An Opinion on Opinion

Such are the times that everyone has an opinion on the Mumbai Attacks. Some of us lesser mortals just publish them on our blogs and are satisfied if a reader or two wander here. May be, leave a comment. Some are more privileged to get their opinions published in respected newspapers! But I have an opinion on the opinion.

In this Sunday’s Indian Express, Lord Meghnad Desai has berated the government for the attacks on Bombay – not Mumbai, because he apparently grew up in the city when it was known as Bombay. He also demands that Bombay be accorded statehood and somehow believes that that will solve the problems. Why? First off, it was Nehru’s wish that Bombay be a separate state and secondly, even though the Chief Minister and the Home Minister were asked to go, the punishment wasn’t enough, especially since both of them were not from Bombay and it somehow does not make them accountable.

In my opinion, this opinion itself is flawed. Lord Desai, what we are seeing here is the failure of the Westminster style democracy, which does seem to have worked well for countries like the UK. Let us flashback a little bit. 9/11/2001 – ghastly attacks struck New York City. Who sprang into action? The Mayor of New York City. Whatever political mileage and revenues from books Rudy Giuliani drove out of this event, he should be commended for his leadership in those difficult times. When President George W Bush went on TV, he talked of smoking the terrorists out of their holes alive or dead. He did not get into the bickering of petty politics and pushing blame around. No one, naively or not, believed that statehood to New York City would solve the problems.

Now flash forward. The real question is that in case of our hierarchy and various positions are we ourselves clear, who does what? The Home Minister is routinely in charge if internal security matters (strangely, the Federal or Union Home Minister is also in charge of the Border Security Force in peace times!). But then what happens to the Mayor of the city? What does the Municipal Commissioner do? Who does the Police Chief of a city report to? Aren’t the authorities like either the Municipal Commissioner or the Mayor of the City and the Police Chief of that city expected to be in charge of the general well-being of the city? Aren’t these guys more close to what is happening in the city and shouldn’t they be in touch with each other always? When broader help, like the NSG involvement is required, who is the liaison for the Intelligence Chiefs? What is the command structure like? We hear that the Intelligence Bureau had given some information to someone. Do we know who gave the information to whom? Do we know who is accountable to do what?

Now with this imbroglio, if Mumbai were to be renamed again as Bombay and were given statehood, how are all these problems going to be solved? Just because the Chief Minister will then be ‘local’ does not make him or her any more accountable. If the real hands behind the power are somebody else’s then how will it help? Are smaller states like Mizoram, Goa to name a few, happier because they are small and have local leaders? Would different departments, such as the intelligence guys and the defense guys and the internal security guys start coordinating better because the state is small?

Even more important, how many times has it happened that the leader was chosen through the voting of the elected members of the legislature? Would you not agree that every leader we have, including the prime minister himself, has been appointed? What are we going to do about the extra-constitutional remote controls like Sonia Gandhi et al. then? Does really unseating an MP or MLA make a difference? Our earlier Union Home Minster was such a guy, wasn’t he? He was unseated by his own folks in the Lok Sabha election, but rewarded for his loyalty to the Gandhi-clan by giving him what is considered an important post in the Cabinet. It is deplorable that RR Patil and Vilas Deshmukh are going to go unpunished; the only loss to them is no opportunity of hoarding money and power for the next year or so. But if anything, propose accountability here too…put these guys in jail for incompetence and let a justice system decide what to do with them. If we establish accountability like that, being local won’t matter. Is the question of accountability even valid in our context here?

Let us not rush into creating more states and adding more layers of bureaucracy unless we have answered these more important questions. And even more important, let us not divert attention from reforms and correcting past mistakes, if we ever get to that, to more politically motivated solutions like statehoods.

Punish the Real Culprits

No holds barred. Here’s what needs to happen, and now:

1. As a first step, Dr. Singh should fire his wimpy speech writer. When you are addressing the nation after such a shameful calamity, at least let there be some chest thumping while talking, all right; you are trying to motivate a billion plus horrified people here. Work can be outsourced to either McCain or Obama’s speech writer.

Convene an immediate session of the parliament. Following bills/ordinances/executive orders – whatever is the right thing need to be passed:
2. Repeal all alphabet category securities (and numeral and mathematical notations along with it) of everyone.
3. All the members of parliament and legislative assemblies all over India should be stripped off of their privileges. Live like common masses, may be the skin will not grow thick then.
4. Justice delayed is justice denied. If a case is open in the court (any court) for more than a year, the Judge should be publically lashed, Saudi Arabia style. And implement this ordinance immediately, for current open cases.
5. The chiefs of various intelligence bureaus and Coast Guard should be tried for treason. The only punishment should be death penalty.
6. If a policy maker/law maker is found guilty of misdemeanors for not doing his or her duty as policy maker/law maker of the land, he or she should be publically lashed, again Saudi Arabia style. This should be retroactively implemented and every sitting MP or MLA/MLC should be punished right away. They have taken things for granted for too long anyways.
7. Every case of corruption should be a punishable offence by death penalty only.

The Indian Summer of Dry Valley Johnson

Is over, without the theatricals, of course.

Note: The title plagiarized from O Henry’s short story of the same name and same meaning, without the theatricals, of course.

General Knowledge

Now, I like to think that my GK is fairly good. I know the longest river in the world, the tallest mountain, the deepest trench and the Electoral College votes of Ohio that might swing the election. Heck, I even know what Electoral College means. But is that enough? Let me tell you, how yours truly was broadsided by a 100 feet wave in an 80 feet boat.

So this guy walks up to my desk. He is carrying a box of sweets and is wearing a patched t-shirt, which in a hurry he might have worn inside-out. No wait; it was made inside-out especially to irritate me. Now, if I were a loan officer, I thought, approving a loan to this guy was like triggering sub-prime crisis right there. He thrust a box of sweets in front of me asking me to partake a kaju-katlee or two. “What for?”, I asked out of habit. “I bought a unicorn.”

I was aghast. If this were a Disney cartoon, my face would have turned in to a question mark with a feeling that a horn is jutting out of that mal-formed question mark.

“I sold my pulsar” – he quipped.

Ever let your jaw drop when your face has already metamorphosed into a question mark? It is really painful.

I mean, how stupid do you have to be? Selling a celestial object that you can’t even fathom owning and buying a mythical creature, that does not even exist in story books these days! OMG!

Trying to remain as clam as possible, I started framing a sentence at the back of my mind - “son”, getting into a cocky Jack Nicholson style but being sympathetic at the same time, “you have been conned. Now, if you need help, I will offer everything. The first thing you might need to come to terms with this is psychiatric help. Now, don’t get me wrong…oh first sit down, calm down. Here, take a swig of water.”

None of this came out of my mouth. But he was quite chirpy. It appears the old pulsar was becoming creaky. Ya ha… may be after a billion years it started loosing its hydrogen – or whatever it is that powers the pulsar.

But then subtlety hit me on the forehead. These are bloody bikes that bother me so much on the Pune roads. And this bum had just exchanged one for the other and was offering me sweets for that. With a cheerful face, I took the sweet, congratulated him and was happy that none of the words came out of my mouth showing my ignorance.

Y'all

Is it that many Indians speaking in phony American accent have just inherited this phrase from the south of Mason-Dixon or do we, in a meeting, looking at a bunch of people we look for a plural of the pronoun you?

The Waree and the Warkaris – II

Being busy is just an excuse, but it took me really long time to pen this and put on the blog. As they say, better late than never.

So, what draws the warkaris to this spiritual madness? Yours truly tried to find that out this year. It all started with a good friend asking me, “we are joining the waree this year also; will you join us?” All we had to do was walk from close to Alandi up to Shivaji Nagar. I was skeptical at first. And I was assured that it has nothing to do with religion, being a believer or god-men and saints. Anyone is welcome to join in. You will not feel the distance or tiredness; you can stop at any time or just return from where you are, if you are tired. There are a lot of people around. Just walk for the experience…. It did not take a lot of cajoling. I know of a few friends and relatives who have done this, I knew of the history and the intense spiritual reckoning that was attached to it. So, I decided to take the plunge.

Initially, I was skeptical of not only the religiousness but also of the physical challenge, it presented. But it was a challenge worth accepting. So the plan was made – walk in the shoes that you are most comfortable in, carry a bottle of water, may be an umbrella and just be there at 4:15, at my apartment – so I was told.

4:15, you mean in the AM? Now, this was about to present another challenge. But it was necessary. As the warkaris start walking towards the city, many streets are closed and if you have to be part of the waree, it is better to be early than late. Sharp 3:20 AM, my alarm bell rang. I was up and ready to set out of the house at 4:00

At 6:00 AM, we were already on Alandi road, only 5 km from Alandi and waiting for the palkhi to arrive. It was nice – standing on the hillock, watching the sun rise; and watching the warkaris already set and walking towards Pandharpur. Despite of the crowd, there was no din. Everyone was walking in an orderly fashion, singing the hymns.

In the spare time, we were talking about the warkari sect, the management principles and experiences of other warkaris we know. We met two such groups – who walk from Alandi to Pandharpur every year. They were sharing their experiences – you forget the entire material world, no newspapers, no e-mails, no worries but for the strong urge to meet the lord. The waree embodies all the spiritual, management (in modern terms) and behavioral aspects. It changes you as a person; I was assured.

Eventually, the time came for the chariot carrying the palkhi to come. The sign of approaching chariot was the more organized dindis that started coming first. A dindi is simply a group of the like minded people, who register to walk together. Each dindi has a group of flag-bearers in the front, the devotees carrying tulsi plants and water, the group of devotees who are singing the hymns – they also carry cymbals and drums (mrudunga). The characteristic beat of cymbals and drums fills the air and gives a rhythm to the walk! These are followed by the participants of the dindi. A dindi-pramukh – the head of this group – walks beside the dindi and maintains order in his dindi.

As the devotees get engrossed in singing the hymns their cadence increases. So does the pace of walk and then the walk itself changes into a dance step that matches the rhythm of the hymn. The crescendo almost has the warkaris dancing without being aware of the world beside them. They play; they sing; they dance. Some just walk. They take breaks; after all, it is a long walk! People distribute food. The waree management also makes provisions of food of the warkaris; the organization takes care of the lodging arrangements. (The waree-management should be a topic for another post.) But meeting the lord is what drives them.

The rules of waree say, you either make your own food or sustain on charity, so a restaurant was out of question. We had our food at a charity in a temple. The afternoon sun was now taking its toll, but the enthusiasm had not waned.

And this continues for 22 long days before the waree reaches Pandharpur.

After saying good bye to the waree at Shivaji Nagar, we eventually returned home. Just a day’s walk of almost 15-16 km was killing the legs. A nice hot shower cured most of the pain. Thankfully, the next day was a weekend and enough time to rest. The waree also rested in Pune for two days before proceeding on its way forward.

Will I join the waree next year? The answer is yes. All I need extra is a little bit of sunscreen.

Careers Gone Awry?

The Government of India launched a population control program with the famous line, hum do, hamare do – we two, and ours two. The inverted triangle of “nirodh” implored people to not have more kids. The stick-figured happy family had two kids in tow with the parents – a daughter and a son. The daughter was always the elder one! With the “only two” becoming fashionable, the general families also decided their careers. The daughter would be a doctor, the son an engineer! The daughter would be married off into another family of “only two” and the happiness would extend to the next generation. So much was making the kids doctors or engineers ingrained in the fabric, the other careers were thought as taboos. Getting less marks in SSC or HSC, prohibiting admissions to the above two courses would immediately bring a funeral mood in many homes. Later on, “only two” fell out of fashion and “only one” took the stronger hold. Till then, doctors or engineers in industries except for IT had become passé. IT still had the luster! And everyone had a charted career path – SSC, HSC, BE and then into IT and off to the US of A!

Life was easy, until I realized something. How is it that we are rejecting sharp engineers (more or less) in interviews and here, we have:

1. An expert in Slavic languages, driving the project design


2. A Certified Financial Analyst, working in Microsoft Technologies


3. An Art Director, you know, the one who decides what music Steven Spielberg should choose for background kind (I am not kidding!) manages a large server farm in various technology flavors


4. A specialist in Psychology is an established consultant on Microsoft Technologies


5. A journalist hobnobbed with web development and went on to become a corporate strategist


6. A Marine, did his part for his country (USA) and now runs successful operations at a product based company

Is the trend changing? For a long time, the path of success was IITB and then IIMA. The rodent-derby (folks also call it rat-race) was yours to lose, as many tell Barack these days! But I think the trend is changing. Kids still have fascination for IT but also want to do something else…. Here’s what the next generation in my family is doing:

1. I am interested in animation only, if that is not the job I am getting, I won’t take some software engineer job at a multi-national, told one of my nephews to his frazzled father


2. Journalism! No, wait, IAS! Umm, no Journalism it is. “College in Chennai?” screamed my cousin, but the niece was steadfast


3. How’s your MBA coming along? Good. Barely a whisper and I thought I was laconic! So, how are campus placements coming along. I didn’t attend any, the sparkling diamond studded ear answered. What? Well, no, I want to do business, came a nonchalant reply.


May be some will go down the rut, may be some won’t. But it’s good, they are more likely to do something they like!

The Waree and the Warkaris

As a kid, I heard my grand mother talk of the stories of the panDharee chee waree. Vithoba-Rakhumai at the homestead devghar (temple) used to get extra offering on the aashaaDhee ekaadashee (the 11th day of the waxing period of moon in the month of aashaaDh). The weary call after asthma attach, by my grand mother usually was “vachav ray Panduranga, kiti anta baghashil” (Panduranga, have mercy).

So was Pandurang introduced to me; – the savior of the ordinary, the up lifter of the downtrodden, the helper of the weary, the chief protagonist of the bhakti-movement.

It may have started as a simple preaching in the form of folk music from the likes of Sant Namdev and the translation of Geeta by Sant Dnyaneshwar or the ovi-abhanga with loaded messages by the likes of Sant Tukaram, Sant Janabai, Gorha Kumbhar, et al. This avatar of Vishnu, worshipped mainly in Maharashtra and some portions of Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh etc. has a huge following. The intellectuals and social-reformers of Maharashtra owe a lot to the bhakti-movement. The strong but spiritual revolt against the ills of caste system may have laid the foundation for the education and emancipation centuries later.

The bhakti-movement culminates into what’s known as a waree – a long march from Alandi and Dehu and many other places in Maharashtra that reach the deity at Pandharpur on aashaaDhee ekaadashee every year.

Every year, two palkhis – the carts – carrying the padukas of Tukaram Maharaj and Dynaneshwar Mauli start from Dehu and Alandi respectively. After a walk of more 250 km, over 22 days, these palkhis reach Pandharpur. Almost 1 – 1.2 million devotees participate in this long march. The devotion, teetering on the edge of madness, of these devotees is more than words can explain. People of all walks of life – the rich, the poor, the farmers, the workers, the young, the old, the men, the women, the rural folks, the urban folks – participate in this long march. No one invites them, no one, not even the deity gives them anything in physical form. The egoless and selfless march draws the warkaris to meet the big lord every year. But what draws the warkaris to this madness?

छोटा काटा तीन वर

पहिलीतल्या लहान मुलांची शाळा सकाळी का असते असे प्रश्न स्वाभाविक आहे. मी सकाळी डोळे चोळत का ऊठायचो? कुलाबा, चर्चगेट मध्ये काम करणारे आई-वडिल घराजवळची शाळा बरी असा विचार करायचे. मग सकाळी पावणे-सात ला अर्धवट आंधारात, थंडीत, पावसात माझी आणि बाबांची वरात निघायची. कधी-कधी भागशाळेतल्या मैदानामध्ये पाऊस नसतानासुद्धा पाणी (दव) कसं, रेडियोमधून आवाज कसा येतो, पाण्याच्या पंपाची मोटार फिरते म्हणजे काय आणि पाणी वरच्या टाकीत कसं जातं अश्या एक ना अनेक गोष्टी चालायच्या.

घरी परत आल्यावर आजी बरोबर नको-नको त्या वयात रडियोवर वनिता मंडळ सारखे कार्यक्रम का ऎकले ते मला महित नाही. मग आनंदी-गोपाळच अभिवाचन, लक्ष्मीबाई टिळकांच्या स्म्रुतीचित्रेच अभिवाचन, कामगारांचे प्रश्न (तेंव्हा गिरणी-कामगारांचा संप चालू होता), पावसाळ्यात किंवा ऊन्हाळ्यात होणारे सामान्य रोग वगैरेंनी माझ्या सामान्यग्यानात खूपच भर पडली. मग आजीची एक डुलकी व्हायची तेंव्हा रेडियोला जरा आराम मिळायचा. दुपारी चहा-दूधाची वेळ व्हायची तेंव्हा किती वाजले हा प्रश्न यायचा. गजर लावल्यासरखी आजी उठायची. रोज मी न चूकता छोटा काटा तीनजवळ आणि मोठा काटा आठवर अशी वेळ सांगायचो. दुपारी पावणेतीनला प्रदेशिक वार्तापत्र, दोन-पन्नासला संथगती ईंग्रजी बातमीपत्र असे कार्यक्रम रेडियोवर चालू व्हायचे. पण वेळ मात्र रोज तशीच. अजून शाळेत घड्याळ शिकवले नव्हते आणि रोज वेळ सांगून सुद्धा घड्याळ शिकायची माझी ईच्छा झाली नव्हती!

मग एक दिवस गम्मत झाली. शनिवारी बाबा घरी होते. सकाळभर सावंतकाका, पाटिलकाका, आण्णाकाका आश्या बाबांच्या मित्रांची वर्दळ झाली होती. दुपारी विश्रांतीसाठी बाबा जरा झोपले होते आणि माझ्या ऊगाचच काहीतरी टिवल्या-बावल्या चालू होत्या. त्यामुळे बहुदा बाबांची झोपमोड झाली होती. किती वाजले या प्रश्नाला ऊत्तर म्हणून मी काट्यांची पोझिशन सांगून मोकळा झालो. झोप मोड झाल्यामुळे नाहीतर रागानी बाबांचे डोळे लाल झालेत हे मला समजल नाही. आता एक थप्पड बसणार या आविर्भावात बाबा ऊठले...पण आजी मध्ये पडली.

मग एका जुन्या वहीच्या पुट्ठ्याचा एक गोल कापला गेला, १ ते १२ च्या पोझिशन्स लिहिल्या गेल्या, दोन पुट्ठ्याच्या तुकड्यांचे काटे बनले...आणि मग माझ्या घड्याळ शिक्षणाची सुरुवाता झाली, ओरडा खाऊन झाला. आता माझ्या बाबांची मनिषा माझ्या भाच्याला घड्याळ शिकवायची. त्याचीही घड्याळ सांगायची पद्धत काट्यांच्या पोझिशन प्रमाणेच आहे. "आहो तो लहान आहे अजून" असं मी सांगून बघितले, पण एकनाएक दिवस तोही घड्याळ शिकेल, कदाचित थोडा ओरडाही खाईल.

अजूनही माझा कधी-कधी वेळेचा गोंधळ होतो. मग आठवते ती दूपार - घड्याळ शिकलेली.

Gerrymandering Maharashtra

The Delimitation Report of the Election Commission has been approved by the President of India. So the news is abuzz with the redistricting of constituencies for the next Central as well as State elections. The delimitation has brought forward some interesting aspects of the redrawing of lines!

To begin with, Maharashtra State Legislature has 288 seats. The total number of seats has been retained and redrawing has happened based on population density. It was decided in 1976, that the total number of seats will not be reviewed until 2026! Go figure!

Major urban areas such as Suburban Mumbai district, neighboring Navi Mumbai, Thane, Panvel and Pune and Nasik have undergone significant change in redrawing. With the exception of Mumbai District, these areas have seen significant increase in the number of representatives.

Thane is up from 13 to 24, Pune from 18 to 21 and Greater Mumbai holds the same number of seats, but share of suburbs has gone up to 17 but the city lost 10 seats. Nasik and Nagpur have also made modest gains.

The redistribution could be hardly representative. The population of Maharashtra has gone up significantly, but the proportion of people to representatives hasn’t changed. Only now, the urban areas will have better say in the formation of governments.

As the gerrymandering can show, the redistricting has followed major population growth areas. The cities – Greater Mumbai (and adjoining metropolitan area), Pune, Nasik, Nagpur are bursting at seams. One look from the top of the suburban train bridge at any local station shows the overwhelming display of the sprawl and decay. For all the increase in population, if we are also going to get more number of representatives, then in a saner world, we would have called it as victory of democracy and more power to people and other such clichés. But reality is going to be different. More number of representatives would only mean more birthday celebrations, more money laundering and less work. Call me a negative thinker if you will.

Unfortunately, with gerrymandering or without gerrymandering, the problems persist. When the Samyukta Maharashtra Movement created the separate state, major political weight was distributed between Mumbai and six districts of Western Maharashtra. The Western Maharashtra has been able to retain control over the policies through their clout and has converted itself into big-moneyed politicians and sugar barons. For all the progress that Maharashtra has made, little has been contributed to urban development. In the past 47 odd years of state’s existence, only one Chief Minister was from Mumbai and he too did not do great things for the city. The visionaries like Yashwant Chavan and Vasant Naik may have inadvertently done more harm to Mumbai than anyone will agree.

The resurging development following the liberalization was rampant and unplanned. Now that the political weight is changing to urban areas, do we hope to see any respite?

p.s. Thane by election result is in. Anand Paranjape of Shiv Sena won the election, in which the voter turnout was dismal. It is shame that both the parties contesting this seat had to look for the sons of the politicians to contest the seat. In the area, what Shiv Sena considers as its stronghold, there was no second-level leader who could take Prakash Paranjape’s place after his death. That speaks for the party!

This Blog is just Moribund

Not entirely dead yet...