The Uncertain Future of India-Pakistan-Iran Pipeline DMji,

The only positive outcome of the ongoing Iran nuclear issue is that we`ll not go ahead with the pipeline. Pakistan is hard put to secure its own vital installations in Baluchistan. It would be madness to assume that the pipeline would not be sabotaged with/without the blessings of government in that country. Besides, Iran seems to be heading the path of confrontation with great powers.

Aiyar is a man of letters and IMHO he should commit to writing books. he should follow the example of another former diplomat J.N.Dixit. This politics thing is not his cup of tea. His sole qualification is being a court bard in the first family corridors. His support base in Tamilnadu is limited to people whose kids he has named as Rajiv, Indira, Sonia, Priyanka and Rahul. By his self-admission, he speaks better French than Tamil :-)

BTW, can you or someone following this thread tell me what this nuclear deal is all about. I`ve read some reports about the deal in passing but couldn`t understand the full ramifications of the agreement. I`m also puzzled by this mention of nuclear deal and gas deal in the same article. Can nuclear energy replace gas/oil?

Iran, Geopolitics and the Bomb It is nothing but apartheid to deny some nations what others possess and flaunt. Ideally, there should be nuclear parity on a global basis, with everyone from Nicaragua to Newzealand allowed there own weapons. If one takes the killing power of nukes, this parity should be achieved by everyone not opting for these deadly weapons. This is what India under Pt. Nehru tried to put across to the great nations of the world for nearly 3 decades after her independence. During that period, we got nothing but disdain from the great powers. The moralistic posture was inferred as a strategic weakness and we were dismissed as a bunch of sissies :-)

I read sometime back about a similar scenario in the 1920s. Tagore after getting Nobel Prize was touring Japan and lamented the excessive militarization and demonization of the other. He opined that such attitudes will goad the nations into war and bring unfathomable destruction and grief. A leading Japanese paper contemptuously dismissed his sermonizing as the `poetry of the defeated people` :-)

India learnt its lesson the hard way. We were impaled by an unexpected invasion from a country we professed friendship with. The same country pursued and got nukes while the great powers looked the other way. If there were any doubts, they were cleared when nuclear-tipped Armada of a superpower landed at our shores when we were liberating another country from the clutches of our sworn enemy. We had no choice but to arm ourselves, morality be damned. There is no option but to obey the universal law of jiski laathi uski bhains.

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It doesn`t matter whether Iran is errant as per this or that provision of some unjust treaty. What matters is the fact that Iran is disliked by US and big powers of Europe. My hunch is that they`ll be attacked before the term of current US president gets over, the nuclear sabre-rattling providing a convenient excuse.

From Indian POV, this would be yet another setback. Friendly regimes in our neighbourhood countries are being replaced with puppet governments who are inimical to our interests. The secular Shah helped Pakistan during ’71 crisis, while under ‘Mullah’ Khatami, we held joint operations with Iranians. Besides, this warlike atmosphere in middle-east will cause the oil prices to sky-rocket, punishing our economy in the process.

Last week I was watching a talk show on BBC on the Iranian nuclear issue. A correspondent relayed the Russian mood thus, “The Russian media is sympathetic to Iran and they feel the oil prices are too low”. When the hostess pointed that it was in the excess of 60$ per barrel, he said Russians don’t think so. A barrel of Coke (retail) costs 400$, so oil is under-priced and a volatility in the market will help improve the prices. Russians have discovered a heads-I-win-tails-you-lose scenario. If Iran is not attacked, they’ll take credit for averting the disaster, further cementing their relations with the Islamic republic, else they’ll benefit from spiralling oil prices.

Iran is doomed!

The Amazing Khatris of Punjab DM ji,

Thanks for an interesting and informative piece!

It was a revelation that Khatris who seem to be ubiquitous in most of the major towns of U.P. actually have their origins in some obscure place in Punjab.

No write-up on Khatris can be complete without references to Rajarshi Purushottam Das Tandon and DevkiNandan Khatri. The former contributed to Hindi language and freedom struggle while the latter regaled us with stories of witchcraft, black magic and sorcery in his epic Chadrakanta Santati (progeny of Chandrakanta). The novel was also televised in 90`s.

Diasporic Indian Re: # 63

Click

Diasporic Indian Re: # 61

There are more people from that Godforsaken town on this website :-)

Diasporic Indian Jawahara,

The fondness for our roots increases as we move further from the place of birth. When we move to an area where no one speaks for our language, we crave for someone with whom we can talk in the mother tongue. I recall seeing the story of two Punjabis who are sworn enemies due to some family feud. One of them settles in Mumbai and the other one pursues him there to avenge the death of his kin. The second guy faces major problems in the mega-city and after two days of exhaustion when he finally finds the enemy, he drops his dagger, folds his hands and pleads, ``Tu mere naal Punjabi wich gal kar`` :-). The irony of it all is that kids are scolded for speaking dialects instead of Khari Boli and those whose command over English language would make the luminaries of that language turn in their graves, insist on talking to their toddlers only in English. People are looked down upon for not being able to use cuttlery in Kanpur. And then some people eat with their hands in San francisco to soothe their nostalgic itches. There are teenagers in Delhi who listen to only hard rock, and there are professionals in NY who are busy stacking Ghazal, classical and Bhajan CDs. I guess it is the homesickness of the diaspora which makes them such loyal fans of Hindi movies.

The longing for roots is not limited to NRIs, one can feel it if one moves to a state with a different language, too. Last week, I went to a furniture exhibition. I needed a good spread so I stopped at the carpet counter. A guy rolled a small carpet, tied it and tossed it towards another one, ``eeko baakiyan ke saath pack kar deyo. Aur jo baaki piece tumhe laaye ko kaha raha, laayo ki nain?``. I asked the guy who was standig opposite me if they were from U.P. On talking more, I realized that they are from the carpet belt near Bhadoi. On telling him where I was from he said with a big smile ``Aap ko jo lena hai le lijiye, keemat ki chinta mat kijiye``. I got a cool 25% discount without asking and his visiting card with the godown address, if I ever need anything in future. This when they don`t sell retail :-)

Cycling With The Sikh The lack of conveyance, suspicion of the stranger, inability to pedal the bicycle, thoughts of `compensating` the stranger for his generosity - the emotions are captured very neatly. I guess this is not 100% fiction :-)

Indo-Pak History via Mail This `whatyoumaycallit` reminds me of an illustration where four blindfolded men grope different parts of an elephant and try to guess what it is they are touching :-)

Echoes As usual, I started my day with Chowk. This has become a habit ever since I chanced upon this website while reading Veeresh Malik`s travelogues on Outlook website.

The first thing I noticed was the new look - which I must say is appealing. The `earthquake relief` dashboard has been replaced with `A Special Chowk announcement`. Metaphorically, the tremors of these changes will be felt on Chowk for some time.

I like the formal approach of appointing a chief editor. It is high time we do away with the non-sense of allowing badly formatted, incoherent and mediocre stuff on Front Page. It causes heartburn to read things which have not even been scanned using a spell-checker.

I strongly feel Chowk should adopt a no-nonsense approach to maintaining high interact standards. Mutli-nicism, fudging of identities, meaningless copy-paste, profane language and other such maladies that have troubled us in the past, should be smoked out. Difference of opinion is the key to intelligent discussion - but name-calling, threatening and bellicosity is not acceptable. At every step of our lives, our voices were muzzled and views unheard. One hopes that pattern would end on internet.

I`m aghast at the appointment of Farzana Varsey as the Chief Editor. Now, not only do we have to suffer her incoherent ramblings, hitherto passed as `articles`, we also have to put up with the fact that she is the high-priestess of Chowk. All the content will pass under her prejudiced eyes and the course of discussions will be tempered by her crypto-Fascist worldview. Does it mean Chowk has veered towards a decidedly anti-India posture? Does it mean voices highlighting her indifference to facts and reason will be suppressed? Only time will tell.

Last but not the least, my best wishes in your endeavour. May you succeed in bringing order to the cacophony, that is Chowk :-)

Halloween Party Nice! Good to read something about ricksaw-pullers and sons of ASIs beating the crap out of them for refusing to ride after midnight. I thought the genre had died with Premchand. Glad to know there are some who see the suffering and exploitation in what is mostly dismissed as `fate` by most of us.

There are many themes intertwined in your story and I want to share my thoughts on them. Aplogies for digressing!

Education: There is no way these chattels can become proud, contributing members of the society, till they are `qualified for little else`. This is a vicious circle - slaves brought up with little skills except driving ricksaws, toiling all their life only to have their piggybank broken by ASI`s son, wife forever waiting for husband to bring back that saree and ultimately blinded by cataract and interminable wait. In a generation, the stage is set for another crop of Raju`s to do their bidding in the society, pulling ricksaws, manning brick kilns and sweeping floors.

Urban Ho India lives in its villages. This may not be true in a couple of decades. The imbalance in development patterns and skewed priorities of the powers-that-be have triggered a great migration to cities. The Rajus are moving out of their ancestral villages in droves, eager to get a share of the expanding pie in the cities. Unfortunately, they have little to offer except their servility and docility. However, what they earn in cities is often better than malnourishment and exploitation in villages. Few months back, I read a report in TOI which claimed that 75% of the white-collar jobs created in `04 Fiscal were in the three major urbacn centres of Mumbai, NCR and Bangalore. THis is a surefire recips for disaster. The only way to stop Raju`s from sleeping Sethji`s verandah is by giving them opportunities in their backyard. ITC has started a program called e-Choupal to help the villagers. They buy the farmer`s crop and also advice them on fertilizers, seeds, pesticides etc. i believe, Bharti is also planning to get in agriculture in a big way. Tiny drops in the unforgiving sands of indifference, but a start nevertheless.

Contempt for rules The cockiness and arrogance ingrained in our psyche is furstrating. Not a day goes by without witnessing a stuffed shirt barking on someone supposed to be lower than him in the hierarchy. In the boondocks of UP and Bihar, you can find lathi-wielding sipahis regularly humiliated or even slapped for trying to stop people from doing unlawful things. People stare at security people who insist on seeing their badges before allowing them in the office premises. There is a cultural pattern which feeds on exploitation, mindless class-consciousness and disregard for rules of the scoiety and country. These attitudes naturally cuminate in the beating of poor Raju, parading of women naked in the streets and mob lynchings. The funny part is that people lament the injustice being perpetrated on them while torching those, whom they can afford to exploit.

Regarding your story: I think you could have done without the Anand Margi part. It adds nothing to the story. Besides, the differnece of status between the ASI`s son and Raju is enough to justify what he did, he doesn`t have to be drunk (on alcohol or religion) to do that, being himself is enough :-)

The Ground Beneath Pakistan’s Feet

Amway. Conway? On a humid Sunday afternoon, we got a call from one of our friends inviting us for a ‘chaat-Pakora’ session. The offer was surely very lifting, especially when you consider it against the backdrop of hangover, and the anxiety caused in many-a-gentle-souls by the excessive demands of Monday, but not everyone was upbeat. The fears were stoked by the refusal of our friend to explain the occasion for this get-together. Neways, to cut the long story short: the entire bunch of unshaven no-gooders headed for our friend`s house on their noisy bikes, carrying their doubts and bad attitude along with them.

We were greeted in the hall by a neatly dressed gentleman, a rarity of sorts in the age of coalition governments, torn jeans and Bollywood slang. The presence of a whiteboard and marker-case did nothing to allay the apprehensions of those who had suffered the torture of Amway pitches before. Out of sheer desperation, someone threatened, ``I`ll beat the crap out of Sudhir, if this turns out to be an Amway con-job``. The dandy was unfazed. He got up, slowly screwed the tripod, rested the whiteboard on it and started his presentation.

For 15 minutes, he talked about the unpredictability of our jobs, lack of security cover in our society, problem of insufficient time for our personal lives due to the gruelling schedules etc. He also touched upon the lifestyle issues in cosmopolitan cities like absence of social circle outside office, injuries due to long hours etc. Then, he moved to income types - direct and indirect, and tried to impress upon the futility of trying to make it big by following the conventional models. It was very elementary stuff, but he was a good presenter and made his points succinctly.

Finally, he talked about personal marketing. He rambled on and on about the difference it has created to people`s lives by recounting instances of people thronging to railway station to receive their Amway agent, kids in remote villages of Andhra going to school - thanks to extra income of their parents (courtesy Amway), bonding of Amway volunteers etc. He was not very forthcoming with their business model, said something about reduced product costs because of money saved on direct marketing, distribution costs etc. He evaded the question of unreasonable costs of Amway products by saying something that they were shipped in more concentrated form and last much longer than their off-the-shelf counterparts. Overall, He took the criticism and impolite remarks very sportingly and pretty much stood his ground. The pitch went on for about an hour and a half, by the end of which people were baying for Sudhir`s blood.

While devouring the post-presentation snacks, I chatted with him. He was from IIT-D (trical), had quit his cushy job with a sought-after MNC and was stuck with a mediocre company, doing an unrewarding job. Off course, he tried to sell that as `balancing personal and official` crap, and that he was due to retire in a couple of years. He claimed that he makes 40-50K per month by investing 6-12 hours per week, in what he referred as `business`.

I came back from Sudhir’s house with a bad headache and bitterness. Not only are these charlatans robbing unsuspecting people of their money by selling run-of-the-mill stuff at exorbitant prices, but also brain-washing people into believing that they are better off being salespersons of soaps and toothpastes than being execs of profitable companies. What a shame that people get duped even after such grooming and education!

The Naked Fakir Gandhiji`s greatness lies in the fact that he was able to raise Indians from their centuries long slumber, and made opposition of Raj, a common-place, even fashionable idea. His schemes were populist and his mechanisms simple. We must guage his success by what he set out to do and what he finally achieved.

Before his advent on the political scene in 20th century, Congress was a petition-party. The best politicians coudl think of in the way of freedom was self-rule. The millions of poor, hungry and mal-nutritioned people felt out-of-sync with the methods of constitutionalists, and did not feel they had any stake in freedom movement, whatsoever. People were sick of hearing the same notices served to the Lord Sahib, which then were sent to Queen, for further consideration, if not outrightly rejected by the Gora Sahib.

Gandhiji used a very unconventional method of striking at the enemy - Sathyagraha. His approach appealed to innately pacifist sentiments of the masses, which then started rallying to the cause of freedom, in increasing numbers. The movements, hartals, andolans etc. were organized in each and every part of India, to take as many people aboard as possible. The pursuit of freedom was no longer a chimera, it was within the realm of possibilities. And liberty now had meaning, not only for the elite, but also for the impoverished peasants and hopeless labourers.

He tried to reach out to all sections of society. His mobilization inculcated a national consciousness in our people, hitherto lacking, or forgotten due to centuries of foreign rule. He revitalized our broken spirit and laid the foundation-stones for the India that is.

I don`t think he would have approved of the excessive eulogization done for political benefits by successive Cong regimes. Being the practical man that he was, he would not have taken the catatastrophic path of quota-license Raj economy. Probably the treatment of marginzlized sections of society would have been more humane and pragmatic, if he were there at the helm for some more time.

Ultimately, the sainthood got to him. It killed the practical, insightful and clever leader, and replaced him with an egoist, obsessed with his greatness, and unable to come to terms with the changed realities. Mahatma had died before Nathuram`s bullets killed him.

W(h)ither BJP? DMji,

Some questions:

1) Why should govt. of a secular country allocate money for religious activities of a community?
2) Why shouldn`t all citizens of a nation follow the same set of laws, when the constitution professes equality?
3) Should some part of country be given same rights as other parts, without having to fulfil the same obligations as others?
4) Is Hindu Rashtra enshrined in the constitution of BJP or RSS? If yes, what does it mean?

The Rainy Season Re: # 17

Pmishra,

There is no denying the fact that Tulsidas rendered a great service by translating Ramayana to Ramcharitmanas. I believe, he lived around 16th century, and in that era, the Prakrit languages like Hindi, Punjabi, Bengali etc. were well evolved. It is highly likely that knowledge of Sanskrit was limited to few, and dwindling. Thanks to him, masses could read this epic in a language they could understand.

There is another aspect to his translation - devotion. Valmiki`s Ramayana treats Ram as a hero and draws his biographical sketch, whereas Tulsi elevates Ram to divinity. Ramcharitmanas is an ode by a devotee to his Lord. The `bhakta` has removed all the frailities of his character and in the process, rendered his work unsuitable for Historiography.

Now that Avadhi is just another of many dialects of Hindi and Khari Boli is the official dialect, we need another Tulsi to translate this to Hindi. Has it already been done?

The Rainy Season Beej,

This was really neat! I salute the effort put in to make it rhyme. The verses are indeed luxuriant.

It took me an awful time to read the original, and I still don`t understand many words. Not sure if this is because of transliteration or Awadhi dialect. It would be a good idea to follow Rahul_Captri`s advice on trasnliteration and use iTRANS. If you write the original as per iTRANS, the software generates an image of the text in Devnagari, so people can read it for themselves. For instance, I prefer `tam` to `tum` (darkness).
Official iTRANS Site