Despite lack of leadership seeds of a New Beginning

I returned home from the ASEAN-India Car Rally 2012 all europhic and estatic and straight into this tragic story of the 23 year girl. And then suddenly Delhi saw some unprecedented scences on the parthway that lead up to the symbols of state power. Rajpath and the cerntral concourse have seen many agitiations over the years - the Jat farm land leader Tikait took complete control of the area, As the sheer intensity of the water cannons lifted the youth from their positions, as lathis rained on them and the police manhandled scores of protestors, it was obvious to the naked eye that the system had failed.

More importantly, there was a no ostensible move from any functionary within the government or the police appratus to cauterise or assauge the hurt. Every household in Delhi and elesewhere was seized of this shocking tale of bestatility and brutality. Meanwhile the gritty woman hung-on to her dear life, showing remarkable spirit and fortitude in the ensuing mayhem, She ofcourse subsequently could not hold-on and left her the holy abode to perhaps feel safer there than here !

To me, an ordinary citizen of this great country, it appeared that the state and its instrumentalities unfortunately seemed near collapse over the days the anger split on the roads. Gripped they were with a strange inertia and lassitude in the face of spontaneous surge of youth power. Unbridled and uncontrolled, lacking cohesion, but not bereft of conviction.

For want of a better turn of phrase, impotence would be right to describe the situation.

While there is no issue like corruption which saw the Anna Hazares, Ramdevs and Kejriwals take and centerstage in the past, the detoriating state of the hapless rape victim became a talking point, equally a symbol of repression and inefficinecy of the state.

The primacy of security and safety of our citizens cannont be lost on anyone, least of all those in government and the law and order machinery. The LG was holidaying , the Home Minister was switched on mute, the Home Secretary and the Police Commissioner were busy patting themselves on the back for quick resolution of the case, for more than 10 days the people in authority were deeply ensconced in the arms of Morpheus. Indignation gave way to angst and anger and finally resulting in pitched battels between the agitators and the police.

Nature it is said abhors a vacum, the unending paralysis in governance has once again thrown into stark relief the marked absence of a decision making political leader in the government.

The rest they say is history !..........and this unrest would hopefully carry seeds of a new beginning. For in this anger I find hope. From this gloom I hope will emerge a brighter India.

Silence is not always Gold

India has been in a state of continuous crisis for the last few months!

Mahabharat and its hero’s come to mind, now especially, since I just recently finished reading this wonderful book called “The Glass Palace”……about Draupadi’s life.

The epic’s lament and the things about our leaders! The epic is a continuing repository of crisis in public morality…..just as our problem of governance and our institution(s).

And what is at stake .,….in the epic and now……success!

Raja, the un-hero of today and Yudhisthira the un-hero of the epic – I don’t think its possible to be both successful and good? No high status can be conferred to a person who is honest and kind.

And to top it all ……”silence” is at the heart of the problem …….today and as was in the epic !

Today our squeaky clean selfless PM has to silently preside over one of the most corrupt government!

In the epic, Bhishma remained silent when Draupadi was being disrobed. When she questioned the “dharma of the ruler”, everyone remained silent AND then it was Vidura who spat out at the immorality of silence! He is believed to have said that ‘half of the punishment goes to the guilty; a quarter to his ally; and another quarter to the silent”.

CWG-gate, Raja-gate, Radia-gate….et al - have shamed us before the world.

The purpose the epic’s war was to cleanse the earth, which was groaning under the iniquity of the rulers.

Should our own leaders (political and others) prepare for the same fate that befell the epic’s hero’s?

“The things we admire in men – kindness, generosity, honesty, openness, understanding and feelings…are the concomitants of failure in our system. And those traits we detest – sharpness, greed, meanness, egotism and self interest – are the traits of success. And while men admire the quality of the first, they love the produce of the second”…famous lines by John Steinbeck

And this is what seems to be the root of the present crisis in public morality.

Never-ending opening

It’s so difficult to know where to begin. I’ve been thinking long and hard.

Being stuck in a never-ending opening.

At first, it’s the real thing, sheer delight. Its that part of the relationship in which one is at ones best : fun, charming, excited, exciting, interesting, interested. It’s a time when one is most comfortable and lovable because one does not feel the need to mobilize ones defenses, so ones partner gets to cuddle a warm human being, a big teddy bear instead of a giant cactus!

But beginnings cannot be prolonged endlessly. They must move on and develop – or die of boredom.

One moves onto a series of protracted reopenings – some separations necessary and most manufactured.
One goes further than intended and one stops short of what the other sees as the next logical and lovely steps.

Both parties have a vision of something wonderful that awaits them, but then how do they move from here?!
Especially if one is faced with a solid wall of defenses. Walls don’t protect, they isolate!
One longs for richness and fullness and fulfillment of further development, while the other ways to avoid it.

Both parties are frustrated – one unable to go back, the other unable to move forward – both in a constant state of struggle, with clouds and dark shadows over the limited time that is allowed to both!

This constant resistance to “that” something wonderful – often causes pain on one level or the other.

And then the fierce inexplicable cutoffs.
Waiting is painful. Forgetting is painful. Not knowing which to do is suffering.

Away and apart or together and apart – it is too unhappy a scenario.
One of them cries a lot, for it seems that pity is necessary before kindness is possible. And this one knows that one has not come this far in life to become pitiful.
One is starting to accept the failure in letting know the joys of caring.

One is now saying this softly, even tenderly without camouflaging an underlying anger. There are no accusations, no blames, no faults.
One is simply trying to understand and stop the pain after being forced to accept that there is no development, much less the glorious climatic expression of a relationship grown to full blossom.

But despite the pain, one is happy to have known the other in such a special way. Both have grown and learned much from the other and both are today much better people for having touched one another.

Our life is like the chess game. Each party has its own singular objective even as it engages the other; mid-way struggle develops and intensifies and bits and pieces of each side are lost, both sides diminished; an end game in which one traps and paralyzes the other. And in the bargain – both the king and the queen are lost!

A promise so rare and so beautiful is going to go unfulfilled.

In the “middle” of everywhere and yet nowhere!

After spending nearly 4.5 years in Singapore, I came back to my base, Delhi, on a transfer, 3 months back.

I must confess that settling back into life – at work and home – has not exactly been a cake walk! – the weather, pollution, traffic, total loss of my space and my time and the endless deadlines and pressures of being back in the HQ – et al…..yeah, I sound every bit like one of those snotty, spoilt NRI’s returning to motherland.

But I am not totally off tack.
My angst, especially evident since then, driving around Delhi, which has given me more than enough time to think of my own class, the middle class!

Not that driving gives you time on hand, but traffic jams do.
These jams and traffic lights and the endless wait has given me enough time to ruminate on the sad spectacle that is the Indian Urban Life.

And that leaves me with a lot of anger towards the middle class and the government.

Just merely living in Delhi one may not notice the kind of things that would detain unless you really hit the road.

The most noticeable is the way people, these middle class drive – these people invariably do not like to wait at traffic lights; they are the ones who will make a right or left turn without bothering to indicate and yes these are the same middle class who will straddle lanes and overtake from the wrong side and that too at high speed!

Oh and not to miss the jams that the middle class are confronted with and the ease with which they swing out of the lane and drive to the top of the queue in the way of the coming traffic !

And yet we young, middle class are amongst the most self-righteous and complaining – and yet this is the tribe that believes in high speed drunken driving killing anything coming in their way – even the mighty Delhi Cop is not safe these days!

Yes these very urban, educated middle class, often well-travelled citizenry of our great country will park where they are not supposed to, they will ignore or quarrel the traffic cop directing some semblance on these horrid dug up Delhi roads, or in some narrow colony lane, their fancy cars will be parked protruding making sure no one can pass or they will in the name of greening their immediate environment make flower beds or build a canopy for their chowkidars – taking up half the public road space !

I really wonder why do we the middle class behave in such a inconsiderate and often dangerous way? Is it out of a sense of entitlement and impunity that we have stopped caring, caring about each other fellow human beings?

And despite all that we have achieved, we the middle class love (its almost fashionable) to blame the government or the disadvantaged for everything, without any self-consciousness.

No I am not another Arundhati Roy in the making, fighting for the no-cause!
I am certainly not claiming that the disadvantaged are above any blame – what about the defacement of buildings, public property, spread of refuse, peeing in public (an Indian male fantasy) – don’t these people realize this is ugly and unhygienic?!! But then why blame them – it’s the government (rightfully for this class) to be blamed. Ordinary people are truly disadvantaged.

The ordinary class do not have a sense of ownership of public spaces, where we the middle class think, we own everything and have a sense of impunity because we pay taxes and money can buy everything else that we don’t own! But is this justification enough for us the middle class?

The government does not prosecute the middle class when it breaks the rules and neither does it provide the ordinary class – then why blame them then?

After sixty years and 1 trillion worth an economy, the government is still cowardly, complacent and cruel; the ordinary class is still remains less than ordinary and the middle class ? – has just about lost it all!

This is the sad bitter truth about everyday life in this great country of ours.

What a Dilemma!!

The four years I have been living in Singapore and overseeing work in the region for my organization, one of the toughest countries to crack has been Malaysia.

And I have always wondered why?

Malaysia, I thought, was a moderate muslim state that served as a model for others.

25 million people, amazing infrastructure, rich natural resources, great tourist destinations, cheap labor costs – and the list seemed endless.

Malaysia - seemingly - a country of great promise.

Especially after 9/11, successive Malaysian PM’s have tried to work hard to ensure that Malaysia remains a moderate country that perhaps could serve as a bridge between the west and the muslim world.

But it does not seem to be so.

Malaysia has a bhumi policy which it makes it damn hard (virtually impossible) for an overseas company to set shop in that country.

Imagine, now children are being forced to study maths and science in malay and not English anymore!

Just today there are key headlines screaming that KL has banned muslims from attending a pop concert.

And a few days back the story of canning a Malay muslim lady called Kartika who was caught drinking beer in a pub with her husband is becoming more murky and political!

Imagine all this in today’s day and age!

This lady is guilty according to a syriah law. And what is more baffling is that this lady, a former model, accepted her guilt and wants to be canned publicly!

I don’t understand how and why is a so called democratic country where there all the key pillars of democratic institution exist is a citizen being tried by Syriah law.

And does it mean that the federal government, which is democratically elected, cannot intervene to save her.

Obviously there seems to be a complicated and perhaps problematic relationship between religion and politics.

As it is the UMNO is being labeled as blurring the borderline between Islam and politics after three decades of state driven islamisation during the Mahatir rule.

But interestingly, Dr M, at the age of 86, has asked in his blog if Malaysia would celebrate its independence on 31st August with the canning of a lady!

And the current PM has asked the lady to appeal against the sentence.

To an outsider, based on what I read and hear, the political parties in Malaysia seem to defending their Islamic credentials at the same time trying not to gain the reputation at the taleban of Afghanistan!

And the irony is that it is these parties that wondering why there is a fuss being made by the other countries on this canning issue.

When I go to KL, I don’t really seem to get much of a sense of these hard-line stances on the streets except of course all Malay women wearing the head gear.

There seems to me a disconnect that adds a very surreal air to the going-on in Malaysia today. Today you have a government that is worried that if this lady does not get canned now, they may compromise their stand with the conservatives and on the other hand is Malaysia’s international image.

Like it or not, Malaysia depends on trade with the western world, and not with Afghanistan!

This is a dilemma that Malaysia faces today – and there seems little consensus on how to proceed!

Uneasy lies the Head that wears the crown!

Slogans don’t seem to be working!
Lifting bans on opposition journals don’t seem to be working!
Even releasing detainees held without trail don’t seem to be working!

It seems whatever approach Malaysia’s new PM Najib seems to be making is falling flat!

This is because all of the above and more are actually meant to be and are being seen as nothing but a political spin.

Public cynicism towards the political establishment is at an all time high……..right since the election results in which Barisan National lost 5 states to the opposition and Mr Badwai finally loosing his job in the bargain as well.

And now whatever the Najib Administration is doing or at least seemingly doing is not working.

To me it seems the Malaysians are finally, consciously learning how to differentiate spin from sincerity over the last few years, to the extent that any further spin will merely aggravate public cynicism further.

I have had the honour of meeting PM Badwai last year in September at his office in Putrajaya. An amazingly soft spoken humble man with phenomenal knowledge but sadly no political acumen…….he seemed to be a little too honest for his job!

He came into power in his first term on a surge of hope following the retirement of the authoritarian Dr M.
Mr Badwai brought a sense of freedom in 2004. Many wished to believe that Mr Badwai would reform the United Malays National Organisation (Umno) – people were generous then.

At that time it was not obvious to people how badly the institutions of the State had deteriorated over the last two decades of Mahathir rule.
People were just too euphoric that the Dr M era was over……..but then the cracks began to show and people no longer wanted remain generous. And the cynicism was being fanned by none other than resurrected Anwar Ibrahim.

Mr Badwai was just too careful about how reforms would undermine what he saw as the mainstay of his power and this tentativeness led him no where but out of his job.

Cut to March 09 – the slogan by the Najib Administration of ‘One Malaysia’ – people first – has been causing a fair share of confusion by a great measure of disparagement.

After the Mongolian model episode, the cynicism is so high is that the ban that was lifted on the two opposition journals was viewed orchestrated and to be taken away immediately afterwards.
Similarly, the release of the ISA detainees was considered a superficial gesture – Internal Security Act is one of the most controversial and contentious issues in Malaysia today.

The fear that reforms carried out too fervently could capsize the boat shared by so many power-holders is very strong in the system.
If the idea of Mr Najib is to convince the people that he means business, then he should carry out serious institutional reforms instead of just talking about them.

Nothing worth doing can be without a backlash, and nothing worth doing can protect all interests. That is the point of reforms.
I think the Nike slogan of “just do it” will surprise the public and the opposition and save the Umno and BN – leaving no time for anyone to react.

With the Malaysians not in a mood of being generous anymore, Mr Najib cannot be authoritarian like Dr M and nor can he afford to be tentative like Mr Badawi.

Then what is PM Najib left with? – Fate? – indeed he has very little choice.
He has to do to the establishment what the opposition threatens to do – reform the system, no matter what, without hesitation.

The trend is towards greater openness in Malaysia today.
Today, the Petronas Board can find fault with a Oxford educated PM nominee, and reject him!

The Malaysian people (not the power holders or brokers) are feeling empowered like they have ever felt before.

Mr Najib has to act – not against society – but against his own system – that he leads – and that put him where he is!
And he has to act fast!

Is it really all about money, Honey!

The recent Madoff episode and the numerous people, mostly retired, who are facing the specter of loosing their entire life savings – what a situation to be in!
This is not the only stand alone issue.
Several thousand (perhaps millions worldwide) people have got hurt and lost a lot right from the fall of the Lehman Brothers.

All this has got me thinking about my Dad too - a typical army officer, life for him has always been about rules, respect, valor and sacrifice.
He has never been a savvy investor. Many a times during my growing up years, I have seen my father sitting in his study in the gathering twilight, pen in hand and furiously calculating!
And sometime the mood at home would be glum due to one of his miscalculations or wrong judgment on some investment. I remember one particular one called ‘Kuber’ where he along with a lot of his fellow retired officer friends lost their pension money.

I remember the worry on his face. I am sure it’s been agonizing for him and many like him to see their hard-earned money disappear just like that!
And thank heavens, after having burnt his fingers badly enough to stop making such investments!

Money, money, money…..that’s all the world has been talking since Lehman went bust last September, triggering a global financial crisis that is still being played out and the latest ugly turn that it has taken in the form of greedy AIG.

No one has been spared it seems. Even if you don’t have a Lehman-linked product that is now worth zero, your livelihood would have been hard hit by the general downturn.
Every day it’s about job losses, home mortgages, negative growth and a free fall of markets into a bottomless pit….gloom, doom and more gloom…!

We need money to survive – there is no question about that!
Just ask any these people affected.

BUT – the thing about money is that it brings out the worst in people.

How many people are crying foul about “mis-selling” were genuinely “mis-sold” and how many are riding the “we-were-wronged” bandwagon!
How many have the courage and honesty to admit that they had bought the products knowingly and that they simply made a bad investment!

Well, Tough luck!!

Money – especially the sudden presence or the sudden lack of it in one’s life – has the power to change the way a person behaves.
The effects could be positive – you becoming a kinder person, BUT it’s usually negative, I think.

Most striking aspect or evidence is that it breeds envy.

This green eyed monster can buy tangible and material things tied to desires – big house, flashy car, swanky watch, and dream holidays – et all.
And when we see another person having all this and more, we feel the other is one up on us! And then some people act in strange ways – some become sycophantic towards the wealthy, others hate the rich.

I have seen relations breakdown, siblings becoming enemies – all over a few dollars and cents.

But then just as money is the root of much evil, so too is the lack of it.
Poverty can drive desperate deeds.

But as I recently heard at a gathering of rich NRI friends - the only way not to think of money too much is when one has a great deal of it! (Has to come from a rich bored expat wife)

Sic!

I personally feel that money has limited ability to make you happy.
I remember reading in a recent Forbes issue (where it declared all the billionaires) – correlation between wealth and happiness is small, accounting for about 1 per cent of the happiness.
Same level of happiness is measured between the mega-rich on the Forbes list and Africa’s Masai herdsmen, who live in dung huts.

Though like everyone else, I too wish I had more money.
It’s sad and frightening to be in position of people who have lost all their savings perhaps in a quest for a better life.
For them now it’s a matter of life and death, literally.

But what I’ve also realized is that, should you be lucky not to be in financial straits but are doing just okay money-wise, then sit tight. Don’t let the pursuit of money rule your life.
I know it sounds a bit trite – but there are things that money cannot buy.

When I look back at the few happiest moments of my life, they most certainly have nothing to do with money or the possession of material things.
I think what brings deeper and more lasting happiness are the intangibles and not the diamonds, the designer clothes and other fancy trappings of daily living.
In my list, the top of the list is the fact that one is loved and cared for. No amount of money could buy that feeling. You cant even pay someone to feel this for you!
BUT if the person whom you want all this from gives you that, consider your life rich, very rich! :)

As Oscar Wild said “ordinary riches can be stolen from a man, real riches cannot. In the treasury house of your soul are infinitely precious things that cannot be taken from you”

In these tough times, perhaps we ordinary souls can take some comfort from those words.