Copenhagen and the bomb

Can anything in the world be right or wrong in the absolute sense of the word? Other than stuff like 2+2 = 4, everything is open to interpretation especially political actions. Its rightly said that there are no permanent friends or enemies in politics; what is permanent is the desire to protect one's interests. Einstein famously said that a scientist belongs to the world in time of peace but to his/her country in times of war.

I had the pleasure of watching the play "Copenhagen" at Ranga Shankara in Bangalore that highlighted this fact of life. It is a celebrated play that has been performed all over the world and telecast on BBC with Daniel Craig playing one of the lead roles. It is based on an encounter between Neils Bohr and Werner Heisenberg in 1941 who shared a father-son and teacher-protege relationship.

Heisenberg comes to visit Bohr with Germany at the height of its powers and ruling over half of Europe including Denmark. The meeting ends abruptly when Heisenberg asks Bohr if the fission research that scientists have been working on around the world could be put to "other uses". Bohr interprets this as an intention on Heisenberg's part to put atomic energy to military use and sends him away. Heisenberg goes away thinking that the task of building a reactor to generate enough quantity of enriched uranium is futile.

Considering the times, Bohr's suspicion of Heisenberg's motives were justified but look at how history panned out. Bohr, the avowed pacifist, went to the US soon after the meeting and worked on Project Manhattan. Einstein, another man of peace, wrote to the US govt to fund Manhattan. The Americans drop the bomb not once but twice. One can only speculate why they did it as the war was nearly won. Was it to teach the Japanese a lesson, end the war soon or just prompted by a feeling of superiority?  And why drop the second bomb? Was it to test a plutonium bomb in addition to a uranium one? Weren't the horrors of the Hiroshima bomb enough?

There is a chilling "it might have been" twist in the story. If Bohr had asked Heisenberg to work out the amount of enriched uranium required for the bomb, he may have figured out the answer. Thank God he didn't...

The Joy of KK

There is an energy to life in India that makes you overlook problems like the traffic, water shortage etc. I would not give it up for anything. Of the many positive aspects, one comes by every year on 4^th August. It happens to be the birthday of Kishore Kumar, a man who brought joy into the lives of millions of Indians or as PG Wodehouse would say “spread sweetness and light”. The great thing now is that every FM station plays his songs through the day on his birthday. They also come up with new nuggets of information every year. E.g. for a continuous period of six years, KK had a live concert at Shanmukhananda Hall in Bandra every weekend and it would be sold out; his lawyer father never allowed him to learn music as he thought it was frivolous; the only Hindi song featured on Simpsons is “Pal bhar ke liye”. What amazes me is the hold he has on listeners 27 years after he passed away. It always reminds me of a statement from Javed Akhtar “Time is kind to great people”. This eccentric man’s legend keeps growing with every passing year.

My love affair with Kishore started when I was 7 or 8 years old. My Dad bought me a grey coloured “Greatest Hits of Kishore” cassette. I remember being mesmerized by “O mere dil ke chain” and “Roop tera mastana”. The journey continued through my school & college years as I kept discovering new facets of the man and his songs for different moods. He even made the utterly mediocre songs of “Tohfa” sound tolerable!

Today it seems unthinkable that this genius took more than 20 years to make a mark as a playback singer. I would put it down to his eccentricities, his acting commitments and the fact that the likes of Shankar-Jaikishan, Naushad, Roshan and Madan Mohan were too classical. I am sure he would have struggled with their tunes. The only pointer I have towards that is from one of KK’s concerts where he sang “Man re tu kahe na dheer dhare” as a tribute to Rafi.  Even as the most ardent KK fan I could not bring myself to like it. I am glad that the Burmans arrived on the scene with the kind of music that suited Kishore’s voice. 

There are three things that make him stand out as a singer

• His diction. Every word of every song is pronounced so clearly and perfectly.  
• Breath control – having listened to so many of his songs over the years, I still cannot find one where I can hear him breathing. Contrast that with today’s singers like Sonu Nigam whom you can hear taking deep breaths between lines
•  “The feel”. Anup Jalota summed it up very well when he said that it is necessary for a playback singer to know a bit of acting. While Kishore hated his acting days, I think it stood him in good stead when he turned to playback. No one else could have brought that touch of drunkenness to “Yeh jo mohabbat hai” , “Nadiya se dariya”, “Yeh lal rang” and “Yeh kya hua..” or the paan chewing effect to “Khaike paan banaraswala”. Legend has it that he sang Khaike with two paans in his mouth but I have it from a very reliable source that it is not true. He just acted as if he was eating paan.

There is something about his voice that enthralls you, can make you feel ecstatic. It’s very difficult to pinpoint the magic but I have attempted an explanation

“The hum”. There are some songs where he starts by humming and that is enough to bowl you over. Listen to the magical beginning of “Kora kagaz tha..”. It captures the echo of the mountains and the freshness of the mountain air. I still get goosebumps when I listen to it. The other day I listened to Rimjhim gire saawan on Youtube. The song again starts with KK humming and adds so much to the beauty of the song. The hum is missing in the records so go to YouTube to catch it.

He had the most manly voice ever for a playback singer. Rafi’s voice was mellifluous, soothing but it never hit you like Kishore’s. In the famous Hum kisise kum nahin medley, after “Chand mera dil”, Kishore’s voice in “Aa dil kya” is like a boombox. It conveys the impression to the audience that he is the king. Or take the small part that he sings for Amitabh in the title song of Satte pe Satta. It just lifts the song to a different level. Or “Bachna ae haseeno” – even in the remixed version that was created for Ranbir Kapoor’s movie, you feel ecstatic when you hear the original snippet sung by Kishore.

The emotion and feel he brought to each song was palpable. Look at the soulfulness in “Tere bina zindagi se…”, you can feel Sanjeev Kumar pining for the old days as Kishore sings “Tum jo kehdo to aaj ki raat chand dubega nahin”. A similar emotion comes through in Main shaayar badnaam as Raza Murad lies on his deathbed remembering his life and all his regrets. “Jaane Tute Dil Mein Kya Armaan Hai Baaki”

The other extreme emotion of joie de vivre is of course rendered in so many songs. The one that comes to mind immediately is Jai jai shivshankar. I cannot think of a more joyful song. Kishore brings it to life by even mouthing some dialogues at the end “Bajao bajao imandaari se bajaao…” that is the actor in him coming to the fore. In this and many other songs, you feel as light as a bird in full flight when you hear KK’s voice rising to a crescendo. An offbeat song that illustrates this is “Kali ram ka baj gaya dhol”. In “Mohabbat bade kaam ki cheez hai”, KK’s voice soars skyhigh as he sings “Mohabbat se itna khafa hone wale, chal aa aaj tujhko mohabbat sikha de”. It’s such a strong riposte to Yesudas’s melodious yet weak voice.

The sensuous and romantic feelings are best illustrated in some classic duets with Lata. Although Asha had a style similar to KK, his best duets have been with Lata. Savour these – in “Bheegi bheegi raaton mein” when KK sings “aisa lagta hai tu banke ghata apne sajan ko bhigoke khel khel rahi ho” you can literally feel the rain. In “Pehli pehli baar dekha aisa jalwa” the way Amitabh teases Rekha with “Pakdi kalai to na chhodoonga kabhi” is divine. If I was a girl, I would love to be wooed by such a voice! “Kali palak teri gori”, “Aaj madhosh hua jaye re”, “Sar se sarke”, “Aap ki aankhon mein kuch”, “Aankhon mein humne aapke”, “Are yaar meri tum bhi ho gazab”, “Hum dono do premi” – the list is endless.

Finally of course, the man’s creative genius in composing songs and improvising on the spot. The mind boggles when you think that Mere bhole balam was originally supposed to be a dialogue between Sunil Dutt and Guru Kishore. KK converted that to a song that is forever etched in the minds of all movie lovers. And he also created possibly the greatest male duet in Bollywood history - “Ek chaturnaar”. Manna Dey didn’t want to lose to Kishore but acknowledged later that the improviser deserved to win because he captured the spirit of the song! Padosan in my view was the perfect culmination of all of Kishore’s gifts – acting, comedy, composing and incredible singing. The only other film that comes close is “Chalti ka naam gaadi” with Paanch rupaiya barah aana being the pinnacle of his creative genius.  

I know comparisons between singers are dangerous and often lead to acrimonious debates. The only observation I have is that in songs sung by KK and another singer, it is invariably the KK version that became more popular. Maybe it was because many of these were SD/RD numbers that suited his voice. But he does sound better than more accomplished and technically superior singers. Just listen to “Khilte hai gul yahaan”, “Rimjhim gire saawan”, “Mere naina saawan bhaadon”, “Tum bin jaaoon kahaan” and you will know what I mean. The only song in my view where he comes out second best is “Kitne bhi tu kar le sitam” – the Asha version is better.

I have had virtually no regrets in my life but often I think what it would have been like to go to one of the KK concerts in the 80s. Why oh why didn’t I have any relatives / friends in Mumbai? A concert in the summer holidays in Bombay would have been so ideal. There is at least one item on my bucket list that will soon be ticked off – a visit to the Kishore Kumar Smarak in Khandwa. 

Elections every 2 years please!!

As the 2014 Lok Sabha elections approach, there is a palpable sense of excitement - RaGa gives a legendary interview, NaMo jets around the country espousing the Gujarat model, Kejriwal has a new stunt everyday and eminent people like Nandan Nilekani have jumped into the fray. Arnab of course is on overdrive pulling up all and sundry. What entertainment each evening! If it was possible to make an amendment to our Constitution, I would ask for a Lok Sabha election every two years.

Apart from the entertainment, there is another strong factor in favour of this change. A lot gets done in a very short while. Here is a list of improvements in Bangalore in the last two months - the long overdue airport expressway opened, many small roads in the city including the garbage filled road next to my apartment resembles an autobahn and the second Metro line has started. The govt even extended the nightlife till 1am for the suffering denizens of the city!! I see this new found efficiency lasting till April 17th when the state has its LS poll. Of course not every city is as lucky as Bangalore and the reason for that is we have a Cong govt. They are trying hard to swim against the tide and win some LS seats in Karnataka.

Today there are 11 states ruled by Cong, 5 by BJP, 12 by local parties.  Other than some good CMs like Pawan Chamling & Raman Singh who work for the betterment of their states, all we see is corrupt govt & municipal bodies preventing any work from being done.

If the LS polls are held every two years and we assume that the anti-incumbency factor will apply, anywhere from 5 to 11 states will benefit (Cong or BJP-ruled) from improved infrastructure. That means 20-40% of the country will benefit big time every two years. This will deliver more prosperity than our standard Five-Year Plans. I will take this scenario any day despite the cost of elections. I only have one small request, don't make the elections clash with the IPL!!

Hum AAPke honge kya?

I remember landing in Chennai one morning in 2006 and chuckling at an ad by a hotel as I drove out of the airport. It said "Our room rates are lower than Bush's IQ. You can't go lower than this." Replacing "Bush's IQ" with "Indian political standards" is apt at all times but never more so than in the last few months. Even by their own rock-bottom standards, our politicians have plumbed new depths - using a pepper spray in Parliament, brandishing a knife, clamouring to free the killers of an ex-PM (surely the only politicians globally to do so), writing a brilliant essay about Australia after a "study tour", a Home Minister wanting to crush the electronic media - to name just a few accomplishments.

Into this scenario of despair stepped the AAP. Their main poll plank is correct - corruption is without doubt the biggest issue in our society today. The catch is that they were just not ready for success. It reminded me of a common statement in corporate offices- "Be careful about what you ask, you just may get it". After winning the Delhi polls, they realized that running a government involves many mundane tasks and is not just about the headline grabbing stunts. In 47 days time, they were back to doing what they are best at - activism. This period showed that they need to build a point of view on many important national issues like Kashmir, FDI in Retail, khap panchayats etc which is fine for a young party. What was however disturbing was the reluctance to accept any wrongdoing by their members like Somnath Bharti and the brazenness in offering sops to their "supporters", the case in point being the free power given to those who did not pay their bills between Oct 2012 and May 2013. The full story is at http://www.telegraphindia.com/1140213/jsp/nation/story_17932627.jsp#.UxIfI-OSzYk . Imagine if every elected government started behaving like this. "The govt is please to announce welfare scheme X only to those who voted for us in the last elections. To avail the benefits, please reveal who you voted for and remember that the government's decision is final."

The fact that they continue to attract many high-profile people is proof that their appeal is still strong . Their biggest risk today is their leader himself. If you saw Kejriwal's interview with Barkha Dutt soon after he resigned, it is apparent that the guy is sharp and his heart is in the right place. He is however making it difficult for his party members to defend his adhoc actions. Everyday he comes up with a new stunt to grab attention (questions to Modi, gas pricing, Ambani).  He has developed this habit of "Hit and Run". Is he expecting someone else to prove the corruption charges against the high and mighty? In a short span of 3 months, he has taken the country from the heights of optimism to the depths of despair. I just hope he sees some sense soon. They can be a credible Third Front unlike the many Third Fronts that were cobbled together in past elections and could make all regional satraps irrelevant on the national stage.

Let AAP prove themselves in one or two states, act as a responsible oppostion in the LS and maybe 2019 will be their time. Till then, my vote goes to the BJP for the simple reason that they are the only alternative to the UPA and the dynasty.

Special 42800

Who said innovation is dead in India? After listening to the Honourable Finance Minister lay out the Union budget, I marvelled at the out-of-the-box thinking. Who could have thought of an all women’s bank to solve the gender issues in our country?

The other thing that I realized after listening to the budget speech was that our development must truly be all encompassing and has ensured fair distribution of wealth. As per IT records, only 42,800 individuals have declared an income greater than 1 crore and that is the SuperRich subset on which he plans to levy a tax surcharge. Again – it’s only for the next one year, says the ever considerate FM. If I take the average income of these HNIs as 5 crores (it includes our rich cricketers and filmstars), that accounts only for 5% of our nation’s GDP of a trillion dollars. That means the rest of the wealth is with the balance population and so all is well in our country. UPA should win the next poll hands down! This statistic will be a strong contender for the 1^st prize in Ripley’s Believe it or Not series.

The most prudent FM we had was the very same PC in his 1997 avatar who introduced the VDIS scheme. The tagline was “30% tax, 100% peace of mind”.  It allowed all the individuals and corporates who were hiding their income to pay 30% tax and get immunity from the IT Act and Foreign Exchange Act. 3 lac+ made use of this and the government mopped up 7800 crores. 

Why should we subject our “poor” tax evaders to any kind of mental anguish? The government should become practical and announce a VDIS scheme every year. To show an improvement on VDIS 1997, they should announce a "Door to door service" like our pizza chains. The collection agents will have to come with large suitcases to collect the tax (most of it I presume will be paid in cash). VIP and Samsonite must be smiling at their future business prospects. Through this innovative scheme at least the government’s fiscal deficit will come down. We can then also make a legitimate claim to shift the world headquarters of Amnesty International to New Delhi!

Solving the Woes of the IT industry

I was at Landmark a few weeks ago looking for a good book to read during the year-end holidays and came across “Bal Thackeray” by Vaibhav Purandare in the Top 10 bestseller list. The only two people on whom he has written a book are Sachin Tendulkar and Bal Thackeray. He could not have chosen a more diverse pair of individuals. One stayed away from any kind of controversy while the other reveled in it, one showed his violent streak only on a cricket ball while the other glorified it as a political instrument. The book is a simple chronological account of the Sena from the time it was formed. The author offers no opinions or perspectives. What miffed me more on reading the book was the opportunistic behaviour of successive Congress governments in Maharashtra. As long as the Sena was fighting the Communists and the trade unions, they let it run amok. By the time they woke up, they had helped create a party that could get away with anything in the city of Mumbai. The only positive with BalT and the Sena is that they are, to use a software term, WYSIWYG. Which brings me to what I wanted to discuss....

In the Indian IT services industry the biggest issue is the "war for talent". There are at least 20 companies running after the same set of individuals, often creating a merry-go-round. The problem is more pronounced in newer areas like Cloud computing, Analytics and Mobility. It then occurred to me that here is a completely untapped talent pool that the industry has ignored – our political classes.

Imagine a leading consumer company faced with falling sales of its shampoo brand Silky. It has gathered reams of data but is struggling to draw any conclusions or find any patterns to explain the fall in sales. IT Company X brings in its crack Analytics team consisting of our political stalwarts and here are the solutions they provide in a matter of minutes

-          Mohan Bhagwatji: Sales are falling in India, not in Bharat so you need not take any action. Women in India are influenced by western culture and cutting their hair short thus using less shampoo

-          MNS: Sales must be falling in urban India due to all the immigration. Give us 6 months, we will fix it

-          Renuka Chowdhury: Ha ha ha ha (unable to stop)

-          Mulayam/ Mayawati: You have ignored the backward classes. Going forward, please reserve 22% of your output for them and see your sales grow

-          BS Yeddyurappa: We need to mine the data further. I have a couple of good contractors who are reddy and could do it for you

-          Abhijit Mukherjee: These dented and painted women are busy protesting on the streets instead of washing their hair

-          Shiv Sena: We will change the data for you and show high sales. No one can challenge us

Amazed by the quick insights provided, the company calls the whole team into the Times Now studio to arrive at a common conclusion and the rest is history. NASSCOM – are you listening?

The Most Violent Animal

 

I remember taking our 5-year old son to the Lucknow zoo many years ago and being disappointed that he was not really excited at seeing the animals. I guess 5-year olds are not predictable. What I do remember vividly from that visit is a sign at the entrance to the zoo that says “Meet the most dangerous animal on the planet”. If you follow the sign it leads you to a mirror.

We are so used to hearing words and phrases like “humane”, “milk of human kindness” and “man is a superior being” that I was taken by surprise. I then started thinking about the sign and realized that it is true. If you look back at human history, it is littered with conflict, cruelty, war and terror. You only need to go on a short tour of Europe to realize it – every city and town has a war memorial. When WW1 ended, most people would have thought nothing could be worse and in 21 years the world is at war again. 50 million died in WWII and it was so vicious that today WW1 is hardly remembered. If you thought WW2 would satiate our desire to kill, think again. In 1950, we had the Korean war, then the Suez conflict, 3 Indo-Pak wars, Vietnam, LTTE, Iraq etc etc. You get the point….

I am writing this today because there is a corollary to the fact that Man is the most violent animal. It is this  - “the Indian man is more virulent than his counterparts elsewhere”. As we lament the death of Nirbhaya, the poor 23-year old gangrape victim in Delhi, we should remember that this incident is a by-product of our society which pays lip service to gender equality, deifies women as Goddesses, makes them Party Chiefs and PMs but in reality treats them like dirt. Many women in our own families have at various times been leched at, groped, whistled at on roads, in buses and cinema halls. Let us not go on about how brave Nirbhaya was – like all of us she had a fierce will to live and that is what saw her fight for 13 days. It is similar to the platitude that is showered on Mumbai after every terrorist attack – “the spirit of Mumbai”.

We need gender sensitization initiatives in all our institutions to correct the inequity in society – schools, colleges, corporates and most importantly the government. Is it any surprise that the Women’s Reservation Bill is stalled time and again by Parliament? The whole issue starts even before the girl child is born. Just look at the Sex Ratios in the country as per the 2011 Census.

http://www.medindia.net/health_statistics/general/sex-ratio-in-india-2011.asp

It is striking that while the Overall Sex Ration has gone up from 927 to 940 in the past 20 years, the child sex ratio in the same period has fallen from 945 to 914. Clearly we don’t want more girls to come into our society. I see a clear correlation between sex ratios and the crime against women. It is an attitude that pervades our political class and the law enforcers. Look at the states/UTs with the highest and lowest sex ratios. Some of them like Dadra and Nagar Haveli, Daman & Diu are too small to be of significance (population < 5 lacs). The high population states with a sex ratio below 900 are Punjab, Haryana and Delhi. Is it any surprise that they are regarded as the most unsafe places for women? I heard a woman on TV today saying that of all the rape complaints taken to a police station in Delhi, only 12% result in FIRs. The rest are told that they are lying!

Top Five States/Union Territories with High Sex Ratios (females per 1000 males):

1. Kerala 1,084
2. Puducherry 1,038
3. Tamil Nadu 995
4. Andhra Pradesh 992
5. Chhattisgarh 991

States/ Union Territories with Low Sex Ratios (females per 1000 males):

1. Daman & Diu 618
2. Dadra & Nagar Haveli 775
3. Chandigarh 818
4. NCT of Delhi 866
5. A & N Islands 878

At this sombre time, while we grieve for the victim’s family, we will do a far greater service to our nation by sensitizing our children to the gender issue and ensuring that our sons grow up respecting women. Again in typical Indian style, we make the mistake of saying all Indians are my sisters and brothers! Respect <> Platonic love! This is about treating them the way we would treat our male friends.

As far as the law is concerned, a number of suggestions have already been made (Fast-track courts, making rape a non-bailable offence etc). We are good at creating new laws but pathetic at enforcing them. I know this case will be decided quickly because of all the media glare; we will know the system has changed if the 1 lac+ rape cases pending in court are decided quickly and the police acts to prevent future incidents. Till then the Delhi Police tagline “With you, For you. Always” should be changed to “With Men, For Men. Always”.

Posted: Dec 29^th, 2012