U&ME

Saturday, December 27, 2008

Maya-Birthday-Bash: How many deaths will it claim?

The reported death of a PWD executive engineer following beating and torture by a ruling BSP's MLA because the former couldn't collect 50 lakh rupees to be donated as birthday gift by the MLA to the party supremo Ms Mayawati, raises doubts on our claim that we are a robust democracy. An elected representative of the ruling party is accused of pulling out the engineer at late night hours, his accomplices push off the wife of the victim, give him electric shock and beat mercilessly, and , finally hand him, almost dead, over to police saying: 'put him behind bars.He is a goon'. The engineer is declared brought dead by the doctors and the police register case after strong demands for action against the MLA start pouring in from across the country.

We don't tire forecasting that we will be number one or two country in the world in the next few decades; Pakistan can't beat us because we are a well-functioning democracy and they a military dictatorship; we are very tolerant towards others, et al.

Are we going to be a strong nation by pushing our honest citizens and officials into submission and empowering those who are the killers of democracy?

The killing of an official because he is not succumbing to political pressures of demanding bribe and passing on part or whole of it to political bosses is not the killing of an individual. It is direct attack on the vitals of our democracy. It is more threatening than the Mumbai terror attacks. As the Mumbai attacks or the 26/11 are easy to identify, catalyze us all into acting against the evil of terrorism, helps us melt our petty differences for a national cause, and, gives us an opportunity to repair the gaping holes in our counter-terror machinery.

On the contrary, the engineer's killing has sent very strong signals to honest officials: honest you may be but you refuse to pay the BIRTHDAY TAX only at the cost of your life. If this can happen to an Executive Engineer, it can happen to you as well.

Now it is for the nation, for all of us, for every citizen of all castes, religions and colours, to decide: are we going to have a birthday party in a democracy that consumes not only money but also the lives of those who can't pay the money? Baba Saheb Ambedkar's soul must be turning in his grave as he would have refused to pen a constitution that would end up begetting a political party and rule that was anything but democratic and human.

When will we start refusing to do things that kill our basic rights: the most important of these being the right to life?

Friday, December 19, 2008

Why any terror attack mustn’t deter us from celebrating life as usual?

My friend Tabrez Ahmad was very happy that Muslim religious leaders had decreed to keep the Bakr-Id or Id-Ul- Joha festivities a low key affair. He was also happy that it was the best time for the Muslim community to express solidarity with their Hindu brethren. Apparently it sounds logical, even politically correct.

Now let’s look at a different scenario: the way terror attacks of one or the other kind are increasing in number and ferocity, a day may come when we have to go without celebrating a festival even during the whole year. Can there be a better gift to terrorists than this? Then, in the name of remaining politically correct, one community may find it difficult to celebrate a festival even it wishes. Also, others might start a business where you may go and celebrate a festival away from the glare of those who have been victims of terror attacks.

Finally, one community may trust or distrust the other communities based on the latter’s not celebrating or celebrating their festivals in the face of attacks on the former. Consequently, festivities will vanish from our life as no festivity without popular participation is of any social significance. Celebrating festivals can’t be a private affair. It is the social expression of happiness of a community against all odds.

Why is it that the best of songs are folk songs? They don’t come from the rich generally? The poor and the underdog celebrated life with whatever they had to make with. Even today’s quite a few Bollywood hits are inspired by the folksongs of yester years. In the face of chaos following political anarchy and onslaughts on personal and religious freedom during different patches of medieval history in various parts of India, we had saint poets like Kabir, Nanak, Meera Bai, Dadudayal, and Tulsi singing to the tune of life and bringing communities together. Tulsi doesn’t find it worth mentioning the attacks on temples in Banaras, Mathura & Ayodhya. He has Abdur Rahim Khan-e-Khana , one of the most powerful members in Akbar’s court, as his friend and yet refuses to accept royal patronage. Not to forget, to Tulsi, Rahim was a poet first, Royal Commander later.

Why can’t we do the same to the gems of every community, including our own, today even if we are not politically correct? Being politically correct during the Non-cooperation Movement during 1920s did pay to India and its supreme leader of the time, Mahatma Gandhi, in the short run. He had supported the Indian Muslims’ resistance to the abolition of Caliphate in Turkey by its popular leader Kamal Pasha to increase their participation in the freedom movement. It did happen but at what cost? The nation lost a great opportunity to integrate Muslims with the national cause on secular grounds.

The Mahatma, who sincerely believed in the purity of means to achieve his or societal ends, erred on this count. The result: partition of India in the face of widespread killings, rapes, loot and arson. This didn’t stop here. We saw further division in the subcontinent with the creation of Bangladesh in 1971. But this is only territorial. The division that permeates our hearts is more dangerous. Are we bold enough to accept it? Are we ready to let ourselves sign the papers authorizing social doctors to perform surgical operations of sorts on the cancerous cell called political correctness?

Can’t we quiz an average Muslim friend?

Why Akbar is low on your list of venerable leaders and Aurangzeb on the top? Why Sheikh Ahmad Sarhindi, who preached hatred against non-Muslims, was shown the door by Akbar? And, Sheikh Saifuddin who favoured any kind of punishment to non-Muslims and was also the grandson of Sarhindi, was venerated by Aurangzeb? Why could Dara-Shikoh, who represented the best of Kabir and the best of Akbar, not become a role model to Muslim intelligentsia even after more than 350 years of his execution at the hands of his younger brother Aurangzeb? Why even today Maulama Abul Kalam Azad remains least understood and appreciated by them? Why do the KHANs – Shahrukh, Amir, Salman—lord over the hearts of Indians most of whom are Hindus?

Can’t we quiz an average Hindu friend:
Why does your kitchen become polluted with the entry of a Muslim into it? Does your pronouncement of ‘the whole world is a family’ hold any water in reality? Why Raja Man Singh, whose sister was married to Akbar, is looked down upon by most Hindus? If Maharana Pratap is loved for his sacrifice and valour, why can’t Raja Man Singh’s efforts at cementing the gap between two communities be equally appreciated? Is it against DHARMA or DUTY to convert to another faith in the hope of getting at least the bare necessities of life? Why the practitioners of other faith give proof of patriotism every time there is a national crisis or a hotly contested cricked match between Pakistan & India?

Can’t we quiz ourselves:
Why do we hesitate in speaking against things we don’t like? Why do we not praise things we like? Why do we not accept that we get the leaders we deserve? When will we realize that no religious tenets of yester years will fully apply to the realities of modern life? Why do we accept the backbenchers to lead the society from the front?

Monday, December 15, 2008

Teachers as brand ambassadors of ideas

In media what is most valued and envied is the freshness of ideas. The ideas that can set you apart. The ideas that help you rake in moolahs. How? By way of high visibility on TV or in newspapers. And, the ideas that help you identify with a product such as Fair & Lovely cream or service such as Reliance Mobile. How does it happen? Is it God-gifted? Or you can do this practice? Do you see the influence of your early role models, quite likely teachers, in this?

My daughter had a miscarriage


I remember my Sanskrit teacher and warden Dr. B N Upadhyay stopping me outside his office to say: Jaante ho meri beti nichha gai hai. Oh! Kitna khoon or kitna dard ? (You know, my daughter had a miscarriage? How much bleeding and the consequent pain she might have had?). I stood speechless. As a 9th standard student, straight from village, I was hearing these words for the first time and trying to comprehend them. Though partially successful, I got the message that my teacher was very sad and something very bad had happened to his daughter.


A mundane mishap to an Indian woman communicated with extraordinary simplicity and
courage. The first thing that struck me was: can I share such things with Upadhyayjee? Will he not feel offended? The next moment I got the answer: I had not felt offended with what he had said, why should he? Don’t you recall the most popular of our times: AN IDEA CAN CHANGE YOUR LIFE?

You sahriday and he an actor


It was my first lesson in compassion, communication, empathy, and courage of thinking out-of-box. Why so? Because you feel as if you are one with the speaker (here, the teacher), like a sahridaya of Bharat Muni’s famous treatise Natyashashtra.

Who is a sahridaya? The one who is in communion with the communicator, in Bharat Muni’s case an actor, male or female. How does it so happen that the communicator and the communicated are on the similar wavelength? Bharat Muni has the answer: the actor through his expertise, dedication to the art of acting, and empathy is able to create the same picture of a situation in the sahriday’s mind (here a member of the audience) as his. This process is called sadharnikaran. Simply put, it means simplification of a complex situation in terms of articulation or putting it across to others.

Sharing is strength, not a weakness

Why this analogy? My teacher told me so many things in a few words: sharing of one’s agony is strength, not a weakness. Done in simple words and with honesty, it arouses empathy. No incident or fact of life is without a simple way of its expression. And, most of all, as a teacher you need to go to the level of the taught to strike a chord with him.

And, all this happens through the act of communication. After all, what does an ideal teacher do all his life? He spells complex things to his taught. These things may be old, evolving or absolutely new. But, the process of communication is always fresh because no two situations or two people are in the same mental state at two different points of time. The newness of situation gives birth to new ways of saying or looking at the same thing. Put differently, the teacher who embodies courage to say and listen to even the mundane things with extraordinary simplicity and empathy, becomes a harbinger of new ideas. He does it because of his faith in the creed that says ‘ let thousand flowers bloom’.

A good teacher and unprepared

The second lesson came in college, seven years later when my development economics teacher Dr. Hari Om Verma, a Ph.D. from Delhi School of Economics, had this to say immediately after entering the classroom: I couldn’t prepare for the class last night. Please point out if I am inconsistent or off the topic. Was it crisis management? Was it an exercise in confidence building aimed at his students? Or creative response to a harsh reality, i.e., he had not got time to prepare for the lecture?

Irrespective of the reasons, it was a very powerful way of telling or communicating a situation. What is so great about it? The ‘idea’ that accepting a mistake can be more inspiring that covering it up. The ‘idea’ that not only good students but even good teachers can be unprepared for the class?

Loloo Prasad at his best

Those who watched the debate preceding the Trust Vote in the Indian Parliament for the Congress-led government at the Centre on July 22nd 2008, may recall the response of the Railways Minister Laloo Prasad to the opposition’s attempts to shout him down. He said: …sab koi PM ban-na chahta hai. … mai bhi ban-na chahta hoon… mujhe koi jaldi nahin hai… harbari ke biaah mein kanpati par sindur…(… everybody wants to become a PM… even I do… but I am in no hurry…lest I look like a groom who instead of putting sindur on the middle of his bride’s forehead did it on her temple…)
Is not Laloo Prasad darling of media? Is he not a teacher to millions of people, mostly villagers, who say most of the complex things in their own rustic ways? Is he a lesser brand ambassador of ideas for the people who say less of KAGAD LEKHI (bookish knowledge) and more of ANKHIN DEKHI (experiential knowledge)?

Classroom without borders: Dancing to the tune of fun and learning

Who doesn’t want a break from the mundane and monotonous activities of life? This helps you recharge your batteries for taking up professional and personal challenges with renewed vigour. It is this in view that the department of Journalism and Mass Communication (JMC) organized an educational-cum-recreational trip to Chail-Kufri-Shima-Chandigarh for all its students, faculty and staff from November 13, 2008 to November 17, 2008.

From pony ride to getting snaps with live python held around the neck (with its mouth tied), from waist-breaking, at times floor-breaking, dance to being at their creative best in doing mishchiefs, delaying the bus while trying to have the best make-up, inventing dozens of ways of preferring junk food over the normal, writing excellent poems and stories to plagiarizing, hiding in the vast expanse of the Chandigarh Rock Gardens to getting a chance to touch and get touched on the merry-go-rounds, keeping awake through the night to interviewing those who ( the poor fellows!) had gone into deep slumber---- they had it all.

For the accompanying teachers it was a cocktail of nightmare and fun. Nightmare because they had to deal with a classroom beyond the precincts of the campus, out in the hills and mountains under the sky, in the sun, and the shivering cold. No rules in operation. In fact, the only rule was “no classroom tactics, please!” Yes, it was a fun learning with students telling you how best to teach, communicate, love, be loved, enjoy, fight without ill will, and what have you!

But the best was yet to come. Lo it did! It was at the Indian Institute of Advanced Studies, Shimla that each one of the group whispered: Wow! what a grand building with equally grand academic achievements and majestic surroundings! Yes, earlier this building housed the India’s President’s entourage during his summer visits. It was here that the group saw the photographs of the meetings that changed the course of Indian history forever: what’s and how’s of dividing India into India and Pakistan.

The return journey to Delhi witnessed a night out at a roadside restaurant-cum-dhaba till 2 am. Everybody dancing to the tune of her inner music that also had supporting casts from shops nearby.

From the very next day, it would be classes and writing for the travel newsletter based on the trip. For another three weeks or so, the faculty and students were in for another trip to Chail-Kufri-Shimla-Chandigarh. But this time, it was down the memory lane. Amen.

India: A Country or a Continent?

India: A Country or a Continent?

A country is generally defined by the presence of homogenous elements like region, culture, religion, ethnicities etc. On the other hand, a continent is marked by vast size, diversities of all kinds such as regional, cultural, ethnic, religious.

India competes both as a country and as a continent. Country because of broad cultural unity and regional continuity; and, continent because of diversity of various types- cultural, regional, religious, ethnic, and economic.

There is hardly a major religion that is without its followers in India, with three religions that have their birthplace in India: Buddhism, Jainism, Sikhism. This is in addition to Hinduism that is technically not a religion because of absence of a Holy Book or Prophet. However, it has almost 80 per cent of the population as its followers. Hinduism is defined as a way of life marked by a set of duties (dharma) that every faithful has to fulfill towards his family, fellowmen, society and the world. Add to this, that India is home to about a dozen races from around the world such as Dravidians, Negros, Aryans, Huns, Sakas, Abhirs, Austric, Mogoloid, Turks, and Pathans.

It may be surprising to note here that possibly before Europe had its first Christian, India already had in 56 AD with the arrival of St. Thomas on its western coast. Similarly, much before India came under Muslim rule in the 13th century, Islam had reached the western coast of Malabar in 7th century with the Arab traders. The Persians took refuse here to protect their life and faith from the Arabian invaders in the 7th century.

India of today has more than 50,000 registered newspapers in than 18 standard languages most of which are descendents of the Indo-European family of which Finnish is also a member along with Greek, modern European and north Indian languages. Add to this about 4,000 dialects spoken by 1.3 billion people divided into 7,000 castes/sub-castes that represent a system of social hierarchy unique to India in particular, and Pakistan & Bangladesh ( erstwhile parts of the undivided India till July 1947), in general. It was the time when India was bordered by the Middle-East on its western and South-East Asia on the eastern borders. On the north, it boasts of The Great Himalays and the Indian Ocean and the Arabian Sea surrounding the Indian peninsula on three sides. Interestingly, it is the only nation after which an ocean, i.e., Indian Ocean, is named because of its strategic location for international trade for over two thousand years. No wonder, all the European Imperial powers vied with each other to colonize India to gain control over the International trade.

Keeping all this in mind, India presents a picture of stark contrasts in every domain of life: with the size of its middle class population equal to that of the US population, India has the maximum number of people below the poverty line in the world; with the third largest pool of technical and skilled man power, it has the highest number of illiterates in the world; with the record of almost never invading a country and having the most inclusive Dharma, the country has witnessed a large of killings in the name of religion, ethnicity, regional identity, etc.; of 34 states and UT’s, the undivided state of UP ranked 8th in population ( or size?) in the UN list and , the population of some of the metros such as Delhi & Mumbai are equal to that of some nations like Australia & New Zealand; with NRIs spread all over the world, there is hardly a major country without them in the decision-making capacity—from President, Prime Minister to Corporator in local bodies, India also has the highest number of people( more than 100 million) suffering from one or the other kind of disability.

To cap it all, most of the problems that we see today have their origin traceable to the British rule. Except for the reign of Aurangzeb, all the Mughal rulers were liberal towards other faiths. In fact, the majority of Hindus had accepted the descendents of invading Muslims as part of their life and so did the latter. This is evident from the fact that a good number of Bhakti Movement leaders came from the Muslim community: Kabir, Jayasi, Raskhan, Taj. The origin of the modern Hindi is traced to Amir Khusro, a saint poet during medieval period.

The challenge before India is to develop tools of solving its current problems that are unique to its history, size, population, diversities and economic circumstances. The Indian elite till recently had been glossing this over. Over the last decade or so, India has
opened its economy to embrace liberalization and globalization and has benefited from it by way of InfoTech business and back office support operations by way of BPOs. It has also reaped the benefits of not being fully integrated with the global financial system, as is apparent from the limited effects of the economic depression that is engulfing the developed world. This proves beyond doubt that other models can just supplement the Indian model of development, not supplant it. Fore example, the models in currency in the USA, China, Singapore or Russia can just be instructive, not prescriptive for India.

On the political front, India can safely be said to be largest functioning democracy with all its limitations of caste and regional disparities. Almost all its neighbours and many other Asian and African countries that gained independence from the foreign rule about the same time as India, have had one or the other kind of dictatorship during the last six decades.

The Indian genius is at its best in acquiring and imparting education on the one hand, and, steering clear of myriad social and cultural problems on the other. Acceptance of others as one of them is in their DNA if the dominant pattern of inclusive thinking is not challenged. This has worked like a vitamin in the education sector as well. Here the students with arts background have excelled in IT.

The other important factor is absence of adequate opportunities in the public institutions. There the competition being tough, many able and desirous students can’t get admissions. It is here that the private universities have to play a very important role. In the recent years the number of universities in the private sector has shot up. This has reduced the burden of the public sector institutions in a big way. Here the major challenge is to balance the private profit with public interest without compromising on quality parameters. Indian business culture, particularly in education, is yet to pick up the best practices. It may be hoped that pressures of liberalization and globalization will act like correcting agents in this field as well.

However, what is to be kept in mind is that India’s opportunities and problems both are continental in nature because of its size (geography& population, ) , location, links with the rest of the world for over 25 hundred years, presence of PIOs & NRIs in over 80 countries, diversities of all kinds; and a very amenable and intelligent working force. But this is not enough. The Indian character of inclusiveness and the spirit of rising above the things that are only material pervade every aspect of its life. (Inspired by a talk with Col.(R) V K Gaur, Executive Director, MREI)