An open letter to Anna

Dear Anna

We are here right now. 65 years after democracy came to us, I may add – On a platter, we are right where we started - Protests forming what they call a second fight for independence.

Look around you…WE ARE FREE…In as much as a modern society can be without completely descending to anarchy. We are free. That freedom is reflected in the protests of the civil society, in the voices that hit you from the television sets, when you see people take to the streets and wave slogans and banners, when you see people drive on the wrong side of the road, when you hear of elected representatives raping minor girls and poor people staying anywhere that they fancy.

Tell me, where else in the world would you find a country more independent.
Anna, please note that curbing of corruption has to start with the definition of corruption. Corruption and I am only assuming here, in the present context is ‘Using of one’s office for personal advancement over public interest in a way that is illegal and unconstitutional’.

(I do not know if that is the right definition. I don’t know what the Indian constitution or the Indian Government says about it…but nor do at least a billion of my compatriots. I say Anna, I am the majority.)

However, going back….If that is (or at least comes close to) what corruption is, then there are any number of bodies that have been instituted by state or center to fight it. There is the CVC, the Vigilance cells in each large body, the ACB etc etc that have been set up to do exactly that. In fact you have the entire Police department, that stalwart of nepotism and petty bibery, which has been there for donkey’s years for crying out loud.

I say, Anna, and I say it in a tone that represents request - Shouldn’t we first run a movement that fights for the effective implementation of policy! Shouldn’t we make the existing bodies effective rather than imposing yet another huge organization with its own bureaucracy? Shouldn’t we insist that the legal system be galvanized into doing what you are trying to take in your own hands?

Annaji, look around; there are people around you who are not exactly the stuff that idols are made of. Of course there are guys who mean well and are above personal reproach, but hey, I don’t wanna take names, there are a few who may have Swiss accounts as well. Its political Anna and you know it.

Tell me Anna, what are the odds of you and your all India movement standing for elections, coming to power and then raising this issue?

That would be the constitutional way really. That would be the victoriously right way….That would be the way to go rather than give soaring TRP to unscrupulous channels, who exist because of people like you Anna. They make your mind up for you, no escape.
Imagine, if you got a true majority in the house, you wouldn’t have to fight on the streets…You could actually do this without the Tamasha…

But for that Anna, this needs to be a truly mass thing. A thing that almost ensures you a walkover in a democratic process. Are you sure of getting that Anna? Are you really sure this is a mass movement?

If you are, then rest assured I will vote for you….I love this country and for years if we have given buffoons the chance to be leaders, we may as well give a few years to you…..Let you institute your Civil Society Government with your Jan Lokpal. Let’s spend a few thousand crores more on salaries and scrubbed bathroom floors. Anna, let’s have you as the Prime Minister.

Till then Anna…just a small reminder – Years back a society not as free as ours rose up in protest. They were butchered with tanks in a picturesque square that represented people power.

Anna….We are Indian…Thank God for small mercies

Warm Regards

Yahoo...Suku Suku

In the heart of political sensationalism and pouring rains, there was an incident of great import to people like me. The passing away of Shammi Kapoor was and will be a matter of sadness for me and millions of his fans elsewhere.
His contribution to coming of age is great. Greater than what Anna is doing and great than what Manmohan uncle unleashed in the 90s. Back in the 60s, before I was born, before my parents were married, there was this man…Fat, obnoxious and very good looking who went to town with his swagger and sexuality. In the days of Raj Kapoor, Dev Anand and Dilip Kumar, here was a guy who was unabashedly different….extremely unconventional….very loud…very funny…..

He turned his lack of dance skills into a fine art, he made his stocky frame break into pieces, negating his fat with constant random motion…He made rock n roll mix with Bhangra…Desi style and he made his leading ladies go weak in their knees with one ill timed scream …..Yahoo….

I believe he gifted us Mohammed Rafi…in as much as Rajesh Khanna did Kishore Kumar.
When we were growing up, in college, up near and close with the opposite sex for the first time, it was their jugalbandi that gave us confidence. Sitting on the college steps belting out ‘Diwana Mujhsa Nahi’ with gullible feminine eyes looking at us, we so wanted to be him. We wanted to drive an outsized American car on thin mountain roads with brooks flowing by. We wanted to play drums the way that made our hair spray all over the place and dance the way that only un danced the floor…”Baar Baar Dekho Hazaar Baar Dekho” was pretty much the story of my first girlfriend. She was sucker to fall for it and I was not even a half decent singer.

And then there was the inevitably urbane and obviously sophisticated Sharmila in Kashmir Ki Kali…in a Kashmiri villagers dress (no less)….being romanced by a large if good looking man who couldn’t stand straight. He jumped into the Daal Lake and lip synched with passion that lent Mr Rafi a whole new dimension altogether…..An entire generation after the 60s, in the late 80s, Shammi Kapoor was still dictating the way we thought of romance.

It was not about candle lit dinners and long drives….It was that and much more. If the object passion showed too many nakhras even after the songs and the dinners and the long drives….you just did things the Shammi Kapoor way …… Yahoooo

It was not only when he was romancing them, but also when he was being romanced. His is the image that comes to mind when one thinks about a archetypal spoilt brat giving a tough time to his dearly beloved for some flaky reason or the other…So when Asha Parekh of the big behind and bigger eyes fame, sang Sona Re to a pouting Shammi Kapoor, we youngsters went into raptures…’that’s exactly how we want our GFs to behave’ ….. It was wow time. In a country where men never cried or pouted, it was Shammi’s pout and ready tears and general persona that defined the birth of the Indian Metrosexual. A persona that was not related to the overriding problems of the Indian diaspora, but a man who was and will be forever a symbol of urbane sophistication that is however rough around the edges….that can play a guitar and a drum and scream out loud when cornered …Yahoooooo. And this long before the 1990s when the word in question came into being.
Shammi Kapoor, Good morning. You are as alive as you were in the 60s. We are fast approaching the middle years and yet your voice still resonates in our ears and reverberates around the heart walls. Yahoo….Shammi (Once born…never dead)

Random Love

Like us many have spoken over this spring,
But they were gone in the twinkling of an eye,
Like us, many have broken down on love
But few had the roots to build on it

Love is not a common man on the street
Its value is in its invincibility
That which can be broken down
Is never love in its entirety

We can grow as we go on
In this utopia or outside
For in either case my dear dear love
I remain and YOU remain

Amake Amaar Moto Thakte Dao

Recently this song has become very popular in Kolkata. The imageries that go with the lyrics are superb. Cant possibly explain the same in English, but I still tried to translate the song into English in Angrezi...leaving out the effective essense. But it was that or nothing....

Let me be the way I am
I have set myself the way I need to be
All I couldn’t have ..is best that way
That’s why I have reason to live

That twilight zone in your world hits me
Like brightness through crushed stained glass
If you want to fly let yourself go
I wont look for you again

There is a bit of chaos in life right now
Amidst that I try to write a new story
I need to cut away all that clung on
So I try and I try

Suddenly if love pours down
Like streaming life in the light of dawn
You can look for me with misty eyes
You will find that I am gone

Try not to light a lamp for me
I am lost in the patterns of humanity
I am finding my way again through the wall
Looking for a way to break it down

All the dreams that run through your blood
Are restless , are random and fast
When you take a pause just consider
When this dream slipped through your fingers

I want to miss the symphony of your life
Fade away like the ripples it caused
Never again will I go with your flow
I like this anonymity

Maoists...the world over

Hate political views...but I ask the elitists in support of Maoists (including the present, live and yet lamented Ms Roy) ...all the people who travel and get blown up by landmines and shifted tracks, all the policemen and children killed...were they all rich multinationals? Anti establishment is good, but blind violence? If they have the guts why dont they go blow up a steel plant or something? And if they are so downtrodden and poor, where are they getting their arms from? If the money as they say, is coming from elitist capital mongers, then their entire premise is self defeating.

So it all boils down to political power and its road to economic power. History shows that political power is often just the first step towards absolute corruption. History has more than enough examples to quote and so I wont waste any space here

Ms Roy (a tragi comical character at best and a rabble rouser par excellence), says and I quote ‘(The rebels are) people who live with their dreams, while the rest of the world lives with its nightmares…..’ The irony of the situation is that for the hundreds of families and friends who have lost their sole bread earners and their hopes for the future, these nightmares (as quoted) are the creation of these very ‘innocent dreamers’ and their leaders. Of course its stupid to imagine that all the people with their ‘strange arsenal’ are cold blooded killers, however, these ‘dreamers’ are controled by people who will, at the end of the road, either die, or achieve huge political power, and create, another class of elites. The fighters, the foot soldiers, the dreamers, will end up, as in hundreds of other revolutions, as small time state employees struggling to make ends meet.

Ms Roy goes on “I’m surrounded by these strange, beautiful children with their curious arsenal,” she wrote. “They’re all Maoists for sure . . . Are they all going to die? . . . What for? To turn all of this into a mine?” Dear Ms Gullible Roy, as the revolution is won, and power is shifted to the hands of the formidable Maoists, Mine companies in their black Mercs, will woo them like there is no tomorrow. There is wealth in those lands – if geography lessons are to be believed, and this wealth will find its way into the GDP…Dreamers or not. So those very ‘Dreamers with their strange arsenal’ will end up getting displaced in any case , or, go to work in one of these so called Multinationals.

History is witness…”Capitalism has ended poverty in more places than a few”. These very elitists, barring a ideological few have benefitted tremendously from Capitalism. There is no logical alternative as of now. If there is, then I would support it whole heartedly. Nehru tried with Socialism, and indeed was succesful to a great extent…only its in tatters now…have been from the 70s really. Communism and Maoism as they were meant to be have failed the world over and natural resources have been exploited from times immemorial for the benefit of mankind. Of course its not correct. But what does one do! Ms Do Good Roy would do well to fight for lowering of the birth rate and killing of extra people. Or maybe, that’s what she is supporting. All the people getting killed in the process will use that much less minerals.

The State Machinery is like her twin brother. Demented, slow and burdened with vested interests, India plods on. Do we use air power? Do we send in the Army? Do we go to the loo? O my dear hungry politicians, please understand….Money can buy anything…so throw in the developmental card…build nice roads, give tax breaks, give social security, build hospitals and siphon some of the funds for the Maoist leaders and the local politicians from all parties, and you will have a functioning democracy. In the meantime seal your borders with the great Chinese Nation and the pathetic Bangladeshis….keep a close watch on the Nepali and Myanmarese and you will find that this ‘Nightmare for the rest us’ may just dissapear.
Of course its not so simple. You, my dear Political Big Wigs, have made it complicated beyond comprehension. Now its time to uncomplicate. Its time to be satisfied with the money you have already made and the power you already have. Its time to look beyond Switzerland to India. Its time to make the Maoists rich.
Get some of the Trillion odd dollars hidden away in banks the world over to save your own power base guys.

As for Ms Gullible Roy…Get real….find something good to do. And yes, next time you go publishing articles in Capitalist newspapers, don’t take any fees….

Corporate of Heaven and the implications of Hell

Corporate of Heaven and the implications of Hell
I have often wondered why we have so many Gods. The legend is that Prajapati (or Brahma as you may know him) opened his huge mouth and generated Agni, Varun, Indra and the rest. Then, all the gods created, opened their minds and created a kind of a super God …Maheshwar..Shiv. This God then went back and tried to kill Brahma himself and he is dying ever since…not succeeding though…as Mrtyu, Brahma’s own daughter is always hesitating to do so. Vishnu the third of the Troika was always there apparently…a rival to Brahma and Shiv and the supreme doer so to say.
Anyways, that’s not the point that I am trying to make. The problem seems to be one of identity. Who is god? Is he one or many….Can one being, if god is a being that is, be a single window operation despite the complications that come out of running the world ( not to speak of the various management decisions that need to be taken for the running of Heaven and Hell and the worlds beyond).
I think not.
I think that the celestial committee is a collection of Management experts. There is a COO and there are various departmental heads. In this I am in total agreement with mythology…. Chitragupta is the secretary of Yama…the God that controles Mrtyu (the goddess of death). This whole administrative set up is headed by 3 Gods (fitting that it should….considering the complexities) – Brahma, Vishnu, Maheshwar. There is a board of Governors (Agni, Varuna, Shakti etc) and then there is the COO who has been diminishing in importance because of his imperfections - Indra. It is male dominated, however some of the very important portfolios are handled by women – Education, Saraswati – Lakshmi , wealth. Then there are the honorary members – who are essentially extensions of existing gods ….Krishna, Rama etc… It’s a liberal setup considering that there is a Head of the Department for the Department of Desire and the arts. It’s a workplace with perks and benefits and anybody can be a part of this …. Viz – Chiranjeevi – God for Cinematic Arts in Andhra, Rajneekanth – God for Cinematic Idiosyncrasies, Dhirubhai Ambani – God for the not so ethically inclined ….so and so forth. The latter are junior Gods, something like the Minister of State or Deputy Ministers in our Constitutional set up…they have importance in pockets without actual influence on the larger governance of creaturekind.
Its not that mere mortals or people or beings not born out of Brahma’s direct creativity are not qualified for the higher posts of full gods. Some started small and grew to magnificent strength…Hanumanjee…some started big and ended as damp squibs ….Indra. There are departmental experts who have been promoted to higher levels like Garuda, Vishwakarma, Kubera and others…and yet others seem to have gained in importance due to the work they have done for specific projects…Hidimba, Jatayu etc.
So there are many of them. Morals and scruples and social norms were not top of the mind initially. These executives and managers roamed the earth impregnating women they liked giving birth to strapping youth for carrying the earth forward. Morals really started kicking in once the population went through the roof. The Super Gods realized that the 2nd level was creating havoc and clamped down with birth control features. They were to limit themselves to the apsaras who were non reproductive in nature. Death in heaven was difficult considering the advent of Som…and therefore entry was limited to the very occasional creatures. Rajnikanth made a late entry as did MGR . There are numerous temples dotted across the island of Jambu with new and fancy deities. These are the new entrants. As always, entry is just for the deserving. However, influence counts.
In the beginning, Brahma was indeed scared of monopoly. So along with the generation of Gods, he generated the Asuras. Sura and Asuras. In fact his first children were the Asuras. So drunk were they with the power they generated that Brahma had to soon produce the Suras or the Gods. In doing so he produced a lot of inbetweens. After all, it did take a few trial and errors. So the Gandharvas and Demi Gods were created. The Asuras don’t have Soma but they have a magic Physician who keeps them alive. From God to Anti Gods - the step was easy for the Asuras. The coming of the Devas only helped in sealing their fate. The new kids took over before you could say Haven help me.
The Asuras too have their version of heaven. Going by the slightly scary name of HELL, it has a cult following amongst earth dwellers. Far more welcoming than Heaven, Hell is forever subject to bad PR. They just don’t have a good Marcomm team. However, earth dwellers have shown a distinct preference for it through the millenniums and, word of mouth has it, that it’s a infinitely more fun place to be in. Unfortunately Heaven has become this clichéd sanitized place and the same old Apsaras and facilities seem to have gone the Air India way. After all, who wants to take a drink from a 6 million year old Apsara.
Hell is a kind of Celestial Havana or Hawaii or even Las Vegas and Goa. The original Sin City, it’s a kind of reaffirmation of Original Godliness. It’s a hark back to the times when Sinning was fun…Sinning was virtue. For, all the things that the Gods did in the beginning are considered Sins now. So are we to assume that all that they did then was wrong? In any case, you are more likely to meet Merlyn Munroe, Mata Hari and Helen of Troy in some cozy alcove of Hell than in the sanitized world of heaven. You would also meet Jack The Ripper, Saddam, Stalin and if you stay long enough, you may also meet Bush, Laloo, Kim Jong and Salman Khan. Infinitely more interesting.
No wonder ……the overwhelming popularity of hell is testimony to the fact that Creaturekind wants to move back to religion. All these Bibles and Qurans are empty roads to hell, its actually sinning that is the true panacea. A sort of reaffirmation of faith as it were.
Hell is also corporatized. But its doing a better job in terms of visitors log. Look at it this way…Gandhi never made it to hell, but, Marqis De Sade did. You tell me…

The importance of being Karna

A child born out of the impulsive affair of a royal princess. A prince facing the humiliation of being set adrift at birth and being raised by a non achiever. A warrior who supported the losing side. A father who saw his son killed in front of his eyes. A man who understood the impracticality of giving away his security. A disciple who was unfairly cursed by his own teacher. A King who was never there for his people. A chauvinist to the core. A follower of Dharma who gave tacit support to adharma. A seeker who was forever seeking for what he should not seek for. An egotist who never believed that he could go wrong. A practical person who always gave in to impracticality. A great man but less than the greatest because of the company he kept and the environment of his growth. A bitter man with a chip on his shoulders. A supreme strategist who could never own up to his own faults.

Karna was all this and more…

Karna was the first in a stream of illegitimate sons that Kunti had. These children were luckier than Karna, in that they were conceived by the approval of Pandu. Kunti and her co wife - Madri had 5 more sons. Yudhistira, Bhim, Arjun, Nakul and Shahadev. They all excelled in a single quality each. Together they were like the 5 fingers that make up a fist. However, individually they all lacked in specific qualities. Karna was the son that Pandu could not have. He was his hearts desire from an union he did not know of. The irony was emphasized, in that Karna contained all the qualities that the other five had together. But, as practicality would have it..each of his qualities were lesser in extent to the whole that the 5 others represented as a group. So he was a strong … but not stronger than Bhima. He was a master warrior but not greater than Arjuna. He represented Dharma but not as much as Yudhistir did. So though he was more of a man than any of his brothers , he was less in one single quality that each represented as individuals. Karna was a weaker fist than the collective five that his brothers represented as a group. However, he possessed at least some qualities that his brothers did not represent individually.

He was the all rounder. Never a specialist, he did not realize his own weakness. He attempted to be the best at archery…but could not rise above Arjuna. He tried to be the strongest physically, but could not excel Bhima. He tried to be more devout and generous than Yudhistira and yet was never perceived to be a Dharmaraj. And yet, he believed himself to be more than the collective strength of the Pandavas, and that was his undoing. A team is always stronger than the individual and Karna was shadow captaining the wrong team. A moral emerges – Back the right team.

The glorification of Karna is - in as much as you would glorify an underdog, a martyr. We take his failures unhappily and attribute them to curses and conditions. Only 2 people could string the Gandiva, but Draupadi would not hear of marrying a Sutaputra. This shocks the modernity in us and we scream – But that is unfair…Draupadi is doing this because she has her heart set on Arjuna. The truth is probably different. As the daughter of a major Monarch, Draupadi was arrogant and snobbish, she would not marry a man whose antecedents were not clear. Strong as he was, he was not a match for Arjuna’s family line. The irony was that Arjuna’s antecedents were as dubious as that of Karna. Only, Pandu was aware of it and gave him a name. That name made the difference. That is the next moral of his story – You need a family.

Even during the war, Karna could never kill any of the Pandavas. We believe that he made a promise to Kunti “You will still have five sons after the war”….”I will kill only Arjuna and spare the rest”. The point is, that this promise lost the war for the Kauravas. So, even bound to Duryodhana, Karna betrayed the very basis on which he was on Duryodhana’s side. He defeated Yudhistira in a single combat and then spared his life, Bhim met the same fate as did a combined attack of Nakul and Shahadev. Imagine this, Arjuna would have been completely devastated if Karna had killed all his brothers. Arjuna would have lost his powers and the war. So Duryodhana lost the war because of the great betrayal of his best friend. The next moral – Do what you do with all your heart. Never take half measures. Eg Bhima did not hesitate before killing Vikarna …the third of the Kauravas and the only brother who stood up against the humiliation of Draupadi. While killing him, Bhima made a chilling confession – ‘Of all the Kauravas, I love you the most. You are a true man. I do not wish to kill you and yet I have to, because of the promise I have made. Any break in that promise may look like weakness on my part”. Karna had made a similar promise to Duryodhana – That of destroying the Pandavas. He did not succeed because he gave in to emotion.

Karna was celebrated as a warrior for defeating Bhim and Yudhistira, but Karna still lost the great war to the Pandavas because of an obstinate desire to better a man who could not be bettered in his chosen field. Karna did not see the signs, did not read the writing on the wall. He insisted on taking on the one man who would never lose to him..the one man who had beaten him hands down in the past. Karna did not know his limitations..and that was the next big moral of his story – Know your limitations.

Karna was known as one of the greatest philanthropists of his age. Even in this, he did not know the difference between ego and philanthropy. He knew that Indra was asking for his most prized physical possession. He knew that he would surely perish without his armour, and yet, it was his vanity that prevented him from turning Indra away. He would, under no circumstances show any sign of failure, of weakness. He wanted to show Indra, that armor or not, he was still confident of beating Arjuna. He wanted to cut a cavalier figure … a sort of Hector like fatalist. He did not realize that victories are not achieved through such empty shows of magnanimity. Imagine…would Arjuna ever give away his Gandiva? I dare say not. In fact Arjuna knew his limitations and went by them. At a very advanced age, when the Gandiva had outlived its purpose and given back to the powers that be, the same Arjuna, lost a battle to a mere bunch of highway robbers. However, by then, Arjuna had served his purpose. The kingdom had been won, a mere skirmish did not matter. Karna, by his so called philanthropy, lost the only battle that could have ever mattered.

Kunti came to him before the war started and tried to convince him to change sides. Krsna did the same. Karna, even then, admitted that this was a war that would end in disaster for the Kauravas…and yet he backed the losing side. One can see greatness in that , but one can also see the inability of recognizing good advice. Good advice is to be taken…not rejected. There is no glory in death and defeat. There is nothing more humiliating than death and nothing more insulting than a defeat that is conclusive. Karna had lost the war before he started fighting it. He was as good as dead…and yet his vanity won. He did not follow good advice. Good advice needs to be taken…specially when it comes from those who are better and more experienced than you.

Karna lost every bid for greatness he made. He was the quintessential ‘almost there’ guy. A man destined for greatness only because he attempted to scale the wall. He made valiant attempts but lost out because of these fatal failings listed above. His name became synonymous with sacrifice and that was his claim to fame.

In all of this, one totally missed out the objective of his sacrifices. Never has a man in mythology defended a cause so shallow, never has a warrior fought a war with his strength sapped so low. Never has a Hero so clearly defeated every cause that he held dear.

Karna is important for all of these reasons. Karna is great because of his sheer lack of greatness and the potential that he did not realize.

Karna is what every great man…should not aspire to be. That is then the importance of being …Karna.