Weekend Musings-The Commonwealth Games

The Commonwealth Games in Delhi

Suresh Kalmadi, the Chairman of the organising committee of the 2010 Commonwealth Games believes that the games will leave Delhi far better off than now. Under the guise of the games Delhi is being rebuilt as a modern metropolis. Thanks to the games it will have a state of the art airport, the fourth largest in the world with a capacity of handling more than 37 mn passengers annually, more than 39 new 4 and 5 star hotels, numerous new flyovers and an extended metro service straddling the NCR. With each flat in the Commonwealth Games village priced at around Rs. 3 Cr.( coming up right in the bed of the Yamuna) will provide residences to the cities super rich. With the Delhi government busy giving the city’s roundabouts and parks a facelift, the city will look new and different. To provide for the higher energy needs the Delhi government is upgrading its power generation capacity from the present 4500 MW to 7000 MW. The new stadia being built across the city will ensure a sporting culture in the city and will go a long way in producing champions, who will bring great honour to the city and the country in future international sporting events. Mr. Kalmadi earnestly feels that the successful organisation of the Commonwealth Games will open the doors for the city hosting the Olympics one day.

All this sounds wonderful only if you overlook the huge costs involved in the games. The budget for the games is USD 1.6 bn (Approx Rs. 6500 Cr) This excludes the money to be spent in infrastructure projects that the Delhi government is incurring. The central government is largely funding the games through grants and loans. The Games Organising Committee has taken a loan of Rs. 1650 Cr., from the Central government, which it hopes to back from the revenues it will generate from the games. The infrastructure upgrade is also being funded by the Delhi government from its resources as well as budgetary support from the coffers of the Central government. The government of Delhi has been constrained to raise taxes to fund these massive projects.

At the end of the day, it is you and me who are paying the price for this monumental show. Is spending this kind of money on a sports extravaganza , when millions of our countrymen suffer from chronic hunger and unending poverty, worth it? And why do we need a Commonwealth Games to build Delhi’s infrastructure? A new airport, more power, good roads and efficient public transport need not be beholden to a sports event. Shouldn’t a responsible city government invest in the city infrastructure irrespective of the games hoopla?

Through the games are we trying to send a message to the world about our rising power, prestige and prosperity? Are we telling the world that India is no more the poor nation they thought it was? By equating a gleaming New Delhi with the toiling India, aren’t we fooling ourselves?

Weekend Musings-Ms Malawati and Other Stories

Ms. Malawati

The chief minister of Uttar Pradesh Ms. Mayawati is in news for donning a huge garland made of currency notes (I understand of Rs. 1000 denomination) at a recent rally in Lucknow. The money running into crores of rupees is clearly unaccounted for. Ms Mayawati is today considered to be one of the richest politicians in the country with unimaginable and largely ill-gotten wealth filling her coffers to the brim. It seems that having money isn’t enough, she must now flaunt it brazenly.

This appalling and vulgar display of wealth by the chief minister of a state, which is a basket case as far as development goes, is shocking. Mayawati wants to make a political statement. In a state where money is often equated with power, such unabashed display of wealth establishes Mayawati, the impoverished daughter of a ‘dalit’ as the most powerful leader of the hindi belt. Since, Mayawati is showcasing her enormous wealth to her captive constituency of the Dalits, I guess even such a perverted and vulgar show is par for the course.

To make matters worse Mayawati’s followers have now announced that henceforth, wherever Mayawati goes, she will be welcomed with a garland made of currency notes. While Mayawati panders to her chosen audience, shouldn’t the Income Tax department at least look into the matter and initiate an investigation. This is perhaps the least the civil society can do to uphold the law of the land.

The IPL at a pub in Mumbai

I was in Mumbai this entire week. With the annual sales pressures mounting in the present last month of the financial year, colleagues at work decided to take it easy one evening and we all landed at a pub after a hard day’s work. With the IPL matches on, it was the Delhi team taking on the Mumbai Indians. The pub had set up a large screen and the match was being beamed live.

The atmosphere in the pub was electric. With Sachin Tendulkar in full flow, the aches and pains of the day seemed to melt away. To realise the full impact of Sachin Tendulkar, one has to watch him bat in Mumbai. Every shot is vociferously applauded, every hit to the fence lustily cheered and his dismissal treated with a silence, which is only broken by a standing ovation as he walks back to the dug-out. I wouldn’t be wrong to say that Sachin is, by a huge distance, Mumbai’s favourite son.

As the match progressed the liquor flowed freely, the snacks disappeared fast and the pub manager confessed to me that they are just not geared to handle so many guests. IPL III has once again captured the minds and hearts of the viewers in no small measure. To round off a perfect evening, Mumbai Indians beat Delhi Daredevils and all seemed to be well with the world.

EIGHT CLUES TO HAPPINESS – By- KHUSHWANT SINGH

A colleague sent me these pearls of wisdom, attributed to Khushwant Singh, one of India’s most loved and respected columnist and author.

Having lived a reasonably contented life, I was musing over what a person should strive for to achieve happiness. I drew up a list of a few essentials which I put forward for the readers’ appraisal.

1. First and foremost is GOOD HEALTH. If you do not enjoy good health you can never be happy. Any ailment, however trivial, will deduct from your happiness.
2. Second, a HEALTHY BANK BALANCE. It need not run into crores but should be enough to provide for creature comforts and something to spare for recreation, like eating out, going to the pictures, travelling or going on holidays on the hills or by the sea. Shortage of money can be only demoralizing. Living on credit or borrowing is demeaning and lowers one in one’s own eyes.
3. Third, a HOME OF YOUR OWN. Rented premises can never give you the snug feeling of a nest which is yours for keeps that a home provides: if it has a garden space, all the better. Plant your own trees. And flowers, see them grow and blossom, cultivate a sense of kinship with them.
4. Fourth, an UNDERSTANDING COMPANION, be it your spouse or a friend. If there are too many misunderstandings, they will rob you of your peace of mind. It is better to be divorced than to bicker all the time.
5. Fifth, LACK OF ENVY towards those who have done better than you in life; risen higher, made more money, or earned more fame. Envy can be very corroding; avoid comparing yourself with others.
6. Sixth, DO NOT ALLOW OTHER PEOPLE to descend on you for gup-shup. By the time you get rid of them, you will feel exhausted and poisoned by their gossip-mongering.
7. Seventh, CULTIVATE SOME HOBBIES which can bring you a sense of fulfillment, such as gardening, reading, writing, painting, playing or listening to music. Going to clubs or parties to get free drinks or to meet celebrities is a criminal waste of time.
8. Eighth, every morning and evening, devote 15 minutes to INTROSPECTION. In the morning, 10 minutes should be spent on stilling the mind and then five in listing things you have to do that day. In the evening, five minutes to still the mind again, and ten to go over what you had undertaken to do.

Weekend Musings-Reservations for Women in Parliament

The Indian political firmament has been ablaze since the government decided to introduce a bill in the upper house of India’s parliament (Rajya Sabha), allowing a 33% reservations of seats for women in both the houses of the parliament as well as all the state legislatures. The introduction of the bill on the International Women’s Day last week saw a ruckus that would make a fish market proud. The members disrupted the house proceedings and had to be marshaled out for the bill to be voted on and passed.

While all this drama unfolded in the parliament the nation debated the merits of the bill and the risk the government is taking in pushing it through. My own thoughts on reservations for women in parliamentary bodies are ambivalent. Let me explain.

I am fortunate to hail from a family, where my grand mother (who recently passed away aged 105) received education in the 1920’s at the prestigious IT college in Lucknow, participated in the freedom struggle and after independence won assembly elections for the UP legislative assembly in the 1950’s. My mother taught at a University, my sister went to the medical school and my wife who coincidentally attended the same college as my grandmother, works in a play school in Delhi. At my current work place we have more women than men and in the hospitals I worked in earlier, we had women in stellar roles, as doctors, surgeons and nurses. Thus my views on women empowerment have been shaped by these women in my life.

I have always believed that any country that hopes to be counted amongst the leading nations of the world must empower its women to participate in all manner of decision-making. They should have equal opportunities in all walks of life and should compete with men on equal footing. In a progressive, enlightened society that we hope to create being a woman must never seem like a burden.

The real question thus is how do we empower women to build a just and a fair society and are gender based parliamentary reservations the right steps?

Unfortunately in the past gender based political empowerment has rarely led to significant change in the lot of women in our country. Is there any evidence that in states such as UP, which is ruled by Ms. Mayawati, life has improved for women? If one was to compare the rule of Ms. Rabri Devi in Bihar and that of the present chief minister, who happens to be a male, it becomes evident that Nitish Kumar has far better championed the cause of development and growth than his predecessor. The same could be said for Jaylalitha’s rule in Tamilnadu.

In a sense the 1993 legislation reserving seats for women in the local bodies and panchayats was a far more progressive step as it significantly empowered women at the grass-roots level and allowed them to usher in change in their lives as well as those who lived in the villages. The ability of a ’sarpanch’ in a village to fight the entrenched male dominated system and impact lives is far more than that of a woman legislator sitting in parliament. Yet, the change has been painstakingly slow and in large parts of the country hardly visible.

The real empowerment of women in any society is a function of their education. We need many more better educated, confident women to drive the change we as a nation are seeking. The government must consider reserving seats for women in centres of higher education, take punitive measures against parents who force their daughters out of schools and colleges, reserve jobs in government bodies and PSU’s and allow women financial freedom as well as the freedom of unfettered choices in the matter of living their lives as they please.

Now, if the argument is that, since men dominated legislatures have failed to deliver in the last many years and we need women law makers to do all this than by all means let us reserve seats for women in our legislatures.

Weekend Musings

Dil Do Hockey Ko

The Hockey World Cup, being currently played in New Delhi generated a fair bit of excitement, at least amongst folks I know. The boss managed to line up some VIP tickets and invited me to watch the matches. A cousin too managed to lay his hands on the tickets and went along to cheer the Indian hockey team. A colleague at work too admitted to being in the stands supporting India.

Much of this support has been drummed up by a very effective TV campaign run by the title sponsors Hero Honda. They had their brand ambassadors Virender Sahwag, Rajyavardhan Singh Rathore and Priyanka Chopra endorsing hockey and urging all Indians to once again fall in love with our national sport. India’s first outing with arch rivals Pakistan had everyone in a patriotic frenzy. That India gave a Pakistan a drubbing raised hopes of a stellar display in the tournament. The new Spanish coach appeared to be going over the moon, some corporate houses announced awards to players and it seemed that Indian hockey was all set reclaim its lost glory.

Alas! this turned out to be short-lived. The Indian team disappointed by losing to Australia, Spain and England and will now once again compete for the lower positions in the championship. That Pakistan is faring just as poorly is hardly any comfort. Needless to add a lot more is required to resurrect the magic of hockey. The World Cup was a great opportunity. Sadly, we have squandered it.

From a Clear Blue Sky

I had never heard of Timothy Knatchbull till I picked up his memoir ‘From a Clear Blue Sky’ from Crosswords Mumbai earlier this week. Since than I have been completely engrossed in his story. From his maternal side, Timothy Knatchbull is the grandson of Lord Mountbatten, the last viceroy of India. On his paternal side, his grandfather was Lord Brabourne (Michael Knatchbull), who served in Mumbai (remember the Brabourne Stadium) and in Kolkata as the provincial governor.

Timothy Knatchbull was on the yacht Shadow V the day the provisional IRA bombed it . Lord Mountbatten, the dowager Lady Brabourne, Tim’s twin Nick and a local lad Paul Maxwell died in the bombing. Timothy and his parents were seriously injured but survived. This book is a wonderful account of Timothy’s journey as he revisits the tragedy. It is a poignantly written account personal account of coming to grips with a terrible loss, gradually reconstructing a life torn asunder and then carefully putting it all back together.

Knatchbull writes with a great deal of compassion and candour. His narrative is gripping, at times sad but without any self-pity. This is a ‘exceptionally moving’ account of overcoming a huge tragedy and moving on.