Gagging the Net

Kapil Sibal must be out of his mind. Or perhaps he’s just being what he is- A politician. Following some supposedly objectionable images of some Indian politicians being flashed on the internet, Mr Sibal has been demanding of the sites to remove the content. Not only that, he has asked the administrators of these sites to prevent future uploads of the similar variety. If the silver-haired gentleman can be smart enough to be the IT minister, he should know that the internet has always been full of ‘objectionable’ content. It depends on the perspective and the threshold of the person raising the objections. With thousands of gigabytes of content being transacted on the internet everyday, and with millions of users doing so, it is impossible to monitor the content of the internet. It is strictly user’s own discretion on what he or she prefers to access. At best, some sites offer links like ‘report abuse’ and ‘report as spam’ to objectionable content. Regarding personal insults to celebrities, the internet is full of such junk. There are hoards of people masquerading as important people on social networking sites. There is a plethora of obnoxious adult content made out of morphed images of well known cine actors. I am sure Mr Kapil Sibal must have been aware of all these things but he chose to act only when it came to objectionable images of politicians being flashed on the net. So is the law there to be invoked only when it is the turn of the politicians to bear the brunt of technology? And he had the audacity of saying that these images would have angered ‘all Indians’. All Indians, my foot. And perhaps realizing his folly of being seen as concerned only for the politicians, he was quick to add to his statement something that he knows drives the sentiment of the whole nation- religion. He added that there were objectionable images of Indian politicians and Indian Gods and Goddesses. But thankfully, the public did not bite the bait and Mr Kapil Sibal was quick to be reprimanded on the very platform he sought to put a gag on.  The social networking sites were flooded with posts ridiculing Kapil Sibal. Very rightly, the administrators of sites like Facebook, Twitter, Google etc refused to reassure Sibal of preventing any future ‘objectionable’ material on their sites, because it is practically impossible to do so. If in the middle of this nice looking piece, if I were to say that Kapil Sibal is a @#$%$#@*, how would the blogger site know, let alone prevent this from being read? Internet is a tornado that Kapil Sibal is trying to stop with a flimsy canopy. It would have been alright if he had sought to track the perpetrator of the offensive posts through proper channel and subject him to the law, but seeking a blanket ban on certain sites, or expecting the administrators of these sites to continuously monitor their content for the sake of Indian politicians is a bit too much. I’m half-convinced that Mr Sharad Pawar threatened to pull NCP out of the UPA coalition unless Sibal did something about the internet being flooded with jokes about his slapping episode. Otherwise, I have always thought that Kapil Sibal himself was a man of reasonable sensibilities. 

Sharad Pawar slapped?

As soon as NCP chief and union agriculture minister Sharad Pawar was slapped the other day by a frustrated youth in New Delhi, there were appropriate responses all around: The veteran minister himself played the incident down like a mature politician that he is, by remaining stubbornly unperturbed and saying that he wasn’t hurt at all (really? but that appeared to be quite a blow, sir); the police personnel quickly rounded the youth Harvinder Singh, a small time transporter from Rohini, in New Delhi, the media persons rallied behind him to interview him as he was being dragged towards the police van; Harvinder himself made the best of the limelight and thumped his chest in front of the cameras as if he were another Bhagat Singh walking to the gallows; the news channels churned the ready-made masala into ‘breaking news’ and gleefully broadcast the whole thing repeatedly till the mourning of Sachin’s another missed-hundredth-ton-in-nervous-nineties took over; the cartoonists got a new topic to depict humor; and the public at large scrambled to their laptops to mock the minister on social net-working sites- jokes were conjured, posted and laughed at; Harvinder was eulogized thoroughly for his ‘bravery’ and his photographs in blue striped t-shirt was flashed across the pages of Facebook and twitter. In the parliament, the ruling party and the opposition agreed in one voice to find ways to prevent such incidents and appropriately punish people who dare to slap them for their ‘service’ to the nation. End of the tamasha? Yes, very much, but not for the poor Harvinder Singh. He has been sent to the judicial custody for 14 days and he is sure to cool his heels in jail, his family’s claim of his mental instability notwithstanding. His fifteen minutes of fame faded and forgotten, no one will ask him for a glass of water as he wears out his footwear languishing between the courts and the jail. His business as a transporter will suffer as will his family; the minister will be unlikely to mend ways just because he was slapped; the news channels will find something more interesting and the public will eventually stop laughing at Harvinder Singh-Shard Pawar jokes (there’ll be many fresh ones). So was he a fool to have slapped a minister of a union government tainted of corruption on several counts? Yes, of course he was. And he was most probably seeking attention and publicity. A few days ago, this same Harvinder had slapped Sukhram in New Delhi court premises when he was sentenced for his involvement in a 1996 telecom scam. This piece of news didn’t make it to the channels probably because Sukhram is no longer in active politics and would not have positively affected the TRPs at all. So Mr Harvinder decides to pick a more prominent target this time, and while he was being dragged to the police van after the Pawar the incident, surrounded by the media persons, he saw his chance and shouted on top of his voice to stake his claim on Sukhram’s slapping as well, which you media people were so stone-hearted to not cover at all. So what was Mr Harvinder Singh angry about? Was he angry because the politicians are looting his country? No, in all probability, he was angry because the politicians are in a position to loot his country more than he himself could loot it. He shouted slogans that all netas were chors. But, are we all not thieves? We all thieve our country as per our capabilities and opportunities. Except for the salaried class, we are all required to ‘self-assess’ ourselves for the income tax payable to the country at the end of each financial year. Do we do that in all honesty? If not, we are looting our country. We execute our property transactions half in ‘black’, and half in ‘white’, to save on the income tax, stamp duties, and other municipal taxes. This way, we are looting our country. Do we accept goods without bill so as to evade VAT and other taxes? If yes, we are looting our country. We all want black-money-stashed-in-Swiss-bank-accounts to come back to India. How many of us business-class people don’t have black money? Are we angry about the black money in Swiss accounts because it is enormous in amount? In fact, all the black money in the civil society put together would perhaps amount to much more than the politician’s black money put together in Swiss banks.
 Each one of us is ready to loot the country at the first available opportunity. The only thing is that such opportunities are limited for us ordinary people, while they are tremendous for the politicians. So, are we angry that they have better opportunities to loot the country? Yes. Even Harvinder Singh himself, by being in the business of transport, must be, in all probability, doing his share of illegal manipulations in his business deals to make more money than he would have otherwise made in honest transactions. However, he is not to blame solely. The system is such in our country that he would not have survived the transport business market in Delhi had he been totally upright in his transactions. So, in the end, it is a matter of who gets to loot how much, and not who’s looting and who’s not. This is not to say that the errant politicians and other corrupt personnel must be allowed to go scot-free. No, but catch them if you can. A corrupt system is unlikely to catch and punish a corrupt part of itself.  Corruption is so deep-rooted in our system that it is now almost a way of life for us Indians. Take it or leave it. 

Facebook v/s Real Life

Dear friends,
A few months ago, a friend of mine on Facebook posted this on his status: 'No one looks as good as his/her profile pic on FB, nor do they look as bad as their Voter ID card photo!' How true! We use social networking sites as a showcase of our lives, and tend to display to the world the brighter side of our day-to-day living, leaving aside the gloomy parts. And why not? No one would be interested in knowing that you had a bad argument with your spouse last night, or that your kid did pretty badly in the last exams. Looking at the profiles of friends on FB, I feel how happy everyone is, living  content professional and family lives. We also tend to exaggerate a bit about ourselves; no one would like to appear just mediocre on a social networking site. I have taken a look at the lighter side of this human nature, with the help of a few cartoons. I hope you all like them :)) (Please click on individual cartoons to enlarge them)

Film Review: Mausam

Nothing is more difficult for a writer than to write a review of a bad movie. It is so difficult to recall all the rubbish that’s there in the film to write one!

            Pankaj Kapoor’s ability as an actor does not need any vouching. He has been in Hindi cinema and TV for decades and has enthralled his audiences with some stellar performances. But he has failed miserably in his directorial début- Mausam. He has clearly overdone things with this one.

The movie starts on a promising note, and the plot seems set to burgeon into an exciting tale but alas, it fails to keep its grip on the audience. There are just too many twists and turns, most of them unnecessary and almost all of them too circumstantial to be believable. The writer has tried to encompass important events of the decade between 1992 and 2002 with the Ayodhya tragedy, the 1993 Bombay blast, the Kargil war of 1999, the 9/11 event of 2001, to finally the Gujarat riots. And during these ten years, the hero and the heroine, amidst everything, meet and separate n number of times, with confusions galore about each other and their families. And because all of the above events were to be included, none of them could be portrayed to satisfaction.

The film starts with the issue of terrorism in Kashmir, where the Kashmiri pundits are being driven out of the valley by the separatists. Aayat’s (Sonam Kapoor) father sends her to a village in Punjab from Kashmir to live with his sister (Supriya Pathak) to escape the situation in Kashmir, and also help his Kashmiri pundit friend Maharaj Singh (Anupam Kher) escape the terrorists. Shahid Kapoor (Harry) lives in this village, and when Aayat arrives, he is shown waiting for an important letter from the Govt of India. And while he is waiting, he just hangs out with his gang of friends, playing pranks on the village folk. Sonam and he see each other and they fall in love (obviously). While their courtship is just taking off, suddenly, Sonam departs from the village early one morning, on the beck and call of her father in Bombay. She is unable to inform Shahid who feels left out high and dry. In the meanwhile, the important letter arrives, which is the confirmation to his posting with the Indian Air force.

Cut to Scotland seven years later.. Shahid is there as a part of ‘Air-force’ exchange programme (God knows what that is), and Sonam is there too, as a part of a music group. How and when Sonam’s family reach Scotland from Bombay remains a mystery. They bump into each other (what a co-incidence) and find out that they still have the fire in them. And when they are set to get engaged / married, Shahid has to leave immediately for India as Kargil war has broken out. This time, Sonam is left high and dry. I wont bore you with any more of this, because the rest of the movie is full of such twists and turns where Shahid and Sonam are unable to even talk to each other for months together (Strange in the era of mobile phones), with they changing their locations from the village in Punjab, to Mumbai, to the USA, Switzeralnd, Scotland, and finally Ahmedabad.  Obviously, when one of the two is at a particular location, the other is not. Or, if they are in the same location, they fail to meet up, and if they do, there is confusion about Sonam’s martial status (Confusion, confusion!). Then there is a girl in the village who loves Shahid by herself (one way), and there is a distant cousin of Sonam, who she was once engaged to, in her childhood, that add to the misunderstandings. Further, to add to the drama, Shahid is shown to sustain a brachial plexus injury to his left arm following a crash landing of his bomber jet when he is returning from a successful bombing of enemy targets on Tiger hill. The arm is left fully paralyzed for some time, which is shown to recover in bits and pieces through the second half of the film. This is shown as one reason why Shahid avoids meeting Sonam for several months, as in how could he present his ‘incomplete self’ to his beloved (Drama, drama!). To top it all, and to rub salt on the audience’s wounds, his arm is shown to recover fully in an instant when he is trying to save a stranded child from atop an abandoned merry-go-round at a fair in Ahmedabad, which is now engulfed in riots. Can anything be more clichéd?!

In the end, finally, after many more of the kind of ‘filler sequences’ described above, they do marry each other. They have a girl child, whom Shahid is shown so predictably rushing gleefully from his bomber jet to hug (thank God it is not in slow motion), while Sonam watches happily pregnant with another one.

            The theme of the movie is good but Pankaj Kapoor and his writer failed to capitalize on it. Though they seem to rush through the important events of the decade in question, the movie is painfully slow and appears dragged. We actually waited for the interval.  

            Performances are just about ok, Shahid looks dashing in and out of the Air-force uniform (I mean in plain clothes, you silly), but Sonam disappoints with her looks. She looks emaciated, as if inflicted with tuberculosis. She looks ugly at places and since we know what make-up can do to women, I dare not catch Sonam without one! If Kareena was once upon a time size zero, Sonam in this movie is size minus 10. Her acting too has lots to desire. There are some new faces in the rest of the cast and they are nothing to write home about, either. Anupam Kher did not have long enough role to do justice to, and Supriya Pathak was as usual in the role of Sonam’s aunt.

The songs, done by Pritam, are the few bright spots. I liked ‘Rabba main to mar gaya oye..’ and ‘Poore se zara sa kum hain hum..’ sung very well by Rashid Khan.

My rating: 1.5 on 5 

Narendra Modi for PM?

When a politician starts becoming sure of the permanency of his position in the society he represents, he ceases to be a politician, and starts becoming a statesman. At least, he affords to project himself as a statesman. These days, Narendra Modi, the chief minister of Gujarat, is doing exactly that. There are a plethora of other factors, and not just his popularity as a CM that has kept BJP in power in Gujarat for so long now, and that would continue to do so for a long time in the foreseeable future. After witnessing Anna Hazare’s stupendous success with the old but amazingly effective weapon, Narendra Modi was quick to adopt the concept of fasting in order to garner public attention towards his actions and words. Boosted by the recent Supreme court’s decision to refer to the trial court Zakia Jafri’s plea for having a fresh look into her allegations of deliberate inaction by the chief minister causing the death of her husband Ehsaan Jafri along with dozens of other people on 28 February 2002, Narendra Modi promptly announced a three-day ‘Sadbhavna’ fast with an aim to kill two birds with a single stone. Interestingly, the dates of his fast coincide with his 61^st birthday. It is a different matter that the Supreme Court’s ruling is being incorrectly assumed by BJP and Narendra Modi as a victory of sorts. One must realize that the apex court has not set aside Zakia Jafri’s plea; it has only referred it to a lower court. It has not permanently closed its door to Zakia’s plea. However, this little flicker of hope towards exoneration for Modi, if we can call it that, was magnified by his party and supporters into a bonfire of celebrations, bringing the people in general to believe that there indeed was good news for Modi’s supporters. How many would, after all, actually care to look into the details of the ruling?

Though the 2014 general elections cannot yet be said to be round the corner, it is never too early, or too late in politics. The most important thing is to recognize an opportunity when it is there for grabs, and LK Advani’s announcement of a pan-India ‘anti-corruption’ rath yatra (Oh God, not another one!) and Narendra Modi’s antics with the five-star fast (His three-day fast is being held in the state-of-the-art Gujarat university convention centre in Ahmedabad with a seating capacity of 7000, enhanced further by a couple of thousand seats with help of tents) can be seen as the first steps towards mission 2014. Elections 2014 is one bird that I said Narendra Modi is trying to kill with his ‘fast’ stone. It was very conspicuous that this time round, instead of addressing the people as ‘six-crore Gujaratis’, Narendra Modi referred to the masses as ‘My dear country-men’ in his open letter just before the fast. Obviously, he has started visualizing himself beyond Gujarat. As a Prime Minister? Some people do fancy him in that position. And he himself does, too. After AB Vajpayee, who is out of active politics because of a multitude of ailments, BJP currently has no true national leader. In private, LK Advani believes himself to be one, but after the fiasco of 2004, and again in 2009, not many in the BJP are willing to place their bets on the aging patriarch. And the luke-warm response by his own party-men to his latest rath-yatra intentions is testimony to that sentiment. That leaves younger leaders in the BJP like Sushma Swaraj, and Arun Jaitley, who hardly have a pan-India appeal. So, some people, including most of the six-crore Gujaratis, some in the national BJP, most in the RSS, and most importantly, Modi himself, believe that he has a pan-India appeal. There is no doubt that he has been singularly responsible for the industrial growth of the state, and for that, he has been acclaimed by one and all; most recently, and most significantly by the US congress. The positive change in USA’s stand with regards to Modi, as against refusing him a diplomatic status in the past was a shot in the arm for him. This, coupled by the recent SC ruling, prompted Narendra Modi to suddenly start seeing himself as a possible candidate for the top post in the event of the NDA forming a government in the next Lok Sabha. For this to become a reality, he needs, with utmost urgency, to wash himself clean of the taint of 2002 Gujarat riots, and thereby increase his ‘pan-India’ mass appeal, as well as convince the NDA allies, most of whom might be averse to Modi’s candidature because of the aforesaid reasons, most importantly JDU, whose Nitish Kumar infamously refused to allow Narendra Modi to campaign for BJP in Bihar during the last assembly elections for the fear of losing the Muslim votes that form a large chunk of the state’s electorate. So here comes into play the second bird that Modi is attempting to kill with his Sadbhavana fast. He has carefully chosen his audience to include prominent Muslims of Gujarat to attend his three day fast, and he made sure that the news of a Muslim Gujarati businessman settled in south Africa  donating 30 lacs rupees to his pet ‘Kanya kelavani’ project made headlines in the recent newspapers. And the fact that his Sadbhavna fast was inaugurated with chants of ‘Allah-u-Akbar’ and Shlokas, is clear proof of his intentions in this direction. Will he succeed in realizing his ambitions? Only time will tell.

 For me, Narendra Modi has been an outstanding administrator, someone who has really worked hard for the development of his state. Does this qualify him for the prime minister’s post? Perhaps yes. But would his success in Gujarat be a guarantee of his success at national level? Perhaps no. One must remember that Narendra Modi has not only been able to garner overwhelming majority in the past two elections he has faced in the state, proving that he has the masses on his side, he has had complete and unhindered control over the government’s functioning. The opposition offered by the congressmen in the state is so meager that I sometimes wonder if they go and sit on the ruling party’s side during the assembly sessions in the state! This has enabled Narendra Modi to function unhampered, almost as an autocrat, as a dictator. So, the power that Narendra Modi enjoys in Gujarat, along with the surety he has in his mind of not losing out his seat of power to anyone else in at least a few coming assembly terms, has made him to work for the state with a free mind, as against someone who would need to spend a lot of his time and energy just to retain his position. All these factors would disappear as soon as he steps out of Gujarat into the national arena. At national level, he would have to face internal party bickering, a stiff opposition, and he’d have to function, at times, in accordance to the demands of the ally parties. And anyone who knows the Gujarat chief minister would know that he cannot function without absolute control over the situation. And certainly not with anyone dictating terms to him. Further, to function as the CM of a state, with a readily available shoulder of the centre, either to rest the gun on and shoot from, or to put the blame on for the things that go awry, is a different ball game altogether from running a central government where one has to get used to the fact there is no one else above you to pass the buck on, or to ask help from.

Now coming to the most important factor that would determine his ascent to the post of prime-minister, if ever- the M factor, or the Muslim factor. Despite the fact that there has been an apparent ‘communal harmony’ in Gujarat since 2002, Narendra Modi can be hardly said to be at peace with the Muslims of his state. The rich Muslim businessman who donated 30 lacs, and those chanting Allah-hu-Akbar at the inauguration of his fasting notwithstanding, the Muslims in Gujarat are far from happy with Narendra Modi. The Muslims who are with him only appear to be with him. It is true that the Hindus and the Muslims have not fought each other since 2002. But, if there is no apparent animosity, there is no friendship, either. The Muslims don’t dare to fight the Hindus; and the Hindus don’t need to fight the Muslims. The deep societal divide under the calm surface is too tangible for those who are open to perceiving it. But unfortunately, most people are only too happy to play the ostrich. The two communities are co-existing, but they are not living together. The festivals in either community are celebrated strictly within the community; Diwali and Holi are celebrated by the Hindus with the Muslims withdrawn into their cocoons; while the Eid and Ramadan is celebrated by the Muslims all by themselves. The cross-community wishes, if any, are strictly business transactions. In fact, such festivals in the past few years have generated a sense of unknown fear among the masses, fear of communal tensions surfacing once again, prompting them to wish that the day got over as soon as possible without any skirmishes. Muslims and Hindus in Gujarat continue to live in separate localities, not only in towns and cities, in small villages as well. A Hindu would not need to buy a property in a Muslim locality (there are so many choices for them), and a Muslim would not be allowed to buy one in a Hindu area. Can this be called communal harmony? Technically yes, but practically no. Absence of animosity is not friendship. And I am blaming both communities for this sorry state of affairs, more so the Muslims. The Muslims in Gujarat must realize that the majority Hindu community right now under the able leadership of Narendra Modi is self-sufficient by itself, and it does not need the Muslim community in any way for their own prosperity. And they can continue to prosper by simply ignoring the Muslims, forever. Thus, any loss is for the Muslim community in not patching up this divide. And the patching up of this divide cannot happen by itself, but by being proactive in regaining the confidence and friendship of the majority community. I am sure that for every step taken by the Muslim community, two will be taken by the majority community members. Even they cannot afford to have a permanent soured-up relationship with the minorities in the state.
However, by saying this, I do not mean to say that Muslims in the state must necessarily forget the pogrom of 2002, but they must have full faith in the judiciary for punishing the real perpetrators of the shame of 2002.   

Finally, regarding the chief minister himself, the Gujarat Muslims have never been an electoral problem for Narendra Modi. He would never need Muslim votes to get elected, or for getting the BJP to power in Gujarat. But his callous attitude towards Gujarat Muslims can go against him at national level. Therefore, if not for power at state level, Narendra Modi must make peace with the Muslims of his state in order to succeed politically at national level. And he can make peace with the Muslims of his state by ensuring justice for the 2002 riot victims by bringing the guilty to book, and with an apology for what happened at that time. I’m sure this small gesture would go a long way in ensuring support of the Muslim electorate from all over India, and not just Gujarat, possibly helping him to secure the Prime minister’s post.   

Corruption in Medicine

Corruption in the field of medicine is real, rampant, pernicious and beyond redemption. Before I write any further, I must say that though I am writing about corruption in the field of medicine, almost every field of human life is corrupt. I can write about the field of medicine only because I am a part of this field, and I have seen things from close quarters. Even then, I have penned down my own perceptions- the perceptions of a small-town practitioner, and I strongly believe that whatever I have seen or heard of is probably only the tip of the actual proverbial iceberg. There is probably much more filth than I show here.

 For long, the medical fraternity has pretended to believe that no one in the outside world is aware of this little fact, but the truth is that the outside world assumes every piece of the medical machinery to be corrupt unless proved otherwise, and most of the time they don’t even bother to find out the truth. They simply submit to the medical industry in their hour of need, hoping for it to last for as short a time as possible.

Now, as I say this, I will emphasize that corruption as a way of life has become ingrained in humans all over the world, perhaps more so in India. There are two ways of conducting oneself. One is by being corrupt- easier, profitable, keeps you at par with your peers, and no one cares two hoots about it. Second, by being non-corrupt- difficult, loss-making, relegating and no one cares two hoots about it either. There was a time when most people chose the latter and were happy to keep their conscience clear. More recently, the conscience has become redundant, and most people choose the former way of life, and are happy to simply hoard wealth.

Medical education

Corruption in medicine begins from medical education. When we studied medicine, there were hardly any self-financed medical colleges, and I’m talking mid-eighties. As the country’s economy improved and people stared having enough money to buy careers for their children, the high-profile businessmen and politicians began this new lucrative business of medical education (Other fields of education as well but I’ll talk of medicine here). The first big corruption comes in at this point in the chain. It would have been alright, not just alright, it would have been a big favor for the country if these self-financed colleges offered quality education. But, alas, businessmen and politicians can only be themselves. The governing body responsible for overseeing medical education in the country, the Medical council of India, was dissolved in its former form in 2010, following serious graft charges on its president Dr. Ketan Desai. Therefore, I cannot accuse the present MCI in its changed format of any misdoings as yet, but this is what used to summarily happen in those days: Many such self-financed colleges were practically dummy colleges. There was no infrastructure worth its name, no required patient inflow for hands-on training, and no quality teachers. Some colleges were deft in arranging teaching staff overnight just for the inspection by the Medical council of India, which by no means was blind to such irregularities. In fact, for the corrupt people in the MCI, the worse the irregularities, the better- they would then manage to exhort maximum bribe for granting permission. These stop-gap teachers were made out of doctors from the surrounding cities, and they were paid heftily for their ‘act’ and then after the inspection was over, everything went back to the usual pathetic state. Some of such ‘once-in-a-year’ assistant professors and professors in medical colleges are personally known to me, so I don’t need any further proof to such a criminal act. Ambitious students and parents used to fall for such spurious colleges and ended up paying hefty amounts as fees and capitation only to finally spoil their lives, sometimes because these colleges never went on to get recognized by the MCI (perhaps by the way of the ‘deal’ falling apart), and sometimes by becoming worthless professionals owing to below-par training. Such professionals, when they come out into the society, armed with a qualification but not necessarily the skill, pounce upon the society to vent out their many frustrations, and more often than not, end up indulging in corrupt practices to recover their capital, if not their self-esteem.

One can only hope that the MCI in the new format will bring a curb to this blatantly felonious practice that has a potential of playing adversely with the lives of people.

Kickbacks from referrals

Now we come to the second type of corruption in medical practice- kickbacks from referrals. More colloquially, it is called ‘cut-practice’. This form of corruption is perhaps the most rampant of all kinds- affects the patients monetarily, is extremely easy to indulge into, for even the straightest of the doctors, and extremely difficult to say no to. There is no need for me to elaborate on this variety of corruption, and is easily understood that the referring doctor gets a cut from the fees received by the treating doctor. The referral could be from a GP to a specialist, a specialist to a super-specialist, and from any one of them to a diagnostic centre. Not that such ‘transactions between doctors is in any way respectable, but this practice came down to being downright filthy when referral fees were begun to be doled out to class-IV employees of government hospitals, and to the ambulance and auto-rickshaw drivers for diverting patients to target hospitals/diagnostic centers. Many doctors claim that such a practice is technically not corruption. They say that the kickback is paid out of their own fees, which the patient would have paid in any case. True, but it is still a blatantly corrupt practice, because it encourages unnecessary referrals, investigations, unnecessary procedures and even surgeries. Such is the audacity of the entities involved in this sort of corruption that these kickbacks are now blatantly paid through cheques, and duly reflected upon the balance sheets as ‘professional fees’ or ‘referral fees’. In other words, this practice has now come to be accepted among medical practitioners as almost legal- nothing to be ashamed of. Where cash is not involved, gifts of equivalent value are passed on, often of the choice of the recipient.  

Pharmaceutical company-Doctor nexus  

The third type of corruption involves the Pharmaceutical companies. Of late, pharmaceutical companies have started cropping up in India like mushrooms in a rainforest. Anyone can start a pharmaceutical company without much ado. The modus operandi is quite simple- think of a good sounding name for your company, purchase drugs of your choice from the bulk drug manufacturers, have them packed with your label and presto, you have a drug company of your own! All you may need to do is put a small disclaimer on your label saying manufactured by xyz and marketed by you!  Thus, we have the multinational companies that have invested millions of dollars into their state-of-the-art manufacturing units, their R&D, and marketing, AND we also have companies like the ones mentioned above, that run at best from dingy, two-room apartments in small towns. And both of them sell the same drugs, obviously with a huge difference in quality, and therefore, the price. Now, both have to sell their products in the market. The lesser company sells at a lower price because its investment is less, and quality is suspect. The MNC sells at a higher price for the opposite of the above reasons. But BOTH go on to offer freebies to the doctors and clinicians in order to make sure they prescribe their products. These freebies can be anything according to the clinician’s ability to sell the products- from a simple two-rupee pen to foreign tours; from candies to LED TVs. Anything; the choice is sometimes the doctor’s. The lesser companies do it because they have to survive the competition. The MNCs do it because they have surplus money, and they have to survive the competition as well. Corruption of this kind encourages over-prescription, and spurious/low quality drugs. The sufferer, here too, is the patient. And by the way, kickbacks are not limited only to drugs. Transactions of all medical consumables, including orthopedic implants, angioplasty stents, etc. are conducted in a similar fashion.

Insurance company-Doctor-Patient nexus

Then there are the insurance companies for everyone to loot. These companies have, of late, started enforcing strict rules to prevent pilferage, but connivance of an errant employee is sometimes all that is required, at a nominal cost, to make all the rules fall flat on their faces. I must say that this variety of corruption involves the ‘patient’ as well. For e.g., someone who is resentful about the fact that despite paying premium for a health policy for three years in a row, he has not had a chance to get a reimbursement (like why am I not meeting an accident?), would simply approach a doctor to prepare a fake case, complete with all required formalities, and the amount thus claimed from the insurance company would be gleefully divided between the doctor, ‘patient’, and the insurance officer, leaving everyone happy, except of course the insurance company, which would not get to know about it in any case! 

I have listed above the major areas of corruption in medical practice. There are, of course, many other errant practices that I have not listed here like the Chemist-doctor liaison, the local drug inspector-chemist liaison etc. If I go on to elaborate all of them, this piece would become endless.

You must be wondering as to why, being into the profession, I must expose all this? Why expose, you all are perhaps aware of all this already. So, why I must write about all this?  I have simply enlisted the areas of corruption in my field to ask you as to how will a Lokpal, a Janalokpla, or a lokayukta bring a curb to such malpractices? Except, perhaps, the issue of spurious and below par medical colleges, all other varieties of corruption mentioned above could well continue to stay beyond the reach of any law. A punitive action, if any, can be taken only in the event of a complaint. In all types of corruption, all parties involved are happy in the end, so who’ll be the complainant?  The point I want to stress here is that unless there is a lokpal in every man’s heart, corruption has no chance of losing it out to any law.

Disclaimer: Despite the sorry state of affairs as stated by me, there are still a handful of medical personnel who continue to be honest and dedicated to their field of work. My sincere apologies to such personnel. Secondly, though I have tried to remain untouched by corruption of any kind in my medical career, I cannot, in any way, claim to have remained completely unaffected by it.  

Movie review- Bodyguard

Saturday night I had only reluctantly agreed to watch Bodyguard, and since I couldn’t bring myself to anticipate anything better than how Sallu movies have been in the past, I took pains to convince some friends to accompany us so that there could be some respite for me in the event of the movie turning intolerable- I could then at least discuss cricket in hushed voices. Off hand I can remember only a couple of Salman Khan Movies that were good: Hum aapke hain kaun, and Hum dil de chuke sanam, and I dare say both of the aforesaid movies were good in spite of Salman Khan. I know I’m not going to go down well with die-hard Sallu fans, specially the female brigade. My wife blatantly claims that I’m simply jealous of him. Why would I be jealous of an extremely good looking hunk who would rip-off of his shirt just to scratch his tummy? Why would I be jealous of a caring lover who would also bare-handedly knock out fifty-odd gun-totting enemies in a way that would put Rajnikanth to shame?  Yes, why would I be jealous of him? He isn’t a better orthopedic surgeon than I am!

Save for the last half an hour or so of the movie, Bodyguard was going the way Salman Khan movies usually do. Utterly humbug, with an apparently unpalatable story-line and just about ok songs. The last half hour the movie brings about such pleasantly dramatic turn to the story that I had to sit up and actually watch the rest of the film. Very innovative, I must say, the twist brought on in the end. One can go and watch this flick only for this much.

Salman khan is a familial bodyguard (this is the first instance where a bodyguard father passes on his job to his son as if it were a family business) working for a security agency, and he is entrusted with the job of being a bodyguard to Kareena Kapoor, who happens to be the daughter of an influential landlord (played by Raj Babbar) of an imaginary province of Jesinghpur. Now, Raj Babbar has done a big favor to Sallu in the past by saving the life of his mother when she was pregnant with him. So Sallu miyan naturally feels indebted to him and thus his daughter Kareena becomes untouchable for him in romantic sense. Sallu addresses Raj Babbar as ‘Maalik’, so one can imagine. Now Sallu is supposed to protect Kareena from some goons, and it is never made clear in the movie as to why there is such profound animosity between Raj Babbar’s family, and the group of goons, and why should they just be targeting the daughter and not the landlord father himself. Anyway, if one were to apply so much of mind in Sallu movies, one would want a refund each time. Now Sallu has to shadow Kareena everywhere she goes, and thus there are some funny scenes in the college where Kareena and her friend study. Now these girls apparently don’t like to be shadowed like this (I can’t fathom why any girl would refuse to be shadowed by Sallu miyan). So they hatch out a plan to divert his attention: Kareena starts making cozy phone calls from a cell phone that has a sim that does not display its number to the recipient, posing as an imaginary girl called Chhaya. Salman Khan falls in love with Chhaya, much to Kareena’s bewilderment, who herself falls in love with him apparently when she sees how he bravely fights bare-handedly with group of heavily armed toughies. So clichéd, na?  Now Kareena has this dilemma: She can’t reveal her love for Sallu fearing that both, his father and Sallu himself would reject her because of their respective positions: Sallu an indebted servant, and Kareena a daughter of a proud landlord. If I describe the rest of the story, it would give off hints to what happens in the last half hour. So, can’t help it, if you must have the thrill of the ending of this movie, you’ll have to tolerate the first three-quarters as well. And if you’re a Sallu fan, you’ll like the whole movie. So go and watch it, and remember me when you sit up to a jaw-dropping end.

Regarding performances, Sallu is as usual. Kareena is ok as well, and she doesn’t look her usual stunning self either. There is an obese comic added in the movie who brings on some laughs with his antics and funny one-liners on his T-shirts like ‘Coming soon: Six packs’. Raj Babbar looks painfully aged now with funnily tinted hair and moustache.

Some actors I saw for the first time in this movie, including the fat comedian, but then I was later informed that this movie is a remake of a south-Indian hit, and perhaps they picked up those actors verbatim from the original flick. 
My Rating: 2 on 5
Pic credit: Planetradio.com, cinebasti.com

Pages from my childhood- Eid celebrations

For children anywhere in the world, a religious festival is hardly a religious issue. It is about having fun with family and friends, and reluctantly participating in boring domestic spiritual rituals. I was indeed lucky to have been brought up in an extremely cosmopolitan residential colony, and my dad’s company, the ONGC, had people from all over the country as employees. As a result, we had in our circle of friends people from Assam to Gujarat; and from Kashmir to Kanyakumari. Needless to say, every now and then we were either busy preparing for, or participating in one or the other festival. Holi, Diwali, Eid, Pongal, Lohri, and Christmas were celebrated with the same fervor.

The enthusiasm of Eid for us children started right from the commencement of the holy month of Ramadan, and despite the fact that we didn’t fast because children are exempt from fasting, we did enjoy the daily Iftaar spread, the fast-breaking feast. Throughout the day we savored the aroma of the delicacies that mom prepared for the Iftaar, and though she mockingly prevented us from picking on the eatables right from the stove, we exploited the fact that she had only us children as tasters of her preparations (she herself would be fasting). And our tasting sometimes extended into mini meals of sorts! The whole month used to be littered with Iftaar parties here and there, and Muslim families strived to take special care of the non-Muslim friends during such get-togethers. The second half of the month of Ramadan brought us yet another chance to be happy. Eid requires all Muslims to don new clothes for the Eid prayers, and since middle-class economic conditions prevented us from frequently buying new sets of clothes through the year, we really looked forward to carefully choosing trouser and shirt pieces, and taking time to instruct the tailor to style them according to the latest bollywood trends. Same for the footwear and sometimes even the undergarments!

The Eid festivities started with the sighting of the moon, and since those days had telephones only in rare homes, we children rushed from home to home as beaming harbingers of the good news. Mothers used to happily get busy once again in the kitchen preparing delicacies for the great festival. Early on the Eid day we used to bathe early and put on the new set of clothes, and it wasn’t very infrequent for any one of us four brothers to be slightly unhappy with either his own choice of the shirt color, or with the tailor for not giving a wide enough bottom for his bell-bottoms. Dad used to abundantly garnish us with itr, the indigenous perfume. Eid prayers by themselves did not have any charm for us children, as they were preceded by boring sermons by stern looking maulvis, and followed by prolonged lectures in Arabic that we did not understand. However, the Eidgaah (Special prayer grounds for the Eid prayers) used to be thronged by vendors of toys and goodies for the children, converting the place into a fair of sorts, and after the prayers, our dad gladly heeded our demands to buy toys, toffees and balloons. At home, we wished family and friends, and received generous ‘Eidi’(a sum of money as gift) from elders. The rest of the day was spent in receiving friends at home and visiting theirs in return. The staple Eid delicacy ‘Sevai’ was enjoyed by one and all, and by the time the day was over, we still had appetite for some more.

Over the years, perhaps by the way of becoming adults, and by having more than enough hassles of life on hand to dampen the festive spirits, I feel the enthusiasm for Eid has come down considerably since our childhood days, and all we can do now is reminiscence those wonderful years with great fondness. 

The HANGING verdict!

I have never been a proponent of the death penalty, and when Dhanonjoy Chatterjee was condemned to death after president Kalam rejected the mercy petition of this rapist and murderer of a minor girl in West Bengal, I wrote several letters against the death penalty to the editor of the Indian Express, participating in the letter-to-editor debate on the issue at that time. The debate notwithstanding, Dhananjoy was hanged in August 2004. The debate on capital punishment heats up every time someone is condemned to death by the courts of law. However, when the condemned person is a ‘commoner’ like Dhananjoy Chatterjee, the debate is usually confined on TV between the proponent and the opponent groups of the corporal punishment. Such debates hardly have any effect on the final decision by the courts. However, when the condemned convict happens to be an accused in utterly heinous but politically sensitive crime, the final outcome is not only liable to be delayed by the way of political interference, it is at times, without any inhibitions, attempted to be changed against even the supreme court’s judgment and the president’s rejection of the mercy plea. The same has happened when the TN high court temporarily set aside the Supreme Court’s orders as well as president’s rejection of the mercy plea, and granted a two-month stay to the execution of the three men convicted in Rajiv Gandhi’s assassination. The stay has been granted following the defense counsel Ram Jethmalani's argument that there was an inordinate delay of 11 years in carrying out the Supreme Court’s orders of the death sentence. The defense has requested the court to commute the sentence altogether owning to this ‘lapse’.  Whether or not this qualifies for a reason for the judgment to be changed is a matter of law, but I’m appalled by the fact that the president’s office sat on the mercy plea for 11 long years! I’m saying president’s office, because the office had two different presidents, along with two rival alliances ruling at the centre in these 11 years. Now, it’ll surprise many of you, but Dhanonjoy’s mercy plea was rejected in a matter of few weeks! As soon as the TN HC granted a two month stay, there were ostentatiously jubilant celebrations across TN, even as the TN assembly unanimously passed a resolution to approach the president of India for reconsidering the death sentence!! MDMK chief Vaiko went on to say that if Rajiv’s killers are hanged, TN would secede from the republic of India!!! Now, if there ever was a seditious / blasphemous statement made, it is this. Now, I consider social networking site like Facebook a good measure of the public sentiment. There was NO furore, whatsoever, on this issue. As if matters concerning TN and Rajiv Gandhi’s killers were foreign to us in this part of the country. And J&K CM Omar Abdullah dropped a virtual bomb yesterday by tweeting the unthinkable. He showed the audacity of comparing Murugan’s case (One of Rajiv’s killers. There are three on the death row, but I’ll use this name only for simplicity) with Afzal Guru’s. The opposition parties were immediately up in arms and started accusing Omar of playing ‘vote bank’ politics. True, but he had only tweeted, not acted. But why not similar accusations for the politicians of TN, who are not only openly seen defending the cause of Murugan, they have made the ‘struggle’ as they put it, official by passing that resolution in the assembly? Viako was on national TV shouting hoarse favoring the dead prime minister’s killers. All this makes me ask a few questions. But before I do so, I reiterate, for the fear of being labeled unpatriotic, that if Afzal and Kasab were to be hanged and they are not able to find a hangman, I’ll be happy to tie the noose around their necks and pull the lever. Now the questions:

1. Why anyone displaying sympathy for Afzal Guru is quickly accused of being unpatriotic, and pro-Pakistan, while there are no such sentiments against hordes of Tamils sympathizing with Murugan? Remember, for a patriot, being labeled ‘unpatriotic’ is the worst nightmare.

2. Why is there so much of public fury for the delay in hanging Afzal guru, and there was/is none for the delay in Murugan’s case? (There was in fact absolute silence on the issue and I came to know about the 11 year delay in Murugan’s case only through newspapers a week ago).

3. Why is the central government accused of being partial, allegedly for Muslim votes, when a procedural delay is seen in Afzal’s case? Why is no one accusing the government of being partial to the Tamils in Murugan’s case?
4. Why is the country tolerating Tamilnadu assembly's official stance on Murugan's case while the J&K assembly is not allowed to even think on these lines?

It is quite simple to see that in both cases, it is petty vote bank politics that has caused the delay in carrying out the sentence. It is the Tamil votes in Murugan’s case, and Muslim votes in Afzal’s case. But if public fury is directed against only one of the two cases, I’m sorry I’m living in such times.

Anna's Victory: Whose defeat?

So Anna Hazare has won the battle, leaving his supporters jubilant. Quite understandable. My congratulations to team Anna and its brigade all over the country. The government is left red-faced. Each one of them, from Kapil Sibal to Pranav Mukerjee to PC to the Prime Minister, is looking like a fool of the first order. Every Tom, Dick and Harry can be seen vulgarly joking about the ministers on social networking sites. Sonia Gandhi must probably be the only person in the world happy to be recuperating from cancer at this point in time. I have, however, I few questions to ask to anyone who’d be worried about the future of this country.

1. The supporters of Anna Hazare movement seem to have been under the impression that their army was fighting against something foreign to our nation, a clandestine force from the outside that was hell-bent upon bringing nothing but disaster to the country. They seem to have forgotten that the government they were fighting against comprises of the very people they sent to the parliament as recently as 2007. So do they think they had voted for all the wrong people? If yes, who are the right people? By ridiculing their own choice, they are ridiculing themselves.
2. Anna is being touted as the second Gandhi to the nation. Hardly, I think. Consider this: The resolution was passed unanimously in both houses on Saturday evening (27 Aug). Anna Hazare, who was on water-only fast for the last 12 days, chose a time 14 hours later to break his fast! Why? All Muslims fast through the day during the month of Ramadan, starting from just before sunrise to just after the sunset. Ask any Muslim (ask me, I’m a Muslim) and he’ll tell you how difficult it is to stay hungry even for a minute after the legal fast-breaking time. It is almost impossible to do so. So why did Anna, hungry for not one, but 12 days, choose Sunday 10 am to break his fast? (Feel free to read between the lines here) Because he wanted the whole world to know that he was going to do so; he wanted all arrangements for all the fanfare to be there- the media and the paparazzi. Two children were selected to feed him juice, as, through the cameras, indeed the whole nation watch with awe and admiration. Later, he chose a five-star hospital to get admitted to and the cavalcade of vehicles that carried him from the Ramlila maidan to the Medanta hospital in Gurgaon, would’ve paled the US president’s cavalcade in comparison. Why all this? Would Mahatma Gandhi have done all this?
3. And as things looked like settling down eventually, Anna, perhaps already starting to miss the media attention, publicly announced that it was not over as yet and only postponed. He announced that the next fight would be on electoral reforms, so please don’t take away those cameras as yet. His electoral reforms would include right to reject and right to recall (an elected candidate). So with a lokpal already over their heads with a naked sword, and no power worth its name, certainly no means of making money, and no surety of being in the office for five full years, I think willing candidates for the next elections would be impossible to find for the political parties! Then, perhaps, Annaji wont have any option but to be the MLA, the MP, the cabinet minister AND the prime-minister. Why be just a lokpal?  Be a Deshpal.

Janalokpal- The Ceaser's wife?

In my last blog post I had put down my views on the on-going debate on the
lokpal issue. As the days have gone by, some more thoughts have crossed my
mind and I’m putting them here. Suppose the government, finally bowing to
public pressure, gives in and accepts Anna team’s version of the Lokpal and
a Janlokpal bill is passed in the parliament, what would be the scenario?
People like Anna, Kejriwal, and Kiran Bedi would perhaps man the Janlokpal
committe, and have supreme control over practically everything- from the
bureaucracy to the judiciary, right up to the Prime minister. Sounds very
powerful indeed. Powerful enough to corrupt mere mortals? Ah, but Anna and
 others in his team are not mere mortals, you would say. But literally speaking they are, aren't they? What would happen after them? What would be the procedure of choosing
people to chair this Janlokpal committee? What is the guarantee that all
those people who’d be in the committee would be as fair, impartial and
dedicated as the present Anna team? Mahatma Gandhi was charismatic as long
as he lived. Now there is no trace of that Gandhian philosophy. Could not
the same happen with the Janlokpal? Why are we assuming that a janlokpal
would not be corrupt? Would it be the Ceaser’s wife, so as to be above
suspicion?

Anna Hazare, Manmohan Bechare?

I will start by saying that I am as much concerned about corruption prevalent in India, as is everyone else. Also, I have utmost respect for shri Anna Hazare, for he is doing something that was needed to be done years ago. Having said that, I will now list four things that I firmly believe in:

1. Uneasy lies the head that wears the crown;

2.  Telling others how things should be done is entirely different from doing it oneself;

3. Power corrupts;

4. Be the change you want to see in the society.

Our Nation is a nation of mass hysterias. A few weeks ago, there was a mass hysteria about Baba Ramdev, and the entire nation seemed to be behind him on the issue of black money. The media worked without pressure; they did not need to hunt for news in deep borewells in small towns. That hysteria died down sooner than expected, and now it has been replaced by the Anna hysteria. Again, the media is having a bonanza. One witnessed a similar hysteria early in this year when India first beat Pakistan in WC semifinals and again when India beat SL in the finals. Thousands poured out on the streets in the middle of the night to celebrate. A few days later everything was forgotten and IPL fever took over. I’m afraid of a similar fate for the Anna hysteria.

I’d like to share a few points here:

1. Anna (and his team) is now doing exactly what our netas have been doing over the years: exploit popular support. Just as on the basis of the support of the electorate in their area, netas indulge in all kinds of excesses, including goodaism and hooliganism, Anna too has leant on the popular wave in his favor and has put a virtual gun on the government’s head and is dictating terms. He’s almost saying, ‘Accept our version of the bill or else I’ll unleash this crowd on you’. Not a good sign in democracy. Pick 8 out of 10 random people in any of the rallies in Anna’s favor and they’d not know the difference between the lokpal bill and a driver’s license. Agreed, everyone is out on the street on the issue of corruption, but there should be method to everything. Bills are not presented to the parliament at gun point.
2. Uneasy lies the head that wears the crown. Is this why Anna Hazare, despite being a popular figure for decades, hasn’t fought an election? ‘Be the change you want to see in the society’. In all probability, Anna Hazare knows that in India, it is practically impossible to be in the seat of power, howsoever miniscule, and not be corrupt. Why didn’t he take up this challenge and show to the world that it can be different? Why doesn’t he become a part of the government and bring the change that he wants by being on the inside? Is it because that it is easy to point fingers from the outside than being inside and have fingers pointed to you? He reminds me of the left-front parties that were a coalition partner to the UPA government in the previous Lok-sabha, by the way of their ‘support from the outside’. By doing this, they were neither in the government, nor in the opposition, and played the role of either, at their convenience!
3. The hullabaloo of the opposition parties notwithstanding at this stage, I’d be wholly surprised that if and when Anna’s version of the bill is presented in the parliament, these very parties would vote for the bill! For a simple reason: though they are in the opposition today, they have certainly not lost hope of being in the power some day. And going by the way the UPA has conducted itself in the past one year or so, this seems possible as early as 2 years from now! So, in such an event the present opposition parties would then in direct line of fire of the lokpal! Therefore, I doubt it very much that Anna’s version of the bill would ever see the light of the day as a law.
4. http://righttoinformation.info/ncpri-public-consultations-on-the-lok-pal-bill/public-consultations-on-collective-and-concurrent-lokpal-anti-corruption-and-grievance-redress-measures-by-the-ncpri-nehru-memorial-museum-and-library-and-inclusive-media-4-change-csds/

    The above link is a fine one to study the finer details of the proposed lokpal bill. The government, being what it is, has taken into consideration the fact that Anna’s version of the bill, if implemented in its totality, has a potential of unleashing a barrage of plaints, justified, and unjustified, against all and sundry in the central government. (Remember, the Lokpal would have jurisdiction only against the central government agencies, and not the state government ones. The state governments have the option of having a lok-Ayukta. It was a Lok Ayukta’s report against Yedurappa in Karnataka that made him resign his post as the CM. But some states, like Gujarat, don’t have a lok-Ayukta for several years, and nobody’s going up in their arms about that!) Of course, even the government’s version of the Lokpal bill is not wholly acceptable, but then a middle path should be devised by the way of talks, and not by the way of blackmailing. One hopes that some day, sanity would prevail on either side, and a plausible bill would be passed in the parliament.

Finally, a word about corruption. The truth is that corruption is so rife in India that the dream of removing it in totality is an unreal one. There is corruption at high places, like the 2G and CWG scams, and there is corruption in small offices, like the roadside traffic policeman demanding a tenner. The fact is that one should be concerned about both with the same fervour. It is only the unchecked corrupt traffic policemen that burgeon into Kalmadis. But alas, we are concerned only about the A Rajas thieving our nation of thousands of crores, and not about ourselves when we don’t think twice before paying up the BSNL lineman for a new set of wiring. My daily anger against corruption is against the people responsible for maintaining the roads of my small town. Monsoon has battered the roads beyond recognition, and this is an annual affair. Will the lokpal bill repair my roads?  

Movie Review- Aarakshan

I have seen Prakash Jha grow as a director from Gangajal to Aparhan to Rajneeti. And since Jha raised the bar himself, Aarakshan disappoints a bit. I must say that only two kinds of movies thrill me: the ones that make me laugh heartily; and the ones that make me cry. Aarakshan started on a very promising note, and could have burgeoned into an intelligent and intense debate on the matter of reservation. But alas, as soon as one felt that the film was going to be differently entertaining, it lost its grip on the primary subject, and by the time the movie was in the final stages, it had become a fight between expensive private coaching classes, where education is as much a business as oil is for Arab sheikhs, and selfless and dedicated teachers like the protagonist Dr. Prabhakar Anand, played by the unequalled veteran of Hindi cinema- Amitabh Bachchan.  

The film has tried to incorporate two subjects within its fold- One, the subject of highly debatable reservation in educational institutes, and two, the subject of commercialization of education, by the way of over-priced coaching classes, and by the way of ‘self-financed’ professional colleges. While the primary theme of the film seems to be the former (going by the title), somewhere in the course of the movie, this slowly but interestingly maturing subject suddenly loses its hold and gives into trivialities. This is where the movie disappoints. I won’t write the story of the film here because the gist is what matters. I’ll simply narrate the reasons why one can watch this one:

One can watch this one for the intense character of Dr Prabhakar Anand, played extremely well by Amitabh Bachchan;  for Prakash Jha’s near-perfect direction.; for the poignant love story between Saif and Deepika, depicted  to be extremely romantic without as much as a single truly romantic scene; for Manoj Bajpai’s justice to the villainous role he played; and finally for the cute Tanvi Azmi, who despite having aged over the years appeared so charming and fresh in her role as Amitabh’s wife. Deepika Padukone looks stunningly beautiful; Saif looks strange in his studious look, with ‘chappat’ hair and orthodox glasses. There are just two songs in the movie- the first one, ‘accha lagta hai’, is a sweet, melodious number appearing early on in the movie, perhaps to emphasize the relationship between Deepika and Saif, and the other one, ‘kaun si dor kheenchein, kaun si kaatein’, a superbly sung classical by Channulal Mishra and my favorite Shreya Ghoshal. Channulal belongs to the same family as the legendary siblings- Rajan and Sajan Mishra, and has a similar bass voice. Go and watch this one, and yes, there’s nothing in it that should have provoked some of the Indian states to ban its screening. Publicity stunt, I suppose.     My rating: 2-1/2 on 5
Pic credit: Indicine.com

Of injection pricks and sore behinds!

When I was a kid, we had an MBBS doctor in ONGC’s dispensary. He was a chubby Assamese guy; cheerful, and a great cricketer. However, I was morbidly afraid of him, like most kids are, of doctors. Since the dispensary was within the premises of the township we lived in, all one needed to visit the doctor were the slightest of symptoms, and a personal medical record book. For this reason, my mother often sent whosoever was sick amongst us brothers to the doctor all alone, properly rehearsed with what to say to him. Though I detested going alone to the doctor, I had often no choice, with my dad busy at office, and my mom having many other important things to do than to attend to one of her son’s running nose. As I sometimes waited in the queue to see him, my medical record book clasped tightly in my little hands, I used to pray to God that I don’t end up getting an injection prescribed. When it was finally my turn, I always crossed my finger before entering. Once inside, I used to greet the burly doctor with a ‘namaste’, and then like a parrot narrate in well-rehearsed lines my symptoms to him. But, like a man who seemed to know-it-all, he used to nearly finish writing the prescription in my book by the time I finished speaking about my illness. Sometimes, when either I was very ill, or sometimes when he was in the mood, he’d poke his stethoscope at random spots on my chest ever so briefly before handing over to me my book. So many times I tried to gather the courage to ask if the prescription included an injection, but I never really could. So it was another wait at the compounder’s window, who filled up our prescriptions, and who would finally let out the sentence, ‘There’s an injection here, to be taken once daily for five days.’ The hell would break loose on me, and if god-forbid it were the Quinine for malaria, I used to almost die out of fear for the utterly painful injection (in those days Quinine injection was the treatment for malaria, and malaria used to be diagnosed in our dispensary only by the doctor’s clinical acumen. Lab tests were rare.). More often than not, the doctor decided to mix a dose of Analgin (for fever) with Qunine, creating thus the devil’s own mixture, and I often thought if this was the infamous third-degree torture they often talked about in films. The nurse who administered the injection was no less than a daakan (witch) to me (poor thing, I hope she’s doing well wherever she is now). She chose the largest of the syringes for me with the thickest of the needles, precariously boiled for not more than a jiffy after the last victim’s injection, and poked into my behind with criminal indifference. That I shouted at the top of my voice and even cried in muffled sobs did not make any difference to her, and it was in those days when I had first started wondering if God pardoned at least one murder per person, per life. Once, after the first of such five injections, I decided to give the whole turmoil a slip by not declaring to my parents about the prescribed injection, and quietly skipped going to the dispensary the next day. To my great horror, the witch herself showed at our house, late in the evening, after she’d finished poking everyone else’s behind at the dispensary, fully armed with the injection kit and all. That evening not only did I suffer the great prick on one buttock, my dad placed a few smacks on the other as well. Malaria is now-a-days treated in much more humane ways, but I bet there won’t be another nurse anywhere who’d go to the errant boy’s homes to give them their missed pricks! 

India's cricket debacle!

The charisma of the game of cricket is such that the true fan falls in love with the format of the game he is watching. When IPL was in full flow, one thought which idiot of a man invented the test cricket.  A five-day game of cricket? How boring. But the current series between India and England, in England, has mesmerized me. Now I wonder why they don’t have more test matches! I know India has fared very, very poorly in the two tests played, plus the disappointment of the elusive hundredth international hundred for Sachin Tendulkar….it does get on to the nerves but then, there were ups and downs that kept the audience spell-bound, and there was certainly no dearth of drama. My own hero Rahul Dravid made back to back centuries in vain, and he must be feeling awful for that. The depleted Indian team without Viru, Zak and Gauti looked uncertain of itself from the very start of the first test, and coupled with poor form of top order players like Tendulkar, Yuvi, Dhoni, and Bhajji the debacle was only waiting to happen. Imagine, the turbanator managed to scalp just two wickets in four innings! And the English players are supposed to be ‘bad’ players of spin bowling! MSD chose a wrong match to show that he could play the game fairly, when he re-called Ian Bell who went on to smash a scintillating century. Then there was Micheal Vuaghan who sparked controversy with his Vaseline remark on the appeal that was turned down against Laxman. But honestly, one has to give it to the British players. All of them were in form- Pieterson, Strauss, Bell, Prior, Morgan, etc. Even some of their bowlers batted well. Bresnan did well, and Stuart Broad is emerging as a promising all-rounder. Not only did he bat very well, he did not in the least look like he was the guy who had once got hammered by Yuvi for six sixes in a T-20 match! In all, he scalped 15 wickets in two tests!!

Well, like in politics, there can never be permanent positions in cricket. The current English team is the best I’ve seen in a long, long time, and they richly deserve the newly gotten number one test team status. With two bad losses in two tests, the best that can India hope for is a 2-2 final tally. But that seems a tall order. Unless Viru and Zaks make it back into the team.

Going Ga Ga over Ms Rabbani!

It is not very often that Pakistan gives the Indian public a reason to smile. The last one was a stand-up comic called Shakeel who made us laugh with his one-liners in ‘Comedy Circus’ on Sony TV. So when the 34 year old glamorous Ms Hina Rabbani Khar arrived in India as Pakistan’s Foreign minister, the Indians sat up and took notice. I don’t remember who was the last Pakistani diplomat to have visited India; not that I care. Visits of innumerable diplomats from either side has not made as much as an iota of change in the Indo-Pak relationship, and after Pakistan back-stabbed India in the wake of AB Vajpayee’s brave bus diplomacy, I have trained myself to see diplomatic meetings not more than a mere eye-wash. Perhaps some of the Indian news channels agree with me and that is why, after deliberating ever so briefly on the political aspect of Ms. Rabbani’s visit, the contrasting dullness of our own aging SM Krishna notwithstanding, they immediately focused on the persona of the visiting lady. She is young, beautiful, fit (after three children), and has a style-statement of her own. The media went ga ga over her accessories- cool shades; a showy watch and a beautiful ring; a glistening white Hyderabadi-pearl necklace to go with her pristine white dress; and a pair of high-heeled shoes to enhance her already tall stature. The hand-bag she carries is rumored to be worth seventeen lacs rupees! Though, perhaps, owing to her status as a visiting diplomat, she hid her figure beneath layers of loose clothing, she made the best out of what she could reveal- after deliberately leaving a loose lock of hair in the front, she swept it away ever so gracefully every time it fell on her forehead- and this must happened a hundred and forty three times in the whole of yesterday!  Knowing perfectly well what the Indian public would want to know about her, she teased by not playing into the hands of the prying media. When Ritul Joshi of ‘Aaj Tak’ tried to get casual with her by asking some questions about her appearance, she carefully ducked them and answered only in political terms.

But she is not where she is, because of her glamour. Educated in the University of Massachuechets, she is the daughter of a politician- Ghulam Noor Rabbani Khar, and niece of Ghulam Mustafa Khar (those who have read Tehmina Durrani’s ‘My Feudal Lord’, would know that Ghulam Mustafa Khar was a monster of a husband, and an astute politician). Her family is one of the richest in Pakistan, having business interests in almost all lucrative areas. She also co-owns a posh restaurant which is run by her businessman husband. With almost everything on her side- age, persona, pedigree and education, I hope she achieves for Indo-Pak relationship what her worthy predecessors failed to; though she did leave a mark of being the astute Pakistani politician-in-making by meeting up with the Kashmiri separatist leaders- Geelani, Mirwaiz et al, irking the Indian authorities no end. Now they can’t decide if she is more salty or more chilly!