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“The greatness of a nation and its moral progress can be judged by the way its animals are treated” —Mahatma Gandhi (1869-1948)

A number of stray dogs live in my office building; ones that I always play with or feed when I’m passing through. There are some that you just know to stay away from—like Foosa, who’s so abused that he reacts in the most unpredictable ways. Then there are Percy and Fudge, who with a little bit of petting, come to me almost everyday. They’ll follow me around the building or even outside on to the street when I go to grab lunch or a coffee.

Most of the dogs are battered and bruised; so much so that even after 3 months of being nice to Fudge, she’s still terrified and keeps her distance at times. The smallest movement or the softest noise will make her charge away in fear. Even when she does come up to me, she’ll keep lowering her head almost to the point where I can’t reach her. If a few pats manage to get by, she’ll slink away in minutes—repulsed by any prolonged form of touching. It’s clear that she’s been abused in the worst ways possible.

Just the other day I noticed a chunk of her ear missing; carved out in similar fashion to another dog. Now most of the dogs ear’s don’t sit right and this can be attributed to brawls and territorial disputes, but for both of them to have cuts on the same ear and at the same angle, hints at something far worse. I pointed this out to a couple of colleagues, both of whom have grown up in North India. From them I get a fair share of stories about the lawlessness and brutality that prevails in northern states, especially Uttar Pradesh (UP) and Bihar. They recounted various incidents that they had seen or heard of dogs getting beaten but one left me stunned.

Somewhere in UP, a dog once trespassed a large field owned by “psychopaths”. They were so furious at the impudence of the dog that they kept him in confinement for his wrongdoing—an equivalent to jailing a criminal in their minds. After a few days they setup a temporary courthouse so justice could be served. The dog had a lawyer and his case was heard but after being proven guilty of his crimes, they proceeded to execute the animal.

I don’t know whether this story is true or fabricated, but in the context of the Mahatma’s words, it represents a chilling state of our society and where it’s headed–especially when there is repression over education, culture and the arts.

Das Leben der Anderen (The Lives of Others) is a brutal yet moving account of life in the GDR a few years prior to the Wall being felled. It focuses on the ways in which State Security (Stasi) kept tabs on every citizen (especially artists) by tapping phone calls, bugging their homes and watching their every move. Regular citizens were not the only victims of the regime but so were State Security officials—artfully portrayed through the Hauptmann Gerd Wiesler character in the film.

Wiesler, better known in the Ministry as HGW/XX7, is a spy and interrogator who begins to question the morality of the regime and his own job while spying on a prominent writer and his girlfriend. Wiesler is played by Ulrich Mühe, an actual victim of the Stasi ever since he began his acting career. He also proved to be a valuable asset while director Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck wrote the script; helping him gain a true sense of life during that period—the language, environment, conflicts and fears.

One of the comments by Florian on the ‘Special Features’ disc that caught my attention was a mental image that sparked the idea for this film. Florian was captivated when he heard the “Sonata for a Good Man” track but wondered what it would be like for someone who didn’t enjoy the music but was forced to listen to it. That was it… the single image in his head around which he thought up this brilliant film! Here’s what the eventual image looked like in the film—Wiesler listening to the music while the subject he’s spying on plays it on the piano:

Fallen Art, a hard hitting  aimation from Tomek Baginski, is set in a uniquely macabre world created by the stylized imagery of Rafal Wojtunik. Part commentary on the detrimental effects of war and part satirical jab at what constitutes art, this film will keep you thinking long after its run-time of 5 minutes.

A great song from The Maccabees to whisk away the blues and get dreamy. Interestingly, there’s another video for this song that was shot, in one long take, by a relative of the band in a London pub. I wanted to post that originally but seems like embeds are disabled by Polydor and Universal Music Group. This song was also featured in a recent Samsung mobile phone advertisement.

This is the first post in my JUKEBOX series. Tune in on weekends :)

It’s been a week into the new year and I’ve been seeing numerous “resolution” posts on the blogosphere without feeling the urge to post one myself. What would I say, I wondered—that I need to write or maybe go to the gym more often this year? Would anyone really care? Or maybe it would it be a nice way to create a record that I can reflect on next year?

But that’s when John Mayer’s Vultures started playing on my trusty last.fm stream and the first line of the song struck me.

Some of us, we’re hardly ever here. The rest of us, we’re born to disappear.

It made me realize that it’s not about what I do this year but how I do it; with pride, conviction and the will to make it a success, I hope. So regardless of your resolutions this year, I hope you’re able to remain focused for 365 days and achieve your dreams.

That said, I do want to write and direct at least one film this year and launch a nonprofit organization. So good luck and best wishes for a happy and peaceful 2009. See you on the other side!

Some of us, We’re hardly ever here
The rest of us, we’re born to disappear
How do I stop myself from
Being just a number
How will I hold my head
To keep from going under

Down to the wire
I wanted water but
I’ll walk through the fire
If this is what it takes
To take me even higher
Then I’ll come through
Like I do
When the world keeps
Testing me, testing me, testing me

How did they find me here
What do they want from me
All of these vultures hiding
Right outside my door
I hear them whisperin
They’re tryin to ride it out
They’ve never gone this long
Without a kill before

Down to the wire
I wanted water but
I’ll walk through the fire
If this is what it takes
To take me even higher
Then I’ll come through
Like I do
When the world keeps
Testing me, testing me, testing me

Wheels up
I got to leave this evening
Can’t seem to shake these vultures
Off of my trail
Power is made, by power being taken
So I keep on running
To protect my situation

Down to the wire
I wanted water but
I’ll walk through the fire
If this is what it takes
To take me even higher
Then I’ll come through
Like I do
When the world keeps
Testing me, testing me

Oooooooooooo
Oooooooooooo
Oooooooooooo
Oooooooooooo
Whatcha gonna do about it
Whatcha gonna do about it
Whatcha gonna do about it

Don’t give up give up
Don’t give up give up give up
Don’t give up give up
Don’t give up give up give up

Much of my free time now goes into reading and learning about community building and citizen movements. One of the pioneers of this field in India is Ramesh Ramanathan, writer of the Mobius Strip column for MINT and founder of Janaagraha, “A movement to include people’s participation in public governance, which has now evolved into a robust institution for Citizenship and Democracy.”

Besides his groundbreaking work, Mr. Ramanathan is able to go past the superficial issues on hand and articulately identify what really ails our political and social system. Three recent articles in particular provide great insight into issues that are on everyone’s mind since the 26/11 attacks.

1) Our politicians are useless but are we responsible citizens of the largest democracy in the world?

For years, India’s upper classes have been waltzing through life making minimal contact with the government. We have been going above the government, below the government or around the government, but we never really engaged with the government.

Last week in Mumbai, all that changed for India’s aspirational class.

We’ve come up against the one issue where we can’t dodge the dependence on the state: terrorism. Suddenly, we are waking up to discover that the same state that we have ignored for the past 60 years is necessary for us to make sense of our lives (a visceral glimpse into the life of the poor). And with it comes a whole new definition of the citizen-state relationship. This is existential exfoliation.  (more…)

2) “I want to make a difference but don’t know where to begin.” For those who get past this initial conundrum, it’s a struggle to become relevant!

On the politician front: many politicians have told me over the years that the urban middle class is irrelevant. Politicians are market players, they react to the signals they receive from the people. So, this observation is not a value judgement, it’s a statement of reality.

Politics in India is still substantially driven by identities of caste, subcaste, subcommunity within that. Elections are like chess games, with each major party watching whom the others are nominating in each constituency like hawks and then working to break the numbers: getting relatives from the opposition candidate’s family to stand, incentivizing some independent candidates to step up, buying off others who could swing key blocks. With each move, the calculated aim is to splinter the electoral math and nudge the needle by the barest minimum margin for victory. (more…)

3) So then are we living in a false democracy? Read this story about a murderer from India living a new life in Dubai.

“But this is strange, are you blaming India’s democracy for you being a criminal? You are the one who committed the crime. So they should have caught you and put you behind bars, is that your complaint?”

“Yes! How can people get away? Here, if I had done anything similar, I would have lost my life. Maybe if they had caught me when I was doing petty crimes, I wouldn’t have slid down this path. Dekhiye, we all want to live good lives, but majboori hai. We need to know that the system works. Bura insaan bhi sudharna chahta hai. Everyone wants to reform and live a clean life. But if the system allows you to remain bad and actually makes things worse and forces you to take the wrong path, where is the hope? (more…)

The Economist’s recent special report on India, “An elephant, not a tiger”, probes into the country’s economic, social, political, and geopolitical affairs, providing insight into how India will fare in her quest to become a superpower. Despite all its chaos, bureaucracy and occasional violence, India has had a remarkably successful past few years, but can we cope with the economic downturn? Shocking, depressing and hopeful at the same time, these are stories that most Indian are accustomed to. Nonetheless, it’s clear that India faces daunting challenges going forward and here are some highlights from the report.

POVERTY

• According to the World Bank, in 2005 some 456m Indians, or 42% of the population, lived below the poverty line. In 1981, by the same measure, the numbers were 420m and 60% respectively. The government’s own estimates are lower. But everyone agrees that poverty in India is falling much too slowly.
• The effect: India has 60m chronically malnourished children, 40% of the world’s total. In 2006 some 2.1m children died in India, more than five times the number in China.

LABOR

• Some 65% of Indians live on agriculture, which accounts for less than 18% of GDP. Therefore the biggest challenge will not only be to create more productive jobs but also to upgrade skills of the large labor force through education and training.
• Roughly 14m Indians are now being added to the labor market each year, and that number is rising. Half of India’s people are under 25 and 40% under 18. Therefore the pace of development has to be rapid in order to mobilize the youth population.
• The manufacturing sector has its own complexities; to escape throttling labor laws, Indian entrepreneurs tend to keep their operations small: 87% of manufacturing jobs are with companies that employ fewer than ten people.

EDUCATION

• By one estimate, which may be optimistic, only 20% of jobseekers have had any sort of vocational training. If India cannot find employment for this lot, poverty will not be reduced and India may face serious instability.
• India is already worryingly violent. A Maoist insurgency in eastern India, which Prime Minister Mr. Manmohan Singh has called “the greatest internal security challenge we have ever faced”, is an obvious ill omen. Where it is spreading, in poor, agrarian and broken places, the “invisible threads” that bind India, in the phrase of Jawaharlal Nehru, its first prime minister, are almost non-existent.
• A combination of all the above factors could lead to social unrest, starting out as mini-revolts that we’re beginning to see across the country. What is being termed as Fourth Generation Warfare (4GW), could be a serious threat to India’s stability if the Government does not implement bold reforms.

INFRASTRUCTURE

• As the River Ganges in Varanasi enters the city, Hinduism’s sacred river contains 60,000 faecal coliform bacteria per 100 millilitres, 120 times more than is considered safe for bathing. Four miles downstream, with inputs from 24 gushing sewers and 60,000 pilgrim-bathers, the concentration is 3,000 times over the safety limit. In places, the Ganges becomes black and septic. Corpses, of semi-cremated adults or enshrouded babies, drift slowly by.
• Besides the religious implications, this is a result of India’s execrable sanitation methods. By one estimate, only 13% of the sewage its 1.1 billion people produce is treated.
• India’s urban roads are choked: the average speed in Delhi has fallen from 27kph (17mph) in 1997 to 10kph.

POLITICS

• Of the 522 members of India’s current parliament, 120 are facing criminal charges; around 40 of these are accused of serious crimes, including murder and rape.
• In the 2004 election Congress and the BJP mustered only 283 seats between them, a record low and only 11 more than is needed for a majority. As a result, most energy is lost in keeping alliance members of the coalition government happy, causing friction and disharmony.

ECONOMY

• The RBI has already revised its forecast for GDP growth this year downwards, from 9% to 7.5%, and even that may be optimistic. Most independent forecasters see a further drop next year, possibly to 5.5%.
• The case for optimism: Until recently India’s investment splurge has mostly been covered by domestic savings: as a share of GDP, savings have risen from 28% in 2003-04 to 35.5% last year.

WHAT LIES AHEAD?

India has managed to grow rapidly for the last 5 years despite all these hindrances, but the global recession has caused the first net outflow from Foreign Institutional Investors (FII) in 11 years. This credit freeze will create complications in the Government’s ability to raise capital and sustain growth levels that are imperative for the 14m people joining the workforce every year. The need for reform is urgent and we need to do our part as citizens to instigate change.

Personally, I was extremely disenfranchised by our governance recently and wondered if it was worth voting in the upcoming General Elections of 2009. I wondered if change could really come about with no party challenging the status quo of corruption and incompetence. But that is foolish. We do have some intelligent leaders that care about India’s future but are constantly bogged down by bickering from alliance members. It’s time to set aside our regional differences and unite as one nation, recognizing that the right to vote is our greatest weapon in a democracy!

My feeling is that we have enough headroom to grow despite macroeconomics factors but we can’t afford another coalition government at this stage. If we can go out to vote in record numbers next year and either the Congress or BJP win a majority in Parliament, I’m confident we’ll start seeing reform from the Center.

Cast your vote, don’t vote your caste!

WHAT: Mumbai Screenwriters is a writing group for aspiring and established screenwriters. Through weekly meetings and online collaboration, the group will brainstorm ideas and support each other in developing concepts into finished pieces for short films or features.

WHEN: Every Sunday, start date TBA

WHERE: TBA

WHY: I’ve been getting many ideas for short stories and screenplays recently but finding it hard to make time to write and develop them further. I’m looking to start a small writing group that can meet once a week to improve writing through workshops, storytelling exercises and critiques. The group can also setup a collaborative space at www.mumbaiscreenwriters.com to engage in free writing and blogging.

JOIN: Leave a comment on this post, email me, tweet me, or join the facebook group.

Photo Credit: Zen

Here’s a quick update on the Rise Up India initiative. I pitched the idea of a social platform to promote civic and political action to both the Professionals Party of India and Ashoka. PPI sent me an “Awareness Release” (attached below), which I urge you to go through and send to your family and friends.

I await further contact from PPI’s General Secretary and Head of Election Strategy about possibly meeting with their core group at their next gathering in Mumbai. I also spoke with the Ashoka team in Delhi which seemed receptive to the idea but still await feedback from the Mumbai office.

Professionals Party of India: Awareness Release (Post 26/11)

Here are some pictures of the perigee moon I took on December 12, 2008.

A full moon has occurred closer to the Earth than it has done at any time for the past 15 years.

The Moon’s elliptical orbit means its distance from the Earth is not constant.

It was a little over 350,000km away as it passed over the northern hemisphere, about 30,000km closer than usual. (via BBC)