BLOG OF LIONEL ARANHA

FRIENDS?

2015-08-03T10:26:00.002+05:30

Look around you my friend.
Look carefully.
Listen my friend.
Listen carefully.
You & I have become enemies.

Did we fight.
Was it a war?

We sold our souls to a crafty few.
They call it Politics.
I call it evil.

We have been divided.
Your caste is pit against mine.
Your creed is pit against mine.
Your religion is pit against mine.

Don't you see what they have done to us?
We don't talk anymore.
We have become rabid.
We fight for them.
We fight for their ideology.
We lay down our lives for the evil few.

Wake up my friend.

Look around you my friend.
Look around carefully.
Forget creeds, castes and religions.
Forget politics.

We have one life on this earth.
Let's try to make the most of it.

Can I be your friend again?
Please.

(First published on my FaceBook page on 1st August 2013)

A HANGING

2015-08-03T10:20:00.001+05:30

What would you have done if your loved one had perished in the bomb blast in 1993 in Mumbai?

Hope and pray that the perpetrators were brought to justice. You would have rejoiced when one of them gave himself up (for reasons best known to him) or was he nabbed? That he helped in the investigation would not have mitigated your hatred for the man when you read or heard that the man was one of the masterminds.

You wished him punished; in the least you wanted his life snuffed out. It wouldn't really mean much to you if he was hanged or shot or whatever. You had seen the mutilated body of your loved one & flinched at the thought of their suffering. If given a chance, you would have preferred a tortured death for the perpetrator.

You would have rejoiced when more arrests were made, but your joy quickly turned to confused sorrow when none were given the death penalty.

Your one chance of redemption was the death sentence awarded to Yakub Memon. You clung to that last straw. Forgiveness isn't for mere mortals, you said. Some one mentioned about the 2000 deaths in riots preceding the bomb blast; and that none of the perpetrators had been punished. But they were not your loved ones, were they?

Someone was seeking the abolishment of capital punishment. You prayed that it should be after this hanging.

Someone spoke of a Presidential pardon, you hoped against hope that the present incumbent wasn't like his predecessor. That woman had commuted not less than 37 death sentences.

Someone mentioned that 97% of those on death row were dalits and Muslims. To hell with statistics you said.

When the media reported a last minute parlay to commute the death sentence, you grew restless. Get on with it! was your silent prayer.

You cursed those prominent citizens who signed a petition asking for commuting the death sentence; what did they know of your suffering.

Your despair turned to joy when you heard that nothing had worked and Yakub would be hanged. You woke up this morning, whispered a prayer thanking the Almighty as you heard that the culprit had been hanged.

Evening fell. Somewhere in the depths of your soul you felt an emptiness. Justice had prevailed, or had it? Your loved one continues to be dead. You look at the photo of your loved one and tears well your eyes. Justice?

What would you have done if your loved one died in riots that preceded the bomb blasts? Hope and pray that the perpetrators were brought to justice. But nothing of that sort has happened. You look at the photo of your loved one and tears well your eyes. Justice?

And darkness falls signifying the end of yet another day.

(First published on July 30th, 2015 on my FaceBook page.)

ME & KALAM

2015-08-03T10:18:00.001+05:30

I met him once, at IIM K, in a crowd of people. He was the President, I, a mere mortal. He endured to the students, I wasn't impressed. Over the years, I kept a tab on him. And I grew to like him.

And this is what I learnt from him, in random order:

Greatness is sometimes measured by simplicity, not by wealth.
Keep your religion to yourself, don't wear it on your sleeve.
The future of any nation lies in the youth. Mould them for works that will bring glory to the nation; not for politiking.
Believe in yourself. A boatman's son can become a scientist & a President of a Nation because he believed in himself.
Dare to dream but don't forget to wake up and make that dream happen.
Don't worry about the critics. They don't feed you or clothe you. And you can't please everyone.
Acknowledge old friends and colleagues who helped you and stood by you. Find time to spend with them.
A busy man finds time for everything.
There is no such thing as retirement when you can keep yourself occupied doing what you do best.
Leave footprints in the sands of time. Don't leave this earth without disturbing the sands of time.
Revel in working hard for yourself, your family, your friends and your country.
Be a unifying force. Don't be divisive. After all, your neighbour has as much right to be on the face of this earth as you have.

Never will be there be another A P J Abdul Kalam. Wherever you are Dr. Kalam, rest in peace.

A grateful nation bids you goodbye.

Adios Amigo!

(First published on my FaceBook page on 28th July 2015)

A GRADUATION DAY MESSAGE

2015-03-27T20:01:00.000+05:30

Hi,

Now that you are graduating & moving into the real world of business, a few points to ponder:

1. Global gas & PPTs do continue to work. But try massaging egos & buffing of bums as well.

2. If you get a good boss, you’ll become happy; if you get a bad one, you’ll become an entrepreneur.

3. Just because your fishing expedition wasn’t a grand success on campus, don’t, for heaven’s sake; fall in love with the first person who walks into your line of vision.

4. You will be afforded with the opportunity of meeting with people who think their shit smells of lavender. You don’t need to imitate them. Remember the story of the rabbit – the poor chap died of strain trying to imitate the elephant taking a dump.

5. Learn to be humble; humility doesn’t kill. Remember the African proverb: ‘When the great lord passes the wise farmer bows deeply & farts silently.’

6. Bide your time & do get married. In the long run, marriage is all about meeting of minds & not mating of bodies. It’s about companionship.

a. For the ladies; prince charming is a myth. Remember the Malayalam proverb pointing out that it is difficult to tie an elephant in the cowshed.

b. For the guys; never lead a girl whose father considers her as a princess to the altar. She usually thinks she’s the queen.

7. Cherish the fleeting moments that you get to spend with your parents. They aren’t going to be around for long. There is no point in regretting later that you did not have time for them. Their union of passion resulted in you; your mother bore you for the whole of 9 months & then both your father & mother groomed you for the next 12 years!

8. Money isn’t everything in life. Don’t chase money. It will come around when you have given up chasing it. Make enough for your needs & some; but not to satiate your greed. Need can be satisfied but greed can never be.

9. I’ve learnt that the beauty of life does not depend on how happy you are; but on how happy others can be because of you.

10. Make your children the focal point of your happiness. Allow them to bloom as per the laws of nature. Teach them that there is a brilliant world beyond the government sponsored education system that we helped to perpetuate.

11. One day, sooner or later, you will have to leave this world. When you came in you bawled your lungs out; when you leave you should be remembered as a smile on someone’s lips in spite of the tears that may flow!

Goodbye.
Take care & be good!

Kind regards,
‪#‎JustSaying

LESSONS FOR A STUDENT OF BUSINESS MANAGEMENT FROM THE DELHI ELECTIONS (First Published on Feb 10th 2014 on Facebook)

2015-03-27T19:59:00.000+05:30

Lessons for a student of Business Management from the Delhi elections:

Global Gas doesn't take you far.
Expensive suits, with your name emblazoned on it, are no match for ordinary mufflers.
Verbal diarrhea, including mindless tag lines, are useless.
Your father, grandmother & great grandfather may have been CEOs, but pedigree means nothing if you are a born ass.
Find a scapegoat for your failure much in advance. A Ms. 'Saari Galti Iski' helps.
Idioms can get you to power once, not always.
Choose your friends wisely, avoid a bunch of rabble rousers.
Condemn stupid acts by your friends.
Don't overestimate the power of social media; sometimes it operates as a megaphone for idiots.
Respect people, they are more intelligent than you credit them for.

THOSE IMPORTANT MOMENTS

2015-03-27T19:31:00.000+05:30

Hi,

Sooner or later you will realise that the most important moments in your life are not the ones that you advertise on Facebook, Twitter or any of the social media.

They are not the graduations, the farewell parties, the birthdays & the anniversaries.

But those unheralded moments that make their way into your mind and linger. The ones that you want to possess without advertising. They just don't go away. And you in turn cling to those moments refusing to let them go.

And as you grow older you reminisce those moments. Your face may crack into a smile or a tear may make its way down your worn cheek.

Then you realise that Life is worth living. Just for those moments.....

Regards,

‪#‎JustSaying‬

WHY THIS FUSS?

2015-03-27T19:24:00.001+05:30

Not one of us could select the family we were born into.
Not one of us could select the place of our birth.
Not one of us could select the color of our skin.
Not one of us had a say in the selection of our name or our mother tongue.
Not one of us had a say in the creed that we were to follow.

We just happened.
So why all this fuss?

You get on with your life, and I will get on with mine.
None of us are here to reside permanently.
All of us will be gone sooner or later.

We don't have a choice.
Our corpses will either be buried, or burnt. That will be the end.

While we are here, let's live in peace.

‪#‎JustSaying‬

AND LIFE GOES ON.....

2012-08-12T17:16:00.000+05:30

Moral policing is alive and kicking in Mangalore. Its sponsors, the ruling party in Karnataka, is gleeful about it. Every time an incident does take place, ticket & position aspirants of the ruling party are let loose to divert the attention away from the incident. The MLA and MP of the area maintain stoic silence or if they do speak, it is to condemn the victim. A partisan Police force worsens the position. It’s little wonder that in India V stands for victim!

****

Travel takes me through airports on a regular basis. I have observed the CISF personnel ,who handle the security, with amusement. A GMR employee told me that they aren't trained for the job on hand. Some of them could have been manning security at a coal mine in their previous posting. They remind me of cowherds herding the cattle class! As we head closer to Independence day, these guys swell in importance. The frisking is done twice, the scanner crawls, bags are opened, questions asked, assortment of stuff sniffed, and the queue at the security check lengthens. Some among them swagger around with automatic weapons; some others hang around specially erected sand bag barriers. Why only during Independence Day? Any terrorist would know it’s the annual security circus around this time. So would he arrive with his wares to celebrate Independence Day? (And on 14th August, when I passed through security, the date stamp showed 13th August. When the attention of the CISF man was directed to this, he sheepishly changed the date on the stamp. Wonder how many passengers noticed, or how many security personnel noticed)

****

Corruption is here to stay. A certain minister in the UP government was candid when he told the babus, 'steal but do not loot'. Either the poor chap was naive or else he was probably getting it across to the babus that looting is the prerogative of the politicians! Meanwhile, the self-appointed guardian of black money, Ramdev, is growling at the government. That he is abetted in his endevour by the saffron brigade is obvious. For all the incoherent talk that he lets loose on his audience, he seems to have a cure for all ailments of India; from banning big denomination notes to estimating that 100 lakh crores is enough to solve all problems in India. Funny chap! If the NDA comes to power, would Ramdev be a minister? He does have aspirations.....

****

Rain has played truant in my part of the country. It’s been playing hide and seek for some time & in the process it has made fools of the weather forecasters. It has also managed to fool the pundits who refer to stars to predict rain. So much so, the government granted rupees 17 crores of tax payers to appease the rain god. But that was only to the Hindu temples, other places of worship were asked to pray, without getting entangled in the money trap. From the past 4 days, the coastal districts of my state are receiving copius rain. But the rest of the state is hit by a drought.

****

It has rained heavily in Mangalore. Perhaps the rain god wants to wash off the sins of the moral police?

RESURRECTIONS & MUNDANE MUSINGS OF AN ACADEMICNOMAD

2012-07-19T15:58:00.002+05:30

It is time to resurrect my blog.

Facebook and Twitter seem to have played havoc with my blogging activity.

First and foremost, I managed to get rid of that bloody malaware that had parked nonchalantly on my web log. That took sometime; Google and a certain Mrs. Hebbar helped.

Sitting in an air-conditioned faculty room at Great Lakes Institute of Management, Chennai, I ponder my next sentence.

Let me begin from where I left off.

Life has changed drastically since the arrival of the twins, Dan & Lisa.

Our whole world revolves around them. Now that they are off to pre-school, my equal half Ann, gets some free time. But inevitably she is inundated with house work. Finding help, domestic help I mean, is an arduous task. The ones around are either sloppy, snobbish or expensive; productivity be damned!

We have reached a situation where, in future, domestic chores will have to be done without any external help.

On the teaching front, teaching intermittently at TAPMI is passé.

If there have been two stints, a third one would follow in the year to come.

I did a stint at SIBM; courtsey my friend Dr. Pankaj Gupta who reigned as Director for 2 years.The proximity to Directors ensure that you move when he moves; albeit I am yet to visit him at his new place of work.

My relationship with IIMK grows and flourishes.

And then we stopped our popular CA classes.Don't be shocked.

Me and my partner Naveen were getting strangled by the class.

No, its a mistaken notion, which my detractors have, that I made my fortune there. Actually we were out of pocket. Yet, it did feel sad; considering the flak that we received from the 120 odd CAs that we helped along the way!

Have been invited to Great Lakes by a friend; the indomitable Dr. Tapan Panda. And this time I'm looking at Analysis of Written Communications for the 1st years. Nothing like having enthusiastic students, eager to learn, in the class. It makes the subject that much more interesting to teach. I know, these are early days, will do my best to keep the enthusiasm flowing.

On the vehicle front, I invested in a Toyota Innova two years ago.

Great vehicle; addicted to using it - even for short trips in and around town.

On the gadget front; the Ipad is my latest acquisition.

It amazes me. And everyday I learn something new.

On the digital radio I'm totally addicted to BBC Radio 2; Chris Evans, Jeremy Vine, Vanessa Feltz & Nikki Bedi - great presenters; and their sense of humour is both awesome and contagious!

On the health front my age and fat are having an affair.

Cannot separate them - and can't reduce both either.

And life goes on.

Wonder whats been happening in your lives.....

HAITUS & RETURN

2010-11-05T20:31:00.004+05:30

Its been too long since I last posted. There are no excuses; I should have found time to post. Many things have happened since I was last here. One, that stands out, is my return to TAPMI.

B Schools are heading for a crisis. My colleagues at the IIMs may not agree; but private B Schools are finding it difficult to survive. Moreover, Business Administration is fast turning out to be just another degree. Will there be a makeover? And when would it happen?

Another worrying factor is the fact that 85% of B School graduates aren't employable - they just do not possess the skills sets for the workplace. I have always maintained that student particpants have to be educated in life skills; as what they take to their workplace is 100% of their personality & probably just over 20% of what they are taught in class. Isn't it time the powers be take stock and suggest changes?

Will be back soon with more. Until then, wish you all a Very Happy Diwali!

ALONG CAME OCTOBER

2009-10-05T08:36:00.003+05:30

Hi,

Its been a while since I last blogged. No particular reason, perhaps I was lazy; lazy to blog. Honestly, I have been more than active on facebook & have just taken a liking to twitter. But from February, when I last blogged, to October, many things of international, national, local & personal importance have taken place. An afro-American is the President in the United States of America, the UPA came back to power in India, the fringe groups have a free run of my hometown & my wife & I have had twins!

Daniel Luke & Lisa Maria arrived, a little ahead of time, on June 18^th 2009. Daniel came out into this beautiful world at 10.46 a.m. (local time) and Lisa a minute later. They are 3 months old now and have become the center of attention ever since they arrived. My wife Ann and I knew that we would be having twins, but we weren’t told their sex. Imagine our joy and surprise when they arrived. We had waited too long for this gift of life!

A baby will make love stronger, days shorter, nights longer, bankroll smaller, home happier, clothes shabbier, the past forgotten, and the future worth living for!

Daniel & Lisa are coming along fine and each day is a new learning experience both for them and us.

On the work front, I have been busy teaching. And this time I had the opportunity to teach Financial Management to starry eyed youngsters at Symbiosis Institute of Business Management, Bangalore. I enjoyed the stint. Some of the students were brilliant, some had to be prodded along & a few lost the script! Life’s tough & it just got tougher for the younger generation with recession and all that follows it. As I write this blog, I am hopeful that the economies of the world will recover and life will be easier in the days to come!

I promise to be back with my blogs; a few are in the pipeline and should be ready for publication soon.

Until then, good bye & take care!

MANGALORE MUSINGS

2009-02-19T18:12:00.004+05:30

(How green was my valley……)

I am sad and frustrated.

I am sad that my hometown, where I was born and bred, has been taken over by lumpen elements, made up of unemployed school dropouts, bus conductors, auto drivers etc., who, among others, are led by a 4th std failed 40 year old man whose fetish is to see young girls wet their pants when he and his ilk threaten them!

I am frustrated that people who talk and write about it fail to understand the situation in its totality and get easily side-tracked by lesser issues.
Just the other day, I read in a respectable newspaper “some young men took law into their own hands and beat up girls at a pub in Mangalore”. Come again, which law was that?

Look, this was a case of molestation, assault & battery, and outraging the modesty of a woman. And most importantly, it was a case of trampling on the liberty of an individual.

The events as they unfolded and narrated to me by a person in the knowhow are as follows:
The pub in question was paying protection money to a bunch of goons who owed allegiance to a certain outfit called Shri Ram Sene. (The allegiance was for the sake of identity and it served as protection from prosecutions) Considering that the membership in the group was steadily increasing; what with the downturn and all that, the leader upped his monthly payment by a whopping 250%. The management of the pub who too were feeling the heat of the downturn refused payment.
That infuriated the leader. So he sent his boys to teach the management a lesson. Knowing full well that on a Saturday afternoon college students and that too girls would be present; the rowdies descended on the place like a committee of vultures. Seeing the girls, who were from well to do families; and knowing full well that they would never be able to get close to any of them otherwise, they cornered them, groped them, pulled their hair, then chased them and beat them up; all this was very well captured and documented by the media who were called to the place on the pretext that illegal activities at the club were being exposed. Someone called the cops, who arrived within 10 minutes (It is alleged that the cops too were being paid protection money) and in the next 10 minutes the first culprit was apprehended. Within the next 2 hours five ruffians were netted and were treated to a wide array of police entertainment.
Then some media person uploaded the videos on to youtube.com. This was seen all over India and the world; and then the national press descended. And the whole issue was hijacked. The founder of the Shri Ram Sene, a certain Pramod Muttalik Desai was made famous overnight. Had he had spent crores of rupees, he wouldn’t have got even a fraction of the publicity that he got from the national press. Since the lumpen elements owed allegiance to the Shri Ram Sene and were identified with Hindutva; the state BJP govt instructed the cops to go slow. A wily lawyer, who is a prominent BJP party- member was sent to defend them. And so began the intimidation of the victims and the witnesses; which ensured that no FIR was filed. So the cops treated the hoodlums with new found respect. That gave the lumpen elements the upper hand. Their bail plea was supported by the public prosecutor too, who is appointed by the state. And so the rowdies are free and the whole nation is divided in its opinion. And pink has become the flavour of the season.

The issue of stifling a constitutional right, nay trampling it, was swept under the carpet and the issue of pub culture took centre stage. Fork tongued politicians harped on the alarming rise of pub culture; but did nothing to revoke the licences of the pubs. We needn’t scratch our heads to see why; around 5000 people, out of a population of 6 lakhs, frequent clubs, pubs and restaurants in Mangalore and it is the concern of the party in power to play to the galleries which can ill afford to visit a pub, while at the same time ensure the liquor revenues keep spilling in. Incidentally it has been reported that the liquor department has been the only revenue department which has not fallen short of its target collections this fiscal year.
A certain Union Minister was vociferous in her opinions and said that Mangalore was being ‘talibanised’. This raised the hackles of the Mayor of Mangalore (and only 14 others) and he filed a case on the Minister. That he has more pressing matters to attend to, including the flawed Self Assessment Property Tax which has been incubating under his incumbency, did not deter him. (Shows how one can be swayed by politics rather than governance.) This prompted her to say that she is ‘amazed and amused’! And so am I together with being disgusted by the likes of him.
Meanwhile, the victims are scarred & scared. Witnesses are stifled. The hooligans with their saffron headbands, scarves and lungis go around intimidating people; now that they enjoy the patronage of a fascist government. A minor girl, victim of of a thrashing by these moral police for being in the company of a boy of another community, committed suicide a few days ago unable to bear the humiliation. Once again her tormentors are roaming free.

I have been sceptical about these elements from 2006. I had, in fact in one of my blogs, clearly stated that ‘the city don’t know what the city is getting’. Uneducated and unemployed youth searching for an identity are always dangerous. And if they are handled by fascist forces, then even God wouldn’t be able to help Mangalore.

I am amazed at the reactions of some of my friends. They seem to have temporarily taken leave of their senses. The girls are now being blamed for being at the pub. The victim is further victimised. Mind you if such of my friends were parents of the victims they would have been singing a different tune.

I am sorely disappointed in the state government and more so in the Chief Minister and the Home Minister. The old adage ‘People who stay in glasshouses should undress in the dark’ is lost on them. The Chief Minister is accused of murdering his wife because she did not approve of his amorous adventures. He had a live-in relationship with a woman then, which he has carried a step further now by making her a minister in his cabinet, and in many public appearances she does give the impression that she is his spouse. The Home Minister, famous for his ‘half-kidnap’ remark when the local MLAs wife left him, has aided and abetted a suspicious death (that of the aforesaid lady, the wife of the MLA).

I shudder to think: What if our youth stop going to pubs; but have live-in relationships instead and knock of protesting wives and then go on to govern us?
As stated earlier, this is election year and also a crucial year for the Indian economy as we are plunging into a crisis of epic proportions.
When I stand in the queue to vote I will ponder:
• I want unifiers, and not those who divide.
• People want offices to work in; there are enough temples where one can pray.
• I want a government that is proactive
• And more importantly a govt that is tough on extremism of all kinds.

If I think that the candidates cannot deliver the above, I will invoke section 49-O of the 'conduct of election rules 1961'which states that If an elector, after his electoral roll number has been duly entered in the register of voters in Form-17A and has put his signature or thumb impression thereon as required under sub-rule (1) of rule 49L, decided not to record his vote, a remark to this effect shall be made against the said entry in Form 17A by the presiding officer and the signature or thumb impression of the elector shall be obtained against such remark.

Not that it matters to the political class........ but perhaps it will matter to you my friend?

JUSTICE DENIED?

2008-12-29T22:08:00.003+05:30

It was shocking to say the least. Not that it was uncommon – Girl spurns the overtures of a youth, and he throws acid on her. It was a heinous and a cowardly way of venting anger. This incident happened in Warangal, Andhra Pradesh, two girls were victims of an acid attack. It is a grim battle ahead for these girls. The perpetrators, three young men in their twenties were nabbed on the complaint lodged by the girls & their parents. A few days later all three of them were killed in an ‘encounter’ by the police. Very shocking indeed!
Human rights activists point out that the ‘encounter killings’ were done to cover up for the laxity on the part of the police to take cognizance of a complaint by the one of the girls, Swapnika, and her parents. In October, the main accused had set on fire a scooter belonging to the father of the Swapnika who had spurned him. He did this to terrorise the family. A police complaint was lodged, the police arrested the accused; filed a case of arson under IPC but set him free when he paid a fine of Rs. 110. The victim’s family alleges that bribes were paid to set the accused free. The father had then complained to the higher authorities; but it fell on deaf ears; probably the police did not perceive a threat. Perhaps emboldened by the lack of action on the part of the police, the main accused and his friends threw acid on the girls. When the attack did happen, it must have jolted the police, who it is now alleged, arranged the fatal ‘encounter’ as a cover up.
People applauded and the main accused’s father refused to claim his body for cremation saying that his son deserved the treatment meted to him.
In the past year or so, it is now reported that the Warangal police have ‘neutralised’ at least three other criminal elements.
Two wrongs do not make a right. !
Encounter killings, are common place in police parlance. Criminal elements are eliminated swiftly and many of you will agree that in this manner justice is meted out swiftly!
But worrying issues crop up.
The modus operandi of the ‘encounter killings’ is simple, the arrested person is taken to a desolate place & gunned down in cold blood. Then an elaborate attempt is made to inform the public that the arrested/accused tried to escape and in the process snatched a gun from a police officer, shot at the police, and in retaliatory firing the arrested/accused was killed. Police friendly media then do the reporting with convincing pictures. One of the police party even feigns an injury!
It is now known that in many such killings, the personnel of the police force were paid to carry out the killings; either by rivals or by rich & powerful patrons whose beans would have spilled if the arrested criminal element squealed!
And in some cases, innocents were apprehended, and then ‘killed’; a sure and safe way of murdering a person!
Since these criminal elements are a menace to society & knowing that the prevailing justice system (not the law) may set him free, we tacitly approve of such killings – a sure sign of a society frustrated with its systems.
But instead of applauding, shouldn’t we be protesting?
We should protest against the corruption ridden systems & lethargic procedures that make a mockery of the laws that govern us.
Each one of us has to have recourse to law. If we were to dispense justice through ‘encounter’ killings it would be easy to eliminate people whom we do not like or see eye to eye. All that we have to do is have them arrested and then bribe the police to do the death rites!
We live in a civilised society. However heinous the crime, the justice system should prevail!

P.S. Twenty one-year-old final year engineering student Swapnika died early on Wednesday,31st December 2008, three weeks after suffering an acid attack that left her with 55 per cent fourth degree burns.

ENOUGH IS ENOUGH?

2008-12-13T20:01:00.005+05:30

Where were you on the night of 26th November?

I was busy packing my bags. I was leaving for Patna on 27th morning. A friend called to alert me about some ‘gang war’ that was happening at Café Leopold. I switched on the TV and got sucked into the world of terrorism.

In October, I had spent some time in Mumbai, to be precise - South Mumbai. My wife had accompanied me, and we had a great time in that part of Mumbai. Breakfast would be at Café Leopold; and I would wind a long day with a beer at Café Leopold. The promenade in front of the Taj was our walking space in the evening. A bite a Ling’s Pavilion just behind Taj where we were served by Mangalorean waiters, was another place we liked to visit. It came as a shock - a month earlier and who knows; could we have been involved?

Come to think of it, India is a soft target. Everyone, from the petty thief to the sophisticated terrorist knows that our law enforcement agencies work with equipment that dates back to the 1970s and we have a system that is corrupt and abused. The hierarchy in the command chain prevents quick decision making. It was waiting to happen and it did!

The TV anchors and reporters went berserk! There they were like headless chickens, shrill and loud, endlessly repeating the same things over and over again with no real method to their coverage. The young amongst them waxed eloquence minute after minute, thrusting mikes under anybody willing to talk and then analyzing it threadbare. The older amongst them decided to dictate our response -light a candle, hold a vigil & denounce the politicians. All the reporting was only about the Taj & all the time images flashed of only the ‘famous five’ who died. The reporting was so flawed and unfairly biased. Yours truly, indignant & exasperated, sent a message to one of the TV channels which read: Does one have to be famous to be mourned? What about the 56 who perished at the railway station. Why do you pick a theme, thrash it limp, and then forget it?

Politicians were ducking for cover. That breed of rudely insensitive & shamelessly selfish netas was being targeted. Not being trained in the fine art of subtle speech, they were contracting the famous foot-in-the-mouth disease. They are yet to realise that we are masters of our unsaid words and slaves of those we let slip out!

After the furore came the calm. Candle light vigils, speeches, blogs et al are slowly but surely drying up. People are back to where they were. Mumbai looks like a bad dream. Many questions remain unanswered. Prominent among them :
1. Where there just 10 terrorists; 2 to a place?
2. Who helped them?
3. What was the objective of hostages if there was no demand to be met?
4. Who was staying in the room that served as the control room for the terrorists at the Taj?
5. There was an inordinate delay in the response time. Within such time, Taj & Trident could have been blown up. Did the plans of the terrorists backfire?

On 27th I travelled to Patna. This was my first trip. I cannot say if it has improved or not. The improvement or lack of it, according to me depends to a large extent on the people who live there. Patna is a sprawling city where filth & squalor co exist. Poverty is striking. It has scope for improvement and people live in hope.

The taxi driver who took me around was a treasure trove of information. He was quite critical of his fellow Biharis; lamenting that progress was either stifled or postponed by the ruling class. If time permitted he wanted to take me on a tour of the place. I have assured him that on my next visit, I may decide to do just that!

He dropped me off at the airport for my return journey. As I reached for my bags, he said, “Patna is more peaceful than Mumbai”. He paused, probably for effect, and then said “I will pick you up on 15th evening Sir”. He got into his taxi and with a final wave of his hand he drove off. I must have been smiling to myself as I walked into the terminal to await my flight!

ESSENCE OF LIFE, DENIED!

2008-09-16T21:23:00.011+05:30

(This post is written as a response to the large number of messages, calls & SMSs that I have received over the past 3 days enquiring about the fresh round of violence that has gripped Mangalore. The views expressed in this post are made solely for the purpose of finding a way out of this alarming situation that faces all Mangaloreans)

The essence of life is to move forward.

What happened in Mangalore on the morning of September 14th was contrary to the essence of life. We have now moved backwards by, at least, a hundred years.

It all began with a leaflet/booklet* purported to have been published and circulated by a Christian group called ‘New Life’. The ‘New Life’ is a break away group of former Catholics & Protestants. They believe in evangelization and try to lure people to their flock; at times with the power of money. Their main targets are actually Catholics and Protestants themselves. They are of the opinion that belief in Jesus Christ only can bring salvation to mankind.
* The booklet, entitled 'Satya Darshini', was originally written in Telugu & then was translated to Kannada.The accusers haven't produced the copies to the district authorities, nor have they been able to tell the authorities the location where the leaflet has been found.

It is said that the book derided the Hindu Gods.

If this is so, I condemn the booklet in the strongest of terms. Religion is personal and precious to each individual and no one can ridicule, deride or insult any religion.

The Bajrang Dal, which has always maintained that the Christians convert Hindus; and are vehemently opposed to conversions, seized the moment and took law into their own hands. A helpful BJP Government at the helm of administrative affairs in Karnataka encouraged their cause and they proceeded to attack & destroy the ‘New Life’ centers and prayer halls all across Mangalore, Udupi & Chikmagalur Districts on Sunday morning. They beat the people up and destroyed furniture and desecrated the places of worship.

In Mangalore, in addition to the 'New Life' centres, a Catholic convent was also attacked. A gang of 8-10 youth walked into the chapel of the convent and proceeded to smash the altar, desecrate the Blessed Sacrament and break the legs and hands of a statue of a crucified Jesus Christ. This was followed by attacks on other churches in and around Mangalore.

The Catholics of Mangalore took to the streets in protest. What followed was mayhem. The agitated youngsters, unmindful of Section 144, protested on the streets in front of various churches in Mangalore the next day. Mangalore ground to a halt on Monday. A partisan Police force, angry at being stoned & egged on by some members of the Bajrang Dal, systematically quelled the protest of the indignant Catholics by brutal force using lathis, stones and tear gas,(even women & children were not spared) in the process arresting scores of Catholic Youth for violating section 144 of the IPC.

Then a farce was played out before millions of Television Viewers. The Bajrang Dal called a press conference and took the onus for the attacks & warned of more attacks to follow; a jubilant looking Home Minister openly approved the acts of the Bajrang Dal and played down the attacks on the places of worship. The state Bajrang Dal convener, while taking onus for the attacks, openly warned Christians not to resist the atrocities of his men, else more would follow; and he still runs a free man. A partisan Chief Minister visited Mangalore on Monday; shed crocodile tears and promised to repair the places of worship with the tax payer’s money. His ire was directed to people who are engaged in conversions. He skirted the issue of the attacks on places of worship. The minister in charge of the District pretended that he was illiterate – he had not read newspaper reports nor seen the Television coverage of the Bajrang Dal press conference wherein the leader had taken responsibility to the attacks, and denied the hand of the Bajrang Dal in the attacks. So much for democratic governance.

On Tuesday, a delegation of Congress leaders descended on Mangalore and shed copious tears. Every single politician has descended on Mangalore, like vultures actually, looking for someway of extracting mileage from the incident. For the politician, building up support among the people on the basis of good governance is a far more arduous task than carving out electoral bases on the basis of divisive politics.

In response to the protest by Catholics, another outfit called the Sri Ram Sena called for a bundh on Tuesday. An uneasy calm has settled over Mangalore as I write this post. What I had feared most has come alive.

Time and again I have warned my friends that a day will come when Mangalore will observe a bundh every other day; not out of solidarity but out of fear!

It is tragic, to say the least, that a few hundred youth can hold lakhs of people to ransom.

What is happening out here?

One must go down to the underbelly of Mangalore & one goes directly to the root of the problem. The economically backward, be it the Hindus, Muslims or the Christians, have to face up to a problem. Their youth are just not employable. They lack quality education and skills that would have made them employable. So there you have it; a large population of frustrated and unemployed youth.

As Karl Marx once said ‘Religion is the opium of the People’; the last resort of these people is religion. You don’t need special skills to grow into a fanatic. Slowly and surely these youth are proving to be a malaise; refusing to go away.

I have had opportunity to travel to the hinterlands of Mangalore. I have met with these youth groups. They too have dreams, ideas and plans; but there is no one listening. The educational institutions in these places impart superficial education. The youth grow up with an absence of the breadth of knowledge. They haven’t mastered the language of business – English. Their soft skills haven’t been honed. They are languishing; easy prey to wily politicians & religious leaders. Keeping them unemployable helps the cause of these charlatans.

Unless we Mangaloreans come together to sort out these issues, we are doomed. No industrialist would want to set up business in a place which observes frequent bundhs.

It is time for Mangaloreans of every faith to commence a meaningful dialogue on religion. It is important to respect each others religion and understand that only when we co exist in peace can we build prosperity. The youth of Mangalore have to be made employable. And in all these endevours, it is important to keep all selfish politicians at bay.

P.S. On September 19th, at around midnight, the Police, bowing to pressure from all quarters, finally arrested the State Bajrang Dal convener. He has been remanded to judicial custody.
On September 30th, the VHP, bowing to pressure from the BJP, asked the convener to relinquish his post. As if on cue, the state government slapped 7 different cases on the scapegoat!
Meanwhile a chastened State Govt has decided to conduct a judicial probe into the incident.

AUGUST MUSINGS

2008-08-25T21:17:00.001+05:30

Here I am, sitting in my office, wondering what to do next, when I realize that it’s been a while since I posted on my blog.

Indians had a reason to celebrate at the Olympics this time. Three brave and dedicated souls excelled at the games to bring us a few medals. A silent, but sure, start to what I hope will be a sports revolution, and an indication that people are finally willing to look beyond Cricket.

The reaction of the Government was typically knee-jerk! A spate of prizes were announced after the win was recorded. A well coordinated effort would have been to announce prizes to winners in advance, so as to act as an incentive. Or was the Government convinced that its citizens would never win a medal at the games?

The monsoon is receding. It has been erratic this year. When it should have rained, it stayed away. When it did come, it came with a vengeance; floods that caused destruction and took away lives. Roads in my town, Mangalore, are in a pathetic shape; the potholes resemble craters. And as in the past, this time too, it is the same portion of the road that bears the onslaught - year after year. The authorities fill the potholes with stones and mud and people of Mangalore, get a free session of break-dance on these roads. Why don’t they ever learn, year after year? Do we complain? We do! Do we complain enough? Perhaps not. Does anybody listen? None or perhaps they don’t care.

Independence Day has come and gone. White clad politicians, white being the colour of purity, paid respect to the nation and mouthed the same old rhetoric. Some citizens celebrated while others introspected. I belong to the latter category and so I listed out points to ponder. Coming from a small town which is fighting in vain to be a city, I have identified my areas of concern. Firstly, communalism & all that follows it has raised its ugly head and like the many headed hydra refuses to be silenced. Unemployment levels are rising at an even pace; (if only development would record as steady a growth). The quality of education is falling; students are growing up with a near absence of breadth of knowledge; whatever is imparted to them is very superficial. Corruption is rampant and growing exponentially. The schism between the ‘have’ and the ‘have-not’ is expanding. Chaos, disguised as “development”, reigns supreme.

Much like the Samsung advertisement, I ask, Next is what?

A COSTLY SLAP (OR HOW TO LOSE RS. 3 CR IN A JIFFY!)

2008-05-08T17:34:00.003+05:30

Recently, a cricket crazy nation, (and a crazy Board for Control for Cricket in India) went overboard to ‘protect’ a certain member of the BCCI team, Mr. H. Singh, against the ‘tirades’ of certain members of the Australian cricket team. The media was gung ho about the whole thing – they had some ‘stuff’ that they could milk all through the day for weeks to come. The whole country stood by the ‘pious’ Mr. H. Singh, conveniently sweeping all his misdeeds of the past under the carpet so to say, the BCCI going to the extent of threatening to call of its team’s tour of Australia.

A few months prior to these incidents, a certain Mr. S. Shanth, once again a member of the BCCI cricket team was proving to the world, that Indian cricketers are no pushovers. To the cheers of cricket crazy fans (and some rabid commentators) he was teaching the opposition a lesson or two on sledging; where as to moderates such as me, he was just being obnoxious for the sake of being so!

Sledging has been around as long as the game of cricket has been around. The Brits would have treated cricket as a gentleman’s game; but in the subcontinent it was far from it. There have been instances where opposition teams have fought pitched battles with wickets & bats doubling up as arms and ammunitions. Team members have been bludgeoned; some losing their lives – even the umpires have not been spared.

But when it came to these two ‘gentlemen’ we supported them with gusto, (in what I thought were antics.) Anybody who did not do risked being called unpatriotic. (I have tried in vain to explain that ones love, or lack of it, for cricket and the cricketers does not define patriotism).

Then there was a slap - Mr. H Singh’s response to Mr. S Shanth’s local sledging!

Mr. S Shanth wept with the media capturing it and setting it as the numero uno headline of the day for many days to come!

Next day Mr. S Shanth maintained in front of the national media that it was a misplaced handshake, shrugged the whole thing off insisting that it was a personal thing and that Mr. H Singh was like an elder brother & so on. But he took care to mention to his state media that it was not a slap but a slugfest! (I imagine with the raising of eyebrows, lungis too were raised in God’s own country!)

What followed was the brand of comedy only BCCI can dish out. Mr. H Singh found himself poorer by 3 cr for the slap & Mr. S Shanth was given a mild warning. Mr. H Singh is now the villain of the piece. Taking refuge some where in Punjab, the ‘bad boy’ of Indian cricket must be wondering what went wrong?

What went wrong indeed? For this I turned to the cricket aficionado in my office, my very dependable Mr. Lawrence. (If one was to consider me as Bertie Wooster, then Lawrence would be Jeeves!)

In his deep voice I was treated to a threadbare analysis of the incident and its aftermath. The truth is plain and simple – When Mr. H Singh was at ‘it’ in Australia the BCCI and the country stood by him (though everyone who follows the game knows that H Singh can be obnoxious) showing a misplaced solidarity. But when he showed his true colours on home soil, he was abandoned, branded a pariah and banished for sometime – all this for making the BCCI and the mere mortal, die-hard, cricket fans look like fools!

HOME IS WHERE THE HEART IS.

2008-05-06T21:36:00.002+05:30

It’s been a long while since I last wrote on my blog.

There have been many enquiries on my long silence.

I haven’t been writing for many reasons; prominent among them being:

I just could not bring myself to write – writer’s block or plain fatigue?
I was anxious to finish, furnish and move into my new apartment

Since March 20^th, we have a new address:

402, Shivadeep Residency,
Shivabagh,
Kadri,
Mangalore.

We moved into our new apartment, after a delay of approximately 6 months & we are loving it!

There is a popular saying in Kannada:

‘Maduve maadi nodu,
Mane katti nodu.’

Loosely transalated, it means ‘get married and see, build a house and see’; literally it means that the two tasks are difficult, complicated & frustrating!

It was an experience for my wife and me as we watched with a feeling of helpless ness as all dates & deadlines that we had set were systematically demolished by labourers, carpenters, painters and their ilk.

And I learnt that in the ‘unorganised’ sector of building construction, ‘anything’ is possible.

The labour class in our country has been exploited. But slowly and surely, they are striking back, not by negotiations to improve their lot, but by sulking, absenting from work & bullying the contractor/building in parting with more wages. They are breeding incompetence and bleeding the contractor/builder. Does one deserve the other?

Ultimately it is the user - the apartment/house owner, who suffers with the delay & at times the poor quality of work.

It’s been a month since we moved in. The builder has yet to hand over the building; his gang of incompetent supervisors are scanning the building for defects to rectify & while at it they are taking their own sweet time!

We are still looking forward to having all our friends over for a celebration.

Meanwhile I plod the steps to the builder’s office to enquire as to when he & his ‘gang’ would quit the building so that we could have a celebration with our family and friends.

HIBISCUS - A PHOTO ESSAY

2007-11-12T20:33:00.000+05:30

Hibiscus, or rosemallow, is a large genus of about 200–220 species of flowering plants, native to warm temperate, subtropical and tropical regions throughout the world. The genus includes both annual and perennial herbaceous plants, and woody shrubs and small trees.

The leaves are alternate, simple, and ovate, often with a toothed or lobed margin.

The flowers are large, conspicuous, trumpet-shaped, with five or more petals, ranging from white to pink, red, purple or yellow, and from 4-15 cm broad.

Many species are grown for their showy flowers or used as landscape shrubs.

One species of Hibiscus, known as Kenaf is extensively used in paper making. Another, roselle, is used as a vegetable and to make herbal teas and jams (especially in the Caribbean).

In Latin America, the drink is known as jamaica (drink) and is quite popular. It is made from calyces of the roselle plant.

In Egypt and Sudan, roselle petals make a tea named after the plant, karkade.

The Hibiscus is used as an offering to Goddess Kali and Lord Ganesha in Hindu worship.

Hibiscus, especially white hibiscus is considered to have medicinal properties in the Indian traditional system of medicine, Ayurveda.

The natives of southern India use the Red hibiscus for hair care purposes.

The red flower and leaves, extracts of which can be applied on hair to tackle hair-fall and dandruff on the scalp, is used to make hair protective oils. A simple application involves soaking the leaves and flowers in water and using a wet grinder to make a thick paste, and used as a natural shampoo.

Dried hibiscus is edible, and is often a delicacy in Mexico.

The Hibiscus rosa-sinensis is the national flower of Malaysia.

The ma‘o hau hele is the state flower of Hawai‘i.

The Hibiscus syriacus is the national flower of South Korea.

The Native Hibiscus is a national emblem of the Stolen Generation of indigenous peoples in Australia. Its colour denotes compassion and spiritual healing.

Source: Wikipedia

Flowers: The Greenhouse Nursery, Mannagudda, Mangalore

Photos: Lionel Aranha

Each flower is a soul blossoming out to nature

- Gerard De Nerval (French Poet, Essayist & Transalator)

BEFORE I SAY GOODBYE.......

2007-10-19T07:18:00.000+05:30

A friend, in passing, asked me what I would like to do before I die.
That got me thinking. What is it that I would like to do before I leave this world?

I have always wanted to author a book. After several false starts, I am still pondering my next move; and the priority improves every time the Booker Prize is announced.

I want to get a PhD. Some of my friends are amused and want to know why? If you are into teaching and do not possess a PhD, no matter what, the PHD wallahs consider you a pariah!

I want to see the world; not all of it but some of my favorites. I want to visit Egypt & experience the pyramids, travel to South America and see the ruins of Macha Picchu – to mention a few. I want to travel on the Orient Express; closer home I want to travel on the Darjeeling Toy Train & the Palace on Wheels!

I want to do a 2-day cruise in the Arabian Sea – just of the coastline of Mangalore. (Love to watch what Mangalore looks like from the sea)

This may sound crazy, but I want to meet God and over a cup of tea ask him a few pointed questions. (Let me put it this way – I want to put God in a spot of bother) Equally important for me to meet the Devil too and grill him!

Speaking of tea meetings, I would like to meet the Pope, Bill Gates, Osama Bin Laden, Amitabh Bachchan, Oprah Winfrey & Jerry Seinfeld and speak to them – length of time, not more than 20 minutes!

I would like to make the world a better place to live in. (Can I get rid of the evil politicians? Poverty? Corruption?) I want people to show more compassion. I want to improve the quality of education. I want to touch lives. I want to make a difference.

I want to anchor my own show on Television a la Oprah Winfrey.

I have always tried to make people laugh. I want to continue to do that.

I want to own a small place up in the mountains – a sort of a retreat, to which I can retire when things get out of hand.

I want to make plenty of money and then give it all away. Coffins do not have linings to stuff your money into!

Sounds far fetched? I like exercising my Grey Cells …..

Now that you have read it, get back to whatever you were doing…….

And don’t forget to make your own list!

We live only once!

‘…..And when my work shall be done in this world, O King of kings, alone and speechless shall I stand before thee face to face.’

- Rabindranath Tagore

THE VIGILANTE!

2007-09-24T15:48:00.001+05:30

(The silent crossing over of Democracy to Mobocracy)

On the evening of January 11^th 2005, my bus from Manipal to Mangalore met with a minor accident. Though the bus drivers’ on this road are maniacs, this time around, the driver of the bus in which I was traveling was innocent. It was a funny accident. The bus in front had stopped to pick a passenger - a seasoned fisherwoman. Since its rear warning lights weren’t functioning, the driver of my bus noticed it too late. He braked; but the weight of the bus took it forward and we nudged the bus in front. The seasoned fisherwoman who was taking all precautions to make a grand, albeit slow, entry from the rear door was knocked down. She was petrified and started bawling so loudly that it brought a huge crowd of locals. The passengers of our bus melted in the crowd. I espied the conductor; the pint-sized guy was boarding a bus and scooting. He made a strange gesture to me as he left; more like the manner in which the umpire at the recently introduced 20:20 cricket matches announces a Free Hit!

I was left with the driver. There was one other passenger, an engineering student, who opted to stay back. The youth among the crowd began manhandling the driver. While one caught him by the collar another tried to slap him; the young student and me jumped into the fray and pulled away the driver from the youth. On the background, I could still here the wailing fisherwoman. That was when I blew my top! I shouted at the youth to first help the lady and then come back to sort out the issue. The youth were now confused but one among them, a mean looking guy, was drawling that there was nothing wrong with the lady but the driver need to be taught a lesson. Absurd!

Somehow, we managed to extricate the driver. A flash of a crisp one hundred note to the lady helped her on her feet. She was bruised; we managed to get her on an auto and to the local primary health center. The driver we whisked to the police station. The mean looking guy accompanied us. But at the police station he refused to file any complaint. He simply told me that all he wanted was beat the driver up! He did not believe in any law! I was being introduced to the new league of Indian Justice! The new plainclothes superheroes! The Vigilante! They hunt in packs and do not wait for court trials! Sometimes the mere apian bite of the new breed of ‘sting’ news reporters galvanizes them into action!

Vigilantes have been around for a while now. Even in the days of yore, people who stepped on the wrong side of law were paraded in the streets, either seating backwards on Asses or dragged behind carts. Their faces would have been blackened and the public would stone them or spit on them; publicly shaming them for their alleged offence. This behaviour had the tacit approval of the king. One could say that the comic book heroes Batman, Spiderman & Superman are also vigilantes. They act in the interest of the larger good of the society. Perhaps today’s vigilante feels that they are acting, in the same manner, to protect mankind by fighting for truth and justice.

Many of you would have grimaced when you saw on TV the footage of a man being tied to a motorcycle and dragged on a kaccha road after being brutally beaten by a mob. His offence was that he had stolen a chain from a lady. I am of the opinion that the presence of the TV cameras spurred our plainclothes super heroes to try this crude form of punishment. It was also the TV cameras that captured the rather well rehearsed storming of an apartment by the ‘Bai’ brigade in Mumbai. Once gain it was the TV cameras that beamed us pictures of the molestation of an innocent teacher on the bases of wild allegations.

Today, there seems to be a nexus between the media and the vigilante. One requires the other to enhance their respective cause; the media for better ratings and the vigilante for a two-minute claim to fame.

Is there is a silent crossing over of Democracy to Mobocracy?

"A democracy is nothing more than mob rule, where fifty-one percent of the people may take away the rights of the other forty-nine" - Thomas Jefferson

It looks like Mobocracy is here to stay in our cities. “With people from rural areas migrating to larger towns and cities, the mob culture comes naturally as an add-on” is the comment we hear often. Even men of law fear a mob. From a group of ordinary people going about their daily chores they suddenly transform into a faceless force on a rampage.

One curious twist to the cause of the vigilantes – why is it that they do not target the rich and the powerful, the crooked politician, the corrupt government babus & the so-called God men? Is there a fear factor lurking within them? Is that the reason for bashing up a hapless accused?

One wonders….

THE CREATION OF THE TEACHER

2007-09-05T08:01:00.000+05:30

The Good Lord was creating teachers.

It was His sixth day of ‘overtime’ and He knew that this was a tremendous responsibility as teachers would touch the lives of so many impressionable young children.

An angel appeared to Him and said, “You are taking a long time to figure this one out.”

“Yes,” said the Lord, “but have you read the ‘specs’ on this order?”

Must stand above all students, yet be on their level;
Must be able to do 1001 things not connected with the subject being taught;
Must communicate vital knowledge to all students daily and be right most of the time;
Must have more time for others than for herself/himself;
Must have a smile that can endure through pay cuts, jealous colleagues, problematic children, and worried parents;
Must go on teaching when parents question every move and others are not supportive;
Must have 6 pair of hands.

“Six pair of hands,” said the angel, “that's impossible”

“Well,” said the Lord, “it is not the hands that are the problem. It is the three pairs of eyes that are presenting the most difficulty!”

The angel looked incredulous, “Three pairs of eyes...on a standard model?”

The Lord nodded His head,

“One pair can see a student for what he is and not what others have labeled him as.Another pair of eyes is in the back of the teacher's head to see what should not be seen, but what must be known.The eyes in the front are only to look at the child as he/she 'acts out' in order to reflect, ‘I understand and I still believe in you’, without so much as saying a word to the child.”

“Lord,” said the angel, “this is a very large project and I think you should work on it tomorrow.”

“I can't,” said the Lord, “for I have come very close to creating something much like myself. I have one that comes to work when he/she is sick.... teaches a class of children that do not want to learn....has a special place in his/her heart for children who are not his/her own.....understands the struggles of those who have difficulty....never takes the students for granted...”

The angel looked closely at the model the Lord was creating.
“It is too soft-hearted,” said the angel.

“Yes,” said the Lord, “but also tough, You cannot imagine what this teacher can endure or do, if necessary.”

“Can this teacher think?” asked the angel.

“Not only think,” said the Lord, “but reason and compromise.”

The angel came closer to have a better look at the model and ran his finger over the teacher's cheek.

“Well, Lord,” said the angel, “your job looks fine but there is a leak. I told you that you were putting too much into this model. You cannot imagine the stress that will be placed upon the teacher.”

The Lord moved in closer and lifted the drop of moisture from the teacher's cheek. It shone and glistened in the light.

“It is not a leak,” He said, “It is a tear.”

“A tear? What is that?” asked the angel, “What is a tear for?”

The Lord replied with great thought,

“It is for the joy and pride of seeing a child accomplish even the smallest task.

It is for the loneliness of children who have a hard time fitting in and it is for compassion for the feelings of their parents.

It comes from the pain of not being able to reach some children and the disappointment those children feel in themselves.

It comes often when a teacher has been with a class for a year and must say good-bye to those students and get ready to welcome a new class.”

“My,” said the angel,

“ The tear thing is a great idea...You are a genius!!”

The Lord looked somber,

“I didn't put it there.”

Author Unknown

“Awaken pupil's curiosity.

It is enough to open minds, do not overload them.

Put there just a spark.”

- Anatole France (adapted)

INDIA AT 60

2007-08-14T12:58:00.000+05:30

What is it to be 60 years old? Imagine you were 60 years old you would have been flooded with greetings which would be on the following lines:

Age is an issue of mind over matter. If you don't mind, it doesn't matter.

Age is a high price to pay for maturity.

And the gifts that you could possibly get would include among other things – a 60th coffee mug and a walking stick.

Being 60 years is considered auspicious by many; there would a thanksgiving service at the local temple or church and a party would be arranged, were you will be reminded of all the things that you did for the last 60 years via a toast. (And or a power point presentation if you have tech savvy children or nieces/nephews) Rest assured only the good qualities and incidents will be mentioned, the goof ups will only remain in memory.

But when a country turns 60 it tends to be different. I am of the opinion that a country is a sum total of the people that reside in it. Hence, along with lavish praise some criticism, of us, is in order.

Sixty years on, we have an independent judiciary (I refer to the Supreme Court) before which no one is too high, a thriving economy, and an uninhibited blog-sphere where one can agitate for any cause whatsoever, a vibrant media and most importantly India has been a role model for multi-cultural democracy. (Though our elections resemble a carnival and we have an increasingly boisterous parliament). Today, the world looks at India as a super power. Every move that India makes is watched keenly. My friends in the academia world keep telling me that amidst all the squalor, things are looking up! India is rising!

In my earlier post, I had written:

India has an affluent middle class that has grown in just a few years.
We have more millionaires today than ever before.
We also have more poor people than ever before.
We have more street children & more missing young girls than ever before.
We have more rogues, ruffians, riff-raff and dons than ever before.
Eradicated diseases like Tuberculosis and Malaria are returning with a vengeance.
We do not have a single city with enough drinking water.
We do not have a single clean city; all our cities have garbage removal and disposal problems.
Our politicians no longer even pretend respect for the public.
The numbers of criminals who are MLAs have increased.

Well, one can add many more points. But I would like to concentrate on just two:

We are becoming increasingly intolerant.
We are becoming increasingly fundamentalist.

In India we declare that a teacher can be punished for calling a student stupid; but we allow fundamentalists, who declare that they will behead or kill an author, go scot-free. What gives? Where are we heading?

This, to my mind, is a serious lacuna.

It disturbs me. Religion and politics make sound bedfellows. But they also drive the sane to despair. Will we be able to break the nexus and rise above? What will it be when India turns 75?

Spare a thought.

“Where the mind is without fear and the head is held high.......

Into that heaven of freedom, my Father, let my country awake”

– Rabindranath Tagore

FAREWELL.......

2007-08-07T18:37:00.000+05:30

NITESH AGARWAL
1983 - 2007

NEHA SINGH
1984 - 2007

To live in the hearts we leave behind is not to die

Last year at around this time, I was teaching a course in Financial Accounting for PGP I at the Indian Institute of Management, Indore. Among my students were Nitesh Agarwal and Neha Singh. Fondly, I referred to Nitesh as 'bitcom' and to Neha as ''lil one'. Nitesh was a vibrant youngster with boundless energy while Neha was prim and proper and a stickler for neatness. I had continued my association with Neha through an occasional call or a chat on the net.

It was with dismay and a deep sense of regret that I received the news of their passing away on Saturday, 4th August 2007. Two young lives were taken away from us. I could not believe it. One of their classmates sent me a scrap, which said "Bit com and 'lil one are no more...." and when another called on my cell to convey the news, it sank in. A tragic incident had snuffed out their lives.

They were both happy people and no one can take that from them. They saw the world as it was and were content to approach it with a practical mind.

They were both too young to have left this world. We may ponder and ask, why? Feeling helpless we cry out; "Why God? Why?" Even as I write this post, my mind cries out the same refrain.

Death comes like a thief, unannounced. Death takes away people whom we love. Perhaps this is the way God works - in mysterious ways. Perhaps there is a need for a Nitesh and a Neha in heaven where they will be happy. Perhaps God has some other plans for them?

As I grope for answers I get this message – This is not a time to grieve their deaths but it is our time to celebrate their life. Don't ever forget these two young people. I don't think they ever wanted people to cry. They would have wanted everyone to be happy. So, at this moment when we have laid our friends to rest, let's all think back and remember how Nitesh and Neha touched our lives. All the memories we have shared with them will forever be cherished and remembered. Nitesh and Neha will forever live in my heart… In our hearts. This is not the moment to shed tears but we should be thankful that we were given a chance to have known these two wonderful people.

For just over a year that we knew them, we reveled in their company. Happiness & laughter has flowed in their presence. Let not grief and tears wash away those sweet memories. There is no doubt in my mind that Nitesh and Neha are watching down on us from heaven right now.

Nitesh and Neha will forever be missed but I know in the right time, I will meet them again. We will all meet Nitesh and Neha again and then there will be happiness and laughter once again.

Adios, sweet friends, till we meet in paradise!

My thoughts go to the parents of Nitesh and Neha. Words alone cannot give them comfort for their loss is immense. I can only convey to them that our thoughts are with them in this hour of terrible tragedy. I can’t help but remember this wonderful poem, entitled ‘Ascension’ by Colleen Corah Hitchcock

And if I go,
while you're still here...
Know that I live on,
vibrating to a different measure
--behind a thin veil you cannot see through.
You will not see me,
so you must have faith.
I wait for the time when we can soar together again,
--both aware of each other.
Until then, live your life to its fullest.
And when you need me,
Just whisper my name in your heart,
...I will be there.

Memories:

Eternal rest grant unto them oh Lord, let perpetual light shine upon them and may they rest in peace, Amen.

Photo courtesy: Shalin Shah & Manas, IIM Indore

BONNIE, A DOG, A LADY

2007-08-06T19:06:00.000+05:30

BONITA
1996 - 2007

It was a pleasant day in November 1996; my wife was on the phone. She sounded excited. Her parents had just brought home a pup. Would I like to come over and see her? I left the office a little early and headed to see the pup.

There she was, a bundle of fur, cuddled in my wife’s arms, peering cautiously at me. She was of the German shepherd – Alsatian breed. I reached out and scratched her head and ears. She licked my hand. The rapport was instant. I christened her Bonita; which in later days was modified to Bonnie.

She was a constant companion to my wife’s parents who reveled in her company. She was an extension of the family; present at all family get together and meetings. I was her masseur. She loved her head being massaged and scratched. It was one of the rituals that she did not miss. My reward was a warm lick on my hand.

Dogs can teach you a lot. And so it was with Bonnie. She taught us:

When loved ones come home, Always run to greet them.
When it's in your best interests, practice obedience.
Let others know when they've invaded your territory.
Take naps and stretch before rising.
Run, romp, and play daily.
Eat with gusto and enthusiasm
Be loyal
Never pretend to be something you're not.
If what you want lies buried, dig until you find it.
When someone is having a bad day, be silent, sit close by, and nuzzle them gently.
Thrive on attention and let people touch you.
Avoid biting when a simple growl will do.
On hot days, drink lots of water and lay under some shade.
When you are happy, dance around and wag your entire body.
Delight in the simple joy of a long walk
No matter how often you're scolded don't buy into the guilt thing and pout …. run right back and make friends.

Then in the November of 2006, tragedy struck. Ten years to the day that she had invaded our world, my father-in-law succumbed to a massive heart attack. He collapsed in the garden right in front of Bonnie. From that day onwards she wasn’t her self. We could sense that she was grieving. Age too was catching up with her. Her movements had slowed down and her liver was acting up. Frequently she would be listless. The vet wasn’t too optimistic and her condition slowly but surely deteriorated. Patiently but knowingly she bore the anxious ministrations of my mother-in-law. Finally, on Saturday, July 28^th, she could not stand up anymore. Her condition worsened through the day. She knew that her time had come, to leave those she loved. She made her last heroic efforts at trying to stand up, once when my wife entered the gate around noon and once more when I entered a few hours later. It was as if she was waiting to say her last goodbye. Around 5.15p.m. that same evening with my mother-in-law and wife beside her, with one last sigh, she was gone.

She is buried in a corner of the garden under the shade of a tree, which constantly blooms and sheds little pink flowers.

She must be in a happier place as I write this post.