Just for kicks

Nominations for "Achievers of the Year"

2009-11-16T15:04:00.001+05:30

Have been thinking for quite a while to write but ended up with at least half a dozen unfinished notes. Looking back into those, I realized all of my thoughts were pointing towards certain unprecedented achievements that some individuals /institutions have achieved over the past few months. I have tried to put them together, and created a list of "Achievers of the year" of my own. Do feel free to comment and also suggest if I missed any names. Here goes the list (not necessarily in the order of importance):
1.The Thakreys and their ilk: For the ability to make an issue out of nothing and getting all the free media attention for it. For integrity in their family and parties-Each one of them toes the same line in spite of all political and personal differences. For setting new benchmarks in ethics in Indian politics. They've definitely broken new grounds by attacking an MLA who chose to disobey them at the floor of the house. Next target: Warning our honorable PM to speak in Marathi the next time he is in Maharashtra, followed by "appropriate action" if he doesn't oblige.
2.Arundhati Roy: Our one-book-wonder, for the ability to speak about almost any topic under the sun and getting all the media attention in the form of front-page articles and prime-time interviews. For saying that India has forcibly occupied Kashmir and has been conducting atrocities on the Kashmiri diaspora (Kashmiri pundits who were killed/migrated/continue to suffer, be damned). For advocating that India should cut its carbon emissions at the expense of its growth (otherwise how will the developed world manage to keep their air conditioners on all the time). For advocating that the barbaric acts of naxalites are perfectly justified (definitely, if they don't scare the government agencies away, how will the mining mafia prevail in the region!)
3.Madhu Koda: His money making abilities will put Warren Buffet to shame. No one would have made USD 400 million in less than 2 years, starting from humble backgrounds of a mine worker.I tried to extrapolate how much he would earn by the time he will be 85 (average age of Indian politicians),assuming he makes money at the same rate and invests it with returns of 10% per annum.The number turns out to be a whopping USD 174 billion! Now who says he doesn't deserve the "Achiever of the Year" award?
4.Bhartiya Janta Party: For setting an example of what will become of a politcal party which is out of power.The BJP has almost become an institution in itself on the aftereffects of losses in elections-chaos,mismanagement,lack of direction and infighting which eventually lead the party on a path to self- destruction.This has enlightened other parties and now they are ensuring whatever it takes to stay in power (including nurturing the "enemy's enemy", money exchanges and what not)
5.The Ambani brothers: For striking this fabolous internal gas-sharing family agreement, which if implemented, would have resulted in billions of dollars of profit for Reliance (billions of dollars lost by the government be damned, anyways the money if gone to the government would have been lost in corruption). Now what with the deal not coming through, the brothers have again shown strong belief in business ethics by taking their (dirty) secrets out and washing their linen in full public view.
6. Ajmal Kasab: For the ability to keep the Indian media as well as courts interested in what was originally an "Open and shut" case. His resilience (e.g. asking for mutton biryani) even while he may be on a (never -ending) death trial is a lesson that each one of us needs to learn. That his trial has been going on for a year now proves the Indian judicial system is fair and just, and gives an equal opportunity to everyone to plead for innocence, even if it is a man who was caught red-handed, was recorder on a thousand cameras, has hundreds of witnesses and even has confessed to his crime.
7.Manu Sharma: For enlightening hundreds of thousands of people languishing in jails, on how to get out of the prison and lead a normal life. He is a father-figure for all those convicted for various crimes and has shown the ways in which one can make the law authorities show their generosity. Up next is a book from him on "!00 ways to escape punishment for serious crimes". We believe the book will be a best-seller
8.The media: For ensuring the Indian television viewer is so much informed that he can put Britannica and Wikipedia to shame. Because of our news channels, people are already aware and prepared for the impending doomsday in 2012, a Chinese military invasion that has already started, and that by 2050, the entire human race will be wiped out from earth and replaced by robots.The media must be also be lauded for its role in highlighting the heroism and achievements of all the 7 achievers mentioned above.
The list probably doesn't end here!!

Maya's Maya

2009-07-05T17:35:00.000+05:30

It is simply amazing how an individual can make a mockery of the entire government machinery and manipulate it to suit one's own pursuits. I am of course talking about the one-in-only Behenji who has made the state exchequer her own pocket money to turn most of UP into a "statue state". Probably it is a befitting indicator of state of affairs in UP. While the honorable CM is blatantly misusing the government machinery to fill up her pockets and establish a "Maya only" rule in the state, all others are expected to behave as statues and keep quiet. But what baffles me all the more is how come none of the political parties did not speak about it when she started spending billions of rupees on her "iconic pursuits"? Why did they open their mouths only after the elections were over and when it was clear that Behenji is not even a marginal player anymore, forget the king maker's role that was anticipated before the elections? Why did our leaders have to keep quiet till the inauguration date of these parks and statues, an instance of the most gross misuse of public money in recent history? Just to earn some additional brownie points and get some political mileage? At least an intervention a couple of months ago would have saved a few millions from the state exchequer!
Finally it took a PIL from one of the commoners for to make the entire country stand up and take notice. Again two things clearly come out of this: 1)Our political parties, irrespective of their so-called "morals" and "affiliations", cannot be trusted, and 2)In spite of our judicial system being one of the most slowest in the world, it still works!
I wonder what came to Mayawati's mind when she thought about littering the entire state with tonnes and tonnes of stone. If she really wanted to make her name and make people remember her, won't it have been more fruitful to spend the billions on schools and hospitals named after her and Kanshi Ram? What about a "Maya education scheme" where all school going kids from the weaker sections get an additional stipend on top of free education? Or maybe a "Kanshi Ram UP nirmaan" scheme, where village panchayats can get aid from government for panchayat-led infrastructure improvement projects in the village? Talking of social empowerment, special courts could be set up to deal with cases involving the people from weaker sections of the society to ensure fast-track redressal of cases. But social empowerment has never been on Behenji's agenda. While her own purse has swelled over the past decade to crores of rupees, the people in the state who vote her, are still looking up to her to fulfill those elusive promises.
I have been thinking about what could be the possible answers from Behenji's stable once she has to give an explanation for this gross laundering of public money. I am already in for a surprise with the first shot from her gun-that these parks and statues are being developed as tourist hot spots. Tourist hot spots? Behenji, it's high time you got right your sense of what tourists look for. It's no wonder why the state hardly draws any tourists in spite of a rich cultural heritage of the Hindi heartland and Mughlai influence in and around Lucknow. May be another explanation she will come up with, will be that through these statues and parks, she gave employment to thousands of stone carvers and construction workers who have been losing business of late. Hence, it is a targeted "package" for a specific community.
Of course this sounds ridiculous but trust Behenji to come up with even more ridiculous reasoning. But can anyone stop this misuse of money and ensure the state exchequer is spent where it ought to be-ensuring the basic needs of people like healthcare, housing, education, jobs, are met? Can the central government or the courts step up and stop this rampant mockery of governance? Unfortunately I don't trust the former and the latter has too little power in its hands.

Of identities, names and lotus notes

2009-04-05T00:09:00.000+05:30

I hate lotus notes. It will make you wonder, what the heck! Of all the things on earth, why would I choose a nondescript email software as something to loathe? Well, there’s a long story behind this, which started from the day I was born. In pursuit of my parents’ desire to have an “attractive and unique” name, they tried out a variety of permutations and combinations on me. They kept stumbling upon new names only to find out a few months later that they were not as “attractive and unique” as they thought! This meant that by the time I was five, I had already lived as Siddharth, Saurav and Gaurav before finally being christened as Vivek, the name that sticks on till today. It took my parents a couple of years to figure out that even Vivek was not as unique as they thought, but apparently they had run out of options by then.
Throughout this transition of changing identities, there was something that always stuck with my name-my last name, Sharma. Until I joined McKinsey!
The day I joined the firm, I was given a strange sounding email ID vivek_sharma-xfr@mckinsey.com. I wondered why this strange suffix was attached to my name, and it didn’t take me long to figure out that I had two more namesakes in the Chicago office. Things started getting bad when I and one of my namesakes started getting each other’s emails almost everyday, with some confidential and not-so-confidential information spilling over into each others’ mailboxes. Finally, within a week, I was requested by the IT guys to suggest an alternative name for myself, as lotus notes is too naïve to differentiate between vivek_sharma@mckinsey.com and vivek_sharma-xfr@mckinsey.com ! To keep things simple, I went for a truncated last name and agreed to an email ID of vivek_s@mckinsey.com. I had never imagined in the wildest of my dreams on what would follow in the future. Read on:
To give a background to those unaware of how lotus notes works, unlike other email clients, lotus notes assumes your name to be the same as your email ID. This means, it stores my name in its databases as “Vivek S” and not as “Vivek Sharma” (which, since I was five, for all practical/impractical and official/unofficial purposes, is the name I have been using). Things are all the more annoying since lotus notes does not even differentiate between names with the same letters. For example, if you type “Vivek S” in the address bar while sending an email, the stupid software will pick up vivek_s@mckinsey.com from the address book, not bothering that there is a “Vivek Sikaria”, a “Vivek Shankaran”, or a “Vivek Sharma” (my namesake) in the same address book, all having the same letters in their names!! This is unlike other mail clients where typing initial letters of a name will let you choose from the contacts that have the same letters in either name or email ID.
Now, since in all my email communication, my name appears as Vivek S, most people assume it to be my name. Thanks to this, for all practical purposes in the firm. I have been rechristened as “Vivek S”. Even all the official transactions including my salary slip, flight tickets etc. have my “new name” engraved on them (though I have been able to change some of them after repeated reminders). Not that the attempts to remind people that I am “Vivek Sharma” and not “Vivek S” have been successful. In fact, they have been real disasters as people ended up sending emails to my namesake in the Chicago office. Some of them include flight bookings, hotel bills etc. which are followed by frenzied responses from my namesake, asking the travel desk not to charge his credit card! One of my assistants has even recently emailed a scanned copy of my credit card, with CVV number to my namesake, I am just hoping that I don’t end up getting massive bills from Chicago in my next credit card statement!
A few months back I landed up at the ITC Kakatya hotel in Hyderabad and they won’t let me check-in since I did not have my passport with me. I was amazed why on earth would I need a passport to check-in into a hotel in India, especially when rest of my team did that without any hassles! I finally found out that the booking was done in my namesake’s name, who holds a US passport. Nevertheless, I finally managed to sort things out and gave them my business card. They signed me up for their rewards program and now I get monthly newsletters from them at my office address, with my name addressed as “Vivek Sharma, Associate Principal, McKinsey & Company”! Every time someone else from my team sees the newsletter and if I am around, I can be assured a full day of leg-pulling (which thankfully doesn’t happen too often, as I am out of office on most days).
I have been putting up at Ritz Carlton in Jakarta for most of my time in the past six months and every time I check-in, I find myself listed as a Singapore citizen, born in 1965 and Director of Development, Asia! That was another of my namesakes who doesn’t exist in the firm anymore. In spite of my repeatedly telling the hotel staff that this guy doesn’t exist in the firm anymore, they still end up messing it 8 out of 10 times. It is so annoying to find myself listed as 43 years old in their database!
But having namesakes can also have its advantages, one of which I got during my trip to Hong Kong last year in July. I landed up at the JW Marriot and was quite surprised with the exceptional courtesy these guys offered me, the goodies including free room upgrade, complimentary breakfast & drinks and access to their business lounge. I first of all assumed the special courtesy was thanks to a platinum credit card from a prominent bank that I flashed, but I soon realized something fishy, as none of my team members, including an EM, were getting any of those privileges. But I chose to keep quiet and enjoy the goodies. My doubts that it was a case of mistaken identities were confirmed at my checkout, when they handed over a box of chocolates and a birthday card to me. My birthday was a good seven months away! If this wasn’t enough, the hotel even sent me a “Platinum Plus” card a few days later, which apparently you get when you spend more than 75 nights a year in JWM properties. I don’t remember having spent more than 7 in my entire life!
A couple of years ago I would have never imagined a minor glitch in an email client would make so much of different to my life, but it has, and in the most unbelievable manner. It is quite annoying but at the same time quite funny at times as well. Here’s what IT can do to your lives!!

The slumdog phenomenon

2009-03-01T10:15:00.000+05:30

So amidst all the hype, Slumdog finally laughed its way to the Oscars, sweeping almost every award it was nominated for. The movie has truly proven to be the underdog movie of the decade, rising from a situation where its distributors backed out and Danny Boyle had to scout for a new distributor, who agreed for a limited release only. Rest of course is history.
Much has been written about what made the movie such a big hit. Whether it was the (seemingly unacceptable to some) unashamed portrayal of slums in India or the feel-good factor that the movie brought about in these depressing times, it is difficult to say what exactly made the film click. If you take my personal opinion, it was a good movie, but I am not sure whether it was really worth the 8 (or 9, I couldn't care less) Oscars it won. I think there have been several movies in the past which were much better than Slumdog, but probably it was the Slumdog phenomenon that blew everyone away. So much so that, even a movie like The Dark Knight, both a commercial blockbuster and critically acclaimed movie, totally lost its sheen to this year-end hype. Look at Jai Ho, which has turned out to be a phenomenon. Does any of the ARR fans believe this song would even figure in his all time top-20 compilations? No way! Same with Gulzar, of all the hundreds of masterpieces he created in his 50 year career, he just needed lady luck to smile on him for just an average song to get this award!
Back in India, the movie has created substantial hype, especially after the Oscar wins and the slum-kids going all the way to the Kodak theater for the for the red carpet. I have been reading some interesting developments including people protesting the term "Slumdog" and opposing the portrayal of the "other face of India". I guess rather than crying foul, the movie should actually be an eye-opener for we Indians. In spite of the advances we made in IT and manufacturing, in spite our professionals proving their mettle across the globe,in spite of the 9% growth rates, we cannot hide the fact that we are still a country that still has hundreds of millions of people living in abject poverty, people who do not have access to even the basic of needs-housing, sanitation, health care and education. Why are we claiming Slumdog shows India in poor light? Is it not the true picture of a sizable population in India? It is high time we also looked at the plight of "Whining India" instead of just basking on "Shining India" and worked to improve the living standards of the people living in slums.
We Indians hate to look at the hard realities. The movie in no way criticizes the slums of India, it is in fact quite an outstanding portrayal of the hope that exists even among the minds of poorest of these people, but some people find this offensive. Some even accuse this will start a new wave of "Slum tourism"! Why are we so defensive? Why can't we accept the fact that our infrastructure sucks? Why can't we accept that almost 30% of our billion plus population still does not attend the school? Why can't we sportingly accept that we are a developing nation, and are getting there, and getting there very fast? We still need to bridge significant gap compared to the developing world, and if we are confident that we are on the right track to bridge this gap, we should not be ashamed of accepting the present. Else, we will be simply living in a fool's paradise without realizing the ground realities.

Indonesia tales

2009-02-28T22:52:00.000+05:30

A lot has happened since I scribbled something on my blog. Oil prices dropped down from 150$ to ~35$ a barrel, USA got a new President, the world slipped into probably its worst recession ever, Merril Lynch and Lehman Brothers went kaput, our PM got a surgery done, Satyam created a flutter in the entire IT industry, slumdog became the underdog at the oscars, and of course, on top of all newsboards these days is the massive bailouts being planned across the globe. Even the newspapers bear a completely changed look these days. Flip through any financial newspaper six months ago and one would find news about companies making record profits and having massive expansion plans, stocks markets going at record highs and B-schools setting new records in placement. Turn to today, the newspapers are agong with companies making record losses, every corporation is talking about layoffs and cost cutting, while there are many others filing for bankruptcy.

Coming to the main theme of this post-I am taking a shot at an altogether different category of "current affairs" this time. Read on to find out:

The past few months also have had quite interesting developments on my personal front as well. I have been out of India for almost six months now, save the once-in-a-while weekend or extended weekend trips to India. This is the first time I have been away for so long and initially I was quite excited to be working out of India. Overall it has been quite an overwhelming experience, working across boundaries, aquanting with different cultures, experimenting with cuisine and exploring several places where I probably would never visit again in my life. I will never forget hopping onto a ferry along with our Innova after a gruelling 10-hour drive and then driving further for ~2 hours through dense forests to this place called Kotabaru where probably I was the first foreigner to visit the place ever. Another one was to a place called Tanjung Uban where I had to step into a motorboat and traverse into the sea, we had no life jackets and I didn't know how to swim! Finally, having reached that place, someone informed the local police that there was some foreigner moving around in the town. The next day, a policeman and an immigration guy landed up in my client's office and asked for my passport. They took it away for verification and gave it back after 3 hours! Those were probably the scariest 3 hours of my life! If that was not enough, we were taken out for lunch at a Padang restaurant and I could not eat anything. I survived on fried and instant noodles for four days! And how can I forget the Padang food-standard serving is at least 20 dishes on the table-all served at once and the guys charge you only for what you eat. Rest is served to the next customer. Doesn't sound hygenic but you can't be a chooser in the middle of nowhere! What added flavor to all these adventures have been the airlines in indonesia. My key takeaway-never ask them for a seat preference-you will get the worst seat available on the plane. I had to travel in economy in domestic flights a few times and whenever I asked for an emergency row seat, I was dispatched to the last row! But there were a couple of instances when I got it (pulling my language assistant for talking to the airline staff helped!). So on those days, even though I was supposed to be the guy to open the emergency exit door in case of an emergency, the air hostesses would come, give their instructions in Bahasa (Indonesian language) without even bothering to ask me if I understood even a word of it, and go away! No wonder Indonesian airlines have a poor safety track record and are not allowed to fly anywhere to Europe! And of course, every flight in Indonesia comes with complementary weather turbulences where you can be almost blown off your seat, and landings when you feel as if the aircraft is going to turn turtle at the drop of a hat!

People in Indonesia are quite friendly in striking up a conversation and whenever I meet someone here, this is the typical first conversation I end up having most of the time:

Q: Vivek, are you married?

A: No

Q: Oh, so then you must be having a girlfriend!! Is she from India?

A: I don't have a girlfriend. I am happily single (P.S. The stress on "happily" is deliberate and straight from the heart)

Q: How is this possible?(looking at me, shocked!) I don't believe this (scratching his/her head)!! How can you be not married and not even have a girlfriend (bewildered look)?

A: Yes, it's true, you have a living example in front of you, and it's purely by choice! (smiling as usual)

A related interesting development has been the speed at which all my ex-classmates and friends are walking down the isle. On an average, I am receiving at least one wedding invitation every week (there are three for next week though, all in the same city). This is really making me think if it is the time for me to get cruxified as well. I always thought I had plenty of time on my hands to think about it. (I still believe the same!) But with so many wedding invitations being poured in, I am being forced to think whether I've grown old enough to bite the bullet! I talked to one of my friends today-he just got his 3-year old daughter enrolled in school. Gosh!!

I also realized I am spending a lot more time on the social networking sites these days, though I blame it on the loneliness here in Indonesia-an alien country with nothing to do but work, and a limited circle of people to talk to, or hang out with. Thankfully, I am still not at the desperate extent of flipping through profiles of pretty faces on orkut/facebook/myspace and dropping messages like "hi, can we be friends", etc.!! Hope that doesn't happen as well!

This was my first attempt at going beyond current affairs, though my initial intent was different. Hope you liked reading. Do pour in your suggestions. Your inputs on topics for fresh posts will be highly welcome. I am anyways looking for some alternative careers in these times of recession, your inputs on whether I can make it as a professional blogger on not will be highly welcome.

Cheerio,

Vivek

Groping for answers

2008-08-22T00:05:00.000+05:30

A lot of water has flown since I uploaded my last blog. Throughout this week I had been desperate to write but the excessive workload got the better of me. Situation is no better even now but I am using the time I have on my hands by the time my car reaches my hotel in Colombo, an hour’s drive from my client’s plant.
The situation in Jammu and Kashmir has aggravated to astronomical proportions. No one, even those well-acquainted with the fragile relationship between the valley and rest of India, would have ever imagined that the chain of events-starting from what was a routine administrative decision and its subsequent revocation, will lead to the situation today. Kashmir is back to its 1989 days, with lakhs of supporters of a Kashmir independent of India, spilling onto the streets chanting anti-India and pro-Pakistan, pro-freedom slogans. People in the valley are now talking about putting an end to the “forced occupation of Kashmir by India since 1947”. The Hurriyat and other separatist parties, which were on the brink of oblivion, have suddenly got a fresh lease of life. Situation has become all the more complicated with the mainstream political parties in Kashmir, primarily to secure their vote bank (the PDP and NC), also echoing sentiments similar to those of the separatists and joining the anti-India protests in the valley. The line separating mainstream parties and separatist elements is fast disappearing and this does not augur well for India. It looked like peace was finally returning to the valley but the pathetically inept handling of the entire issue by the centre has ensured all the good work done in the past few years in the valley has come to a nought.
The massive public outcry in the valley in the past few weeks clearly indicates India has faltered in handling the Kashmir issue. Even after 61 years of accession to India and the center doling out massive benefits to win the confidence of people from the valley, it has failed to bring the Kashimiri Muslim community on its side. Everything within the book has been tried-article 370, special economic packages, healing touch policy, promotion of democracy talks with separatist elements at various levels; but all these initiatives have failed miserably. In fact, each of these initiatives has been exploited by the separatist elements to further alienate the valley from rest of India. This brings me to the question I am trying to raise in my blog today. Is it worth to have Kashmir stay with India or should we let it go? I will also delve on various options currently suggested from various quarters, and my own opinion on each of these. I am no political expert, but giving my opinions as a commoner. Please note the sequence of options is not in any order.

1. The first option, which a vast section of the valley wants, is going by the UN resolution of 1948 of holding a referendum in the valley under the supervision of UN watchdogs and let them decide their future. Pakistan has been harking on this point since forever but the situations between 1948 and 2008 have grossly changed. First of all, this referendum has to be held in both Indian-occupied and Pakistan-occupied Kashmir under a joint military control. Unless India and Pakistan are not willing to vacate their territories, this cannot happen. Another point is that demography of the two areas has vastly changed over the past 60 years. Lakhs of Kashmiri Pandits have been driven out of the massive anti-Hindu militancy in early 90’s in Kashmir, similarly in PoK, several Pakistanis have settled in the region over the past 60 years while many ethnic minorities have been cleaned up there as well. Any decision on the region needs to involve all the people, which seems quite complicated now. I am emotionally biased towards not going for this option as I know if we do a referendum in the valley today; it will for sure not be in favor of India, whatever the reasons might be.

2. Second option is for India to let go of Kashmir and let the KM community decide it future course of action. This will be a desperate decision for India and all Indians. Even in 60 years we have failed to change the mindset of a majority of the KM community. It costs us billions every year to maintain massive troops in the valley. We lose hundreds of our valiant army men every year fighting the enemy within. We spend so much of our energy and resources on trying to make Kashmir a part of mainstream India, but results are futile. A significant section of KMs still do not feel a part of India. Had it not been for Kashmir, the four wars between India and Pakistan probably would never have happened. Most of the extremist activities in India today have a Kashmir angle. It does not help that we are a moderate, secular democracy, where secularism has taken an entirely new shape-that of appeasing members from one particular community. Keeping this in retrospective, our government will never take the anti-national elements head-on. We have not been able to execute one Afzal Guru in spite of his being convicted in the attack on the supreme authority of the Indian constitution, the Parliament house; doing something like a Tienmann square against the separatist elements in India cannot even be dreamt of!! So does this all mean we should, or eventually have to, let Kashmir go? Not really.
Letting go of Kashmir is fraught with several emotional. political and strategic risks for India. First, people like me will be disappointed if this happens. For the past 60 years we have used every possible forum to promote that “Kashmir is an integral part of India” and we have invested significant money, resources and even lost precious lives in making that happen. We cannot let go of Kashmir to a bunch of protestors who are exploiting the secular credentials of India and its softness on extremist. The decision will also have several political and strategic repercussions. An independent Kashmir is expected to develop better relationships with Pakistan and China and there is a high possibility that it could become the launching pad for extremist activities in rest of India. Imagine China setting up a missile base in Srinagar-they will have easy access to Delhi even with their low-end missiles. Further, with an independent Kashmir bordering northern India, Pakistani and Chinese armies will have easy access to the Indian borders and they may use this to launch a military offensive against India. A Muslim-dominated valley can easlly become the new university of terrorism in the world which Pakistan is desperate to shift out of its country. I am not saying that all Muslims are terrorists, but any nation created on the basis of a religion is bound to be prone to religious extremism, in this case it being Islamic terrorism.
Forgoing Kashmir can also have serious implications on the fragile fabric of entire India. Let us not forget that India was formed by a merger of hundreds of princely states in 1947, many of them being forced acquisitions as well. Liberating Kashmir will encourage many of such fragilely-bound states to raise their voice. The struggle for freedom in the North-East may intensify with demands like “If Kashmir, why not us?”, or even in some parts of West Bengal and South India. In short, forgoing Kashmir may actually open a Pandora’s box, resulting in dissolution of the Indian state, similar to what happened to the USSR in early nineties.

3. Some political parties in J&K have been pushing for giving greater autonomy to the state. This will mean additional powers to the state, which already enjoys special status under article 370. Under autonomy, the state will have its own Prime Minister and the centre will have minimum control on the state. Autonomy will bring not only additional privileges to the state, but will also further alienate the valley from the country. People like me, who want Kashmir to be brought closer to mainstream India, will never accept this.

4. Another option, but which seems unviable in a moderate democracy like India, is the use of force to silence such elements. Ideally, we should get rid of the anti-India elements-shoot/impeach a few of them, arrest a few others; and present a hard-line stand that there is no place in India for people who say against the nation. But this is unlikely to happen as we are not known to be a hardliner state and even our governments in centre are wary of taking these issues head-on. Further, a hard-line state might also alienate some sections of the society and cause religious extremism to rise.

5. Now here comes what I feel could be the solution to the turmoil. People might tend to disagree but I would reiterate, this is my personal opinion. We need to adopt a carrot-and-stick approach in the valley. The Indian government must launch a massive campaign simultaneously in the valley and the rest of India around why the demand for azadi for Kashmir does not make logical sense. An independent Kashmir cannot survive on its own due to its land-locked nature and limited resources of its own to create a self-sustaining economy. Friendly overtures with Pakistan can be dangerous; their track-record in keeping their promises is legendry. This message needs to go clearly to the common man on the streets of Kashmir. They need to realize that it makes sense for them to be with one of the fastest growing economies in the world, and a future superpower, rather than being with a failed state which itself is struggling for its own existence. In addition, the government needs to create job opportunities for the people in the state. Many individuals are enticed to extremism due to the attractive money they are offered for deviating from the mainstream. Even though the educated class of the valley also has anti-India sentiments, most of it does not really involve in anti-national activities as such individuals are more concerned about building their careers. The alienation from the valley has to go away and this can come through mutual dialogue and addressing at least the genuine demands of the valley. The government should bring all the stakeholders onto the table and those talking nonsense should be thrown out of any sort of negotiations.
At the same time, we should not hesitate from using force as and when needed, a point in case being the recent march to Muzaffarabad. The government should have stopped it in the first place, but the government’s weakness was highlighted when it let the march happen and haplessly watched Indian flags being burnt in the valley. The anti-national leaders need to be reprimanded clearly that if they want to be in India, they have to speak for the country. An individual like Syed Geelani who openly declares that he is a Pakistani, should not be allowed to be in India and should be deported to Pakistan. Even the mainstream leaders like Mehbooba Mufti who has been issuing provocative statements, should be arrested for raising communal passions.
We need to drop our soft attitude towards terrorism. The likes of Afzal Guru must be hanged immediately to send a strong message to the community that anti-nationalism will not be tolerated. Further, the government should also frame a clear policy towards Kashmir. For the situation in the state today, the central government has no one to blame but herself. Our leaders set quiet and let the situation go out of their hand. They woke up only a couple of days ago when they finally arrested the Hurriyat leaders. But by then, the damage had already been done!

Today, not only the government, but every person in the country is under this dilemma-how can the ongoing fire in the two regions subside? Unless the Indian government does not show a firm resolve to resolve the issue and put its strongest foot forward, Kashmir will continue to burn as the rest of India continues to simmer in its heat.

Why does Kashmir cry foul

2008-08-18T18:01:00.002+05:30

For years Kashmir has been relying on massive grants from successive central goverments. Even after 61 years of being a part of India, the state has failed to create a self-sustaining economy. Think about what will happen if the central government stopped showering money to the state and treated it at par with other states; it will not take us more than five years to turn into another Bihar!
There is a widespread mistrust in the valley towards India but that can be explained and also resolved!
1. Article 370 that ensured the state always remained aloof from rest of the country, socially and culturally. Because outsiders have been refused entry into the state by not being allowed to buy property and set up industries, there was never any cultural exchange of the valley with rest of India. Back in the valley, the extremist elements took advantage of the isolation in the valley and made sure that by the time a Kashmiri muslim learns how to speak, he has enough venom in his mind towards India.
2. The politicians, be it the Hurriyat or the mainstream poltical parties (including several national political parties), all have exploited the post-1947 situation to their benefit. Successive governments let extremism propagate under their nose but little did they bother to control it as long as their vote bank was secure. Many of the mainstream parties, including the Congress, NC & PDP have for years indulged in double-speak. It's high-time the people in Kashmir understood this. At the end of the
day, who suffers? It's the common man on the street, not the leaders who live in high-security and move in bullet-proof cars!

3. Presence of army in Kashmir is indeed hurting the people and I admit they may be wrong at times, but such things are bound to happen in Kashmir, where the anti-India sentiment is extremely strong. If the situation in Kashmir improves and all the anti-national and extemist activities stop, army will be out of Kashmir. No questions on that! Even the Indian government does not like spending billions of dollars every year on maintaining the security situation in Kashmir! In fact this money can be spent for the betterment of the state and bringing it back to what it used to be-The heaven on earth!
But little will our "pro-azadi" supporters understand this!

A victory and then a downer-Jammu tales continued

2008-08-09T21:20:00.000+05:30

First of all, those expecting an installment of Galle tales in this post are sure to meet with disappointment. There have been some fresh developments which I could not resist from sharing with all of you. So here we go.

I was feeling ecstatic yesterday, when the three individuals who claim to "represent the sentiments and aspirations of Jammu and Kashmir", were denied entry into a central-governement sponsored meeting meant to broker peace with the SASS (the group that is spearheading the campaign in Jammu), even though they were representing the team from central government. These three will definitely top of the list of those completely responsible for the current situation (in addition to Mufti,Omar,Hurriyat Conference and the Congress leadership-both central and state), and hence their presence on a group meant to find a solution to the problem did not make sense at all! In fact I believed we had achieved the first victory in for our self-respect and that too a big one at that! At least from August 9 onwards, these three will not be able to say that they represent the STATE of Jammu and Kashmir. The people of Jammu gave them the taste of their own medicine by refusing to talk to them.

But my happiness was short-lived, not that I expected anything better from the government. But it is really shocking that even though the central team was supposedly formed to defuse tensions in Jammu, it has ended up appeasing the anti-national sentiments. Today the government announced that traders in Kashmir who have had to suffer losses because of the so-called "economic blockade" from Jammu region, will be suitably compensated-all this at their threat of sending goods to Muzaffarabad (for the uninitiated, a city in PoK which was a couple of years ago connected to Srinagar via a road)!!

So, again a blackmail from a section of people and the government's relucatance to take them head-on has again landed the government into a questionable spot. This also goes on to show that while the Indian government considers the concerns of people who raise Pakistani flags, burn Indian flags and raise anti-India slogans as legitimate, those protesting for self-respect in their own country, are not at all important! Where else in the past in India have people been compensated because of losses due to protests? West Bengal is closed for 200+ days of the year due to strikes. Did the governement ever compensate the traders there? Why is the government so much concerned about the well-being of the people who in the first place do not even believe India is their own country? What is the kind of message we are trying to send across? That this country values only those who raise anti-national slogans, else you are a part of a billion-strong crowd that does not matter!!

While the government has already done suicidal mistakes by spitting and then licking back on the Amarnath land transfer issue, it is further complicating the situation and is getting itself deeper into the pit. The government still believes that like always, the people in Jammu will finally shut their mouths while the sentiments of Kashmir need to be kept in check. But this time, they are grossly mistaken and even after 45 days of unrest, it seems the government has still not realized it. This reaction of the government to the ongoing tussle will have far-reaching repurcussions. Public opiniong all over India is strongly building up in favor of the protests in Jammu and against what has been happening in Kashmir, it's high time the government realized this.

The media finally seems to have woken up to the fact that the anguish of people of Jammu is indeed genuine, and that the protests are not communal or driven by political parties. The past couple of days have seen much more news-space being granted to print and digital media, but the stand they have taken is still variable. I am particularly disappointed with the timesgroup who have given limited coverage to the events in Jammu. While Yasin Malik's illness makes first-page headlines both in print and the internet, they didn't even bother to mention the martyrdom of people from Jammu in the protests.

While media has finally stepped in, I expect different messages and perspectives to come out. For all the readers of this blog, I am repeating the following points just to make sure those not completely aware with the situation in Jammu are not left confused:

1. This is not a Hindu vs Muslim fight. People from all communities in Jammu are supporting the building up of shelters for pilgrims at Amarnath and for the larger issue of continuous discrimination that Jammu has faced over the past 60 years
2. People are protesting against the appeasement policies of the government. Every time an anti-India slogan is raised in Kashmir, every time an Indian flag is burnt there, the government starts offering them goodies instead of taking them head-on
3.People in Jammu too have sentiments, they can't be played around with; especially when each inhabitant of Jammu feels for the country, people from all communities included

Thank you for reading through this. As before, please do not fail to post your comments.

For the people in Jammu Part 2

2008-08-07T23:11:00.000+05:30

Friends,

Thank you so much for your tremendous response and commenting on my first post. This has really encouraged me to take up blogging more regularly. Unfortunately I have been neck-deep into work this week and am not able to put something substantial into this post. But apart from a hundred other items, I am adding another blog post to my list of to-dos over the weekend (those working with me know this. These days my standard response to any fresh piece of work or a query is, "I will do this over the weekend!"
I just read through two articles on Hindustan times, one by Prof.Amitabh Mattoo, one of the better-known and highly respected academicians in J&K, and another one by Mirwaiz Omar Farooq, the Chairman of the moderate faction of the APHC (All Party Hurriyat Conference). Read through the two articles. I personally found Amitabh Mattoo's solution as the most logical while Mirwaiz as usual struggles with words to justify the stand the APHC has been taking. Read through the two articles:

Link to Prof.Mattoo's article:
http://www.hindustantimes.com/storypage/storypage.aspx?id=49c777eb-6b1c-49c8-9db3-92eb2b54f2d4&ParentID=ad00c103-87f0-4b16-8b4b-e1d590b8afc5&MatchID1=4728&TeamID1=2&TeamID2=3&MatchType1=1&SeriesID1=1191&PrimaryID=4728&Headline=I+suggest...HT+forum

Link to Mirwaiz's article:
http://www.hindustantimes.com/storypage/storypage.aspx?id=49c777eb-6b1c-49c8-9db3-92eb2b54f2d4&ParentID=ad00c103-87f0-4b16-8b4b-e1d590b8afc5&MatchID1=4728&TeamID1=2&TeamID2=3&MatchType1=1&SeriesID1=1191&PrimaryID=4728&Headline=I+suggest...HT+forum

In addition, I have also started a community in orkut through which we intend to push for a separate state of Jammu. Those interested may join. I've just started, so am currently struggling to build up a sizeable membership base before I start thinking about next steps. Here is the link to the community:
http://www.orkut.co.in/Community.aspx?cmm=49935020

I guess it is also time to move a bit away from politics. In my next post I will be sharing some tales from my visit to Galle in Sri Lanka last week.

Thanks for reading through this.

For the people in Jammu

2008-08-05T23:24:00.000+05:30

The recent events in my state of Jammu and Kashmir may not have mattered much to people as a whole, but these have shattered the souls of each and every Hindu in the state. I apologize if this sounds communal, but unfortunately this is a fact-the state today stands clearly divided on communal lines. The people in Jammu are demanding the land to the shrine board be given back, so that temporary shelters can be created for pilgrims visiting the Amarnath shrine. Please note the words in bold-this is what the original order said, but the so called proponents of the spirit of Kashmiriyat protested this move saying that this was a move to change the demographic structure of the state! Is it wrong to build a shelter for people who face inhumane conditions every year during the yatra? By these people, this was seen as the first step to infuse some Hindus back into Kashmir, which could jeopardize their plans to push for a separate homeland for Kashmiri muslims. By giving in to their demands, the government has meekly surrendered to the anti-national elements. This also goes on to show that the dream of Kashmiri pandits to go back to their homelands does not look like a possibility, at least in the near future. We have seen the reaction to this step which just aimed to build temporary shelters for hindu pilgrims, it is not difficult to imagine what will happen if an attempt to bring back the Kashmiri migrants into the mainstream of the valley or even a Panun Kashmir (a separate homeland in the valley for Kashmiri pandits, which the Kashmiri migrants have been demanding) is initiated.

Some of you may be wondering whether these protests, in which people are dying, communal tensions are flaring up and the entire state has transformed into a virtual war-zone over the past one month, are really worth it? Let me tell you, on face value, these may not really seem worth; that people are fighting for a few acres of land. But this incident has been just the tipping point. For the past 60 years, the people from Jammu have been subjected to massive discrimination. We never wanted article 370, it was forced on us. We never wanted the special status which has alienated us from the rest of the country. And all these years, the governments at the center kept appeasing the Kashmiri majority community. The people from Jammu do not get government jobs, they do not get seats in government colleges, they pay all the taxes while even the basic amenities are denied to them. This has been happening for all of the past 60 years-this is the prize they have got for showing solidarity with India, while those openly against the country have been appeased to the most shameful of limits-the latest example being just one of the countless other instances.

What is all the more painful is the apathy shown by both the government and media towards the anguish of protestors. No one in the media has come out in the open to support what is a genuine cause for the nation's integrity. While the media is quick to take note of any protests in the valley, precious little space has been given to what has been happening in Jammu for more than a month now. Even the government, in spite of the massive public outrage, still chooses to appease the anti-national sentiments. As per the latest statement from the center, the state authorities have been directed to control the violence in Jammu "at all costs" while there is no mention of addressing to the core issue.

The events in the past two months have opened up the wounds of Jummuties who have been living with these for years now. These are not going to heal very soon and unless the government does not give in to their demands, the protests are not going to stop. I am supporting my brethren in these protests and believe every sane Indian citizen will resonate with the feelings that I am nurturing.

Thanks for reading through this long post. Please feel free to add your comments. I will be updating my blog on a regular basis from now on.