Weekend musings - 17th April 2021

Thank God for mediocrity. The malaise runs deep in this country. We are on our way to the depths. Kaliyug is only on its periphery - we will descend deeper into darkness.

Incapable people are in positions of power and decision making. The able and capable are twiddling their thumbs as helpless bystanders.

The undeserving are feted and popular. The deserving fade away into oblivion only to be feted posthumously.

The brittle Seers and Icons rise up only to crumble down, leaving a multitude of thirsty hordes hungrier than ever for Heroes.

Then they clutch at straws and prop up more mediocrity on their way to sinking further down. The cycle continues and a cyclic order is established - but instead of rising up, we descend further.

Thus Spake The Archer

Raj Kapoor and the Wasted Generation

Today is Raj Kapoor's birth anniversary and there will undoubtedly be a lot of good things said about one  of the 'pioneers' of cinema in India. A lot will be said about how he is responsible for the current state of the Hindi Movie Industry (I hate referring to it as 'Bollywood'). Many of his Industry folk will trip over each other to try and sound intelligent in their 'eulogy' calling him out for being responsible for their own careers by influencing them with his showmanship in the formative years of their careers.

For me, he was guilty of a crime, and one of a heinous nature - he had a chance to shape the ideology of a young nation, a nation that was getting back on it's own feet after more than a thousand years of subjugation initially by culturally inferior savages and then by Racist Caucasians that looked down upon anything we held dear and everything we practised. A thousand years and more, of forces trying to change us - through force (read: torture), coercion and systematic manipulation of our beliefs.

This man had a chance and he not only squandered it, but he made it worse. He made it so bad that I truly believe a lot of the sediment of the manure he spread around in order to plant and popularize his fables are still facilitating grounds for roots to develop robust trees of of that ideology, bearing similar poisonous fruit.

Take specifics: Who were Raj Kapoor's protogonists in his movies? If you have to look for one term to answer that: The Undeserving, or here's another harsher one: The Loser! 

The roles he portrayed were almost always these fellows: A Thief, A Loafer, A Vagrant, A Charlatan, A Con and mostly - all of these rolled into and resulting in one Rotten excuse of a Human Being. Then, the formula script: a lady comes along, usually a well meaning damsel, obsessed on improving this Scum's life and then come the stereotypes, a fraud Godman, a conniving Loan Shark, a Twisted Leader (always from the Brahmin or the Kshatriya communities, usually the damsel's father/guardian) and all these stereotypes have only one goal - to keep the Scum with no hopes of rehabilitation and grovelling in the dirt where they all believe he belongs. To whatever end the movies unrolled, the underlying message was this - the rich are wicked and the poor have no hope.

And these movies ironically were during the times that (at least in South India) a lot of wealthy upper caste & progressive land owners gave away their lands (either voluntarily or through the policies of the most vicious lady we have ever had at the helm of this country's affairs) relinquished their Brahmin/Upper caste identities (to this day most of them only use their initials and not their full family names, leave alone their titles) and the only legacy they passed on to their kids was the education they worked hard to give themselves and then their kids. That generation, mine and born 10 years before and after, having no family lands or wealth to back them, had to work extra hard and as a consequence, turned out to be self made women and men after struggling through the first half of their working lives. 

Having gone through this struggle in life and having had to deal with all the outcome of the whacked out policies framed by the undeserving idiots that were in charge of policy making in the 1947-1970 time frame, my generation and my ilk ended up having respect for only one thing: Meritocracy! 

And as for the ones that have made it to the top, through this muck of the unfair policy of reservation based on caste and the back breaking tax regime, we deem them fit for adulation and even worship.

I often imagine how our society would be today, if Raj Kapoor had instead made movies based on the largely unsung, barely known Heroes that initially fought and warded off these barbaric hordes from the Islamic tribes and then those that kept in control, the smooth-talking, back-stabbing, Bible wielding Europeans. If he had made movies glorifying our ways of the world, of Karma, of Good Karma & Bad, if he had made movies that were the opposite of a movie called Nayaa Daur (losely translated to 'New Course/Times' which had a story line completely opposite to what should have been the script, given the title!), If he had shown the struggle of the achievers, of the job-providers and the hard workers. 

If only he had glorified the real Heroes instead of the vicious under-dogs scavenging for survival, would we have been better? Undoubtedly so.

India, Bharat & The Hindu revival

India, October 2017: We are a country that have a fully functional Judiciary, Executive & a Legislature. These three pillars of our democracy seem healthy from the outside and any of our 125 Crore+ people can feel proud of the fact that our founding fathers have left us a structure that  prevails and despite the humongous scale at which this country operates, manages to maintain order.

2014 was a year that was full of expectations because in May a new Legislative team was installed by an overwhelming majority after booting out the most corrupt regime this country had ever seen. Sonia Gandhi and her Government were so up to their neck in corruption, it almost became a joke. I will stop right there because even a recollection of it seems like a nightmare we never have to relive again.

Narendra Modi came across as a breath of fresh air, a man speaking the common man's language - talking extensively of development, ridding large scale corruption, restoring the pride of a wounded nation, creating jobs, bringing back the economy on track from the dismal wrecked ruin it was made into by the much famed "Dream team", and many such.

It has been 3 and a half years. 
Are we satisfied? Are we happy? Am afraid not. 
Are we slightly underwhelmed? You bet we are.
Do we want to throw out the Modi government? HELL, NO!

So what has worked & what has not? 
Lets see - Pride has been restored to a large extent. It feels great to hear friends outside the country talk about India's image in the developed nations. Feels good to see International experts and bodies be so bullish about India's economic future. Modi was ridiculed as an NRI PM, but that was what he had to do and he did it well. 

And after those trips, he rolled up his sleeves, stayed home and is working extremely hard to fix things - and there are so many things to fix after the bungling Manmohan & team had done in 10 years!

Economy has been more or less on track. Inflation is under control. The note printing (and distributing among themselves) machinery of the Congress has been given a much deserved rest. Demonetization cost the corrupt dear. I know of people who lost part of their ill gotten gains in the frenzy to convert. Some (very little but still, some) of that even trickled down the economic ladder into the pockets of the needy. 

Most important, it gave the needy sections of the society an opportunity to see the move causing burn in the holes of the pockets of the wealthy. Somehow that translated into a patient wait in the line, without complaints, to exchange whatever little cash the lower and middle income groups had. The mainstream media folks who tried to whip up emotion were rightly put back into place.

I am not an expert but I know this much - if the Markets are a measure of the economy, one look at India's market indices are ample evidence that the Government is doing the right things.

What has not worked is that prices of essentials has still not come down to the levels that one expected/hoped to see. Fuel prices should reflect the crude in international markets and that is one area the general perception is that the government could have done more.

However, I don't remember Onion prices hitting the roof due to hoarding. Except the one time that pulses went up, prices have pretty much been under control. Even then, quick measures were taken to keep it under lid.

Defence is one area that we have seen HUGE improvements. Now, when we hear of a Pakistani ceasefire violation, it is quickly followed by evidence of a quick, fierce and super aggressive response. We have even occasionally heard of the Pakistani rats scurry along with a white flag begging forgiveness. Manohar Parrikar was a great choice for DefMin and the surgical strikes made our chests swell with pride. The by-product of the external action was that it also showed up the true faces of power hungry communist leaders here  at home who asked for evidence, spoke it down, condemned the government etc.

Now in Nirmala Sitharaman, we have a lady who is always at some defense installation or the other, inspiring our forces, waving off women's delegations to sail around the world, shocking the Chinese guarding their border posts with a simple "Namaste"  & MOST IMPORTANTLY, TAKING DECISIONS! In her short tenure as DefMin, I bet she has done more than A.K. Antony ever did in his entire tenure. India's war preparedness (as per sources - real sources, am not MSM) has apparently come down to 2 days from the much longer time during the time of Manmohan.

What has not worked? Home Ministry has seen some real cowardly stuff. Lots of "Kadi Ninda" with no real action, Dollops of minority appeasement that has continued unabated. Kashmir that is still handled with kid gloves. Pellet guns that would keep our forces safe have been replaced because the usual suspects in the media criticized the use. I & B has been ineffective in reining in these anti-nationals masquerading as an independent media (more of this later). JNU continues to be the pot where anti-India elements operate with no fear of law. Maoists still kill our forces and get away - but I have to admit that is one activity that seems to be on the wane.

The rest of the arms of the administration - Surface transport, Railways, Power, Textiles etc all seem to be going about their jobs quietly, purposefully and the results show.

The one pillar of this democracy that has really disappointed me during this Government's tenure is the Judiciary. Ever since Modi took over, there seems to be a complete Judicial Activism that has taken over this very important element of our country. 

It all started in a very small, innocuous manner that seemed helpful and almost guidance to the government - a few examples:
Why is the Ganga cleaning not given priority? 
What is happening in the Black Money case?

Then they moved to areas that prompted "Is this your business really?" in my mind.
What regulations should come in to Cricket?
What about the National Anthem before movie shows?

Then they descended into what now seems like the real agenda:
Water during Holi.
Crackers during Diwali.
Loudspeakers during Chhat Pooja.

The last straw as far as I am concerned is with the stay on sending back the Rohingya refugees who the Government has said are not just a threat to the national security but can also dangerously alter the demographics of our country and threaten our identity like never before in our history.

If this were balanced with number of animals killed during Muslim festivals or trees cut for decoration during Christmas, I'd say go ahead. But the Judiciary doesn't want to interfere in Loudspeakers used from 4:30 AM to late in the night for Muslim prayers. They don't want to interfere in making Id a bloodless festival. With a slim margin, they opted to do away with triple talaq. Though am sure they will eventually throw in the towel on that as well.

The case for the Ram Mandir in Ayodhya is now pending for over 20 years but instead of taking bold decisions based on archeological facts and documented history, the Supreme Court asks the parties involved to come to an understanding. Couple this with the Muslim bodies saying they will not negotiate and instead will depend on the Supreme Court's verdict, this seems to be a dangerous Tango going on and the Hindu turns out to be just a hapless, uninterested bystander watching this drama unfold, believing at every moment, that we cannot rely on the Courts to be in any way fair to our cause.

All said and done, the Judiciary is increasingly being perceived to be anti-Hindu and the causes they take up regularly are only going on to strengthen that perception. How this plays out, How long the Hindus will rein in their pride, How thin their patience runs and When this patience runs out, is only to be seen. But God forbid, when that happens - and at the rate at which we are going, it is a question of WHEN and not IF, the cleansing will start. And it has to, because whatever parts of the country, the Hindus have let turn into other religions, have been cut off from Bharat, to the point that Bharat itself has been re-christened into India.

Time to rise, to shed off that cowardice in the guise of being tolerant, to revel in being Hindu - whatever form of Hindu, whatever erstwhile Varna, whatever man made Caste, whatever Color, whatever Territory - to take pride in the fact that we are born in a land that is rich with so much legacy, heritage & culture despite the suffering and the attempts to negate & ridicule our beliefs and our way of life.

To quote, perhaps the most famous son of this soil who repeated this from the Upanishads - ARISE, AWAKE, STOP NOT TILL THE GOAL IS REACHED! 

The Goal is to reclaim Bharat, not just in terms of territory, but reclaiming everything that Bharat ever stood for.