Bare Branches...

Anyway, the book then goes into doomsday-mode saying that govts will pick wars just to keep these men busy or there would widespread social unrest. Kinda flimsy. But the point that such a skewed sex-ratio is unsustainable needs to be made. Which is where my rant comes in.

I acknowledge that female infanticide and abortion of female foetuses are heinous crimes. Actually, I find the whole notion so outlandish that I can only think about the problem in abstract terms. And that is when I feel that the doomsday prophecies are overblown. There have been some recent stories about how hard it has become for guys in Haryana and (parts of Gujarat) to find brides. Women are being bought; polyandry is happening and what not. Well, if women were to become scarce, dowry will go away. Indeed, reverse-dowry is becoming common in parts of Gujarat. With this, the main motivation for preferring boys goes away. And the sex-ratio will gradually tilt back towards normal. So I think worries about lots of unmarried men making nuisances of themselves are somewhat overblown. The situation will fix itself over the long term. Short term is another issue.

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ToI spoof about stock market crash and the Lefties

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Arundhati Roy Rejoices

After all, Roy wrote just one decent book. Having earned her fame as a writer, she has parlayed it into doing what she really wanted to- be an activist in the garb of a writer. Well, then why should she be treated as a Booker Prize winning author at all! This is from the Guardian.

Let us hope the darkness has passed

India's real and virtual worlds have collided in a humiliation of power

Arundhati Roy

Friday May 14, 2004

The Guardian

For many of us who feel estranged from mainstream politics, there are rare, ephemeral moments of celebration. Today is one of them. When India went to the polls, we were negotiating the dangerous cross-currents of neo-liberalism and neo-fascism - an assault on the poor and minority communities.

Somebody please explain to me what neo-liberalism and neo-fascism mean? Is good economics now neo-xxx now ? Is being anti-communist neo-fascist now ? Do these neo-xxxs belong in the same category as neo-conservatism?

None of the pundits and psephologists predicted the results. The rightwing BJP-led coalition has not just been voted out of power, it has been humiliated. It cannot but be seen as a decisive vote against communalism, and neo-liberalism's economic "reforms". The Congress has become the largest party. The left parties, the only parties to be overtly (but ineffectively) critical of the reforms, have been given an unprecedented mandate. But even as we celebrate, we know that on every major issue besides overt Hindu nationalism (nuclear bombs, big dams and privatisation), the Congress and the BJP have no major ideological differences. We know the legacy of the Congress led us to the horror of the BJP. Still, we celebrate because surely a darkness has passed. Or has it?

Does it ever strike her that Congress and BJP agree on economics because that is the sensible thing to do! Does she realize that the Left is soliciting private investment in West Bengal while asking that the rest of India not do so. Given her penchant for the Left, shouldn't West Bengal be an economic miracle- a happy house. Why, then, is West Bengal such a basket-case. And are the thugs who are the CPM leaders in rural West Bengal examples of what Ms. Roy would mean by the "dictatorship of the proletariat" ?

Recently, a young friend was talking to me about Kashmir. About the morass of political venality, the brutality of the security forces, the inchoate edges of a society saturated in violence, where militants, police, intelligence officers, government servants, businessmen and even journalists encounter each other, and gradually, over time, become each other. About having to live with the endless killing, the mounting "disappearances", the whispering, the fear, the rumours, the insane disconnection between what Kashmiris know is happening and what the rest of us are told is happening in Kashmir. He said: "Kashmir used to be a business. Now it's a mental asylum."

What crappy argumentation, hidden by flowery language! Can Ms. Roy make up her mind if she's writing fiction or non-fiction? And Kashmir, in case she needs to be reminded, started with Nehru. The recent blow-up started in 1989, during Rajeev Gandhi's watch. I don't even want to get into the human rights argument- people who attack sneakily and kill barbarically have no right to crib when the chickens come home to roost. But I just want to point out, the NDA govt actually did enable elections in Kashmir even though it led to a *Congress* govt. Please give credit where it is due, Ms. Roy.

....

Each time there is a so-called terrorist strike, the BJP government has rushed in, eager to assign culpability with little or no investigation. The attack on the parliament building, on December 13 2001, and the burning of the Sabarmati Express, in Godhra, the following year are fine examples. In both cases, the evidence that surfaced raised disturbing questions and so was put into cold storage. Everybody believed what they wanted to, but the incidents were used to whip up communal bigotry in a haze of heightened Hindu nationalism.

In claiming that everbody has overlooked evidence that, as per Ms. Roy, is staring us in the face isn't she rendering herself open to the same argument: why is *she* overlooking the *other* , overwhelming, pieces of evidence that are also staring us in the face. Everybody else seems to see them clearly enough.

.....[more bullshit about atrocities. Her point about POTA misuse does have some validity though]

Meanwhile, economists cheering from the pages of corporate newspapers inform us that the GDP growth rate is phenomenal, unprecedented. Shops are overflowing with consumer goods. Government storehouses are overflowing with grain. Outside this circle of light, the past five years have seen the most violent increase in rural-urban income inequalities since independence. Farmers steeped in debt are committing suicide in hundreds; 40% of the rural population in India has the same foodgrain absorption level as sub-Saharan Africa, and 47% of Indian children under three suffer from malnutrition.

Precisely for that reason, Ms. Roy, are the reforms necessary. India is horribly poor, especially our rural population. We need to fix this, on a war footing. Lets see what hasn't worked until now: Your dear old communism hasn't done much for Russia, Cuba, West Bengal and Kerala (China is no longer communist, in any economic sense). So I don't think communism is solution for the ills it helped create. The generation of your mother might've liked Indira Gandhi's socialism but it really didn't get us much anywhere either except for "Garibi Hatao" and "import substitution". Look where "garibi hatao" got us. It is 200 years of British rule and 40+ years of pre-liberalization economics that is responsible for the wretched state that India is in. And raising the living standard of a billion people takes time. Even the fastest growing economies haven't really grown faster than 12-14% per annum (Japan, a few decades ago). India was already starting to hit that rate. Without reforms, there will be no growth. Without growth, where will the money to help the poor come from ?

Also, note the term "corporate newspapers". Ms. Roy is excellent at using words to muddy waters- mention "corporates" and "newspapers" in the same breath and let free association do its magic.

But in urban India, shops, restaurants, railway stations, airports, gymnasiums, hospitals have TV monitors in which India's Shining, Feeling Good. You only have to close your ears to the sickening crunch of the policeman's boot on someone's ribs, you only have to raise your eyes from the squalor, the slums, the ragged broken people on the streets and seek a friendly TV monitor, and you will be in that other beautiful world. The singing, dancing world of Bollywood's permanent pelvic thrusts, of permanently privileged, happy Indians waving the tricolour and Feeling Good. Laws like Pota are like buttons on a TV. You can use it to switch off the poor, the troublesome, the unwanted.

Once again, is Ms. Roy writing fiction or non-fiction ? And the question isn't that things are bad. They are bad. With a per capita income of $470 (U.S. has about $30000) things are bad. But what Ms Roy ignores is that 4 years ago that $470 was $380. Things are bad because they've always been bad. Very Bad. If Ms. Roy has her way, things will remain Very Bad. For a Long Time.

They said the road to hell is paved with good intentions. I can't even say if Ms. Roy has good intentions.

we'll have to wait and see. Fortunately the Congress will be hobbled by the fact that it needs the support of left parties to form a government. Hopefully, things will change. A little.

Here's hoping, too. Hoping that the reforms don't change.

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Are you laughing with me or at me ?

So the Fandango ad had a desi couple talking in an Indian accent, complete with the Bollywood song, dance, and subtitled-lyrics routine. Da dude talks about the tinge of embarrassment (and, often, indignation) that happens when you see something like this. This is true not just for Indians- I guess most communities/groups have thin skins. Even in America, only black comics are allowed to make jokes about blacks, only jewish comics can make fun of jews and only ads with an all-female cast can show stupid/bumbling females. It is probably an effect of the PC times we live in. This is not necessarily wrong- if you have to choose between being boring or being offensive, being boring is definitely the way to go.

Having said that, I think that Indians are often too insecure and sensitive about others (read: Westerners) commenting on India's culture/society. Bollywood is a particularly sore issue, followed closely by the rat-eaters-and-elephants perception.

I have become less sensitive to TV programs parodying Bollywood routines- I think more and more people are starting to appreciate it as just another style of movie-making, just like those innumerable westerns with their in'juns and gun-fights. I still do cringe, though, when I see a desi movie with a dance sequence shot in an European city with all the passerby gawking at this garishly dressed couple doing weird gyrations.

The second perception- of rat-eaters and elephants- is far more vexing. That has changed somewhat in the past few years but a lot of the perception remains. My room-mate at Stanford told me about this video about India that they were shown in their junior high-school's world history class (or something like that). The video really did have snake-charmers and rat-eaters! And this wasn't too far back- probably the early 90s. Such stereotypical depictions of India should be vigorously fought. For example, had this piece not come from the Onion, it'd have been outrageous. But then again, thats why its The Onion.

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Ewww...

'The females, loaded with eggs, are more of a bite than the males, whose abdomens are largely hollow, in part because of the anatomical structures that allow them to make noise. Zyla likens the dry-roasted males to an "air-puffed Cheeto."'.

I'll now add cicadas to my list of things I hope to never eat. Snakes and frogs compete for the top rank in the list.

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Chrysler's new marketing slogan: Inspiration Comes Standard

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Morons

Enter a bunch of morons calling themselves Navya Shastra, "a global organization of Hindu whatnots based in U.S.". They're irritated that a hallowed Hindu tradition has be degraded to the level of a mere cultural artifact (ignore the stupidity of that statement, for now). They'd rather not use the money of heathens to finance this. Let organizations based in India take the initiative, they say. Riiiight. And this from a guy who's based in New Jersey. And they are worried non-Brahmins might be shut out. If official endorsement, of a fund, by Govt of India *and* UNESCO is not enough to indicate that the money is untainted by such casteist motivations, what is ?

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Aaargh....

Actually, on second thoughts, he shouldn't be faulted for this lack of judgement. If the guy is too stupid to realize a good thing when he sees it (outsourcing + India = good), trusting him to exercise judgement in speaking would be too much to expect.

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Why....

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Aaargh!!

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