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Monday, November 20, 2023

The Cricket World Cup in 'New India'

I will remember the latest edition of the Cricket World Cup tournament for some non-cricketing stuff, mainly because of Prime Minister Narendra Modi's 'Naya Bharat' (New India) and Jay Shah's leadership of the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI).

Firstly, no match was arranged at excellent venues like the Punjab Cricket Association Stadium in Mohali, and the final was at Ahmedabad, where the cricket was not very entertaining as not many big shots were hit because of the 'slow' pitch. Allegedly, it was all because of political considerations. For the uninitiated, Mohali is in Punjab, a state ruled by the Aam Aadmi Party, an arch-rival of Modi's Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).

Second, 'Naya Bharat' appeared again when Indian spectators at the stadium named after the current prime minister tried to bully Pakistani players walking back to the pavilion by shouting "Jai Shree Ram" slogans. During another match at a different venue, such spectators tore up a stuffed toy (in the form of a tiger) carried by Bangladeshi fans and tried to verbally intimidate them. 'Naya Bharat' was also in evidence when a policeman at a match in Bangalore tried to prevent Pakistani fans from cheering their team with "Pakistan Zindabad" slogans. Also, in 'Naya Bharat', the Ahmedabad crowd did not cheer when the Aussies played good shots or even when an Australian batsman scored a century during the final match, and it seemed as if the game was being played in an empty stadium.

Third, there were the allegations, though unsubstantiated, of the BCCI trying to give the Indian team an unfair advantage by giving them balls that swung more and changing pitches literally at the last moment to favour the team.

Last but not least, Kapil Dev, who led the Indian team to victory in the World Cup for the first time in 1983, was not invited to watch the final game apparently because he had spoken in favour of the women wrestlers protesting recently against sexual harassment by the BJP's member of parliament leading the wrestling federation.

Wednesday, November 15, 2023

A Baby Monkey and I

I almost made friends with a baby monkey a couple of days ago.

I alighted from a train at a Metro station in Delhi and was on my way out. As I descended a staircase, I saw a female monkey and her little one seated on the railing a little distance apart.

As I passed them, I looked at the little one, smiled and said, "Hello, how are you doing?" He hopped down from his perch and started following me downstairs without me realising it. 

When I happened to glance over my shoulder after a while, I saw him right behind me. When I stopped, he did, too, and sat up attentively. So, without moving a finger, I told him, "I have nothing for you to eat."

He seemed to understand perfectly what I had said, turned around, and returned to where his mother was.

I spoke to him in Punjabi, my mother tongue, both times, but he seemed to grasp my intent, and language was never a barrier between us.

Later, I wished I had sat on my haunches without making any sudden movements, and perhaps he would have shaken hands with me before he left.

Friday, June 23, 2023

Religion, Character and Brainwashing

Here is a real-life story about organised "religion" and how it can affect people's lives that you might find interesting. 

When I was working at Chandigarh about 8-10 years ago, I came to know a young American white woman. She was brought into the company as an intern, but the owner/CEO soon made her the head of content marketing. Before I was fired within about 8 months of joining because the owner thought I was not a good writer, she had been made the Chief Marketing Officer. After a few years, she and I connected on social media, and I learnt that she had also left the company shortly after I left and returned to America. Apparently, she could not find the kind of job she was looking for there and freelanced for many years. Although she did not tell me as much, I gathered that she did not do well in her freelance work during the Covid period and then took up a job at a company, which she has kept since then.

Anyway, the above was about her professional life. Now, I would like to tell you something about her personal life. When I met her in Chandigarh, she was a happy-go-lucky person who loved adventure sports like trekking and paragliding. She also liked to travel and travelled extensively over India when she was here.

I do not know what exactly happened after she returned to the US, but she turned to religion massively over the past few years and became a born-again Christian. Many of her social media posts were about how she had been "saved" and how Jesus was not just the son of God but God personified, etc. She also posted videos about passages from the Bible that she had read and her interpretation of those passages. She did not go completely crazy, though, and remained the ardent animal lover she always had been (She still has a dog, whom she loves dearly.). She also retained some fundamental liberal views from before, such as how it is essential to ensure free speech for everyone. She also remained affectionate towards friends and said she and her church group would pray for me when I developed a brain issue last December. She continued to ask about my well-being periodically after that and to pray for me until I got well.

However, during a discussion sometime last year, she told me that she was committed to marrying a Christian man only after she had been "saved" since it was important for a husband and wife to be "equally yoked". Later, I found out through her social media posts that she had gotten engaged, apparently to a "Christian" man. Yesterday, she told me that she broke off the engagement in February because she found out just before she began to "book different wedding things" that the "Christian" man had been "deceptive" towards her for several months. I am sure that the blindfold of "religion" remains firmly in place over her eyes, though, and she will be looking for another "Christian" man! 

Sunday, April 02, 2023

The Monkeys of Kasauli

There are a lot of monkeys in Kasauli. That is what I discovered when I visited the quaint little hill town last summer along with my father. Whenever you walk the streets, you can be sure of encountering a monkey every few minutes. In some areas, they are nearly a permanent presence. 

Along with the most common species of monkeys found in India (the Rhesus macaque), there is the grey langur to be found in Kasauli. For some reason, these species do not cohabit, and there are almost no monkeys to be found in areas where there are langurs. That is the case in Kasauli as well, with the langurs occupying the centre of the town and the Rhesus monkeys in the outer areas.

Both species have adapted well not only to living in close proximity to humans but also to obtaining food and drink from humans.

When my father and I visited, it was peak tourist season and a lot of people carrying snacks and soft drinks out and about. The monkeys obviously knew what they wanted and had devised ingenious ways of attaining their objectives.

While in the main bazaar one afternoon, I saw half a dozen langurs lounging about on a couple of benches by the roadside. When a group of tourists walked by, one of the langurs approached from behind. He tapped a lady, who was carrying ice cream, lightly on her back with one of his hands, obviously requesting her to share the treat with him. Unfortunately for him, she screamed in fear but held on to the ice cream, even as a shopkeeper carrying a stick approached quickly and shooed him away. He returned dejectedly to rejoin his mates and wait for another quarry. I silently wished him better luck for the next time and moved on.

The next day, while returning from a long walk down Upper Mall Road, my father and I decided to rest for a while on another roadside bench. I spied a couple of Rhesus monkeys sitting in a tree nearby. The female carried a baby that clung to her chest. As soon as a few people carrying food and drink came along, the monkeys climbed down and ran towards them. One of the visitors panicked and dropped a soft drink bottle before hurrying along. The male monkey grabbed it quickly and both monkeys ran back. They sat down to enjoy the cola under the tree. The male bit into the plastic bottle to make two neat little holes. Then, he put the bottle down sideways to let the liquid flow and form a puddle on the ground. They took turns drinking from the puddle. 

I suppose the monkeys love the sweet taste of soft drinks and ice cream but wonder what the added sugar does to their health.

Wednesday, March 01, 2023

The Religion Conundrum

The founders of many major religions claimed that they communicated directly with God, who dictated to them the scriptures they wrote. Others claimed to be God himself, born in human form and, therefore, the authors of God's word. However, if there is only one God (and there has to be only one God; otherwise, the followers of different religions would have different DNA and other building blocks of the human body), why would he give different messages to followers of different religions? 

Think about it.

Sunday, April 12, 2015

Dera Sacha Sauda and I

This post had been reverted to a 'draft' by Blogger because some one filed a bogus copyright claim against it. I am re-publishing it since all the contents are original. The post was first published in May 2007.
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As I keep track of the coverage, in newspapers and on television, of the Dera Sacha Sauda controversy, there are a few things that strike me as strange.

Firstly, the Dera has been described as a 'Sikh sect' in certain sections of the news media, whereas it has nothing to do with Sikhism (or any other religious faith, as for that matter).

Secondly, something that has been part of conversations in urban drawing-rooms and rural baithhaks in Punjab i.e. the Dera head issued an edict to his followers to vote for Congress (I) in the recent state assembly elections, only because that party offered to help 'dispose of' the criminal cases filed against the Baba and his followers (the charges include murder and sexual abuse), in case it was able to form the government, does not appear to have been mentioned in any newspaper or on any television channel.

Thirdly, most media reports seem to imply that the Sikhs have been outraged merely by the fact that the Baba appeared dressed like Guru Gobind Singh, whereas, the truth is that he not only dressed like the Guru, but also attempted to replicate, to a large extent, what the Guru did on the day of the foundation of the Khalsa (in spite of the counter-claims made in the latest press statement put out by the Dera). He tried to do a 'role play', in which he put himself in the place of the Tenth Master.

I have had an inkling that the Baba harboured such ambitions, for a long time. For several years now, the Dera has been publishing calenders with photographs of his, in which he can be seen on a white horse or in other poses imitating the way, in which Guru Gobind Singh has often been depicted in paintings. Perhaps others, too, have noticed all that and at least some of what has happened over the past few days has been the culmination of events that have taken place over the past few years.

I think, however, that the media is right about the Shromani Akali Dal (the ruling party) versus Congress (I) angle to the violence. The hukam-naama calling for complete boycott of the Dera and its followers, in my opinion, would have put the message across clearly enough and the violence was unnecessary. Incidentally, though, the violence began when the Dera's supporters attacked a bunch of peaceful Akali protestors on May 14.

On a more personal note, the whole episode brought back memories of my own connection with the Dera.

Even as news media have been reporting that the Dera's followers comprise Sikhs mainly from the so-called backward castes (I believe they are among some of the most privileged people in Punjab today, but that is another story altogether.), there are some who are Jatt Sikhs also, as in the case of one such unfortunate example from my family. My paternal great-grandfather had five brothers, the youngest of whom became an ardent follower of the Dera Sacha Sauda. A few years later, the elder of his two sons followed in his footsteps. He, in fact, went a few steps farther than his father in terms of his devotion to the cult and got involved with its management and administration. Hard-working and honest as he was, he soon rose among the ranks and was widely billed as a likely candidate for a high-ranking position in the Dera hierarchy (Some of my elders tell me that he was expected to be made the head of the Dera, although I am not absolutely sure about this.).

Then, one day, while he was at the Dera premises, he was poisoned and his corpse delivered home in a tractor-trolley on the next. The father, the devout follower that he was, refused to file a case of murder with the police and also forbade the rest of the family from doing so.

This happened many years ago (in the early 1980's), much before Baba Gurmeet Ram Rahim took over as chief, but has been proof enough, at least for me, that sleaze has always been an integral part of this cult.

I wonder if there have been other cases, as well, when unnatural deaths at the Dera have gone unreported.

Thursday, August 16, 2012

Ramzaan and I

I was introduced to the holy month of Ramzaan rather early in life.

I was 11-12 years old when I met Uncle Nafeez. He was a short, stocky man and was a carpenter by trade. My father had engaged his services as a few items of furniture in the household had to be repaired and a few new ones made. He arrived early every morning and worked diligently until sunset for the two weeks or so that it took him to finish his work. The only break he would take was to ride off on his bicycle to pray at a nearby mosque late in the afternoon. Ramzaan coincided with June (usually the hottest month in North India) that year and, being the pious Muslim that he was, he was fasting. All that we could do to help was to ensure that he always worked in the shade and not in the hot sun.

By the time he completed his assignment and left, he had become very friendly with my younger brother, who was 3-4 years of age then, and even gifted him a little replica of a dining chair carved out of a left-over block of wood. My parents were also quite impressed with the quality of his work. We lost touch with him, however, after we left town because of my father having changed jobs.

Many years later, I saw three of my batch-mates at the post-graduate programme in management that I pursued also observe roza religiously, even during the semester examinations, while they studied as well as any of the other students and neither demanded nor got any special concessions from the college authorities. All of them, like me and many others, were boarders and yet fasted regularly for the whole month. They used to put aside some food at dinner time and re-heat and eat it early in the morning for sehri.

Subsequently, I had two colleagues who were just as fastidious about the whole exercise, without letting their work schedules suffer in any way. It has been long since we stopped working together, but I remain in touch with one of them, though not so often as before.

All of the six men that I have mentioned above may not be described as perfect human beings for each had his own faults, including, in at least two cases, egotism, and a tendency to succumb to the charms of women with malicious intentions (such as to use their womanhood to hide their incompetencies at work and to further their careers) in one. Five out of the six were (and, presumably, are) smokers, though none consumed alchohol or other intoxicants.

A commonality that I noticed, though, was that all were respectful towards adherents of religious faiths other than Islam and tolerant of others' religious practices and beliefs, in addition to, obviously, going about following their own without much fanfare.

Thursday, June 07, 2012

A Coup That Was Not?

The controversy caused by The Indian Express' report on the movement of two key army units towards the capital city of Delhi on the intervening night of January 16-17 (without notification to the central government and the panic reaction triggered as a result) has nearly died down. It had to, for not only did the mass media side, almost en bloc, with those who dismissed the report as 'baseless', but also raised questions regarding the logic of the insinuation that such movement might have been aimed at achieving a coup d'etat, instead of looking for answers for the questions raised in the report. The reasons, perhaps, are not far to seek in a country where any unfavourable comparisons with a certain neighbouring state, where civilian governments have been toppled by the army more than once, can often lead to mass hysteria.

Let us examine, first, one of the questions raised by the report, i.e., why did the paratrooper unit choose to drive through the traffic jams of Delhi (compounded by severe fog) to reach Hindon, instead of crossing the Yamuna river at Agra itself and driving through Uttar Pradesh, parallel to the Grand Trunk Road, in addition to the mechanised infantry unit driving all the way to the outskirts of the national capital to check its preparedness?

The only conclusion that a possible answer lends itself to, besides the one that the army's top brass and most of the mass media would perhaps not want us to draw, points towards gross incompetence on the part of the commanders. As the then chief of the U. S. Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), Leon Panetta, had said about the Pakistani authorities after Osama Bin Laden was found in Pakistan by the CIA and killed by American troops, they were either "complicit or incompetent". Despite that, however, no one seems to be asking how such men have managed to reach such high positions in Indian army's command structure, if we assume that they have been incompetent and not complicit, and why they have been allowed to remain there, especially in view of the likely consequences of that in a war-like situation.

Then, let us look at a query raised by the 'other side', i.e., why would a general who wished to stage a coup (if he did indeed have such intentions) bother to bring in troops from outside when sufficient numbers of them already were present in the Delhi cantonment?

Although we do not know whether a coup was meant to be staged and perhaps never will, there are certain aspects that may be attributed only to co-incidence but make the whole episode very curious. For instance, if I were a general intent on taking over Raisina Hill, a unit each of paratroopers and mechanised infantry would be my first choice to accomplish the task. That would be because the only resistance expected, if at all, would be from police or paramilitary personnel equipped with small firearms and the light armour of the armoured personnel carriers, along with the machine guns mounted atop these, of the mechanised infantry unit would be sufficient to overcome that and carry out an 'area domination exercise' within a fairly short period of time (before even Delhi cantonment could get a whiff of the plot) with few or no casualties among the soldiers. Subsequently, the paratroopers, trained to be 'dropped' into an unfamiliar area (even behind enemy lines) and secure it quickly, could move into the buildings and compounds and 'secure' those as well as their occupants.

Apparently, the Delhi cantonment has an infantry brigade and an artillery brigade stationed in it, of which the soldiers on foot would be far slower and exposed to small-arms fire, as against the mechanised infantry, and the artillery, with its large and heavy guns, would not really be required, in my opinion.

As for the number of troops needed, the 500-700 which would form the combined strength of the two units should be sufficient to take over the 25 square-kilometres or so that form the seat of Indian government.

Secrecy would obviously be paramount for such an operation, in order to retain the advantage of surprise, and I, for one, would not mind bringing in troops from outside, provided I could trust the commanders completely. It might be useful to mention here that the two senior officers controlling the movement of troops on the night between January 16 and 17 have been reported to be "staunch allies of the chief", although their actions could very well have arisen, as mentioned before, from incompetence.

Last, but not the least, is the question of support from the the army's six 'regional commanders'. Could a coup have been successful without unstinting support from these officers?

If I were the leader of such a coup attempt, I would inform the regional commanders only after taking over Raisina Hill in one swift stroke and taking the prime minister and his council of ministers, as well as the president, into 'protective custody'. Not being aware of whether any of the other five were on board, I would expect each of them to be too dazed to react or, at least, react fast enough. The cynicism prevalent among the public regarding the political class in general could only add to their reluctance to stick their respective necks out and whole-heartedly oppose a coup attempt.

Additionally, the factional feuds among the senior commanders, which have been played out rather publicly in the recent past, would form another impediment in the way of their coming together against a military take-over of the country.

Although, obviously, nothing can be stated with absolute certainty, with many of the generals hankering for longer tenures, by hook or by crook, one is inclined to think that it might have been possible to 'persuade' some to pledge their support in return for a few more years in office and/or promotions. For instance, the Western army commander then, who had secured a medical disability status that would have fetched him higher pension, was quick to reverse it when he discovered that he could be in the running for the top job in the army if the army chief was to resign well before the date of his retirement. He is supposed to have recovered from arthritis almost overnight. Unless he discovered a miracle cure, he can only be described as a man of doubtful integrity and, therefore, as far as I can see, likely to be a good candidate for 'persuasion'. Incidentally, the Delhi cantonment also forms part of the Western command and he would have been the regional commander most closely placed and, therefore, in the best position to either act quickly against a coup attempt or to contribute to its success.

Having considered all of the above, I am of the opinion that the civilian administration's reaction that resulted in slowing down the troop movement and, ultimately, in bringing it to a halt at Delhi's outskirts, was neither unwarranted nor ill-advised, regardless of whether or not the movement was meant to be part of an actual coup attempt.

Note: This post, as all others on this weblog, is based on publicly available information and the author's personal views/opinions.
 
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