Media's silly excessive coverage of Memon's Hanging

Excessively silly coverage of Memon's Hanging on our 24X7 News Channels has exposed chink in its armor and ugly underbelly. In the undue haste of one upmanship they have made a mockery of themselves, ethics be damned. It has been an ugly rat race amongst them to outmaneuver each other.

If we go back to the pre-liberalization era there was only one channel called Dooradarshan (meaning Long Vision, though there was hardly visionary in its reporting). We had no option and were content with whatever it showed us. The news use to start with Rajeev Gandhi and end with him. showing him attending different meetings and cutting several ribbons.

 

To me the entire news was a farce and worth only the last few minutes which covered sports, clips from international news and weather. During the monsoon the standard weather report would invariably predict rains in Gangetic West Bengal, Konkan and Goa. Still it brings the relief in the form of being the harbinger of the end of a torturous watch.  A sketch by the popular cartoonist RK Laxman had someone pasted a picture of Rajiv Gandhi on the TV saying I better see this than switching on the TV. No news is good news.

 

So the question comes which one is worse, too much or too less of media. In my view in spite of all the flaws the current media has it is still preferred to the Doordarshan era. At least I have options. It is better to have the freedom of choice than  something shoved down upon you. Current cable news networks are far from perfect but certainly better than the era of Indiradarshan and Rajivdarshan.

Business persons don't necessarily make great leaders

Des Moines Register, the influential newspaper of Iowa, the first state to host the 2016 Presidential Primary, has published a scathing article on Donald Trump on its editorial page... "it's dangerous to have such a person running for the leader of the free world with fingers on the Nuclear Button."

The editorial isn't far from truth. The President of United States is arguably the most powerful position on earth. It's dangerous to have a megalomaniac in Trump running for it and still leading the Republican pack. (I am sure his bubble will burst soon. If by some fluke he gets the Republican nomination, Hillary is going to have a cake walk to White House).

The billionaire Trump just boasted that if elected, he will build a fence on Mexican border and make Mexico pay for it. A nation is not run like a corporation. You can't build a fence and bill your neighbor, as you send invoices to your clients in a business. Managing a country is not a business of managing a boardroom or balance sheet. It's takes lot more than that.

It had been observed that Businessmen make poor politicians, national leaders or statesmen. Mitt Romney, a seasoned businessman who could have been an exception to the rule, failed to enthuse electorates in the citadel of capitalism.  Rarely we have seen eminent business persons at the helms of the affairs of a nation. I personally admire and respect businessmen for their vision, acumen and stewardship. They make champion managers, have exemplary people skills and guide their corporations to pinnacles of success. However their leadership is mostly limited to their boardroom, rarely beyond that.

Mitt Romney vindicated the fact. Despite his best efforts he could not get rid of the stigma of vulture capitalist. He could not connect to the commoners especially in a country where business and business men are not so frowned upon unlike in India where business folks are not a whole likable lot. History stands as a testimony of to this fact. Our great  great leaders  Mahatma Gandhi, Subas Bose, Indira Gandhi (arguably the most manly Prime minister we ever had) did not have any business background. In America, the most capitalist friendly country in the world, not anyone from Roosevelt, Kennedy, Reagan, Clinton or Obama have business background. So also Churchill and Thatcher. So also the myth that a business person would make a national leader still lives on and yet to be vindicated.

Partition of India - An Alternate Theory

Sashi Tharoor's outburst against the British, reminds me of our tendency to put the blame for all the miseries of modern India on our English speaking prior occupiers. Many still believe that the British caused the partition of Indian subcontinent. I think, the barrier between the two major communities Hindu and Muslims already existed. The seed of hatred was sown long before the English left, only to be born at the time of their departure. A turbulent pregnancy, only led to the delivery of non-identical twins of Hindustan and Pakistan. It would have happened anyway, British probably sired it and left at the time of delivery. In that context let me present an alternate Indian history, post British relinquishing India.

The eminent Indian writer Khushwant Singh in his autobiography, has written several pages about his stay in Lahore during the pre-partition days and the communal riots that would follow. He was working as a lawyer in Lahore, which was arguably most vibrant city of North India at that time. No one anticipated the vicious communal riots that followed partition (in fact Jinnah offered Khushwant the position of Chief Justice of Lahore High court, thinking that Hindus and Sikhs would be living in Pakistan post partition. It of course never happened ).

 

Per K. Singh, mental partition existed between the Muslims and Hindu-Sikh community in Punjab, long before the actual partition happened. During his student days in Government College, Lahore, much before the demand for Pakistan got any traction, the Muslim students had their separate mess, cricket and hockey teams. They stayed within themselves, rarely intermingled with their Hindu-Sikh counterparts. Inside the city, except the perfunctory mixing during business transactions, social gatherings of marriages or death, suspicions and rumors galore between the communities.

In the court where Khushwant worked as a lawyer, a Muslim would trust a Muslim lawyer, a Hindu or Sikh otherwise. If the judge happens to be a Hindu or Sikh his decision would invariably go in the favor of their community, same with a Muslim judge. The Muslim dominated Punjab police was openly partisan in West Punjab, the Hindu-Sikh law enforcers sided with their brethren in the eastern part. Khushwant Singh had a close Muslim friend. The environment was so polarized that the unusual friendship between a Sikh and Muslim became the talk of the town.

 

Considering these circumstances, the partition would have happened anyway. Imagine an alternate history. Nehru agrees to Gandhi's proposal and M A Jinnah is sworn in as the first Prime minister of Independent, undivided India. Soon in a few months he dies of terminal tuberculosis he was long ailing but religiously kept secret (though a pork eating, scotch imbibing Jinnah was hardly religious). Nehru soon fulfills his ambition and is sworn in the 2nd Prime Minister. The contiguous majority areas of present Pakistan and Bangladesh becomes perennial trouble spots. Killing of Hindus and Sikhs in Muslim majority areas is swiftly retaliated in Hindu - Sikh majority areas. The cycles of violence continues unabated, refusing to go away like a stubborn migraine.

British hastily partitioned the nation and left. But they were no more in charge. Nehru dilly dallies to maintain his secular image, thinking that the animosity will miraculously end. But it kept getting worse. Violence goes beyond redemption. Fissures in military, which was the last citadel of discipline, begins to show up along communal lines,  A Sikh in Ambala cantonment gets the news of his wife and sister raped and parents roasted alive in Rawalpindi.He goes berserk, killing a dozen of his Muslim colleagues on a shooting spree.  Muslims retaliate accordingly.

Mutiny in mililary takes place in Lahore and Dhaka. Gandhijee's fasting and PADYATRA (walking trips) to bolster the communal harmony hardly helps. He is assassinated by a Hindu fanatic (it actually happened). Soon United Nations steps in and urges to hasten the partition. A reluctant Nehru has no option but to oblige. In the year 1957, 10 year after getting its independence and tons of bloodshed India, gets partitioned, with the auspices UN Peace keeping force. The Army general who spearheaded the Muslim revolt was sworn as the first President of Pakistan and ruled them with Iron hand for a long time. India still continued as a democracy but the bad blood refused to wash away.

TOI Quality has gone down

During my growing up days back in Bhubaneswar, The Times of India was the only quality English Newspaper available. It's alternatives, the Calcutta based "The Statesman" and "The Telegraph" were no where close. There was no local edition of it available in my city. It's Delhi edition was fetched by the Indian Airlines flight which was as notoriously irregular as monsoon these days. 

The Newspaper would be home delivered in the evening, often as late as 9 PM. Due to its vagaries, very often we would receive 2-3 issues bundled together, with the bunch weighing more than a kilogram (2 lbs) at times. Once the tired hawker late in the evening throws upstairs in the flat we lived. Once hit the bald head of our neighbor MAUSA (Uncle) resulting in a bump, and goose bumps to those who heard him showering choicest of expletives to the hapless hawker.

 

I was hooked to it, religiously reading it everyday, often more diligently than my text books. After moving out of India, as I had to depend on the websites for news, Times Of India was the first which came to my mind. It's website now resembles more like a tabloid. The web page takes eons to load, full of junk commercials and the latest seductive pose of some model "Poonam Pandey" prominently adoring its website. I find hardly any newsworthy item, all you see kinky stuff like "10 ways to satisfy your partner" and sundry crap. An eye catching front page news "Teacher arrested for raping a 16 year old girl" with a blurry picture, stayed for several months (gladly I don't see it anymore). It's time Times Of India declare its web edition as a tabloid. Not sure how its print version is doing these days.

The Reality of the last communist country standing

Nothing speaks about the double face and hypocrisy of communist than North Korea, which is officially the last citadel of communism on earth. It's leader Kim gives speeches to his citizens to avoid imported goods. Yet he and his wife Ri have been photographed in public wearing imported fashions from Switzerland and Britain.

 

Kim likes to wear a Swiss Movado watch worth thousands of dollars and has tailor-made suits that use luxury British fabrics. He loves Swiss Cheese ( I have tried Swiss cheese and can vouch they are class apart, though I can't afford the aged varieties he does). 

Ri has been seen carrying a Christian Dior handbag worth around $2,000 and wears Valentino outerwear in public. South Korea press reported the couple have installed a German-made sauna in their residence and that Ri exclusively uses Aptamil, an expensive German baby formula for her child that costs $80 per pack. At same time, Per capita income is around $1,200 in North Korea, according to South Korea's central bank, and young children are suffering from severe acute malnutrition.

Jyoti Basu was rumored to drink Johny Walker Blue Label, I doubt he bought it from his CM's salary. Our commies, with Scotch in one hand and Havana cigar in the other, love to shop in London and New York, pretending that Moscow is the paradise. Thank God, they are not empowered enough to go beyond.

Collateral vs Killer

The other day I was watching the Hindi movie THE KILLER. It instantly reminded me the movie COLLATERAL from 2005. It was all over Deja Vu for me. Tom Cruize, playing the role of a ruthless contract killer, goes around killing people in LA and Jamie Fox is his cab driver. The later won the Best Supporting Actor for his role in that movie, gracefully playing the role of a cab driver who is scared but still keeping his nerve.

 

They say that our Hindi movie "Killer" is inspired by the original English movie "Collateral". If this is true then we need to redefine the word plagiarism. In the movie Collateral, Tom Cruize kills his first victim who lands up on hapless Jamie Fox's cab. A baffled Jamie Fox asks Tom Cruize "Did you kill him ?", to which the later gave a nonchalant answer "No. I just shot him. The bullet and the fall killed him". 

I starkly remember this dialogue from the movie. Now in its Hindi version "KILLER" Emran Hashmi asks Irfaan Khan "TUMNE ISSE MAAR DAALA ?" to which Irfaan playing Tom Cruize's counterpart responds " ARE MAINE KAHA MAARA, MENE US PAR SIRF GOLI CHALAAI, WOH GOLI LAGNE AUR GIRNE SE MARA". Wow..so much of inspiration by the original movie that even the dialogues were copied line by line.

Scott Walker announces his candidacy

Scott Walker, the Governor of Wisconsin announced his candidacy for President of United States. I can sense him as, LAMBI RACE KA GHODA (horse for long run). Barring major scandal, he could end up amongst the top 3 republican candidates, possibly getting the nomination. Here is why.

He is a decent looking, energetic speaker, having the capability to woo the audience.(Americans love their Presidential candidates to be charismatic and presentable). In other words he looks and talks Presidential, though not in the same league of Obama, Bill Clinton or Reagan.

Darling of the Conservative base of Republican party and Big Business, having taken the powerful Workers Unions of his state head on. These conservative right wing republicans are ones who mostly vote in the primaries.

If elected to office, on day one he promised to make Iran Deal "null and void". Israel is going to be his first foreign country to visit as POTUS. He paraded one of the 52 hostages from the Iran hostage crisis from 1979 era. This shows he has the backing of pro-Israeli Jewish lobby. So money should not be an issue for him. He also advocated muscular foreign policy, eliminating ISIS (did not elaborate how he will do it).

From a Blue state (as Wisconsin always votes for Democratic Presidential candidate) he can be an asset as he could carry 11 electoral college votes, flipping the solid Democrat state into the Republican column.

Being another Midwestern state close to his home state of Wisconsin. he could win the first Primary state of Iowa. It will put him immediately on spotlight, getting the attention of media and donors. Remember, Republican friendly big businesses won't start opening up their wallets unless they see a fair chance in a candidate. Every business person hate bad investment. They want to bet on a LAMBI RACE KA GHODA (horse for long run), rather than LANGDA GHODA (lame Horse).

The World Energy game and Shale Oil

US and Iran are inching towards the much awaited Nuclear deal as I write. In the World energy game, America has played its card quite well, using its shale oil as the trump card. When OPEC, led by Saudis thought that the American Shale Oil industry will crash due to fall in Crude Oil price, they were wrong. They were impacted, but far from going out of business. With improved technology (America still holds an edge over its counterparts as far technology goes) it has been vindicated that Shale gas can hold on for now. It's resilience is probably the reason that the Brent's crude will stay in $30-50 range, barring any major global conflict.

 

Though America is still the world's biggest consumer of petroleum, due to its inland Shale Oil boom and production of energy efficient and electric vehicles, it is less dependent on foreign import. Recently China whose economy and appetite for energy is growing, surpassed US as the World's largest importer of oil. Less dependent on OPEC means less dependent on the Saudis. That's exactly the reason why Obama intends to sign the Nuclear deal with Iran. Once the sanction on Iran is lifted, there will be an oil glut in market, leading to further fall on price. No wonder the geriatric leadership of the "House of Saud" are getting more senile at this prospect, opposing tooth and nail, US's Iran deal.

 

But America has already anticipated this. the removal of Saddam who kept the Iranians at bay, has opened up a huge vacuum in the Middle East. Iran has fulfilled that vacuum and now controls most part of Iraq which sits upon a huge keg of oil. America realizes this and wants to bring Iran into its fold. (It's said once Chanakya told Chandra Gupta when your enemy gets powerful, it's wise to have a truce with them. (It's no coincidence that on CNN Prime Time, these days it often shows the life of commoners in Iran, they love to go for bowling and evening family outings, so that the average Joe can connect to the Javed of Iran.)

 

Also America shouldn't forget what Ronald Reagan famously said "Trust, but verify". The shrewd and pragmatic Chinese are buying a good chunk of oil from the Iranians. India, which imports 80% of it's crude is wisely buying from Iran and keeping a good relationship with that nation.

Relationships are fast changing. The Carnival Cruize lines is sending me offers on its inaugural ship to Cuba, as the small island nation opens up to America. Russia is getting friendlier with Pakistan. India's economy expected to take off next decade. It will be wise for India not to put all its eggs in one basket, especially in a world of first.

Odisha and Kerala - A tale of two states

Recently I read the news about the famous Tennis player from 1980s and heartthrob of many from our generation, Steffi Graf, accepted the job of Brand Ambassador of the state of Kerala. This will go a long way further promoting Tourism in the state popularly branded as "God's Own Country". Many who have travelled to this southern state of India from here heap paeans of praise the natural beauty of the backwaters, they are impressed by professional customer service. A lady who suffered from chronic Blood Pressure, got the pleasant surprise of her life when her points came down significantly after the mud therapy she went though during her trip to Kerala.

We still have a long way to go. Complacency or laziness is quite prevalent in East Zone. We are rice eating laid back folks who love to chew Paan (betel) and take a siesta (usual disclaimers apply). This entices me to draw another contrast, between the States of Orissa and Kerala. Both have rich coastline, almost same population and number of Lok Sabha seats. Again similarities end there. Though we have much more natural resources than Kerala still we are worlds apart. Kerala is among the top 5 states and Orissa still among the bottom 5 in all kinds of development indices . Kerala has several international Flights toing and froing from multiple airports. Last time I heard Orissa finally got its inaugural flight with lots of fanfare and a fair share of controversies. It was an Air India flight run by the government and no one remembers when was it last time it made profits. Apparently Private players aren't too keen to operate international flights to Odisha.

Reminds me of Aamir Khan from the movie "3 IDITOS". He extolls to his friends "SUCCESS LE PEECHE MAT BHAGO. KAVIL BANO, SUCCESS EK DIN TUMHARE PEECHE BHAGEGA", meaning "don't chase success. Be capable, success with chase you". If the Private Airlines will find running international flights to Bhubaneswar a profitable venture. That will only happen if Odisha is KAVEEL (capable) enough to attract them. They will come on their own, no lobbying would be necessary.

In my "Jagannth's Own Country" of Odisha, we are endowed with more natural beauty, but still have a long way to do catch up with our southern  counterpart. I heard this episode from a friend back home. In a meeting of government officials, an Odia officer told delegates from Kerala, " Our beaches are better than your beaches. Your beaches are flat". Needless to say our Odia bro pronounced the word "Beach" in this thick Odia accent, hardly impressing his Kerala counterparts.

So much ado about Rangabati

So much ado about twisting of "Rangabati Rangabati" (O colorful lady), a popular song in Odisha from 1980s. It was presented by some upcoming Odia artists on stage, in a program sponsored by Coke. Remixing and deviating from original songs is nothing new in music industry, nor a sacrilege. Myriads of remix numbers are contemporary to Rangabati era, no one raises an eyebrow. The remixes of Kishore Kumar songs doesn't take away credit from the original singer, nor impact an iota of the legendary singer's greatness. It also doesn't make Bengalis culturally inferior. Similarly a fusion mix of a folk song isn't going to kill our culture. So why so much hullabaloo?

In a state bereft of creativity and out of box thinking, this is getting ridiculous. We are just making Mountains out of molehills, or raising a storm in a teacup. The self proclaimed culture Czars who criticize, can't hold a microphone and get a chill, freezing at the sight of audience. Fusion of art, culture and music should be welcomed, not detested.

In Odisha, artistic pursuits in music and dance is often frowned upon. My grandfather used to say KEBALA MAICHIA MANE NACHANTI, GAANTI, meaning only the effeminate sing and dance. Even as recent as couple of years back I complimented someone for his son doing well as an actor in Odia Cinema and TV industry. But promptly came his rebuff "PAATHA SAATHA PADHI CHAKIRI KARILANI, EBE MAHYA NAACHA KARUCHI" (did not excel enough in studies to get a job, now dancing like an eunuch). His son who was present, didn't find it very funny. A few minutes later, when he was alone the son vented his insult, "BUDHHA (the old man) has gone senile, he still doesn't want to come out of his cocooned time warp".

It's of course another matter, that the same bunch of singers sang BANDE UTKALA JANANI (Hail, Mother Odisha), in a distorted, rapped  (sung a la Rap music) manner. It hurt the sentiments of many. The performers should have been very careful here, as this is kinda national anthem of Odisha. It has stirred a hornet's nest and ruffled a few feathers.

Yet, in media, social or otherwise, many wrong persons making the right noise. It's like kettle calling the pot black. Patriotism is certainly not our forte. Arguably, we Odias are world's worst patriots and champion leg pullers. If beard is the sign of wisdom, goats would praise it. Singing "Bande Utkala Janani" doesn't necessarily make one a patriot, nor deviating from it's tune makes one Enemy of the State. Time to move above and beyond.