How a blind man saw

How a blind man saw

Little did Sonali Kulkarni think it possible when she met Naseer Khan and Rohit Nayyar in Hotel Marriott in Mumbai that a movie with visually challenged Naseer Khan as a sharp-shooter. 'Shadow' produced by Naseer Khan himself, is the first time a blind person is playing the lead role of a person who can see.

If films are to be a grand spectacle, then this film promises to be so. The USP of this action thriller is that stunts like jumping from a car on fire, riding the jetski, shooting a man in an airplane and jumping into the sea with a jetski, ridding a horse, racing a car and bike in different sequence are performed by Naseer without the aid of a double.

Naseer Khan plays the lead role of Arjun Sherwat, a serial killer whom the police is not able to nab for six months. Sanjana (Sonali) is the cop who is entrusted with the task to capture The TV reporter Sheetal Pradhan (Hrishita Bhatt) who is in love with another reporter Rahul(Milind Soman) passes a report to the cops about the next target of Arjun Sherwat. Sajana shoots down Arjun, only to know in a short while that real the Arjun is still alive and kicking.

The movie is not just a motivator for visually challenged. “It should be a motivator for all those who are down in life” says Naseer. The movie is but an extension of the personal triumph of Naseer, who has

Naseer whose hometown is Kanpur , was born with cataract. Though being operated several times he could only regain 15 to 20 per cent sight of one eye. At the age of eight a house tutor was arranged for his basic education. Later he completely lost all eye sight, after dropping in and out of school several times. He learned to repair electronic goods,then went on to leather tanning business(and became one of the best known tanneries in Kanpur), became the first blind person to pass all the four Microsoft certification and stated Computer education centres(IIHT and Inset chains are owned by him), and later ventured into real estate, detergent, and cosmetic business.

Stepping into the Tinsel Town, he faced difficulties as all new-comers would. Besides, acting itself posed an unique challenge to him. Nasser says that it was almost impossible to keep his chin down while saying a dialogue. He used to tie a strap around his neck to keep the chin down while sleeping and he tried to practice it even when talking to people otherwise. The movie, half of which was shot in Thailand captures very beautiful locales; some very perilous locale for shooting. There is a particular water-fall scene and he walking amid several lions which would give even seasoned actors jitters. But Nasser managed it with ease. Sonali says it all through “trust” he places in others. According to her the reason for his success is his success is nothing but trust.

Siting along with his co-star Sonali Kulkarni and director Rohit Nayyar in the Gold Class lounge of Spice Cinema in Noida for the press conference of his film, he grabs the microphone as it is passed to him without fumbling for it. Director Rohit says that such was the energy while shooting for the film that many scenes were done in a single shots. “This gives the movie more natural feel”, he adds.

“Just before entering the conference room Naseer told that I am looking very beautiful today” quips Sonali.

Drought and variable rain to be heeded as climate change impact: World Bank report

A recent world bank report says, the drought or drought-like situation that prevails in India, points to the larger picture of climate change and India's efforts for adaptation. The low monsoon in the current kharif (summer crop) season, is but a wake-up call to the fact that India's farmers will be be one of the worst affected sections of climate change. India with its 57 per cent workforce engaged in agriculture and 20 per cent of the GDP attributable to agriculture, climate change impacts will adversely affect the growth of the country. The report, first of its kind in South-Asia looks at two drought prone regions in Andhra Pradesh and Maharashtra and one flood prone region in Orissa.

India which has extremely varied climatic and geographic conditions, droughts and floods are not uncommon; but what is alarming are its increasing frequencies. From 1900 to 1950 there were six droughts in India. But in the following 50 years there were twelve. In 21^st century alone we witnessed three droughts. 2009 could be the fourth year with the Indian Meteorological Department(IMD) probably declaring it a drought year if the monsoon withdraws by early September. Areas affected by by flood has also doubled in the last 50 years. Floods have occurred every year since 1980 and has substantially increased in 2003 due to which even some drought prone areas were affected.

The report predicts that in Andhra Pradesh a “moderate to harsh climate change scenario” will result in rise of temperature of 2.3 C to 3.4 C and a modest but erratic rainfall of 4% to 8%. This would means a a decline in farmer income by as much as 20 per cent. The worst affected will be kharif crops like rice and jowar. Whereas, in Maharashtra while the yield of jowar and millets will boost farmers incomes by 8% to 10%, the yield of sugarcane which is hugely subsidised, will decline by 30 per cent. A shift to less water-intensive crops will be a solution to this, the report suggests. The report predicts that in Orissa floods will increase dramatically, especially in the coastal regions, leading to decline in paddy yields by as much as 12 per cent.

The report says that there cannot be one solution to agricultural vows and it must be tailored for local conditions. In drought prone areas, climate change impacts should be countered with better water management, besides promotion of climate resilient agriculture, smart subsidies to promote environmentally suited crops and diversifying income by way of micro-credit or insurance to cover initial business risks. The study says “Greater attention must be given to hybrid approaches that emphasize the efficiency of groundwater use and increase the effectiveness of watershed activities to conserve soil moisture and harvest rainwater.” Grand projects for water conservation must be complemented with a people inclusive efforts. The report also says, in the flood-prone areas promoting rainfall-tolerant and shorter duration crops, more careful land-use planning and flood zoning and strengthening system to detect and forecast flood will be the way forward.

Asset development key to development policies: World Bank report

A recent World Bank report calls for retrospection on a slew of developmental policies that have been implemented or are being deliberated in the country. It emphasises on asset creation and a “free and fair” economic playground at the grass-root as the key factors, without which the developmental policies lose its real significance. The research is based on the premise that mere aggregate statistics on poverty leads to sub-optimal policy framing; while some manages to climb out of poverty, others fall into it.

The report, 'Moving Out of Poverty: The Promise of Empowerment and Development' was conducted in four states of Andhra Pradesh, Assam, West Bengal and Uttar Pradesh. It reveals that West Bengal has the highest per cent of people who moved out of poverty. At the same time it also has the maximum number of people who slipped into poverty. In West Bengal 18.8 per cent moved out of poverty, whereas it was 12.8 per cent, 10.6 per cent and 7 per cent in Uttar Pradesh, Andhra Pradesh and Assam respectively. The “fallers” per cent for West Bengal is 7.7, Assam and Uttar Pradesh 5.5 and Andhra Pradesh 3.2. The statistics represent a lack of comprehensive policy framing and implementation. The viscous cycle of poverty gets played out, with some communities recovering from poverty while other slipping into it.

Through the report people cites strengthening of the local governance as an important factor in overcoming poverty. The study finds that in Andhra Pradesh SHGs have remarkably empowered people to overcome caste and gender biases. Regular elections and availability of information is the key to achieve this. The partly successful NREGA has at its worst exposed the criminal nature of Indian bureaucracy and the deplorable state of local governance in the country and at its best proved that people are ready to struggle for their rights, once the basic mechanisms are in place. “NREGA will need to support creation of new economic opportunities in local communities, that contribute directly to asset creation for poor people,”says Deepa Narayan, director of the study. Twelve per cent of the people said multiple income generation in a family is a way to tide over poverty. Kudumbashree, a women's neighbourhood programme in Kerala was a successful in creating multiple incomes to the families.(ELABORATE)

Health,death and social shocks were sighted in the study as a major factor precipitating the fall into poverty. In Assam 51 per cent of the people surveyed said, death and health shocks pushed them into poverty, whereas in Andhra Pradesh it was 32 per cent. The study suggests that health insurance programmes and better access to savings and credits as the cure. Recently, TDP in Andhra Pradesh had made an election promise to directly transfer money to the poor to tackle poverty if it is voted to power. Once in place, through Conditional Cash Transfer(CCT) the government can transfer money to the poor families for a “social contract”--i.e sending children to school or using primary health centres. The money will be transferred electronically and the female member of the family can receive it. Recently Centre for Sustainable Agriculture, endorsed by farmers union and some 100 NGOs has demanded for the same, to all cultivators. This would help in developing of assets such as house and land which the study cites as an important factor in preventing people from descending into poverty.


There is also an increasing need to rescue people especially farmers, who live dangerously close to the margin of poverty. The new policies must not just treat farmers as “primary producers,” but as “a part of the value addition activity.”The report backs M.S Swaminathan's recommendation for Farm Income Commission to the 2009-10 Union Budget.(ELABORATE) The commission could ensure a minimum income for agricultural operations. The study says that the farmers who permanently moved out of poverty were those who invested in building some assets like a house, a tractor or even a bullockcart or a irrigation pump.

The report interviewed 30,000 men and women from across 300 villages. It is a part of 15 country research effort in East Asia, South Asia, Africa and Latin America. It was conducted over a period of ten years from 1995 to 2005.

Mayapuri --a suburb of reality

Mayapuri presents a picture far from what its mythological name connotes. Mayapuri is another name for Haridwar-- “ gateway to the gods.” But this Mayapuri is the gateway to a reality different from that of Lutyens' Delhi. Incidentally Mayapuri, in West Delhi constituency, is from where the richest candidate of Delhi contested the 2009 Lok Shaba election.

As I walked on the Naraina- Mayapuri flyover, I could see the gambrel-roofed FCI warehouses below arranged in rows. Next to it is a bus depot where the monsters basked in the hot sun with their front grills raised, like alligators. Railway tracks separated FCI warehouse and the effluent treatment plant. I held my breath as walked past an open drain running into the effluent plant below.

Next to it is a water-body, which is so nondescript that most residents of the area are not aware of its existence. (I had a harrowing time asking direction to reach it.) I lurched down a pile of glass shreds and concrete rubbles to reach the banks of what is now left of the Mayapuri Lake.

Death of Bhoomian and the loss of innocence.

I felt I had come to keep rose on the tomb of a close friend. A few gulls that flew over it suggested that there were at least a few fishes in the lake. Plastic bottles and human wastes lay on its sides. The bright green grass on one side eating into the lake was in stark contrast to the lack of vegetation where I was standing. I stood there for sometime and I walked along its banks and out through a gate to the main road.

Many years back people in the area used to believe that a powerful spirit called Bhoomian, who lived deep inside the lake, frolicked on its waters. The spirit was believed to have saved many people from drowning. Kids passionately believed in him and elders loved to tell stories about him.

But today, he is definitely not there. He was not just banished but was gradually poisoned to death. The myth now exists only with a few older residents and conservation agencies. Many consider the lake a mere depression “which fills up with water during monsoon.”

Mayapuri Lake, which has a 16.52 acres rich aquifer, first figured in the 1936 Survey of India. And it was there in all the subsequent surveys conducted till 1996—after which no survey was conducted. It is one of the 629 lakes identified to be revived for 2010 Common Wealth Games that is to happen in Delhi.

The lake was a more than five hectares. Now little more than three hectares remain, after DSIDC (Delhi State Industrial Development Authority) built its CETP (Common Effluent Treatment Plant). DISC had initially disagreed that the lake was a water body. But after being proved that it is a lake, the DSIDC compensated by giving an equal amount of land in the nearby Bawana for developing a water body. But the damage was done.

Last year the PWD declared the lake “non-existent” in an RTI reply. In response to this Vinod Jain of the NGO Tapas filed a PIL in the High Court. The petition claims that the lake was under PWD’s jurisdiction till 2003.

The issue was first brought up in 1998 by the NGO, INTACH. Conserving water bodies in Delhi is one of their major activities. Manu Bhattnagar of INTACH says bureaucratic apathy and public detachment, makes conserving natural resources tough.

“They deliberately choose not to know about it.”

“Unless it affects them directly they don’t care,” he adds.

From near the lake I got into another bus that would take me to Mayapuri. After fifteen minutes of ride, the bus-stop names told what the place is about. I passed the bus-stops by the names of “Metal Forging”, “Bobby Soaps”, “Gulab House” (which is an offset printing press) and then “Junk Market” I got down there realizing that Mayapuri was half a kilometer behind.

All the King’s men

I felt a hot whiff of automobile-oil and dust. On one side of the road was a line of tow-trucks, and on the other side were tents made of used vinyl banners and tarpaulins. Hammers, pick-axes, trowels, shovels, frying pans, spades and other odd assortments of iron utensils, were kept outside the tents for sale. They also sold it at the weekly markets. A frying pan is sold for as less as forty rupees and a spade for eighty rupees. There can only be rough estimates how many of them were in this pavement. Police constantly chase them away. The cycle of chasing and returning goes forever. But there could anywhere between 25 to 40 of them in these pavement tents, at a time. Most of them are immigrants from Rajasthan.

Fifty something Vijay Kumar sat in his tent hammering hinges for metal suitcases. Vijay had been foot-loose all his life and had been in the pavements of Delhi for 30 years.

“We are the decedents of King Maharana Pratap Singh (of Rajasthan). My ancestors were nomads since the King went to exile” he claims.

He is a proud grandfather also. His son who is just twenty-two is married and has a kid who is one and a half year old.

He says “I sent my boy to school till seventh grade. But after that the school cancelled his admission because I don’t have an address.”

“What is meaning of education when I don’t have a fixed place to stay?” he asks.

The summer sun was at its peak and I took a autorikshaw back to to “Gulab House.” I got down at the main road I took a turn and headed to a scrap metal factory. Machinery parts lay on the roadside. There also were some makeshift teashops . A dog, curled up under a shop’s vinyl sheets to escape the heat. The roads wore a dusty haze and looked deserted, except for a few vehicles that brought scrap metal into these factories.

The scrap metal capital

Here, the work time is about 8 hours; but most of the workers do an overtime of four hours a day. They pedal to and fro from where they stay --in the nearby slums or in the nearby places like Vikas Nagar and Hari Nagar, or Prem Nagar

“There is fixed salary for eight hours of work. But for over time the payment is arbitary.” says Sreedhar Singh; forget double pay for over time.

In effect these people work for twelve hours a day, for a monthly pay of around 4000 rupees.

Sreedhar told me that he sends all his children to school, and that his eldest one is in ninth grade. So, I was compelled to ask how many kids he has.

“Five” he told, trying to conceal his embarrassment.

His family of seven are squeezed into a 8 X 10 square feet of room in Hari Nagar for which pays 1200 rupees as rent per month He says when he came here 17 years ago from Bihar, he was staying in a “jugghi”(slum) and that now his conditions are better.

Textile and scrap metal industries are the major life-sustainers of this area, though the latter is more. They work on contract of four or five years in a company. After that they will have to shift to another company. There are people who lived like this for more than 20 years.

On the 20^th of December 2007, there was a huge strike that completely numbed the area

“That day the traffic from Mayapuri to Dhaula Kuan was clogged,” says one worker

The protest march was the high point of a dharana that lasted for two months. An issue of transferring 500 textile workers to another unit in Manerswar in Gurgaon, had flared up. The protest spread to workers from other industries and they say around 25,000 people took part in it.

But they say it was not just the company’s idea of transferring the workers that led to the protests; the issue had been simmering for quite sometime --the companies had backslid on their promise of payment of yearly bonus of 20 per cent. The company, after many deliberations, has agreed to provide bus-service to its 120 of its workers who will be transferred.. But the future of the remaining 300 odd workers hangs uncertainly. Hearings are still going on in the court. Around seven textile units were closed down since then.

After her six-year contract ended, Seema Gupta joined another textile unit. She had been working there for barely six months, when a fire broke out.

Burned in hell—the case of Seema

“I had hair till my back. Look at it now,” she says tilting her head to one side and holding her short hair in her hand.

A month ago a fire had broken out in the room where she was “cutting threads.” A short circuit had caused around 50 liters of industrial solvent stored in the room to catch fire, with four of them trapped inside.

As she ran out through the flames, her burnt skin dropped on the floor. And her charred clothes stuck onto her skin. The company took her to a private hospital, where they promised to pay for her treatment. She was admitted there only to be discharged in four days.

“ I just came out of the hospital and sat on the road side. I was too weak even to stand.”

The company paid for her medicine for four days and a compensation of 1500 rupees, of which 1000 rupees was deducted from her salary.

“I had to make at least 500 rupees of phone calls to the company to get the compensation,” she says.

“At least my face was not burned” she sighs. Her co-worker Rajeev was not so lucky.

The sun eased its stare, but the land refused. The baked land continued to radiate heat. From where I met the scrap metal workers in the afternoon, I walked straight through the side of a puddle of sewer water to reach a slum.

Ache Lal and his friend

“Mayapuri Jugghi, Rawandi Line, Phase 2” Rajaram told vivaciously when I asked him what this slum is called.

Most people here do not have a permanent job. They do whatever job comes along. They work as masons, loaders of scrap metal, rickshaw pullers—whatever their health lets them to

Ache Lal sits outside his house pedaling a sewing machine with his feet bent inwards by polio paralysis. He introduced me to his friend Ambika Prasad, who is a rickshaw puller.

Ambika is known in the slum as “Naata”(which means the short one). His tan skin was tanned even darker by being out in the sun constantly. His tooth was stained red and he smelt of cheap liquor. He was very animated and invited me to his house. I wound my way through a maze of single roomed houses. All the houses had two floors. I climbed a worn out metal ladder of a bus to reach his room. The floor was made with plywood laid over iron pipes and was covered with used vinyl banners—a common building material in Mayapuri. He and his family of four stay here for a monthly rent of 500 rupees.

The plywood creaked as I stepped on it. Ambika sent his eleven-yearold daughter to buy me “cool drinks.”

Ambika is as philosophical as any other Indian.

“All the fingers in the hand are not equal. But each has its purpose. People are not equal. But each one has to do his work.”

What is most striking in this slum is its complacency. People here don’t complain much.

“I get money to buy food and I’m happy with that” says Ambika.

Rajaram’s only worry that he has not received his electricity bill for two months..

“How will I pay if I get an accumulated bill of six months?” he asks.

I boarded the bus to back home. As the bus sped over the fly-over near the lake I could see the gulls and egrets returning to their nests. The factory workers too pedaled back to their home—some enthusiastic some down cast.

It Hail Stormed

The sun guffawed.

By evening he laughed into weariness

And the weary sky grew grave,

The buildings stood lonely spectators.

Leafless trees swayed in protest,

And then, she lashed her abuses on earth.

I smiled inside, for she finally spoke.

I wanted to console her and learn from her.

I opened my window to catch her pearly explicits

I didn’t see them for the sun had resigned

Half-blind, I saw them as white glows.

But I felt them.

The earth ate all her wrath,

But I still have a few of it.

Let it sink into my soul.

Is the “fruit-bowl” only for show?

“Van Thana” is the latest word in policing in India. “Van Thana,” which means forest Police Station, was introduced in Himachal Pradesh in May this year to check the timber mafia that is becoming increasingly rampant in the state. The state which is 66 per cent covered by forest timber is an irresistible opportunity for the mafia.

It is no surprise that the first exclusive green task police stations of the country were in Himachal Pradesh—the state had been in the forefront of energy conservation and efficiency for quiet sometime. In the last quarter of the 2008 alone, the state witnessed three major energy efficiency initiatives:

In August that year, the state planted about one million saplings on a single day and in October the state introduced a voluntary “green tax” for automobiles. The money thus collected would go into planting indigenous varieties of trees across the state.

When the BEE (Bureau of Energy Efficiency) had reduced the CFL price to 15 rupees(same as that of incandescent lamps), Himachal Pradesh government supplied CFLs free of cost; four per household.

These initiatives though not revolutionary by itself, represents a public concern to the cause of environment and energy efficiency, something which is which is sadly lacking in rest of the country. Though the state was ranked only 7^th in power sector performance out of 29 states, this public mandate is the basis of sustainable and clean energy development.

Here, in this “fruit bowl” state, the life of the people is intertwined with its ecology. In the recently concluded General Elections in India, Himachal Pradesh was one of the few states where environment was an issue.

Though the government’s energy efficiency initiatives worked in paper, it often failed to work in the real world because larger social and economic aspects were overlooked.

Consider this: the states hydroelectric projects are facing delays because of protest by tribal. Besides environmental issues, livelihood of the people are a major cause of these clash. The Karcham Wantagoo Hydroelectric project on Sutlej river by construction major Jaypee Group, is a case point.

The hydroelectric projects are no doubt, a commercial viable clean energy source, especially for Himachal Pradesh which earns revenue, supplying power to the neighbouring states. The ADB’s Multitranch Financing Facility for the Development of Clean Energy, which in the last year ushered major hydroelectric projects in the state, over looked the water shortages its run-of-river projects will cause, besides the concerns of cutting down trees. Had the capacity development agency formed under this project focused on the environmental aspect of the construction, there wouldn’t have been so many hitches to its sixteen odd projects, and the resentment of the local people could have been avoided.

In India, the fact that Energy Efficiency does not stand in isolation seems to be often forgotten by the policy-makers. The Himachal Pradesh state governments promised “Enviornment Master Plan” should bring in a much broader perspective.

Playing the culture vulture

(Apparently culture vulture is an overused expression in America. But it is rarely used here in India. )


I was doing exactly that today. I had to meet some people who were in central delhi. The meeting was at 7 in the evening. Since my cousin stays nearby I went very early. By 2’o clock I was there. But I found their house locked. And their phone was not working and I couldn’t contact them earlier to tell them I’m coming. Sometimes the phone works..i don’t know... it’s confusing…


I had lot of time to kill time. So I went to Connaught Place. I intially thought I will go to Coffee Day and sit there sipping something cold. But I thought why waste the money? Instead I opted for a fountain Pepsi from the road side. I sat on the roadside bench drinking it, I was completely oblivious to the people around. These days when I roam around I’m completely lost in thoughts--thoughts about myself…whether it is too much introspection or self obsession I don’t know. Then suddenly from out of the blue, the old Beatles’ song came to my mind—I hadn’t listened to it for a long time:

"Why don’t you help me brother,
I’m a stranger in your town,
Why don’t you help me brother,
May be i'll settle down. "

What terrific song! It never occurred to me that this song is song is so good. Yeah it suited well the situation that I’m in now.

I walked looked at the roadside books and and did window shopping. I went to Jain’s book depot there and sat there for more than an hour, reading book. The book store guy was giving a buy- it or- leave-it kind of look. I waded through politics to military and defence to economics.I was going through one of Ramchandra Guha’s book, India after Gandhi wondering about the time effort and skill these people have. I found Steve Coll’s The Bin Ladens is also very interesting. I also saw one of Arun Shourie’s book.. I don’t remember the name..I could make out from his writing that he is not a writer.

(Though he is BJP’s writer and was earlier working with Times Of India and Indian Express,his skill is not as honed as that of MJ Akbar's or Guha's or Coll’s. I'm not prejudiced, I'm just commeting about the writing skill, not the content--though it is better for me not to comment about people like them.I know it will be amusing to hear my comments)

Writing is a skill that has to be perfected over time with discipline. Good writers don’t just write. They entertain. This is something I knew earlier but it is here in Delhi that I’m understanding it from a close quarters.

Finally I chose to buy M.J Akbar’s Nehru..

My roomie on seeing the book said “gimme a break”

I think I’m becoming a Gandhi family admirer; most times my roomie feels I orthodoxly argue for the Congress.

Ramchndra Guha’s was a very thick volume..I promised myself that if I finished reading Nehru soon will buy it. From there I also picked up Tehelka and The Caravan—the magazine whose ad says—

"Weight that carry words" ...eh …I mean..." words that carry weight."

I really love that magazine…Anybody I see I talk about it…I have told it n number of times to my dad..he used to read it when he was in college.. a really text-heavy magazine. They are developing it on the lines of The New Yorker and The Harper. What its ad says is really cool and whacky:

"As a food for thought it’s (The Caravan) is the cerebral equivalent of full service, multi-course, sit down dinner; not a bun-on-the run for casual snacker."

Bun on the run… hehehe…

Then I checked out some music cds at music world which is right opposite the Jain Book Depot…I mentally selectd the cds I will buy when I get a job…Then I went to Fab India..checked out the shirts and even tried one..but left without buying..

Went to a tea shop and sat there having tea and reading caravan, and laughing to myself if found some articles that tickled the funny bone.One cartoon said:

“Rahul worked really hard for election. But his second name worked even harder!”

I laugh alone. I shout if I feel desperate or happy. And I sing aloud while taking bath..’

But I’m loving it.’Earlier I cribbed inside me being alone; now I scream:

"leave me alone."

“let me be a ‘lonesome crow’”,

"Leave me alone...Let me figure out”

I met the people and was returning in the bus, I was in I think it was the bus number was 640,hit a biker…the guy collapsed on the road.. . death and accidents are such a common place things here…I came home and saw the news that 200 odd people had died as Air France plane crashed over the Atlantic…the kind of accidents that happen around gives me jitters.

P.S: Does this post of mine look like a collage of ad captions?-- "words that carry weight," "lonesome crow," "i'm lovin it."

The problem with the intellectual man.

The problem with intellectual man is the his feeling that he's intellectual.

This may sound archaic--straight out of Emmerson's or Thoreau's essay--but this is derived out of a everyday concern...

Let me explain-- it is human tendency to fix oneself either with the intellectual or the common man..

But there is also a path...neither that of the intellectual nor of the common man....

the answer is to answer your own voice.

Torn between the voice of the masses and that of the intellectual is our own voice craving to be spoken...but we are scared of its legitimacy..

We are confused about our own legitimacy ..

What delhi has done to me so far

May be the 'wise ones' will say that i must ask what i have done for delhi instead of what delhi has done to me. Let me explain from the places i have been to and what i was doing there

I was a confused person from the time i can remember.

I did graduation from Christ college bangalore.What can I say about three years in Christ College, Bangalore…

the sky was blue, the grasses were green, weather was pleasant, there were dustbins( dustbins, becausethis is in stark contrast to Chennai. All indian cities are equally unclean--there can be no clear winner. But what is striking in chennai is its people complacency with uncleanliness and garbage)
and I was in love, and lo, I was a poet…those were the really careless days… careless but not reckless as I’m now…I think the time there was well spent…

Towards the end of the course, I was getting even more reckless..without me actually knowing it…the ambience in the next college I attended only made it worse.

In Chennai i did masters in communication…madras christian college…the college was thoroughly de-motivating for me…the only good thing i learned from thereis the habit of watching good movies and appreciating it.

May be I found the college de-motivating because I came to Chennai de-motivated…but the college was no help for a person like me.

Delhi had shown me in one year what Chennai and Bangalore hasn’t done for six years..To put it simply it changed my idea for hardwork and perfection…

It taught me how much hard work is real hard work.

Meeting with Vinod K Jose was a really a significant one. He didn’t exactly motivate me: simply because I was far from being motivated. I was just fumbling around—with my own notions about journalism.

He showed me what journalism is and what it entails. Delhi helped me to some extent unlearn what my education has so far done for me.

I took Hathway internet connection—64kbps

My laptop is in a mess: name any virus, it has it. On top of that it just survived a fall from my shelf to the floor—the corner is dented. But thank god it is still working.

(It just shows how careless and reckless I have become.)

Earlier I used to care so much about it, that many of my friends have said that it looks new. I had installed antivirus and that too after much research on which is the best one, never allowed any of my friends to plug in their pendrives, unless I knew that he also was using antivirus..

But over the few months I have treated my laptop very roughly…

Yesterday I took internet connection and I’m in love with my laptop again… doesn’t mean that i’m hooked to the internet all the time…but at least the internet cable is hooked to it 24x7. It feels like my laptop has got a new lease of life. Just seeing the internet cable is very reassuring for me.

I took Hathway 64kbps connection—500 rupees per month and 700 rupees security deposit… I didn’t think whether it was a good deal or not...Jim told that I could have paid 200 rupees more and taken an airtel 256kbps…but I Amit told airtel 256kbps is 900 rupees…and on top of that I will have to show a salary slip or pan card or something of the sort which I don’t have..Anyway I didn’t want waste too much time mulling and hearing opinions or searching for the real deal. I wanted a connection and a cheap connection…I took it…with the hope that I can change it anytime i find out about the ‘real deal.’

The Hathway guy also provides cable here in my paying guest…so the documentation drooling were also minimal.

"Serious blogging "

My nephew was doing his home work. He asked me what does the word "oxymoron" mean?

I said "pretty ugly is an oxymoron; half done, seriously casual..." (that's when you are in trouble and people want to show they are concerned, but are happy inside that it didn't happen to them).

And another example of an oxymoron just slipped out of my mouth--- "serious blogging."-- it was Freudian slip.

Yes "serious blogging." All other oxymorons are possible. But "serious blogging" is an oxymoron that's practically impossible.

How can anyone seriously blog???, i thought.

Blog is a casual medium. It can't take the weight of seriousness. The blog begs to be relieved off the weight of my philosophy, analysis and poem.

blog is not a medium for wannabe writers or armature philosophers like me.,. If i'm serious about writing must find other media. Blogging means that i'm just not serious enough.

the best thing about blogging is it helps to rid the mind off rubbish...it should be treated like a dustbin...only when the nonsense is out something good can come out... maybe everyday we have empty the thrash...

yes,no wonder it is called blog--- blog= web + log.-- a place for regularly taking out the garbage.

I had put my blog-address in my reume..ahhhhhhhh.......

what would anyone who read the resume would have thought about meeeeee?????????????????i would have looked so armaturely stupid...

A blog has to be moronically unique....My blog was insipid because it was not moronical...to hell with grammar, spellings and my "serious thinking"...

Anyways what happened has happened.....

Good riddance, I'm going to stop take some weight off the internet. May be that's when the oxymoron "seriously blogging" comes close to possibility of existence.

Movable Sensibility of the Fierce One

There was a lot of anticipation in the air. How he, will he look like? The man, who was ‘waging war for them’ for a decade, was known only through a single photograph of him taken in 2001.  There was jubilation as, people could positively walk in the streets after a decade long civil war. They said, “he is the one we need.” On June 14^th 2006, the maoist leader Pushpa Kamal Dahal known by his nom de guerre “Prachanda”(which means the fierce one)  made his first public appearance in Kathmandu after 25 years underground.

 

He later recollected: “that day I first appeared in Kathmandu, I wore a light blue suit. I like light blue colour the most.” There was hope. People saw Prachanda as a harbinger of a fecund economy and peaceful life. Reporters who first interviewed him described that he looked more like a popular neighborhood “uncle” than a maoist-guerilla.

 

Two days later he, with the other parties, Prachanda’s Comunist Party of Nepal(Maoist) --CPN(M)-- formed an interim government. Prachanda lavished praises on the Nepalese Congress(NC) chief and former Prime Minister Girija Prasad Koirala. Many were surprised. Such was the exhilaration  during the time that lot many cadres of the Communist Party of Nepal (Unified Marxist-Leninist)—CPN(UML)-- deflected to CPN(M). Amid all the ruckus and celebrations people continued to wonder who he was? The party he headed told something and his demanour something else.

 

A couple of days later the government headed by Koirala signed a comprehensive peace agreement with Prachanda, which promised to keep the soldiers of People’s Liberation Army (PLA) and Nepalese Army in cantonments or barracks and their weapons locked in containers. The United Nation’s Mission to Nepal (UNMIN) will over-see the whole process.

 

Analysts were proved wrong when the Maoist won the constituent assembly elections in April 2008, after the insurgency that left almost 13,000 people dead. In fact, the Maoist won more seats than the NC and CPN(UML) combined. Prachanda headed the Constituent Assembly(CA), which was to draft the constitution of Nepal in two years  Skeptics, who considered his beliefs redundant and his war an old world war, were clueless when he shook hands with the chief of FNCCI (Federation of Nepalese Chamber of Commerce and Industries) and when he himself intervened to halt trade union strikes.

 

In fact it appeared that it was the arguments of the skeptics that were redundant. Prachanda’s homegrown form of Maoism, called “Prachanda Path”, does away global supremacy of China, inhumanness of Peru’s Shinning Path at the same time incorporating the tolerance of democracy.

 

 Prachanda says “communism being a science, it deserves continuous and consistent development.”

Prachand’s singularity of character and a ceasefire were a good reasons enough to impress people in the constituent assembly elections, but not the opposing parties. They wanted this political party with an army to be fenced.

 

Then there was the planning for presidential election. This is where the people’s mandate will boiled down to. Maoist or not, everyone for the time being seemed to believe that power emanates from the muzzle of a gun. (Though President is the ceremonial head he will hold the reigns of the armed forces.)

 

Now, Prachanda said he wouldn’t form the Government if Koirala were NC’s presidential candidate.

 

This, Prachanda said, “this dishonours the mandate of the people.” He knew well that Prime Minister and President from two different parties would create lot of pushes and pull in the administration.

 

To make a long story short, after of long drawn out altercation of 55 days, the election was held. Ram Baran Yadav of the Congress assumed presidency--Kingdom Nepal became Republic of Nepal and the King became a common man. CPN(M) sympathiser, Ramraja Prasad Singh was swamped;  23 out of the 25 parties in the CA voted against him.

 

“Dual power”(a term coined by Lenin during Russian revolution) is how Prachanda describes the present coalition of Nepal; the Maoist bloc pitted against the Nepalese Army supported by the opposition parties and the royalist. 

 

This translates to ground reality that tough-talking Chief of Armed Staff (COAS) General Rookmangud Katwal , who is the foster child of King Mahendra,  won’t accept the integration of the Maoist force into the Nepalese Army; not even a few thousands who pass the requirements of the army, as said in the CPA. And that other political parties will support the army.

 

What is more unsettling than the “dual power” in Nepal is the dual nature of Prachanda himself. What he calls “socialism and communism” in centrist circles becomes “people’s war and maoism”, in extreme-left circles. “Democracy” ” in centrist or right- media becomes “an unfinished revolution” in left-media. And “policy” is used interchangeably with “tactics,” depending on the audience. If this is the hotchpotch called the ‘Prachanda path’ then it tastes a little weird; he forgot to add salt. (Read “trust”)

 

Prachanda may look as a bamboozling politician to an outsider. But analyst say that it is to keep his cadres within the party fold and the confusion is more within the party than with the NA or opposing political parties. Ninety per cent of his cadres comprise farmers who will understand only the lingo of  “people’s war.”

 

The footage released by a private channel of Prachanda speaking to the PLA combatants in Chitwan district (where there is one of the seven cantonments) more than an year ago, must be seen in this light. He tells them how he befooled the UNMIN by showing them less number of combatants and how their numbers have actually increased.

 

“You and I know the truth, but why should we tell others.” He quipped.

 

People joined CPN(M) for a different reason than they would join any other party. Caste equations are not present in the party, women could participate freely, and they could live without the repression of the police and army. Noga  a twenty six year old women in the Rolpa district says,

 

“The Maoists would come and just ask for food and shelter. But when the army came, they would kill and torture people. This happened every day.

“For this reason I joined the Maoists.”

“There were always problems with the police and the army. But I didn’t just join because of that. The Maoists had visions for the future, for liberation.” 

 

The Maoist had vision. At least, that was what they thought or is still thinking. But the vision is as seen through the barrel of a gun.

 

“The war has encouraged and spread a culture of intimidation and violence,” admitted a Maoist reclusive leader.

 

 Prachanda seems to have realized that running a government is difficult than leading a revolution. Power-cuts were as high as 14 hours, businessmen were dissatisfied trade union strikes were rampant. Anarchy was let-loose, Prachanda watched helplessly.

 

He pointed them the way, but they stare and sniff at his finger. Nanda Kishore Pun aka Pasang, who now heads the PLA after Prachanda assumed the post of Prime Minister, had made had spoken about the intention of the Maoist to downsize Nepalese Army to 50,000 men. He considers the present strength of 90,000 too much for a small country of Nepal. There is  a growing disenchantment of PLA with the army.

 

General Katwal also got impatient with the ambiguous number of people enlisting as PLA at the cantonments. He began recruitments in December 2008 citing the reason that they were not new recruitments, but filling in posts that were vacant. He became more vocal about not including “indoctrinated” people in his army.(Prachanda calls them “politically aware”.)

 

Massive upheavals caused by relatively insignificant events. The two events that directly led to the current political turmoil are trival:

 

The army had requested the Defence Ministry  an extension of service of eight brigadier generals, by  three years, whose term were to end by mid-March this year. Earlier the Moaist Defence Minster  Ram Bahadur Thapa had approved the extension of service of one brigadier general. But this time the ministry refused to approve.  Things took a serious turn when the General Katwal got a order from Supreme court quashing the ministry decision. The other one is even more trivial—the army refusing to take part in the national games, because PLA is participating in it.

 

Prachanda send an ultimatum of 48 hours asking for an explanation from the defiant general. The prime Minister impeached the general saying his explanations were not satisfactory. But  President Ram Baran Yadav, asked General Katwal to continue in his position. Prachanda felt insulted and resigned.

 

There was lack of restrain on both sides. Prachanda’s actual show of grit lies in tiding over this crisis. He must see that the people of Nepal are not exactly happy, his own men and women in cantonment can’t be kept happy for long and that in Nepal besides Maoist, and men opposing him, there are normal people without any affiliations--people who look forward for peace. He must do a tight-rope walk. On the left is the chasm of self-contradiction, that will tear his efforts apart and on the right is danger of sterility and ineffectiveness.