will India ever be ready to sit on the global high-table?

Though India may have over taken Japan as the third largest economy in the world, its growth has slowed down to a virtual halt. While India is expected to be emerging or rather should have emerged by now as world power, it is terribly constrained with a plethora of domestic problems. Be it insurgencies in Kashmir and Northeast; to trying to contain the Maoist problem; to its politics torn by corruption; to bureaucratic hurdles; to factional feuds in major parties; to a terrible natural disaster; to just about every conceivable problem / negativity a country can have!


Our response to anything from Uttrakhand Tsunami to Kargil to 26/11 to anything that requires a response, still reeks of third world efficiency! There seems hardly any hope in the near future of stability, governance, implementation and growth.

Then when will be, if at all, ever, ready to sit on the global high-table?

Then why is it that despite our multitude of problems we still seem to be wooed by every major power in Asia and the world?

Parag Khanna (whom I know briefly from his WEF days) describes India as a “swing state” – meaning that India may not be a major power in its own right but is capable of swinging the balance of power. Be it in Asia and maybe in the global context as well. Else why would John Kerry come calling right after the Chinese PM’s visit and say that “India is key to Obama’s Asia rebalancing”. USA is obviously placating us for obvious reasons.

Japan is majorly wooing us, so is Australia with joint military exercises and exchanges and which is why China and some other countries against India are also seeking India ! The new Chinese Premier even went to the extent to say that “India and China are friends and don’t need to contain each other” – which according to me is to keep India out of any anti-China bloc I guess.

Now am told Joe Biden is also coming to defreeze nuclear ties with commercial treaties and all this to ensure India’s support for Obama’s “Asia pivot”.

I am no expert on India’s foreign policy but with whatever little understanding that one may have gathered over the years, to me it is smart diplomacy to stick to the non-aligned agenda and staying away from multilateral military alliances (while keeping bilateral option open for those who want too) as well thus making the most of being sought after by the key players in Asia’s security and economic architecture.

If India has to further its core national goals of security and economic growth, it may be imperative to play ball simultaneously with both China and those seeking to contain its ever growing influence and assertiveness.

While IBSA is important, very important infact but it makes sense to be active in BRICS as well – what with China and Russia there and it giving India the option of playing a larger global role. India needs to build a strong trading bloc with neighbors Bangladesh and Myanmar through regional groupings like BCIM, BIMSTEC – thus playing an equal role along with China.

And with US, Japan and Australia keep the relation strong and strategic if nothing goes well with China.

And if China is such a worry, which it is to all in Udyog Bhawan and South and North Block, then make BIMTEC strong and play into ASEAN without China. Strengthen India Ocean Rim (IOR) and South-South cooperation.

India is much sought after in Asia by Japan, US, Australia and ASEAN as a clear counterbalance to China. India holds the key to Asian peace and power balance and that ultimately justifies its permanent place in the Security Council.

The world seems to be getting ready to acknowledge India and its rightful place on the high-table BUT is India ready?



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Take it OR leave it !

By exhibiting a sense of propriety and taking a high moral ground, Mrs G has taken the winds out of BJP’s sails. A little late in the day, but effective for sure, at least for now!

A general election is supposedly fought on tangibles and promises. How it plays out in 2014, is a anybody’s guess – a matter of conjecture. Well nobody could second guess the mood of us electorate in 2009 and the hustling’s in the coming months can yet again throw-up the unexpected.

Am sure the fear of unknown stalks both the BJP and Congress, alike!

The Congress knows that the consistent taint smeared on its fabric by incessant scams and scandals will bog them down. And the BJP thinks it will waltz into Delhi because of the volume of people’s anger.

Well well …..

·         For sure there will be a default vote caste against the Congress and obviously in favor of BJP

·         For sure the BJP remains fractious and divided and undecided on who will lead in 2014. Just about everyone worth his or her salt in the BJP nurses ambition to lead the party into the coveted seat of power in Delhi. But our great leaders forget that Delhi cannot be conquered so easily now-a-days!

·         For sure there is a high possibility of the great Indian middle class gravitating towards NaMo. But is he really the chosen one? But ‘dilli door ast’ for him right now

·         For sure there is huge amount of anger against the ruling dispensation

·         For sure corruption, economic deceleration and mis-governance are huge issues for the educated middle class

·         For sure there is a massive unbridgeable divide between ‘India’ and ‘Bharat’, which is what the Congress still hopes to exploit

Ordinary folks like me are venting their spleen against the Congress misrule and but I am equally upset with the BJP because of its failed role as a responsible opposition – responsible to us the ordinary folks of this great country. I wanted to see a mature opposition pin down the government in parliament but also simultaneously be part of the legislative process in parliament so that the lives of ordinary folks of India and Bharat can be uplifted.

The choice for me the voter is between a fatigued treasury and an increasingly defocused opposition. It’s a messy “take it or leave it” scenario and either way it’s the aam adami of the India and Bharat who will loose out and continue struggling !

Dear Indian Leaders, please emulate Obama

That I am a Obama diehard fan has not doubt!
That I am trying to compare him and our revered leaders in this piece is a no-branier !!
That I am playing hard to bring out the dulleness of speech of our leaders that make as much part of the stagnant nature of our leadership is pretty obvious !!! :)

India needs new ideas, better articulated.
India needs more passion, a deeper sense of drama.
And I seriously wish our so called leaders (President, PM, even Rahul Gandhi and others from Congress and BJP alike) would make some effort to put value and passion to their speeches.

Indian Democracy sounds tired without it !

President Obama's state of the union message was a message to the Amercian people (and the world at large) and was nothing short of drama. His speech was a performance. And one can see he is enjoying his part to the hilt. As President of USA, the most powerful on the planet, of the most poweful nation in the globe, Obama conveys his enjoyment of power. He breathes through his messages. They are full of life !

And Obama looks fit (and handsome). His choice of words are so immaculate, his clothes just right and stated.

When Obama addresses the globe or the nation, he is not just a politican, he is appealing. And that makes him more endearing. There is a sense of intimacy and there is a sense of grandeur. There is a personal touch - the way he thanks his wife and his salute to his family becomes a salute to the nation at large. He will always acknowledge 2 or 3 ordinary citizens for thier courage or sense of duty thus adding a human sentimental touch. He even refers to his dog's behaviour sometimes !

The speeches of Obama have a feeling of achievenment. There is a sense of great urge and urgency to solve problems. There is a sense of process. Even sometimes admission of inadequacy - about health or unemployment.

Barack Obama converses with you, even if you are one among the millions watching him or listening to him.
He takes serious issues seriously. Every speech of his combines promise, threat and warning - with confidence, indicating the limits of his tolerance (case in point his appeal to repeal the gun act recently)- a strong leader of a strong nation

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.

Oh - dont forget Asia!

Across the USA and the world the message of change is still perhaps resonating even as the Obama Administration struggles through its series of faux pas in the midst of the global economic crisis and the American entanglement in two wars!

Anticipation and aspiration is still alive.

After 8 years of Bush ignoring Asia, atleast Obama has started on the right note of engaging with Asia.
There was worry and speculation as Asia did not feature strongly on Obama’s campaign trail or even in the run-up to his inauguration.
Yet now it seems Asia represents a new and necessary dimension in America’s foreign engagements.

In the last 8 years Asia has grown immeasurably.
Obama realizes that. The hawkish Hillary Clinton also perhaps does now.
The regions growth is not just in economic terms only. Asians have a growing confidence to deal with their own issues and contribute to global governance.

While Obama has been talking of going more multilateral, he must recognize that the global community now has more stakeholders than just the established powers of Europe and Japan. New forms of global governance and new ways of engaging rising Asian powers (read India, China and Indonesia) will be critical for America’s success.
America’s Asia policy cannot just be a tidy box of simple bilateral relationships alone. There is a need to see broader implications for the region and on the global regimes.

A central challenge will be to link Asia policy with priority global issues.
And the role of India and China has come about even more clearly now in the current global economic crisis.
And the United States cannot ignore this anymore.

Ties with China have to mature despite the differences over issues of Tibet; inflated Yuan and ever increasing military might.
On North Korea, Climate Change and other fronts, USA and China have to learn to manage to co-exist and show the ability to cooperate.

While in India, many claim that it was Bush who first acknowledged India’s rightful stature in the world, is being celebrated. But this I feel can be a mixed blessing - not for India, as much as it for USA to counter explanations on Iran and North Korea getting more room to have a say on nuclear issues.

Can Mr Obama continue the now close relation with India what with an unstable and prickly Pakistan and a 'beyond repair' Afghanistan without bringing in the touchy Kashmir issue?

The new President cannot afford to compartmentalize problems between what are global issues as opposed to issues limited to particular Asian countries. Remember, terrorism and religious jihadist has no borders or loyalty!

While Mr Obama is busy grappling with pressing domestic and global priorities, he has to at critical junctures understand the Asian perspectives. He has to be pragmatic and open minded and has to think newly and differently about Asia.

Mr Obama has already started taking the right steps, even if they are baby steps …..towards Bush’s inattention to a ‘forgotten war’ in Afghanistan.

Relationships depend not only on having a new or the right policies.
Success or failure often rides on the people driving these polices.

Mr Obama, on the whole, has brought this new optimism for solving the problems of the world.
But a difficult agenda lies ahead of him and even the best and the brightest will be challenged!

(ab)normal life!

I always feel awkward when I bump into friends who are married and also have kids in tow!
Especially, I am at a loss on how to behave with their kids…..I usually tend to overdo the ‘oh so cute’ bit or swing the other way by totally ignoring the child.

And I have come to realize that I don’t really know how to behave.

As someone who has never been a mother and with the only children in my life being a 2 month old nephew who is in India, I am unfamiliar with young people and find myself acting unnaturally around them. I simply lack the instincts that parenthood brings along.

At the cost of annoying some parents, I use an analogy, because I love dogs and have had so many, I’m at home with them – when to pat, when not to, how to tickle and I think of nothing in flicking away some dirt on a stranger’s dog even. But it’s a different matter with children.

And by the way no I am not brooding about not having kids as yet.

But now its occurring to me that since I am not married (as yet) and obviously do not have kids as yet….my life’s experiences are obviously very different from those of the majority of ‘normal’ women go through.

Does that make me less of a woman? I am sometimes made to feel so…..(like just today I was told by someone very close to me that I need to step aside and analyze myself)……

Take my long lost friends that I am now seem to be connecting on the face book. The last time we were together, single like me and then in the interim have gotten married and also gotten several kids now.

My mind boggles at how eventful their lives would have been in the past 10 – 15 odd years – meeting a partner, preparing to get married, setting up a home, adapting to becoming a wife, have kids et all………while all this is still alien to me, it’s what ‘normal’ women apparently are supposed to go through! – Seemingly all part of a natural cycle of life.

My life on the other would seem unnaturally arrested.

Though the cares and concerns that I faced in my 20’s are not any different today, not that much has changed either.

And I am not complaining. As I have also maintained there are loads of things to cheer about being single….including the fact that most of my (married) friends commend me on my status and say how lucky and wise I am :)

But as age beckons and also because I am no longer so footloose and fancy free, I do wonder at times if I’ve missed out on the experiences that most ‘normal’ women go through, and am I less complete as a human being because of it (my mother would be most happy to hear this)

I see my friends around…..all so connected with their kids (and yet cribbing) that in my idle moments I am a wee bit curious on what would my life have been – more fulfilled? less self-centered? Frazzled? Guess, it’s the same not being a wife too!

Again I am not looking at couples enviously….it does not matter how I love my single life; it does not matter that I have all the personal space in the world; it also does not matter what I’ve achieved in my career…..but what matters is that I am not married as yet and what matters more is that I don’t have kids as yet!

It does not matter that being in a marriage also, one can be alone and lonely and it does not matter that marriage is not a binding contract or a guarantee of a ‘happily ever after’ life either (99 per cent of the time I am told its true!).

It does not matter how many boyfriends I’ve had or might have; it does not matter if there are men who care for my well being.

Maybe the fact remains that no one has been mad enough about me – and I for him – for us to have embarked on a journey together.

Then is something really wrong me? Is this all there is to life?
Am I not capable of being loved and loving – deeply and permanently?
Am I not good enough? Do I have bad karma? Am I too fussy?
Don’t I deserve more?
Have I failed as a human being?

These BIG facts apart ............ all this is still a little too Puzzling to me – about me!.
Hmmm – anyways these feelings came because I was told so today to analyze myself – step aside of myself and analyze….well if this the current script of my life, then why bother!

It is often said that life is what you make of it, so I am thankful to God for what I have – the alternative could have been worse!

Gimme a break..!

I am such a pathetic traveler it’s not funny.

How I wish I was one of those women who can walk into a plane looking chic, wearing a floaty dress and heels and carrying just a tiny hand-bag, who can sleep seated upright and look beautiful and who, at the end of a 10 hour journey, exit the plane looking as fresh as a daisy!!

Such women really do exist. I’ve seen them. I’m just not one of them!

Even short flights leave me looking and feeling something like a cat dragged in.

I travel a lot (mostly on work BUT once in a while on Holiday too!) and mostly disappoint myself!

Instead of wearing something vaguely stylish, I am in my uniform of track pants and dark blue fleece jacket and sneakers.
And instead of strolling into the cabin with a dainty hand bag, I lug a bulky carry-on in which I pack two books (which I never got down to reading!) and a shawl (which I never use because I am wearing my fleece jacket!) – oh how very auntie like!

And when I was on a over night flight to USA last Sept (with the above dress code and accessories) I couldn’t manage more than two hours of sleep and I tossed and turned like a pretzel. To top it off – I caught a cold (which I do even when some one sneezes two houses away!) – a draught from the cabin ceiling was blasting on my head, causing my eyes to tear, nose to run and throat to be parched!

And I emerge from the flight with bloodshot eyes, dry lips, flat hair, bad breath and a drippy red nose.

Pathetic na?!

I know some one must be wondering why I’m silly to care about how I look when I travel. Comfort rather than style is what matters and if wearing track pants and sneakers give me that, why am I whining?

My problem is that I subscribe to the romance of travel, yes, even in this age of expensive things, low increments, no holidays, budget airlines and metal detectors.

Flying off to a strange land, savoring new experiences with no care in the world, eating, shopping and generally having fun – travel is glamorous, in theory atleast, and I certainly want to dress the part.

Sadly, I always look crumpled when I’m on a holiday.

I am yet to master the knack of creating the perfect holiday look with the wardrobe where I can travel light and yet look wow! I also lack the discipline to dress up with whatever clothes I do take along.

My countless experiences have proven that holidays don’t turn out quiet as perfect. And its become pointless to make any efforts if one is not enjoying in the first place.

The root of the problem is that I put too much hope on what a holiday can do for me. Unlike those real travel lovers, I leave home not so much because of the pull of a certain destination but the push to get away from my routine – whenever I’m stressed out at work and need to unwind, and when I feel the desire to escape from something that is bugging me in my personal life.

And my expectations are too unreasonable – thinking going away will change my life. That not only will I immediately morph into a happier, healthier, slimmer and calmer person when I step on foreign soil, but that upon return I will be refreshed, recharged and still embracing that new me!

If only life was that easy.
I have come to realize that my life is tough, stressful and unfair; going away on a holiday won’t change that one bit.
And even if a holiday has been enjoyable and I do carry the afterglow of it when I return, the holiday high dies in a matter of days and I’m back to my tough and unfairly stressful existence.
Nothing changes…….infact one feels even worse when the holiday dint meet the expectation.

Travel might be overrated, holidays may disappoint, but who will ever say no to going on a trip?

I know I cant wait to travel again ……I am already imagining touching moments of family bonding and adorable antics of my one month old nephew and the long drive in Chilly Delhi and the crispy lamb and papri chaat …..umm very special moments with those special ones!

Guess……"life's journey is not to arrive at the grave safely, but rather to skid sideways, upside down, totally worn out, shouting"... holy moly….what a ride!" ......and what a holiday! :)

Simple bridges

Inside every soul lies ‘deeper darkness than the nights of earth, higher peaks than any mountain peaks and greater depths than any sea in nature’.
Simply implying that an astonishing inner landscape lies within each of us.

I got hooked onto the face book recently – infact as recently as 7th October and I have connected up with over 100 people already!
Some old friends, some old colleagues and well some others who are those special ones …

So when I bond with a friend, it’s like exploring the exceptional new country.
I like to explore the ideas of people all the time.

Every person has a story.
I am simply amazed that each and every one has lived a life well lived!

We tend to eulogise people who are great and good.
But I wonder why we do this only for the giants among us.
Each and every ordinary soul among us has a great story to tell – lives than can serve to illuminate and educate us in some way or the other.
All extraordinary people who seem so ordinary at first glance!

All of us operate in different spheres.
But I think we overlap in one arena – among all the millions and millons of people on this earth, a few of us are connected!
There’s gotta be a reason.

Each person in our life represents a world in us, a world possibly not born until they arrive, and it is only by this meeting that a whole new world is born. And I cherish this world.

Singlism!

Singapore is at it again……marriage and making babies are back in the news.
It’s enough to make a single person weep.

Every couple of years, the problem of Singapore not having enough babies is resurrected and the nation then plunges into soul searching.
And then the government announces some fresh incentives to get Singaporeans to marry and have kids and then the matter rests again until it resurfaces a few years later!

And while I am not a Singaporean yet, such measures of marriage and parenthood do smack of singlism!

Singlism? – yes this is a word that has been concocted to depict the negative stereo-types and discrimination against people who are not married as yet!
Well the term can include folks who are divorced and widowed, but it mostly applies to those like me who have not walked down the aisle as yet!!

And this is yet another time of the year, when my friends here get charged up about me giving up my singlism and debate endlessly as to why and how I am in this state?!

Sigh!!

Well friends, Singles are single for different reasons.
Some want to get be married but can’t find the right partner.
Others genuinely prefer the unmarried lifestyle.
And there are those who have a (live-in) partner but don’t see the need to marry, OR can’t marry – gays and lesbians come to mind.

Unlike other forms of discrimination like racism (Obama is facing it) and sexism (first Hilary and now poor Sarah Palin is suffering it), singlism is not overt, which makes it all the more invidious.

In our society, prejudices have in fact become so ingrained that one does not even bat an eyelid at them. The usual thinking goes….if singles are slighted, too bad, it’s their problem for being ultra-sensitive, not society’s fault for being insensitive.
Singles are perceived as some alien life form!

An article in on the internet notes, how married people feel if the tables were turned? How would they like it if, upon announcing that they are getting married, they get pitiful looks and remarks like …’hey don’t worry, your turn to divorce will come soon’!

Ah well, singles have long learnt that name calling should not hurt us. BUT institutionalized form of singlism does!
At the work place, it’s the singles who have to cover up for married colleagues when they time off for baby fever, or when the maid has run away or there is a PTA to attend. When it comes to taking leave during the real holiday season, it’s the parents that get priority.
I understand in companies with night shift, it’s the singles who are rostered for these slots. And when colleagues go on maternity leave, the singles have to pick-up the slack – for the same pay!

In some companies, rewards are given for paid-for trips, where married people can take their spouses and kids along, but a single can’t take the boy/girl friend or parent even!

In Singapore, its even worse - tax relief for married women for foreign maid levy; housing perks and tax reliefs for married etc etc.
That means, singles get no respite even if hiring a maid is to look after aged parents!

Such a difference in benefits!
Oh the unfairness of it all!

Do singles really not matter at all in society? Do singles perform no family obligations? (like looking after aged parents)

At the cost of sounding cynical, parenthood comes with responsibilities and sacrifices – live with it. And are not the children a reward in themselves that you still clamour for more help from the State and more ‘family-friendly’ practices at work!

I am sure this debate is not over yet……and I doubt it ever will be.
But its time singles got the recognition and due as well!

Where is my Magic Formula?

A verse from a poem I really like...

"And each man kills the things he loves,
By all let this be heard,
Some do it with a bitter look,
Some with a flattering word,
The coward does it with a kiss,
The brave man with a sword"

One way or another I have wound up destroying what I've loved. I've seen my dreams fall apart just when I seemed about to achieve them. I always thought that was just the way life was.
My life and everyone else's...........!

Paradox called China

Capping the tremendous success of the Beijing Olympics in August was the space walk by the Chinese a month later.

One was a demonstration of Chinese soft power – the display of culture, athletic prowess, Chinese hospitality – the other of their hard power, putting their space programme behind only those of USA and Russia.

The Chinese are justifiably proud of their achievements, which have shown great strides in the last 30 years of reforms and opening up and slowly and steadily inching their way towards super power stardom.

No longer is China the “sick man of Aisa”.

But this pride is not unalloyed. The long shadow cast over the two momentous events has taken more than a little shine from them with the latest controversy of melamine in milk powder hitting them.

This and other food scares are just some of the symptoms of the weakness of the foundations on which China’s economic and other successes are built.
China is impressive with its ability to mobilize its people to tackle large-scale disasters. But often these disasters are man-made or made worse by men!

Just days before the tainted milk scandal, a village got engulfed with cascades of muddy iron ore waste killing 250 people. And before that the Sichuan earthquake in May affecting nearly 100 million people in some way or the other.

China’s infrastructure and social systems seem to have failed to keep pace with its spectacular economic development.
The growth is unstable and is confronted with environment degradation and a ever widening income gap with increasing corruption and poor record of industrial safety etc etc

There is a new concept called “scientific development” – encompassing sustainable development, social welfare, people centered society and ultimately creating a harmonious society.

The Chinese will be disappointed if they expect sweeping reforms as a result of the disasters and incidents that have been happening. Like in India, treating symptoms as they appear seems to be the order of the day still.

Rule of law and institution building with media freedom and civil rights are keep pillars to solve the systemic problems in China.

India incidentally has these and more, and yet is not using its strong fundamentals to surge ahead of China and claim its rightful space in the world.

A colleague and a gentleman

JB passed away on Monday morning after undergoing a cardiac surgery which went off successfully, but for the negligence of the hospital post operative care!

The news on Sunday of his physical state of affairs post the Saturday surgery came as bit of shocker to me.

JB and I were a lot in touch the last few weeks because of this “big” event happening in Singapore this week. Infact, the last sms I got from him was informing me that he was in hospital and that I should not worry and keep my cool and not stress over things that are not in my control!

JB, you were a man with immense patience and a great sense of humor. You have always shown warmth and affection to me in the last 12 years since I have known you.You were a man of style and class, a sassiness that not many men have. Always very properly dressed and with “that” very English sahib accent, you called many of us ‘cutlet’! I really really wonder what that ever meant though.

I remember the stories about Assam, about your college days, the gyan you gave me on the ASEAN region and the reason why I need to focus more and how during the several jaunts we made on work.

Our last travel out together was to Bangkok this year, end July. How can I ever forget how you were ready to miss the flight, but not miss picking up the new Jacket you got stitched from that particular tailor and how you made me me jump off the van that we were travelling in to cross that busy Sukhmvit Street with our suitcases dragging behind us and how you smuggled me into the business class lounge and then got a foot massage!

I remember the last time you and Ramola were in Singapore a few months back and spent many a hours at the office and refused to go out in the light rain lest your jacket got wet and your shoes caught the mud. I remember how you refused to drink the coffee I offered because you the last of the surviving English Sahib who had only green Darjeeling tea!

What classiness, what a man……….what a gentleman!

The purpose of life is to live a life of purpose.
JB, you fulfilled your every purpose.

You will be missed dearly.
Where ever you may be now, may you rest is peace.

Never mind values and people in the path of growth!

The latest tainted milk scandal shows China lacks something that even its years of spectacular economic growth cannot make up for or justify!

A similar fate is besetting India as well. Everyday there is more and more written, seen and spoken on the apathy of the system towards the common man – be it assistance during natural or man made disasters or just some simple plain government policies for the common man.

What is missing in both these economic super powers is the moral dimension in the respective countries growth without which both India and China, it seems, cannot hope to command respect or admiration from others. But this moral dimension would be hard to come by unless both the countries resurrect the human values it lost during the decades when the class struggle was the order of the day.

Despite calls for a people-based-policy, the lack of political reform (in the case of India it’s about political will as well) has allowed inertia to set in. The political system continues to put the political leadership and the parties first, never mind the people and human values.

This latest milk scandal in China bears striking resemblance to the SARS outbreak in 2003, both being by-products of an archaic political system.

This scandal first came to notice in December 2007. But it was only a company in New Zealand that sought a product recall in August 08 just days before the Olympic Games.
This matter was hushed up and the Chinese media was told not to do negative reporting that could mar the games. The Olympics was not a premier sporting event, BUT for China the most important political event in its history.

Weeks passed, until the NZ PM intervened and told the world about the tainted milk.

Lives could have been saved only if the Chinese media had been informed and allowed to report the truth.

Remember the “India Shining” campaign some years back, when farmers were committing suicide!

Countries like China and India (not so much though) should seriously reconsider their propaganda policy, one that has brought harm not only to their own people, but in the case of China, to other countries as well.

Does it really matter what others think of you?

Recently, in one of my friends organizations the mother of all performance reviews was embarked upon - a 360-degree feedback!
The aim was for them to become more aware of their shortcomings, work to improve them and hopefully become better managers.

I don’t know about you, but I’ve always been apprehensive about hearing feedback about myself.

In school, I’d cringe at my teacher’s remarks on my report cards, even if they tended to be positive ones like “pleasant”, “polite”, “quiet” (guess I was a trouble free child)

At work, I approach the year-end appraisal with a heavy heart.
Mostly because I have never ever been told anything just given a decent raise and a promotion as and when due.
And when I am told anything if at all, I take the positive comments about myself with a pinch of salt because inside I know I’m not that great a person or worker.
Yet I react to negative comments with some umbrage because I know I’m not that bad a person or worker either.

My friend was pretty down and out on some of the comments and reactions she got.
And while I have been trying to get her out of this phase, since then its got me thinking to on some basic home truths.

It is hard to please everyone, and not everyone is going to like you even if you try and win them over.
It works the other way round too – you don’t have to like everyone, even people whom others like!

So much of human interaction, whether at work, at home or in a social setting, has to do with chemistry.
You either have chemistry with a person or you don’t, and you will know it the instant you meet.

I have realized in all the ‘gyan’ that I have been parting to my friend, that chemistry is hard to manufacture.
It can be a passing thing and need not lead to a friendship. If it does, it can also die when the relationship ends. Chemistry is no guarantee that ties between two people will last forever.

It is also a different animal from love, or lust, at first sight. You can fall head over heals for someone yet realize later there’s no chemistry between you!

Whew!

Sometimes for no rhyme or reason, I can click with the several people I have to meet. Some I am just polite too and make small talk and there is nothing to talk after the introductory pleasantries were over. Conversation frayed.

With some other people, I just click, for no rhyme or reason!

Whew!

These human relations!

There are some colleagues / people whom I just with. I can share a joke or sarcastic comment and know they will get where I am coming from, and me them.
Others I feel awkward with and even if there’s nothing unpleasant between us, I would even avoid going into a lift with them.

I suppose the kind of people we get along with says a lot about ourselves. Whether we’re conscious of it or not, we do land up measuring people against our own interests and values. Those who seem to have a similar outlook – even if its just a gut feel – you land up connecting with them.

It does hurt when you realize someone doesn’t like you, but should it really matter? Should you really care about what others think of you?

I suppose in a work situation where the reason you are there is to get work done, and its hard to do so without teamwork.

But beyond my immediate surroundings and the people who matter to me, I couldn’t care less!
I personally start with the belief that I must be nice to everyone. But if its not reciprocated or I cant connect with the other person, with or without bad vibes, so be it.
I just move on and never look back.

I cant control how others think or act. What I can control is how I think or act.
Life is too short to be marred by unpleasantness – be it people or circumstances.

Guess we can’t be indifferent and immune to human interaction, but to keep it sane, I would like to surround myself – yes, all 360 degrees – with those I can click with ONLY!