Between the Lines

In her recent outburst, Ms Arundhati Roy says, "I am on this side of line. I do not care...pick me up put me in jail". This lady has become larger than law itself. Even after making a complete mockery of Indian Justice system by defending a duly convicted terrorist Afzal Guru (http://www.outlookindia.com/article.aspx?265790), the Indian Judiciary, Executive, Legislature and Media still treats her as a demi-goddess, outside the purview of law. They are all afraid of her, even the highest Judiciary, as was clear in their muted and guarded response to this lady's clear contempt of court earlier.

This lady knows that she has become almost unreachable. I quote - "Now that Operation Green Hunt has begun to knock on the doors of people like myself, imagine what’s happening to activists and political workers who are not well known". Our rotten system is always afraid of "well known" people and this lady is taking a great advantage of that, laughing at our faces (us, not well known people) who have more pressing matters to attend like providing for our family against all the odds.

I am sorry lady but I don't stand on your side of line. I also do not have the luxury to stand on Indian Gov side of line. I am the one who gets bulldozed in the middle. I am the one who dies in train attacks by Maoists, who dies in blasts by terrorists, who needs to earn and pay so that the Government can protect me (and often screw me). They are screwing me all over the place and yet, I work everyday with reinforced zeal so that my children have a better tomorrow. That's an idea worth living for, probably the only one!

India Pak Peace Process - Favourite Intellectual Masturbation

There seems to be no end to reading and hearing so many mushy-mushy or 'intellectually stimulating' articles/talks on India Pak relationships. I view them now as nothing but intellectual masturbation. Authors and speakers get a high and think of themselves as great thought leaders. Frankly, all of this is essentially so stupid and so hopelessly naive that one has stopped responding to them or taking them seriously. Nobody says anything that has not been said before. There is the usual odd visit report by a columnist saying how hospitable the Pakistanis are, the usual speaker feeling nostalgic about their pre-partition days when they used to play in Lahore, the usual candle lighters... In short, too much of all the usual things. Not since last year but since the cows came home.

Reality is until Pakistan can get its act together, there is no hope for India to get out of this quagmire. Two neighbours, with a stake in development, can talk and come to conclusions. But if one of them is a scoundrel who has given hope on his/her life, then the second neighbour cannot hope to reach a settlement. This only results in blackmail, with no end.

Stop the talks. Do everything to seal your borders. Work hard like crazy to improve lot of Indians. Become rich and resourceful. Dictate or influence world opinion. These are the things India should spend energy on. Not utterly futile talks , going on since 1947, resulting in so many over and covert wars!

What do you stand for?

Do you stand up for a cause, any cause?

Terrorists do - they want to disintegrate the society. And they die for it.

Maoists do - they want to disintegrate democracy. And they fight for it.

Religious fanatics do - they want to eradicate pluralism. And they preach hatred over and over again and are not afraid to blow themselves up.

Regionalists do - they want to drive away all outsiders. And they break bones of outsiders and glasses of media houses with equal panache.

Communists do - they want to remain powerful by keeping people poor. And they struggle for it continuously until the goal is reached.

What do you stand for? And what do you do about it? Here is a generalism - you (and I) stand for comfort. You study and work to be prosperous. Nothing wrong in that actually. But in a fight between the active seekers and passive observers, who is more like to win regardless of the numbers!

The joy of teaching

Have been going to a voluntary coaching class engaged in providing free tuitions to children who basically cannot afford the paid services. This voluntary organization is being run by an old gentleman. He has managed to get a room at the backside of the local temple. He tells me that there are a few more people coming and taking tuitions for students (mostly class 9, some class 10) in various subjects. I try to teach English. The funny (and nice) part is that the students do not understand Hindi and I do not understand Kannada. So our progress in English has been good.

Teaching generally is considered a dull job but it does challenge you to think creatively. Getting your thoughts and ideas across to a group in a language that everybody understands is hard enough, having to do it in a language uncommon between you and the group is laborious, requires patience but is funny most of the time. I just spend 2 hours every Sunday interacting with the kids but that is something I look forward to every week.

Sometimes I teach Mathematics as well. Once I started teaching them how to take square-roots. Half through demostrating the process to take square-root of 2, I realized I had forgot the process! I made some excuses to look at their text books and understood where I was going wrong. I then explained the process to the students. I hoped that the students did not realize that I actually did not remember the process to take square roots. But I have feeling they realized it.

Anyway, they did come the next week and have been coming. And I do try to be better prepared in what I venture to teach now.