दृष्टिकोण – Indra's Viewpoint

I don’t know how many of those going for seeing the movie ‘Eklvya’ know this saddest story of Mahabharat, that has a strong lesson about the capability one can attain through self study and practices, and that provides a good glimpse of the society and, that too of the shameful behaviour of the teacher of the time.

Eklvya was a tribal clan of those days. He dared to go to Dronacharya, the teacher of the princes of the Kuru clan, and begged him to teach archery. Dronacharya refused. Eklvya decided to go on his own. He created a statue of Dronacharya and started practicing the archery under the sight of the statue treating it as his guru (teacher).

And then one day Dronacharya happened to go from the same forest where Eklvya was mastering the art of archery. A dog with Dronacharya strayed and went near Eklvya, started barking and disturbing him. Eklvya used his arrows to fill the dog’s mouth and made him silent. The dog returned to Dronacharya with arrows in mouth. Every one was stunned, who could be the master archer who could fill a dog’s mouth without letting a drop of blood fall. The dog led Dronacharya and his group to Eklvya. Drona inquired Eklvya, who his teacher was. Eklvya reply humbly that it was Drona himself. And instead of appreciating his humility, Drona asked Eklvya to give him the thumb from his right hand as ‘guru dakshina’ and de-capacitated him forever.

Last Saturday, we went to watch Eklvya the movie of Big B. And his acting as Eklvya of the twenty-first century is one of the best that I have seen till date. I always wished that Big B got chance to portray some great classical characters such as Chanakya or Ashok, or Akbar. Amitabh was just superb. All of us liked the film.

In Sunday ‘Times of India’, I found a review of Shobhaa De in her special column. I couldn’t but agree and appreciate her views.

Vidhu Vinod Chopra has made India’s first ‘Greek Tragedy’. Paradoxical though this sounds, one can’t think of a more apt way to describe the gut-wrenching horror of it all, as the superbly-structured plot unfolds to reveal dark secrets about a princely family, dealing with the aftermath of the mysterious death of the rana’s wife.

Eklvya is a provocative film. It has the power to wake you up because it gets down to basics – the eternal Mahabharat-ian debate between dharma and adharma. Instead of moralising, the film boldly opens up a challenging dialogue that compels us to ask a few tough questions. Eklvya’s interpretation of dharma forces an unexpected resolution (it disappointed me).

It is really a tribute to the filmmaker’s courage in going ahead with a subject that travels well beyond known territory and goes into a long, oppressively unlit tunnel, leading to an even denser hell. A hell that perhaps, is present inside all our wicked hearts. Rarely has commercial cinema in our country taken such a tricky route, combining mythology with modern day machinations, sentiment with sadism, tradition with attitude. It explodes mediaeval beliefs while pointing out that they still persist in 21st century India – a sad fact of life, so evident in the way we deal with contemporary social issues.

In a way, Eklvya is an ageless epic, filled with pathos, betrayal, guilt, brutality and sacrifice. Polarities tear the protagonists apart, as an honour-bound royal guard believes he is fulfilling the duties of his forefathers, even if they involve pandering to the decadent demands of the impotent (possibly gay), rana, consumed by his own inadequacies, raging against fate, and wreaking revenge against the one person who can save his life. Whether or not Eklvya makes box office counters ring, it is a moving film.

“A seat made of precious stones, a bath in delightfully cool water, a splendid apparel bedecked, sandalpaste perfumed with musk, jasmine and champaka flowers arranged upon Bilva leaves, incense as well as a lamp, lit…Clarified butter, milk porridge, the five-fold food, a cooling drink of milk and curds with plantains, a variety of vegetables, aromatic water and scented betel – all these offerings… have I conceived in my mind out of love and devotion; do accept them, my Lord.”
Adi Sankara

Ancestors of Hindus were very creative and created huge number of Gods, perhaps more than their own total population at that time of history. They continued doing so as their population increased. However, after the Vedic era of Gods representing various manifestations of nature, three of them- Brahma, Vishnu, and Mahesh or Shiva remained the main.
Today, February 16, 2007 is Shivratri. All the temples are full with devotees. I took my wife Yamuna to the Shakti Mandir in sector 40 of Noida for rituals- milk bath of Shiva and offering of His favourite fruits and flowers. She was on fast till noon too. I don’t go for almost any now. Reason is age and perhaps the lack of mental strength. My religiosity now is limited to reading and writing. Here is a story about Shivaratri.

According to a legend in the Shiva Purana, once Brahma and Vishnu were fighting over who was the superior of the two. Horrified at the intensity of the battle, the other gods asked Shiva to intervene. To make them realize the futility of their fight, Shiva assumed the form of a huge column of fire in between Brahma and Vishnu. Awestruck by its magnitude, they decided to find one end each to establish supremacy over the other.

Brahma assumed the form of a swan and went upwards and Vishnu as Varaha went into the earth. Nevertheless, light has no limit and though they searched for thousands of miles, neither could find the end. On his journey upwards, Brahma came across a ketaki flower wafting down slowly. When asked where she had come from, the ketaki replied that she had been placed at the top of the fiery column as an offering. Unable to find the uppermost limit, Brahma decided to end his search and take the flower as a witness. At this, the angry Shiva revealed his true form. He punished Brahma for telling a lie, and cursed him that no one would ever pray to him.

The ketaki flower too was banned from being used as an offering for any worship, as she had testified falsely. Since it was on the 14th day in the dark half of the month of Phalguna that Shiva first manifested himself in the form of a linga, the day is especially auspicious and is celebrated as Maha Shivratri. Worshipping Shiva on this day is believed to bestow one with happiness and prosperity.

Shiva is equally repected in Tamil literature. Shiva is considered the supreme dancer too. He is Natraj.

Tirumular, the author of Tirumantiram describes the dance of Shiva in verse in Tamizh or Tamil.

“He dances through the Vedas,/ He dances through the fire of Kundalini,/ He dances in Bodha, the pure consciousness,/ He dances in all three worlds,/ He dances with gods,/ He dances with celestial beings,/ He dances with rishi-munis,/ He dances with Parashakti,/ He dances with jivas,/ He is the supreme dancer!”

“He performs the dance of Atbudha – the dance of wonder. It is also called the dance of Sadashiva. Shiva is incomplete without Shakti while Shakti is incomplete without Shiva. When Shivashakti dances it is Atbudha or the dance of wonder”.

The story of Tirumular is equally exciting. He was a Siddha Yogi who lived in the Himalayas. Once he travelled to the southern regions to meet Muni Agastyar. At Podigai Hills in Tamizhnadu, he witnessed a herd of cows standing and crying around the dead body of the cowherd, named Mulan. Moved with compassion for the cows, Tirumular left his own body and entered the body of Mulan. Mulan came alive, and then took the cows to their village. When Tirumular turned- Mulan returned to the spot where he had entered Mulan body, he was taken aback to see that his body was missing. He attributed this to the grace of Shiva and accepted his fate. He remained in Thiruvavaduthurai and became a recluse. He meditated under a Peepal tree. In the state of samadhi, he would utter verse in Tamil. His followers wrote and recorded them.. Tirumular during his life span uttered 3,000 verses of high philosophy and came to be known as the Tirumantiram. Tirumular says: “Chanting ‘Shivaya Namaha’, again and again, will make your body red, then gold, and in time, shall behold the golden feet of the Lord and finally witness the fantastic dance of the golden feet too”.

I am happy today that the present generation is pretty religious-minded, if the number of temples in Noida and crowd there can be taken as a measure.

Tata Steel’s acquisition of Anglo-Dutch steel maker Corus for $12 billion created a flutter in London and in the global steel sector. Tata Steel suddenly became the fifth largest steel company of the world by hop-step-jump technique from its backbencher rank. CSN of Brazil lost. It was not only a win for a company but it was a great success of Indian management talent that is gradually getting recognized.

And then came the Hindalco’s acquisition of Canadian aluminium major Novelis for $6 billion that makes Hindalco to be the 5th largest aluminium company in the world (currently ranked at 13). It is the world’s ninth largest copper producer with 0.5mtpa capacity. Hindalco will also be the world’s largest flat rolled product company, and will control over 20% of the world flat rolled capacity in aluminium. It will get an operating presence in 11 countries with 36 facilities, and will add nearly 13,000 employees to its rolls. With Novelis annual turnover of $8.4 billion, Hindalco will have a turnover of approximately $11 billion.

The story of the recent acquisitions by Indian companies doesn’t end there. Acquisition of a forge shop by Mahindra and Mahindra and the other acquisition a subsidiary of Philips Netherlands by Moser Baer are smaller but very significant for the Indian companies. Videocon and Suzlon have already made bigger deals for organic growth to get into global club and ranking. And many more acquisitions by companies such as Wipro, Ranbaxy, and even the smaller ones, are at planning and negotiation stage.

But more important is the story from telecom sector. It was two months after Li Ka-Shing’s Hong Kong headquartered Hutchison Whampoa expressed its intention to put its 67% stake in its Indian joint venture with the Ruias of Essar for sale, Vodafone, the world’s largest telecom company, has won the bidding war with an aggressive price of $18.8 billion (more than the combined payouts by Tata and Birla for Corus and Novelis respectively) for the whole of Hutch Essar, India’s third largest private sector mobile operator. The UK-headquartered Vodafone and its India-born CEO Arun Sarin went for this huge amount to enter the Indian telecom market, as India is now growing at a faster pace than even China. Could anyone think of this happening few years ago? And the entry of Vodafone will mean lot for the people of India. It will mean further reduction in the tariff that is already the lowest in the world. It will increase the competition among the major players and so consumers will get better services. Vodafone is already talking of expanding in rural India and working on a $25 handset. Is it not something exciting for the Indian economy? I don’t know how leftists react to this development.

Many foreign companies are now looking at the Indian market with great interest. Could one even imagine that an Indian brand of food industry will make the Americans and Europeans interested in buying it? US spice king McCormick was to buy MTR Foods of Bangalore for Rs 350 crore. But as per the latest information, it is the Norwegian foods-to-metal group Orkla is buying it for $100 million (Rs 450 crore) nearly three times MTR’s current turnover of about Rs 150 crore. Orkla will use MTR’s manufacturing facilities to lower its costs by outsourcing manufacturing to India. And perhaps all the inputs will come from the farmers of the country.

It is good that the big Indian companies are buying out to come in global club of the big ten in its sector fast. However, the people of India would have been more benefited if they had been setting up plants and facilities in the country. These acquisitions abroad will not create the employment, direct and indirect, for the teeming millions, which is the biggest priority of the nation.

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The world is waking up to a New India

The manufacturing sector is seeing activity build up in almost all segments. West is looking at India a source for manufacturing too.

According to the recently provided data, the estimate for GDP growth at constant prices is 9.2 per cent for 2006-07. It is exciting because it is upon a base year growth of 9 per cent in 2005-06. The advance estimates has pegged manufacturing growth at 11.3 per cent, against 9.1 per cent a year ago, and services at 11.2 per cent (9.8 per cent a year ago). Indian manufacturing is growing at an average of 10% with growth touching 12-14% in some months. 12% was the target recommended for manufacturing sector by the NMCC to attain a double-digit growth rate to generate sufficient enough employment. Is it happening? Has the manufacturing sector changed its course to have growth with employment too or it is still a jobless growth? And can this growth of 12% be sustained?

India’s manufacturing sector can grow faster if it can create for and cater to its domestic market as well if it can create a global market for its products. Auto sectors are providing the lead where the sector is pushing fast in both the market. Domestic market is booming and export obligations are also being met. Auto component sector is feeding its domestic OEMs as well global clients. The boom can be further expanded with new innovative products at the right price. India can keep lead through its innovative products such as the Tata Motors Rs 1 lakh or a smaller smarter SUV. The success of ACE- the Minitruck of Tata Motors was an example. Similar approach by the manufacturers in all sectors of mass market will succeed. But auto sector may not help in job creations in number that is expected or desired to absorb the millions of unskilled and semiskilled unemployed men and women of India.

Indian entrepreneurs must establish many more new manufacturing units, produce many more types of innovative products, and create customers for them in the domestic as well as global market. Why can’t the textiles and apparel sector grow manifold? Why should India export cotton?

Why does India’s leather industry continue to post lower growth rates with thee largest source of raw material in the country? Is it because the entrepreneurs of the upper castes of the majority community still hesitate to go in the business?

It is the taste for the creative strength of the people of India. And naturally we will have to answer many pertinent questions.

Can India leverage its intellectual capabilities, be creative and integrate innovation into manufacturing?

Can India’s innovation follow a very different model focused on providing solutions for the masses?

Can the innovations and technologies be directed to solve the problem of acute poverty spread all over the country?

As reported, a company manufacturing automotive seats has been able to use the Poly Urethane used for manufacturing seats to make a 30% cheaper Jaipur Foot. As Newsweek reported, Rajesh Jain has come out a cost effective solution to use TV as PC.

Can it be emulated in many more areas?

Innovation goes beyond all boundaries or limits and works across sectors and applications. Indian Innovation Foundation has many such examples from the grassroots’ level? Why can’t the whole lot of people from other strata of Indian society join the innovation movement of India taking examples from those illiterate village scientists or technocrats that Prof Anil Gupta of IIM has found out? I wish the media had been covering their stories more widely.

Further, the manufacturing sector is best placed to attain inclusive growth- the need of the day. And innovation and entrepreneurship can only provide the large scale expansion of the manufacturing.

Let there be no confusion that the manufacturing and services sector together are expected to reinforce each other in India’s endeavour to become a developed country.
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RURAL EUREKA!

Some news of the students’ community shocks me and some questions automatically crop up. Who are responsible for their behaviours? Is it because of the political necessity?

How should one react when one sees the whole episode live? I heard the Uttar Pradesh governor suggesting the students to learn English too, if they wish to have ambitions of a good career after completing the education. “Exclusive Sanskrit education is beneficial only for those who want to become priests or Sanskrit teachers,”

T.V. Rajeswar was addressing the convocation of Sampoornand Sanskrit University in Varanasi. While he described Sanskrit as the “pride of India”, the governor departed from the text to remind students they also need to know English. “If you want to succeed professionally, earn Rs 2-3 lakh a month or go abroad… you must be proficient in English. If you only learn Sanskrit, you will remain cut off from the rest of the world and continue to live in the bullock-cart age.”

The students went out on rampage protesting against the statement and even demanded an apology from Rajeswar and his resignation. Where was the governor wrong? The students are ignorant about the reality of life, and must take advices from the older generation with open mind. No one can force it on a Sanskrit scholar if he doesn’t want to learn English. But when the same person faces an interview from, say a university of US for a Sanskrit teacher for Americans, he would never be selected if he does not know English. How will he teach Sanskrit to English knowing students if he does know English?

I don’t know how the same students would react once the recommendation of National Knowledge Commission to start teaching English from primary class itself is implemented.
And in Patna, I saw an irate mob of Patna University (PU) students belonging to different student organisations storming the PU office after breaking the main entrance gate as well as the inner gates. They did all for increasing the gap in university examinations. Bihar has already poor image about the sanctity of the certificates and degrees it offer. Why shouldn’t the parents take care of their wards? How can a government and a college stop such vandalism?

The student community all over the country must take some responsibility to draw the attention of the authority about the drawbacks in their teaching facilities and participate in national building by preparing themselves as responsible and employable candidates. They must shun the militant and damaging agitation. It will not fetch them anything on short term as well long term.

As reported, Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee has often been heard saying,. “Shudhu Bangla shikhle cholbe na (Just Bengali won’t do)” in his urgency to put Bengal on the development map. He wants Bengali students to get the fluency in English as the Chinese are doing in China. Will Mulayam do that?

Perhaps, the students of Bihar and Eastern UP have a little more responsibilty for building a better image of the region.
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And the result- 163-year lab lag with China

I happened to find the Megasthenes’ ‘Indika’ courtesy Google. Megasthenes was in Magadh at the time of Chnadra Gupta Maurya. Indika is his writings about the social and political conditions of the country at that time. He has talked on the caste system prevailing at that time. He writes, “The whole population of India is divided into seven castes.” Over the centuries, those seven castes have expanded over to perhaps 700 or 7000, and that is the weakest point of India with a potential to weaken the nation to any degree that can hold it from competing with the global powers. No religious leader of the majority community could realize the menace that the caste system could cause, and so didn’t denounce the system and tried to abolish it.

I had a hope that the younger generation with education would drop this way of identifying themselves. Growing intimacies without any caste bias would mean more and more inter-caste marriages and end of the horrendous system deciding one’s characteristics based on caste. I got the shock of my life, when I went through a recent report.

According to a BBC poll, the first for a nationwide ‘attitudes’ survey conducted by an international agency, that at a time when much of the world appears to have a view alternately on ”emerging India” or ”overheating India” Indians still seem to have caste firmly on their minds in one way or the other, even though leading sociologists have long argued that urbanization and industrialization has helped break down caste-barriers. 55% said the ”caste system is a barrier to social harmony.

The survey was conducted for the BBC World Service by the international polling firm GlobeScan. The survey comes as part of BBC’s ongoing ‘India Rising’ week of special programming that charts changes in different sectors of the Indian economy.

Some other interesting findings of the survey were:

Indians overall, seven in 10 exhibited a positive sense of identity by agreeing to the statement, ”I am proud to be an Indian.” The view was uniform across all age, income groups. However, the view differed among religious groups with Christians (73%) the proudest; Hindus (71%) close behind and Muslim pride in being Indian languishing at 60%. Why are the Christians the most proud lot? Why are the Muslims so much behind? Is it because of madrassa education or appeasement policies of political system?

52% said ”being a woman is no barrier to success”

Just under half of all Indians (48%) declared they would rather ”work for a private company than for the government.”

Six in 10, or 58% said they believed India’s security is ”more in danger from other Indians than from foreigners”

47% said ”corruption is a fact of life which we should accept as the price of doing business.” But a cheering 45% of 18- to 24-yearold Indians said they were less tolerant of corruption than the older generation.

On religious belief, 50% said ”people don’t take their religion seriously”;

40% lamented that ”young Indians have lost touch with their heritage.”

60% think India should be a political power

60% believe the country should be a military superpower

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