Army Day…Reforms Required….. 15 January 2008

Today is Army Day. It is celebrated every year on 15 January in recognition of an Indian becoming the Commander-in-Chief of the Indian Army.The person was Lieutenant General K. M. Cariappa and the year was 1948.

Should the Indian Army really celebrate? Far from it. It is time for them to introspect and improve. They have fallen from grace. Every day we hear about scandals in the Army: wide spread and large scale corruption among the top generals in the purchase of equipment, faking of battles to win awards, fudging of results of equipment trials, diverting of food and other items meant for troops for monetary gains, harassing and commiting violence on civilains (including women), nepotism and non-military considerations during promotions and transfers, trying to cover up their misdeeds etc.

Knowledgeable common citizens are disillusioned. So far they have been proud of our Army (as also the other arms of defence namely Air force and the Navy) for their integrity, honesty, foresight and valour. Not any more.

S. Gopal
…Keying in is better than idling

Bhaarat Ratnaa for me…… 16 January 2008

(more than 350 words)

Maananeeya Pradhan Mantri Mahodhay Man Mohan Singh Ji,

(Pratilipi: Shrimathi Sonia Gandhi, Congress Party aur Desh ka katha-dhartha) (Please put in a word)

(Pratilipi: Honourable Rahul Gandhiji, Bharat ka bhavishya) (Please recommend my name)

Namashkaar! Saadar Pranaam!

I hope you had a nice and successful trip to China. How was the weather in Beijing?

I understand that you are in the process of selecting candidates for awarding Bhaarat Ratna. The country has already honoured 40 persons with this Ratna; the dishonourable exception being that of Mohan Das Karamchand Gandhi (the person whom we remember on 2 October and whose samadhi we visit that day).

Please consider my name as well; I have impressive credentials.

· Many times since the year 1960, I have travelled in long distance Indian trains, especially in the unreserved third class (even after it was renamed as second class). That was long before Lalu Prasad Yadav became the railway minister.

· I was a suburban train commuter with a second class pass for three years in Mumbai when it was known as Bombay.

· I have successfully crossed many roads at all hours in Bangalore, Hyderabad, New Delhi, Chennai, and Mumbai.

· I have undertaken many journies by Deccan Airlines (before it shook hands with Kingfischer Airlines); I have walked several kilometers to get into the aircraft; I have lived without sipping a drop of water in the plane.

· I have lived in Lucknow, the capital of Uttar Pradesh for about 14 years under various political regimes.

· For about eight years, I used the services of Delhi Transport Undertaker (sorry, Undertaking), well before it became DTC , to go to school and college..

· Hundreds of times I have used the services of a meterless three-wheeled wonder known as `autos’ in Chennai, driven by the most decent, well-mannered individuals on Mother Earth!

If these expolits are not sufficient to grant me the coveted medal, please let me know; I will send you a list of my other accomplishments.

Thanks for reading me patiently (that is, if you at all read this!)

Appa Charan Sparsh Karta Huva,

Subrahmanyam Gopal

A Rewarding Week…. 13 January 2008

(about 300 words)

The last week (6 to 12 January 2008) was one of the most intellectually stimulating week for me. I had the good fortune of listening to four brilliant and hard thinking men of contemperory India on four consecutive evenings starting 8 January 2008. I wish the Indian politicians listened to them too! All these public lectures were held in Bangalore.

R. Chidambaram, the Scientific Adviser to the Government of India (and a former chairman of the Indian Atomic Energy Commission) spoke about the status of nuclear energy in India. He talked on the basis of his vast experience as an active scientist as well as a science administrator with international exposure.

A. P. Venkateswaran, India’s former ambassador to China and a former foreign secretary spoke on `India and China – a comparison’. He was very cynical about India-China relations. He was not sure whether there would be any true friendship between the two countries in spite of the visit of India’s prime minister Manmohan Singh who is in China now.

Ramachandra Guha, a political and cricket historian, spoke on the `Beauty of Compromise’ (a term borrowed from Mahatma Gandhi). He felt that most conflicts in Asia can be solved by dialogue. However, on the subject of Kashmir he felt that solution was not that easy.

M. S. Valiathan, a cardiac surgeon by training and a former vice chancellor of the Manipal Academy of Higher Education spoke on the Science of Ayurveda. He traced the 2000-year history of this ancient Indian concept and practice with special reference to the works of Susrutha and Charaka and ended with the current status if research in this field in India.

In some subsequent issues of Penumbra I will try to share with you what I learnt in these lectures.

S .Gopal
…Keying in is better than idling

Units of Measurement and Morons…… 22 December 2007

The sales man who took us around the flats said:`this flat is 1 600, that is 1 400’. After some time he said referring to the same two flats: `this flat is 2 500 and that 2 600’. Of course, the intelligent (that excludes me) prospective buyers amongst us understood. Of course, 1 600 and 1 400 meant floor area of the flat in square feet; 2 500 and 2 600 meant the sale price in Rupees per square foot of floor area. Coming to the area of sites (in some places they are referred to as plots), 4 000 would mean 4 000 square feet in Bangalore and 4000 square yards (which is equal to 36 000 square feet!) in Hyderabad.

When a shop keeper tells you the price of the product is two fifty, it can mean Rupees two hundred and fifty or Rupees two and paise fifty.

Unenlightened, nitpicking morons like me would prefer units of measurement expressed clearly along with any value. Thankfully, such tribe is a small minority!

S .Gopal ….Keying in is better than idling

Negative Role Models… 18 December 2007

(about 280 words..)

They are perceived to be next only to God, because they save lives. I agree. Hence, they are role models. Everybody watches them closely, as I did when I was admitted to a hospital.

Several actions of some doctors are, however, not worth emulating. Here we go.

· A notice fixed near the door of a lift said: `only for patients’. I found doctors using this lift even though there was another working lift designated for the exclusive use of medical personnel.

· Doctors do not need a microbiologist to tell them not to roam around canteens and other places in their white coat – the attire, which they are seen with while examining patients.

· `No footwear inside’ warns a signboard at the entry to the Radiology room; you will find doctors entering the room with their shoes on, and mind you they are not special hospital slippers.

· `Keep Silence. Hospital Zone’, says the writing on the wall. White coated ones would stand and talk loudly just below the notice. Some would zoom in their vehicles.

· Once I was in an Intensive Care Unit of a hospital for a night as a patient. The doctor interns gossiped and joked all through the night while I was lying in discomfort.

· Doctors say that smoking is bad for health, but they themselves smoke in public; in my own case, a doctor who examined me in the Casualty department was reeking of nicotine and I had to inhale the passive smoke.

Who will advise those who are supposed to advise us?

S .Gopal ….Keying in is better than idling

Can Man know what God thinks?…. 15 December 2007

A couple of months ago, the authorities in the Sri Krishna Temple in Guruvayoor, Kerala decided to allow women dressed in churidhar-pyjama inside the temple. Since people from all parts of India visit that temple and since such attire has now become an all-India one, the news was widely welcomed. Till then only sari-clad women were allowed to enter the temple.

As for me, I hold the opinion that a proper churidhar-pyjama (unlike the filmy ones) is more `modest’ than a sari.

Then some pundits in the temple got together to do a `devaprasnam’ (an astrological exercise) and `found out’ that presiding deity was `angry’ with the decision to relax the dress-code.

My comments:

· Hindus believe that God is present everywhere and knows everything. However, some Hindus seem to know what God knows; a case of a mere mortal able to perceive what an immortal thinks!

· God is known as `karuna sagara’ – all compassionate. How can somebody attribute a negative emotion of anger to Him?

Think it over….

S .Gopal
….Keying in is better than idling

The Mall and Social Divide… 14 December 2007

The other day I went to one of the many shopping malls in Bangalore along with members of my family.

The multi-level car parking lot was almost full. Fortunately, we got a slot in a higher floor to park our car. That floor led us to the Food Court; it was overcrowded with people gorging food of all varieties – North Indian, South Indian, Chinese, Indian version of Chinese, American, etc.

We went to a regular restaurant on another floor to have a buffet lunch, each costing some Rupees three hundred. All the tables were occupied excepting one, which we occupied.

After lunch I strolled around the various sales outlets. I had no money in my pocket; I don’t have a credit or debit card either. I saw hundreds of people just milling around, buying and buying; most, I thought were impulse purchases. Tens of thousands of rupees were getting exchanged.

Is this the true face of India? Are we not sitting on a social volcano waiting to burst? Hope I am proved wrong.

S. Gopal

…. Keying in is better than idling

Obscurantist practices… 11 December 2007

Yesterday I heard that some well-educated, upper middle class, and not-so-old ladies known to me walked for five hours from their homes in suburban Mumbai to the Siddhi Vinayak Temple in Prabhadevi. I was also told that `even’ Amitabh Bacchan did the walking!

I can see only two reasons why they undertook this exercise.

· to thank the God for fulfilling their wishes

· to ask for more favours

Several related questions:

· Is modernity and civilisation limited to owning swanky cars, marbled house, overflowing wardrobe and other material acquisitions? Is it not time to effect a change in the mindset?

· Is God so naïve as to grant favours to someone who undertakes such an exercise?

· Is punishing the body like this is good for health for such individuals who are not used to such rigour in daily life?

· What happens to the theory that God is everywhere (including within oneself) and knows everything?

I know what the answer will be: You don’t ask questions when matters of faith are involved. Period.

S. Gopal

… keying in is better than idling

Nobel Prize Award Ceremonies…. 10 December 2007

(about 220 words)

10 December is the date when the best brains of the world will receive their Nobel prizes.

Nobel Laureates (excepting the ones for Peace) will receive their prizes from King Carl XVI Gustaf of Sweden in Stockhom.

Nobel Peace Prize Laureates will receive their prizes from the Chairman of the Norwegian Nobel Committee in Oslo.

Nobel Laureates for the year 2007 are:

· Physics: Albert Fert and Peter Grünberg “for the discovery of Giant Magnetoresistance”

· Chemistry: Gerhard Ertl “for his studies of chemical processes on solid surfaces”

Babri Masjid demolition..Has it helped? 6 December 2007

This day, in 1992, the Babri Masjid (Mosque of Babur), the largest mosque in the state of Uttar Pradesh, located in Ayodhya was demolished by a crowd of about 150 000 people.

Reason: The leaders of the majority community in the country believed that the mosque was standing on a place known as `Ramkot’ (Rama’s fort) Hill, where a temple to commemorate the birthplace (Ram Janmasthan) existed earlier. Their understanding was that the temple was destroyed under the orders of Babur – the first Mughal emperor of India – and a mosque built in that place in the 16 th. Century A.D.

Has the demolition helped?

Social scientists believe that

• tensions between the two communities have heightened since then
• some bloody events in the country can be traced as a backlash to the destruction of the Babri Masjid

Fifteen years down the line, the proposed Ram Temple has not come up.

Whatever it may be, this event will not be brushed away by the historians who will write on post-independence India.

S. Gopal

….Keying in is better than idling