Shoot him again, if you please. He was dead long ago.

"His [Gandhi's] activities for public awakening were phenomenal in there in their intensity and were reinforced by the slogan of truth and non-violence, which he paraded ostentatiously before the country. No sensible or enlightened person could object to those slogans."

- Nathuram Vinayak Godse, in his deposition in court

I’m not exhibiting the journalistic, manipulative, smartness of quoting only a part of the assassin’s statement that would support my views. I’m only bringing forth the point, from which Godse, and most others, got diverted after Gandhi had become obsolete, and even obstructive, for their personal goals.

Gandhi had a dream that no one has ever dare to dream of. Before, or after his time. And his convictions were stronger than anyone who had walked upon earth. Buddha started off by quitting. Jesus had given up after three years. Gandhi didn’t dream of a land that would one day be able to answer back in the face of the opponent with nuclear warheads, like the former poet-prime minister had dreamt of. He didn’t dream of a land, whose sons will walk on the moon, like the current poet-president is dreaming of. He dreamt of a land where women can walk safely in the streets, at midnight, that too even without any clothes! Not a formidable dream, in the eyes of the other practical dreamers.

Many times I have thought about this. What if, Godse had shot Gandhi 10 years before? In 1938, when Subhash Chandra Bose was elected as the president of Indian National Congress. Gandhi opposed Bose mainly for the latter’s lack of commitment to democracy and lack of faith in non-violence. The idea Gandhi had in his mind was obviously beyond the comprehensive levels of many others like Godse. Gandhi believed democracy is for the people, not the other way around – as practiced elsewhere. Today, the textbooks portray Shivaji, and Tipu Sultan as valiant, proud patriots. They were fighting to secure their thrones, and nothing else. It was very similar thrones Bose, Nehru, Patel and Jinnah fought for, while Gandhi was fighting to destroy the throne. Bose didn’t win the throne, nor did Gandhi succeed in destroying the throne.

Gandhi wanted to convert the viceroy’s residence to a General Hospital, instead of keeping it for an Indian mimicking the viceroy. He wanted the ashram he started with 25 inmates grow to fill the land and house one fifth of the human population. He wanted every one else to become a Gandhi. And no one ever wanted to.

He never dreamt of an India that’s as prosperous as the British Empire. He never wanted India to become and international power to have the power to oppress other populations. His ideas were not progressive, as the word progressive is understood today.

Gandhi was needed for a while, and became unnecessary too soon. Gandhi was the only solution in the two decisive decades of 20s and 30s. By 40s, there were more than enough people who wanted to replace the British, and have the seats for themselves. I have read, and heard from many, that it was the British Raj that made a country out of several hundreds of kingdoms fighting with each other. I have read, and heard from many, that it was the hardworking administrative and judicial machinery implemented by the British that created the idea of India as a nation. I have also read, and heard from many, that the decision of granting independence was inevitable, because the British empire was too exhausted after the WW II, and was in no mind to deal with the disruptions in the armed forces, which were sparked off by INA. But none of them told me, why Gandhi, and over a lakh of his supporters were kept imprisoned during WW II.

Gandhi had become obsolete, long before he was shot to death. But if it weren’t for his efforts of the initial 20-25 years, the 600 odd princely states that were given independence at the midnight of August 15, 1947 wouldn’t have come together under the tricolour. No other human being has influenced so many fellow beings in the history of human kind. May be it’s a little difficult to believe for the news channels in the country, and its regular viewers, that Gandhi was more popular than Amitab Bachan, or Sachin Tendulkar. The genius of Albert Einstein had foreseen it.

And if Gandhi had won! Obviously, I wouldn’t have been writing this piece, or you reading. I feel ashamed to be born in the same country as Gandhi. I wish, he were born as an African or South American, or Russian or even an American. Then I would have been seeing my fellow countrymen talking in reverence of him more often. And Bush’s sniffer dogs wouldn’t have been allowed to mistake his samadhi for another lamppost.

And here's the full statement that Nathuram Vinayak Godse gave in the court, during his trial. It might still sound heroic to an adolescent mind. If you have one, please take my warning.
Click here to read it.

About the news I haven’t heard

There are 200 million blogs which are no longer being updated, says the survey by Technorati. Mine is not in that list yet; they consider a blog as inactive, only if it’s not updated at least once in three months. According to the report, they predict that there’ll be only a 100 million of them those will be still active by the middle of this year. And I hope mine will be there in the list then.

This news, and another 99 of such pieces are part of ‘the 100 things we didn’t know last year’ published by BBC Magazine. One of the few regular readers of my blog sends me the link. And to my very pleasant surprise, there weren’t one single news that I had heard in the last 365 days. It was only a few weeks back, the Supreme Court in my country came up with an interesting ruling on published content for newspapers. Hearing on a PIL against obscene photographs and articles being published, the Court said, such a ban will lead to a situation where the newspaper will be publishing material caters only to children and adolescents, and adults will be deprived of their rightful share of ‘entertainment’. Tabloid of India, one of the only two defendants in the case, of course has no clue what can be an entertaining piece of news. Well, let’s say, they just lack a good sense of humour.

The BBC Magazine publishes 10 pieces of ‘unknown’ news pieces every week. And the above-mentioned link is a collection of those over the past 12 months. It has a survey report by ICMR, which found out that standard-sized condoms are too big for Indian men. Even after erection, I assume. Now, there’s nothing like a standard-size, and the ones available are of the length 150-180mm. It’s the same with the American men too, another study has revealed. I’m expecting them to be available soon in S, M, L, and XL sizes, and all of the XL being sold to be wasted.

Another piece informs me clitoris derived its name from the Greek word kleitoris, meaning little hill. On mons veneris. Obviously, it’s all Greek and Latin to me. And now I know what they mean when say making a mountain out of a mole-hill.

And there’s another report that says for every 10 attempts to climb Mount Everest, there’s one fatality. Arguably, the most expensive way to die. Worth a try, of course, for the ones who can afford.

Seems like life wasn't really any easier for men to make a decision in ancient Rome. Sex workers there used to charge an equivalent price of 8 glasses of red wine then. The ratio of good grapes to good women is still the same, I guess. If prices have anything to do with supply, that is.

Alcohol is the fuel that runs over 2 million cars and trucks in Brazil, another report in the list informs. Not just on the Newyear eve, or not just during the carnival, I hope. And I am sincerely curious to know, whether they can be driven in a straight line when the tank is still full.

15 years was the legal minimum age for women to get married in France, until recently. They made it 18, in 2006. Even now in Manipur, only girls below 15 are considered minor. In the rest of the country, they are minors for another 3 years.

A study is Somerset says that cows do have regional accents. The vets here who aspires for a career abroad may well do an accent training too. And another study reveals that they, the cows, each one of them releases up to 400 litres of poisonous methane every day to our breathing air. That’s enough to put Maneka in a dilemma. Save the cows or save the planet?

Another report says a domestic cat can scare a black bear to run up a tree. And another says in a fight between a lion a polar bear, the bear would win. The lions are challenging the bears, from their dens in Kalahari. The fight is yet to take place because they haven’t yet agreed on a neutral venue, I suppose. But this waiting also helps. Because, yet another study says that thinking about your muscles can make you stronger. Just think how weak you would have been now, if you weren’t thinking about them all these years!

And a study from University of Siena says watching television can act as natural painkillers for children. Paediatricians will be now standing the queue to buy televisions. And if that news gives parents a headache, go and listen to music. Because, another study assures that music can reduce chronic pains by 20%. Now, people who thought that listening to heavymetal gives you headaches, please understand that it would have been 20% more if you were not listening.

Who was that who said television kills the habit of reading? There is a study that says about 6 million people uses subtitles while watching a movie without having any hearing impairments.

Going through the list of 100 unheard news, I also learnt that I am detectorist. It’s the new term for people who are metal detector enthusiasts. Recently, during a high-security film festival I fell in love with metal detectors, and now I know I had actually became only a detectorist. The most amazing thing about the metal detectors is that they can detect your zipper, but not your hard-on. They are fun, trust me. The metal detectors, that is.

Hexakosioihexekontahexaphobia, is another term I learnt. It means the fear for the number 666. I don’t have that phobia, but I have another. It’s hippopotomonstrosesquippedaliophobia, meaning the fear of long words. It was in one Satyajit Ray movie, I came to know about the word floccinaucinihiliphilfication, which the character in the movie claims as the longest word in English. Apparently, it’s the longest word in the first edition of the Oxford English Dictionary, and means ‘an estimation of something as worthless’. The record now is with pneumonoultramicroscopicsilicovolcanoconiosis, which can be also spelled as pneumonoultramicroscopicsilicovolcanokoniosis. No prizes for finding the difference. It is the name of some lung disease, and may be reading it out loud in one breath might cause it. The thought makes my scary. I googled for phobias and successfully reached a site which has all the phobias indexed, and listed in alphabetical order. And to my great pleasure I found out that I am actually a very brave man. I am suffering from a very few of them listed there. Another one of my phobias that I would like to confess is phobophobia, the fear of phobias.

So, let me too welcome 2007. I couldn’t find any authentic study report on this, but in my firm belief there are an estimated 3.89 billion people who don’t change their calendars on the Newyear’s day. Don’t be one among them, and save your weekends and holidays.

And you may want to visit the following links:

100 things we didn’t know last year

An A-Z list of phobias

Of a reason why I can’t afford a marriage

When it comes to economics, I’m more at lost than Ms. Sawant is in elegance. What I know about the subject are some simple facts. Like it’s stupid to pay a bottle’s price for an ounce of drink in a pub. Or, that you can’t buy something when you can’t afford it. Complex things like why a credit card is being offered only when you have more than enough debit, flies fast over my head. And I am very well amused when I hear or read about funny amateur theories of economics.

Since the day my country got a crush on global economic development and started embracing so-called progressive liberal economic policies; amateur economic experts have been spawning up here and there. Almost every one who has more money than enough to make the ends to meet became a self-proclaimed authority in economics. Just like almost every literate belongs to proletariat assume of being a profound communist thinker in Kerala.

It was one report about a assembly discussion happened in Kerala, and a self-proclaimed freakenomist’s comment on it that provoked me to think of my ignorance in economics now. I was entertained by the same economist’s observation that increasing prices actually helps to fight and to a certain extend eliminate individual greed, on one earlier occasion, and had mentioned it in my last post.

The Kerala Assembly recently had got together to condemn ostentatious weddings in the state and came out with suggestions to curb wedding expenses. The leftist state government believes it should intervene to curb extravagance in marriages, wants to come out with a law to limit marriage expenses. The opposition is too in favour of this, but not the above-mentioned economist. This very funny economist states that the motivation for such a move is pure jealousy than sensible economics. Sensible, arguably, is the funniest adjective that I know of, and it can make almost every noun look oxymoronic.

The theory presented is not new, but the same ghost of the ugly liberalisation fairy. If the state promotes lavish weddings instead, it will pump more money into the economy, and will provide employment to related industries. It sure does pump money into the economy, but pumps from where? And why does this economist call it stupid populism when it actually cuts down employment of economically lower classes? Just another accidental paradox? Or the legendary lack of human insight natural to people who are too comfortable in their chairs?

A middle class wedding in Kerala is not as extravagant as the adjective suggests. It doesn’t last for a week, but only a few hours; and it costs only about Rs. 1-5 lakhs. And this amount is only a part of the expenses for the bride’s family, irrespective of cast or religion. In Hindu communities, the bride’s family organises the wedding; in other communities, the dowry is handed over in advance. And the expenses for the marriage ceremony is a percentage proportional to the dowry offered.

There of course are laws against dowry; and it has been surpassed by the legitimate will of the parent to ‘gift’. If the government comes up with another law to put restrictions on wedding expenses, that too might be surpassed with some other logic. But that doesn’t mean the government should encourage it, if it can’t eliminate it. And if the law is enforced, it’ll be easier for the parents to ‘marry off’ their daughters, but could be bad on banks and in turn, the thriving economy.

Now it triggers the freakenomist hormones in me. If the government brings up a law to make it mandatory that every wedding should be lavish for the noble purpose of pumping more money into the economy, there would be lesser marriages arranged and excecuted by parents in the state. That may not help the economy much, but might force people think a little more sensibly, and humanly, when it comes to a marriage. But then that is not populism or sensible economics. And therefore won’t be having any takers.

I stopped laughing, to take a breath

A lot of funny things happened last week, but I was busy laughing for different reasons. Those reasons suddenly stopped being around, and I’m reading old newspapers for a good laugh that I badly need. You can always trust newspapers, more than the people. News seldom disappoints you.

One highly ambitious, yet very socially responsible, organisation decided to protest against harassment of women. It’s not a new thing, and they knew no stupid old ways of protest could solve the issue. Innovation is the only way that appeals the ambitious these days. And brains must have been racked a lot to bring up this one. Wear what you wish you could, but you wouldn’t – was that idea to protest. An idea that almost stands equal to that of Gandhi’s non-cooperation. For some reason beyond mankind’s understanding, women almost always had the belief that they are imprisoned in their clothes. I can’t think of any other rational hidden under the thought of burning underclothes on their way to freedom.

Men turn to invertebrates when they come before women. And they find pleasure in almost every ill-meant insult directed to them. I know of one person who sincerely expressed his gratitude when was insulted with a ‘you!’ preceded by the beautiful f-word. The particular protest, staged after midnight on the streets of Delhi, too was one such occasion. There were only fifteen delhities to take that daring challenge to wear what they wish they could, but wouldn’t. And they turned up wearing what they could, but wish wouldn’t. As per the newspaper report, they marched past the ogling men on both sides of the road armed with slogans written on placards. They didn’t know, men don’t even read the slogan’s on their t-shirts, but just pretend to.

While this dramatic protest by a few powerless women ended on an unwanted anti-climax in the capital Delhi, things were ready for a cinematic turn of events in the state capital of Thiruvanathapuram down south. There lives this powerful woman, who’s a movie-buff. She’s powerful, not because she’s a movie-buff, but also is a minister in the ruling government. She never misses to watch a movie on its releasing date. The power of separate, shorter queues for women, or the power of power is of no help to this lady. Kerala, still, is a very democratic state. Ministers can’t reserve the whole theatre to watch a movie even if they want to. The only privilege they can have there is getting a ticket without standing in the queue. But that doesn’t solve the problem for the minister. The crowd won’t give way for anyone, even if that one is just happened to be a minister. When the power becomes powerless, it’s intelligence that really can show the power. The not-so-well-armed police force in Kerala is very intelligent lot. A few of them land at the theatre and give a hoax bomb call. The crowd vanishes. The minister enters. The movie starts. End.

It’s not ideology, or political position, or intelligence, but money that has real power, says the author of the most read blog in the country. He describes the story appeared in Reuters about a ruling by one Finnish judge. This guardian of law had ruled that a total of € 25,500 is too high for a women to charge for letting a 74 year old man suffering from dementia to ‘enjoy’ her breasts on10 occasions. This popular blogger used to be one harmless guy who ends each post at the first occurrence of a funny line. May be because of influence by some tricky astrological pattern at the time of writing, he went on writing a huge piece (huge by his own standards), even after warning many blogger greenhorns against the temptation to write long posts. The outcome was an interesting, and silly, theory of economics that states increasing prices help the society to fight individual greed. I can’t resist liking a paradox. The only trouble I was facing was, this theory is only acceptable to people who can afford to be greedy, not the ones who are just needy. But then, it’s only them who read blogs.

If you are a person, who has ever laughed long enough, you know how it feels once the laughter is died down. There comes a moment in which you wonder why you were laughing. You feel a little lost, and awkward at that tiny fraction of time. And in one such moment, I was thinking, since when had sense and nonsense become synonymous.

Not about the gender unisex is referred to

“Your children are not your children
They are sons and daughters of life’s longing for itself”

- Kahlil Gibran, in The Prophet

Civilisation is all about overriding instincts whenever it is thought to be undesirable. Every manmade law is about forbidding one instinct or other of his. And this particular man has defined castration, contraception, foeticide, and homicide with custom-made yardsticks. It’s all about desirability of this man, who voluntarily represents the society he lives in. She thinks it is for the good of her too, for she wouldn’t have been born without his consent. She feels very important too, for it wouldn’t have been a man’s world without her cooperation.

Now, a negligible issue is there. Women never were desirable, but were only an undesirable necessity. And the womankind was ever since struggling to become desirable to the mankind. With considerable success, I must admit.

Oldtimers had only one option of blessing away the female of their species with a wishful ‘Puthravati Bhava’. History of the mankind tells us wishing was not good enough. Then man invented sonograms. And the rest, ironically, is our future.

A man can experience only the sentimentality associated with a foetus, not the emotions that could be. Anyone who has been to high school knows that a sperm is worth only a trillionth of an ovum. Something really hard for a man to conceive with pride. And thus, very undesirable by default.

It was near this conclusion I was standing after reading about the dead unborns unearthed in a gynaecologist’s backyard in Panjab. And according to the news report, all the foetuses, about a fifty of them, were of one gender. Those who can’t guess which gender it is, must be Marsians. When I was much younger, I believed gynaecologist is the only doctor one can go to with a happy face, and come back with a happier face if the doubts were true. But back then, I didn’t know about undesirable pregnancies.

Now I know about undesirable pregnancies, and desirable pregnancies with an undesirable gender. Still, I don’t know why it is undesirable.

The government has made it a criminal offence to determine and unborn’s gender or to destroy it unless it’s proven dangerous for the mother’s life. The government has also implemented many schemes to help a female child. From perks for parents to extended free education. These must have been motivated by the belief that the undesirability is rooted in economic reasons. Is it desirable for the man to rethink about this conviction?

Anything illegal has never been inexpensive. And it is more difficult to find a criminal to execute foeticide than one for homicide, because they are found only in one of the most respectable social class. Determining the gender of the foetus costs money. Knowing the results needs more money, as it is illegal. And foeticide will cost more. Now, it is only basic mathematics one needs to know that female foeticide is practiced more by the ones who can afford, than the ones who cannot. I know a few people who will disapprove my argument by saying that the process is not really expensive or difficult as I made it sound like. They, of course, are the people who can afford it, and have access to broadminded doctors.

Is a female child actually a bigger economic burden to a parent compared with her male counterpart? If it is, is it only the expenses for her marriage? And if it is, do people really think of an unborn’s marriage and get worried? If not, what else? Is it the anxiety about the return of the investment? If it is, is that all an expectant parent can think of? If it is not, is it simply undesirable for no reasons? Or is it just the man’s instinct that drives him to extinction? I don’t want to know. I am old enough to die before the race vanishes.

Read the news article that my friend JM sent to me here.

Still, “it’s incredibly encouraging,” said Dr. Helene Gayle

Whoever said, prevention is better than cure, was, with no doubt, a white man or woman. Now, you have a good news and a bad news, if I put it in the classical American way of breaking a bad news. The good news here is that the tests of an HIV-preventive pill is announced as a near success. The scientists are not really too happy about it, as what they really want is a single dose vaccine, not a daily dose of oral pills. Oh! I forgot it in my effort to sound elegantly dramatic. No. There’s no bad news, for those who will be benefited by this breakthrough. Others are out the context (and the continent, of course).

The little piece of two-column news appeared on the back page of last Sunday’s (August 13, 2006) Hindu, credited to AP. It filled the gap above the Su Do Ku, and beside Gunter Grass’s much belated confession, made right in time for the next-month release of his memoirs.

The article carefully edited to fit the unsold space for advertisements, read like this:

MILWAUKEE: The first test of a daily pill to prevent HIV infection gave a tantalising hint of success, but a real answer must await a larger study due out next year.

The experiment, done in Africa, mainly showed that the drug Viread is safe when used for prevention. Fewer people given the drug caught the AIDS virus than those given dummy pills, but so few in either group became infected that valid comparisons cannot be made, scientists said.

Still, "it's incredibly encouraging," said Dr. Helene Gayle, co-chair of the International AIDS Conference in Toronto, where the results were released on Saturday.

The experiment was conceived in centrally air-conditioned laboratories in Northern America, and is done in the streets of Africa. On a special species, generally referred in other parts of the world as people. I am sure that it has been done in accordance with international guidelines applicable to the testing of clinical drugs. So, I must agree with Dr. Helene Gayle. It’s incredibly encouraging. And, yes. There were some 400 participants were planned to include from two US cities, apart from nearly 5,000 from Africa, Thailand and Peru. A little more elaborated version of this AP news piece is found in The Washington Times site. It explains the test procedure, little more specifically.

A study by Family Health International, funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, tested it on women in Africa at high risk because of multiple sex partners. None had HIV at the start of the study. They were randomly assigned to get either daily Viread or placebos, and all were counseled and given condoms.

No safety problems emerged – an important first step, said Leigh Peterson, project manager for Family Health International. After an average of six months, only two HIV cases developed among the 427 women on Viread, compared with six infections among the 432 given the fake drug.

"We really would be irresponsible to draw conclusions at this time," because those are too few cases to make judgments on, said Dr. Ward Cates of Family Health ternational, "but it does underscore the importance of moving forward very quickly now on the other studies on the drawing board."

I agree completely, Dr. Ward. It was very irresponisble; and it’s the African gods that played the spoilsport. All the 432 who were exposed with the protection of fake drug were supposed to be get infected, like dependable guinea pigs. Those who received the actual drug, also received its side effects. FDA has approved the drug, which is already in use to treat the HIV infected, as an effective preventive pill. Statistics has nothing to do with commonsense, if you already don’t know. The article also assures that no safety problems had emerged, and it was an important first step. Yes, no body threw an infected needle at Leigh Peterson, the project manager.

Meanwhile, Institute of Medicine, another offshoot of National Academy of Medicine as the FDA, has submitted a proposal to restart the practice of using jail inmates for clinical trials of developing drugs. With a humanitarian clause, of course. It is proposed where the experimental medication ‘could benefit’ the participants. The practice was ‘almost’ discontinued after the notorious 40-year research titled ‘Tuskegee Study of Untreated Syphilis in the Negro Male’ that began in the 1930s. In 1972, 400 of the ‘participants’ were diagnosed with syphilis but never told them of their illness or provided any treatment for it – even after a cure was discovered. Instead, the researchers used the men to study the progress of the disease. They all eventually died from syphilis. What could, at times, is might not.

Now, I shouldn’t be a non-progressive, self-centric, idealist. I should look at the big white picture. And understand the good of the cause. ‘Good of the cause’, never was an exclusive excuse of the Communists. Africa is the one continent worst affected by the HIV. And it’s a fight people of the world should fight together to survive, with each one in his and her own mite. Now, you can’t expect brilliant scientist from Africa. And one should understand, patient research endeavours are too much to ask from them. For that we have shiploads of philanthropic white men and women. And the Africans can at least help the cause by being the test partners. Let me remind you, it’s for the good of the cause, and it’s a fight we have to fight together. “It is incredibly encouraging,” Dr. Gayle had said.

NGOs in many parts of the world have done routine, well-organised protests against using animals for drug testing. Some have protested against using humans too. We can’t forget that development of new, more effective, life saving drugs are not just the necessity of pharmaceutical companies, but are important to each one of us too, who are prone to deadly deceases. What the world now need is not groups of people with any other intentions than blocking the progress of human kind; but a more pro-human, pro-progressive, and incredibly encouraging society.

Why can’t the nations of the world deal it with the same stupid, yet effective, method they adopt to fight against each other? After all, drugs are ammunition to fight against deadly microorganisms. And it’s too a fight human kind has to fight to survive. Wouldn’t it be great to have an army exclusively to test new drugs up on?

This new army of proud, philanthropic men and women can have immaculate white uniforms with blood-red epaulettes. They can have distinctive decorations for victories over viruses, bacteria, and other pathogens. The existing red ribbons and yellow wristbands too can be made exclusive, with specific regiment monograms on them. The selection procedure should be scientifically designed; and there should be ample advertising budget to promote it as the noblest of the careers, which demands physical, psychological and intellectual superiority.

The selected candidates should be rigorously trained to walk with synchronised steps in mirror-polished boots, preferably with some medical equipment in their hands. Higher-grade personnel should also be trained to play golf, use cutlery, and dance in ballrooms. Surgical masks could be made mandatory in the dress code for ceremonial balls. Mortality rates can be expected only as good as the regular fighting forces. So that it shouldn’t affect the image of the existing forces. In due course, Bacteria Crosses and Viral Chakras too can be introduced. And in non-testing times, they can be of great help to the nation on occasions of gas leakage tragedies and the like.

Isn’t the thought incredibly encouraging?

This proposal cannot be implemented immediately. It might take more time than my remaining lifetime. I am not being prudishly ethical. I don’t want this to happen to me, my family, or friends. If a preventive pill or vaccine is made available in the market for a terminal decease, like AIDS, me too will be standing in the queue to buy it. But, I wish that wouldn’t happen at the cost of thousands of guinea humans. I would rather be alright with contracting a deadly virus, if it’s not from a blood bag, through a needle, or at a razor’s edge.

You can read here the article appeared in Hindu. And here is the one seen in The Washington Times site. And when you are comfortably numb, you can click here and it will take you to the news item about a proposal to make better use of jail inmates as drug testing personnel. You can read more about Viread and its side effects here. Here is the news about FDA approval for the drug. And read this blog, posted when the drug trials began a year ago.

Sounds that were heard after the blasts

There has been a lot of noise between the short commercial breaks. I hope, the prime time rates would fall back after a couple days, and I will get to see celebrities partying and kissing as nothing has happened. Commercial news services have got more resilience than that they were tattooing on the affected society, which has no other option.

The sounds of explosive blame games are already dying down. The investigating agencies will come up with a few names soon. Then we can forget about the whole affair, till something else of similar nature happens in some place other than J&K. During the past few days we heard how bad is our internal security system, and how unsafe is our country to live in. Journalists from one News Channel carried fake bombs and hidden cameras into Delhi Metro service with its now beefed up security. It can be called alarming, as there is no feasible way to ensure security from the kind of attacks that happened in Mumbai.

Experts, especially the retired officials of our armed forces and intelligence agencies, are of the opinion that there should be stern action against the terror makers. Some wants to declare war against Pakistan, who is the root cause. The only available template for national security is that of the United States of Absurdities. One journalist even called up a Pakistani Minister to ask whether they would allow us to raid their slums too as an act of cooperation to eliminate terrorism. Suggestions were there to make the search operations more intensive, without worrying much on the inconvenience that could bring to thousands. All these were promptly approved by loud applauses from the invited crowd in the studio. They are people, who go to movie houses and travel by trains, hoping to get back home. But they don’t expect a knock on their doors after midnight to be thrown out for the good of the cause. And I feel uncomfortably numb to switch the channel.

Men, and women, in uniform around the world can be generalised almost accurately. This is because they are all trained with the same mission. The only difference between one group of them and another is their skill and the technology available to them. Apart from that they are more or less the same. The defence forces are trained to fight defence forces of another country. And the police are trained to combat criminals. Terrorists, unfortunately for these forces, don’t fall under any of the things they are taught to fight with. And that is what keeps terrorism alive, and what kills more civilians.

Terrorists are not like criminals. They are not like organised criminal outfits, like the mafia. They are not even like the hired mobs political parties bring to the road. A terrorist’s conscience is as clear as it is of a soldier. No good soldier is supposed to feel bad after a successful bombing mission. Neither does a bad terrorist, though he never gets to live or die like a soldier. But then, terrorism is not a career.

Extremism, in all its incarnations, is married to ideology of one kind or other. And what it brings up is of no huge difference. In one place it destroys ancient Buddha statues; a few hundred miles away, it demolishes an ancient Mosque. The terrorism the world has to deal with today is very different from IRA, KLF or LTTE. It has long stopped being a J&K issue for us, and Palestine for the rest of the world. The ideology that drives this particular brand of terrorism has nothing much to do with any geo-political identity. It is just about extremist retaliation to another extremist attack.

The ’93 blasts in Mumbai were provoked by the riots there, which were provoked by the Masjid demolition. The recent one is arguably provoked by the Gujarat riots. And the ways we use to fight these, in effect, are fanning the fire. The human right violations, which are considered inevitable during the operations by state forces around the world, are virile enough to give birth to more mercenaries. We have made it a fight of one wrong against another. That, by any definition, is not a right thing. Once the nations of the world are tired of mindless muscle bulging, probably they can start thinking. I expect a solution only after that day.

Another struggle to keep the faith

When the news broke out, it failed to generate any curiosity in non-believers like me. But after our newspapers and news channels, comfortable with the huge burden of social responsibility on their shoulders, dedicated expensive front-page space and prime airtime (with a panel of eminent personalities discussing the subject before, after and in-between short commercial breaks) for over a week, me too gave it my first thought. The news, which is not news anymore, is about the holy temple of Sabarimala in southern Kerala.

First came the astrologer. Then came the stars. It is an accepted practice to trust the astrologer about what the stars say. Hell broke lose as one star fax messaged an approval note of what the astrologer had already predicted. This tech-savvy star confessed about falling into the sanctum sanctorum of the temple, and touching the feet of the deity. Then rose another star with a similar claim. According to the latter (and a few million other mortals, who have been to the temple), it is impossible to reach the feet of the deity by just falling down. And once the stars started talking about it to people less divine than an astrologer, it was sure a bad omen.

Now, the faithful feminists want the authorities to redefine the custom pertaining to the temple before the same is done to the country’s defence services. Minister for temple affairs in the LDF (a coalition of CPM, CPI and few other left wing parties) government gets emotional on camera and vows to keep the traditions and to fight against any progressive movement. An association of atheists decides to stage protests against the temple’s non-progressive attitude and clean the temple of its outdated traditions during next pilgrimage season. For the benefit of believers, of course. Meanwhile, the temple authorities have started an expensive purification ritual that would take another two years to complete for reinstating the power damaged by the star. I think there should be an immediate Lakshmi Pooja too. The weakened deity has now the power to weaken the revenues of the temple and every major temple on the pilgrimage route. At least, for the next couple of years.

Quite surprisingly, no one seems to be worried about what I care about. All I now hope for is the prasadam from the temple to remain as sweet and tasty as it was all those years, and my friends to keep the faith to do the pilgrimage. There would be moments in life even for non-believers, I am told many times, to have no other option but call the Almighty for help. I guess, now there would be one less moment for me in store. Ayyappa Saranam!

Me too have some reservations…

Remember the street plays titled pro-reservation and anti-reservation strikes that used to run full house (and empty classrooms) all over my country? I’m not trying to remember the similar, and much more dramatic one that was staged fifteen years back. I’m asking about the recent one. The Medicos stir. Now you remember.

Me too had forgotten about it. I don’t know any of those protests are still on. It’s media that controls collective public memory. And it is another newspaper report unintentionally brightened up my memory of medical students in their not-so-white housecoats holding candles in an early night protest. This one came up yesterday, about thousands of engineering seats in colleges in Karnataka being left unfilled.

I am not yet able to figure out the present admission procedures in Karnataka. Those are defined and controlled by two or more governing bodies, and few more in the case of institutes controlled by autonomous boards. This particular report gives me the figures about the engineering colleges that have to follow CET procedures for admissions. I had failed almost all my mathematics papers before successfully dropping out the college. But I had cleared my statistics paper. Statistics is fun for people with an average intelligent quotient. Here’s a sample. In the last academic year there were more than 9,000 vacancies in these engineering that remained vacant. This year it is about 3,200. That is after cutting the offered seats by more than 3000. In private unaided colleges, 40% of the seats are ‘reserved’ under management quota, which are duly filled (sold?) every year. 40% are under concessional-fee, and the rest 20% are under higher-fee scheme. The concession fee is Rs. 15,000 and higher-fee is around Rs. 80,000. And these fees are almost half or lesser compared to those for medical studies. The fees for last year’s admissions were higher. Now, you have all the figures, and no way to know the situation is a better one or not! If you score brilliantly in the entrance test, you will rightly be entitled to have the option: pay it, or leave it. I would like to know the number of students who are eligible for admissions, but are not. Statistics sometimes is really mean.

Exactly here is where I want to bring in the flashback: the Medicos Stir. Was it only me who wondered why the anti-reservation agitation was called the Medicos Stir, when the proposed reservations are applicable to all fields of higher education? That was because most of the organised protesters were from medical institutes. The reason is obvious; it is in medical studies the reservations will make the most impact. Is there a ‘healthcare gene’ in uppercast individuals, similar to the American discovery of ‘starvation gene’ in Asians and Africans? It is something only our medical professionals can answer.

The reservation bill is of course motivated by political ambitions. So are the protests against it. The later enabled a panwala to wear a medical professional's attire before burning himself up with it. It looks like a classic example of natural double negation to me. Those who shout for equality surely know some are more equal than others. If one has to worry about the right of learning lost by reservations, he or she has to be that rich. And the reservations are applicable only for the admissions, not the marks one should secure to pass. In our educational system you can pass most of the exams by answering up to 60% questions wrong. To add to that, we have a very healthy unemployment percentage that would ensure only the best can actually use their academic qualifications. Then, what more brain damage reservations could possibly make?

What is there inside the football?

The school I went for my basic education had very different ideas than the ones I learnt there. Academic excellence was the prime goal of an educational institution in those days. There were, of course, weekly hours, and annual days dedicated for nurturing extra-curricular activities – arts and sports. Among these castaways of the academic system, arts were given a deserving superiority over sports. The reason for this is obvious. Unlike sports, arts are more sophisticated and deal with ones intellectual abilities. Civilised man’s attitude towards the primitive and instinctive human nature is not much different from that of the nouveau riche towards the less privileged. The most one can expect is sympathy, and on a fortunate day, charity. It has not changed much during the last 25 years, except for a slight growth in the chances of building a career in one of those extra-curricular activities. This won’t change much, as long as development and progress are interpreted as synonyms.

Efforts of educational systems around the world have been very successful in nipping our primitive intelligence in the very bud. This of course managed to keep individuals excel in non-academic professions a minority, but couldn’t do much damage to the popularity. The danger popularity could bring up is efficiently kept under control by awarding the entertainment status, something for the few hours after work, to arts and sports. Human spirit can be crippled with some constant effort, but I’m not sure whether it can be eliminated or not.

According to some recent market research, in India alone, the FIFA World Cup final matches will be watched by 70-100 million people on television. And in countries who are playing the finals, 95% TVs are estimated to be tuned to the game. The authenticity of the figures is of course questionable, but a few millions added or subtracted cannot make any substantial difference to the point I am raising here. India doesn’t have representation in the competition, and all those millions of Indians are supporting some other country with an almost equal feverishness that the playing countries have. This is not a fact only for India. As there are only 32 finalists, and half of them are already eliminated after the first round of matches, that’s a similar situation in most parts of the globe.

One argument I could think of is that when you don’t belong to any of the two teams competing in a match, you naturally possess the position of neutrality. I agree. But that privilege naturally ends at the moment you decide to take sides.

The FIFA World Cup is arguably the most commercialised sports event on our planet. It is miles ahead of the divine Olympic Games in that aspect. And unlike Olympic Games, the FIFA World Cup doesn’t pretend having the noble cause of uniting and celebrating humankind. Ironically, and defying intentions, this professional football extravaganza is much closer to the goal of the Olympic Games of amateur roots. My fellow countrymen, including the fanatically patriotic ones, are supporting Brasil, Argentina and Germany. Many go a few miles ahead in the idea of universal brotherhood by supporting the French, the Dutch, the Portuguese, and behold, the English. There’s a logical difficulty in buying the argument of the spirit of sports breaking political and cultural boundaries, especially when each team represents a political entity and not any neutral community or geographical area. And because of its clearly expressed political identity, it cannot ask for the privileges that art, literature and music enjoy.

We live in a small world that is getting smaller by day. And most of it now fits into a football. Does this disprove the biggest universal myth we are taught to call country? Or it just emphasises the power of economical realities over political realities?