Desicritics Author: Harish C

Red, Blue and Purple

Harish C — Wed, 5 Nov 2008 00:30:58 EST

Human spirit is a strange thing. Even in the face of the inevitable, when it actually happens, we experience the exhilaration and joy akin to the feeling we have at a surprising turn of events. That was what witnessed across US (and the world!) today.

Indeed, one of the most striking images that will stay with me as a mark of this election is the sight of hundreds of black people celebrating with chairs raised over their heads and screaming with joy. What is it that it is so striking, you may ask? As this image is splattered all across the US of A. The reason is that this was not anywhere in the US but in a remote village in Kenya.

In an unprecedented turn of events never seen before, we had this US election turn into not just a global spectacle but a global event. You had tribal in Kenya supporting him, Democrats Abroad in Chennai having an all night vigil in front of the TV at Taj and the largest turnout for Obama, surprisingly turning out to be the 100,000 crowd in Berlin (Berlin, remember?)

A lot of euphoria may vanish over the days as the stark realities of recession hits home hard, A lot of grins may turn into scowls as the strict tax reforms are implemented by the man, and Democrats Abroad in Bangalore may start resenting him for the reduction in outsourcing but the fact that one of the most narrow minded democracies in the world when it comes to its leaders (not to mention Paranoid) has elected a African American with a last name sounds similar to its most dreaded enemy and the middle name is the same name as its erstwhile enemy.

As Oprah put it succinctly, "Its no longer going to be about Red or Blue, It is going to be about Red, Blue or Purple" Away from detractors in the US and at home in India, All I feel is that finally when a US president says "Us, the United States of America" he means finally the UNITED states of America; Not just the white, but of the Black, Brown, Yellow and Red.

PS: Was it just me or did Bush's congratulatory speech for Obama sound a little condescending and that of a bitter loser?

Fiction: Black

Harish C — Fri, 29 Aug 2008 11:06:21 EDT

Shyama was his name. It literally meant black, and so was he.

Born of wealthy vaishya traders who have been entrenched in their business of precious silks and diamonds since the time of King Raghu, His dad Rakhtahasa was a boisterous man who, legend has it, rode along with King Dasharatha in many of his wars. The king, and certainly lady luck, had heaped fortunes upon him. Only one worry nagged at his soul, of his son Shyama.

Shyama was black and not the fiery and subtle shade of a cloud like their Prince who was in exile ( as told by the bards who always referred to him as dark as a cloud) but literally black as an asura. In a society that measured virtue a lot by the appearance of the person, that meant that he was generally an outcast. Alienated, even though a eleven year old.

Just because he was black.

On that day of Ashadha, he was at the stables, grooming Markasha, his dad's favorite stallion. The horse was his only companion and his adoloescent mind often wondered why black was so prized in a horse while he was shunned for the same. Ah, the quirks of grown-ups!

Shunned would be harsh as the people around him, the dasis, the stable hands and usual coterie of clerks and servants could hardly be disrespectful the young master. At least not in an obvious way. But on and off, an ill placed snigger and snatches of conversation reminded him of his color.

"by Indra! is it true Durasta missed him while he was on his way to light the lamps?"
"our master, shines like lord Surya in the month of Phalguna but look at his son..."
"looks...a..Asura"

They called him an Asura or a demon. That's what irked him the most. More than the fact that his dad never used to act least bit bothered even though he was sure to be tuned to the sea of rumors. Not even during that ghastly episode during the Madira orgy where a rival trader openly questioned his mother's chastity. Rage had boiled inside Shyama but he was an unwelcome visitor feasting on savories from under the table. He was amazed at the self restraint shown by his father.

All because he was black.

He was tired of all this and he sought means to end it all. He had heard about the ill effects of Kartaraasa, the medicine for colic-ridden horses and which was kept in the apothecary's room.

A sudden roar like the ones never heard before interrupted his reverie. He was aware that it was coming from the main street of Ayodhya, which his house overlooked. He left his grooming tools in the stables and ran into the house. There was a generous amount of chaos inside the house and all along, a feverishbluster.

People were running to the front door or to any of the balconies over looking the streets as it seemed to be the cynosure of all activity.

"he's back"
"oh my lord, he has returned to be with us"
"...ruler of all.."
"Ravana is dead?"
"even Vanaras..."
"14 years...so long"

he could not make any sense of anything and he made his way to the main balcony. Surprisingly, it was crowded too, with an array of dasis waiting with thalis laden with flower petals and lamps. He tried in vain to push through the line blocking his view but settled for an audio commentary.

Soon, there was a hush among the crowd. More than a general sense of quiet, Shyama could feel the anticipation building in everyone around him and the air was heavy with it.

A loud collective cheer broke it like a thunder clap and shouts thronged the air.

"Jai ShriRam! Jai Jai ShriRam"

The dasis were showering flowers on the street and there were cries from the older ones in the balcony.

"It has been 14 years, oh god, I thought he would never come back", cried old Duvarya. One of the younger ones interjected,"but, he...he is so...I mean...------"

Shyama, who did not hear the uttered word, wondered what she could find incongruous in the prince.

"be careful about what you speak of, you young imbecile. he is the lord, reincarnate of the Lord Vishnu, heir to the Suryavamsha and true King of Ayodhya. You dare say that about him? So is our young master, isn't he?"

It was evident that they hadn't seen him yet. Else they would not be speaking about him. Still, he wondered what he had in common with the prince that drew that interjection from the dasis.

Curiosity welled up inside him as he resolutely pushed away at the line and finally got a glimpse of the road.

There were throngs of ministers, soldiers, generals, vassals, courtiers and noble men along with the Regent-King Bharata standing in front of the small party of three. The crowd all around them was chanting Rama's name and as in his balcony, all around the street, flower petals were being showered upon him. All the houses were lit up with millions of oil lamps and the whole seen shimmered like an unreal vision of Swarga.

All for Rama, the prince who came back.

Rama, who was as black as him.

He never thought about the Apothecary's room ever.

Married and Gay

Harish C — Thu, 28 Aug 2008 13:22:11 EDT

If you are against gay marriage, don't have one! Why is it that this edict seems so hard for the detractors to digest. More so from the circles of religion; various sects who are at loggerheads for matters of faith seem to have a unanimous opinion regarding same-sex marriages: BAN THEM (or in an Indian context, KEEP THEM BANNED)

It is the opposition from religion (or leaders thereof) that seems to be most vehement. Their grounds is that marriage is an institution fostered and interlinked to religion. Therefore, they juxtapose that the various modalities of marriage should be under their purvey. To lower my stoic stance for a while; RUBBISH!

Marriage has never been and never will be the monopoly of religion and it is essentially a social extension of the ritual of mating which gained social and emotional status. It has predated verifiable history of religions world over. Indeed, it has been mentioned in various religious texts from Manusmriti to the Vedas. It is true that they do not condone it or encourage it but neither do they condemn it. If they had the generosity of spirit to do that then why can't the modern day apostles of religion?So it comes to pass that religion has no holds over same-sex marriage. Then why the ban? Especially in the Constitution.

The validity of the ban is shaky as it is the article in Section 377 of the Indian Penal Code which classifies it as illegal:

Whoever voluntarily has carnal intercourse against the order of nature with any man, woman or animal, shall be punished with imprisonment for life, or with imprisonment of either description for a term which may extend to ten years, and shall also be liable to fine.

Clear enough, but what makes this lose its credibility is the fact that

a. It was passed in the 1860s by the British

b. England has long since given up its homophobic laws and have legalized same-sex marriages

Ultimately, it is the premise that marriage and its legalities are under the framework of the state. If the state decrees that it is legal, it is. It is heartening to note that no other than our health minister has taken the first step in proclaiming support for the same. Now its left to be seen how far this progresses before its derailed by the collective paranoia of the troika of religion-politics-bureaucracy.

Yes, let's open our minds a little and let marriage be what it is supposed to be: An agreement between two people to be loyal and faithful to each other for the rest of their lives.

Pakistan and India - The Short End of the Stick

Harish C — Sun, 1 Jun 2008 11:38:18 EDT

I am sure this post will stir a hornet’s nest and I have rethought quite a bit before I decided to put into words what I feel. The pro-nationalist media and the politicos have always spread the opinion across our mindscape that it is Pakistan who is the perpetrator and we, the nation of peace-loving people with ahimsa as one of the cornerstones of our philosophy have been at the receiving end.

In light of the insurgency in Kashmir, terror attacks across our land and the sanctuaries our most-wanted criminals have found in Pakistan, I too was prepared to believe so. Indeed, there has been overt evidence of all the nefarious activities that Pakistan has been involved in against India.

Now let me analyze the last line. Did I say Pakistan? The Sovereign Nation of Pakistan consists of its Government, The Bureaucratic Machinery, The Armed Forces and above all, The People. Though I have been fast and firm in condemning them all for the violations against my land, is it really true? Haven’t impartial and probably veracious analysis shown that it may be the work of a state inside the state and not the qaum as a whole? This may not be true but if we sift it we may find some grains of truth in it.

So we have hypothetically absolved the nation of wrong doings and regard the caucus of Right wing Mullahs, Wahhabi fanatics, ISI and profit mongers as responsible for it and a part of the uneducated populace provides the fodder for this machine of hate. Actually, this hypothesis becomes resilient when we take into account the recent measures of goodwill that the real “Pakistan” has come up with. Release of Kashmiri Singh included (Lets also keep in mind the fact that the so called innocent civilian promptly announced that he was a spy after reaching India)

Now let us see how We, as a nation state have reciprocated. By refusing entry to one of the champions of human rights in Pakistan? By returning the dead body of a Pakistani cricket fan with marks of torture? Or ensuring that the Pakistani prisoners are kept in worst possible conditions in our jails?

Taking into light the nature of perpetrators on both sides of the border and considering only the sovereign states of India and Pakistan, I would say that it is they, who have been at the short end of the stick.

Paranoia, Transformers, & the Free State

Harish C — Sat, 31 May 2008 05:46:40 EDT

Recently at the Heathrow airport, there was this incident of an airline traveler who was asked to change his t-shirt because it featured a Transformer robot carrying a gun -- a robot with a gun that apparently posed a threat to flight safety.

So the long list that includes safety razors and toothpicks (“Stop! Take this plane to Libya or…er…we’ll shave your brains off!!”) has been updated to include items as innocuous as T-Shirts and (heaven forbid!) chequered lungis.

Now seriously, how exactly do they rationalize adding printed tees into the list of items banned during air travel? What to they think? That mid-air, Megatron would metamorphose from the T-Shirt, hijacking them away in search of the Cube or would he demand destruction of all hard detergents? I am sure some bloke with a wild imagination and an overdose of Transformers can be blamed for it.

The actions of the free world (read the U.S.) since 9/11 have been predicable, disturbing and laced generously with paranoia. Patriot Acts and War for Democracies, Aggressive Diplomacy and extensive Bipolarization…Above all; the transformation of even mundane tasks that transverse across borders into something that makes even the seasoned partisan shudder. Let it be airline travel, visa interviews, IRC, Blogging or Freedom to wear a T-Shirt.

The fat cats fail to realize that what their actions based on an overzealous protectiveness is fulfilling the terrorists’ agenda more than their own. What they achieve with one tiny blast is realized tenfold or hundred fold (depending on the location, Indians shrug it off and Americans respond with fixing the third shotgun in their cars gun rack) by the seismic waves of restrictions, gagging, acts that inevitably follow. What they need is not blanket bombing of these into the unsuspecting populace. Indeed, it would well serve them to remember that even the actual blanket bombing was a ridiculous failure. They need to craft precision surgical strikes based on the strong core of intelligence gathering and extensive cooperation among the countries of the free world. Alas, the power-hungry politicos across the globe know that these do not work as well as their scare tactics in filling up their ballot boxes and hence try to disregard them.

Only Israel, secure in its Jewish nationalism and having (almost) selfless democratic machinery managed to do this successfully. Spiriting away Nazi war criminals from Argentina and demolishing the whole terror apparatus behind the Munich attacks using kidon teams. This resoluteness and ruthlessness, which Goda Meier possessed, needs to be imbibed in our leaders for them to react constructively.

Till then let us keep our Batman underwear and Shaktimaan Parle G biscuit packs at home while travelling.

The Un-ensconced Women

Harish C — Fri, 30 May 2008 15:40:57 EDT

"Ah, women. They make the highs higher and the lows more frequent…” Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche

It's an odd sensation, watching your feelings slowly change over time, seeing your strong positions erode as events batter down on them. My conversation with one of my aunts recently made me think on something that’s been nibbling at my mind.

She was the one who initiated me into the wonderful world of Malayalam literature populated with authors who seduces the reader into a world where they play around by shifting your preconceived ideas and notions.

One of the best works I had ever read was Randamoozham by MT Vasudevan Nair. It showed the Mahabharata or some events from it from the eyes of Bheema. The title literally translates as “The Second Turn” and it explores the events from the angst ridden view point of Bhima who has to wait for the second turn always. Be it for the love of his parents, conjugation with Draupadi or to partake his meal. He is sometimes literally reduced to a pawn in the hands of wily politicians like Krishna, Vidura and Shakuni.

Ah…I diverted and dwelled into what might be a separate post. So we ended up on the topic of Draupadi, who was forced to divide everything between her five husbands and slowly to the topic of strong women in literature, mythology, history, politics or even art.

What appeared as a lurking shadow at that moment at the back of my mind slowly crystallized into a solid realization: “where have all the strong women in literature gone?”

Where are the Scarlett O Haras, Cleopatras, Anna Kareninas, Draupadis et al? Is it because that there are no more devotees to put them in their pedestal? The strong feminine evolved and was envisaged by equally fervent admirers, mainly male. Tolstoy, Shakespeare, Vyasa…

Why don’t men project women in that light anymore? Why have women in print and media diminished in size or being constantly chipped at?

I believe that it has got to do nothing with women being any lesser. The problem is that men have shrunk-withered by complexity - and men are so busy trying to grow up with women that they no longer have time to sing their paens.