The Middle East, Democracy, and Free Speech - a few things, a random few things

Any individual who perceives himself to be sophisticated needs to know about the 'Middle-East' and have an opinion about the things that happen there. A lot happens there but usually they are on only a few themes. If it is not Islamic radicals, terrorism/ suicide-bombing, war - Gulf (involving many countries) or civil (still involving many countries, but restricted to one geographically), oil or abused women, it is very likely not about the Middle East. The Sharjah cricket matches used to be an exception, but with all those sub-continental expats in the crowd, it looked like ... well ... the sub-continent.

Now, the Mid-East is back to its prime spot as the top-news maker in all broadsheets and not-so-broad ones. That despite all the optimism from the number two news maker, India, shows how people like bad news and gloom-mongering.

Iraq seems bloody messy - on the one hand, it feels like a superb way of saying 'Screw you America! Particularly Mr. Bush!' but it is not fair to the Iraqis. Iran is actually SAYING 'Screw you America, Europe and all you Zionist lackeys!' and despite supporting Iran in the NTU-Model UN, I am increasingly of the opinion that Iran is a loose-cannon with no immediate hopes of reform.

Economist notes that it is not a good time to be a ruler in the Mid-East - many monarchs, emirs and presidents there have died, but mostly of old-age! Considering the average Arab dies early, and the politicians are targetted the most by violent types, thats a surprising statistic! Plus, there are elections. Quite a few in fact. It could actually be an accidental mistake that America suddenly decide to promote democracy there.

Bush might rue the day he decided to explain 'Iraq' with non-obvious reasons. He entered, realised there were no WMDs (he was confident he would find a small dirty bomb which he could use to justify the war) and he changed the tack to 'democratising the Mid-East'. To show consistency, he persuaded Egypt, Morocco and Saudi Arabia to introduce some degree of democracy there too. He helped Lebanon throw out the Syrian troops and have an election.
But what a shock! Iran's free-est (still quite a farce!) polls elected a hard-liner - his only credibility was clean hands, and an ordinary background. An extremely smart Muslim Brotherhood got a lot of seats in Egypt without getting in Hosni Mubarak's way. Lebanon voted Hezbollah into the ruling co-alition. Now, Hamas!

Luckily, not only are these organisations not the mental case refuge that al Qaeda Inc. is, they also seem to have a lot of well-educated technocrats. They are all known well for relatively clean hands and a strong social policy. But, they are all also anti-US and hence, might help end American meddling in the Mid-East in the long run. And just a wee bit chauvinist and crazy!

'Munich' convinces me that anyone with reasonable ambition and intelligence in the Mid-East, particularly Palestine, can be excused for enrolling in a terrorist group (maybe not al-Qaeda). It is reasonable to want a state and hate the Jews and make it your life's mission. It is of course sad that the Arabs are no match for the brilliance of the Jews - they have no good leaders, many bad feudal values and a lot of loose mouths and corrupt hands.

Hamas has to do a lot to negate the degeneration that set in thanks to Yasser and his cronies. I hope and almost feel that they will. Hopefully, the West will let it do something - it does support the Pesh Margas of the Kurds, the Badr Brigade of SCIRI in Iraq, and the war-lord rich parliament in Afghanistan. If it was convenient not to make a fuss about these equally 'militant' players in those countries, then Hamas is OK too. Most of their municipal counsellors are technocrats - some educated at Oxford. And with time, they are likely to be pragmatic and 'let Israel live'.

It all seems wise if only the bloody Arabs start getting jobs! How many of them protest and riot and how often! The cartoon controversy was the most interesting story to involve the Mid-East in a long time. I say that with apologies to all those who died, lost property or jobs because of it. But some of the most interesting articles I have read - largely for content and counter-analysis - were on this topic. The issue itself seems trivial though.

If you are a decent Hindu, have you heard of the story of Vinayaka Beer and Durga Whisky? The latter is still sold in Germany as its owner stubbornly refuses to remove the Goddess from his marketing - the twelve hands all holding his product. Cases of Krishna on panties have been fought in courts while Rama on nose-blowing tissues (whats the bloody point, you European asses? whats your business plan?) is still at large.

Hindus did protest - a few, legally. But too many of them had day-jobs to want to gather in large numbers for days together to sit and burn embassies and tape them on camera. The number of prints of Mohammed (whose image shall not be depicted!) multiplied exactly because of these protests and mostly because Islamic clerics wanted to take copies to streets as far as those in Indonesia to Somalia. Some even made up imaginary cartoons depicting Mohammed as a pig, just to incite larger protests!

Equally funny is the reprinting of these cartoons because 'free speech' was in jeopardy. Jylands-Posten, the Danish paper that first posted these pictures, had refused Christ cartoons because the editorial team thought it was insensitive. They of course never expected their magazine to reach out to the World!

An intelligent opinion article tried to get the problem with the cartoon across to Europe by suggesting it was the equivalent of 'Christ with a crown of TNT sticks standing near a bombed-out abortion clinic'. Europeans claiming that they still make Jew jokes and hence, have a culture of poking fun, must remember that some of these anti-Jew insinuations got out of hand and lead to the gassing of a few million Jews.

But, I must concede - the one with Muhammed saying 'We are out of virgins!' was funny and has a political value! The stupid protesters must start realizing that the world is not out to get them, and even if many in the world hate them (as is claimed), then you are not helping your cause by burning embassies and cutting people's heads off in front of cameras.

The Middle East, Democracy, and Free Speech - a few things, a random few things

Any individual who perceives himself to be sophisticated needs to know about the 'Middle-East' and have an opinion about the things that happen there. A lot happens there but usually they are on only a few themes. If it is not Islamic radicals, terrorism/ suicide-bombing, war - Gulf (involving many countries) or civil (still involving many countries, but restricted to one geographically), oil or abused women, it is very likely not about the Middle East. The Sharjah cricket matches used to be an exception, but with all those sub-continental expats in the crowd, it looked like ... well ... the sub-continent.

Now, the Mid-East is back to its prime spot as the top-news maker in all broadsheets and not-so-broad ones. That despite all the optimism from the number two news maker, India, shows how people like bad news and gloom-mongering.

Iraq seems bloody messy - on the one hand, it feels like a superb way of saying 'Screw you America! Particularly Mr. Bush!' but it is not fair to the Iraqis. Iran is actually SAYING 'Screw you America, Europe and all you Zionist lackeys!' and despite supporting Iran in the NTU-Model UN, I am increasingly of the opinion that Iran is a loose-cannon with no immediate hopes of reform.

Economist notes that it is not a good time to be a ruler in the Mid-East - many monarchs, emirs and presidents there have died, but mostly of old-age! Considering the average Arab dies early, and the politicians are targetted the most by violent types, thats a surprising statistic! Plus, there are elections. Quite a few in fact. It could actually be an accidental mistake that America suddenly decide to promote democracy there.

Bush might rue the day he decided to explain 'Iraq' with non-obvious reasons. He entered, realised there were no WMDs (he was confident he would find a small dirty bomb which he could use to justify the war) and he changed the tack to 'democratising the Mid-East'. To show consistency, he persuaded Egypt, Morocco and Saudi Arabia to introduce some degree of democracy there too. He helped Lebanon throw out the Syrian troops and have an election.
But what a shock! Iran's free-est (still quite a farce!) polls elected a hard-liner - his only credibility was clean hands, and an ordinary background. An extremely smart Muslim Brotherhood got a lot of seats in Egypt without getting in Hosni Mubarak's way. Lebanon voted Hezbollah into the ruling co-alition. Now, Hamas!

Luckily, not only are these organisations not the mental case refuge that al Qaeda Inc. is, they also seem to have a lot of well-educated technocrats. They are all known well for relatively clean hands and a strong social policy. But, they are all also anti-US and hence, might help end American meddling in the Mid-East in the long run. And just a wee bit chauvinist and crazy!

'Munich' convinces me that anyone with reasonable ambition and intelligence in the Mid-East, particularly Palestine, can be excused for enrolling in a terrorist group (maybe not al-Qaeda). It is reasonable to want a state and hate the Jews and make it your life's mission. It is of course sad that the Arabs are no match for the brilliance of the Jews - they have no good leaders, many bad feudal values and a lot of loose mouths and corrupt hands.

Hamas has to do a lot to negate the degeneration that set in thanks to Yasser and his cronies. I hope and almost feel that they will. Hopefully, the West will let it do something - it does support the Pesh Margas of the Kurds, the Badr Brigade of SCIRI in Iraq, and the war-lord rich parliament in Afghanistan. If it was convenient not to make a fuss about these equally 'militant' players in those countries, then Hamas is OK too. Most of their municipal counsellors are technocrats - some educated at Oxford. And with time, they are likely to be pragmatic and 'let Israel live'.

It all seems wise if only the bloody Arabs start getting jobs! How many of them protest and riot and how often! The cartoon controversy was the most interesting story to involve the Mid-East in a long time. I say that with apologies to all those who died, lost property or jobs because of it. But some of the most interesting articles I have read - largely for content and counter-analysis - were on this topic. The issue itself seems trivial though.

If you are a decent Hindu, have you heard of the story of Vinayaka Beer and Durga Whisky? The latter is still sold in Germany as its owner stubbornly refuses to remove the Goddess from his marketing - the twelve hands all holding his product. Cases of Krishna on panties have been fought in courts while Rama on nose-blowing tissues (whats the bloody point, you European asses? whats your business plan?) is still at large.

Hindus did protest - a few, legally. But too many of them had day-jobs to want to gather in large numbers for days together to sit and burn embassies and tape them on camera. The number of prints of Mohammed (whose image shall not be depicted!) multiplied exactly because of these protests and mostly because Islamic clerics wanted to take copies to streets as far as those in Indonesia to Somalia. Some even made up imaginary cartoons depicting Mohammed as a pig, just to incite larger protests!

Equally funny is the reprinting of these cartoons because 'free speech' was in jeopardy. Jylands-Posten, the Danish paper that first posted these pictures, had refused Christ cartoons because the editorial team thought it was insensitive. They of course never expected their magazine to reach out to the World!

An intelligent opinion article tried to get the problem with the cartoon across to Europe by suggesting it was the equivalent of 'Christ with a crown of TNT sticks standing near a bombed-out abortion clinic'. Europeans claiming that they still make Jew jokes and hence, have a culture of poking fun, must remember that some of these anti-Jew insinuations got out of hand and lead to the gassing of a few million Jews.

But, I must concede - the one with Muhammed saying 'We are out of virgins!' was funny and has a political value! The stupid protesters must start realizing that the world is not out to get them, and even if many in the world hate them (as is claimed), then you are not helping your cause by burning embassies and cutting people's heads off in front of cameras.

NOTICE

I am starting a more conventional blog to supplement this one. See http://sathwic.blogspot.com or just click on the link in the left side-bar.

Baseball on Valium

Baseball on Valium

That's how the Americans refer to cricket - atleast those who have seen Asian and British expats there play it. Many cricket writers have been obsessed with the American attitude to cricket and at the end of significant cricketing occasions, some invariably turn towards them to see if there is any improvement to the Yankee response to the game. It was quite noticeable after the Ashes (See Sub-story 1) when British writers and some American ones discussed increased American curiosity to the game.

Once a friend (surprised at the sub-continent's obsession with this game) suggested that I write about the game. Despite almost doing it a dozen times before, only now I am actually able to go ahead with it. It has less to do with my inability to wait for the South Africa-India series which is to begin in a couple of days. But more to do with me needing a break from the stupid stupid exams that are going on.

Things have been happening in the cricket world. The afore-mentioned Ashes cricket series, held in England, was so great this time around, many have dubbed it the 'greatest test series ever'. One has to concede though that these claims have largely been made by Brits who were quite honestly shocked to see their team beat the Australians 2-1! This was good news because after a long time, England - the home of the game - has a team that is good and is now ranked second in the world. Also, because it ended the domination of the Aussies who have quite frankly rolled over all before them in the last half-a-decade - Except the occasional counter-punch from an Indian team (See sub-story 2).

Australia is a still a very strong side as was shown by their drubbing of a 'Rest of the World' team of superstars in a hopeless tournament called the 'Super Series' which reaked of exhibitionism and money-making. Cricket also made news in the global circles for its philanthropy when it repeatedly organised matches to aid victims of the Asian tsunami, the Pakistani quake, etc. and did a good job of it!

When a Chinese Communist Party sports official saw the World Cup final in 1996 in Pakistan, where Sri Lanka beat the Australians, he took the news back home. The Chinese (the Communist Party that is) were thrilled to know about a game which though less athletic than most sports, was demanding of the intellectual faculties and some other subtler skills. They decided that it reminded them of war, something that they were good at since the times of Sun-Tzu. They were also thrilled to see that it was a game in which tiny countries like Sri Lanka and New Zealand could match large ones like India and Australia - it meant that it was something they could get good at quickly. Now the official word is that China wants to become an official World Cup level team by 2015.

India has recently drubbed Sri Lanka 6-1, after which many Indian supporters like me are sure that the team is invincible (a conclusion we come to every once in a while!). Despite all the increased hype - the International Cricket Council will soon have its 100th member in Jersey & Guerney - the game is small, restricted largely to the Commonwealth and survives largely because of nationalist sentiments (the game is played between countries not clubs), a nostalgia of the British Raj (and related romanticism) and the fact that it is the only game that the sports-crazy-but-lazy Indians continue to be near the top. That of course does not deny that it is a beautiful and classy game, mysterious and poetic at times.

Some History

Cricket has been an organised team game for centuries - the Economist claims the first-ever, but it is a British publication - played in England between counties. It was a popular weekend event where a team of 'Gentlemen' would play a team of 'Players', whilst English dames would be served tea by their maids as they gossip. From such a snobbish origin, it is ironic that this game has its largest support among the poorest in India and Pakistan.

The Pilgrims did take it with him to the New World. In fact, the first ever international cricket match was held between USA and Canada (two insignificant teams in today's cricketing order) and has since been continued every year and is the longest running sporting event (if u concede that the Olympics did not continue straight from the days of Aristotle!). But, American consumerism, the rise of the common man, and the ridiculously long lengths of cricket matches turned the Americans away from the game.

It is ironic however that golf - another elitist sport - thrived quite well in the US. Probably because for the rich elites of America, it was less taxing a game and was a good opportunity to fine-tune business deals. Anyway, cricket lost out first to baseball (average length - 3 hours) - a game of mad hitting that was spun off from 'rounders' which inturn was spun off from 'cricket'. Then the American quest for excellence moved their interests to American football (involving brutal savagery - spun off from British 'rugby') and Basketball (which I have to concede is arguably the most athletic and complete sport).

Cricket of course survived and thrived in Australia. In fact, once cricket was merely Australia versus England. Then the colonies showed interest. As suggested by many experts on the subject and the Oscar nominated Hindi movie 'Lagaan' (meaning Tax), it started when the subjects of the crown were challenged by the Company officials in return for tax breaks to a game of cricket. Cricket became a symbol of the elitist opposition (we wont fight you, but we will make you get the fuck out of here!) in India to the British rule.

It was also a big hit in the Caribbean. It remained a white-man's game in Southern and Eastern Africa for a long time. But, it never caught on outside the Common-wealth excepting the occasional Russian student in Oxford who paid his fees by playing cricket and then sold his loyalties to promoting the game in Russia. Or the curious Dutch who have interest groups for every damn thing.

Cricket then added the Calypso cricketers of the West Indies (a curious mix of a dozen modern Caribbean countries) who shocked the cricketing world by dominating it till the late 80s effortlessly. It is of course sad that the West Indies suck at the game today because they were wont to introduce the professionalism of modern sport in their structures and the kids there started leaning towards soccer. It is however hoped that a $ 35 million tournament sponsored by a Texas businessman and the World Cup there in 2007 will get them back on track.

The oddities

How long is this game?

An over-eager reporter asked an Olympics official in a Lausanne press conference if there was any plan to include cricket in the Olympics. “Nope. It is an idio-syncratic game that lasts for 3 to 4 days and has no place in the Olympics." This shows that the lady was caught off guard, but she does make a point. Non-cricketing public never seem to know even how long the game is! The original game or the 'Test Match' is a few days long - the modern version is 5 days long. The game can of course get over within a day or two (like when under-strength Zimbabwe meets a super-strong Australia). There are modified versions that last only 3 or 4 days.

The popular 'One Day Internationals' are about 8-9 hours long. Whilst the new baby 'The Twenty20' is about 4 hours. There are myriad other varieties like the beach cricket of Jamaica, tape-ball in Pakistan, street cricket in India, Super Sixes, Max Eights, etc etc which have different lengths too. The general agreement though is the game is too slow! But that is a problem only because you are trying to sell it as an alternative to the soccer and basketball fan. It is not quite the same type of game.

Weird clothing, Funny terms, and the all-too-polite behaviour

Canada won a match in the 2003 World Cup. The Canadian press, suddenly aware of the fact that their country was in that World Cup, started talking about the 'pyjama' game. Yes! Cricketers look like they are in pyjamas! White ones for Test matches and brightly coloured, labelled and numbered ones for One Day Internationals! The batsmen also have to wear protective clothing that makes them look like a cartoon hen - pads for the legs, helmets, thigh guards, gloves, and some other optional stuff.

That is less likely to shock an accidental spectator as much as the language used by commentators and fans. It has been argued (there are literature papers I hear) that English evolved separately and significantly as a consequence of cricket appreciation. In fact, the most popular use of English in Indian households is when they discuss cricket. Slips, bails, wides, gullies, mid-ons, silly mid-offs, wickets, third men, boundaries, pavilion, square, no-ball, pull, sweep, swing, sitter - It does sound weird. There are vulgar Australian additions like googly and sledging whereas some poeticised terms like 'perfume-ball' or 'body-line'.

In a time when sport is considered a healthy alternative to war, cricket is the 'Gentleman's game'. You could be warned, fined or abused in the media (in typical cricket polity) for shaking your head at an umpire's decision. You have numerous occasions during the course of a game, when your opposition claps for you, appreciates you and even taps you on the back for playing well. Most people after winning a game are caught talking about their good fortune, the difficulties the opposition faced and explaining why their fans should not be hard on them, and stuff like that.

The only thing out-of-tune with all this is the rude hand signals that umpires use to convey things which if you know the game is not all that rude.

The Draw

If these are not enough to make people think this is a crazy sport, there is the concept of a 'draw' in test matches - neither side wins nor loses. People can play the bloody game for 5 long days, from morning to evening, and there need be nobody who can go back home and say I won. How like life!

But, all cricket writers get outraged at the suggestion that this is ridiculous. In fact, the second best match of the year between England and Australia, in Old Trafford, Manchester was a draw! It was pretty entertaining and down to the wire. In fact, Jeffrey Archer, a cricket lover, in one of his short stories decides that the best way to end his story is to allow the rain god to interfere and make the match a draw.

The Politics

Cricket took a stance against apartheid South Africa - for 22 long years they were not allowed to play the game, when arguably some of the ‘bestest’ cricketers possible like Graeme Pollock, Ali Bacher and Barry Richards were punished. Cricket decided that it cant just be a mute spectator to member country politics. Today though cricket has the exact opposite stance - Zimbabwe, one out of ten Test Match playing countries in the world, have a regime that is a humanitarian nightmare. Cricket refuses to intervene even when Robert Mugabe's stooges threw out or led to the emigration of an entire generation of cricketers, many because they were white, some because they had political opposition to the Zanu-PF party. Zimbabwe despiting playing like a bunch of high school kids dont get any censure from the International Cricket Council! Cricket's governing bodies are known for their politics.

Why the love?

Indian sports historian Ramachandra Guha has written a book explaining the origins of the cricket obsession in India, "A Corner of a Foreign Field: The Indian origins of a British Sport". I haven’t read this book yet but the excerpts are quite acceptable. Cricket is the upper middle class sport of the English world - it allows for only the right amount of physical harshness and none of it because of contact violence.

It has gained so much love in India because of our brahminical traditions, whereas it is considered un-Australian if you did not discuss Test cricket during cricket season. Cricket, as cultured as it seems, offers the fan more than an average sport's adrenalin pumping action. The maddening statistics in the game keeps many interested, whereas the wide ranging skills (use of wrists in batting, spin bowling, etc) are another attraction. It displays many of those subtler human qualities that other modern sports are incapable of showing thanks to their obsession with action. Stodgy defence and playing out session after session shows great determination, focus and patience. Though individual and instantaneous brilliance is displayed in cricket, long-term strategy (highlighted by the huge role a team's captain plays in the game) and intelligence (deciding what kind of ball to bowl) is very crucial.

It has a place for the entire range of human beings and unlike other sports, does not impose minimum standards of athleticism on its players. Red-blooded men can choose to be fast bowlers and the smaller men have found comfort as the wicket-keeper in the game. You can be a strategist, a stylist, a skilled artisan or merely stoic and still find your niche in this game.

Look at some of the contemporary greats - Sachin Tendulkar (of India, considered greatest batsman in the world) is 5 and a half feet tall and almost cherubic in manner, yet he terrorises 6+ feet bowlers with bodies resembling trucks. Inzamam-ul-Haq of Pakistan is very fat and looks like he was just removed from bed always, yet he is so sharp and delicate in the way he approaches his game.

The real stand-out feature in cricket though is the sportsmanship. Soccer conflicts are ugly (I like the sport too!). Cricket is like a drama and it has the right morals at the end. It teaches people to take defeat in their stride, and to respect the opposition. It gives chance and nature its fair due (the toss of a coin determines who plays first, whereas the weather decides what kind of players will suceed) but unlike soccer (sorry for the repeated mention) it gives freak chances less of a say in the final result. Weaker teams can win only if they were not weak in that particular game.

The instantaneous pleasure from other sports (often only during the course of play) is very orgasmic. In cricket, the entire action being spread out over days and even over months (sometimes individual matches are irrelevant, it is how the entire series goes that matters) makes the pleasure from cricket less like a shot of drug and more like reading books or making memories.

I concede that every one of these special factors in cricket are present in other sports, albeit in a different manner. But, it is the proportion that makes cricket uniquely interesting. If you have never played the game or enjoyed a good game, I suggest you give it a try. But better have someone who knows stuff with you - it is as complicated as neuro-surgery!

-> Sub-story 1

The Ashes is the name given to a tournament where England and Australia play five matches, each over five days, once every couple of years. The name comes from an incident long time back when someone declared English cricket dead and burnt the bails (cricket equipment) and sent it in an urn to signify the cremation. Hence, the Ashes - incidentally, even today they give the victorious team the urn to take back with them.

This year's Ashes was interesting as the English finally beat the Aussies after nearly 2 decades.

-> Sub-story 2

The India-Australia tussle has increased the commercial value for the game. India, where 70 % of all the sponsorships for the game come from, was a formidable team at home so much so that the Australian juggernaut referred to it as the final frontier. The Aussies lost in an epic tournament in 2001 and India almost beat Australia in Australia a couple of years. But the next time the Australians came to India, they won it not to mention the thrashing they gave us in the World Cup final in 2003.

Invariably these matches end up having high quality action and some Hollywood twist. Hence, they are very popular.

Sandstones and Opium

It has been almost three months since I went on that trip to Rajasthan (literally the land of kings) and I decided to chronicle it – before the memories of that trip fade away thanks to the back-breaking, head-splitting life in NTU. Most of it has already faded away due to my decreasing ability to make memories.

We had long been planning a trip to Rajasthan, the one place in India truly developed for tourism. Since my brother’s first 6 days of the holidays coincided with my last, the trip was going to be only a short one and we decided on Jaipur, Jaisalmer, Jodhpur and Udaipur.

We took the Jet Airways flight to Mumbai and another one from there to Jaipur. In the process of boarding numerous domestic flights, it came to my notice that domestic air travel in India has come a long way. Jet especially seemed to have planes every five minutes to every nook and corner of the country. The operation of domestic flights seemed to have been reduced to the simplicity of a bus company’s while it was still efficient and comfortable. The airports were well maintained and the whole thing was very impressive. No wonder Boeing and Airbus consider India their favourite customer.

We reached Jaipur in the night and the sight-seeing was scheduled for the next day. Jaipur, the capital of Rajasthan, is known as the ‘Pink City’. The old city was built mainly of Pink Sandstone and there was an edict that all buildings inside the old city wall had to be painted pink. New Jaipur is a well planned city and the Birla Temple and the State Legislative Assembly were built impressively. But, what was more impressive was that the founding King of Jaipur, Sawai Jai Singh II, had foreseen that his city will grow and had ordered wide streets even in the old city which is some 350 years old. (The title Sawai means ‘one and a quarter’)

The Hawa Mahal (Palace of Air) known for its architecture that makes the place windy is now not open for tourists due to a fault developed during last year’s earthquake. We went to the Amber Fort (Amber = city of Mother Goddess, Amba). Amber, a hill fort built by Maharaja Man Singh who was the Mughal emperor Akbar’s commander-in-chief. Having allied with a Muslim ruler Akbar, Man Singh was under threat from other Hindu kings. Amber shows the architectural beauties of both Mughal and Hindu workmanship.

The elephant ride at the entrance of the fort was the highlight though the construction of the fort itself was mystifying. Three entrances from the city wall we reach the fort proper - The gardens in memory of the architects, the courtyard, the temples, and the three royal residences – summer, winter and monsoon ones, the sandstone architecture. Special sights were the painted wall were the painted areas were large gems of the same colour (currently in the Indian Govt. treasury), the door whose layout was identical to the garden plan, the large green marbles that show the leaves of the banana tree in the temple, the carvings on the wall which were animals (Hindu) from one end and flowers from the other (Mughal).

Jantar Mantar – the temple of astronomy/astrology is another special place in Jaipur with large astronomical instruments, sundials, etc. Many kings of Jaipur were themselves mathematical geniuses (supposedly!). Then it was the time for the City Palace of Jaipur still in the hands of the Jaipur royalty.

The collections of the textiles and embroidery of the kingdom, a huge arsenal of ancient weapons and some not so ancient (knives, daggers, swords, and guns), collections of the chariots and palanquins, vessels, jewellery, etc were on display. The world’s largest pieces of silver (the giant silver vessels containing water from Ganges taken to the coronation of Prince Charles), collection of ancient scriptures (surprisingly including Tamil ones) and the polo sticks of the world’s best player Maharaja Man Singh I were also on display.

That night we were on a 12 hour train to Jaisalmer, the western frontier town of India. With Pakistan on three sides, Jaisalmer was also right in the middle of the Great Indian desert. Ofcourse, we did have to first have the misfortune of being involved in a grand mix-up of the Indian Railways Reservation System. Two sets of passengers (one was us) were allotted the same seats on the train, to add to the confusion were a bunch of Europeans who had rightly boarded on the day their ticket stated only to later realize that the original train was scheduled for 2355 and that though it was rescheduled for 0010, it was still the previous day’s train!

To add to this, our train already delayed by two hours hit a jeep on an unmanned railway crossing – luckily the people on the jeep did not lose their lives. Our Jaisalmer travel guides though were smart enough to pick us up at the crossing where the train was stopped. Jaisalmer was known as the golden city because its entire city was built with yellow sandstone. Sandstone lends itself to easy carving almost like wood, meaning that the entire city was a living monument. Quite literally, since the living Jaisalmer fort still housed more than 5000 occupants of the old city.

That evening though we went out to the desert for a camel ride and a folk dance and dinner looking at the sun-set. The road was better than any even in cities. Because it was army-built and maintained and lead to the borders. The shifting sand dunes would settle on the road and make it disappear but the army cleans it up everyday! We were going towards one such sand dune. Where the road ended, we took the camel to the sun-set and then there was dinner with folk dance. It was clear that the dance was meant for the western audience as these people were pushing through some contemporary filmi music and even one ‘French’ song as folk. But, here I got to see globalization in its more elementary form. The performing kids fund their schooling by dancing, singing local tunes and playing local instruments for the tourists. They destroyed the stereotype of the Indian villager who does not know about the wide world around him.

The next day we went to the local fort and its annexes. The lake in the town was now fed by the world’s largest irrigation project that had made large tracts of the desert suitable for agriculture. The grand entrance to the lake was supposedly built by a court dancer (read prostitute) and when the king came to know about it, he sent his army to demolish it. The smart woman who had the built the entrance to ‘atone’ for her sins did not want to let it happen – so she quietly installed an idol of Lord Krishna in the gate. Now, the gate was a defacto temple and the king’s soldiers had to go away.

The town of Jaisalmer was a huge gamble – it was right in the middle of the desert and the first kings decided to settle there because they knew that travelers from Persia and Afghanistan to India would need a resting place in the desert. It was the first Singapore – a transit place whose GDP was dependent on traveller’s indulgences and bankers who used to deposit their belongings in this desert town.

The Jain bankers (The Jains in India are like the Jews and the Parsees, a community that created its social position based on financing) who were the biggest patrons of the king had built numerous beautiful Jain temples in the city. The highlight of the fort was the huge multi-storeyed mansions of the richest merchant of the city. All these buildings were close to a thousand years in age. The best parts of the tour were the local musicians with their mystical instruments and the magical music.

We took the train from there to Jodhpur or the Blue City. Unlike the other cities, the name was not due to the sandstones, but because the upper caste Hindus or Brahmins painted their houses blue to prevent untouchables (lowest in the Indian caste hierarchy) from accidentally polluting their walls. The Brahmins were so numerous in Jodhpur that entire portions of the city were blue in colour (even today).

The fort is a sight to behold. It is constructed at a height of 125 m from the ground so much so that one of the fort walls has been modified into a lift. Known as the Mehrangarh Fort, this invincible fort showcases the best of Rajput life. Our guide in the fort was a well built, macho (typically proud) Rajput. A Rajput’s identity in India comes from his chivalry and his pride in his warrior ancestry. In his commentaries, the guide’s pride of his heritage was very visible and these people still move around in a very old-world manner with their elaborate greetings of fellow Rajputs, their moustaches, etc. But, the guy obviously had reconciled well to the fact that today he is only a tour guide (and he had no complex whatsoever about his very noticeable stuttering!). Clearly, self-esteem is unrelated to how your life plays out but only how you feel.

Then, opium. It was the staple drug of the Rajputs. They were mandated to consume it three times a day – to freshen up in the morning, to recharge in the afternoon, to forget their pains in the evening. They assume that they would be in war everyday. One old gentleman was proudly displaying his opium box though it was illegal to consume it (and to even have some in your possession).

The other big place in the city is the Umedh Bhawan Palace (current residence of the royalty) also a Taj Hotel. Our tour planners had screwed something up when they had given us only a few hours in the evening to spend in our next stop - Udaipur or the Lake City. But, it turned out to be just enough.

The Udaipur fort was much bigger than all the other ones but very bland in architecture. The huge monstrosity had very confusing and narrow pathways inside and one could very easily get lost there. It was built overlooking the biggest lake in the city. And in the middle of the lake, there was a Taj Hotel (it was the winter palace of the kings which was taken over by Taj). But, now water mining in the city has dried up the lake and many others in the city. In that sense, Udaipur was more like contemporary India than the other places we visited that day.

The next morning we flew back to Chennai via Mumbai, where we took a few hours rest in our relative’s places. Mumbai (Bombay) was only a few days away from the monsoon flash floods that killed so many, and destroyed so much. But on that day it had a very different image to offer me. The airports were becoming larger and better. The whole city looked like an Indian equivalent of the Manhattan, crowds and the buzz betraying its origins but the buildings and the most visible people – very cosmopolitan.

There – finally the itch to chronicle this trip is out of my system.

The Brit in me

Britain is in the news for many reasons – leading the G8, the EU, winning the Olympics bid, beating Australia in cricket. The fact that the horrible terrorist attacks took place in London only reminded the whole world that the small island once ruled the world and retains a bit of the power from those days even now. When the Indian PM was given a honorary doctorate by his alma mater in Oxford, it made me think – there is a Brit in everyone of us, Indians!

Amongst those peoples who had the least difficulty reconciling to the reality of the British rule, Indians were probably the first. The Indian middle ages prepared them well for it. Because during that time, the nation had a lot of foreign rulers – the Mughals who ruled most of India themselves were of Iranian origin, some Tamil kingdoms had Marathi rulers, the largely Islamic states of Sind and Kashmir had Hindu Maharajahs.

In fact the British were the last foreign rulers of India and not the first. The difference was that they managed to annex the whole of India which by then was only a concept and not a real nation; and the wealth was for the first time being moved out of the country! And it was that point that hurt the people. The plundered wealth had to stay inside the country! That way the king’s nationality did not matter.

The point is the Indians were very tolerant and infact, welcomed all foreign influences. It can be argued that any intolerance to differences was cultivated by the British during their rule as a political strategy. Meanwhile leaving a very strong British influence on the cultures of the sub-continent.

It was English that actually gave meaning to the country of India – no other language could be the unifying language as it would be somebody’s mother-tongue and advantageous to those people. (Let us all have a common handicap of learning a foreign language – that is acceptable!). It was the British who gave the Indians the concepts that has defined our nation-hood in modern times.

Ironically, English has only become more important to Indians only since Independence. What started as a ‘language of convenience’ amongst the first subjects of the British Raj, to get along with the British and each other then became ‘the language of education’ for the subsequent generations. Till then, educated people needed the proverbs, verses, couplets from the vernacular literature even if they spoke to a foreign audience. But, engineering, science and law needed English – it would take too much effort to restart the learning in your own language.

Now, English is ‘the style language’ for most of India’s urban youth and has hijacked day-to-day conversations. Soon, it will become the mother-tongue for a significant section of our people as many mothers nowadays can actually be found talking to their infants in English (which they learnt in evening classes) to encourage the child to learn English!

As one economist had argued, out-sourcing is justice in a perverted manner. The British had forced the Indians to be something close to them so that they can get work done by us. Now, Indians have actually become quite good at being someone else that they are taking their jobs too. (Call centre employees who cultivate an American accent are just the extreme!)

Today, Indians might say whatever they want to but there is a bit of the British left in everyone of us. Be you a Hindu nationalist, a Bodo militant or a Tamil fanatic!

Looking Good – Out of India

After debating with myself for over a month, I had finally decided to start a blog primarily because I was feeling bored and I felt I had lots to stay. Ironically, since the night I started my blog, I have been keeping busy with something or the other and even more surprisingly, am out of things to say.

Probably the reason I was bored in the first month of holidays was because I felt a bit alien back in my own home. Two years in Singapore had altered a part of me so fundamentally, that I felt for the first time like a NRI (Non-Resident Indian; more a social class of foreign returnees who find India difficult). Understandably I was very ashamed considering that I used to find NRI attitude irritable.

Probably the circumstances had something to do with it – firstly, the road outside our house was so badly dug-up. (Chennai roads are periodically dug-up to hurry the wear and tear process. The excuse given is sometimes to do with water pipes, optic-fibre cables, sewage, etc but one suspects it is to just keep the labourers occupied with something so that they dont lose touch!) The pollution resulting from it was the worst I have experienced (Sound pollution from irritated commuters, So much dust that cleaning the house was pointless and every morning you would feel like you are waking up in a dilapidated uninhabited house). Contrast with no pollution in Singapore.

The ground-water was positively toxic and salty that I feel that commercial extraction of minerals might be lucrative. And the official drinking water supply was being suspended for our block alone due to repair works. The fact that there was an official drinking water supply for others is something to take heart from. Chennai is the largest city in a rain-shadow region in the world and the acute water shortage is not stopping anyone from upgrading their plots to five storey structures. But, I was to be content with water that was bought of tankers once in a while. Contrast with 24-hour good water everywhere in Singapore.

Then, the power-cuts! Every single day exactly at noon and once when we were about to go to sleep! And the Electricity Board would come and replace a fuse after about 3 hours. Everyday! It took them one week to realize that the same fuse was being replaced every day and that meant there was a loading problem in that area. And the day they decided to correct the source, there was no power the whole day. Contrast with no power cuts in Singapore. And their constant feed-back and evaluation system for any aspect of the city’s running.

No vehicle, unreliable public transportation, a bad computer and a pretty bad internet connection. I was sulking for a week or so sitting in the house watching news channels (no movies or sports on TV as the city administration had removed cable operators from the equation as they were charging exhorbitant rates). But, too much sulking and the content of the news channels got to me.

India was looking good! Surprisingly, I came to the conclusion not when the Sensex (India’s premier stock market index) hit 7000 one day, 7100 the next day, 7200 the day after and stayed there with realistic predictions suggesting 20000 in a few years! Not when I saw the Thomas Friedman interview when he said, “If India was a stock, I would buy it!” But, when I saw a documentary on the plight of slum dwellers in Mumbai! It showed some of the people at the absolute bottom of the Indian society. But, even when you saw the tragic content, the silver lining was pretty clear. These people were fighting their way up – through education, through innovative living and enterprise.

For a change, instead of buckling under the horrors of their life, they were showing a resolve to carry on and a will to succeed, a fire so fierce only people as desperate as them could have. Indians so well known for their lethargy and fatalism were now mixing their well known tenacity with this fire.

Made me think – how does lack of electricity for a few hours, or no cable TV compare with the challenges that so many others face just for modest gain. The labourers who work in the hot sun without even foot-wear to restore the water supply to my building as I was complaining! The rick-shaw driver’s son who studied in street lights to get entrance into India’s premier engineering institution – to achieve the same, I had to take special coaching for two years under extremely comfortable settings! The NRI attitude vanished.

It almost feels like it was India’s good fortune that we took our sweet time to wake up to the modern world and realize that we are so far behind. We should use this opportunity to learn from the mistakes of those who are ahead of us and avoid making them – inequity, long term softening of society, over-consumption, etc.

So it has begun! - But Why? And What can you expect?

(Patience; The first one is always a toughie.)

Life is full of numerous decisions that are quite hard to make. Such as my latest one to start a blog. Why? Firstly, the general notion that blogs are for weak people who fear that they are not being given enough attention in their other social interactions. True that many people are using blogs to give themselves a sense of importance (and what is wrong with that?) but that is however not the purpose of my blog. Many do it to share their innermost feelings because you know what they say in all these advisory sitcoms - Sharing is good. Aah – not quite what pushed me though. The real reason is a bit weird.

Now after watching numerous first-world (read jobless people) programmes where they break down and analyse everybody's life and generalise everything, I am of the belief that I suffer from some form of OCD (I am pretty obsessive and compulsive about a lotta things - and to a degree that it can be considered a disorder). One of the key aspects of my psychology is a paranoia of misinformation. As one senior put it aptly during my orientation, "Oh! You are one of these people who wants to say everything that is to be said about something because you are afraid that people get the wrong impression."

Plus I have the organizing/chronicling/recording compulsion. Remember Monica from Friends? Something like that. And I don’t enjoy it like her – it is more like a burden that I have to live with. It consumes a hell lot of time, and I cant easily start anything new as I am afraid that I might not do it in the most optimum way.

I have done this chronicling before, on different occasions on different media. Historically, all these chronicling attempts start during a big period of inactivity (such as this summer in hot hot India). And those that need a long term effort are discontinued soon. As always, I start with the hope that on this occasion that won’t happen.

The most important aspect of my venture is a sudden rekindling of my passion for writing. It is one of many hundreds of things that I hoped I was good at, and one of the very few of those things that I know I can master by practice. I might become a professional op-ed writer and then these might be samples of my amateurish attempts enroute to greatness! One can hope.

If I do continue this blog, you can expect to see my perspective (I am quite sure that you don’t care) on many things, based on my experiences and education. This will definitely not be a news report type account of what is happening – there shall be no order, no theme. Disclaimer – this won’t be an accurate journal by any standard as it is not real-time, depends on mood, computer availability, other pre-occupations, blah blah blah. (Remember paranoia of misinformation?) Damn! I already regret starting this.