TWEEDLEDUM AND TWEEDLEDEE

                                            Tweedledum and Tweedledee

The speculation is rife-‘Will he or won’t he’ –about Modi easing into the PM’s chair. This seems to be the topic discussed almost daily in the Media, in official parties and in homes that depend on TV debates to shape their views, not to leave out the political and business corridors in the country. Celebrity bloggers like Rajdeep Sardesai deftly give sleight-of-hand advice to Rahul baby to take up a ‘seductive big idea’ to woo the youth like his father did with his  seductive big idea of computer technology. Other celebrity columnists hired by the newspapers for their golden words of wisdom give gratuitous advice in black and white to Modi who basking in his self glorified omniscience has neither the time nor use for such wisdom. These celebrity writers do not think it worth their words to waste them on Rahul baby.  Better to suffer royal ignore than to get a dimpled silent smile.

According to Anna Hazare, who advocates a corruption free democracy that has no place for political parties ( and ideologies) but should function under the rule of a single centralized elected PM or President, neither Modi nor  Rahul is fit to be PM only because they represent political parties. There is also a clamour for a third front exorcising the presence of the two current major political players but without identifying who among the regional satraps is best equipped to lead the country. The battle is also tilted towards the fair sex as to who among the three female contenders is fit for the highest job.  The fledgling ‘aam-admi’ party in line with its broom symbol has a single agenda of throwing up dirt all round and raising the corruption stink around all politicians (except its own members). Both the third front and the aam-admi party do not seem to visualize anything beyond their nose. Some of the regional satraps are doing well within their states but they fight with each other, unable to solve inter-state issues affecting their respective constituencies. How can they confront the macro-stage of national issues that involve not only reconciling different states with conflicting interests, but also issues of internal and external security, foreign policies , international relations that call for a tight-rope walking among nations with diverse outlook and cultures? The mainstream parties despite their ‘tu tu-main main’- तू तू में में (arguments and bickering), have garnered enough experience in governance or (mis) governance to give us at least a functioning anarchy. If they are thrown out and replaced by regional satraps, we may end up with just anarchy. With economy in crisis and with the increasing nexus between the Dragon and the Crescent Star, more than at any other period in  post-independent India, we need some semblance of stability and strength. The choice for the voter thus has to be between tweedledum and tweedledee and we have no option to experiment with a third fiddler.

Hence we return to the same question who and who not is our next PM? Sometime back I had written a blog: ‘The Good Boy with Incendiary on the Rooftop ‘ where I had narrated a tamil story. A father was asked who among his four sons was the best?  Father pointed to the rooftop and said the boy who was trying to set fire to the roof was the best. The bewildered look of the questioner prompted the father to reply that the other three were far more heinous and diabolical compared to this boy on the rooftop.

The question remains for us- who among these major parties supported by the regional satraps can be identified as the good boy on the roof top? Do we need an aggressive, voluble, narcissistic autocrat or a babyish, silent and self -effacing democrat whose youthful passivity is a direct contrast to the older man’s dynamism? Can these elections throw up a new face that combines the best of tweedledum and tweedledee? Will God give the Indian electorate an Indian Obama who will say and act the inspiring  words: YES,WE CAN

India waits for a leader worthy of India

                                      India waits for a leader worthy of India

The Lal Quila address by the Prime Minister and the Lalan college address by the PM-in-waiting have satisfied the media’s hunger for topics for debate that have more hype and less substance. Every channel with their anchors looking profound, wise and omniscient along with their favourite celebrity speakers debated as to who the victor and who the vanquished was in this battle of words. As in the case of all TV fights, this also ended with no clear cut winner at the end of the debate, leaving the viewer clueless and confounded as to whether s/he is deficit in grasping such imponderable wisdom from the anchors and the speakers. The fatigue of listening to the same voices speaking for and against Modi’s rant and PM’s pedestrian address reflected the inanity of the TV debates.

The important fact glossed over by everyone of the debating squad was the PM had neither thrown nor picked up the Modi gauntlet. He had a duty to perform- to address the nation on Independence Day and inform the nation about the actions initiated and to be initiated by his government. PM’s address to the nation on Independence Day was tuned to the occasion that called for restraint, sobriety and being politically correct.  The PM’s delivery could have been a little more passionate to inspire the million ears tuned to their TV and Radio sets, but that did not diminish the temper and content of the address in keeping with the solemnity of the occasion.  It was Modi who had challenged him to a debate but even he had not said where the Big Fight is to be held as neither Lal Quila nor Lalan college could fit the bill. For that matter, Modi had not even tossed the coin as to who should elect to speak first and who should listen. The PM had a duty to hoist the flag at the same time it had been hoisted for the last 66 years to be followed by a national address. Modi could only second fiddle him an hour later. But Modi chose to take advantage of being number two(only on this occasion with the hope of becoming number one soon) and target the PM and rip apart his speech as though the debate he had mooted was on and he had to dent the PM’s punch.

The fact is the issue of debate was not on the PM’s card.  In fact, Modi fondly addresses the PM as ‘maun Mohan Singh’ and so how can there be a debate with a ‘maun’ opponent? So the question arises was there a debate at all?  Two speeches were delivered from two different platforms- one by the PM of the nation and the other by a CM of one Indian state. Why then was the unseemly TV furore to decide as to who of the two drew the first blood? PM, by nature reticent, had not responded to the leonine roar from the Gir forest.

Modi’s acerbic speech was reminiscent of the Panchatantra story of the lamb and the wolf. “Once a wolf was drinking water at the head of a stream when he saw a lamb drinking water from the same source down at some distance. The cunning wolf began to think of an excuse for attacking the gentle lamb and eating him. So he shouted down at the lamb, "How dare you make the water dirty I am drinking?"
"You must be mistaken, sir," said the poor lamb gently. "How can I be making your water dirty, since it flows from you to me and not from me to you?"
The wolf began thinking cunningly of some other ruse in order to make an issue and get a justifiable excuse to kill the lamb and eat his delicious flesh.
"Do you remember having applied all sorts of contemptuous and even abusive epithets to me, just a year ago?" said the wolf to the innocent lamb.
"But, sir," replied the lamb in a trembling voice, "I wasn't even born a year ago."(In PMs words to Modi : “You weren’t anointed one year ago.”)
"Shut up, you fool," shouted the wolf again. "Do you think I'm a fool? If it was not you then it must have been your father, who abused me long ago.” "At the most, I can apologise on behalf of my erring father if he at all ever did so," pleaded the lamb trembling.
"I think you're the kind of fellow who first commits a sin and then tries to argue it out. Let me teach you and your family a good lesson", saying this, the wolf jumped upon the poor lamb and tore it to pieces and ate it.

Our all knowing wise men and women in the TV studios forgot to see the clipping of the flag hoisting at Lalan college that was ad nauseam shown by all the channels.  Modi was seen how much he was in a hurry as he ferociously tugged at the rope holding the flag and wouldn’t wait for the assistant to draw the flag up as he pulled it a second time almost like a lion attacking its prey. Modi had no time for grace, etiquette and dignity such a momentous occasion of hoisting the tri-colour called for. He showed himself to be a man in a hurry to reach the mike and start his attack.

A lot of words were exchanged between the panelists regarding the choice of language and Modi’s sweeping swipes at the PM. It was unfortunate that the pro-Modi clan chose to remain deaf to his charge that “ Aap ek parivar ki bhakti mein itna doob gaye ho ki desh ki 125 crore ki janata ko bhool gaye ho” (You are so busy in the service of one family that you have forgotten 125 crore people of the country).  Even they would have inwardly squirmed at their idol’s words. The worst gaffe by Modi was that his speech would be first he ard in Pakistan and reach Delhi later. When he repeatedly thunders  that there should be no talk between India and Pakistan, why does he want Pakistan to hear him first?  Is he a megalomaniac to think of becoming the PM of Pakistan also?

Here is a story that our ambitious and ruthless politicians belonging to all parties should know. This is from Gottfried Lessing’s play Nathan der Weise(Nathan the Wise) which is a parable of three rings to bring about religious cohesion among Judaism, Islam and Christianity. Nathan a wise Jewish merchant was asked by Sultan Saladin as to which religion was true. Nathan narrates to him a parable about an heirloom ring that had the magical quality to make the owner of the ring pleasant in the eyes of God and mankind. This ring was passed on by the father to his most beloved son generation after generation. Once it happened that a father had three sons whom he loved equally and promised the ring to each one of them. So he made two replicas of the ring and gave the three to them without identifying which one was the genuine one. The brothers quarreled over who had the original till a wise judge admonished them saying that it was impossible to tell which was the original - as it was quite possible that all three were replicas and the original could have been lost.  To find out whether one of them had the real ring, it was up to them to live in such a way that they could prove their ring's powers by living a life that is pleasant in the eyes of God and mankind rather than expecting the ring's miraculous powers to do so.

Can we hope for a miracle that will give us leaders who will act worthy of the great Nation that they dream to serve!

The Wisdom of the Trees

                                       The Wisdom of the Trees

                                                                                            Hema V. Raghavan

A casual morning stroll opened my eyes to an unresolved existential issue about the meaning of life and death. For more than four decades, I had taught Absurd Drama to undergraduate students of literature that deals with the absurdity or irrationality of existence. It had been an arduous talk to discuss questions relating to birth, life and death which cannot be causatively explained with human logic and reason.  I could offer no conclusive answers to the young learner’s questions as to why we enjoy no autonomy regarding our entry into and exit from the world and how we can elicit the meaning of life that connects the two interstices between birth and death.

But the small park close to our modest flat in South Delhi gave me the answer that I had been searching for so many decades. It is a rectangular park, shaded with trees that border the cemented paths circumscribing it. Delhi in the midst of its short spring spell is riotously colourful with blossoming flowers and tender green shoots on trees that include stems, flower buds and leaves. Delhi’s trees have so much life in them when one notices how the heavier and older leaves have fallen but instantly are replaced by the new leaves sprouting.

During my daily walk through the park, I noticed that the side paths that made the borders were strewn with brownish leaves fallen from the trees. The leaves varied in size depending on the parent tree, but even in their fallen state they looked as broad as their genetic code would permit them. Barring a few that looked withered, a large number of leaves  were seen to be in perfect shape and size though they had been wrenched out of their cosy comfort of resting on the  branches and lay in heaps down below. The brown leaves scattered in multitudes seemed as though they were enjoying a well deserved rest after their long toil on the branches to let out carbon-di-oxide and to produce chlorophyl vital for photosynthesis. On looking up, I was astonished to see the trees already in leaf. New leaves had sprouted covering the naked branches with a light leafy green coating. I marvelled at Nature’s phenomenon of restoring vitality and freshness even before the last leaf had dropped. The trees that continue to stand tall and erect do not ever mourn the loss of leaves, wisely accepting decay as a natural occurrence and celebrating the revival as a natural process of change. The trees do not despair as they seem to know that spring will fill their barren branches with living hues of rich colours of leaves, flowers and fruits. They have a greater understanding of Shelley’s lines “If winter comes can spring be far behind?”  Even if a few young shoots fall, it is not a concern for the trees for as long as the tree lives, leaves will spring forth. The wisdom of the trees in their perennial majesticity is given by The Ecclesiastes that says : To everything there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven / A time to be born, and a time to die / a time to plant, and a time to pluck up that which is planted.  This is what is said in Taittriya Upanishad: “Food (the essential of life) is Brahma; from food all the creatures are born and by food they live and after having departed, into food they again enter.”

There is no need to seek answers about life and death as long as we know that the two follow each other in time. So long as we live, let us cultivate the wisdom of the trees and celebrate life- the link between birth and death – that seeks not to mourn nor despair but to hope and take comfort that without death, there can be no birth.