Aanewala pal jaane wala hai.......

Hrishida is no more! By no means was he the typical glamorous Bollywood director, yet Hrishikesh Mukherjee was one of the most popular and beloved filmmakers in Indian cinema. His biggest assest lay in weaving a cinematic magic through simplicity and warmth of characters and their settings without relying much on glamor or largeness so often associated with Indian cinema.

He began his career in 1951 as an editor and assistant director to legendary Bimal Roy, participating in the landmark Roy films Do Bigha Zameen and Devdas. Though his first directorial venture, Musafir (1957), was a disaster, but producer-director Raj Kapoor was so impressed by his talent that he strongly recommended Hrishida as director for Anari (1959). Starring Kapoor himself and Nutan, the film was a critical and commercial success.

1960 saw his next film, Anuradha, which got him the President's Medal Award. But the decade of 60s was not a succesful one for Hrishida and his films were not particularly distinguishable, barring Asli-Naqli (1962), Anupama (1966), Aashirwad (1968), and Satyakam (1969).

Then came 1970 and that year saw Hrishida's masterpiece Anand, one of the best movies ever made in Bollywood. This classic film saw scintillating performances by Rajesh Khanna, then a superstar, and Amitabh Bachchan, then a little known aspiring actor. The music by Salil Chowdhary was soul-stirring, the songs unforgettable..... "zindagi kaisi hai paheli....."; "kahin dur jab din dhal jaye...."; "maine tere liye hee saat rang ke sapne.....". Anand was dedicated to Raj Kapoor, whose joie de vivre had inspired the central charatcer.

It was an auspicious beginning of the 1970s, for that time proved to be an exceptionally good time for Hrishida as he gave the popular and excellent films like Guddi (1971), considered as Jaya Bhaduri's debut film; Abhimaan (1973), that saw the Bachchans' greatest ever performance together; and Chupke Chupke (1975), a comedy par excellence. These films gave an extremely skilled and detailed look at the middle-class mentality. Very few Bollywood writers and directors have touched the inner chord with the Indian middle class the same way Hrishida did.

Hrishida was a profilic director and writer. Few other gems to have emerged out of his oeuvre include: Bawarchi; Golmaal; Naram Garam; Namak Haraam; Bemisaal; Sadma; Jhoot Bole Kauwa Kaate.

Hrishi Da's Quotes:

"It's more difficult to portray simple emotions on screen than complex ones. And that's why I try to delve more into such themes."

"I try to make my films like sugarcoated messages, but the sugar should not exceed the medicine."

Did Gandhi bat for N.Y. Yankees?

IBN-CNN reports: Mahatma Gandhi played baseball during a top secret visit to the USA in 1933—hold on! this is not historical fact but the fiction of a film.

Gandhi at the Bat shows the Mahatma playing for the New York Yankees, but US President Franklin D Roosevelt ensures that the trip is kept secret in national interest. However, long after the visit, baseball historians are intrigued by stories about a mysterious pinch hitter.

The film, touted as a mocumentary, has been made by Los Angeles-based Alec Boehm and Stephanie Argy and comes from the production house Mental Slapstick.

The filmmakers plan to take the film to the festival circuit and it can also be found in the Web site www.gandhiatthebat.com .

So we can now watch the Mahatma as he gets on the baseball diamond in sepia tones and flickering motion. And Gandhi, though in real history went to bat with great success for India. But, as a person with a great sense of humour, he probably would also have enjoyed the spoof.

Is this fair?

George Orwell in his hard-hitting satirical novel Animal Farm wrote: "All animals are equal, but some animals are more equal than others." It seems history has turned a full circle and now it's the leading US companies, driven by unbridled greed for market dominance, who are bending over backwards to appease the autocratic regime in China. So, for Google, Yahoo, Microsoft, Cisco and Wal-Mart there is one set of rules that applies to everyother 'animal' and another set created exclusively for the 'Red animal'.

Google: Does not offer email, chat rooms, or blogs in China, but only Web search, image search, local search, and Google news and that it censors these programs so that Chinese customers cannot search for "democracy," "Falun Gong," and other topics that China wants to shield its people from.

Yahoo: Provided information about one of its Chinese customers that led to his arrest and a 10-year prison sentence for political activity.

Cisco: Sold equipment to the Chinese police that assists them in monitoring dissidents.

Microsoft: Is not allowing the Chinese version of its Web portal, MSN Spaces, to use words deemed politically sensitive by China's Communist Party.

Wal-Mart: Wal-Mart with 1.6 million employees in 16 countries and regions, has a tradition of not allowing trade unions in its outlets. The CPC-backed All-China Federation of Trade Unions (ACFTU) has forced the Wal-Mart to allow the establishment of labour unions in its branches.

American Leadership's hypocicy in dealing with China is legendary; and now US MNCs seem to be emulating their politicians. I don't have any objection to that, provided, the US and these companies stop preaching ethics and values to others. At the same time, China has shown the world how vulnerable these powerful MNCs are. One can make them dance to ones tunes provided they get double digit growth figures in bargain.

Pluto --- from Persephone's Paramour to a Pesky Planet

In the past few days enough heat was generated among scientific community about the International Astronomical Union (IAU) voting outcome on a draft definition of what distinguishes a planet from lesser space rocks. The fuss over Pluto's planethood started a few years ago when astronomers began to discover large, icy bodies in the outer solar system, some of them not much smaller than Pluto. A committee of 19 astronomers set up by the IAU in early 2004 failed to reach a decision over the issue of defining a Planet. A smaller committe of 7 members, set up to look into the matter, came out with a "new" definition of planet which would have increased planets in our solar system to 12, and probably many more. Finally, astronomers could be homing in on a definition of the word planet. On 22nd Aug., after much public bickering in Prague, followed by negotiations behind closed doors, the latest draft resolution was greeted with a broadly friendly reception. The terminology is still ambiguous but the proposal currently under consideration is least controversial. If accepted on Thursday, it would be bad news for Pluto, which would no longer be a full-fledged planet.

Eversince its entry into the family of solar system, Pluto has faced stiff opposition to its inclusion. Now it will no longer be part of the family of Zeus. Poor Pluto!

Ustad Bismillah Khan--- a genius musician

With the passing away of Ustaad Bismillah Khan in the wee hours of 21st August, 2006, an illustrious chapter comes to an end in the annals of Hindustani Classical music. The legendary shehani maestro was born on 21 March 1916. His ancestors were court musicians in the princely state of Dumraon in Bihar and he was trained under his uncle, the late Ali Bux `Vilayatu’, a shehnai player attached to Varanasi’s Vishwanath Temple. He brought the shehnai to the center stage of Indian music with his concert in the Calcutta All India Music Conference in 1937. It was Khan Sahib who poured his heart out into Raga Kafi from Red Fort on the eve of India’s first Republic Day ceremony.
Where others see conflict and contradiction between his music and his religion, Khan Sahib saw only a divine unity. His namaaz was the seven shuddh and five komal surs. Even as a devout Shia, Khan Sahib was also a staunch devotee of Goddess Saraswati. He once remarked, "Music, sur, namaaz. It is the same thing. We reach Allah in different ways. A musician can learn. He can play beautifully. But unless he can mix his music with religion, unless he strives to meet God, he will only have kalaa (art) but no assar (mystical union). He will always stand at the ocean and never reach the heights of purity." Khan Sahib poured his soul into the music he played and could elevate the listeners to the ethereal heights of mystical plane.

He was a simple man, a man of tenderness, a gentle private man, yet given to unbridled display of emotion. With a princely beard and eyes which glint with boyish mischief, he was a 'Suron ka Badshah' who made money but spent it just as fast. His only "bad habit", was smoking Wills cigarettes which he puffed with obvious relish. It was Khan Sahib who composed that magic Lata number 'Dil ka khilauna hai toot gaya' for the film Goonj Uthi Shehnai.During his long and fruitful career as an artiste, Khan Sahib enthralled audiences at performances across the globe. Ustad Bismillah Khan was the third classical musician after Pt Ravi Shankar and Smt M S Subbulakshmi to be awarded Bharath Rathna. He was also honoured with the Sangeet Natak Akademi award, the Tansen award as well as the Padma Vibhushan.

Khan Sahib lives on in the hearts of millions of his fans.

Mosaic of Indian Fabric

VANDE MATARAMHAPPY INDEPENDENCE DAY!!

N.B.: Kindly click on the photos above & enlarge them to have a clear view.

How Long Will the World be at War?

Man is the most violent of all living creatures--- he kills other living beings for food, pleasure, research and he kills fellow humans in name of religion, caste, ethnicity, nationality, ideology. Right now, while you are reading this post, someone somewhere is being killed by another human! With eight "major wars" underway right now and with as many as two dozen "lesser conflicts" ongoing with varying degrees of intensity, it seems the world is on fire.


GlobalSecurity.org has this to say, "Most of these are civil or "intrastate" wars, fueled as much by racial, ethnic, or religious animosities as by ideological fervor. Most victims are civilians, a feature that distinguishes modern conflicts. During World War I, civilians made up fewer than 5 percent of all casualties. Today, 75 percent or more of those killed or wounded in wars are non-combatants.

Africa, to a greater extent than any other continent, is afflicted by war. Africa has been marred by more than 20 major civil wars since 1960. Rwanda, Somalia, Angola, Sudan, Liberia, and Burundi are among those countries that have recently suffered serious armed conflict.

War has caused untold economic and social damage to the countries of Africa. Food production is impossible in conflict areas, and famine often results. Widespread conflict has condemned many of Africa's children to lives of misery and, in certain cases, has threatened the existence of traditional African cultures.

Conflict prevention, mediation, humanitarian intervention and demobilization are among the tools needed to underwrite the success of development assistance programs. Nutrition and education programs, for example, cannot succeed in a nation at war. Billions of dollars of development assistance have been virtually wasted in war-ravaged countries such as Liberia, Somalia, and Sudan."


India has been haunted by the scourge of both internal and external wars eversince its independence. Apart from the wars India has fought with Pakistan and China, a series of conflicts mostly involving ethnic groups seeking independence or autonomy from the central government. These are in addition to the Kashmir Rebellion, which rates as a major conflict.

o Hindu-Muslim Sectarian Violence—(1947-Present): Since independence from Britain in 1947, Hindus and Muslims in India have engaged in periodic outbursts of violence against each other. The latest mob violence in early 2002 in the state of Gujarat claimed 800 to 1,000 lives.

o Hindu-Sikh Sectarian Violence-(1980s): The brutal killings of the innocent by militants; two-times Army action at Harmandir Sahib, the Holiest of Sikh shrines; the assassination of Indira Gandhi, the then PM by her bodyguards, and subsequent Anti-Sikh riots in various parts on North India. It was one of the ugliest periods in history of Punjab that threatened to tear the communal harmony among Hindus & Sikhs.

o Naga Rebellion—(1952-Present): The Naga ethnic group seeks independence from India. A cease-fire took effect in 1997, though some Naga groups continue to oppose the government.

o Mizo Rebellion—(Feb. 28, 1966-Present): The Mizo National Front (MNF) seeks independence from India for the Mizoram region.

o Naxalite Guerrilla War—(May 25, 1967-Present): Beginning with a peasant uprising in the town of Naxalbari, this Marxist/Maoist rebellion sputters on in the Indian countryside. The guerrillas operate among the impoverished peasants and fight both the government security forces and the private paramilitary groups funded by wealthy landowners. Most fighting takes place in the states of AP, Bihar, West Bengal, Chattisgarh, MP, & Orissa.

o Tripura Rebellion—(1979-Present): Tripura, in Northeast India, is embroiled in a separatist rebellion as several rebel groups fight for independence.

o Assam Rebellion—(1980-Present): The United Liberation Front of Assam (ULFA) formed in April 1979 in response to an influx of non-Assamese from Bangladesh and parts of North East India. This movement seeks to evict those "foreigners" and seek greater autonomy from the Indian government.

o Bodo Rebellion—(Mid-1980s-Present): The National Democratic Front of Bodoland (NDFB) is fighting for a separate state within India. They feel that their ethnic group is persecuted by the Assamese and Bengali groups which dominate the region.

Source: The History Guy

All this information sends a shudder down my spine. When will mankind learn to live in peace with one another? I hope and pray that such a day dawns soon.



"Perpetual peace is no empty idea, but a practical thing which, through its gradual solution, is coming always nearer its final realization..." IMMANUEL KANT

Sourav makes a century everyday

Most of us blame external circumstances for all that is wrong in our lives and lament lack of good opportunity to advance our career. Little do we realise that all that we took for granted as a child -- a reputed school, crisp notebooks, immaculate uniform et al, is an unfulfilled dream for millions of children. But many of these children do not give up despite odds and continue their education. Here is a real-life story about a young boy's dogged perseverance and indomitable will. [Newspaper vendor's son in news]

Beginning his day at five in morning and cycling around Kolkata's posh Salt Lake area before school is not what Sourav Bodak does out of choice.

The money that he makes from distributing newspapers to 100-odd households along with his father takes care of his school fees and other basic needs. A tough life one would think.

But Sourav, who has topped his school this year with 92.4 per cent, in the secondary exam, sees no reason to complain. "I don't ever feel bad about distributing newspapers. Whenever I wanted something and didn't get it I told myself that there are many people who have struggled more to gain education. So why shouldn't I?" Sourav Bodak says.

Hats off to Saurav's courage and determination! All the best to him and countless like him whose struggle against poverty continues. Such 'stories' make me feel humble and at the same time increase my resolve to help in whatever small way I can to make a difference in lives of at least few children who are deprived of proper education for the want of resources.

A Ray of Hope

In the past few days, there has been more depressing news than good ones--- "Butcher Doctors in Delhi & UP" ; "Jaswant's Spy Tale". But my heart brimmed with joy when I just now read about an Indian winning the prestigious Ramon Magasasay award. IIT alumnus wins Magsaysay award

Ramon Magsaysay Award Citation for Arvind Kejriwal states:

"The brazen corruption of the high and the mighty may grab headlines, but for ordinary people it is the ubiquity of everyday corruption that weighs heaviest. And that demoralizes. Arvind Kejriwal, founder of India’s Parivartan, understands this, which is why his campaign for change begins with the small things........
In electing Arvind Kejriwal to receive the 2006 Ramon Magsaysay Award for Emergent Leadership, the board of trustees recognizes his activating India’s right-to-information movement at the grassroots, empowering New Delhi’s poorest citizens to fight corruption by holding government accountable to the people."

The Ramon Magsaysay Award for Emergent Leadership honors “individuals, forty years of age and below, doing outstanding work on issues of social change in their communities, but whose leadership is not yet broadly recognized outside of these communities.” An Award in this category was given for the first time in 2001 under grant from Ford Foundation.

Kudos to Mr. Kejriwal! You are a source of inspiration to the youth of India.

Dabbawalas embrace technology

We all know about Mumbai's legendary lunchbox carriers, popularly known as Dabbawalas or tiffinwalas. There are 5,000 of them and they deliver ~200,000 tiffins/day. With a unique blend of teamwork, efficiency and punctuality, they are an integral part of the city's ability to function as a dynamic financial metropolis.

Now, in an attempt to boost awareness about their service they have gone a bit more high tech. They have set up a website and an SMS service to increase customer numbers. Manish Tripathi, a software engineer, has built the new technology for them, and has been adopted as an honorary dabbawala. [http://www.mydabbawala.com/]

Burka-clad models?

The First Post, British online magazine, reports: "Women's faces are being painted out of billboards across the city of Peshawar in northern Pakistan after local government officials threatened to take action against advertisers." Welcome to the Dark Ages!


In India too there is no dearth of such male chauvinists who vandalise shops & threaten couples on Valentine's Day. I think it is a sense of insecurity that makes men try to subjugate women in name of religion and tradition. Let the feminine power grow, its good for the world.


Generally speaking, women are as capable of performing any job as their male counterparts are. So, why stifle their growth? Let them blossom and I'm sure they shall, if given free reign, make this world a happier place to live just as their very presence changes a house into a home.

Stifling the netspace

After the recent Mumbai blasts, a Government of India order had directed all ISPs to block access to certain websites which were spreading “extreme views” using their blogs. [IBNLive: 'Are we heading towards another Emergency?']. But the ISPs have gone a step ahead and blocked all the blogs in India, giving technical reasons about their inability to selectively block few blogs. Bloggers in India have not taken kindly to the government's high-handedness in trying to muzzle their right to freedom of expression and have been exchanging angry mails about this incident.

In my opinion this knee jerk reaction is not going to yield desired result. Do we ban books just because some writers try to incite communal passions? Democratic governments don't, can't and shouldn't control citizens' right to think and express. Internet is a wonderful medium of communication and by trying to manipulate it Indian govt. is only following the footprints of totalitarian states. I pray it soon realizes the futility of its authoritarian attitude and quash the order given to ISPs.

Gabbar thunders in Sanskrit

Who says Sanskrit is a dead language? IBNLive reports: "...the umd_samskritam group, comprising students at the University of Maryland and young professionals from the area, have adopted to promote spoken Sanskrit in daily life. The group launched their web site this July 11"

The group of young Sanskrit enthusiasts aim to:
1. Gather in one place all resources related to Sanskrit
2. Act as a facilitator to link all Sanskrit related activities around the world
3. Provide a platform to discuss and promote Sanskrit through forums and blogs

Checkout the website www.speaksanskrit.org, if not for the online resources on Sanskrit, then for the fun of watching Sanskritised versions of Sholay & Kya Bolti Tu [THE "WORLD FAMOUS" VIDEOS FROM SPARSH]

Narayana Murthy, a true Karam yogi

India Inc.’s corporate leaders provide a strange melange of diverse personalities - flamboyant Vijay Mallya, mild Narayana Murthy, disciplined Azim Premji, visionary Ratan Tata, astute Ambanis, focussed Kumar Mangalam Birla - to name a few. But one thing they have in common is that they are world-beating leaders whose reputations precede them wherever they go. Very soon, on August 20th to be precise, one of the most respected among the Indian business leaders, Mr. Narayana Murthy will be embarking on a 'Corporate Vanaprastha' (if at all there is any such phrase). Mr. Murthy belongs to that rare breed of entrepreneurs who have an unflinching faith in their vision and pursue it with dogged perseverance. No wonder that his brainchild, Infosys, is today one of the leading companies in its field of expertise. Under his able stewardship, Infosys has grown from its humble beginnings quarter century ago into a $2 billion plus software giant. At its inception Infosys had only 6 employees and has now more than 58,000 on its payrolls.

Mr. Murthy served as CEO of Infosys for twenty years, and was succeeded by co-founder Nandan Nilekani in March 2002. He is the chairman of the governing body of the IIIT, Bangalore and the IIM, Ahmedabad. He is a member of the Board of Overseers of the University of Pennsylvania's Wharton School; Cornell University Board of Trustees; Singapore Management University Board of Trustees; INSEAD's Board of Directors and the Asian Institute of Management's Board of Governors. He is also a member of the Advisory Boards and Councils of the William F. Achtmeyer Center for Global Leadership at the Tuck School of Business, the Corporate Governance initiative at the Harvard Business School, and the Yale University President's Council on International Activities.

Mr. Murthy is an independent director on the board of the DBS Bank, Singapore. He also serves as a director on the Central Board of the RBI, as the co-chairman of the Indo-British Partnership, as a member of the Prime Minister's council on trade and industry. He is an IT advisor to several Asian countries. The list of awards and honors conferred upon him are endless.

Mr. Murthy is known not just for building one of the biggest IT empires in India but also for his Gandhian simplicity. He has voiced concerns about corporate governance in India. He was the Chairman of the Committee on Corporate Governance appointed by the SEBI in 2003. He once suggested, if my memory serves me right, that the highest-paid executive of a company should not earn more than 15 times the salary of the lowest-paid employee of that company. That's a very noble idea, but I wonder if it has been implemented within his own company.

Now that he has decided to quit active management role in his company, he has also ruled out the possibility of venturing into other sectors like pharma/biotechnology. But the Board of Directors at Infosys has resolved to appoint him as an Additional Director of the company from August 21, as also the Non-Executive Chairman and Chief Mentor. So, his association with his company continues.

Wish Indian politicians were as visionary, altruistic and dedicated as Mr. Murthy is.

Mukesh Ambani, man with a Midas touch

It is heartening to see Mr. Mukesh Ambani feature on the cover story of Newsweek's international edition. [Bigger, Faster, Better] Reliance Industries, is now India's largest private-sector enterprise by any measure: revenue ($20 billion in 2005), profit ($2 billion), share of Indian GDP (3.5 percent). Currently, Reliance is India's biggest company by market cap (about $35 billion).

But Mr. Ambani is not one to rest on his laurels. He has already announced his plans to invest more than $11 billion over the next decade to build two new satellite cities outside Mumbai and Delhi. "He foresees these metropolises emerging within just four years, each with a population of 5 million people making $5,000 a year, on average (or seven times India's norm), and hosting top multinational companies."

His other mega vision is to metamorphose India's farming and retail sectors. "Ambani plans to invest $5 billion by 2011 to put both the farms and the stores on the road to modernity, connect them through a distribution system guided by the latest logistics technology, and create enough of a surplus to generate $20 billion in agricultural exports annually."

But this will be an uphill task given the disorganized supply chain and poor infrastructure. Experts say that due of a lack of storage, refrigeration and transportation, some 40 percent of India's fruit and vegetables spoils before reaching market.

"To transform Indian farmers into quality suppliers for his new retail chain, Ambani plans to create 1,600 farm-supply hubs across India, providing technical know-how and credit, selling seeds, fertilizer and fuel, and buying produce. He also plans to build some 85 logistics centers to move food to retail outlets and to ports and airports for export. Reliance is gearing up to train tens of thousands of new employees in the next six to eight months to do everything from erecting prefab warehouses to transporting fresh produce."

That's a splendid vision! Best of luck Mr. Ambani!!

Of Military Prowess and GFP

India's indigenously built, surface-to-surface nuclear capable intermediate range ballistic misslie (IRBM) Agni-III with a range of 3,500 km was test-fired from a range off the Orissa coast on Sunday with much fanfare. Later it developed a snag and the test-firing was described as unsuccessful. [Agni III testfiring unsuccessful]

These two events, which occurred in quick succession, made me ponder over India's military preparedness vis-à-vis other nations. I googled to get more information in this regard. I came across an interesting website, GlobalFirePower.com . It tries to predict the military might of a nation based on a composite average of various parameters like, Finance-related, Military Personnel, Armaments inventories, Logistics, and Key resources. "GlobalFirePower (GFP) provides a unique analytical display of information based on sources from all over the globe....Naturally a list such as this is designed to be subjective so there is room for disagreement as to its accuracy (or inaccuracy)."

A partial ranking of the world military powers:

1 United States of America
2 China
3 Russia
4 India
5 Germany
6 France
7 Japan
8 Turkey
9 Great Britain
10 Brazil
11 Italy
12 South Korea
13 Indonesia
14 Canada
15 Iran
16 Spain
17 Egypt
18 North Korea
19 Australia
20 Pakistan

"NOTE: Nuclear weapons, military experience, unit training and equipment quality are not taken into account."

If such a ranking using similar parameters had been designed in 1930s, India & China would not have even figured in top 20. Germany & Japan would have led the rankings for obvious reasons. GlobalFirePower website has this to add: "If history has shown the observer one thing, it is that war is a part of life. Strange as that may sound, documented records report only 300 years of known peace on our planet, leaving the rest to wallow in the path of war. What that statistic tells us is that there has been some source of conflict between two or more parties on our planet for thousands of years."

Hopefully the mistakes of last century will not be repeated in this century too. The very idea of a large scale war sends a shudder down my spine, but we can't ignore it either.

India 12th richest nation in 2005??

It is heartening to see India's GDP surge to newer heights. IBNLive reports: "India has emerged as the 12th wealthiest nation in the world with its GDP touching $785.47 billion (Rs 35,34,615 crore) in 2005, calculated by the World Bank." Now this report can kindle a sanguine hope in the heart of a billion plus Indians, but it is not prudent to be taken-in by the GDP figures alone. GDP only reflects national income and tells nothing of how that income is distributed or how that income is spent. Though India is ranked 12th in terms of its GDP but it ranks very poorly on parameters such as GDP per capita, infant-mortality rate, literacy rate etc.

Another form of statistical tool used for measuring a nation's overall growth is the HDI -- Human Development Index. "It is a summary composite index that measures a country's average achievements in three basic aspects of human development: longevity, knowledge, and a decent standard of living. Longevity is measured by life expectancy at birth; knowledge is measured by a combination of the adult literacy rate and the combined primary, secondary, and tertiary gross enrolment ratio; and standard of living by GDP per capita (PPP US$)." Check for yourself the HDI data and see how well India fares. The UN Millennium Development Goals website also provides very useful and insightful data.

I am neither being cynical of India's economic progress in recent years nor am I pessismistic about our reaching the goals envisioned by our founding fathers, but all I'm trying to emphasise is that jubilation at GDP figures is pre-mature. India has a long way to go before it can be in the top league w.r.t. all the socio-economic parameters.

Some of the key challenges before us are:
1: Extreme poverty
2: Illiteracy
3: Gender & social inequality
4: Infant & maternal mortality
5: HIV/AIDS, malaria, TB and other diseases
6: Environmental sustainability
7: Poor infrastructure

The task at hand may seem onerous but it is not impossible to achieve. What is needed is strong a political will and visionary leadership. Is it expecting too much in present day India?

Of IMF and GDP

Alarmed by the rising trend in vices around the globe, IMF (International Morality Federation), a motley group comprising the puritans and zealots of various hues and leanings, has included in its recently published annual report GDP (Gross Depravity Parameter) to measure how different countries fare on moral report card. IMF has taken into consideration the efficiency and efficacy of the moral police in a particular nation to arrive at their rankings. Some of the criteria used by IMF for preparing the report include: curtailing freedom of expression of citizens; number of books banned, fatwas/threats issued against artists, writers and cartoonists, raids on night clubs/dancing bars/massage parlours, movie posters burned, the extent to which women's freedom was curbed, forceful disruption of Valentine's day celebration......the list goes on!

Afganistan, Pakistan, Myanmar and Zimbabwe are among the top rankers. India too has improved its ranking this year to 17th from 22nd last year. Denmark has fared very poorly in IMF's ranking for lending support to its cartoonist's freedom of expression. In fact, there has been a stern warning to the nations which are pursuing liberal policies towards women, artists and homosexuals.

IMF giving a clarion call to raise the MQ (Moral Quotient) of every person in the world, has urged the governments to follow the example of Singapore [Massages to go public in Singapore!] which has an excellent record in controlling "vice activities" in its society.

Indian Judiciary: Credibility at stake

The primary duty of a nation state is to give justice to its citizens. The preamble of Indian Constitution reads: “We, the people of India resolved to constitute India into a Sovereign Socialist Secular Democratic Republic and to secure to all its citizens: Justice…., Liberty….., Equality….., and ……Fraternity assuring the dignity of the individual and the unity and integrity of the Nation.” But anyone who had a first hand experience of dealing with the labyrinthine Indian judicial system would attest to a wide chasm existing between what is enshrined in the constitution and what is the ground reality. It takes aeons before judgements are passed and in the process one has to face corrupt officials of the lower courts. The Economist reports: "This week, the government's press department reported that the number of civil and criminal cases pending before India's courts has exceeded 30m, up from 20m in 1997. Among the reasons are a shortage of judges—just 11 for every 1m people, compared with 51 in Britain and 107 in America..... Cases are not assigned to a particular judge for their duration, and are often adjourned. Advocates may take several briefs on the same day, not turning up for some, causing yet more adjournments. " At this rate, as per some calculations by experts, it would take some 360 years to resolve these cases at the current rate of disposal.

This is time for the Supreme Court and the Law ministry to do some deep introspection and take quick remedial actions to clear the backlog of cases. I know it is not an easy task, but then great nation states do not evolve easily. I am not competent to proffer suggestions in this matter, but am sure the experts in the field will have some solutions in mind. They say, 'justice delayed is justice denied'. So, let not the Indian citizens suffer denial of justice.

I am reminded of Swami Vivekanand's words, which are applicable to an individual as well as to our government: "We are responsible for what we are, and whatever we wish ourselves to be, we have the power to make ourselves. If what we are now has been the result of our own past actions, it certainly follows that whatever we wish to be in future can be produced by our present actions; so we have to know how to act. "

What India needs: a PM or a CEO?

It has been a much debated topic that a nation ought to be run like a business. No doubt there are plausible reasons in favour of such a notion but we should remember that a business is all about making profits whereas a government cannot be run on such a parochial dictum. What is needed is an amalgamation of sound politics with astute business sense.

Indian government has recently announced a meeting with the chief secretaries of all states in early July, where drastic changes in the way the Government and the public interact will be incorporated. [Coming soon: CEO, Government Inc] This is easier said than done. I don't want to cast aspersions on government's motive behind this initiative, but lot of sincerity is needed before such an effort fructifies. It is high time that our leaders realize that beneath a thin veneer of India's economic marvel lies a cesspool of corruption, poverty, and callousness. It is their bounden duty to help extricate Indian masses from this cesspool. Sooner the government implements policies to ensure efficiency, transparency and accountability in administration, better it would be for democracy to flourish in India.