Wish All My Readers a Very Happy New Year 2010

The year 2009 is going to become history as year 2010 beckons all of us to new and greater challenges and experiences in our lives. Wish all my readers a very happy and prosperous new year 2010. May this New Year bring abundant happiness and all success in the lives of each and every one of you.

"Be always at war with your vices, at peace with your neighbors, and let each new year find you a better man." - Benjamin Franklin

Ruchika’s Tragedy – A Case of Delayed and Denied Justice

The emerging facts on the tragic fate that a young girl named Ruchika Girhotra met with after being molested by a top cop 19 years back has become a blot in the collective consciousness of our country. The budding tennis player, who was just 14 years then, was molested by former Haryana Director General of Police, SPS Rathore in the year 1990. In a bid to silence the victim from taking legal action against him, Rathore tortured the family of the girl and influenced his police force to implicate Ruchika’s brother in false cases. Pained by the torture faced by her family members, Ruchika committed suicide 3 years later in 1993.

It took long 19 years for the court to punish the perpetrator of this heinous crime is in itself a matter of disgrace for the Indian judicial system. Adding to this indelible shame is the fact that the court gave only an insignificant punishment of 6 months rigorous imprisonment and a fine of Rs. 1000 to SPS Rathore. The sight of the culprit walking out of the court smiling was just disgusting for anyone who would have even a trifle of conscience in him. The tragic fate of Ruchika is a classic example of how influential people in our country walk free even after committing serious crimes. Instead of giving judicial and emotional support to the victim, our judicial system had further victimized the victim and her family and gave reprieve to the criminal.

SPS Rathore influenced Ruchika’s alma mater Sacred Heart’s School in Chandigarh and made them expel Ruchika from the school, thereby aggravating the trauma faced by the young girl. In order to save the pride and lives of her family members, Ruchika chose to finish her life rather than fight against the molester cop. Public Interest Litigation is going to get filed against The Sacred Heart’s School for expelling Ruchika on flimsy grounds. Instead of giving moral support for the victim of molestation, the school worsened the trauma of a child by expelling her from the school making false allegations of non-payment of fees. Evidences are now coming out that suggest that Rathore even influenced CBI and removed the officer in charge of the investigation from it. CBI didn’t even press for charges against Rathore for abetment of suicide of the teenage girl.

The public outcry on the issue has made the government to act decisively. The union government has already made the decision to reinvestigate the case. The Home Ministry has also taken steps to withdraw police medals from Rathore and to reduce his pension. Not only in the city of Chandigarh, but all across the country people are out on the streets and asking for justice to Ruchika and her family.

Due credit must be given to the family of Aradhana, Ruchika friend who was the lone eye-witness in the case, for keeping the struggle alive for all these years. They befriended Ruchika’s family and gave all moral, emotional and legal support to her family. Even after 19 years, Aradhana’s family is actively pursuing justice for Ruchika and is without doubt a proud story of strong friendship and human commitment.

The government should not only reinvestigate the case but also should make sure that a criminal like SPS Rathore is getting just punishments. Needed amendments must be made on existing laws to make sure that molesters like Rathore are getting legitimate punishments and the delay on serving justice is minimized to whatever extend possible.

Mobilization of public opinion by the media is one of the most important reasons why the case has shot to national prominence, thereby bringing the attention of the political parties and the union government into this gross miscarriage of justice. The public needs to be vigilant against child molesters like SPS Rathore, otherwise our daughters and sisters would face the kind of ordeal that hapless Ruchika faced in her young life. Today, on the 29th of December, while we are observing the 16th death anniversary of Ruchika - May her soul rest in peace - let us all make a resolution that we would always remain alert against criminals like Rathore and would never allow anyone to face the sort of trauma and injustice that young Ruchika faced.

Wish Merry Christmas to All My Readers

Wish all my readers a very Merry Christmas, wherever you are in the world. Christmas is an occasion where we all look forward to wishing our friends and acquaintances joy, pleasure and utmost happiness. May this Christmas bring all of you bountiful delight and merriment.

Would like to quote Charles Dickens here, where in his classic novella ‘A Christmas Carol’ he said, " it was always said of him, that he knew how to keep Christmas well, if any man alive possessed the knowledge. May that be truly said of us, and all of us! And so, as Tiny Tim observed, God Bless Us, Every One! "

May God bless all of you.

Human Rights Day 2009 with Non-discrimination as the Theme

More than 60 years back, 61 to be precise, on 10th of December, the General Assembly of the United Nations adopted the Universal Declaration of Human Rights declaring that all human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights. That exactly is the theme of this year’s human rights day, removing discrimination from the realm of public and private life. (You can find the Universal Declaration of Human Rights at this link - http://www.un.org/en/documents/udhr/)

Discrimination is quite rampant all over the world – discrimination on the basis of race, colour, religion, gender, political opinions, nationality, language, sexual orientation, birth, status and disabilities. There are covert and overt practices of discrimination and governments, states, organisations and individuals are equally responsible for this indelible stigma on the face of mankind. In today’s world, we have a range of national and international treaties that imbue the spirit of non discrimination and human rights. Many organisations are working effectively in this field and that has made some tangible difference in the lives of the victims of discrimination. But we still have a long distance to go and therefore this is not a time for us to remain complacent of our achievements in the domain of removing human rights.

Women are victims of discrimination all over the world in whatever areas they indulge in. Women work two-third of the working hours and make half of world’s food, yet they earn only 10% of world’s income and hold less than 1% of world’s property. They face both physical and sexual assaults in their workplaces and outside and the majority of abusers go unpunished, which amplify future assaults. The undeterred energy and determination of many human rights advocates and organisations have made the public more aware of the human rights of women and have pressurised many a state government to bring about national laws for the protection of women and girls.

All around the world children are often subjected to discrimination and gross human rights violations. They are discriminated mainly because they don’t have the ability to voice their concerns to the authorities. Children in places like Palestine and Sudan are facing terrible discrimination and violence. In some places they are forced to enlist themselves in the army for armed struggle. They are denied the chance for education and are mostly forced to work to earn their living. Malnutrition is another form of discrimination and human rights violation that children face all over the world. In India, despite a booming economy, about 25 million children face nutrition deprivation. Undernourished children will have less ability to tide over diseases like diarrhoea, pneumonia and measles.

370 million indigenous people of this world face serious discrimination by the state and other institutions. These people make the 5% of the world’s population, but 15% of the world’s poor. They live their lives in abject poverty and lack all fundamental rights and access to basic services. The indigenous people in many countries don’t have houses to stay in and their children are often discriminated and are not allowed to attend educational institutions.

Refugees and migrant workers are another group of people who are often discriminated against. According to the UNHCR, there are about 42 million people who are forcibly uprooted as a result of violence and persecution. Of this 42 million, 16 million are refugees and 26 million internally displaced. 80% live in developing nations and 10.5 million live in cities and are facing gross human rights violations. Many refugees, women and children included, are under prolonged detention without committing any crime. The UN convention on the rights of refugees and migrant workers are in place, but is often not judiciously applied in many countries.

The largest and most disadvantaged minority in the world are people with disabilities. About 98% children with disabilities in developing countries do not attend school and are hence denied the psychological development that education provides. Therefore they are also denied the chance to stand on their own feet when they become elder citizens. National laws in various countries are not conducive for the development of people with disabilities.

Racial and ethnic discrimination is a very serious issue confronting many nations of the world. For example, the Palestinian conflict is basically an ethnic issue between the Arabs and the Jews. The Palestinians are denied basic rights by the Israeli authorities in West Bank and Gaza. They are even denied access to drinking water at some areas and people have to walk long distances for water and have to wait for a very long time to get water. The Palestinians face racial discrimination and chances of ethnic cleansing in Middle East if the international community doesn’t take any steps to counter it.

The enjoyment of universal human rights has the ability to enrich all of us and therefore it is the moral responsibility of each and every individual to uphold human dignity and oppose human rights violations and discrimination. All forms of discrimination feed discontent, mistrust and resentment, which in turn would result in sense of insecurity, crime and violence. Therefore we need to encourage everyone to uphold the spirit of human rights and observe the Human Rights Day 2009 by taking a solemn pledge to support, sustain and endorse human rights and non-discrimination.

UN Climate Summit Starts at Copenhagen

A decisive UN climate summit opened yesterday, the 7th of December 2009, at the Danish capital of Copenhagen with representatives of 192 countries of the world participating. Experts consider this the last chance for humanity to find a lasting solution to the threatening problem of Global Warming that can cause mayhem if not controlled with utmost urgency. If we fail to reach a consensus in the present negotiations at Copenhagen, then we are certainly looking down the barrel and the climate change will ruin our planet, together with the millions of animal and plant species.

Due to human activity of the past several centuries, particularly due to the combustion of fossil fuels, the atmospheric level of carbon dioxide, the principal greenhouse gas, is at a very high and dangerous level. The green house gases are trapping more and more heat in the earth’s surface gradually pushing the heat level of the planet to ominous levels. As a result of increasing heat levels, the average global temperature has risen both in the land and in the oceans. Polar ice is melting, storms and hurricanes are more frequent than before and they are more intense, droughts and floods are more common, sea levels are rising, glaciers are depleting and plants and animals are struggling to adapt to the climate change.

The facts about global warming are clearer than ever before. The world needs to take steps to limit the temperature rise to 2C and any bigger rise to 3-4C would burn the whole planet and turning farmland into deserts. According to NASA’s Goddard Institute of Space Studies, the average temperature around the world has risen 0.8 degree Celsius (1.4 degrees Fahrenheit) since 1880. The rate of warming is also increasing and the last two decades of the 20th century were the hottest in the last 400 years.

The Arctic is facing the most threatening effect of climate change with the average temperature in Alaska, western Canada and eastern Russia rising at twice the global average level. The Arctic ice is fast depleting and the area may have its first ice-free summer as early as 2040. Polar bears and other indigenous species are already reeling under sea-ice loss. Glaciers and mountain snow are fast disappearing and the melting of the Himalayan Glaciers at an alarming rate is threatening to bring drought and famine to about 1.3 billion Asians. The Glaciers of the Himalayas that sweep through India, Pakistan, China, Nepal and Bhutan bring water to major rivers in these countries. But for the past 30 years, the temperature in this region has risen dramatically by between 0.15C to 0.6C (0.27 and 1.08 degrees Fahrenheit) and this has dramatically affected the glaciers at Himalayas and in turn threatens the level of water in the rivers that derive water from the glacier. Small nations like Maldives, which are surrounded by oceans, are under the threat of getting sunk completely.

The fact that human actions have resulted in global warming is beyond any argument. Industrialised nations are largely responsible for such huge rise in average global temperature and therefore the onus on taking larger steps to counter the phenomenon also lies with them. So it is important for the industrialised nations to cut their carbon emissions. At the same time, developing nations like India can’t cut such emission beyond a certain level as it would adversely affect the socio-economic developmental activities of such nations. Therefore the summit on climate change must find out a just proposition to divide the responsibility of fighting climate change among developed and developing countries. The European Union (EU) and the United States have made commitments on reduction of carbon emission. EU has made a legally binding commitment to cut its emissions by 20 percent on 1990 levels by 2020 and has also said that they would increase that to 30 percent if other countries are committed to “comparable actions”. US President Barrack Obama has proposed to cut its emissions by 4 per cent on 1990 levels by 2020, subjected to approval of the US Congress. China has committed to curb its carbon intensity - a measurement of emissions per unit of GDP - by 40 to 45 percent of 2005 levels by 2020, whereas India has said it will cut emissions 20 to 25 percent by 2020. Developing nations must also make pledges to reduce their carbon emission by meaningful and quantifiable levels.

Climate change affects everyone and therefore it is the responsibility of each and everyone to do something to control global warming. It is imperative for all countries of this world to work together in fighting climate change. Social justice demands that rich countries help the poor countries in effectively fighting climate change by providing financial and technical resources to move on to clean energy technologies so that they can also move towards economic development without growing green house gas emissions. This is the time to act and if we fail this time to reach a consensus on reducing global warming and climate change we would leave behind a calamitous planet and a terrible ecosystem for our children and grandchildren to inherit.

25 Years of Unabated Trauma and Denied Justice at Bhopal

Quarter of a century has passed since the worst industrial tragedy this world has ever seen happened in Bhopal, Madhya Pradesh. On the fateful night of 2nd December 1984, the Union Carbide pesticide plant in Bhopal accidentally released methyl isocyanate (MIC) gas killing many and maiming many more. The remnants of the lethal gas can still be seen in the area and water in this area has been contaminated by the toxic wastes.

The official death toll of the Bhopal tragedy is 3,787, but human rights organisations say that actual toll is much higher than the official report. Some estimates even suggest that the number of people killed as a result of the gas leak within 72 hours would be around 8,000-10,000 and 25,000 have since died from gas related diseases. But since 1984, the victims of the tragedy are continuously striving hard for justice, which has evaded them all these 25 years. Warren Anderson, the Chairman and CEO of the Union Carbide at the time of the tragedy, is the “Accused number 1” and faces charges on many counts, including culpable homicide. Before the tragedy occurred, a team from Carbide had studied the condition of the plant and gave a report saying that the security condition of the gas plant is not up to the mark and noted some leaks to the valves and warned of an imminent danger. Mr. Anderson knew that the safety of the plant at Bhopal was far inferior to their plant at West Virginia, US, but still decided against taking measures to increase the security. Immediately after the tragedy he was placed under house arrest, but won release on a promise that he will return to India to stand in trial. Since then, neither Mr. Anderson nor Union Carbide has returned to India to stand trial. After his refusal to heed multiple summonses for trial, an Indian court declared him to be a fugitive from justice in 1992.

The traumatised condition of the victims of the tragedy has become bad to worse. The Indian government sued the company for $3 billion US dollars, but later settled to 15% of that amount. The survivors of the tragedy have been awarded a lifetime average compensation of Rs.25, 000, which is far below the international compensation standards. Even this paltry amount would reach the victims only after long years and after passing through the red tapes of the administration. Still worse, the victims would get the amount only after paying the “dues” to middlemen and touts. At the same time there is no compensation for people who were born with disabilities after the tragedy and for those who have been drinking the contaminated water for all these years.

Due to the unrelenting struggle by the victims of the tragedy and some social and human rights organisations, there have been some efforts in the administration’s side to give away the compensation for the victims. But such struggles haven’t been able to bring Warren Anderson to stand trial in India. The actions taken by the Indian government in doing this has been far from being optimum. In the month of August in 2001, the Attorney-General Soli Sorabjee advised the government against pursuing Mr. Anderson saying that it would be difficult for the Indian government to successfully extradite Anderson from the United States.

Though both the governments in the United States and in India have been less than interested in bringing justice to the people, the courts in India has effectively voiced their concern for the victims of the tragedy; the courts remain the only flicker of hope for the victims of the Bhopal gas tragedy. Various human rights organisations have been working closely with the victims in their struggle to get justice. Justice can be considered to be fully served only if Warren Anderson is made to stand trial in India and till then the struggle of the victims of the tragedy will go on.

World AIDS Day 2009 – Let Us Fight the Pandemic Together

Every year on 1st December, the international community observes the World AIDS Day to raise awareness of the AIDS (Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome) pandemic. According to the World Health Organisation (WHO) report, there are over 33 million people living with HIV / AIDS. The report also shows that more people are living longer because of the availability of drugs.

One of the good news in this otherwise poignant subject is that there is some decline in the number of new HIV infections. The various HIV prevention programmes world over are finding results. In addition to such programmes, the Anti-retroviral therapy has also made a significant impact in reducing the rate of new infection as HIV-positive mothers are increasingly getting the treatment and hence transmission of HIV from such mothers to their children is getting reduced. But even then studies show that the AIDS prevention programmes are often off the mark and if we can do a better job we can make more impact on our fight against this deadly pandemic. According to WHO and UNAIDS, about 2.7 million people have been newly affected with the disease in 2008, which is down 17% over the last eight years and two million people have died in AIDS-related illness till 24th November 2009, the day the report was released. According to WHO Director General Margaret Chan, national and international investments in HIV prevention programmes have yielded concrete and measurable results and therefore this is the time to redouble our efforts to save many more lives.

Based on the annual report of WHO, Eastern Europe, Central Asia, Ukraine and the Russian Federation are facing serious growing national pandemic. In the whole of Europe, Ukraine has the highest infection rate at an adult HIV prevalence higher than 1.6%. In the countries in Eastern Europe and Central Asia people living with HIV in 2008 was 1.5 million, which is 66% higher than in 2001. Since United Nations Declaration of Commitment on HIV/AIDS was signed in 2001, the number of new infections in Sub-Saharan Africa is about 15% lower than before. HIV incidence has declined by 25% in East Asia and by 10% in South and South East Asia in the same period.

According to UN reports there are 2.5 million people in India living with HIV/AIDS; of this 39% are female and 3.5% are children. A report by National AIDS Control Organisation (NACO) in 2008 says that the prevalence rate of HIV /AIDS among adults in India is 0.34%. Various studies suggest that HIV prevalence has reduced in India slightly in the recent years but the epidemic is still growing and causing serious concerns. NACO, along with State AIDS Prevention and Control Societies and various NGOs, is guiding prevention programmes at state, district and village level. Such programmes reach out to health workers, high risk groups, bridge population (people who live in close proximity to high risk groups and therefore are at high risk of contracting the disease) and general people, mainly women.

Several national and international agencies all over the world are waging the war against the growing pandemic of HIV/AIDS. The WHO is taking the lead in this war in the international stage together with another arm of the United Nations, the UNAIDS. National organisations like AIDS Healthcare Foundation in the United States, UK Consortium on AIDS and International Development in the United Kingdom and NACO in India, to name few, are also undertaking AIDS prevention programmes in a bid to prevent the pandemic from booming. Every single individual should do whatever in her/his realm of possibility to increase the awareness about HIV/AIDS and to remove the social stigma attached to the disease. Only by a concerted and sincere effort can we fight against this fatal pandemic and save millions of lives.

Remembering 26/11

Today is the anniversary of 26/11 Mumbai attacks, where ten terrorists from Pakistan ventured into the shores of Mumbai and wreaked havoc. 172 people lost their lives and 293 got injured. The panic it created in the minds of Indians was beyond these numbers; but we as a nation responded courageously, the security forces swung into action and killed 9 terrorists and captured one alive. The assault lasted for long 72 hours, where the whole country was dreadfully watching the television to know the events as they unfolded.

The terrorists went on a killing spree at Chatrapati Shivaji Terminus (CST), Cama Hospital, Leopold Café, the Nariman house, the Oberoi-Trident Hotel and the Taj Mahal Hotel. People from the security forces and laymen died in the attack, but only after giving a good fight back. The bravery shown by ordinary people, including the staff of the Taj and Oberoi hotels is part of the folklore now. Brave men in uniform, with scant regard for their own lives, went on to take on the terrorists and defeated them. Some of these brave men lost their lives while doing their duty and we salute them for their courage and bravery. The courage shown by ordinary Mumbaikars is in itself a matter that deserves huge accolades.

When we Indians are observing the first anniversary of the Mumbai terror attacks, the Pakistani anti-terror court has indicted seven men - Zakiur Rehman Lakhvi (the operations commander of Lashkar-e-Taiba, LeT), Abdul Wajid alias Zarar Shah, Hamad Amin Sadiq, Mazhar Iqbal alias Abu al Qama, Shahid Jamil Riaz, Jamil Ahmed and Younus – for the attack. All these men have pleaded not guilty for the crime. The court proceedings are expected to go on for some months, if not years. In the meantime, the court proceedings against Ajmal Kasab, the lone terrorist captured live by India is also moving on in a slow manner.

Though there were a lot of knee-jerk reactions from people in India, including some political parties, the Indian government showed restraint and didn’t go on for a war with Pakistan. It was a sensible thing to do because had India gone out for a war with Pakistan we would have done exactly what the terrorists wanted from the attack on Mumbai - the destabilising of the region. At the same time the Indian government has been on the offensive ever since using the diplomatic channels by pressurising Pakistan to bring to justice those responsible for the attack on Mumbai. As of now, no credible actions have been taken by the Pakistani government as is expected because of the overt and covert support that the Pakistani ISI has been giving to the terrorists to launch attacks against India.

Since the Mumbai attack last year, there have been no more attacks of that scale till now. But is this a matter for complacency or is it just a lull before the next major strike that the terrorists are planning, we don’t know. But what we know is that we have to beef up the security apparatus in the country. A step in the right place was immediately taken by the government by removing the incompetent minister Shivraj Patil from the Home Ministry and posting the ever-competent P Chidambaram to the post. The no-nonsense attitude of PC has already started to show some results and he is working over time for making sure that the security services in the country are ready to face another eventuality. But he has warned the country that we are still vulnerable to terrorist attacks and therefore has to work ever so faster to close all gaps that are there in the security system of the country. Not only the central government, but also the state governments, public and private organisations as well as ordinary citizens need to be alert and should do everything possible within their realm to increase the security systems in the country.

People in Mumbai were killed by the terrorists irrespective of their religion, race, caste, creed, nationality, gender or the states from which they were coming. Indians from different parts of the country came out in support of the Mumbaikars during their time of grief. NSG commandos from north India came to Mumbai and rescued the city from the clutches of the terrorist and the Mumbaikars gave a great reception to the NSG commandoes after the operation was over. This sense of strong nationality should have opened the eyes of regional chauvinists like the Shiv Sena of Bal Thackeray and the Maharashtra Nava Nirman Sena (MNS) of Raj Thackeray, but unfortunately it hasn’t. Instead they still go ahead with their narrow regionalism and it is up to the people of Mumbai and Maharshtra to teach them a lesson by voting both these parties out of reckoning.

Mumbai is not only the major trade centre in India but also a place that is an avenue for all those who pursue their personal and professional dreams. Mumbai has always been a resilient city and the resilience of the Mumbaikars was made all the more evident by the opening of the Leopold Café only after two days of the Mumbai attacks. And what more, people thronged Leopold Café in such large number to show their support on the opening day that the café had to be closed earlier than normal time on that day as it was not able to meet the demand of the large number of customers. With such show of solidarity the Mumbaikars were telling the terrorist that they may be able to shock them but can’t beat them. On this day, I join in the grief of the bereaved, salute those brave men who lost their lives saving the city and country’s pride and show solidarity with the people of Mumbai.

The Thackeray Brand of Regional Chauvinism

Sachin Tendulkar is perhaps the most loved and admired sports person in India and therefore no sane man in his wits would have the audacity to criticise the great man on his patriotism. And may be after the election reversals, the Shiv Sena Supremo, Bal Thackeray would be finding it difficult to keep a calm mind, otherwise how one can define his outburst against Sachin Tendulkar.

As a reply to a question Tendulkar said this: “Mumbai belongs to India, that’s how I look at it. And I am a Maharashtrian and I am extremely proud of that. But I am an Indian.” A statement any Indian should have been proud about hasn’t gone down well with the ageing leader of Shiv Sena. He criticised Tendulkar for making what he calls a ‘political statement’ and said that he has hurt the sentiments of the ‘Marathi Manoos.’Bal Thackeray has always been the self proclaimed ‘Neta’ of Marathi Manoos and he played the same sort of chauvinism all through his political career. The goons of the Sena have always threatened people and created a sort of ‘Goonda Raj’ in Maharashtra. As if one ‘Sena’ was not enough to create mayhem in the city, Mumbai has got another Sena these days, called the Maharashtra Nava Nirman Sena (MNS) headed by Bal Thackeray’s nephew Raj Thackeray. He created a party of his own when Bal Thackeray overlooked Raj and made his son Udhav the chief of the Shiv Sena.

The Shiv Sena activists resent people calling Bal Thackeray an old man. So I don’t want to tickle the resentful minds of Shiv Sainiks. So the “83 year young” leader of the Sena has been trying to find out an issue to reignite the subject of Marathi pride after the big electoral defeat they faced in Maharashtra. And he got a good subject when Sachin Tendulkar in an interview said India is for all Indians. The Sena chief happily jumped into the scene and criticised Tendulkar and said that Tendulkar has got “run out” in the “pitch of Marathi Manoos” by telling so. He was unaware that by telling so he has got himself out “hit wicket” in the minds of Indians and most importantly, the Marathis. Sachin Tendulkar is one of the greatest sons of Maharashtra and a jewel in Indian conscience. No person in India has ever got away unhurt by criticising Tendulkar personally. It would be a good thing for the Sena chief to remember it if he has some interest in regaining the lost respect of Marathis. As if the tirade was not enough, Samna, newspaper of Shiv Sena, has again come down hard on Tendulkar and said that he has not done any sacrifices for India and Maharashtra and he is not a great Maratha at all.

The goons and thugs of Shiv Sena have attacked the newscentre of CNN IBN in Mumbai and Pune recently. What is interesting is the proud way in which the Sena has taken responsibility of the attack. They have said in a statement that the attack was a natural response of the Shiv Sainiks for the alleged disrespect that the channel showed to Bal Thackeray. The media or the fourth estate is one of the most important pillars of democracy and any attack on the media should be condemned with earnest words and action. Instead, the Shiv Sena, which is a registered political party, has condoned it, which makes it all the more important to proscribe the party and ban it. But the political establishment of this country doesn’t seem to have the courage to do such a thing. So it is up to the common people to give a fitting reply to the Shiv Sena by voting against them in the coming elections as well. But the high number of votes that thuggish parties like Shiv Sena and MNS got in the recent elections should be a matter of worry for all those who believe in the values of democracy.

What people like Bal Thackeray and Raj Thackeray don’t understand is that respect is not earned by violence and brutality. Sachin Tendulkar, the most respected and loved sports person of this country, has earned it through his dedication and commitment to the nation’s cause. The man is widely respected because of his humility and modesty. People like Bal Thackeray are losing the respect they used have among people by such ridiculous utterances. The earlier they understand it, the better.

Tendulkar @ 20 – A Committed Fan’s Heartfelt Tribute

Today, 15 November 2009, its 20 long years since Sachin Tendulkar, the God for a billion people to whom cricket is nothing but a religion, has been wielding a willow and making tons of runs and bringing victories to team India. He was a man destined to win battles single-handedly and bring enormous pleasure to the fans of the game. People rejoiced when he hit the cricket ball to different parts of the ground; they celebrated when he cut and pulled shot balls, when he drove on the rise, when he leaned on to drive the ball through the covers, when he straight drove down the ground, when he swept and reverse swept, when he punched off the backfoot, he flicked through the on side, guided the cricket ball to the third man and when he danced down the track and lofted the bowler down the ground.

The aura of Sachin Ramesh Tendulkar is far beyond the runs he has scored or the wins he gave to the team. It is about the emotion that he brings to the billion people, the expectation, the motivation and the hope. Till he is there in the middle, cricket fans believe that everything is possible, the moment he gets out, the hopes get blown out and people switches off the television sets or move out of cricket grounds. For many of my generation, Cricket has been Sachin Tendulkar, nothing more, nothing less. He has been a role model for a lot of people – not only cricketers but people in all fields and professional backgrounds. He taught us how to fight alone when things are tough and when the circumstances are nothing but favourable. He taught us how to face criticisms and how to behave when things go wrong. He taught us the worth of concentration and values of humility. He taught a generation of Indians the importance of being aggressive yet humble. He never chased milestones; milestones begged him to chase them.

On this occasion of Sachin Tendulkar celebrating his twenty years in International cricket, I dedicate this tribute to the man who is perhaps the greatest icon of my generation. Inarguably, my greatest hero. I salute the great man for his tenacity, his humility, his hard work and his genius and I hope that he will continue for some more years bringing Indians a sense of great achievement through his willow.

CPI (M) Faces Unprecedented Downfall

The by-elections made one thing clear beyond any significant doubt – the CPI (M) is facing an unprecedented downfall in India. People have given a clear mandate against the politics played by the CPI (M); it is another matter whether they will accept the defeat or not. Biman Bose, West Bengal State Secretary accepted it; CPI (M) leader and Kerala Chief Minister, VS Achuthanandan did not.

A strong anti-left wind is blowing in West Bengal owing to the governance failure of the government there and the emergence of the Maoists who are committed in bringing violence in the state. Trinamool Congress Chief Mamata Banerjee is effectively utilising the anti-left wave to her advantage and is not leaving any stone unturned to make sure that the left is losing its hold in the state. Of the 10 assembly seats that went to poll on 7 November, the left front was able to win only in 1 seat, where Forward Bloc won. The major party in the left front, CPI (M), lost in all 5 seats that they contested. They got their greatest blow when they lost in East Belgachia, a seat hold for many years by late Subhas Chakravarty, which was contested this time by his wife. The losses have made the left front more vulnerable than ever before, where some ministers and party leaders have already asked for dissolving the assembly and go for early polls. One of the coalition partners in the Left Front, Socialist party, raised the issue through their leader and Fisheries Minister Kironmoy Nanda. Other coalition partners like CPI, RSP and Forward Bloc said that the issue will be discussed in the next meeting of the left front.

Land struggles in Nandigram and Singur have had a great impact in the imminent fall of the 33 year old edifice of Communist government in West Bengal. The chaos over Tata’s Singur plant had been instrumental in bringing an anti-government feeling in the state. It was very skilfully exploited by Mamata Banerjee and her TMC. The Maoists who are spread over various states in the Country, known as the “red corridor”, have been very active in the state of West Bengal. Though only in three districts do the Maoists have strong hold, they are violently active in the state and have been instrumental in creating a strong anti-government sentiment in the state. The left government in WB is caught in a predicament between controlling the Maoists and containing anti-government sentiment among the public.

In Kerala, the situation is entirely different where the heavy loss faced by the Left Front in the Parliament election and the by-polls is mainly because of the inability of the government in providing good governance in the state. Adding to their woes is the general arrogance displayed by the various leaders of the party. By their diatribes against Bishops of the Catholic Church, the CPI (M) leaders, headed by State Secretary Pinarayi Vijayan, have distanced the Christian community from them. The general governance in the state is dismal, the law and order situation is pathetic and the development efforts are in a moribund state. Another feature of the CPI (M) in Kerala is their inability to accept that they have faulted in various fields. Instead they are still going on criticising the media and threatening the individual voices that have raised genuine concerns. (In this regard it would be sensible to note the life threatening mail that I recently got from one of the anonymous cadres of the CPI (M) – someone with an email id priyaprem90@gmail.com for criticising the party policies)

Some left front leaders in the state have made pledges that they will bring about a big change in the style of governance in the state in the next 15 months. They feel that, by doing so, they can resurrect their ailing fortune before the general assembly election that is due in 2011. The state committee of CPI (M) is meeting now in Trivandrum where they are supposed to discuss the rectification document made by the Polit Bureau that is intended to overcome shortcomings within the party and to remove the “wrongs” at all levels of the party.

It is imperative for the party, in the national level and state level, to change the status quo and bring back communist norms and values to the party leaders and cadres, if they have to have some realistic chances of regaining lost ground in the country. They should also accept the fact that the political strategies initiated by their leaders like Prakash Karat at the national level and Pinarayi Vijayan and Budhadev Bhattacharjee in the state level, have all resulted in fiasco. It would also be good, if the party discuss the reasons why they are not able to become a strong force in the various states of the country, other than West Bengal, Kerala and Tripura, in all these decades, where as certain parties with less historical backgrounds have become forces to reckon with. In this regard, the CPI (M) would do good to study the growth of BJP as a national party within two decades of its formation.

I Take a Bow to the Little Master for Crossing 17,000 in ODIs

I take a bow and congratulate the Little Master, Sachin Tendulkar, for crossing the landmark of 17,000 One Day International runs, first ever in the history of International Cricket. His epic innings of 141 balls 175 (19x4, 4x6) against his most favourite rivals, the Aussies, was a treat to watch. By tragic twist of fate he was not able to convert his record making innings into a match winning innings, as the all too familiar saga of Tendulkar single-handedly fighting the battle for India on a cricket field ended up in a failure. But whatever the outcome of the match, the legend of Sachin Tendulkar moves on and on. Keep going Sachin, even after 20 long years, we are not done with seeing your genius wielding a willow and letting opponents do the leather chase.

(Photo courtesy: AFP)

Afghanistan’s Election Drama Comes to an End

As Abdullah Abdullah has withdrawn from the Presidential election runoff that was set for November 7, we can safely presume that Afghanistan’s election drama is finally coming to an end. Abdullah quitted the runoff in protest over, what he believes, the ‘biased attitude’ of the Independent Election Commission (IEC). It is widely believed that the IEC appointed by Mr. Hamid Karzai had been instrumental in the election rigging that put Karzai ahead of Abdullah in the Presidential election held in August.

The NATO, particularly the United States, was hoping to bring in a legitimate President in Afghanistan to gain some advantage in the losing battle there with the Taliban and other insurgents. But the Presidency that Hamid Karzai got after an election fraud by IEC, which was corroborated by U.N.-supported Election Complaint Commission (ECC), can hardly bring in any legitimacy. Karzai also has the dubious distinction of being a President who has two Vice- Presidents who are said to be a drug baron and a war criminal respectively. The withdrawal of Abdullah from the runoff is widely seen as another US attempt to convince the world that Afghanistan has got an elected government. In Afghanistan, Hamid Karzai is seen is a person with no support base and a person more close to the Americans than to fellow Afghans.

It is highly probable that Abdullah has withdrawn from the Presidential runoff under the behest of the United States. By doing so the US would be counting on Abdullah as a future candidate for Afghan Presidency, if things fail to work out with Karzai as expected. The United States is in such a quagmire and dire confusion, both politically and militarily, that they are not sure about the right strategies that they need to follow in Afghanistan. In the domestic political scene, things are getting difficult for Barack Obama and the Democrats. The Republicans are asking for a very high surge in US military presence in Afghanistan, which Obama doesn’t believe in. At the same time he is mulling over increasing the US military presence in Afghanistan by 15,000. With the electoral victory of Governorship by their candidates in Virginia and New Jersey, the Republicans would become more assertive than before. So it has become imperative for Barack Obama to take some steps to increase his popularity.

The incumbent President of Afghanistan, Hamid Karzai will have his task cut out in his second consecutive term in the office. The rising corruption and lack of effective governance are the two most important factors that he has to worry about. But to make amends in both these areas, he has to make some changes in his current administration. Moreover, his political rival, Abdullah would be breathing down his neck, which was made evident by Abdullah’s speech on 4th November, where he said that he is determined to continue his struggle for the betterment of the people of Afghanistan. Hamid Karzai would be looking forward to a reconcilement with Abdullah by stitching a coalition with Abdullah’s party. But with the high moral standing that Abdullah has acquired, by his protest against vote rigging by Karzai, he would not be thinking about it.

It would be interesting to watch how things turn out in the political drama in Afghanistan in the coming days. India, which is having a high stake in the stability of Afghanistan, along with Pakistan, Iran, China and Russia, would be watching things closely. So would be the NATO and particularly the United States.

I Mourn the Sad Demise of David Shepherd

David Shepherd, one of the most loved umpires in International Cricket, passed away after a long battle with cancer, at the age of 68. The English man officiated in 92 tests and 172 ODIs, including three consecutive World Cup Finals - 1996, 1999, 2003. Known for his dislike for Nelson figures, (111, 222,333 etc.) where he used to hop between deliveries when the Nelson figure came as the score, ‘Shep’, as he was widely known, was a congenial umpire who always had a smile on his face. He played first class cricket for Gloucestershire from 1965 to 1979 and made 10,672 runs. His final test as an umpire was the test between Pakistan and West Indies in 2005 in Jamaica. May his soul rest in peace.

Worsening India-China Relationship

For last couple of decades the trade relationship between India and China is on the rise and now China is India’s biggest trade partner. But since the Sino-Indian war of 1962, the relationship between the governments of the two countries is far from being cordial. The relationship has been marked by a superficial engagement with an underlying sense of mutual distrust and suspicion. Chinese government’s recent protest on Indian Prime Minister’s visit to Arunachal Pradesh has worsened the relationship between the two countries.

China has been adamant in not acknowledging the de facto boundary between India and China demarcated by the British and claims that the entirety of Arunachal Pradesh is part of China and calls it South Tibet. The refuge provided by India to the Tibetan religious leader Dalai Lama and his ‘Government in exile’ has always been a thorn in the relationship between the two countries. Yet in the recent years there had been a sort of softening of rhetoric from the Chinese side on the border issue; but suddenly they have come up with an official stand against India’s long held position on the issue of Arunachal Pradesh being a part of the Indian republic. Analysts believe that the sudden change in the China’s attitude towards India is perhaps because of their increasing military and economic prowess vis-à-vis India.

It is not only the Arunachal Pradesh issue that is causing damage to the Sino-India relationship. India is also miffed at China’s offer to Pakistan on building a dam in the Pakistan occupied Kashmir territory. Last month, Pakistan and China signed a memorandum of understanding to build the US $ 12.6 billion Diamir-Bhasha dam on the Indus river in Pak occupied Kashmir, PoK. China has been a great ally of Pakistan and has been supplying investment and technology know-how to Pakistan including missile technology and weapons. Since the 1962 Sino-Indian war, China has been aligning themselves more and more to Pakistan in a bid to confront their ‘common enemy’, India.

It is not only to Pakistan that China is expanding their influence, but also to Nepal. China and Nepal find common ground in being nations leaning towards Communism. But India can passively watch growing influence of China in Nepal only at its on peril. The outrageous geopolitical ambition that China has on India’s neighbours should be countered effectively otherwise there is every chance that India would lose its position as a major economic power in the Indian subcontinent. Growing Chinese influence on Nepal would be a security threat to India in the long run.

India needs to aggressively pursue its foreign policy if it has to sustain any ambition of becoming one of the major economic power houses of the world. It must be noted that such an aggressive pursuance of foreign policy looks bleak from the present Indian Foreign Minister, SM Krishna. He is rather reactive than proactive, a characteristic feature not desirable for a Foreign Minister. As of now, it seems that the Indian foreign affairs machinery is rather obsessed with its relationship with the United States. There is less importance given to other countries, especially our neighbours like Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Nepal, Myanmar and China. Pakistan is enhancing its foothold on Sri Lanka and is leaving no stone unturned to improve their traditional relationship with China. India has almost forgotten Nepal and Myanmar and its engagement in Afghanistan is only because of the US interest in having India’s involvement in that country. These are all ominous signs for a country of India’s stature.

The border issue is not the only subject on which China has shown its inclination towards countering India. In colluding with Pakistan, China has been lodging its protest against the India-US nuclear deal, especially after Barack Obama came to power in the US. Moreover China has been working against India’s bid to become a permanent member of the United Nations Security Council (UNSC). China also tried to block the Asian Development Bank loan to build a dam in Arunachal Pradesh. What has agitated India recently was China’s act of providing visa to people from Kashmir in a separated sheet of paper, saying that Kashmir is a disputed territory. China recently denied providing visa to people from Arunachal Pradesh and said that those people don’t need visa to come to China as they are Chinese.

Media on both sides of the border has got a great say in the present condition of India-China relationship. The media in the Chinese side, particularly the official media, has been highly critical of India. In one of the recent articles in Chinese Communist party’s official newspaper, People’s Daily, there had been an article criticising India and its global ambitions. (Find that article here at http://english.people.com.cn/90001/90780/91343/6783357.html) There is a sort of diatribe against India, its colonial past and its alleged ambition to become a super power thwarting the aspirations of its other neighbours. At the same time, when Indian media alleged that China has increased its incursions in the eastern border of India, the Indian government accused the media of blowing things out of proportion and warned legal actions against the media. The official governmental stance was that there had been no “significant increase” in the Chinese incursions as reported by the media. That would certainly mean that the government is accepting that there have been continuous Chinese incursions along the eastern border of India all these years.

One of the most remarkable things about the recent India-China spat was the absence of any remarks from any of the CPI (M) leaders in India. Normally known for their rhetoric on any thing related to Indian foreign policy, may it be the Indo-US nuclear deal, the ASEAN pact or the climate change policy, they have been conspicuous with their absence in making remarks. And again that is not a surprise because the CPI (M) in India has always been a self-proclaimed supporter of Chinese Communist Party and the Chinese government. Even the split in the Communist Party of India in 1964 was basically because of the party’s support for China during the Sino-Indian war of 1962. (Find more about Indian Communist Party's controversial stand on India-China war of 1962 at Wikipedia)

It is in the common interest of both India and China to bridge the divide as soon as possible. Both countries have to find areas where they can work together and try to solve all outstanding issues, including border disputes, through dialogue and abstain from making outrageous remarks that would further worsen the already diminished cordial relationship between the two countries.

Nobel Prize for Peace, Literature and Economics

Nobel Prize for Peace for the year of 2009 has been conferred to the President of the United States, Barack Obama. He is the third incumbent US President after Theodore Roosevelt in 1906 and Woodrow Wilson in 1919 to bag the Nobel Peace Prize. (Former US President Jimmy Carter won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2002) According to the Norwegian Nobel Committee the prize has been given to him for his "extraordinary efforts to strengthen international diplomacy and cooperation between peoples.” The Nobel Committee gave great importance to his nuclear weapons free world view. He was honoured for his role in creating a new climate for international politics where conflict resolution is predominantly expected to be done using dialogues and negotiations. The Nobel Committee also lauded Obama’s initiatives towards climate change whereby the United States has vowed to take more active steps towards reducing green house gas emissions. The audacity of hope that Obama brings to the world has been instrumental in him gaining the most coveted prize for peace. Obama’s famous speech at Cairo, made to jettison the lack of faith that the Muslim world has for the intentions and actions of the United States, was also counted. Nobel Committee’s decision to award Barack Obama the peace prize should be seen as a call to action and an encouragement for his activities in the realm of international diplomacy.

Romanian-born, German novelist, essayist and poet Herta Muller bagged the Noble Prize for Literature. According to the Nobel Committee, the prize is given to Muller “who, with the concentration of poetry and the frankness of prose, depicts the landscape of the dispossessed." Her writings depicted the harsh living conditions of Communist Romania under the tyrannical Nicolae Ceauşescu regime. She faced death threats at her native Romania as she refused to cooperate and become an informant to the Romanian secret police when she was working as a teacher. Muller immigrated to Germany in 1987 and since then has been involved in the international literary field. Her novel Der Fuchs war damals schon der Jäger, published in English as The Passport, has been a runaway success and has received great critical acclaim. She is also a recipient of Germany's most prestigious, the Kleist prize.

The Nobel Prize for Economics for the year 2009 has been shared by Elinor Ostrom of Indiana University and Oliver E. Williamson of the University of California, Berkeley for their individual studies on economic governance. According to the Nobel Committee, Elinor Ostrom is awarded "for her analysis of economic governance, especially the commons" and Oliver Williamson "for his analysis of economic governance, especially the boundaries of the firm." Elinor Ostrom is the first lady to receive the Nobel Prize for Economics since the prize was established in 1969. Economics predominantly studies how economic transactions happen in market place. But economic activities happen in other place like associations, households, within firms etc. Though economic theories have always given great importance to virtues and vices of market places, they gave less importance to other institutional arrangements. The individual studies done by Ostrom and Williamson show that economic analysis can shed light on almost all social organisations. By awarding Elinor Ostrom and Oliver Williamson, the Nobel Committee seems to be placing forward the idea that economic theories and researches should go beyond the conventional studies on market mechanics and should try to answer more complex sociological questions of human life.

(Information courtesy: Press release available at www.nobelprize.org)

Nobel Prize 2009 for Science for People Who Worked for the Mankind

I have been away from blogging for some days as I was a bit pre-occupied with some domestic works. But what a great way it would be to mark a come back to blogging by writing about some great people who used science to the larger benefit of the mankind. Nobel Prizes for Medicine, Physics and Chemistry for the year 2009 have been announced and I would like to take a look at the works of those eminent scientists that earned them the Noble Prize.

Nobel Prize for Medicine has been shared by Drs. Elizabeth H. Blackburn of University of California, San Francisco, Carol W. Greider of Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Baltimore and Jack W. Szostak of Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston. They received the Nobel for the study of chromosome; about how they are copied in a complete way and how they are protected against degradation. With their studies the Nobel Laureates have found out that the reason for the phenomenon can be found out at the ends of the chromosomes – telomeres and by an enzyme named telomerase that creates the telomeres. From their findings it was understood that when telomeres are shortened, the cells age and if the telomerase activity is high, telomere length is maintained and cell death will be delayed. The eternal life of cancer cells is because the telomerase activity is high and hence the cells keep on growing. At the same time, some inherited diseases are because of defected and shortened telomeres that result in damaging of cells. This discovery has major impact in the future studies on finding medicines for cancer treatment and on the treatment of some of the inherited diseases found in human beings.

Charles K. Kao of Chinese University of Hong Kong, Willard S. Boyle and George E. Smith, both of Bell Laboratories, Murray Hill, US have shared the Nobel Prize for Physics for their inventions that tapped the potential of light. Charles Kao was awarded for his studies of optical fibres that are now used in the field of communication. The digital age and the Internet owe a great deal to the invention of Charles Kao. According to the Kao a ray of light that is directed into a fibre, bounces against the glass walls and will move forward since the refractive index of glass is higher than that of the surrounding air. Today telephone and data communication flows through network of optical glass fibre all around the world that would account to about 1 billion km. The information revolution that we see around us is largely due to this contribution of Charles Kao in the field of Physics. Willard Boyle and George Smith are awarded for their invention of digital image sensor – the Charged Coupled Device or the CCD. It is the technology with which we use the digital cameras for capturing high quality images and in the digital transfer of images. This technology is widely used in images taken in the space using space telescopes and in the transfer of images from distant objects.

The Nobel Laureates for Chemistry include Ada E. Yonath of Weizmann Institute of Science, Rehovot, Thomas A. Steitz of Yale University, New Haven and Venkatraman Ramakrishnan of MRC Laboratory, Cambridge, and they are rewarded for mapping the ribosome, the cell’s own protein factory. Every living organism, from bacteria to human beings has ribosome in them and no living creature can live without them. Hence they are perfect targets for drugs and antibiotics mainly attack the ribosomes of bacteria and leave alone those of human beings. Therefore the studies of the Nobel Laureates, of mapping the ribosomes at the atomic level, will give a great impetus to the discovery of new drugs. Many bacteria have become resistant to antibiotics and this provides a great challenge to the medical field. The mapping of the ribosomes will therefore help in the creation of antibiotics that would surpass the resistance of the bacteria. The studies done by the Noble Laureates will go a long way in understanding how life’s core processes function and in finding new antibiotics against various diseases that afflict mankind.

(Information courtesy: Press release available at www.nobelprize.org)

A Tribute to Norman Borlaug – The Greatest Fighter Against Hunger

On 13 September, Norman Borlaug, the agriculture scientist who revolutionised agriculture production in the world passed away at Dallas, Texas at the age of 95. He is the only agriculture scientist to receive the Nobel Prize for Peace, which he won in 1970. Borlaug’s research in plant breeding led to quantum jump in agricultural production all over the world, which resulted in reducing hunger in many countries.

Norman Borlaug always denied accepting the title “Father of Green Revolution” and continued with his research and teaching. While working in Mexico in 1950, with Rockefeller foundation Funding, Norman Borlaug crossbred a dwarf strain of wheat, which when treated with fertilizers and pesticides produced far greater quantities of high quality seeds. His discovery was later commercially applied in Mexico in 1956 and the resultant harvest was six times better than the previous harvests. Borlaug’s new variety of seeds was introduced in South Asia in the 1960s, particularly in India and Pakistan. In those times both these countries were reeling under pressures of increasing population, stagnating agriculture production and recurring monsoon failures.

When we understand that he chose his career path of fighting world hunger by sacrificing a promising and lucrative job at DuPont, the world famous chemical company, we won’t be able to help but wonder about the greatness of the man. He is thus a role model for people to walk away from lucrative jobs and submit their lives for the society and the underprivileged people of this world. He launched an absolute assault on hunger with his insatiable appetite for research and incomparable hard work. Borlaug called on students of agriculture to head towards working in agricultural fields than staying at research labs.

Norman Borlaug’s humanistic spirit and never-say-die attitude helped millions of people, all around the world, to stay away from hunger and deprivation. A real tribute to him would be for people to carry his legacy forward and continue his struggle against lower agriculture production and hunger because even now a billion people the world over are malnourished. Norman Borlaug, whom MS Swaminathan described as “the greatest hunger-fighter for all time” was one of those rare men who dedicated their lives to the elimination of hunger, poverty and inequality.

The Peculiar Living - Life of a Temporarily Handicapped Man

In serious conversations and not so serious conversations, people used and re-used the expression “life is a journey” and converted it into a sort of a cliché. The expression being a cliché is not at all a reason for us to overlook its importance. For all human beings, life is nothing but a journey from the moment we enter this world from a mother’s womb crying, to the moment we get back to the bosom of mother earth making others cry. And we all are moving swiftly, without any time to rest or to look back. But I must confess that because of the accident that happened to me recently, I got some valuable time off from my all other mundane pre-occupations.

Accidents are inarguably terrible incidents; particularly so if they result in demise of human beings or if they result in the permanent amputation of their limbs. But fortunately, the accident that I met up with was rather mild and it made me only temporarily incapacitated – making my right hand to stay inside, what is called an “arm-bag”, for a month or so. And that invariably meant I had to have quite a boring life, without working on computers, bike riding, car driving, park trotting or dull sleeping. (For sleeping was a very difficult task as it always resulted in a change in the “optimum” position my hand should be kept for lesser pain) So all in all it was a peculiar living, different from the sort of life that I had been living till then.

The news of I meeting up with an accident spread like wildfire and there had been an array of phone calls from different parts of the world. And some people, being unsatisfied by the news that they heard through phone, turned up personally to meet me. There had been concerned inquiries from sisters and brothers, uncles and aunts, friends and relatives, neighbours and acquaintances. I almost got bored on explaining to people how I met up with the accident. Yet some others, who came to know about the incident lately, complained for not letting them know about it as soon as it happened, as if it was something of a newsworthy item which I decided not to advertise because of my perceived disregard for publicity of my temporary handicap.

It was some sort of a peculiar living that I lived for about a month or so. I was rendered so much incapacitated that the only logical thing to be done, left to me, was thinking, or as some would call it, day dreaming, though I would prefer to call it the former. It was the time that I got to reflect upon the life that I have lived, to take stock of the various experiences that I had, the various relationships that I had kept and I’ve been keeping and the various ways in which I had responded to people, situations and challenges that came my way. The first thing that came to mind was of course the audacity of the dog, which jumped into my way and brought me down with my bike, which resulted in my temporary handicap. So I was cogitating how differently I would have behaved if I had had the occasion to see the dog sitting across the road, knitting sinister designs of jumping on to my way and creating mayhem.

For one month my right hand was so much incapacitated that even moving it an inch was becoming a very huge and painful task. Eating food with the right hand was almost impossible that my mother took that task herself and I apparently got back to a situation similar to my childhood days, where feeding me food was almost always a task that my mother undertook solely. It made me once again realize that any food, however insipid it may be, would taste as piquant as piquant would be, if given by a mother with her divine hands. Yet some of us, when we grow up and become capable of standing on our own feet, jettison our mothers and abandon them to the mercy of fate and nature, under some fit of outrageous recklessness.

Reading was also rendered difficult by my incapacitated right hand, which was finding its rest in an annoying arm-bag, but yet I found some courage do that with my left hand. So there was some sort of a reading spree from Hemingway to Yeats and from Dickens to Wordsworth. Thus once again I got my hand on Dickens’ A Tale of Two Cities, which like all other of his books, had the touch of his amazing narrative. I have discovered, yet again that one can’t finish off reading even one page of his book without referring the dictionary at least twice. Dickens will make you really wonder about the strength of your vocabulary, every single time you venture into reading his works.

The story of my “injured” days will not be complete if I fail to write about a lady who has, quite literally, helped me get back to normalcy. She was the lady who did physiotherapy for me and helped me with those exercises that have helped me to regain the strength of my right hand. Isn’t it a true statement, if I take my chance to say that a pretty lady is a positive thing only for a romantic beholder, but if that same lady is talented in her profession, it would be beneficial for the whole society? She was one of those most amazing people in whom beauty and professional expertise found their near-perfect combination. She is someone who would have been living about two and a half decades of her life in this world. The chain on her neck, with a cross in it, has shown clearly that she is an ardent believer of Lord Jesus. She had her curly hair nicely tied behind using a band and hair-slides going all across her hair in a zigzag manner to maintain the exact form in which she wanted them to stay. She always placed her small, black bindi exactly in between two of her eyebrows in such a meticulous way that it was difficult not to doubt whether she always used some measurement devices to find the exact middle position in between those eyebrows to place her bindi. The bracelet on her hand and the skin of her hand indulged themselves in a sort of competition in a bid to outshine each other. When the incandescent light bulbs were switched on, her shadow that they made on the floor was picturesque. When her eyes were filled up with tears, probably as a result of a rebuke by some doctor, she looked more beautiful than ever before, which made me think that even though a weeping girl is a shame for the person who made her weep and for those people who behold that and one should invariably do everything to prevent that, it brings on a bizarre enhancement to a lady’s beauty as was evident from what I saw in her. If Keats would have seen her, he would have yelled, yet again that, “a thing of beauty is a joy for ever”; if Dickens would have got an occasion to see her, for explaining her, he would have used exactly the same expression, “tenderly beautiful”, that he had used to explain Lucie Manette; on beholding her, Yeats would have been very happy to find someone with “little snow white feet,” exactly like his own sweet heart. This genteel lady had the grace, elegance, nobility, integrity and all the other virtues that one normally associates with a traditional Indian woman, the Bharathiya Nari. For my two months of “injured” life, she was perhaps my best friend, whom I have seen the most, to whom I have spoken the most. In those months I have started to have such a bond with her that it seems quite difficult to put that easily into oblivion. She was such a beautiful, talented, yet a simple lady, that she would have bowled over many a young, bachelor heart, and I was no exception. (This same liberty to get bowled over by the beauty of a pretty lady is perhaps the greatest bliss of bachelorhood.) When I venture outside my home, I feel like I am seeing her and meeting up with her everywhere I go - on the streets, at the park, at restaurants, on shopping malls and among mobs – standing with her kind countenance and with that comforting smile on her face that had blown away pains and agonies of patients and had sunk their anguishes and apprehensions into a sea of comfort. As now I am back to my normal life, with my right hand working the same way it was working before the accident, I thankfully recognise and understand that she perhaps had the greatest part in it and would use this article as a praise and an accolade to her and wish her that her professional excellence may continue to be a boon to many more patients that come her way.

Now, as I reach the peroration of my discourse, I must note that one month of bed rest after the accident, has made me more logical, coherent and rational; while in the past, I had been, at times, an insolent, impertinent and officious bloke, who poked his nose into others’ affairs, unsolicited, thinking that I am doing a big service to them. That one month also marked my evolution as a commentator of current affairs as I got my first “death threatening” mail (if it is by any sense a sign that my articles are becoming effective and are reaching far off places) from an anonymous, silly chap with an email id priyaprem90@gmail.com, from somewhere in the Middle East, expatiating upon the severe consequences that I may face if I continue with my “tirade” on his party leaders, he being furious on one of my “controversial” articles about the leaders of a particular political party. (So that apparently means, if you people find me mowed down by some unknown vehicle or stabbed by some mysterious gang, then you certainly have an email id to inform the Police to start off the investigation) I am extremely happy to publish this blogpost of mine, after two long months of painful obscurity and I undertake to write as often as before, provided I am not harmed or killed by our anonymous, yet courageous friend, priyaprem90@gmail.com, who has vowed to do so.

Am a Leaf

“Am a leaf, floating lonely in the river,

No dreams of delight, no perils to quiver,

No desires or unrequited love to bother,

But an eternal morose on my mother.”

So whispered the lanky Sacred Knight,

In the graveyard, on a monsoon night,

And gazed he at the star spangled sky,

As if to tell the meteors passing by,

A story by no means he told in the past,

All of a sudden decided to tell at last.

Then when he told his tearful tale,

All those listened grew sad and pale,

The deceased souls, the desolate night,

All felt grief on poor Knight’s blight.

They asked why thus far he failed to tell,

And chose to squander chances to quell,

Woeful memories besmirched with pain,

And paved paths for loneliness to reign.

To that question he answered thus,

In a rueful sound, yet with no fuss.

“To tell I had often longed and longed,

And did tell some women who thronged,

But they, in their days of youthful thrill,

Didn’t fathom why I am weeping shrill,

And never reckoned my emotive grace,

Left me orphaned in absolute disgrace.

Albeit sombre, I am still firm and brave,

Hence never choose to rant or rave,

Cold winters don’t make me shiver,

Am a leaf, floating lonely in the river."

(This is my first rhyming poem. Dedicated to my father who would have been extremely pleased to read this one.)

Proudly Sharing My Birthday with William Butler Yeats

On the same day that I emerged into this world, but one hundred and seventeen years back, was born one of English literature’s greatest exponents, William Butler Yeats. He is considered as one of the greatest poets of the 20th century and was awarded the Nobel Prize for literature in the year 1923. He was also an Irish nationalist, dramatist, prose writer and a believer in eastern mysticism. It was with great amusement that I found out, of late, that my most favourite poet was born exactly on the same date as I.

William Butler Yeats was born on 13th June, 1865 in Dublin, Ireland. His father, John Butler Yeats was a well known painter and his mother Susan Mary Pollexfen came from a rich Anglo-Irish family in Sligo. In 1885, Yeats’ first set of poems was published in Dublin University Review. It was in 1889 that WB Yeats met Maud Gonne, a young heiress who had dedicated her life to Irish nationalist movement. Yeats developed an infatuation and a great love towards Maud Gonne and he proposed her, but she refused as she thought Yeats to be a lesser revolutionary than what she was. As is the case with many poets, Yeats also gained a lot of ‘inspiration’, if you can call it so, from his lost love. There onwards this incident had a great impact on his poems and the world should be grateful to Maud Gonne for refusing Yeats’ proposal because if she had not done that we would have never got such great poems from this great Irishman.

To all those people who have been in love for a long time but haven’t got it reciprocated from the other side, Yeats gave his advice thus,

O do not love too long, Or you will grow out of fashion, Like an old song.

Yeats was so much upset with his lost love that in almost all his poems we can see a glimpse of his disappointment. In what is considered as one of the greatest love poems ever written in the English language, “He Wishes for the Cloths of Heaven”, Yeats said,

I, being poor, have only my dreams;

I have spread my dreams under your feet;

Tread softly because you tread on my dreams.

WB Yeats believed that his love for Maud Gonne was a very sincere one. But in the latter part of his life he had the conviction that Maud Gonne had never taken his love seriously. He came to understand that though his love for Ms. Gonne was a sincere one, she never had the same feeling for him. As a reply to, what he considered as her infidelity, Yeats later wrote,

She bid me take love easy, as the leaves grow on the tree;

But I, being young and foolish, With her did not agree.

She bid me take life easy, as the grass grows on the weirs;

But I was young and foolish, And now am full of tears.

Though he was rather passionate about the beauty of Maud Gonne in his youthful days, he became more aware of the futility of beauty in his old age. In his poem “A Prayer for my Daughter” he brought out his scepticism about extreme beauty, as he believed that if someone is extremely beautiful, there is a chance for that person to get obsessed with beauty and lose his/her natural kindness. He said,

Being made beautiful overmuch,

Consider beauty a sufficient end,

Lose natural kindness and maybe

The heart-revealing intimacy

That chooses right, and never find a friend.

Yeats also had other shades to his personality. He was a revolutionary and stood for Irish nationalism and had been appointed in the Irish Senate in the year 1922. In his poem named “The Second Coming” he represents the political condition of his times in the words,

Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world,

The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere

The ceremony of innocence is drowned;

The best lack all conviction, while the worst

Are full of passionate intensity.

Yeats died on 28 January, 1939 and his tomb is at Drumcliffe, County Sligo, Ireland. I would consider this to be a small introduction to the poetry of WB Yeats and to all those poem enthusiasts out there, I would recommend to read Yeats. Anyways I am extremely proud and feel privileged to share my birthday with William Butler Yeats. Two other great men who share the same birthday are the Communist intellectual EMS and one of the greatest Malayalam satirist-writer, Mannikoth Ramunni Nair a.k.a. Sanjayan.

(Republished from Vox SEO, the SEO writing forum in Calpine Technologies)

Come on Pinarayi; Face it in the Court Man

The SFI chaps and the DYFI blokes were having a very bad and boring time for quite some time, in fact for the last three years. And it is always so when the LDF is ruling the state of Kerala, as there will be no government actions to become offended about, no government policy to feel hurt about or no government initiative to be angry upon. Their government, their policies and hence a life without boisterous onslaughts on public property or hostile slogans on the “irresponsible” government; certainly a boring and dull life for the young comrades. But suddenly everything changed; the Governor gave CBI the approval to prosecute Pinarayi Vijayan, their greatest leader, on the SNC Lavalin Case. And this was a sort of opportunity that they were looking for. Cometh the hour, cometh the brave comrades.

One of the questions that is in the mind of us Malayalees is that if Pinarayi is really innocent, why are the party and himself so much keen on avoiding going to the court. Even if we accept that this case is a politically motivated one where the Congress Government in the centre used the CBI to come up with such a case, is it not the responsibility of the CPI (M) to prove such a conspiracy? And there are some good reasons for us to believe that the Congress government at the centre has used its leverage on the CBI for putting up cases against their political opponents. But this is not something new and is a clear truth of our system. Whoever comes to government will use governmental machineries against their rivals.

The CPI (M) now argues that the Governor has no right to decline the opinion of the cabinet ministers and therefore his decision to approve prosecution against Pinarayi is unconstitutional. This is because the cabinet ministers, after getting advice from the Advocate General, gave their suggestion to the Governor that there is no prima facie case against Pinarayi and hence there is no need to prosecute him. One just can’t miss the irony here. A cabinet headed by CPI (M) ministers deciding whether to prosecute their own party secretary or not. This is as if the accused himself making judgement whether he is the culprit or not. Can we expect any other suggestion than the one that was given by the cabinet ministers? And they say that they made the decision based on the advice given by the Advocate General and that they haven’t decided by themselves. Come on men, just think about the accusation you throw against your opposition before coming up with such a foolish proposition. You argue that the Congress government at the centre influenced the CBI for concocting a case against Pinarayi. So if we go by that argument, if the Government at centre can influence an organisation like CBI, can’t the state government headed by the CPI (M) members influence the Advocate General to come up with an opinion that suits it? That means there is no steam in that argument and hence we Malayalees who are more intelligent that what you politicians think we are and want us to be, reject the argument and jettison it completely.

Now the rule that you need the approval of the Governor for giving charge sheet to a minister or ex-minister is in itself a stupid rule. The governor is supposed to act based on the advice of the council of ministers and if the council of ministers is from the party of the person in question, the advice of the cabinet will certainly be in line with what happened in this case. So until and unless you have a set of politicians who think and behave in a more moral way, which is anyways not the case in our society, corruption cases on ministers and ex-ministers will have the same fate as that of this case.

For some time I want to be on the side of Mr. Pinarayi and want to reassure him and want to tell him that there is no need for him to worry. He should not worry about going to the court and then if found guilty, go to the jail as there has never been an instance in India where a politician got to the jail on account of corruption. Because our judicial system is so slow and malleable that it has always found it impossible to prove any politician guilty of corruption. So Pinarayi should have no qualms about going to the court. And again as you and your party men claim, you have been a brave comrade all your life with no fear of even walking through the dark streets in Kannur where there had been knife wielding opponents lurking in the dark. And secondly, even if the court declares that you are guilty, you can still make your party agitate against the judiciary, as has been the case always whenever there had been some judgements against the wishes of the party.

These days CPI (M) is hell bent to put all blame for its fiasco on the media. The party is saying that there is some media syndicate that is working to reduce the party to a thing of the past; saying that behind all these issues, there is the hand of the United States and other colonialist forces. In spite of all these doubts, the party has not been able to prove any if these things with ample proof. So it seems that the whole party is facing a sort of psychological problem called paranoia, where they feel that no one could be trusted and everyone around them are trying to kill them, kill the party. Or if it is not this disorder, then the party leaders in Kerala think that they are on par with great socialist leaders like Fidel Castro and Ernesto ‘Che’ Guevara and hence the United States is after them and trying to finish them off.

Now coming back to the SFI kids, or say men. I had been the member of the SFI in University College and had participated in the so called “agitations against injustice.” And for that matter, everyone in the college was an SFI member, because party memberships were imposed on anyone and everyone with a nominal fee of Re.1. Of course it never mattered whether you have given the fee or not, the big hearted leaders of the party never asked for the nominal fee. Anyways being an ex member of the SFI, I am pretty happy to know that my new comrades have got a great opportunity to get to the streets and do whatever they like.