CHAOS, DAMN CHAOS! 

SUNNY THOMAS 

(onionlive.com) 

Democracy is all about creating chaos. With too many cooks (read crooks, if you prefer) spoiling the broth, what else do you expect? And politics is all about solving problems politicians themselves have created purely in national interests.

The Indian parliament is the showcase of Indian democracy; the showcase of how not to work but disrupt and enjoy all the privileges, including heavily subsidized food at rates much below people living under the poverty line are entitled to. One suspects the BJP and Congress MPs do not hate each other as much as they are shown on television. These MPs pounce at each other on the screen like a pack of wolves, but in private put arms around each other in perfect understanding. The victim of their latest understanding is the Lokpal Bill, which is log-jammed in Parliament, daring Anna Hazare for another fast. Team Anna is already doing a cost-benefit analysis, and if it decides on a fast, some of its members could be on the Forbes list of Super Rich, due this January.

Every time Manmohan Singh acts in his economic wisdom, UPA is jittery; the allies (so-called) blow hot and blow cold; and poor Pranab Mukherjee will have work to do. Incidentally, India’s golden shooter is not Gagan Narang, Abhinav Bindra or Rajyavardhan Rathore as many think but the golden trouble-shooter Pranab Mukherjee. But this time around, Manmohan played a masterstroke in giving a near-green signal to Walmart (but held back till UP elections): those opposing Walmart are not farmers but middlemen, who are politicians and lobbyist, pretending to protect farmers but bleed them to suicide.

The great crusading journalist, P Sainath, has brought out stunning statistics about farmers’ suicide. The villain among states that have registered an alarming rise in suicide rates is Maharashtra (+1294) while the record of West Bengal (-436) and Kerala (-221) is impressive. The performance of Kerala is all the more impressive considering that the state farmers have opted for cash crop whose prices are volatile (vanilla prices crashed from Rs 4,000 a kg to Rs 80 a kg!). These farmers are at the mercy of human sharks called middlemen. But the hidden message is too ugly to be told: the union agriculture minister comes from the state that tops in farmer suicide rates!


Andhra Pradesh        1590            2301           +711

Assam                        155              291           +135

Karnataka                 2259           2123            -136

Kerala                      1292            1071            -221

MP+ Chatisgarh       2304           2829             +525

Maharashtra             2508           3802             +1294

Tamil Nadu                992             866             -126

Uttar Pradesh             640             531             -109

West Bengal             1426             990             -436

Source: NCRB accidental deaths & suicides in India reports 1995-2010

From time immemorial, human civilization has flourished by the riverside; water is life and the river, the spring of life. Even a 5-year-old child knows her 110-year-old granny cannot walk without a walking stick. The whole world knows it, except perhaps Jayalalithaa who insists that the height of reservoir of the 110-year-old Mullaperiyar Dam which is reportedly leaking should be raised to 142 feet (43 m) even if it endangers the lives of 5 million farmers who are not her votaries. But the safety of half a million people around Kudankulam matters because they are her votaries.

Located adjacent to the confluence of the Mullayar and Periyar rivers, the dam is called Mullaperiyar. Flowing west, the Periyar runs its full course entirely through Kerala, and the dam and the reservoir, too, are exclusively located in Kerala. Tamil Nadu collects water from this reservoir by a tunnel to the eastern side of Western Ghats.

On October 29, 1886, a lease indenture for 999 years was made between Maharaja of Travancore, Vishakham Thirunal, and the Secretary of State for India, after considerable pressure on the former. The lease granted the then Mardas state (under British rule) the right to construct dams and irrigational works. Travancore gave 8000 acres of land for the reservoir and another 100 acres to construct the dam for a tax for Rs 5 per acre per year.

When India became independent, the lease got expired. Attempts to renew the agreement in 1958, 1960, and 1969 failed , but succeeded in 1970 when C Achutha Menon was the chief minister. According to the renewed agreement, the tax per acre was Rs 30, and for the electricity generated Rs12 per kw per hour. But this was without the consent of the Kerala legislative assembly. This agreement, too, expired in 2000. But Tamil Nadu still uses the water and the land, paying for the past 50 years Rs 2.5 lakh as tax per year and Rs 7.5 lakh per year as surcharge for electricity.

The first dam built by the British was washed away by floods and a second dam was built in 1895, with stone and surki ( a mixture of sugar and calcium oxide).

Tamil Nadu proposed an increase in the storage level of the dam from the currently maintained 136 feet (41 m) to 142 feet (43 m) but Kerala opposed the move. More than 5 million people will be wiped out from the face of earth, should the dam breach. To fish in troubled waters, an enterprising movie maker produced a $10-million 3D Hollywood movie based on a dam breach in China, and titled it Dam 999 – some suspect he got it banned to make it a super hit! The movie is a damn squib and will have no audience unless some school children are forced to watch it by their Principals.

In 2006, the Supreme Court allowed the storage level to be raised to 142 feet (43 m). However, the Kerala government promulgated a new ‘Dam Safety Act’ against increasing the storage level of the dam, which was objected to by the court. Tamil Nadu challenged it on various grounds. The court issued notice to Kerala to respond but did not stay the operation of the Act. The court then advised the two states to settle the matter amicably.

Just imagine, the same river was flowing entirely through Tamil Nadu and diverted to quench the thirst of Kerala farmers. Five years ago, the height of the reservoir was reduced, caring for the lives of exactly 5 million people living nearby. Tamil Nadu promises to build a new dam in a couple of years and then restore the reservoir height, but Kerala refuses to budge presenting a here-and- now argument.

You could well visualise the tantrum Jayalalathaa – who lived all her life acting – will be throwing for the television cameras always looking for action pictures. All the television editors – Arnab Goswami, Prannoy Roy, Rajdeep Sardesai, Rahul Kanwal and Rahul Shivshankar – would be congratulating their camera men for getting such excellent shots!

GANDHI LOVES 

WALMART!

(onionlive.com)

SUNNY THOMAS

Of late, Gandhi has changed so much! You may not even recognize him if by chance you met him on the street. The other day, I saw a true Gandhian, with a true Gandhi cap and in true khadi getting out of a Mercedes Benz car. He was coming after a televised fasting in the capital, which even President Obama and the First Lady Michelle Obama watched from the White House. Our Gandhian owns no Mercedes Benz, but simply got a lift from a friend who runs a foundation that gets funds from well-wishers abroad. The crowd was taken aback when this foundation man was shouting, ‘Bharat Mata ki jai’ instead of ‘American Mata ki jai’!! 

Welcome to Walmart (Wal-Mart till 2008) to the land of Gandhi, which is being Americanized by the hour ever since the IT Revolution. It is often said in South Bloc in whispers of course that if Obama catches cold, Dr Manmohan Singh will sneeze.When Sam Walton opened a retail store in 1962 at Bentonville, Arkansas, he had no idea that it would one day do business in 15 countries, opening 8,500 stores, and be the largest grocery retailer in the US.

But what worries India’s sensible people is the impact it would have on the ‘mom and pop’ stores of the small towns. An Iowa State University study by Prof Kenneth Stone has warned that small towns could lose almost half of their retail trade within ten years. However, shopkeepers who can adapt will thrive on new opportunities thrown open by Walmart.  

Another study by Global Insight found that food-at-home prices were 9.1% lower between 1985 and 2004 in the US because of the impact of Walmart. Washington Post reported (2005) that Walmart’s discounting of food alone boosts the welfare of American shoppers by at least $50 billion per year. An MIT study (2005) said the poorest segment benefited most from the existence of discount retailers.

To balance good news with bad ones, two professors from Pennsylvania observed that poverty increased in counties with Walmarts rather than in counties without Walmarts. This could be due to displacement of workers from higher paid jobs in retail business, which disappears as Walmart opens stores. Dr Raj Patel, the author of Stuffed and Starved, brings forth the tale of two Walmart stores in Nebraska, one just launched and the other well established. The first cut prices to the bone to drive out competitors whereas the second was charging 17% higher. 

Each week, about 100 million customers, nearly one-third of the U.S. population, visit Walmart stores because of low prices. Walmart Express is a smaller discount store with a range of services from grocery to gasoline service. The concept is focused on small towns.

Walmart had to bite the dust in Germany and South Korea, known for fierce competitive spirit. In Germany it captured just 2% of the food market in 1997 and remained a second  behind Aldi with a 19% share till 2006 when it finally withdrew. But it is doing well in the UK, and its Asda subsidiary is the second largest chain after Tesco.Entering the South Korean market in 1998, it withdrew in 2006.

In China, Wal-Mart hopes to succeed by adapting the Chinese way. The Chinese consumers prefer to select their own live fish and seafood; stores began displaying the meat uncovered and installed fish tanks, leading to higher sales.

Wal-Mart is governed by a fifteen-member Board of Directors, notable among them were Hillary Clinton (1985–1992) and Tom Coughlin (2003–2004), who was later caught in a

fraud and tax evasion case and sentenced to 27 months of confinement and damages worth $411,000.

There have been charges that Walmart is anti-woman, anti-labour, anti-environment, none of which has been proved in a court of law.

THE FALL OF A KING

(onionlive.com)

It is difficult not to admire Vijay Mallya, the flamboyant flying baron, with a lifestyle that could fill gossip columns all through the year. His son Siddharth’s fiancée, the rising star Deepika Padukone, adds a magic charm to the Mallya clan. If celebrity status is tested by the ton-load of rumours they generate, the grapevine has it that Deepika’s new flat in Mumbai is a gift from a generous well-wisher, whoever he may be.  

But flying is a different ball game, especially flying amidst turbulence. As India’s GDP is rising, and India’s population admirably alarmingly (or alarmingly admirably, if you are an optimist), Kingfisher’s debt too is rising admirably alarmingly to hit $1.2 bn.   

While shareholders are complaining that they are not getting the value for their money, passengers are complaining that they are not getting the seats they have reserved. The companies that have leased their planes to Kingfisher are now demanding their planes back as payments have fallen behind schedule. 

In business for six years, India’s second largest airlines operating 340 flights a day connecting 54 cities, is now axed to 300 flights to cut costs. The complaints of salaries not paid and pilots quitting in exodus add to the king’s woes! But the government does not want Mallya’s airlines to close down; certain influential ministers are trying to mediate a bail-out plan with some banks to ease the cash crunch.

India, the fastest growing global aviation market today, is expected to be the fourth biggest aviation market by 2020 and third biggest domestic market after the US and China. India's domestic air traffic, the second highest after Brazil, grew by 14 per cent against Brazil's 15.1 per cent.

Already experiencing a shortage of pilots, the demand for pilots as well as engineers and cabin crew will grow, which is good news for the job market. And the debut of Dubai's first low cost airline Flydubai in Ahmedabad, the world's third fastest growing city, is the harbinger of good tidings.  

The Indian aerospace market will need nearly 1,100 commercial jets worth $130 billion over the next 20 years, a windfall for global aircraft industry. Karnataka is setting up a 250-acre aerospace special economic zone (SEZ) at Devanahalli in Bengaluru.

With a good bail-out package, Kingfisher could turn around in two years and rule the sky. The King could be King once again!  

DEATH DANCE OVER 


KUDANKULAM!

By SUNNY THOMAS

Before Abdul Kalam set foot on Kudankulam, it had two notorious visitors – the ghost of Chernobyl and the paranoia of Fukushima – which set the stage for Tamil Nadu politicians to play the Shylock to demand its pound of flesh. Indian democracy is run by agitators and scamsters and, of course, by the government fire-fighting to save the situation, which is called governance. 

Governments across the world are notorious for hiding facts and figures from the public, and any assurance on safety must be taken with a pinch of salt. If Kalam’s assurance has not cut much ice with the villagers, his Rs 200-crore economic package may sell. See how Mamata Banerjee’s stand on petrol price hike softened when Pranab Mukherjee’s diplomacy was at work. Politicians in Tamil Nadu as in West Bengal see the wisdom of goodies, and finally the farmers may allow the Centre to re-start work on the first unit of Kudankulam power plant, suspended from October 2011. 

Which villager is not flattered by 4-lane roads leading to the destinations he has to frequently travel, like Tirunelveli, Kanyakumari and Maduri; and employment for 10,000 of their kin, and self-employment loans? Not just this, multi-storeyed housing projects with sports complex for the coastal people, mechanized boats, fish processing and cold storage facilities for fishermen; and one million litres of drinking water a day for all after desalinating seawater. If things go smoothly, which means the money moving on the right lane (not into the pockets of middlemen), Kudankulam could be the envy of the rest of India, or at least villages of its kind.

As for the safety of nuclear plants, there is no country on the Atomic Energy Map of the world that did not have a tryst with destiny – minor or major disasters that press the panic button. A catalogue of nuclear plant disasters (search Googles) would turn nuclear optimist into nuclear sceptist. And no decade passes since Hiroshima and Nagasaki without a nuclear plant incident. The US had at least two to account for, France and China their own mistakes, Japan, and Soviet Union the worst ones; but UK’ s was the most sensational one because it happened near a dairy farm, forcing a ban on dairy products! 

The good news is Tamil Nadu, with or without Kudankulam, has the potential to be the power house of south India. The state has immense potential to harness solar power because it receives sufficient solar radiation for 10 months a year. And a 100 mw solar power station could be set up in two years whereas a conventional thermal or nuclear power station takes six years for completion. As for cost advantage, entrepreneurs are coming forward offering to set up solar power stations at Rs10 crore per mw, says GM Pillai, Director-General of the World Institute of Sustainable Energy (WISE), who is an IAS officer on deputation to WISE.

The projected cost of the two reactors of 1,000 mw each, being set up at Kudankulam, is Rs13165 crore (US$ 3 billion). But there are hidden costs like the cost of operation, maintenance and safety, which if taken into account will double the estimate. Moreover, the government is heavily subsidizing the nuclear power stations, and the cost of heavy water for reactors is Rs 800 per kg whereas its costs Rs 30,000 on international market !

The fear of Kudankulam turning into a dinosaur is slightly misplaced. Listen to M Pushparayan, who spearheads the agitation: The matter should be discussed with the chief minister… If she is satisfied and advises us on that point we have no problem on allowing work to restart at the first unit.  It is amply clear who plays the deity and who plays Hanuman! Is the Roman Catholic Bishop A Jude Paulraj among the agitators? Well , His Holiness represents the poor fishermen of the coastal region, and those who understand politics know the value of demographic engineering.     

To give a quick recap, the signing of an agreement on November 20, 1988 by Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi and Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev signalled the beginning of this project., which suffered benign neglect for 10 years because of political upheaval and break-up of the Soviet Union. Also, the US opposed it on the grounds of not meeting the 1992 terms of the Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG). In 2008, negotiation for four additional reactors at the site began. The capacity, though not declared, is expected to be 1000 mw each. The new reactors would bring the total capacity of the power plant to 9200 mw. Bad luck plagued the project all along and in June 2011, chief designer Sergei Ryzhov was killed in an air mishap (The superstitious could add Rajiv Gandhi’s assassination and Gorbachev’s ouster in a coupe to the list!).

The first unit is expected to go on stream in December (2011).

DOCTOR’S DEATH-WISH

SUNNY THOMAS

The story is told of a terminally ill patient, who was in a coma but came out to find himself being carried by four men.

‘Where are you taking me?’ 

‘To the grave yard,’ they replied him.

‘But I am alive,’ he protested.

‘Shut up! The Doctor knows better than you,’ they silenced the fragile living cop.

Dr Manmohan Singh got the prime ministership on a platter, like P V Narasimha Rao, who found himself at the right spot at the right time. Rao was all packed up to go to Hyderabad after his tenure in New Delhi. Once in office, Rao turned Congress into an anti-poor, anti-secular party that it lost for ever the traditional votary of the poor and middle class, upon which it had been winning election after election since Independence.

Gunnar Myrdal begins his Asian Drama quite dramatically: The tears would come out of our eyes if you see Asian poverty … People who have never known the pangs of hunger are planning for the poor. … Starve the planners for two weeks and ask them to plan …    

Singh will take his government to precisely where Rao took it in the 90s, the political no-man’s land. Today even his own once-ardent supporters are disenchanted with him, and those who voted Congress to power are unlikely to do so next time, unless there is a leadership change.   

The disenchantment began with the Commonwealth Games, which displayed the leader’s inability to be in command. The leader being led (read misled) speaks volumes about the quality of leadership that he offers. The 2-G scam is a repeat of C’wealth Games; only the actors are different. Adarsh episode is no better. Singh’s Press Conference without the Press, so to speak, without Journalists of stature or reputation, was only a comedy show. And the worst bungling of all was the handling of Anna Hzare, who emerged as a national hero with a halo around his head!  

And now come the unkindest cut of all: the fourth hike in petrol prices in a year! One more hike in petrol prices, and Congress should be ready to sit in the opposition for five years since 2014. Economics is not all about GDPs and Moody’s rating; it is about people, it is about people’s welfare, it is about removing poverty and providing food and shelter, for which governments are elected.

Allowing corporate greed to play havoc with the lives of the poor and middle class is bad economics. The astronomical sums squandered on C’wealth Games would have been enough to save the lives of hundreds of farmers! It is futile for RBI to raise the interest rates and for Fin Min top brass to resort to fire-fighting when petrol prices that affect the prices of all other commodities are wantonly allowed to rise. That energy, cement and steel prices need to be controlled to keep inflation rates at tolerable levels is common sense.  

The necrophilic passion with which the petrol prices are hiked dashes the very hope of the heavily indebted farmer, who postpones committing suicide by a day hoping the government would rescue him out. The ghost of the farmers will visit the ballot box in 2014, and see who will have the last laugh!              

FAST AND GROW RICH

By SUNNY THOMAS

The story is told of a mystique who fasted for two weeks in a drought-hit village, and it rained cats and dogs. Every year, he visited the village and fasted; and the villagers gave him money for his fast, though they were not pretty sure whether it rained because of fasting or meteorological reasons. But it rained and money poured in. After a few years, wisdom dawned on the mystique who thought of investing the money profitably. So the mystique went to a neighbouring state and started a factory. And no more did the villagers hear of the mystique!

In this land of rishis and mystiques, fasting always pays. There is political fasting, moral fasting, television fasting, and even hybrid fasting which is all rolled into one. Prime Minister Manmohan Singh missed the bus by not fasting when he ought to have displayed the array of achievements of UPA-2. Which government since Independence has landed so many VVIPs in jail, so much so that the carping media started calling it the Republic of Tihar?    

Gandhiji fasted and prevented a communal riot in Bengal, the kind of which is described in A Train to Pakistan by Khushwant Singh, on the eve of Independence. No one fasted when Mumbai was rocked or when Gujarat was aflame; or when terrorists spilt innocent blood. No one fasted when over a thousand farmers committed suicide in Maharashtra, or when hundreds of girls are burnt alive for dowry. In the affluent society of Punjab and Haryana, doctors have a field day committing feticide, which is cold-blooded murder of the yet-to-be-born because they failed in the gender test. Yet no one thought of fasting! 

Truth to be told, corruption is a euphemism for Congress. What some people want to get rid of is not corruption per se but Congress. Since Hissar is not India, to expect every Congress candidate to lose his deposit in all the future elections could be wishful thinking. If crisis is an opportunity, Congress never had it so good in spite of the present embarrassment. Its survival depends on its success in controlling the spiraling prices and its package for the rural India. These done, Congress will have less to worry about 2014 when the people pass their verdict.  

The wrath of the common man is not against Suresh Kalmadi or Ashok Chavan or Spectrum Raja, but the cop and the petty bureaucrat who harass him at every opportunity. When someone told him, there is a way out, he is all excited and began rallying behind the crusader.   

Civilization marches on two legs, and so does Indian democracy. The country needs a strong BJP ready to take over, should Congress fumble. Unfortunately, promising leaders like Arun Jaitley or Sushma Swaraj who can turn the party into a 21^st century outfit, are prevented from coming to the fore. The mindset of some of its leaders is the main stumbling block for the party gaining acceptance across the spectrum. Narendra Modi’s sordid tale reminds one of Lady Macbeth’s confession:

Here’s the smell of the blood still:

all the perfumes of Arabia will not

sweeten this little hand. Oh, oh, oh! 

What’s done cannot be undone.

       

Team Anna having tasted the power of fasting is unlikely to go back to the pavilion. The members will invent reasons to find fault with the new Lokpal Bill and be back on the streets once again. More issues will crop up, and rest assured, more street shows till the next general election. No one becomes a Gandhian by donning a Gandhi cap, which Gandhi himself did not wear but all Congressmen. But one thing is certain:

Power corrupts but not Anna Hazare

And people’s power, absolutely, but not Anna Hazare

But it might corrupt those around!     

LOVE IN THAILAND

Arnab Nandy

No parents, no priests, no rules, no authorities, no police. No curbs, whatsoever!

Welcome to Thailand's infamous Full Moon parties, where a (mini) bucket of hard alcohol with red bull and drugs of all kinds are bought over the counter at bars. Every month, thousands of tourists descend on the island of Koh Phangan for each full moon since 1985. It's a cash-cow for the Thai government, drawing about 30,000 revellers during peak seasons and around 10,000 to 20,000 others on any given month. And now more than ever, Australians are joining the party.

"I guarantee that you will sleep on the beach if you don't book a hotel room before. It's the time of the Full Moon party and everything is booked on Koh Phangan," my travel agent in Bangkok warned me. 

Still I didn't book a room. Marzia, of Couch-surfing club, assured me I could stay with her. I was visiting Thailand on a shoe-string budget. Seventeen hours after leaving Bangkok, tired after an overnight bus journey and a three-hour boat ride, I stepped on Koh Phangan, a hilly island in the Gulf of Thailand (Koh means island in Thai). It is 70 km from the mainland and is part of the Samui Archipelago, which includes more than 40 islands. This island hosts the world-famous Full Moon party and the venue, the beach of Haad Rin.

I met my host in front of a departmental store in Srithanu, a hamlet in the north of the island, where my host stayed. Marzia is from Italy, staying there for the last six months doing a yoga course. She had rented a beautiful blue cottage amidst a lot of greenery. Jonas, another couch-surfer, is from Germany, sharing the same cottage. Sandra, another friend of hers, is expected shortly. Which means Jonas and me will have to sleep on the floor. 

"No problem. I have my sleeping bag," I said. After a quick shower and lunch, I rented a motorcycle for a bit of exploration. The beach was getting ready for the once-in-a-full moon event. A football tournament was under way on the beach and a DJ playing English and Thai numbers. Some were strolling along the sand, some dancing, some dipping in the water while others raced on water scooters. 

I came back to Marzia’s around 8.30 at night to find she and her five friends had cooked lots of dishes for dinner. We had a great time sharing travel stories and dancing while the near full moon was shining on us. Everyone fell in love with some one or the other.  

The next morning, Jonas and I went to Marzia’s school for a free yoga session. I realised yoga was not my cup of tea. At the end of the session, they asked us to meditate for 20 minutes and the two of us dozed off. Then we decided to check out a waterfall on the island and Dana and Chorita came along with us. The Phaeng waterfall had very little water but the hike to it was fun.

On the day of the party, we went to check out the venue. Temporary structures had been built along the beach for DJs to set up their consoles. Temporary dance floors, chairs and tables were being set up. A lot of people were sun-bathing and swimming and everyone talked about the night’s party. 

We were back to Haad Rin at 8.30pm. We bought 100-baht tickets (actually an orange wrist band) and entered the beach. I was surprised to find the event so well organized, despite everything around that could turn it into a chaos. There were security personnel everywhere, and lifeguards keeping vigil to ensure drunk people did not drown in the sea and there was a fenced area right on the beach set up by an NGO where completely drunk-and-out people could just plonk down and sleep. 

The entire beach had five or six DJs playing different tunes, and make-shift shops selling ‘buckets’ for around 200 baht. The buckets had a cocktail of whatever drinks you prefer, vodka, Red Bull, and so on. Some were selling drugs, who would walk up to you whispering: ‘Pills?’  

Many people had their bodies painted with florescent colours. Some had just prints of someone’s palm on their bodies, some men had messages like: ‘Body on rent for 20 baht’. 

Then there were fire games: two persons would swing a long rope on fire and the party-goers had to jump into the middle of the circle. Now and then, someone got entangled with the rope; since they are drunk, they don’t realise the burns till the next morning.  

I hung out with Jonas, Dana, Chorita, — Dana from South Korea and Chorita from Bangkok – and we joined a group of three girls and a guy. We had a lot of fun. Then the guy got so drunk he couldn’t walk, and we had to carry him out. Two of the girls went to get a motorcycle to take him to his hotel but never returned. Later I came to know they got lost. No wonder, they were so drunk! So I got him and his girlfriend a taxi and returned to the beach. I hung out with an Italian girl I had met that evening. It was around 3 am and I had to catch a boat at seven that morning.  

It’s easy to make friends at the full-moon party because everyone is in a good mood and everyone wants some new experience. It’s wise not to get totally drunk; then you miss out everything you wished to enjoy. Go with the flow and don’t confine yourself to one group.  

When I was leaving, there were drunk-and-out people snoring on the beach, men and women peeing into the gulf of Thailand and some making out in the sea. You may love it or hate it, but at the full moon party, there are no restrictions.   

The tales of debauchery are endless. Every year, reports of thefts, fights, sexual assaults and even death start pouring in as the party comes to a finale. On January 21, a promising Sydney rugby player, Joe Welch, died at a Full Moon Party. Despite his strong and fit physique, the 19-year-old was pulled unconscious from unfamiliar waters, spending two weeks in a coma from which he never recovered.

"After I burnt myself, I saw another guy's hair catch on fire," said an office assistant. "It hit me and I went down on top of it. Even though I got burned, I loved it. I loved the atmosphere," she added

MAKING THE DEAD SPEAK!

BY SANDEEP SHRIVASTWA

Some enterprising authors have invented the art of making the dead speak, instead of speaking for the dead. Taken aback by the stunning disclosure, your reasoning fails precisely when you require it most. In a surge of emotions, the caged animal suddenly escapes from the zoo!

Imagine you just read a passage in a book that was widely publicized like Mel Gibson’s movie The Passion of the Christ. The passage tells you that Edwina Mountbatten would have her breakfast sitting in Jawaharlal Nehru’s lap. Your imagination running wild, you don’t think even for a moment of the noble Platonic relationship the two had. The gullible have already lapped it up, believing the written word to be the gospel truth.   

Television channels (Times Now included) will soon hold a panel discussion on the Nehru-Edwina affair. One of the panelists, we are pretty certain, would say the British are always an action-oriented people and since Nehru had studied at Cambridge, it stands to pure logic that it’s true. 

A seasoned political commentator like Ravi Shankar Prasad would say Mountbatten used Edwina as bait to get India take the Kashmir issue to the UN. One of Delhi’s most eminent psychiatrists would say he has records to prove that Nehru suffered a depression during that period and Edwina helped him come out of it 

As the nation watch these debates with bated breath, Arnab Goswami would triumphantly declare: I am holding in my hand the secret tapes of the conversation between Nehru and Edwina in a rendezvous, exclusive to Times Now. From Kashmir to Kanyakumari, the viewers are intrigued.  

Jacqueline Kennedy’s reported remarks on Indira Gandhi falls in the same genre. For all we know, the US establishment hated Mrs Gandhi for her ideological proximity to the Kremlin. But there is no reason why the first lady should hate the future prime minister of India on presumably her first meeting. The author at his deceptive best must have made the dead speak, which is one of the tricks of bestseller writing. (Jacqueline Kennedy: Historic Conversations on Life with John F Kennedy by Arthur M Schlesinger Jr)  

If they don’t have bread, let them eat cake! Who said it, Marie Antoinette? There is no evidence to prove that she ever said it. The words appear in Rousseau’s Confessions, his autobiography. The author may have invented the anecdote, attributing it to the Great Princess. Marie was nine years old when the book was written in 1765. The Chinese have a similar story, and during a famine the emperor asked, if they don’t have rice, let them eat meat!  

Another tale of distortion comes from George Washington’s biography. His father presented him a new axe, and the boy tested its sharpness by cutting down unwittingly his father’s favourite plant. In the evening, he saw his father beating the servants for cutting down the plant. Facing his father’s wrath, the boy stepped forward and admitted to his mistake. This boy when he grew up became the first President of America! This story is an invention of his biographer but found its way to Indian textbooks – presumably through American books – in the 1950s.  

Why Dan Brown made a fortune in The Da Vinci Code by relying on fraudsters like Pierre Plantard. Born as the son of a butler (described as a cook for wealthy families in police reports), Plantard manipulated his way up the social ladder till a judge investigating a major political scandal had his house searched, which yielded false documents proclaiming him to be the true king of France. Under oath, he admitted he had fabricated everything. At a time when women and men do not share the same dining table, Dan Brown saw Mary Magdalene at the Last Supper, to the exclusion of St John, the Beloved Disciple of Jesus. 

Truth is seldom found in Politics and Media!    

THE SECRET OF A PRESIDENT

An Interview with Mr Bhaskar Das, President of The Times of India Group of Newspapers:

Sir, which are the five books that have changed your life?

The Secret by Rhonda Byrne
The Future of Competition by Dr C K Prahalad
World 3.0: Global Prosperity and How to Achieve It  by Pankaj Ghemawat
Marketing as Strategy by Nirmalya Kumar
The Tipping Point by Malcolm Gladwell  

You can start reading any of these books, but I recommend The Secret because it will help you develop a sustained equilibrium to face life. Imagine you are a magnet thinking positive all the time; then you will attract positive energy. Conversely, if you are a magnet of negative thoughts, you will end up with negative energy.

The five persons who have profoundly influenced you?

God
Family
Our Vice Chairman, Mr.Samir Jain
My Colleagues
Mr.Pradeep Guha

The five decisions that have made you what you are today?

To Join TOI
To be a perpetual student...learning every day, every moment.
My marriage
Completing my PHD
Accept every new assignment that my Company gives me without asking any question...

FOR WHOM THE BELLS TOLL

By MEENAKSHI ROHATGI

It was not only an attack on the United States, it was an attack on the world and on the humanity and hopes that we share, wrote Barack Obama in UK’s Sunday Mirror.

"My daughter was killed. My world was destroyed. For me, every day is Sept. 11". Thus wrote Avraham, who wore a photograph of her smiling daughter pinned to her shirt.

Nicholas Gorki (9) has never met his father because he was in his mom's belly. Nonetheless he said: "I love you, Father. … I love you for loving the idea of having me."

‘‘I am planning on spending most of the day in tears… thinking of fire fighter Kevin Murray’’ and Seth Bauer buried in the rubble when the Towers collapsed but escaped to give an extremely touching interview to a newspaper, said Melissa, a New Yorker.

These are words that ring in our ears and refuse to die down, as they come from people whose lives have been shattered because one insane man plotted against humanity. 

Bells rang across the land, every four seconds for three hours, 15 minutes and 48 seconds, from 8:30 to 11 a.m. Millions gathered in churches to remember, question, pray and hope for a world without such painful memories.

WIKIJOKES






By JOYEETA CHAKRAVORTY

In a World Megalomania Contest, who would be crowned – Julian Assange or Mayawati? Taking jokes seriously is one of the symptoms of megalomania, say psychiatrists the world over.

Mayawati the Super-Architect believes in building grandiose edifices and statues; Julian the Super-Iconoclast believes in demolishing by leaks, real and imaginary. Both are the creations of the media. While Mayawati’s dream is to reach Madame Tussaud’s (wax museum in London), the Louvre in Paris and the Washington Monument (now closed but when re-opened), Julian would love to shift his office permanently to the White House, with offices in Elysee Palace and 10 Downing Street to make the noble profession of leaks easy.

One speaks politics all the time, the other economics. Hence there is no meeting ground between the two. If Nitin Gadkari and Manmohan Singh were to spend five minutes together, Nitinspeak would be Greek and Latin to Singh, just as Singhspeak would be Mandarin and Malay to Nitin. But in political gamesmanship, they score a fax pau each. When Manmohan held a Press Conference without the Press, so to speak, Nitin admitted in effect BJP has no leaders when he stated the party is ready to follow Anna Hazare. (That’s the Congress interpretation, you might dismiss; then it has a serious implication that Anna Hazare is the genie manufactured in Nagpur and let out of the bottle in Delhi!!)

In antics, Kiran Bedi is contesting Lalu Prasad Yadav, hoping Harvard University would take note of her. Special planes have been flown to Harvard (and even Hollywood) with video-tapes of the Bedi show!

In dancing, Sushma Swaraj is trying to steal the thunder from Mallika Sarabhai, who may have performed abroad. What makes Dancing Sushma so very special is that it was a sacred dance in a sacred place. And it is rumoured that she is opening a bale dancing school near Raj Ghat!

THE SHOOTING OF A MAHATMA!

Anna Hazare landed home in a Mercedes Benz. Imagine Gandhiji using Mercedes!! That raises another question: Can we believe what we see; can we trust what we hear? Crowds love commotion; the dispirited love it doubly because they find in it a new meaning; and the angry love it even better because they find an outlet for their emotions. Can we trust what we saw on television, or the truth is what the television did not show?

The reality shows, notwithstanding the title, will not tell you the reality. That Anna Hazare looked far more real than Ben Kingsley in the shooting of the film Gandhi may be an outrageous comment. Suspend your outbursts for a minute and consider the following points:

Why did Anna agree to a Jan Lokpal Bill that would destroy the carefully built-in Constitutional checks and balances that is the maverick of Indian democracy? Why did the same bill that sought to bring every petty bureaucrat in its ambit leave out the NGOs? The answer, though embarrassing for some, is not difficult to find. A driver by profession, Anna Hazare does not have the acumen to understand the legal and Constitutional niceties. And it is common knowledge that a majority of NGOs do not file income-tax returns, though some of them get foreign funds, whether from Ford Foundation or World Bank!

What was designed to be achieved capitalizing on the anger of the people was a government of Lokpal, which intelligent and informed debate across the country has scotched. Clearly, Anna is not the leader but propped up as one by some Magsaysay Award winners for his image of integrity and histrionic skills.

The next question: Having tasted blood, will Anna Hazare retire to his pavilion, or will there be more road shows? A commotion once every six months will keep the crowds in fine fettle. Then will come the Waterloo. What we saw on television will be tested in the next general election – whether or not it was the solidarity of 1.2 billion Indians or a mere street show.

A Malayalam movie released in the 1970s brilliantly portrayed how the swearing-in of a newly elected chief minister was thwarted by millions of people blocking the road from his residence to the legislative assembly building. The car simply couldn’t move! If a film producer could manufacture a crowd far greater than the ones we saw on television, who is speaking the truth?

Wait till the Waterloo!