My take on "the conference"

As you all know, the World Tamil Classical Language Conference (WTCLC) is currently going on in Coimbatore and every Tamilian is expected to follow this on TV. Yes, on Kalaignar TV. Having written on similar lines before, I’m forced to return to this subject because I’ve heard so many opinions that I’m compelled to offer my own. First I will try to clarify some issues that I think a lot of people have trouble understanding. Then we shall go onto the facts and some deeper stuff.

Firstly, a common misconception is that the conference is aimed at making people realize the glory of the Tamil language, which is apparently, one of only six languages in the world to be declared ‘classical’. This is what the conference is designed to make you think. If that was the purpose, the conference would have been held under the auspices of a university, with the attendees all being people who hold degrees or are otherwise qualified linguists capable of conducting research into the language. Second, many people tell me this is no different from foreign embassies spreading their languages in all other nations. This is again a misconception, no foreign embassy directly involves itself in even conducting foreign language classes, it is done by organizations devoted to the language like Alliance Française (French) and ABK Aots Dosokai (Japanese). The International Association for Tamil Research has apparently refused to recognize the WTCLC, saying it is a political stunt. I would also ask you to think about the abnormal number of members of Mr. Karunanidhi’s family presenting their so-called works at the conference. Apart from the TN chief minister himself, two of his granddaughters have presented poems at the conference. With Pratibha Patil and Surjit Singh Barnala presiding, it seems almost funny when people try to tell me there is no politics involved. Out of the eight poets who presented, seven dedicated their verses to Kalaignar, no there is no politics involved. The eighth apparently praised a guy who set himself on fire during the Sri Lankan offensive against the LTTE demanding ceasefire.

Having set the facts before you, I shall go on to my opinions. Our government has spent 380 Crore rupees on this conference. This amount has led to huge protestations among the more sensible citizens of Tamil Nadu. I, however think that the amount hardly matters. What matters is that the government has spent money on something it has no business spending. Languages are just arrangements of strokes (written) and sound (spoken). To say that one such arrangement is superior to another is pure nonsense. There have been practical difficulties in many languages and these have been corrected over the ages by borrowing and integrating other languages. Hence, this Tamil superiority is just a political tool invented by people like Anna who spotted an opportunity to create a unique vote bank. There are people, even among the highly educated who talk about superiority of languages and that is just sad. This is again a result of the foolish division of states on a linguistic basis. We have given unscrupulous politicians a chance to arouse dangerous regional passions, which they have taken with both hands. I have already tried to suggest a solution to this problem in my earlier post (read it here). The problem is especially acute in Tamil Nadu. This is apparent in the undue support LTTE receives from Tamilians all over the world. To me the LTTE is just another terrorist organization which deserves no sympathy from any of us. It is in fact, beneficial to us that the Sri Lankan army quelled the uprising and killed its main leaders as this will stop the refugee problem in Tamil Nadu. This is equivalent to Urdu-speakers supporting the Pakistan-based terrorists because of their common language. Yes, that’s how ridiculous it really is.

To conclude, I’d like to congratulate our Kalaignar (artist) on a grand success in his real Kalai (art), swindling.

Why I talk..

Yesterday I was witness to a huge spectacle, a 50-year old man is helped by another 50-year old in climbing an 8 foot wall, sadly, onto the speaker’s seat of the Orissa Assembly. Equally sad is the fact that those two men were MLAs. This gives me an opportunity to shed light on India’s most restricted-entry business, politics. It would be unfair to call it an oligopoly for two reasons, the word oligopoly hides the quality of the people already in the business, and, the magnitude of the market involved is huge. For example, the difference in the money the government could’ve got and did get via the 2g spectrum was 22, 000 Crore Rupees, even if our king of bad times pocketed 10% of this amount, he can get admission for a whole district in Anna University, it apparently costs around 20 lakh per seat as you have to go through governor’s quota.

Another reason I am writing this is because I am fed up of people telling me that I am all talk and will not do anything to improve my nation. I will now prove how our dear nation cannot be improved unless we do something drastic. The simple reason is that entry into any form of public life in India is severely restricted. You only have to look at a set of people called the Lok Paritran to realize that. We are all victims of an extremely self-perpetuating polity. Look at the so-called leaders and their families, other than the obvious example of the Nehru-Gandhi family; we have every politician worth his salt cultivating his son or daughter as an heir-apparent. This is not the only reason for restricted entry; the main reason is that India is a highly polarized society with a huge percentage of illiterate people. And our ‘leaders’ make sure it stays that way. Simply because that is their business model. If India had a 100% literacy rate, half the goons who occupy the seats of power will be looking for a job. Politics has now become the first refuge of the scoundrel. Every party accuses the other of polarizing society while doing it in some other form. It seems amazing to most of us that open thieves like our Raja can win elections. But the reality is different, winning an election in India does not require an agenda, a manifesto, or even an ability to speak or think about national issues. The only ability required is that of keeping yourself in favor with the people in power. Let me tell you how the servant maid in my house uses her right to franchise, she votes for congress because Jayalalitha is a foreigner. I’ll try to explain the unexplainable, she doesn’t believe Sonia Gandhi can be a foreigner because she has the name Gandhi, but Jayalalitha is a foreigner because she owns land in Hyderabad it seems. Confused? So am I.

So, our political parties have a steady vote bank and the rest can easily be convinced through buckets, cycles, and now the star attraction, TVs. Why will anyone invest in TVs, buckets etcetera to win elections, simply because the returns are tenfold. As returns are increasing, in the future we will see free blackberries, laptops, possibly even cars. It’s called profit that’s re-invested. Political parties will criticize each other outwardly, but I’d like to point out that most of this is a stage-managed show. The congress and BJP cooperate on a local level in states like West Bengal where neither party has a huge presence. BJP and the left cooperate in Kerala, and the Congress and the left were coalition partners in the previous government. The point I am trying to make is, the main aim of politicos is not to win elections, but to perpetuate this system of government, and to make sure that ten years down the line, their sons and daughters will occupy their current posts.

To all those who accuse me of all talk and no concrete action, I only have this to say, I talk because I my hands are tied but my mouth is not gagged, yet.

Thanks to Ch@#an Bh@#at

I seem to have a fascination for the number two, it may just be the Illuminati in me coming out. Duality of purpose is something beautiful and is something mankind has embraced with religious zeal. This is especially true of India; one is reminded of notebooks doubling up as containers for peanuts, bhel puri, etc. etc., CDs as decoration on cars, and a host of other such uniquely Indian sights. The title also has a dual purpose, as you shall see.

The first is about a problem and my solution to it. The above-mentioned author has a penchant for stating problems with our society; however, suggesting solutions seems to be beyond him. His latest work, Hollywood plot apart, dealt with the problem of state separatism. He has a point. I have visited some 6 countries but only one state above the Vindhyas. India boasts of possessing unity in diversity, to me the ground reality seems to be different. The north-eastern states have been very vocal in their demand for many separate states and, in some cases, countries. South India is not far behind, the support LTTE finds in many parts of Tamil Nadu is alarming to say the least.

The situation bears an eerie similarity to that faced by Austria-Hungary at the beginning of the twentieth century. The dual monarchy which was then ruled by the Hapsburg dynasty was unable to quell the separatist tensions arising from its various ethnic minorities. This was one of the main causes of World War I and the eventual sundering of the empire into the many Balkan states we see now. Ethnic separatism also played a part in the German capture of Czechoslovakia before World War II. To non-Indians, the logical solution will be to give independence to every state or region that asks for it. But this will eventually result in as many states as there are houses and I will need a passport to visit my neighbors. At a time when the need is for consolidating the world into a union with common aims, we seem to be heading towards further and further fragmentation.Thanks to Ch@#an Bh@#at for getting me started.

The only solution that I could infer from Ch@#an Bh@#at’s book was for all south Indians to marry north Indians, we could probably work out a system by which every state is assigned another state from which to find a mate. Another solution, this time my own, is to create what I call “focus zones”. A focus zone is a region, consisting of a set of states, which serves as a hub for certain essential functions of the nation. For example, we could take north-eastern India and make it a hub for education, this means all institutions of higher learning in the country will be located in that area. Think of it as a huge campus spanning the whole of the zone. Location-dependant industries like oil refineries will still be located there, this provides a platform for the training of the students educated there. We could even have all the services there managed by student trainees, fostering improvement in most professions. Such a scheme could also be worked out for software and other business activities, something like a region-wide SEZ. This is again something that cannot be done overnight and needs decades of gradual rearrangement. But I think at the end it will foster unity as all people will have to stay in all parts of the country at some point of time or the other.

Moving on to the second purpose of the title, the world seems to have developed a sudden fondness for empty gestures. This meaningless use of symbols in place of profanity, changing the phrases used to describe people with physical and mental disabilities, and lots of such things. I don’t think it makes a difference to a disabled person if he is referred to as disabled, differently abled or otherwise abled. It is just a name and changing the name doesn’t change the attitude. In a society where intransigence borders on phobia, these gestures don’t make a difference. Hence, I am going to balk at this stupidity and reveal the name of the author (yes that was a suspense), it’s Chetan Bhagat.

Harsha

Two Bus Journeys

The first bus journey is where i decided to start this. A blog is no huge achievement, but I am seeing it as a mossy stepping stone to the elysian fields of achievement. Mossy because there is a huge chance I'll slip at this step.

The place is Trichy, a town in southern India. Its early May, and the sun is beating down with a vengeance. On a 1 hour bus journey to my college campus, I met a guy who wanted to be what he was probably from 3 years of age, a bus conductor. A person only had to be in the bus to experience the infectious happiness with which the guy carried out his work. It is the only mark of a guy who really loves what he does. It was probably the only thing that could have made an hour's foot-board ride interesting. Meeting a guy like that really puts your life into perspective, I am an Electrical Engineer who will be the first to admit that I am useless at it. At a time when the world runs to the american fuel of money, I guess it is time to introspect on the ways and means. That bus conductor is probably much happier than most professionals out there. To me that is just a sign of a nation crying out loud. India has never been a nation of money-makers, we just adapt very well to it because we are, by nature, great thinkers. We are the kind of people who write the Ramayana when the world is hunting for its next meal. We are the kind of people who invent Zero and predict the distances to the stars, who have thought so much about our life that we can write 4 vedas 18 upanishads, and a host of other philosophical material. Hence, it is natural that, at a time when thinking can get you money, we mint it.

The second journey is in the city i call home, Chennai, a place where you will find a philosopher in every house. Here, everyone has their view on life and it will probably be their favorite topic as well. A place where people decry corruption over the tea table while passing the bribe under it. The journey was to a movie theater from my house and when it was over, I was left contemplating ways to enter a 5 star hotel that stood near the bus stop and kill a few people. Thankfully, my friend arrived in time to stop my dangerous thoughts. We were supposed to meet at a stop near my house but the bus i got on didn't stop at his stop and he had too catch another bus. The real beauty is that the drivers decided to stop at alternate stops for the rest of the trip, meaning we couldn't meet till the destination station, where i had to pressure the driver to stop. My sincere thanks to the two insincere drivers for making me angry enough to write about it. They formed the perfect example of two men looking to cut corners at every instance possible. A trait of people who hate their job. Thinkers that we are, on applying our minds to the problem of skipping work, we have arrived at the optimal solution and you will find most Indians unwilling to lift an unnecessary limb nowadays. And we wonder that our ancients were able to build a temple whose shadow doesn't fall on the ground. That was the work of a set of craftsmen who loved their work, not slaves working because they had no choice. That is what we need to move towards if we are to realize the great Indian dream of being a superpower. A society where no job is done by people who need it for their meal, where every job is done by people who need it for their soul.

Harsha