Today, as Chinese refuse to withdraw from their incursion into Ladhak, the choices that India faces are tough. It does not have the resources to start a war, but nor does it have the luxury of ignoring the Chinese threat. External Affairs Minister Salman Khurshid is travelling to China to talk them into withdrawing. He is underplaying the entire threat by calling it a mere acne on a pretty face (pretty face is apparently the state of relationship of India with China, dont know which mirror he is looking at), but it is a weak response. There can be no talk amongst unequal partners. Any diplomacy rests on an assessment of strategic options that the other person has, and India has shown none yet.

India has conveniently chosen to focus all its military and strategic energies on Pakistan. Pakistan is a lightweight compared to India – economically, militarily, socially. But India plays the victim even against such a feeble country. Not having reacted to obvious state-sponsored attacks by Pakistan shows the lack of mental resolve of Indian Politicians. India has a poor body language internationally, and if ever a bully was looking to find the weakest kid to pick on, here is India walking with its head lowered afraid to even look at others straight in the eye, too lost in its own internal drama’s.

To grow up, India needs to learn to handle China which is 6 times the size of India economically and 3 times militarily, and has to do it alone. China has a unified vision of what it wants and moves like a Juggernaut to achieve it. It treats its own citizens brutally, suppressing even a minor internal disturbance with cold efficiency. It can be expected to treat its enemies even more ruthlessly. China’s ambitions are global and it is aware of the power it commands across the world especially now that it is the 2nd biggest economy in the world and driver of global growth. It has reached such a position of strength that even USA is forced to abandon all its concerns of Terrorism and the Middle-east, and do the ‘Pivot to Asia’ by forming alliance with South eastern countries to neutralise China – even though economically it cant survive without China. China is treated by a different yardstick by the world and many of its transgressions are ignored by the global community, so India will have to fight this alone.

China has started to play its long strategic game against India. Geopolitically, China is pursuing its string of pearls strategy against India and thus building relationships with each of India’s neighbours even as India has failed to build bridges with any of them. Economically  India’s fledgeling manufacturing industry has been devastated by Chinese imports – talk to any manufacturer or even a wholesaler and they will tell you how they all have become low margin traders of Chinese goods. India’s current bread-and-butter accounting for over 60% of GDP, the Services industry, is losing its edge as more educated and better culturally aligned nations to the western markets like South-east Asian nations and China are starting to chase this market, so growth is not assured into the future. Socially, we have overstretched our social spending to a point where any economic slowdown will probably bankrupt the country and rolling the social dole-outs will unleash social unrest. Politically, we are a bee-hive as Rahul Gandhi aptly described it and we cant achieve consensus on anything, especially the tough calls. We are busy with our demonstrations against builders, politicians, corruption, crimes, Scams, Price increases, religious strife, etc… just too busy to really see the guns that is now pointing at us. We need to all stop in our tracks and do what is necessary.

A good simulation of a managing a country is the video game- Age of empires. The task in the game is to build cities and civilizations by choosing where to deploy limited resources – on education, mining, soldiers, professors, library, horse stables etc. No matter how much you progress on other parameters, without a standing army to defend the city from sudden attacks, even a small tribe will  reduce all progress to a rubble. On the other hand, if all the resources are spent just on military, then the civilization does not progress from the age of swords to that of gun powder, and this time again the city will be attacked by a more advanced civilization  with advanced weapons and your country will be destroyed again. Investment in Military is nothing more than the cost of buying peace to grow your civilization.

India needs to demonstrate its military resolve even as it uses  diplomacy to give China a face-saver to withdraw in the short term. For the long term, India needs to redefine its military doctrine against a ruthless China. It first needs to create credible deterrence from any external attack, and then redouble its focus on economic growth – this is the only path of evolving to the next stage in the Game of Empires.

A mental state of fearlessness is the key to playing a bigger global game that India aspires to play.

Vijay Verma- the new Bollywood Talent

One thing that the film firmly establishes is that Jackky Bhagnani is a hopeless actor, no matter how much marketing monies his doting father may spend in launching him. The script is bad and only reason it probably got picked is because it wouldn’t put too much strain on his acting. But Mr Jackky fails to cross even such a low threshold.

The only saving grace of this film is Vijay Varma, who does the role of Pakkya. He wins everyone’s heart with his authenticity and sheer talent. His is the only character which is able to establish any emotional connect with the Audience –  maybe because he is comfortable in his own skin and is not trying to hide behind any clichéd look, or some random dance moves. Looking at him one feels that there is a lot more to come from this young actor. Rajpal Yadav is funny in parts, though he is mostly wasted.

At some point you start wondering how could such a mediocre film be produced by a veteran like Vashu Bhagnani to launch his son. The Music is mediocre too. The movies ends abruptly and before you recover from the mindlessness of it, the credit rolls start with a poor imitation of Gangnam style by Jackky. Ouch. Why? As you leave the hall  you wonder what does Rangrezz mean anyway.

In all this mess, there is one thing that Vashu Bhagnani can take the credit for – in spotting Vijay Verma, and in launching him into the big league.

The setup is unconventional – a guy chasing his illusion of love in a confused state of mind, and a woman struggling to overcome her sexual addiction while surrounded by men who are preying on her weakness. They both are trying to come to grips with their lives while living with imperfect families, imperfect friends, having imperfect relationships – and soon one forgets who has the mental disorder here. The film doesn’t try hard to fit any particular genre; it is more serious than a rom-com or a chick-flick, but does not make heavy weather of the struggles of its characters battling their mental illness. The soundtrack really stands out and lifts many key moments to the music ranging from from Led Zepplin, to Bob Dylan,  to Stevie Wonder.

The acting by Jennifer Lawrence is deserving of the Oscar and her skills are far ahead of her young age. I was a bit disappointed by Robet De Niro, he seems to have lost the edge totally and is falling back on the sort of roles he has done in the past. Anupam Kher plays a convincing part and its great to see him get his due for his talent.

In a boringly sane world, a bit of madness is something to celebrate.

 Must watch – 8.5/10

I have been using a Nokia Lumia 920 for three months and have enjoyed the experience.  Nokia’s marketing communication about the device is missing the mark about what makes this phone worthy. Nokia has stuck to its traditional imagery based marketing approach, which stopped working for mobile phones the moment Steve jobs walked onto the stage with an iPhone in hand to give a live product demo. I am sharing my own usage experience here and why I think Nokia Lumia 920 it is a better designed device than what the marketing communication around it seems to be able to convey.

PRICE: If I hadn’t got it as a free gift from my sister I would have been sceptical of shelling out so much money on any Nokia phone. My first choice would have been a Samsung Galaxy/ Note or an Apple – well maybe not an apple since it charges a ridiculous brand premium for its products. It is only after having used Lumia that I think it is worthy of its price. Nokia basically hasn’t done enough to win back the consumer trust to demand any premium for the Nokia brand. Even though this phone is loaded with features and Nokia and Microsoft have gone to great lengths to make the experience good, I still feel that it would be on the consideration set of lot more people if it was about 15% cheaper.

USER INTERFACE: The user interface is designed around tiles with each tile representing  a separate app. The tiles are alive, they display updates from the respective apps and move around fluidly. They give a dynamic, fluid feel to the phone than is lacking in the iPhone and android. The fact that they are live probably consumes a bit extra power too but they look beautiful. You have a choice of colors for the tiles and selecting various themes can give your phone a fresh vibrant look. You can customize the layout of the screen by resizing the tiles and moving them around, all of which is fun to do.

RESOLUTION: The screen resolution is the sharper than iPhone 5. The screen is  ultra responsive to touch and that makes the glass screen somehow feel soft as even a hovering finger gets the screen to respond. I wrote a 100 page essay almost entirely on the phone. Being a two finger typist I found it faster to type on the phone than on a laptop (or even a tablet) as my thumbs had to travel much lesser distance to write and the words flew really fast with the auto correct feature working reasonably well. The phone being handy and accessible at moments of inspiration made me reach out for the phone more often than the laptop. I am lying comfortable on my couch and typing this post on the phone, which I can’t do with my laptop or even a tablet. I will however need to give this the final touch on a laptop.

CAMERA: The photographs taken by this phone in low light are far better than what I can get even with my Nikon 5100D. The photographs are crisp, have no shakes, have no low-light noise, and capture good colors. Due to the camera being mounted on some sort of a spring mechanism, the images are remarkable shake free and far superior to any digital camera. The normal daylight photographs are ok, nothing exceptional there. The Carl Zeiss lens at the back works well but like most other camera phones, it catches finger smudges all the time and has to be wiped before taking the picture. Some sort of a lens shutter would have been great to have. There are two photo editors in the phone-  one that that comes preloaded, and another which was later made available by Nokia store as free download with more features called creative studio. You get to choose which of these do you want to edit your image by. Both are powerful, though would have been nice to keep both as a single app.

MAPS: Nokia Drive, Nokia’s own map application is extraordinary. The phone has a built-in GPS chip that can work without any mobile data usage. There is an option to download the entire map of any country into the phone for free, and after that you can work in the offline mode using the maps. So even if you are on international roaming, you can use the map feature to find your way around without the costly data download, or even having a Sim-card in it (I think). I did a 2000 km drive through Rajasthan relying on the Nokia drive with its offline map navigation and was impressed by its accuracy. A female British voice was alerting me the specific exit I need to  take on a roundabout in Ajmer, Rajasthan. It was uncanny in its accuracy and its sense of timing. The map itself is a sort of 3D view of the city that feels more real than the traditional view that  most maps  have. This mapping feature is more powerful than even the professional car GPS systems that I have seen.

SOCIAL MEDIA: Social media integration is one of the core features of the phone. Once you have linked your social media logins into the phone settings, you can can post updates/ links/ photos/ videos across Facebook, Twitter and Linkedin through a very simple and intuitive interface. The contact list makes use of the social media integration very powerfully too. It prompts you to link the telephone numbers with social media IDs of your contacts. Once you go though it the magic begins. For every contact in your phone, along with the phonecalls and SMS history, the phone also pulls in all their social media updates, all of their photographs ever posted on FB, personal details in their social media profiles. It is so beautifully done that is almost feels like invasion of someone privacy even though it is accessing only the shared information of that person. I have had incoming calls that displayed peoples faces and names as caller id’s even though I did not have their contact numbers in my phone. The phone somehow just picked it up from my social media list and made a  little magical connection for me.

APP STORE: The appstore has most of what you need, but there are gaps – no instagram, no economist app, only a partial tunein app, no Vine –  Just some of the Apps that I would want to have, but are missing. The store however did have some of the exotic ones that I didnt expect – Baconit (reddit),  Google Analytics, Specialised timers. Others apps will soon come for sure as windows gets widely adopted across HTC, Samsung and other device manufacturers. The interface of all windows apps are similar, based on swiping across screen and all have better aesthetics than apple or android apps. The apps feel a lot more stable than most of the android apps too.

SKYDRIVE: Skydrive backup is useful as it is integrated into the phone deeply. All the photographs and documents can be saved into the phone or into the Skydrive. This  makes it easy to switch between devices – my phone and my laptop, and also online – it is as good as dropbox but with better integration. The synchronization works well, though I did get errors at times when the document could not load onto SkyDrive in poor connectivity, and then even when I would moved to good connectivity the synchronization would not happen. Had to manually switch copies into the SkyDrive on more than one occasion. Overall I found it very helpful especially when I had to use the editor feature of the phone.

I havent used the Xbox features on the phone since I own a PS3, but I have heard good things about how the phone integrates with Xbox console too.

IRRITANTS -

Too many logins – There is one part of the phone which is pretty messy and I hope Nokia fixes it. There are a large number of logins – windows id, Nokia id, Xune id, xbox id, Skype id, music store, OVI store, Skydrive. The windows id themselves can get confusing as it can be msn/ hotmail/ outlook/ live. Hotmail and msn are about to be discontinued so that adds a bit to the confusion. It could all have been done through one login. It feels like each of Nokia’s different silo of operation are showing up in the user experience too, and take away from the coherence of the device. Clearly there is a scope of improvement in this area.

Music Services: Nokia has a great music services which allows unlimited downloads of almost any music. This offer beats what iTunes offers and I have always wondered why this service never became as popular as iTunes. Unfortunately I am unable gain access to it on my Lumia 920. I had my piece imported into India and the default setting seems to be UK music store (with UK prices). Nothing on their website guides me about how to fix it to point to Indian store. There are enough people who have posted this question in various online forums, about having  imported their phones and being unable to access the music store, but there is no official answer anywhere.

So am I Recommending this phone? Yes. I think it is a brilliant device. Each part of Nokia Lumia 920 is well designed. Once you get all the logins out of the way as a one time exercise, it all seems to work well. The Specs of the phone are very good for the price that it is available at. If only Nokia could put out a sharper marketing communication around the phone, engaged better with the social and online chatter about its phones, the price point would probably become more convincing for the buyer to pay.

Out of the bag thinking

We had already driven 1200 km, but we were hungry for more.  I had been apprehensive that a road trip may end up feeling as stressful as my everyday commute, instead there was something about open roads and open expanses of Rajasthan that felt therapeutic. We left the sands of Jaisalmer looking forward to the adventures which lay ahead.

The journey itself felt like a metaphor for life – we couldn’t get too attached to anything, good or bad, and had to be ready to leave it behind and move on.

JODHPUR

Our next destination was Jodhpur. Ekta drove and I was happy to just sit and daydream.  We overtook a large Army convoy on the way. Ekta, already nervous from a small mishap earlier got even more unsettled as she overtook several menacing looking artillery guns. To settle her  nervousness she asked if  the Indian army kind. I wasnt much help when I told her that kindness wasnt much help on a battle field. This was an important area for India given its proximity to Pakistan. My  father had served in the Indian army and like most army kids I had seen my father go into the desert with his army unit for extended periods of time as part of battle readiness practice. So I had mixed feelings about Rajasthan, which were much different than how I was experiencing this place now.

Pokhran – The bang of the bomb brought in the tourists too

We passed close to Pokhran, the place where India had successfully tested its nuclear bomb as an assertion of its military power and surprised the world. That event had also rejuvenated tourism in the area and even a remote Jaisalmer had came onto the tourist map.

Fort Mehran Garh –  The greatest fort of India

Our hotel was 85Km ahead of Jodhpur at a place called Fort Khejarla, and we decided to stopover at Fort Merangarh on the way. Merangarh is an awe inspiring sight because of its sheer size. By the time we reached the fort it was late in the afternoon and the tourist office had no more guides left. We were forced to take the electronic audio guide – they were comprehensive, though a tour guide is always more interesting.

The fort had seen enough wars and it had the battle scars all over its walls. One side of the fort had the older part of the city with its blue houses, apparently to keep off insects by using Indigo, and the other side was the more modern one. Being the highest point in the region, the views from the fort were spectacular, With the battle guns looking over into the city.

 

In Rajasthan, women seem to always have had a tough deal. Right from the practice of Sati, where the woman had to follow her husband into the funeral pyre if he died, and was formally banned only in the 80s, to the prevalence of  so called Purdah system which is explained away as part of the culture and and seems to justify why women were not allowed to stepout of their house and had to spent their lives looking at the world through these intricate sieves on the windows.

Purdah System of Rajasthan

However beautiful these sieves were, I couldn’t imagine living a whole life seeing the world though them.

FORT KHEHARLA

We headed towards Fort Khejarla with an open mind, esp after the Disastrous Sam sands experience I was open for anything. This was a relatively less known place, and was 25 km off the main highway. It was more like a haweli and was  surrounded by an impoverished village. Inside its fort like walls was a world of luxury and opulence.

Fort Khejarla

We chose to stay in the older part of the hotel and which was totally deserted and most people seemed to have chosen the modern side. We were happy for the silence.

The morning was cold. I got onto the roof of the fort to capture the sunrise and the waking life of the village.

Sunrise at Khejarla

 

The smoke was just rising up from the Village as the chulaas got lit for the morning meals and warm water.

People were getting busy cleaning and sweeping their houses as the first rays of the sun hit the village. I didn’t want to think of what they would do to me if they knew how I was peeping their lives through my 300mm lens. We spent rest of the day in the lawns inside the fort eating, reading, chilling, just slowing down totally. I finally opened IQ89 by Murakami that I had carried to read on the trip.

Early morning flight – Village Khejerla

 

In the evening I decided to walk to the old temple about 3 Km away. I walked past the village getting silently stared at by idle groups of men. A bunch of kids who were playing in the dust saw me and started acting hyper and started to shout dialogue from an Amitabh bacchan movie – I can walk in English, I can talk in English.  I clearly didn’t belong here. The daylight stared to fade out and there were no street lights.

The temple was many centuries old, and was funded by the owner of the fort. By the time I reached the full moon was out and it was time for the aarti. The silence was shattered with a loud cacophony of drums banging without any rhythm. The drums were kept in a small store room and the sound was made by mechanical arms that operated by motors that made the arms hit the drums, that explained the violence of the sound. A audio system would have been a better and cheaper solution, but this arrangement somehow seemed more raw. I got used to the sound soon.

I offered my prayers and my donation to appease the gods and started my nervous walk back. I walked back in the full moon light to the sounds of howling dogs and rustling bushes back through the village with half crazed children. Felt a sense of relief as I walked back into the comfortable, protected walls of the well lit fort.

At dinner we met with an American couple. The guy was from MIT and headed a company related to solar energy in the US. He had been an antique dealer in Japan in his earlier avatar, and his wife was Japanese. She seemed mildly disapproving of his past. He told me how there are some crazy deals ready to be picked up from the Mumbai Chor Bazzar and the guys selling the stuff have no idea of what they are selling. He showed me some of the antique coins he had bought from there. I told him I had about 2 Kg of these coins in my own coin collection, but I myself had never quite been able to figure out the worth of them. A Sikh driver was sitting on the table with them and sharing their meals and drinks. The guy was their cab driver, but they didn’t seem to have any issues with him sitting there, however awkward I thought the driver felt about it. Soon we were all good friends, including their driver with beer flowing. We advised them against spending too much time in Sam-sands, but they had already done the smart thing by booking their stay inside the fort in Jaisalmer.

 

AJMER AND PATAN

The last leg of our journey was to Patan Mehel, midway between Jaipur and Delhi. We had planned to celebrate the new years with a bunch of friends who were meeting us there. On the way we decided to take a detour and visit the shrine of the Sufi mystic at Ajmer.  This would be a bit off track for us, but what was another 50km when Akbar was willing to make a trip all the way from Agra 14 times to visit this shrine.

The entire visit in and out of the shirine took us about an hour and costed us Rs 1200. It worked like a well oiled  machinery, oiled by money ofcourse, but worth it. As we arrived into the town we were ushered into one of the many parking lots catering to the tourists. There were autos lined up outside to take us closer to the shrine which was in the older part of town. The auto manoeuvred with outstanding skill through the narrow lanes and took us to a dead end. A guy was already waiting to walk us into and out of the crowded shrine. He told us to buy some chaddar to donate at the shrine and walked us inside skipping the long line. We got a quick blessing from the priest who insisted the bigger blessings come with a bigger donation, which we didn’t fully buy into. We were ushered out, into the auto, back to the car park, and we were on our way. We now had a thread on our wrist to show for our efforts and a feeling of being blessed. We ate at Ambrosia at Hotel Ambassodor, which was a recommendation online, and it was great. We were on our way to Patan Mehel.

Patan Mehel

The haveli was connected to the highway by a poor broken road. It was as spectacularly restored as the other heritage properties we had seen till now. Soon we were with friends and having fun playing board games and partying through the night. The last day started with a climb to the fort, kite flying in the afternoon, and a new years party in the night.

Outpost near Patan

 

 

We drove back into the cold Delhi with a warm lighter heart having finally covered 2060 Km. The experience was more enjoyable than what I had imagined before we started. We knew that we would be back soon.

<< Road-trip through Rajasthan -Part 1

CHOMU

We were passing through the town of Chomu around lunch time. It was the largest town on the 8 hour drive to Bikaner from Delhi – we had decided not to take the road via Hissar. Chomu seemed like a dusty little town- some sort of an ugly hybrid between a village and a city with worst characteristics of both. But a rumbling stomach focused our minds to look for a place to eat. We drove into Chomu palace hotel right in the heart of this noisy chaotic marketplace hoping for atleast a decent meal. But we walked into an unexpected oases of calm, aesthetics and heritage right in the middle of that chaos.

Unexpected Oasis of calm, aesthetics and Heritage – Chomu Palace Hotel

The dining room was from another era with its tall ceiling and portraits of the various kings/ prince looking down at us sternly, as we enjoyed the Rajasthani hospitality. As we were served the ker sangri and laal maas, we also got a lesson lesson in history of the palace from the waiters as well as a rundown of all the people from Bollywood who have come here. This was also where bhool-bulayya, the Akshay Kumar starrer was shot. The food was tempered down on spice, and was delicious.

Aesthetics from another world – Chomu Palace hotel

I am pretty sure that the modern demanding and well heeled consumers had forced niceness and aesthetics onto Chomu palace and probably made it even more beautiful than what it originally was, besides making them go easy on spices. Our unscheduled stop on day one was already feeling like a great omen for wonderful experience still to come. With a belly full of Laal maas, we were on our way to Bikaner, another 230 Km away.

BIKANER

We were off track by some 75 km. I had mostly been following the Nokia Drive directions in my Lumia 920, but had started to ignore the instructions as we passed Chomu. The audio directions in a British female voice was constantly asking me to take a U- turn every half a kilometre, and I should have listened. I had got the Phone recently and I had been impressed by how beautifully it had been put together, Nokia was sure to make a comeback with technology like this. For now I decided to pay more attention to what it told me to do.

We turned around and found the right road, but I realised that that sun would set before we reach Bikaner. I checked myself from getting into some sort of a pressure on time – this was a holiday, and I didn’t want to live by a clock. Bhavar Niwas Hotel, where we were staying, was in the old part of town and was difficult to find. The hotel sent a guy to help us navigate through the impossibly narrow and dirty lanes, but he told us not to get disheartened by the surroundings and assured us that the Haweli will be a great experience. And it was. 

This place was smaller than the Chomu palace, but was more ornate. The showcase living rooms were done-up beautifully and took you back in time – you might just as well have be sitting there 500 years ago staring at the elaborate chandeliers, that classical mantelpieces, and the furniture. The rooms were wonderful, and the staff was excellent and almost made you feel like royalty.

Nets to keep the Pigeons out – Bhavar Nivas Palace

Slept deeply in the silence of night, something that I wasn’t used to anymore staying in Mumbai for so long. For day one on the road, this wasn’t bad.

The standout piece was a glider on display inside the palace, which looked even more strange when I was told that this was merely for display and had never flew. It has been presented as a token of appreciation by the British to the king for lending his army to fight the second world war. I hope that his army did better job of fighting than this glider did of flying.

The bizarre glider was topped by another ‘Mehal’ that one of the kings had built, and had clouds and thunderbolts painted on the walls to remind him of rains in this dry land – I was almost tempted to ask what did the king smoke up, but this was a land where honor was most important asset, and you didnt want to cross swords here with anyone. The guide had been showering me with some extra attention, and I knew he was angling for a special tip when he started sharing his salary details as part of the historical tour. Looking at his talent, tips would have been a rare occurrence in his life. Anyway, I tipped him and got a big huge smile out of him. We were on our way to Jaisalmer.

JAISALMER

We were cutting through the driest parts of Rajasthan now. I had booked a desert camp amidst the sand dunes, but maybe we had gone overboard by booking it for 3 nights. As we passed Jaisalmer towards Sam-sands the sun was setting and my heart was bursting with sheer exhilaration as we drove into the sun seeing it slide down into the barren horizon .

Magical Sunsets at Sam Sands, Jaisalmer

The dry clean air seemed seemed to have accentuated the sunset colors into a spectacular display.

We drove into our camp well past the sunset and I was ready for the Swiss tents in the middle of sands as they had been advertised. Felt like we were the last ones to the party, the remaining thousands seemed to have reached there well ahead of us. There were a dozen camps adjacent to ours, and there was even parking problem – not a good sign. Looking at our tents, the Swiss would have sued them for using their name to name their accommodation. I was relieved in a way since now I knew that we wont stay here for 3 nights whether we get the refund or not. It was night time, and we joined the rest of the people sitting in a large circle in the sand around a stage. The local artists were singing folk music, but the noise was too loud. They were trying to drown out the music coming from the neighbouring camps. The performances were tacky,  done by rote and nothing connected with you. The food was bad, the bed-sheets smelled, and the tent looked poorly maintained, and color scheme was a colour-blind guys delight; or maybe I was sulking since the owner refused to refund me the money for one night. I decided to make most of what we had, and planned to go for a 12km run surrounded by the desert dunes at dawn. This was part of my preparation for the upcoming half-marathon run back in Mumbai. I was excited.

Watching the sunrise in Jaisalmer – Sublime moment

Alarm rang. I fumbled in the dark, dress up and stepped out of the tent fully awake with nervous energy of running in a strange place, and this was the great Thar Desert. My hands were freezing and the cold water in the bottle I was running with made it worse – this was peak winters, and the temp was around 5 degrees. It was still dark as I started out. A guy on a camel joined me matching my running speed and struck up a conversation. He was from a nearby village. As we were chatting his camel fell behind me while I continued to maintain my pace. He cursed the camel and caught up with me again. He told me that the camel was acting lazy because he wanted to eat the food that he was carrying with him, but he would only feed the camel when they reached the camp. The massive camel legs running right next to me were taller than my whole body, its gait had a strange rhythm to it and felt like as if an alien was running next to me. Soon the camel rider reached his camp and without any farewells he just turned away from the road and I was again alone on the road.

I passed the 5km mark in the run, and spotted a little arched structure half a km off the road in the sands. I ran towards it through the soft sand. The sun was about to burst out in the horizon. As I sipped my water catching my breath the orange ball emerged. I had goose bumps seeing natures amazing spectacle, the ball of fire that has baked this land for millions of years and which will nourish every living creature on earth this day. I watched it silently rise up as i  stood there in awe, in silence and alone, looking at it get brighter till I couldn’t look at its brilliance. I returned back to the camp as every one was waking up and the camp was coming to life.

We drove into the city in the morning. The fort in Jaisalmer was small. Our guide was one of the 5000 odd people who lived inside the fort. The fort is a private property. The guide was known to all the store owners inside clearly and seeing him the prices of everything went up. Everywhere we went they all had a small word exchange with him, though he was trying to keep a professional distance from all.

The guide told us that he was about to get married to a girl in Chennai. I wasn’t sure if this had to do with the poor sex ratio of Rajasthan that has made it tough for boys to find brides anymore locally. I asked him this but he denied it, and even claimed to have 6-7 girlfriends, including so many firangies who wanted to marry him but he wont agree. He said it with such conviction that I didn’t have the heart to challenge him. Meanwhile, The Bengali families had declared war on Rajasthan and their advanced forces were all over the fort. With their monkey caps and the heavy sweaters and loud chattering they lifted up the spirits of everyone wherever  they went.

The fort tour was over pretty quick. We wanted to go to a place called Trio but all the locals warned us that it was ‘100% non veg’, implying that even if they served Veg food, it would be tainted by evil spirits or something because Non-veg was cooked in the same kitchen. A local shopkeeper suggested that we could try a small lunch place which served home cooked meals and was only open for a few hours during lunch. The day was hot, and we walked there and find a small unassuming little place in a dirty lane. The food was delicious and simply cooked. We hogged, and soon a line formed outside this place. He has just 5 little tables to serve his guests, but people were willing to wait patiently.

Patton ki haveli – still preserves the spirit from the past

We were back at Sam sands and were shifted to a new tent which was much better. We were ready to go out for our package camel ride, as the sun was about to set. Crowd of a few thousand people has already gathered and occupied the tallest dune they could find. 

The colors in the sky were spectacular. It was well worth braving the crowds, the tourist grabbing locals, the persistent sellers of Kingfisher beer and wafers on the dunes. We returned to the camp to the same stale entertainment that we saw yesterday. The food was bad again. I was hoping for rest of our journey to be better than this, and tried to fall asleep to the sounds of music blaring from the neighbouring camps. We had dreamt of sleeping in the ‘Swiss’ tents under the stars on the great thar desert, but hadn’t planned for Gangham style to be the background music to it all.

(End of Part-1)

India needs more than just an Activist

Arvind Kejriwal has risen on the wave of urban discontent with the mismanagement of India by the politicians. The manifesto of AAP party is just an extension of his activist ideal – kill corruption. If he wins, what should we expect from him? Booking the tax evaders, mass trials, tougher penalties… all good I guess. Let’s say he even manages to get some of this mythical black money into the system. But what after that? He has never articulated any view on the Vision of India other than some sort of a Swaraj, which we already achieved a while back when British left India. We are just not willing to accept that this is the India we have created for ourselves and there is no one to point fingers to.

But the Activist variety needs someone to point a finger to. The most convenient target is the current decision maker or anyone in power. Mamata Banerjee is a prime example of an activist succeeding in overthrowing the corrupt and inefficient in power, but once in power she has no better alternative to offer. She instinctively still searches for someone to blame things on and direct her anger. The heights of absurdity is that even when she is the ruler herself, she still points the finger to the opposition, and then to the centre, then to the media, and then even to the people who put her there. She has become a caricature of the kind of politician that she probably wanted to fight against.

The other day I heard an activist talking on Radio about the affect of radiation from mobile towers. Her organisation had successfully lobbied with the government to get the permissible limits reduced to a tenth of the existing limits, and which were more in line with some of the international standards, though there are no uniform international standards on this. The polite RJ asked if they had any research to prove that mobile radiations were harmful and what should be the right level, the activist responded in a righteous tone that– we dont have specific evidence that radiation is harmful, but we also dont have evidence that it DOES NOT cause it. So lets not wait for evidence since that may be too late, and we should act NOW. Now this asinine logic could spell doom to the quality of mobile coverage and speed of access to the internet etc, but such irrationality can be a powerful tool for the emotional activist.

For the activist facts are confusing. Looking for them is a distraction and a threat to the cause itself. They want to hold onto the emotional chord and a simple narrative – whether it stands up to critical scrutiny or not. While Jan lokpal bill is based on a genuine concern for corruption, no one really knows how to execute such a bill across the length and breadth of India if it does become a reality. When the current Police, Judiciary and administration cant enforce the current laws, how can we expect an additional half-baked parallel system to do any better? If anything, this country needs lesser and simpler laws with a greater focus on better implementation. Need more Vinod Rai’s who work from within the current system itself and execute the existing laws better. But the activist wants change. Even though their concerns are sincere, they really dont have any further vision beyond achieving their primary objective.

AAP is riding the wave of growing urban discontent. Urban voters who were in a irrelevant to the political process of India till now, have  suddenly become relevant because of the amplifying power of the internet and social media which traditional media now picks on, and then spreads this discontent to the rest of the country affecting political fortunes. The savvy activist like Arivind Kejriwal have used all such media to devastating affect, and have ensured that the scream of  anguish gets amplified.

But AAPs agenda is fundamentally flawed. There is a much bigger issue than corruption that faces India – which is how to spend our money as a nation. We have started to drift down the wrong path by turning India into a charity state by committing spending on handouts like Food security bill, NAREGA, ballooning subsidies, and other populist schemes, even though  we dont know where this money is going to come from, and how will it be distributed to the right people. All these handouts are happening at the expense of infrastructure, education, Jobs, utilities, law and order etc, which would have helped people become self sufficient. India is setting itself up for failure because if the growth slips under 6.5%, we will go bankrupt as a country trying to merely fulfil these commitments. We need bold leadership that will set the right course that India needs at this stage of its development – to make it the breakout nation and avoid the fate of a middling economy.

If AAP wants to make a difference to India’s future, then it needs to throw off its activist mindset and set a broader agenda. Arvind Kejriwal needs to become a politician, more adapt at the art of compromise and of forming the right allies to make progress. He needs to manoeuvres through the democratic process and be willing to accommodate new perspectives which are essential in a diverse country like India. AAP needs to offer an inspiring vision of future that energises the nation. But till now Arvind Kejriwal and AAP have offered no such alternatives, and their politics is getting reduced to that of sensationalism, which India needs less of.