SECULARISM AT 46 …….. INDIA AT 75

 

Secularism at 46

It is a known fact since the Modi Government displayed the original Preamble in 2015 and not the altered one that contains the word SECULAR, that the word was introduced in 1976 by Indira Gandhi through 42^nd constitutional Amendment.

 

Secularism is a much more complex subject actually than what people think it is. Some people can think it is negation of all religion, while to others it can mean an absolute separation of religion and state. Still others might feel that the Constitution should advocate articles that govern aspects of a religion; a few might even say the state should not involve itself in matters of religious education; many might even feel that a truly secular Constitution should demand a uniform civil code. I shall not attempt to interpret it.

 

It is again a very well known fact that Dr. BR Ambedkar was against the word “secular” and also “Socialist” being used in the preamble or in the constitution itself.  He said in Constituent assembly in 1948

 

“Sir, I regret that I cannot accept the amendment of Prof KT Shah. The Constitution is merely a mechanism for the purpose of regulating the work of the various organs of the State. It is not a mechanism whereby particular members or particular parties are installed in office. What should be the policy of the State, how the Society should be organised in its social and economic side are matters which must be decided by the people themselves according to time and circumstances. It cannot be laid down in the Constitution itself, because that is destroying democracy altogether”

 

Our Constitution has laid down rules as to how certain practices within religions are unconstitutional, even criminal, while other practices that hurt a particular religious sentiment but are practiced by other religious groups – like cow slaughter – were banned. Additionally, the question of religious education – grants provided by governments actually do not allow us to be really secular by any stretch of imagination. So Indian secularism was conceptually very hollow by design.

 

Hence it is not my endeavor to raise calls for “Saving Secularism”. In the name of “Saving Secularism”, one cannot be blaming or mocking the Hindus or ‘normalising’ Aurangzeb or Ghazni. However I would like to raise a more pragmatic question. Do we want one in seven Indians alienated because of their faith? At the very least, this would make for a very imperfect Indian democracy.

 

With the end of Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi, M.J. Akbar and Syed Zafar Islam’s Rajya Sabha tenures, Narendra Modi’s BJP will be left with no Muslim in either House. Read this with the following:

 

•In both the 2014 and 2019 elections, the Modi-Shah BJP won full Lok Sabha majorities without any of their seven and six candidates, respectively, winning. This, while 20 crore Muslims live in India. Or one in seven.

•In Uttar Pradesh, in 2017 and 2022, the Modi-Shah-Yogi BJP won humongous majorities without fielding any Muslim candidate. Muslims are about 20 per cent of the state’s population. Or one in five.

•In Assam, the Modi-Shah-Himanta BJP won two majorities in 2016 and 2021. It fielded 17 Muslims in the two elections combined, but only one won, in 2016. One in three of Assam’s people is Muslim.

•It is that rare juncture in our history when a Muslim sits on no constitutional chair in New Delhi (there’s one governor, Arif Mohammad Khan, Kerala), nor holds a position in the 76-member council of ministers, isn’t a chief minister anywhere. Of the 87 secretaries in the central government, two are Muslim.

 

Contradict all of the above with the fact that Muslims alone were once solely responsible for Mr. Vajpayee to lose the trust vote by 1 vote in 1999. The Word secularism was used like untouchability against the BJP then. One BJP leader has said “The Muslims have a veto on who rules India.”

 

However can any Indian say that in the “Golden Era” of “Secularism”, the state of affairs for the muslims in India improved their condition.  Truth be told, most Muslims continue to remain one of the most economically and in terms of education, the most backward class of people. The only promise muslims were served was a sense of security against the BJP at that time. Now the hell has broken on them ! So you see the choice they had…. Choice between very bad and ver very very bad !

 

The question I am asking is what has “Secularism” delivered in last 46  years since the same was introduced in our constitution in 1976. If anything, I think, the muslims of India have been more “Othered” than ever! The forefathers of the constitution, rightly so, did not keep it. The word has only polorised our country than bought it together. BJP has been the ultimate winner. They must thank Indira Gandhi to have served it to them on a platter.

 

 

India at 75

Now coming to our review of India at 75. I will start with two question. Which is the best Engineering / Management / medical institutes in India? Answers will definitely be the IITs, the IIMS, the AIIMS etc. The common thread between them is that they are all Government institutions. Sympathizers of Congress might just remind us that all started by J Nehru. The next question might bring them to place. How many of those reading this piece send their children to Government schools? I will be surprised even if one individual wants to send their wards to a Government School. This example itself is enough for me to conclude that our country is a land of missed opportunities and misplaced priorities.

 

In the year of “Azadi ka Amrit Mahotsav”, Indian Government approved “Revival package” for BSNL amount to Rs 1.64 Lakh Crores! What has the government to do in running of a telecom company in India in today’s day and age is best left for the reader to analyse. If one doesn’t want to criticize the present dispensation, then we can say that the government of the day, like their predecessors, have misplaced sense of priority.

 

Right from Nehru to Modi, Indian governing class has made blunders after blunders. The insurance sector of India has LIC as the biggest player, SBI is India’s biggest bank by some distance, the DESCOMs in every state of the country run into huge losses…… and yet we run the country with exactly the same mindset as was done in the 1950s. Even today, Indian government tells us what we can export and what we cannot. Farmers today, thanks to their senseless opposition to farm laws gave that power on the platter to the government who anyways wants to control what we see, what we eat, what we export and so on.

 

Look at the discourse of the politics today. The entitled ruling party MP announced in parliament in the monsoon session, “Humne Freefund ka khana khilaya 80 Crore garibo ko COVID mein”. The gentleman does not realise of his statement. No. 1 the statement comes from the place of entitlement. We are the kings and we feed people. No. 2 the gentleman is not ashamed that 80 Crore people are so poor that they needed the “Freefund ka Khana”. No. 3, he forgets that it is not Modi- Shah’s money that is spent on this scheme. It is yours and mine that we pay in form of taxes. So in these 75 years we have this as a ruling class.

 

At this point in time I must also speak about the Yuvraj of India. What can be said more about the shallowness of Indian democracy that a 5^th Generation dynast (dynasty started in 19^th Century end) is your chief opposition leader in 21^st century. We celebrate the fact that we are the “biggest democracy”. Question we must ask as a nation to ourselves is. Seriously are we?

 

One must also confess that it is not the government alone the part of the problem. I work in Electrical Engineering field in UAE. Here we deal with vendors from across the globe. As an Indian, it is my natural instinct to try and get more “Made In India” products to this market. However in my limited experience I find even the private sector happy with status quo. They do not wish to address issues related to quality of product, services etc. Excuses range from “Humare yahan to aaise hi hota hai (in our country we do it this ways)” to innumerable public holidays to anything and everything. The Indian private sector is not ready to take on the world! It is no surprise to me that we levy heavy duties on even import of consumer electronics and now even gold! We as a country do not have an attitude towards competing with the world. We enjoy the “my baap Licence raj” where the government decides what business we can do, how much we can do  and hence also protects Indian manufacturing from external competition.

 

What has changed with India in the last decade of these 75 years is the way votes are garnered. From the 1980s until 2010, votes of Muslims + any numerically dominant caste would win an election for you. The politics of parties like the SP (Yadav+ Muslim), BSP (Dalits+ OBC+ Muslims), RJD (Yadav+ Muslim) was run with this thread. It was Mandal- Kamandal Politics. Muslims were the common denominator in this politics.

 

Today, Modi – Shah combine have changed the equation from Caste based to religion based. So the Muslim vote of 14% is irrelevant. Their audacity stems from the fact that till the time even if 50% Hindus vote for them, they shall win hands down. The politics does not recoginse that the “Othering” of 1 in 7 Indian is a dangerous volcano. We have seen glimpses of that strangled anger during the CAA NRC row.

 

India at 75 is what could have been rather than what we are. Most of the Whatsapp university lessons shall be of glorious times of medieval age. Not what is the state of the country today.

 

To me India at 75 is a story of missed opportunities and misplaced priorities!

 

Jai Hind !!!

 

(PS: I will not change my DP to Tricolor)

 

 

Time to Rebuild!

Greatest Indian Test captain resigned as he conceded that Indian batting is a problem. Why and how did it reach here?

That’s the thing about good times. While they last, they make you ignore the warning signs and delay the necessary course-correcting actions — ‘if it’s not broken, why try to fix it?’ In the last five years, Indian men’s Test cricket team has seen a lot of success and a few failures. They won every Test series at home. Away, they won in Australia (twice), Sri Lanka, England (leading the unfinished series 2-1) and West Indies.

However something was rotting in the system and the team management headed by Mr. Ravi Shastri simply ignored it. That was the batting.

“In God I believe, for everything else bring Data”.  So let us look at the data. We shall look at the data from roughly 25 years. That was the last time India had gone through a big churn. 

 The data below shows India’s batting and bowling averages over different time spans. It is not rocket science to realise that more the difference between the batting and bowling averages, the better the Win/ loss ratio gets.

Clearly the golden period of Indian cricket was from 2016 to 2019 where Indian batsmen were scoring 16 runs per wicket more than what Indian bowlers were taking wickets. No wonder the Win to loss ratio for the period was 3.75. Highest it ever has been. In fact most of us will be surprised by the fact as that was the era where Indian team was doing better than the legendary West Indies of 1975-1985 and Australian team of 1996-2004. Here are their Stats of their high  period 

 

However the period under contention for India is from 1^st Jan 2020 till date. Here, there is a dramatic drop in the batting average. The bowling average is almost the same. What has happened as a result is for us to see. The Win to loss ratio has come down to 1.13 which is even worse than  the decade of 2006-2015.

So, the obvious question is how did the batting average of the Indian team fell to such astonishing lows. The answer lies in the middle order. The number 3, 4 and 5 of the Indian team have to be singled out for the same. Let me try and illustrate the same

To give some perspective below are the averages of the greatest batting line up of all times in India i.e. the era from 1996 to 2005

Now let us face some facts.

• Over all test batting average of Virat is 50.39, Pujara is 43 and Rahane stands at 38.42.
• Clearly Rahane and Pujara  would have found it difficult to be even in the team with those overall career numbers. Ask VVS Laxman and S Ganguly who always came under the scrutiny and were rarely assured place in the team. 
• Virat would have drowned under the weight of R Dravid, S Tendulkar and V Shewag. He wouldn’t be called as great as he is considered today. Frankly speaking, the numbers say he is not. It is just that his peers make him look good.

For the last 2 years Virat, Pujara and Rahane have average of 28 ,26 and 24 respectively. India’s overall batting average is 25.4. Technically speaking they are scoring on an average equal to a number 10 and 11. These are numbers not of a series but for last 2 years! Ideally they should not be picked even in a Zimbabwe side leave aside top Test playing nation.  

Hence during these two years we saw : 

• India team has defeated Australia  2-1. Heavy lifting in that series was done by R Pant who scored 274 runs at an average of 68. V Kohli averaged 14, C Pujara 33 and A Rahane 38. Incidentally S Gill scored 259 runs at a whopping average of 51
• India is leading unfinished Pataudi Trophy 2-1. Here R Sharma has 368 runs with avg of 52. KL is 315 at 42, Pujara 227 at 32 and Kohli as 218 and 31.
• India has two scores of below 100. Batting collapses are a common sight in Indian cricket for last 2 years 
• India lost WTC Finals and now the South African Series 2-1 

However, it is interesting to understand what R Shastri, the former coach was doing. Didn’t he see it coming. It is well known that R Shastri was not selected by expert panel which comprised of VVS, S Tendulkar and S Ganguly. He was hand picked by  V Kohli. The then court appointed administrators did not show any spine. They gave in to whims and fancies of the star, V Kohli.  A dog cannot bite the master that feeds him. Can it? R Shastri saw that the last coach was removed by the captain. How could he stand upto the star! He had no incentives to take on the captain, if the captain is wrong. How could one expect Ravi Shastri give a feedback to V Kohli. Result was that R Shastri was no more than a cheerleader without a skirt in the period. 

During this period as far as V Kohli goes, he had no choice but to defend C Pujara and A Rahane. When all the 3 were performing at the same pathetic levels, how could he drop the other two and continue. By keeping them in the team he looks better than them and people dont question his place in the team. That is precisely what happened in the last 2 years. 

Now, V Kohli’s captaincy was untenable. To his credit, he did not let the slump of his bad form affect the chances of the team. However, his numbers are now adversely affecting the team. With R Shastri gone, it is clear  R Dravid would not allow this to continue any further. He had no choice but to give up his captaincy. His poor form for 2 years costed him his captaincy! 

V Kohli will now be expected to concentrate on his batting and give us those crucial 40-50 more runs per match that he is capable of giving. He was a world class act at one point in time. He has fitness that many can only be jealous off. He has already given up captaincy of IPL and Indian team. He has to become No. 1 Test batsman.   

Also now it is time that C Pujara and A Rahane be thanked for their services  and India moves on to the next generation. The likes of Vihari, S Iyer, S Gill, P Shaw, R Gaikwad are available. Indian Team management has to show faith in the young talent and move on. Yes an era has ended with resignation of V Kohli but that also serves as an opportunity.

For India, it is time to rebuild. It is plain good luck that such job always comes to the likes of Rahul Dravid and Saurav Ganguly. They again have to pick Indian cricket from its lows and take it to its rightful place which is at the top. 

It is time to rebuild! 

Jai Hind! 

WHY IS HISTORY OF PRECOLONIAL INDIA IMPORTANT

 Whenever questions are asked about what we can learn from history, it invariably leads to philosopher George Santayana’s oft-quoted aphorism: “Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it”. Studying history enables us to develop better understanding of the world in which we live. Building knowledge and understanding of historical events and trends, especially over the past century, enables us to develop a much greater appreciation for current events today. And if we heed Santayana’s warning, then remembering history – and learning important lessons from it – should help us to avoid previous mistakes and prevent previous misdeeds from happening again.’

 

 

The liberals in India are moaning the rise of Modi-Shah- Yogi in India. However as some of the modern historians have started to study and write on the phenomena of rise of Modi, one does realize that Modi was not made in a day. It took more than a century of ideological battle that Sangh parivar fought to reach there. One of the most important reason for the rise of Hindutva regime is the way India wrote its history since the advent of Congress- especially its precolonial history.  

 

The Anti Colonial nationalism pioneered by in opposition to the British had applied a romantic gloss on pre colonial India. It was an Eden vandalized by Satanic Europeans But had the British really ruptured Indian historic Continuity? Or was it India’s decline, precipitated by centuries of conquest, that enable Britain to so quickly to overpower the subcontinent?

 

The “Pre- Congress”  history taught in India goes something like this

• ·        India was a prosperous country before British Arrived to India.
• ·        Mughals were these great rulers who were “Secular” and they contributed to the great civilization that India was and it was “Melting Pot of Cultures”
• ·       Ganga-Jamni Tehzeeb prevailed in India where Hindus and Muslims of the country lived happily and harmoniously and it was only when the British who employed their wicked Divide and Rule theory and caused problems which ultimately led to the partition of India
• ·      A fully developed national consciousness existed in the subcontinent before the arrival of the British. They smashed it and divided the natives.

Singling the British out as uniquely disruptive villains proved a convenient way for republican India’s secular intellectuals to bypass awkward questions that ought, in the long term interest of the country, to have been confronted head on. The airbrushing of the pre-colonial past was intended to deny ammunition to all those who cited the creation of Pakistan or a “Hindu Rashtra”. Historiographers tasked by the secular Congress establishment to clarify India’s past, motivated by their desire to do good, caused immeasurable harm by blurring it. The nation that emerged out of it is now without a rudimental apprehension of their difficult past. Medieval India, despite all the evidence of its methodical disfigurement was depicted in Schoolbooks as idyll where Hindus and Muslims coexisted in harmony and forged an inclusive idea of India which the British came and shattered. This fable has been so deeply internalized that in 1998, India’s then President KR Narayanan was able to tell an audience in Turkey that before the intrusion of the evil Europeans the interaction between the old civilization of India – the Hindu Civilization and the Islamic civilization was a Friendly experience.

 

Unfortunately for them and the national project – grand mosques of Northern India are still decorated with stone tablets in which you can still see traces of the preexisting liturgical monuments that were razed to furnish the building material for them. The chronicles of the subcontinent’s medieval rulers are full of pornographic descriptions of the horror with which the place was teemed.

 

All imperialism is vicious, but that is not the standard adopted by India’s secular historians. They tell us, Portuguese “were intolerant of the existing religions in India and did not hesitate to force people to become Christians”. Indeed they did all they could to make more converts. However on the other hand Islamic invaders “did not produce any fundamental change in the Indian society but they did help to enrich the Indian culture”. Truth is far from this. If one reads the campaigns of Babur, the founder of Mogul empire, the Portuguese pacification looked like a picnic. Imperialism in other words was destructive only when the Europeans did it. When the Asians did it, it was a cultural exchange programme.

 

Such well intentioned sanitization of the past was never in the long run going to be able to withstand the awakening of the people to their history. The “secular” establishment squandered a rare opening in the early decades of the republic to heal the wound by supplying Indians a forthright accounting of the history. Had India be honest about its past- about the atrocities that were perpetrated and the heritage that was ravaged- it might have desicaated the appeal of the Hindutva supremacism. It might have reconciled Indians of their harrowing past, provoked a mature detachment from it and denied the present dispensation the opportunity to weaponize history. To come to terms with the past, to move on from it, we must first acknowledge and accept it. No Indian individual or community bears any responsibility for what happened in the precolonial era. By downplaying and denying what happened, secularists unwittingly implied otherwise.

THE FINAL PILGRIMMAGE

Yes! The childhood dream now stands fulfilled. On 23^rd Sept 2018, I witnessed Indo Pak Clash in Super 4 round of the Asia Cup.

And yet there is an underwhelming feeling to this experience. Have I seen a bit too much of Imtiaz Ali…. Manzil se Behtar lagte hain yeh Raste..... or is it the fact that India registered their biggest ever victory in ODI cricket against Pakistan in the match could be the reason…… There can be multiple reasons for this weird feeling, where I achieved what I wanted to and now I think I wish I did not achieve it. However it was a journey that I simply could not avoid

The millennials, who would have watched the last 10 years saw India and Pakistan meet  14 times and India came out at the top in 9 of them. So they would not understand the fuss about the contest. One has to confess that, one has to be above a certain age to be able to understand the rivalry of India Pakistan contest.

India became the World champions in 1983 despite having a weaker record in limited over cricket till such this date. This is both overall and head to head. To exploit the already existing hate between the two nations and their love for cricket, Sharjah  was chosen as the venue for India-Pakistan clashes, which showcased the cricketing skills of these countries in the backdrop of war-like imagery. People have argued that this literal “war minus the shooting” did immense damage to the cause of friendship between the two nations. The images of foul-mouthed, flag-waving spectators inside the stadium, being beamed live inside millions of drawing rooms in the two countries, became the new tool to prove how “hatred” for each other defines the two neighbors. Yet what cannot be forgotten is the nail biting contests that defined these battles. A last ball 6 by Miandad off Chetan Sharma actually demotivated India so much that for next 3-4 years, we could not win a contest against the arch rivals. It took almost 10 years (1997) for India to return the favor when Rajesh Chauhan hit that 6 in the last over… the venue was Karachi. Then there are other images which flash across your memory …. the Sohail send off from Prasad at Bangalore in 1996, the More Miandad kangaroo fight in Australia in 1992, the cut of Tendulkar off  Akthar 10 rows back at South Africa in 2003, the “Aaloo” that ran behind the spectator at Canada, the 314 chase in Independence Cup at Dhaka where Hrishikesh Kanitkar became a hero and I could go on and on. However the most enduring memory for me was the fear that the Pakistani players had on us. I would fear a Wasim, Waqar, even Aaqib Javed and even if India was cruising, I never felt safe because we knew the never say die attitude of Pakistan. To me that quality alone made Pakistan Pakistan.

In the last decade the balance has decisively shifted towards India. I did some number crunching and the statistics reveal what we knew

Duration	Matches	India Win	Pakistan Win	India Win %
Overall	131	54	73	41.22%
upto 2000	78	27	47	34.62%
Last 10 years	14	9	5	64.29%

Pre 2000s, India would win only 1 of the 3 matches it played. Post 2000, that ratio improves dramatically to a point that now Pakistan wins only one of the 3 matches it plays against India. However even more worrying for the Indo Pak contest are the results of last 5 matches including the one I saw yesterday

It shows not only that India has won 80% of the time in last couple of years, but it shows the contest were one sided. Even the lone Indian loss was a dramatic one sided affair.

However we need to remember that Pakistan cricket works. No team has defied odds so routinely in the history of any sport. You can, in fact, always give them good odds on defying odds. I know that doesn’t make sense, but so does the enigma of Pakistan cricket team. It seems they are on a mission of putting cricket pundits, fortune tellers and bookies out of job. Pakistan loves to lose when you back them to win and when you give them no chance, they will turn in their best performances. You bet on them at your own peril. Not sure how, but it does. It’s counter-intuitive, a bit like Quantum Physics for a layman, but there is ample proof of it around. It’s kind of weird too, it succeeds even when you think it’s laughably inept. And hence you can never ever ever ignore them. I have certain friends who despite seen this multiple times do not acknowledge this and hence they would be proven wrong. I am certain of this fact. The only thing predictable about Pakistani team is their unpredictability. Hence the admiration and the feeling of satisfaction when you see Pakistan being defeated co exist in me. 

Having said all of the above, I must admit I have this weird hate-hate relationship with Pakistan cricket. I hate it when they seem invincible. I hate it when they seem defenseless. Only a moderately successful Pakistan team keeps me at peace. But for Pakistan cricket, moderation seems haraam. 

While it was underwhelming to have witnessed the contest but as I said before, for the people above a certain age, the baggage we carried, it had to be let off. I can now die in peace! 

Yesterday with that biggest Indian Win in limited overs cricket I completed my pilgrimage. 

Jai Hind!

JOURNEY TO BE A FITTER ME

April 2017, I had come back from a wedding. I was going through the pictures of the event and I did not like what I saw. At 37, putting it mildly, I was very fat.  On the weighing machine I was 93kgs. Now for those who know me know, I am very passionate about sports. I could not believe as to how I came to this situation. Morning Backaches had become a routine and cholesterol was flirting with the borderline. That was it. Today, on 29^th Dec 2017, I weigh a just less than 75kgs and I am putting this down to remind myself more than anyone else of things that helped me get from 93 to 75.

Logic Of weight Loss:  The equation for weight loss is a common sense equation

CALORIES SPENT – CALORIES INTAKE = WEIGHT LOSS

If one understands this, it is clear, one has to spend more calories during the day than one can consume and if possible the difference should be as huge as possible. So let us take both of the ingredients of weight loss. 

1)      Calories Spent: Again this component has two parts.

a.       First is your basal metabolic rate. The energy you spend during the day. The more active you are during the day, the more calories you burn. Take those stairs to climb 2-3 floors, park your car a little further, fill your bottle only half and walk twice to the tap in your office during the day, clean your home on weekends, play Tennis, cricket, run with your kid. Things like Green tea without sugar, lime water without sugar etc also trigger ones metabolism. Unfortunately, with age this rate goes down.

b.      Physical Activity: There is no substitute for hard work. One has to exercise hard and consistent.

2)      Calorie Intake: What you eat is what you become. From my personal experience, this affects the weight loss more than the 1^st part. Most Indians are veggies by nature. The problem however is the process of cooking that makes it difficult for us to keep calories under check. Oil and Sugar are the main culprits. Snacking does not help either. I was guilty of all this. Today, I still have my share of Samosas, Pav Bhajis, Occasional indulgence at Chatori gali for the deep fried Tikkis and the stuffed parathas, but all this is evenly spread. For most of the other days, eggs, Musseli, 2-3 rotis with pulses, cooked vegetables are order of the day for both meals. Fruits are filler for me. Apples, Melons, Kiwis, cucumbers etc form my evening snack. The worst part of the day is post dinner. I have a habit of munching while watching TV. This part is yet to be honed and I still get sucked into unhealthy snacks. Desirable is munching walnuts, prepare chana (black and white) salad with Onions, green chutney and green chilies to make it tasty.

While any success is a lot of things coming together and so was this success in reducing weight was a combination of lot of things coming together, I would like to bring point out the following that really helped me

LIFE GIVES A CHOICE! Yes it does. I could have sulked. Professionally too, I wasn’t at my best and there were enough reasons to sulk, self-pity and all of that. However, I chose not accept the status quo and do something about the situation. Accepting status quo like accepting defeat. Sports had taught me to fight. It is in the mind. Like most of the good but hard things, it all boils down to how bad you want that. How much hard work you are ready to put for the same. Simple. Technique, process etc. do play a role but the most important in there in your brain. There are days that you will hit lows. You shall not able to lift those weights, run that mile you are used to. It is your will that will challenge the status quo. In the end that is what makes the difference.

HARD WORK! I know there is a big industry out there which helps one achieve ones goal for reducing weight. The fact remains, the arithmetic of reducing weight is basic. One needs to work hard and that is it. Nothing less and nothing more. I must put a disclaimer that I have not used any supplement, added protein etc during this weight loss. The only expense for me was the Gym fees which I will gladly continue to pay.

CONSISTENCY! Consistency and Intensity are both important, but I have realized,  it is the consistency that is more important. If one is consistent, the intensity will increase. I started with maximum pace of 6.4km/ hr on tread mill. Now I can run 11-12km/ hr easily for say 30-45 mins. It happens when you are consistent. Its easier said than done. For me, Rahul Dravid was an inspiration. The man would do the same thing, putting his head down, day in and day out and that’s it. What I have been doing for the last 7 months is wake up at 6:00am and hit the gym. You are more likely not to miss the gym in the morning than in the evenings. We have our work pressures, socializing etc to do and hence that is the time I recommend to follow. Similarly, one should be consistently mindful of eating.

TECHNIQUE! This is the end of getting into the nitty gritty. I must acknowledge the advice from my former colleague Mr. Mohammed Adeel (from Lahore, Pakistan). He introduced me to this website called www.bodybuilding.com and there you have this 84 days programme called Lee Labrada’s 12 week Lean body trainer . I did not follow the recommended Diet plan but used it for exercises. It has a neat app which one can use every day in the gym. One records every set/ every move you make. It consistently tells you what to do next. Techniques to do these exercises are explained. I am currently in week 10 (doing it the 2^nd time) and I find the programme neat as it covers all parts of the body. It balances cardio and weight training.  Further as I grew thinner, I managed to run faster and longer distances. I have run between 7-10 kms at a stretch, more than 7-10 times in last 3 months. Variations do help as body should not be allowed to get into any comfort zone. In fact that is why the programme I got is wonderful. One day it helps to work out Chests shoulders and Triceps, the next day may be the Legs and the abs, the 3^rd day back and biceps and the 4^th day is about Cardio. In fact it’s a mix of all that and not in that order. Keep your body guessing is the key.  Truly a wonderful resource.

MONITOR PROGRESS! “In God I believe, for everything else bring data”. This for me was again a technique to keep me motivated. The app as discussed above would make notes of the exercises I would take up daily. Every day I would weigh myself. The days of eating indulgences would show up there. Similarly weekly I took pictures of my front, side and back. When you see your improvement, you are more motivated. The more you are motivated the more you will lose weight and so on.  

SUPPORT FROM FAMILY AND FRIENDS! Losing weight is a lifestyle changing process. Unless your partner supports the cause, one is likely to fail. I must credit my wife to bearing up with me in the process. She has to curb her excellent cooking skills. Similarly, here in UAE, I have an excellent inner circle of friends, who were always health conscious. Trust me it helps to have correct benchmarks around you who inspire and push you.  

Excellence is not a destination but a journey. While I am happy to share the above, I know it is one milestone. Inshallah, this shall lead to years of fitter me.

Abu Dhabi, UAE 

29^th December 2017 

Golden Era of Indian Cinema

Indian Cinema has come of an age and that’s only an understatement. For a person who has been bought up on regressive Indian Cinema of the 90s, the new era now is like a breath of fresh air. This era is that of Imtiaz Ali, Anurag Kashyap, Vishal Bharadwaj, Vinkramaditya Motwani, S Rajmouli, Anand Rai and many more associated with them. Its almost a team which is out there to make Cinema the way it is supposed to be. The depth and the range that never existed is now there to be seen.  From a cricketing analogy, this seems to be era between 1996 and 2011 when the likes of Sachin, Saurav, Rahul, VVS, Kumble played who encouraged the Yuvis, Bhajjis, Shewags, the Dhonis. Indian Cinema has clearly entered the same phase.

I shall talk about 3 recent releases which are so different from each other and yet if you have to find something common in them is the excellence with which these 3 stories were pursued and executed. I discuss them in the order of their releases in India and not necessarily any other order of preference.

TANU WEDS MANU RETURNS

 “Hum thode Bewafa kya nikale… Aap toh badchalan ho gaye”.  Clearly the movie was made over the top. Anand Rai who had earlier made Ranjhanaa too understands the mass sensibilities so well and plays the films for the masses. Yet the movie is so different from the 200-300 Crore films. The screenplay that allows the characters to be developed and then they playing over the top would not have been easy but with the two recent movies, Anand Rai shows how even an entertaining film can be executed. No item numbers were required because the film’s characters are itself an item number. Coming from the heart land of India- Kanpur, Delhi, Punjab, the movie celebrates smart dialogues, the changing  and many times conflicting social values. Films need not be senseless to be entertaining is what Anand Rai so effectively portrays in his movies. That he got an actress like Kangana who herself brings that liberating spirit to the table, exponentially enhanced the effect of the film.

BAHUBALI

What more can be said about that has already not said. Films to many, like me, are not only about substance but is an larger than life spectacle. Irrespective of the genre of the film being made, I believe the reason that a film is to be made is because the filmmaker believes that a story is to be told. More often than not, filmmakers in India try and make a spectacle and then try and base the story around that spectacle. The spectacle could be a big star or in some case CGI. CGI does not need a story….. The story telling might need CGI. Bahubali passes this litmus test. The story was there and it need a scale. S Rajamouli should be complimented as a story teller and as a project manager. He succeded not only in the art of story telling but ensure that a project of this scale was executed to perfection. The result of was a spectale which help its audience to their seats for more than 150mins and the quest is for more is not done with. Bahubali, in true sense of the word, is larger than life and yet a story that connects the sensibilities of human race to core.

MASAAN

“A celebration  of Life and Death and everything in between” said the poster of Masaan. To my surprise the movie was exactly what it promised.  Unlike, Bahubali and Tanu weds Manu, this by that definition for a non filmy film. It’s a film with layers. Christopher Nolan is the film maker that comes to mind when you discuss about films with layers. “The Drark Knight” was a film which both a child and an intellect will like for reasons of their own…. Both interpreting the movie the way they want to. This movie has many layers and much has been left to the imagination of audience. I like it. I like when a filmmaker respects the intelligence of its audience. The movie shows life in Benaras, the way it is. It is the audience which interprets it the way it wants so much life the real life.

I was particularly hurt by a small scene when they at the Harishchandra Ghat of Benaras where the bodies were being cremated. Some one in the background shouts for the skull to be broken. Let me explain this ritual.  A few minutes after the body  has been consigned to the flames, Kapal Kriya is performed. In this, one of the longer bamboos used in the Arthi is used to break the skull of the body. This is done by the person doing the cremation. Forehead is where the soul of the dead is supposed to be concentrated. Once broken, the soul is freed from the body and starts the search for the next body. I performed these rites almost 5 years back. It is by far the most painful duty that I have performed as a human. It sends shivers down my spine even now. That highly soul shattering experience, is shown as a casual shot in the film. I am sure many might have missed it. I am sure the purpose of the shot was the effect that it left on it. To show how such soul shattering experiences which a person like me cannot forget for 5 years now,  is the life of “Doms” of Kashi. The lead actor of the movie wants to escape the place and lead a good life. Those aspirations were more than justified with that one shot. The movie has many such experiences. It’s a movie that wont leave you for a long time.

In conclusion, it is clear that the three movie which have been released within months of each other have raised the bar of Indian Cinema across genres. While Tanu Weds Manu Returns and Bahubali are over the top, larger than life films, Masaan is story of life and death. It has substance. Our filmmakers have delivered them to their audience exactly the way they are meant to be  served. Its true that we still do not have a Quentin Tarintinos , the Christopher Nolans, the Martin Scorsese , the Steven Spillbergs, the James Cameroons as yet. But the new breed of film makers are not very far off. They can deliver is proven. This is clearly by far the Golden era of Indian Cinema.  The only question now to be asked to our film makers is …. Can they dream. The film  industry is after all an industry of dreams.

Tilak and Jinnah

I happened to the a Marathi Movie that released earlier this year called "Tilak: Ek Yugpurush". A fantastically made movie clearly shook me from inside. The movie and the quest to understand the Indian Freedom movement made me do a bit of research for myself. Let me share some things I found. 

Lokmanya Bal Gangadhar Tilak first leader of the Indian Independence Movement. The British colonial authorities called him "Father of the Indian unrest." He was also conferred with the honorary title of "Lokmanya", which literally means "accepted by the people (as their leader)".

Tilak was one of the first and strongest advocates of "Swaraj" (self-rule) and a strong radical in Indian consciousness. He is known for his quote in Marathi, "स्वराज्य हा माझा जन्मसिद्ध हक्क आहे आणि तो मी मिळवणारच" ("Swarajya is my birthright, and I shall have it!") in India. Not many people know this but he formed a close alliance with Muhammad Ali Jinnah, later the founder of Pakistan, during the Indian Home Rule Movement.

Just outside the grand, wood-panelled Central Court in Mumbai High court stands a marble tablet with these lines inscribed in stone: “In spite of the verdict of the Jury, I maintain that I am innocent. There are higher powers that rule the destiny of men and nations and it may be the will of providence that the cause which I represent may prosper more by my suffering than my remaining free.”

Tilak was tried on three occasions by the Bombay High Court, for inflammatory speeches and sedition. On one occasion — the occasion on which Tilak spoke those line — his defence lawyer was Muhammad Ali Jinnah. In 1916, Jinnah defended Tilak when he was charged with sedition, ultimately securing his acquittal. 

Jinnah's commitment to Indian freedom was in many ways formed by his relations with Tilak and another Indian National Congress leader, Gopal Krishna Gokhale.

Images of mighty historical figures often circulate as fond stereotypes — good, bad and ugly. They also have the power of indoctrinating society into believing that they are inviolable. If Tilak is routinely identified with his “Swaraj is my birthright” assertion, Jinnah is invariably hailed as the creator of Pakistan. 

Scholars and the public at large in both India and Pakistan need to revisit Jinnah's person and political legacy in an attempt to better understand this region's history.  It is important for Indians to reclaim Jinnah as a freedom fighter and integral figure in our own history, while Pakistanis need to acknowledge that the founder of their nation made some mistakes.

I am sure I cannot and shall not stop here. The quest to know what and how the ugliest divorce (India- Pakistan Partition) in the history of mankind took place cannot end here. The answer, I am sure, cannot be in black and white, as the history  taught to us in India would like us to believe.