Tagged: india

I along with a lot of fellow Indians were shocked and disgusted at what happened (rather is happening) in Australia to Indian students. It was indeed an outrageous incident. And the Indian media was ready to jump in and go ahead with an all-out attack on the Aussies. That was reasonably expected behaviour considering the trigger-happy nature of our media and their undying thirst to proclaim - “Your channel brought this to you first”.

Now while this is happening; I wonder how many of us looked in the mirror and pondered how racist we too are. How comfortable are we with people from other countries living amongst us? Let alone that; how comfortable are we to have people from other states living amongst us? The honest answers would be in different shades of gray. But as I see it; in the overall picture every one of us has some racism inside. As we put pressure on the Australians to protect our citizens; it would also be good to think about how we can make ourselves better. After all ‘Adhiti devo bhava’ shouldn’t be limited to tourism department ads.

I read a comment in one Aussie newspaper the other day that summarizes my thoughts pretty well - ‘Every country in the world is racist, but most are experts in acting that they are not. The best we can do is to improve our act.’

Update: Read Jug Suraiya’s post too. Totally agree to what he’s said.

I saw Slumdog Millionaire, many days before the hype started to engulf it. Maybe that’s the reason why I loved this film. It’s a story about love, about spirit. about determination and also a story about India. And I was happy that it won a few Oscars and happier when ARR and Resul got the recognition on the international stage they have deserved.

But I hear a lot of dissent growing against the movie. I read articles like this and this. I hear some of my friends and colleagues telling me it is bad advertising for India. Maybe it is. But are we all really blind? Or experts at putting things under the carpet. I guess every single one of us understands that these things still happen in India. It is not falsifying facts, it is just showing the negative part of the truth. Yes even I am proud and overwhelmed by the strides India has made in technology, space exploration, IT, pharmaceuticals, spirituality, business.. But doesn’t all that gloss simply hide the patches of rust underneath?

For me Slumdog is a movie that also acts as a reminder. A constructive criticism on how we manage to ignore some bare facts about our country. Take pride in glory, but don’t ignore the dirt.

A few weeks ago one of my German friends, Juergen had come over to India. I spend a few days driving him around and showing him places. Well as for any foreigner it did take a while for him to trust the way we drive - it progressed from a scary horror thriller to ‘I don’t know how, but I won’t get hurt’. He used to even call me ‘hell-raiser’ when it comes to driving, even though that upped my ego a bit, I don’t think I am that good . One of the things he was confused from day one and something that he never quite got used to is our seemingly random honking. He used to ask me, last time when we went on this road you honked at least once every 5 seconds, but now you didn’t honk for an hour - why? Well he hasn’t quite caught up to the method in all the chaos and I see that there is no authentic guide to honking in India, anywhere on the net. So I have decided to take up the challenge and here you have it.

1. Presence Honking
This particular type of honk is usually of short amplitude and used with high frequency. It is a very polite way of telling the others on the road that you are ‘there’. It is kind of like an animal marking his or her territory. The meaning of it varies with the size of the vehicle too. If it is a bus that is using it, it means - if you cross my path you are dead. If its a motorbike - if you cross my path I am dead. All other variants come in between.

2. What-the-****-are-you-doing Honking
This is a rather impolite but effective way of abusing your fellow road users. It is second in frequency only to Presence honking. Using it always gives a boost to your ego, declaring it yourself to the people around you, that you know everything there is to know, when it comes to driving. This is best done in short bursts of very high loudness and honk-length.

3. Traffic-Light Honking
This is used in many different scenarios at the traffic light. One use is when you think that the person in front of you is blind and has not started moving yet when there is only 5 seconds to go for the light to turn green. Another is rather supernatural or spiritual. It is based on the belief that if you honk a few times, the red light will turn to green faster. It doesn’t harm you to try it does it?

4. The Enquiry Honk
This is even more polite than variant 1. A very polite way to enquire whether you get the right of way. It is used while you try to overtake or is not sure who has the right of way in an intersection. The answers you get and the manner in which you get them can be very varied. You must have the presence of mind to choose the appropriate path of action very quickly or alas you are again dead.

5. The Pointless Honk
Ok, this happens usually when you are annoyed with your boss, or had a quarrel with your wife. You use this horn to vent out your inner troubles. But be very careful as to when you use this. If timing is wrong this type of honking can be easily mistaken for any of the above four variants and cause unexpected page faults. (sorry had to put in a Com. Sci. PJ in somewhere )

Yup, that would have prepared you a bit to take on the roads in India. Now all you need is quite a huge amount of courage and a lot of luck. All the best!

PS: Hell.. they should start giving out PhDs for driving in India. It has so much of science and art in it!

I am a strong supporter of socialism and to an extent leftist ideals. I would call my political stand as liberal-left. And yeah till recently you could say I was a supporter - na, that is too strong a word - rather a mild supporter of the Marxist Party. But seeing how things are going, I have to say that support has dwindled down to an extent that I can’t ever imagine them doing any good to our country anymore. Before I start criticizing, I admire the lot of good work they have done, especially in Kerala. They are in part responsible for making Kerala a comparatively “welfare state”. They have, to a large extent, enabled the strides that the state has made in education, equality, health and general welfare of the people.

But thinking about all the blunders they have made in the past, makes me wonder - Don’t they ever learn from their mistakes? First of all before Independence they made twists-and-turns on the whole world war funda, first calling it an “Imperialistic War” and then abruptly switching their stand point when USSR was attacked by Germany. Secondly during the Chinese aggression in the sixties, terming India as the aggressor and justifying the attack by China! How dare they do that? I cannot believe they placed their weight behind foreign interests against their own homeland! After that they sparked off the whole Naxal movement and by the time they realized it has gone too far, things were gone far beyond their control. Did they learn? No they didn’t. They actually opposed computerization in India, saying people will loose their jobs because of it. Well, do I need to explain any further?

And did they learn even after that? No they didn’t. They have again destabilized the political situation here by blindly opposing the nuclear deal. I admit, it has its loop holes, but was it the reason why it was opposed? They are opposing it just because India is dealing with the US. Let me make it clear, I am no fan of the US. But really, whatever you say, they are the only superpower in the world and we are never getting anywhere without having them on our side. To what cost is a question, but did our comrades even consider discussing this? They have been adamant throughout the whole process, opposing it just for the sake of opposing it.

I seriously think the comrades of CPI(M) need to do a good rethink of their strategies and their policies. They have to keep in mind that they are Indians first and communists second. Don’t try to create Videsi solutions for Desi problems please. This country badly needs development. Opposing development citing centuries old reasoning is not going to help anyone.

I am just stating my opinion. Criticisms are most welcome.

Its been two weeks. I see a lot of changes here and there, but the essence of “home” remains the same.

I was in Bangalore for a week and in Trivandrum for another. Bangalore, every where I turn, there is something new. Trivandrum has a few things changed here and there, but overall it is just that same old city! Everybody was also apprehensive of me driving, to say the truth even I was, a bit. But it was not the least difficult. Ok, first few minutes I tried to do things “right” but very soon my Indian instincts took over and lo I was honking, not stopping at pedestrian crossings, not following lanes.. hehe.. it was smooth from then on! One thing that changed regarding driving in Trivandrum is the number of FM stations available. When I left, there was just one.. now I turn the radio on and there seems to be a channel every other frequency - Big FM, SFM, Club FM .. what not! Then I see that there *are* traffic symbols posted neatly in India, just that before I never noticed them before and even if I did, never knew what they meant. Enough of blaming the government, our road culture is the first problem, nothings gonna change without improving that!

Most of the week in Trivandrum was spent visiting & being visited by friends and family. I even cooked for them. The shock on my mother’s face when she saw me cooking (’Chicken Trivandrum’ ) was a priceless moment. Nobody thought I had it in me to cook Well, not any more dear ones.. Even I can cook! Many evenings were spent idling away in the city.. brought back many flashes of nostalgia. I even managed to go to a cultural show organized by some department of my old college in the amazingly beautiful Kanakakunnu palace grounds. Sat there for hours with my college buddies… it was the best feeling ever!

It was a not a totally smooth transition, but not as difficult as I expected. Things seem changed, and I look at things differently than before.. But I am so happy being back

I was among those people who thought that this was never going to happen. And even if it was, it would at best be a soapbox-on-wheels. But no, hat’s off to Tata, they pulled off a gem.

Now I am in two minds. Again like a lot of others. It is a big deal, not by any means a minor achievement. But the environmentalists come out and say it is going to damage our Earth. That can’t be good right? But I would like to think in a different manner. If what Tata claims is true (I hope to dear god, it is at least half-true!), the car will have total emissions less than that of a standard motorcycle. If the Nano’s can achieve its said goal of replacing the 2-wheelers on the road, well then this can only be a good thing right. And the number of cars in India (.007 cars per person) are still too less compared to USA (.478 cars per person) or Germany (.508 cars per person). I think the whole hue and cry is a little too much.

But one point I agree on is that the Nano is going to severely choke the already congested Indian roads. Tata and other giants should actively invest in infrastructure projects beneficial for the general public and not just for their factories. I think all the hue and cry must be for this, lets not solve the wrong problem first.

And hey, I was reading some western reactions to the whole thing. While most of them ranged from faint sarcasm to slight appreciation, I noticed something interesting at many places. They were all saying we are going down the wrong path, all about green house gases and stuff. Yes that is important, but so is the development of our country (no, I am not just talking about Nano). The west created this whole mess, all the while enjoying all the goodies and when we are finally capable to doing all that, what right do they have tell us - ‘No, you cant do that. Its too late and we can’t clean up the mess we created.’.. Think about it people!

The point is that there needs to be a balance. We cannot afford to slow down too much on development, but we cannot totally forget about the environment either. The success of India depends on how well ‘we’ (no not just our politicians) strike the balance.