The Curious Incident of the Stranger on the bus

Its been a long time since I posted anything, and the whole world has gone topsy-turvy since then.. More about all that later, but for now, I describe the curious incident that happened to me on a BMTC bus :

On a nice sunny Bangalore morning, I got ready to get to work, and took the usual 0830bus from my home. Initially it was all crowded because of all the school kids, but that soon cleared out, and the bus was empty. Then, standing close to the rear door, I saw that a man sitting in the rear seat was eying me quite curiously. I was surprised, but then I deduced that he seemed a rather rustic fellow, little less on bus etiquette.. Not minding him, I continued to enjoy the show on the radio, apparently meant for the 'fatafat generation'. Am not sure if I qualify for the same.

At the next stop, literally half the bus got down, and I found a place to sit on the last row.. This curious guy, finding an empty place next to me, came and perched himself there, and then, I felt a nudge on my right arm. I take out the ear-phone from my ear, and look at him, and he asks me, brimming with innocence :

Stranger : Are you a north Indian?

Me : [Very surprised, since no body in this city has been so blatantly regionalistic with me ever] Yes.

Stranger : From where are you?

Me :[Eyeing him with a great deal of suspicion] Delhi.

Stranger :[ His eyes light up in a weird kind of way] Oh.. Beautiful City. Can I ask you a question?

[Wondering as to what he has been doing all along anyway, I nod]

Stranger : Are the people in Delhi nice.

Me : [To cut him off, I answer rather sternly] Yes.

Stranger : [With a rather childlike curiosity] But I have heard people in Delhi are not nice to strangers.

Me : [Trying to a give a clean diplomatic answer] They are as nice as people in Bangalore.

Stranger : [Still not very convinced, but taking my argument at face value] Oh ok.

After this, I go to listening my music, and he starts ruminating, trying to assimilate all that I have told him, and debating with himself as to how much my words can be trusted.. A few minutes later, another nudge. I take out my ear-phones again, and look at him.

Stranger : Is it true that North Indians do not make friends with South Indians.

Me :[ With a look of consternation] No. It is not true.

Stranger : But I have heard so..

Me : North Indians are friendly people.

Stranger :[Still doubting me] Do you have friends who are south Indians?

Me : [Without thinking] Yes.

Then, I turn away, and start listening to the music. As my stop comes, I get up from my seat, and head to the door. He tugs at me, and asks

Stranger : Are you sure you have South Indians as friends?

Me : [emphatically] Yes, many of them. [The bus comes to a stop, and I get down, and look back, at the curious face of the guy in his mid twenties, trying to comprehend data fed to him by a complete stranger, seemingly against the indoctrination that he has had all his life.]

As I walked to work from the bus stand, out of sight of that strange man, I must confess, I am guilty of profiling my friend list based on regionalistic considerations : The only consolation, most of my friends turned out to be South Indians.

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News from Mile High City

This image tells us that the conspiracy theorists can come up with just about anything. Lord bless them.



But then, don't you think it is really too much of a coincidence!!!




Further Comments :

** If it were not the 22nd amendment, Bill Clinton would have won, hands down, another few terms at the White House. The crowd support, and the standing three minute long ovation at the start of his speech tell a lot about his standing among the American citizens.

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Fear Factor

Where the mind is without fear and the head is held high;
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Into that heaven of freedom, my Father, let my country awake.

It is this creation of Thakur Rabindranath Tagore that comes to my mind, when I hear the reactions of my fellow countrymen to the terror attacks on the nation. Chain e-mails advising caution, the advice of family and friends and well-wishers to not go out 'too much' or to crowded places, to the point where travel itineraries are being changed, all follow as a consequence.

I cannot put into words how I feel, when I hear such reactions. The purpose of the terrorist’s attacks is not so much to kill (considering that they kill less than a thousand countrymen a year), but to ‘terrorize’. And this, they seem to be carrying out to perfection. Although the serial blasts in B’lore killed just two people, it scared enough number of them to warrant an increase of security at the IT-BT companies, even at the hands of CISF. This was followed by e-mails from security officers to the employees of their respective companies, asking them to follow a strict regimen, without which they will not be allowed inside. Ironical, since most employees are shareholders of the company. The best case precipitate of this is that the people end up being treated without respect, worst case: they are seen as suspects.

It is this fear psychosis that Alan Greenspan talks about, that the Americans experienced in the backdrop of the September 2001 attacks. Such fear, mostly unfounded, gives the terrorists their sense of victory. It is for this precise reason that I salute Mumbai, where the locals are just as crowded and the markets bustling, on the morning after. Bangalore may not be known to have such a spirit, but the malls on the day after were the usual, with people looking for best bargains. Yours truly was one of them, not particularly because I wanted to buy anything, but to prove that we are not scared.

I would be happiest if all my countrymen show spirit and mettle, to fight terror, where it matters most: in the mind.

PS : I fully condemn terrorist attacks, and they represent the worst possible face of humanity. My condolences with the bereaved, and sympathies with the injured.

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The Order of the Phoenix

When the history of contemporary India is written, Man Mohan Singh will find a special place in the pages of history.. Never before has an Indian leader gone on to the extent of sacrificing his government for the sake of a policy issue, one that he believes will take India beyond the shackles of energy slavery, and foreign dependence. His image of an efficient and focused man is enhanced, and India looks to him for redemption.

The debate over the vote of confidence in parliament raged for over twelve hours, some nice, some not so nice moments passed, though only very few speakers managed to make an impact. The he speech by Omar Abdullah told India that its gen-next leaders were here, and that they were willing to put national interest before petty politics. Another leader who made an impact was Union minister, Lalu Yadav, who left the house pealing with roars of laughter, while putting across the point. Difficult to imagine someone like Lalu talk about the nuances of a complicated nuclear deal, but then Lalu is no ordinary politician. Am sure he will sell the deal to the rural populace back in his home state.. Amidst all this, there were the usual charges of horse-trading that accompany a trust-vote, and some evidence of the same..

While taking things into perspective, we must note that while the Leader of the Opposition attacked the government in general, and also the ruling alliance, he refrained from making any specific attacks on the deal in itself, indicating that the deal, as such has an in-principle support from them, leave aside the rhetoric.. The biggest winner is without doubt the Prime Minister, he stands tall, and now is his chance to take up the reforms agenda with a renewed vigour.. Experience shows that mid-way through their term, governments lose the will to 'govern' and then, anti-incumbency build up.. While Man Mohan Singh can be accused of the same, now, he has a chance to redeem himself, and prove his worth, not just to his party, and the nation, but the world as a whole.. He has risen like a phoenix, and the signals that crucial reforms will be put on the fast track is a sign of the same.

No brownie points for guessing the biggest loser, it has been proven beyond doubt that to do politics in India, your policies must have grass-root support and be connected to the people, unlike certain 'leaders' who still talk about text-book philosophies, and draw their power from a mysterious source, not linked in any way to the electorate. Lasting impressions of this debate will be the impartial stance of the speaker, and the fact that despite the potshots taken at each other during the debate on the motion of confidence, here they are, the PM and the Leader of the Opposition, greeting, and smiling at each other, less than 24 hours after the acrimonious debate. This I think represents the pivot on which Indian democracy is based upon.


With this vote, the parliament has voted to give us access to the cleanest source of energy available, and examples from world leaders in nuclear technology show that not only is it efficient, it is also much cheaper than conventional sources.. I know we are not known for carpe diem, and it may take us much more than a decade to reap the benefits of this deal, but so it the case with any major policy.. Remember Rajiv Gandhi, and the computer revolution. The real fruits came at the turn of the millennium, almost a decade after he was no more.. But still, I have my hopes based on the fact that India has a good PM, and he is doing something right..

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A Good riddance

Finally, the Leftists are out of the government. I am of the opinion that this is probably the best thing that could have happened to Manmohan Singh. For too long have the Left held his policies at ransom, for too long have the reforms been stalled by the lousy agenda of the Left. In short, for too long have they had power without responsibility.

The time has come to show the world what Manmohan Singh is capable of. And now, it is not too difficult to go ahead with the reforms, since government has more than six months at hand, and none of the allies will make too much noise, since they will have extracted their pound of flesh. Experience shows, 100 days are sufficient for full-fledged reforms, and our PM thankfully has much more than that. Plus none of the allies have ideological commitments like the communists. So let the government get its act right for once, and start on the reforms in earnest.

It is a known fact that most development schemes like the NREG and the JNURM haven't really shown results, while there has been no tangible progress on major infrastructural projects like the DFCs. Whether by a political master-stroke by our PM, or a blunder by Mr Karat, or by plain coincidence, here is a chance, for the Congress, for the PM, for Sonia, and for India. We should not let it go.

PS : I am also of the opinion that the communists would have deserted the government anyway before the elections, to beat off anti-incumbency. The N-deal was just an excuse, price rise could also have served the same purpose, only that parties like SP would not have come forward to support a government rendered minority by inflation. So again, if at all, the Left got its calculations wrong.

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Mid-summer crisis-II

Our esteemed economist turned Prime Minister, and his competent team consisting of FM P. Chidambaram and Planning Commission Dy Chairman Montek Singh Ahluwalia among others are sitting pretty on a barrel of oil, and a small spark could throw the whole Indian economy into disarray.

They have taken months to react to the rising crude oil prices, and their actions seem at best half-hearted. What they need to wake up to is that the oil subsidy costs the 'aam aadmi' more than if he were directly paying for it at international prices. I will explain this in a bit, but firstly, the government sees petroleum as a huge source of revenue in the form of taxation, thus while the under-recovery on a litre of petrol after the increase is around Rs 15 per litre, the tax on it is almost the same amount. This is blasphemy. You collect revenues from it for your coffers, and then say that the oil companies are bleeding..

In any case, at the outset, we must ask, who is benefiting from the subsidy?? Just so you know, it is not the poor in the country. It is the rich, who drive fuel guzzling vehicles, and it is the oil producing nations who are laughing all the way to the bank. Now lets see the consequences of raising the domestic prices to market levels. The first effect would be reduced oil consumption, since people would be more conservative if they had to pay more. This is good for everyone, the world, since this leads to reduced carbon footprint, and for the people, well, its better than you think it is. The government will now have a lot more moolah in the treasury to spend on actual development schemes, like the JNURM or the NREG scheme among others (We know that the NREG implementation is anything but successful, but still, more poor people would benefit out of it than oil subsidy). In any case, with the oil subsidy in place, the government is just giving fabulous discounts on oil to the rich, the ones who use it to go on long drives after an exotic dinner(most of which is wated, by the way). Thus, the need of the hour is to progressively abolish the subsidy.

The thing that the Indian public doesn't seem to understand very well, is that what the government giveth with one hand, it taketh with the other. They don't realize that it would be a lot better if the fuel subsidy money was instead spent in building better infrastructure, like mass-rapid transit systems for the urban areas, and better road/rail connectivity for the rural areas, and freight corridors for the inter-country transportation.. If this is how the cash would be used, we would reduce our dependence on oil, also reducing our national imports considerably.. By the way, all these infrastructure solutions could use electricity, which, if the N-deal goes through, we should plan to have a surplus of. So effectively, we are giving up good infrastructure for cheap oil. I guess the choice is for the people to make.

Anyway, I guess it is time for the government to make some hard decisions, and move away from what I can only describe as oil-harakiri. The concrete plan of action should involve a 5 year structure, where the oil-prices would be gradually brought to the international level, and parallely, a rapid action infrastructure development force, which would build enough infrastructure so as to not hurt the people from lack of personal vehicles for transportation. In the mean-time, the N-plants should be set up asap, sice they will provide us with the energy security to our country. This is the road to sustained energy security, and growth, with the least carbon foor-print.


PS : And whoever said that N-deal in a non-issue in elections is unaware of the fact that this issue is directly related to the BSP(Bijli, Sadak, Paani), something close to the Indian public's heart. With the right kind of publicity, I see no reason why this will not garner votes. Even as I write this, the government has begun poll preparations in earnest, and that seems a step in the right direction. Also, people who think the nuclear power would not ensure energy security, but only dependence on NSG, note that India plans to have all its second generation N-plants based on Thorium, which India has plenty of. So, it is a matter of around three decades. Anyway, oil isn't going to last forever, is it???

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Quote Unquote

Hope is a good thing, maybe the best of things, and no good thing ever dies.

One of the most memorable movie quotes of all times, i would say. Definitely my personal favorite. This movie taught me how to believe, in oneself, even in the face of adversity.. And I confess, I cried in the scene where Andy "crawled through a river of shit and came out clean on the other side". Such is the the power of hope, I guess.

My second favorite quote of all times is undoubtedly from the movie series Spiderman, and it goes : "Whatever comes our way, whatever battle we have raging inside us, we always have a choice. It's the choices that make us who we are, and we can always choose to do what's right". This one taught me how to make choices in life, after all life is all about choices(at least in India anyway!!). Then of course there is the LOTR trilogies, which I must have seen some umpteen times, almost to the point that I remember some of the quotes. Actually, most of them.. Geek, I know!!!

So, tell me which movies have influenced you the most?? And the one movie quote that you can remember on the top of your head :)


PS : I have another confession. I know that for most people, movies are more like watch and forget, but I get quite influenced by movies, although only by the ones that carry a message. Doesn't mean I don't like laugh-riot movies, but that is left for another day :)

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Yes, Prime Minister!!!

Our PM is emulating his predecessor in his threat to resign if the government is not allowed to have its way.. Well, history goes on to say that Vajpayee emerged stronger with that threat, but Manmohan Singh looks even weaker, going and complaining to Mama Sonia, rather than putting it across to the Congress Parliamentary Party or the Congress Working Comittee. And then, all the NDA constituents had fallen meekly in line, but this is seven years later, and the comrades are no ordinary allies.

Only time will tell what the fate of the N-deal will be, but for once, I feel that India is not bothered by the prospect of mid-term elections. Our democracy has considerably matured with all the coalition governments of the past decade, and the humble citizens know that whatever be the outcome, the prospects are bright. While this may seem overtly optimistic, I am considerably pleased by this, because, this to me is an implicit trust in the foundations of democracy.

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Mid-summer crisis

A premier cellular service provider says "Barriers break when people talk".. And this is so true, now more than ever before.. With the Gurjars at the negotiating table, the trouble at ground zero seems to be ebbing. The main fall-out of this : trains have started plying again, and mind you, this is very important to keep the economy on track..

But the point I make here is entirely different.. What is it that will finally solve this impasse.. The Gurjar leaders have gone on record and said "ya to ST status de do, ya goli maar do".. With such being the ferocity of their demand, an obvious solution seems unlikely.. What is it that the Raje government can offer to help restore peace and normality.. I do not know how this impasse will end, but as long as the two sides keep talking, I am sure some solution will be found.. It has to be a compromise for both sides, but the state government must act fast and swift, to ensure the common public is not inconvenienced..

A question to all the intellectuals who are reading this.. What would you do if you were heading the government, while a particular section of the society resorted to similar voilence and economic shutdown.. I personally believe that if calls for negotiations fail, and the violence continues unabated, a complete blockade of that area might be the way to break up the agitators.. No power, no water, phone networks down, and then restrict supplies into the region. This should continue till the agitators walk the extra mile to the negotiating table.. What is important here is to let the people know that while they have a fundamental right to a peaceful gathering to put forth their demands, holding the State ransom and restoring to violence will not get them anywhere..

I am sure some of you will disagree with my methods here, but this is a last resort, to make sure a solution is found through dialog, not through the lathis.. In any case, please do leave a comment what is it that you would have done, if you were to find yourself at the helm of affairs when such trouble broke out..

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Sense and Sensibility

The nation is at war.. A silent war.. An economic war.. The prices of food are rising, since the agriculture output has been stagnant for years.. The oil prices have doubled in less than a year, and the government cant do much about it.. Inflation in general is rising, and again, the powers to be seem helpless.. Unfortunately, having a seasoned economist at the helm of affairs hasn't helped our nation much..

It is in the midst of a situation like this that our PM called for energy conservation by all Indians. This may seem like a desperate measure, may be it is, but the fact of the matter is, Indian public lacks basic common sense, and nothing much seems to be happening about correcting this.. The more educated the people, the more they waste.. Yes, its true, countrymen, the educated class seems to care a hoot about the general scenario.. The poor even today save resources, for their personal economic gains, but the rich it seems can afford to waste... A TV channel did a quick check on a successful 26 year old guy in Pune, who believes in splurging, and he says : After I work hard, I deserve to enjoy. Perfectly alright. You deserve to enjoy, but not waste Sir!!

There are umpteen examples, starting from the most myriad of things : leaving ACs and fans on unnecessarily, using a light at 3 in the afternoon on a sunny day in a brightly sunlit room, geysers on 24x7, keeping ignition on at 180 second traffic lights, keeping the refrigerator door open for minutes at a stretch, half of the dinner wasted every night, keeping the tap open while brushing etc, I could just go on and on.. These are minuscule things, I must say, but the collective cost of all these on our nation, and planet in general is huge.. But not many care : "I am paying for it, so"..

In crisis stricken times, our government deserves our support, and we need to chip in to make sure our next generation has a better future.. Well, my brethren, countrymen, let us join hands together to do our bit, not just for the nation, but for the planet at large. Every little bit counts, make sure you do yours.

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