Snow in Summer

    

                                                                    Snow in Summer

Even though April, according to T.S.Eliot is the cruellest month( as it is the month of Jesus’ crucifixion), in India, April serves as a welcome cusp between Winter and Summer. The woolens are packed away and the weather is not too hot to venture out both in the morning and evening hours.  Even though this year has been an exception with temperatures soaring upwards of 40 early in April, still it is pleasant to stay indoors during the day. What one loves best is the delightful chirping and cooing of birds in the morning after their long hibernation in winter months, the riot of colours as a relief from the monotony of grey winter and the graceful scampering and leaping of squirrels from tree to tree- a feast for the eye adding to zing in one’s movements.

 But Nature reserves her best for April,  making it not the cruellest,  but the most captivating month of the year. During winter the ground looks dry and brown bereft of grass. Trees, shrubs and plants wait for the rains to dust off the brown coat on the leaves and look green to signal the end of summer. But through the months from May to July(since monsoon invariably fails to keep its tryst with end June), Delhi  looks dusty, parched and baked. But a short interregnum in April is the most thrilling period as a break between the winter dryness and summer dryness. This is the season for the fluffy cotton to burst forth out of cotton balls and fall off its parental plant and spread over the lawns and ground.  Wherever you go in Delhi, at this time of the year, you can see snowy cotton carpeting the brown lawn making the lovely tiny flowers on the hedgerows bordering the central lawn look still more gorgeous.  Every time I walk through the park, my heart leaps up when I see the white lawn covered with the snowy white fluffs. These fluffs cover the seeds inside and they help in their dispersal as the fluffs are blown off by the winds. They are almost a protective covering for the seed and with their airy swiftness they spread the seed for fresh cotton plants to sprout.

This is nature’s way of celebrating life- the falling and rising of the cotton fluff carrying the little seed in its central womb. In nature, there is no death; there is only regeneration. The fluff minus the seeds is packed into pillows and beds, into cushions and upholsteries. There is no room for wastage and decay in Nature. That is why Nature is known to be the receptacle of God’s plenty. It has a lesson for us in the present times where waste has become a way of life. Human progress is today measured by the amount that goes into the dust bins and junkyards. While walking in US,  I have seen TV sets and mobile phones not to speak of innumerable gadgets like laptops and computers that have been rendered obsolete by new products, abandoned near huge garbage bins and I used to wonder if one such bin will prove adequate to my domestic needs. In India marriages and birthday parties including those of our pups and pets   are examples of the huge waste of food and beverages- the most precious among them, water, besides the colossal waste of electricity and money.  In fact, the day after the wedding, , it is a uphill task to clear the mess left behind. The fridges burst with all the leftover sweets and food and the rest that cannot be accommodated in the king size fridges are thrown away. April snow on the lawn made me wonder if we ever learn any lesson from Nature! Even if the ground water levels have dried up, we do not bestow any thought of conserving water.

Then there is the protective nature of the cotton fluffs which by virtue of their airy lightness are blown away and they are able to disperse the seeds safely contained within. How much of concern we have towards our future generation to preserve the planet that is forever caring for us? The YOLO slogan drives us to live only for today and live it to the full, unmindful of the needs and sustenance of the next generation. Today the severe water drought in Maharashtra, Karnataka and in many states of India is of no concern to the fortunate few who have no water crisis. What is the purpose of invoking the spirit of BharatMata when there is no fellow feeling for the parched and the thirsty millions in those drought hit states? Nature continuously teaches us the wisdom of protecting, preserving  and sustaining this marvelous planet where, as Gandhiji said,  there is enough for everyone’s need and not for everyone’s greed. Are we listening and learning from Nature?  Snow in summer is an annual feature and Nature is never tired of repeating the first principle of survival- give and replenish. Nature tells us to take and take from her, as she has her inner resources to replenish what had been used up. She is generous and does not wait for us to ask her to give and give. She makes sure her trees are leaden with mangoes in summer, with oranges in autumn and apples in winter. But when  out of  mindlessness about wasting and greed for more and more consumption, Man denies her the sustenance to yield more, she does not complain but strains every sinew of her power  for survival to give what she can. She continues with her annual grind to protect and propagate the seeds, to ensure that her supply however depleted,  is still available for the greedy Man. Such generosity, such altruism, such protective care and concern can only be seen in Nature .

Snow in summer is not a one time wonder. For the majority of us who are aam admis who do not have the luxury to rush to the snow capped mountains of the Himalayas as the temperatures rise, Nature provides us the exhilaration of snow in summer. Isn’t it our duty to be grateful to Nature and take a leaf out of her abundant wisdom to preserve God’s plenty? Snow in summer is not a one-off phenomenon. It is an annual recurrence with Nature saying 

What is here is seen everywhere

What is not here is found nowhere

                                                              

Technology, our Frenemy

                                                         Technology, our Frenemy

It is a fact that we are all technology driven whether we like it or not. It has become impossible to live a life where we are not touched by technology. We are grateful to technology that has brought a qualitative change in our life, for the better. Things get done fast, be it communication, entertainment studies, industrialization, food industry, social efforts, business, education, comfort, luxury, efficiency etc. There is no need to expatiate on the benefits of technology ; it is as pointless as carrying coals to Newcastle.

But for the septuagenarians and the septua+ genarians – who have never made use of the new technological fancies during the best part of their lives, this change is tedious and irksome.  Things have changed so fast in the last few years that today they feel handicapped because of their ignorance. Even those like me with a perfunctory understanding of technology find it difficult to cope with the demands it makes on our patience and time. As an illustration ,let me talk about the service providers.  Most of our landline and mobile phones are on the autopilot system. If we have a complaint to lodge we have to listen to the answering machine that reels out in a droning recorded voice a long list of what to expect if we dial 1, 2, 3,. After we identify the number that suits our complaint, the machine on the other end drones a number as our complaint number, followed by soothing assurance that it will be attended to. Smug and satisfied at the technological speed and assistance, we wait for the miracle to happen. But when the miracle does not happen and the complaint remains unresolved, we go back to the service provider with the given complaint number. But what we go through is sheer madness. We go through the same 1,2, 3… drill recorded on answering machine,  not knowing what to do with the complaint number on hand. Meantime the machine is prompt to hand out a new complaint number. Since there is no operator at the other end, one wonders what use are these complaint numbers! This auto answering system is in place in all the offices meant to help citizens. For us. The oldies, the earlier system was far better - to be answered by a moronic voice of a ‘babu’ at his desk, whose speech is interspersed with the gulping of tea and the chewing of pan- than this  disembodied voice of an inanimate machine.  It is no doubt a great facility for the ‘babu’ who is always resentful of any disturbance to his main activities of endless tea drinking, samosa eating, sharing an assortment of homemade lunch with colleagues lovingly sent  by their wives at home. But for the customer, it is a harrowing exercise in patience- an exercise that paradoxically shoots high our blood pressure.

             Technology has spurted the love for environment in the babudom. There is no need for them to type out payment Bills, write down the address and mail them to the customers. The frequent gratuitous messages on our mobiles asking us to contribute to a paperless world and thereby save the trees have given the “babus” huge relief from their quotidian clerical chores listed above. The result is, the customer is the one who suffers if he lacks a mercurial memory to remember the deadline by which date payment has to be made, remember all the service agencies to whom payments are due,  the amount to be paid in each case and keep a track of all the payments done as no receipt is sent except through sms on the mobiles or through  e-mails. What is still more daunting is the sms one receives as a reminder to make the payment after one had made it and this throws us into a tizzy and one has to look at all the messages received on the mobile as  confirmation of the payment made. Often when I look at my snail mail box, I look back with nostalgia and despair as there was always a bill before payment and an acknowledgement letter after payment.

The third problem with technology is it plans obsolescence. It designs and creates products  with the specific intention of providing them a short shelf life so that they become  unfashionable after that determined span of time. The speed with which the radio has been replaced by  transistor, cassette recorder by tape recorder, then by compact audio discs, IPad, IPad Air2,  IPad Mini4 , the IPad Pro series… is mind boggling. We have seen the progressive change from VCR to VHS to DVD and other digital formats, each one rendering its previous avatar obsolescent.  It is the same with mobile phones with wireless technologies that have moved from analog to digital from 1G to 2G and then on to more speedier technologies -3G,4G and 4GLTE(Long term evolution). 5G is expected soon. Then there is XLTE which is a bandwidth charger with a minimum of double the bandwidth of 4G LTE and is available anywhere the AWS spectrum is initiated. Every new discovery means to common salaried peopleand pensioners like me a big hole in the pocket. The same story of planned obsolescence is seen in the evolution of computers to laptops to I-pads and I-phones. Planned obsolescence is defined in the French Act on the Energy Transition as any scheme through which a product has "its life intentionally reduced from its conception, limiting its usage period for reasons of economic model."  Famous Poet Thoreau’s far sighted comment about technology as “improved means to an unimproved end” says it all.  

Technology has certainly speeded up communication. Everyone is just a mobile call away. One connects with people seamlessly. But the flipside of this toy gadget in our hands is its incredible memory  that adversely affects human memory. The mobile phones have a mobile memory as it can flash any number with the press of the keyboard to blunt our memory. We do not need to remember any phone number or know the multiplication tables or even  remember birthdays and other important days. The phone keeps a tab on all these matters making human memory a thing of the past.

 The newest baby in the field of communication technology is the social media and the  instant transmission of selfies shared on social networking services such as Facebook, Instagram and Twitter. Many sociologists have expressed apprehension about selfies – an apprehension that is felt by many others also- that they have the potential to promote porn culture, revenge porn, “ where ex-lovers post sexually explicit photographs or nude selfies to exact revenge or humiliate their former lovers”(Andrew Keen). While social media allows us swift sharing of information and provides us with highly interactive platforms, the negative impacts regarding privacy issues, information overload and Internet fraud cannot be minimized. The abusive and crude language amounting to online violence is a dehumanizing factor of the social media. It has also made users hide behind their electronic devices and get hooked to virtual conversation, making personal contact and personal relationships irrelevant. Social media has changed man from being a social being to a lone wolf, a solitudinarian,  almost a misanthrope if not a social misfit. A lot of time is wasted by young people on social media with the misconception that they are well connected with a host of people, most of whom they have never met nor spoken to. While a controlled and monitored social media will be ideal, it treads the danger zone of arresting privacy and individual liberty for free expression. Social media has proved to be dangerous as in the name of individual liberty it allows rampant abuse  of that freedom with the use of uncivilized and uncultured language.

Technology is definitely the single cause for the betterment of our lives, freeing us from daily drudgery. It helps us gain time –at least an hour’s gain if not more. The question that is never asked is “save time for what?” At the risk of uttering youth blasphemy, I would venture to say that our young men and women- leave aside the minuscule minority who use the time profitably engaged  in activities involving research, discovery, sports and creativity- the vast majority do not know what to do with the extra time available. We see them hanging out in the malls, in cinema theatres and cafes falsely affirming that they are enjoying life. 

Technology creates as well destroys human potential. While admitting its enormous reach to cater to all segments of society,   we have to factor in the negatives- the loss of privacy, the loss of personal relationships, the loss of contentment, loss of memory sharpness, physical atrophy, aloneness  and the rise of materialism and greed for fancy consumer goods.  Technology has the capacity for human development as also for human attrition. It is the Bhasmasura of the modern times. It is in our hands to use it thoughtfully. Otherwise this Bhasmasura will reduce human potential to ashes. It is our frenemy and we have to guard ourselves against a seemingly good friend that doubles up as our rival. We have to ensure that Man and technology are partners in strategic coopetition( competition and cooperation) and value the relationship as mutually complementary.

An Open Letter for the Re-Discovery of India

An interesting centre page article in a leading daily holding the Nehru-Gandhis responsible for keeping  India backward in order to nurture a poor and ignorant vote bank is an oft repeated attack  of the BJP on  Congress in its single- point focus on “Congress mukht Bharat”.  It tugs at the heartstrings of all loyal congressmen and women, though no one denies a kernel of truth in that vicious attack. The only defence is that kernel of truth had no dishonest intention behind it as far as our first prime Minister, Jawaharlal Nehru was concerned. Nehru believed in Socialism, having been schooled in the Fabian philosophy. He modeled the economic policy for India on Fabian socialism whereby the state owned, operated and controlled means of production, in particular in the key heavy industrial sectors such as steel, telecommunications, transportation, electricity generation, mining and real estate development. Private entrepreneurship was not encouraged, rather it was constrained by permit-license quota and high taxation. Nehru’s policies were borne out of his genuine desire to uplift the poor. In the early years of Independence, India could boast of many irrigation projects, mining projects(on a personal note, I could testify that  my father had constructed hydro electric projects, dams and reservoirs, lignite mining project, a deep water port at the confluence of the Mahanadi river and the Bay of Bengal- between 1949 and 1962), steel plants , scientific research laboratories etc. There was also the Indian renaissance of art, culture, science and learning. It was Nehru’s vision of a Democratic Socialist State combining participatory democracy with economic and social justice for all.   But too much of State’s power and too little of individual enterprise resulted in increased corruption and decreased production and growth rates. What was followed by Mrs.Gandhi during her two tenures lasting around 15 years was seemingly poor oriented(Garibhi hatao, Nationalization of Banks, abolition of the Privy Purse to the erstwhile royal families) but intentionally power seeking to get the votes of the marginalized people. It was this trend that has led to the vituperative attack on the Congress not so much for its failure to control poverty, but for its perpetuation of poverty despite some of its mega schemes like Aadhar- linked MNREGA programmes. While it is easy to be led away with the BJP slogan that Congress  deliberately sustained poverty, the fact is there has been substantial rise of the lower classes into the next rung of lower Middle class, lower middle to middle and middle to upper middle. But the status of the  marginalized poor in the remote corners of the tribal belt and in some of the interior Northern States like Bihar, UP and Odisha has not changed  and this has  given the whip hand to every political party to include in its manifesto its commitment to wipe away the tears of the last person. It is not the Gandhis alone who use poverty as a magic wand to win over the poor, every single party does it. The only difference is BJP has a higher decibal above that of other parties-in particular that of Congress. The truth is everyone speaks of the poor, promises to care for them better than others but  once in power everyone forgets them till the next elections.

The bitter and irrevocable truth is Congress has lost its status as a strong opposition party though it is still the single largest party with 44 members in a house of 543.  The Humpty Dumpty duo of mother and son has had a great fall and not all the loyal congressmen and women can put them back to power. Congress is today bereft of all strategy to corner the ruling party despite the BJP’s gradual and strategic unfolding of its fascist tendency. The happenings in the different Universities-in the North (JNU),in the South(IIT, Chennai and Hyderabad Central university),in the West(FTII)  and in the East(Jadhavpur University) have revealed the slow rising of the hydra of the Fascist Right as opposed to the- pampering the poor- policies of the Nehru-Gandhis that are left centric. The repeated imposition of sedition charges on dissenting voices and scribes, charging them as anti-national is a political sleight of hand. We have many chilling incidents that have taken place in the last year and a half–the mob lynching of  innocents on suspicion of their  eating  and hoarding beef at home, the Ghar Wapsi attempts to forcibly convert non Hindus to Hinduism, the burning and sacrilege of the churches, the murdering of rationalists for their advocacy of reason over superstition- and above all the silence of the PM on all these happenings cleverly manipulating on the political stage  the good cop-bad cop theatre to give the impression that the PM is totally disassociated from the “fringe’ elements behind those violent incidents.. The new binary of “national” an “ anti national” is effectively used to allege that the Congress and the Left parties are conspiring to disintegrate the nation.  But if there is no opposition to counter the nation’s fast slide towards hatred of “the Others” (those who are not with the party in governance), it may slowly result in the whipping up of Xenophobia or religio-cum ethnocentricity. All the poll promises of the BJP before the elections have stayed as promises as there has been  no sign of  “ achche din”, no end to the spiraling price rise, no seizing of black money to fill the bank accounts of every Indian with 15 lakhs of rupees, no thaw in Indo-Pak relationship, no visible development despite all the slogans that are unleashed daily if not hourly.  Even the promise of a corruption free government has become suspect as evidenced in Lalit Modi’s case involving a high profile Cabinet Minister and Chief Minister. The murky dealings in the Delhi District Cricket Association had cast a shadow on the unimpeachable integrity of   the undeclared  No.2 in the cabinet.  But with the deftness in articulation, BJP has successfully side stepped all the promised manna and has invented new nationalistic slogans to assuage the discontent that is brewing over the absence of that promised manna.

A true democracy is one which gives the opposition to play the role of a watchdog and offer constructive criticism to the ruling party in the interest of the nation. But when the opposition squanders away the mantle (however narrow it may be) that had been given to it, there is no hope for the nation to escape governance by oligarchy covertly hoisted on democratic principle. Simply sniping at the ruling party with repetitive phrases like “suit-boot ki sarkar” or making personal attack on the PM( as if to show that we pay you in the same coin which you used to oust us) has no impact on anyone, least on the ruling party. The Congress is led by mother and son where the mother suffers from the handicap of lacking fluency in Hindi and for that matter any Indian language except Italianized English and the so,n the handicap of no experience in the art of governance and also not gifted either with charisma or with eloquence which even the ordinary BJP worker has in abundance.  What is attempted is intemperate cavillation without getting to grips with major social, political and economic issues and providing an alternate strategy for those issues bungled by the ruling party.  The foolish attempt to stall the Parliament as a tit for tat measure has not won the party any gain; on the contrary only more of sardonic sneer.

Unfortunately the mother and the son understand neither the grass roots level approach to relate to the masses nor the political chicanery needed  to counter BJP’s shenanigans, so adroitly employed by its spin masters.  The saying in Tamil that I do not know to build a nest, but I know to bring it down is also not working for the Congress. It cannot seek the moral high ground because in the past some of its actions were neither legitimate nor morally defensible as every action of the present government that is questionable is countered with a repetitive taunt of the pot calling the cattle balck.

Where does it leave the country?  Is there no hope for India? How long do we  wait for the BJP’s promise of acche din? After almost two years since BJP returned with a thumping majority, isn’t there a creeping unease that the BJP bubble may burst sooner than later! But what holds as hope for the BJP to sustain itself in the corridors of Delhi is the TINA factor. There is no countervailing force to unseat the BJP.  The question that is relevant today is can the Congress reinvent itself?

The answer will be a resounding ‘NO’ if the Congress holds to the mother and the calf. The two may be personally honest andcome frm Nehru’s pedigree to keep the interest of the nation above personal interest, but frankly they simply do not have it in them to inspire such confidence or to build the party. The AAP had shown that it can appeal to the aam admi and garner votes. It has shown the spirit to fight obstacles that come in its way to govern as per its poll promises. It has the ingenuity to bring forth schemes that serve the people even if marginally- schemes such as piped water, odd-even scheme, upgrading of teacher training, setting up of  Mohalla sabhas and Mohilla clinics. Congress should take lessons from AAP for framing new strategies that satisfy the desires and yearning of India of the 21^st century. Foremost is accessibility. Accessibility to people is an asset ; a denial of it is to commit harakiri.

Like a bird molting, i.e., shedding of its old feathers and replacing them with new ones, Congress has to begin afresh, replacing the old guard  with new dynamic young people who have the vision, the integrity, the  power of articulation and above all the charisma to infuse dynamism within the party and among the people. Congress should start on a clean slate, accept its  past mistakes, re-engineer its positive programmes to meet the present day requirements, gain acceptance and credibility by being honest and truthful to the founding principles of Congress namely, democracy, secularism, scientific socialism tempered by intense humanism. To achieve this, Congress has to work out a new policy that combines liberal capitalism with democratic socialism.  At first sight, the two seem to be incompatible but on a deeper analysis, the two can co- exist as private public partnership. By focusing on thrust areas like roti, kapda and makan, medicare and education the government can ensure a Welfare State . The emphasis should be on a system, based on social justice and equity with minimum interference in private enterprise and business.  Unless Congress reworks its old slogan of Garibhi hatao with the new mantra of Natural Equity and makes people a partner in achieving economic, social, intellectual ad religious freedom, Congress will fade away into eternal sunset.

There is no dearth of high thinking and well meaning individuals in the Congress party. But what is missing is a rallying point like the one provided by Pt. Nehru. There may have been flaws in his policies that we see today in hindsight. To speak of Nehru only with reference to some wrong policy which were not intentional nor had any personal axe to grind is not only being unkind, but being ungrateful. It is ime for the Congress men and women to set up a new agenda of reforms, to seek a new leadership and  seek alliance with like minded parties to usher in a modern re-Discovery of India.