Words are Weariness

It is a long held belief  amongst the uncles and aunts of my generation that 'The Hindu'  was an epitome of both English language writing and fair news reporting. When I grew up I understood that these uncles and aunts do not read anything much  and follow the family tradition just like they patronize 'Filter Coffee' or 'Carnatic music'. That 'The Hindu' had long become 'The Chindu', cannot be lost on those who are even mildly discerning. Perfidous ‘The Hindu’  would like us to believe 'China' as a friend and US as our enemy. For this purpose it even plays up the victim hood of muslims as it has done in a recent article on Iraq. The idea is if muslims can be herded to hate US, the vote-hungry politicians of India will tilt against US. It is tantalizing prospect for our vote-bank seeking politicans to champion the cause of muslims for wrong reasons, as witnessed in the case of  Danish cartoon protests, Osama's killing ( rememb

I had a fascination of James Hadley Chase novels when I was in School/College.  I used to specially like the  titles of his books. The crisp and stylish phrases like ‘ Tiger by the tail’, ‘Like a hole in the head’, ‘Dead stay dumb’,   ‘Y’re lonely when you are dead’ , ‘Vulture is a patient bird’ hold me in thrall to this day even after I have out grown his novels. When I observe the  the Paksitani army and its ruling elite, I see these titles in new context, as fitting descriptions of their shenanigans. 1.‘ Goldfish has no hiding place ’ reminds you of their attempt to hide Osama in their military base. 2. ‘ A Lotus for Miss Kyon’ / ‘ No orchids for Miss Blandish ’  would have been a fitting epitaph on  on Benazir Bhutto’s grave. 3. ‘ Dead stay dumb’   could well be the tagline for the the official policy of muzzling Balochi rebels by large scale killing and dumping  tortured and murdered dead bodies all across Balochistan. 4. ‘ Like a hole in the head’ reminds you of their pursuit

I  used to avoid bollywood movies till as recently  as 2005.  In the two decades previous to it, I have scarcely sat through a movie.  Me and my wife will decide to go to see a movies after coming  to know of its general popularity. That is how we ended up going for DDLJ and HAKH. My wife will join me in walking out after the first 10-15 minutes  feeling strangely relived. The recent films, especially those made for the Multiplexes are making me sit up and watch. This year,the best according to me was ‘Shor in the City’, a delightful parody on life in Mumbai. The screen-play, acting and editing were of the top order.   I saw Ishkya,  Saheb, Gulam and Gangster, Dirty Picture. Each of them meritorious in its own way.  Ishkya and Dirty Picture shows how  intelligence actors make huge difference to the movies they work in.  I missed  Dhobi Ghat, Shaitan, 7KM, Girl in Yellow boots.  I do not want to miss out movies of directors like Anurag Kashyap / Vishal Bhardwaj next time. Trends confir

2011  is a kind of watershed year.  Late 40s and early 50s saw the birth of many nations freeing themselves  from the yoke of colonialism .  90s saw the breakup of the socialist block.  No less important is the arab spring of 2011. Who could predict it?  Barring Isreal,  all countries in the middle-east  came under the rule of  dictators or military junta after they won freedom from the European colonists . They ruled their countries/kingdoms  using force, often buying protection from US and others out of fear of each other. Having been civilizations born out of a totalitarian faith that sees things in terms of Halal / Haram Dar-al-arab / Dar-ul-Islam, they have neither the institutional capacity nor developed sinews of democratic functioning .  The bottled up old animosities of sectarianism and tribalism  have come to the fore.  There is no democrat like Nehru or  conscience keepers of the freedom movement  like  Rajaji, Kamaraj, Acharya Kriplani, Vinoba, Azad and Nanaji Deshmukh,  n

I had taken time off from blogging, half owing to preoccupation with my daughter’s marriage and half owing to the weariness of seeing all this unending demagoguery and vitriol on TV and print medium.  When I look back at my last post, I notice much water had flown under the bridge and plenty to catch up ever since. 2011 has been an eventful year.  We effectively saw the country being run not by the government but by NGOs , whether  Maoist , Gandhian or of other persuasions in between.  The Government was forced to place a Lokpal bill before parliament , sleep-walk into a Food security legislation and stop work in a nuclear plant nearing fruition much against its wishes by these NGOs.  The Lokpal and the Food security legislation could be a Frankenstein ( or if you prefer from Hindu mythology, Basmasura).   Both could blow away our  government finances  so much that fiscal consolidation as outlined in FRBM  will be a mere pie in the sky.  Bleary-eyed social activism is poor substitute

Fukushima had its first victim in distant shores, Kudankulam in South Tamil Nadu. The four people who have so far died at the plant have not been victims of radiation. Not even Japan has proposed to close any of its functioning reactors nor decided to forsake the nuclear option for power generation! It is in fact likely that Japan builds a new plant with better safety features at the same location! There are 441 working nuclear reactors deployed for power generation the world over. China has the largest number of 12 in advanced stages of completion with another 18 in the pipeline! Except for Germany, nobody has talked of closing down or abandoning nuclear power. France has about 70% of power sourced from nuclear facilities. The nuclear scientist who came on the Times Now TV talk show could not hide his exasperation. He was arraigned in front of Sunita Narain of pepsi fame and another voluble professional activist who was trying to draw parallel to Bhopal Gas Tragedy!. The scientist

“Journalism is unreadable and Literature is unread” is one of Oscar Wildes famous wisecracks.  Journalism of the 'The Hindu' ( or 'The Chindu' as some would prefer) kind is tiresome and full of insidious pontification. Have you ever come across a genuinely humourous article in 'The Hindu' ? Of all genere of creative work, humour is the most difficult. That is why most wannabe writers settle for the pedantic like yours very truly here. I have a small collection of rare instances of eminently readable articles in humour and satire that have appeared in the press. Most of them are from Pakistani writers, yes, a society in distress produces the best in its writers, and a few Indian. Here is one that has appeared in the latest edition of “The Outlook”, http://www.outlookindia.com/article.aspx?278250 . The writer is one of those directors who are redining Bollywood for us. Having lived in the Punjabi part of Delhi myself for more than a decade, I could live thr

http://carnegieendowment.org/files/pakistan_dysfunction.pdf The link above is a Policy Outlook authored by George Perkovich recommending a course correction for US vis-a-vis Pakistan. The analysis is accurate when, in one broad sweep from 1947,  captures the evolution of Pakistan as the 'migraine of the world'. But curiosly, the author is suggesting that  if Pakistan is today a demented dog, some blame is to be placed on America and in fact, the whole world for Overindulging India! We are not taken in by America and the West wooing us, sir. They are doing it in their own self-interest. The author has cited slow progress on the Samjauta case and in the same breath adds that the perpetrators of Gujarat and Ayodhya violence has not been brought to justice!. While admitting that Paksitani nationals were killed in Samjauta terrorism, pray how is Pakisan concerned with gujarat and ayodhya ? Does the author think Pakistanis were killed in Gujarat or  is India  ethnic-c

Inflation I am frequently invited by our HR Department to do interviews. I generally get to do the 'Management Rounds' after the candidates have been filtered thru the 'Technical Rounds'.. The goals of the Management rounds are a bit vague. You get a good opportunity to look into the minds of our young professionals, nevertheless. I generally ask them topical questions and to my dismay, I never got a good answer to questions related to inflation, interest rates , gold prices etc. Mind you, these candidates are not pure techies but most would have done their post-graduation in Management. I am sure they would have at least one paper on macro-economics in their course. Seldom do they go beyond the text book definition of 'Too much money chasing too few goods” and fail to contextualize and reason what is happening in our economy. They can only relate to inflation as it affects them and their budgets and betray their middle-class bias in favour of the Government '

How would you deal with a country that holds a gun to its head as it negotiates with the world? How would you engage with a neighbour whose elite are bent upon creating chaos in their own country out of spite? This is one ring-side view you never wished for.   More on it later.   How things to came to such a pass?   It is a long story. When Pakistani intellectuals discuss their descent, you are reminded of Atticus's children in the Harper Lee's famous 'To Kill a Mocking Bird'.    Some say it all started with Musharraf   joining the Bush's   war on terror, some say it is the fallout of   Zia-Ul-Haq's 11 year rule , his deadly embrace   of US and his wholesale import of Saudi Wahhabism, still others say it was inevitable when even the most charismatic and powerful civilian ruler aka Z.A Bhutto had to play to the Islamic gallery to stay in power, some even go as far back as   the days of Objective Resolution when Liaquat Ali Khan proposed that sovereignty belong