Smoking Mackerels!

"Mackerel sky, mackerel sky. Never long wet and never long dry."

~An old saying...(obviously)

It is close to the beginning of May, and we have seen the first signs of some hopefully early pre-monsoon showers that the city usually experiences in the month of May. I probably won't be here to experience them(I'll be in Mysore, slogging my ass over problems in Algebra, Topology and Analysis). But there were signs today that Bombay will be 'all washed up' by the imminent rains in a couple of weeks.

I have always loved looking at the sky. The night sky(who doesn't?) and the evening sky. I remember I had a book that explained the various cloud formations and what they could mean for the weather scene over a region, in the coming days. I can recognise and tell quite a few of them, Stratus, Nimbostratus, Cumulonimbus(A 'nimbus' is a generic term for any cloud that produces precipitation), Stratocumulus, and my favourite, Altocumulus Mackerel(sky).

So today when I saw them formed over Bombay, I ran out to my terrace with my cam to capture the beautiful formations they create when the sun sets. And I smiled when the sky also had some moisture laden clouds gently creeping past the setting sun.

Below are some of the beautiful sights that the Mackerels made as the sun set over the horizon. The pictures are in sequence. Hope it will rain soon, Bombay is sweltering in this humid, sticky weather.

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Left in the Dark

"A single death is a tragedy, a million deaths is a statistic...."
~ Joseph Stalin

Till a couple of years ago they were insurgents, terrorists and the sore reality of a failed state. Now they are rulers. Nepal's Maoists have come a long way from being holed up in dense vegetation in the hills fighting a daily battle against the Nepalese Army, which was trained in the warfare including guerrilla tactics, by the Indian Army. Now those same guys are going to call the shots over the Army. We do not know how demoralising it could be for a force, that backed its king stoutly. The king, on the other hand is all set to be eased out of the consciousness of the Nepalese people.

Now the question here in India that has been on everyone's mind since the election results in Nepal is, what does this mean for the Left in India?

Now India, being India, has two interesting 'Lefts'. The first one, the one that is not banned, but nevertheless deserves to be, is the one that tries to make all kind of populist noises, against, well the other populist noises from the same government it supports, 'from outside', 'to keep communal forces away' from 7 Race Course Road. It is probably the most hypocritical establishment that exists in the political arena in India today(Of course, we can always say that about the others too..). Now the guys that eulogise the 'aam aadmi'(common man, me, you) and like to be seen as his saviour from, well everything that seems to be a political hot potato and the guys that swing from the 'Hindu right' to pogroms and religious fanaticism, occasionally(Hindu right? If they had any sense of what is right, Babri Masjid in Ayodhya would have never been taken apart and the pogrom in Gujarat would have never happened, and to think they actually have takers which is a serious danger to the social fabric of our country), both need the political Left to be on their side, to get laws passed when in government and corner the government and stall legislations when in the opposition. And this Left, feeds on the pampering and cajoling extended by both the camps. But you might think they feel lucky and enjoy the attention they get, especially since the possibility of them having a simple majority in Parliament is as remote as a tooth fairy visiting you and offering you a tooth implant.

Nay, they are also seen with other such acts of embarrassment that the people vote to power now and then. Small, regional parties, parties that were shown the door when they thought they had the electorate licked, and newer crop of hopefuls for whom one legislator translates to one Cabinet member, in the coalition era. The Left is always seen talking about a 'third front', as an alternative to the default two-party system that has set in, with the UPA and the NDA as the frontline coalitions. Even while they 'support' the incumbent government by disagreeing on everything from foreign policy, domestic policy, agricultural policy, the budget('This budget is not in the interest of the common man'- of course it is not, you jerk, a budget is a draft of the government's income and proposed spending policy for the next financial year. If major investment and financial decisions are not in the interest of the common man, then what is?) Another tongue-oiled gripe is, 'It is not for the poor'. They incidentally also scuttle financial reforms, fiscal prudence, cooking gas and fuel prices hike when the economy is bleeding and oil companies taking losses of millions of rupees everyday. Their only solution, as is expected from a bunch of suckers, is to hold prices. Ask them how do they plan to ensure that the country's economy does not suffer due to artificial price levelling, they say, "Hey, it is the government's problem, we are not in the government, we are just supporting it."

They have also carved out a reputation for themselves in being anti-foreign policy, which is the sole prerogative of the Government. A deal that could give India access to cleaner nuclear technology and the technical know-how to dispose nuclear waste efficiently, a deal that will enable India to come out a nuclear winter that was imposed on it, and more importantly, precious fuel for the future energy needs and military needs of the country which has been fated to probably the most dangerous neighbourhood in the world(Hey, they are supporting the government from outside...).

They are also known to connive with our commy neighbour, and many in the country believe that they are agents of the Chinese, and involved in a continuous process to restrict India's clout in the region visa-vis China.

And that I believe is the most shameful thing for a political party that 'feels for the poor and the working class' of the country. While they refuse to grow up to modern realities they also refuse to wake up and smell the coffee. The Maoists in Nepal have actually taken a gamble by coming to the political mainstream. If they fail to deliver, people would realise they were never an alternative in the first place.

The political Left in India knows this very well, and perhaps this is the reason why it refuses to share responsibility of the government while it claims to support it. Their anachronistic ideas will blow up in their faces once they do come in power, and there will be no more Left left in the country to muster up the courage to go to the people once again. This fear is quite cleverly masked behind their refusal to be in the government. And their immaturity in trying to be relevant in a world which has long forgotten Comrade Stalin.

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A Review of 'The Accused' (1988)

"I've been working in this business for 42 years and there's no way you can do that and not be as nutty as a fruitcake." ~ Jodie Foster

In one of the earlier posts, I had said that I would be putting up a review of The Accused (1988). Well, here it is. The review is not much of an exercise 'to write a review' but an effort to expand, the breadth of my writing. To see how well I can convey in words, what I liked and what I did not about a piece of creative work.

The Accused has been for long, a movie that many do not know about, or have caught it on TV and passed it without really giving much thought to its underlying purpose. It takes on morals of lawyers, the state and the general public and puts up a sincere effort to draw our attention to how manipulative the legal system can be. The victims of a crime can also be victims of deal-cutting lawyers, the jury and the entire legal process.

The movie is not a court room drama and does not look like it tries to be. The whole movie is based on a point in the legal framework that makes ‘criminal solicitation’ as big a crime as the crime itself.
The crime here in question is, of course, rape. Jodie Foster, playing Sarah Tobias gets raped. Deputy District Attorney, Kathryn Murphy, played by Kelly McGillis gets the rapists behind bars, but not for the rape.

On the assumption that Jodie who has a record, was stoned and drunk when she was raped, would not make a case much less a witness, where the jury would not buy the charges from a girl ‘who was asking for it’ by walking into a bar at night in skimpily clad clothes and flirting with the rape accused, she strikes a deal with the defence that puts them behind bars for ‘reckless endangerment’.

This is where the movie takes off.

When her conscience pricks when Jodie is called a whore by the same guy who jeered, clapped and encouraged the felony, and did nothing to stop it, she puts her career on the line to get the three men who ‘solicited’ the rape behind bars.

The movie is slow but not at all dragging in its pace, and sometimes it does not come across like a movie at all. It could be your average American 80’s drama series, but that is where it sets itself apart. The scenes just flow. It’s not the kind of movie that may pull audience into the theatres. The direction, by Jonathan Kaplan, cuts like a knife. It’s simple and therefore suave.

One of the most difficult scenes to film has to have been, of course, the rape scene. It is hard to imagine what goes through a girl’s mind at that time(“No…,” replies Jodie when Kelly asks her this in the courtroom). Many people (obviously sick, disgusting and downright deplorable, in my opinion) would find it titillating. And that is exactly what it is not, is the prime message the movie tries to drive home. The trauma experienced by Sarah Tobias, when she feels that the world has turned against her and the only person she could turn to is DDA Kathryn Murphy, has been brought out of the character so effectively, it leaves a lasting impression on the viewer’s mind. And this has so much relevance in today’s times, especially in countries like India where the real fight for a victim begins after the crime. Jodie brings a vulnerable looking yet immensely strong person to the screen and gives a performance of a lifetime, which deservedly won her, her first Oscar. Kelly McGillis, is herself a rape victim.

The movie is nothing great when it comes to being a movie. But the issues it deals with and the sensibilities it questions find resonance in every society in the world.

A simple movie that makes you think. And, think again.

My Rating: * * * 1/2
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People's Kingdom

In the Thunder Dragon Kingdom, where cypresses grow
Refuge of the glorious monastic and civil traditions,
The King of Druk, precious sovereign,
His being is eternal, his reign prosperous
The enlightenment teachings thrive and flourish
May the people shine like the sun of peace and happiness!
-The Bhutanese National Anthem

One event that did not quite make headlines last week, was the introduction of democracy in the Himalayan Kingdom of Bhutan. With 'democracy' being the holy cow of the global order these days, it was surprising that little noise was heard from the western world. But why blame them? How many Indians know their tiny neighbour anyway?

Bhutan has always preferred to remain inside a cocoon, never to come out and look beyond the beautiful mountains that have isolated it from the rest of the world for centuries. It has always been a land of contradictions. It has one the lowest per capita incomes in the world. Yet, the people refuse to be marked on that scale and the 'Land of the Thundering Dragon' has its own way of measuring their national output, their 'Gross National Happiness'. The economy is almost purely dependent on tourism, mainly from India. For years, India managed and advised its foreign policy. The largest city, its capital, Thimphu, is perhaps one of the cleanest cities in the world with dustbins reportedly kept at every ten metres. But it is nowhere when it comes to urbanisation. It is probably the only country that stood by India in its fight against extremism, extending complete co-operation to Indian agencies when North-eastern ultras sought to use it as a launchpad for their anti-India activities. And last week saw another.

People voted for a people's government, against their own wishes. For the first time in a land that has never known a leader besides its King. Bhutan inched towards a new beginning, that of a constitutional monarchy from an absolute one. Many of Bhutan older nationals could not understand the need for such an epoch making exercise. The newly formed Election Commission of Bhutan, worked for years to get people acquainted with a new system. It was greatly helped by the Indian Election Commission. The Bhutanese voted on the very same Electronic Voting Machines that Indians are so used to now. The greater challenge lay in sowing the seeds of democracy in a nation that never seemed to want it. This is in stark contrast with the struggles in many parts of the world by people to get to elect their own leaders.

It was a rare event that the party that won the elections, the Druk Phuensum Tshogpa, was congratulated by every Bhutanese on being Bhutan's first democratically elected government. Compare that with the drama that ensues every time a government is elected in India. Though the Bhutanese officials looked up to India to lay the foundations of democracy in their country, it is India and its people who have been taught a lesson or two when it comes to going to polls. Heavy turnout, national debates, careful assessment of candidates, local participation in discussing issues that are more about development than religion, caste and regional parochialism. Bhutan again showed that the so-called backward nation can actually be a torch bearer when it comes to being a nation.

I would love to visit and explore this fascinating country one day. It is one of the rare examples of human society that wants to be with the world while at the same time loves to be with itself.

For more information on Bhutan, visit its beautifully designed national tourism portal.
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Desert of the Real

"Welcome to the desert of the real..." - from 'The Matrix'(1999)

Type 'Food Shortage' as a search term on Google and be ready to be shocked. We've had our share of global bogies which seem to surface now and again to have the various 'decoupling' theories to go for a toss. Sky-rocketing oil prices, the American and European sub-prime crises, the Iraq war... But this one is a real spook. And if efforts are not made to stem the tide of hunger that seems to be sweeping the planet, we could be looking at starvation deaths on a scale never imagined before.

Earlier food shortage was seen as a curse that befell ominously upon third world countries from time to time. The west was always the provider, with food aid being a big ticket ally earner in the cold war days. India, we all know, was heavily dependent on food aid from the US during the first twenty odd years of its independence. Then the Green Revolution came along, and we broke the shackles of 'food aid' and emerged as one of the biggest producers of grain the world(For this blogger's notes on the Green Revolution, see here).

The mandarins of the Indian government now stare at a flashback of that era. Critics of the Green Revolution had gazed into the crystal ball and warned that we are digging ourselves into a hole by the indiscriminate use of fertilisers and pesticides. What really made them gripe about was there was no follow up research on the short-term and long-term effects of the Green Revolution. Nothing was really done to keep the grain levels optimum, no plan of action was envisaged to have a policy on responses to the challenges presented by the ever changing global environment.

And this is now beginning to hurt. Bleed, in fact. Even MS Swaminathan, the architect of the Green Revolution stressed the fact that we need another one. India's food levels are back to the levels in the seventies. Compared that with the population in the noughties, we now have less food and more hungry mouths. The news on TV about how the homeless who already work just to have a plate full of rice cannot even manage that, wrenched me when I was having dinner and made me stare emptily at my own plate.

Globally, the falling food production has been blamed on climate change, the switch made by farmers to cultivate cash crops and crops that yield biofuels, like sugarcane that have replaced grains like wheat and maize on farm lands. No country can escape this and the ripples will be felt all over as a country not producing enough will kill food exports to feed its own citizens, and those heavily dependent on imported food will feel the pinch leading to very high inflation.

Though each country will have to fend for itself in the event of a global food shortage, the efforts made to tide over the crisis should be an example in international community efforts. This is one problem that will eat all of us out, unless we begin to harvest our resources to meet the challenge.

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