A new beginning

Ok, so here it goes. I have been thinking, and thinking long and hard for the last year or so, and came to the conclusion that it is very easy to focus on negativity and talk about what is wrong with something, but it is altogether more challenging to talk about what do we need to do to fix it instead. Pessimism comes to humans in general and Indians in particular, naturally but optimism for most of us, we need to cultivate. So I have decided that I would rather talk about we can do to make India achieve its potential in this century, which is to become the greatest nation by the end of the century; and don't snicker, as I can see you doing very well, this is a true possibility and has probably a 50 percent chance of happening. Of course, unless in our infinite ‘desi’ wisdom (sorry for those who don’t know this word, it means innate Indian-ness), we muck it up as we have done so many times in the past. History repeats itself first as tragedy and then as farce. Are we strong enough to stop it? What will it take to make it happen? Well if these questions intrigue you, then read on.

Some facts first: the single biggest advantage and also potential disadvantage that India has is its demographic dividend. In layman’s term, it means more hands to work, earn and save and fewer unproductive mouths to feed. Now before you all run away to either make more babies or to bash any old person you see in the skull, here is the negative side of it – a demographic dividend can easily become an albatross if there aren’t enough of governance, education, employment and resources to feed this behemoth. Some of the older of us, not me of course, will remember the dire essays in our economics books that talked about the consequences of population explosion. Raise your hands if at some point in time in your life in India, you have participated in a ‘Population Explosion: Boon or Bane’ or similarly named debates and discussions. I am sure more than a few hands would have gone up. So that is the gist of it. By 2050, as per numerous recent studies, India may well surpass China and by end of the century become the most populous, which we probably always have been or thereabouts, but more importantly most prosperous country in the world. How exciting does that sound?

 
Now this definitely seems a great enough possibility to get all of us excited; if not for us then at least for our future generations. So how do we achieve it?

In my mind, four things, and I picked four as I love even numbers for some odd reason, and also because five would be too many and three too few. No other reason, I promise, and here they are:

1. Governance
2. Education
3. Opportunity
4. Resources & Infrastructure

And I will give it an acronym – how about OGRE – a cool one and easy to remember. Now all these four are intertwined and cannot work in isolation. Let us examine them one by one.
Governance: India has an advantage of a safety or pressure valve that we call democracy. And before some of you go gunning and claiming that the Chinese model is better, let me explain. China is a great country and nothing against it, but a governance system that is not built on a free and fair system, that doesn’t allow a free and fair access to opportunities and does not provide for its weaker sections in a free, fair and just manner, cannot sustain in the long run. History is full of examples of this but one should suffice. The enduring eminence of the western countries, highly democratic and just societies as compared to any other in existence, for the last few centuries, even with accelerating pace of change is a testament of this. You all will agree that we have seen more changes in last 300 years than in the last 3000 years and in my opinion the free, fair and just governance system that most of the western countries have embraced, is the key to their survival, growth and eminence. As the change of pace accelerates, by some estimates we may need to build more in next 40 years than we have built in the human history till now, only countries with a the right governance system will survive it.

Now what defines good governance – in my mind it is a combination of civic sense, sense of justice and empowerment, sense of equality and sense of cleanliness in public life. We need this form of governance from the grass roots to the top. When we have such a system in place – a sex exam of an unborn is to pick the color of the blankets and not to any devious purpose. When we have such governance, we don’t need to be outraged post the rape of a girl by a gang of maniacs, but we stop it from happening collectively in the first place. When we have such governance, corruption is a dirty word no matter how big or small, irrespective of who is involved and in all walks of life; when it becomes not an inanimate idea that others indulge in, but something that we all introspect to see within us and around us and help eradicate. Good governance manifests itself when a few residents are not allowed to hold a neighborhood to ransom by not letting roads and sewage taken care of because it may impact the encroachment that they have created. And how do we get there? I don’t think creating more institutions with super powers is the solution. And this is because an institution, no matter how noble the idea behind it, is only as good or as bad as the people staffing it.

At the turn of the 20th century, yes so long back, USA faced a similar dilemma. The chasm between the rich and the poor had grown. Conservation was fast becoming a dirty word due to the industrial growth and the power and sway of a few business conglomerates over the fate of country and its people were growing to unsustainable and dangerous levels. The JPMorgans, the Rockefellers and the Carnegies were ruling from their high perch. From this uncertain times emerged the first modern president, Theodore Roosevelt, who became the president only because the elected president, William McKinley, was shot dead. Using his charisma and an urgent sense to do what is best for the country, Roosevelt broke down monopolies, saved millions of acres of forests, took big business to task and put America on the path not only to become the most powerful and rich but also probably one of the most equitable societies in the world. And the American dream was truly bor. Now anyone with sheer hard work could reach the highest levels of society.

India, more than a century later, is at the same crossroads. By no means the two countries face the same issues or can solve it in the same way, but at a higher level, the broad narrative is the same. And the solutions may be similar. We need a participative, vibrant, people driven democracy, which doesn’t stop at candlelit vigils but starts there and ends with forceful participation at all levels. It comes from not looking away when your family or your friend or you are benefitting from something that skews the level playing field. The majority has to find their moral compass and live to it. Idealism is not dead – it is thriving and we can make it work if we all become true to our own moral compass. That is the beauty and power of democracy. The moral compass that I am talking about doesn’t let me moralize on what clothes someone wears or what movies someone watches. It is tolerant, open, allows for multiple viewpoints and doesn’t judge. That is what makes us different and poised to achieve the potential we have.

Education: The second key thing to achieve our destiny is education – the quantity, the quality, the creativity and the access to it. We cannot build institutions overnight. It comes with patience, perseverance and investment. Why do I believe it is so important? It is important because it opens our mind to possibilities, to tolerance, to options and to my next key theme opportunities. The evolution of the human mind is a process and a journey. Our thoughts and beliefs are shaped by our background, our family, parents, siblings and friends. As we grow, we get exposed to more and more of these and by struggling through all of it, by reasoning and evolving is what makes us who we are as a person. This process cannot be wished away. A kid, who is denied an opportunity to learn, may as well be relegated to second tier citizenship for the rest of her life with no hope and no chance for the future.

How do we achieve success in this area as a nation? We have to focus on the quantity aspect first. The topic of education and the importance of it is so universally accepted that sometimes we don’t focus on it enough. Let me take a couple of examples as to why the progress we have made so far is not enough. First of all, education only servers its actual purpose when it is not used as a tool of indoctrination and secondly, the universal education model never works either through government decree or by charity. The onus is on the entrepreneurs and socially conscious folks to come up with a sustainable, profitable model for education and free it of the indoctrination of the government and religious education.

I would like to draw a parallel with the transportation industry. As long as the transportation industry was elitist and existed to serve only the privileged clients, it didn’t really become the agent of change and the global integrator of today. Only the advent of mass transportation for example, in the form of a cost conscious airline with a sustainable and profitable model such as a Southwest Airlines, it truly evolved into the force it is today. We need a similar explosion in education in India – of quantity and access – with some basic standards. The second point is equally important – think through our history – downfalls of vibrant civilizations have come about when education has become a tool for indoctrination. Be it the dark ages in Europe or the centuries that India spent under foreign rule, descent from a relatively prosperous heritage coincided with the subjugation of masses and deterioration of education as a tool of knowledge attainment. Nations that don’t have locally planned and morally neutral education system descend in chaos or waddle in mediocrity at best. Once we solve the access to and quantity of educational system come the problem of quality and creativity. Quality education is exhilarating, it sets us free. It is the feeling of elation that comes with reading say R. K. Narayan’s simplicity or Oscar Wilde’s beauty of prose or  Naipaul’s audacity of thought or Rushdie’s pompousness of scope. How many of us who went through the education system say 10-15 years back remember the teachers or the classes or the lessons. Invariably, the ones we remember are the eclectic bunch, who didn’t follow the prevailing paradigm. You may remember the one teacher who taught with emotion and persona, or one who told stories or the one who took us out of the classrooms to touch and feel and smell things. Be it a lesson in science being brought to life by using the finger as the object that transforms into any living thing or the history lesson intertwined with stories that we can relate to, is all that you remember. Not to deny the fact we also remember the eccentric ones or the pathetic ones. But the point I am trying to make is that unless we bring that delight back in the early years, we will create a conventional moralistic middle class. To break free of what is called the ‘middle class trap’, we need education to liberate, to challenge and to rebel. We need it to create the innovators, the agitators, the artists and the eccentrics. Remember, all ground breaking creativity is by an individual or a small group of people. Mass production never creates path breaking innovation. And that’s why we need to move out of this mass produced mediocrity and focus on individuality and creativity.

Opportunity: As I had stated earlier, all this potential will remain so unless we find the right opportunity for our creatively educated and well governed youngsters. When I talk about opportunity, my focus is not just on jobs creation or careers. That is just a part of it. Opportunity for me means that every individual has the courage, conviction and security to be able to fail. It means that failure is not looked down upon but encouraged and applauded and so is risk taking. This may hit home with a lot of you, I think. How many of you feel the itch to do something beyond what you are doing, feel the urge to go out and try something different – and how many of you have done so? Majority of folks I have known over the years, and I have had the privilege of knowing some incredibly smart and driven individuals, are still what I call in a conventional career. Now there is nothing wrong with that if that is what you love and enjoy and are good at. But if you are not then this fear of the unknown creates the lack of opportunity and stops us from being the history shapers of the world. Unless we have the culture of entrepreneurship across the board, formal economy with large businesses is not going to solve the problem of opportunity. Another reason for this is as technology improves, productivity at large factories will improve dramatically, meaning fewer humans will be needed to do the same amount of work. Now trying to prevent it is the stupidest choice we can make – remember the movie Naya Daur with Dilip Kumar and Vyjanthi Mala? Wal-Mart’s efficiency and low prices have done more to bring poor folks in USA into middle class than anything that the governments have collectively done over the last 40 years. What we need to do is create opportunities outside the mainstream. To give an example, just how many folks the IPL has helped employ, which wasn’t even around till a few years back. Private profit making healthcare services, educational services, small scale specialized manufacturing, and research & innovation are the areas that a mature economy and society move to. We will always have the opportunities and need for people in the traditional economy but to provide our creative, educated working age people, the right outlets to showcase what they have to offer, the right avenues for trying what they are best at and the right structure to let them fail is the single most important factor. We are seeing some of this happening already but for a country as large as India, to truly achieve its potential, we need to create a massive engine. A few steps I can think of that will help is universal social security, mandatory health insurance, easily accessible funding and efficient, transparent and reliable financial system – this will create the framework that encourages and institutionalizes this behavior. If you look at the developed world, majority of private employment comes from the small to medium enterprises, the local bakery shop, the local barber shop and the farmers market to name a few. We already have some of it in India – we need to elevate their image and provide a security net around it.

Resource & Infrastructure: What provides the basis for everything we talked about to succeed. It is the appropriate management of resources and providing the infrastructure to make everything work. There are five aspects to it in my opinion – conservation, energy, transportation, housing and civic amenities. I know all of you may have heard and read about Jairam Ramesh’s frequent observations about the lack of restrooms in India, especially for women. Though I don’t agree with all his policies and all his ideas, this is one where Ramesh has it 100 percent right. Just getting adequate toilets for women across India will do more to make their lives better than all other incentives the government provides right now. I will actually go out on a limb and even say that this investment will increase our productivity at least by 30-40% as a nation. And I will not stop at that. Core amenities such as sewage, garbage disposals, parks etc. create the fabric of a society and make us a little more accommodating, cooperating  and improves everyone’s life. I am not talking about the elitist apartment complexes and the housing societies that are coming but the availability of basic amenities for the masses in the lower strata.

Conservation is equally if not more important. With a country of our size, diversity and population, it is especially important for us to live and breathe nature and conserve it. It does not stop at being green or recycling but becomes a habit in our daily life. Water conservation, energy conservation and conservation of the eco system around us as a daily part of our life is what will make a true difference and leave a world to our next generations that will make them marvel at our foresight and intelligence. Conservation of the brand preached by the politicians is the worst form of what I have in mind. It cannot be a tool to stop progress, to stop industrialization. It is rather a model that creates a balance between all elements of our society and consequently between us and nature.

The other three – energy, transportation and housing – go together. These are the three critical elements of the infrastructure that allows free movement of people and goods, creating more opportunities and helping everyone reap the benefits of capitalism. With the increasing urbanization of our country, by some estimates urban share of our population may become 50-55% over the next 20 years, these five aspects become even more critical. But India as a country cannot copy either the suburban model of the USA, because we don’t have the same natural resources, or the inequitable urbanization model of China, which is not sustainable in the long run. We need to come up with our own solution to this and we need to come up with it quickly as some of the urban centers are already seeing the sprawl, Bangalore being a prime example. We need to customize the solution to housing, infrastructure and energy issues by creating self-sustaining townships that use land and other resources optimally – through a combination of high rises for both residential and business purposes and all amenities such as education, banking, shopping etc. contained in the township within a walking distance or a short ride on mass transportation systems.

To summarize, I believe, what I have laid out above is a starting point of a grand plan to achieve our potential as a nation and be the beacon of hope for the rest of the world. We are at a very critical juncture in the history of our nation and our civilization. Failure is not an option as we will not only fail ourselves but our next generation and mankind as a whole. And unless we find another earth that we can easily relocate to, this is as important as it can be. Till the next one, keep humming.

Some Random Thoughts

This job is keeping me busy and am not able to write as frequently as I would like to but anyway here I am back with some random thoughts. Thanks all for your comments - esp. Debu, Ritesh bhai and VJ - thanks for writing in. It is very encouraging.
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Have you ever thought about why we get into this debate of whether a movie based on a book is better or if the book is better. Invariably I have seen people saying the book was better but I beg to differ. Most of the times, in my opinion, the movies have been markedly better, at least the ones I have seen - couple of examples I can think of at the top of my mind - Godfather (my all time favorite), Shawshank Redemption, Guide, even Malgudi Days (the tv serial) to some extent. And no, I have neither read nor watched the Harry Potter series.

I have always thought about why this discrepancy in people's opinion and recently I think I came up with the answer.

As always, a lot of our thoughts and actions are due to our prejudices and unconscious mind. And this is no different. From the very beginning of one's existence and as soon as the thought process takes shape, all over the world, the written word is accorded more intelligence and more importance compared to what we can watch - and for good reasons for kids as that helps develop their mind. But this prejudice stays with us even when we grow up and we tend to look down upon movie and television as a medium compared to books. And mind you, I am a book snob and connoisseur myself so I am not saying this lightly.

Tell me what you all think - join the debate.
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Another question that has intrigued me recently is this - can humans continue to make the progress that we are  making these days and continue to push the boundaries in every field? Or is there an end to our ingenuity, a limit to our intelligence? Consider this - we have made more progress in the last 100 years than we made in the last 200,000 years of our existence; more progress in the last 25 years than the last 2500 years and so on. Where will this stop? What is the limit? Can we solve global warming? Can we colonize other planets and increase our chances of survival from climate change, meteorite crash or similar other disasters? As I am thinking and I am reading - science and philosophy continue to evolve - the two main branches of thinking that I think make progress possible. Miniaturization is helping us do more and more with less and less. I believe our kids in their lifetime will go to other planets - and their kids may be first ones to be able to go out of our solar system. The possibilities are endless.

I used to be fascinated with the concept of time travel - which in simple terms is possible if we can travel faster than light. But recent studies have shown that even particles of light cannot travel faster than light, putting a dampener on the concept. But we live and learn. We will see what happens in the next 20 years. We already can create live beings, short changing evolution, so I will not be surprised if we are able to find more laws of universal physics that we don't know yet and that can help us get ever closer to the limits.

I get giddy just thinking about it and there are just too many possibilities to discuss - maybe more details in a later blog but wanted to bring this thought out now.
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How the mighty have fallen - and yes I am talking about the Indian cricket team. After securing the sanity of a generation earlier this year, now they cannot hit a watermelon with a bed sized bat. What happened? Is this the old inconsistency, or the complacency or the impact of some "outsider" and just to remind everyone and make it interesting - sports betting is legal in England. Somehow it just evokes a shrug from me these days and that raises another question - can we train our mind to stop being involved and stop getting impacted by what is going on around us. How powerful are we? And that is with a smirk on my face.

But somehow I am more interested in the new Premier League season starting than the travails of our cricket team and I hope the Red Devils win the Champions League this year beating the divers from Catalonia and yes I will happily give the League Crown for that. Amen!! But all you "mad about cricket" folks - what do you think happened here?
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Just saw the news of Shammi Kapoor passing away. Here goes another great man - may God rest his soul!! I am a big admirer of Shammi Kapoor not only for his contribution to movies, but more for the trailblazer he was in all the walks of life. I remember reading about him in either school or college as a key pioneer and one of the first users of internet in India to name just one of his many interests. World will be so much poorer without him.

Till the next one,
Rajnish.

What is wrong with series - India

INTOLERANCE. Not to say that this is the most important one but is certainly the most ignored one and in my belief one to look at if we want to make the leap from a good nation to a great nation.

There was a little noticed event recently that made me stop and think – how much progress have we made as a nation if someone like MF Husain cannot even die and be buried in the land of his ancestors. I am not qualified to comment on his artistic capabilities as unlike the written word, I do not have much knowledge about things on a canvas.  But to come to think of it that a person of his stature and individuality had to go on a self imposed exile at an advanced age, relinquish Indian citizenship and die in a foreign country, shakes me to the core. It tugs at the little piece of Indian-ness that I want to carry inside me always as a proof of belonging to and being part of an ancient, tolerant and plural culture.

Isn’t India the country that always touts to have been able to absorb everything that has come in or has been thrown at her? As a country we have survived so many ups and downs for the last 10000 years. I am not sure how one man – no matter how imposing he looked with his tall frame and flowing white hair – can be deemed a threat to all of it, unless it is done to wrangle some extra votes from the masses or to hide people’s own inadequacies. We have cities like Banaras, and I have been fortunate to spend 4 years there, said to have a continuous history of 5000+ years, a city where Gods dwelled at one time and even with all the issues and problems there, you could still feel the energy, the ancientness, the cultural milieu every where you go. And this is a city that has been plundered and fought upon and rebuilt over the ages. We have temples like at Somnath – again destroyed and rebuilt over 20 times and 1500 years. Not sure how a few paintings can destroy or put to risk something so resilient. How many of our temples have similar paintings and sculptures to the ones that got MF Husain in trouble and even though Mr. Husain seemed to be 400-500 years old with his looks, I doubt he was around to build and paint all of it. I don’t hear anyone renouncing those temples or filing a petition to build drapes around these temples to ensure they don’t corrupt or insult our culture. Are the divine so weak that they need protection and support from us mortals like they are politicians looking for vote and financing. And the worst part is that some of our courts deemed fit to issue non-bailable warrants to this guy – who was an embodiment of the art and culture and tolerance of India.

Who is to blame for this – the zealots who have more brawn than brains or the politicians or us who elect them and perpetuate them? I was reading recently about the slain governor of Pakistan, Salman Taseer and his 22 year old very pretty reporter daughter. Most of us will remember the reception his murderer received but what is more noteworthy is the fact that all the people and parties who came out in support of the murderer never win any elections in Pakistan. Discounting some of the corrupt practices that may be prevalent in elections and garnering and falsifying votes, it still goes to show that the support they receive is from a very small minority but that is all we hear about the incident and the country. Though some of us may bristle at the thought of this comparison but my simple question is – how is that any different than what happened to MF Husain? Though there may not have been processions celebrating his demise, but the incidents have the same outline. And to add insult to injury our government offered to bring his body to India for a burial – the same folks who wouldn’t defend him, protect him, offer to bring him back while he was alive, give him protection from frivolous lawsuits, had the audacity to put forth that offer. I was so glad to hear that his family politely and strongly refused and made sure that this will be etched on the country of India as a whole as a matter of shame forever – similar to our capitulation to the Kandahar hijackers or government’s betrayal of the armed forces in the war of 1962.

I don’t know if you have watched the movie 15 Minutes starring De Niro and Edward Burns – movie itself was average but it touched upon this weighty subject of everyone’s desire to have their 15 minutes of fame. I think a lot of what is afflicting India today is this mindset. Couple of years I was surprised to read of protests in Patna and Ranchi and some other cities in India against the supposed ill treatment meted out to “Bharat ki Beti” Shilpa Shetty on the Big Boss show in UK. Now I have no interest in these reality shows but this really piqued my interest. I couldn’t think of a reason as to what can possibly connect the protesters in Patna and Ranchi and Indore and Madurai to Ms. Shetty, who was probably following a script anyway and got a million dollars and a multi millionaire out of all the drama. But that incident goes to show how far our brethren are willing to go to get the needed attention. Attaching a party or organization for or against someone so visible as MF Husain or Dilip Kumar or Amitabh Bachan or Aamir Khan among others is a sure fire way to stardom. And this is not just restricted to them but the judicial system, and the posse of useless intellectuals who call themselves journalists in India. Why cannot cases as frivolous as the ones against MF Husain or the movie Delhi Belly be just dismissed and the petitioner fined for wasting court’s and everyone’s time and banned from filing another petition for 2 years. That will solve a lot of issues and give the courts time to focus on real issues. But no, when petitions like these give the courts, the judges, the petitioners, the lawyers and the journalists their 15 minutes and who are we to break this juggernaut.

I didn’t really understand his paintings as I stated earlier and didn’t watch any of his movies either, though I believe they were mediocre at best but I am ashamed that we couldn’t celebrate him, critique him, argue with him, dislike him, laugh at him, mock him and praise him as an Indian, in India till his death and then let him be buried where he belonged. As I write this with a heavy heart I truly believe that more than anything else Intolerance is what worries me about India and her growth or maybe the very survival.

Down the Memory Lane - 1

How many times it has happened when you are walking down the street or driving and you hear a tune and it brings back a flood of memories of days gone by rushing back? Sometimes it is just a thought or even a certain smell or the way the clouds are in the sky or the way sky looks. I am sure we all have lived through these moments that bring a smile to our faces and an extra spring to our steps. Now one thing I always wonder about these memories are how come all these trips down the memory lane are almost always positive - very rarely do we remember the struggles, the travails or the hardships of days gone by. Instead it always is the friendships, the food and the fun that comes rushing to our minds. Is it a human way of optimizing our existence and keeping just the most life enforcing parts with us and discard the rest of it - an Evolutionary Theory for Memory per se - and what role does it play in our own evolution as a person, development as a human being? Anyway, I am not going to go all Freud on you and try and delve into the deeper mysteries of the human mind, though I wish I could do that, but rather I wanted to share my amazement at the power of mind and memories in shaping our current view point of the world and our lives.

You must have heard this argument a gazillion times where someone compares today's music, pop culture or any other aspect in vogue and dismisses it with a generic statement on the lines of "Oh! This no way compares to the XYZ (fill in whatever you want to here) of days gone by". Now we have heard this in 80s as a kid when dismissing the music scene of that time compared to 70s, same thing in 90s compared to 80s and so on. Now those same dismissed eras are coming back and have provided all of us with masterpieces compared to the drivel today - here we go again. Now who is to say that a Choli is better than a Sheela or a Munni or Tamma Tamma or Jumma Chumma scores over Paisa Paisa or any of those Himesh Reshamiyaa songs. And this discrimination or nostalgia is not restricted to the music scene only - the mangoes were sweeter then, or the Sun was brighter, which though may be the case or that Dhyanchand was better than Dhanraj or whatever else catches our fancy at any time to be compared. Irrespective, with a few exceptions, the past always wins except for when we are comparing say a clear cut winner that either didn't have a direct comparison or beats down the past options handily. And have you also noticed that most of these arguments hailing past is best almost always are about softer aspects of life and never about material and / or fact based aspects. 

So why do we play these games - is it to lull ourselves into thinking that we have had a charmed life so far and feel happy about it or is it just because we don't remember any better or is it just a way of protecting ourselves and gaining inspiration to do better in future. I think it is a combination of all three.

Consider this, what I have seen most of the time is that a memory of something is much more powerful and pleasant than the actual thing - it is like playing a song that we remember hearing as a kid - Hawa Hawa anyone? - and we have this grandiose vision of the quality of it, but if you really listen to it again, more often than not you will find that it was mediocre to say the best. Not trying to spoil the memories for us all as these are but small aberrations.

Enough said already. My goal was not to go into the semantics of why memories are so powerful and what they mean but rather dissect some of them.

Don't we all get nostalgic at times? The earliest trip I can take down the memory lane is probably to the time when I was a couple of years in this world. Now that is a neat thing if you really think about it - but it is not more than a collage of sights, sounds, smells and backgrounds fairly indistinguishable from each other. But one thing that we can all relate to are sports, movies and music of our times. I have been lucky and spoiled to have discovered some great ones early in my life. And needless to say that I truly believe that some of them helped shape the way I think and who I am in life. And don't laugh:), there was a recent article published based on a series of studies providing proof that memories do help determine where one will end up. I remember reading Malgudi Days among other books as a kid and what mesmerized me was how simple the writing was and still it captivated my imagination. That told me that we need not complicate things to make them compelling. I believe that is a very powerful lesson. How many times with our analysis and zealousness, we complicate simple things in life and make it so much harder. If it was only as simple and straightforward as it was for Swami and friends then a lot of issues will resolve itself. And to think that we all start that way to begin with but somehow our outlook gets clouded on the way.

On the other spectrum are Oscar Wilde and Sir Vidia - every line that they write is full of complexity and a quote by itself - and that goes to show that when you really have true mastery over your art, you can make complex things look so simple and bare bones that we can all connect to. Look at what goes on in Mr Jobs mind and you will know what I am talking about - he is the techno version of Sir Vidia or Oscar Wilde. Now that is another one of my theory that I would expand on one of these days. But coming back to the memory thing - what I was trying to say is that keeping things simple most of the time is the best way forward - as only a few of us can lay the claim to be geniuses we are better off keeping things as simple as possible.

I will leave you to munch on that 'simple' thought for some time. But as the number 1 in the title indicates there will be more trips down the memory lane - starting with my thoughts on books and music and movies. And this time it will be a faster turn around. So bring on your thoughts and trips.

P.S. Look forward to your comments

The Year When It Is All Coming Together

Now you may think I am talking about some personal achievements but for a nut like me - obviously that is not the case. I am talking about the gigantic year it has been in the arena of sports and politics for me - who would have imagined that 2011 will be the year when government in India will start looking at corruption in a serious light, and the common man in India will give a befitting reply to all arrogant politicians and also the year when India will win the first world cup for the current generation of fanatics. To top it all, my adopted clubs Manchester United have won the Premiership and are in the finals of Champions League where hopefully they will beat the lights out of the team of Messi + 3 (Iniesta, Xavi and Villa) and a bunch of babies, and Dallas Mavericks swept the mighty L(F)akers in second round when no one gave them a chance and be in line to at least reach the NBA finals.

Let us evaluate the events of this momentous year one at a time - and I will start with my first passion Politics. It is hard to tell when I got hooked on to it but in India with its flawed but thriving democracy, it is one of the three things that you cannot miss - the other two being cricket and places of worship - no matter where you go. Having politically active parents and relatives did not help; I had read A Brief History of Communism in USSR before I ever saw a movie on my own and was following the NTR revolution in Andhra when I didn't even know anything about what Telugu Desam really meant. I have traversed the journey of being a communist - between my nappy days to around age 10 - to being a BJP/RSS supporter - during my teen years - and the current passive liberal "world is what you make of it" and "humanity is the only party I know" stance for the last 12-15 years and which I am happy to admit is the place I wanna be for the rest of my life.

Now you may ask - how is this piece of nostalgia relevant to what I was referring to about this year being the momentous one - so here it goes. The primary reason for me going from an active communist to fire brand fanatic to my current passive liberal state was the slow but unmistakable realization of the fact that it is not the case of a couple of dirty fish in the pond - the entire pond was unmistakably shallow and full of grime. That turned me and my idealistic zeal off and I became an onlooker - fully realizing that it is this attitude that perpetuates the whole thing and creates our own veritable Catch 22 situation.

But the events in the past few months are giving me hope again and the tide seems to be turning slowly but surely towards a better and more balanced future. It all started with the seemingly hopeless and lawless, I might add, land from where I hail - Bihar. The elections this past year clearly showed that people of this poor, illiterate and once written off state are ready to blaze the trail again. The oft repeated phrase of "you get the rulers you deserve" could not have been more appropriate when the silent majority decided that it was time to rise up and above from their petty disputes to give hope and progress for all a chance - and the cleaner person and party won. It is really irrelevant here as to who this person is and what party affiliations he has, the more important part is the fact that he and his allies won a two third majority which has been impossible in the fractious politics of India er evsince we threw our colonial masters out. That brutal and clear as a blue sky mandate showed to all that there can be a glimmer of hope in the starkest of landscape. As I said earlier, it really does not matter who the winner is in the big scheme of things - what matters is that people identified who the right person for the job was and gave him the power, in no uncertain terms, to do the job right. Now how often can we say that about any organization and that is where the optimism lies.

To be honest, I dismissed that as one positive aberration among a litany of gloomy happenings. And when the scourge of corruption made a comeback with a vengeance, I thought my wildest fears are coming to fruition. But among all my cynical commentary, I was noticing something very different. The issues this time as usual were big enough, scary enough and systemic enough but the brazen defense of it all was not a systemic one. For example, not everyone in a particular party or group was blindly supporting someone embroiled directly in the dirty deeds. This was a major departure from the past where a seemingly impregnable fortress had been built time and again by the accused group to protect itself - be it Bofors, Coffin, Hawala, Tehelka or other such scams in the long history of politics of scam in India. And then the tremors became a giant wave and the wheels of justice started turning in the right direction - admittedly slowly and reluctantly at first but gathering steam and speed soon after. The end game is not any closer and we may never get to the bottom of it, but how many times in the past we have been able to claim as a nation to have put in jail 70-80% of the primary accused of a case, including some very high profile ones. Now I will be the first one to accept that this is a small victory, but take my word, it is nothing if not a significant one, that sets a precedent for future. No matter who is in power tomorrow, they cannot always hide behind the excuse of the previous regime not having done something visible and drastic.

And then came the big one that had made me stop in my tracks and take notice - five states, five elections and all but one decisively in favor of the better alternative - now in one case the better alternative was the incumbent one and people realized it and supported it, makes it even more decisive than it would have been other wise, which is if people would have opted for change for the sake of change. But no, in this new brave world order, the people have seized power with a new found enthusiasm and become the beacon of rationality and reason - seemingly impossible till a few months back. Not to say that it is for certain that all newly crowned will pass the litmus test but at least they have the fear in their heart that if they do not perform they will perish without any doubt. And look at the participation - how many times in the history of democracy in India have you heard 85% people deciding to make their collective voices heard? The cloak of apathy is being shredded.

To top it all, there is this small matter of Lokpal to add to it. Now in my opinion, it has been given more importance than it deserves and even more than the events I have talked about above - for the simple reason that a law is as good as the enforcement and finally it is the people in charge of implementing it that matter the most. Also, the other issue I have with this item is the "Bandwagon Revolutionaries" - which I define is seemingly normal folks who either to stroke their revolutionary ego in the best case or to hide their conscience in the worst case attach themselves to something they think will make them look more humane, more in touch and a cut above the rest. I know, I know - strong words these are but more on my theory of "Bandwagon Revolutionaries" in a later post.

I am exuberant internally and hopeful externally not to say with a lot less faux intelligent cynicism about the state of affairs. And I have realized one more thing - what is even better than being a passive liberal - yes you guessed it - being an active liberal. And god willing I will be one some day. But here is to hope and to a new beginning.

Best till the next - and more on my theory of how all the events are connected in one big cosmic equation of balance!!

Rajnish

P.S. Please leave your valuable comments / feedback / suggestions.