Rained In With Awards, Honours

It's now raining awards and other goodies like BMW cars for the three members who tasted some success at Rio Olympics, out of the 119-strong Olympics contingent that returned after an overall disastrous outing. Compared with last Olympics tally of six medals this time it has been much slimmer pickings with just two medals - a silver and bronze.

However it may be argued that the previous outing was an honourable exception than rule. India's Olympic performance is nothing home to write about. Barring hockey in the pre-astroturf days, the country never made any lasting mark in this global sporting extravaganza.

In this medal starved country such accomplishments call for king's reception, something Michael Phelps and Usain Bolt may envy. They may come home with cart loads of gold medals, but I doubt whether they get the kind of reception which say an Indian bronze or silver medallist, or someone who came close to it, may get on arrival at the New Delhi airport.

It is almost as if for this country of billion people, which has little or no sports culture and treats sportspersons with scant respect, organising such a spectacle is its way of atoning for its sins of ignoring these athletes all these years.

For our sports ministry babus and mandarins, it works out perfectly well, as it is much easier to shower awards and goodies, with the procurement department guys pocketing commissions, than suffer the toil of setting up training facilities and maintaining them good enough to churn out world class athletes.

This mindset is very much evident when Indian contingent goes to participate in the Olympics. The number of officials is always higher than that of athletes. It has been our hallowed tradition and no government could ever overturn it. For most of them it is an all expenses paid pleasure trip with shopping for extended family thrown in.

For most athletes and their support staff official high handedness is a professional hazard. The latest story to tumble out this Olympics was of gymnast Dipa Karmarkar's physio being flown to Rio only after she made it to the finals. After every Olympics we get to hear such stories and this one is not going to be the last.

But it would be naive to assume that only bureaucrats and politicians had a good time. Some athletes too have perfected the art of fleecing the system. According to an Indian Express report as per the Target Olympic Podium Scheme (TOPS) some of them tried to claim huge amounts of money ostensibly for training, often in foreign shores, and some even managed to make the government pay for  their family members accompanying them to Rio. 

Ironically the country’s only two medallists were among those who received the least funding from the government, trained in India and under an Indian coach. Bronze medallist Sakshi Malik took just Rs 12 lakh under TOPS while silver medal-winning shuttler P V Sindhu was allocated Rs 44 lakh. Dipa Karmakar, who lost a medal by whisker, only claimed Rs 2 lakh from the government.

When someone does well in Olympics the state governments too wake up from their reveries and try to play cheer leaders. They loosen purse strings to indulge in competitive populism. After all it is only public money and those making these announcements are not paying from their pockets.

Also Read: Bangalore Beat

Endless Blood-letting in July

July has turned out to be the cruellest month so far this year with a rash of terror attacks around the world, especially Europe. Some of them displayed sickening levels of barbarity, especially the one at an upscale cafe in Bangladesh got attacked on July 1.

Though in terms of casualties, 29 deaths, it may not be much compared with say Iraq, Syria or Yemen, which records ten times that much every month. However the raw savagery unleashed by the assailants in Bangladesh made a chilling read.

They were 19-20 year olds, just out of some top notch schools in Bangladesh. But their savagery was reminiscent of medieval era warriors. Though they were carrying guns, machete was their favourite weapon and beheading, lynching their preferred mode to get rid of victims. The guns were only meant to be used when confronted with security forces.

In Bangladesh it looks like lynching is a very prevalent mode used by extremists. It has been used numerous times to kill bloggers, priests and just about anyone opposed to their ideologies or religious beliefs. Though guns provide the luxury of distance while eliminating people, these extremists seem to be hankering after greater sadistic pleasure of being in close proximity to their victims, while the latter meet with their blood spattered end.

-----

The second cruellest attack happened in Nice in France on July 14. It came as a rude awakening to the French security establishment, which was breathing easy after an incident-free Euro cup soccer. Mohamed Lahouaiej Bouhlel, a driver of Tunisian origin, turned an innocuous looking truck into a killing machine.

It ploughed through a crowd, which had gathered to watch the Bastille Day fireworks, for nearly two kilometres and killed 84 people. Here too guns played a secondary role, while the 19-ton vehicle trampled the victims under its wheels. 

-------

Lastly there are forgotten people residing in conflict zones such as Iraq, Syria and Yemen. For the world community they are not even significant enough to be a statistic as hundreds die on a daily basis. Iraq and Syria are sometimes lucky enough to get a passing mention when some 50 plus people get killed in a bomb blast or when the problem of refugee influx to Europe is discussed. 

But the Yemenis are the proverbial children of lesser god. This poorest country in Arab world gets pounded by fighter jets from regional satraps such as Saudi Arabia and UAE with impunity for months together and the rest of the world does not even bat an eyelid.

Yemeni lives matter! Anyone?

Also Read: Bangalore Beat

Macho Ado About Cow

BJP supporter turned detractor Arun Shourie recently described the current NDA government as UPA government plus cow. And to prove him right the cow vigilantes are burning gallons of midnight oil, lying in wait at unearthly hours in many highways to pounce upon those transporting cattle. Thanks to conniving police force and an apathetic (and sometimes even proactive) ruling class they have been having a free run in most parts of the cow belt.

Having got away with Dadri and many other such attacks, the impact is now being felt in cattle and leather trade. It has begun to falter, thanks to the fear factor generated by the gau rakshaks. Kolhapuri chappal industry is currently in doldrums and even the prices of cricket balls have shot up as cow hide is hard to come by and manufacturers have been forced to go on a 'leather hunt'.

Emboldened by these successes, the hubris of gau rakshaks got better of them when they posted a video of few Dalit people in the prime minister's home state Gujarat getting beaten up with iron rods for skinning a dead cattle. They thought the grisly spectacle, which happened on July 11, would send chills down the spines of people and quite literally 'cow them down'. 

As they wished the video did go viral, thanks to their social media propaganda machinery, but the subsequent events did not pan out as they would have thought of. They underestimated the penetration of the internet, especially the mobile internet in our society. They failed to realise the access it had among the Dalits, especially their opinion leaders, and the rest they say is history.

Even the government and its intelligence machinery, which had acted with alacrity in banning WhatsApp and internet during the Patel quota agitation, failed to read this smouldering discontent on the cyber space. The administration woke up only on July 18, when in Surendranagar district a group of Dalits dumped cow carcasses at the District Collector’s office.

This dramatic Boston Tea party type incident also knocked mainstream media out of its page 3 obsessed stupour, as it provided a good potential for a colourful copy and package! When the clubbing of Dalits happened on July 11, they had behaved as if it was happening in some other planet.  

According to a Scroll report the Surendranagar march was organised by two social workers Nathubhai Parmar and Maheshbhai Rathod and a businessman Hirabhai Chawda, who trades in the by-products of dead cows. They went from village to village showing the infamous video on a laptop. They also used WhatsApp, Facebook and file sharing apps to spread the video and exhorted the villagers to come out and fight.

To drive home their point the Dalits also decided not to pick up dead cows on the street. This was indeed a rude jolt to a society which pays scant regards to dignity of labour.

Having caught the imagination of the country, leaders of various political hues, many of them with dubious credentials, are trying to court the Dalits of Gujarat. One just hopes the movement sustains itself for a long time and does not fizzle out or even worse get co-opted by some opportunistic groups.

Also Read: Bangalore Beat

Two Deaths and Twitter Hashtag Jousts

The blood spattered platform of a Chennai suburban railway station and a grainy footage of a backpacker captured by a CCTV camera located outside the station made for a disturbing viewing on prime time television. It brought back the memories of a similarly spooky footage of a murderous attack on a woman in an ATM kiosk in Bangalore few years ago. And for the record that guy is still on the loose.

In case of Chennai killing, even before the police could pick up the pieces or one could say 'preliminary investigation', the Twitterati was out there with long knives tipped with hashtags and their 140-character barrage only reflected their prejudices, fears and anxieties, with not even an iota of truth. Looks like the rumour mills of yesteryears have logged on to information superhighway and overrun social media platforms such as Twitter and WhatsApp. 

Of the two schools of thought that enjoyed high bandwidth, the first one was that the killer was a Muslim and most likely of an ISIS kind. They reasoned that such cruelty can be done only by those brainwashed by Baghdadi and his minions. They maintained that police and media already knew it but were maintaining a criminal silence over the issue.

A different shade of the similar opinion was that it was the handiwork of love jihad guys. They opined that the victim had refused to fall for their guiles and hence the murder happened. The bottomline was that the killer was from 'other' community and all are preying on Hindu girls, especially the upper caste (higher genetics) ones.

Both the theories gained lots of traction in the social media with celebrities like singer Abhijeet and Tamil actor Y G Mahendran too joining the bandwagon. The former even got into a below the belt hashtag joust with a woman journalist and even has a police case against him. 

The other dominant school of thought has to do more with cultural conditioning than politics. The deeply rooted patriarchy and a haseena maan jayegi mindset have left their thinking totally warped. A girl's consent hardly matters and her 'no' is yes.

With this sense of well entrenched entitlement many wrote that the girl must have 'spoiled' his life by rejecting him or she 'asked for it'. For such guys even stalking or threatening their object of desire is absolutely kosher - a belief that gets reinforced in our films, irrespective of language. And Tamil box office has made a huge fortune out of films related to stalking.

Around eight days after Swathi killing there was a road accident in Chennai, caused by a drunk woman Aishwarya Wilton and it was god send for the troll crowd. She was driving a high end Audi car in top speed and mowed down a pedestrian. Drunk woman from upper crust of the society causing an accident, and the victim a poor daily wage earner - was quite a heady mix for them.

Immediately they started linking it with Swathi murder, saying if the photo of the killer of a 'rich' girl can be splashed on newspapers, Aishwarya's photo should also be shown and paraded in front of TV cameras. They accused media and police of double standards saying female accused were being treated with kid gloves and called for 'level playing field'.

Aishwarya's crime is serious and calls for strict punishment according to law (though I have some scepticism considering how Salman Khan hit-and-run case turned out). But to equate it with a pre-meditated cold blooded murder is taking things a bit too far. The underlying unsettling factor for the troll crowd is the changing social mores of women partying and getting drunk!

Also Read: Bangalore Beat

A Lowdown on Udta Punjab

During my school days in one of those nondescript Kendriya vidyalayas in the country's cow belt in the 70s, our Hindi teacher (who also used to teach us Sanskrit) often used to say that though Punjab is known as land of five rivers, but it actually has six. Then with a tinge of amusement he used to quip, "The sixth one is not filled with water, but alcohol!" 

Back then Punjabis enjoyed quite a reputation for their penchant for rich food and liquor and even earned a home grown moniker for their excesses - Patiala peg.

Though the state later lost its distinction of being the highest per capita liquor guzzler, the controversy over Udta Punjab has brought the state's yet another seamier side to spotlight. Though the state's dalliance with drugs has a long history, with its fascination for bhukki or doda, traditional poppy husk or opium dating back to the days of Mughals, but it never proved to be a threat to the social fabric.

The situation started changing in the 80s after it mutated to synthetic drugs. However, the early effects were felt in Delhi, Mumbai and other metros and it took a long time to swamp Punjab.

In fact when Dev D was released in 2009, I thought the movie had gone overboard depicting use of drugs in Punjab.

However three years later a longish reportage in Tehelka magazine (Oct, 2012) titled 'What hit this land of plenty?' proved quite an eye opener. Punjab's drug abuse statistics were quite startling with huge number of college students hooked to it and the government living in denial and behaving as if the problem was an individual one and not systemic.

The report also quoted a BSF officer who claimed that they had conducted a recruitment drive to fill 376 vacancies and more than 8000 men turned up. But they chose not to fill 85 vacancies as the candidates were too weak and unfit. Politicians, pharmacies and even de-addiction clinics appear to be have their own axes to grind to keep the populace hooked to drugs.

Later there were a steady stream of reports about the problem and some had even hinted at involvement of politicos close to Badal family. But the administration remained in denial and anyone raising the issue was accused of exaggeration and 'insulting' Punjabi asmita (sounds too familiar). The police confined their activities to catching addicts and small time pedlars, leaving the big fishes untouched.

But like any movie that involves Anurag Kashyap, this one ran into rough weather with censor board and sprang a few surprises both onscreen and offscreen. And needless to say the latter ones were so interesting that the film's promoters did not have to do much on the pre-release publicity front. 

The biggest surprise turned out to be Shyam Benegal, a man who had directed and produced many avante garde films like Manthan, Mandi and other arthouse films. His utterance that movies like Udta Punjab should be screened only in red light areas had the whole nation cringing. Surely censor board chief Pahlaj Nihalani's influence seems to have badly rubbed on him!

Also Read: Bangalore Beat

A Welcome Relief After 163 Years

There are far too many things we take for granted. One of them happens to be the ubiquitous trains that criss cross our country of continental dimensions. We all expect them to come on time and be stench free (nothing wrong in that) and while waiting at level crossings wonder why they take so much time to come. As it trundles past little do we wonder about the people who actually make it run and the challenges they face.

Among the 'running staff' it is the Train Ticket Examiner (TTE) who is the most familiar to us as we gingerly produce our tickets when he comes calling. Once he gives his satisfactory nod and returns the ticket and does some marking on his clipboard, we breathe easy. If the ticket is RAC or waiting list we are quite literally at his mercy and treat him like mai baap, and some are more than willing to play that role.

The next in line is the guard. A very shadowy figure confined to the rear end of the train, waving red and green flags. Very little is known about their other functions.

However the most elusive among the lot is the train driver, who nowadays has acquired a more gentrified nomenclature - locomotive pilot. We may catch a fleeting glimpse of them when the train arrives at the station or chugs past a level crossing. Since they are rarely seen, it is out of sight out of mind for most of us.

We happily retire on our allotted train berths during night after setting snooze alarm on our smartphones, with no thought of how the engine driver keeps awake till dawn, or how he manages to spot dimly lit signals during rains or foggy weather.

But what I read the other day came as a rude eye opener. These drivers cannot respond to nature's calls or have refreshments during their 12-hour shift! Just for a moment I thought of how I would cope with such a pre-condition for my eight-hour shift - both my bladder and tummy did not take it kindly! The railways have been operational in the country for 163 years and it is hard to believe that so far lakhs of engine drivers, spanning 3-4 generations, have worked all their lives under such conditions.

Only recently the Railways introduced its first locomotive fitted with a bio-toilet. The doors of the toilet would open only when the speed of the train reaches zero. The locomotive pilots won’t be able to answer nature’s call while the train is moving. And whenever the pilot would go inside the toilet, the brakes of the engine won’t be released by any system. Hope more and more such locomotives are put to use to make the drivers' lives easier.

I shudder to think how horrid their working conditions might have been while they were driving the now defunct coal fired steam engines.

Also Read: Bangalore Beat

For Whom The Bell Trolls

Fresh from a thumping win in the 2014 general elections and on his maiden visit to the US after becoming Prime Minister, Narendra Modi suffered a Freudian slip while regaling the fawning NRI audience at Madison Square. He referred to fellow Gujarati Mahatma Gandhi as 'Mohanlal' Karamchand Gandhi. Hailing from an organisation not favourably disposed towards Mahatma's brand of politics, it was quite understandable, even though 'Mohandas' is neither difficult to recall nor a tongue twister.

His 'Mohanlal' gaffe didn’t create much of a flutter elsewhere, but it did ring a bell and drew light hearted titters in the deep south of the Vindhyas, where an actor by that name enjoys super star status and even has a fans' association. Mohanlal carries his plus size frame with rare agility and  elan. And his dialogue delivery, especially the punch lines, are always lustily lapped up by his first-day-first-show fans.

Now two years down the line Modi's path once again crossed with Mohanlal and it is anything but light hearted.  This time it was one of those one-liners, of nearly two-decades vintage, that has morphed into a hashtag #pomonemodi and set off a Twitter-tsunami.

It looked more like a poetic justice. Because it is the Hindutva keypad warriors who were notorious for running down their opponents by posting nasty comments and trolling was considered their forte. But now Modi was getting a taste of his own medicine.

During his whistle stop tour of poll-bound Kerala, he remarked that the condition of Adivasis in Kerala was akin to that of people in Somalia. This badly ruffled the Malayali ego, which takes pride in its enviable Human Development Index, which is on par with Scandinavian countries.

However, it needs to be pointed out that the HDI among Adivasis in Kerala is not as impressive as its general population and leaves a lot to be desired. The governmental apathy and agricultural distress at the state's tribal belts have taken a heavy toll on their well being. But even then they are much better off than Adivasis in other states.

Modi's remark sparked off an unprecedented mobilisation of Malayalees on Twitter. Even those who had settled down elsewhere in the country or abroad decades ago, used to berate Mallu accent and were dismissive about the state in general, they too got galvanised to join the Twitter hashtag bandwagon and fire 140-character salvos at Modi.

The type of humour ranged from light hearted sarcasm, often accompanied by memes; some disputed Modi's claim using graphics, but some even got into the avoidable territory of racism, making fun of dark skin of Africans.

The popularity of this hashtag led to a counter hashtag #pomonechandi but with limited success, and a wag exhorted them to try something more original "like #solargirigiri or some such thing" to highlight the infamous solar scam for which the current Oommen Chandy government is drawing lot of flak.

Also Read: Bangalore Beat