Some economic discussions - 4

Read the previous posts on this topic (here).

Going with the times, the economic discussions turned way more political than usual today. Here is the whole content from Anand's Facebook page. The FB reply to comment policy has created multiple strands within the same thread. So I will try to keep it as clean as possible.

Anand Mishra

1 hr · Baton Rouge, LA, United States · Edited · 

Safdar Hashmi was murdered by Mukesh Sharma, the Congress-backed independent candidate, in broad daylight in 1989. The mourning for Hashmi had united the creative community in Delhi and far beyond. "There has been no coming together of this type. A great force of artists, intellectuals and painters has gathered spontaneously." Habib Tanvir said about the the Hulla Bol movement.Some criticisms were expressed at that time that may seem very familiar. In 1989, some argued that the protests were too strongly driven by Leftists. Why had these writers and artists not been as vocal about other atrocities, other deaths, some asked then. But those questions had the same answer as they have today: "because there comes a time when one murder, as senseless and inhumane as all the others, allows you to mourn openly all that you have been mourning silently. Sometimes one loss, no different than the others, lets you acknowledge the many wounds and losses inflicted over time. This is how we have arrived at this moment. Each generation finds its own flashpoint."

A second Halla Bol

Jhandapur is not far from Delhi, to use a phrase made famous by TV anchors, just 18 km away from the city's theatre hub

BUSINESS-STANDARD.COM|BY NILANJANA S ROY

Like   Comment   Share

3 people like this.

Comments

Siddhartha Rastogi I read the 1989 Simran Bharagava article of India Today (Link below). It is amazing that despite the murderer having the direct links with the ruling party, the government was not agitated against or gor implicated. The protesters came together and created more art. 

Whereas, in the recent cases, it is not even known if these are murders of political or personal nature, if there is any institutional or political involvement, if government took due care or not and so on... 

And yet, somehow, all the old and new protests are against the central government. There is not even any statement or pressure to ask the relevant state governments for pacing up the murder probes. Reeks of political motives and malice only. 

http://indiatoday.intoday.in/.../death-of.../1/323420.html

Death of theatre activist Safdar Hashmi sparks off solidarity, controversy :…

INDIATODAY.INTODAY.IN

Like · Reply · Remove Preview · 1 hr · Edited

Anand Mishra I will speak for myself and no other : I am not comfortable with the brand of conservative nationalism infused by religion BJP is pursuing, which is a curious amalgam of revivalism, xenophobia and triumphalism. I was fine with renegotiating the meaning of secularism and the questioning of pseudo-secularism, which should have meant the equality in the application of the law. But I am convinced now that BJP and RSS are not even interested in it.The secularist argument was made demanding a uniform set of laws instead of a separate code of personal laws (such as marriage, inheritance). The twist today is that the debate seems to have died down. We don’t hear the BJP demanding the abrogation of Muslims or Christians personal law anymore. What we have is almost a kind of new majoritarianism .A new kind of appeasement of majority. A hankering for a country colored saffron.

Like · Reply · 49 mins

Siddhartha Rastogi And by the way, this is not saying anything about how come the protests have turned against central government in the most sensation seeking manner? No creative streak - not a poem, not a painting against the "oppression", no agitation against law and...See More

Like · Reply · 18 mins

Anand Mishra This has just begun Sid , wait for a while , 😀

Like · Reply · 17 mins

Siddhartha Rastogi I will wait... I guess, there are no other options either. 
However, the Hashmi murder happened in January and by May, the India today article was written. 
Perhaps, those agitations took off because of more camaraderie and honesty and these ones are getting mocked because of political nakedness.

Like · Reply · 14 mins

Anand Mishra Forgive me , if I am inclined to go with some of the writers from this group I have read. Perhaps a few individuals of this motley protest group do not have kosher motives behind all this , and of course many of them are political , I don't even care about this returning of awards , but I think this is one of the best things that has happened in India in last few years - the unplanned coming together of people . I don't even think bjp should care , because it has such a large following , but mark my words , history would look at it differently .

Unlike · Reply · 1 · 8 mins

Write a reply...

Siddhartha Rastogi You would be surprised how BJP's traditional supporters are disenchanted and disappointed in BJP because it is trying to be too centrist and not being (as many extreme right-wingers wished) revivalist, triumphalist, or witch-hunting against leftists, opposing ideologies, Congress leadership, and so on. 
And I am yet more curious to witness and understand the instances of "conservative nationalism" that BJP-RSS have displayed.

Like · Reply · 42 mins

Anand Mishra Alright, if you insist on examples, there aplenty from my perspective , I will give you one that reeks of duplicity:The slaughter of cows was banned in many states of North India for quite a while, mostly since the 1960s. What was allowed was the impor...See More

Like · Reply · 33 mins · Edited

Siddhartha Rastogi Well, the fact that I remembered are slightly different. So I checked again (link below). In Maharashtra, cow meat was banned since 1976. In 1995, BJP-SS govt proposed a bill to expand the definition of cow meat. In 2015, they got it through. The cow m...See More

Maharashtra bans beef, 5 years jail, Rs 10,000 fine for possession or sale

INDIANEXPRESS.COM

Like · Reply · Remove Preview · 23 mins · Edited

Anand Mishra No this was an example of majoritarianism., and if you don't see the triumphal and conservative nationalism all around you then Sid I don't think any argument offered here would convince you otherwise . And yes my point is exactly that Congress made it bad , BJP is making it , the beef drama , worse .

Like · Reply · 19 mins

Siddhartha Rastogi Well, I guess, I don't see it at all. Yes, there are lone loony voices and they get bashed up by most among the majority. But few fringe are given that space of publicity by media only. Frankly, nobody cares about those loony fringes or about the politicised protests or about the sensationalist media.

Like · Reply · 16 mins

Anand Mishra Oh well , what can I say , I guess we live in two different worlds

Like · Reply · 15 mins

Siddhartha Rastogi I guess we are... no judgment here but as an old friend, may I say just that mine seems more secure for the time being because of I have opened more windows on both left and right sides?

Like · Reply · 11 mins

Write a reply...

Siddhartha Rastogi Also, the above argument doesn't mean I am very happy with the government. But leave my points of unhappiness for a while. Read Arun Shourie's comments. While he is too harsh in his usual style, he is speaking the mind of the masses on many counts.

Like · Reply · 41 mins

हिन्दी साहित्य के हत्यारे

क्वोरा पर अक्सर लोग पूछते हैं कि हिन्दी साहित्य में नया और अच्छा क्या लिखा जा रहा है? सबसे बड़े उपन्यासकार, नए कहानीकार, कोई नया नाटक, नए कवि - कुछ नयी रचनाएं नयी सदी का प्रतिनिधित्व करती हुयी....  कई बार प्रयास किया कि लोगों को बताने के लिए ही सही, कुछ नाम दे सकूँ - ये एक नए और बढ़िया लेखक हैं, नयी कहानियों का पता यहाँ मिलेगा, ये पत्रिका उम्दा है वगैरह वगैरह !

अफ़सोस की बात है लेकिन हिंदी साहित्य मृत है - अभी से नहीं, पिछले कई वर्षों से ! हाँ, कभी-कभार एक-दो धड़कन या नाड़ी शायद चल जाती हो लेकिन लाश सड़ने की हद तक जा चुकी है. और हिन्दी साहित्य को मारा किसने ? अंग्रेज़ी ने या सरकार ने नहीं, गरीबी या बाज़ारवाद ने नहीं .…  हिन्दी साहित्य के हत्यारे हैं उसके अपने पुरोधा, युग-प्रवर्तक, और वाचक. वे ही पुरोधा जिन्होंने अपनी राजनैतिक और वैयक्तिक महत्वाकांक्षाओं के चलते हिन्दी साहित्य की बलि चढ़ा दी। पत्रिकाओं पर कब्ज़ा किया, केवल उनको छापने दिया जो चाटुकार थे या घटिया या बिकाऊ या ये सभी कुछ। जो वाम नहीं था, उसकी भद्द पीटी. जो राजनीति के दलदल में लंगोट खोल कर उतरने को तत्पर थे, उनको छापा, उनको ही पुरस्कार दिए, और उनको ही भौंडेपन के साथ लेखक-आलोचक-नीति नियंता नियुक्त करवाया। हिन्दी के कवि-सम्मलेन तो कब का चुटकुलेबाज़ी, बेहूदगी, राजनीति, गाली-गालौच, और अश्लीलता का पर्याय बन चुके हैं।

दर असल ये सब पढ़ा तो बहुत बार था - रवीन्द्र नाथ त्यागी की कलम से, जहाँ वो एक तरफ अपने खेमे के भारती जी को भगवान बनाते थे और दूसरे खेमे के अज्ञेय को शैतान। वैसे ही काँता भारती की किताब "रेत की मछली" भारती का दूसरा पहलू खोलती दिखती है। और पता चलता है कि हमाम में सब ही.…… खैर, आज ये सब उभर आया क्योंकि कहाँ से तो होते हुए पता चला की मन्नू भंडारी ने एक लेख लिखा था तहलका के लिए "कितने कमलेश्वर"। बस वही पढ़कर एक दबा हुआ गुबार सतह पर आ गया.

हिन्दी साहित्य के इन हत्यारों की सूची इतनी छोटी नहीं और कुछ हत्यारे अभी भी इस लाश को खसोटने में व्यस्त हैं - नामवर सिंह, मुद्राराक्षस, काशीनाथ सिंह, उदय प्रकाश, और भी कई राजनैतिक भाण्ड! इन सबको हिन्दी साहित्य की मृतात्मा की हाय लगे। 

What do Teachers make?

Long back, I had read a comic-strip by a school teacher from USA. He tried answering what do teachers make. As I recall, the answer was "Life" or "humans". Well, when I left everything long back and chose being a professor over business, I had my doubts. When I went through periods of rude and selfish behavior of many students, the doubts increased. But all this while, there were moments that held me together to prove time and again that teachers do make lives. 

Some long lost FDP participant sending wishes and ice creams from their latest business venture, someone from a continent away making a call, someone from 3 batches past sending a line..... it is not the quantum or material value of the effort but the sheer gesture that matters. Last year a whole PGP section poured into my office with a small pouch of candies and the gesture still warms my heart. This year, the FPM class filled the board with so many of the references I made during the class, I ended up clicking the whole 3 parts of the white board. So they had poetry, Simpson, camera, French, politics, and what not... after all, I do make lives :)

What is Nostalgia made of?!

An old batchmate visited campus today and when he was told about me, he asked - what was the dorm-name?!! An old dorm-mate commented on FB today and it took a second to recall him by his real name, for I still remember him by the dorm-name alone. And then, I couldn't sleep. Found my old yearbook and read through many of the friends' entries. Nostalgia is made of friends, memories, and past... the past that we can never visit again and yet, we are always there. 

Somebody once showed me a quote, "I live in the past because most of my life is there". I think all my life is there only, left far far behind... deep in the clouds of past.

For whatever its worth, I got entry into the yearbook twice. We entered IIMA in 2005. First entry was when our PGP friends graduated in 2007. Second entry was when I graduated after an FPM in 2010. Sharing both the yearbook entries here... for this is what, nostalgia is made of. 

कोई है ख़ुदा तो जवाब दे

कभी कभी सोचते हैं हम कि ये सब किसलिए है? किसके लिए? जीवन के बारे में भी, लेकिन फिलहाल केवल इन ब्लॉग्स के बारे में.
ऐसे अंतहीन, लक्ष्यहीन ब्लॉग लिखते जाने का क्या मतलब? इसको कोई पढ़ता भी है या केवल बॉट्स टहल कर निकल जाते हैं! वैसे ही जैसे कोई रोज़ाना नमाज़ अता करे बिना ये जाने कि कहीं पहुंची भी दुआ या केवल हवा में घुल कर रह गयी…

कोई है ख़ुदा तो जवाब दे
मेरे सजदों का वो हिसाब दे 

नहीं है कहीं वो तो ना सही
वो न हो के लब्बो-लुआब दे 

The phase of Disenchantment

Till about a year ago, I was pretty active on Facebook - updating albums, sharing poetry, bugging friends, and discussing economics, politics, and and economics of politics. However, with the advent of Kejriwal and party, the atmosphere became so vitiated... and I could bear the strong ideological commitment but that wasn't there. All there was was a lot of noise, misinformation, and most bugging - idiocy. Utter rubbish fiction in the garb of facts, venomous opinions and allegations sans any idea of reality, and all that is said or done to be interpreted on the party lines. Worst, so many close friends and supposedly intellectually advanced beings from even IIMs behaved so badly - right from name calling to personal attacks - I decided to give up on Facebook... may be the place is fit for AAPtards or for cute cat sharing kids, basically all the brainless types.

I thought there would be better avenues perhaps. Twitter came to mind... but this was worse. Not so much of personal hounding etc. but everybody has a life-changing opinion in flat 140 characters and no scope for any sincere discussions or so. Mere opinions fly and idiocy has to be tolerated on the face value. Even before I could understand the ways of twitter, I was over that.

Few days back, I started getting active on Quora. It is a website, where people keep minimal profile, can ask questions, can answer others' questions, discuss the responses, and upvote-downvote those. I answered some of those questions and few got highly upvoted. Suddenly I encountered a lot of people following and asking a lot of questions. I felt a bit uncomfortable with so much of attention and at the same time, like it too. This was, perhaps, a more academic and tolerant place, where curious minds came together to seek knowledge rather than to show off their puny knowledge in their tiny heads. And then, the nightmare started again. Some AAPtards caught on - bombarding with negative questions, pestering with idiotic comments, personal attacks followed, and finally, I am fed up with Quora also!

I think those days were far better, when there was no social media. It is true that a lot of interesting people would never have been known to me and also a lot of information would have been missed out but at the same time, a lot larger number of utter idiots would also go out of sight. And what a world would it be sans so many idiots.... at least, I won't be getting disenchanted so easily!

आज तुमको फिर निहारा

कई दिन के तोड़ देने वाले बुखार से उठ कर घर से ऑफ़िस आ जाना और कुछ देर काम की कोशिश… पढ़ाई का प्रयास। और फिर जब हिम्मत जवाब दे जाए तो?

अपने पुराने फेसबुक स्टेटस पढ़ना, वो दिन याद करना जब वो  ख़ास लाइन लिखी गयी थी... अपने ही पुराने ब्लॉग की परतें उघाड़ना… जैसे टहलते हुए अपने पुराने कमरे में पहुँच जाना और हर चीज़ को वैसे ही रखा पाना जैसे उसे छोड़ कर गए थे… और फिर हर चीज़ को आँखों में भर लेना, हाथों से उसकी छुअन को पकड़ लेना.... कि इस बार जो ये याद का कमरा छूटेगा तो फिर शायद न मिले… कम-अज़-कम अगली बार अतीत के थपेड़े लगने तक तो नहीं.... सो आज यही किया - बड़ी देर तक पुराने दिन निहारे।

कब यादों का ज़ख्म भरे, कब दाग मिटे

कितने दिन लगते हैं भुलाते, देख रहा हूँ