Whither India

The Indian citizen is a worried man today. He finds poor response to his need for a peaceful, happy and justice based life. As of  his wont, he first blamed the political leaders and used his power to change them through elections and found them no different from one another. His next target was the system of governance and the men who operate it- the beaurocrats; he found them in  nexus with politicians to deny him his rights and rewards. His faith and hope in judiciary failed him as he got vexed with its delay and procedures. In the absence of a public health -care system, the private hospitals and  practioners of medicine  fleecing him  through unwarranted and costly diagnostic tests and procedures . Last but not the least, the  chiefs and senior leaders of the armed forces, para-military and police, even when the nation is facing threat of infiltrators and militants, spend time in blame game both in operations and personal issues like promotion . Even in his food preferences,there is advisory as what not to eat, the women and girl children are not safe. 

Is there hope still for sunny days?

The GT Express of Yore - Travel or Travail?

 The GT Express of yore – Travel or Travail ?

The Grand Trunk Express was the only  train for Madrasis ( an omnibus term for all those hailing from south of Vindhyas) for travel to Madras and beyond from Delhi before other superfast trains like  Delhi – Chennai Tamilnadu Express, Rajdhani Express and Garib Rath Express, were introduced. The GT, as it was popularly called, is one of the oldest trains commencing operations on 1^st January 1929. It takes 35.5 hours spread over two nights and a day for a distance of 2184 kms passing through 36 stations and eight states. Notwithstanding these impressive statistics, travel by GT in the fifties was a unique experience with no computerised reservation, provision of bed rolls, pantry car, air-conditioned sleeper accommodation

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Preparation began with booking of tickets one week in advance, which actually meant that you went to the New Delhi Railway Station on the previous night of the day when of reservation opened and took/marked your position in the queue. There you met friends as well as made new friends and talked as per the wont of Madrasis about your respective departments/officers and Panjabi jokes. Knowing that nothing was to happen till 8.00 a.m. the next morning when the reservation counter opened, you whiled away the in half-sleep and going out to the shops outside the station on Kutab Road for tea or cigarette , duly informing the person next to you in the queue to keep your place.

When the window opened, the booking clerk would spend some 15 minutes or so talking to his colleagues and opening and closing big registers maintained train-wise and blanking off seats earmarked for outstation quota etc. When your turn came, he took your reservation slip and spent another 5 minutes trying to make out the  connecting trains from Chennai to your destination , often some village in South India with no railway station, e.g. Ganapati Agraharam  near Kumbakonam. He would finally give up and ask you for help and   you would jump at this unexpected great opportunity to exhibit  your deep knowledge of the Indian railway system and start  a discourse on the connectivity of Ganapati Agraharam. The Madrasi  trait  in you for meticulous  details  in your presentation would only add to the booking clerk’s  confusion  as  you reeled facts like “ there are two terminals in Madras, one the Central Station and the other Egmore , that all south bound trains are on metre gauge originating from Egmore, that the  nearest railway station is  Kumbakonam which is on the Main line to Rameshwaram and not on  the chord line via Villupuram” etc. To his question why then should you have asked for ticket to Ganapati Agraharam where there is no railway station, you would explain that you are travelling  on LTC and  Ganapati Agraharam is your declared  native  place for LTC and that you have to produce tickets booked up to that place. The Panjabi booking clerk would mutter some choicest abuse in his mother tongue with which you are conversant thanks to your years in Delhi.

Now the preparations at home. Since sleeper class those days were not fitted with cushioned berths but only wooden planks and railways did not provide bed rolls,  bedding constituted the most important and indispensable  item of luggage . You could make it as heavy as you pleased since it was not included in calculating the free allowance for luggage.  So, it  became the heaviest  luggage containing not just the jamakalaams, bedsheets, pillows, blankets ( razaais in winter) but other items like discarded/worn-out dresses and clothing such as kanjeevaram/cotton sarees, men’s shirts (with torn collar), trousers ( torn at folds at the heels) dhotis, frocks,  pajamas and so on. All nicely tucked in oversized “hold –alls” (a bedding accessary made of very thick canvas cloth and rolled to form like a drum and secured tight with leather belt). The old and worn out clothing were taken to exchange them for “ever- silver” (stainless steel) utensils in Madras as such exchange was not available in Delhi.   Even if, against 6 silk sarees, 3 full pants, 3 shirts  and so on , you got only a spoon and a “katori” , it was  a good bargain.

 The long journey entailed taking adequate supply of food, snacks, water and coffee. Large tiffin carriers with idlis laced with milagai podi and oil, puri with sookka aaloo subzi, chapati, tamarind rice, lemon rice, curd rice, appalam, vadaam, mor- milagai, and other pickles formed the menu. .Big thermos flasks for hot water for making baby food were a must if there were infants in the family travelling. My mother would also carry milk in glass bottles (Horlicks bottles were ideal for this) for adding to the curd rice on the second day of the journey since by then it would have turned sour. 

 Coffee decoction was taken in a separate bottle to mix with garam dudh enroute. Needless to say we also would carry sugar and salt.  There were no paper plates, cups and napkins those days and so we had to take stainless steel plates, spoons, tumblers and cloth napkins for cleaning.

For infants there would be the improvised “thooli” (hammock) in the moving space between opposite berths and a good supply of mopping cloth. 

Magazines like Ananda Vikatan, Kalki, etc,  but the oppressive heat made sleep as the only leisure activity on journey.  Though some brought transistors, they could not be played in the noisy background of the running train. Most families travelled in summer months during school vacation. All fun of travel was lost  from the afternoon of the second day when the train passed through the hot parts of the country like Nagpur and Andhra Pradesh. The fans in the coach  would either not work at all or at slow speeds. Taps in the toilets and wash basins would go dry or would not function. 

On(railway)line purchase was done at Nagpur station, where you could not avoid  getting cheated buying oranges. The basket of oranges you bought paying one third of the price quoted would have only one third of the fruits good , the other two-th irds, hidden in the bottom of the basket, being sour or rotten.     

 The Delhi “Surahi” was another indispensable item. Filled at every major junction, after a dash   to the water-tap located farthest from your coach, their necks were always narrow to permit direct   filling of water from the tap and therefore more water was  spilled than filled.  Also, most surahis would not make the full journey to Madras as they more often than not broke enroute, the water flooding the coach and soiling the underbelly of the huge trunk boxes (light moulded suit cases were not in vogue) and sometimes seeping inside.

There was always a couple of Delhi “Modas” to carry which were what your host family said they would be happy to get when you wrote to them about your trip and as  courtesy asked if they needed anything specific from Delhi . These modas were both stool type and chair type and heavens forbid if the latter were transported since they occupied all moving space in the coach.  Another favourite item requested by friends was the “Jaadi” (aka Barani) in different sizes, one fitting into another for storing pickles and making curd. Packing them to avoid breakage in transit was an art. 

The snacks were usually home- made stuff like thattai, barfi, etc., plus Delhi’s famous atta biscuits. They were all nicely packed in old oil tins fitted with lids on top. On the return trip from Madras, these tins were used for bringing condiments like ammami appalam, vadaam, maavadu, etc besides tamarind, soap- nut powder which were not easily available and costly in Delhi.

The hold- all had to be opened and packed each night to take bed linen out. While opening was easy, re-packing would prove a hard task since its width was more than the width of the berth and therefore things stuffed inside would move and hang outside the berth. Sometimes the leather strap would break and we had do make do with some dupatta or old saree to tie around the hold-all.

About an hour or so before the train reached Madras, it was time to spruce up ourselves with a wash of  face and limbs, all blackened by the smoke from the engine and dust. A change into clean clothes would be warranted.  But by this time the water in the coach would have been completely used up and so some dry cleaning had to done instead.

The anxiety to set foot on Madras would turn into frustration when the GT ran late most of the days. Delays in arrival at Madras were the rule and not the exception in its case.  GT was the reason of the famous old joke when it arrived sharp at 6.15.a.m one day to the surprise of everybody. Lo, it was the GT Express which should have arrived the previous day!

Nonetheless, the joy on everybody’s face when the train at last stopped at “Namm Voor” Madras and  your host received you on the platform  greeting  you with “ Vango, Vango” (Welcome, Welcome) put paid to all the travails of travel by GT.

The Irony of Corporate Excellence

The Irony of Corporate Excellence

Public Sector Banks (PSBs) in India have shown phenomenal growth since their formation in 1969 and account for nearly 70% of the country’s  banking assets against 30% in other emerging economies .Yet they also have accumulated huge non-performing assets (NPAs) over the years. Their volume stood at Rs. 2.67 lakh crore as on 31.3.2015 from 2.16 lakh crores at the end of the previous year and accounted for 5.2 % of their advances ( 4.72% in the previous year). Non-performing and restructured loans are expected to exceed Rs. 500,000 crore . Finance Minister Arun Jaitley has called this increasing volume of NPAs as “unacceptable”.

NPAs are concentrated among some of  India’s biggest companies whose promoters  have taken loans, run their business into the ground and have not paid back the money they have borrowed (some even turning wilful defaulters)and  as Governor RBI Raghuram Rajan says “have no divine right to remain in charge of companies” .  According to RBI the share of large companies in the banks’ gross NPAs was 87.5% in September 2015 up from 78.2% in March.

In his New Year’s message to the staff, the RBI Governor  has exhorted them to be relentless in pursuit of wrongdoers, even if it meant holding the powerful to account. “It has been said that India is a weak state. Not only are we accused of not having the administrative capacity of fretting out  wrongdoing, we do not punish the wrong doer, unless he is small and weak. This belief feeds on itself. No one wants to go after the rich and well- connected wrongdoer, which means they get away with even more. If we are to have strong, sustainable growth, this culture of impunity should stop. Importantly, this does not mean being against the riches or business as some would like portray but being against wrongdoing”. Strong words indeed.

It is therefore ironical that awards are given to some of these big companies for excellence in performance under various categories. A  plethora of organizations like ASSOCHEM and FICCI as well as news and financial papers and magazines give such awards at glittering functions held in five star hotels . These awards have become so numerous and frequent  as to lose their significance. One is even led to suspect that some chiefs of companies may hanker after them. There is more or less  the same jury, the same few chiefs in the race and a few political bigwigs from the ruling party  which makes a mockery of the awards. Like the Padma awards  these too have lost their sheen and covetousness .

 One important criterion for these awards should be a check that a company is not loan defaulter to any bank , public or private, or financial institution. Loan defaults  and excellence awards  do not gel.

     

Childhood reminiscences

One of the sins of old age, when not suffering from amnesia, is the mind’s capacity to recall past memories. Some are pleasant, some are otherwise; some attest to your success while some remind you of the failures. Those relating to failures or unpleasantness now throw open new  strategies  to deal with them; what is the use now! No, I am not going to recall such memories here. I will confine to some things which gave us immense pleasure as children and which may not even be known to the present day children.

First is the “peppermint” (Tamil speaking children mentioned this as “puppurmutu”) which to us was anything sold as candy. You could buy it for an amount as low as a quarter anna (one sixty fourth of a rupee). In size, it varied from the “Arisi (rice size)puppurmuttu” to the hundred times larger ones with almonds inside. You got the small sized ones by fistfuls and ate them one by one to make them go for long time consumption! The smaller ones were cumin flavoured sometimes.

The quarter anna itself was a treasure as it had a whole in the centre big enough to be worn as a ring on the small finger. It bought you an ice cream like what is now-a-days called Gola or a ball of Panju Mittai (cotton candy) or anything from a wrist watch to a parrot made from a thick multi-coloured pasty basic sweet stock wound over a wooden pole. ( Bombay mittai)

“Choclate” was the toffee wrapped in thin butter- paper   twisted clockwise and anti- clockwise on either side respectively. It was made of milk and not cocoa. Peeling the wrapper posed a problem during rainy season as the toffee got glued to the wrapper; so they were often chewed with the wrappers on!  Today our children have the real chocolates made of cocoa in different varieties with nuts, raisins and flavours.

Preparing to go to school did not take much time as it is now. Most students walked to the neighbourhood school with the books carried in their hands. School bags, if at all used, were cloth bags whose handles got torn often and required to be knotted. There was no back –sacks. Not many schools had prescribed dress uniforms, neck-ties etc.

Cinemas were seen in non- airconditioned theatres with side doors open after dusk to allow fresh air in. Tickets were to be bought by standing in long queues for hours.

Radios were a luxury, with only few homes affording them. They were perched high on the wall, out of reach of children and played only for limited hours and covered rest of the time with a cloth. Some parents allowed the children to listen to cricket commentaries and also Bianca Geet Mala. English news at 9 P.M. was a must not only for the father but for many children as well to get correct enunciation of the words from legendary news readers like Melville DeMello and Roshan Menon. The valve radios’ charm faded with the advent of the transistor radio assembling which also  became the hobby/ school project work for some children.

Yes , for most of us childhood was an enjoyable experience.

The Angry Husband

Ramgopal became head of the family fairly late in life after his father’s demise at the ripe age of eighty five. Till then he lived a somewhat non- participating style within the joint family, concerned mainly with his own family of wife and two children. He accepted the headship with apparent humility but did not realise that it was not an easy task to satisfy a large family of uncles, siblings, cousins and their families.  Of course, he had ideas like enlarging and improving the sanitary and sewerage system of the old village house they lived in, asking the womenfolk to make family’s requirement of condiments such as pappad and pickles at home and promoting vegetarianism in the family. and so on. Though the elder members of the family were on his side, the youngsters thought that he was too dominant, adamant and imposing. He faced severe opposition particularly with regard to his campaign for vegetarianism. Gradually the grumblings became more and more vociferous and even the elders who supported him earlier became his critics. This further alienated him from his own family and he too began showing intolerance to their views and actions.

One of his cherished dreams was to become popular in the immediate neighbourhood as well as in the town. He nurtured the ambition of becoming an important leader and to this end started visiting friends and acquaintances.  In fact, he spent more evenings on such visits than at home. He liked the civility and geniality others extended to him as the head of a big and old family of the town.  He often mistook their hospitality as indicative of his personal charm.

Like any angry husband, he is happy outside his home

The Third Force in Governance –The Indian Experiment

When India was under foreign rule of Britain, governance was in the hands of a single force, that of the then ruler. There was no serious debate about this singularity of the governance force  as the whole country was engaged in driving out  the foreign rulers  rather than worried about ruler.  

The dawn of Independence in 1947 and the adoption of parliamentary democracy for India  gave rise to the duality  feature  of governance viz . ,a  legislature comprising elected representatives of people and an executive comprising a cabinet of ministers responsible for the day to day administration. The Constitution of India clearly defines the respective duties and powers of these two wings of governance aided by an independent Judiciary to interpret and settle the occasional differences and transgressions on the part of the dual forces. The point to note is that the legislature and the executive have been performing their respective functions unbiased by any ideological leanings, whether it was a single political party commanding the majority in Parliament, such as the Congress in the first two decades, or later when coalition governments were formed participated by multiple political parties as widely different as the ends of the right-left spectrum. And yet, both the legislature and the executive were accountable to the people, the former through periodic elections and the latter through the ministers.

The General Elections in 2014 has introduced a  new element in India’s governance. A major socio-cultural movement like the RSS has entered the fray, albeit not directly through participation in the elections but by guiding and supporting a political party and influencing its plans, programs and agenda. There is the feeling that its influence has even spread   in the choice of cabinet ministers, some policy formulation and implementation, appointment of heads of academic and cultural bodies, etc... This may be called the third force in the governance of India and is an additive to the traditional dual forces envisaged in the Constitution.   As our Constitution did not envisage such a third force, its emergence particularly without electoral accountability would tantamount to  a first time experiment in the practice of constitutional/ parliamentary democracy.  It therefore appears that there is an urgent need for an extensive debate and discussion among legal and constitutional experts, political scientists, etc. in order that this new force should gain legitimacy and validity. 

What mandate?

The Times of India on 4^th July carried a centre- page article by Pavan Varma, M.P (@PavanK-Varma) which basically addresses the arrogance of authoritarianism among the current powers that be. Wondering whether this will lead to the declaration of Emergency once again, a la a recent statement to similar effect made by L.K.Advani, the article mentions the high propensity of Indians for sycophancy and hero worship of those in power.

Is this the reason or a near about fait accompli situation of having elected to Lok Sabha a single national party with a huge majority with hardly any opposition? Whoever thought that such majority in the Lok Sabha is only an administrative majority and not a legislative majority which includes a majority in Rajya Sabha as well and which then could be used to pass appropriate legislations towards bringing in reforms?

The not so moral alternative route of promulgating ordinances on important reforms like acquisition of land for speedy industrialization and discarding debate and discussion in the House does not portend good democratic governance. There is also a growing feeling that any opinion not in square with the overall policy of the government would be disposed of under an attitude of “either my way or the high way” like the sudden discovery of the negativity of the social media vis -a- vis the PM’s blog or tweets.

The last General Elections put an end to the scam-a day government of the UPA reflecting the anti- establishment mood of the electorate. The experiment of coalition governments only resulted in the different parties pulling the developmental juggernaut in different directions, notwithstanding the common minimum programme inked by the parties before taking oath of office.

The new dispensation of another coalition government cobbled by the NDA is different in that it has within it one single national party with a whooping majority in the Lok Sabha. This naturally aroused a lot of expectations by the people, particularly as the single large party had in its election manifesto and campaigns promised good governance free of corruption and inclusive development.

Now, the new government and most of its critics (not the opposition political parties) admit that dramatic results like economic development through conducive policy for foreign investment, etc. is too early to happen since it still has to cope with less than the required majority in the Rajya Sabha. The oft-cited reason of clearing the mess created by the previous government has washed well only so far and the people in general will not be impressed any more

Is economic development through facilitating the setting up of industries to make (things) in India the panacea of all our ills today?  Investment in social sectors like eradication of famine, mal-nutrition of children and women, basic education and public health are prior requisites. But the government does not seem to think so since the PM during his frequent visits to foreign countries asks the people there ad nauseam to invest in India in the manufacturing sector.

 Be that as it may, can economic development be not brought about without changing socio-cultural identity of India? Many of the initiatives taken by the new government appear to indicate that the changes in socio-cultural aspects of Indian life are their first priority.

It began with the reverse proselytization of members of some minority communities followed by banning the sale and consumption of beef and desecration of some places of worship. In most of these, the ball was set rolling by some obscure M.Ps or party ideologues and the government not only had not taken them to task but turned a Nelson's eye when the thing actually happened. Next, the institutions of higher education and social and scientific research came under attack, where many a "head" literally rolled and was replaced by persons of identifiable ideology acceptable to the ruling party. Even the regulatory bodies like the Film Censor Board were not spared. The joke going round is that no chief of these institutions dare leave his chair even to answer the call of nature, lest the HRD ministry would send a replacement

The justification given by the party spoke-persons in the media is that this government has come to power on the basis of the clear and huge mandate given by the people in the last elections. The mandate, to be sure, was for clean governance and development, sans coalition of ideologically differing political parties as promised by the candidates, particularly the prime ministerial candidate. It was not certainly intended as a carte blanche for meddling with the socio-cultural fabric and mores of this great country or to usher in changes affecting the daily life, like right to worship or the dietary preferences of the people.

Is there a way to let the powers know this or do we have to wait till 2019?