Living in the (past) moment

The English truly have to be living in the Past.

Just read about the Revenues of the Royal Family of the British empire. This is where the sun never set till the clock struck 21st century. However, a lot of the British public still seem to believe it's the Imperial Age, if the way they support the expenses of the Royal family is any indication.

Funding the escapades of a Prince who became an emotional pauper to a mistress old enough to be his mother's elder sister should not really be a concern of the British public. This thoroughly British gentleman adulterer already has a netstimated fortune of nearly half a billion USD, while his official duties range from polo to inauguration work. And the British public still feel duty-bound to this time-bound tradition which has no present-day conviction.

Well, if Indians can be French enough to be led by an Italian, so can the British continue to be English.

Living life just like in the movies

You gotta hand it to Andhra Pradesh for innovation.

Through raising the bar on photogenic revolt by self-immolation and hunger-strike, Andhra Pradesh seems to live life just like the movies, specifically, Telugu movies. Things surely have changed a bit since Marie Antoinette's era, when cake was a good substitute for bread. In these digitized times, if farmers in AP don't have tractors, let them have Tablet PCs.

In Telugu movies, you kill two stones with one bird, and even this makes for serious viewing. So, you will surely understand the students and their politicians.

Aspiring for greatness or great awareness?

I was, only two mornings back, going round Modern High School, to determine whether this would be the right housing for my child's formal learning process. I was impressed with the suit-wearing executives, and the murals on the walls and, finally, the picture of the All-India ICSC topper swung things in Modern's favour. For, I too wanted, at least for that morning, my daughter to ace her education in the way modern education is expected to be aced.

That afternoon, I read about some issues of children in schools, and of various levels of intelligence, and of health issues, and the rest of the works, and it quickly came to mind that, contentment has to be the best gift you can give yourself.

Being contended for the way your child is (growing up to be), for the way you are, for the way your family is, reflects on the level of your harmony with the universe. With so many children around with no chance for education, I should be glad that my child is getting one. The ranks and rankings should be aspired for with detachment. The spirit of competition in the child is fired as much with the spirit of competition in the parents, as is with the overtures in the classroom. But so are consideration and empathy, and more so, as you will not find a lot of these values being nurtured in the classroom.

Education for the child has to be introspection for the parents. What do we raise our children to be? What for do we raise our children to be?

And, that afternoon, as I was evaluating my initial motive to (hopefully) send my daughter to Modern, I got a news that a close friend of ours had been admitted to ICU with MI. And this is a gentleman with no symptoms to suggest heart-disease. Normal BP, normal sugar, normal cholesterol. And it came one unsuspecting moment, the happenstance to underscore the point of the delicate house of want against the shaky ground of reality. Thankfully though, he is fine and was discharged yesterday.

Of all aspirations, the aspiration for contentment ought to be the most exalted. Ironally though, it cannot seem to be an aspiration at all, rather an endeavour in itself.

The world's largest democracy (up for sale)

On my way back to Dubai last week, I was reading the transcript of some of the taped conversations that Nira Radia had with just about everybody who is anybody in India, and this is the conclusion: Anything and anybody can be bought or sold at the right price.

The conversations range from the soap opera within the Karunanidhi family to the Reliance drama to the inconic scandal of recent times that dwarfs even CWG and Adarsh, the 2G disaster. All suggest one thing: our hallowed banana republic headed by the venerable Italian (I didn't say mob) is scripting a story that actually might make BJP's communal ideology seem quite acceptable.

If you read, you will figure out that even our benevolent PM might not be the white sheep that we assume his gracious smile to be. He was privy to the processes that at the Info Ministry that has cost a cool $39 billion loss to the exchequer, and ultimately to the common man. Going by the article, this figure can escalate if current subscriber fees are calculated for the licences allotted. One thing's for sure, you have to admit that this is a very impressive statistic that Raja can lay claim to. In politics, guts and shamelessness almost mean the same thing.

The ultimate icing on India's cake of corruption is the fact that the media itself is, as opposed to FT's slogan, with fear, and with favour. You have got Bharka and Sanghvi canvassing and conniving. So, even the fourth estate is economical with the truth and generous with the generous.

Who can you trust in India???

And here I start life as in l-i-f-e

On Wednesday, 1st December, 2010, my daughter became one of India's 96 million children who are Blessed to be able to go to school.

She woke up early, bathed, dressed up and took the elevator to the entrance of her building where an air-conditioned bus came to drop her to her play-school, all for a monthly fee that will take care of the annual education of 15 of her Indian siblings. I hope she will learn someday to show gratitude for the fact that for the 3 million children on the streets, and, especially for the majority of her sorority, there will be no school. As of April 1, 2010, the Right to Education (RTE) Act made schooling a fundamental right for all children. But for 50% of India's 192 million children, the RTE will remain an April Fool's joke. Even more significantly, for the girl child, who actually grows up to be a woman and a mother (like the India-is-my-Motherland joke), this fundamental right is far from fundamental. It is much more of a privilege.

I hope and pray that she gets a meaningful, purposeful and socially beneficial education, so that the equally deserving, but less fortunate of her sisters may one day be able to read, understand and smile at how the RTE has benefited all children of our country, male and female.