a few new definitions

1. bottleneckomania (n): the uncanny ability of an otherwise not so bright mumbai driver to identify the narrowest part of the road to park his car in, thereby creating a beautiful bottleneck

2. hourglassophelia (n): the irritating habit of some jokers of destroying the beautiful work done above by parking their car bang opposite there by creating an hour glass tube


3. shibu sorened (v): what happens when ones best laid plans of checkmating family and taking a bigger role go so wrong that one has to also sacrifice their current posts

any resemblence to any current politician is genuine and purely intentional

4. gadkari (v): the ability to act humble and bow down much lower than your girth can sustain in order to survive as the president of a fraction ridden party

5. Shijoitis (n): the ability to analyse the most trivial of topics and with a minimum 1000 word summary that can scare off the most patient reader

6. Bawagiri (n): the habit of publicizing every small event in life to make it appear as the days breaking news with the sole intention of grabbing footage
Alternate definition
Bawagiri (n): the irritating habit of nagging all and sundry into joining in on ones very ambitious weekend plans and giving them loads of grief on any response other than yes

The Glorious 90's

Recently, while on a drive cum trek, 3 of our gang of 4 were my age. I played my famous best off 90s CD and all three of us sang along. The 4th Guy (18 year old) was just bored. Got me thinking on weather everyone loves the decade they grow up in or is this restricted to us lucky few who got the chance to grow up in the wonderful 90s. Does everyone have difficulty letting go? Is one always biased bout his times being the best?

I personally am convinced that the 90's were the best years to grow up in. I realise the bias in my view. However, let me give you some objective evidence to support my claim. Do feel free to lambast, rip apart, reinforce etc, but in brief.

1. Economy: 
After the gloom of the 80's, the 90's brought hope, the economy opened up... middle class had some money to spend. This was however restricted and the over exuberance of 2000's wasn't there. McDonald's was still a premium brand and a mall still aspirational. A Levis was something to be worn on your birthday and I still remember enjoying my first can of Pepsi for 30 minutes.

2. Television: 
Doordarshan was at its programming best. Also, came the satellite television boom. Programming standards would have only improved since but then again there is too much clutter in the 2000's. Even average programs of that decade like 'Stone boy' remain etched in our memory. The legendary ones like Surabhi will always be revered. Indian private television media was born out of NDTV's 'World this Week. Election coverage saw a new revolution. There was average amount of good television compared to today's good amount of average television. We can even recollect the good commercials of the time. Ask someone to recall an ad from 2005 now.

3. Music:
Undoubtedly the shining star of the decade. 90's positively had the best music. After a very average 80's (how many 80s numbers do u hear on the radio in a month?) 90s got back with a bang. While 70s music is also in a class of its own, what strikes out in the 90s is also the variety. 1990 saw the debut of A R Rahman, of whom, I don't need to say much, except that his freshest n best work came in that decade.
After the false starts of the 80's, 90's also saw the the real start of the indi pop (Baba Sehegal ki jai) and indi rock thanks to MTV and the satellite television. There was finally a platform for the talented musicians who didn't want to do bollywood. Brilliant bands like Euphoria, Silk Route etc came to the fore apart from a large number of one-hit wonders. The Indian rocker got his opportunity (which has finally manifested into success in the next decade). We got a flavour of Pakistani music. English music was no longer restricted to MJ's Thriller. One negative aspect was the rise n rise of bhangda music. Anyone and everyone who knew Punjabi or had set foot in a London pub was suddenly trying to cut an album. Thankfully, only the talented survived.

4. Games:
Growing up in the 90s was the best of both worlds. Television had arrived and thrived but was not all pervasive. Play station did not exist and Attari was not as good. We had enough motivation to go out and play. There weren't enough parks and very few building had its own swimming pool and garden. It was find your own space and make your own game (I never learnt to hit the ball on the leg side and our compound had none). Education was not that cut throat. No day was complete without 2 hours playing down, even if it was the exam week. Kids today don't have the time or inclination to enjoy playing Lagoori, Sankali, Dabba I Spies, Chor police etc. These games built character like no play station ever could.

5. Movies: 
Cant say that the best cinema was made in the 90's. That would be untrue. However, the decade did allow for some flexibility in main stream. Finally the hero could be flawed, the heroine could wear short clothes (thank you Urmila) and not every movie had a villain to be bashed up in the end. Yash Chopra took us all over Europe and Bollywood was suddenly big time into tourism. I would say that a lot of the variety seen in cinema of the 2000's came about due to the small risks taken in the 90's.

6. Fashion: 
No one will dispute this point. After the Bell bottoms of the 70s and the tight white trousers n white shoes of the 80s, the 90s was a big relief. Except for a short craze for pyjamas and shiny leather pants, it was basic denims and floaters. I don't think a lot of us will look back at our childhood and teenage snaps and cringe like our seniors would. The fashion of the 2000s has thankfully not deviated far from this.

7. Literature Books

There certainly were no crosswords and landmark in the 90s. But there was a gr8 exchange market for Enid Blyton's, Hardy Boys and Archie comics. One just needed to buy 1 good book and then exchange it with 10 friends to read 10 more good ones.

All in all, the 90s were certainly the most interesting times to grow up in. Life was not all that tough but things were not always easily available. Hence, our generation grew up more aware, but more responsible.

Politics of Rabblerousing

1 day after local political parties fell over each other trying to establish their love for the state, some views that I have been thinking on. Let me pre-warn that these are my personal views and there may be factual gaps due to my limited research and knowledge. Also, one may choose to disagree, but it has to be done maturely. Please post comments, if you wish, but no long sermons.

9th March 2010, Raj Thackeray celebrates the 4th anniversary of MNS. Immediately after that, some party people go and throw stones at an Airtel Office. Their reason, some service that Airtel was not providing in a local language. Cut to March 2006, after touring some parts of the state, Raj Thackeray announces the founding of MNS. His first speech is quite a surprise. Anyone who has some awareness of his ways, was expecting a hard line agenda. However, he surprises all by talking of development and development only. I am discussing this with an office colleague and it seems to us that he was clearly trying to align to a more moderate line and target a larger segment of the youth, and honestly, as much as I was aware of lack of intention, I am heartened by the assessed approach. Ofcourse very few will remember this now.

So what changed - The first election results. Raj Thackeray realised that while his moderate stand and pro development agenda was getting him positive reviews, it stopped at that. He hardly got any votes and drew blanks in the first few elections the MNS stood in. Soon he changed course and by late 2007, the MNS had firmed up an anti migrant (specifically North Indian) agenda. Raj was clearly unapologetic on his views and more the English media castigated him, more it helped him in his positioning. Congress's tacit support helped. The 2009 assembly elections saw MNS beating the Sena in Mumbai and Nasik and clearly chipped away a huge chunk of the Sena vote. While some people may have been surprised by the quantum of their vote, not too many were surprised by the overall trend. Immediately the Sena went on an attack to protect its vote bank and since then the Marathi Manoos has had everyone falling over to please him. Thus, the over board approach to Maharashtra day yesterday.

So whats my point here. The above is just an example of what I have observed in Indian politics over a few analysis. To create a loyal vote bank out of zilch, one cannot take a slightly off center stand. One has to go hammer n tongs on an issue that matters deeply to a few to establish to them unequivocally that you are 100% committed to the same. The vote bank does not evaluate you objectively on your intentions (for example, Raj Thackeray's kids go to a high society cbse English medium school that still has Bombay in its name) but focuses more the decibel and destruction levels of your campaign. This is precisely where the English media has contributed to Raj Thackeray's growth. By giving him so much negative attention, they have helped him remain in the lime light and also won him more sympathy from those who are leaning to the Marathi manoos cause. I admire the man for his political acumen. He deliberately chose to give all interviews in Marathi in the run up to 2009 assembly. Moreover, he chose to allow the English media to take his case (most will remember the Rajdeep Sardesai interview), where possible ,to increase his vote banks loyalty. Congress was smart enough to not arrest him, they realised it would only make them the villain and help his cause a lot more than they wanted.

One has to be a Rahul Gandhi to be able to take a rationalist view on issues and gain positive votes for the stand. This will not dent the traditional vote base and will only add. Raj Thackeray may be capable taking the rationalist view, but he will not capture a vote bank for it. Politics of rabble rousing is an essential ingredient for any nascent political party to establish itself. One cannot take a moderate stand and survive. One has to identify a cause significant to a few. Moreover, stating ones support for a cause is not sufficient, one has to destroy public property and cause disruptions to be able to gain political mileage from the stand. TRS is an example here. Even if the BJP supports the Telangana cause for a few years now, it is only the TRS and its ways that help them gain votes on basis of their stand. Ditto will happen in case of Vidharbha, where again BJP is pro division. Expect a Vidharbha Rashtra Samiti or something similar to come up soon and start attacking public property and then end up with 5-10 MLAs in the assembly putting token protests once in a while!

So now that we have established the point, let us try and see why the politics of rabble rousing actually works. Few reasons that I have derived are

1. Development is a much maligned word. It is thrown around all the while by all and sundry. No voter believes a politician when he uses the D word. Only a Shiela Dixit and a Narendra Modi can get away with those for a while, that to after proving themselves over a few terms. No one is going to believe K Chandrashekar Rao or Raj Thackeray if they harp the development agenda.
2. Attention spans of people are dwindling. No one remembers (or cares for) what you said 2 years ago. Its your current stand that matters and there to, its what you say that matters. Who cares weather you walk your talk or genuinely mean what is said.
3. Bulk of the educated and thinking class (which may be a bit less susceptible to point 2 above) finds it below its dignity to vote (and I have every right to criticize here as i have not missed casting my vote in any election). Clearly a lot of us just want to do token lip service. And ofcourse, we are champions at externalising. So we will not vote since we don't find any candidate suitable. We will not bother that, our not voting, is leading to the political parties to put up candidates who will appeal to those, who will vote come what may! I have very strong views against my elitist friends from south Mumbai who went all bonkers after 26-11 coining slogans and joining facebook communities like 'Enough is Enough' but then skipped voting in the election 4 months later as it was too hot or the kids had their summer vacations (Colaba recorded a pathetic 40% turn out, hypocrites). So since majority of the rationalist do not vote, why bother targeting them.
4. Media loves sensationalism. The smart politicians have realised this and are using the media to propagate their views. Cause some mayhem and suddenly you are on national news. Even Barkha Dutt (sic) wants to interview you and in conjunction to point 2 above, you have arrived in main stream.

So now that we have established the point and the cause, whats the way forward. Clearly words like raising awareness etc do not work. We have to take our democracy and its polity for what it is. Even the level of maturity and fairness in the system is a miracle for a country with 1 billion people, deep prejudices, limited levels of education and the arrogance of the educated class. I clearly do not have a solution. But I do believe that understanding the problem is part of the battle won. And hopefully as more of the educated and aware classes start voting, this point will get less relevant. And once again, for yet another reason, I believe that our immature media needs greater regulations.