KAHIHI

Recently, I came across an outwardly fragile and ill man, an aam aadmi, with inherent mental guts.

Weather being comfortably cold, it is a touring time in south peninsula. Highways are jammed with thousands of public, private buses and vehicles – a good sign of financial progress the ruling party is boasting about.

It was a lavish seven-seater on highway number 17. Little after crossing Panvel, a dhaba appeared. It was 8.30 p.m. The vehicle driver got down for his dinner. He was atypical. Unlike other drivers, generally with an expected look of having it from the hirers of the vehicle, this driver took his seemingly usual corner. His confidence while marching towards the table made it apparent.

He ordered his pint and started his evening session with an added confidence.

Our aam aadmi who had hired the vehicle didn’t approve the act. What we do at such times? Keep quiet? Discard the behavior?

This bold aam aadmi took out the visiting card of the two-car-fleet owner and rang the office from his cell phone. He narrated the story and asked to order the overconfident and apparently victorious highway sarathi of the vehicle for a retreat. The Information Technology & Telecom revolution benefit.

The sarathi with his unyielding face was initially reluctant to accept the defeat. However, he finally succumbed to his master’s orders.

Further story in a nutshell is common. The liberalization has liberalized few people in strategic positions more than others. They earn money in excess and finding difficult to cope, invest in such adventures without thinking whether it’s worthwhile or not.

Such kind of miniscule transport business with no worries for the returns or carelessness about expansion is always leading to loss as one has to hand it over to the other man who can’t be under anyone’s control and vigil. There are several possibilities of parting your money by under filling of petrol, repairing costs, thefts, imaginary bribery amounts and toll. Forget the death toll in case of drunken driving. Highway laws are different than the written ones, one has to experience himself.

The tour operators of this kind may have sought all the permissions necessary. But how can one assure the behaviour of the driver on the highway? And who is responsible of the mishaps in such cases?

Or whether we have to spend this life like the kind of deers in the jungle scared of the tigers and lions every moment on these shoddy highways that our rulers have constructed?

This man has shown the courage. Everybody can’t do that. And why everybody should do it?

Such kind of careless behaviour has led to accidents causing deaths a few times of the worshippers visiting religious places with a faith in their minds that the deity would provide them a happy life ahead!

This is an irony.

Initially I was not much enthusiastic of the taxi services of two new fleets, Meru and Easy Cab, as being carried away by the above kind of impression. But recently they have changed my opinion. The taxis are present in your porch dot at time. Their preconditions are well defined. The drivers are well behaved and in between the fleet owners’ representatives keep on enquiring about the status of the travel and finally your feedback specifically about behaviour of the drivers and the time schedule.

I hope they keep up the spirit and their upcoming small followers also do the same, liberalizing us from that Stone Age fear of the deers.

Sunk into the scams the ruling party is patting itself for the financial achievements constantly; their two leaders’, party and executive, mouths shut and paralysed during the session time though! It’s the time they take a lesson or two from the of aam aadmi of the above kind and behave with firmness when the scam scum is visible everywhere else.

At such a time a little care and concern shown for common people if exhibited by the rulers may appease us like that of the fleet.

Maharashtra has a ved (mania) for celebration. Of any kind! Come September or August, people of Maharashtra are charged for ten days. They don’t do anything but sing songs in haphazard manner with no mercy to rhythm, they play loud speakers defying 50 decibel limit to express their joy with delirium. Come October and they are ready to repeat the fruitless act. Then Diwali and other single day celebrations follow. Joy one should take, but not to the extent of wasting huge time and expense of keeping one’s career waiting.

Obama came to the city. Far away from the city of Illinois his media managers might have chalked out the itinerary of his India visit. However, imagine Michelle Obama mingling in the crowd of boys of an English medium school in Fort and straight heading to dance to the tunes of an ethnic Koli Marathi song – you’re under loss of state of mind.

It’s never so with Americans at the upper hierarchy and I’m grieved to say, always so, with Indian political counterparts. A fresh like pomphret example of Common Wealth Games in Delhi!

So they planned from a distance that is exactly on the opposite of the globe and executed the plan in filthy Mumbai without a wrinkle on the face. Soon our shameless politicians, with their crest fallen faces, may visit US to study how to reciprocate the gesture in a comparatively clean city. However, let us keep aside the political analysis by the analysts with crooked and favourable angles expressed as a running commentary.

Michelle’s dance! The scene kept cheering the mind. Michelle is a good dancer. She caught to the tunes immediately with Madhuri Dixit’s ease. It’s in their blood. To catch the rhythm. But Barrack was not at ease. Doesn’t matter. In last few, about 20 seconds he tapped on the tunes. That was a symbol of humility. How many of our politicians with their dogmatic face and vain pride could have shown this gesture?

That achieved two purposes. It tickled the hearts of rich and at the same time created a feeling of pride among the original tribes of Mumbai. Bichchare Bhandaris and Pathare Prabhus, other original tribes! Would have the tour planners thought of this? Congress the ruling party of Maharashtra may be able to draw a benefit from this gesture.

Owing to sincere and persistent requests, Obama danced with his sleeves folded and with fastened necktie.

We were taught to button the sleeves while meeting seniors. To fold full shirt sleeves was supposed to be uncouth. The British tight upper leaps are able to gulp the morsel? The Korean and Chinese taken over the garb of dark suits would be able to digest it?

Our Marathi entertainment channels don’t care of President of India and new chief of the state who is a M.S. from California. The dissuading Marathi entertainment channels thumping hideous programmes in the name of humour on the face of the Marathis evading the intro and life portrait of a so educated chief minister. They were accompanied by relatives, the journos in high places, like that in Adarsha Society. Are they not equally sinful in their act?

I had regards about the British stiff upper lip. But in Bush’s time that was burned out by Tony Blair.

It’s said that: a true American never accepts anything for free. He pays for it and pays for best quality. Despite their depleting resources they’ve not given up the habit. Prima facie Obama has made a provision for 50 thousand jobs. BPOs are not affected as the fear loomed a month ago. Go, grab them.

Analysts are not catalysts. Throw them in the recycle bin.

Though so, we have our own iconic example, still intact. Years ago Indira Gandhi danced to the tunes of folk songs of Adivasis in a remote village. She sincerely believed to be a daughter of an Adivasi in her earlier birth. With her grace and a little smile, the impression is as live in my mind as then was.

In cricket, it is said that the hook shot, though most marvelous, is the most dangerous to play. Slight misjudgment and the delivery can hit you like an uppercut, enough to bruise you for rest of your life.

Quite similarly, Ms. Arundhati Roy, our very own, who gave India its first Booker, has been smartly facing the deliveries and surviving at the benevolence of many benefit of doubts.

However, this time, she seems to have missed it. She tried a hook at the Kashmir issue, which unfortunately didn’t go well off the boundary. The timing was wrong perchance. Or maybe the tact; one shouldn’t be playing every delivery between mid-wicket and backward square-leg on the leg side. Some other shot could have possibly made Ms. Roy win praise akin Tendulkar – “pride of the nation”. However, that did not happen so and instead Arundhati had to derogate herself with a taint of “traitor of the nation”.

While her Booker might make us feel proud about the zeal, Ms. Roy’s subsequent acts have only made us feel sour about her ubiquitous performances. For no rhyme or reason, she has been pouncing on every opportunity that she thought could get her publicity and media attention, possible smitten by the honour and reputation that her cousin enjoys.

Arundhati Roy has many times critiqued on the right things. However, more than that, she opined about something that made her image and intellect spiral down. Whether she does it for publicity or to flaunt her astuteness, is something only she can answer or the media can speculate. However, parachuting between issues, like Narmada Andolan, Maoism, Kashmir, and similar, does give a sense of chasing media attention. Given that she has the caliber of winning a Booker, it doesn’t require any super intelligence about how to diplomatically tackle sensitive issues like that of Kashmir and Naxals-Maoists; she can be superbly imaginative about how to conjure up things.

The Guardian, New York Times, TIME, may all praise for the analytical views she has given on Afghanistan, Israel, Sri Lanka, Nuclear Policy but her words in India are certainly taken in a bitter tone, which if continues, can turn out to be a debacle for the pride & prestige that she once enjoyed in India.

It is unarguable that a writer like Arundhati will have myopic and distant imaginative about everything that is happening around and that she is born in a democratic-republic gives her right to expression. However, why do so through petty things that invoke more of blasphemy than eulogy. Ms. Roy has been and is a good writer – a story teller, which one of the most respected literary awards (Man Booker) also has testified. It is then surprising that her quest stalls at winning just one. Her research work too seems to be good, given the fact that she dig up issues that appeal to the masses. However, why not make use of those same research skills to come up with an unthinkable narrative that can fetch her a “Pulitzer”, may be. Or simply be like Hilary Mantel of Wolf Hall (2009 Booker Prize Winner), whose ultimate piquancy is to write, write, and write; keeping all other transient issues at bay.

It would rather be appreciated that Ms. Arundhati Roy gets evolved from and not involved in these issues of national unrest. Taking cues from these issues, glorifying them, building up characters, brewing up a fictional tale, and marching your way to the next the “Booker” or a “Nobel for Literature”, possibly looks more sensible at this time.

Your fans and book lovers surely don’t want to look at you as a “single book surprise”.

- Amol Redij

The postman, communicator of love, open hearts, and jobs was once loved eternally. Post office is the one thing that keeps the nation united, along with other nations too.

9th October was the world postal day.

Excluding Andhra Pradesh, no reports appeared about the postal week celebrations. Perhaps it’s because AP Circle is ranked as one of the highest revenue earning Postal Circles in the country.


India has the largest postal network. We have more than one and a half hundred thousand post offices. China has 70,000 and the U.S. has 40,000.

The Department of Posts organizes a letter writing competition. It is not linked to World Post Day. The Universal Postal Union (UPU) has an international letter-writing competition for young people every year. The intention is to make the public aware of the role postal services play in our society, develop skills in composition, appreciate the art of letter-writing, and strengthen international friendship. However, unfortunately it is not advertised properly though the postal department has a great spread across the nation. The people at the helm of the affairs should note this and take active interest in this activity. To spread the message through more than 150 thousand outlets doesn’t seem like a difficult task.

The theme for 2011 is “Imagine you are a tree living in a forest. Write a letter to someone to explain why it is important to protect forests.” It coincides with the International Year of Forests.

When letter writing is concerned who would forget the letters to Indira Gandhi by her father Pt. Jawaharlal Nehru and then letters to Indira Gandhi by her American friend Dorothy Norman?

Dorothy once wrote: she was as much at ease with international celebrities as with the most untutored peasants.

How heart touching!

There always was and is a human touch connected with post office. The postman delivers your letter or money order at home; there is nothing as humane as that. In the times of shortage of currency the villages survived on the money orders sent by the relatives working in the cities. The postman looked like an angel that time. The glow of happiness on the old wrinkled faces of the villagers while receiving the money order was a scene to be experienced.

I could see lot of such happy faces, as my grandfather was a post master of a sub-post office with a single postman helping him. Most of the villagers collected the money orders straight from the room in the verandah of our house where the post office was situated.

There were no names to the roads, houses or chowks. Yet, the letters got delivered perfectly.

In India, there may be many famous persons. But Mahatma Gandhi was one who never had a permanent address and was always on move struggling for poor people throughout India. So there was a mobile post office chasing him unlike the traditional ones.

Among others I know an example though modest before Mahatma Gandhi is that of a Marathi detective story writer, Gurunath Naik who resided in a small village in Goa. A sub-post office was arranged for him there for his fan mail around thirty years ago. It was said that at times a small van carrying his mail was emptied in his courtyard.

Gradually, the policy makers thought post offices should gain pace. So instead of recruiting more staff proportional to the increasing population, they thought of reducing the expenses in a reverse manner and encouraged private letter and parcel delivery service, namely courier service that is still not recognized by some government departments as a valid deliverer of their documents.

Then came the emails, the instant message deliverer and really so. Many lament about losing the human touch. But it’s the demand of the time and is in consonance with the speed that general life has caught.

Recently have you seen post boxes, the means to hide your identity but to receive the correspondence? They are all vanished. And emails have taken over. Emails do exactly what the post boxes were supposed to do and that too with all the convenience.

The only sorrow is about the postmen; that as in earlier days they are not promoted as sorters with their increasing age and growing weight, now. A few postmen gasp through humid and tiring high rise buildings which is a difficult sight to look at.

Overall other post staff does the duty of a banker like paying interest on monthly income deposit schemes. The old retired folk not ready to believe in banks or mutual funds or company deposits flock to the post office though the working conditions are not as good as in banks. The employees really toil. The proverbial assumption that the post office job is devoid of any work, is past now.

However the computers have entered few post offices, now printed acknowledgement is given. It soothes, but for the plight of the nodal man, postman.

At times I’m afraid, one day the post offices also may vanish. It’s as remote as the fear that vernacular languages may perish. But the thought made me nervous till I read the following reports from different countries about the World Post Day celebrations:

Singapore Post Limited (SingPost) asked citizens to send greetings to its postal staff in appreciation of their dedication and contributions. This is because of the efficient way the system works in that country and the satisfaction expressed by its citizens.

Australia Post has a programme “to remind people that sending a personal card has its place in keeping in touch.” The aim is to produce a postcard that a person can send to a friend or family. Stamp designs can be chosen. There are also instructions on how to create a postcard using a mobile phone and tips on letter-writing for different occasions.

The Ministry of Postal Services in Pakistan held a function at its Postal Staff College, when there was a cultural programme and award ceremony. Aid packets were also given to postal employees, across the country, who have been affected by the recent floods.

Emirates Post distributed cash prizes and certificates to the winners (along with their teachers and guardians) of the UPU letter writing competition 2010.

P.S. – On the flip side I remember a novel Postman Always Knocks Twice. It’s strange that there is neither a postman nor a post office in the novel. A movie (1981) of the same name with Jack Nicholson and Jessica Lange as leading pair is no different. This 1934 first novel of James M. Cain is sizzling hot. Critics say that Cain is the "hard boiled" novelist and this novel inspired Albert Camus to write his opus, The Stranger. Both novels are minimalist in style with no excessive dramatic emotional scenes. All are too straightforward even if they are both characterized by gloom and mystery.

Hinjewadi, a large land mass made of farms, hillocks, mountains, and greenery all around, has witnessed staggering growth in last 6-7 years. The property prices have gone up 300 times. A farmer at one time who hailed his bullock cart as his pride, today drives Boleros, Scorpios, Fords – plurals because a single farmer owns and has the capacity to maintain multiple vehicles. The only greenery or the green shades you can see today are the green paints, if at all used, on the exteriors of the constructions that have sprouted like a swarm of locust on the same farmlands.

Jai Ho IT, Information Technology or simply said Software, Computers et al.

Hinjewadi and the surrounding areas are now thickly populated with IT professionals, an elite mass enjoying the pride that banking professionals enjoyed once upon a time. By elite I mean, one who doesn’t care how much is spent and being ignorant of the fact that they are the biggest contributors to the prevailing inflation, at least in Hinjewadi and surrounding areas – one kg of tomato in a near remote area costs Rs. X, the same will cost Rs. X+2 in an area where IT professionals reside; just because vendors think IT guys are rich, and also because IT guys don’t bargain, it’s against their pride to negotiate.

Yes, it does sound foolish.

While this habit of IT professionals does agitate me, I might still pardon them for negotiation is skill, and not everyone can master it. However, what stirs me up ecstatically is that these professionals who pledge to work “for the logic”, “by the logic”, many a times go “off the logic”.

Once a beautiful, peaceful pensioner’s paradise has now turned into a mess full of traffic, pollution. While the advent of IT in Pune has kept India shinning, the residents of are left whining. I have heard many lament about “amchya velela hey asa nhavta” (it wasn’t like this during our times). I will explain.

Reaching Hinjewadi IT Park requires you to cross a bridge, if you are coming from Wakad or Aundh. That the traffic chokes at the ends of the bridge requires no logic to understand. Also it is exciting and despicable of course to see that a bridge has been built perpendicular to the Mumbai-Pune-Bangalore highway, imagine there is a signal on a national highway. I don’t understand which engineer’s (again a class that takes pride in being logic and calculations maestro) analysis and implementation that is.

Now these IT guys flock to office in the morning and are rushing home in the evening. Everyone is in a hurry. Thus begins overtaking. Bikers are experts in this (Pune has also been known for its two wheeler population), they don’t leave a narrowest gap in which they don’t creep in, perhaps they can even ride their two wheelers on Shilpa Shetty’s curvy narrow waist. In the angst and the quest to find gaps, each one tries to get into the opposite lane thus blocking the traffic coming from opposite direction. A long serpentine queue progresses then on their side. It gets real chaotic on the middle of the bridge from where neither can you take a U turn nor can you jump off the bridge. In the haste to save few minutes, hours are wasted in that traffic congestion. But nobody understands this logic. No one wants to follow the traffic rules or the lane discipline. And all this by the same IT professionals who when in foreign countries (onsite) follow minutest of the rule. However, as soon as they land in India, discipline shreds off, logic is dumped in the trash bin, and hypocrisy creeps in.

“Oh it’s so pathetic in India. Go and see in that country, how everything is perfect, no traffic, no pollution,” they crib sitting in the car on the same bridge on which they had once tried to overtake and now are spitting out gargles of Bisleri water.

We have heard about HER, we have read about HER, she is said to be a part of HIM, she lived for HIM, we bring her in our prayers, she is inseparable from HIM, she is the epitome of devotion and Pure love.....there can never ever be anyone like her. She is Meera.

Recently I saw a program on Meera on some television channel. It's not my first acquaintance with her. I know about her. For many years I have been her fervent fan. I have heard Bhajans, Kirtans. However, I never had a chance to really know about Meerabai’s actual life. All those who adore Lord Krishna know her.

Meera's life resonates in our hearts for many reasons. The first thing about her that comes to my mind is "PURITY". Her devotion, her love for Giridhar Gopal is flawless, innocent, and pure. We all know about the greatest love stories ever told and written - Romeo and Juliet, Heer Ranjah, but Meera is simply so different. Maybe there is no comparison between her and any love story ever told.

Born to a Rajput aristocrat family, she gave up her worldly life and luxuries. Little girls play and entertain themselves with little toys; Meera was gifted with Lord Krishna's idol. She was very much captivated and adored him tremendously. She played with him, beautified him with flowers, jewels and clothes, she fed him, worshipped him, prepared food with her own hands. People were amused with her passionate attachment with her Giridhar Gopal.

There is an incident where one of her aunts who is fed up with her conviction steals the Lord Krishna's idol and asks her servant to bury it in the garden. Meera is devastated on losing her idol. It is the time for the pooja and everyone questions her about the idol. She is helpless. It is believed that Lord Krishna himself disguises as a servant and gives the idol back to Meera. The aunt and her servant are shocked. When they go to the place where they had buried the idol they find a beautiful peacock feather in the place of the idol. And they never find the servant who retrieves the idol to Meera. Fascinating!

Probably one of the biggest sacrifices she ever made was to marry another man. However, that neither broke her faith nor distracted her. "To love and live for Him" was the central theme of her songs. "Without pure love, the darling son of Nanda cannot be attained."

Have you ever loved anyone like that? Is it possible for you and me to be like her? I have no idea, but I do believe that somewhere deep down inside us, we yearn to be like her. All those who have found true love in their lives can understand what I am trying to convey. Even if we have not got what we want, we need to be contended that we have loved someone truly, deeply, and madly. Though this may seem to be deviating, it is still intact with the essence of unconditional love that will make every aspect of your life very fragrant. So, if you have ever loved someone and found your true love, make it boundary less, keep it limitless, free from any restrictions. Let love alone be your ultimate thought, path, and goal. Build that faith, trust, loyalty, devotion and unconditional love. And that is what will get you closer to Lord.

Mere to Giridhar Gopal...doosara na koi!

CWG arrangement has been a disaster. However, let’s wish that aspiring athletes of our country do get a good foundation to showcase their skills and rewarded deservingly. Perhaps, it would be a golden opportunity for them to strike gold and achieve a breakthrough into sporting career. Our country most certainly would have sportsmen and sportswomen with incomparable skills and let they not be deprived of this chance to participate. We can deal with the Kalmadi, Gill, & Associates later after the games are over, and hopefully we will. For now let the event go on.

Yes, and we indeed have talent. We have won a respectable position in the medals tally. Our athletes haven’t let us down and there is, for sure, some patch of shine on the blot of shame that was conferred upon our nation. Sincere congratulations to the winners who contributed in restoring pride of our nation and we will certainly have more coming.

During my recent visit to Lonavala I happened to visit our own version of "Wax Museum". And it is incredible. If you have loved Madame Tussauds, you will simply adore this; in some cases it is much better than the Tussauds.

It is Sunil Kandalloor's third wax museum in India, the earlier ones being at Kanyakumari and Thekkadi.

Sunil Kandalloor, a 38 year old wax artist from Kerala has created statues that could well cheat us for real life personalities. He uses real human hair in his statues. Though there are many statues he had sculpted, most of which are personalities of the South, I am posting A. R. Rahman's statue here, as most of us will recognise him. The other statues are equally and exceptionally good.

No need to fly to London now for a view at the extraordinary art; it is here in India.

Chidambaram’s ‘saffron terror’ has scared him and the Congress too, though he is putting a show of bravery. He has thrown the weight of his difficult-to-shoulder phrase on others, as his wont is; presently on Digvijay Singh, saying that patent of the phrase is not with him. That’s sufficient to prove that he can neither create patentable products nor can he make a proper use if they exist.

Lawyers don’t make good “quotable-quoters”. Take the top five lawyers in India and you’d realize.
 
The reason is simple. The inborn arrogance, fused in or developed among them makes them feel that they are also the “lords of words”. They nurture a false secret ego that they could win the cases connected with words. It’s because they take any issue as the cause and fight for that.

Language and words that shape a language have to be handled with care, not rough hand (foul mouth in the context) but soft tongue.

Politicians have the history to make good quotes, like Winston Churchill, John Kennedy, Indira Gandhi and like. However, they were far away politicians from the present ones.

Nowadays, all similar thinking minds are making efforts to hone their word power. Small minds too, think alike! They however do not know that they require copywriters for that. Some semi-buddu politicians know that!

In case of ‘saffron terror’ they have lined up for the comments in the order of their weight.

Sharad Pawar, the weightiest of the politician threw the first colour. He is a politician connected with green the most. He moves with or makes them move with him the green revolutionists and the portfolio he is in charge of has mainly the colour green shade.

He may argue on that saying wheat, maze are not green but yellow and try to crush my claim as he did once asking Uddhav Thackeray, executive president of ShivSena in the time of his padyatras for the cause of suiciding farmers, bilking him whether he knew, the onion grows above or below the ground.

Congress has the habit of entering troubled water by employing ministers like PC, though they have a long list of good claimants for any portfolio. After his FMship magniloquence Congress is again in a mood to avoid PC. It’s obvious as the party general secretary and media department chairman, J. Dwivedi has indicated sundown signals by saying the colour of terrorism is black. How else the black colour could signify terrorism?

ShivSena and BJP have thrown the ruling party on the back foot for certain. But they don’t have the debaters who could send PC also along with. Bharat Kumar Raut MP (ShivSena) is consulting editor to Times Group as quoted at the bottom of his articles. However, he cannot face with tenacity any issue. He takes more pleasure in Marathi channels as obvious it is easy for him to be long-winded in Marathi than in English.

In my opinion Gopinath Munde, though unable to speak in English is witty enough to disarm Congress and PC. But it seems BJP doesn’t want to project him. It has happened in past too.

The national party in search of power to rule would have to give up this parochial set up of mind; sooner the better.

Bhagwa, Keshari, Kesaria or Haldi (in Kannada) is still lagging behind as far as the revolution is concerned in India. We’ve seen Green revolution (agricultural), White revolution (milk), but where is the Keshari revolution?

In Marathi Haldi means turmeric. It’s applied to heal wounds due to its medicinal quality.

Marathi MPs of opposition party are busy applying haldi to their wounds including those in the mouths from inside made by the likes of PC and by the Haldi co-walkers in Karnataka. They suffer in silence due to vocabulary lesions. Or like beautiful girls they can’t apply it to the outsides of their faces to add to the beauty.

The wounded civilization has lost the sense of colours that are meant for festivals and beautifying.

Five more in Vidharba recently, the saga continues. There are many across the country going through a similar tyranny. However, let me restrict to Maharashtra, as that is the region that has witnessed most number of farmer suicides, and also it is the first state whom where the suicides were reported. Gandhiji’s dream of Gram Swaraj (India’s development plan to be based on progress & growth of villages and farmers) has been rotting at a much deteriorating rate than Pawar wasting 67,000 tonnes of grain.

Ever since “Do Biga Zameen”, money lender’s maltreatment towards farmers is not a fancy for us.

However, that money lender slowly transformed into a local goon and then eventually into a politician who worsened things further with the reigns of governance in his hands. Other reasons like weather conditions (though significant), socioeconomic reforms, debt loads, use of advanced farming techniques, urbanization, market instability, etc are accessorial in nature. The main culprit is the neglect of our political leaders towards these issues. The decision makers on the policy matters of India turned a blind eye to a sector that acts as a source of livelihood to more than 60% of the Indian population. Imagine a family owning 5-10 acres of land earning a meager Rs. 3500 per year! There is a lot that can be done to improve the state of these states; that of course is at the mercy of our obese leaders.

(a) Improve the infrastructure – construct roads, water irrigation systems so that dependency on rainfall is reduced. (b) Reduce the load shedding so that water pumps and other equipment can function smoothly. (c) To the extent possible free the farmer from the burden of debts; private lenders and banks must support this causes. Manmohan Singh had announced Rs. 11,000 crores for farmers in Vidharba, I wonder where all this money vanished. Private money lenders charge up to 28-30%, by the way, almost the rate at which we pay our credit card bills. (d) Set-up some parallel employment schemes. (e) Strengthen the political will to propagate welfare & development.

The very same political will, which recently demanded increase in salaries. This was met by a similar uproar from the care takers of our motherland; the army officers’ request for increase in pension to take care of the mounting expenses. Their demand wasn’t baseless if considered on the ground that our politicians get illogical hikes.

The deserving are always neglected and suppressed; just because they aren’t powerful. If the frustration and might of such restrained unite, we may certainly see a revolution, a tumult.

Else, we may just have another Nattha sitting at some construction site inside of a farm or country’s border.

The motto given to us by one of the great prophetic, Lal Bahadur Shashtri, “Jai Jawaan, Jai Kisaan” has lost its luster and prominence. Sadly, we have shamed it today as, “Hi Jawaan, Hi Kisaan”

Kapil Sibal recently announced about the non compulsion to send children to school. Parents can, if they wish so, refrain from sending their children to school and can instead opt to teach them at home. He won’t interfere with the parents’ choice, even if it means going against the “Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education (RTE) Act, 2009”. The compulsion is not on the parents but on the state, he clarified.

There are many who will fret about this move, and crib about Americanisation of our youth who will spoil their future etc. However, there are equal numbers of parents who have greeted Sibal’s opinion with a smile. In fact, there are many parents who have been practicing home schooling; and their children have done well.

While there is a flip side that children may not learn to socialize or be compassionate, or may become egoistic or over dependent on their parents, there are many brighter aspects to homeschooling.

Most importantly, the child can learn and pursue something that is of his/her interest, while gathering sufficient but not mandatory knowledge about other things. Parents can opt to teach more about the life-skills than teaching them about the dead ones; what is important today is to learn how to preserve our independence and not be redolent about Babu Genu, Savarkar, Gokhale etc. It would be a good idea to teach them about reformers and thinkers than the freedom fighters. Look up any school book today; none talks anything about Swami Vivekanda except the famous religious conference of 1883. It would, rather be worthwhile to teach about his philosophies and thoughts than just “My dear brothers and sisters” to the children. It is a great opportunity to teach the children about the thoughts in the Bhagvad Gita, Upanishads, and Vedas than teaching them about the Boston Tea Part or French Revolution or Hitlers and Mussolinis. Rather than tutoring them about in which latitude and longitude the Tunga lies, it will be more commendable to teach our children about more of moral science and environmental & personal hygiene.

All this will give ample amount of time for the children and the parents to judge what they are best at and evolve as a better and successful person than just competing with other children in schools and building up unnecessary pressure. Wouldn’t it be nice to see our children smiling with no strain in brain and no loads on their back? I would love to teach my children what they want to learn and not what the education boards want them to learn; I am sure they will evolve as better people full of empathy, focused on aspirations, and content with basic needs. A practical approach to education would be much better than a formal setting.

Fathom this – after all the run for marks and shining at the brightest spot on the merit list, is a job of our desire still guaranteed? Also, it means a lot of saving on the school fees that are galloping northwards today. Homeschooling though requires lot of patience and acceptance today, will certainly see a horizon of success very soon.

Just for reference, a homeschooler has graduated from Fergusson College, one of the best in the country, and is off to Oxford, one of the best in the world.

Whenever I’m actually in a houseboat, say in Alleppy or in Malwan (only one houseboat so far owned by one city corporator, Rajan Sarmalkar), I can’t stop myself thinking about David Lean and his Ryan’s Daughter, a 1970 movie, shot on the sea shore of Ireland; why not in Alleppy and its backwaters, the nature’s extravaganza?

Ryan’s Daughter was a big flop in many countries, and consequently in India as well. Or at least it seemed so on the backdrop of unfathomable success of two of his earlier movies - Lawrence of Arabia (1962) and Dr. Zhivago (1965).
(image courtesy: Terryballard, Wikipedia)

David Lean was a strange amalgam of rough nature and a creative mind. The two extremes nurtured inside him quite comfortably.

He used to hate India, however, later married an Indian woman, Leena Velinkar, a high-brow lady moving in political circles of Delhi. He would choose a vast backdrop, like say, Sahara desert as in Lawrence of Arabia, and throw a lanky, fleshless Peter-O-Toole alone to act, or rather parch or burn there. Peter-O-Toole, when the shoot was over, complained to Leena Velinkar saying, “Your husband had decided to kill me in the deserts”. So merciless was Lean.

In Ryan’s Daughter, Lean chose a place called Dingle Peninsula on the Ireland coast. The distant village was one Killary. We too have one in the same name and famous for the earthquakes, but far away from the sea.

The Irish married woman had an affair with a British army officer at the time of First World War. She had to leave the village as the villagers do not approve the affair and the suspicion arisen due to the ammunition stock hidden.

Such a simple plot! But that reminds me of as many waves have reached the Killary village in Ireland.

Sarah Miles, her husband Robert Mitchum, and lover Christopher Jones in the movie wore the Lilliputian appearance, ditto like Peter-O-Toole in Lawrence of Arabia, opposite sea front defying the limits of skyline.

It is Lean’s favourite game. Juxtapose opposites, the ultimate opposites that the super panavision camera available in his times would cover.

Perhaps, Sarah Miles was chosen for the same reason.

Twice, the wife of Robert Bolt (The Man for all Seasons), Lean’s favourite screen playwright, spoke fetid mouthed language. Bolt had Madame Bovary, a novel by Gustav Flaubert, in his mind for screen but after discussion with Lean he loosely adapted it.

Ramesh Sippy directed Hindi movie, Sagar, was loosely adapted from the story of Ryan’s Daughter. As Ryan’s Daughter was a commercial disaster, many did not know the roots of Sagar. The village idiot (Liliput) whom the heroine of Sagar kisses in the end is a cut-and-paste shot from Ryan’s Daughter. Sagar retrieved image of Dimple Kapadia (30) having two daughters to a teenage heroine from where she had given up acting. It won 4 Filmfare awards including that for cinematography. The village idiot missed it and went to the parallel hero.

Hero worshipping!

The team of Ryan’s Daughter and also the director had to face every kind of difficulty.

Alec Guinness, Marlon Brando, Peter-O-Toole, George C. Scott, Anthony Hopkins, Richard Burton, Richard Harris and Paul Scofield were all considered for different roles but had to back out for different reasons. To add to further woes the selected star cast kept on fighting and abusing each other.

Robert Mitchum during the making of the film clashed with Lean and famously said, "Working with David Lean is like constructing the Taj Mahal out of toothpicks."

There were two silver linings about Ryan’s Daughter though. John Mills, for the role of village idiot, won a kiss planted on lips by Sarah Miles and Academy Award for best actor in a supporting role (our Liliput was privileged only with Dimple’s kiss) and Freddie Young for best cinematography, Sarah Miles being nominated for best actress in a leading role and a nomination for sound, inter alia.

MGM spent one million pounds in 70s to reconstruct the forlorn village of Killary to save it from storms. The poor villagers worked as extras. The face of the village changed since then and it has become famous as a tourist spot reviving the economy, and the township around, Dingle Peninsula.

When I feel or read about the earthquakes in Maharashtra, as it happens often, I remember Killari earthquake. Our Killari village in Maharashtra where the worst earthquake that hit India in last seventy years killing ten thousand people in Sept, 1993 which had been well nigh condemned, is waiting for redevelopment for more than one and half decade and for reviving economy after that.

It is surprising at times, to come across people, who praise the Germans, and condemn India basking what were we doing at the time when Germans were building world class machinery during the 1800s or when US and Russia were marching ahead towards glory and developments.

It would be like an enlightenment for such dim-witted people to know that we were fighting for independence. Had we not spent the time struggling for freedom, our land, may not have looked the way it is today. Despite the colossal corruption that has plagued our country, we have done reasonably well in terms of development.

The day of our Independence was spent reasonably well, watching movies like Gandhi, Mountabatten - The Last Viceroy of India, Rang De Basanti, and listening to songs that echoed throughout the residential complex. The nasha just couldn't get enough and the heroics of freedom struggle kept resonating in my mind. It was certainly a constructive effort of all, who at that time fought for independence through their own means; everything looked justidied. However, as always it has been, Gandhiji still creates a lasting impression on my mind for the ways he adopted to get us freedom.

A compassionate being who, even at the peak of freedom struggle and amidst the conflicts of the national leaders then, firmly believed that "the British have stayed with us for long, we should part with them in a friendly manner with a smile", and hence denounced any kind of violence. His ideologies of non-cooperation and non-violence through the "Dandi March" and the "Quit India Movement", can be said to have triumphantly brought independence to us.

There are many who think that Gandhiji's principles were irrational and that he was the reason for partition, and that non-violence is a sign of spinelessness. However, for a moment, assume that, had we got our freedom through violence, bloodshed, and hatred; things would have been different today. Our beliefs in reaching the goal and achieveing what we want through fights and carnage would have become staunch - "fight for what you want and then kill if you don't get it". Had that been so, our nation today would have looked like the African countries and Afghanistan with even small children running around with guns and grenades instead of toys and cricket bats.

Somewhere, the Gandhian thought does leave a deep mark, if we rationally try to look at the happenings during our independence. Forget looking at God, or reading the Gita or Quran or the Bible. A sensible understanding about Gandhiji's view point will itself make one a peaceful human being, adept enough to choose between right and wrong.

Such was the greatness of that man, and we shall always remain grateful to that soul.

However, amidst such greatness, you sometimes need to taste the dust of regret and shame. For many, the freedom has come for free, and hence mostly, is taken for granted.

The CWG, mining scam, IPL frauds weren't enough, when one of our political leader made me fall flat on my face. The leaders who say, "we fight for the benefit of the nation", despite being in the opposition or in power, shamefully exhibit their knowledge about the same very country.

While rejoicing the movies and the songs, I happened to check my email and found this in my inbox.

Hareshwar Patil and gang, sadly do not know the difference between "Independence Day" and "Republic Day". And that too in the constituency of our dear (pun intended) Sanjay Nirupam, who ferociously brags on television channels about how he is so considerate about our nation. Which nation? May be a nation whose Republic Day coincides with our Independence Day.

And we shall always remain regretful to such souls.

- Amol Redij

Traveling during the peak hours in Mumbai is no less than an adventure, be it by any means – your private car, cab, auto, bus or a local train. People, often scream – “Kya hoga is shaher ka, kitne khadde hai”, as the bus bumps into some puddle. Close investigation (it’s very easy to get into a conversation with such frustrated people) reveals that people who often curse this city are ones who are outsiders. Welcome to Mumbai - the Swapna Nagari – (City of Dreams).

People come to Mumbai for various reasons, and in the process start taking city for granted. They expect total comfort and pleasures that they probably left back in their parent city. People start comparing Mumbai with other cities, Pune is clean, Bangalore is so organized, this is so well planned, and that is so cool and so on. The logic of this comparison is beyond comprehension of any average rationale brain. Why should there be a need to compare some city which is just on a development phase, with Mumbai? Moreover, five years from now, your city could become like Mumbai that you bicker about today, more miserable may be.

The fact that others boast of their city’s magnificent infrastructure will attract masses and in turn will make that city as much crowded as Mumbai, or even more. Similar thing happened to Mumbai. People flocked to Mumbai in search of opportunities and crowded the place all over. It had lot to offer to anyone who came in and it still does today.

Yes, it is crowded today, roads are not good, there are slums but little introspection will reveal that all of it was because of Mumbai’s image of city of dreams. Traffic problems and hindrances to infrastructural developments are because of unauthorized constructions, be it huts or chawls. Irony is outsiders have created the mess and outsiders crib about it.

A Mumbaikar (not necessarily a Maharashtrian) for no reason is blamed and becomes an object of mockery (I have personally got remarks saying – what’s this city, it’s a shit place). However, a compassionate Mumbaikar is still firm on his role of acceptance and adjustments, taking happily whatever comes his way. At end of the day, he calmly sits back and ponders what can be done to preserve this swapna nagari – Aamchi Mumbai.