Anna’s revolution has not only galvanised the common man, it has also transformed some very powerful individuals in the country.
The chief minister of Karnataka Yeddyurappa who so far has been reeling under one charge of corruption after another has decided to turn into a new leaf. He is currently drawing up a list of all the assets he and his family have acquired including the land they have grabbed. Once the exercise is over, he plans to return all the ill gotten wealth to the state. And that’s not the end of it. He also plans to give up the chair of the chief minister that he has been clinging desperately to for so many months now despite the opposition from his own party. He has decided to spend the rest of his life emulating the Gandhian Hazare and leading a frugal existence. He is giving up his obsession about cricket and cricketers. Instead he will plant a million saplings across the state to raise awareness about environmental degradation.
How do I know all this? Arrey baba, If he wasn’t planning to do all this, why will he come out publicly in support of Anna Hazare? No one can be that out of touch with reality.
The leader of opposition Sushma Swaraj has also turned into a new leaf. You remember how way back in 2005, she had threatened to shave her head if Sonia Gandhi became the prime minister. Well Sonia didn’t...and Sushma lost her chance to shave her head. But now she is determined to get her mundan done as a mark of protest against all the illegal mining activities of the Reddy brothers. She is no longer interested in patronising them. She has realized how wrong she was in supporting the brothers.
How do I know all this? Arrey baba, if she wasn’t planning to do her mundan, why will she come out publicly in support of Anna Hazare and also talk about an all party meet to combat corruption. No one can be that duplicitous.
The chairman of Infosys, N R Narayana Murthy, has asked his leadership team to draw up a list of the land his organization has acquired in Karnataka, Andra Pradesh and various other Indian states by demanding it from the respective governments. He raised the pertinent question about how much land does an IT organization need for running the business. “Surely not hundreds of acres,” he thundered in a specially convened board meeting. His wife Sudha Murthy who is a board member was present in the meeting. She also chipped in by saying “We must be wise...not otherwise.” Mr Narayana Murthy also pledged that Infosys will go back to its initial vision of creating wealth for all its employees and to this end he and his family members would personally distribute more than 70% of the equity they hold to the employees of the organization or liquidate the shares to build more schools, roads and other infrastructure facilities in the cities where Infosys has offices.
How do I know all this? Arrey baba, if he wasn’t ready to put his money where his mouth is as most businessmen and industrialists are fond of saying, why will he come out in support of Anna Hazare and his crusade against corruption? No one can be that contradictory.
Now all we need to do from our side is to find out what time frame have all these worthy leaders set for achieving these personal milestones.
I am keenly awaiting their next set of public declarations. Are you?
Saturday, April 9, 2011
Friday, April 8, 2011
Not a shallow victory
The naysayers may be shaking their heads in mock dismay. But Anna Hazare cleared the fence yesterday. He smashed a sixer drowning the celebration of Dhoni and his IPL team. KKR and the government have one thing in common. The tag of underachievers sits easy on both of them.
The cynics would have us believe there is more to this victory than meets the eye. Maybe there is. Maybe it is not as simple and straight forward as it looks. Maybe as the whispers go, Anna Hazare is nothing more than a pawn in the hands of someone more powerful who’s pulling the strings. My response to all this negativity is so what?
As things unfolded in the past few days, it wasn’t left to a frail old man fasting in the capital and his band of initial supporters to champion the cause of a cleaner system and to put an end to corruption. You and I were part of it too. The nation joined in with a hitherto unknown frenzy. We can question the mob hysteria with all the irony at our disposal. Was it really an uprising as the television channels painted it out to be or was it just a ‘comic revolution of an obsolete man’ as the editor of a popular weekly called it. We can go on arguing till the cows come home without the two sides reaching a consensus. But does any of that really matter.
For me, what happened in the last few days is nothing short of remarkable. Not because I ever believed this one movement would put an end to the malaise of corruption. Or that the Lok Pal bill is going to achieve this feat. All we managed together as a nation was to get a feudal political party and a corrupt government to climb down from their high horse and engage them in an eye ball to eye ball contest. They blinked first. I woke up this morning feeling triumphant about that.
No one bribed me or misled me to be part of this movement. I was aware of its limitations and I didn’t expect things to change miraculously at the end of it.
There is a long road ahead but I am prepared to walk on it now. I don’t care whether the man who started it all will be with me on this journey. I am prepared to walk alone if it comes to that.
I am committed to nail each and every lie that Manmohan Singh and his ministers come up with in the future. In my own way. Through my writings, through discourses and debates, through songs that would be sung and dreams that would be dreamt. I am as committed to do this with any other government, any other party that will succeed this one.
I am going to do my damndest to ensure the country in which my son transitions to adulthood is cleaner, has less corruption than the country in which I turned into an adult. And being part of every confrontation, every movement that leads to this.
That much is enough for me. More than enough.
The cynics would have us believe there is more to this victory than meets the eye. Maybe there is. Maybe it is not as simple and straight forward as it looks. Maybe as the whispers go, Anna Hazare is nothing more than a pawn in the hands of someone more powerful who’s pulling the strings. My response to all this negativity is so what?
As things unfolded in the past few days, it wasn’t left to a frail old man fasting in the capital and his band of initial supporters to champion the cause of a cleaner system and to put an end to corruption. You and I were part of it too. The nation joined in with a hitherto unknown frenzy. We can question the mob hysteria with all the irony at our disposal. Was it really an uprising as the television channels painted it out to be or was it just a ‘comic revolution of an obsolete man’ as the editor of a popular weekly called it. We can go on arguing till the cows come home without the two sides reaching a consensus. But does any of that really matter.
For me, what happened in the last few days is nothing short of remarkable. Not because I ever believed this one movement would put an end to the malaise of corruption. Or that the Lok Pal bill is going to achieve this feat. All we managed together as a nation was to get a feudal political party and a corrupt government to climb down from their high horse and engage them in an eye ball to eye ball contest. They blinked first. I woke up this morning feeling triumphant about that.
No one bribed me or misled me to be part of this movement. I was aware of its limitations and I didn’t expect things to change miraculously at the end of it.
There is a long road ahead but I am prepared to walk on it now. I don’t care whether the man who started it all will be with me on this journey. I am prepared to walk alone if it comes to that.
I am committed to nail each and every lie that Manmohan Singh and his ministers come up with in the future. In my own way. Through my writings, through discourses and debates, through songs that would be sung and dreams that would be dreamt. I am as committed to do this with any other government, any other party that will succeed this one.
I am going to do my damndest to ensure the country in which my son transitions to adulthood is cleaner, has less corruption than the country in which I turned into an adult. And being part of every confrontation, every movement that leads to this.
That much is enough for me. More than enough.
Thursday, April 7, 2011
Why we need Anna Hazare
It’s not about corruption. It can’t be. Because if it was only about corruption, then none of us are exempt from it. We have all lied, bribed, taken unfair advantage of a situation in some way or the other. It could have been a ticket that we have bought in black. It could have been the commission we had to pay to jump the queue. It could have been the stack of cash under the table we have slipped for a licence. The scale may have varied but we have all played our part in nurturing corruption. And it’s not as if by admitting to our role in fostering corruption we have won ourselves some reprieve. In fact Anna’s crusade is as much against us as it is against the politicians. So why do we feel compelled to support this old man who has been doing his best to make us look and feel bad.
I think the dam simply burst. Just because we have been corrupt does not mean we have liked being in that position. Especially since most of us have been bribing rather than getting bribed. We have been paying rather than getting paid. And increasingly we have been discovering that whatever honour there was among the thieves who were looting us, looting the nation, has fast disappeared. It’s not as if India has not had bad governance in the past. But we have never had this level of deviousness from the ruling classes. Increasingly we have started to believe that not only have we been short changed but we are also being mocked for being in a position of being cheated. That it was our fault somehow to have landed ourselves in this situation.
And the man who has done this to us is none other than our Prime Minister Manmohan Singh. Here is a man who had a mandate of the entire nation behind him. We took him to be one of our own. As someone who had to compromise his integrity because he was forced to. Just like us. We believed his sense of purpose was so strong that he will first achieve whatever he had to and then ensure that we will transition into a cleaner system. Instead he has let us down like no other politician has. The decency we attributed to him has been arrogated by him and turned into an infuriating smugness. He was meant to liberate us. Instead the government he leads has mired the nation in one scam after another. And to add insult to injury he has remained totally immune to the charges levelled against his ministers. Forgetting that sooner or later the nation would wake up to a concept called collective responsibility that is not selective in affixing blame.
We no longer believe that the Prime Minister was not aware of what has happening right under his nose. We know now he knew and ignored what has happening to stay in power. Sonia Gandhi didn’t do this to him. He did this to himself. In his crusade for capitalism he seems to have forgotten all norms of basic human decency. What sense does a line like inflation is inevitable in our quest for growth make to a starving man unable to manage one square meal a day because of the unchecked price rise? How different is it from asking if they can’t afford bread, why don’t they eat cakes?
Make no mistake about it. Anna Hazare represents the greatest threat to this self serving government and its leader. For one the Gandhian has taken the wind out of the sails of the careful brand building of the Prime Minister. He has also emerged at a time when the personal credibility of Manmohan Singh is at an all time low. Sonia Gandhi has not appealed to Anna Hazare to end his fast out of humanitarian considerations. She has probably seen her dreams of positioning her son as the next Prime Minister go up in smoke if she does not assuage Anna’s feelings. And the feelings of the entire nation. The ruling classes are on their knees and for a change we, the citizens of this country, are feeling smug. While they squirm.
That’s why we need Anna Hazare.
I think the dam simply burst. Just because we have been corrupt does not mean we have liked being in that position. Especially since most of us have been bribing rather than getting bribed. We have been paying rather than getting paid. And increasingly we have been discovering that whatever honour there was among the thieves who were looting us, looting the nation, has fast disappeared. It’s not as if India has not had bad governance in the past. But we have never had this level of deviousness from the ruling classes. Increasingly we have started to believe that not only have we been short changed but we are also being mocked for being in a position of being cheated. That it was our fault somehow to have landed ourselves in this situation.
And the man who has done this to us is none other than our Prime Minister Manmohan Singh. Here is a man who had a mandate of the entire nation behind him. We took him to be one of our own. As someone who had to compromise his integrity because he was forced to. Just like us. We believed his sense of purpose was so strong that he will first achieve whatever he had to and then ensure that we will transition into a cleaner system. Instead he has let us down like no other politician has. The decency we attributed to him has been arrogated by him and turned into an infuriating smugness. He was meant to liberate us. Instead the government he leads has mired the nation in one scam after another. And to add insult to injury he has remained totally immune to the charges levelled against his ministers. Forgetting that sooner or later the nation would wake up to a concept called collective responsibility that is not selective in affixing blame.
We no longer believe that the Prime Minister was not aware of what has happening right under his nose. We know now he knew and ignored what has happening to stay in power. Sonia Gandhi didn’t do this to him. He did this to himself. In his crusade for capitalism he seems to have forgotten all norms of basic human decency. What sense does a line like inflation is inevitable in our quest for growth make to a starving man unable to manage one square meal a day because of the unchecked price rise? How different is it from asking if they can’t afford bread, why don’t they eat cakes?
Make no mistake about it. Anna Hazare represents the greatest threat to this self serving government and its leader. For one the Gandhian has taken the wind out of the sails of the careful brand building of the Prime Minister. He has also emerged at a time when the personal credibility of Manmohan Singh is at an all time low. Sonia Gandhi has not appealed to Anna Hazare to end his fast out of humanitarian considerations. She has probably seen her dreams of positioning her son as the next Prime Minister go up in smoke if she does not assuage Anna’s feelings. And the feelings of the entire nation. The ruling classes are on their knees and for a change we, the citizens of this country, are feeling smug. While they squirm.
That’s why we need Anna Hazare.
Anna Hazare versus Manmohan Singh
There’s something called the real thing. Something that cuts across empty rhetoric and stops at nothing short of action. The real thing is not reactive. The real thing is not mealy mouthed. The real thing does not believe in running with the hares and hunting with the hounds. The real thing is not Manmohan Singh. The real thing is Anna Hazare.
For months now we have been subjected to one scam after another and one blatant lie after another to cover the scams. We have seen how there are no exceptions to the rule of the corrupt politician in this country including the honourable prime minister with his dubious halo of personal integrity. As if it’s all right to be an honest leader of a gang of thieves. Today he stands exposed stripped of any personal glory. His image carefully cultivated by his party and nurtured by his own careful public declarations lies in shambles. He has done what he has always done when confronted with something that has the potential of damaging his image. He has gone into hiding and sent out the usual suspects to do his bidding. So now we have to endure Barkha Dutt interrogating Kabil Sibal on how the government is going to respond to the mass movement swelling on the ground. Talk about supreme irony!
There are many who are questioning whether the cause over which Anna Hazare has gone on fast and the entire nation is rallying around is big enough. Whether having citizen representation for the Lokpal bill will take care of the corruption in this country. I don’t think anyone believes that including Anna Hazare. But revolutions always come to life over a symbolic gesture.
We know now a 73 year old man can get the government scurrying. We know now how we can come together cutting across religious, political, parochial lines to take on the common enemy personified by the sleazy politician, oily babu and grasping corporation.
We know now we can go beyond the sham Manmohan Singh and look for some real inspiration from Anna Hazare.
For months now we have been subjected to one scam after another and one blatant lie after another to cover the scams. We have seen how there are no exceptions to the rule of the corrupt politician in this country including the honourable prime minister with his dubious halo of personal integrity. As if it’s all right to be an honest leader of a gang of thieves. Today he stands exposed stripped of any personal glory. His image carefully cultivated by his party and nurtured by his own careful public declarations lies in shambles. He has done what he has always done when confronted with something that has the potential of damaging his image. He has gone into hiding and sent out the usual suspects to do his bidding. So now we have to endure Barkha Dutt interrogating Kabil Sibal on how the government is going to respond to the mass movement swelling on the ground. Talk about supreme irony!
There are many who are questioning whether the cause over which Anna Hazare has gone on fast and the entire nation is rallying around is big enough. Whether having citizen representation for the Lokpal bill will take care of the corruption in this country. I don’t think anyone believes that including Anna Hazare. But revolutions always come to life over a symbolic gesture.
We know now a 73 year old man can get the government scurrying. We know now how we can come together cutting across religious, political, parochial lines to take on the common enemy personified by the sleazy politician, oily babu and grasping corporation.
We know now we can go beyond the sham Manmohan Singh and look for some real inspiration from Anna Hazare.
Tuesday, April 5, 2011
Afridi & India
Shahid Afridi is the new poster boy for Pakistan bashing if there can be such a thing. The media is out to crucify him over his contradictory views on India and Indians. After the semi final loss to India, the captain of the Pakistan team graciously conceded defeat after the match and spoke like a harbinger of peace. But once he went back to Pakistan he called Indians petty and small hearted. Apparently he was riled by Gautam Gambhir’s comment that he wanted to dedicate the world cup victory to the victims of 26/11. Afridi interpreted Gambhir’s comment to be political and attempting to show Pakistan in a bad light. The small detail that the world cup final was played in Bombay completely escaped him.
All Indians were hurt and angered by what happened on that fateful day in November in India’s largest metropolis and if one member of the Indian cricket team was moved enough to dedicate the cup to the victims, it does not mean he was being political. Afridi, on the other hand, has emulated a wily politician by changing his stance like a chameleon. But I don’t think we should be hasty in condemning him.
Firstly, there is the man himself. I remember there was a huge controversy about his age when he started to play for Pakistan. Afridi claimed he was 15 and the rest of the world took it with a pinch of salt. I don’t know whether he was as young as that when he started out, but the cricketing establishment in Pakistan was very keen to prove that he was younger than Sachin Tendulkar when the master blaster made his test debut. A lot of water has flowed under the bridge since then and we know where the two cricketers stand today with regard to each other not just where the game is concerned but as human beings too. One has stood up to Bal Thackeray and went on record to say Mumbai is for all Indians. The kindest conclusion we can draw about Afridi’s comments is that he has buckled under pressure exerted by the clergy in Pakistan.
In one of his Initial tours to India after he started playing for his country, Afridi was linked to an upcoming starlet of that time Sonali Bendre. Those days Star TV had a program on Pakistan that was aired on Sundays. Afridi was interviewed in the show and when he was quizzed about the link up, he preened “ Mujhe lagta hai Sonali ne hi mere bare mein yeh afwah faila di.” He sounded juvenile then. He hasn’t grown up much now.
And yet it’s not just about Afridi. It’s about Pakistan. About how an entire nation has just refused to grow up. I love Muslims. I love Urdu. I have huge regard for Islam, the first religion to foster equality. I love their food and I dare say if I ever visited Pakistan I will fall in love with the country too. That’s one country I really want to visit. Despite 26/11. Despite Kargil.
Because we have done a lot of unsavoury things to them as well. It’s like a family feud. If the younger sibling has displayed the occasional delinquent behaviour, we as the older sibling have been too quick to condemn them without getting to the root of the problem. We were hasty in labelling Pakistanis as enemies when the truth is we are family. I guess they carry that hurt and occasionally that leaks out in subversive acts. But how different are we to them? Once upon a time they sucked up to the US. Now we do the same. And the truth is the US took them for a ride and dumped them when it suited their purpose. We don’t need the Wikileaks to tell us Uncle Sam will do the same to us if we let him.
Pakistan has always needed our compassion not our condemnation. We know what one Bal Thackeray can do to the liberal ethos of Bombay. Forget the common man, how even the rich and powerful in the city are forced to play ball with him. Or for that matter what lies behind the progressive facade of Narendra Modi . Pakistan has many such Thackerays and Modis. And the state backs them. We know what’s been happening to liberal politicians in Pakistan opposing the blasphemy laws. They are shot down in cold blood. Even if Afridi wants to he can’t stand up to the bullying.
After all, he is no Tendulkar.
All Indians were hurt and angered by what happened on that fateful day in November in India’s largest metropolis and if one member of the Indian cricket team was moved enough to dedicate the cup to the victims, it does not mean he was being political. Afridi, on the other hand, has emulated a wily politician by changing his stance like a chameleon. But I don’t think we should be hasty in condemning him.
Firstly, there is the man himself. I remember there was a huge controversy about his age when he started to play for Pakistan. Afridi claimed he was 15 and the rest of the world took it with a pinch of salt. I don’t know whether he was as young as that when he started out, but the cricketing establishment in Pakistan was very keen to prove that he was younger than Sachin Tendulkar when the master blaster made his test debut. A lot of water has flowed under the bridge since then and we know where the two cricketers stand today with regard to each other not just where the game is concerned but as human beings too. One has stood up to Bal Thackeray and went on record to say Mumbai is for all Indians. The kindest conclusion we can draw about Afridi’s comments is that he has buckled under pressure exerted by the clergy in Pakistan.
In one of his Initial tours to India after he started playing for his country, Afridi was linked to an upcoming starlet of that time Sonali Bendre. Those days Star TV had a program on Pakistan that was aired on Sundays. Afridi was interviewed in the show and when he was quizzed about the link up, he preened “ Mujhe lagta hai Sonali ne hi mere bare mein yeh afwah faila di.” He sounded juvenile then. He hasn’t grown up much now.
And yet it’s not just about Afridi. It’s about Pakistan. About how an entire nation has just refused to grow up. I love Muslims. I love Urdu. I have huge regard for Islam, the first religion to foster equality. I love their food and I dare say if I ever visited Pakistan I will fall in love with the country too. That’s one country I really want to visit. Despite 26/11. Despite Kargil.
Because we have done a lot of unsavoury things to them as well. It’s like a family feud. If the younger sibling has displayed the occasional delinquent behaviour, we as the older sibling have been too quick to condemn them without getting to the root of the problem. We were hasty in labelling Pakistanis as enemies when the truth is we are family. I guess they carry that hurt and occasionally that leaks out in subversive acts. But how different are we to them? Once upon a time they sucked up to the US. Now we do the same. And the truth is the US took them for a ride and dumped them when it suited their purpose. We don’t need the Wikileaks to tell us Uncle Sam will do the same to us if we let him.
Pakistan has always needed our compassion not our condemnation. We know what one Bal Thackeray can do to the liberal ethos of Bombay. Forget the common man, how even the rich and powerful in the city are forced to play ball with him. Or for that matter what lies behind the progressive facade of Narendra Modi . Pakistan has many such Thackerays and Modis. And the state backs them. We know what’s been happening to liberal politicians in Pakistan opposing the blasphemy laws. They are shot down in cold blood. Even if Afridi wants to he can’t stand up to the bullying.
After all, he is no Tendulkar.
Tuesday, March 22, 2011
Launches, Writers & Friends...
Last Saturday was a ‘learning experience’ as the organizational cliché goes. I have never been nostalgic about the management institute I left behind 24 years ago. I made good friends while I was there and keep in touch with them. But I avoid reunions and alumni meetings because I find them to be full of fake bonhomie. I am also scared of running into some classmates who I have spotted in airports and ducked behind pillars just to avoid bumping into them. So it was after a lot of trepidation that I decided to approach Abhijit Bhaduri and Vasanthi Srinivasan to join me for a panel discussion during the Bangalore launch of my new book ‘The Boss is Not your Friend.’
Abhijit is two years my senior from XLRI and he graduated the year I joined. He has taken a lead in the writing too. His first novel was published a couple of years before Harper Collins published mine. I wanted to be the pioneer from the institute to have a work of fiction published by a leading publisher. Abhijit’s book took the wind out of my sails. I was sullen about it for years. Things got worse when my book came out and the classmates I ran into dismissed my achievement by saying ‘You have written a book. Like that senior of ours Abhijit Bhaduri.’ That was like rubbing salt to the wounds. Every time I spotted his book in a store, I moved away from the shelf that displayed it, pretending I hadn’t noticed a title that mocked me-‘Mediocre but Arrogant'.
A few years later I heard another book of his had been published and I didn’t react as badly as I had to his first one. By then two of my books had come out, I had been on two international writing residencies, wrote columns and reviews for newspapers and had learnt to introduce myself as a writer without feeling embarrassed. A couple of months ago, I came across a really kind review of my novel ‘Master of Life Skills’ by Abhijit in his blog. He had recommended the book to his fans and readers. I felt bad about having been so churlish towards him although he wouldn’t have known of all the hang ups I had about him and his book. I wrote to him thanking him and we broke the ice. But I was still apprehensive when I asked him to help me with the launch. To my surprise he agreed without any fuss.
I also read his second book “Married but Available’ before the launch and enjoyed it thoroughly. While I was reading it I was constantly admonishing myself that I shouldn’t like his book just because he had liked mine. Besides I was reading it just after I had read Kazuo Ishigaro’s ‘Never let me go’ that felt so precious that I wanted to never let it go. But Abhijit’s work had me captivated right from the first chapter. Partly because I could identify with it and partly because he practices an economy and precision with words that shows more than it tells. I especially like the portrayal of women in the book. They are real and substantive without wearing their feminism on their sleeves. I suspect Abhijit is a far deeper writer than the titles of his two books seem to indicate. I am waiting now to read his third novel whenever it comes out.
Vasanthi was my classmate in XLRI. She was a hardworking student who spent a lot of time with books unlike me who hardly ventured anywhere near them. She was also friendly and helpful. We used to have a horrible subject called Quantitative Techniques and a sadistic professor taught it. He used to revel in giving us one question in every paper that he set, that couldn’t be solved by anyone in class. He turned peevish if someone actually solved it. Vasanthi did it once and he was in a pretty foul mood for a week after that. I have always respected Vasanthi for that.
Although we have been in the same city for years now and I am occasionally invited to offer an elective course in IIM Bangalore, where Vasanthi is an Associate Professor, our paths have rarely crossed. That’s how it is in colleges and post graduate institutes. You settle down with your bunch of friends and you are in touch with them after you leave the place. Vasanthi and I were in different groups and so we didn’t remain in touch. As with Abhijit, I was apprehensive when I called Vasanthi to help out with the launch. She is well known in management and academic circles and her papers have been published in leading international journals. I thought she would scoff at a book like mine. To my surprise, she agreed immediately.
Thanks to Abhijit and Vasanthi, I had a launch that I have always dreamt of. They kept the event lively and entertaining. The audience was with us all through the discussion and the commissioning editor from another publishing house (not the one that published “The Boss is Not your Friend’) pointed out this was one of the few launches she attended where there were more questions than the time allotted for them.
Sometimes we wait for too long to have the right kind of friends in our lives.
Abhijit is two years my senior from XLRI and he graduated the year I joined. He has taken a lead in the writing too. His first novel was published a couple of years before Harper Collins published mine. I wanted to be the pioneer from the institute to have a work of fiction published by a leading publisher. Abhijit’s book took the wind out of my sails. I was sullen about it for years. Things got worse when my book came out and the classmates I ran into dismissed my achievement by saying ‘You have written a book. Like that senior of ours Abhijit Bhaduri.’ That was like rubbing salt to the wounds. Every time I spotted his book in a store, I moved away from the shelf that displayed it, pretending I hadn’t noticed a title that mocked me-‘Mediocre but Arrogant'.
A few years later I heard another book of his had been published and I didn’t react as badly as I had to his first one. By then two of my books had come out, I had been on two international writing residencies, wrote columns and reviews for newspapers and had learnt to introduce myself as a writer without feeling embarrassed. A couple of months ago, I came across a really kind review of my novel ‘Master of Life Skills’ by Abhijit in his blog. He had recommended the book to his fans and readers. I felt bad about having been so churlish towards him although he wouldn’t have known of all the hang ups I had about him and his book. I wrote to him thanking him and we broke the ice. But I was still apprehensive when I asked him to help me with the launch. To my surprise he agreed without any fuss.
I also read his second book “Married but Available’ before the launch and enjoyed it thoroughly. While I was reading it I was constantly admonishing myself that I shouldn’t like his book just because he had liked mine. Besides I was reading it just after I had read Kazuo Ishigaro’s ‘Never let me go’ that felt so precious that I wanted to never let it go. But Abhijit’s work had me captivated right from the first chapter. Partly because I could identify with it and partly because he practices an economy and precision with words that shows more than it tells. I especially like the portrayal of women in the book. They are real and substantive without wearing their feminism on their sleeves. I suspect Abhijit is a far deeper writer than the titles of his two books seem to indicate. I am waiting now to read his third novel whenever it comes out.
Vasanthi was my classmate in XLRI. She was a hardworking student who spent a lot of time with books unlike me who hardly ventured anywhere near them. She was also friendly and helpful. We used to have a horrible subject called Quantitative Techniques and a sadistic professor taught it. He used to revel in giving us one question in every paper that he set, that couldn’t be solved by anyone in class. He turned peevish if someone actually solved it. Vasanthi did it once and he was in a pretty foul mood for a week after that. I have always respected Vasanthi for that.
Although we have been in the same city for years now and I am occasionally invited to offer an elective course in IIM Bangalore, where Vasanthi is an Associate Professor, our paths have rarely crossed. That’s how it is in colleges and post graduate institutes. You settle down with your bunch of friends and you are in touch with them after you leave the place. Vasanthi and I were in different groups and so we didn’t remain in touch. As with Abhijit, I was apprehensive when I called Vasanthi to help out with the launch. She is well known in management and academic circles and her papers have been published in leading international journals. I thought she would scoff at a book like mine. To my surprise, she agreed immediately.
Thanks to Abhijit and Vasanthi, I had a launch that I have always dreamt of. They kept the event lively and entertaining. The audience was with us all through the discussion and the commissioning editor from another publishing house (not the one that published “The Boss is Not your Friend’) pointed out this was one of the few launches she attended where there were more questions than the time allotted for them.
Sometimes we wait for too long to have the right kind of friends in our lives.
Wednesday, March 16, 2011
Hospital Blues
An old lady in my apartment block got seriously burnt, a few days ago. She has a habit of lighting a candle after she had switched off all the lights in the house to guide her to her bedroom. The accident happened due to this quirk of hers. Her family rushed her to a hospital immediately only to be told she can't be admitted. The second and third hospital they took her to reacted in the same way. Finally, a fourth hospital they approached agreed reluctantly. The reason given by the hospitals that refused was that the victim was too old and likely to die on them.
The victim's family is affluent and they were willing to foot the expenses of the treatment. So you can well imagine what happens to the poor and deprived in this country.
It has been the turn of healthcare to be corporatized in this country in the last couple of decades. You have all these swanky looking hospitals in every city worth its salt that are run on the philosophy of greed. I was once asked to design a performance management form for the doctors of one such hospital. One measure they wanted was how many tests the doctor being assessed recommended for a patient who came to the hospital seeking treatment. The logic being the hospital had imported a number of expensive machines and needed to recover the cost of equipments. It didn't matter whether the patient needed the test or not.
Dr. Devi Shetty, one of the few doctors in this country who is honest and runs a hospital in Bangalore that caters to the underprivileged has protested strongly against the government's decision to impose the burden of service tax on hospitals. He is calling it the 'misery tax' and with reason. It's not the hospitals but the patients who will bear this cost. The client pays the service tax.
The origin of taxes lies in the protection money our ancestors had to pay to bandits to be left alone. With this government, the wheel has turned a full circle. They insist on adding salt to our wounds.
The victim's family is affluent and they were willing to foot the expenses of the treatment. So you can well imagine what happens to the poor and deprived in this country.
It has been the turn of healthcare to be corporatized in this country in the last couple of decades. You have all these swanky looking hospitals in every city worth its salt that are run on the philosophy of greed. I was once asked to design a performance management form for the doctors of one such hospital. One measure they wanted was how many tests the doctor being assessed recommended for a patient who came to the hospital seeking treatment. The logic being the hospital had imported a number of expensive machines and needed to recover the cost of equipments. It didn't matter whether the patient needed the test or not.
Dr. Devi Shetty, one of the few doctors in this country who is honest and runs a hospital in Bangalore that caters to the underprivileged has protested strongly against the government's decision to impose the burden of service tax on hospitals. He is calling it the 'misery tax' and with reason. It's not the hospitals but the patients who will bear this cost. The client pays the service tax.
The origin of taxes lies in the protection money our ancestors had to pay to bandits to be left alone. With this government, the wheel has turned a full circle. They insist on adding salt to our wounds.
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