N D Tiwari joins - An asset or liability ?

Not sure about the outcome of BJP adding the wily, old fox N D Tiwari to its fold at his young age of 91, there will never be a dull moment with him around. Only time will tell the efficacy of the move by the decision makers in BJP.

N D Tiwari represents the slowly exinct old school of Congress, whose secret source of survival is doing GHULAMI (slavery) picture perfect to the Nehru - Gandhi clan. The sycophantic culture in Congress was best depicted by Debakant Baruah, a Congressman from Assam, who once said in 1970s that "INDIA IS INDIRA and INDIRA is INDIA. 

At same time a Hindi couplet was ascribed to N D Tiwari.

"INDIRA KI HOON MAIN PUJARI,
SANJAY KI HOON MAIN ABHARI,
NA MEIN NAR NAA MEIN NAARI
MAIN HOON N D TIWARI".
Roughly translated into English.
"Worshiper of Indira I am
Indebted to Sanjay I am,
Neither male or female is my fame
N D Tiwari is my name".
I have no idea how sagacious is the decision of BJP's top brass, but Tiwari jee has been in news of late for his salacious deeds. From getting sandwitched by babes at the age of 85 at Governor's mansion in Hyderabad to proudly going on honeymoon, smiling his gum and waving at the paparazzi from a car proudly proclaiming "JUST MARRIED", he has is the emblem of life begins at 90.
Good luck BJP. N D Tiwari is quite a NAR (Man) and hopefully the turncoat turns out to be an asset rather than liability to your Party.

Prelude to the UP elections -I

Election campaign heats up in the cold, dusty fiels of the politically vital state of Uttar Pradesh (known as UP), part of the cowbelt on the great gangetic plains. It is this heartland of Indian politics which sends the majority of MPs to our Parliament and is the state which has sent us the majority of Prime ministers.

A win in the state of UP can be make or break time for the fortune of a party -  a state where caste and communal factors factor in in deciding the winner. With Muslims solidly behind SP, the Upper castes behind BJP and the lower caste behind BSP,  they form the base of the respective parties. They need to scavenge out chunks from each other's base to carve out a winning formula.

I am reminded of my Engineering college days in REC (now NIT) where a sizable number of the students came from the cowbelt which includes the states of UP and Bihar (Both then had Uttarakhand and Jharkhand as part of them). They were great guys, but occasionally some of them would whisper around my ears ISKA JAAT KAA HAI (what's his caste), curious to know about the caste of few Odias, mostly their roommates, trying to connect their castes it to the caste of their Odia counterparts. 

For example, they linked our KARANA caste to KAYAST. The caste Brahmin was self explanatory, though they struggled a lot whether to align our KHANDAYAT caste to Rajputs or Bhumihars.

As a teenager, who had hardly travelled outside Odisha, I found it rather strange.

Odias might have tons of lacunae, but such rampant and naked casteism is not one of them. I found their behavior little weird and uncomfortable, not to mention noticing a few of the upper caste folks from the cowbelt would avoid sitting on the Mess Dining Table with certain guys, whom they perceived as from lower caste or strata of the society. The thought of not sharing a meal with someone never came to our mind, churning my stomach.

Caste is not just A factor, it is THE factor in UP politics, which can only be ignored by any political party at its own peril. No doubt the realpolitik in UP is laced with casteism (as well as communalism), a slight swing of votes can swing the elections in either direction.

(Last and the concluding part of the blog to be continued tomorrow)

Good bye Obama and his legacy

During the Democratic Convention in the year 2004 to declare John Kerry as the Party's nominee for the President of United States, one of the multiple speakers on the stage was a newly elected Senator from Abraham Lincoln's state of Illinois. There was two things special about this Senator - he was one of the rare African-American Senators and a charismatic communicator. His name was BARACK OBAMA.

With his famous "Skinny kid with a Funny name" speech, Obama catapulted into the  limelight during that Convention. A star was born. When I saw that speech, interrupted by standing ovations, I predicted a bright future for him.

Little anybody knew that in the subsequent Democratic Convention exactly 4 years later, the same person would be at the centre of the spotlight, being the Party's nominee for the President of United States of America.

No one would've predicted that another 4 years later as Obama walked into White House for his 2nd term, the Democrat nominee at 2004 Convention, John Kerry would be serving him as his Secretary of State. It yet vindicates that time define fortune and it's wheel.

Obama was the first African American in true sense - his father was an African (from Kenya) and mother an American. Economy was in a free fall when Obama took over. Bill Clinton left America's economy with a budget surplus, George Bush spectacularly squandered it, leaving with trillions of dollars deficit, mostly due to his Iraqi misadventure.

As Sanjeev Kumar said in the iconic Hindi movie SHOLAY, LOHA KO LOHA KAT TA HAI (only iron can cut iron), Sadadam Hussein was a ba***rd, but he was our ba**rd. He kept Iran under control and put a lid on a can of worms. But Bush went there and opened the lid for the worms to grow and form the core of ISIS today.

Obama was prudent to stay out of Middle East. At home his Auto bailout and Stimulus Package arrested the economic bloodbath, assuring him another term. Though many expected much more him, he did a pretty good job as he inherited a mess no President in the modern history of United States did. America is pretty stable now as he ends his tenure, compared to when he took over.

Barack Obama will be judged as the buffer between two political buffoons, George W Bush and Donald Trump, the later still untested. He will go down history as a President who not only prevented a sinking ship from going down, rather steadied it on its course. Adieu President Obama. America and world are going to miss you.

 

The Days of Texas Detour

In 1979, the English movie TEXAS DETOUR was playing at Bhubaneswar, which a good friend of mine claimed to have watched it. However he said the movie's name was "Texas Dictator", apparent from the way he pronounced it.

 

Texas Dictator, Detector, Doctor or Whoever - I had no option but to believe him, for he was the one and the only one self proclaimed expert of English movies and music at that time within my circle. So his words were the Gospel. Yes, I had heard of Texas. But as a State where the American President JFK was assassinated in a city named Dallas - no more, no less. 

 

My friend had an aura about him, as he claimed following ABBA, Boney M music. Often he used to sing something with snorted lips, which resembled English language as "Bata shoes, Carona shoes..shoooooes..whoooos". I was completely spellbound. Ignorance may be bliss, but for me it metamorphosed into sheer adulation.

 

Those were the days of late 1970s and early 80s, when watching English movies was taboo. Only CHHATARA (girl chasing vagabonds) and BAZAARIs (free roaming loafers) had the reputation of watching English movies - with the additional image and baggage of being filled with nothing but filth to spoil the young minds.

 

Such assessment wasn't entirely wrong in an overtly conservative society. Teenagers would stealthily break free from parent's prying eyes to watch movies like BOBBY and QURBANI (Sacrifice). Except Bruce Lee and Bond movies, the rest English movies were out of bounds for most. But it couldn't bound the curiosity of the youth of the time, who managed to sneak into those movies designated for Noon Shows.

That was the time when Cuttack was the big brother, a happening city and with Bhubaneswar its poorer twin. The later was regarded as a city of immigrants lacking a coherent culture of its own, ascribed by many as GOLAM NAGARI (The City of Slaves) where the salaried class slavish people served their SALKAR (government) vis a vis the DILADAAR and BOBAAL (Broad hearted and fun loving) KATAKIs (denizens of Cuttack). 

 

Folks from Cuttack were fun loving, considering 5 or 6 Talkies (local parlance for movie theatres) they had, decent by the standard of those days and far more than any other city in Odisha. From the quality of mosquitoes to movies (the famous KATAKI MASA can lift you for miles) the city on the bank of Mahanadi had an edge of its newly built adjoining capital city.

 

In contrast Bhubaneswar had only 3 movie halls, two of them named Kalpana and Rabi were within a mile, equidistant from my house. Both were arguably the biggest hatcheries of CHHARA POKA (Bed bugs) who can bite chunks of your ass off, which is apparent from the scenes of the viewers coming out of the theatre, scratching their private parts in public.

 

Once when I was glued to Amitabh's movie NASTIK (Atheist) in Rabi talkies, I got this cold, gluey feeling from bottom, stuck by a big mouthful chunk of chewing gum left by someone on my seat. I realized it midway when I tried to get up, leaving a thin trail of white string behind me, akin to a jet airliner leaving a white tail on deep blue sky. It was real pain in my butt, as during the intermission I spend a good chunk of time, cleaned myself off that chunk from my pant using a handkerchief (a part of a teen's pocket paraphernalia those days along with a comb). 

 

Another escapade in the Kalpana Talkies - I took my TASREEF (sat down) on the coconut coir filled seat, as the beg bugs were having a field day feasting on me. Annoyed and irritated, I barely shifted to scratch myself, glad to be relieved that the spiraling spring protruding upwards from the torn away top of the chair just missed the target it was destined for. I told my English movie loving friend sitting besides me - You just missed the fun. If the spiraling spring hit the right target, you could have heard me inadvertently singing with snorted lips your favorite song - "Bata shoes, Carona Shoes, Whoooooos, Whoooooes, Oh My Woes". 

RIP Om Puri

MAINE RAMA SHETTY KO MAAR DIYA (I have killed Rama Shetty). The Award winning movie ARDHYA SATYA (Half Truth) ends with this monologue by an actor who is instantly thrown into limelight by his role of an honest cop played in this movie.

The actor was Om Puri, who has never looked back since this epic movie from 1984 until he passed away last night (incidentally the role of Rama Shetty, a gangster, was played by another eminent Marathi actor Sadashiv Amrapurkar, whose monologue KAAL ANA or come tomorrow to arrest me in that movie also catapulted him into limelight. He passed away not long ago).

After ARDHYA SATYA offers poured in for the Punjabi actor, who since acted in multiple commercial as well as art (non conformist) movies, displaying his immense acting talent. Easily recognizable by his thick, characterstic husky voice and poke marked face, he played all possible roles on screen - good guy, bad guy, good cop, bad cop, comedian and crook to perfection.

A champion of free speech, he didn't hesitate to express his opinion, daring to go against the tide by airing his objection to the war mongering Indians and banning of Pakistani artists on TV. It wasn't an easy thing to do at a time, especially in a surcharged atmosphere, when questioning of government's motive was tantamount to treachery.

Once the cheeky politician from the state of Bihar, Laloo Yadav promised to make the roads of Bihar as smooth as the cheek of actress Hema Malini. But down the road, the roads of Bihar still resembles the small pox pore filled chicks of the actor Om Puri than the cheek of the dream girl of yesteryears.

His trademark poke marked face instantly earned a witty response, which along with his heavy, husky, resounding voice will forever be etched in the memories of tens of millions in a nation where Bollywood is a major religion, along the Cricket. RIP Om Puri.

Dhoni retirement from the captain of the limited overs format

It was early 2006. India was chasing a sizable Pakistani total in front of a hostile home crowd in Lahore. At a crucial moment India lost its star batsman Sachin Tendulkar, still needing tons of run to see through their target.

Those days the end of Tendulkar was regarded as beginning of India's impending end. Nonchalantly walks in a young man with long hair, a tyro following the departure of a connoisseur in Sachin. Nobody expected much from this guy named M S DHONI from a non descript, impoverished state named Jharkhand.

In middle of a hostile India baiting (rather hating) crowd, he led a successful chase staying cool as iceberg. It's not very common to be a newcomer to crash into limelight in a nail biting, pressure cooker rivalry between the arch rivals.

Dhoni's performance in Pakistan's own backyard earned praise from no other than then President General Musharaf, not a huge fan of India or Indians by any standard. (Musharaf incidentally told Dhoni not to cut his trademark long hair).

Arguably Dhoni was the harbinger of a new era when Indians finally got out the cycle of meekly surrendering against Pakistan to the chagrin and disappoint of its fans.  Soon India was no more seen as lacking the nerve and guts to fight under adverse circumstances.  

Dhoni continued to flourish and never looked back. His quitting today as the Captain of the limited overs format brings back memories of his biggest gift to our nation - under his leadership India winning the much coveted World Cup in 2011. Three years later followed his abrupt relinquishing of test career to the surprise of tens of millions of his fans.

A la most long lasting Indian Captains, Dhoni's tenure wasn't free from its share of controversies, with partisan debates surrounding him. But what's not debatable is his commitment and contributions to Indian cricket. The man has earned it. Hats off to a legend and God to many in a country where cricket is the religion.

Visit to Jaganntah Temple on New Year's Day

Years ago, on one fine New Years day in India, I was trying to cross the Puri bound road close to where our home in Bhubaneswar. I was surprised to see thee abnormal traffic on a normal day, a rush almost similar to what you would see on a day of some major festival, like the famous RATH YATRA (Car festival) in Puri.

I had to tip toe my way, swaying my hips, waving, clenching my hands like an eunuch at the approaching traffic of vehicles big and small, zeroing on me, blaring their cacophonic horn in unison at me. As there were no Zebra crossing, it took 5 minutes exhibiting my dancing skills to cross a 20 feet wide road. (Road crossing is an art in Bhubaneswar and one needs to be a trapeze artist to cross roads at crossroads of Bhubaneswar). That day I went above and beyond my normal hip swaying skills which would have made any danseuse proud.

After managing to reach home in a single piece, I asked my father the reason behind such an unusual rush on an usual day. He said, it has become fashionable now to do a JAGANNATH DARSHAN (take a peek at Lord) on New Year's Day at the His abode in Puri. Like a dip in river Ganga (Ganges), they trust CHAKADOLA (Circular eyelid, another name of Sri Jagannath) with his ever pervading look will purify them off their dirt like Aqua guard, from the previous year and the year next.

It explains why you would see many bloody, bleary eyed folks, still nursing hangover from last night's New year's eve Bacchanalian jamborees, stumbling their way up the BAISI PAHANCHA (the legendary steps) leading to Lord's abode. Many of them I know are prolific slimy characters, congenial liars and champion womanizers, who are known to religiously make this trip on the New year's day. Constipated with sins, they hope that the next 364 days will go as smooth as whistle, as the morning bowel movement post a dinner of RUTI (Chappati) and DALMA (boiled mixed of fiber rich lentils and vegetables), a staple Odia food.

We have this popular Odia Adage - BAARA BARSA RA TAPASYA SUKHUA PODA RE JIBA, transliterated, "Twelve years of penance will be swept away by consuming broiled dry fish". It means, all the great efforts and perseverance for a long period can go wrong by a single stroke of stupid act.

Reverse this theorem - A trip to the abode of the lord on the first day of the year guarantees buying peace and tranquility for the rest of the year, erasing off the sins in one stroke, a la the wiper of a car swishes away all the dust accumulated in summer after fresh monsoon rains. May KAALIA (as Lord Jagannath is known for his Amber complexion) bless them for the next 364 days, until their must visit yet again on 1st January, 2018.