Beef: The New Four Letter Word

Beef just refuses to go away from the country’s political menu. It is the new four letter word that has divided the society as if it were scythed through by a super sharp cleaver.

A few decades ago in the late 1960s and early 70s a bunch of Union Ministers were derided for being part of ‘kitchen cabinet’. Those were the Indian polity’s early days of unabashed sycophancy and that too around a woman leader. In this day and age such a remark would have been considered downright sexist.

Now forget kitchen cabinet, it looks like the whole Indian politics just does not want to get out of the kitchen. It has become a place where patriotism is stirred up and cooked for public consumption. And woe betides anyone not using the ‘right’ ingredients!

The reason for this huddle in kitchen happens to be the humble cow, the inheritor of kamadhenu legacy, which is blissfully ignorant of all this hullabaloo. For this animal is more worried about the next meal as rising urbanization and dwindling grasslands have dealt a body blow to its food sources. Nowadays the daily grind consists of foraging waste bins and garbage yards for anything edible, amid plastic bags and paper packets, which it accidentally chomps in, leading to health disasters.

While it struggles to keep its emaciated body and soul together, its human masters are at each other’s throats to decide how it should die!

Also Read: Bangalore Beat

Pinned Down By Passwords: Netizens' Agony

'Your password is old and needs to be reset', for any netizen this message is as hurtful and disruptive as biting the tongue while savouring a mint-laden chewing gum. The immediate reaction is 'oh no not again' or somewhat more combative 'WTF, got it changed other day only'.

In this wired and increasingly wireless world passwords and pin numbers are the digital equivalent of what keys and padlocks were to the brick and mortar world. Losing is just not an option and in case of passwords one cannot even seek others help to carry out a search!

In the ever increasing list of passwords and pin numbers (now even some credit cards need them) it becomes a challenge to remember and update them on a frequent basis.

'Password strength not enough' is the prompt we get when we go for some simple and easy to remember words during those updates. Many sites have further raised the bar by asking users to have alphanumeric passwords, which take a heavy toll on the bytes in brain’s grey matter. Names of spouse, kids, girlfriend/boyfriend, exes, movies, movie stars, cricket stars, books, authors... date of birth, marriage anniversary ... all these usual suspect permutations and many more get used up for alphanumeric passwords, but alas like sea waves the reset prompts keep coming. 

And sadly however strong be the password, it makes you no way immune to a hack attack, because they strike at the servers itself, which the site administrators need to take measures to prevent such attacks. 

Remembering passwords is just half the battle. In many sites, as an additional security measure, they have introduced Captcha. A Google search will reveal that Captcha is a type of 'challenge-response test' to determine whether the user is human or not. However, they often make me wonder whether the people who programme those Captchas are anyway human! They contort English alphabets and numerals to such an extent that they resemble a cross between Chinese alphabets and Hieroglyphics. If you clear it in the first attempt, then be rest assured that you may be human, but not normal!!

Banks have an uncanny knack of sending prompts for resetting passwords when you are frantically trying to book a flight or train ticket online. The delay caused due to resetting often costs dear - either you fail to get reservation, get relegated to RAC or fares shoot up.

As for remembering passwords the best way would be to rely on good old pen and paper and store them at a safe place. I shudder when I see people checking their phone screens while typing pin numbers at ATMs. Wonder what they would do if their phone conks off, gets lost or stolen.

If you fail to note down passwords and your memory plays hooky, then you get locked out of emails, bank accounts and host of other services and messages such as 'invalid password' or 'your account has been locked' mock at you. Getting disenfranchised from virtual world can be equally tough as in real one!

Also Read: Bangalore Beat

Dadri Syndrome: Lynch Mob At The Gates

The solemn and heartfelt manner with which the Indian Air Force corporal Mohammad Sartaj conducted himself at a TV programme despite undergoing a grave tragedy of losing his father Mohammad Akhlaq to a lynch mob, left many misty eyed. Probably that was the only take away from the infamous killing in Dadri in Uttar Pradesh, where a man was killed based on beef eating rumours, to assure us that all is not lost even in this bleak moment. The India our founding fathers had visualised still lives on in some pockets.

The fact that a lynch mob can enter the kitchen of a house and attack a family for the type of food they were having provides a chilling reminder of the rising tide of hatred and communal polarisation in the society. 

The political class, the chief architects who brought things to such a pass, have once again showed that whatever be the tragedy they cannot see anything beyond electoral arithmetic and political mileage. In a way Union Minister Mahesh Sharma's statement that the incident happened due to 'misunderstanding' was unwittingly true. 

The cow vigilantes picked up a wrong household - one with hardly any blemish. None of the family members faced any criminal charges and one of them had even donned the Air Force uniform to serve the country - hence very high on deshbhakti quotient.

Moreover it later came to be known that the meat in the refrigerator was not beef as alleged. But the supporters of the lynch mob would have none of it, because for them rumour is the fuel and the medium of communication ranges from good old loudspeakers and word of mouth to new age WhatsApp. They are working overtime posting photoshopped pictures of cow remnants and other rabid campaigns in social media, which would make late Nazi propaganda minister Joseph Goebbels rest assured that at least in India his credo would last another millennium! 

Just imagine if the meat in the refrigerator was actually beef, then it would have been 'advantage' lynch mob (to use a tennis analogy). They would have gone to town saying 'justice' has been done as the killers of our 'mother' have been avenged and some favourably disposed newspaper columnists would have marshalled extreme forms of sophistry to rationalise the killing as 'spontaneous reaction' to 'hurt sentiments'. The fact that possession of beef or its consumption is not prohibited in Uttar Pradesh and Akhlaq had not broken any law would have been relegated to a footnote for the academia, edit pages or TV studios to chew on.

Or think of an even grimmer scenario of beef being found in a house where some family members have a criminal past, a la Sohrabuddin Sheikh. That would have been godsend and the lynch mob would have easily got away with their savagery. Anyone criticising the legality of the lynching would have been branded as supporters of cow killers and desh drohis fit to be exported to Pakistan. "He was anyway a criminal, then why are you speaking on his behalf" would have been the taunt, and the average IPL-fixated Indian Pappu would have nodded in agreement.

The fact that Sartaj had an air force uniform on his back, helped the family land on the positive side of 'good Muslim, bad Muslim' binary, but others may not be that lucky and hence need to be very afraid.

Also Read: Bangalore Beat

Will Netaji Enigma Come To An End?

The mystery surrounding Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose, who disappeared from the thick of Indian freedom struggle in mid-1940s, is now tantalizingly close to its unravelling. West Bengal government declassified 64 files related to Netaji. However, apart from revealing some unsavoury details such as police surveillance of Netaji's family, it no way answered the million dollar question that has rankled Indians for nearly 70 years. Where did Netaji spend his last days? and how did he actually die?

The answers to the above questions probably lie in the classified files being held by the various arms of Central Government - External Affairs Ministry, Prime Minister's office and Intelligence bureau. With the West Bengal government having declassified files in their possession, the Centre is now feeling the heat to unwrap the contents of the documents in its possession.

It is now open season for leaks in cyber space with documents of dubious authenticity, often airburshed with Photoshop, making rounds in social media and being widely being ‘liked’ and shared. 

While studying History in school Netaji and other action heroes of freedom struggle like Chandrashekar Azad and Bhagat Singh always held great fascination for us, unlike moderates such as Mahatma Gandhi and his ilk. The picture of Bose in his military uniform, Azad perpetually twirling his moustache and Bhagat Singh, both with turban and clean shaven, had a pride of place in our text books. Though they mentioned how Azad and Bhagat Singh met their ends, the mystery of Bose lived on. And it goes without saying that all these years strong vested interests have been at work to keep the lid over the mystery tightly shut.

It was first believed that Netaji died on August 18 in 1945, after his plane crashed in Japanese-occupied Formosa (Taiwan). This theory was endorsed first by Shah Nawaz Committee in 1956 and later by G D Khosla Commission in 1970. But later in 2006, Justice Mukherjee Commission report suggested that Netaji had not died in the plane crash and that "the ashes at Renkoji temple are not his". After studying these reports for seven months, the Government rejected it. In fact the Mukherjee Commission had a rough ride and was forced to submit its unfinished work to the then Home Minister Shivraj Patil. The main reason for this is the non-cooperation shown by the home ministry.

The Mukherjee Commission had suggested that Netaji was in Soviet Russia and had spent time in a Siberian gulag. Though the commission went to Russia, but failed to secure any clinching papers to substantiate it. This theory acquired maximum currency with many Bose supporters believing that Congress leaders colluded with the British to keep Netaji out of the country. Since Netaji had reportedly met Hitler and Japanese leaders and sought their help to overthrow British rule, Stalin was more than willing to play ball.

There is also one theory of Gumnami baba, a sadhu who lived in Faizabad and died on September 16, 1985, was actually Netaji. It was floated by a Hindi daily Naye Log and that too after the death of the godman. It had its moments of fame and some takers, until it was categorically dismissed by the Justice Mukherjee Commission.

Now all eyes are on the Centre, whether it would help in closure of the Bose death mystery. So far it has more or less toed the line adopted by the previous Congress-led UPA government and rejected an RTI petition seeking records from the Prime Minister's office related to Netaji. But it remains to be seen how far it is going to hold on to this position.

Moreover it remains to be seen if the classified papers that is in possession of Centre have answers to the above crucial questions. Or is it in the secret archives in some foreign country. 

Also Read: Bangalore Beat

Indrani Mukherjea Saga: Reality TV Trumps Soap

Real life has trumped reel, or fact has outwitted fiction in its own game. The Sheena Bora murder mystery is turning out to be far racier than the wildest imagination of Bollywood script writers and TV news channel owners are already feeling giddy and wet dreaming about record-breaking spikes in TRP. 

The fact that the prime characters happen to be a high profile family and the arch villain Indrani Mukherjea, with no wealth or lineage, had reached this social upper crust by using her social climbing skills has added a dash of pizzazz to the tale.
 
However had some Bollywood film maker made a film based on a similar story line before this infamous incident unfolded on our TV screens, it would have been riddled with hurdles. First of all not many producers would have been intrepid enough to finance such a macabre script, with no heroes and easily more than fifty shades of villainy. In the next stage it would have run into trouble with censors, who would have advocated many cuts to make it Bharatiya sanskriti compliant.
 
After release the critics would have made a mincemeat out of it. Probably this is how Rajeev Masand would have reviewed the movie:

It would be gross understatement to say that the movie plot is too convoluted: A second wife of her third husband is charged along with her second husband of killing her daughter from her first husband who was having affair with her third husband's son from his first wife.
 
The plot is riddled with holes and leaves many things unexplained. The third husband has no idea whether the murdered girl is his wife's sister or her daughter. The girl goes missing for two years and everybody in the extended family has readily believed that she had gone to US.
 
The police also come across as bumbling idiots who do not pursue the case after stumbling across a body cut to pieces and packed in a suitcase. Surely the script writer has not done his homework and was way too lazy to tie up such loose ends.
 
A boring feast of gore and deceit. Watch it only at your peril. I would go with half out of five for this tedious mind numbing crime mystery marred by a brain dead script!!
 
But the recent events have proved that truth can be far spicier than fiction! And the harried middle class has found a new 'fix' to escape from their daily drudgery by gawking and tut-tutting at the permissiveness of the amoral rich on their 56-inch LCD screens.

To cash on this sentiment Bollywood scriptwriters may be busy pounding on their laptops, over numerous cups of 'cutting chai' or 'chhotta pegs', to churn out a blockbuster based on this 'true story'. Hopefully critics would take a more considerate view towards the bizarre twists and turns in the plot once these films are released.

Also Read: Bangalore Beat

Close Call: Use of Cell Phones While Driving

Recently a stationary plane on Chennai airport got hit by an aerobridge. The collision took place because the aerobridge operator was allegedly talking on the mobile phone while the aircraft was trying to align itself. Few years back a train accident happened in the US and the driver was allegedly busy sending text messages and missed out on a red signal.

The grip mobile phones currently have over our lives is quite bewildering, thanks to their usefulness and portability. Probably no other gadget in the entire human history had such an intrusive influence. And people multitask to any extent to stay 'connected', often with disastrous consequences.

Indian roads are a stark reminder of this obsession. To begin with they were anyway not meant for the faint hearted, as potholes, glaring violation of traffic rules and jaywalkers (both of human and cattle kind) heaped misery on motorists and pedestrians alike. The advent of cell phones have further endangered the lives of those venturing into these roads.

Motorists use them with impunity, with least care for others safety or laws of the land. Though occasional reports of police fining such erring drivers do appear in newspapers, this has little effect on the situation on the ground as conviction rates are too low to act as a deterrent.

It's a worrying sight to see those behind the wheels of cars and other four-wheelers using cell phones in one hand and steering on the other. Cab drivers indulge in this perilous exercise while trying to locate the customer's houses, often in narrow by-lanes.

But when it comes to flirting with danger, it is the bikers who take the cake. With handsets held between tilted helmet-less heads and lifted shoulders, they chat and negotiate the traffic putting their own and others lives at risk. It has nothing to do with lack of awareness. All this is done with a willing suspension of all common sense and smug belief that they won't be penalised. Even if that happens they will be let off lightly.

For the police catching these 'in your face' offenders is easy, but it is quite challenging to nab those who have placed their phones inside the helmets close to their ears, using hands-free devices or blue tooths as they cannot be easily detected. Bluetooth devices attached with speakers are also frequently used for talking while driving. Though these devices may free your hand to operate the steering wheel or gear stick, but the risk of getting mentally distracted remains.

There are enough studies to indicate that use of cell phone while driving impairs concentration and reflexes. Some even go to the extent to state that it is as dangerous as drunk driving. Stricter laws and more intense surveillance could deter motorists, but there is no substitute to restraining oneself at least while driving, both for the safety of oneself and others.

Also Read: Bangalore Beat

Emergency Conundrum: Some Faultlines Remain

With Emergency completing its fortieth anniversary, newspapers, blogosphere and social media were riddled with stories recalling those dark days when the country teetered close to becoming a permanent banana republic. The recent statement by BJP patriarch and Emergency survivor L K Advani that it could happen again spiced up the issue.

During those infamous nineteen months, the then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi's son, Sanjay Gandhi, was running the country as extra-constitutional authority and all forms of dissent were ruthlessly suppressed. All governmental institutions such as police, judiciary began to act to his bidding and press too, barring few honourable exceptions, got into kowtow mode.

My memories of that period is quite vague as back then I was not even in high school and my newspaper reading had not graduated beyond comic strips and cricket scores. Moreover I never came across anyone personally who went to jail or even had to undergo the infamous forced sterilisation. My awareness of Emergency was mainly retrospective, something I gained through conversations with elders and by reading Decline and Fall of Indira Gandhi a book by D R Mankekar and Kamala Mankekar.

The only thing I remember of that era is that during our visits to cinema halls, we had to sit through those tedious news reels, produced by Films Division, which prominently featured Sanjay Gandhi, V.C. Shukla and Ambika Soni. Those news reels would make us believe that the country should be grateful for this fantastic trio, who are working tirelessly to make India a developed nation. I seriously think that those documentaries played a stellar role in eroding Congress party's goodwill and subsequent rout in 1977 elections.

Another instance was when the Jaiprakash Narayan's movement had started gathering steam, somebody broached about the newly formed Janata party in our Maths class. Our usually gentle Maths teacher (who used to patiently correct our glaring trespasses in Algebra and Geometry) got a little worked up. She was sceptical about the movement and said it would bode ill for the country. She observed that Congress was such an old party and has done so much for the country, whereas these people cannot be trusted. She cited the example of long standing ruler of China Mao Zedong, who died around that time, and how that country had entered into a period of turmoil.

However history did not pan out the way our Maths teacher would have liked. After the fall of Congress government a rash of reports on Emergency excesses such as illegal detention, police torture and deaths and forced strerilisations started coming out of woodwork. Our newspapers and magazines, which got unshackled from censors, began reporting them assiduously. To cut the long story short, in the intervening 40 years the country had some close calls with its unity and integrity, but the dreaded 'E' word was never evoked. Probably the shock defeat in 1977 acted as a deterrent; still any future adventurism cannot be ruled out. 

Veteran journalist Kuldip Nayar, who valiantly took on the might of the government high-handedness through those dark days, recently said that Emergency cannot be imposed now as the Constitution was changed after 1977 and it is almost impossible to impose it. Though the Constitution may have been made Emergency-proof, other fault lines remain more or less untouched.

The police, bureaucracy, judiciary and the press remain as malleable (if not more) as they were during the Emergency and inspire little confidence. Post-Emergency, the numerous scams all these departments got embroiled in reveal that the rot has only become more deep and the erosion of credibility has been phenomenal.

Hence for a future ruler with dictatorial aspirations, it is a case of glass half-full. He or she only needs to work around by whipping up sentiments such as majoritarianism or militarism to bring about Emergency like situation, without its Constitutional trappings. The rest of the institutions will fall in line without much ado as they did in 1975. Hence the people of the country cannot afford to forget Emergency and let their guard down.

Also Read: Bangalore Beat