Book Review: India After Gandhi.

India After Gandhi -:The history of the world's largest democracy -Ramchandra Guha.

The author does not need description and it is my first so I will just start with the review.
If you are me who can call himself a reader after Harry Potter series and Chetan Bhagat short masalas , you will doubt if the 771 pages text would ever be completed. The HP series had magic... but history! oh, that may be boring. This was the first reaction. But it turned out books can be magical without a wand. You actually feel you are living in the history. As you go ahead you realize how less you knew your country.(If you really did not know before:P ) The book is filled with information with quotes from political leaders and leading newspapers of the time. The politics so very different from the present time and yet looking familiar. As you move along pages you know you will be missing the book if it gets completed.

It starts with Poorna swaraj declared at Lahore session and jumps to August 15,1947. The date was selected by Lord Mountbatten as it was the second anniversary of the Japanese surrender to the Allied forces in the WWII. The astrologers had decreed it to be an inauspicious day when India was born and hence the celebration at Constituent Assembly started on 14th itself! Well there was actually not much to be celebrated as recalled by the then newly appointed Governor in Lahore who threw a party and "the current had failed ..the only light which we had was from the flames of the burning city of Lahore half a mile away". The lines crossed villages , lawns, temple , mosques and everything which could come in between. It was a ramzan month and monsoon was 'unconscionably late in coming in 1947'. The scholars estimated the toll of partition at 2 million dead. One more casualty was the Mahatma himself, after whom the book is titled. He was declared by the killer as the father of Pakistan, favoring muslims  and on the other side the actual father of Pakistan called the death "a hindu-loss".With this background the book starts and takes oneself to a journey of Indian political history of next five decades.

Every account is detailed magnificently. The integration of states and the expertise of Sardar , making of Union of India' to the  first elections where  cows campaigned, people embarked on weeks of journey to cast a vote,  electoral lists rejected for names like "Chunnu ki maa", or "Ompal ki bahu".. , how it was celebrated like a festival all across with the enigma that was named Nehru. From there to the debacle against China; the death of the leader and then to the death of his ideas in another few years with the rise of only woman prime-minister. Her strong decisions of partitioning Pakistan to her operation Bluestar the book details the politics and the changing nature of society. The author details so many accounts how India became Indira! The degrading morals in public life are seen clearly in the transition of India from father to the daughter. The communal carnage that followed her assassination is detailed explicitly. One gets the tension of communal violence when you read that the President of India was unable to enter New Delhi from his foreign tour because he was a Sikh! The rise of Rajiv and his sudden death; the Ayodha, Mumbai deaths and the sudden rise of BJP,  Guha leaves nothing. And somehow keeps a focus, sometimes which seems too much, on the issue of kashmir all the way in the book in these 50 years. It narrates the international, domestic  politics of J&K quite beautifully. The book also gives a special space to Bollywood at the end.

Our schools close history for the students with 1947 and what we learn from all around is of last 10 years or so. The society and the country around us does not look like the same as we read in schools history. This book is filling up that void and it does it remarkably. The author succeeds on every account and does not let its young readers lose their focus. Maybe the school texts shall be written by him  but then 700 pages book would throw the students away from schools itself !

In God They Trust !

In power race during cold war they managed to come out as winners. They forgot about the weapons built with the help of their long time friend Pakistan until a decade later. Strong potent force of taliban and fundamentalists were made to counter-attack Russia moves in the region . After USSR was broken the terror groups were given nothing to do and Afghanistan was ruled by the same force .Few know that before Talibanisation Afghanistan was a modern society .There was education and development.You may not believe but women used to go to colleges in trousers! The twin-towers are attacked and the self-built face of terror haunted America.And the wave of Islamophobia gripped the nation. But why were they attacked? Of course no act of terror can be justified but any rational person would think about the reasons. Knowing that US will reply heavily, why did the groups took such an action and threw away the government of Afghanistan from their hands? Many people must know the answers.

Two futile wars being fought and no one is there to question their actions. Pakistan's north western region faces drone attacks which are UAVs(Unmanned Aerial vehicles).It means some guys sitting oceans away drop the bombs where ever they find 'necessary'. Thousands of civilians are killed in the air bombings. When the Obama administration came the attacks were increased many folds and before an year could be completed the new president was awarded Nobel Peace Prize! Despite continuous protests from Pak's government for breaching of their sovereignty the attacks increase day after day. Wikileaks revealed that the war is a total failure and the Taliban attacks have actually soared.

Recently a lot of fuss was created of 'Time Square bombing'.The initial reports of arrest of Faisal Shehzad told us that the explosives were very mild and there was no worry. The explosives were told to be no more powerful than fire-crackers. Some days later the guy was charged for attempting the use of 'weapons of mass destruction' . A guy brought explosives in New York's major commercial center and just did nothing but parked the car right in the middle of square in no-parking zone! He was arrested 53 hours after the attempt.I thought terrorists were intelligent enough to know where to park a car so that it does not draw attention. USA further increased its drone attacks thereafter hewing and crying for the attempted terror attack on its soil.

They also cry for many other things. They claim to desire a nuclear free world and hence they worry every nuclear weapon present outside their country .They put sanctions on Iran.And for what? Building nuclear weapons need more than 90% enrichment of Uranium .Iran has recently been able to achieve 20% enrichment from their capability of 5%. Iran says that they need isotopes for medical purposes in treatment of cancer. And what if Iran is actually building the power. Iran will have power in the region and can control the flow of oil and US long hard work of bringing oil countries under its power by force or 'friendship' will be gone.Sometimes we forget who actually introduced the world with the concept of nuclear bomb. Hundreds of thousands were killed in minutes and even after 65 years the country do not say sorry and instead boast in the glory of winning .They actually ask for credits for putting an end to the world war! Some may ask if there were really no other options left but to wipe out cities with nuclear bombs? Shouting for a nuclear-free world and actually showing the way are two other things. If the weapons are used again ,there will be no stopping and the planet will go under nuclear winter for more than 1000 years. In 1988 former Prime Minister of India,Mr. Rajiv Gandhi, presented the action plan to make the world completely nuclear free at U.N general assembly. USSR welcomed the proposal but the power was on a decline . The plan immediately faced opposition and was never implemented. No surprises who opposed.

US double standards are not only restricted to Iran and Israel .In April 2010 a rig exploded under water and BP was scolded for months. Mr. President said that he is ready to 'put foot on the throat of BP' to plug the leak. BP deserved the punishment but why not America's giant Transocean who owned the Deepwater Horizon rig? Why not another American company Halliburton who was responsible for sealing the rig? Why not America's administration who gave permission for the faulty safeguards in offshore drilling that resulted in creating one of the biggest environmental disasters? Take a look on other side. If BP is made to keep in stock $20 billions for compensation , US keeps its mouth shut for the UCC disaster in Bhopal. The worst industrial disaster of world in Bhopal killed tens of thousands compared to 13 killed due to BP oil spill. Water and land of Bhopal is still toxic as the waters of gulf. Why does the country which cries out loud for Human rights have no value for the survivors and bereaved family members in Bhopal?

Just 2 days ago came the statement that US wants Iraq's government to pay compensation to those effected in the war. That may be the most depressed thing heard from the 14 trillion dollars economy. They implement their decisions by any method they want. During the last G20 summit PM of Japan was supposed to have a discussion with Barack Obama on moving US military base from Okinawa. The chance he got was during a dinner when he was given the seat besides the President. He continued talking about the issue while Obama was busy selecting the menu. At the end he asked the PM if he liked the food. The embarrassing incident was published in many newspapers across the world.The japanese Prime Minister had to resign as he could not fulfill the promise given to his people.

Sometimes it is puzzling why do they have such power .Why do they have to dictate terms? What good have they brought to the world that they deserve such recognition? And they need not give explanation for any actions.Nations devastated with wars, families being destroyed, maimed survivors and the files piling in U.N ,all have the same questions.But who expects the answers?

One fine morning....

I opened my eyes and saw I was in a train and not the requirement room of Hogwarts hiding from the bombings at Pakistan's Quetta. Oh the meaningless sleep.I noticed the train had fewer and different people than I saw last night.I asked one of them if there was time for kanpur station. "kanpur gaya bhaiya bahut der pahele." WTF!I came to know I am about 100kms away. With a perplexed look people continued their talk .It was 5 in the morning. I saw outside it were clouds all over and a diffused light could be seen announcing advent of the day. What a fool I must be. I am late ...and then I thought "For what m I late?". It were vacations and I am going to an 'unknown station' . A cool breeze was brushing the hair. After an hour the train halted with no sign of a station. I saw a passengers train across ready to take the tracks for the opposite direction. I asked an old man if that train would go to kanpur central. He told me it does but would take about 2 hours to reach. With my small bag on the shoulders I boarded the empty passengers train.
There was only one man inside sitting by the window. Before I could choose a seat the train started . I sat across the man as I watched my express train going away from me.The man was in his fifties, wearing a yellow shirt with an off-white pyjama. he had mustache ,half beard and a rustic look. He stared at me for a while and asked where I wished to go. I told him I missed my station and want to reach kanpur central. He told me the train is mainly for the milkmen .I inquired if I am not supposed to be sitting in that compartment. He looked at me and smiled. He pacified me that the milkmen would not mind sparing a seat for me. He had quite a different dialect but fully understandable. I saw outside my window which had no frame for being an emergency relief. The breeze started flushing my face with water and in no time it started pouring. It was cool as I saw rain striking the stones on the tracks and the field across. If one passes the vast fields of Ganga plains during rains he can never forget the refreshing smell of soil. Continuous tilled farms with mangoes laden trees in between is for welcoming the monsoon.Men and women sowing rice in the knee-dip water filled paddy fields came across.A few moments and I could see the vista of farmers silhouetted against the dark clouds. The rainfall was heavy and the man across lowered the glass pane to cover half of his window. The train started slowing down. It was about to stop completely when some voices became louder and about a dozen milkmen thronged the coach.The train suddenly got life.
They were drenched and before settling down they arranged their big milk cans all across the compartment. Some of them took out their shirts and hanged anywhere they could find a place. Train started and they started drying themselves . Some of them were shouting names and inquiring about families' well being from the people sitting at the other end of the coach. Others opened their milk cans. In no time the air was filled with smell of fresh milk. The person across me was watching me. He started telling me the mundane activities of the milkmen . I inquired if they all are going to kanpur or some place between. As I expected they all had to deliver the milk at some or the other contractor in kanpur. I was feeling hungry and remembered I had a full box of burfi in my bag. I never thought burfis in the morning could ever taste so good. I passed some to the people sitting in the compartment. One of them told me they could cook much better sweets than I had. The train did not even catch its full speed when the brakes were put again. This time some school going youngsters also boarded with the milkmen. All drenched in their uniforms they settled down.Two girls and three boys sat the other side . After discussions and gossips about everything they went through the day ,the voice of the milkmen could be heard again. I realized one of the girls was looking at me. Through the corner of my eye I could see her . She wore a cold look wanting to tell me that I am an alien and should get off the train. Thank the gods looks do not kill! I swayed to the window side and watched the fields again for some time.The clouds were rumbling and mustering for heavier down pour.I saw a swing ,roped in a mango tree, hanging down waiting for someone to just give a push. In the evening girls must be having fun there. I tilted my head to see the girl still keeping her eyes affixed at me . I wondered if she actually wanted to kill me. The train stopped .The school group left and life was good again. Two peacocks were roaming in a field , kids under a tree were throwing all they could find to bring mangoes down. The images of the campus came flooding and to my surprise I heard a voice "Kuchh din pahele jab pradhanmantri aaye the yahaan kisi school me tab mayawati ko bhi aana tha par use mana kar diya gaya". The politics cannot leave any train's compartment without some discussion.
I saw the station of Chakheri and knew I am about to reach the central. Some time later milkmen were ready to jump off the train and before it came to a hault the train was empty. I got down to see a rush and muddy platform. The rain stopped and even at eight in the morning the jostling crowd could be seen. The beautiful journey ended. I took an auto-rickshaw ,kept thinking about the last two beautiful hours. It was an unexpected beautiful journey. I never thought sleeping late and missing out the destination station could give such a refreshing experience. The rain started again and I was at the gates of IIT Kanpur.

Movie Review: Rajneeti & Raavan

Two fine directors made the modern day version of the epics of Mahabharat and Ramayan . Jha does not seem to pay anything to the epic but Ratnam gives the credit in the title itself.Both shares the ideology that there's no 'good' winning over 'evil'.
. Rashtravadi party is the main political front of M.P. The story starts when the leader has a paralytic attack just days before an election .He chooses his brother over his son for the chairmanship of the party for being more experienced. The son Veerendra Pratap (Manoj Bajpai) with help of a dalit leader Sooraj (Ajay Devgan) kills his uncle and the battle of power starts between the two family's youngsters.In this Mahabharat the writer doesnot take any side. Nana Patekar plays the role of Shakuni mama and krishn simultaneously and it becomes harder to see which side can be called of the Pandavs as everyone is casted in a negative shade. Rajneeti is more of a family feud with only a political background. The only way shown to get onto the chair is to murder the leader of the opposition. In about a week the parties had to change their Chief Ministerial Candidates more than 5 times!! The excellent performances by Manoj Bajpai, Ajay Devgan, Ranbir kapoor, Arjun Rampal and Nana Patekar overshadows the direction and cloaks the otherwise loud story.The movie is entertaining all the way and can be seen without complaints.

When it comes to Raavan some of the scenes of Ramayan are forced upon the story. Beera kidnaps a cop's wife to take revenge of all the misdeeds of police but enchanted by her beauty falls in love with the captive. The movie is very slow in the first half but speeds up in the second to give all the reasons for the kidnap and to show the insides of Beera's dwelling. He is regarded as the king and the saviour of the poor. The scenes largely gives the feeling of naxalite problem in India. Some of the characters like of Sanjeevani (Govinda) are thrusted upon to show the resemblance with Ramayan so much so that he is shown climbing down the trees and go and meet Sita sitting under a tree awaiting his Ram. The lanka is not made up of gold but yet magnificient with waterfalls and forests.Sita is beautiful, fearless and is portrayed as the 'epitome of female purity and virtue' but yet consolidated and independent in her choices. On being asked for agneepariksha she prefers living with Raavan who did not even touch her despite being cruel and powerful. Aishwarya is excellent , Ratnam explores the silent Valley forest reserves and the hoggenakkal waterfall of the south which were till now hidden to bollywood and virgin to other economic activities. The mesmerizing locations with an intoxicating music leaves you with a refreshing experience.
P.S: For all the rahmaniacs there is a beautiful unreleased song at the end sung by the maestro himself.

Abke saawan aise barse...

Bhuwan and the fellows are pleading to the clouds for the much awaited rains on the parched land of Champaner .In the other flick Nargis, with her children carrying the plough,is trying hard to persuade the villagers not to leave the flooded village as it is their mother land. These scenes may have nominated two hindi movies for the academy awards but the harsh truth is that the scenes are depiction of real situation of Indian framers.60% of the Indian agricultural land is dependent on rains. Every year either the droughts or the floods kill the production. Last year more than 50% of India faced deficient while 9% had the excess rains. The major food and commercial crops like rice, pulses, peanuts, soybeans and cotton get largely effected.
The villages may eagerly be waiting for the season but city like Mumbai wants to prepare itself for the heavy rains against the backdrop of bad infrastructure. Even if we forget the july'05 heavy floods in Mumbai the monsoons every year disrupts the life of the cities. Public transport comes to a halt. Trains and flights get cancelled. The government stands with their hands-up to tell the voters that the monsoons are not controlled by them and hence cannot do anything for the failure of the system.In the north the capital is waiting for the rains so that the mercury comes down and the power cuts get over. But a slight heavy rain again disrupts the railways and transportation. Last year when IGI airport got flooded the blame game started and finally Mrs. Sheila Dikshit came out defending everyone and blamed Indra Dev for the menace. People still want to know if the rains can ever be heavier enough to have a water-logging inside an international airport.
Every year Orissa faces the storms ,Bihar battles the floods and U.P demands money for the drought affected regions.The Indian economy being heavily dependent on monsoon keeps an eye on the IMD forecasts .A 'normal' monsoon is likely to boost the produce and bring down the inflation. If the rains do not disturb Kosi then Bihar may stay focused on its road to development.
It may take years to develop a good infrastructure of roads and canals in India but till then the blue billion keep their hopes high and wish for themselves a Happy Monsoon.

Casteing a census.

The cabinet is brooding over the 2011 census need to be conducted for the 1.1 billion citizens.Its been 80 years since all the castes were taken into account. After that only the SCs/STs were numbered.
The naysayers of caste-census are mainly from the elite and educated . They are mainly against the caste system and are afraid of the neo-nationalism taking birth in the country.Caste is seen as a division but what they are arguing is against the caste system and not the census. For the census they cite the framers of the constitution who decided to do away with the caste based counting. The counter argument can be the fact that the constituent assembly hoped for a caste free society in just 10 years. The reservation for these castes was only till 1960 and since then the articles are amended every 10 years to include the policy.Caste is a reality. A totally caste based party winning a majority in the 16 crore populated state shows how important is caste to a voter.Moreover,till the last census we had reservations only for the SCs/STs and the decennial census kept the count. In 2008 Supreme Court ruled in favour of reserving seats for OBCs and there arises a need to know the numbers for which the policies are framed. We do need the numbers but what the issue is "SHOULD CENSUS BE USED TO COLLECT CASTE STATISTICS OR SOME OTHER METHODS BE EMPLOYED"?
In census each family is asked about the data .As the home minister agrees, the enumerators lacked the sociological sensitivity to record and classify the population on the basis of caste and sub-caste. There are about 3000 castes under OBCs only and each one of them are different in economic and social status.More surprisingly is the fact that if a caste is poor in one region the same caste is the most affluent in another region. Backward classes commissions at the State and Central levels be better placed to conduct a detailed survey.These surveys are mainly sample surveys and are handled keeping in mind the various issues involved with the castes.
The political parties are divided on the issue for the known reason of politics but what we demanded were good debates on a national level . The cabinet is sealing the fate of caste census today and the decision will be out soon. I hope after today's decision we do not remain divided and come together to contribute in "the biggest exercise of humankind".

Movie review: Kites

The story of 70's is rolled and packed with the glamour and appeal of Hrithik and Barbara.The boy giving his coat to the drenched girl shaking and shivering in rain but what is new is that the girl is taking out her sweater and bra to pay dollars . It was a long time since we saw a hero, a heroine and a villain and chase & run stories but Kites could not manage to fly high with this simple idea.
To make an exotic entry for the mexican in the bollywood the director makes her up as a mermaid. It looks Hrithik is struck with her on the first sight but a minute later a new flashback tells you that they are already married. The two birds fall in love and elope leaving the millionaire fiancee estranged on the gun point.All this happens in Vegas with shimmering lights and shining glasses but does not remain there.The two crosses the mexican borders to get married again. Chasing and running continues till a futile end.
The performances are okay.Kangana fits as always best in the hyper-crazy role. Salim-sulaiman background music is below standards with Rajesh Roshan's romantic themes. Anurag Basu is not able to use the fine actors, sizzling girls and expensive locations to create any magic with the dull story. Save your money for buying melons this summer.

Queen and the Soldiers

Starting at 5:30 in the morning from Meerut we were passing by Dehradun at about 11. Before we are enchanted by the hills around and the smell of newly born litchies a sudden uphill route and a cold breeze sway our eyes to a board reading 'Welcome to the Queen of Hills'. The valley going deeper with every minute makes one wonder if he is heading for the heavens. The thought becomes louder when I see the clouds crossing me .The car stops and the driver proclaims that we are at the Mall Road of Mussourie. Shops of hats, sunglasses, handicrafts run across one side of the road with other being decorated by metallic gothic lamps kept for sight viewing of the valley below. Though the place is also called 'the honeymoon capital of North India',some school buses can be seen with teachers trying to que up their students for the 'educational trip'. Being far from the scorching summers of Delhi and the relentless sun the kids do not waste a single minute in learning discipline and the dazzling soap bubbles are seen all over the place. A ropeway (gondola) takes you to the top of the hill,called Gunhill, where you realize that the thoughts about heaven were correct. The vast Himalayas across with Gangotri glacier in your view can never justify the name of the place. Telescopes are fixed at gunhill to view the snow peaks and places like the famous St. Georges' School and a Nagdevta temple. They were looking just like tiny marks in the hills before but now became alive with students playing basketball at one and a red flag waiving for the spiritual peace at the other mark. After 2 hours with no mood to snatch our eyes from the peaks we headed for our next destination called Kempty falls.
We were moving downwards and the serpentine roads met us again. Within in half an hour we were near the falls. The falls as hoped were surrounded by lush green mountain trees .We bathed in the cold water and after an hour left for the doon.
We stayed at a hotel 'Drona' and left early the next day for the trip ahead. Sahastra Dhara as the name claims ,comprises of hundreds of streams and waterfalls coming out from the mountain with no sign of origination.Guchchu pani (also called Robbers' Cave was about a km long cave with knee deep cold water running inside. I came outside and got the call from my best friend to visit his institution famously known as Indian Military Academy.
As we reached IMA we were feeling hot as the day was matured and the Gentleman Cadets were training to become the officers of Indian Army. The Academy has four entrance gates of mainly four batallions comprising of 3-4 company each. My friend,the ACA (Academy Cadet Adjutant),head of the cadets, belonged to the Thimayya batallion and Miektila coy. The tricolour waving at its very front the academy has a motto "Valor and Wisdom" and is equiped with every facility one can think of, Hundreds of horses for riding, vast open space for shooting practices and a magnificient library . Though all the buildings had a unique architecture, the building that stands out the most is the Chetwode Building, named after Field Marshal Sir Philip Chetwode, the founder of the Academy. Cadets ride bicycles(bikes,as they call it) and sometime the bikes ride them for their weight exercise cum punishments.The discipline can be noticed at the very sight of Cadets wearing full shirts,pants and ties with well polished shoes as their "casual" attire.
The articles reading recent courageous sacrifices of the officers in the other valley were filling the boards all across the corridors. Pride and courage is always in the air where the young officers are being born. The day was by now dying down and we were required to leave IMA before 4pm. Bidding adieu to my friend I promised to come back for the passing out parade in mid-June.
After the Academy we visited Buddha temple in Clementown .It felt there was no better way to end such a trip filled with so many experiences and beauty.Finally we reached home at 11 in the night and in no time started watching the pics of the journey behind.