Jews, Gujaratis and Marwaris

Recently I happened to read a piece by Calev Ben-David in Bloomberg News about Jews. There was nothing revealing though but I gave a thought of Jews being compared to Gujaratis or Marwaris.

All Indians are made equal; all Indians have got the same opportunity, market and access. How is that these two communities have got runaway success in business whereas a majority of the other tribes are not able to make it even beyond first step.

Every region has its own specialization. For example you find the highest number of journalists and authors from South India or West Bengal. They become great journos but die in penury. Gujaratis and Marwaris who become journalists turn themselves into ‘journalistic entrepreneurs’ in their own style.

Malayalis, for instance, have this special knack of being in secretarial job. Whether it is a Private Secretary of any Civil Service officer or some private entrepreneurs or even the Prime Minister of President of India, they excel in this field. They are sincere, hardworking, punctual; good command over language, articulate and above all never learns the trick from their masters to overtake them.

Just like the Jews, Gujaratis and Marwaris (Let’s call them Gujmar) work hard, gambles on money they never own, are found everywhere, are greatest capitalists, great US lovers, have a far flung diaspora and have this great knack for identifying and running successful business.

While a major part of the globe trounced capitalism as the root cause of problems, Jews and Gujmars refused to accept it. And they continued to prosper while the Socialism advocates made painful exits.

Both Jews and Gujmars have close relation to Bull and Bears. Both are pretty close to all the financial markets – or in other words, they control the Fin Markets. They are the people who built the market and they are the same people who continue to bash it – taking advantage of all the loopholes in it.

Jews continue to dominate the Hollywood scenario, Gujmar dominate Bollywood – except perhaps for chocolate-faced Khans. Jews have become victims and then perpetrators of large-scale violence; Gujmars have had the same experience.

Let’s call this comparison a great coincidence. That’s all.

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Touchdown Fear of all air passengers

After the Mangalore crash, where nearly 160 passengers where charred to death, every passenger anywhere in India is a little worried each time an aircraft descends for landing. I am one of those awe and fear struck passengers undergoing the trauma of being at the mercy of pilots whom we don’t know. What I know is that despite tens of lands and hundreds of flying hours, the pilots can make error and one single error is enough to be the last error for not only the pilot but also the error free passengers.

Even when I am on the Vashi bridge traveling either from Pune to Mumbai or Nerul to Mumbai, I ensure that my head is turned towards right to see a line of aircrafts descending one after the other. I am not looking at those aircrafts per say but thinking of those passengers mind set.

But most of the time I have traveled and touched down at most airports, including Mangalore and Calicut, I have not experienced the thud landing. But I always ensured to peep through the cockpit and see who the commanders are whenever I board an aircraft. If I see grey hair with smiling faces, I always got a big relief but if I see young teen looking, boyish-girlish-childish commanders, my blood pressure goes up. Will I reach my destination or I will be left to destiny?

I don’t have a problem while taking off  with any commanders and as usual I starts my prayers whenever the commander says, “Cabin crew to seats please”. But as soon as the commander repeats this on the descend, the heart beats double and my prayers go into a different zone. Though I look outside the window for a better view of the ground, my mind is always spiritual for that little time.

Gradually I found that all these are myths. As I went deep into aircraft behaviour, I realized that when it gets locked into ILS, the pilots are just dummies. But believe me these childish looking pilots have always had some of the smoothest landings I have ever experienced. At times, I don’t even feel the plane has landed until it starts applying brakes. I feel like going into the cockpit and kissing the commanders for their great landing but if I do so, I may land in police custody for harassment charges.

In earlier days, before the advent of private airlines, Indian Airlines and Air India ruled the skies. Just like the Doordarshan days when the audience never had an opportunity to compare television programmes, air travelers never saw chilled cabin and young and beautiful cabin crew.

So if you fly the national carriers, you get two servings – one is warm welcome and the other is maternal care. Warm because the air-conditioners never worked in the national carriers and maternal care because the cabin crew has always been aged at par with your mother or grandmother. They always served you food as if they have another flight to catch mid air. The captain never spoke to the passengers except for the mandatory stuff.

Indian skies have changed manifold today. Despite too many flights criss crossing the country, we have had fewer accidents. But all these said and done, I still carry what I call ‘touchdown fear.’ The fear as the aircraft starts its landing process and the seat belts are tight, the cabin crew is seated and lo behold, the plane has landed. Smoothly again.

Imagine IPL as a government organisation

Indian Prime Minister, Dr Manmohan Singh had two full hours at his disposal to discuss ‘IPL Mess’ with Shashi Tharoor.

Sonia Gandhi has been seriously thinking of Tharoor, Sunanda and IPL. Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee and Defence Minister, A K Antony along with Home minister P Chidambaram is taking stock of the situation and is meeting each other every day.

L K Advani, Narendra Modi, Vasundhara Raje, Arun Jaitely are all involved in serious meeting about the IPL, Tharoor and Kochi consortium.

The biggest joke is the demand from Laloo Prasad Yadav to nationalise IPL. What a waste of energy to have even asked for it.

What is going on? For god’s sake is this what one billion Indians have voted this government for? Is IPL the biggest priority of this country?

Shame on Indian media to have created a big mountain out of a mole. A second or third grade party celebrity is the talking point of one billion Indians. Tonnes and tonnes of paper are wasted on this issue already.

The entire issues of heat, price rise, women’s bill, Finance Bill and Right to Education have gone to dogs. Instead a useless, worthless and good for nothing betting exercise called IPL – where foreign and Indian souls die to get in – is in the limelight.

The Indian PM should not have spent two minutes in this. The Indian media should have got this on their page five stories. The only department that is useful here is the Income Tax, Enforcement.

Imagine if the government concedes to the Left to nationalize IPL. The senior most IAS officer will be the Chief Commissioner of IPL. There will be a large-scale officers ranging from Additional Commissioners to Joint Commissioners sitting across the country with files that will never see the light of the day.

These files will be put up by an Upper Division Clerk and then orders neatly typed in by a Lower Division Clerk. There will be a huge Class IV employee pool whose hands will have to be greased to get their bosses.

Cricketers will have to file a form called Saral to get enrolled into IPL. The last date of filing the IPL returns will be March 31st. There will also be a trade union affiliated to CITU.

Instead of the pen down strike, the employees (read cricketers) will have a bat and ball down strike. The salaries of cricketers will read like Basic 10 lakhs, Dearness Allowance 2 lakhs, House Rent Allowance : 25 lakhs, Travelling Allowance : 4 lakhs. TDS will be deducted at the rate of 10 per cent. Deductions will include PF and CGHS. There will be a separate pay commission for IPL players to be headed by none other than Lalit Modi. Their ACRs will be written by BCCI and they will retire at the age of 58 unless government decides to increase it to 65. All cricketers who will retire from IPL will be eligible for a pension.

Te orders to increase bid prices of players will be in this format. In suppression of this Department's O.M. of even number dated 12th April , 2010, the undersigned is directed to say that it has been further clarified by Establishement (D) section of this Department that DR Assistant /DR Grade 'C' Cricketers who have got Non- Functional grade (NFG) in the grade pay of Rs. 40000000/ - would only be entitled for 3rd financial upgradation in the immediate higher grade pay of Rs. 50000000/- on completion of 10 years of continuous service(to be in the playing eleven) or on completion of 5 years stagnation(to be on the bench helping in providing drink or towels) in a single grade pay, whichever is earlier. No further financial upgradation would be admissible to such cricketers.

Crazy but this is India, the oldest and the most pragmatic civilization in this world

A lazy bunch called Journalists

Journalists are like sitting ducks. Not because they are prone to attacks and have no defense but this is connoted in a different way. They sit like ducks in their offices and look for gossips of film personalities or Page Three crowds. I have seldom seen journalists getting back to their basics – reporting. In an era where news comes in capsules and bytes, journalists say they give news that people want. But that is wrong. People get what journalists offers. If they don’t have anything to offer, readers are not going to complain. They have no mechanism to file a complaint against a newspaper for not reporting the news they want.
We are in a period where RTI to right to recall is getting implemented. But media is a sector that has been aloof from all these regulations. How can a viewer or a reader file a complaint against a newspaper or a TV channel for reporting stories that they are least interested in? For example, what will a Hindi migrant of Chennai has to do with live telecast of a minor rainfall in Gurgaon – which could be breaking news in Aaj Tak? How on earth can he communicate to the channel authorities that he wants to see national news and not regional news.
Newspaper barons have stopped asking journalists to travel for hard news. Television channels have put local video camera owners (mostly covering marriages and other social functions) to act as their local henchmen in moffusil places. This has turned to be a boon for journalists who need not take their bumps from their revolving chair to anywhere except perhaps their dwelling place. This saves a lot of money for newspaper owners. But in bargain what they get is amateur news and unprofessional journalism.
The focus today is to see what film stars are indulging while totally ignoring whether a family starves in a far flung place because of government apathy or negligence on part of local officials. They reach only those places where Rahul Gandhi dines with a poor family and them make those families a national heritage. There are millions of other starving families with whom Gandhis have not dined with and is suffering just because there are no checks and balances in the system, a role media is duty bound to investigate and report.
It doesn’t matter to millions of Indians if N D Tiwari, at the fag end of his life, is sexually active or if Amar Singh fires his salvo from Dubai to his mentor at Etawah. The poor in India have no regrets if they are offered Bt. Brinjals. What they need is a morsel whether it is genetically modified or not is irrelevant.
For one Ruchika, hundreds gathered with candles just because media highlighted how the perpetrator, DGP Rathore got away with a mild sentence. There are hundreds and thousands of Ruchikas all over the country where their Rathores are roaming free and preying on the future Ruchikas.
In my 16 years of journalism, I have spent 13 years traveling all across the country for news. I had to record my bytes for radio, have photographs of the subjects and then write stories describing minute details of the subject. So I had no option but to travel since I was reporting to print, radio and photo journalism mediums. Since the last three years, my travel is limited to some towns where I reach the nearest place by air, take a taxi or have a friend with me and travel comfortably by car. But the charm of reporting on rickety buses, staying in badly maintained hotels, using Sulabh toilets, sleeping on railway platform benches and trekking for stories is not there in the fast reporting that I do now. But I save money and so I have become lazy. One among the lazy bunch of journalist tribes that we have in India.

Instead, if, but and irony of Gujarat

Ishrat, Pranesh, Sohrabuddin, Javed, Vanzara, Amin, Kaushik, Pandey, Pratap Save, Kausar Bi, Tulsiram Prajapati, Latif are some of the few names that the state of Gujarat is dazzling now a days.

Instead, it should have actually dealt with groundnut, cotton, soybean, power, castor seed, Kesar, Chilli, Cumin Seeds, Isabgol and a host of globally traded commodities.

It is an irony that the entire state machinery is in a fire fighting exercise, the largest ever by a state, to save its face from an imminent backlash in the electoral fray by the people.

Instead it should have concentrated on farmers who are struggling to find ways to tackle drought and floods and help them sow the seeds of progress. Farmers, being good entrepreneurs, are smart enough to understand their future without the help of government, a big relief for the government.

It is very unfortunate that a major part of the expenses spent today are on Public Prosecutors and court fee. Most of the time that the ministers spend out of their official places is to make sure that the government does not get another slap in its face, to ensure that the assembly elections do not prove to be a dampener for the ruling party.

Instead they should have been in their respective constituencies. Since the last parliamentary elections, no political leaders have cared to visit their constituency. With by-elections due, they are bound to visit.

It is sad that the investment Bull Run in the state has also come down. Once upon a time an industrialist named Ratan Tata said “You are stupid if you are not (investing) here (in Gujarat)”. But that was for procuring one of the most agriculturally fertile land for his Nano project. The state needs no vibrant meetings to get people investing here. This is a natural place to invest with or without Ratan Tata saying this.

Instead, the government should not have given up so much for a car project. There are much larger projects in the state and ignoring them was a big mistake.

It is sad that the state economy is still in its production hibernation. It has not been able to convert itself or progress towards service economy. That is the reason why Sam Pitroda said “When it comes to Gujarat, one only thinks it to be an ideal place for business to flourish and it is this perception that needs to be changed. The state lacks in a talent pool that is required to bring about a change in the way people look at the state."

Instead, the state should have encouraged more companies to invest not by holding Vibrant Gujarat extravaganzas but building infrastructure for the service economy to grow.

It is unfortunate that the police officers sold their conscience to get out of turn promotions and some of them landed in jail. They forgot the entire vulnerable population of the state and went all out to protect one person.

Instead, they should have shown courage to tackle law and order problems and getting the state out of the current mess. They should have saved the people of Gujarat from being branded as fundamentalists whereas they are the most peace loving community in the country. They should have shown that policing is not about numbers but psychology.

It is also sad that at the fag end of the political career of the state’s CM, one cottage industry that is going to die down is that of NGOs. With no one to protest, no human rights violations, no fake encounters, what are they going to do?

Instead, they should have concentrated on building a modern, humane, progressive, highly skilled Gujarat, not to make it ‘some other place’ as Veerappa Moily pointed out. Now since this has not happened so far, we cannot expect any miracle now.

BJP's reverse journey of a thousand miles began with a defeat

Power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely. This phrase, according to The Phrase Finder, originated as a quotation by John Emerich Edward Dalberg Acton, first Baron Acton (1834–1902). The historian and moralist expressed this opinion in a letter to Bishop Mandell Creighton in 1887: "Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely. Great men are almost always bad men."
The Phrase Finder goes on to quote another English politician - William Pitt, the Elder, The Earl of Chatham and British Prime Minister from 1766 to 1778, who is wrongly attributed as the source. He did say something similar, in a speech to the UK House of Lords in 1770: "Unlimited power is apt to corrupt the minds of those who possess it"
Now, I have coined a new phrase which you may not find anywhere else other than this blog. “When in power BJP’s bear markets had no support and when out of power, its bull markets have no resistance.”
Those who are in the investing markets will fathom this faster than those who are not or in other words BJP will understand this faster than Congress. BJP, as a party, has no choice now but to split. A vertical split will destroy the party forever. A horizontal split will put the party into a greater dilemma. But it has to split and the beginning of this split has already begun.
The split will be between those who believe in a rabid politics and those who believe in progressive method but without diluting the party ideology. Many may say people like Narendra Modi will go to the rabid political arena if given a chance to choose. I would rather say they will support the progressive section, may be out of compulsion or out of necessity. The only way that the current BJP or a split BJP can survive in Indian politics is to shed its image as a rabid party, not as a right wing fundamentalist party. The party is already brimming with two sections of people. One with a bucketful of oil and the other with a bucket of water. Oil and water cannot mix together and so the party has to bear the painful partition sooner or later.
For BJP, the real struggle is to find a leader with national acceptance. Rajnath Singh, the current president, has little knowledge outside UP, where he belongs to. Any other leaders like Arun Jaitely or Bal Apte(the person who could be the dark horse for BJP Presidentship) or for that matter Murli Manohar Joshi or Sushma Swaraj cannot even gather a crowd of a thousand by their aura. They stand no chance in front of a huge personality that Congress is cultivating in the form of Rahul Gandhi.
No, I did not forget to mention Narendra Modi here. Rather, he has no chance of getting into national politics and therefore his mention is not warranted. His golden touch is over even in Gujarat. His panic reaction to Jaswant Singh’s book by banning it without even reading it is a classic example of how unsecured he has become. He judged the book by its cover. All his legislators and district party chiefs are just waiting for the right moment to catapult a rebellion against him. And this rebellion could be the father of all rebellions. The real architect of rebellion, Shankarsinh Waghela, will be put to shame by this revolt. September 2009, therefore, is crucial for him as the results of the by-elections in Gujarat will seal his fate.
As Jaswant Singh said, Sardar Patel, was not a Sangh guy. He was in fact against the RSS. But see the irony of BJP that it has to put Sardar in the same category as their ideologues because Patels in Gujarat is a huge force and you just cannot antagonize them. But the damage is already done and it is not by Jaswant Singh but by Modi himself.
Recent violence between Rabaris and Patels in Ahmedabad is an indicator to the social unrest Gujarat is facing. These two are not the oppressed communities but influential ones. Two major sections, Dalits and Tribals, are waiting to implode. It is just a matter of time that they recoup and reenergize themselves because they are oppressed class and cannot react the way Rabaris or Patels did.
A chain is only as strong as its weakest link, so goes the saying. Gujarat’s strong link for the party was the promises and development plank that Modi promised to his ‘subjects’. But this has become its weakest link and is thoroughly exposed now. Modi was trying to teach the Gujarati entrepreneurs how to do business as if they had no idea about it. It fell flat. Familiarity breeds contempt and Modi’s foot soldiers, district chiefs and local leader and others responsible for reach out to masses, are thoroughly disappointed on being “treated like a dirt.” But Modi will take the solace from the saying that great men are almost always bad men
For Modi’s detractors, more inside his regime than those who revolted, this is a golden chance for revenge. And in politics, revenge is a dish best served cold. With SIT sitting right in front of CM residence and Supreme Court on the backyard of it, there are many who says the political days of the Hindu Hriday Samrat are numbered. Having said this, you cannot rule out the possibility of people like Modi boomeranging from nowhere to the centre of gravity. Remember the proverb, he who laughs last laughs longest.

Why the hell Mughals built Taj Mahals?

Mughals are the pioneers of architecture in India but they don’t have a roof over their head now. What a pity for the former emperors of India? As I read this morning about how the descendants of India's last Mughal emperor, Bahadur Shah Zafar, were rescued from a life of penury in Kolkata, I recollected my trip to five generations above this lady who was rescued and given a job at a government run PSU.

Bahadur Shah Zafar is the son of Aurungzeb who chose to live and die in penury. But it is a pity that the Mughal dynasty ensure their descendants live in poverty unknown and unnoticed. All the monuments they built are government properties. The only mistake they did was they built monuments that defied wisdom. They were great wonders that made the governments take it over and open it to public for a fee. Taj Mahal is just one among them.

Read Maharashtra Diary on Aurungzeb here

I have not seen the lady in question, Madhu, the illiterate great-great-granddaughter of emperor Bahadur Shah Zafar. But I have seen the place where her great-great-grandfather spent his last days. I reached Ahmednagar to visit the place where Aurungzeb lived his last two years virtually in self-imposed penury. Aurungzeb is not my hero or the role model that I follow on Twitter, Facebook or Orkut. But my interest to learn about him was because he is the first person recorded in history who abolished taxes on commodities and inland transport duties. In today’s language, you can put this as abolition of Octroi and Commodity Transaction Tax.

Born as Mohyuddin Muhammad Aurangzeb on October 24, 1618, as the third son of Shah Jahan and Mumtaz, his aura and status is robbed by today’s generation. In Maharashtra and elsewhere he is displayed as a butcher who tried to destabilise India. Today’s political thugs know that there was no concept of India during those times and what Aurungzeb did was to unite the country ruled by innumerable kings, Rajputs and Peshwas. But if they reveal this truth, their political game of religious animosity and regional chauvinism will end.

Very few also have interest to know about his descendants. Why should they? When his own community fellows have not respected him, why should the people from ‘other side’ give him any due? In Ahmednagar the first thing I noticed was a bill board. ‘Alamgir Chicken, Mutton, Fish and Biriyani’, read the board of a small restaurant bang opposite the darghah which is a Madrassa now. For your information Alamgir is none other than Aurungzeb himself.

As far as I know, Aurangzeb was not selling chicken. Though he was a humble man, he deserves much more than the shabby place and unplanned concrete structure that the local Muslim organisations are building all around the dargah.

Bal Thackeray and the Muslim chronicles

This headline may be novelty for a few people but for those who know the political compulsions of Shiv Sena and its chief, it is a stale one. The story is how two Muslims doctors from Lilavati Hospital-Dr Jaleel Parkar and Dr Samad Ansari-rushed to his house administered him medical help at Matoshri and then brought him to the hospital's ICU in an ambulance.
And all these while the Shiv Sena have earned notoriety for spreading hatred against Muslims. If Shiv Sena hadn’t made its notorious hatred against Muslims and then against the North Indians, they would have perished long time back.

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This is because a few political parties thrive on issues, which has no relevance to the common man. BSP is another example. If caste system is eliminated from India, then Mayawati will not survive. If Marathas want their pie in Maharashtra, they put NCP in survival mode. The same way Shiv Sena is known for its negative and destructive politicking and only spreading hatred can do this. If you spread love, who on earth will vote for you? If love was a political symbol, Missionaries of Charity should be contesting the polls.
Bal Thackeray has a Muslim driver; his family consists of multi lingual multi cultural incumbents including his close ones. I had the opportunity to meet Suresh Thackeray, his brother’s son who was a Christian Missionary. He married a Malayali nurse and ran a school in Junagadh where the hardline Hindu zealots tried to snatch his booming school business from him by framing him in a case and then later some Christian leaders tried to snatch it under the disguise of saving him from the long hands of law.
Disgruntled, he left for Jharkand where he was preaching Bible and one day I learnt that he died in an accident. I don’t know whether it was a real accident or an alleged murder.
I also know a tribal girl from Narmada district who was brilliant in studies and applied for medical test in one of the colleges in Maharashtra. She was selected but was asked to pay the capitation fee. The nun who was accompanying this girl asked the trustee if there was a way out since they could not pay such a huge capitation fee. He replied that only the patron can help and he sent both of them to Matoshree.
She not only got the admission but Thackeray asked the school management to reduce her fees too. I am not aware where this girl is now but I know where that nun is. She is trying to get more such talented tribal children to various academic studies.
So don’t be surprised if Shiv Sena puts more hatred into the streets of Mumbai and still continues to get help from those against whom they have spread the hatred. This is Indian politics.

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Australia attack is India’s media creation

Indian media is hungry for news. So much so that they seem to be starved of their basic staple diet. So when they get anything – important or useless – they just grab on it and then show it as if it is the end of the world. The attack of students in Australia is also a media creation. They just went overboard saying the entire Australian population is against Indian students so much so that a jeolosy theory was also attached to it. It is the total failure of media to understand the very idea behind the attacks and avoid creating a panic. The Indian students in Australia just played to the gallery. I am told that a section of Indian media representatives forced them to take out a rally and block traffic so that they could get some visuals back home. The students just did it. Here is a letter that I read as a response to a news item in ucanews.com. And I completely agree to this.

Dear fellow Catholics,

Please be assured that the problem lies not with ordinary Australians but disaffected immigrant/refugee youth of Sudanese and Middle-Eastern origin. As the students have themselves described, their attackers are in the main "black men (Africans)" or "Middle-Eastern".
These immigrants/refugees have been warmly welcomed and embraced but they repay us with conduct such as this. One incident involved a Catholic nun walking down a Sydney street. She passed by two Muslim women dressed in their garb who turned on her, assaulted her, spat on her and tore the crucifix chain from her.
So please ignore the media there in India who have no idea at all. Our media, because of political correctness, refuses to describe the ethnicity of the attackers.
The Cronulla riots a few years ago came about with frustration by the locals with the lack of protection by the police from marauading Lebanese Muslim gangs who were brazeningly invading shops, restaurants, bars and cafes spitting and urinating on patrons and assaulting/intimidating all and sundry. One incident ibvolved a young mother who had taken her toddler daughter to the beach. The toddler was playing in the water when a gang of these militants came up to the mother and demanded that she cover up her daughter who was wearing a regular modest bathing costume. She refused and told them to go away. They did but returned a little later with knives. The young mother fled with her daughter.
A young fellow who had been away at sea for some weeks returned and was withdrawing money from a ATM. He was assaulted by one of these gangs and critically injured. He was repeatedly stabbed and the assault only stopped when the knife broke off in his back. These gangs hunt the streets at night looking for "skips", their term for Australians. Now they have turned their attention to easier marks- students from India.
My view is that these immigrants/refugees should return to their countries of origin and take their violent evil disruptive ways with them. Australia is a land of immigrants. I am second generation Irish-Australian. Everyone has assimilated. From Greeks, Italians, Lebanese Catholics/Christians,Russians,Eskimos,South Americans, South Africans (black and white), Mexicans etc etc all get along except for those from Muslim countries/areas.
The Government(s), politicans and police are afraid to control these Muslims for fear of being labelled "racist". This is the usual cry (yelp?) from the Muslims when they are criticized in any manner, rightfully or wrongfully.
So please when you read media reports do so with discerning wisdom.
In Christo frater,

John FG McMahon
Kolonga, State of Queensland
Australia

The Indian students pay a heavy amount of currency notes to get into Australia and many of them reach there not merely to study but to migrate and settle there permanently. It is not a cottage industry any more. It is a heavy industry and why should the Australian people reject the revenue they earn from the ‘poor’ Indian students who migrate thinking that India does not have the facilities to study. Most of these students go for pursuing a career in MBA or any other Business careers studies and end up in departmental stores packaging vegetables and groceries.

The other day I saw a girl in an NDTV talk show saying she has already spent some 50 lakhs in studying journalism in Columbia and this does not include her fee. How on earth she is going to recover this by working as a Journalist. I can understand if a doctor spends this money as he can recover it through surgeries day in and day out. But can she sit down and write day and day out stories and recover those amount. Sounds crazy. But after all I am a bad journalist and a glorified typist and I may not be the right person to understand it fully.

Habib Tanvir : The man who spoke without opening his mouth

I still remember Habib Tanvir inviting me on my request for an interview in Bhopal some four years back and then not speaking a word for almost an hour. From today, I am saddened that he will never speak at all. The highly talented playwright and theatre director Habib Tanvir died at the age of 85 this morning.
And when he spoke, he threw his frustration at the Gujarat riots asking me whether it is possible for any person to kill the other without any reason. “After all what is religion? How can you be swayed by political figures to kill each other. I just cannot understand,” he put his silent mould again for another quarter to half an hour before asking me to sit on a chair. I was sitting on the ground till then in his theatre room as he was thinking of a new play. All his character actors, most of whom were from the nomad tribes, waited breathlessly to hear a word from him at the Naya theatre premises.
Agra Bazar and Charandas Chor were his famour creations but I was not interested in his plays. I was more interested in his comments on the Gujarar scenario as he planned a play on the massacre. I wanted to know the angle of the act and whether the play will indict Narendra Modi, the alleged mastermind behind the riots.
Soon I felt he was almost into a siesta. I asked the actors standing in front of me whether it was true. I asked them without opening my mouth in action languages that neither they could understand nor I could communicate. “No,” came the reply from one of the youngest actors. Tanvir stood up and that when I came to know that he can walk well.
It was 3 hours by then and I could get no bytes for my radio story. I insisted that I need him to speak and only then my mission will be accomplished. He opened his mouth very well and spoke clearly his mind. I have his sound safely kept while some of them went with the story that was broadcast. But now those sounds will be archives forever. My tribute to this silent man.