The Turning Point
Category: Random Posts
High Tech Hurdles to Low Tech Elders
TECHNOLOGY HAS BECOME A PART OF OUR lives today. We cannot live without gadgets any more. Children download, pause, take pictures on smartphones or send WhatsApp messages even before they start school.
There is need, therefore, for instructions that even idiots (like me) can understand. If not many (especially the elders) will be like the unlettered rural parents doling out huge sums to their son in city to buy ‘perpendiculars.’
Asked to show them the ‘thing’ he would pretend to be shocked at their ignorance that after use in the lab the ‘perpendiculars’ had to be ‘submitted’ to the professors. Continue reading High Tech Hurdles to Low Tech Elders
A Salute To Sanjukta
MANY TALK OF WOMEN AS THE ‘WEAKER SEX’ OR TALK of them as victims of a patriarchal social system. They, obviously, may not have heard of Sanjukta Parashar IPS, who can put many male officers to shame.
A post (in Marathi) which went viral on social media said, “When you see the slim and beautiful lady pass before you, you could not have Continue reading A Salute To Sanjukta
Remember To Forget
WHEN YOU ARE AT THE EXIT GATE OF LIFE, waiting for the door to open, all you are left with are memories.
Nothing else matters.
Memories are good or bad. Remember to forget the bad ones, for fretting over them will not alter them. Remember the smiles, the the good that people did to you, the help from unexpected quarters, the happy occasions. These memories bring you happiness.
Forget the ‘Memory Guru’ who made you work for many hours on the book you ‘help’ him to write and then gave you a dud cheque, forgetting that there was nothing in his bank . Remember cab driver who searched you out to return the iPad yo you wiu left behind.
The good memories are your balance in the bank of life. You have to try real hard to recall them, but the bad memories flood your mind.
A Silly, Short Slip
MY JULY 22 POST ‘THE LONG AND SHORT OF IT’ MUST HAVE BEEN REALLY SILLY.
One reader put a note on it, asking everyone to read, but did not reblog it. No one else commented. I said that I wrote a short piece once because no one reads long posts. In the process I seem to have, inadvertently belittled other short blogs (“of just a few words”).
How can I write against poems? My first byline in print was for a poem. Ridicule writing short tales or on ‘prompts’? Was not 58 years of writing for print just on assignments or on what was asked? And “three line pieces” cannot be wrong. Editors keep on asking for fewer words and all through I had to keep cutting down.
Writing long, verbose pieces is easy; just pour it out. Writing short is difficult.
People not reading? Of course, if it is worth it would be read. Lack of comments? In my book, I mention an instance of journalists in a particular city being angry with Sharad Pawar, who was then Chief Minister, for some reason. In a Press conference, after his initial remarks, there were no questions, except to ask if it was all he wanted to say before they dispersed. An astute politician, he understood and sent an aide to all agency and newspaper offices to settle the issue.
All I can say, long or short, let us keep saying. You write to express, not for ‘like’s or comments. Or stats.
TOO LONG? SORRY.
A People’s President
RAM NATH KOVIND HAS BEEN ELECTED THE PRESIDENT OF INDIA WITH A HUGE majority. The ‘communal’ upper-caste BJP had made another ‘Dalit’ the President.
Meira Kumar, put up by the ‘united’-(only over 130 cross votes)-Opposition for her caste (belonging to a ‘Dalit’ or oppressed caste) and her dynasty (daughter of Jagjivan Ram, for long THE face of the Dalits in Congress party and a minister for decades) has proved, by getting over 34 per cent votes, that caste still counts, but is not the determining factor.
The political culture the Congress party nurtured has made it a dominant feature of Indian politics. So it was no surprise that a photograph that went viral over social of media (see above) mentions the caste of senior BJP leader Advani (expected by many to be next President), the President-elect and Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
It did not matter that 1,581 voters with a criminal record voted in the election. Out of them 3,640 are “crorepati MPs” (millionaires). The Association for Democratic Reforms has revealed that out of the 4.852 MPs/MLAs eligible to participate in the election 1581 (33%) members have declared criminal cases against themselves in self-sworn affidavits.
The role of big money in “democratic” elections everywhere need not be stressed. Add to this the coercive power of those with musclemen working for them and the three ‘C’s of Indian politics – Caste, Cash and Coercion – become evident.
In earlier posts I called writing on politics “scavenging with pen”. As a journalist I hated to be known to Ministers and those in power, though contacts matter in the profession. And yet many of my posts are about politics – mostly Indian. Politics pervade every aspect of life in this developing country.
Reason, ideology and welfare of the majority have no role in it. According to Congress Modi is the Prime Minister of the BJP-led coalition and not India. Opposition it thinks, has to support China or even the terrorists. Electoral politics have fallen to this level.
Will Kovind be a “People’s President” in these tragic circumstances?
Nice House On A Bad Street
‘ “India is a nice house on a bad street” – This is not a blog post by me. It is a simply brilliant. five-minute introductory speech given in London at an event, by a young professional of Indian origin.
His name, Dhritiman Biswas. He spoke extempore and the points are reproduced here. The topic was a round table on: ‘India – is it a gigantic success or a colossal failure?’ This is what he said:
“Ladies and Gentleman, I am glad I am merely introducing the debate and not participating as in my humble opinion the question itself is wrong.
India, unlike, many western paradigms cannot be analysed in black and white, in linear equations or algorithms such as this.
- We hate test cricket yet are the No.1 test ranked country;
- our ranking in gender diversity is 134, yet the majority of our bank CEOs, the most misogynist yet of industries are women;
- our health services creak and crumble, yet 36 pct of all National Healt Service (UK) consultants are Indians;
- we love Bollywood tamasha, yet New York philharmonic sold out in 5 mnts in Calcutta in 1984;
- we struggle with illiteracy, yet are the largest English speaking country in the world;
- we riot, fight and squabble, yet remain a thriving democracy whilst Russia, Arabia, Brazil, Pakistan fall to authoritarianism..
India is a concept devised by the British and therefore in many ways a contradiction, a process , a work in progress.
Our poverty index suggests we are a hopeless failure, our mobile usage however may allude to resounding success.
Our private sector defaults diabolically like Kingfisher but spectacularly turnaround JLR like the Tatas.
This question cannot be answered because it is the wrong question to ask. The right question is –CAN INDIA BE ALLOWED TO FAIL? JP Morgan elegantly points to the ruins of emerging markets and says India is a nice house in a bad street!
I would add further… The Western world is founded on the principles of liberal, free market, democracy. Outside the OECD (Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development) and the western (oAnglo Saxon Protestant) world, literally in the entire globe, there is one other example of this experiment — and that is IndIa.
We are the West’s and England’s most natural ally… We speak the language, sing Beatles songs, read Wodehouse and want to grow up to be Sherlock. Despite our many failings we are a giant and a colossus and for the sake of the world let’s hope we succeed.”
Compare Med Reports, Not Horoscopes
MARRIAGES ARE, IT IS SAID, ARE MADE IN HEAVEN. IN INDIA MOST ARRANGED marriages take place only after the horoscopes of the boy and the girl ‘match’.
Rarely, or almost never, are their medical reports matched.
Many do not know that if the two have different Rh factors, i.e. one is Rh positive and the other Rh negative, there can be complications in pregnancy as the Rh antibodies from an Rh-sensitized woman cross the placenta and attack the blood of an Rh-positive fetus. The Rh antibodies destroy some of the fetal red blood cells.
This causes hemolytic anemia, where red blood cells are destroyed faster than the body can replace them. In some such cases there are still births or infant mortality unless doctors know and take preventive action.
It was, therefore, an eye-opener when a reader in his ‘like’ message on LinkedIn for my blog sent me a link to a You Tube video ‘Dhoka‘ (Betrayal). In the video, a widow with a girl child objects to the fixing of a marriage without comparing medical certificates as her own husband died in his thirties as she had congenital heart problem, which was not disclosed when the match was fixed.
Superstitions abound in a tradition-bound country like India. Many, especially in rural areas, believe that some health and psychological problems would automatically get resolved by marriage. Mostly due to ignorance about problems like mental retardation are attributed to fate and it is believed that the good fortune of the other party would set them right.
There are many cases where genetic factors play an important role. Three members of a family where both the mother and the father were highly diabetic, died of kidney failure and one more is undergoing dialysis. A cousin on the father’s side (with the same family name) also died of renal failure after decades of diabetes. In all four cases the family medical history was not known.
The practice of basing marriages on the ‘gotra’ (ancestry or the name of the foregather whose progeny the family was supposed to be) of the two families and the prohibition on marriages within the same ‘gotra’ are, perhaps, based on principles as the genetic traits of the gotras were known. This soon deteriorated into a ritual and such knowledge also does not exist any more.
The message of the video clip is: Just as you enquire about the social and financial status of the family and educational qualifications and employment of the boy or the girl, you must also have the medical records of both of them examined for compatibility.
A new medical speciality may develop if this becomes a common practice. Five-star corporate hospitals may open special departments for this. And make morfe money
Marriages may be made in heaven, but they must also be cleared by doctors.
Political Rivalry Not Enmity
SEVENTY YEARS OF INDEPENDENCE AND DEMOCRACY SHOULD HAVE TAUGHT INDIA one of the most basic axioms of politics — political rivalry is NOT enmity.
It is said there are no permanent enemies in politics. Those who criticised a party’s Continue reading Political Rivalry Not Enmity
And Now Sops For Corporators
IT WAS JUST DAYS AGO THAT THE BJP-RULED MAHARASHTRA, CLAIMING TO BE THE most progressive state in India, decided to dole out 100 million rupees of tax-payers’ (your and my) money annually for health insurance to its already-pampered legislators.
And now it proposes to squander about 600 million rupees a year to raise the salaries of the members of the municipalities and corporators in the state, again controlled mostly by BJP and its ally, Shiv Sena. Continue reading And Now Sops For Corporators