Category Archives: Feature: General

Who will be the 18th PM?

by Shashwat DC

Look at any newspaper, magazine, news channel, online media, just about anything, the hot discussion or rather the only discussion that is taking place these days is as to what will happen to the 15th Loksabha, who will win, who will lose and who will stay put. The best brains of this nation are trying to come out with the answers, right from the grey-haired political analysts to the scores of psephologists who have made a well paid business out of predictions.

And yet, as in the past, all these opinion polls and surveys fail to reveal the story, election after election. The reason is simple, the inherent bias. All Indians are political, whether they agree or not. Hence, when they are asked to make the choices they do so based on their desires and hopes (which by the way are shaped by their biases). It is very hard for any analyst, reporter, or even a psephologist to get rid of that bias. And yet, they pretend valiantly to do so. Thus, before every election there are these predictions that are built upwards and then fall flat like a house of cards.

Being a political Indian myself, I strongly feel the urge to add to the cacophony of these predictions. I think can foretell the future based on my ‘gut feel’ and am quite sure how things will turn out. And since, I am aware of my limitations (rather my communal bias), I feel the best thing to do will be to find a few more political Indians like me who feel strongly on the issue and have biases that are not quite like mine. So, while I am tainted in the communal colour of Saffron, I have asked my friend or rather comrade Abhijit Deb who is dipped in Red to make his predictions, and finally to balance the 2nd and the 3rd front, we have a supporter of the Gandhian family Akhilesh Shukla pitching in for Congress I.

Among us, we are making predictions on how things will turn out in the days to come. And all this at a fraction of the cost of all those psephologists and analysts, just a couple of ‘cutting chai’. At the end of the political tamasha, we very much intend to return to this post, and am sure one of us would be grinning to himself patting his own back, while the rest will be terming this to be a rather childish and immature exercise or just that Indian politics is beyond the range of any rational analysis based prediction, it is game of tart, for the tart-headed.

So, mere pyaare desh vasiyon. Here are the 3 scenarios from three biased journalists, please take them with a pinch of salt and a tequila too (if you can afford one, that is). Here it goes:

Continue reading …

Rediscovering Lakh Lakh Chanderi…

by Shashwat DC | 1 Comment

For some strange unexplained reasons, there are certain memories that linger and haunt a person for ages. This is more the case with childhood memories, a old home, a forlorn beach, a rabid fight, there is just no limit to what part of childhood you will carry with you through out your life and why?

In my case, it is a song, that too a Marathi one. I must have been no older than 7 or 8 years at max, and somehow a song that I viewed on television way back then stuck with me for all these years. In those times, early-mid eighties, there was only a single channel in India, Doordarshan and color television was not yet available (apparently it was after the Asiad games but the cost was so prohibitively high that only a select Indians could afford it).

The programs that were run on Doordarshan were fairly staid, in fact there was a regional offshoot of Doordarshan, namely Mumbai Doordarshan that broadcasted regional shows; namely plays, news, serials in Marathi. And on prime time, that is 9 pm, the national broadcaster used to take over, so you would have serials, news bulletins et al in Hindi. Since, back then there was no choice except for Doordarshan, we all sat in rapt attention watching the programs even in Marathi and even if it did not make any sense to us. For instance, I recall, just before the the Batmya (news in Marathi) at 7.30 pm, there used to be this show called at Amchi Mati, Amchi Manase, it was basically a show that was targetted for the farmers, telling them how to take care of the cattle, when to sow the seeds, etc. Also, just before the news bulletin, there used to be this small caption of lost and misplaced people, Apan yana pahilat ka, where there would be photos of missing people and sketchy details about them.

On Saturdays, there used to be Marathi movies shown and on Sundays it was Hindi. Thus our schedule was pretty packed in that sense. To be honest, the little Marathi that I know and understand is not because I had it as a subject till the 8th standard, but because I was trying to laugh at all those gags in Arr..tch tch.. or trying to figure out the news in Batmya. Continue reading …

Dummy’s guide to Shoeing

by Shashwat DC | Leave a comment

It took some 4 odd months, but finally the international sport of ‘shoeing politicians’ has arrived in India.  At a press conference today, Indian home minister (P Chidamdaram aka PC) quite effortlessly missed a shoe that was hurled at him by a Sikh journalist named Jarnail Singh. The white shoe flipped over his right side and it never seemed to threaten him at all. The hurler also looked frail and not intimidating enough, he never raised a hue and cry, pre or post the act. He even walked away with the plainclothes policemen quite willingly. As if it was something that he was happy to get over with. On the other hand, PC had a benign smile on his face, and asked the security guys to escort the hurler ‘gently’.

This isn’t the first time that someone decided to hurl a projectile at someone else. Through the ages, humans have been hurling things at each other, it started with pebbles, stones, branches, abuses, arrows, sticks, blames, projectiles, spears, knives, rockets, missiles, boomerangs, flowers, eggs, tomatoes, dishes, cellphones, and so many other things imaginable and unimaginable. Yet, the shoeing business is a rather recent invention.

December 14, is the red letter day in the history of shoeing, when a journalist with Al-Baghdadia Channel, Muntazer-al-Zaidi, hurled his footwear at President George Bush in Iraq. In fact, he hurled two of his shoes and but for the agility and reflex action of Jr. Bush, at least one would have hit him for sure. Zaidi was also smart enough to denigrate Bush, even while taking aim and releasing the shoes, ensuring that the world at large knew his reasons even if it did not agree.

Fortunately for Zaidi, Bush was at the nadir of his popularity and became a butt of ridicule, even though he ducked the shoes magnificently. Bush even joked about the incident in his characteristic bushy way. Sadly, for Bush, it was Zaidi who became the hero overnight, especially in the Islamic world. There were protests across different countries for him to be released from prison, some one offered him a car, one person his daughter and a Libyan channel offered him a job. Shoeing was not all that bad, after all.

Zaidi had many emulators, sometime back a disgruntled German student Martin Jahnke hurled an old sneaker at Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao.  Shoes have also been chucked at the US consulate in Edinburgh and at the gates of Prime Minister Gordon Brown’s Downing Street office. There was another one hurled at Israel’s ambassador to Sweden as he gave a speech at Stockholm University. And now PC’s name is added to the illustrious list, thanks to a frail Sikh with a bad aim.

The one thing that is common to all these incidents is that all the shoers (the shoe hurlers, so as to say) were unable to hit the target even though they had the benefit of surprise element. No leader expects a shoe flying across at him when he is offering platitudes to the world at large. Except for Zaidi, no one else came remotely close to hitting the target. In fact, none of the above seemed to want to hit their targets either.

Now that is a real tragedy, after all the shoer will have to pay a dear prize in spite of all the accolades or praises that he receives. Take Zaidi’s case, he has lost 3 years of his life and when he comes out people will be too distracted to bother about a Bush shoer. So is the case with Jahnke. Jarnail Singh meanwhile has been lucky, the country is going through general elections and the no politicians want to be seen as harsh and rude. Thus, PC displayed  gandhigiri by forgiving Singh. All are not so lucky.

Hence, if you are a prospective shoer and want to make a point, ensure that you do a good job of it. What is the use of wasting time behind bars and not even hitting the target? So for all at large, here is a dummy’s guide to shoeing:

Online Netajis……

by Shashwat DC | 1 Comment

Political parties of all hues and contours are jumping on to the online bandwagon in pursuit of the Indian voter. Will they succeed or not is the big question on everyone’s mind. Here is a primer.

“Power comes from the barrel of a gun,” is what Chinese dictator Mao Tse Tung had proclaimed many decades back. The Chinese revolution in the 1950s, became the sort of template for almost all the revolutionaries across the globe, be it Fidel Castro in Cuba to Ho Chi Minh in Vietnam, from Saparmurat Niyazov in Turkmenistan to Prachanda in Nepal. Despotic governments propped up by Kalashnikovs popped up across different continents and regions. Apparently, gun and government complimented each other beatifically.

Then in 2009, to be precise, another revolution took shape, a black man with mixed heritage ascended the most powerful position in the world by being elected as President of the United States beating all the odds. A year earlier, no one would have given Barrack Obama even a sniffing chance of winning the election but that is what he did in a manner that took most of the world by surprise. His strategy was similar to the ones used by all the dictators (a promise of change that roused the populace) except for one crucial difference: instead of gun, Obama relied on copper wire. His message of change was not spread by gunshots but by telephone and cable lines across the 50 states of the US.

Medium became almost as powerful as the message itself. By winning over the White House, black Obama engendered a new template for all the politicians (usually the democratic ones) to follow, namely the use of Internet and Telephony to spread the message.

Come May 2009, this Obama template will be put to its most rigorous test in the largest democratic election of the world: when the 15th Lok Sabha elections take place. With over 8,00,000 polling stations and nearly 700 million people eligible to cast their votes the battle royale for the PM’s seat has begun for the various political parties.

The coming of Cyber Politics

Since, this election promises to be a closely fought one, no party is leaving any stone unturned in its pursuit of the voter, with much attention and time being given to the first-time voters and the tech-savvy middle class. Impressed by the way Obama spread the message of change, political parties are using every means at their disposal to spread their word, be it television, print or hoardings. From roadside walls plastered with posters to fancy adverts on television. The battle for the ballot has now spilled on to the cyberspace, with each party looking at making gains by hosting websites, blogs, or sending emails.

It is not as if that political parties have suddenly discovered the Internet as a medium, both the Congress and the BJP have had online presence for a long time. For instance, years back Congress Leader Jagdish Tytler had launched an online forum while for BJP it was their tech savvy leader Pramod Mahajan. In fact, BJP had launched its own website and formed an IT cell way back in 1997. The rest, like the Communist Party of India (CPI), Telugu Desam party, Shiv Sena, Nationalist Congress Party (NCP), and the rest, all have a web presence.

Nonetheless, the parties are now moving to the next stage, from static website to interactive Internet strategies. Again, the Obama template comes into play. According to reports, the biggest game changer for Obama was his community building exercise, which included an impressive 13 million e-mail addresses and some 2 million friends on his social networking site. Not surprisingly, parties are trying to emulate the same in India by actively using technology to reach out to the electorate.

The Saffron winner Continue reading …

गूगल की जय-हो!!!

by Shashwat DC | 1 Comment

गूगल ने अभी हाल ही मैं एक नयी सुविधा की घोषणा की. इसके रहते जितने भी लोग ईमेल का इस्तेमाल करते हैं, अब वोह सिर्फ अंग्रेजी ही नहीं, बल्कि अलग अलग भाषायों में भी हो सकती हैं, जैसे हिंदी, तमिल, तेलुगु और मलयालम. यह पहेली बार नहीं हैं की जब ऐसी सुविधा किसीने दी हो, मगर गूगल के करने से भारत में भाषा-कंप्यूटिंग को बहुत प्रोत्साहन मिलेगा चुकी अब भारतीय लोग ईमेल का उपयोग चिट्टी की तरह कर सकते हैं, जैसे हम रोज़मारह बात करते हैं.

इस सुविधा का इस्तेमाल करना कठिन भी नहीं हैं, आप अंग्रेजी में टाइप करे (जैसा में अभी कर रहा हूँ) और वो अपने आप हिंदी में रूपांतरित हो जाता हैं. ठीक इसी तरह बाकी भाषाओं का भी इस्तेमाल होता हैं. जैसे में अभी namashkaar लिख रहा हों और वोह अपने आप नमस्कार, ನಮಷ್ಕಾರ್, നമഷ്കാര്‍, நமஷ்கர், నమష్కార్, में तब्दील हो जाता हैं. और ये ही नहीं, आप शब्दकोष का भी उपयोग कर सकते हैं, और स्पेल्चेच्क भी काम करता हैं. यह सब मात्र एक क्लिक पर.

मुझे बेहद ख़ुशी हैं, और यह उम्मीद हैं की इस सुविधा से लोगों को बहुत ख़ुशी होगी. और मेरे जैसे लोग, जो हिंदी का प्रयोग सिर्फ बोलने में करते हैं, न की लिखने में, शायद कुछ बेहतरी हों. अभी भी देखिये, यह ब्लॉग पोस्ट लिखने में मुझे बहुत सोचना पढ़ रहा हैं, क्योंकि मेरा दिमाग अब अंग्रेजी में ही सोचता हैं, कई शब्दों का हिंदी मूल भूल चुका हूँ, और तो और अपने मसतिक को कुछ ज्यादा ही खाकोलना पढ़ रहा हैं. मगर कुछ भी कहिये बड़ा मज़ा आ रहा हैं, बचपन में मेरी हिंदी की व्याख्या और स्पेल्लिंग दोनों ही बहुत ख़राब थी परन्तु मुझे अब इसकी चिंता नहीं हैं चुकी गूगल उसका ख्याल रखता हैं.

पता नहीं बहुत से बेवकूफ लोगो इस सुविधा का महत्व समझ न सके, मगर इस में कोई शक नहीं हैं की इस सेवा से बहुतसो की भाषा थोडी सी सुधर जाए, और इस के लिए हम गूगल के आभारी हैं.

Who is communal?

by Shashwat DC | 1 Comment

Elections ’09 are heating up in India. A shrill noise is reverberating across everywhere, as leaders and politicans adopt every single trick in the crook-book to get elected. And sadly instead of issues of development or growth the parties across the lines are just debating and discussing inane issues like ‘secularism’ or ‘communalism’.

Every single party belonging to the UPA (or rather former UPA) or the newly formed opportunist 3rd Front, swears by the word secularism and takes a solemn oath to do every thing to keep them out of power. Dubbing the right wing saffron party as a communal one, portrayed as danger to the very existence of this nation.

To be fair, BJP party has not helped its case either, by not coming out strongly on a lot of issues, like the latest controversy on Varun Gandhi. It has at times shown a rather lackadiscal approach when it comes to reacting to issues. For instance, when the Mangalore Pub attacks happen, the central leadership of the party took their own sweet time to condemn such violence in an outright manner. The result, the party is seen to be abettting such issues. Now, whether that is true or not, I know not but that is what a perception that is formed about the party.

Now, BJP or rather NDA’s 5 year term was not all that bad when you compare it with the current government’s, there were scores of infrastructure projects that were undertaken like the Golden Quadilateral one, etc.  Thus, when the party is simply dubbed as ‘Communal’ by the rest, it seems a bit odd.

Gujarat is the one whip that BJP is constantly flogged with by all, and I just wonder one thing, that the electorate that has given such a mandate to rule to the BJP, is it communal as well. Then by the same definition, so many states in India become communal ones. Continue reading …

The 22 ‘More Equal’ Ones

by Shashwat DC | Leave a comment

“All animals are equal, but some animals are more equal than others,” was one of the commandment as spelt out by Squealer in the Animal Farm. Through this Dystopian novel, George Orwell, succintly highlighted the unequal world that we exist in.

Every Indian is subjected to the ‘more equal’ maxim numerous times in the day, from the place that he/she has to live in, to how commuting is done, to what amenities are available. There are basically three classes of people in India, the Upper Class, the Power Class and finally the Other Class. It is only the first two classes that have rights, the Others are burdened with duties. In every action, at every sphere, this class difference is discernible; at times it might be overt and at time, covert.

During one of my travels, I came across one instance of such inequality. At the Kolkata Airport, the CISF had put up a board before the security check, listing out the names of dignitaries that were exempted from frisking and could directly board an aircraft, not needing any security check.

Post 9/11, air travel have become quite pain for commoners like me, have to reach the airport at least an hour early, carry no liquids, no cans, nothing, remove laptops and place them on the tray, etc.  But these 22 people or rather 22 class of people need not submit to such incongruities, they are the creme-de-la-creme of India.

On seeing the list, I had jotted down the names and am listing them out here. Find out for yourself, who the 22 ‘more equal’ Indians are.

P.S. Number 22 was quite an interesting addition.

Continue reading …

Marie’s cake?

by Shashwat DC | Leave a comment

Meanwhile, while I am still on the Nano issue, let me raise the points put up by environmentalist opposing the small car. While the likes of Dr. RK Pachauri have argued that a petrol low-cost car will add to the carbon emmissions of India by the burning of fossil fuel. Many else have taken a holistic perspective of the issue so as to say; arguing that the urban infrastucture could crumble under the weight of Nano.

CSE, not surprisingly, has chosen to oppose the Nano. And thus in the past quite a few months, there newsletter have become pamphlets against the small car, highlighting how and why the car is not meant for us or rather should not be meant for us.

The last piece that I received from CSE (http://www.cseindia.org/AboutUs/press_releases/press-20090313.htm) spoke about how individual cars are bad for the environment and why all Indians must chose public transport over private one. The argument to be fair is a very valid one and I for one completely agree with it.

But then, the devil as they say are in the details. Is there really a public infrastructure in India? Even in the metros of India, the public transport, is still shady, tacky and unreliable. Honestly, the only reason that I travel hanging out in an over-crowded Mumbai local is because I don’t have my own vehicle.

In light of this the appeal made by CSE, and more precisely by Sunita Narain (she heads the organization), I am very curious to know how many of these experts and environmentalist really practice what they preach? For instance, of all the people that have been opposing the car as a fossil fuel guzzler, how many of them have actually given up their own and started traveling on public transport. Continue reading …

The Nanolution

by Shashwat DC | Leave a comment

So, a promise has been fulfilled by good ol’ Ratan Tata. The one that he had made totata_nano_14 the world and more importantly to the Indians some 6 years back, of a car that will cost some $2000. Nano is now ready to ferry 5 Indians safely 23.6 kms for every litre of petrol and will apparently hit the roads by June/July 2009, initially in limited numbers. Subsequently, the price might also be revised later (though, there is little scope for it after all the USP of the vehicle is its price).

There are a  lot of hopes pinned on Nano, not only from the automotive sector but from the economy from a whole. Many analysts are hoping and at times proclaiming that Nano could provide the kick-start the economy so badly needs. While on the other hand there are scores and scores of environmentalists, who are bemoaning the launch of Nano, terming it to be an eco-disaster for India in terms of emissions and infrastructure.

I for one am reminded of the mobile revolution that took shape in India over the past decade. Let me share with you a personal anecdote. Continue reading …

Bad Times cometh!

by Shashwat DC | Leave a comment

Recently, India’s largest media house Bennett & Coleman (the Times of India, for the uninitiated) sent across a mail to all the employees, detailing austerity plans: freeze on salary hikes, cutbacks on past increases, etc.

In the rather detailed and inspiring mail, Ravi Dhariwal, CEO, called upon the employees to “make personal adjustments and sacrifices  for a  greater cause”.  And for the sake of oneness, there are salary cuts across the board.

What I am really curious about is that, when the times were good, and the business was booming, where was this spirit of oneness then? Why were not there salary increments across the board? Or is it that, when things go good it is because of a few bright souls (of course the top brass, who needs to be patted and rewarded accordingly) and when it is a downturn, it is everybody’s problem and the spirit of ‘oneness’ comes to fore. Well, such is life.

Nonetheless, the salary cuts at Times will have a domino effect on the rest of the industry, am sure a lot more media company CEOs will be emboldened by this step and must be drafting a visionary piece of letter, that makes it sound almost like a necessary sacrifice. For all of them, I am pasting Mr. Dhariwal’s inspiring piece.

Just one request to all the CEOs. whenever you send out the mail, let the daggers be out. Please don’t sugarcoat it with moral platitudes of oneness and togetherness. In these trying times, the last thing one needs is platitudes.

The original (and inspiring) piece:

Confidential: Times Pay Revision Cut

Dear Colleagues,

Over the last five years we have had a dream run  as a company. In July 2008,  we grew to be a billion dollar company, growing at 20% per annum, nicely profitable, growing shares in almost all geographies, expanding our editions into newer territories and winning important competitive battles. Why do I  call it a dream run? Because we met success everywhere, including  against competitive attacks in large markets. This encouraged us to think of expanding even more rapidly. We made plans to double our capacity, launch many more new editions, take Mirror to other cities and continue to grow our business at the same pace.  Not only our business, we all grew both professionally and personally in the last 5 years.
Continue reading …

Go ahead Otis, sell Gandhi

by Shashwat DC | Leave a comment

Over the past few days there has been a big hullabaloo raised over the sales of some of the items belonging to Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi, more popularly known as Mahatma Gandhi or just Bapu. It so happens that an ingenious American (the Americans are very ingenious in things like this) named James Otis over the years put together a rather impressive collection of Gandhian memorabilia that has things like Bapu’s specs, sandals, bowl and plate, watches, blood report and other such mundane stuff.

No one knows for sure as to how Mr. Otis got hold of such stuff and how much did he spend. Considering the way, we Indians treat our heritage, it should not have been difficult or costly either. Check any Christie or Sotheby catalog and you are sure to spot hundred of temple idols and paintings that have been sourced from some obscure part of India for some few USD and sold for millions abroad. Mr. Otis, simply put, has done the same with Bapu. And though, he might paint his motive with a shade of nobility, the fact is that he intends to make a few easy millions through the sale. Simple business, what Americans are best at.

But, here in India, everyone is going berserk on the sale. All hell is being raised at such a blatant sale of our nation’s heritage, news channels are running scores of programs with all these experts and high-profile people talking about what Indian government needs to do. There are these grand daughters and the great grandsons of Gandhi coming on TV making an emotional plea for the items to be brought back. Then, newspapers are full of stories on how Bapu saw a vision of modern India through those specs.

In between officials from the ministry of culture, MEA, PMO, all are running helter-skelter to either stop the auction or negotiate with Mr. Otis. I am sure, at this very moment, there must be a team of high profile Babus out there in the US, trying to work out an amenable solution. Even stinking rich NRIs are being courted and asked to buy the items and gift them to India. And finally, no less the PM of India has raised the bar by sending out a poignant plea ‘do everything to get hold of Bapu’s stuff’. Unnecessary emotions, what Indians are best at.

In all this theatrics of the absurd, one small point is being missed, by all this dramatics and stuff, we are really walking into Mr. Otis’s trap. He must be so much gleefully rubbing his hands at the moment. Over the past few days, the reserve price for the stuff has gone up by a few hundred thousand Dolllars, and it all goes into his account. So why the hell are we going crazy over it?

Continue reading …

Miss you, Bapu

by Shashwat DC | 2 Comments

It is 2nd October and we all should be relaxed since it a national holiday. But then there is so much to do on the day we get free; friends to talk to, homes to search, books to read, catch a flick in theatre, take wife out for dinner, sleep, eat and be merry. These days’ holidays are busier and stressful than your average working day. Nonetheless we look forward to a day off and every year on this date we thank heavens the fact that Mohandas Das Karamchand Gandhi was born on this day if it falls on a week-day and wish that he would have born on some other date if 2nd happens to be a weekend (a holiday wasted). Gandhi Jayanti is more importantly a holiday for us than anything else. Were it not so, how many would really bother when Mahatma was born?

It’s not that we dislike or detest Gandhi. In fact most of us respect Gandhi; after all he is the father of the nation the one who got us freedom from the foreign yoke, his garlanded photo adorns every government office, his statues are spread across Indian cities and towns, every city will have at least one MG Road, he is smiling at us from the numerous postage stamps, he is present in textbooks, on every currency note, on trains, in museums, almost everywhere.

Some years back, I had visited Gandhi’s Samadhi at Rajghat in New Delhi thanks to a colleague who had come from the UK and was very eager to visit Gandhi Ashram and Rajghat. It is a sad irony that these days, it is the people coming from abroad that are keen to know more of Gandhi then we do. I was disappointed and saddened by the opulence that confronted me at Rajghat. A huge piece of prime land with well manicured lawns for dignitaries to sit on, a white platform with words “Hey Ram” embossed on them and of course the light that burns all the time. All this for a man who lived most of his life in a loin cloth, ate just enough to sustain his body. Somehow from the little that I know of Gandhi from his works, I am sure that he would have completely disapproved of the way modern India has treated, made him a figurine and completely forgotten for the things that he stood for.

Bapu, as he was fondly called, was a fanatic humanist; in his eyes all were equal, the discarded and the downtrodden were especially dear to him. He staunchly stood up for what he believed and would not baulk even in the face of fiercest opposition. There are so many instances of Bapu standing firm on what he assumed to be right, even though everyone around him was telling him otherwise. I have seen the film Gandhi by Richard Attenborough several times, as a student when it was a compulsory screening and found it to be boring and too lengthy, to now when I stop flicking the remote when I see it being screened on any channel. In the film towards the climax scene, when the partition takes place and the whole subcontinent flares up amidst Hindu-Muslim riots, Gandhi decides to resolve the crisis in his inimitable way, he goes on a fast till all the madness has come to an end. And the best thing is that it does, the rioting actually stops. It was as if people though they may love or hate Gandhi, respected him nonetheless. Simply by walking hundreds of kilometres or by giving up food, Bapu could bring about a change that was not imaginable earlier. He never bothered about political correctness, compulsions or anything.

Sixty and more years have passed since the Britishers left in their ships and we Indians started on our tryst with destiny. In the years that have gone by we might have achieved quite many laurels on the world stage but continue to be hollow from within. Even now, there are communal riots in different parts of India, religious places are desecrated, bomb go off in busy marketplaces, there are caste wars, populations fighting over water, land, etc. Even after so many years, we are not Indians, but Hindu, Muslim, Brahmins, Baniya, UP, Madrasi and so many more. I wonder if that was the journey that we had set out to on August 15, 1947.

And when I think of all this, I just wish so strongly that the face that adorns the 50 Rupee note just comes alive. That Bapu comes to this land again and sets things in order. He would admonish us for what we have become, chide us and then show us the right path. The path that we should have taken, but didn’t. He would come and unite us as Indians, tell us what humanity is, what righteousness is. Simply by living with us, he would change us all. Bapu would awaken the national spirit within us. I never knew or saw Bapu, but yet I miss him dearly. Or maybe it is just that I am being a tad more sentimental since it is 2nd October today and is Bapu’s birthday. It could be that I am not as busy as I should be on any typical national holiday and so have more time to ruminate. Or probably, the film Gandhi has affected me so. Tomorrow will be a different day with loads of work and stuff to do. I will remember Bapu again, hopefully before 2nd October 2009 (which thankfully is a Friday, so a long weekend). His death anniversary falls on January 30th, but then it is not a holiday so won’t have time to indulge in such thoughts. While I am at it, let me conclude with a quote from Albert Einstein on Bapu; a thought that I think has already become a reality, at least for many like me.

“I…regard Gandhi as the only true great figure of our age…generations to come will scarce believe that such a one as this ever in flesh and blood walked upon this earth.”