KAHIHI

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.

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.

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”

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.

One method of making Hyderabadi biryani is to cook the mutton and rice separately and mix them with skill on the dining table. This is not much palatable at least to Maharashtra as the Punjabi method has taken over that mixes every plant and flavour.

'Chandrababu Naidu is not a good political chef and hence he made a Khichdi of it. Birbal’s Khichdi, where he kept a fire at one place and the cooking pot at other, thereby the heat did not reach. Chandrababu exactly did the same by trying to cook khichdi of Telangana in the state of Maharashtra.

Logic and Chandrababu Naidu reside on North and South Pole respectively. Who instigated him to go to Babhli and protest against Maharashtra government is none of a thinking man concern.

Chandrababu himself should care for it. He has been sent to the political graveyard due to the suicides by the farmers of his state, Andhra Pradesh; nobody could deny. When they were committing suicides this chief minister was running to Delhi to welcome Bill Gates or Bill Clinton.

His enthusiasm over flew in doing so, more than Krishna water. He should have tried to block his ecstasy, more than the water Maharastra is trying, to according to him. The work is going on as per instructions of the Supreme Court. Already 200 crore are spent and no orders of the court are violated.

Chandrababu has never probably exhibited soft feelings towards Telangana. And suddenly this issue has been pierced into his head. The place where he wants to protest for the cause of Telangana is wide of the mark.He is not an expert in leading mass. He himself perhaps doesn’t understand what he talks. He whispers. He is a table-shrewd politician. He was successful in getting the special status to his state in NDA government by giving support from outside. He drew his pound of flesh by negotiating with them.

So now with a wrong cause he came to a wrong place at wrong time.

He forgot that rehabilitation of the farmers and people residing near water resources is never done or ever completed in the history of India. Many issues intermingle in the process that is beneficial to a very few. They are necessarily rulers and rich.

On the next day of the protest for the farmers of Andhra on the land of Maharashtra his supporters complained that they were not provided with food and water. As if they were guests of Maharashtra. I’d like to remind one incident here. When Lalkrishna Advani with his infamous Rathyatra was stopped by Laluprasad threatening him to put behind bars had he entered Bihar.

The home minister of Maharashtra is a gentleman. He won’t go to that extent.

However, to expect food from him in exchange of protest is too much. Food was provided by the people there. But Chandrababu wanted hyderabadi biryani perhaps! Why should they complain about water along with? It was plentifully available there in the river opposite. Or they wanted the oxi-rich mineral water?

Maharashtra has always been a soft target by all the states and the centre. It’s crushed under the North and South hating it due to the glorious history, the progress and the modernity.

There is nothing spectacular about Chandrababu. South states are progressing fast. He wanted to do that only through information technology. YSR knew this limit and concentrated on the poor and farmers that Chandrababu never envisioned. Unfortunately YSR is no more. A split of support to different parties is widening. Opportunist as he is Chandrababu is trying to make a place.

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.