The siege within

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I asked a few people in a small group who Ajmal Amir Kasab was. They looked at me in wonderment and surprise, even perceivable amusement as if saying: "Are you a crazy lunatic guy, or what.," I prodded them, deliberately provocative, feigning the status of an ignoramus. Sighing with egregious exasperation, one of them said: "The captured terrorist who brutally massacred innocent commuters at CST railway terminus and slaughtered our valiant cops on the horrendous night of 26/11 in Mumbai". I clapped in genuine appreciation-seriously. They thought I was sarcastically mocking them so the response was a mere mute silence. Then I asked them: "Who is Tukaram Omble?" This time they looked stunned, expressionless, but perceptibly challenged. They easily guessed he was a 26/11 victim or an unknown daring character but were visibly unsure of specific details . Some took wild shots in the dark while others were honest....

Understanding the real Mrs Gandhi

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I was all of ten years old when my father woke me up early on a chilly winter morning. Prime Minister Mrs Indira Gandhi was going to be driving down Poona's ( Pune now) Ganesh Khind Road in an open car to the state guest-house Raj Bhavan during her visit to the pensioner's paradise . We excitedly hurried to get ready faster than we would to catch our school-bus, to ensure that we did not miss that precious moment. Just a few weeks before we had sat nervously huddled in dark rooms as ominous sirens wailed and every sound of a distant engine in the night sky appeared as that of an enemy aircraft on a fateful mission. But that was all over now in less than two weeks. India had decisively won the war against traditional adversary Pakistan. East Pakistan was truly liberated and we had at last scored....

Obama's Marathon Race

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Two world leaders of contrasting styles have been tirelessly hogging media spotlight over the last few weeks. First, US President Barack Obama was shown at various camera angles staring with perceptible amazement at a Latino butt of Jennifer Lopez-like proportions during a global summit . Even newscasters who were raising a massive brouhaha over the ungentlemanly sidelong and supposedly lusty glance of the popular Prez , seemed equally titillated. Or empathized with the purported ogle. Or at least they struggled to keep a straight face. The second distinguished head of state is of course, the now celebrated stud machine of international politics, songwriter and multi-tasking (??) Italian premier Silvio Berlusconi who has through his enviable libido completely altered traditional conservatism that plagued people holding high office, making former US President Bill Clinton appear like an old fashioned priest with just a mild case of testosterone overdose and Nicolas Sarkozy....

The Importance of Being Sudheendra Kulkarni

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On last Thursday evening , pre-dinner hours, I thought I saw renowned classical singer Pandit Jasraj emerge and head inside Delhi's new swanky domestic airport. But as I trooped into closer proximity to the grand musical maestro, I discovered it was Sudheendra Kulkarni, the current political gad-fly of the BJP , key party spokesperson, LK Advani's electoral strategist and regular Indian Express columnist. Fully aware that Kulkarni's introspective piece in Tehelka has created bedlam in the lotus garden , I still congratulated him for being absolutely forthright. Understandably Kulkarni remained poker-faced and noncommittal, but he is a receptive listener and a fine gentleman. As Yashwant Sinha quits party posts, Jaswant Singh raises his baritone into an inflammatory crescendo, and Sushma Swaraj describes the situation " volcanic" even without her characteristic hyperbole, it is discernible that the BJP is perhaps going through it's most turbulent, tumultuous times. In a great....

Angels and Demons

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"When God created two sexes, He may have been overdoing it". -- Charles Smith Sharad Yadav, the portly, chubby-cheeked, black-bearded veteran politician has threatened to hang himself from the tallest tree with the thinnest thread or consume tick-20 poison ( actually meant for cocky rodents on a nocturnal prowl). Now I do not have any reservations if that is breaking news or news flash or lightning thunder on our TV channels. After all, it is not every day that a professional practitioner of kurta-pyjama politics in the Hindi heartland , and that too a seasoned, hard-core cow-belt politician, threatens suicide. Yadav reminded me of a lachrymose Rekha in the 1970s Gemini melodrama, Maang Bhari Sindoor, ready to break bangles every time Jeetendra's white-shoes turned caramel brown, and consume an unbranded tonic (resembling cough-syrup Glycodin) in one deadly gulp, head held high at 85 degrees. In the absence of Bollywood....

The Flower Girl

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I see her often in the evenings, at a crossroad of South Mumbai. All of fourteen years perhaps, sprightly and smiling, cheerful and chubby-cheeked. She is usually accompanied by two brats, her younger siblings, who look straight out of a comic book, their naughtiness palpable through dry-skinned cheeks, practiced sales spiel and ruffled hair. The trio usually compete with each other to sell flowers in the fleeting sales window that they have before the go-ahead green lights come on. But they have their own rules of the game; even when they display their best marketing skills, it is not that the winner takes it all. They are happy that at least someone succeeded; they are family. Once she said to me, pointing towards the shorter fellow, as I offered her fifty rupees for a carnation bunch, "Buy it from him, he has had a rough day today". But the young....

The Young Congressman

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It was late spring, and the first symptoms of the oncoming summer was apparent; one could instinctively feel the seasonal shift. In the corridors of India's political quarters, however, no major alterations, not even subtle adjustments were expected. The election dates had been formally announced, and the NDA was preparing their victory speech, as a collective chorus screamed, India is shining. 10, Janpath by contrast wore a deserted look, almost serenely oblivious of the massive iterations happening around it. There was the occasional curious onlooker who gazed momentarily longer at it's single-tiered protected quarters; cars whizzed past as if in a great hurry, even the summer swallow was being distinctively selective. It was hard to believe that it's haloed occupants belonged to India's most high-profile family, with deep historical roots. This was their litmus test; the grand old party's very survival was now being seriously questioned. But the unexpected....

'Exit' Polls And Basic Instinct

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5 pm sharp. It was quite dramatic actually. The very moment the momentous ( that's the safest cliché to employ) elections 2009 came to a moderately-participated end, TV channels were ready to give us their pent-up, secretly kept, officially asphyxiated exit poll or post-poll surveys. Across channels, the drama ensued, with every show anchor on a ballistic binge, participating guests looking suitably grave and portending analytical expressions, and graphic images screaming new arithmetical formulations. It was heavy-duty brain haemorrhage. I am keen to know how the TRPs of English and Hindi news channels will compare with the never-ending IPL based on yesterday's teaser trailer to the biggie spectacle of Saturday. As a former banker who has seen his erstwhile several colleagues ( investment bankers and portfolio analysts top this dubious category) make a classic fool of themselves over the last year, I have developed a cold cynicism to mathematical....

The R Factor

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It is four days since Congress General Secretary Rahul Gandhi held his press conference in New Delhi. 96 odd hours later, there is an unusual buzz, frenetic activity, and incessant dissertation of Rahul's various pronouncements. There is an understandable sense of palpitating fluster in the BJP. Regional parties are tongue-tied at Gandhi's sincere unanticipated open-mindedness on potential allies. Typically media analysts believe it is only pure strategic posturing deliberately planned to create fissures in enemy camps. The process of assessment continues. The resulting rise in political decibels is all because Rahul Gandhi spoke impromptu, letting his intrinsic honesty manifest itself. It is actually as simple as that. It is something the Indian media, high on overdose of mindless mind-reading just cannot decipher. No standard banalities from Gandhi; no typical statements laced in usual political correctness. On the contrary, Rahul Gandhi reflected candor and commitment; he was not afraid of....

30/04: Mercury Rising in Mumbai

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At a small gathering of well-heeled sort in a South Mumbai club, Milind Deora , sitting Congress MP South Mumbai stood answering questions from the supposedly well-aware if not necessarily sufficiently-enlightened audience from his high profile constituency. At one point, Deora posed a query back , " Do you know who is your local MLA? Or your corporator?" Out of a gathering of a hundred odd people casually carrying Blackberry's, 3 half-bent hands went up feebly as if affected by a tennis elbow. Of those valiant limbs, two were just indulging in idle speculation and as for the other, he was the lone swallow of the summer party. In a great number of ways that minor interface manifested Mumbai's chronic political ignorance. Or indifference. Or both. On April 30th, as Mumbai voted, and camera crews whizzed around expecting a bone crushing multitude thronging polling booths, a certain reality dawned.....