Petri Dish of Democracy

                           Sunday mornings in Delhi winters are generally spent in wasteful indulgences, particularly if the sun is shining bright, after two weeks of playing hide and seek. Sipping endless  cups of tea and gorging on gobhi parathas/ moong dal cheelas,  with half a dozen newspapers and magazines on the side table! This is stuff dreams are made of.  It is  the sum and substance of lazy Sunday mornings spent in the sun, with little cherry oranges providing the extra dash of colour in the balcony!

                          This was one such Sunday morning. Three articles, read together, captured the mood of the nation on the new experiment in Delhi: 1) Chetan Bhagat’s column The Underage Optimist in ToI, Get the priorities right: India first, AAP second, 2) Swapan Dasgupta in Sunday Pioneer’s Usual Suspects: If missed calls could change India and 3) Tavleen Singh in Indian Express: My vote is not for AAP. 

                     By the the time the morning ended,   I had it neatly figured out; that there is some sort of disillusionment with the way things are panning out. It would be worthwhile to gauge this fresh sense of despondency which is setting in and take corrective measures forthwith to prevent further sliding of the euphoria and expectations. Basically, this country is past the stage of being treated as a Petri dish yet again. We have no time to allow young interns to learn-on -the -job. It is time to unveil a clear ideological definition of what one stands for,  along with a road map of how one plans to achieve it. Also, cosmetic gestures and experiments are no longer necessary as there are examples galore of failed, partially successful, fully achievable interventions. If ideology is irrelevant, as some would say, let's get down to policies & programmes that will prove we are in the 21st century and not perpetuating 20th century rubbish of subsidising inefficiencies and creating disincentives.

                       To begin with,one should  get the priorities right, study the bench-marked successes, modify and adapt them for the greatest good of the greatest numbers. It is about Governance first and foremost. Get on with institutionalising reforms in governance, instead of treading the populist path of Junta Durbars, which have been tried and discarded as non-productive acts of symbolism. It's seen as plain and simple Playing to the Gallery. Even the junta wants action, not just an outlet for ventilating their grievances. Any seasoned civil servant can tell that it is the complicated cases, defying solution that come to these Durbars. The real challenge lies in preventing this complication to set-in and for that, systems, rules and procedures have to be simplified and transparency made the norm, rather than the exception. Contractual drivers of state transport authority cannot be regularised through durbars, nor should they be made to feel that there is a case for their regularisation! Were they “contracted” through a transparent process? Did they possess the right qualification and was there competition to select the best? If not then can they be regularised? Would we not be guilty of perpetuating a wrong in regularising them? These are serious issues, embedded in nepotism, cronyism and related maladies and need to be addressed, but not in public hearings! Governance is a serious business and it requires serious attention to detail, including amending statute books, reducing discretion and using technology to minimise personal interface at the lower level. None of it can be done in a hurry through populist measures. 

                         However, It's still early days and comparisons with the Shibu Soren's, Laloo Yadav’s of the world can wait. Also, is Population Stabilisation not on ANYONE’s list of priorities? The surge of humanity during the Durbar should ring the right bells and push policies in that direction, if nothing else.

Debauchery

                   If watching Bollywood stars like Madhuri perform (live on stage) is debauchery, then we are all debauch or at best wannabe debauches. With no sympathy for the thugs and goons of UP, I am deeply offended at Madhuri's name being associated with the word debauchery. It is again reflective of how all abuse has to have female connotations, similar to MC, BC et al. In the classical definition of debauchery a male is debauch only when he indulges in extreme sensual pleasures with a fallen woman. Why should Madhuri accept this vilification of her name by the self-styled Guardian of Morality on TV? 

                     Why shouldn't abuse be hurled at men/politicians for their own acts of omission or commission? if Thugs have indulged in thuggery, so be it. Go ahead and call them Thugs. But why should they be called MC Thugs?  As if the word thug ( a masculine word) is somehow inadequate to describe his offence, and needs an appendage of a Woman to carry the brunt of evil.

                    Why is an entirely political battle being fought with professional entertainers as easy targets? It is the sponsors or organizers who have to take a call, whether to hold a local fest or not. If they decide to go ahead, why hold artists accountable or abuse them for carrying out their professional obligations?  Oh I would concede that maybe they made an error of judgement and shouldn't have gone to UP, but to hold them responsible for the debauchery of UP rulers is plain stupidity.

                   BTW it would be interesting to find out whether Tourism Department of UP went ahead and organised other festivals in their calendar before and after this one.

14/01/2014
Finally one articulate (read English speaking) representative of the SP  has challenged the use of this type of language, calling it defamatory. The anchor actually went on the back foot when asked to apologise for using defamatory language. He didn't apologise but he did a good job of dodging the question and did not use the word again, despite sufficient provocation. Looks like his legal team has warned him to avoid using such language or be prepared to face lawsuits. Unfortunately the laws on defamation in the country are practically non-existent, expensive and face judicial neglect due to low priority. 

Topics of Conversation

                The earliest group conversations in my memory go back to Boarding School days. At less than 10 years of age the topic of conversation was always food. Three times a day sumptuous meals were provided, but one was always hungry and the tuck shop remained the most frequented spot on campus. Receiving letters or parcels from home was perhaps the only other prominent issue to be talked about. If any one of the group members didn't receive at least one letter per week, there was gloom all around, for fear that perhaps the parents were headed to splitsville and were trying to keep the news to themselves by remaining incommunicado. Insecure and Hungry!

                Adolescence struck soon thereafter and discussions veered around to members of the opposite sex. Oh so and so had a crush on such and such hunk or how he was oblivious to it and not reciprocating. This was perhaps the longest phase, stretching from 12 years of age to maybe 21. Since it was still "medieval" India, real interaction with the opposite sex was limited. Also, schools/stations were frequently changed and discussions in girly gangs consisted mostly of real or make-believe crushes, in lands left behind. The mind was a fertile ground for creating fictitious situations in fantasy lands.  One ventured there with caution, but it allowed one to live starry eyed dreams and share sheer romantic nonsense with the group. Sane and concerned advisories were common. "Oh you really must make up your mind, whether you like Rohit or Mukesh". In all probability, both were non-existent characters who had been concocted, for some crush had to be invented to keep up with the Joneses. After all no one wanted to be called a Backward Child! 

              Sometimes a fellow-debater or TT player, became the object of one's unrequited love and hence a topic of conversation in the dormitory/class-room, even before names could be exchanged by the pair. This was the beginning of the Mills & Boon phase, when TDH was Tall, Dark and Handsome and not a mis-spelt DTH    ( Direct To Home satellite TV). The 189 or 191 pages of an M&B novel, where the height of romantic love was holding hands and looking into each other's eyes at sun-set, were dissected and analysed so threadbare that even the worst critics of this genre of writing went week- kneed during discussions. Of course one graduated from M&B to Jane Austen, Pearl S Buck, Emily Bronte etc and much more. But the topic of puppy love & romance flourished and was never far from the girl-crowd's mind. It is my guess that not many had actually had a taste of love till that age but everyone waited for their own TDH  knight in shining armour to come and rescue them from a horrible, yet un-defined fate. Huh?

                   Many actually realised their romantic dreams of the Second Phase during the following years, while some had them permanently shattered by a traditional Arranged Marriage. Some famous definitions did emerge as a consequence of this eg Love Marriage is when you marry the person you love while Arranged Marriage is when you have no option but to love the person you marry. But really, talking about  Romance actually became taboo. If the romance actually happened it was all hush-hush. Probably that was the age of the Victorian Maiden and one emulated Bollywood divas in denying all "relationships", platonic or otherwise. "Oh we are just friends", became the refrain.

                   Then the Topic of Discussion suddenly changed. During the post graduation phase all one could talk about was the merit of Tata McGraw Hill publication over Manorma Year Book. Intense intellectual discussions, over freshly roasted peanuts and steaming hot cups of Chai became the norm. Discussions ranged from the benefits of Capitalism to the ideals of Utopian Socialism (which so inspired budding Marxists); from the merits of Presidential form of Government to relative advantages of Parliamentary Democracy. Career and ambition dominated the scene and nothing could have changed group dynamics as rising ambitions did. Everyone was a competitor and there was no greater comfort than in being secretive. SAT, GMAT, GRE  were virtually unheard of and UPSC, RBI, PO, UGC exam etc. were innocuous, objective and safe subjects to talk of. 

                 Some of us actually proved to be lucky thereafter and got into the services and headed to Mussoorie for training. Others were lost in the Oblivion of Matrimony. But, wedding bells started ringing for the remainder, even before they reached Dehradun. Other than attending classes, all one could talk or hear about was Shaadi. Who is marrying whom, who is never going to marry whom etc. Girly-gangs were talking less and less and hearing more and more and that too, serious warnings from peers and parents: if you don't marry NOW, you probably never will! Poor girls. They were damned if they did and damned if they didn't. The cacophony of marriage in this phase reached high decibel levels and was deafening, to say the least. 

                  What followed this phase was the disappearance of the girly-gangs for many years to come. Everyone went off to their respective postings in remote areas and led some kind of a solitary existence.  Meetings with gangs of girls were few and far between.  If you met you were too guarded and pursuing your own ambitions to be sharing anything except making Small Talk. Even those who were posted in Metros, were so involved in family and profession that I doubt if they had time to indulge in animated chats with friends in a group. 

                   The next memory that I have of group discussions fast forwards to maybe five-six years. Suddenly one emerged from the cocoon of personal space and on again to groups. The Topic of Discussion? You got it right! School admissions for kids in state/national capital! Who can forget those days of hectic discussions with peers and seniors, possessing first hand experience of old and emerging centres of learning? To my mind it was social snobbery rather than relative merit of a particular school that pulled parents this way or that in finalising admissions. Whether it was dancing classes, or piano lessons or grades in school, the predominant topic of discussion was KIDS! I also noticed that men became less and less relevant at this stage in discussion forums and kids dominated the space vacated by them.

                    This phase went on and on till the kids cleared IIT or got admission in DU or in some Ivy league college, with or without scholarship. Time to Gloat over kids'achievements. But also introduced in this phase were brand  new topics: Weight Loss and Looking Good. You had to be either going for walks or gymming or buying Saris or you were doomed. It had some very nice euphemisms which went something like "falling in love with one self all over again" or "you are the most important person in your life", etc etc. One had to have the best diet plan in the world or information on the latest weight reduction gimmicks or gadgets, or one couldn't be part of any sane discussion. If one also had information on Sari Sales or Best-Tailor-in-Town, one was elevated to leadrership status. This phase of self-improvement coincided with the kids flying the nest and I don't want to know which is the cause and which the effect!

                    Then we get to the present. It was such a shock to meet with a group of old friends and talk about Ashiana/Ghosla/Gharonda/Needam Projects. What was that, I dared to ask? Oh you don't know? We will need pragmatic housing, support services, personalized care and assistance with daily activities, health and medication! The new concept had come to India and we need to make bookings etc. I jumped out of my skin at this new Topic of Discussion. Are we already there, my mind was challenging me with great trepidation. Were we really  talking about old age homes? Wasn't that an alien concept, meant for old people in western economies?  Hadnt we given our kids enough "sanskar" to expect them to look after us in old age? Judging  the mood and expertise of the gang of girls on this topic, I realised there was no point in indulging in rhetoric and that I should get my brochure immediately. Also, there was the odd murmuring  of Bhajan Sandhya and wIsh Yoga or Shri Shri 108 Somebody, but I had completely blanked out by then, ready to walk away like a zombie!

                 Now I have reached the point where I can predict the next Topic Of Discussion with my girly-gang. Kids' Marriages, you got it right again! Well it's already in the air, so no great shakes for having guessed it. Who wants marraige, I can almost hear some young kids challenging their indignant moms. I can also gauge the muted responses from Moms: oh you need stability;  marriage is essential;  you need to have babies; professional excellence is not everything; what will happen to you when we are gone? Sigh, I almost feel like we are scripting the Topics of Discussion for our daughters. 

PS: Btw, what were the Topics of Discussion among the Gang of Boys while we were graduating from one predominant topic to another? It was always GIRLS. :)

PPS: Never abandon your Gang of Girls. They keep you grounded and sane, with their chirpiness and sheer joie-de-vivre.