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Rabble Rousing Random Ramblings by S Jagadish is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 Unported License.
According to the BBC, villagers in Pakistan occupied Kashmir have accused Pakistani armymen of raping one of their women two weeks ago. They have filed a case with the local policemen. The villagers claim that the army has been pressurizing them into withdrawing the case. The Mukhtaran Mai episode continues to be held up as an example of Pakistan's poor attitude with regards to women and women's rights.
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That said, it seems like armymen aren't having a nice time in Kashmir. Last week, Indian armymen shot three boys past midnight mistaking them for terrorists. The offer of compensation has been rejected by the families of the killed boys. The killing led to protest, unrest and a bandh in the Kashmir valley.
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Wired Magazine: Ten years that changed the world
The next issue of Wired Magazine focusses on the decade since the Netscape IPO which revolutionized the way people looked at the internet. Obviously the internet, and the web, became a lot more ubiquitous as the years rolled on.
The issue features a virtual who's who of the internet age. There're the usual suspects, Marc Andreessen (Netscape), Jerry Yang (Yahoo), Shawn Fanning (Napster), Steve Jobs (Apple), Larry Page & Sergei Brin (Google), etc.
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Fire at ONGC's Bombay High platform
At least twelve people are confirmed dead with around fifteen people missing after Mumbai High North platform, belonging to ONGC caught fire. The cause of the fire has still not yet been determined, but speculation is that high tides in the sea, probably an off-shoot of the incessant rainfall in Bombay, rammed a supply vessel which caught fire and the fire then spread to the platform.
You can track the details of survivors and victims at the ONGC website.
One of Krithi's friends, Krishnan (email: ia_rkrishnan at rediffmail dot com), was at the site. He works there. We still do not have information on if he is ok. The list of survivors lists one "Radha Krishnan". We can only hope it is him.
As an aside, ONGC is confident of restoring production to 70% of the level in two weeks.
You can continue to follow the developments on Yahoo! and and Google news.
Update: Krithi's friend Krishnan is safe. Apparently he was on some other ONGC platform.
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The military-mullah equation as per Mike Marqusee
Mike Marqusee, an American who lives in Britain nowadays, writes on a variety of subjects, including cricket, especially focussing on the sociological angle.
In the context of Pakistan's role in the London blasts becoming obvious, he writes in "The Guardian" about Musharraf's links with the radical Muslim clerics he calls 'mullahs' and how despite his talk of enlightened moderation, there is neither enlightenment, nor moderation. He quotes the Mukhtaran Mai episode, the lack of concern for human rights, action taken against women activists, barring women from running in a marathon along with men, etc.
He gets it totally right when he points out that only democracy and accountability can tackle terrorism, of the individual and state-sponsored varieties.
Labels: musharraf, pakistan, uk
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Paranoia in London? Pervez is da maan!
Mark Lawson writes in The Guardian about the way Londoners seem very wary of others on buses, trains etc. in the wake of more attempted bomb blasts last Thursday exactly two weeks after the first set of blasts on 7th July.
According to check lists on the internet, based on Israeli experience, one way of spotting a suicide bomber on public transport is to look out for passengers who seem sweaty or anxious or who are mouthing silent prayers. But the flaw in this technique is that almost everyone I saw on tubes or buses in yesterday morning's rush hour was glistening with apprehensive perspiration, while several seemed to be muttering secret deals with some deity. And yet none of these people wanted to kill me; they were trying to stay alive. So the eventual effect of Islamicist terrorism is to make the threatening and the threatened indistinguishable.
Then a man was shot dead last Friday at Stockwell station. But he in fact turned out to be a Brazilian, Jean Charles de Menezes and according to Scotland Yard, the shooting was a mistake.
This will only increase Londoners fears about terrorism and they will continue to, as Lawson points out, consider the chap sitting in the adjacent seat fidgeting around to be a bomber as well, precisely what the terrorists would have hoped to achieve.
That is the way global terrorism typically works. Create an atmosphere of uncertainty and fear. Then get the radicals to talk about how their way is the only way out. This increases the paranoia and fear with some of the influenced ones allowing themselves to get indoctrinated in the language of hatred and terrorism. Soon the chap next door also seems like a suicide bomber, even if all he has been doing is pray to God a little more fervently and is as far away from being a terrorist as you and I are. After this, the first terrorist strike will invariably result in confirmation that the chap next door has in fact been hand-in-glove with the perpetrators of the crime. Then it becomes difficult for people to live in peace.
Whats the way out? Eradicate the root cause of global terrorism: Cleanse Pakistan. Read the riot act to Musharraf. Dont be swayed by his rhetoric, glib-talking and his preaching.
Tailpiece: A hunt is on for Pakistani nationals apparently involved in the blasts on Saturday at Sharm al-Sheikh. A Daily Times editorial talks about the linkage between Pakistan and Egypt in terrorism and wonders about the future.
Labels: musharraf, pakistan, uk
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Lee Kuan Yew on China and Asia
Lee Kuan Yew, Singapore's former Prime Minister, writes about China, China, China and a lot more about how China's relations with its neighbours are transforming Asia. So why on earth would that column be titled "A Rising Asia"? He ends thus:
Both India and China are integrating their economies with those of their neighbors; together they will pull Asia into an era of dynamic growth. The inevitable surprises will occur, but both China and India are on course for a revival of their glorious civilizations. By 2050 the world's economic center of gravity will move from the Atlantic to the Pacific and Indian oceans.
Previously featured here: LKY's comment on how the tsunami crisis was handled.
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Manmohan Singh at the US Congress
Here's the text of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's address to the US Congress and an analysis on Rediff.
Did he take a dig at the US electoral system when he mentioned a statutory independent election commission? There were quite a few pointed digs at Pakistan.
Our Army has remained a professional force, subject throughout to civilian control.
We know that those who resort to terror often clothe it in the garb of real or imaginary grievances. We must categorically affirm that no grievance can justify resort to terror.
In this context, I would also like to reiterate that India's track record in nuclear non-proliferation is impeccable. We have adhered scrupulously to every rule and canon in this area. We have done so even though we have witnessed unchecked nuclear proliferation in our own neighbourhood which has directly affected our security interests. This is because India, as a responsible nuclear power, is fully conscious of the immense responsibilities that come with the possession of advanced technologies, both civilian and strategic. We have never been, and will never be, a source of proliferation of sensitive technologies.
The point he made on the restructuring of the UN Security Council was interesting. He said "The UN Security Council must be restructured as part of the reform process.", which is a little closer to the US position, i.e. UN reforms, including accountability, budgeting, processes, monitoring etc. need to be carried out before we think of the UNSC. Does this mean the G-4 initiative is on hold for the present?
As Nitin points out, his tailpiece was really nice.
This is what former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee spoke at the US Congress in September 2000.
Labels: proliferation
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Bambi Francisco at Marketwatch wonders if Google will enter the instant messenger market by buying out Skype.
And why does the title of the post refer to the US? Read this nice comparison of the three major internet giants (AOL excluded) with 20th century nation states.
Labels: google
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As it becomes increasingly evident that not one, but three of the bombers who terrorized London two weeks ago visited Pakistan, the country's reputation as a safe haven for terrorists and the involvement of the government and military establishments is at last being unmasked by the global media. Indians have known about it for more than two decades now, essentially starting from the early 1980s. Better late than never, I suppose.
Hordes of media personnel from other countries have descended in Pakistan to try and establish the linkages between the suspects and Pakistan's hate flaming institutions, including madrassas and the military. Pakistan's ambassador to the UN pins the blame on Britain, claiming that it didnt do enough to integrate Muslims into the mainstream and that Pakistan was certainly not responsible for the actions of disenchanted British Muslims. I've just picked myself off the floor, having been rolling on the floor laughing much to the amusement of my colleagues here, after reading his comment "We have suffered from terrorism more than anybody else. Pakistan is doing all it can."
Even as Pervez Musharraf launched a hasty crackdown on banned outfits, there is scepticism amongst his own countrymen about the effect. Of course, I really dont think anything will result from his crackdown. He must be getting used to these sort of crackdowns, given that he seems to say these things so often. It is merely lip service to ward off international attention for the present. The terrorists keep surfacing after going underground for a couple of months only to assume different names, identities and modus operandis but with the same ideologies and funding.
As I wrote last week, it is unfortunate that Britain has come face-to-face with the reality about Pakistan's role in international terrorism, its biggest export, a few radioactive elements included. The best thing that can happen for the world is if Islamabad's involvement in global terror is systematically exposed. For that to happen, those appreciating Pakistan's role as an ally in the war on terror will have to take the blinkers off and smell the coffee.
Labels: musharraf, pakistan, uk
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Blast from the past: Bangalore
I am convinced that what I wrote six years ago about Bangalore's infrastructure holds good more than ever before. I'm curious to know if aside from the Ring Road and a few flyovers (with the one being built at the Airport Road-Indiranagar intersection presumably being made a museum artifact), has there been any other infrastructure development effort in this duration?
I'm just back from a Linux conference at Bangalore. The first person who affects you when you set foot in Bangalore is the auto driver. Now I do not claim that he is worse than the Madras auto driver. But at least the Madras auto driver doesn't insist on offering you opinion on which hotel you should be staying in even after you've told him a dozen times that the room has already been booked. It does tend to make you feel a little bit on the down side at 5 am.
The Bangalore one is much more polite. But he drives as rashly as the Madras chap and haggles as much. What's worse our means of communication become something like a mixture of pidgin version of Hindi and Tamil. I know Bangaboys will rise up in union and declare that theirs is the most cosmopolitan of South Indian cities but not from my experience. Well at least a lot of the auto drivers I've talked to cant figure out Tamil and the other half aren't too good with their Hindi.
Unfortunately it is the rainy season in Bangalore now and the poor infrastructure is evident from the way the roads break up during the rains. A lot of the Indian cities (except possibly Bombay) really get affected by the rains. But I found it strange that a city with Bangalore's profile would also be found wanting in the area of drainage. Well I had heard stories (and news items) of how Bangalore is bursting at the seams and how the city's infrastructure has gone for a toss but I now experienced it first hand.
The conference by itself was a superb one. Except for a couple of speakers (one from Oracle talking of how Oracle and Linux are made for each other and another from SCO talking of their new network administration system Tarantella) the talk was of the highest quality. The speakers were pioneers. Rasmus (www.php.net), Richard GNUman (www.gnu.org) & Nat Friedman (www.gnome.org) were the stars of the show. GNUman in particular was amazing. What he said would have ruffled a lot of feathers and a lot of it did not seem practical either but it was the way he said it that really influenced the people. Nat Friedman, who wouldn't be older than 21 or so gave a superb demonstration of the GNOME project and its associated projects like the GNUmeric project etc.
The conference had been organized into three separate sections:
a. Beginners
b. Pro 1
c. Pro 2
It was however apparent that a lot of people had wandered in from the Beginners track to the Pro tracks. Snippets of discussions overheard:
Q: "Hey who is this Linus Torvalds chap ?"
A: "He is some programmer chap. Don't really know why his name is on the slide"
Q: "What is this Star Office ?"
A: "Star Office, Oh that is a Windows 95 program written for Linux".
No I'm not kidding.
Lets leave the conference behind. So I walked around Commercial Street hunting for food and found a Woodlands branch there. It was possibly one of the safest places to have grub surely. I hadn't however prepared myself for the prompt service I would encounter. After I had purchased my meal and taken it to my seat, I went about the task of consuming it. A while later, I walked back to the counter to get a drink and indicated to the waiter that I had *NOT* finished with my food. I went back to my seat to find out that the waiter had not heeded my instruction. Sure you have to do your job sincerely, but not at my stomach's cost !!!
I've been to Bangalore around 4-5 times in the last year and during various seasons. Yet I have never ever figured out why on earth people wear jerkins in the day, at night, when it rains, when it doesn't, when it snows, when it doesn't ... you get my drift. Any Bangaboy cares to clarify ?
Call me sexist or myopic but Bangalore was the only place I've seen in India where I saw girls driving Kawasaki Bajajs and Hero Hondas around. I'm not saying that they cant or they shouldn't but it did make me wonder about why I hadn't seen that happen in say Madras. I haven't had enough time to focus on the roads in Bombay because of the huge amount of time I spend travelling from the airport to Flora Fountain and because its night by the time I am done with my job !! Anyway I am more likely to see a lady taxi driver in Bombay than anything else !
All the blasts: Kargil & WC 1999, Lata v Asha, Tam-Brahm wedding, Madras, Unglamourous Orissa, Idols and Bangalore.
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I have no idea what the inspiration for this write-up was. Since then, I've added a few more to this list. In any case, the Mahesh-Leander story came to a screeching halt barely a year or so later.
If I were a marketing person, I'd be tempted to label this article as being the Millenium Ending) piece. However since I'm not, and am frankly tired of every damn thing being sold with the Millenium tag associated with it (imagine Millenium Sarees ? What next ? Y2K sarees which dont work on Jan 1 2000 ?)
We're always influenced by other people. You admire them, you hope you can emulate them but since these people are so famous, it normally ends up becoming a pipe dream. But thats precisely why we admire them and strive to do the same things they did, imbibe the good points from them.
My earliest hero would be Karna from the Mahabharata, which I came to know for the first time when I was around 4-5 years old, thanks to my grandparents. Amar Chitra Katha happened later. I was extremely influenced by the near unflinching friendship Karna had for Duryodhana. He became my favourite character from the epic, even though he was really on the "evil" side !
The next person who I'd consider an idol would be RK Narayan. This would be around the time I was in 7th std. or so. I was never really a stories reader and I usually preferred general knowledge books etc. I was actually quite scared of the huge books I saw in the libraries and refused to read any novels etc. Even now, I'm quite apprehensive about them although admittedly I read "A Suitable Boy" twice in the space of 3 months ! What was extremely enchanting about RK Narayan's stories was the simplicity in them and the way they conveyed the life of simple folk. No science-fiction no masala, just pure life. He really made reading a pleasure for me and needless to say, I've read a lot of his writings.
Sunil Gavaskar invokes conflicting emotions in a lot of people. Some would say he's great, others say he was a selfish bastard. But to me, he was the one person responsible for Indian cricket being taken more seriously than it used to be. Yes there were some great players like Merchant, Manjrekar, Bedi etc. but to me, none of them was as influential in cricket as Gavaskar. He played against the best bowling of his times. The list of pacemen he conquered would read like a 'Who's Who' of the greats. My point is quite simply: "If there wasnt a Gavaskar, there wouldnt be a Tendulkar".
My next idol is what you would call a maverick, no its NOT Subramaniam Swamy. TN Seshan may have been part of the bureaucratic system which is hugely responsible for a lot of the ills in India. But it required someone to shake the roots of the electoral scene in India. He may have been arrogant, autocratic and what not. But you have to call a spade a shovel and he did that. Politicians quaked at the thought of antagonising him and he was in just about every way the "messiah" the people dream of to turn the system on its head. Of course he fell from grace the moment he stood against Advani at Gandhinagar, going totally against the very law of residence he wanted to bring into effect while in power.
My next hero would be one of the most versatile geniuses you'd ever find in India, especially in the entertainment business. He was great as a comedian, a hero, a music director, director and most obviously as a playback singer. Kishore Kumar Ganguly was astounding at just about whatever he did and he did a lot of things (including romancing Madhubala !) You'd be hard pressed to find a more versatile person in Indian cinema. If Seshan is the maverick, Kishore was the maverick genius !
They're an odd pair, the long and the short of it. But they've proved to the world that India can produce world class players (even if it is as a team) in a game which we've never really been good at. I admire Lee and Hesh for their unwavering self belief and the way they've been focussed at attaining their goals. Totally professional in their approach, they've made sure that their off-court problems have little effect on their on-court play. Who cares if they dont play singles as well as doubles ? They're world class and thats good enough.
All the blasts: Kargil & WC 1999, Lata v Asha, Tam-Brahm wedding, Madras, Unglamourous Orissa, Idols and Bangalore.
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Blast from the past: The Unglamourous State
I wrote this shortly after a cyclone devastated Orissa in 1999 (?). Orissa almost always continues to live with years alternating between cyclones/floods and drought. It really does amaze and sadden me that one state can suffer so much misery annually.
If Sachin Tendulkar's back breaks down, its news. If Debasis Mohanty is rested because of a foot injury no one cares about it. It really seems to be a similar situation with the recent cyclone(s) in Orissa. One of my earlier articles talked about how India got united like I hadn't ever seen before during the Kargil conflict. Surprisingly though (or maybe it isn't so) the cyclonic devastation hasn't really resulted in the same scale of sympathy and mood.
I am tempted to think that it really must be so because its Orissa. If the affected state were say Maharashtra, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Bengal or one of the eastern states I'm sure the feeling would be stronger. I may be totally wrong though.
Assume, for a moment or two, that Pakistan actually was staking its claim to Bihar/Orissa and not Kashmir/Punjab (or Junagadh which isn't really a state but just a province in the northern part of Gujarat). Assume that they invaded Bihar/Orissa (impossible though it may seem, considering they would have to cross the entire breadth of India to get there but then again strange things have happened at Purulia, haven't they ?). Would the public outcry have been on the same level as it did ultimately turn out to be for Kashmir ? There is no doubt at all that there would be a lot of strong feelings expressed but would it be on a similar keel as that of what we see for Kashmir today (or Punjab 8-10 years ago) ? Probably not.
For those who wish to know, Giridhar Gamang, the present CM of Orissa was the one who was allowed to vote in the previous government's vote of confidence even though he was holding the twin positions of MP and MLA. Gamang voted 'Nay' and there was another election. Orissa has also been witness to the burning of Staines and his kids. Is the BJP government deliberately delaying aid to Orissa because Gamang brought them down by his vote the last time around ? Is nature punishing Orissa for having allowed an innocent person to have been killed by a mob ? I would brand anyone who propounds the 2nd theory naive and insane.
Yet, the suffering of Orissa's people is very likely not because of the lack of public interest/sympathy for their state (pun unintended) today or because of the step-fatherly (or step-motherly) attitude of the centre, but because of the callousness of the state's administration. The latest issue of India Today (a magazine, that I respect a lot) speaks about how there is money, the food stocks are there but there is no way this can be distributed to the villages because the state administration system had collapsed on the day of the cyclone. The various secretaries at the state level and the district collectors etc. just fled. The result is those haunting eyes that look at us from magazines and newspaper photographs.
Overnight people have been rendered homeless, family-less and income-less. Surely the people of Orissa deserve better. So what if they don't produce the glamour boys of India ? So what if it isn't as much of strategic importance as Kashmir or Punjab ? So what if it doesn't boast of any metros ? They are Indians and that is reason enough.
All the blasts: Kargil & WC 1999, Lata v Asha, Tam-Brahm wedding, Madras, Unglamourous Orissa, Idols and Bangalore.
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Blast from the past: Madras, nalla Madras
This post was essentially prompted by the enormous amount of digging happening in Madras (Chennai is such a ridiculous name!) to build the flyovers during the late 1990s.
My earliest memories of Madras are those of peeping out of our home in Chetpet in the late 70s and naming each car going by. We were in a joint family then and needless to say, it was good fun. I dont remember much about it now but every now and then my parents recollect some funny thing which happened during those days and really speaking, that is the only way I know about all that transpired 20 years ago or so.
Our home overlooked a playground and there was a fairly big road going nearby too, so that meant I could while away my time watching the cars go by. I am told that I was able to give the names of at least 5 cars which went on the road in those days (which would presumably have been the Ambassador, Fiat, Gazelle, Herald and the Plymouth). I am pretty sure it was just about the only thing I did in those days apart from bawling and fighting with my cousin of the same age.
How times have changed. My cousin, when he was the ripe old age of 3, managed to utter the names of a dozen cars on the road. Even better, he could actually spot the difference between a Maruti 1000 and an Esteem, something I never quite have figured out to date. With the sudden influx of Koreans into the car market, his autobulary (which is presumably what you could call a vocabulary consisting only of automobile names) increased by a factor of 2 ! But now where is the space on the roads to drive all those cars ? The Mayor, in his grandiose plan to convert Madras into a huge network of interconnected overhead flyovers, has ordered the digging up of just about every road in the city. It has become impossible to go on the roads without the fear of being bathed by a bucketful of cement mixture falling upon you from a height of 30-40 feet. Madras, to put it shortly, looks like a city felled during WW-II. Then again, what do you expect from a Mayor who has that kind of name ?
Someone who'd never seen Madras in his life would certainly not be at fault if he thought Pakistan's new military government had nuked us. All this is in the name of development. Therein lies the problem really, we never think of "planned development" in the truest sense of the word. If they were going to build flyovers and dig up every main road in town, why on earth didnt they get down to doing the job and timing it so that a major chunk of the scheduled work gets over by Sept-Oct which is when the rains start. As it is, Madras roads are bad in the monsoon. Add to it roads which are barely 3 metres wide with water and mud on either side and you are left with no space for the poor autorickshaws to weave their way through the traffic. In short, it is a terrible experience and speaks a lot of the visionaries that our leaders claim to be.
Well, we always knew they were never what they claimed but surely it is difficult to believe that such idiots exist. Give back my Madras to me.
All the blasts: Kargil & WC 1999, Lata v Asha, Tam-Brahm wedding, Madras, Unglamourous Orissa, Idols and Bangalore.
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Blast from the past: A typical Tam-Brahm wedding
This one is too bloody dated. Since then, I've got married and we have a 13 month old daughter as well. But most of what I said is still relevant. Unfortunately, I couldnt have my way with the 'simple marriage' thingie. My insistence on a registered marriage was shot down brutally, without a second hearing.
Come September and its the annual marriage season here. The actual hunting ritual though starts a little earlier on obviously. Having just been to a wedding where I knew both the groom and the bride, from school days, and given the fact that its been ages since I attended a wedding, I was obviously enthusiastic about it.
The first thing that affects you is the early morning start (of course, I really am speaking from attending a Tam-Brahm wedding in Madras, obviously different people have weddings at different times of the day). It really accomplishes two things:
a. Less crowds for the actual wedding ceremony. I mean who in his right frame of mind would travel 10 km on a 2/4/8 wheeler to catch the ceremony ? (It is a different matter though that I did) Besides, doesnt less crowd always mean less expenses ?
b. Hoodwinking the groom. The groom is as human as you and I are. It is ridiculous to expect him to wake up at 0300 hours, take a cold bath and be dressed in the most minimal of garments and sit for hours at a stretch with a few glasses of water and coffee to keep him awake. As a result, a lot of the time the groom is more or less close to zero alertness and unwittingly he's hooked before he wakes up.
Ok, so you're done with watching the groom and the bride (along with their umpteen relatives) go through the early (and i mean really early) morning chores. Next its time for the paatis to show off their vocal talents. Typically the people who sing at marriages are aunts/grandmas/some other random relations of the groom and the bride. Even more typically they are people whose musical careers were snipped short cruelly because of marriage and other such family commitments.
They nurse a burning desire to make it big like MS Subbulakshmi and ML Vasanthakumari. But where's the damn opportunity ? In their case opportunity knocks on their doors whenever there's a wedding in the family. So, in the most screeching of voices (this is after they make a dozen excuses about how its been 34 years since they sung any songs and they have no practice etc. However they are put to ease by half a dozen other people who insist that they are the best singers in that gathering), they "sing" a few FSAM songs (Frequently Sung At Marriage).
The next thing in the wedding (mind you, we arent past 0700 hours yet !) is the actual "he's hooked" ceremony. The music reaches a crescendo as everyone in the hall shows off their throwing skills to the best possible extent, the only problem is that the flowers reach as far as the maama in the previous row and they go home with a "tennis elbow" to attend to for a week.
After this the wedding gets pretty mundane. Of course, the afternoons are reserved for gossips, songs and sleep. Cut to the evening reception.
The groom is dressed in a 3-piece suit, in the 40 deg. C heat of Madras mind you, while the bride has 3 layers of flowers on her person along with a 5 kilogram embroidered saree and as much gold as there could be in Fort Knox. For these two people, this is possibly the worst part of the entire marriage because they'll just have to stand like mannequins and say "Thank you" to everyone who greets them, and sport a smile throughout the 3 hours of the reception.
At another wedding, where I didnt know either the groom nor the guy but had tagged along with my family for a dozen other reasons (primarily because a wedding reception offers a sight for sore eyes :-), I shook the groom's hands and said 'Hi, I'm Jagadish' and unbelievably, his reply was 'Thank you'. He was so used to hearing "Congrats" that the reply was sort of auto-generated !
On a more serious note, I think its high time we, as mature and independent young men and women, put our foot down on all this enormous marriage expenditure and made things as simple as possible.
However, I remain cynically yours
Jagadish - who doesnt expect to go through all this, well not for quite some time yet
All the blasts: Kargil & WC 1999, Lata v Asha, Tam-Brahm wedding, Madras, Unglamourous Orissa, Idols and Bangalore.
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Blast from the past: Lata v Asha
This was written I think just after August 15th, 1999. I think around that time, there was a stage show for AR Rahman's new album.
Last week it was a great sight watching Lata Mangeshkar and Asha Bhonsle sing together for AR Rahman's music in the "Desh ka salaam" album. Two sisters, two legends, who were supposed to have had a very frosty relationship with each other (on the professional front) were brought together on the same stage and they even exchanged a smile during the song. It was a great sight and we must thank Rahman and Bala for that.
Lata first burst on the scene with Barsaat (Jiya Beqarar hai) and Mahal (Aayega), with Barsaat being only the first in a long line of great songs she sung for Shankar-Jaikishen and under the RK banner. It is impossible to put down a list of great Lata songs for there are so many of them. The ones that really stay with me would be Aapki nazron ne samjha, songs from Madhumati, Aey mere vatan ke logon, Allah tero naam, Pakeezah, Guide, Humne dekhi hai in aankhon ke mehekti khushboo (Khamoshi), Aandhi songs etc.
See, its just not possible to make even a top 10 list ! But interestingly Lata possibly never sang for OP Nayyar and even for SD Burman, she came in only in the late 1960s with Guide. However Lata's association with Shankar- Jaikishen (not Dr. JR) and Laxmikant-Pyarelal have given us lots of wonderful songs. However the best Lata songs were with Madan Mohan. Songs like Naina Barse, Ruke ruke se kadam, Aapki nazron ne samjha, Tu jahan jahan chalega mera saaya, Zara si aahat hoti hai would stay with me forever. They were so beautifully tuned and superbly sung.
Having said all this, its high time Lata retired with grace. I cant really bear to hear her sing Didi tera (HAHK..!), Chand ne kuch kaha (DTPH), Jiya Jale (this is certainly her best song in recent times) etc. In this respect, Asha has done a far better job than Lata.
Asha's great ability is her adaptability. If the genre of songs at that time was slow, then she would sing those. If it was ghazals, Asha would so it. When pseudo-rock tunes came out in the 70s, she was there. If it was the disco and jhankar tunes (of Bappi Lahiri and Laxmikant-Pyarelal) she was there too ! Now when its hard beats and pseudo-techno sounds, every film has a song from Asha ! That is versatility for you and its certainly not the jack-of- all-trades-master-of-none kind of versatility.
Most of Asha's gems have been with OP Nayyar, SD Burman and RD Burman. OP Nayyar's simple ghoda gadi songs have been made immortal with Asha and Rafi's singing. A few examples would be Chain se humko kabhi, Isharon isharon, Jaayiye aap kahan, Zara hole hole chalo more saajna, Maang ke saath tumhara etc. Before SD Burman shifted to Lata, Asha rendered such gems as Acha ji main hari chalo, Aankhon mein kya ji, Chodd do aanchal zamana, songs in Chalti ka naam gaadi and Teen deviyan etc.
The husband wife pairing of Asha and loRD Burman gave us so many great songs in the 70s like Teesri Manzil, Chura liya, Mera kuch saamaan, Piya tu ab to aaja etc. And Asha isnt done yet. Songs in Rangeela and a few other recent movies are proof that this wonderful singer will continue to enchant us with her amazing range.
But I end on a slightly miffed note. I was absolutely aghast to see Rahman play around with the national anthem. Making changes to Vande Mataram is one thing and to the national anthem is a totally different thing. Its totally unacceptable. Moreover it violates the Constitution (which specifies somewhere the max. time duration which the anthem should be sung in). I hated that bit of the programme, for sure.
All the blasts: Kargil & WC 1999, Lata v Asha, Tam-Brahm wedding, Madras, Unglamourous Orissa, Idols and Bangalore.
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Blast from the past: Kargil and the World Cup
Thanks to Pradeep, a friend from NTU who has since moved on to other pastures, I've rediscovered older writings of mine for IGNet, a site setup for the IG at NTU, Singapore. Thanks a lot to Srijith for hosting IGNet when its domain expired. Given that I've always had an opinion and have somehow or the other managed to find a way to express it, I'm totally delighted at locating these articles/opinions/write-ups. Mind you, these are rather dated, most of them written in 1999.
Normal blogging will also happen, but some of the next few entries (called "Blast from the past") will be a copy-and-paste effort, just to ensure there is some sort of 'permanent' record on this blog. It is tough for me to evaluate, but has the writing style changed in the last six years?
We start off with a comparison of Kargil and World Cup 1999.
Along with the fact that the Pakistani intrusion of Kashmir succeeded in exposing Pakistan's obvious military involvement with the Kashmir militants, the Kargil encounter showed us a facet of India we had seldom seen before, that as an aggressive, super patriotic nation.
At the forefront of this radical change was a septagenurian Prime Minister who was extremely forthright and clear in the way he handled the issue even though some of the ministers in his cabinet chose to expose themselves to be the idiots they really are. But what was even more amazing was the way all Indians responded to his call and rallied behind the soldiers. The "war" brought about a patriotic feeling in India on a massive scale. People from all walks of life wanted to contribute something for the jawans. More than a dozen funds sprung up from nowhere collecting money for the soldiers and their families. Requests to donate blood came by the gallons to the hospitals and the army camps. So much so that hospitals would probably be better off enlisting those volunteers to provide blood to needy civilians because the army generally has a fairly good stock of blood.
All this was so eerily similar to the frenzy we saw in the lead up to the Cricket World Cup. Companies piled on the World Cup bandwagon by the hundreds. If you bought a TV set you could actually get a chance to watch the World Cup on another TV, for free ! Scooters proclaimed themselves the official carriers of the Indian fan, although it is impossible to believe that Apple Singh or Sivamani went all the way to London on a Bajaj Chetak ! Need I expond on the way cricketers who we never knew existed and those who we thought couldnt say a word in English, were thrust into the limelight and they suddenly became the "experts" !
Kargil wasnt too different in this respect too. Retired army generals, officers etc. were all in great demand with the various television channels eager to get their sound bytes before the others did. In much the same way as Harsha Bhogle went to England, just to interview the cricketers and the commentators there and also to present a daily report on what was happening where, NDTV sent Barkha Dutt and a few other reporters to the foothills of Tiger Hill during the daring raids. The reports from her were no less exciting than those from Bhogle, except possibly for the fact that Boycott wasnt around to say 'Mee moom would have climbed that hill bare footed'.
With a huge percentage of the population being in the youth bracket, it isnt difficult to see why Kargil suddenly became more important than the World Cup. (although admittedly by the time the Kargil conflict went into full blast, the World Cup dream was over for us) Any person born after 1970-71 or so would never have had the opportunity to have been in a 'warlike' atmosphere. On the other hand, he/she would have seen/followed at least 3-4 World Cups by now ! So the World Cup became 'just another event' while Kargil took centrestage. I wouldnt have been surprised if moms had chided their dissident children with words like 'Chup hoja bete warna 9 baje Star News dekhne nahin doongi' instead of the standard blackmail of not allowing him/her to watch the cricket match that day !
Things are a lot more saner now with definitely lot less excitement in the air. Perhaps it will stay so for a long time, for the Sahara Cup is unlikely to materialize, what with the fighting in the Pakistan cricket board now ! Life just isnt what it is when its India v Pakistan, either in cricket or in real life.
All the blasts: Kargil & WC 1999, Lata v Asha, Tam-Brahm wedding, Madras, Unglamourous Orissa, Idols and Bangalore.
Labels: jammu and kashmir, kargil
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It is now becoming clear that four of the suspected bombers who were behind the cowardly terrorist act in London were in fact British citizens of Pakistani origin.
One of the four apparently went to Pakistan, and possibly Afghanistan, for 'religious training'. What you make of that term is left to your imagination. To me, it equates to terrorist training in military camps run by the various terrorist organizations harboured by the Pakistani government and the Taliban.
As this BBC report indicates, it is only now that Britain is feeling the pinch of being in bed with Pakistan. The US felt it four years ago, even though their relationship with Pakistan was deteriorating following the nuclear tests of 1998.
It is really unfortunate that London, and Londoners, suffered because of the inability of the UK government to read the riot act out to Pervez Musharraf. It is really high time the rest of the world saw Musharraf for what he is, a dictator who actively cultivated and supported the Al-Qaeda and now controls several terrorist organizations which strike at will across the world, including, lest we forget in the midst of the carnage, India. Someone needs to point him to this paper indicating the lack of any correlation between poverty and terrorism so that he is forced to alight from his high horse.
Labels: al-qaeda, musharraf, pakistan, uk
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It seems from this feature in Time that businesses in the US have now woken up to the buying power of sub-continentals in the US, and Indians amount for a huge chunk of that list.
There are some 2.5 million desis in the U.S., and the vast majority are Indian. That may not seem terribly significant compared with, say, 40 million Hispanics, but consider how premium a customer a South Asian is: Indians alone commanded $76 billion worth of disposable personal income last year, according to market-research firm Cultural Access Group, using figures from the University of Georgia's Selig Center for Economic Growth; median household income is nearly $64,000--50% higher than the national average.
It seems like a large part of this population is very conscious about buying the best brands and goods. This has led to leading advertisers spending money to be featured on magazines and publications ready by this audience while at the same time attempting to make their messages culturally relevant.
Given the several success stories of Indians in the US, whether as immigrants or second/third generation professionals or entrepreneurs, it is fair to say that these advertisers may have struck gold.
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Even as Londoners recovered from the revelry, hangovers and gloating following the news that the city would host the 2012 Olympic Games, a series of blasts have rocked the city just past noon local time. There were blasts in the London Underground as well as on a bus. More than thirty have died. Scotland Yard, in a statement, confirms the four sites which were attacked.
Follow the story at Yahoo! News, Wikipedia, Google News, Yahoo! UK, and BBC News.
Either the French are really mad on having lost out on the IOC vote or there're some people who really want to make their presence and protest felt against the G-8 summit in Scotland or its those terrorists again.
Update: Turns out a terrorist group linked to the Al-Qaeda has claimed responsibility.
Reports from The International Herald Tribune, The Economist, The New York Times and Slate.
Photo essays from Time and Yahoo! News.
London was affected by a blackout a couple of years ago.
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A few minutes ago, International Olympic Committee President Jacques Rogge announced that London would host the 2012 Olympic Games. The other contenders before today's vote ended in Singapore were Paris, Madrid, New York City and Moscow. Reports/comments from BBC, Reuters, Christian Science Monitor and Economist. Web searches for news on Yahoo! and Google. Coverage of the bid by The Telegraph and The Times.
London last hosted the games in 1948. India and Pakistan participated as independent nations for the first time. India won the hockey gold.
Previous posts on the race to host the 2012 games: Twenty20 cricket if games in London?, IOC member votes for sale scam unearthed, Seb Coe's vision for the Olympics in London, London among front-runners and London welcomes IOC officials.
Paul Maidment writes on forbes.com about how London has merely won the right to pick up an expensive bill, confirming my earlier views on the Olympics being a waste of money. I had written that in the context of developing nations but perhaps it is true for everyone! Perhaps it is true that we overvalue sporting achievements.
I only hope the London local administration doesn't try any such "integrate with the EU" efforts now!
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What has happened to the money promised after Veerappan killing?
After Veerappan was shot dead in an encounter last October, the governments of Karnataka and Tamil Nadu were effusive in their praise for the various teams and task forces who were part of the operation to capture/eliminate the brigand terrorist.
Rewards were announced immediately, to the tune of over Rs. 100 crores from the two state governments. The problem though, as is usually the case with the Indian babu-dom, is in its implementation. Several members of the Special Task Force have borrowed or invested heavily in anticipation of a substantial reward.
The dithering over who is eligible for what reward, how to equitably distribute the money, etc. means that there could be a long wait ahead.
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The 1975 emergency: Thees saal ke baad
Thirty years ago, millions of Indians woke up on June 26th to find that a state of internal emergency had been declared under Article 352 of the Indian Constitution. I probably did it too, except there were still six months to go before I was born. Now that is one truth which may never be out.
What happened during the emergency has been fairly well documented. On June 12, 1975, Justice Jagmohan Lal Sinha of the Allahabad High Court ruled that Prime Minister Indira Gandhi's election to the Lok Sabha was void. Ms. Gandhi chose to appeal and that appeal was heard by Justice VR Krishna Iyer. On June 24th, he conditionally stayed the order but refused to allow Ms. Gandhi to take part in Parliamentary proceedings. The Prime Minister had obviously anticipated all this and went ahead with declaring emergency.
Various politicians and journallists recount what they were doing when emergency was declared. What were you doing then?
In 2001, the Indian Express ran a feature on the 25th anniversary of the emergency. Frontline, the fortnightly magazine, also had a piece on the impact of the emergency on Indian democracy.
Regardless of what 'Cho' Ramaswamy says and the frequent manner in which agents of the Indian Constitution act against democracy, I really do doubt if something of the same nature could happen again.
For starters, we're a far more open economy than we were thirty years ago. Any such act of ours would directly impact us economically. FDI and FII inflow would trickle, or perhaps even cease. Any aid or developmental packages that we're part of would probably be suspended as well. That act of ours will almost certainly scupper any aspirations we have to the UN Security Council. Strangely enough though, you dont necessarily need to be a democracy to get fat aid packages, military packages, etc. Then again, it also seems like you don't need to be a democracy to be a permanent member of the UNSC either!
During the 18 months of emergency, from all reports, it seems like the media was really active in its opposition to censorship and other draconian measures adopted by the government. Hence it is probably safe to assume that a far more mature media, with a lot of money muscle and political connections now, would oppose any such imposition with the same, or perhaps more, zeal. Given the huge number of media houses which are listed on the stock exchanges and the likelihood of a flight of 'moolah' from the capital markets if emergency is declared, there is just too much at stake for them.
People like you and me, who believe that they are fairly educated individuals, may have their own take on the emergency. If you dont particularly care for personal freedom and hate government officials, especially those of the Regional Transport Office and similar ilk, you'll love an emergency. If it means those corrupt, idle bastards can be sacked or forced to productively work 16 hours a day, why not?! While I would terribly love to see the latter happen, I intensely value my personal freedom, which is why I hate it when governments impose rules on wearing helmets.
Given the total lack of personal freedom in an emergency situation, I would never welcome it. Would you? Is the potential efficient functioning of bureaucracy in a country a price good enough to pay for the absence of personal freedom?
Labels: lok sabha
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Last week, the US State Department released declassified documents relating to the 1971 India-Pakistan war which resulted in Bangladesh becoming an independent nation. The then US President Richard Nixon referred to the then Indian Prime Minister Indira Gandhi as a "bitch". His Assistant for National Security Affairs, Henry Kissinger, talked of Indians being bastards and also referred to Indira Gandhi as a "bitch".
I think in general, there has been an over-reaction to this, especially in the Indian media and among the "public", as is indicated by the various letters to "The Hindu". Nixon and Kissinger were perfectly entitled to say what they wanted to about Indira Gandhi and Indians. That they did so with the knowledge that transcripts would be released at most thirty years later implies that they were either fools or were willing to stick up for themselves at a later date. Nitin rightly points out that we will never know what Indira said since that information is unlikely to be declassified.
Do I really care if Kissinger or Nixon made all these statements? Where do you think Nixon would figure in an all-time ranking of US Presidents? He was nearly impeached for his role in the Watergate Scandal. Kissinger hung around in government till the 1980s and after that he has restricted himself to authoring books, speaking at conferences, offering his expert views etc. He found himself in trouble over the outcome of a number of decisions he recommended/took when in government. Oh, and for the record, in spite of what Nixon, Kissinger and the rest of the US government tried to do, India won the war, Bangladesh became an independent country and Pakistan licked its wounds.
But what is striking in these revelations is that thirty years later, it is blatantly obvious that US policy towards Pakistan's atrocities and terrorism, whether in East Pakistan, or in Jammu & Kashmir, is unchanged. Pakistan looks the other way when a natural disaster hits J & K. Yet, its cricket loving President is very comfortable coming up with outrageous ideas and unrealistic timelines to resolve the dispute. So it seems obvious, to me at least, that the welfare of the people of J & K is last on its agenda.
The US mentions nothing about Pakistan's involvement in Jammu & Kashmir in its State Department's Human Rights report for 2004. It sells F-16s to Pakistan and dangles carrots to India in order to keep its defence industry personnel employed. The Secretary of State praises Pakistan for being a model Islamic state. There're too many of them to list out here.
"The Hindu"'s editorial talks about how ironic it is that Indira Gandhi's steely resolve has been revealed by US documents rather than Indian ones.
Inder Kumar Malhotra feels that the US behaviour was entirely in conformance to its standard practices and the US intelligence's failure in estimating that India wanted to go to war with Pakistan to break it up was reflected three decades later with the fiasco over WMDs in Iraq.
Yesterday's supplement section in "The Hindu" had a very nice feature on Nixon's pro-Pakistan "tilt".
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