दृष्टिकोण – Indra's Viewpoint

This is one day when I get into reverse mode and my thought invariably moves down the memory lane. I was never a great Holi enthusiast. But I enjoyed it. From the childhood days, I get reminded of the big crowd that used to get collected in our family residence courtyard at Pipra. Morning used to be for the dirty holi. But the afternoon was full with dry coloured, sometimes scented powders. The more enjoying part was the spirited folk singing of Phagua. After the distribution of sweets, the groups used to move singing and stopping at different spots around the village through different narrow wide lanes ending at midnight at an old mound that we used to call ‘garh’. The last song used to be Chaaita before the crowd dispersed. Ashok, my cousin who works in railways in Vadodara is in village. Most from the villages of Bihar who are working in distant places try to reach the village on this occasion. Many a times it creates a real chaos on all the railway stations.

I fail to understand why I don’t remember much of holis of school days at Birlapur; perhaps it was because of my over involvement in studies with no friend circle at all. I do have wonderful memory of the holi at Eden Hindu Hostel of Presidency College in 1956-57 and particularly of the bath in the swimming pool of College Square.

Some of the most exciting holis I remember from the HM days. Somehow I had started taking lead and used to pull out others from their residences. But the biggest enthusiast was Late Rath and his party. I do also remember of one bhang session at one of my colleagues place one year and its terrific experience. But all that are part of history. Today we are living alone in Noida. Our social circle is very small.

Urmi, Prachi and Manisha with Yamuna (left) Yamuna with Singh family Mrs Singh and two daughters-in-law(Right)

Today Yamuna was the first to put colour on me while I was on worshipping session, so I could return only after I got up. But before that Urmi, Prach and Manisha had a session with Yamuna. She enjoys it the most. She had been singing holi songs since morning. As the maids had taken off, only after Yamuna completed her kitchen session that was something special today with pua and duum, we went to our advocate friend Mr. YK Singh who had all his family of two sons with him today. We really enjoyed both- colours as well as tasty sweets and dahiphalla.

Sanjay in our neighbourhood has come to be with her widow mother from US. He dropped in and then came AK Singh who worked for me in Harig. And thus the holi ends.

Yesterday, on return from the doctor, I found the Noida Authority (NA) men carrying out the repairing of the service road in front of our residences. I couldn’t understand how and why had it chosen those places. The contractor had neither scrubbed the base nor the mix was proper. Shouldn’t someone from the block represent and supervise the work so that the money is well spent? NA and its engineers hardly bother, as the contractors do take care of their demands in advance. Every block is having some retired civil engineers whose services can be easily sought for. Resident Welfare Association (RWA) or NA may create a panel and request them before taking up the task. Only few months ago, NA had carried out similar repair and all the stone chips had come out. Perhaps the bitumen was not of the desired quality or specified ratio was not maintained or the road rollers didn’t compress it properly. Should there be no supervision on such work? Even after my request to call the supervisor or contractor, no one came.

Every morning, I am sure, many of the residents coming out for walk face two other menaces or nuisance that RWA can look into and find some solutions. I find sweepers cleaning the road and generating a lot of dust in process. Can’t they be a little more careful? Can’t there be a better way for sweeping that minimizes the dust creations? Can our intelligent residents come out some ideas? Do we not feel suffocated while walking on the road as well as in the park? However, why should it be done only when the people are out for a morning walk or early shift at work? After all none of the sweepers is working for more than 2 hours a day. Long back I suggested if RWA could empower them with some extra work as gardener or security men and call them housekeeping hands.

The usual way of disposing the fallen leaves and other wastes followed by the sweepers is by the burning them. That creates a lot of unbearable smoke and adds to the smog that we see all day around. I feel it must be stopped immediately. Instead the waste such as leaves can be placed in a pit dug in every park of the block and transformed into organic manure. The technology is already available with the waste management group. We all know how the dust and smog in atmosphere tripped even the national grid.

And the next in the list of nuisances is the group of stray dogs that we are to face everywhere we go. Last month I had my American daughter-in-law with us and she was just shocked to see them. She asked, “Why can’t they be sterilized to gradually reduce their population”. I didn’t have any answer. I assume Delhi government has taken up some programme. I wish NA also took up the project. I have an alternative suggestion, though in lighter vein. Why not NA contacts some Chinese importer for the dogs, as they still consume them? It helps solving our problem and meets the food shortage of the billion strong Chinese.

Finally through this medium I have an appeal for the doctors in the sectors to show some compassion and visit at least the patients in their own sector if they are called. After all the residents are the own neighbours of doctors, some very old too and not the terrorists that they should be scared. I wish the RWA also appealed them through the newsletter.

I wish RWA and NA take the suggestions in right spirit.

PS: However, many things are changing for better. Shakti Mandir in Sector 40 is now having board declaring ‘Begging is crime’. And it seems, they have left the place.

I relish Khushwant Singh’s column in Hindustan Times, because he provides a different viewpoint, at least in some, that makes you light but think a little. After going through his Delhi, a fusion of history cum fiction, I did not read any of his books. It is unfortunate, but the major print media today is in hands of intellectually third rated businessmen some of them are unscrupulous too. The print media has hardly any other social objective today but one to survive the severe competition from the digital (news channels) onslaughts. What percentage of the readers today are those reading editorials and lead articles? Print media has hardly any representation in the rural India and the issues of the people in unorganized sectors and self-employed class. The news forming the majority are only polluting the simple rural population rather than providing any assistance in coming out of age-old curse of poverty though success stories and encouragement for innovation and entrepreneurship.
But Khushwant Singh’s story in ‘Outlook of March 24, 2008‘ is about the shocking way the media barons are working. How can one have faith in such media? Here is that in his words:

The hard truth about Indian journalism is that proprietors matter, editors do not; money counts, talent does not.

The latest instance is the unceremonious sacking of M.J. Akbar, founder-editor of the Asian Age. He is perhaps the most distinguished living member of his tribe. He started the weekly Sunday and the Telegraph for the Ananda Bazaar group of papers based in Calcutta. He has been elected member of the Lok Sabha and is the author of half-a-dozen books, all of which have gone into several editions. Fifteen years ago, he, with a set of friends, launched the Asian Age. It was a bold venture as the Asian Age came out of all the metropolitan cities of India as well as London. It had little advertising but had a lot more readable material taken from leading British and American journals than any other Indian daily. It was as close to being a complete newspaper as any could be. Besides these unique qualities it also published articles by writers critical of the government and the ruling party. It was probably this aspect of the journal that irked Akbar’s latest partner in the venture; he had political ambitions of his own and wished to stay on the right side of the government. So without a word of warning, on the morning of March 1 while he was on his way to office, Akbar learned that his name was no longer on the Asian Age masthead as its editor-in-chief. It was an unpardonable act of discourtesy committed by someone with less breeding and more money.

I had been a fan of MJ, not because he is from Bihar, but because I found him one of the best editors and real secular in thinking and action. And then he moves on to tell his own bad experiences.

Akbar was one of the small team of editors who helped me take the circulation of the Illustrated Weekly of India from a measly 60,000 to well above 4,00,000.It is ironical that I was sacked in much the same way in 1978 as Akbar was this year. The journal, like all others published by Bennet Coleman, including the Times of India, had been restored by the government to the Jain family. As soon as they took over, they started meddling in my business. My contract was terminated and my successor appointed. I had one week to go. I wrote a tearful piece of farewell, wishing the Illustrated Weekly future prosperity. It was never published. When I arrived at the office in the morning to tidy up my desk, I was handed a letter asking me to quit immediately. I picked up my umbrella and walked back home.

It was an undeserved, deliberate insult. It still rankles in my mind. The Jain vendetta continues to this day. Even functions held in my honour presided over by people like Amitabh Bachchan, Maharani Gayatri Devi and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, while reported in the Times of India, never carry my name or photograph.

I feel like stopping my newspaper ‘Times of India’, but what are the alternatives? Perhaps that is the reason that they hardly accept any thing that I write critical about the industry, be it the poor salaries and facilities for the lowest workmen, or the very much limited role of the industry in education, even the industrial training, particularly in the non-knowledge sectors. I only wish that the people came to know about the ownership of all the newspapers and its credentials and start judging themselves.

I love to read Vir Sanghvi’s viewpoints on the national issues. This Sunday he has created a political scenario of India. Can the third front be a reality with Prakash Karat’s conditionality expressed in a rally in Lucknow? Vir writes what happens if it didn’t materialize.

“On the broader thrust of economic policy, there’s virtually no difference between the Congress and the BJP at all. Both parties believe in liberalization. Both are committed to as much privatization as they can get away with. Both regard globalization as inevitable… All that the Congress and the BJP differ on are matters of implementation and personality. But none of this amounts to much more than the normal bear-baiting between the government and the Opposition. On matters of principle and ideology, the differences are so small as to be minimal.”

“Are we heading towards a situation where there will be two ideologically-identical national parties, one anachronistic, communist behemoth and a host of identity-driven smaller parties?

And we will know that Third Front is an impossible dream.”

However, with all the similarity in Congress and BJP, there is one big difference. Congress can effectively function only if someone from Nehru- Gandhi (not Mahatma but Feroze Gandhi) clan leads it. Unfortunately, the model of nomination such as Manmohan Singh has not functioned effectively, nor is being perceived right for a democracy. I wish Rahul succeeds in bringing real internal democracy in the Congress and gives the young men and women of the party the right role that they can play in the development of the country.

I wish these two alliances that has already run the last two governments quite successfully continued. However, the merger of the other regional and casteist parties with either of the major parties, Congress or BJP would have been in national interests. With BJP no more so close to RSS ideology, many of its earlier allies can join it. Nitish Kumar or Mamta are in allusions that keeping distance from BJP can help in forming an effective government in their states.

The biggest problem is from ideology-based leftists. If they remain in the alliance, one can’t dream of any reform that is absolutely necessary. For instance, organized retail sector can’t grow; SEZs can’t come up; PDS can’t be streamlined. Unfortunately, the leftists have failed to set an example of better governance as China has done in the two states under them from many decades. Leftists unless they join the government must not be taken into any alliance.

May be one day BJP and Congress will join hands to form a nationalist government in the interest of the people of the country.

Time and again, some affiliates of BJP, the second national political party do something that shames any sane persons. It happened this time in Delhi University. BJP affiliated student activists, sometimes I feel like calling them terrorist, created problem. They found an essay by A.K. Ramanujan, on the many Ramayanas living across languages and narrative genres, as the reason for protest and vandalism.

Many years ago, I procured a book ‘The Ramayana tradition in Asia’ published by Sahitya Akademi and edited by V.Raghavan. It has articles written by many on the different Ramayanas of Asia. It was an old publication dating 1980. Ramanujan has not written anything new. Many years ago, I had read a similar book by Father Kamil Bulke in Hindi “Ram katha ki utapati aur bikash”. Many have written the Rama story in their own way. Valmiki was perhaps the first to write the Epic that forms the basis. But most popular one in India and perhaps the religiously most respected is Tulsidas Ramcharitmanas. It may be one of the largest selling books today in the world. I keep on reading and completing it once every month as a religious ritual. Even Tulsidas has talked about the different poets who have written the story of Rama. Ramanujan has a story that is similar to one Kagbhushundi mentions in Uttar Kanda of Ramcharitmans about the simultaneous presence of Rama in different lokas. I feel like quoting one story from the Ramanujan’s paper.

One day when Rama was sitting on his throne, his ring fell off. When it touched the earth, it made a hole in the ground and disappeared into it. It was gone. His trusty henchman, Hanuman, was at his feet. Rama said to Hanuman, “Look, my ring is lost. Find it for me.”

Now
Hanuman can enter any hole, no matter how tiny. He had the power to become the smallest of the small and larger than the largest thing. So he took on a tiny form and went down the hole.

He went and went and went and suddenly fell into the netherworld. There were women down there. “Look, a tiny monkey! It’s fallen from above!” Then they caught him and placed him on a platter (thali). The King of Spirits (bhut), who lives in the netherworld, likes to eat animals. So Hanuman was sent to him as part of his dinner, along with his vegetables. Hanuman sat on the platter, wondering what to do.

While this was going on in the netherworld, Rama sat on his throne on the earth above. The sage Vasistha and the god Brahma came to see him. They said to Rama, “Your work in the world of human beings is over. Your incarnations as Rama must now be given up. Leave this body, come up, and rejoin the gods.” So Rama summoned all his followers and arranged for the coronation of his twin sons, Lava and Kusa. Then he went to the river Sarayu and disappeared in the flowing waters.

All this while, Hanuman was in the netherworld. When he was finally taken to the King of Spirits, he asked Hanuman, “Why have you come here?”

“Rama’s ring fell into a hole. I’ve come to fetch it.”

The king showed him a platter. On it were thousands of rings. They were all Rama’s rings. The king said, “Pick out your Rama’s ring and take it.”

They were all exactly the same. “I don’t know which one it is,” said Hanuman, shaking his head.

The King of Spirits said, “There have been as many Ramas as there are rings on this platter. When you return to earth, you will not find Rama. This incarnation of Rama is now over. Whenever an incarnation of Rama is about to be over, his ring falls down. I collect them and keep them. Now you can go.”

So Hanuman left.

There is nothing religious in it. Why should there be protest and vandalizing of the department for this? Let at least the student community at university level be not play with such an

Last Auto Expo 2008 was unique in one respect. It provided a feel-good factor to visitors about the capability of the Indian engineers working in automobile industry. India can’t only produce automobiles to world standard in scale large enough to meet the demand, but also can develop new globally competitive products that are exportable too to rich as well as poor countries all over the globe.

‘Nano’ created a new perception about India’s design and development capability on the global auto industry. Bajaj Auto showcased its indigenously designed small car that appeared to be pretty mature design, and Maruti Suzuki exhibited its next global subcompact locally designed car. The designers got a lot of accolades from the media and auto experts. DC Design too is making its presence felt with global clients.

India is also becoming a global production base. Hyundai is the most successful among the MNC car manufacturers. Car major Hyundai Motor India (HMIL) has received 60,000 export orders for its small car ‘i10’, which was launched in October 2007.
India has a great potential in R&D. The public sector organizations such as Atomic Energy Commission, ISRO, DRDO, and CSIR have proven its might in different areas, though with the usual shortcomings of public sector. As reported, ‘after losing close to 1,500 scientists to much greener pastures of corporate world just since 2002, DRDO is stepping up its ‘talent search scheme’ to lure NRIs into its fold through some ‘reverse brain drain’. It appears to be good news for the country. Scientists are in demand and private sectors are increasing their investment in R&D. Without innovations and new product development that can come only through strong R&D, it will be difficult for them to survive and grow in globalised market. And it is a new development that reverse brain drain has started and that too with government agencies. DRDO has already netted at least 40 PhDs and M.Techs working in academics or industry in countries like US, UK, Japan and Sweden.

Some data about the R&D of the country may show India still lacking behind in R&D:

Number of core researchers in India was about 1.5 lakh as compared to China’s 8-10 lakh.

Number of persons doing research and development in Scandinivian countries is 7,000 per million of population and 4,700 per million of population in US. In India, there are 156 researchers per million of population.

R&D spending as percentage of GDP in India is only 0.8% as compared to China’s 1.23. Developed countries have R&D expenditure of upto 3% of GDP.

Of the 0.8% expenditure in India, 80% is by public sector while the private sector share is only 20%. In China and US, the public sector share is only 30% each while in Japan it is only 18%.

Even the Budget 2008 has taken steps to create an atmosphere for attracting students to science courses and researches. UGC is taking steps to improve the quality of research in education institutes. Even time and again media report about some outstanding by Indian scientists that are inspiring.

Physicist Basanta Nandi, from IIT, Mumbai has emerged as the world’s ‘hottest’ reasearcher for 2007, according to annual the league tables published by academic publisher Thomson Scientific.

American tech guru Amar Bose joins inventors who gave the world the television remote control (Robert Adler), electrocardiograph (Willem Einthoven), hip replacement surgery (John Charnley), and Containerized Shipping (Malcolm McLean) in the national scroll. The only other Indian in the Inventors’ Hall of Fame is Rangaswamy Srinivasan, a former IBM scientist named for his pioneering work on excimer laser surgery.

Shivani Sud , a teenage Indian-American student from North Carolina who began to take interest in cancer research when she was six won the prestigious Intel Science Talent Search, annual competition often termed the “junior Nobel Prize”. Shivani Sud, 17, a Durham high school student, was awarded a $100,000 college scholarship during a ceremony in Washington on Tuesday for her research to improve colon cancer treatment. Sud was among the seven high school students of Indian origin who made the list of 40 finalists in the annual Intel competition that attracted some 1600 high school seniors nationwide.

India can be a knowledge hub for the world, if its institutions get more autonomous, change its mindsets for becoming the best in the world and start demanding all the possible assistance from its alumni and industry instead of depending on government.

PS: Scientists can make money too. Innocentive, an online network that connects companies, academic institutions and non-profit organizations, is known for linking problem-solvers and solution-seekers by granting cash awards up to $1 million for creative solutions in business, entrepreneurship, chemistry, engineering and design, lifesciences, maths, computer science and physical sciences.