The Election that Changed India

Book Review: Non-fiction/2014:The Election that Changed India by Rajdeep Sardesai, Penguin/Viking, 372pp; Rs599 (Hardback)

Seasoned journalist Rajdeep Sardesai’s 2014:The Election that Changed India is compiled to give the perspective and remedial thoughts, how elections in India are now much more complex than the conventional tussle of ballets. However, it would be a hurried effort in reckoning that all the changes happened only through 2014 elections – earlier too, we saw how ‘born-to-preach’ troops of advertisers mislead the actual issues and slogans, especially since 2004 parliamentary elections.

Advertising is an old phenomenon in Indian politics, however the matter couldn’t be put on rest without admitting the increased effects lined up through real-time sell of ideas or dreams. This book’s heart of matter is placed to capture the unprecedented shift in poll campaign strategy and the devious role played by the Media& PR Network.

Indeed this time, the Congress Party lost the election before it entered the electoral fray and the Modi as ‘factor’ emerged there to establish a new identity, with an unimagined might in terms of numbers in Lok Sabha. Rest, all is history.

Sardesai’s book unleashes his personal experiences vis-à-vis the political developments in the country of over two decades. While doing this, he maintains the depth of political storyteller as well as of an election historian. Remarkably, the historians in India have given writing on elections amiss – somehow, the hacks roving inside the country have contradicted that trend on occasions.

In recent years, those lots of journalists have been strengthened with advent of electronic media. Nevertheless, a full-fledged book on the election and with the depth this book has, is quite rare to see in other works surfaced. Through the richness of anecdotes and balanced interpretation of truths, Sardesai’s maiden voyage of book-writing charts a territory so far not covered in his columns. This, as the narrative is candid, firm and timely.

The most interesting parts of the book recount the blunders done by the UPA regimes and how the desperations of people converged with their aspirations. Amidst those unrelenting movements, the Congress chosen to do what it was doing for a decade – no action or relaying less-pragmatic voices.

As other parties except the BJP was on the same page, the outcome of the elections was almost decided before the polls. However, the common masses of this nation did not know the extent of victory would be such miraculous. The book covers in details of ‘why& how’!

Sardesai’s early encounter with young Modi (then, Narendra Bhai for the journalists) in 1990’s and their first show on Tv after the 9/11 incident (Modi came as replacement from his party) – show how restless the later was to grow full-circle. Besides introspecting the hard realities of Gujarat Roits and how Modi cornered the existing state leadership right after taking charge as chief minister of Gujarat – the author has also not forgotten to count the sensibilities of the protagonist.

Even-though not consistently in sync with stating ‘beyond the obvious’ – Sardesai’s book never falls short on giving the readers, both information and insight about the resurgent India that has been a victim of lackluster governance and not so responsive polity.
-Atul K Thakur
Email: summertickets@gmail.com
(Published in INCLUSION)

India’s tryst with democracy

Book Review: Non-fiction/Battles Half Won: India’s Improbable Democracy by Ashutosh Varshney, Penguin, 415 pp; Rs599 (Hardback)

Ashutosh Varshney has long been considered a formidable scholar of South Asian politics and his latest book is a significant addition to his repertoire, particularly at a point in time when Indian politics is undergoing transformations of an unprecedented nature. Battles Half Won: India’s Improbable

Democracy is a compilation of several pieces that seek to trace India’s political trajectory, from the time of its birth to the modern day. What is at the heart of the book is the idea that India is struggling to establish a deeper, more definitive democracy. Varshney has well-captured the centrist tendency in Indian politics, particularly at the national level.

In the states, he says, identities of various sorts still rule the course of political action and outcome. Great use is made of facts and figures to prop up his ideas, testifying to the author’s skill as a truly effective political scientist.
India is presently at a stage wherein the expectations of the electorate are quite diverse, apropos of how the system and its representatives respond to them.

But still we see a Narendra Modi seeking to make his party, his government in Gujarat, and in imagination, the country, an overt extension of his personality. It was the same mistake, in fact, that Indira Gandhi had committed almost four decades ago, making the Congress party her territory.

For a party that had been shaped by a standard democrat like Nehru post-independence, and still carrying some notional attributes of the anti-colonial movement, this had proved a major setback. Varshney emphasises that without the freedom movement, India’s nationhood would have been inconceivable, which means democracy
too would’ve been inconceivable.

He focuses especially on the consolidation of national democracy after 1947, calling it the next remarkable event after India’s independence—where the decisive leadership of Nehru played a major role. It is appreciable that while doling out these analyses, the author is able to keep his personal biases on hold, one of the many strengths of his writing.

The book touches upon, at one point, Mahatma Gandhi’s Hind Swaraj, a radical piece of work. While stressing on Gandhi’s political preferences, Varshney adds, “It is noteworthy that Gandhi himself was not very fond of representative government, his ideal polity was one that had local village republics, more in line with direct, non-representative democracy.” Does this mean then that the Aam Aadmi Party of today is following Gandhian principle?

I suppose that is unlikely, as the AAP, in core, doesn’t oppose representative politics, nor is it its express objective to make representatives accountable. Rather, what the AAP is pursuing is the ‘trivialisation of representation’, visible in the way it has vested the Mohalla Sabha (meetings among residents of a ‘mohalla’, a smaller partition of a ward) with such supreme power.

Given its heavy-handed political maneuverings so far, the party’s plan to contest the general elections in a big way will be much messier, of course. But its strong emergence in the scene has certainly brought democracy under close scrutiny. Varshney offers substantial space in his book for present-day politics, new bases of coalitions, governance and economic reforms—all elaborated upon in his signature style, now become quite popular through the means of his widely read column in the Indian Express.

Like he tends to do in many his opinionated writings in newspapers and academic journals, his book too draws out the differences between the “quality of democracy and existence of democracy.” He envisions India as a mature democracy that has a deeply unstable core, thanks to the socio-economic inequalities and challenges it has encountered with regards to its territorial integrity, making the battle for “deeper democracy” the need of the hour. And the AAP, for Varshney, is an example of the forces within this battle.

For the most part, Battles Half Won analyses the factors behind the deepening of Indian democracy since 1947 and the challenges these have created. The book broadly traces the forging and consolidation of India s “improbable democracy”. The essays delve into themes ranging from caste politics and ethnic conflict, and Hindu nationalism to the north-south economic divide and the politics of economic reform since 1991—issues that have consistently tested the calibre of Indian democracy.

The book also highlights the adverseness of not relying on “intelligent economics”; AAP ideologue Yogendra Yadav, for instance, has made his party’s intentions clear on that by shifting the political and economic agenda away from the “shackle of isms”.

Of course, this is merely in principle so far, and it remains to be seen what the execution will actually be like. But the potential impact of new politics, championed by the AAP—the way it has encroached on the traditional turf of left or right-leaning forces, by injecting flexibility into economic policies and matters of governance—is something that greatly interests our author.

Given the Anna Hazare campaign, which proved so popular a while back, and now with AAP’s swift rise in the power circle, Varshney feels that the bulk of citizens in India are now eager to participate in the overall political process.

While examining all these changes, the book also indicates the next course of development as far as democracy in India is concerned. In Varshney’s view, Indian democracy is the sort that becomes more progressive the more unsettling changes it comes across. After all, time and again, all kinds of political hiccups in India have been solemnised—although with varying degrees of success.

Then again, the stakes are much higher at the moment, and forward-looking Indians can no longer trust a government that offers less than a two-percent job growth rate, for example. Now is the time for political parties to be as prompt in terms of their actions as their electorates are with their expectations. Overlooking that would be detrimental for success in the political fray as other countries in South Asia have evidenced.

Articulate and authoritative, Varshney’s book offers fresh insights into several crucial areas, elements that have shaped India into what it is today, whether that be the complex set of relations under the country’s federal system, the challenges of territorial/cultural diversities, and the contradictory outcomes of economic reforms, among others. Battles Half Won looks back very diligently on successes and failures of India’s tryst with democracy—which despite having many flaws, is charting its course with no full stop.
-Atul K Thakur
Email: summertickets2gmail.com
(Published in The Kathmandu Post on February22,2014)

The Height of Clamour

Book Review: Non-fiction/ A Great Clamour: Encounters with China and its Neighbours by Pankaj Mishra, Penguin, p.325; Rs499 (Hardback)
Pankaj Mishra’s A Great Clamour comprises a significant commentary on contemporary China, an examination of the contradictions and potency that shape and define the country

In the earlier work titled From the Ruins of Empire, Pankaj Mishra had conducted an effective analysis of the western model and presented reasons why he believes Asia has a better chance in the new world, set free as it is from the complex constructs of its colonial past. Mishra’s latest book, A Great Clamour: Encounters with China and its Neighbours, once more, and just as winningly, challenges the burden of western influence on Asia.

In the course of writing these two books, the author has traced the journeys and ideas that contributed to the building of Asian solidarity—first through intellectual engagements and later via trade collaborations. But in the wake of decolonisation and emergence of modern states, based on western political ideas, that solidarity, he believes, has become somewhat incoherent.

Mishra, who calls Mashobra in Himachal Pradesh his home, has intermittently spent over two decades there. Living in such proximity to the mountains, on the other side of which lies Tibet, meant that it was natural that China would figure a big part of his research, a country he deems as complex and possessing a comparable degree of civilisational attributes as his own.

Another factor that threads India and China together, in Mishra’s view, is the role they play in global capitalism. The upward mobilisation from rural areas to big cities is a visible trend in both, with varied internal effects, of course, including the springing forth of a new kind of politics which necessarily focuses on issues related to unequal access to resources and lack of accountability in governance.

But beyond borders, as Mishra puts it, the common experience of modern capitalism offers new grounds for fraternity. Then again, the author does express reasonable concern towards the impediments that continue to exist on the path of solidarity—as in the case of China and India, the contradiction within their respective political systems and economic interests.

The book attempts a frontal attack on capitalism and western notions of modernity; the last part of the volume, for instance, takes into account five other Asian countries—Japan, Taiwan, Mongolia, Malaysia and Indonesia—as sufferers of these very forces.

In doing so, Mishra often seems to be penning a report cart of sorts on these nations, with taglines like “Japan’s aged modernity” and “Shanghai’s garish newness”, among others. As interesting as these are, however, given the fact that he doesn’t list any viable alternatives to replace the western model, they prove a bit aimless in the end.

A Great Clamour can be considered, for the most part, a significant commentary on contemporary China, supported by fine observations on crucial antecedents. Though very briefly, the book also explores the controversial issue of Tibet, as well as the dismal state of Nepali migrants in the booming towns of a “very aggressive China”.

This isn’t, of course, the first time Mishra has touched upon Nepal in his works; his Temptations of the West: How to be Modern in India has a detailed chapter on the country, wherein he captures the sense of disillusionment among the masses incited by both the monarchy and Maoist rule, at a time when royals and radicals were the biggest players in national politics and the path ahead was still murky.

As for the subject of Tibet, it is appreciable that Mishra has chosen to write on it, given how under-covered it still remains in the mainstream press, in terms of real, qualitative research that is built on anything other than a western perspective. Although commentaries and books can be found, there are very few works among these that are able to evade personal judgment to offer a more objective view, something Mishra is clearly hoping to remedy.

The author, who has emerged a major thinker in recent times, further demonstrates his competence with this latest release. In the last few years, Mishra has spent a considerable amount of time in the West, and he’s used the experiences gained therein to challenge the ‘western wisdom’ in circulation around the world, a stance already made crystal clear in his much-hyped spat with Niall Ferguson and Patrick French, during which he accused the first of being racist and the second for overlooking elitism in India.

Mishra’s last two books had aimed to highlight the apathy of Asians towards their own history, and investigate why it is that the western model—ridden with crises of idea and direction—is still being religiously adhered to in Asia. Most likely, he argues, this is because the world has now a more or less undivided economic vision—beyond symbolism, even a country like China is afflicted with the consumerist agenda. The weakening of radical political ideologies and failure of existing leftists to find an alternate route regarding ‘intelligent economics’ has turned the scene dangerously idle, he says.

A Great Clamour largely shows the double-wheeling of the Chinese regime, sans democratic provisions like fundamental rights and transparency. The surging cities, unprecedented aggression on Tibet and calmness of citizens—it’s a country that is expanding with countless contradictions within its belly. But China is a world unto itself; other worlds on the outside have no clear access to this land. And over the decades, it has placed itself in the unique position to be able to play strategic ‘hide and seek’ with entities within and beyond its physical fortress.

India has a rich tradition of wandering scholars, and Mishra appears to be next in line, behind the likes of Rahul Sankrityayan ,Nagarjun, Nirmal Verma, travelling and writing on alien lands. The man, who loves isolation and working outside of the public glare, is greatly suited to unravel the realities of unexplored terrains. Throughout his career, he has been promising with his chosen themes, and this new book too is certain to be read and liked widely.
-Atul K Thakur
Email: summertickets@gmail.com
(Published in The Kathmandu Post on February1,2014)

The House with a Thousand Stories

Book Review: Fiction/ The House with a Thousand Stories by Aruni Kashyap, Penguin, p.226; Rs399
Aruni is among those few, who practically objected the stereotypical portrayal of northeast as a ‘subject matter’. These seven states, otherwise, are far too diversified to be approached with narrowly preoccupied views. But from the ‘mainland’, any attempt of correction remained elusive so far, alas!

The House with a Thousand Stories is set in the backdrop of turbulent Assam, especially on the killing years in the late 1990s-early 2000s. Politically conscious albeit modestly judgmental, Aruni weaves many stories into a complex fold that intricately separates the soft notions from real tragedies in action. The novel is basically plotted in Guwahati and Mayong—or alternatively, between the ‘land of bad politics and black magic’.

The story moves around young Pablo—a city boy who has mostly lived a sheltered and privileged life in Guwahati. He visits his ancestral village for his aunt’s wedding—exactly like an ‘absentee native’ in rural hinterlands. As the wedding formalities advances, Pablo gets him into low comfort by squabbling aunts, dying grandmothers, cousins planning to elope for love or lust, and endless gossips. Amidst the flurry of rituals and aspiration, also looms large the dark shadow of insurgency and brutal counter action of state.

In patches, still ‘normalcy’ attends the scene of wedding home—more or less, as ‘hope’ comes in the minds of conflict sufferer. The marriage here ends in grave tragedy—Pablo finds and loses his first love, and he sees his family surrounded with boundless troubles. But as can be expected, life goes on—few survive with memories and rest others perishes by the harsh knock of unforgiving time.

Pablo is a thinking protagonist, who too is a sufferer, but under the different circumstances. Hence he looks on the wider upturn of the events and recalls ‘short-lived moments’, as and when he grips with the load of nostalgia or finds him in particular acquaintances. Yet he is firm to go ahead but without ever ceasing to be perplexed with the closest surrounding, fated abnormal.

Here, the chaos is multidimensional and touches personal as well as the collective spheres—so the stories are in thousands, though unlikely they would make much impact outside the ground zeroed, for such sad theatrics. As stories are the accounts of unrelenting grief, so these are not enough convincing for ‘power consuming minds& souls’. The thousands stories, thus, are buried in the insensible disconnect of ‘mainland and conflict land’. The deafness is too high all around and this is a chronic issue, to be dealt with ‘precision and resistance’.

Sincere in narration and evidently without lack of insights, this debutant novelist has justified his keen orientation on his milieu. He breaks the monotony in literatures on Assam and offers the world, a fresh perspective to look on this unusual part of the east. This state has been in tussle with its existential paradigms—however, the recent years have witnessed some alteration in old discourse.

The insurgencies, falsified by insurgents and political animals with no sense of practical politics, have come timid with good effects. Technically, this is the hibernation phase for reactionaries—but people at large are not a happy lot. The exploitation of resources and political guided turf of migration inside the state, is still not allowing fairness to be effectively grounded. Indifference with the pathetic situation is still a ‘mainstream culture’—hardly anything could be more agreeable than this.

Even today, the violence of different sorts is not letting Assam to live its potential. Next to the plundering of natural resources, insurgencies and political downplays, now Assam is grappling with the ‘arrival of easy money’, heavily involved in real estate and various shady businesses. In all probability, the rise of these unhygienic elements would be called an ‘entrepreneurial upsurge’—but in actual, that would be the height of ‘absurd hypotheses’.

In the beautiful first hand narrative of Pablo, The House with a Thousand Stories recounts many crucial issues in broader frameworks. Aruni, restless with pen has immense potential to be in the league of front running fiction writers—however, with his first book, he must be known as a remarkable writer of his generation. Of late, Assam has now its own bilingual chronicler
-Atul K Thakur
Email: summertickets@gmail.com
(Published in The Kashmir Walla,January,2014)

The Shadow of the Crescent Moon

Book Review: Fiction/ The Shadow of the Crescent Moon by Fatima Bhutto, Penguin, p.232; Rs499 (Hardback) Fatima Bhutto is a conscience keeper of her sensibility. She has proved it on time and again. Her detailed memoir, Songs of Blood and Sword, had made the world knowing about the very famous Bhutto’s overtures with the real politicking of Pakistan’s tragic democracy, like never before.

Then, she championed in writing uncomfortable truths of her family and politics, dutifully, and broke a firm impression that the load of powerful past can keep the flame of personal intention and integrity on toe. Remarkably, she did it when she was quite young—and now she is back, with her debut novel The Shadow of the Crescent Moon after a short interlude.

Meanwhile, Fatima has risen to be a prolific Columnist of eminent publications in Pakistan and Western media. The vital commonness of these books is in their anecdotal accounts, which grips unwaveringly. That makes the purpose of writing well served, as Fatima is an individual who has lot of bearing with the collective outer space—both as a creative soul and importantly hailing from Pakistan’s most influential political family.

She had opportunities growing up, and in recent years as a journalist/writer to visit the ‘troubled tribal region of Wajiristan’, to other terrains of north-west frontier and Afghanistan. Thus the town of Mir Ali, remains more than a passive protagonist in The Shadow of the Crescent Moon. Without relying too much on ‘twists in narrative’ (for better sake), Fatima has become able to give this sleepy semi-urban locale, a lively humane touch.

She makes a memorable fiction entry, by chronicalising a small town in infamous tribal region of Waziristan, Mir Ali—the book begins and ends on a rainy Friday morning. The metaphors have used resolutely, and story follows an intelligent path, not anything shaped in the guise of personal wishes or nay to the turn of any situation.

Three brothers meet for breakfast. Next, the eldest, recently returned from the US, boards a taxi to the local mosque. The second brother, a doctor, goes to work in his hospital. His upset wife does not join the family that morning, even few know what she does these days. And the youngest, the idealist, leaves for town on a motorbike. He is accompanied by a beautiful, fragile girl whose world has been overwhelmed by war (like many others). Only few hours later their day ends in devastating circumstances.

She has drawn the details of troublesome human misfortune, in terms of terrorism and its fallouts. Also not less, the inner contradiction of Pakistan’s less understood political regime, which juggles aimlessly between limited democracy and overgrown military establishment.

Little more wide, this book covers the shadow of South Asia’s general psyche, which mostly outgrows the conformity of national boundaries created in twentieth century, as legacy of British Empire in tune with the ‘hungry tide’ of confused nationalists.

The Empire ruined long back too, and now it has own mimicking shadow to confront with—herewith, the east and west is meeting proportionally and without any advantage. Seeing the state of nation and people—normally, the magnanimity of success or failure is known for a ruling set of systems. If not looking through a much distorted value proposition of comparison, the pathetic state of Pakistan becomes more clearly visible. This is something undeniable for healthy thinkers, though they are rare species.

On the positive side, Pakistan has today a long list of good writers—surprisingly, some of them born elite but sensed the grave issues of land, as carefully as their rest fellow countrymen. This marks toward the changing expectation at mass level, which must not go waste alone in the inner circle of ideas—therefore, the required action must knock at fore.

The Shadow of the Crescent Moon makes the ground for those, who have not left the quest for life and love, even in the toughest human situation—a thoroughly sensual novel, naturally fits to be noted extraordinary and recalled as a great read, by the generations of readers.
-Atul K Thakur
Email:summertickets@gmail.com
(Published in The Kashmir Walla,on December14,2013)

The holly sinners!

Book Review: Non-fiction/ Nobody can love you more by Mayank Austen Soofi, Penguin, 225p; Rs399 (Hardback)
Mayank is not laconic as a writer and he also breaks the stereotypical views. His book-Nobody can love you more on Delhi’s red light area, Garstin Bastion Road confirms it. GB Road, as it’s known popularly considered generally the work place for ‘fallen women’, pimps and visitors without identity or moral position.

But it’s an existing world, with running oldest profession of the civilisation and also of other petty trades. Here flesh traded and could be seen from the corner, unlike Delhi’s alternative elite flesh trade market, which was estimated last year for more than 500crore rupees per annum. Those are nut run from ‘red light area’ and the stories from that part of the world could not be made ‘vulgar and bawdy’.

Indian writing in English has followed a trend of pacifying the difficult subjects through prejudices-this book appears in contradiction of such odds by humanizing the narrative on unknown catalysts from a famous street for inglorious reasons. Sabir Bhai’s Kotha#300 and his five women tenant are the central characters of the book.

Mayank is not alien for them, they know he is a different person and he is here for chronicalising their live and knowing the plight from close quarters. So the interaction between writer and his characters come so natural that a reader may find an easy position on those conversations. They observe happiness, despair and also care for the baggage of history-their beingness as ‘holy sinner’ is not by-chance, rather which routes through the social norms of looking ‘weaknesses for ugliness’.

Earlier, I liked Louise Brown’s The Dancing Girls of Lahore on Lahore’s Heera Mandi but on Delhi’s similar grim truths, I had no proper book to refer until I read Nobody can love you more in a single seat and with deep engagement. Even though, momentously, the beauty of writer’s humane concern for these women and their affiliates stop devolving them beneath the optimal of existence.

The reading of this book allows ones to know, choices alone don’t make the fate. Sometime, even treading in particular direction happens unknowingly and that finally converge the bigger reality for streamlining with those miss-stepped. Still, the compulsions of life stay and these determines the state of ‘wretchedness or escapism’ amidst bitter turn-up of situation.

The author’s lively account of spent time with those residents of G.B.Road allows seeing a much different and genuine picture of the inner world. Like everything, G.B.Road also has a history and surprisingly it’s rich in the sense, it had once better reputation among the middle and upper classes. It was not that those days, flesh was not into trade, but then it was not taken so hypocritically and not given the fringe as destination.

So, it seems unusual when a young working journalist is chasing these lives with darkness in background. He shares the experiences, perspectives with few of the persons, for G.B Road holds a separate existence from rest nieghbourhood of swiftly changing Delhi. At some point, distinction diversifies and then author makes quest to see these lives vis-à-vis the world around them.

Here he finds the ‘civilisational gap’-the meaning of civilisation, though would be difficult to reckon and decode in general understanding. Sipping unfried daal at kotha ,if gives a particular sense of humanity it soon evaporates under the heavy commercial pressure, while sipping coffee at a plush restaurant of Connaught Place.

But Mayank keeps trying to proximate the two types of world, for better sake and reaching closer to the lives outpaced G.B Road. Writing on living things with difficult details is such a daunting and unfashionable task. It’s nice, this book has start getting attention from serious readers-nevertheless, unlikely that many more books of this taste would be written on the similar theme. As bearing the lives of marginalised is painful, and not taken by the majority for worth doing, alas!

Still hope is somewhere that the cities would stop making areas, red light or unholy for shock& awe magnetism. The beginning is remarkable here with Mayank Austen Soofi’s Nobody can love you, so it should be remain imminent as a formidable entry in non-fiction category. This book deserves reading, a bit of following too but never ‘clapping’!
-Atul K Thakur
Email: summertickets@gmail.com
(Published in The Kashmir Walla on May8,2013)

Thrill and revelations of stunted Kashmir

Book Review: Non-fiction/The Meadow by Adrian Levy &Cathy Scott-Clark, Penguin, 510 pp; Rs499 (Hardback)
By the 1995, Kashmir valley was accustomed for hosting the worst of terror plots by the Pakistan supported militant operatives. This year, six foreign nationals were abducted by an obscure Islamic outfit in valley for securing the release of Pakistani militant leader Maulana Masood Azhar (few years later, this man has plotted the attack on Indian parliament) and the world for the first time started acknowledging panic stricken Kashmir’s grim plight.
Though this incident initially electrified the international governments and the government in India too, but the whole episode ended non-descript and without getting back the remaining four hostages (one miraculously escaped and another was beheaded and found a month later). Only some foibles were melted in the collective perceptions towards India and over the complex issue of Kashmir but it took another six years till the twin towers were collapsed and Pentagon attacked in 2001-9/11 to get USA realised that the world is not so flat by the counter-posing strong assertive power of international terror networks.
Discourse changed radically henceforth and war on terror became so inevitable that even the uproaring capitalist virtue seemed halted for a while. That was a late consciousness and ineffective too, as it was neither meant to end the terror nor had any welfaristic aims for other struggling countries against the militancy-clearly USA had single plan in action to reestablish its hegemony in the crucial oil rich terrains of Middle East and strategically essential, Afghanistan. That was ineluctable from the USA part seeing the might, it hold over the new strategic composition in post cold war years, but ensuing after single massive attack on its land, its riff raffling outweighed all limits against the structured rogues.
‘The Meadow’ is based on the authentic account of that lone survivor and Adrian Levy-Cathy Scott Clark’s painstaking research in Kashmir and throughout the world where they could get anything particular about those six hostages and the series of events followed. A sizable part of the research for this book is based on the verbatim authors has collected through their meticulous and ministering search over the years. So locutions sound horribly shocking and suffice for flouting big claims that the governments across the world make against their win over illegal terror (legal terror is that pursued by the state with some acceptance and more intrigue!).
This book presents a good example of investigative and also narrative journalism barring few dispensable details. On many places, this creates confusion in differentiating between author’s opinion and their commentary on real incidents. Like few pages on Jagmohan’s gubernatorial stint in Jammu&Kashmir with inefficient clarity of authors on his stand during the most turbulent phase of early 1990’s distracts from the theme, and in real, it has less to do with the triangular dispute of Kashmir that has multiple layers.
Gathering large number of facts is quite normal with the kind of book, this is, however excessive leeway of the authors for collecting more news than views produces the overall effect less natty and disorganised. Seeing through the pages, book projects many forgotten side stories, few of them are worth of revisiting and rest are easily escapable. Turning of Kashmir into a conflict zones from an abode of peace and syncretism didn’t take too long after the end of world war-II that ruined the erstwhile colonial powers. The power shifted from the ageing Europe towards USA and USSR, newly independent nation like India has stout aspiration to succeed in a new world and that was troublesome for the departing imperialists.
So they made the extremely virulent planks by converging ‘identity issues’ with the twins-religion and geography and also backed the whole plan by some strongest futuristic pronouncements. More than any other issue, this nasty idea of Mountbatten became able to confuse Nehru on Kashmir matter in the later years and that hyper-moralism tolled negatively on the peace and stability of this region. The masterly hateful antics on which M.A.Jinnah’s career thrived in the politics, succeeded to form a country with the brutal tantamount on the uncountable numbers of people who lost their lives or lost their calm forever. Unlike Nehru, Jinnah was not leading a real democracy, so he lost his control from his most unrealistic venture-Pakistan very soon and this newly born nation’s democratic training halted in infancy and never could recuperate those exercises, even half willingly since then.
The tussle of the two nations was begun as regional dispute and soon turned a hotcake of multilateral discussions without any plans to resolving the complications at fore among the different stakeholders. Abduction of those six foreign tourists in 1995 was inhuman, lately refutation got place against the Pakistan’s proxy war in Kashmir valley but so far condition was deteriorated much badly. India faced challenge on its secularism through a troubled Kashmir, Pakistan almost failed as a nation in projecting the very wrong agenda and what happened to Kashmiriyat, very few had any afterthought!
Situation has indeed changed in the Kashmir valley today, if compare the existing scenario of 1995, but is it really marks the win of good on evil? To a large extent, state had no option but to crush the terror networks being handled from the outside with very active interface of local dissents, those who were not qualified to be called ‘revolutionary’ since they did not know the meaning of their fight against India. The demand of ‘Azaadi’ couldn’t be simplified under the incredible leadership, Kashmir faced in the last six and half decades. That’s why, grand narrative like the ‘The Meadow’ is the simplest outcome of Kashmir’s long forgotten existential needs.
A book of this serious stature has been written for those six kidnapped tourists, this is indeed commendable as working on such project requires commitment, far ahead than one comes through the professional obligations alone. But it would be unlikely that thousands, who lost lives and lakhs of Kashmiris in valley or outside suffering the mental agony, will be ever able to be narrated through even the voluminous meta-narrative compositions…their distorted past and uncertain future probably needs no chronicler!
Atul Kumar Thakur
June 24th, 2012, Sunday, New Delhi
Email: summertickets@gmail.com
(Published in The Kashmir Today,June 24,2012/ http://kashmirmonitor.org/kashmonitor/06242012-ND-thrill-and-revelations-of-stunted-kashmir-28818.aspx )

The breaking-down momentum

Book Review: Non-fiction/ Breakout Nations by Ruchir Sharma, Penguin/Allen Lane, 292 pp; Rs599 (Hardback)
Ruchir Sharma is possessed with both knowledge and narrative, which is not an ordinary blend. As an investment banker, he heads Emerging Market Equities and Global Macro at Morgan Stanley Investment Management, exposure he gained from his global career in high finance makes the strong foundation of his book -Breakout Nations. The major focus of his highly publicised book is on emerging economies and on the sliding developed world, but in patches book also looks on the issues related to business itself in straight terms.
The story hits the headlines quite often, how China and India have become the world's major economies. How Russia recuperating its old materialistic might by transforming sic British football. News are on global scale about the economic miracles and power shift from the so-called advanced world to what has been categorised the emerging world, including the BRIC countries, Goldman Sachs's shrewd acronym for the four largest economies of that caliber- Brazil, Russia, India and China. This diverts attention from the other powerful middle-income economies, such as Indonesia, Mexico, Turkey, or the few African countries, notably Nigeria.
Ruchir does thorough introspection on the other strong emerging economies too, where his judgement appears apt. He superlatively rates South Korea for evolving as manufacturing hub; he calls it ‘Germany of Asia’. Though only recently, in the Asian financial crisis of 1998, it was bailed-out-by the IMF in emergency, but ahead, crisis was taken proactively by the industry and its policy regime. So things are structurally different now, he also believes Korea’s unification is not a utopian imagination.
For investors, Breakout Nations is a rare cautionary tale- if countries can act wrongly by not displaying the right political will; investors often reverts the same by relying on herd behaviour. The book has some sharp observations on bubbles of various kinds, for asset prices, technology booms and the impending commodity bubble. The future appears more shaky-greater volatility, unjustified inflation, political uncertainty-and end of incorrigible optimism of the 1990s and even of the time spent few years back. Now, investment climate would be based on more skewed judgments than even before.
What decides the economic success of countries? Book provides meticulous observations on emerging economies and their cases-winners like South Korea and Poland; disappointments like Hungary and Mexico-foregone success stories of Malaysia; potential hope like Turkey and Indonesia; wonder like Sri Lanka and the BRICS. Ruchir is not exuberant on Brazil, forecasts a slowdown for China with intelligent reasons. India gets a fifty-fifty chance though the actual analysis is far more pessimistic- he finds many problems in categorising India as ‘breakout nation’. One of them is erratic political decision-making. Only damage control on persuasion he performs by quoting scientist Antoine Lavoisier, ‘Nothing is lost, nothing is created, everything is transformed.’
Author stress that there is no mechanism which guarantees the state of political will; democracies can stumble as much as authoritarian regimes-regionally inclined nationalist politicians like Rajapaksa and Erdogan can often perform more than their liberal counterparts.
Sharma also examines a handful of countries he classifies as the Fourth World of Frontier Economies. These are countries where the rule of law has a limited occupancy and where the prospects are as uncertain as are the stock markets across the world. All Gulf States fall into this category. So do the African countries, though some of which show promise. Sri Lanka is classified as a Frontier economy but he corrects it to admit lastly as breakout nation.
World is not passing through a decent phase, Breakout Nations reveals it, offers some solution too for coping the dangers around the corner…its realisation is though not so easy!
Atul Kumar Thakur
June 6th, Tuesday, 2012, New Delhi
Email: summertickets@gmail.com
(Published in The Financial World/Tehelka,June08,2012)

Revisiting Tagore

Amit Chaudhuri’s essays on Rabindranath Tagore delineate the former’s intimate relationship with an iconic poet and intellectual whose life and works have (and continue to) inspire generations of scholars and readers
Book Review: Non-fiction/On Tagore: Reading the poet today by Amit Chaudhuri, Penguin/2012, 178 pp; Rs399 (Hardback)

The beauty of Amit Chaudhuri’s essays on Rabindranath Tagore lies in how they allow the reader a tantalising glimpse into the rich textures that construct the broad views that have governed the works of one of the world’s most celebrated thinking men. This volume leaves an overarching effect in clearing the fog about how Tagore was great in many spheres. Not due to his plutocratic background and plumy exposures — a fact corroborated by Job Charnok’s foundation of the city of Calcutta — during the peak of colonialism, but because his writing can be seen intricately, through different prisms without ever deviating from his core belief which was imbibed in universalism. This wistful thinking is probably the centre of all under and over stated freestyle views on the life and literature of Tagore.

Even if one has, perchance, encountered one or all five essays in the collection independently, reading them in sequence helps the reader savour and recuperate the ‘essential’ Tagore. An eminent literary scholar, critic and musician of high senses, Amit Chaudhuri’s ideas on the writer should be treated as his subjective point of view; an independent observation on Tagore as opposed to any discourse on interventionist blocks active in propagating alternative vision on Bengal’s renaissance and India’s decisive struggle against the colonial rule. Chaudhuri has promptly confessed, in the foreword of this book, how carefully his relationship with Tagore began: First by listening to the renditions of rabindra sangeet by great vocalists such as Subina Roy and his mother Bijoya Chaudhuri and it was later that he becoming serious about Tagore’s literary works. For long, however, W.B. Yeats has remained his favourite poet and in Bengali, it has been Jibanananda Das (not Tagore); something that has remained a subject of sublime argument between Chaudhuri and his uncle, as it apparent through the former’s essays.

The first essay, ‘The Anniversary Begins,’ first published in The Guardian/2011 , strengthens Chaudhuri’s stand that a writer is not essentially attracted to another writer of great merit out of populist fascination; rather it is the importance of his work that brings them closer. His honest perspectives on Tagore’s persona and overall presence within the Bengali psyche is (slightly less but still) very much affiliated with Universalists without any boundaries. This essay therefore espouses the boundary less emotion associated with Rabi Thakur/Tagore and what his 150th anniversary meant for the world.

The Nature Of Poetics
The oldest essay of this collection, ‘The Flute of Modernity’, first appeared in The New Republic in 1998. It overtly explores Tagore through his personal quest during the process of writing Gitanjjali while elaborating on his intellectual on impact British artists and writers such as William Rothenstein and W. B. Yeats. As a poet who achieved unprecedented heights in the history of mankind, Tagore emphatically shaped a new overview about the wisdom of the East. Chaudhuri opines that, “Tagore’s poem is an implicit tribute to an intellectual ambience and the possibilities it created; and it also a tribute to the secular, silent act of reading, which, in that culture, had become a significant activity whereby old texts, and the printed page, were being placed in new contexts, and reassessed and reimagined”.


The next essay solves the puzzles surrounding what inspired Tagore to be close to nature and verses so keenly? In his formative stages, especially around the time he composed the Bhanusingher Padabali, the music of medieval Bengali poet Chandidas and Maithili-Bengali poet Vidyapati charmed him immensely. But it’s also equally true that Tagore lived and observed modernism from close quarter and this way; his concern proliferated in diverse dimensions of life. Leading social historian In Ram Chandra Guha’s view on Tagore, “If Tagore had merely been a ‘creative artist’; perhaps one would not have found him put to rank alongside those other builders of modern India”, draws his unique persona in terms of the multiple efforts he had relentlessly made in his lifetime. Tagore’s humbleness always exposed him as a creative artist in consistent effort contrasted him from his very early acceptance into a worldwide figure.

‘A Pact with Nature’ was earlier published in The London Review of Books in 2006 and examines Tagore’s leaning towards nature as a close part of his action whose impact is visible in his works of literature, art, institution making and as well as his life. This essay has a very wide canvass that sufficiently absorbs the thematic debates from oriental lingual emancipation to the profoundness of the Upanishads as a distinct source for knowing India’s past. Also, this work focuses on the mystery about Tagore’s decision to translate Gitanjali into English, which he only used with a degree of insecurity in his own confession. Though Ezra Pound’s slapping of “boomed by the pious non-conformist” for Tagore’s Nobel Prize in literature was the height of enthusiasm and insecurity among the figures of literary London towards the arrival of a man outside of Occidental terrains. This essay is very relevant for understanding the cultural whims and fancies between the East and West, and lastly the synthesis compromised across different periods.

The fourth piece of the volume, ’Poetry As Polemic’ was first written as the foreword for Harvard University Press and later for Vishva Bharati’s Essential Tagore in 2011. Tagore’s drive for experiment was relentless and many conclusions inundated through those painstaking actions were simply turned down by the poet himself as transitory accomplishments. Hence, his works are hard to be seen only in bounded framework, rather they must be reckoned with consideration of a “larger interest”, evident in Tagore’s all work. Bengalis seldom admire both Satyajit Ray and Ritwik Ghatak at the same time but the influence of Tagore is common on both and they have cinematised it well in their immortal works. Ray adaptation of Tagore’s novels such as Ghare Baire, and novella, Nashtanirh (Ray’s Charulata) among others and celebrated worldwide, while Tagore’s poetry influences a number of Ghatak’s movies. Infact, he immortalised Meghe Dhaka Tara (The Cloud Covered Star) through portraying amazing landscape and multi-vocal, performing entity actively indulge in the desire of existence at the end of cinema. That sense was drawn from Tagore which denies “landscape” only as serene, indifferent, permanent background to human endeavour. This essay is short, lucid and worth of calling essential reading on Tagore.

Tagore always enjoyed the intrinsic struggle of art very intimately and entwined those conflicts into different realms of life. Amit Chaudhuri’s elaborates that “Tagore knew this, and it’s from his intimacy with solitariness and secrecy that his extraordinary language and his transformative vision of the world emerged — he often seems to make this solitary self an interlocutor, in a tone at once self-flagellating and accusatory; in India, Tagore is viewed as a sort of Guinness Book of World Record holder” The last essay of the book, ‘Nothing But A Poet’, first published in The Hindustan Times, 2010, tries to deciphers the versatility of this unparalleled man.

Legacy Of Thought
We Indians seem to have a masterly command in forgetting our own traditions and being part of them. Tagore’s criticism also suffered similar flaws both at home and abroad. Amit Chaudhuri’s voices the concern that, “from Vidyapati (great Maithili poet of14th century AD, of whose songs Tagore once composed a pastiche) to Tagore, there’s an immense movement; but of what kind?” This brilliantly covers the historical series of negligence towards the discipline of literature.

At this eventful juncture of modernity, India needs to look back towards its own thinkers rather than surmising on absentee philosophers from different geographies of the world. The time is ripe for taking Tagore’s vision in completeness and expelling all virulent perceptual divisions. These five essays stand to make a huge difference in high standard debates on Tagore. As always, Amit Chaudhuri’s contribution in literature is path breaking and challenges the occupied territory of (many) stubborn self styled experts.
Atul Kumar Thakur
April 29, 2012, Sunday, New Delhi
Email: summertickets@gmail.com
(Published in Business World, April17, 2012)

Material extremes!

Book Review: Non-fiction/Business, Extreme Money by Satyajit Das, Penguin, 514 pp; Rs699 (Hardback)
More than misnomer, it would be a tragical travesty of long standing exercise if someone tries to see the world of finance through a different prism, away from western policy dominance! A long slavery of impure and irreverent economic policies has already stocked abundant flaws in the entire financial system whose risks are being maximised by the unrealistic integration of global trades. However, against that slapped backdrop, some voices have started appearing very resolutely, which are pragmatic, less pontified and chasing the way out of pervasive financial gloom.

Also it must not be considered a sacrilege, if someone defies the non-holy motives of Adam Smith’s texts including little anti-literature of his own basic thoughts “Theories of Moral Sentiments” or naturally opportunist courtesan economist, Kautilya’s “Arthshashtra”. Even beyond these two economic scribes, most of economic theories and its propunders too need a very articulate revisiting, better if much as stern as Jacques Derida demands in “textual rereading” framework. But certainly, this practice should not be sanctified like the way bandwagon tradition, it has confronted.

Satyajit Das, an internationally renowned expert of finance with earthly understanding of actual happenings in the global financial world, has come out with “Extreme Money”-a detailed work on monetary evolution, its rise and now the questionable survival. His views are formed through inside exposures in working with giant financial conglomerates and central banks across the world, especially in advanced western economies which possess capacity to make or mar the potential of financial growth outside of its terrain too.

Before the catastrophe broke at Wall Street in 2007, Satyajit has written celebrated book “Traders, Guns and Money”, as the name suggests, he exposed the unethical and undeserving derivatives trading with insightful inside account. Like Nouriel Roubini, he too sensed the impending financial failures ahead, in tune many others also felt so but alas their apprehensions were succumbed under the heavy acts of sidelining by the greedy financial experts and sadly passive regulators. Rest is history, how black acts drove financial markets initially weird and later over-vulnerable to be in tussle of surviving an unforeseen bizarre “hand to mouth like situation”.

As financial evolution and its rapid growth is a sort of declaration by human race for its supremacy over the rest participants of the whole ecosystem, so its perilous binding over the modern world could be easily conceived. En route this, questionable money games have lead to massive yet incoherent bubbles of fake growth, exotic financial plans like Ponzi and whole allowed gambling of capital markets denounced the all minimum values of business altogether at bay. That affected innumerable losses of jobs, private savings and overall the beliefs of common men from the financial sector. This is very alarming per say, if this sector really wants to rebound gracefully, though its chances are very minimal.

Author of this book has tried very well to encompass how the trap of financialising everything, from home mortgages to climate change have made selected fortunes and affected many. In his judicious conviction, Satyajit Das tells very realistically how “extreme money” is unreal, how still exotic financial instruments are generating huge profits and the exorbitant acceptance of Ivy League trained financial jovial minds leading the stream finance towards black whole from where return would be as exciting and unrealistic as beating the enemy nation in a Bond’s cinema!

It would be wrong to presume Indian economy emerging unscratched through the ongoing financial crisis began with subprime lending failures and now reaching another round of debacle with Euro zone crisis. The governing policies for reckless financial adventurism have still not getting the consideration it deserves, the prolonging of lackluster regulatory overtures further jeopardizing the chances of recovery and making the world truly wary from its havocking affects. The valid question arises, why central bankers are not converging with the actual scenario in western world?

The multilateral organisations are long back stopped performing any rational role to make international financial system harmonic and less risky. So it should be considered by the central banks, including RBI that the dividend of open trade is not restricted for equal sharing among the stakeholders but the downfall is very fairly attributed on them when the economies worldwide touches tailspin. No matter, how much international trade is integrated the role of national regulators and government is as much crucial as they used to before liberalisation wave in 1991.

Unrealistic euphoria may be destined to short-lived like financial bubbles generated by manipulated financial policies, so time is to think with proper imagination rather getting accustomed to be fall thinker and its myopic practitioner. Extreme Money is a serious step forward in this regard with well researched symptoms and solution of global finance within its fold, this work should be essentially read by the enthusiasts of finance and normally timid academic, who teaches finance-with or without real zest!
Atul Kumar Thakur
March 20, 2012, Tuesday, New Delhi
Email: summertickets@gmail.com

Interpreting Tagore

Book Review: Non-fiction/ Rabindranath Tagore: An Interpretation by Sabyasachi Bhattacharya, Penguin/2011, 306 pp; Rs499 (Hardback)

There are many shades of Tagore’s personality, and so diverse are the attentions of scholars on his works and life. Among the Indian scholars on Tagore, name of Sabyasachi Bhattacharya is most remarkable. His publication, The Mahatma and the Poet: Letters and Debates between Gandhi and Tagore made history simple and further beautifully highlights the overall concern of Tagore for Indian independence and other issues of contemporary importance. If that book was entirely a new conceptualisation of knowing the great persona of Tagore and Gandhi through the impressive ranges of correspondences, here in present work, Rabindranath Tagore: An Interpretaion, author comes closer to following the general trend while inquiring the same Tagore who is very-very well known and articulated. Here, Kabir’s old couplet exactly fits on the Gurudev…
“If all the land were turned to paper and all the seas turned to ink and all
the forests into pens to write with, they would still not suffice to describe the
greatness of the guru.”

In the entire history of humankind, no one has received as much praise, adoration and coverage as did Tagore. And that was not without the reasons…he could imagine independently for a humane and naturalist existence, where he succeeded very well despite hailing from an aristocratic background. One of the countless views on him, that’s from the western world stresses that his approach was closer to the “eastern mysticism”. Which appears like a complete conflict in understanding and fails to reckon him in original; Tagore was an arch critic of “complexity “in any form and certainly the very idea of “mysticism” could be only rest on the sets of complex procedures. So in terms of the broader world views, he was humane, naturalist, creative, free thinker, rural reconstructor, great institution maker and a poet par excellent.

This book features Tagore’s life and works in short details and restrains any specific aspect to be much vigorous and complete. Pages 66-67 provides few fresh informations about Tagore for most of the general readers, here young Rabi Thakur’s early experiments with the literature creates prolific impetus to know ahead more on this. Ofcourse had few more paras were added here, this book could have of much more importance than what it is in present form. Anyhow young Tagore’s likeness for Kalidasa’ Meghadutam, his trying hand on translating Macbeth of Shakespeare and complete dislike for Michael Madhusudan Dutt’s Meghnad-badh Kavya have briefly showcased here. Another important finding on Tagore put forth here but again in inadequacy of delineation, which is as “He enjoyed reading the archaic Maithili poems of Vidyapati which he copied with his own notes on obscure words and usages”. That tries well to streamline the close sharing of two very identical languages, Bangla and Maithili…on this particular theme, there is need of further research and concentration.

Sabyasachi Bhattacharya though again with tight hand, but has atleast tried well to focus on Tagore’s intimacy with his sister-in-law, Kadambari Devi, whose sudden demise left his in emotional void. “Bhanusingher Padavali” has drawn in the fond memory of her and is the sole work of Tagore that’s so heavily influenced through the tradition of Maithili poetics. Beyond Vidyapati, indeed Kadamabari Devi was another Maithil (from Bhagalpur), who shaped his taste for this antique language and culture. On the row of national song Vande Matram, Sabyasachi Bhattacharya has written a very comprehensive book/Vande Matram: The Biography of a Song…inside this book too, Tagore’s affirmation and endorsement with the most part of this song demystifies many wrong notions attached with it.

Among the two specialties this book has, one is its holding the flared debate on Tagore’s views on nationalism. Author has comprehensively decoded the Tagore’s two novels Gora and Ghare-Baire and given the whole perspectives, why Tagore had apathy with some typical kind of nationalism but not with the nationalism itself. A closer look on Tagore’s major works allows its reader to get in the right frame of mind. He was essentially as harsh critic of violent nationalism as of the lustful imperialism…his basic urge was closer to the safety of nature and natural impulses. Under this paradigm, he was thinking beyond the boundaries but nevertheless that shouldn’t be taken, as he didn’t stand with the idea of nation. Second major theme that this book focus is on Tagore’s quest for rural reconstruction, here his path was as symmetric to humanism as of a consine bearer of nation. This verbatim of Tagore exudes, he was an ardent supporter of modern nationhood but against the idea of narrow nationalism that draws boundary and keep floating the permanent hatred on the cultural line.
“If we could free even one village from the shackles of helplessness and ignorance, an ideal for the whole of India would be established… Let a few villages be rebuilt in this way, and I shall say they are my India.”

Writing on Tagore always needs immense efforts and meticulous research. Fortunately, numerous peoples have done noticeable works in this regard, because of that; there is flow of good materials on him. But even lately, now it would be better, if some of his vision could be included in the mainframe of policy making. Education is area where his vision of “completeness” is the need of hour and that alone can make our education system more flexible and natural. It would be also imperative, if he could be taken not only as the source of knowledge but also as the inspiration of action. At this eventful juncture of history, India needs a looking back on its own thinkers rather surmising on the absentee philosophers from the different geography of the world who in reality had no proper concern for its history, present or future. Time is ripe for taking Tagore’s vision in totality and not in division. This book expresses the fundamentals of Tagore’s illustrious works and life, so readers would found it blissful knowing him in short but authentic.
Atul Kumar Thakur
New Delhi, February 05, 2012, Sunday
Email: summertickets@gmail.com

The TCS Decoded

At the evening of year 2011,its hard to say whether the whole year should be considered splendid or squalor,but reasons are yet ample to redeem few harshness and rising to normalcy.Ofcourse, there we will found the best way for humanity; I am not over cheering but also not less than sanguine for new year...be sure,many thing will be up to the mark this year.Best wishes to you and for yours in 2012.. :)

Book Review: Non-fiction/Memoir,The TCS Story by S.Ramadorai, Penguin/2011, 287 pp; Rs699 (Hardback)
The humble admittance of S.Ramadorai for being less expressive and an unplanned writer augurs well. Like an efficient professional and unintended writer, he keeps progressing with neutrality in the initial pages of his autobiography, The TCS Story. Henceforth, the narration drives in rhythm once the TCS story enters in his present cognition. When someone’s occupation started routing the fore, things take place in different resolution. Author himself being one of the catalysts of India’s new economy could easily relate his own progress across the ladder with the changing developmental landscape of this nation. His rise or TATA’s rise simply reminds the progress, India has made over the years. But neither this book, nor any other inserted views from outside would falsify, that the progress of nation is below the potential?

TATA is a big brand or even more than only a brand tag, it’s the height of India’s entrepreneurial drive. India’s largest business conglomerates so motto, “leadership with trust “is justified throughout its long course of existence in the diverse domains. The nationalist legacy of the two great business leaders, Jamshetjee Tata and J.R.D Tata’s has still not come to halt in different companies of TATA group. Much before the philanthropy stuck western world, first as fashion and later as profitable holy business, founder of TATA used to return the two third of his earnings to the nation. Numbers of the institutions made by TATA like, TIFR, TISS, IISc or the city of Jamshedpur simply reminds the essentiality and scope of sustainable business in longer course. Author of this book, as the founding member of TCS has lived those ideals and that’s easily evident through his honest conviction in writing and undoubtedly through his professional ethics, which have been shaping this company very well in decades.

This alumnus of Delhi University, IISc and University of California at Los Angeles (UCLA) had sailed against the stream to join TATA at much lower compensation, and then the USA used to be the dream place for every technical aspirant. But as he admits, that was a conscious decision for making not only a career but a purposeful career. Like a typical Tambramh, his Civil Servant father entrusted within him the importance of frugality and keeping ones greed at toe, which made a perfect metamorphosis possible. The TCS Story, is not merely confined with the success sagas of India’s biggest IT Company but it in parallel, encompasses the nuanced views on external factors that have been influencing the growth of this enterprise. Reading this book enables a reader, to know the functional intricacies of software business and in particular, the successful journey of India in this domain.

TCS was founded in 1968 and it touched the $1billion mark only after thirty five years of long struggle in 2003, next year it went for IPO and rest is the history, how this company has maximized its worth to six fold in last seven years. Fortunately, more or less, same remained the case with other Indian IT companies as well. Despite facing the ire of recessions and consequently the major alteration in services demand from the offshore client, they have somehow managed to keep the growth momentum intact. Reason is obvious of comparatively stable doing of Indian IT companies, till now; they have been indeed running by the ethical business leaders barring exception of Satyam. But it’s also possibly the best case of scam management anywhere in the world; once a beleaguered company is again in the sound race; all credit should goes to the finest infusion of corporate governance and timely interference of government!

The business leaders in IT domain have emerged through the scratches and the way once TCS/Infosys have started were not very much different from the startup in SMEs. There were all hurdles and few respite for working in relax for the early IT guys. Regulatory interference was the major killing force for its genuine bloom till 1990’s;second major blockades were coming from the slow technical advancement and especially the snail’s pace of its sharing from the western innovators. Under S.Ramadorai, first TCS and later other Indian companies acquired the basic transfer of tools, expertise and services demand from major western economies. Today, a company like TCS works in many areas including consultancy, date centers etc but never to forget, the rise of this industry is one of the satisfying outcome India’s ushering into reform era. N.Narayanmurthy always says this and Ramadorai has also referred this, though implicitly throughout the book.

Those who also know, S.Ramadorai outside of the scenic TCS house, equally give him fine credit for his humane gesture and extraordinary zeal for pursuing ethical business. He has been living a simple life but rose to uncommonness; similarly he remained under promised but ended high delivered. What else could be more rewarding for a gentle professional? This book will inspire the aspirants of different profession and also those, who have entrepreneurial leaning. In short, this work is a full proof of excellence and India’s different realities!
Atul Kumar Thakur
December 31, 2011, Saturday, New Delhi
Email: summertickets@gmail.com
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Editor's First Draft!

Book Review: Non-fiction/Memoir, Lucknow Boy by Vinod Mehta, Penguin/2011, 325 pp; Rs499 (Hardback)
The first generic view comes with reading Lucknow Boys is like passing through an unedited first draft. But the moment we realised, it’s written by India’s most charismatic editor, Vinod Mehta who always ran against the stream and set his own benchmark in journalism, the respect for author’s candidness grows manifold. A child born in the fateful decades of 1940’s, graduated from Lucknow University in third class and touched the land of UK, not for being the part of elitist Ox-Bridge but to sustain on menial industrial occupation. When the world was troubled in 1960’s, young Mehta was solemnly adjoining with cosmopolitanism…after difficult eight years in London (including break up with Swiss girlfriend), he came to India with added personal qualities but notwithstanding any big accomplishments.

After spending time with making Rogan josh at home and roving with dear friends, which were retrieval exercises of old routine, he moved to Bombay for editing a skin or nefarious magazine at that time, Debonair. In the dry and unhappening world of journalism, even this chance was a serious offer…here the life of an editor begun and rest we know today, how this man shaped the publications like Sunday Observer, The Indian Post, Independent, The Pioneer and lastly Outlook-all standard journalism. In the initial days, he filled the pages of Debonair with all sincerity before engaging the doyens in pseudo appearance as contributor. Today, it will shock many to know Kuldip Nayyar writing north Indian reports incognito in Debonair or Saeed Mirza’s intellectual tussle with the India’s all time best cinema director, Satyajit Ray. In the later days, his pastime for hosting rigorous intellectual confrontation remained hallmark…in Outlook; readers can easily recall the few among many rows, like between Ramchandra Guha-William Dalrymple, Pankaj Mishra-Premshankar Jha, Ramchandra Guha-Arundhati Roy. V.S.Naipual and Salman Rushdie too had mix time in Outlook despite their proximity with editor, he always let maximum chances of open debate instead of synchronizing it with narrow technicalities…and that’s the best quality with Mr.Mehta as an editor.

The early part of book opens Vinod Mehta’s fond memories of Lucknow as a child and teenager, which are lucid and frank. Portrayal of his family is equally honest and shows his own leaning for a good family life. But the characteristic sketches of his uncle-in-law Mohit Sen, his grandfather, renowned poet Raghubir Sahay “Firaq” and versatile actor Sanjeev Kumar are better if seen as an individual observation of author. He also presented the controversial stances as personal observation on Firaq and Sanjeev Kumar…so, here closes a quintessential drive of moralistic inquisition. Iconic journalist, Nikhil Chakravorty, about whom the author has high regards, has appeared in serendipity. That’s associated with the row over publication of excerpts of P.V.Narsimha Rao’s unpublished novel in Outlook…that created huge unease and surprisingly he sourced it through Nikhil Da over a lunch in Delhi’s Taj Man Singh hotel.

There are also many instances where the author has maintained love and hate relationship with the same person but mostly those ties were for journalistic compulsions rather for seeking any personal favour. Duality of his relations with NDA government and Atal Bihari Vajpayee rose to the level of income tax raid on Outlook office in Mumbai…but it took place only after the series of sting on the ministers which left maligning affects on Vajpayee government and lately pioneered the investigative journalism in India. In his career, he shattered many age old impressions about the people holding high offices and also inside the journalism; he stood high with spontaneous impulses. He made many journalists, founded and developed many institutions of repute and today naturally qualifies to stand as living legend in the Indian journalism. But all this came not without the rough patches in his career; it was not without reasons, why he still possesses the record of India’s most sacked editor of all time?

He is among those rare editors, who stood with principles while negotiating the shrewd terms-conditions of management. He left The Indian Post, Sunday Observer, Independent and lastly Pioneer for defending his rights as an editor. Those know his works are well acquainted with his zeal to produce unaltered story on any issue…he never let down himself before any political or management pressures. Ofcourse, he paid the price for it but at the evening of his career, today he has little to remorse about past. Sharad Pawar and Lalit Mohan Thapar’s combo could not lessen his flame for the right kind of journalism…still he is carrying daring stories in Outlook and his own impressions are far from being shifted as people’s editor. His autobiography is as much memorable as his time in journalism. Lucknow Boy will inspire aspiring journalists living in the nook and crannies of country, who really want to be change agents but will lend little hope for those tempting for a managerial kind of journalism. Personally, I strongly recommend this work and would count it among my best read in 2011.
Atul Kumar Thakur
December 28, 2011, Wednesday, New Delhi
Email: summertickets@gmail.com

Nepal's Dooming Transition!

Book Review: Non-fiction/The Lives we have Lost by Manjushree Thapa, Penguin/2011, 266 pp; Rs350 (Paperback)
It’s completely puzzling to observe Nepal, till few years back, the only Hindu kingdom in the world still carrying the tracts of mysticism and secretive overplay within its public space. Since the wind of change directed for democracy in 1990, public information means got the much needed professionalisation but alas those were proved inadequate as the large chunk of population kept relying on the feudalistic attributes like “rumour”. But what the protests of 1990 importantly strengthened, the complete disillusion of masses from the continuing Panchayati system, a pseudo model of democracy. Then the monarch, King Birendra sensed the rising aspiration and affluence of the new educated intelligentsias and wisely absorbed the contemporary political demands in the mainframe of statecraft. This was indeed a commendable survival strategy for both the Monarchy and democratic movement.

Manjushree Thapa, writer and journalist of substance and international reach, represents that informed class with series of remarkable works on Nepal’s painful democratic transition and beyond. The author of very much unforgettable, Forget Kathmandu: An Elegy of Democracy, The Country is Yours, A Boy from Siklis: The life and Times of Chandra Gurung, Mushatang Bhot,The Tutor of History, Seasons of Flight, Tilled Earth and now with an anthology of her essays, “The lives we have lost” exudes the concern she possessed for her native Himalayan state. Most of the twenty-nine essays in this collection were already appeared in the different newspapers/magazines across the world but its compilation allows now a greater sense to read all them in sequence. Its naturally appears enabling in confronting and understanding the complex political dynamicism inside the Nepal, until the end of monarchy in 2008.

Manjushree deserves all admiration for maintaining a principled stand against the institution of monarchy, which until the royal massacre in April 2001, used to be seen as the permanent holy manifestation. Manjushree hails from a top military family and her father was a serving minister and close rank to the King Gyanendra, but she stood with the time that was leading a different fateful course. In such circumstances, her resistance to the unnatural royal successor, following the mysterious royal massacre is the solid proof of Nepal’s growing impulses for democracy. Indeed that’s a positive sign amidst the ongoing flux in political circle. She has beautifully presented the parallel developments in democratic movement since 1990 along with inconsistent responses from monarchy over the changing times. Her focus on insincerity of Gyanendra in controlling the situation post 2001 reveals the self destroying elements within monarchy, which certainly grew only after the takeover of throne by the most notorious and unworthy successor of Shah Dynasty!

Throughout the rich histories of South Asia, Nepal remained cornered except actively reciprocating in the two base areas-religion and ideologies. Rest, its diverse ethnic and caste communities are still unexplored and normally throw bewilderment for an enthusiast while being in search of perfect knowledge about the antiquities of these communities. This is partly because of non-interference from Western imperialists in the 19th and 20th centuries. By its effect, while the new genre of English educated middle class emerged in India and stepped ahead for self rule, Nepal remained a feudal country under the canopy of superficially commanded “quintessential monarchy”. Anyhow, Nepal did catch the modernisation in 1950’s through the effects of new educated class who were in close touch with the changes inside India and even participated in the India’s struggle for independence against the tyrannical British rule. Ofcourse Koirala’s were the prime mover of those new trends but millions others too joined the league soon, which paved the way for essential radicalization that finally lead to the limited democracy in terms of Panchayati system executed by the King Mahendra.


Subsequently, in the 1990’s, India ushered towards the liberalisation regime but not without the acute antagonism from the substantial ultra left forces. Infact, those were the gulfs of chronic socio-economic disparities, failed to found the new way around in democracy. Although on Indian scale, Nepal couldn’t integrate itself with the global economy but its middle class started to be denounced by the Maoists as “comprador capitalists” after the phenomenon rise of Maoists in mid 1990’s as ultra and later as democratic force in Nepal’s politics. That added a new twist in the hitherto bipolar power division in the nation...barring Maoists, there were feeble ideological contradictions among the major Nepali political parties. The top leadership of these parties was mostly constituted through the upper castes but the sudden claim of Maoists in the power circle, originated a different discourse for democracy that was stricter and poised to dethrone the most explicit class enemy-“the institution of Monarchy”. The sudden shift in national politics tolled high on the lives of ordinary citizens, most of them were died cold blooded and without being the part of activism.

The initial years of Maoists were full with the outrageous crimes. The rule of Gyanendra further supplemented the violence, and rest political parties spoiled their time in mutely staring the open failure of civic life for a decade. The twists and turns also compelled India to follow a much nuanced approach in Nepal’s internal matters…at the time of transition; a constructive and non-interfering role from India should be seen in proper light and without getting it stretched in awkward zone. By locating herself in centre, Manjushree provides the candid picture of those uncertain times where to form a stable stand against the Monarchy was not without inviting grave risks. But among those who succeeded in this way, author was one among them. Her consistent anti-Monarchy stand remained continue from both the Kathmandu and Delhi…as always, Delhi given the ample space of expression for the restoration of peace and normalcy in Nepal. Manjushree’s nostalgic recalling of her Delhi’s days and the supports she got from her journalists friends simply reminds the unaltered concern of Indian’s for their most confidant neighbour.

The last essay of book “In our House “, is written with great sense of attachment for legacies left by the Monarchy. Few pages found caliber in meticulously recalling the Nepal’s Monarchy in flashback. There is also sign of certain losses felt by a big population of Nepal and the question simply can’t be ruled out, whether King Birendra could met with the similar fate like of undeserving Gyanendra? Ofcourse situation would have different today, even the most overt critic of Monarchy, realizing now the merits of King Birendra. It’s essential however to not confuse his popularity with any other man of royal family. After a long row of power tussle, none the other than Maoist chief Pushpa Kumar Dahal “Prachanda” admitted the scope of symbolic Monarchy but the time is passed now as the real Monarchy ended with the massacre of 2001 and King Birendra. This book would be worthwhile for every enthusiast on Nepal and like before, they may find the well intentioned writings of Manjushree streamlining the memories and emotions to a right end. As Nepal is now on a steady but stable path of complete multi-party democracy, so looking back towards history will be vital…”The Lives we have Lost” is a step forward in this way…!
Atul Kumar Thakur
December 27, 2011, Tuesday, New Delhi
Email: summertickets@gmail.com
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