Dump the crazy Indian Fan

Picture courtesy: http://www.melvindurai.com/images/Cricket.jpg

Sport is a very complex animal; it arouses extreme emotions/passions among people which when uncontrolled, can be difficult to handle. Who better than the Indian cricket team can confirm the extent to which this works? From being world beaters and tigers to paper tigers happens all so fast that it requires a realty good psychologist to convince our cricketers to stay cool without worrying too much.

What do we (in India ) do if we win tournaments- we build temples, worship our heroes and when we lose, we demolish houses, burn effigies, stage protests and do what not. Theoretically, all sport is supposed to create a sense of cameraderie among people who play and cherish the higher values of the game but modern sport has consigned all such thoughts to the dustbin. The only thing that matters is winning and we celebrate the victor, irrespective of the means involved.

India lost to Bangladesh fair and square and there’s no doubt who was the better team on that particular day. But do we actually love the game or it’s just India winning that matters? Our love for the game is so much that Ranji trophy and other domestic matches are played amidst empty stands without any involvement by the fans. Cricket has evolved from a sport to a form of entertainment where 22 persons sweat it out and the rest of the world watches. But modern cricket (from an Indian fan’s perspective) has very less to do with cricketing ability; it’s only about winning.

Despite the presence of a few superstars, the Indian cricket team cannot claim to be at the top of the cricketing pyramid but that does not stop the media and the public from looking at us as world beaters. Every tournament is an acid test and as we go through the familiar grind of “snatching a loss from the jaws of victory”, there are thousands of experts who analyze and explain what went wrong and what should have been done. We may not be as bad as the ICC one day rankings show us to be (No. 6) but I really can’t look at India as among the better teams in the tournament. But what the heck? After all the SWOT analysis done, we expect the team to pull off a victory because we want to feel good about ourselves, we want to stand up and tell the world that we are also somebody and the mantle firm rests on the shoulders of Dravid and Co. to perform this miracle.

As a nation, why are we obsessed with this game so much? Despite our eminent economic progress in the world especially in the recent past, we are still looking for a symbol that portrays our growth. Cricket plays that role and considering our rather dismal standing in other sports, there’s no competition from any other discipline by miles. The 2 C’s – cricket and cinema – are two larger than life obsessions that the Indian public cherishes. But cricket merely as a game is losing its appeal, therefore, the need to reinvent it as an entertainment jamboree. Sony is playing this role currently by broadcasting the Caribbean tamasha – incidentally also covering the matches – using the poor Charu Sharma and ‘Noodle’ Mandira as the front end for this. Never mind that there are thousands of us (millions may not want to) who are waiting to press the mute button or change the channel the moment the focus shifts to the two of them.

But even then, the obsession is not with the game despite whatever the media may want us to believe. How can we justify the vandalisation of Kaif’s and Dhoni’s house? If you call that love for the game, then you don’t understand what love is. Cricket has become another tool of nationalism and so if 12 guys come back with a trophy, billions of us go to sleep forgetting all our work because all we care for is that we have won. Where is the fun left in the sport then? I admire Sachin not merely for the thousands of runs he has scored but for his ability to handle the stress of millions of ‘fans’ who do not understand the meaning of silly terms like ‘sport’ and ‘fun‘.

India bowing out of the World Cup is now surely a catastrophe. Just think of the money that is at stake – sources say it’s close to Rs 4000 crore. The West Indies Cricket Board, Sony and advertisers all wait in abated breadth for India to beat Sri Lanka . Not to forget the grotesque world of punters, underworld bookies and nationalist fans all out there hoping for an Indian victory. Was Woolmer a victim of the betting and underworld syndicate? We do not know but we have allowed the cricketing world to become another Greek arena where gladiators need to perform or perish. Just imagine the pressure that the Indian team faces with all these thoughts being drilled into them incessantly by a media, that is constantly waiting to fill the cauldron of expectations with generous dollops of hysteria.

A friendly opinion raised suggested that all good things come in packages and that even though their houses may have been vandalized; they still make a lot of money doing nothing. They get fabulous flats from the Sahara folks, play less and spend most of their time modeling. If only they practiced more, they can surely do better. So, what is the mindless Indian cricket fan? An administrator of justice or a crusader of socialism, who decides what each person deserves to be paid? I know it hurts to see the Coke ad depicting the team as tigers, especially after we crumble to Bangladesh but can we hold their income against them? Do we grudge these players their earnings and feel that they need be treated as human beings? Incidentally, the advertising income made by the players is also based on performance and it does not come cheap with zero performance.

Another opinion hinted at greater accountability saying that the taxpayer’s money is being wasted by the team. Excuse me; the BCCI is not a government body or a limited company that is surviving on public funds. It is a legitimate private entity that raises its own money and the public has no role in it. Yes, the team represents the nation and there needs an accountability. It calls for public outrage when sports betting and match fixing takes over the game but using vandalisation as a tool when the performance or efficiency goes down is really a way over the top attitude.

We want our team to be tough, fight it out and be positive but are we any better? Sitting as couch potatoes in front of TV sets, decorating oneself in blue flannels and war paint is our contribution to the game. Every time there is a discussion, standard sarcastic remarks are made but never anything positive. Difficult to expect the team to be positive without us changing our general outlook.

What would happen if India continues to win this way? Nothing, the expectations continue to spiral and the game becomes no longer something that can be enjoyed by purists like me. I know we live in a very cynical world and all thoughts of treating sports as a form of fun is purely utopian but I’d still like to imagine that we can enjoy it that way in a more unadulterated fashion. Even at the risk of using a cliche, I agree with George Orwell when he says that all sport is “..war minus shooting”.

Just as I’m about to finish this post, I come to know that we have lost to the Lankans and are almost out of the tournament. Welcome to Round 2 of chest beating and team bashing!!! Come back with the trophy or stay in Caribbean , says a poster. Poor Chappell and Dravid would be scared of the prospect of returning to India . This would, effectively, close the Chappell’s stint at the helm of affairs while we may as well be seeing the last World Cup performances of the Holy Indian trio of Sachin, Saurav and Rahul and our old warhouse Kumble. They would have wanted to exit the stage in style but then the world can be a great leveller at times.

Anyway, I am putting my money on New Zealand to lift the trophy - the world needs a new winner...

This article was written just before the India - SL decider match in the World Cup.

Malaysia Diary - Part2

Finally, after 3 weeks of arriving here, I begin to live my karma of being a tourist. It would be blasphemous for a tourist in Kuala Lumpur to return without seeing the Twin Towers of Petronas. And so, I step out in the direction of Petronas, a 10 minute drive from my place to KLCC (Kuala Lumpur City Centre) with expectations of standing on the largest monuments in the world. Limited tickets are available to view the tower but they are free. So, we arrive at KLCC at about 10 in the morning and are issued tickets for a 2:30 noon viewing of the monument. To kill time, we end up watching The Pursuit of Happyness, a feel-good but genuinely warm Will Smith movie, in of the theatres inside the mall.

Eventually, it’s time to go and we are ready to check in. There’s a brief five minute video presentation on the Petronas, extolling its virtues after which our guide shows us to a lift, post-security checks. We arrive at the 41st floor in less than a second per floor (the elevator moves at 5 m/s) and find ourselves at the sky bridge which connects the Twin Towers. It gives a breathtaking view of the city (just like every other tall monument) and there, unfortunately ends the spectacle. We have ten minutes to ourselves as we spend time busily snapping photos from the place – a 50 m long bridge stretch, which connects the two towers. Above the 41st floors are offices of Petronas where we are not allowed which makes the entire thing so ridiculous. Imagine waiting for such a long time to go to the Petronas and all you get is a 10 min stint at the 41st floor (the Tower has 88 floors). Surely, they could have done much better than merely creating all this hype but no action!!!

Another tourist place which is well-known is the Genting Highlands which houses a set of Theme parks, almost a Malaysian equivalent of the Sentosa in Singapore. It’s a 45 minute drive from Kuala Lumpur city and you can get a bus or a taxi (“texi” in Malay) to the place. There are three bus terminals I know of where you can get the bus – KLCC, Hotel Puduraya or Pasar Rakyat. We take the Go Genting Travels, from the last mentioned place, because it comes as a packaged tour of 39 RM per person, including the bus ride, cable car travel and all outdoor entertainment facilities. The bus leaves every one hour and we hop onto the 10:30 AM bus which covers sufficient ground and reaches the place at about 11:15. From here, there’s a cable car ride to the Genting Theme Park, located high above. This is a long 20 minute ride (about 3.5 km) and gives a scenic, lush picturesque view of the rainforest below.

The Genting theme park has outdoor as well as indoor entertainment facilities. The Outdoor facility comprises a standard set of roller coasters and rides which is no longer a novelty for any of us. But there are two rides which you need to try for sure – the Space Shot and the Flying Coaster. The Space Shot consists of a set of hydraulically operated seats (12 at a time) which takes you to a height of more than 50 m and then they just drop you. It’s a free fall and you hurtle down the entire distance in less than 5 sec and by Jove, it’s an eerie feeling because as you fall, you realize that you are no longer sitting but levitating and falling rapidly. Too awesome a feeling for me to communicate but it’s worth all our gasping and screeching.

The Flying Coaster is not recommended for people with a weak heart as it has an amazing set of twists, turns and swoops, all meant to shake you. Unlike the other rides, you lie down here instead of sitting and the twirling starts. Not only does the roller coaster move but it also rotates 360 degrees on a couple of occasions as you wonder what’s going on, till you are finally delivered back to earth. This signature attraction of the Park is not part of the package and you have to pay 10 RM for it (2 rides) and we experience the coaster twice, one immediate after the other. It also goes without saying that none of these rides are to be tried out in a full stomach, otherwise…

The Indoor facilities are more for kids and do not hold too much of an interest, except for the casino. Having lost money previously in one of my attempts at learning Roulette in a Goa casino, I am not keen on investing money in this venture. But I still find it interesting to see hundreds of people sweating it with tensed faces playing in the slot machines, roulette, tai sai, three pictures, baccarat and a few other casino games- all an example of how people desperately want that shortcut to making a fast buck. The gambling and porno industry remain two industries immune to global industrial cycles and sustain themselves purely on human avarice and lust and what better place to house such a money-spinning venture than a tourist resort like this.

There’s also 4D motion picture, about 5 minute long that costs 8 RM. But trust me, this is worth a clear miss and it’s a total waste, especially if you have experienced this earlier in Sentosa. It can be a scary thing, especially when you feel crabs and insects feeling about you and attacking you in the dark. India does not have a 4D theatre, I think, but if you want to experience it, my advice is to give the Genting one a miss and try out it in Sentosa. This is a pathetic half-3D/half-4D meaningless movie and to think, you need to shell out 8 RM for this!!!

The packaged tour also includes the return trip back to Pasar Rakyat and so, finally, we leave the place by the 8:30 bus. It is a nice experience but you realise that you have'nt experienced anything new and that India's amusement parks do a fairly good job but maybe, we have not marketed it enough. Anyway,one long, tired day comes to an end....

There are a few other places on the standard tourism map which are to be covered but I’m not able to do so because of lack of time. Tourists can check out Malacca and Langkawi – both places known for their beaches. These places can be reached in less than 3 hours from the city and are worth venturing (as per feedback received). Batuk Caves is another known spot known for its Hindu temples and has a special religious significance.

By the end of next week, I’ll be back in India, just in time to catch the World Cup…Time to bid adieu to Malaysia then unless I come back....

Malaysia Diary: Part 1

As it happens in life, we plan something and it takes another turn. So, all of a sudden I find myself boarding a Malaysia Air flight to Kuala Lumpur (as usual at an odd hour). My blog writings have taken a beating and I’m searching for time to do my daily jobs, just because my company thinks that I can be of some utility in some alien country, without enough knowledge. To give that feel good factor, we are housed in a comfortable service apartment, from where we can see Petronas Towers.



(A view from my room)

My first impression of the city is fuelled by the cab drivers here. Tourists be warned that very few taxi drivers believe in using a meter and most of them ask for any rate that they want. That gives it a very Indian feel – I know that’s a very generic statement, after all, some places in India do not follow a meter while many do. As a company representative, this is not too much of an issue as I get my taxi bills reimbursed but as a tourist, that may be a cause of concern. You can try out the bus or rail services but without local knowledge, it may not be that easy.

Be careful while crossing roads here – the drivers seem to have a foot constantly on the accelerator here. Statistics on traffic accidents show alarming figures and the Govt. is looking at means to curb this, including launching an operation called Ops Sikap, to ensure safety on all roads in Malaysia during festive seasons. But the death rate in traffic is still a healthy 15 everyday.

Another crisis I have in life is in terms of food. I am served non-vegetarian food twice and return it twice mid-way in the meal. Now, why would egg fried rice contain chicken? Beats me, but the waiter informs me that egg biryani contains small chicken pieces while chicken biryani contains big pieces and asks me whether I am a vegetarian or a pure vegetarian? Egg consumption makes me an impure vegetarian, I guess. After reading Jabberwock’s tirade against food fundamentalism, I decide to experiment with food, albeit in a vegetarian way. So, in the previous week, I try out spicy Thai Green Curry and then Lebanese vegetarian fried rice (not exactly quintessential country food but then sometimes, vegetarians do have to pay a price).

Next on the anvil are German and Brazilian restaurants to ensure a global feel. Nevertheless, I must confess that the life of a veggie is not very cosy outside India. I feel an outcaste at dinners but I’d like to recommend a small Tamil hotel named Printha near Raja Chulhan Road (next to Maybank’s corporate office) for authentic home made South Indian food. It’s a daily banana leaf unlimited vegetarian meal for me at RM 4 (non-veg is also served there).

I land in Kuala Lumpur on an on-entry visa, which means you get the visa once you reach Malaysia but you need to show them your return ticket, otherwise, it’s no entry. I make a friendly personal trip to Singapore last week in a bus from here by bus. You can travel by bus or train but bus reaches faster and it is quite comfortable. It costs me RM 35 (about Rs 450) for a 5 hour trip from Kuala Lumpur to Singapore and it is a beautiful lush green sight. You need a Singapore visa before hand to reach there which can be arranged in 3 days time here by travel agencies.

I have a valid existing visa and land there but do not reckon for what would happen while returning. There is no bus or train that processes an on-entry visa to Malaysia from there and I am forced to return via a Singapore Airline flight which costs about Rs 5000 – 6000, though budget airlines like Tiger Airways and Air Asia may provide services at lower rates. There’s one way ofcourse, if you can reach a place called Tuas and cross the border and secure the visa. But I’m no adventure freak and without knowing the country, I’m no mood to experiment with international boundaries, so I stick to the safe option of an airline.

Last week was the Chinese New Year. A really wrong time to be here, I must say. Almost all establishments are closed making life difficult during holidays. You’d think that such celebrations will bring in more shoppers but the logic is turned on the head here. Singapore takes a step further by closing down even restaurants, so please ensure that you do not find yourself in these parts of the world during the Chinese New Year, unless you have a well-stocked up kitchen. Of course, there’s one more way, find your steps to Little India and you will be spared the agony of being a hungry tourist in an alien place. Our service apartment arranges a show of the traditional Lion Dance for us, where a group of persons dressed as lions move across poles, erected for the purpose. We also get an orange each – a token gift during Chinese New Year.

Malaysia, a nation of about 25 million people, will celebrate its 50th anniversary since independence this year. The state religion is Islam (60% of the population) and it has three distinct ethnic groups comprising the Indian, Chinese and Malay population. Religious conversion and intolerance are issues here that many do not want to talk about and the Prime Minister has asked people not to discuss sensitive religious issues in public. There has been a lot of debate in recent times over a case in which a Muslim woman converted to Christianity but the state has refused to accept the conversion. This kind of religious intolerance is nothing unique to the world it seems and is not a problem in any one particular geographical setup. I guess some things never change wherever you go, the only that changes is the extent to which the feelings persist.

It’s almost 3 weeks now and I still haven’t ventured beyond Kuala Lumpur because of my work. Need to visit a couple of places at least and behave like a good tourist and make up for last time. So, maybe the next article will focus on any travel spots that I manage to visit.

Parzania: A Cry in Anguish

There are movies and then there are movies. Some of them make you laugh and enjoy while some others, like Parzania, make you cry(Yes, I did feel my tears), think and wonder where we are all going. In the midst of several dumb movies which are regularly screened, here comes a movie like “Parzania” which forces you to think and think really hard. Have we forgotten or buried our past sins amidst the euphoria of “Shining India”? The crown that Modi wears on his head may shine but let’s not forget his avatar of the mad emperor Nero who fiddled when Rome was burning. The sins of such people cannot be washed off that easily by media stories of prosperity.

The movie tells the story of a middle class Parsi family in Ahmedabad. Cyrus (Naseeruddin Shah) is a film projectionist married to Shehnaz(Sarika),a homemaker, with two lovely little kids – Parzan (Parzan Dastur) and Dilshad (Pearl Barsiwala). It’s a happy, simple family staying in a harmonious colony called “The Mansion”. There are a few scenes shown to convey the general goodwill among the people in the neighbourhood and the feel good factor in Cyrus’ family, without getting too kitschy (too many directors try to put in an overdose of goody-goody scenes and overdo the impact). ‘Parzania’ refers to a place in little Parzan’s fertile mind where entire streets are lined by chocolate and the only requirement to be a part of the country is love for cricket.

There is also a disillusioned American, Allan Webbings (Corin Nemec), who comes to Gujarat to do his thesis on Gandhi and becomes a good friend of Cyrus and Co. He has a tragic past and is probably looking for an answer to his questions in life. Not a very-well etched character, perhaps, but trust me, I could relate to him – some of us who suffer from some kind of delusional philosophy and become rebels without a cause. There’s also a Gandhi-like character who preaches philosophy, who does seem a bit odd in the entire drama (cashing on gandhigiri???).

The peace and tranquility of “The Mansion” is disturbed by the riots sparked of in the aftermath of the Godhra train fire in which more than 100 Hindu pilgrims were burnt alive. The director, however, takes pains, to dispel the notion of this being a spontaneous outburst against the Muslim community and gives reasons to drive home the fact – the census taken by the Parishad (loosely based on the VHP), the presence of flags in non-Hindu family flags and a few other examples. As the town gets hurtled into chaos, Parzad gets lost in the confusion while Shehnaz manages to save Dilshad from the clutches of the rioters. They manage to take shelter at Allan’s place and the rest of the movie centers around their attempts at tracing Parzan.

Performance-wise, it’s brilliant. The children are really endearing and their innocence and inability to understand the situation tugs at our hearts. The scenes when the little girl is scared of letting her mom go in search of Parzan as she’s scared of losing her mother and her 13 day long wait for her brother as she checks out the calendar each day is very touching. It’s pointless talking about Naseer’s performance; it’s worth mentioning only if he were not to perform. But I’d like to single out the scene, where he sits in the theatre and finally accepts the fact that his son may not return, as a lesson in playing emotions without overdoing it (something I wish Kamal Hasan would do). Sarika is indeed a revelation; from her sultry siren days to a mother who carries the grief of losing her child makes you wonder where she’s been all these days. She grows in character throughout the film until it reaches a crescendo in the final scenes at the trial when she gives vent to her feelings and anguish at the uselessness of the entire thing.

The director uses Allen as a device to express his angst in words that you cannot get a Hindu or a Muslim character to speak – it would just be too blasphemous. As a confused American who is out in search of the Gandhi, he is a perfect fit though some of his rantings are probably way off the top (calling the Parishad an equivalent to the Ku Klux Klan) but then maybe that’s how the West perceives us. A third-party Western judgmental perspective is what he brings to the movie which may of course, carry with it its own set of prejudices which we need to live with it.

There are moments you really enjoy like when Parzan imagines himself as the captain of the Indian cricket team scoring the winning runs against Pakistan just before the carnage begins (clearly a deliberate attempt by the director to drive home the futility of viewing an Indo-Pak cricket match as a Hindu-Muslim conflict). The scene where Cyrus struggles to explain Allan what a Parsi is and how they are part of the Indian population brings a smile to one's face (but eventually it really does not matter to the rioters who the victims are as long as they are non-Hindus). The burnt down hoardings of K3G- a smiling portrait of the entire family- in the aftermath of the riots conveys a sense of sadness as Cyrus wanders around searching for his son. Though many reviewers believe that using English as a language was a good thing, I’m not too sure why it could not have been replaced by Hindi, at least in many of the places.

The movie is very powerful and conveys emotions without resorting to melodrama which is quite a temptation for most filmmakers. There are terrible scenes of a pregnant woman being set on fire and references to the hacking off of a lady’s private parts, which makes it very repulsive. But I assume the idea was to give it that raw feel – a feel that hurts us when we realize that crimes are not merely stories we read in fine print but actually happen. The film maker has given us a one-sided view which many viewers are bound to find fault with but story narration is about bringing in a perspective and not always about balancing a movie to make all sections happy (the way Mani Ratnam went in Bombay) and so, while it may be politically incorrect at places, it’s fine. Of course, you could find fault with the characterization of Raj Zutshi who plays a Muslim who gets reformed at the end, which does seem contrived, clearly driving home where the director’s sympathies lie.

You always hope for a happy ending but then maybe the impact is felt much more when the movie does not provide that happiness – it then, forces you to dig deep inside and feel the pain, which may have been lost by our relief in witnessing a happy family reunion. The film ends powerfully with the trial scenes in front of the Human Rights Commission and Sarika's anguished outpouring. What I also appreciate in the movie is that the director understands that though religion is the primary cause of the entire conflict, it is also the most important binder that we have, which can help us to forgive and forget. Cyrus’s 13-day self-purification process is partly a tribute to that.

It’s unfortunate that this movie did not have distributors and no one had seen this movie for a long time till Rahul decided to distribute the movie himself, even for free in some places. It has finally, hit the screens, but has not yet been viewed in Gujarat, where it should have been shown the first time. Such are the tragedies of Indian democracy which has its fair share of troubles in the form of leaders like Modi and Thackeray –who may bring in economic freedom but do not understand what political freedom and human rights is all about.

The solution is not shunning the past but learning from our past mistakes and for that its important, that we face our shortcomings. We have not yet created a social environment where we can be so openly and fearlessly critical of ourselves and that is part of our real challenge as we strive to build a truly democratic polity with a secular (not irreligious) fabric. Wish the government declares it a tax-free movie and ensure a greater screening of such movies.

At a personal level, Gujarat and Modi made me lose my faith in the right and so, here I am, now a centrist with neither rightist nor leftist leanings………

Verdict: A compulsory watch…Highly recommended...

The Indian School of Discrimination

The Ash-Abhi wedding was supposed to be the biggest media story this fortnight but the dynamic duo of Jade Goody and Shilpa Shetty decided to take the top spot sweeping this hot news from all the channels. Everywhere, you had stories of the British model of racism and the suffering of Shilpa in the hands of a bully Reality TV contestant, Goody, and suddenly UK and India were locked in the biggest diplomatic row between the two countries in recent times.

Enough has been said of the so-called racist attack by Goody and her gang against Shilpa and I’m not going to get into the nuances of the attack involved. Clearly, there were racist remarks involved and Ms. Goody (no longer a Goody, I guess) has been thrown out of Big Brother while the media and the governments on both sides have denounced the racist behaviour in strong terms. There has been a lot of commotion involved with the matter being raised in the British Parliament and widely debated in the media in both countries.

While it’s fine for the ordinary Indian out there to feel outraged, why is the Government dirtying its feet in the entire affair by getting involved unnecessarily? Is the issue so important that it has to issue statements and ask Mr Gordon Brown for an explanation? The British PM-in-waiting, Gordon Brown, in India on a trip, expressed his regrets at the turn of events and stated that such behaviour damages the British image. Our honourable MoS of External Affairs, Anand Sharma, said that “The government will take appropriate measures once it gets to know the full details” while the FM added, for good measure, that the controversy will not affect Anglo-Indian relations. Thank God, we want Arun Sarin and Tesco to invest here, don’t we??

Ms Shilpa, “an award winning Bollywood actress” (as BBC referred to her) is not in “Big Brother” to represent India. She’s being paid about Rs 3.2 crore to be a participant in “Big Brother” – a huge amount for an Indian actress. Like every other Reality TV show, this is another obnoxious show where people live together and fight to vote out each other periodically from the show. Shilpa is very much aware of the rules of the game and should expect such jibes which are more in tune with the kind of programme it is. Getting ragged and then raising the bogey of racism may not look like the smartest thing to do but then, who’s benefited the most??? Shilpa and the programme “Big Brother” of course.

The “Big Brother” acknowledged by a Channel 4 executive as “the most boring BB that we have had in years” was on the verge of being axed and all this publicity has given it a new lease of life. Last heard, Shilpa is being flooded with foreign offers, a move that may revive her career which is currently going nowhere. Now, who can say for sure that his entire conundrum was not the creation of some smart spin doctor who used “racism” as a strategy to boost the TRPs of the programme?

Jade Goody (Wikepedia lists her profession as Reality TV contestant) is of course no do gooder. She has been rightly condemned for her racist behaviour and booted out of the programme. The fact that more than 10,000 complaints were received by Channel 4 expressing the dissatisfaction by the majority against her behaviour probably is a sign of the racist slur actually existing in UK.

Many people have used this controversy to raise their voice against the discrimination they have been facing and the presence of a celebrity like her and the extensive media coverage has only helped them in underscoring their feelings which has been badly shaken, more so in the post-9/11 era.

It is also time for us to look inwards and ask whether our attitudes are any different from the West. Ask the Muslim, who has lost his family and home in the Gujarat riots, how it feels to live under Modi’s rule of law? Ask non-Hindu families how easy it is to get a proper accommodation in “forward looking cosmopolitan” Mumbai? Why do we have villages in Tamil Nadu (and elsewhere) where upper and lower class people are served tea in separate glasses? Did not Khairlanji ridicule our claims of abolishing untouchability? Every now and then, Shiv Sena thugs raise the anti-South Indian bogey, asking “lungi wallahs” to get out of Mumbai (this strategy no longer works, so it has been consigned to the Sena Strategic Archives), while the North-East remains an area which is present merely in the Indian map taught in geography classes in schools.

This brings into picture the nature of the Indian School of Discrimination. Are we merely victims of this racism which is making its appearance everywhere- politics, sports, cinema and you name it. Globalisation has brought about an amalgamation of cultures, at times when people are not ready for it. This conflict surfaces in such situations as exemplified by the “Big Brother” fiasco. So, while the economic status of people may have changed; it has not resulted in much of a social and cultural change.

Fair skin is marketed truly an asset in India, as illustrated by our classified and skin cream ads. Check out the matrimony section of any paper and you will see the demand for fair-skinned, beautiful girls with white, wheatish, “mera wala cream” and god knows what complexions. The Fair and Lovely Ads amplify our obsession with colour with ads promising fair skin and the resulting marriages. All instances of how we worship the “white colour” ourselves though of course, we do not admit it.

And don’t forget the Indian class discrimination. Just for a minute, think that instead of the sultry Shilpa Shetty, it is Rakhi Sawant out there. Would we be so sympathetic about the entire affair? Rakhi has already been branded a “slut”, “item girl” and what not. Her involvement in such an incident would have lead to people brushing aside the case and suggesting that she’s in it only for the money and so no point cribbing. And what is Shilpa there for? Showcasing Indian virtues!!! The poor Indian worker gets railed and abused doing menial work in the Gulf but don’t even expect the Government to bat an eyelid? After all, what are the rights of these nameless people in front of the Shetty babe?

So, while is is fine to condemn racism and other -isms let us not forget where we stand in these matters. Being self-critical is no weakness; as we move ahead, let us not forget that growth does not mean only sound economics but also an ability to respect different views, faiths, cultures and live in harmony in an inclusive fashion, without trampling anyone's feelings.

Finally, there is a business opportunity in every story. The Indian tourism department, in a show of Gandhigiri, invited Ms. Goody to India and the latest news is that she's going to be in India shortly. Now that is a smart PR job!!!

On the Rickshaw's Deathbed

My first recollection of the humble rickshaw is the immortal scene from the Bimal Roy classic Do Bigha Zameen. The protagonist Balraj Sahni keeps galloping across the roads as his customer screams “Aur Tez..Aur tez…” until he finally collapses and the cart topples. It’s been so many years now but this poignant scene remains etched in my consciousness even after such a long time. It once again flashed through my thoughts when I recently read reports banning the rickshaw from our roads. Things haven’t changed; we still want to move faster and faster and the sufferer remains the rickshaw puller…

The hand-pulled cart has been, for years, a quintessential Bengali wonder which has never made it big in the rest of the country. I’m not too sure why this has happened but the Communists now have plans to get rid of this “inhuman” profession which seems to be a stark reminder of everything the red card carriers want to bury. This city has long conjured cliches of humanity’s epic struggle for dignity, amidst grinding poverty. None more so than the Rickshaw wallahs – barefoot human beasts of burden fighting for their very existence on the city’s streets, immortalized on the silver screen by Dominique Lappiere’s City of Joy .

Kolkata attempted to ban the practice in 1996 blaming the rickshaws for clogging up the city’s already congested streets. The pullers fought off that challenge; a year later, it offered rickshaw pullers 7,000 rupees to turn in their vehicles but there were no takers. Now that the Government has amended the 1919 Hackney-Carriage Act governing slow-moving vehicles, you can find comrades hatching a battle plan once again, in their dilapidated union office.

The main grouse raised against these rickshaws is that it is inhuman for anyone to carry the burden of other human beings on themselves. It is a retrograde practice and goes against the spirit of human rights and compassion that we cherish so much more nowadays.

Yes, the hand cart is inhuman and the coolie has a glamorous job profile!!!

I am not too sure what is so inhuman about pulling a cart? It would be inhuman if they were forced into this but they are not. How different is it from the many other labour intensive jobs like working in mines or fields where people have to slog it out for a paltry sum of wages? Does banning the cart that feeds thousands of people give them a greater dignity of labour?

The Government has promised to provide a compensation and alternate means of livelihood. It has said that these hand-pulled carts would be replaced by cycle or motor ones. It has, however, not said if it would provide the rickshaw runners with these new vehicles. Even if the compensation were to be given, it would only be given to the licensed rickshaws, which form a paltry 10% of the overall rickshaws (As per the last estimates about a decade back, there are about 35,000 hand-pulled rickshaws and 45,000 cycle rickshaws). The rest of the faceless set of rickshaws would be driven into unemployment just because the Government thinks it’s better to do nothing than doing something which may be “undignified”.

The rapid pace of urbanization has a corroding effect on the environmental and social conditions in cities. With the auto industry accelerating and the Tatas all ready to roll out their 1 lakh car (where else but in Singur in West Bengal), we can expect an avalanche of polluting automobiles sweeping the roads. But when the Government thinks it’s more important to create SEZs for auto majors, why think about handling the road infrastructure or lack of it?

It may not be very glamorous for the State to be a part of the green brigade but the least it can do is not destroying such non-polluting transportation systems, which employ thousands of people, especially the most vulnerable ones. Cars are owned by well to do people and they contribute heavily to the atmospheric pollution. The sufferers are primarily the people who live in the fringes in cities – on the pavements and slums created by poor infrastructural policies.

Another argument put forward is that rickshaws slow down traffic, leading to congestion at all busy roads. Don’t even think about the numerous cars (currently growing at more than 20% rate) that clog India’s poorly managed roadways and the autos; the culprit is the poor man’s rickshaw. Since it’s easier to ban the rick rather than try to improve the urban infrastructure, the State is going ahead. We live in a fast world where being “slow” is a sin. There’s no time for anything in the world and we cannot wait for things to happen at their own time; anything that does not conform to this principle is archaic and needs to be removed.

Every city has its own set of landmarks or heritage structures which gives it that distinct look and it is the rickshaw, that has dotted the cluttered the lanes of Kolkata, that has served this purpose. Moreover, hand carts are generally used not in the city but in these numerous by-lanes which traverse through the length and breadth of the city. No other means of transportation can take their place through such places. But by targetting this vehicle, the only “non-polluting” means of transportation is being eradicated from the Earth.

But come to think of it, the reason for this sudden enlightenment and human compassion is nothing else - the State’s attempt to hitch their cart onto the band wagon of globalisation. And in this pursuit of money, there's no place for such images of backwardness which have to be cast into the past. Buddhadeb and his party are looking at giving it an image make over and so, the humble rickshaw will be booted from Kolkata’s bylanes. So, if you want the see the rickshaw again, the only place available may be the celluloid screen...

However, if you think that Bengal is the only place determined to get rid of its past, you are wrong. Delhi has banned rickshaws in many parts of the city and China, the home to the largest cycle market, is taking steps to ban them in Shanghai and other places. Globalisation is fine but can’t we try to modify it to have a policy of Green Globalisation, where everyone has a scope to live and let live…

Freedom to Reclaim Lost Dreams

A couple of weeks back, I had written about the Andhraite’s obsession with dollars. While some agreed with my observations, a few others suggested that it is a pan-India issue and that one of our main problems is a lack of career understanding in India. We take up jobs merely because we need jobs and that there’s never been too much of an input for us regarding things like career interests and passions in life. We work because we really do not know what else to do in life.

I have not met too many people who are happy about their work life. Of course, this can be explained as a perennial mindset of many of us who do not how to be happy. But I’ll leave the philosophy part aside and try to understand what drives this stagnant feeling in many of us. We all want to be free, have our own set of choices that dictate our lives but are we actually free to decide our own career paths? Or are we even capable of choosing our own career paths? You read everywhere that the economy is opening up and that opportunity is springing up across all sectors but many of us (me included) are stuck in jobs we did not ask for but have stumbled upon.

We work in life not for ourselves but for our parents, peers, the society and every other block that fits into our sphere of influence. We may want to break out of that mould later but by that time, we become risk averse. The family, spouse and kids come into the picture and so a steady income becomes a necessity. Seduced by thoughts of owning a house or a car, we break up our life into a set of EMIs that go on upto infinity.

Life = Summation(EMI) where n= 1 to infinity

And after sometime, if you were to look into the mirror, you will not see yourself – just a pale shadow of that spunky youth, masquerading as you. The alien facing you has a fast receeding hairline, his paunch enters the frame before his face and you see a plethora of bills floating around him, crying for his attention. You then decide that the mirror has grown too old and replace the mirror, dismissing all these images as mirages which are fleeting and try to get back to the conundrums in your life.

The first thing is to ask ourselves what is it that we want to do or achieve in life. Rashmi Bansal, in an interesting article in rediff, talks about our need for mazza (fun), izzat (respect) and matlab (meaning) in our jobs– her spin on our good old Maslow’s hierarchy of needs, we crammed in our MBA classes. She cites call centre jobs as a fresher’s delight to make a fast buck which may lose its sheen later due to lack of izzat associated with it. The wannabe IT job that I am stranded with gives me the izzat but not the matlab and so there’s a requirement to get out of it. Many of these companies hire people but do not know how to utilize them and they end up as unwanted baggage. Both parties carry on this painful responsibility for too long until a point comes when you become immune to the problem or perish.

The matlab factor may be in the form of sectoral change, entrepreneurship or non-profit jobs or something weird. I am sure 90% of us are not very sure what we want to do or what we are good at. We are like bottle caps tossed up in the high seas, scattered here and there due to the gusts of wind and waves and without any destination in mind but waiting for a captain to steer us to safety some day. But this moment never arises and we regret it much later in life.

We all start with a pure paisa based approach but somewhere, some of us begin to rebel against that. This is either due to a better understanding of our needs, a sense of guilt (don’t write this off- it actually happens) or at times, just the idea to do something offbeat or challenging. The stagnation can be very difficult and requires an outlet but finding that can be equally tough. It requires us to get out of that comfort zone and think beyond the obvious.

The fact that Radio Jockeys, wedding planners and non-profit jobs are gaining some modicum of respect is a good sign but then how many of us find ourselves in such “off-beat” professions. We all need greater career counselling services to select our areas of interest and work in them, without any sense of inhibition. We live in such capsule existences that we are not aware of the various opportunities around us and so we take the off-beaten tracks of engineering and medicine. Why? Because we need to tell the society that we are gainfully employed, as per its perceptions.

As an inspiration, just check out this organization - Room to Read, started by John Wood, Microsoft’s erstwhile Director of Business Development for the Greater China Region. In 1998, John Wood was a rising executive at Microsoft when he took a vacation that changed his life. What started as a trekking holiday in Nepal became a spiritual journey, and then a mission: to change the world one book and one child at a time by setting up libraries in the developing world. He was soon driven to leave his career with only a loose vision of the change he wanted to bring to the world. Room to Read is now an award-winning non-profit organization that has established more than 3000 libraries and donated more than 2 million books and started about 200 schools. Make sure to grab a copy of the “Leaving Microsoft to Change the World”, written by him, where he discusses his decisions, his quest to change the world and his current work.

I love the Tata Dicor ad which targets us, the segment of bored well-to-do class of customers and says so much more with its punch line “Reclaim your Life”. I am looking forward to live those lines…

I always wanted to quit on a Monday morning..
I always wanted to swim with the whales…
I always wanted to take a one-year trip… around the world
I always wanted…I always wanted…

Looking forward to any suggestions to live life fully and escape from the cubicles of Dilbert in which many of us find ourselves trapped in. Let’s not grow old, regretting our inability to enjoy our existence and work and lead dull dreary monotonous lives….Life’s worth so much more than that…I’d like to stop working for money but hey, who will take care of my EMIs???