Headley, Copenhagen, Liberhan, Telangana have dominated the news for days, weeks interspersed with some impassioned rhetoric on Naxalism, regionalism, and whatever trivial comments Rahul Gandhi makes at some university or about landing his chopper in poor visibility etc. Is it really possible that a country of India’s size, diversity and development challenges, will have such paucity of newsworthy events/issues Read the rest of this entry »
The campaign by Aamir Khan, Subhash Chandra, Arvind Kejriwal et al for Kiran Bedi’s appointment to the top CIC position is both flawed and inappropriate.
The RTI Act 2005 is a landmark legislation that gives Indian citizens a platform to demand state accountability. Information commissioners are without doubt key to implementing the spirit of the RTI Act Read the rest of this entry »
There’s a price of citizenship. Not in the patriotic/xenophobic sense, but the obligation arising from belonging someplace, of access and rights to its resources. This obligation is casually interpreted as the need to stay within the legal peripheries as defined by the state, of paying taxes etc. However, the minimum bar requires us to take an active interest in the governance of our country, to ensure that our representatives do represent us, that the collective where it exists is greater than the mere sum of its parts. India, despite being the largest democracy in the world, has a rudimentary democratic system. The predominant cause (and also its effect) is the generalized political apathy in the Indian populace. While we may upbraid the disinterested, it is important to understand the social factors leading to the status-quo. This discussion is largely confined to the middle-class since they are most likely to be politically active (for change) in any country. Political apathy can be traced to six main sources.
bully 1 |ˈboŏlē|
noun ( pl. -lies)
a person who uses strength or power to harm or intimidate those who are weaker.
On the streets of Delhi (or Mumbai, Bangalore etc) one can find the complete historical timeline of land transportation: pedestrians, animal and human-powered transport, mechanized two-wheelers, automobiles, even trains (where the tracks intersect with roads). It’s worth a parenthetical aside to reflect on the frustrations and consequences of living in the 21st century with the tools of the nineteenth century. Automobiles of course run the gamut, from the little dinky Maruti 800 to large luxury imports of BMW, Mercedes, Audi etc.
Driving in Delhi sucks: crater-sized pot-holes, overcrowded roads, which narrow unpredictably (’cause of Delhi Metro (subway) construction), transportation modes of vastly different speeds, and brash lawless drivers (I didn’t feel like a competent driver in Delhi until when someone cut across me, I could scream at him/her in Hindi swear words with practiced ease) and crap parking spaces. It’s nigh impossible for cars to remain unscathed after some time on Delhi streets.
Against this backdrop, we have Mr. Ram Prasad (the resident Have_Not in the story) sitting in his beat up 1990s Maruti 800 at a traffic light. Up pulls a shiny new Merck with tinted glasses. When the traffic light turns green, and everyone is raring to go, and Mr. Have in the Merck presses Ramu, what should Ramu do? What will he do? Our Ramu can’t even afford the side rearview mirror on the Merck. If both charge ahead, the cars will touch, and the ugly red Maruti color will transfer on the gleaming Merck like cheap lipstick. Read the rest of this entry »
One of the overwhelming trends in India is the growing influence/power wielded by the entertainment industry. To wit: one of the only two people chosen from India in Newsweek’s 50 most powerful is Shahrukh Khan, a Bollywood actor. The other is Sonia Gandhi, our prime minister’s Italian puppeteer. Padma Shree awardees this year include Aishwarya Rai, and Akshay Kumar. Padma awards are “given for exceptional and distinguished service in any field” and need approval from the Home Minister, Prime Minister and President. Both are actors in Bollywood with a series of mainstream films, high grossing but not game-changing.
Shahrukh Khan and Smriti Irani dance for Balaji (of saas-bahu shows fame) Awards
Smriti Irani was/is an actress in a laughable televsion soap (Kyunki saas bhi kabhi bahu thi), anchors some dance reality show, and is now a high ranking politician in BJP. Our parliament is full of ertswhile movie stars, who after having become too old to dance around trees, now while away time in our Parliament.
Hema Malini on the judge panel for a dance reality show
Hema Malini is one, a nominated member of the Rajya Sabha. She also has a full schedule, promoting water purifiers and judging a dance reality show. Read the rest of this entry »
I was stuck in traffic for around two hours this afternoon. Why? Cause some politician’s cavalcade had to go someplace important (gauging by the urgent sirens on the fleet). After waiting for over a half hour, we were waved away from our turn. We went straight, turned, and then sat in traffic for another forty minutes or so. We inched towards another detour finally, and saw cars in the opposite traffic backed up for about a mile, and now piling up into the flyover. We sped up the empty street, only to realize that it was only a U-turn, and now we were one of the piled up cars. Seething in my car, mounting rage under the blazing sun, late for a meeting, I wanted to scream. Jump out of the car and do something dramatic, to mark my presence and worth as a person, if not a VIP. Had this been a movie, all of us held hostage to political inconsideration would have walked out en masse, deserting our cars (and our unilateral monetary pursuits), and stormed the parliament for answers. For the outsized public debt, but such deficient infrastructure. For lives eked out on sidewalks. For stifling pollution, and open dumps. For the sham state education. …
Instead like everyone else, once released from the gridlock, I went about my business, and came home.
Today is Jan 26 – Republic Day. Weather’s become warmer and coupled with government mandated nationwide holiday (including India’s favorite pastime, malls), Delhi families came out in full force to one of Delhi’s big parks, Lodhi Garden.
If you overlook the gaucheness (and the annoyance of having your personal preserve suddenly overrun), it’s all rather cute. The full extended family sitting together on the grass under the sun, casseroles, pressure cookers, big steel containers, chutney, pickle, all in attendance just like at home (no makeshift sandwich for them. No sir!). Preceded/followed by a vigorously played game of cricket, catch, singing, frisbee etc Read the rest of this entry »
Enduring love
Finally saw Slumdog. Here’s my two cents (potential spoilers ahead).
The movie is good, but not outstanding. The story seems contrived. As a viewer, I’d be willing to overlook the contrivance, if the format was merely a vehicle to showcase “reality”, but like the bastardized Indian food most Americans take for the real thing, this movie is not faithful to reality. Despite the horrors of their life, the protagonist retains his unblemished innocence, and his love for his childhood sweetheart endures time, absence and distance. His steadfastness is duly reciprocated – their love is their destiny. It is this that makes our hero emerge victorious – the two crore rupees is incidental (he risks all on a flippant guess).
Some corruption is inevitable with age and experience. Corruption maybe, not of one’s action, but the loss of naivete, the acceptance of everything at its face value. Those who insist on safeguarding their innocence do so at the peril of ignorance and passivity. The goodness of our protagonist (Jamal) never falters in the face of evil, and they dwell not on the motives, or any desire to eradicate once they themselves have vanquished/escaped their own personal representation of evil. The scars on their person don’t seem to penetrate their psyche. This is not a display of resilience, but a hallmark of fairytales. Read the rest of this entry »
Shaloo is the hired help in my house.
Background: Originally from Bihar¹, she came to Delhi as a little girl after both her parents died within a span of two months. She doesn’t know her age at the time, and uses her hand, palm parallel to the ground at around 4-feet to indicate relative age. How did they [the parents] both die, I asked, envisioning a flood or epidemic. They were both sick from black magic was the serious answer. Of the now orphan children, only two were married: elder brother and sister. The parents left behind extremely meager resources, and the eldest son kicked out the younger ones. Shaloo was then brought by her brother in law to Delhi, and put to work in a “kothi” (rich person’s home, large and usually stand-alone) as household help. This was some 20 years back. In some years, she got married, had three kids: Vikas (13 years); Kavita (11 years) and Suraj (9 years).
Now: Shaloo makes Rs. 4000/month. Her husband is a rickshaw puller², and makes a daily wage between Rs. 70-150, depending on the number of customers. His monthly rent for the hired rickshaw is Rs. 900. The family of five live in a jhuggi³ (small soul-sucking tenements, usually illegal). While Shaloo’s story is typical, she is exceptionally disciplined and saves roughly 30% of the monthly income. She also sends her children to school.
Monthly household income: Rs. 7000 (~$150). Budget highlights: Read the rest of this entry »
In a recent NY Times op-ed, Bob Herbert argues for a financial transactions tax to raise revenue, and curb speculation. He notes, “This would impose a small fee — ranging up to, say, 0.25 percent — on the sale or transfer of stocks, bonds and other financial assets, including the seemingly endless variety of exotic financial instruments that have been in the news so much lately”. He quotes Dean Baker (co-director, Center for Economic and Policy Research, Washington) to explain, “It raises money in a way that comes primarily at the expense of speculation …The fees would be a considerable expense for someone who is buying futures, or a stock, or any asset at 2 o’clock and then selling it at 3. The more you trade, the more you pay … It’s a very progressive tax that discourages nonproductive activity [emphasis added]“.
In India, while we have Securities Transaction Tax (STT), it is a paltry .125% and deductible as a business expense; short term capital gain tax is only 15% (up from 10% last year). Both of these do little to curb speculation (India has one of the highest trading volume to total market cap). However, this is an economic policy point and somewhat tangential. The more central point is that shouldn’t we as a society worry about the the colossal waste (and warped incentives) of bright minds in India, lured by the easy money and the pseudo-intelligence of speculation, be it in real estate or trading puts and calls in the stock market. How can we justify making money on the stock market simply based on hunches/knowledge of which way a stock/market will go in a certain period. That’s not the underlying tenet of the stock market – of fueling investment in companies that produce valuable goods and services in the economy. Nowhere in the world are the short-term gyrations of the stock market based on any rational understanding of the fundamentals. Yet, we idolize, envy, and emulate the traders who make a ton of money through speculation. Paul Krugman (‘08 Economics Nobel) notes “There’s an innate tendency on the part of even the elite to idolize men who are making a lot of money, and assume that they know what they’re doing”.
Personally, I feel that a preponderance of those who acquire such off-the-graph gains are either lucky (riding the wave) and/or unethical (active collusion). And we shouldn’t encourage or glorify those who make personal gains at the society’s expense.
This blog is about India, my perspective on its people (including me) and their defining motives. To me, India feels eminently bourgeois: the intoxication over rising prosperity; the single-minded pursuit of self-advancement; incongruous consumption; baffling adherence to outmoded conventions; mediocrity of mass media; and general political apathy (in the world’s largest democracy!)
Yet in its middleclass is India’s potential – we the people of India, of privileged homes and social safety nets, educated, well traveled, with firsthand experience of countries with engaged citizenry – we can actually do something to change India, the spirit-killing poverty, the corrupt and inefficient state, and woefully deficient public services.
Increasingly, I feel that the big idea is not in any private initiative, but increased government accountability and performance. Government services are more than just the prioritized distribution of tax rupees. These services are the promises the legislature makes to maximize the good intentions of the collective conscience and pockets of its people. And our administration is failing us! The cost of our public systems not working is enormous: there is of course, the cost of duplication, but more importantly the tens of thousands of discrete initiatives can never create the sea change that India needs. No one problem (poverty, illiteracy, disease, gender inequality, economic disparity) can be addressed in isolation – we need a whole mesh of symbiotic initiatives targeting social issues in parallel, the success of each feeding into the other. Read the rest of this entry »
Portable Insight
