RIP Irrfan Khan

I started my Wednesday with this bad news. Irfaan Khan, the versatile, talented actor of many Bollywood and Hollywood movies and one of my favorites finally succumbed to his battle with cancer. He was only 53, a tragic young age to go.

I am reminded of his movie "PAAN SINGH TOMAR" where he has done a commendable role playing the leading character Paan Singh - a class IV drop out from the Badlands of Chambal, who joins the Army, where his passion for running is recognized by his Superiors. 

Yes, Indian Army in 1950s was part of a system which was was fair, honest and efficient at a time only a few years after independence. We then still retained the old school of ethics inherited from the English (Corruption hardly existed during British days, but slowly crept in when we owned our own nation).

In this movie Paan Singh's talent was recognized by his Sardar (Sikh) senior in the Army as he makes him run for arriving late during the perfunctory military drills. A la Forrest Gump from the iconic Hollywood movie, he never stopped running. Soon he crashed into limelight when he broke the National record in Steeplechase at the 23rd National Athletics meet held in Cuttack, Odisha. It earns him a ticket to the Asian Games held in Tokyo a few year later, where he ran the 3000m Steeplechase race.

A heart touching saga of a person whose sacrifice to the nation as a Sportsperson and a veteran Army man never came to his rescue, when circumstances turned a hard working, proud patriot into a dacoit-cum-kidnapper. It was in the 1970s when Corruption well aided by the high handedness of Indian bureaucracy did everything possible to turn the man to take to guns for his own survival. The system failed him big time.

In the movie, Irrfan playing Paan Singh is a straight shooter, both from his mouth and gun. When a newspaper reporter interviewed him asks why he became a dacoit, the fugitive retorts back - DAKAIT TO PARLIAMENT MEIN MILTE HAIN, HUM TO SIRF BAAGHI HAI (Dacoits are found in  Parliament, I am just a rebel). He wasn't far from the truth.

Another monologue from Irfaan Khan needs some reflection - "After crossing 28 barriers to be the Steeplechase champion and earning accolades for my motherland, no one cared about me. Now that I have become a Baaghi - a thorn in the flesh of the tri-state (UP, MP and Rajasthan) Police, I am getting the fame and attention. I run and win medals for my country nobody took a note, now when I became a BAAGI  (rebel) on run I make news."

Quite a story and kudos to Irfaan Khan for his remarkable role. You crossed 28 barriers as Pan Singh Tomar. You, the fighter fought bravely against a malignant disease. Salute to you, Sir. Rest in Peace.

Chinese TV Serial - A peep into the Manchurian milieu

The other day I was watching a TV serial. It was the story of two families related to each other via marriage. The boy and girl married to each other are the lone child of their parents. The family of the son feels fortunate, proud and superior to the family of the daughter to whom their son is married to.

The son-in-law was tormenting his wife's family. The guy's parents are proud that their son makes some extra bucks by greasing a few palms. They boast to the girl's parents that how lucky she is to have their son as her husband. But the girl and her parents are unhappy with this liason. Sounds quite familiar, an episode from a typical Indian family SAAS-BAHU (Mother-in-law, Daughter-in-aw) soap opera.

No, you are wrong. It is from a Chinese serial with English subtitles which I stumbled upon while flipping channels the other day. It provided a rare menu into the Manchurian Milieu as the curious me watched it to have a peek into the secretive Chinese society - a country which in 1978 was at par with India, now 4 times India's GDP and already a Superpower flexing its economic and military muscle. But I was surprised that their social fabric and fraca is not so different from us, even now.

No wonder, the Chinese recently relaxed their one child norm, by extending it to two. The strictly implemented one child principle in China has contributed to a skewed male-female ratio, heavily favored to the former. It has  landed the Chinese in not so sweet, but sour soup. The result - Per a recent report are at least 50 million males in China who cannot marry. Solution is very simple. They can take a cue from the Americans, where many states  have legalized gay Marriage.

The similarities doesn't end there. If corruption and other fraudulent practises are epidemic in India, it is rampant in China. But unlike India, every year scores in China are hung until death on corruption charges. Still China which could control Coronavirus but can't control corruption in a nation where without the knowledge and connivance of the authorities, one may not able to fart privately without the government sniffing at you. 

In contrast, forget about any Capital punishment, rarely in India any one gets convicted on corruption charges. If it happens so in rarest of the rare cases, most convictions comes after 20-25 years - a classic case of justice delayed is justice denied.

The population of China now estimated to be 1.4 billion, followed by India's 1.3 billion. It wont be long before we catch up with them, but it might take a few more years now that they have allowed couples to have upto couple of kids. Yet, it was interesting to see the social fabric of two neighbors sharing a civilization of 3000 years isn't a whole lot different.

The State of Georgia opening for Business

A few states in the  United States are all set to open up their economy from tomorrow from the clutches of the Coronavirus. Georgia, my home state is one of them. They will be opening the Hair cut saloons, Gyms from tomorrow followed by Restaurants on Monday. Not sure how can a Barber cut hair from 6 feet distance, considered safe per the guidelines of social distancing.

It has already reported on media that many VYAPAARIs or Businesses folks backed by their hypocrite Conservative allies are prodding a friendly Trump and his fellow Trumpians to prematurely open up the economy - human lives be damned. I say Trumpians because the Republican Party, a party of Abe Lincoln is long dead. It has metamorphosed itself into Trump Party.

No offense to any Businessmen or women. I have some of my close friends who are businessmen with compassionate hearts. Many of them do great service doing charity works, employing people and contributing to the economy. But there are many from their tribe who are ruthless and heartless - the Shylock types, the famous character of Shakespeare's "Merchant of Venice". They value profit over anything else, including human rights and human life, caring a damn about the commoners as long as it fatten their bank balance.

It is not unusual to see such VYAPAARIs (Business folks) preferring profit over death (not their own, of course). That's why we see many of them dying to open up the economy in US when they don't risk dying. A lot of people may die due to this hasty decision. Most of them poor and elderly. All Trump with the help from his VYAPAARI cronies cares about is the Stock market numbers to go up, so that he can sell it as a success towards his reelection bid. Welcome to the United Oligarchy and Kleptocracy of America.

In order to prepare for the economy to open the VYAPAARIS along with their best salesman Donald Trump are hell bent on selling snake oil to the gullible Americans. They are already advocating the use of a Malaria medication as a magic cure for Coronavirus when the medical experts seriously the efficacy of such a drug. I am sure non of these VYAPAARIS or their buddy Conservative Republicans will administer Chloroquine doses to themselves or to their near and dear ones in case they contract this deadly COVID-19. It is for someone else to take that risk and die.

Another sales pitch for opening the economy is that many people will die due to the bad economy and joblessness caused by depression, suicides, drug and alcohol abuse etc. But don't think that will be in epidemic proportion, far less than 3000 dying every day as of today. But it has to be sold with the support of their small but vocal supporters by driving them to street, at the cost of someone else's life.

Why Right wingers believe in such quackery like efficacy of snake oil sort of unproven medicines ? Because they believe in absolute blind loyalty (BHAKTi) towards demagogues, hence prefer quackery to Science (such folks galore aplenty in India too) which their heros sell. Opening up of the economy based on quackery is not only preposterous, it's blasphemous. But the Businessmen and their Republican cronies with go ahead with their plans. After all, enriching themselves at cost of other's life matters. Nothing else matters.

Shakuni - The pioneer of Divide and conquer

The British ruled almost half of the world not just by their superior naval and military strength, but by their uncanny strategic use of "divide and conquer" policy. That is how a nation of shopkeepers (alluded to the English by Napoleon), slightly larger in size than the state of Odisha and Georgia controlled the entire landmass of the Indian subcontinent. They did by playing one King with another, one Community against other, one caste against other caste - exploiting every possible division that existed in society.

The British wasn't the first one to use this strategy. Long before it was tried by one of the prominent characters in India's famous socio-political epic MAHABHARAT, the ubiquitous maternal uncle of the ever ambitious Prince Yuvraj Duryodhan. Just before the final battle of Kurukshetra which continued for 18 long days, Sakuni attempted to divide their opponents Pandava camp by bringing the the latter's chief asset Lord Krishna to Kaurava's side.

A shewd strategist, Shakuni was confident of implementing his master plan to success over the gullible Pandav brothers, but was afraid of one person of matching intelligence who could throw a spanner in his scheming wheels. He was Lord Krishna, who was firmly in Pandav's camp. "YEH VASUDEV KRISHNA HI MERA CHAAL PEHCHAAN SAKTA HAI. USE KISI BHI TARAH UN PANDAVON SE ALAG KARNA HOGA", "It's only Vasudev Krishna who could see my scheming, no body else. We should keep him apart from the 5 brothers" - so said Shakuni to Duryodhan.

The wily King of Gandhar tried his best in this mission. Just before the war he instructed Duryodhan to go to Dwarka and ask Devaki Nandan (son of Devaki as Sri Krishna is known as) for help. A reluctant, egotistical Duryodhan reached Dwarka, the abode of Lord Krishna soon followed by the archer Pandav, Arjun. Vasudev kept his offers open - Either Him who will not hold any weapon vis a vis his all powerful Narayani Sena (Army). Arjun promptly accepted the former, to have his friend Krishna by his side, where as Duryodhan was more than glad to get his Narayani Sena.

Upon returning to Hastinapur, Duryodhan boasted in front of his MAMASHREE (Maternal Uncle) Shakuni how the fool Arjun preferred a virtually useless Krishna to the vast Narayani Sena which Duryodhan got by default. He thought his Uncle will be highly impressed. But Mamashree Shakuni retorted back - "ARRE MURKH BHANJE, YEH KAISI GALTI KAR DIYA", "You moron nephew, what a blunder you did". You are going to pay for this mistake, he opined. Needless to say, it dashed the hope of Sakuni to divide Lord Krishna from the Pandavas who under the patronage of Giridhar (another name for Lord Krishna) went on to win the war.

This is not the only instance where Shakuni used his guile to judge people and use them as pawns like in the game of dice in which he was an expert. Karna - the valiant, generous but illegitimate son of SURYA (Sun God) and a close friend and confidant of Duryodhan was a person of utility for Shakuni who could match Arjun in Archery. In a scene from B R Chopra's Teleserial MAHABHARAT, Shakuni plots the death of the Pandavas with his plans to roast them alive inside their inflammable palace called LAKHYA GRIHA (The Jade House).

When Duryodhan is about the divulge the plans to his buddy Karna, Shakuni dissuades him - "There is no question of Karna's dedication towards you, my dear nephew Duryodhan. But he is just a pawn, part of the larger game towards your goal of your Kingship. It will be not be necessarily wise to divulge all our plans to him. But, keep your friendship alive, as he is our invaluable asset to take on Arjuna, but disclose stuff to him only as and only necessary."

In another scene, Mahatma Vidur, the step brother and Minister of Hastinapur tells the blind yet ambitious King Dhritarastra some hard truth. An irritated Emperor retorted back - "If you were not my brother, I would have punished you". Mahatma Vidur replies politely - " I may be your brother and well wisher, but I am advising the King in my capacity as the Prime Minister of the Kingdom of Hastinapur. I am doing this as my duty, because the duty of the minister is to tell the truth to his King".

Fast forward thousands of years to the year 2020. Anthony Fauci (Director of Center for Disease Control) as Mahatma Vidur is telling his Dhritarastra Trump some harsh truth about the Coronavirus. But blind Trump is unable to see or accept it. Hastinapur was ruined due to the idiosyncrasy of stubborn Duryodhan, same could happen to America due to Trump. After all this is Kalyug, not the Dwapara Yuga of Mahabharat where sense still prevailed. Shakuni and Mahabharat were way ahead of time.

Why America failed to see the Coronavirus coming

There are signs as projected by some models that America is going to see some slowdown in the spread of the dreaded Coronavirus in a week or two - subject to folks still maintaining rigorous social distancing. Yet it's going to get worse before it gets better. I see things starting to stabilize and get a whole lot better after June, if not sooner. But now it's time to smell the Coffee and wake up, analyze why America was caught like a flummoxed Rabbit in front of headlight and given its technological advantage why it failed to see Coronavirus which even microscope can see.

First and the foremost - America's arrogance as the forefront nation, the most powerful Superpower, so nothing gonna happen to it. The first part is true, America is still the superpower and the land of opportunity. But the second part is not. This overtly supercilious attitude of American exceptionaism has now backfired big time. It led to lowering its guard and in 3 weeks we have nearly 1/2 a million of its population having tested positive of COVID-19, 18,000 dead and counting as I write. The victims include numerous NRIs and at least one dead NRO (Non Resident Odia) I am aware of.

Secondly, the United states was grossly underprepared to handle such pandemic. It's not a terror attack with a visible target which America can prowl using its technological prowess, use bunker busting bombs through guided laser on COVID-19 virus and destroy it. Inspired by the Conservative principle of role of small government, The White House disbanded the National Security Council's pandemic response team in May 2018, two top officials in charge of response were either fired or abruptly left the administration.

I too believe that Government's role must be limited. From closed quarters I have seen how Big government in India has done anything but promoting ineptness and corruption, encouraging mediocrity in place of meritocracy. But Government still has a role, especially in the area of Disaster management. Credit should be given where credit is due. In my state back home Odisha, the local government has done a spectacular job in the area of crisis management. This is certainly an area where government's role, its expertise and experience comes handy.

Thirdly, the response of US government was tardy from the beginning. Rather than owning it, Trump and his Right Wing sidekicks blamed the virus going viral on Democrats, liberal propaganda. Not so long ago he proclaimed - "The virus will magically vanish". One of the President's raucous lackeys, Rush Limbaugh, a popular Right wing talk radio host with a vast following went a step ahead describing the virus, "It's just common cold folks". Neither this common cold virus has magically vanished, as it kills no less than thousands a day in America.

The "pooh poohing" of the initial scare, allowing the disease to progress into a stage which can very well  e described using the Odia phrase - NEDI GUDA KAHUNI KU BOHI JIBA (Allowing Jaggery from the palm to flow into the elbow). It simply means, knowlingly allowing a problem to persist and get out of hand, until it reaches an unrecoverable stage. The US authorities exactly did that, only reacted when the epidemic had already spread its tentacles far and wide enough to bring a $21 trillion economy to a screeching halt.

America has conquered many frontiers, including the killer Spanish flu exactly 100 years ago. I am sure it will be successful in controlling this invisible adversary. A vaccine will come sooner or later, most likely from American soil. Hope the nation learns from the pandemic, mitigation the scourge and stay better prepared for the next epidemic. If not its Superpower status is at stake.

FPS vs MKS

The whole world has switched to Metric system, well except America and Britain. They are the only ones I believe who still use foot and pound as measuring units. 

Apart from the English language this is probably the only thing the Americans retained from their one time occupiers whom they drove away and gained their independence. Otherwise, unlike the British they drive on the right side of the road, electric switches are opposite, they use date in MM-DD-YY format and much more. 

Weather is a favourite topic here. Many conversations commence discussing about the current weather situation - temperature is well into 70s, 80s, 90s and so on. During my initial days in America, my first thought was that they were talking about years like 70s for the 1970s, 80s for 1980s etc. Eventually I came to know that they are talking about the temperature in Fahrenheit. 

A typical American husband when returns home from work addresses his wife, "Honey what's for the dinner and how is the weather ?" Talking about weather is very much ingrained as part and parcel of American life. When I arrived in US one summer nearly a quarter of a century back, 90 degree heat was the talk of the town. I had to mentally convert from Fahrenheit to Centigrade to get a hang of the heat, similarly convert miles to kilometers to make out the distance. 

Once I was flying to Las Vegas. A couple sitting in front of me were struggling to convert temperature from Centigrade to Fahrenheit. It does not take one to be a rocket science to figure this out. But it was exactly how I was treated by the couple when I used the classic formula C/5 = (F - 32) / 9 and converted the temperature in a minute. They showered me with accolades flattering me by no means. I enjoyed my two minutes of fame.

Now 15 years down the road when I go to India part of the reverse cultural shock is to convert from metric to FPS (Foot Pound System). For me life has come to a full circle, same way you rotate the Globe a full circle you see India and US on the opposite sides. 

Another contrast I experienced while driving years back from Seattle to Vancouver. No sooner we crossed the US border and entered into Canada, than the speed limit changed from 65 mph to 110 kmph. My first thought was Canadians drive at a greater speed until I realized the change in the Unit of measurement. 

Till now I have to go through this agony of mental conversion as the world has come to a full circle for me. We should never forget, what goes around eventually comes around. For me it is about converting from F to C, Miles to Kilometers, Pounds to Kilograms and the other way round.