoke and raising heat in the steel bogie. Post Godhra in 2002, the Indian Railways has had numerous instances of trains catching fire resulting in deaths to countless passengers. What invariably follow’s is news chats, breast beating, finger pointing and distribution of funds to the effected by the Honorable Railway Minister. Herein lie two pertinent questions: 1. Has the cause of the fire been ascertained, the fault fixed and the responsible nailed? 2. From what fund, is the tax payer’s money distributed? While I deeply sympathize with those that have suffered and do agree that they need succour, it is painful to see incompetence accepted , the guilty getting away, people dying and the tax payer made to pay, while the those guilty in this bumbling, bungling behemoth called the Indian Railways stumble onto the next calamity and the vicious cycle plays out again and again. That the railways are in bad shape and need urgent attention is there for all to see, except possibly those in the system. The passenger is at high risk and maybe it is worth their while to insurance themselves for a journey akin to air passengers. I clearly remember a picture in my school history book, of Akbar, the Mughal Emperor perched on an elephant and distributing alms to the poor. Times of not changed much, since then, except that the elephant is gone. Or has it really? The Indian railway’s which to me looks like an old infirm rouge elephant, needs serious urgent reforms, if it is to stop killing innocents by the bushels. It is an enduring joke that Laloo Yadav was feted as the supposedly greatest Rail Minister that we have had and this was lent credence by the IIM's inviting him for talk shows and various other random bodies singing praises to him. Well, Laloo's legacy if there was ever one has gone The poor Indian needs to stop dying simply because somebody who was incompetent was on watch!

The Turing Enigma!

I'm sure very few of my fellow denizens would have heard of Alan Turing, mathematics genius, supposedly the inventor of the computer and more importantly code breaker. Alan Turing helped decipher German Naval codes during World War 2, thus ensuring Allied supremacy of the sea's and it is said that he brought the ghastly blood letting to a premature close. However there was a twist in the tale. A WW2 hero, Turing took his own life in 1954 after being charged for his homosexuality and fired from his job,two years after his conviction on charges of gross indecency. He was 41. In a 1936 research paper, Mr. Turing anticipated a computing machine that could perform different tasks by altering its software, rather than its hardware. He also proposed the now famous Turing test, used to determine artificial intelligence. In the test, a person asks questions of both a computer and another human — neither of which they can see — to try to determine which is the computer and which is the fellow human. If the computer can fool the person, according to the Turing test, it is deemed intelligent. The British have now pardoned Turing by Royal decree and the British prime minister, David Cameron, said in a statement: “His action saved countless lives. He also left a remarkable national legacy through his substantial scientific achievements, often being referred to as the ‘father of modern computing.’ ” When Mr. Turing was convicted in 1952, he was sentenced — as an alternative to prison — to chemical castration by a series of injections of female hormones. He also lost his security clearance because of the conviction. He committed suicide by eating an apple believed to have been laced with cyanide. Some would say that justice has been done to a genius who lost his life due to the prejudice of fellow men who cannot seem to live with diversity. India too seems to be in the throes of indecision as far as homosexuality is concerned. The Turing tragedy could be a case in point of misplaced morals, hasty action and then

repenting at leisure!

To dream and to do.....

What makes one great is a question that would elicit varying answers and is highly debatable. Many considerations enter this discussion and there are few definitive answers that are if they could be found. My point of view is that, the following makes a person great: 1. Excellence in his/her field 2. An ability to wield disproportionate influence 3. Has contributed to society positively 4. Has progressed without a Godfather They are the ones who set the stage for those who came after them to play out their romance. Pioneers, warriors, revolutionaries, innovators, dreamers, adventurers and creators, they stretched the limits of the freedom they were born into. They challenged the dead certainties of their times with the power of ideas, conviction—and faith in themselves above all, without consideration of the system. Looking at only India over the last twenty five years, my laundry list is as follows: 1. N.R.Narayanamurthy – NRN hailed from a tiny town in Karnataka, of poor Brahmin stock and went on to build one of India’s most respected organizations, Infosys in an India that offered entrepreneur’s very little support. He changed the way Indian entrepreneurs think that allowed future generations of young Indian’s to dream big. 2. Dhirubhai Ambani – Well, the young uneducated man from a non-decrepit Gujarat village built India’s largest privately owned corporation with vision and sheer guts. He taught us to think large, think fast and never mind the obstacles. 3. Kapil Dev – Before him, the Indian spinner came on to bowl in the tenth over of an Innings. In 1978 on his debut he struck Sadiq Mohammed of Pakistan, with a sharp bouncer, forcing the batter to call for a helmet. Indian fast bowling had arrived. Kapil then lead a rookie Indian team to the 1983 World Cup win, getting a nation to believe that we are good enough to compete with the big boys. 4. Shahrukh Khan – The Badshah of Bollywood is popular worldwide and wins his place in my list simply because he rose in an industry rife with Godfather’s. Khan made it on his own and makes every Indian proud, particularly, the Indian Muslim, who can identify with him and dream big. 5. APJ Abdul Kalam – A technocrat and scientist, he rose from a very humble background in Tamil Nadu. Leading India into the 21st Century as President was the culmination of a wonderful life. 6. Sachin Tendulkar – The greatest batter in cricket, of our time and probably of all time. He was a nation’s hope on the cricket field for many years. 7. Arvind Kejriwal – He seems to bat for the common, beleaguered Indian and frightens the run of the mill politician. Kejriwal seeks to make a difference with intelligence, daring and chutzpah. 8. Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw- Indian woman entrepreneur. She is on the Forbes list of the world's 100 most powerful women and the Financial Times’ top 50 women in business list.A woman role model par excellence, she has put India on the Bio Tech map of the world. I would have loved to place Mother Teresa on this list, but left her out simply because she was not born an Indian. Do let me know if you do not agree with my list.

A serious lapse in judgement....

The other day Dr.Sumramanium Swamy startled a TV anchor by saying that folk in the media need to be investigated too for what he called owning 'large farm' houses and possessing disproportionate wealth. Well the anchor, ducked that one fairly easily but Indian media will find it very difficult to duck the one on Tarun Tejpal the founder and Founder Editor at Tehelka. Tejpal has been in the news for various reasons, with a sting operation on the BJP where he exposed the wheeling and dealing of politicians to his incisive writing and novels. However, now he has raised hackles due to his alleged unsolicited advances towards a young woman staffer working at his newspaper. The young lady resisted and has since protested. Apparently the newspaper in question did not have the mandatory committee to deal with sexual harassment and her grievances were not given due consideration. Something which the Tehalka management, under siege, finds itself at a loss to explain to a nation that is upset and annoyed. To add insult to injury, Tejpal claims that it was a bad lapse of judgement and that it was a serious misreading of the situation. Here the case gets murky because Tejpal seems to be insinuating that he was not entirely at fault and at worst he made a mistake as he misread the situation. He has offered to step down from his position for a period of six months! India today is at the proverbial crossroads. As the demographic dividend plays out and young women join the organized work force, it is going to be very difficult for predatory men to understand that there is a definite line between flirting and harassment. Tejpal indeed made some serious lapses in judgement, more, so that the laws of the land cannot be trifled with, however drunk with power one is. The Goa government, where this alleged incident occurred has since taken suo sponte cognizance of this act and might investigate further. And they should, not because of the earlier skirmishes that the BJP and Tehalka have had, but because a clear message needs to be sent out to macho men who cannot keep their hands to themselves. A few hours before the news broke I was discussing a case of sexual harassment at Mitsubishi and Tarun Tejpal provided an interesting coincidence. Workplaces are not arenas for power play and projection of dominance over what one considers to be a weaker person. Bullying and harassment are the pastime of the uncivilized and those who do not understand that need to be pursued and punished with all speed.

Indian English

A few days ago Mulayam Singh Yadav, the erstwhile Chief Minister of India's biggest state Uttar Pradesh, dropped a veritable bombshell when he said that English needs to be banned from Parliament in order to promote Hindi.Now Yadav was gently reminded that India is a multicultural diverse nation, where different languages are spoken and understood, he responded that Indian languages could be allowed in Parliament but not English. This stand, former and latter, has left most sensible people flummoxed.Indian English is as Indian as is say Hindi, Marathi or Kannada and is the language in which most business gets done.In villages in Karnataka there has been a steady rise of children enrolling in private English medium schools. How come they see something that Yadav has missed? Companies that I have seen transact their business in English and hence select through an English interview process and there is no escaping that fact. The interesting point is, why revive old ghosts? The Hindi bogey was considered dead and buried and most non Hindi speakers muddled their way through a Bollywood movie and listened in rapt attention to Lata Mangeshkar or Kishore Kumar ( both incidentally are not from the Hindi heartland )without understanding a word. English in India is still considered the language of the elite and rich and politicians can hobnob with the rich but cannot be seen to be doing so.Both SM Krishna in Karnataka and Chandrababu Naidu in Andhra Pradesh lost elections as they were considered to be pro rich/anti poor and pro urbanization. The Hindi debate was settled long ago and we need to navigate around it rather than running aground on a non- issue. India has greater things to contend with in both the near and far terms and we do not need another language row.