New Adavus for Tamilnadu

                                                 New Adavus for Tamilnadu

Tamil politics runs parallel to its classical music and dance tradition that begins with adavu( walking steps)  Ta ki Ta , Ta ki Ta  jham, Ta ki Ta  Ta ki Ta…..Even  in the beginning of any  Kalakshepam ( Tamil monodrama, enacting a story mainly mythological), it begins with the song “ dimi kita,dimikita vadyam,mridangam  muzhanga…”( adavu sounds through musical instruments like drums…).  A Tamilian is so well acquainted with these adavus that s/he breaks into an impromptu clap of the hand counting the adavus on the fingers. The Tamil politics have a similar rhythmic adavu in its innumerable Dravidian parties-that go by the Tamil name “ Dravidian kazhagam”

If we trace the history of the Dravidian Movement, it was started by E.V.Ramasamy Naicker known also as Thanthai Periyar (Elder Father) in 1944 with the main objective to eradicate the evil caste system in Tamilnadu that was till then dominated by the upper caste Brahmins.  This DK then became DMK (Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam ( the Dravidian Progressive Federation)), then splintered into ADMK(Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam), then into AIADMK(All India Anna Munnetra Kazhagam) and is awaiting an additional A to honour the late revered ‘Amma’  i.e.,  AAIADMK(Amma All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam)- that is likely to see another split arising out of who is the true inheritor of Amma’s legacy-OPS or EPS , and thereof  designating  the new parties as AAIADMK(O) and AAIADMK(E). So the Tamils have new adavus , in imitation of  the bharatanatyam adavus (steps)  that will sound `Di Ka,  Di Ma Ka, A Di Ma Ka(where (‘A’ is pronounced as in “amma”),  AI,A Di MaKa,   A,AI A Di MaKa(O),  A,AI, A DiMaKa(E/S)… and God only knows how many of the 26 alphabets will get appended to the original Di Ka in the near future.

Tamils are known to be very intelligent, politically knowledgeable, shrewd to recognize who rocks the cradle and whose cradle to knock out and when to knock out. In the tussle between the different versions of DK, they have alternately been giving DMK and AIADMK a fair chance in order to reap the benefit of the freebies as per their respective pre-election promises. The only time AIADMK romped home victorious in successive elections was in 2016. But ironically the leader who singlehandedly won the elections for her party was in office just for a few months after the last elections, leaving the party rudderless and in a vacuum. From 1991 till 2016, -which makes it almost a quarter of a century AIADMK as a homogenous party walked the leader’s talk. Amma should have added ‘J’ to AIADMK   and rechristened the party as J AI ADMK instead of holding to the name AIADMK instituted by her mentor, the charismatic MGR. Now that she(J) is gone from where there will be no return, the obsequious minions hope to survive, swearing by her name and following her legacy. What is that legacy is a question none of them can answer except going to her grave and pledging loyalty to her.

Tamils known for their passion for the reel life, are watching the dance of democracy with the remote control from Bengaluru Jail. EPS invokes the spirit of the late leader Amma through the satellite Sasi/ Chinnamma while poor OPS, the thrice stand-by Chief Minister seeks Amma’s blessings from her photo in his pocket. Neither of them – the usurper and the pretender- has the wisdom to understand that the court had found both the star and the satellite, guilty of corruption and  sent the satellite  to the prison as  the star Amma  had set and escaped the ignominy of having Sasikala as partner in prison. Before her departure to her new home in B’luru, Chinnamma managed to split the party  on lines of loyalty and disloyalty to her. With Chinnamma no longer engaged in lighting candles but making candles in a cell where darkness is visible , the  two warring groups  can only  swear by Amma and  effectively endorse corruption  that had tarnished  her image.

 No one knows or comes forward to speak about Jaya-Sasi relationship except that it was a blow hot, blow cold relationship. There seems to have been no love lost between the two and it is difficult to say who used who in amassing the huge disproportionate assets. In fact , the former Finance Minister P.Chidambaram wonders how Jaya, an intelligent person failed to realize that she was pushed into a dangerous cul de sac from which there was no possibility of escape. Though there is no excusing the blunder committed by Jaya, it is to be said in all fairness that she used her intelligence to design innovative schemes of subsidized food, water, medicine that would directly serve the people and especially the women. Maybe this was the way she worked to atone for her past mistakes; maybe after the long black corrupt practices during her first tenure as Chief Minister(1991-96)(as all the subsequent charges during her next three innings as Chief Minister did not stick)she displayed the redeeming drop of moral decency and generosity of spirit that made her the revered “Amma” of the people.

 But there is no redemption for Sasikala. Her attempt to use money and muscle power to take over as the Chief Minister and that too soon after the death of Jaya whom she served as her personal assistant. What was her hold on Jaya is a mystery and we will have to be content with the fact that Jaya is no more to give her side of the story. It is a pity that our law enforcing authority allowed Sasikala who called herself Chinnamma to delay her surrender by 24 hours when the Court had decreed immediate surrender. The 24 hours was enough for her to be at her manipulative best, using the corrupt money she had amassed. What is the 10 crore fine by the court when she has many many crores stashed away in properties in foreign countries?   It is a pity that her machinations have worked for the time being. But how long can AIADMK hold without splitting again to ‘O’ and ‘E/S’ parties. AIADMK has self destructed itself.  But then they swear allegiance to Amma who has been brought down the pedestal by the court decree. 

Can Tamilnadu continue to dance to the adavus of Di Mu Ka and Adimuka with ‘E/S’ and ‘O’ added? One prays and wishes for a new adavu that steers clear of exclusive Dravidian politics and replaces it by an inclusive national politics that preserves the Tamil identity within the Indian identity. Can Tamils who have earned the respect of millions of Indians for their intelligence, administrative skills,  hard work and pride in their culture make all efforts to get rid of insularity  and join the mainstream to contribute their quality of mind and spirit  as in the past for the glory of India? 

 Yes I see a glimmer of light in the abyss of darkness. This is likely to happen in the near future. The cataclysmic upheaval in Tamilnadu politics will be a blessing in disguise. Like the churning of the milky ocean that separated the Amrut from the poison, this  political churning will  destroy selfish greed and ambition of the politicians and bring forth a new decent group that has no caste baggage to carry, that  does not suffer from complex and prejudices of being imposed by the Northerners, that will set aside its petty and insular parochialism and seek a national identity overarching its provincial identity. It is time to look beyond Amma and blank out Chinnamma for when the Star no longer shines, there is no role for a satellite to orbit. We don’t need Dravida adavus any longer as Tamils have moved all over the globe creating their own brand of adavus. Hope they now dance to a new tune of democracy that combines localism with nationalism.

Half Glass Full

                                                       Half Glass Full

The present PM’s unsavoury remark at the former PM  shook me up. Though prima facie, there is nothing objectionable in PM’s statement as political  punches and counter punches go, it was certainly distasteful and lowered the dignity of the Prime Minister’s stature.  Of course PM was not apologetic as he said those who attack should be prepared to be paid in the same coin. The difference is the former PM, Man Mohan Singh never indulged in personal attack on the current PM and only referred to demonetization policy  as  an organized loot. He never took any personal name and it is well within the rights of an opposition leader to fault a policy decision in terms that may not be music to the ruling party. But to take the name of a person-and that too someone who had occupied the chair one presently holds and make personal and unpleasant attack and of a repugnant nature is lowering the dignity of the House and of the PM’s position as its leader.

 This once again brought me back to my perpetual lament for the loss of beauty and grace in modern life. I had been repeatedly making the same plea in all my writings for a restoration of those early post- Independence days when the conflict of views between Prime Minister Pandit Nehru and his Home Minister Vallabhai Patel, between Nehru and Rajaji who broke away from the Congress to form the Swantra party , between Nehru and our first  President  Rajendra Prasad – to quote a few –never descended to the low level of opprobrium and political sideswipe. Of late, I have started sounding lachrymose over Paradise Lost and desperately desiring Paradise Regained once more. The result had been personally disastrous for me- I who had been a people’s person slowly began to withdraw from life, started avoiding people and even close friends and got into my shell struggling desperately to emerge from it. I lost my cheer, my equanimity, peace, enthusiasm for life,  happiness and above all the one thing that I valued most, my humanity.  I frowned at the carefree younger generation who were perpetually exploring fresh avenues for unalloyed enjoyment, swearing by the new acronyms LOL (laughing out loud) and YOLO(you only live once) though deep inside I was envious and longed for the soaring of my spirits like theirs.  I tried to justify my negativity quoting Edward Bond who said “We are optimists by nature and pessimists by experience” and the oft quoted aphorism from the Ecclesiastes: “For with much wisdom comes much sorrow; the more knowledge, the more grief.”

It was fortuitous that my friend called me from Kolkatta yester morning soon after I got up with Beckettian wryness that the Sun rises, having no alternative on nothing new.  She spoke to me about her life in Kolkatta,  the active literary and theatre life there especially during winter months and how one got a fresh breeze of joy and cheer attending the various talks, seminars and workshops in the city. She said that despite the dreariness of the existing mundane reality where political slugfest is a way of life in Bengal, these literary events and theatre festivals displayed the Kolkattan’s innate sense of culture and their love of arts and books, theatre and cinema. She found a large number of young people crowding these places and participating in the events with a sound knowledge of art, books, drama, music and films. She said talking to these youngsters revved one’s love for life. She added: Though we see a large number of our youthful population wasting their time, we can find solace looking at a few bright young men and women who have the verve, vitality and versatility to take the plunge and expand their horizon. Every generation throws up a new set of pioneers who are in the vanguard of path- breaking change in human activity, culture and civilization. My friend spoke not to sermonize but to share with me the joy she had experienced when she met with  young people willing, enthusiastic, unafraid  to take the challenges of life. Her talk had a new vigour as she pointed out  there is no point cribbing about generational change because change has to happen; otherwise life  is one monotonous tedium. One does not have to regain the lost paradise but build a new paradise that will last till the next generation steps in.

I realized that I have been the proverbial cat which thinks the sun has set the moment it closes its eyes. I had closed my eyes and found the world dark. I had to open my eyes to let the light in.  It is the same old story that I know and everyone knows about the half full and the half empty glass. The acrimonious low level debate in the Parliament made me realize the futility of riveting my attention on incivility, insolence, indecorousness, discourtesy and rudeness and then crying where is gone civility, graciousness, decorousness and courtesy? I had momentarily forgotten the number of outstanding students, academic colleagues and friends from professions other than academic who had surged forward to make the world a little more bright and lively.  Some of them have excelled as administrators, some have contributed to academic research, others have proved to be great singers, artists and sportspersons. Do we regret the fab four of Indian cricket- Sachin, Dravid, Lakshman  and Kumble- have retired? Haven’t they been replaced by a new set of players led by Virat Kohli?

Sainas and Sindhus are emerging as the new stars. So are the new boxers, wrestlers and athletes trying to build a new sporting nation. So do we have new artists, actors, singers and

dancers. One generation departs after doing its best among a host of average or below average people. Another takes over. What is constant is the striving for excellence amidst mediocrity.  Why not see the half glass full but only look at the half glass empty.

For the first time in the last couple of years, I felt no sense of shock and anger over the political barbs in the Parliament or the uncouth gestures of world leaders following Donald Trump’s self- aggrandizement. Thanks to the morning talk I felt a sense of freedom from my own servility to pessimism and gloom. The phone rang and I picked up with a new felt enthusiasm. The caller asked me if I would attend a meeting scheduled to discuss art and aesthetics in contemporary world. I promptly said ‘Yes” and added (I am sure, much to her bewilderment) “Look up, the stars shine still.”

Thank you my friend , a million thanks to you. You have taught me to log in and not log out of life.