Republic Day Post

A few days back there was this controversial issue in Belgaum between the MNS and pro-Kannada organizations. The MNS felt that since they held power in the Belgaum city council, the building should hoist the Maharashtra flag or the “Maratha” flag. The pro-Kannada organizations were dead against this. They argued that only Karnataka flag could be hoisted on top of the council since Belgaum was an integral part of Karnataka. Both the parties were relentless in their stand and this led to violence and unrest in the region. The battle was taken to many local courts, district level courts, Karnataka high court and finally to the supreme court of India. The Supreme Court’s verdict was outright, clean and clear – “if any flag was to be hoisted on top of a government office, it obviously had to be the flag of the union of India”

For all the parties who were involved in heated debate against which flag was to be hoisted, the verdict was a tight slap in the face. But the summary of the verdict is even bigger. It is slap in the face for all the politicians across the nation who try continuously to divide the nation along regional, linguistic or caste based lines. It is big slap in the face for the clan of Thackerays who say people from other states are unwelcome in their city because the city belongs to them; a slap in the face for all those who say they need more states because that will help them get their own identity in a nation which is already flooded with an ocean of misguided identities.

The union of India was declared a republic state on the 26th of January 1950, exactly 60 years ago on this day. We all pledged that ours would be a nation where the governance was “by the people, for the people, and of the people”, we would be the largest democratic nation in the world with every citizen of the nation having a right to choose his/her leader. A verbose constitution or the rule of the land amounting to 90,000 words had already been penned down beautifully by the finest intellectuals of our land. It had the best parts from many countries and some features unique to itself. Inspite of our cultural, regional, linguistic differences we would demonstrate unity. All the other identities like our religion, race, caste, language would come a far second compared to the national identity.

But even after sixty years of being a republic nation, the very multiple identities continue to haunt us. People still demand a separate state because their region needs a different identity than others; native people in the country’s largest city consider few people “outsiders” who come to take away what belongs to them; religious fanatics still believe that government is acting against the interest of the majority community and indulge in large scale communal violence; river water that flows across states is constantly disputed as belonging to the state of origin leading to chaos in downstream states… the list goes on endlessly. We see new cases like these emerge almost everyday.

Our constitution was framed by borrowing the best from all the parts of the world. It is one of the finest written rule of law in the world with clear demarcation between the powers of legislature, executive and the judiciary. It also controls the power of the central and state governments clearly. In spite of having such a finely written constitution with us, the reason we are still lacking unity and development is because of the short-sightedness of our leaders. We have created a form of governance where it is easy for our political class to keep us divided and get votes without taking any steps towards betterment of the nation. The collective will of the rulers as well as the people towards a developed nation is missing today.

Putting national interest ahead of any other vested interest is one of the foremost requirement in today’s scenario. Especially the leaders who use the emotions of the people to trigger violence and spread unrest must realize this first – progress can happen only if we stand united in spite of all diversities and not by demanding segregated development of isolated communities. Be it the Thackerays of Maharashtra who want to deny taxi permits to non-marathas, the TRS who want to have a separate state for sake of a political identity – everyone should realize that true growth and development can happen only when it is inclusive, ie, each and every citizen in the country feels part of the whole and willfully participates in the nation-building process.

On this occasion of India’s 61st republic day, we all should introspect on the reasons that have hindered progress in the nation and give a nice, tight slap in the face to all those who are against the unity of whole nation. I wish that we reach reach our rightful place at the top of the world soon. I hope to write more on issue of nation-states in the coming days. But for now, I just wish you all a Happy republic day! Jai Hind

Ma Phaleshu kadaachana !

The field is ready for a great battle. The people on the other side are all your kith and kin. And yet, you need to fight them for the sake of your own dharma, to reclaim what is rightfully yours. But the champion warrior in your team is reluctant. He is filled with deep emotion at the thought of slaying his own grandpa in whose lap he played as a child, his own guru who taught him how to hold weapons, his own brothers with whom he grew up. He is toying with the idea of leaving everything else and running away to do penance. What do you do?

It is exactly at this point of time, the lord of the universe comes in the form of your friend and charioteer and guides you with lessons so powerful, so true that the whole world admires even to this day. It is during one of such lessons, he comes up with these magical lines:

Karmanyeva adhikaaraste maa phaleshu kadachana |
Maa karma phale hEturbhoo maa te saMgostvakarmani ||
{Bhagavad-Gita 2.47}

Yes, these lines are taken from the holy Bhagavad-Gita given to us from the lord himself. When Arjuna was in a dilemma whteher to fight his own kin or flee from the battlefield, Lord Krishna gave him these words of wisdom. The Bhagavad-Gita is a treasure house of knowledge. Each and every shloka in it is truly a masterpiece and its teachings are valid even to this day. But sadly, most of the teachings are often misinterpreted either because of utter ignorance or failing to see the larger scheme of things.

For instance, let us consider the above shloka itself. It is literally translated thus – “You have rights to perform your karma (duty) but not entitled to its results. Never consider you are the cause of the results, and never wrest from doing what is your true duty”. It is very easy to interpret this as “You are not entitled to the fruits of your action” and many people actually do so. They fail to perform their actions in full faith and blame it on fate/almighty when things don’t bear expected results. A student does not study well for the exam and then says after the exam that he has no control over the result. A team does not give its full commitment to a project and then say they are not really responsible for anything going wrong.

This is actually only half truth and not the real meaning of the verse. In this world where everyone thinks “what’s in it for me?” it is impossible not to think of the results of your actions. And it is imperative that we should always be concerned about our actions and even be responsible for it. What we should not be thinking is about how the verdict is delivered. This is a little complex to understand. So let me make it clear with few examples.

A student’s action is to study hard for the examination and put in his best effort. He should always aim for the highest rank while preparing for the exam. He cannot give up preparation thinking that external factors (like erratic evaluation, competition, etc) might influence his result. But at the same time, he should not be too dejected if he does not get the rank that he aimed for due to some external factors. The preparation and the efforts that he has put in will definitely help him in some way or the other. Similarly, a cricket team must always enter the playing arena hoping for a win. They cannot be thinking of their tough opposition, weaknesses, past records, pitch conditions, etc which will influence the result. If they give their 100% and still lose the game, the effort that they put in will definitely help the team in the long term. At work, you should always give your best in delivering a project on time, regardless of whether the client will ultimately take it or not. The efforts you put in will definitely be recognized and help you in your career. In short, the result of your actions will come in ways that you might not expect. And yet, you will always be rewarded for your efforts.

Now that we know a better interpretation of the shloka, let us try and understand the context in which the shloka was delivered. While asking Arjuna to concentrate only on his duty and not on the results, the lord was referring to the results with regard to “moksha”, i.e., liberation of the soul. Not even for one moment did Arjuna or the lord think that they were going to lose the war. They were surely confident of a win in the war. Not even for a moment did Arjuna doubt whether the arrows shot from his bow would kill the target or not. He was concerned only about the long-term result of his actions, i.e., whether the killing of his own kin would grant him moksha or not. So, the actual result which the lord asks us to be ignorant about is not the results of our short term actions. It is the ultimate result in life for which we all crave for – the truth of life or salvation when we become free from the happenings of the world.

So, the next time you say that you are not responsible for your actions because the Gita says so, please be forewarned - The Gita never said it. It was your interpretation which made you think so.

PS:
1. The example of a student is taken to be that of a boy just for ease of explanation. It could as well be a girl.
2. The vast amount of knowledge contained in the Gita has been hotly debated/criticised/praised due to its various connotations. This explanation reflects the author's simple understanding of the lines. There can always be better interpretations.

Cost of Development

I was listening to music on my phone and enjoying my small nap in the cab. But the nap was irritating because the interiors of the cab had gotten too hot owing to a sunny day. Sweating, I opened the window of the cab a little and peeped outside….

The site that I saw was ghastly. A huge tree, probably the last in that entire stretch, was being razed down with bulldozers. Almost the entire road had been barricaded and dug up and the vehicles were moving on a narrow single lane strip, which had spread over to the footpath. The pedestrians had no space to go but along with the crawling vehicles listening to the loud noises of the engine and taking in all the smoke. The buildings on either side of the road had been demolished and only the dilapidated skeletons stood in place of what could once be called as hotels, shops and houses. Each one of these structures had a story of plight to tell. They just lay there, being mute witness to all the “development” that was going on around them

On my last birthday, I had written a post titled “Language treat” where I had mentioned about a particular poster which had opposed the metro train coming on MKK road. I had laughed about a train coming on a road then. That seemed quite funny and hard to comprehend. But today, anyone who passes through MKK road will definitely agree with me that the metro train has virtually run in to the lives of everyone on that road, destroying everything on its way.

The MKK road from Navrang to Malleshwaram has gone awfully bad. In fact, vehicles are just happy crawling on what remains of a road filled with potholes and dust. Pedestrians are in an even worse situation. They can’t even walk on the road, let alone cross it. This story is the same everywhere in Bangalore. What were once the prized greens of Bangalore have now been reduced to dusty rubble.

If you have been in Bangalore for more than 5 years and have been to places in the heart of the city, your heart can definitely feel the pain. The erstwhile MG road lined with pink bougainvillea flowers, parts of cubbon park, the dense canopy covered Sheshadri road, the tree lined Nanda talkies road are now history. Everywhere green barricades have come up with the signs of “Namma metro” on them making us dream of the day when eventually metro becomes operational.

Maybe in another 3-4 years, Bangalore might be completely different. With all the infrastructure/ construction projects coming to an end, the city might be a lot better than before. But the people who have lost their livelihoods because of their shops being razed down, the ones who have suffered due to the ongoing construction work, etc will never be able to appreciate the metro even when it becomes operational. Also, the harm done to the city’s fragile ecosystem is irreparable. We have already lost lots of the city’s bird species and lakes owing to pollution and the real estate boom. The metro work is already straining the city’s roads to unbearable proportions. Thousands of new vehicles are added to the roads everyday adding to the city’s woes. We are treading on the path of development by burdening our resources.

Even though we could not reach a conclusion to the Copenhagen summit on climate change, one thing that is clear from the attention to his topic is this – we, the developing nations cannot take the “high carbon” path towards development like the “Industrially revolutionized” developed nations. This will put a tremendous pressure on the natural resources and cause irreparable damage to the earth in the long term. Already, we can feel the climate change happening around us. Bangalore’s much acclaimed weather has slowly deteriorated over the years and is expected to go worse. Natural calamities are occurring more frequently than before. The signs are ominous.

It is now clear to us that the development for the “third world” comes at a price, a large one at that. What are the ways in which we can bring down this cost in a way that causes least harm to the nation? I was reading the book “Imagining India” by Nandan Nilekani and he has highlighted this issue. He says that the most efficient path towards progress with least harm to the natural resources would be to have “Carbon trade” – ie, put a price on all carbon emissions and by encouraging innovative solutions to the infrastructure problems. This can be done by corporate involvement in the public sector projects. When private sector companies are provided incentives by the government to save on emissions, they come up with novel approaches for cutting down emissions.

The cost of development is no doubt, high. But we have to make sure that the above schemes are also implemented so that even nature does not lose out. It is everybody’s desire to crave for a life of luxury and comfort. The approach we follow at this point of time might eventually give our future generations a developed world. But, only a careful and well-thought out approach will make sure that they will enjoy the benefits without suffering the consequences.

Boarding the Train - Part 2

We were almost to the end of Banaswadi when we saw a traffic pile-up. My heart just skipped a beat. “Oh, no! Not today” I said to myself. We waited for two minutes and I started to get restless. I asked the driver to take a u-turn and take an alternate route which he did. We managed to cross the bottle-neck only to land up in an even bigger pile-up of vehicles. I uttered some profanity to myself. I guess the heavens heard it. They responded by showers, rubbing salt on my already aggravated wounds. It was 6pm already. There was no chance that I would reach by 7pm today.

All the decisions I had made earlier that day came back to haunt me now. I could have taken a sick leave owing to my injury. I could have taken a vehicle and drove home early. I could have atleast taken a Volvo at 4:30pm. But no, I wanted to take the cab and risk myself. But I had half expected the “late-comer” to come. I had half- expected my cab mates to stop for food. I had half-expected the rains. I surely never expected all three to happen on the same day, especially today. I had estimated in the morning that in the worst case, I would reach home by 7:30pm. There was a chance that I would not make even by the worst case time…

We were now slowly crawling on the streets of Fraser town and Cantonment areas. The poor driver was trying his best to move faster. I noticed that the wipers of the cab were not working because of the crash last day! Not the first of all troubles – I told myself. Maybe he had planned to service the vehicle over the weekend. But even he had not expected that it would rain today itself and play spoilsport.

I started to text Ultra with more fervor now, flooding him with all sorts of questions. Thankfully he was handling it well. He had packed all stuff into the suitcase, got food packed for us and even got the banana. But he could not find a bag to put some stuff in as the suit-case was overflowing. Wait a minute, I thought to myself. I had a bag with me which fit all the things he mentioned. But unfortunately, that bag was still stuck in traffic with me and I myself did not know when I would reach. I even thought that maybe I would go to Ypr directly in my office attire and he would lock the house, get all stuff and join me there. But that would be a huge responsibility on him. He just said, “hogolo! You come home, we will go together. You tell if it is absolutely necessary”. Honestly I still did not know if it was.

The cab mates, especially the late-comer now realized that I was acting a bit restless and tried to talk to me. I tried to tell all of them indirectly that I was really angry with them for not being supportive when I needed it the most. Their reaction was really indifferent. Either they had understood everything I meant and didn’t have anything comforting to say, or they were too dumb not to understand what I meant. Either ways, there was no point in pressing it further so I indulged in some playful banter with one of them.

It was 7pm when I reached Navrang, a good 20 minutes from my place. Given the trafiic today, it would be more than 20 minutes. I had to make a decision whether to go home or go to Ypr. I had to make sure that house was locked. I had my bag which had some stuff to be filled. I could not entrust such a huge responsibility on ultra yet. So I decided to go home. I asked the driver to take as many “F(s)hortcuts and chota F(s)hortcuts” as possible to reach home soon. Finally after a further half an hour of maneuvering the traffic, I finally reached home by 7:30pm. Still a good 100 minutes before train departed.

I asked Ultra to pack up everything in my bag including the travel tickets while I freshened up and got ready. He did that and locked up all the doors and windows. Finally, after double checking everything and making sure that everything was in place, I locked the door. Ready to leave…

“Have you taken the tickets?” Ultra asked me. I said, “I thought I asked you to put it in the bag”. I was getting a little frustrated but there was no way we could go without tickets. Nor was there any point in fighting with him now. I found myself unlocking the door, running to the TV stand and putting the tickets in the bag. Finally, after a complete scan of the place again, it was locked and we started to walk towards the auto-rickshaw… It was 7:50pm

I was woken up from my thoughts when the auto suddenly came to a halt. The station was almost three fourths of a kilometer away. I asked the rickshaw driver what was the problem. He said that he had run out of fuel. We had to get down. The place was dark and it was at such a distance that no autos would agree to come from there to the railway station. It was 8:15 pm now. I could see the tension in Ultra’s face. But this was not the first blow to me that day. I asked him not to panic. We started to walk slowly towards the station. We passed through the “Metro” outlet, went under the yeswantpur bridge and towards the railway station. It was dark and we used the headlights of vehicles to guide us. We entered the station through a walkway directly over the tracks. It was 8:35pm now.

Since we were walking on the tracks itself we did not have to take the over bridge to get to our platform. We just ran over to the platform on which our train would come. Our past knowledge that the Garib Rath train would always leave from either platform 4 or 5 helped a lot. Finally, we saw our train – the green colored Garib Rath express comprising completely of AC coaches. We had finally made it to the train. It was 8:40pm now. We walked towards the train from the rear of it. Our coach was G12. So we expected it to be at the rear of the train. We crossed the first two general coaches and reached the first reserved 3A coach. It was marked “G1”! One more jhatka in the long list for today – and probably the last. We walked past almost the entire train (except the engine and G13) and finally reached our coach and ran to our seat. It was 8:45pm

Never in the history of our train travels had we reached a station so late. But we were happy that we had finally made it against all odds. The AC inside the train was a welcome relief for our sweating bodies. Both of us relaxed for a while and started to talk. We laughed about how pathetic we would be if we had finally managed to run till the train and remembered that we forgot the tickets back home! Thankfully that had not happened. Ultra asked me if I had kept the house keys safely. I said yes and checked in my bag to make sure. But I had packed so much stuff haphazardly that I could not find them. Just when I thought everything was fine again, we ran into this new “key” problem! Finally, as the train slowly moved out of Ypr platform at 8:53pm, we ransacked the whole bag and managed to find the keys. We were totally exhausted from the happenings. Right time for dinner, we thought.

As I lay in the comfort of my lower berth snuggled up in a cosy blanket that night, with the train rumbling past sleepy villages in rain, I reflected on the happenings of the whole day. We were pushed to the limits with one after the other tough situations inflicted on us. But we had finally made it to the train with our perseverance. I was wondering whether it was God’s way of punishing us for not attending the fest or something. After all, he is called the destroyer of all troubles. If someone messes with Him, He could as well present them with troubles- Right? Then this realization drew upon me. This year, I expected the experience of Hyderabad to be less exciting because I would miss all the festive fever of Karkala. But even before we reached Hyderabad, we had already experienced so many exciting moments that even with little happening, we would always return with so many memories to treasure. With this realization, all my worries, tensions and anger towards fellow cab-mates vanished and I was able to appreciate the beauty of life as God presented it to me. That’s the true rationale behind celebrating festivals Isn’t it?

PS: YPR - Railway code for Bangalore's new complementary railway station at Yeswantpur. Due to many long distance trains starting from here these days, the load on SBC (Bangalore City) railway station is greatly reduced.