No more Earth Hours please!

On Saturday 28th March, a billion people living in 80 countries switched off their lights in an attempt to brighten Earth’s green future. It was for the first time that there was a heavy overdose of such earth-friendly information whenever and wherever you turned your noble head.



From the first dose and celebrity quotes (most of whom are in the colourful pages only for their Gucci's,Armani's to tease and belittle us poor people everyday) in the morning papers to each and every website in the world that wanted to increase its hits in the afternoon and yes, back to the media again who voraciously lapped up the whole event live in the late evening... (Though i must admit that after a long time there were some fantastic visuals on-air).


But then, i sat wondering in the dark whether any of this is relevant in today’s context. The more my candle melted away, the more I came to the conclusion that this was one giant and collective but futile effort in India’s context.

It’s shameful, at least for me to think that many like me can assume to display such Utopian behaviour especially when the Indian government itself admits that leave alone power cuts, there is no power in more than 71,000 villages and 2.43 crore below poverty line (BPL) households in India!

For many like me, a candlelight dinner is not a romantic engagement filled with Mozart’s tunes, surrounded by the aroma of budding red roses, a lavish four-course dinner followed by fresh and tantalizingly succulent strawberries dipped in dark rich Belgium chocolate. It is in fact a bitter, dark reality that millions profusely sweat and face every morning, every afternoon and every night. In this darkness, the candle with all of its limited light only reminds one of the many thousand crores of aam aadmi’s hard earned money gone wrongfully down the drain.



However no more emotional rhetorics from me on this. Here, let me throw across one or two facts for your kind understanding-



1. The all India energy shortage in March 2008 was way over 11 percent while peak shortage in the horrendously sunny months of May and June was around 16 percent. And going by the empirical data provided in govt websites, in 2007 the installed power generation capacity of India stood at 138,252 MWH while the per capita power consumption stood at 612 KWH. In short even after 51 years the classic case of hide and seek with the many millions (both people and their money) continues unabated.


2. And yes, just in case you think that the sorry state of affairs is never going to end, the government begs to differ. The Government of India has an ambitious (or can i dare say over-ambitious) mission of POWER FOR ALL by 2012. Now there is a logic in this too. You see, escapist tendencies have always been an integral part of the Indian people's DNA and we Indians have always had a certain fondness for fables. So the government carries it well forward with the latest edition of the modern day Panchtantra...



But, the truth is that reality still bites. It never ceases to amaze me that just how gullible the Indian Political League think we are..



And so, at the risk of being called a pessimist i would like to welcome you to the dark abyss of reality of an average Indian. In a world where 1 minute into a power cut the generators are puffing and grunting incessantly for hours, and the inverters start their countdown there are millions who get up and light a candle simply because they don't have any electricity at home. My dear friends, welcome to one of the many ironies of the modern capitalist world.


And just in case you’ve ever crossed some part of any old town, Agra, Kanpur, Aligarh, Ajmer... why even Delhi and Mumbai you’re bound to come across a gigantic sweater. A gigantic sweater???? Ya, a massive knitted undertaking of wires of the main electric tower undertaken by each and every household of a locality to get some units of electricity for free. An illegal connection popularly know as the ‘langar’ (not to be confused with the gurudwara prasad).



You see, in the land of 'jugaad' its not just the government which does dacoity, there are small time crooks within all of us too.


The question is not whether to have illegal electricity connections or not, the real question is that till when will India suffer the ignominy of a bleak and dark future, till when the only impediment in way of development of many will the interest of few, till when will we keep SILENT or worse celebrate something as non-existent as an Earth Hour while America and Britain cant decide on any decent CFC emission norms?


With this resolve in mind I am not against celebrating Earth Hour, day or Month. I too believe that it is high time we learnt not to take nature and beauty for granted. But i cannot play a part which i cannot believe in... i cannot and will not stand by the belief that ignorance is bliss.


I have hence decided that in future no thanks to any more Earth Hours.

Life in a travel bag

Well, one of the most rewarding aspect of marriage is indisputably the honeymoon. For me, a week replete with laziness to the core spelt HEAVEN. A week-long trip to the Andamans was definitely the closest you can get to charging your nearly died up batteries.

Andaman and Nicobar islands are by far the most beautiful and maybe thankfully the most under-rated picturesque locales in India. Some of the best moments were those spent in peace with the surroundings, walking under tropical canopy while hearing the dry leaves crackle under my feet, the sun setting on the golden horizon, the furore of waves rebelling against the ferry, the primitive Jarawas still at peace with their bodies and wearing just nearly nothing while carrying bows and arrows - just like Homo Sapiens did some 10,000 years back, lazing under the shade of trees sipping the freshest coconut water while reading a beautiful book and yes, the wonderful wonderful view from down under. The bright red, blue, gold and yellow flashes (which the eye recognises a moment later as salt water fishes) surrounding you while you are in absolute awe of the colourful corals beneath your feet. And yes, since it was the honeymoon, the moments when someone special just looked at you and mimed three words which i knew he meant to the core of his heart.....

Andaman was as natural as natural could be, at least for a primitive traveller like me.

I came across spectacular limestone caves in a highly earthquake prone zone. Nature in its true form , as i learnt can never cease to surprise me. And if that wasn't enough, witnessing a live mud volcano, oozing out of its centre the dangerous mix of ash, mud and inflammable gases by the dozen. By the way, i confess i didn't know that there were mud volcanoes before that date... Ah, ignorant me.... the real me.

However, amongst all this there was something not really pleasant to the mind. With all the splendour and enthalling beauty, the other side of the coin, the beast, is also slowing coming to senses in this heaven. With its arms engulfing the region ,the peace of the Islands is slowly but steadily the stake in this battle for survival.

Anthropologically, the habitation in total of 321 Andaman and Nicobar Islands is divided into two types. One, the original inhabitants of the islands - the tribes. Six in total they comprise the Great Andamanese of Strait Island, Onges of Little Andaman, Jarawas of South and Middle Andaman, Sentinelese of Sentinel Islands, and Shompens of Great Nicobar. The second, is the migrated population shifted to the Island. These comprise mostly of Keral, Bengali,Bihari, Tamil workers and their families who were given land, money and jobs so that a strategically important part of Indian Union be populated.

Coming to the original inhabitants of the island, while some tribes have opened up to the modern world, others still view 'us' with hostility so severe that you might have to risk with your life in the adventure of seeing them.

Case in point, being the recently turned friendly, Jarawas do not have canoes but use rafts to cross the streams. Administration stretched their hands to this tribe in 1974 and befriended them with gifts of bananas, coconuts and other fruits. They were hostile till 1998 but now they are coming out of their habitats to mix with the local people. Isolated from the civilized world, it is still a mystery that how did the Jarawas with their African gene pool land in India in the first place.

However, what surprised me is that development most of the times is a selfish attempt to appease a few, only resulting in neglecting the greater good. The Jarawas, being the original inhabitants of the Baratang region of Andaman are not aware that their silent haven is soon becoming a victim to political ambitions. A Grand trunk road has divided their sanctuary into two, cutting across the resources, esp water. While they are increasing getting allured to chips, chocolates and the works, they are still not aware that in a modern world nothing is free... not even water. While on the other hand, the 20 year old inhabitants are busy forming lobbies... the Tamils shouting for greater representation and greater land resources.... this must come at the cost of someone..... in this case the Jarawas.

While on the way, we spotted three Jarawa youths waiting in a police station for a pick-up van to take them to the Government hospital in Port Blair. The behaviour of the policeman though was suspicious of sexual favours.... It was a further shock to me when i learnt that from the past 10-15 years when the have started seeking medical help, examinations have revealed that they have had to shed with some of their natural immunity.... something i fear, they are not aware of till date.

Sad that 20 years from now, the lure of modern riches may tempt the modern generation... but will they be able to survive in this new universe is hardly difficult to imagine.

The era of packages!

4 days and 5 nights trip to exotic Malaysia..... 2days/3 nights trip to Shimla.... well nothing new in ads of such type... but ya, the growing popularity of such packages has finally rubbed on to quite a handful of sectors now.


Case in point is the medical industry.. the wonderfully expensive hospitals is what i mean SPECIFICALLY.


Recently i've had the bad luck to undergo an operation... Nothing life threatening... a simple minor gall bladder laproscopic surgery for removal of gall bladder stones.


What better than celebrating Republic Day than in a hospital with a drip on you... and with the complimentary nurses (mostly Malayali and almost always refusing to speak in the language most are familiar with) eyeing you rather suspiciously.


Well after a real bad pain attack thanks to the stones, while i'm all pale and frentic, the nurse simply smiles and pushes an antibiotic injection in a vein which she found miraculously after 10 minutes. Well, leave aside the customary two words of consolation she smiles at me and forces the 2nd injection to help subside the urge of vomitting without warning me earlier... Lesson no. 1- Don't expect any empathy in hospitals. Lesson no. 2- If a nurse smiles in the hospital then its only because babe you're going to be injected soon..real soon.


The real lesson however was Lesson No. 3. Ever seen a parasite.... an average ordinarily ugly looking blood sucking parasite thrives on your sweet red blood.... likewise nothing like a mediclaim insured patient for a modern day 24hour hospital..... and if its a completely insured policy then its Christmas for them.... Jingle bell jingle bell all the way to your medical bills. The going is however pretty tough for someone lying helplessly somewhere in between the white sheets (Which brings me to the basic question that why do you always have to encounter white sheets in hospital... guess some kind of depression trick of the hospital to get you billed in their therapy sessions as well !). Post a number ....and buoy what a sizable number of more than adequate injections and the frills..... feel lucky if you're still feeling like a lame duck......

Mediclaims as i thought, somewhere hibernating in one of the folds of the cerebellum, were a facility championing the cause of the perennially near- broke salaried employed.

However, remember the little red riding hood story.... Once upon a time she went to the hospital, carrying her goody bag full of mediclaim... little did she know that the sweet, compassionate nurse was not her beloved grandmother but the clever, conniving BIG BAD WOLF.

After the operation a gladder less and experience wiser me, finally came to terms with the TRUTH... The BIG BAD WOLF is still roaming at large maybe whistling to itself sadistically," Come out, come out wherever you are..."

I hate the large teethed, hideous wolf now... hope you don't have any encounter.... Till then i pledge to stay from packages...especially of the whiter sort!

SLUMDOG MILLIONAIRE: एक तथ्य या मिथ्या

स्लमडॉग मिलियनएयर पर भारत में विरोध, भारत के विरोधाभास का जीता-जागता नमूना है। लोग धारावी में रहते हैं, ये सच है। हर जगह की तरह वहां रहते लोग भी अपनी जिंदगी को सफल बनाना चाहते हैं, ये भी सच है। ये बात भी झूठ नहीं कि कोई राजी खुशी भिखारी नही बनना चाहता, यहां बहुतों को इस राह पर चलने के लिए मजबूर किया जाता है। ऐसे में फिर जब देश के सबसे महान अभिनेता(??) अमिताभ बच्चन से लेकर हमारे बेहद निक्कमे NGO'S चिल्लाना शुरू करते हैं कि ये फिल्म
झूठ है, एक प्रयास है देश की बुरी तस्वीर पेश करने का तब समझ नही आता कि ये सबको इतना नादान क्यो समझते हैं। माफ कीजिएगा लेकिन तथ्य और मिथ्या में फर्क बेशक सबके समझने की बात ना हो लेकिन कुछ के पल्ले तो जरूर पड़ती है।

अब बात करते हैं डैनी बॉएयल के इस करतब की। ये फिल्म कहीं कहीं लोगों के grey shades दिखाती है... लेकिन ये सच है। और इससे भी बड़ा सच ये है कि फिल्म किसी के exploitation की नही, बल्कि एक मामूली इंसान के हौसले की जीत है। ओबामा की भाषा में कहें तो ये फिल्म उम्मीद जगाती है कि YES! wE CAN. अमिताभ जी, अपनी गाड़ी से बाहर निकलिए, प्रतीक्षा के बाहर भी दुनिया है... जो दिखने में बेशक हसीन ना हो लेकिन जो हसीन भविष्य के सपने देखती है।

आप बात करते हैं भारत की dirty underbelly को दर्शाने का... मेरा सवाल है कि इस फिल्म ने और कुछ नही तो आपको उस underbelly में रहने वालों की दिक्कतें तो दिखाई। जिन्हे देख कभी मेरी तरह आप भी सन्न रहे होंगे, कभी हंसे होगें, कभी अपिरिचित भविष्य को सोच ड़रे होंगे... लेकिन इस बात को मानते हुए कि हां इस IT और tech savvy देश की ये भी एक परत है।

इसके मुकाबले भारतीय सिनेमा की जय हो। बारिश में नाच गाना, प्यार और धिशुम धुशुम, खूब सारा glycerine बहाना.. यही तो हमारे प्यारे बॉलीवुड की USP है। हाल की फिल्मों के क्या कहने... झूम बराबर झूम, धूम.... (लिस्ट खत्म कर पाना मेरे बस की बात नही। मुझे इस मामले में हार स्वीकार है) जैसी thinking फिल्मस भारत की क्या छवि पेश करती हैं इसके बारे में कुछ ना ही कहें तो शायद बेहतर रहेगा।

मेरी माने तो इस फिल्म को आपत्ति नही भूरी भूरी प्रशंसा ही मिलनी चाहिए। जो इतने सालों से यहां के निर्देशक करने में असफल रहे वो एक british citizen ने कर दिखाया। ये साफ कर दिया कि भारत में गरीबी है तो हौसला भी, तपते सूरज की तरफ देखने का इरादा भी, ऊचाईयों के मायने बदलने की अत्मनिर्भरता भी। डैनी तुम्हारी वाकई जय हो।