My Martin Luther King moment

Many journalists have had their Obama moments, sometime last year. I had mine a couple of months back when Mike Patel – a prominent Indian American hotelier from Atlanta - called to tell me that he had lined up an exciting interview for me – with Martin Luther King III, who was in Delhi. It was a Sunday morning and I was somewhat zoombiesque having worked till late the previous night. However, the fact that I was actually coming face to face with what for me is history, had me in quite a tizzy and I was off for the meeting – at a Delhi hotel – within less than 15 minutes.
The fact that I was to meet the son of Martin Luther King Jr – so soon after Barack Obama becoming the prez of US of A made the Sunday even more special. It was a good interaction and MLK III took time in responding to all my questions at length – in fact we spoke for almost 45 mins and discussed wide ranging issues such as the challenges before the new Prez, poverty in America, civil rights, racial discrimination and Mahatma Gandhi’s thoughts and ideas which had so much influenced MLK’s father.
I’ve met and interviewed key Indian-American members on the Obama team – Vivek Kundra & Aneesh Chopra, before of course their current assignments. I’ve even interviewed Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal on phone – but MLK III, believe me, was a very special interview. And that despite the fact, that it wasn’t exactly the kind of interview that would make it very big on our business newspaper.
My President Clinton moment was somewhat unusual too – when I shook hands with him at the Chatwal wedding in Delhi some years ago. In fact, I’ve met another POTUS – Jimmy Carter – who was in Delhi for a Coke foundation event – there too was an Indian America link - Dr Sue Sehgal, Founder & President, Jimmy & Rosalynn Carter Partnership Foundation. None of us had got anywhere near President Bush when he visited Delhi – I guess now I’ll have to keep trying to get the big one – an interview with BHO himself!!!!


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To Didimum, with love

My grandmother Joyasree Sen would have been 100 if she was with us today. But that was not to be. This is a tribute to her, from a collection of essays that family members have put together for her 100th birthday.

She was a daughter of the Bengal Renaissance – with many of her family members, including grand-uncle Rabindranath Tagore, as the stalwarts who provided the intellectual ammunition that helped in creating modern Bengal as we know it today. Joyasree Sen (nee Tagore) was born and grew up in an era when history was being carved out in many different ways and the young Joyasree was influenced, we have heard, by various social and political movements of her times. She was sensitive to Communist thought and, not surprisingly, Brahmo philosophy had a very early and deep impact on her. But the biggest revolution in her life was probably standing up against the wishes of her genteel and well-known family members and marrying Kuloprasad Sen after a two-year romance, when she was just 19 years old.
Girls from the Tagore family – during Joyasree’s youth - were pioneers in women's education and socially ahead of their times. But not many of them, perhaps, had the courage to fall in love with someone who was not socially or economically their equal and marry despite family pressure. Joyasree and Kuloprasad’s wedding was historic, with Rabindranath as the Acharya or the Brahmo officiating priest. Later, he also composed and dedicated a poem to the two of them as a gift for their wedding anniversary when he was visiting them in Meerut. Joyasree did not show off about such things. As author Chitra Deb was to say in her book, Thakur Barir Andarmahal: “Joyasree is reticent in talking about herself”.

Joyasree’s striking good looks were visible even when she was a child and later in her youth she came to be known as one of the most beautiful ‘Tagore girls’. But quite characteristically, vanity was never one of her vices. It was probably her graceful demeanour, flawless and fair skin, stately bearing and classically well-etched out face that attracted the attention of one of the best-known painters of her times – Nandalal Bose. Joyasree was to be the muse for one of his paintings, where he depicted her as Goddess Saraswati playing the Veena. She was at that time a shy, young girl in her 20s and had patiently posed with her musical instrument, while the already well-known painter created his masterpiece.

Joyasree and Kuloprasad’s romance and their marriage was a fairytale that all of us have heard so much about. She was Mrs K.P. Sen and the significant other in the relationship – but in many areas, including running her household and bringing up her children, she also held her own. She was the mother for all seasons. Mother of triplets and her two elder sons, grandmother and great-grandmother – Ma, Dondon, Didun, Didimum and Boro-Didun! She was often found ministering to the needs of her children and grandchildren who were ill.


And even though, the story of Kuloprasad (Motru) and Joya (Joyasree) together has been told and retold, she lived for more than 20 years without her husband after his death, independently and mostly happy with herself. Though she started off by choosing to live alone because she wanted to keep Shesher Kobita the way he would have wanted it to be kept, she then went on to carve out her own independent existence, which was what Shesher Kobita then came to represent for most of us.

It would have taken great courage for an aged lady, who had never been alone before, to pick up the pieces and to carry on, which she did with great fortitude. She was the new age granny, who knew her Swiss chocolates and played a game of Scrabble with her youngest grand-daughter to chillout. She took all the relationships that her children and grandchildren entered into in her stride and was always understanding and supportive. She even advised a granddaughter to remain single because she felt that was best for her. A voracious reader who enjoyed Sidney Sheldon as much as she enjoyed Sarat Chandra Chattopadhyay, Joyasree also deeply appreciated music and turned to Tagore's songs for peace and solace. She even selected her favourite songs, which were to be sung at the 'sokh sabha' after her death!

It was Joya’s garden which bloomed for all those 20 years after Motru passed away; it was her friends of all ages and social groups who visited her and kept her company. And, of course, it was her close and extended family members for whom she was a focal point. On her 95th birthday, when Srila (her eldest and favourite grand-daughter) had organized a birthday party, all of us who had gathered in Shantiniketan had made a wish – that we come together with her again on her 100th. Sadly, that was not to be and Joyasree fell short of a grand century by just three years. But we are now bringing out this book together – and we hope that she lives on in this effort that we are making together as a family, to remember her and capture our memories in print.

Ishani Duttagupta
New Delhi, June 2008
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Singh is King, if not Manmohan

The deal is done. The UPA won 275-256, by a much wider margin than anyone had expected. Very interesting - and indeed disturbing turn of events accompanied the victory. Yet, it is a win and Singh is king. A reporter just asked me if the naked show of cash in the Parliament has tainted India's democracy. No, I cannot say so. India's leaders and politicians are tainted; not its people - who to my mind are the real bearers of its democracy. As to the leaders, not a single party or a politician emerges from this with any credibility, except perhaps, Dr. Singh. I have many disagreements with his policies, but strangely enough, he seems the least tainted of all. Why? I cannot yet fully fathom. It did really appear that he was doing this out of conviction at huge potential costs. If this was a referendum on him, he did well, significantly better than anyone else. Yes, Singh emerged King, perhaps in this significant way for the first time. But the other Singh is certainly not amar. In fact his political life, depending on CNN-IBN has been up to, may be severely limited. He reminded me time and again of Asif Zardari. The moral of the story may be the same for both. Pure political opportunism can go only so far and no further.

If there was anything really striking today, in a positive way, it was Omar Abdullah's speech. "Give us a voice, says NC’s Omar Abdullah, floors House with own". He did not spare anyone, the BJP or the Left. He made it clear why he voted with the UPA, and it was not because of the merits of the deal, but the tragic predicament in which Indian Muslims find themselves today. You can watch his interview with NDTV here.

I am thoroughly disappointed in the Left that on this it is willing to ally with the BJP and Mayawati. I am disappointed that it appears to have forgotten the conditions under which it came to enjoy the kind of political power it enjoys now. That condition was the rejection of the economic reform process as it was being pursued by the NDA alliance, led by the BJP. India, indeed, was not shining. Today, ironically, the Left's withdrawal will allow for some of the same reforms to go through, because neither the BJP nor the UPA are against it. Irrespective of the merits of these reforms, what the Left has relinquished is the responsibility to raise questions on behalf of those who do not necessarily stand to gain from the reform process. The issue is neither to stop all reforms altogether or to push them through at any cost. The issue is to give them the shape and content that benefits as many as possible. Or to stop those to which there is resistance (such as the SEZs). The Left chose to relinquish this responsibility, allegedly, in order to stop India's impending subjugation to US imperialism. Rather unconvincing. Is India such a small, meagre political entity that can be trampled by US imperialism so easily at a time - ironically - when it is unraveling everywhere? That said, there are serious concerns about the deal that have been raised by some of the leading nuclear scientists of India. I am also not convinced that it had to be pushed through right now in this way. This is why, as I have written before, I think in part Dr.Singh's agenda was to get rid of the left, especially if it happened on this issue. He has the support of all reform lovers in this regard and he played his cards brilliantly.

So, where to now? Some directions are clear, specially with the nuclear deal and the reforms. Others are less clear. For example, are we ever going to know how this sting operation was conducted? How many MPs were bribed? or was the whole thing choreographed? And finally, will the agrarian crisis get the attention it deserves? Will more Indians get a piece of the economic miracle? On that note, dear Rahul, the harbinger of the new India, I hope you have time to read this piece in the Times of India about the poor, Dalit woman Kalawati for whom your heart bled.. apparently, she has been starving for two days. Your almost innocent and unselfconscious elitism is not your fault. But not undesrtanding the limits of elitist politics, is. Read more!

Gangotri: The old order and the new and an ode to immortality

Each journey, for me, has a meaning – besides the beginning and the end. Each journey is life-changing, I think, in some way or the other. And this one of course, was a bit more than just another journey – it had many more layers of meaning tucked away into it than many others. So to start with, it was an adventure trip that I had been planning with my nephew Rahul for a couple of years. It was his first trip to the Himalayan heights and not surprisingly, he spent a lot of time chalking out the details and putting together his gear in London - where he lives. Well, Himalayan high altitude may be new for him, but camping and meticulously planning out the details of our trek to Gaumukh (3900 metres) and hopefully beyond that to Tapovan (4450 m) was something that he did with a lot of enthusiasm and ardour. In fact, I found myself increasingly caught up in his youthful enthusiasm as the dates neared.
As for me, Gaumukh was the pilgrimage that I was hoping would perhaps provide some of the answers that I have been seeking for a couple of years now. It was for me another mile on the journey that has taken me to Haridwar, Rishikesh, Pushkar, Benares, Dakshineshwar and Amritsar. Now that we’re back, and as I take stock of whether I have my answers or not, I know that I have some - while others still linger on. As another trip to the Himalayas – which for me is my spiritual home – this was long awaited. The rugged and extreme Garhwal was a region that I had not really encountered before, except for a much less intensive trek to Har-ki-dun. That too was a journey with depth - with a childhood friend who has always been there for me. Back to this one - perhaps it’s fitting that the toughest Himalayan terrain was left for what could well be my last trip to the rugged heights. The experience – in terms of geography and pushing the physical envelope was everything it promised to be. From Gangotri to Bhojbasa and further on to Gaumukh, the glacial snout which is considered by us Hindus as the birthplace of our holiest of holy rivers – the Bhagirathi and the Ganga – provides the most complete range of features that one can hope for. From glacier walks to crossing mountain streams and walking on scree and terminal moraine and even dodging rock falls – the scenery does not disappoint even for a moment. Besides the thrills, the landscape is intensely beautiful too – as one walks along the river bank with the stately Shivling and Bhagirathi peaks for company. There are the chir pine forests of Chirbasa and the Bhuj trees along the way. One runs into company in the form of the mountain goats or the Ber, as they are locally called.
But for me, the trip has taken me beyond just the Himalayan grandeur that was the passion of my youth. Rahul – who the hill folk have decided to call my ‘bachcha’ - much to my delight, did come up trumps. And even though I’m exhausted and can’t even imagine making it to Tapovan – he does it with a fair degree of skill and competence, despite his status of a first-timer. He has braved the steep gradient, the height gain, the lack of oxygen and of any defined paths. And most important, he has enjoyed every bit of the adventure and will probably come back again for more. Besides, along the way to Gangotri & Gaumukh, Rahul also developed a taste for simple Indian food such as chapatis, the delicious pahari rajma and alu paranthas - which my dearest friend Alka, a skilled mountaineer, who's been on many tough expeditions, feels is the best cuisine to tackle Himalayan journeys. And my 'bachcha' has also passed the test of ferrying his own load during the trek, something that I've always failed to do.And while maintaining his composure under pretty extreme conditions, he was only ruffled a little bit when some ugly red scars mysteriously appeared on his forearm at Doon School - at my friend Purnima's home, after we got back to the plains. Probably ruptured blood vessels from a scratch he got from his rucksack or heat rashes. Anyways - nothing that the magic neosporine powder from the little white bottle with a blue cap couldn't take care of!
As for me, I was thinking of my father throughout the trip – in fact, it was a journey made for him in many ways. As I sat on the rocks near Gaumukh with my feet dipping in the freezing waters of the Bhagirathi, I knew that he was definitely there in my life, even though death had taken him away from us forever.
And as I helped my ‘bachcha’ pitch his Summit Series tent at Bhojbasa – battling as we did against the snow-storm, I knew that it didn’t really matter, if I could not ever make it to such heights again. There were the signs of immortality strewn all around me. And I just love to drink it in and absorb it. The Himalayas are eternal and so is life – that’s the biggest takeaway from this journey! And then it's not really a surprise or hardly a coincidence, when soon after our return to Delhi via Uttarkashi and Dehra Dun - my cousin Srila (my Bachcha's mother) sends me a photo of my parents which is one of the best recent ones that I've seen of my good-looking father. The photo must have been hidden away in her albums and she must have suddenly chanced upon it. For me, it certainly eases the degrees of separation and brings back my father much closer to me. Read more!

Dilip Gupta - my Madhumati connection!

There are some people – who are no more – who one would have liked to have got to know better. In fact, there are times when looking back we regret many lost opportunities in interacting with them. For me, watching the movie Madhumati – by one of Bengal’s and India’s best known directors Bimal Roy – was such an occasion, which brought to mind an uncle, Dilip Gupta. He was the cinematographer for Madhumati and even won the Filmfare award for best cinematography in the year 1958 for it – incidentally the legendary Madhumati also turned 50 this year!
What I have gathered from trawling the Net – riding Google – is that Dilip Gupta or Jhunu Jethamoshai as I called him, was a cinematographer in Bollywood between the 1930s & 1960s and was director of photography for Prem Patra (1962), Jab Pyar Kisise Hota Hai (1961), Dil Deke Dekho (1959), Madhumati (1958), Yahudi (1958), Gotoma the Buddha (1956), Biraj Bahu (1954), Deedar (1951), Street Singer (1938/I)... aka Saathi, Street Singer (1938/II)... aka Saathi (India: Hindi title) and Devdas (1935).
Dilip Gupta was my father’s favourite cousin and my father, who was younger, drew a lot of inspiration from him. I remember a couple of family events, where Jhunu Jetha was present and Baba taking great pains to create an opportunity for my sister and me to chat with him. By then, he was aged and showed a great deal of affection for us – unfortunately for me, it just did not occur to me to sit and chat with him about the past and his exciting work as one of the early great cinematographers in Bollywood. Of course, I do remember my father and mother fondly remembering Mr Gupta and his wife and the happy times that all of them had spent together in Mumbai way back in the early 1960s. My father, who was a skilled and creative photographer – drew a lot of inspiration from his Jhunuda and it was Jhunuda who had introduced my parents to the famous Bimal Roy and his wife in Mumbai.
Mr Roy, of course, is among Bollywood’s great directors of all times and his extraordinary career as a director also coincided with a Golden Age for Bengali talent in Bollywood. P.C. Barua, K.L. Saigal, Salil Chowdhury, S.D. Burman and even Ritwik Ghatak have all worked with Bimal Roy on various projects. He started his career in Bengal with New Theatres but later migrated to Mumbai where he was to first work with Bombay Talkies and later to set up his own production company. Some of the most famous songs from Bollywood are from his films, such as Suhana Safar Aur Yeh Mausam Haseen from Madhumati (1958) and Mora Gora Ang Lai Le from Bandini. Music for these films was composed by the two legends from Bengal - Salil Chowdhury and Sachin Deb Burman.
Coming back to Dilip Gupta – I do remember an occasion when he had visited my grandparents’ home in Kolkata and had talked about a film that he was shooting on the life of Thakur Ramakrishna – the famous religious and spiritual leader of Bengal – whose teachings greatly inspired him. Since I was very young at that time, I didn’t have the slightest interest in asking him details about his work – again I look upon that as a huge lost opportunity. By then, he had retired from full-time work and was on a vacation in Kolkata from Mumbai. He along with his wife had spent quite a few hours with my grandparents on that occasion and it would have been the ideal time to talk to him about his work.
I also remember another occasion when I had met him – I don’t remember where this was – along with my father. The two of them had chatted about Jhunu-Jetha’s recent visit to LA, where he had spent a nostalgic vacation amidst memories of the time when he had gone there as a young student of the techniques of film-making. Again – had I listened their chat with a greater degree of attention, I’d probably have got a better understanding of the world of LA than I was to later get from my own visit to Universal Studios – excited at being at the Mecca of Hollywood, all by myself. In fact, my sister, with her artistic sensibilities has probably had far richer interaction with Jhunu-Jetha than me – she’s even visited him at his Mumbai home and had a glimpse of the Dark Lady – his Filmfare award for Madhumati!
I’ve heard from family members that one of Dilip Gupta’s daughters – my cousin – is now working at putting together a book on him with articles contributed by Hollywood greats such as Dilip Kumar and other material that she has with her on her father. I wish her all the best with this project and look forward to its completion. Read more!

The Nuclear Deal: Two great democracies or countries without people?

Two of the world's largest democracies are negotiating a nuclear deal. Yet it would hardly seem real people exist in these countries - only leaders, endorsed by other leaders, and elected members of the parliament ready to engage in deal making. The Left's 'withdrawal of support' implies that at present 7.85 percent of the Indian voters who voted them to power in 2004 are opposing to deal. Over 30 million voters voted for the four left parties and another 85 million for the BJP which also opposes the deal. That is about one-third the total number of voters who sent their elected representatives to the Indian parliament.

This is not to deny that elected representatives, more often than not, blatantly ignore their mandates when in power. However, the credibility of a democracy, especially one that touts its democratic credentials at every possible opportunity, should have some bearing on political maneuvers. Yes, the argument is that the representatives of the majority are still in favour of the deal and in a democracy the majority rules. But how can we ever know that for sure amidst this process of horsetrading? (I meant horsetrading in the more colloquial sense - today there are allegations of real horsetrading, which the Congress of course has summarily rejected). All we know for sure is the complete eclipse of the Common Minimum Program on which the present government came to power and the extremely difficult economic conditions of the present.

The democratic deficit in the US is equally clear. While people confront job losses, loss of homes and great economic insecurity, a lame-duck president alternates between the tasks of bombing Iran and pressuring India. The democrats, for their part, alternate between irrelevance and silence, waiting for the Obama hour to strike. Where does the nuclear deal fit in this scenario?

In the mean time, if you visit various stock-related websites you will see how the collective global drooling has begun in earnest. In my last post, I indicated some of the responses. Already August last year, Bloomberg wrote:

Aug. 9 (Bloomberg) -- Areva SA, the world's largest maker of nuclear power stations, and General Electric Co. are among four companies poised to share $14 billion of orders from India as nations led by the U.S. prepare to lift a 33-year ban. Toshiba Corp.'s Westinghouse Electric Co. and Russia's atomic energy agency Rosatom will probably also win contracts to each build two 1,000 megawatt reactors, said Nuclear Power Corp. of India Chairman S. K. Jain. India will be able to purchase equipment after an Aug. 3 accord with the U.S. is approved by the 45-nation Nuclear Suppliers Group.

On July 9,

thirteen stocks surged between 2.06% and 9% at 12:29 IST on the Bombay Stock Exchange on momentum buying on hopes that the crucial Indo-US nuclear deal will be sealed.

Hardly surprising. Buy up. BHEL; L&T; Crompton & Greaves; Reliance...

On the other hand, if you criticize the deal, you must be Communist, and as the savvy young people of the new India love to say, you should be sent to the 'dustbin of history'. If you criticize the 'commies', and the right, you are Maoist. If you criticize the Maoists, you are part of the "western left".. if you criticize the western left, then you must have gotten co-opted by the welfare state...

In the mean time, people from the remotest corners of India undergo unbelieveable trouble to cast a vote, as they did in 2004, to express their rejection of "India shining". For this? Read more!

The real deal about the N-deal

I have been following the debate ad nauseum. It seems really clear to me that Dr.Singh's real deal is not the N-deal at all, but to push through the reforms which the Left has been blocking. The Times of India lists seventeen such reforms here. Newkerala.com and Economic Times list a series of quotes from business leaders who appear relieved and hopeful that the reforms will recommence. More from Financial Express.

Other than this very important 'gain' I cannot see why Dr.Singh would so desperately and immediately want the photo-op with the most discredited political leader of the century, aka GWB, and that too when he is only four months away from leaving the White House. And when there is no guarantee that the US Congress has time to ratify the deal. As to the events on the other side, Glen Kessler of the Washington Post reports from the horse's mouth:

Now, with the near impossibility of congressional passage by year-end, officials and experts have begun to focus on the possibility that other countries -- such as France and Russia -- would rush in to make nuclear sales to India while U.S. companies still face legal restrictions.

A State Department official, speaking on the condition of anonymity because he was discussing congressional strategy, agreed. "I don't believe there is anything to prevent them from doing that, if we don't ratify it," he said, noting the irony of the United States not profiting from a deal it set in motion. But he suggested the administration would use that awkward situation to pressure Congress not to thwart potential business opportunities for American companies. "It is the hidden force of this agreement," the official said. "It is U.S. business that sees an opportunity.

Plagued by inflation, an agrarian crisis, an impending slow-down of the 'miracle' growth rates and an increasingly frustrated middle-class what could a good PM do but establish the pre-conditions for intensifying stalled economic reforms? Yes, of course, I am being deliberately reductionist: the much larger implications of the deal are not to be ignored.

Not withstanding the actual merits of the case, the irony of the Left's withdrawal at this point could not be more profound. I found Brinda Karat's assertion of principled politics thoroughly unconvincing, especially in light of this irony. Read more!