All My Views (Un)Fit To Print

'Auto' Engineering - The Marma Way

2009-03-25T15:59:00.001+05:30

One of the first gifts a boy child receives is a toy car! The plastic car graduates to the battery-operated model with blinking lights, then to a collection of matchbox cars and eventually the authentic ‘to scale’ collection that grows exponentially in size, from majority to middle-age, fuelled by the need to keep alive the ‘boy’ in us all.

Of course, the spirit of curiosity that dismantles the plastic car by the end of the evening, diminishes to cosmetic appreciation of design and trimmings by the time we pay frightful sums for ‘to scale’ versions and comprehensive medical checkups.

During the course of the evolution through the auto-toy chain, we step into Dad’s shoes, driving the family and girlfriend in his car, before marriage demands the purchase of a sleek four-door family pride to transport wife and offspring!

Ayrton Senna and Alain Prost have exited our Formula One memories, replaced by bruising battles between Fernando Alonso and Michael Schumacher and now Lewis Hamilton, witnessed from the confines of a sofa, sipping beer with buddies on Sunday afternoons.

We love to drive cars; we revel in the ‘need for speed’ fantasy on the computer and live in endless fascination of Ferrari engineering but live in trepidation of a breakdown on the road simply because our auto knowledge is, for the most part restricted to the cosmetic. So, when we get stuck we call AA for “Help”!

We are drivers of the ‘auto’ mobile, the sophistication of which overshadows F1 engineering – the human body. The sharp learning curves of everyday life drive us round the bend but we remain ignorant about our psycho-physiological marvel; unable to read the warning signs and intuitively understand how to tweak our engineering for improved performance.

Centuries before Jean Todt fine-tuned Ferrari into a racing superpower, Sushruta - one of the founding fathers of Ayurvedic medicine –mapped the schematics of body engineering detailed in the classic Ayurvedic text, Sushruta Samhita.

Marma-point massage dates back to southern India circa 1500 BC. Masters of Kalaripayattu the ancient martial art targeted an opponent's marma points as a way to inflict pain and injury. 64 of these are considered as ‘kula marma’ (deadly points) of which 12 marma points when hit with a knockout blow, can cause instant death.

The word marma is of Sanskrit origin; mru or marr word meaning hidden or secret. The Sanskrit phrase, Marayate Iti Marmani, means there is likelihood of death or serious damage to health after infliction to these places and hence these areas are called marma.

By definition, a marma point is a juncture on the body where two or more types of tissue meet, such as muscles, veins, ligaments, bones or joints. Yet marma points are so much more than a casual connection of tissue and fluids; they are intersections of the vital life force and prana, or breath. Marma can also be associated with terms such as tenderness, secretion or vital places.

Combat situations demand extremely agile, strong and supple bodies, which instantly obey the focused mind. The practitioners of Kalaripayattu used Kalari massage to prime their bodies and sharpen reflexes.

The highest stage of Kalaripayattu is marma prayoga, a near-extinct science being resurrected by some practitioners. According to marma prayoga, our body is crisscrossed like irrigation channels with meridians, a closed interconnecting system through which ‘prana’ flows in the body. Marma shastra believes there are 26 meridians in all. Of these, 12 are located in pairs on the left and right sides of the body, respectively.

Healing has always been an integral part of martial arts. As a healing technique, marma prayoga is potent. You cannot be a fighter without knowing how to heal your wounds. But nothing connects the two better than marma shastra — where the difference between life and death is just a matter of pressure. Along with their ability to kill, however, comes an ability to heal.

Wounded Kalari fighters were nursed back to health with marma therapy. Kalari practitioners used marma-point massage to stimulate healing in areas that corresponded to the soldier's injuries. Eventually, Ayurvedic physicians around India learned of the technique's powers and brought Kalari masters into hospitals to teach the art.

The idea behind massaging the marma points is to cleanse blocked energy, also called chi, by either arousing or calming the dosha (humours). Like a television with three channels, each marma point has three receptors that align with the three doshas.

During a marma-point massage, the points are stroked in a deliberate sequence using specific essential oils. The therapist or the Kalari master uses nadisuthra kriya to apply pressure with the fingers, thumb or toe at marma points on the body.

There are 108 Marma points -the mind is considered the 108th marma. Major marma points correspond to the seven chakras, or energy centres of the body, while minor points radiate out along the torso and limbs. The points cover both the front and back body, including 22 on the lower extremities, 22 on the arms, 12 on the chest and stomach, 14 on the back, and 37 on the head and neck.

The Ayurvedic tradition of Sushruta says that diseases are afraid of approaching a body which has been foot-massaged, just like animals in the sight of a lion.

This ancient martial art of Kalaripayattu and its healing techniques has gained a renewed significance. When fast cars and faster lives are a compulsion, we still remain warriors - not on the battlefield but in the theatre of life. Just as the engineers at Ferrari squeeze every ounce of performance from their F1 prototypes; through the practice of Kalaripayattu and marma therapy we too can reduce the drag co-efficient of tension through calming the mind, improving the aerodynamics of mental alertness and keeping ourselves disease free with flexibility, nimbleness and suppleness to corner with ease the chicanes of life.

Talking To The Terrorist

2008-12-23T18:10:00.010+05:30

“I can hear you and the rest of the world hears you and the people who knocked these buildings down will hear all of us soon!” proclaimed President George W Bush standing on the ashes of Ground Zero on September 14, 2001 - addressing rescue workers shouting ‘USA! USA! USA!

The United States is still in pursuit of the people responsible for having “knocked these buildings down” with the determination to eradicate and kill those leaders and followers that perpetuate terrorism.

Unfortunately recent reports raise concern that the ‘War on Terror’ is close to a dead end.

On November 27^th after completion of sanitising operations by the NSG at Nariman House in Mumbai, crowds screaming “Bharat Mata Ki Jai …Pakistan Murdabad” had to be dispersed by water cannon.

With the country seething in anger, in the aftermath of 26/11, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh was measured in his response saying that the people of India “feel a sense of hurt and anger as never seen before.”

Amongst those goading the government into a war on terror is former union minister Arun Shourie exhorting “No more talk of ‘minimum force’. Its time to overwhelmingly crush the terrorist forces and repeatedly; It should be both eyes for an eye and a jaw for a tooth”

It is thus far and no further, agrees B. Raman, Additional Secretary (retd), Cabinet Secretariat, Govt. of India, advocating “a divided Pakistan, a bleeding Pakistan, a Pakistan ever on the verge of collapse without actually collapsing-that should be our objective till it stops using terrorism against India”

Devarchit Varma, a student of broadcast journalism in Bangalore thinks “Terrorism has now reached a point where it has to be dealt with mercilessly. There can be no space for any negotiation”

There is a strong and mounting demand for firm and decisive action exacerbated “by the warmongering and hysteria of the media and middle class in metros” a trend condemned by John Dayal, Member, National Integration Council.

Amidst the tom-tomming of jingoism and the fog of manufacturing consent clouding judgement ex-soldier, Srinath Raghavan presently a security analyst at the National Institute of Advanced Studies provides clarity saying “There are serious limits to India’s capacity to impose substantial costs on Pakistan. A limited strike would thus amount to little more than scratching the wound: it may make us feel momentarily better but will not address the underlying problem. To suggest that India can hold the initiative and can gradually turn the screw on Pakistan is either naïve or disingenuous”

Partho Datta, a strategy consultant from Bangalore reminds us “a military response is not on. A confrontation between two nuclear capable nations is too awful to contemplate”

“With the war on terror on one side and the proliferation of violent extremism on the other nothing is heard nor understood just like in an incessant shouting match” observes

Dr. Noa Zanolli, an international conflict resolution expert.

Expressing his anguish on condition of anonymity an IPS batch mate of Ashok Kamte killed in the Mumbai operations says “I expect the same stereotype stand from the political parties, same response from the media and the same anguish and feeling of helplessness from the public. The opposition parties will exploit the situation to say that the Government has been soft on terror, should invoke POTA, should hang Afzal Guru, etc. While legislations and awarding deterrent punishments are very essential in our fight against terror, then are by no means sufficient to put an end to terror”

Searching for simple explanations - and simple solutions- is an immediate repercussion of anger and fear. We ought not to forfeit our best weapon against terrorism, which is the ability to understand the seemingly incomprehensible.

Instead of seeking immediate answers, we need to frame the appropriate questions. Why did more than a dozen potential terrorists find each other in the first place? Why did they prepare elaborately to take the lives of hundreds as well as their own lives?” Why is the youth easy prey for recruiters who know how to manipulate them into finding heavenly fulfilment by their sacrifice? Until we understand the answers to these questions, we are in danger of retaliating wildly, like a fighter with a paper bag pulled over his head.

Some conflicts – that social scientists term ‘ontological’ - are highly resistant to the tools of diplomatic or military pressure that cannot entirely "resolve" them.

Herbert Kelman, professor of Social Ethics in the Department of Psychology at Harvard University notes: "Conflict is caused and escalated to a considerable degree by unfulfilled psychological needs as security, identity, self-esteem, recognition, autonomy and a sense of justice. The need to protect identities is so important that it will be pursued by individuals and groups regardless of the costs and sacrifices involved”

The next series of question we must therefore ask ourselves is: “What is the message of terrorism?” What are terrorists trying to communicate through dastardly deeds? What are the grievances - justified or otherwise – that these voices express? Is mutual mass murder the only viable means of communication? What does it mean when we simplistically interpret acts of terrorism as: “They hate us. They hate our way of life”?

Dr. Noa Zanolli urges us to listen to the voice of terrorism by inquiring “Is the violence a language conveying hopelessness of fulfilling one’s life dreams, a sense of deprivation, disenfranchisement and utter desperation?

The current circumstances of numerous ethnic groups around the world and particularly in India reflect a situation of relative deprivation and deep feelings of vulnerability. Extremists manipulate an alternative identity to find self-serving explanations for the humiliation in real or imaginary but always powerful enemies that unjustly have imposed these circumstances upon them. The sense of humiliation is transformed into anger and a sense of historical injustice, which is very difficult to resist in particular for young members of society.

Thus Hafeez Saaed of the LeT, fuels Ajmal Kasab employing vitriolic videos of Narendra Modi and Praveen Togadia decrying Islam while Balasaheb Thackeray exhorts the formation of Hindu suicide squads as a response to Islamic terrorism. Meanwhile, in the forests of Giridih away from police and public eye, the Maoists prepare a 300 strong Child Liberation Army as a terror platform of the future.

Isn't terrorism a emotional frustration caused by the unwillingness of those in power to engage in dialogue and correct injustice?

“In many cases it is not simple ideological fervour but real material--economic and political--factors that underlie terror. Hence, it cannot be countered simply through a law-and-order approach” explains sociologist Yoginder Sikand.

Wing Cmdr (Retd), Rakesh Sharma astronaut agrees “it should be a preferred, strategy because basically, this type of violence stems out of a (real or imagined) perception carried by the attackers, of being persecuted and taken advantage off”.

Academic and legal luminary Upendra Baxi describes present governance as “a politics of immunity and impunity, a situation where those in power can do as they want without any pull of accountability or tug of constitutionality”

Can we do something to halt terrorism without increasing the death toll of innocent victims and recruiting thousands of new terrorists?

“Listening to the voice of terrorism and interpreting its language is not to be mistaken for condoning it or, diminishing what democratic governments have to do to protect and police their citizens in accordance with their laws” says Dr Noa Zanolli.

There is almost always an opportunity to negotiate with a government who harbour criminals, and it would be unfortunate to squander such opportunities.

Srinath Raghavan of NIAS directs us to the case of Libya where “a state has been persuaded to forsake terrorism as an instrument of policy”. “The crucial turn came after America and Britain began secret negotiations with Libyan officials. The Anglo-American approach was to build reciprocity into the process: every positive step taken by Libya would be matched by concessions. Between 1999 and 2003 Libya expelled terrorist groups operating on its territory, closed down training camps, and extradited suspects to other West Asian countries”

Daniel Korski of the European Council on Foreign Relations urges the world community to read the writing on the wall. In his policy paper “Afghanistan: Europe’s Forgotten War” he concludes that “the continuing strength of the insurgency make Western and European defeat in Afghanistan a realistic prospect. The consequences would be disastrous. Afghanistan could once again serve as a base for fundamentalist Islamic terrorism”.

Korski nudges the EU towards an outreach programme to the Taliban “to engage mid-ranking, “moderate” insurgents, by developing a package of financial and other incentives which could encourage them to support the government rather than the Taliban”

Western diplomats consider this may well be the best opportunity to do the unthinkable and talk to the enemy. According to Tony Barber of the Financial Times, Brussels bureau, “In some quarters, the idea is mutating into something much more radical. In recent weeks I have heard at last one government expert pose an almost unthinkable question: "Why not talk with al-Qaeda itself?"

In addition, Korski suggests regional co-operation “Any stability achieved in Afghanistan will remain unacceptably fragile as long as neighbours such as Pakistan, India, Russia and Iran refuse to accept that stable governance in Afghanistan is in their own long-term interests”

If we are to weaken and eventually eliminate the soil where terror is born it is imperative to remove the source of Bin Laden & Co’s justifications and alliances, by participating in strengthening the web of regional relationships.

Of immediate importance feels sociologist Yoginder Sikand is that “India should rally international opinion to pressurise Pakistan till it takes effective action against groups like the LeT and rogue elements within the ISI”. As a complementary strategy, astronaut Rakesh Sharma is of the opinion that we should garner support from other countries, shamelessly leveraging our biggest strength - our market”

While considering options of ‘talking to the terrorist” it is also required that we set our own house in order.

“We need to rid ourselves of our 'chalta hai' attitude compounded by,' Its-ok-'as-long-as-I-get-what-I-want' approach to life, suggests Rakesh Sharma.

Rafiq Siddiqui from Mumbai believes “Violent individuals and groups are a minority. We need to replace that voice and not let the country being torn apart”. Supporting this opinion is John Dayal who remains confident “of the inherent wisdom, in the Indian electorate, to denounce efforts to sway public opinion by hyper-nationalist demagoguery”.

Sonali Mehta believes “we must stop the Raj Thackeray’s pitting Maharashtrians against non Maharashtrians, causing riots, getting people killed, and that worst crime: wasting the time of the police!”

Ashok Kamte’s IPS batchmate warns us that “as a nation we can expect more such carnage to happen in the days to come and all of us have to be prepared for it”. To allow a “first world reaction from a third world police force” he pleads that his brethren not be transferred like he has “transferred 27 times in 9 years of active policing!!. In order to effect change his plea is “because Police is hated, you don't keep yourself away from the malaise and refuse to raise a voice to improve it”

Across our borders, Srinath Raghavan is of the opinion that we must engage with the Pakistanis. “Unless we remain sensitive to the domestic currents in Pakistan, a breakthrough will be difficult” he adds.

He considers the “internal conditions in Pakistan are more suited to a turnaround in established policy than at any time in the recent past. The internal threat posed by radical groups is clear both to the people of Pakistan and a good number of the elected representatives”

Within Pakistan, the Mutahidda Ulema Council (MUC), a group of clerics best known for their hard line views on Islam’s role in society issued a fatwa rejecting suicide-bombing as ‘haram’ (forbidden) and ‘najaaiz’ (illegitimate). The statement further added: “It seems as if the government is covertly backing these attacks so that patriotic citizens may not assemble and launch a mass drive for the defence of the country” (The News [Islamabad], October 14).

Sociologist Yoginder Sikand urges “The Indian state and civil society must urgently acknowledge that Islamist and Hindutva terror only feed on each other. Presenting a joint front to work together for peace and security would be a fitting reply to both radical Islamist forces and Hindutva, whose very existence is based on the frighteningly Manichaean notion of perpetual antagonism between Hindus and Muslims”

By confronting these questions together, we may find ways to transcend the conditions that recreate terrorism every day, and live together with justice, and without war.

As a last resort, if power moves must be made (whether to raise consciousness, deliver punishment, or demonstrate our resolve), the goal should always be getting the other side to the negotiating table, not killing or beating them into submission.

Respect The Rule Of Law

2008-12-21T07:19:00.003+05:30

Over a month ago, four new traffic signals appeared on the route I take my children to school every morning. The traffic lights have transformed the hitherto ‘free for all” into a ‘frequent violation’ zone.

Some citizens feel ‘more equal’ than others, granting themselves the divine right to drive past the red signal at their pleasure. Such citizens include BPO cabbies, auto rickshaws, motor cyclists, SUV’s BMTC and State Police buses as well as number plates with High Court of Karnataka and Govt. of Karnataka emblazoned. This scene probably replicates itself elsewhere in the country.

Citizens in a hurry terrorise fellow citizens, with supreme disregard for their right to cross a road in safety. From amongst such citizens can be counted the 60% plus equally in a hurry to deny Ajmal Ali Kasab the constitutional right to a legal defence. Unfortunately, within this percentage, the Bombay Metropolitan Magistrates’ Courts Bar Association enjoys bigoted cohabitation with Shiv Sainik lumpen fuelling the tyranny of the majority.

Their ignorance of the rule of law begins with the rules of the road but does not end there.

No lawyer can refuse to defend an accused on the ground that the person is a terrorist as this would amount to misconduct under the Advocates Act, 1961. Refusal would render the lawyer liable for action under the Bar Council of India rules.

Meanwhile, the self-same Shiv Sena that couldn’t summon even a growl when Ajmal Kasab was decimating Mumbaikars, now bares its fangs at lawyers offering to defend Kasab in compliance with the rule of law. It is frightening when a motley pride of tiger cubs decides whether we are patriotic or anti-national.

History repeats itself in the irony of injustice. Twenty odd years ago Ram Jethmalani was despised as “anti-national” when he defended the alleged killers of Indira Gandhi. In Madhya Pradesh, Noor Muhammed, a district court lawyer, was assaulted by suspected Bajrang Dal activists before TV cameras for defending alleged terrorists. Most recently, Kamini Jaiswal braved derision to defend suspects in the Red Fort and Parliament attacks.

If Dara Singh in the Graham Staines case, Lt Col Purohit, Sadhvi Pragya in the Malegaon blasts and Rajiv Gandhi’s assassin Nalini, could all be provided legal aid, why not Ajmal Kasab? Nazi war criminals enjoyed the right to defence during the Nuremberg trials. Even the accused in the 9/11 attacks and July 7, 2007, London bombings enjoyed legal aid.

If people think that Ajmal Kasab is not entitled to a defence, their opinion runs contrary to the Constitution of India and counter to the express rules framed by the Bar Council of India.

However horrifying an alleged crime might be, India’s liberal constitutional democracy unequivocally allows the accused the right of a fair trial. This right to self-defence, it is universally acknowledged, is considered to be the very pivot of our democracy.

“Populations usually don't know the Constitution, the legal rules and the foundation of the judicial system of a country," said Ram Jethmalani in a recent TV programme. “The public needs to be educated on the fact that a defence of Ajmal Kasab means the defence of the rules of India”

Such emotions are damaging to the tenet of India's rule of law and the country's reputation of being committed to jurisprudence. Such dialogue provides an opportunity for the international community to cast the aspersion that Indians have no belief in their own Constitution.

More than 200 years ago a similar situation arose in the United States after the Boston Massacre with a public enraged by an act of brutality by their British occupiers. Because of the virulent anti-British sentiment in Boston, no lawyers in the city would agree to defend the soldiers, believing it would be the end of their legal careers. But John Adams, an outspoken critic of the British occupation, recognized the importance of a fair trial for the accused and agreed to represent them risking infamy and even death. In his diary Adam’s describes the experience as “one of the best pieces of service I ever rendered my country.”

In keeping with John Adams’ tradition, US civilian lawyers volunteered to join the state-appointed military counsel defending the 9/11 suspects. US Navy Reserves Cmdr. Suzanne Lachelier, defence lawyer for Ramzi bin al Shibh, alleged driver and bodyguard of Osama bin Laden, said the 9/11 case presented “the ultimate challenge for a criminal defence attorney when a defendant is facing so much hatred from the general public and political backlash, to say the least”.
Within the ranks of American leading law schools, law firms and legal centres, it would be hard to find a cause more popular than the detainees of Guantanamo Bay. Every lawyer wants his own detainee or detainee group. The result is that dozens of the world's most dangerous men now have their own legal Dream Teams ensuring that the rule of law is upheld in letter and spirit.

Presently, Ajmal Kasab is another ‘pedestrian’ attempting to cross the roads of our legal system. While he denied 58 people the fundamental right to live he is assured legal aid by the same traffic light of Article 21 that guarantees all the right to life even when crossing a road.

While Kasab might be considered guilty based on his alleged confession, a defence lawyer must necessarily raise the question whether the alleged terrorist deserves the gallows or a life term.

The mathematician-turned-lawyer who has offered to defend Kasab offers two clear reasons for his decision to bring Kasab to justice; “in order to serve all of India, and to ensure that all humans receive a fair trial.”

“What people don’t realise is that it could happen to them tomorrow.” forewarns a leading constitutional lawyer.

The last word unequivocally belongs to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, who in his recent address to the International Conference of Jurists on Terrorism, Rule of Law And Human Rights, in New Delhi stressed its supremacy saying “The Rule of Law is a continual process. Every day, every moment, in every place, a free people expect to see the Rule of Law prevail through the transparent and proper functioning of democratic institutions. There is no better insurance against the forces of extremism, intolerance and terrorism than the efficient and fair functioning of the institutions of democratic governance”

Spare The Thief, Catch The Chief

2008-12-14T07:19:00.003+05:30

Published in Sunday DNA, Bangalore as: Valued: Dead or Alive dtd 14/12/2008

In the feature film Syriana - illustrating the machinations of U.S. based energy corporations and the U.S. government to secure control over the world’s remaining fossil fuel reserves – Wasim a Pakistani oilfield-worker in the middle-east assures his son “Someday we’ll get a real house and get your mother here”.

Wasim is soon one of hundreds laid off. Thereafter, his son is ripe for recruitment for Jihad and by the end of the film, he is ramming an explosive laden speed boat into an oil tanker. This Pakistani boy is treated anonymously, as one among millions, prey to larger forces. We never get inside what drives boys of his culture and class to make this decision.

26/11 has provided the invaluable opportunity to address the shortcomings of reel-life characterization, with insights into the real Mohammed Ajmal Amir Iman Kasab. The baby-faced gunman was captured at Mumbai's CST station, where he and an accomplice killed 58 people in a barrage of bullets and grenades.

His is the story is of deprivation and rootless drifting that turned the third of five children of a ‘pani-puri chaat wala’ from Faridkot, an uneducated labourer struggling for survival into a petty criminal and then into a terrorist.

Faridkot, in Punjab province is an economically stagnant area where most people have little education and live in poverty that has been long known for producing Jihadis. Graffiti is found on sides of buildings which say, in Urdu, "Go for jihad! Go for jihad! - Markaz Dawat ul-Irshad."

Influenced by films on India’s “atrocities” in Kashmir and by impassioned speeches of preachers, including Lashkar chief, Hafiz Mohammad Saeed, Ajmal started believing it might be worth sacrificing his life for the glory of Islam. He then started envisioning jihad as the purpose of his life and a means to gain respectability in his society.

Ajmal told investigators that Lashkar commander Zaki-ur-Rahman Lakhvi promised that his family would be financially rewarded for his sacrifice. “Spread terror and your family will be looked after,” but he now fears that his family members will be killed because he was ordered not to be taken alive.

Violence has always had the power to transform the mundane “nobody” into a heroic warrior. The former Guantanamo detainee and Al-Qaida training camp recruit, Mourad Benchellali, a young Frenchman from Lyon was lured to Afghanistan by, as he puts it, "a misguided and mistimed sense of adventure".

The same narrative replicates itself ad infinitum with Hezbollah's 42,000 Mahdi Scouts aged between 8 and 16, the Lashkar-e-Toiba, the Shri Rama Sena or the Maoist Child Liberation Army ensconced in the forests of Giridih. Now that adolescent terrorism has arrived at the Gateway of India we are finally paying attention!

Ajmal Kasabs are everywhere. They are most likely to be teenagers without access to stable family ties seeking support and belonging through tribal allegiances. With no recourse to adult role models, violent role models fill the void - and popular culture delivers glorified violence in abundance.

An abnormally large number of 15-29 year olds are supersaturating the job market and coming up empty. While they are capable of fuelling growth, revitalising economies and social structures under the right conditions, the violence in the Middle East, parts of Asia, Europe and Africa is largely due to tensions and resentments within societies that have a large youth demographic, - creating the perfect storm. The presentation and mobilisation of violence is an attractive solution to disempowered youth.

Do we seek retribution by the expeditious prosecution and delivery of death sentence for petty thief turned terrorist Ajmal Ali Kasab or, do we exploit him as a travelling ambassador propagating anti-terrorism?

Through his death we would have removed a symptom, created a martyr and rewarded him with heaven and give cause for a hundred more youngsters to avenge him in the name of Jihad. Furthermore, we would dubiously inspire another hundred to ‘save India’ against Islamic terror.

In the land of Mahatma Gandhi let us spare Ajmal Kasab; deny him martyrdom, prosecute him with community service for life, indoctrinate him in the ways of democratic dissent and exploit him as a poster boy exposing the folly of terror.

Instead, let us ‘bomb’ Faridkot with books and jobs, annihilate its poverty, exterminate the poisonous puppeteer chiefs of terror that manipulate young minds, so that all children realise a peaceful tomorrow.

Abducting The Child Mind

2008-10-31T12:55:00.005+05:30

“So this was what it was about….. her hate for me is so much she will use our sons to ensure my ruination. I realized the full force that day of what it is to be hated by someone you once loved. My children had become a weapons of retribution"

Unlike other species on this planet, human offspring enter this world completely dependent for care - usually on their parents - for a few decades rather than merely a few weeks.

Across the planet, parenting traditions and styles diverge with culture and community.

Furthermore, the ability to parent is at variance but this task is managed rather successfully by most couples.

“Any attempt at alienating the children from the other parent should be seen as a direct and wilful violation of one of the prime duties of parenthood, which is to promote and encourage a positive and loving relationship with the other parent, and the concept of shared parental responsibility” - THE FLORIDA BAR JOURNAL, VOL. 73, No. 3, MARCH 1999, p 44-48

With the exponential increase in divorce particularly in traditional societies like India grappling with modernism and radical change, children are increasingly being failed by parents who display incapability to rear children.

For millions of mothers and fathers on the ‘wrong side of the socio-economic tracks’ in India the limitations of poverty, physical or mental disability leading to subsequent afflictions of poor health, substance abuse, criminality thus affecting their ability or desire to parent their children, is understandable. Children in these situations develop a survival instinct with probable support from extended family members, friends, neighbours or even NGO’s.

Of concern is a relatively new and emerging class of parents who fail at appropriately protecting, nurturing, educating and guiding their children.

These are mothers and fathers who do not fit the stereotype of the deficient and ill-equipped parent.

These parents are easily mistaken for the ‘ideal parents’ - usually articulate, rather resourceful and competent in all other aspects of their lives. While they profess love and concern for their children, what sets these parents apart from other dysfunctional parents is their overwhelming commitment to meeting their own needs first. In doing so, they are consumed with destroying the bond their children enjoy with the other parent – at any cost.

Parental Alienation Syndrome is produced by a dysfunctional parent, but it is a disorder in the child. If the child can withstand the alienating parent's lies and manipulations, then bad parenting is certainly taking place, but Parental Alienation Syndrome is not.

It becomes Parental Alienation Syndrome when the child capitulates and begins to participate in the campaign against the targeted parent.

Children subjected to Parental Alienation are taught, daily, via denigration and outright lies, to believe that the other parent is unfair, uncaring and unreliable.

The parent undergoes metamorphism from the idiotic and stupid into the evil and dangerous and eventually into someone worthy of complete and permanent rejection. A child assimilates the destruction of that once deeply loving relationship through self-loathing and rebellion. Isolation and crushing depression follow soon after. This is tantamount to child abuse and abduction of an innocent mind.

Parental Alienation Syndrome is a by-product of contested custody cases. Countless number of children are suffering on an ongoing basis while they are in the care of one parent who places more value on getting even with their ex-spouse than they do on the happiness of their child.

Unfortunately, the legal system parents seek remedies from is not as expedient as required. The ignorance and apparent insensitivity of the family courts towards children’s emotional needs is combined with the unwillingness to look beyond the legal infrastructure to examine why once healthy, happy and well-functioning children that experience a warm and positive relationship with both parents, systematically and without cause reject one parent and deny the love and nurturing that would sustain them.

If the family courts are sensitised with relevant information about children, their behaviour and the consequences of people’s actions, then perhaps we could witness a reduction in systemic failures.

What makes the legal system crucial is that the only solution to severe, entrenched alienation is court. Parents that alienate are, if not bona fide pathological, at least convinced in an absolute and paranoid way that they are right. In other words: they won't stop. Acquiring the legal standing to say “No” to power plays and to re-establish relationship with one’s child is the only way to bring a ‘turn around’ in the syndrome.

This is where the real damage occurs to a child's developing personality and young mind and heart. The emotionally damaging fallout that occurs when a child is robbed of his right to be loved by both his parents is a cause for concern as a future generation of India remains susceptible to deviance, depression and suicide.

Having already lost one parent and faced with losing the other, PAS children live every day in fear. Creating an awareness of the drivers and effects of Parental Alienation Syndrome is the first step towards addressing dysfunctions in our legal system that permits it to flourish.

Former partners and the justice system should work together to ensure that children maintain strong and positive relationships with both parents.

Teaching India Again

2008-09-05T10:45:00.002+05:30

The education I received at one of the premier educational establishments in the country cost me Rs. 35 per month through fifteen years of school and college on the same campus in Calcutta. At the sister establishment in Bangalore today, I pay for each of my sons for a term what I paid for my entire education!

The quality of education I received - comparable to the finest grammar schools in the world like Eton, Harrow or Rugby – was not just about perfecting the 3 R’s but being prepared for future leadership, competition, success and failure. Such education was equally accessible to the sons of a shop steward or industrial scion, which my middle-class parents would have found unaffordable today.

Teachers like Ms. Peterson, Carl Rosario and Thomas Vianna were no less in experience, quality or stature than the finest at the finest grammar school. For them imparting an education was a vocation, a passion and an art form that ignited young minds, not to simply study for exams but to seek learning beyond the realms of the classroom.

As a mark of ‘gratitude’ for their professional success, my generation has permitted these minds that launched a thousand minds to retire forgotten like Ms. Peterson in a Bangalore old-age home or, like Mr. Subramanian leading a life of penury in Chennai, instead of them enjoying the fruits of their labour on a world cruise like their Etonian counterparts.

Two such notable minds are Saurav Ganguly and Rahul Dravid, India’s cricket captains; their leadership skills fashioned in the same institutions, by the same education for the same price by the same teachers – including my mother – but they earn more in a day than what my mother earned as provident fund, after teaching six-year olds for 30 odd years!

Ironically, it is the corporate sector in their desire for the dollar that is prepared to pay my mother a king’s ransom to train trainers –who earn more each month now than she earned in a decade- to fill the vacuum of an inadequate education amongst their BPO workforce.

For a nation that celebrated the Guru–Shishya tradition once upon a time, we have systematically devalued the noblest profession in the world with the worst pay and less respect than we have for the oldest profession!

As a result, for the teachers who educate most of our children presently, the profession is a ‘time pass’ job after college and before marriage or, it conveniently supplements the household income while the task of completing the syllabus is accomplished.

Understandably, the best teachers are rewarded handsomely to educate the affluent few at international schools or, else thrive on parental paranoia to run tutorial classes to school the millions in what ought to be accomplished in school.

Very fortunately, my sons have a grandmother exclusively to themselves to relieve the pressure of systemic shortcomings and a father who believes that education does not end with the classroom but most other children have to withstand the burden of relentless study – rather than learning – and incompetent teaching, aggravated by motivated parents pressuring them to excel.

It is tragic that the quality of teachers and education hitherto accessible and affordable to many has now become the privilege of the prosperous few, while the rest of India precipitates to eat shop and celebrate instead of striving towards the literate.

Teaching India ought not to be a media gimmick employing a million volunteers; it requires us to recall the thousands of passionate teachers that taught us from the village pathshalas to the IIT’s and sponsor them to kindle the joy of teaching amongst teachers and thereby spend the winters of their lives in satisfaction and dignity.

In asking our teachers to teach India again would be our salute to them.

A Sporting Life

2008-08-24T21:33:00.003+05:30

Hearing the Indian national anthem performed in an Olympic stadium after 28 years, I was transported - by this unexpected moment of national pride - to an Olympics in the future, when I would be one amongst many hundred Indian fathers applauding our children winning medals for India.

During my school life, our Dad's and Papa's were always on the sidelines watching matches, making us feel like a dream team. If we lost everyone was blamed including the referee, an uneven playing field, bad luck and God too had to take it on the chin...but certainly not their sons! If we won, our Pa's - if they were poetically inclined - would have immortalised our sporting exploits in ballads. What made this special was the presence of Olympian fathers like Leslie Claudius and Vece Paes as cheer leaders.

Growing up in a familial environment with exposure to diverse sports, I too nurtured dreams of pursuing professional basketball and cycling for Team India in the Tour de France but in a socialist India some decades ago such spirit was incongruent with opportunity, unless you were in the army or a government undertaking.

My earliest experiences of sport were varied as camera angles; first watching my mother coach the erstwhile Mysore basketball team to victory from atop Dad’s shoulders, then being thrown into the depths of the murky Dhakuria Lakes in Calcutta- aged 5- by a lifeguard, serving as my introduction to aquatics.

Rishabh and Ahan, my sons now ten and nearly nine, enjoyed a more benign baptism aged 18 months, cradled in my palms across a clear swimming pool. In a matter of weeks they demonstrated their definite preference for an aquatic life. Aged four, they were cycling round the block and a year later winning cardboard ‘golds’ for athletics at school.

Having learned more about teamwork, camaraderie, competition and failure from the sports arena than the classroom, I was resolute in sharing with my lads the experience of sport.

Discovering a new sport continues every summer. Rishabh’s overconfidence has met with comeuppance; playing with forty aggressive children fighting for a football transformed his attitude for the better when learning cricket. Ahan’s reticence while learning basketball conceded to brimming confidence under the guidance of a paternal hockey coach.

Some years earlier, touching 40, I had embarked on a journey of mind and body, learning Kalaripayattu - the ancient martial art - that young boys in Kerala start at 7.

The first weeks of training made me feel unhealthy, ungainly, awkward and unfit. My bones crackled like a bamboo grove in a storm and I discovered muscles and parts of the anatomy through aches and pains. Ofcourse I wanted to throw in the towel on a daily basis but the battlefield expertise of Kalaripayattu instilled in me a mental toughness. I learned to transform negative energies into a reservoir of positive energy waiting to be creatively unleashed at my command.

While swimming for fun remained a constant for Rishabh and Ahan commenced, training under Nisha Millet ignited a passion. Simultaneously, they too were introduced to Kalaripayattu, similarly protesting, unable to understand the intangibles of the torturous learning curve. Now they comprehend the importance of focus that the challenges and solitude of competition demand, with failure not an option be it the classroom or the swimming pool.

Six months later, significantly enhanced performances in the swimming pool whetted by a voracious appetite for competition have them training daily at the Basavangudi Aquatic Centre - an oasis of Olympic excellence. Now Team Kamath has Olympics 2016 in our crosshairs.

What might seem unconventional and unorthodox is actually returning to the psycho-physiological regimens devised by the Dronacharyas of yore to produce Arjunas and Eklayvas and by the Chinese to produce sport persons of excellence.

The ‘spin off’ is in academics with more learning achieved in less time affording the boys more time for recreation. Term exams or not, they still have time to swim, cycle and play a game of pool with each other while their friends are quarantined in study.

Our national anthem should have resonated alternately with China’s in every stadium. Sport cannot be treated as a means to obtain a college admission or access a job quota but a respectable profession. In order to do that by 2020, we have to re-acquaint our children with.

Not only would we have contributed to providing our children happier childhoods in times of familial disequilibrium but we would have participated in that process of distilling five hundred of the finest for Olympics 2020.

Grandmothers still excite children with the exploits of Arjuna and Eklavya yet we treat sport as a pariah profession – an avenue of mobility for the disadvantaged. Dronacharyas are considered academic non-achievers who coach to survive, while the ‘physical’ is the first expendable from an education syllabus

The modern Olympics have transposed contests in national supremacy from the battlefield to the sports arena – sans bloodshed. Today, the crème de la crème represent their nations as indices of mental toughness and quality of national character.

From being a noble way of life we have desecrated sport as a means to obtain college admissions and public sector jobs through quotas, thus pushing our future Olympic potential to ‘burn out’ with 300 medals won by age 15! Otherwise, we aggressively encourage our sons to train as cash cows for the cricket machine, mesmerised by the material successes of men in multi-colour.

To be counted amongst the super powers by Olympics 2020 we have to metamorphose from a country of crabs and forge a national character of impeccable quality to distil five hundred of the finest.

We all do not have champions for sons or daughters but we can mobilise with our resources behind those parents with champions, and participate in bringing gold and glory to our country.

The Best Of A Billion

2008-08-24T21:09:00.003+05:30

While the Indian national anthem was performed in an Olympic stadium - after 28 years - this unexpected moment of national pride was frittered away without crackers, without car horns hooting and without curious crowds like flies before large plasma screens in malls, attracted by any and every cricket match.

India’s first individual gold in modern Olympic history sent editors scurrying to redeem headlines that previously screamed "China Leads Charge, India Shoots Blanks"

The entire country and its committees showered cash bonanzas with gratitude on Abhinav Bindra - for propelling national ego from humiliating depths to the troposphere of the medals tally. Fortunately, this man in a billion possessed the mental and material resources to undertake the solitary struggle with parental support.

Growing up in a familial environment with exposure to diverse sports, I too nurtured dreams of pursuing professional basketball and cycling for Team India in the Tour de France but in a socialist India some decades ago such spirit was incongruent with opportunity.

Hearing the Indian national anthem transported me to an Olympics in the future, when I would be one amongst many hundred Indian fathers applauding our children winning medals for India.

Having learned more about teamwork, competition and failure from the sports field than the classroom, I unconditionally support my sons Rishabh (10) and Ahan (8) in their passion for swimming, training at the Basavangudi Aquatic Centre - an oasis of Olympic excellence and the perfect model of co-operation between parents, the government and the private sector.

With Olympics 2016 in our crosshairs, Kalaripayattu supplements training to instil the mental toughness that the challenges and solitude of competition demand with failure not an option.

Our national anthem should have resonated alternately with China’s in every stadium. Two cradles of civilisation similarly aged as countries, with the world’s largest populations; two cultures possessing ancient knowledge of the toughest psycho-physiological regimens in existence with one significant difference; the Chinese have inculcated its usage, to distil 600 of the worlds finest while we exist in ignorance, gloating over mere qualification and lamenting under performance.

The modern Olympics have transposed contests in national supremacy from the battlefield to the sports arena – sans bloodshed. Today, the crème de la crème represent their nations as indices of mental toughness and quality of national character.

Centuries ago Kerala cradled the battlefield expertise of Kalaripayattu presently languishing on the periphery of oblivion, while Indian children rarely touch their toes. Meanwhile, China transformed our battlefield expertise into Kung Fu from which it devised a training regimen that instils the mental toughness to face the world’s best and win a hundred medals.

India is joining the nuclear club, sending a mission to the moon, on the threshold of economic superpower status but remained precariously reliant on the resolve of one man to rescue our country from humiliation from amongst the last of 205 competing countries.

Grandmothers still excite children with the exploits of Arjuna and Eklavya yet we treat sport as a pariah profession – an avenue of mobility for the disadvantaged.

Dronacharyas are considered academic non-achievers who coach to survive, while the ‘physical’ is the first expendable from an education syllabus.

From being a noble way of life we have desecrated sport as a means to obtain college admissions and public sector jobs through quotas, thus pushing our future Olympic potential to ‘burn out’ with 300 medals won by age 15! Otherwise, we aggressively encourage our sons to train as cash cows for the cricket machine, mesmerised by the material successes of men in multi-colour.

To be counted amongst the super powers by Olympics 2020 we have metamorphose from a country of crabs and forge a national character of impeccable quality to distil five hundred of the finest.

We all do not have champions for sons or daughters but we can mobilise with our resources behind those parents with champions, and participate in bringing gold and glory to our country.

Family Fission: Goin Critical

2008-08-12T20:59:00.001+05:30

Published in Deccan Chronicle on August 10th, 2008

On August 15th, India enters what in the twenty first century is deemed ‘middle age’; a time when we consider our achievements and contemplate the legacy we confer on our children - India's next generation.

While our Prime Minister will pride our imminent membership of the elite nuclear club, from the ramparts of the Red Fort what certainly will not find mention is the Indian nuclear family 'going critical'.

My parents and their generation -children of independence- selflessly provided us ‘nuclear’ security and safeguards, built with the brick and mortar of tradition, values, customs and mores.

Meanwhile our children, for whom we create this future energy, deplete emotionally while we revel in the empowerment of having achieved critical mass with our knowledge economy.

The price paid for this bacchanalia of empowerment, is the ‘nuclear fission’ of the family; cocking a snook at the continuity of tradition, abusing the values enshrined in our constitution, undermining familial security with no social safeguards in place.

Under imminent threat is the atom of the nuclear family – the child. If we do not restore the safety, security and sanctity of the family, we will bring upon ourselves the emotional equivalent of a nuclear winter.

Our constitutional fathers cannot be faulted for not anticipating this sorry status; else they would have included fundamental rights guaranteeing children rights to both parents at all times. Furthermore, parents would have been guaranteed protection to fulfil their parenting duties.

However, in 1990 India became a signatory to an internationally legally binding agreement called the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child http://www.unicef.org/crc/. By agreeing to undertake the obligations of the Convention, India committed itself to protecting and ensuring children's rights and agreeing to hold itself accountable for this commitment before the international community.

With rampant divorce becoming the rule -rather than the exception, children are subjected to parental abuse in custodial battles. They are reduced to disputed ‘property’ rather than ‘hearts and minds’; ‘atomic weapons’ to inflict destruction through parental alienation.

For five years I was a father to two sons, before being plunged into the insanity of a custody battle. Instantly, a black coat oversaw my mutation from loving father to social psychopath - a few notches below Veerappan. Based on his protestations, in my absence, blind Justice sanctified my ‘guilt’, generously affording me time to establish my innocence.

My ensuing campaign was not for child custody - never having lost the hearts and minds of my children. I was campaigning for the restoration of my children’s rights to a father: I was fighting for the right to fulfil my parental duties and responsibilities as a father.

As years passed, I was advised to “move on, get married and sire more children” by well-wishers who considered mine a losing battle. Feminists and social workers scoffed at my determination, legally secure in the “infallibility of the woman”.

A female officer of justice, admonished me for “going against Dharma” by seeking access to my children, till I reminded her we were in the precincts of law… not Dharma!

Five years later, when my sons opted to “stay with Papa”, the State Womens’ Commission, was set to ‘lynch’ me with justice. As a man and father, I had ‘violated’ the rights of a woman by depriving a mother of her children. Unfortunately for this august body, I was conversant with the law; the intimidation rendered ineffectual.

While the judicial system yawns awake from its anachronistic slumber to the challenges of familial upheaval, the processes of justice remain punitive for children, with custodial matters taking years to resolve.

Men are legally emasculated by the urban woman who abuses the protection granted by the justice system –to her rural counterpart- to wreak vengeance on husband and father.

Skilful lawyers scavenge and salivate on the remnants of a nuclear family in its death throes, earning handsomely from warring couples who could have invested instead in their child’s education.

Feminists and social workers reduce all men to village drunks and brutish wife-beaters to justify their raison d’etre, preferring not to acknowledge the social dichotomy of rural and urban India; Ofcourse, the rights of the ‘vulnerable’ child are being ‘protected’ too, by denying it a father!

In my encounter with child rights’ organisations, I was comforted with the information that abuse -in the eyes of the law- includes child labour, physical and sexual violence, not mental and certainly not parental abuse!

My references to the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child were greeted with apparent ignorance of its contents and even existence, by members of the legislature and judiciary.

Incidentally, excerpts from the Convention state:
“the child, for the full and harmonious development of his or her personality, should grow up in a family environment, in an atmosphere of happiness, love and understanding,
“Right to live with and have contact with both parents, to be reunited with parents if separated from them and to the provision of appropriate alternative care where necessary”

If we continue to ‘split our atoms’, we would have nurtured a disturbed dysfunctional and deviant generation of youth with explosive potential beyond our social control.

From this Independence Day onwards, let not fathers and mothers seek votes of confidence to safeguard our atomic interests; if we cannot prevent fission between parents, let us prevent fall-out by not emotionally splitting atoms, by evolving parenting protocols to insulate our children so that India can look forward to an energy rich nuclear future.

Breaking The Reading Block

2008-08-04T21:31:00.003+05:30

Published in Deccan Chronicle dated August 3rd, 2008

Whenever a student enrols for speech and drama training, I can anticipate the parent introduce the youngster saying ‘My child just doesn’t read… it is cartoons...cartoons all the time!”

The refrain has become so distressingly constant that it persuaded me to understand my own cultivation of the reading habit to suggest solutions

The Calcutta I grew up in was a paradise for the poet, artist, book-lover and the cineaste but in the ‘70s aged under ten I was none of these and certainly no cineaste.

The famous Metro Cinema held morning shows on Sunday, for which my father took me zealously. Whether it was 101 Dalmations, Cat Ballou, or Hatari - at the sound of the first bark or, gun shot I was under the seat, looking askance at a censored vertical frame from between Dad's legs.

On Thursdays - our weekly school holiday- we were shown films at school. Tom and Jerry always preceded the main attraction, which included Flipper the Dolphin, John Wayne's westerns, Lawrence of Arabia and Sergei Bondarchuk’s 'War and Peace' During the scary bits, ‘under the seat’ was not an option in the company of peers, so eyes were kept shut.

Pa never explained why he persisted in taking me to the movies when I made his life utterly miserable but with those faltering beginnings, my future transformation into a filmmaker confounded us both. To add to his misery I insisted he read the same fire-engine story at bedtime ad nauseum. Every night a new ‘film’ premiered in my imagination, with the variations Pa brought to the story.

It took me four decades to realise that my dad and my school had unknowingly initiated me into visual literacy, expanding the visual vocabulary of my imagination. While reading 101 Great Lives, Enid Blyton, Conan Doyle and Alistair MacLean, my imagination was assisted by the visual imagery of the movies.

I conveyed the movie contagion to my children, exciting them with films about flying like 'Those Magnificent Men In Their Flying Machines' and "Battle of Britain". Films aroused a curiosity about Montgolfier's balloon and Supermarine Spitfires which hooked them onto reading.

Rounding off the story-telling experience, I had preserved my fire engine storybook that I read to my sons at bed-time. Inspired by Pa, I too adopted circuitous narrative routes to realise that they too were enthralled more by the story-telling than the story.

In retrospect, I had not realised the importance of visual imagery in encouraging reading, till I began teaching speech and drama.

When reading poetry or prose, words remained text on a page; not triggering cinema in the imagination. Reading was associated with the tedium of studying rather than the enjoyment of learning.

If we want our children to read, we have to read stories to them; read with them. Television, cinema and the internet are resources that complement the reading habit, not marginalise it. To view programmes or a film together with our children fortifies them against the subliminal shock and awe of visual bombardment – creating the curiosity to ‘find out more’ through reading.

Every weekend, my children and I travel across continents and centuries from the Rome of ‘Ben Hur’ to the Japan of the ‘Last Samurai; from ‘Lawrence of Arabia’ to ‘Saving Private Ryan’ on the Normandy beaches. In two hours a lesson in history, geography, art and culture has been accomplished offsetting a lacklustre school syllabus.

In a world abounding in knowledge resources, it is tragic to hear a young mind say “I am bored!” Wouldn’t it be gratifying if we inspired the young mind to curl up in a bean bag at the library, consumed by the cinema paradiso of his imagination, lost in a book?

Carbon Negative, Profit Positive

2008-07-30T08:40:00.003+05:30

Some years ago, while channel-surfing, I stumbled upon an interview with the president of the Chicago Stock Exchange, when he was being asked “How would you save the rainforests?” His response was “Ascribe a value of US$1 to each and every tree and trade rainforests on the market”.

In an age, when a child asked to draw a chicken, depicts the frozen variety found in supermarkets; at a time when a wealthy gentleman’s resolution of a water shortage in his residential complex is the purchase of mineral water for bathing, it serves as a disturbing indicator of our disconnect from the workings of the environment.

So, if the entire world has been transformed into nations of shopkeepers, since Napoleon’s observation, then perhaps it is most appropriate to find solutions comprehensible – and profitable - to shopkeepers, by attributing a price to everything from herbs to tigers, lakes to glaciers, bio-diversity sites to the atmosphere!

Global warming is a planet-sized problem. The burning of fossil fuels is a major source of industrial greenhouse gas emissions. With the onset of the industrial revolution, we have been spewing out carbon dioxide into the atmosphere at an unreasonable rate, along with other gases that trap heat from the sun.

The Kyoto Protocol - an international agreement between more than 170 countries formalized the mechanism of carbon credits- a real or implicit price of carbon – that came into existence as a result of the need for controlling greenhouse gas emissions.

In brief, carbon credits create a market for reducing greenhouse emissions by giving a monetary value to the cost of polluting the air. Emissions are visible on the balance sheet alongside raw materials and other liabilities or assets.

The intangible of global-warming has been transformed into the tangible of carbon emission.
Managing emissions is one of the fastest-growing segments in financial services in the City of London with a market now worth about €30 billion, but which could grow to €1 trillion within a decade. Louis Redshaw, head of environmental markets at Barclays Capital predicts that
"Carbon will be the world's biggest commodity market, and it could become the world's biggest market overall."

If the carbon credit system is efficient at the national level, why not consider its implementation at the individual level? If we all engage directly it could have a groundbreaking impact, as we would all be alerted to our contributions to the problem while attempting to resolve it. Any effective approach to any change will ultimately require changes in our individual behaviour.
We would all have personal carbon accounts that use the technology of credit and debit cards. So, when we purchase fuel or paid utility bills, the units would be deducted.

One of the main attractions of this idea is its equity. The out sized carbon footprints of Messrs. Ambani and Mallya - who fly by private jets and live in McMiniCities - would come with a BIG price tag. So, the penalty would fall on the people most able to afford it, while Jadhav, the Vidarbha cotton farmer contemplating suicide - who generates much lower emissions - could actually turn a profit by selling his surplus.

Before we drive the SUV out of the garage, we might consider taking the bus, or riding a bike. Deciding between driving to Goa and flying to Florida, our holiday options would have to consider the relative carbon impact of driving and flying. To save up carbon units for the trip, you might have to go biking to office for a couple of weeks.

The main advantage of personal carbon trading is that it might most effectively foster "carbon literacy," as we are made aware of the exact cost in carbon for our decisions. It would also send a signal about acceptable levels of personal emissions.

A combination of tradeable carbon credits, carbon taxes and individual carbon offsets has the potential to both drive us towards a much more energy-efficient society and lead us to a world that isn't just carbon-growth neutral, it's carbon-growth negative.

As useful as carbon credits and carbon taxes are for pushing efficiency, in the end, emission credits and taxes can at best be a partial driver for reducing the effects of greenhouse gases. Individuals and organizations will bring their emissions down to an economically comfortable level, but not much more.

India has the potential to lead the world by going "carbon offset". Quite simply we can pay organisations to mitigate our carbon emissions by planting trees in to offset the CO2 we produce by driving a car or taking a flight If carbon offset programs are integrated into a carbon credit or tax regime, individual citizens and consumers would have incentive and means to go beyond lowering the amount of CO2 emitted and actually start reducing the CO2 that's there!

In such a combination, each tree - would have a calculated and standard offset value in terms of both CO2 mitigated and tax refunded. The more offsets an individual provides the greater the refund or credit. Critically, it must be possible to receive more in refund or credit than is spent; the system must hold out the prospect of profit! The more one improves efficiency, the more the offset tons become sources of profit -- and the more atmospheric greenhouse gases could be mitigated.

Regions in India undergoing deforestation for economic survival could instead be the recipients of great amounts of cash specifically for reforestation. Regions in the greatest ecological danger can receive the greatest attention.

Carbon taxes and offsets, working together could provide a double-strength push to reduce greenhouse gas emissions to below net neutral -- to start to make a real dent in the existing carbon load.

Hybrids, wind farms and ‘walkable’ cities would bring emissions down. We would move towards a carbon negative lifestyle, not simply a carbon neutral one - all for a profit!

India : Fast Forward OR Let's Have Gandhi Versus Munnabhai (published title)

2008-07-24T20:09:00.003+05:30

In the summer of 1995, a documentary commissioned by Channel Four, the UK, introduced me to Video Sewa, an initiative of the SEWA trade union founded by Ela Bhatt. Inspired by a project in Mali, West Africa, Ela Bhatt established Video Sewa in 1984 with one set of production equipment. With three weeks of training, 20 illiterate women memorised the placement of functions on the equipment and its usage, after which they progressed towards a functional literacy with 20 video terms.

I met the legendary Urmilaben — a vegetable vendor — who had made a film about the eviction and harassment of street vendors by the Ahmedabad police, presented the evidence to the Supreme Court and won a stay! These illiterate vendors and workers of different ages, from diverse communities and walks of life had experienced empowerment and most importantly broken the barriers of illiteracy, with the words ‘rewind’, ‘play’ and ‘fast forward’. While Urmilaben was grappling at the deep end of visual literacy, I had just graduated. I subjected myself to self-indoctrination in learning to ‘read’ a film, to appreciate every nuance, turn of visual phrase and recognise what was good, bad and utterly ugly. This process involved watching up to three films a day, in various languages, from various corners of the world, ranging from the ridiculous to the sublime!

When Urmilaben was making her films with a minimum of video technology, I had graduated from film school and was using sophisticated and very expensive mammoths to film stories for the BBC and Channel Four. With the advent of the digital age in the mid ’90s, I was eventually able to purchase one of the first DV cameras in India, much cheaper, much smaller, yet still way beyond the means of most Indians.

Fifteen years later, India is enamoured by the camera; everyone is making a short film using their cell phones, while the rest spend their waking hours titillated by the moving image through television, computer or the movies. Just as Urmilaben breached barriers of literacy through video, cinema can expedite literacy for the nation through the ‘reading’ of the visual image, that in turn can transform a nation of film buffs into film ‘readers’ and ‘speakers’ of the moving image.

If India has to encourage its millions towards literacy, that certainly will not happen with chalk and slate. It will happen cheaply, effectively and on a considerable scale by employing the moving image to spark the imagination, trigger learning and literacy will follow. Visual literacy has to be unshackled from the ivory tower confines of departments of film and media studies. Cinema as a language ought to be ‘read’ in schools and colleges complementing English, Hindi and regional languages.

Long years ago, it was easier to see Satyajit Ray’s Apu Trilogy at the National Film Theatre in London than in Kolkata. To have experienced cinema from Latin America, Eastern Europe or Africa placed one amongst the crème de la crème of the visually literate. Today, there is a surfeit of world cinema on television, with Kurosawa, Bergman, Truffaut and other great story-tellers available. In being exposed to the good, the bad and utter rubbish evolves the appreciation of the finest that the moving image has to offer.

Let Attenborough’s Gandhi contrasted with Lagey Raho Munnabhai inspire the youth to find the real Gandhi. Do they prefer to be motivated by the values and ethics of Chariots of Fire or Chak De India? Would they want to effect change as depicted in Dead Poets’ Society or Rang De Basanti? Could they be sensitised to restore the primacy of family by watching Kramer vs Kramer and Masoom?

Later in the 21st century, language might play second fiddle to the moving image. Just like our knowledge of English has propelled India in the era of the knowledge economy, our passion for the moving image could be that advantage that continues to keep us at the forefront, if we press ‘fast forward’.

Family Processes Outsourced

2008-07-20T15:03:00.004+05:30

Published in Sunday Chronicle, July 20th, 2008

When I attended school four decades ago, it was four minutes away from home. My father insisted on dropping me to school en route to work in the then flash of Indian upward mobility, the Ambassador.

During those short journeys I was imbued with an adage from his wellspring of wisdom, the most oft repeated being "you must always have the courage of your conviction!"

Dad was back home by 6pm and so was I, after playing in school till sundown. After a shower and homework completed, we gathered at the dining table for supper at 7pm. Each family member spoke about 'their day' in turn. Supper was a special ritual that reinforced the safety, sanctity and security of the family - an institution of reassurance that made no challenge insurmountable.

Dad’s pride and neighbour’s envy – the family gramophone – flooded the living room with ABBA to underlay post-supper conversation till the 9 o’ clock news on All India Radio. That was before television declared its hegemonic ambitions over the living room, and the entire house.

Four decades later, school is four kilometres away; my sons and I engage in peripatetic conversations in continuance of paternal tradition, appreciating our journey together, traffic notwithstanding. Supper is still at 7pm and remains a ritual of reassurance. Of course there remains one television with 99 channels and nothing on!

There was a hiatus of four years that interrupted paternal continuance, before my sons asserted their desire to return to my guardianship. During this sabbatical from parenthood, I rediscovered myself relishing my liberation to go anywhere and do anything without encumbrance.

I was bestowed with the unique experience of engaging with key aspects of the family at different times and different places; with children through drama training and the “fly on the wall” film maker provided me access to parents at airports, in offices, in malls, at pubs and golf clubs.

Pa is invariably en route to the airport at dawn while the children are dispatched after daybreak to schools - preferably 'international'- in far flung fringes of the city. Ma is pre-occupied with the launch of the next branch in her boutique chain. Schools and peers proxy for outsourced parenting during the eight hours to from and at school.

The microwave has replaced Pa at the head of the table, repeatedly reheating meals during the course of the evening. Reliance on the cell phone is an essential family prerequisite with emerging markets demanding the outsourcing of supper time conversation. I-Pods and plasma TV’s in each room have undermined the family into individuals under one roof sans conversation.

To derive maximum advantage from the outsourcing of business and knowledge processes, the Indian family finds it appropriate to outsource family processes to everything and everyone, including Manju, the maid servant.

We burn our candles at both ends pledging familial loyalty to corporations, to earn millions to create palatial abodes, ostensibly for our children and their higher education, when all they yearn for is a home with warmth and the reassurance of supper time conversation.

When a family breaks up, children repose trust in a parent akin to voters exhibiting preference for a political party. In a dysfunctional nuclear family, children express ‘no confidence’ by seeking their role models elsewhere to fill the vacuum. So, we ought not to express surprise when our daughters ‘turn a trick’ at the pub, or sons steal motor cycles to support expensive lifestyles.

When my sons reaffirmed their confidence in my parenting, they were saying they wanted me as father, role model, and coach, for my values, experience and affection, not for the size of house or my wallet.

If I wish to enjoy the support of my ‘electorate’ then I certainly have to respond to their demands and not take confidence for granted, accommodating all costs to lifestyle, livelihood and self.

ART Theft by EVAM

2008-07-13T16:37:00.001+05:30

Despite efforts to marginalise the English language, it has entrenched itself rather comfortably in every aspect of our lives. If Macaulay were alive he would probably endure a parliamentary inquiry accused of being singularly responsible for facilitating British job losses through business process outsourcing by encouraging the natives to learn English 200 years ago!

While Barclays Bank has standardised Indian usage of English to the aural satisfaction of their customers from Leeds to Luton, theatre in English in India has grappled with the appropriateness of accent for characters ranging from John to Janardhan.

More often than not it has erred -turning characters into caricatures – with thespians being far from Noel Cowardly in the exhibition of their talent.

With English not being our mother tongue none of us enjoy the authority to ordain the appropriate accent for our fellow men. The language on stage in India has led a precarious existence on the fringes nurtured in the bosom of anglophiles in the advertising industry.

However, as much as any nationality or community would protest their language reduced to high decibels devoid of articulation, enunciation, intonation for purposes of profit, there are some connoisseurs of the English language that would certainly protest what can only be termed 'linguacide'- the rules of a language and its speaking are treated with utter contempt through sheer ignorance of its appropriate usage.

In the last decade the proprietal rights of English has transformed with the knowledge sector significantly increasing its shareholding, thus secularising the acceptance of appropriate accents and language usage. It has made a quantum shift from English played in whites like Test Cricket to an IPL version where just about anything goes.

A case in point is the very popular EVAM theatre group from Chennai, who I was persuaded by many to see, insisting they offered theatre in English of a quality superior to that proliferating in Bangalore.

Succumbing to this relentless persuasion I travelled forty five minutes through traffic to Ranga Shankara and paid the princely sum of Rupees one Hundred and Fifty in times of inflation and spiralling oil prices, not accounting for transport costs to and fro to watch Evam's longest running production which they claim as their favourite!

Within the first minute, I was 'turned off' by a chorus akin to a "fiddler on the roof", attempting to mime the playing of some musical instrument - of which I am still unsure - with the facility of a battle tank doing ballet. Just when you thought it couldn't get worse, he attempts to imitate Charlie Chaplin in the Great Dictator, playing clumsily with a globe treating instead like a hot potato!

Thereafter, Messrs, Jimmy, Karthik Kumar and Sunil Vishnu K, as Sarge, Marc and Yvan subjected this writer to a relentless aural assault, in what was evidently English that sounded like ninety minutes of text messaging put to sound!

What was most curious was the fact that the audience -averaging 30 years - was guffawing sometimes in anticipation, beguiled by a play script that has all the spunk of a five finger exercise. However, I was intrigued that they remained oblivious to the rendition of dialogue done at the speed of sound with a lack of clarity and the three performers displaying unflinching loyalty to the note of B flat!

If this was Evam's finest hour and these gentlemen were the bedrock of a theatre group enjoying much popular acclaim, not to mention the support of significant sponsors, then they were doing something right - even though it bore no resemblance to good theatre.

Through the crackle, it occurred to me that these three 'performers' were being themselves with arrogance. These performances were probably the continuation of some success they enjoyed amongst peers during college festivals that had now transformed into a profit maximisation exercise.

ART was a reality show on stage! In being themselves and in the manner of their delivery members of the audience who could easily identify with any one of the three types, stripped to the bone of any characterisation.

Youngsters exposed to a stressful existence pine for a peek at the ‘lighter side of life’ that EVAM guarantees. With no previous exposure to theatre of quality they lack the ability to discern and thus quite happy to pay a price for EVAM to lead them to the promised land of mirth and laughter.

Those of us pining for an evening of good theatre in any language shall remain subjected to the tyranny of mediocrity, bolstered by sponsors who have reduced all human being to ‘eyeballs’, with wallets.

Paying one hundred and fifty rupees, for such twaddle was much akin to Sarge paying through his nose for an alleged all white masterpiece.

This writer like Marc strongly protests such theft in the name of 'ART' at the risk of facing the Dyer consequences of a Jallianwala Bagh at the hands of EVAM fans.

Dad-ology or The Big Picture

2008-07-06T21:38:00.002+05:30

As a bachelor - doing well as a film maker - I had invested in an apartment in one of the first and foremost gated townships in Powai, Mumbai. Goats pranced on the green slopes of surrounding hills; ripples on the lake were as soothing as a harp. There were forested areas, two health clubs, swimming pools, a mini-golf course and a school with a playground in Mumbai!

When I visited this place for the first time, I glimpsed a sequence from my future, featuring my children cycling through the parks and streets, walking home from school in conversation with the birds, in a safe and secure environment.

Soon after, I did get married and some years later my children arrived to enjoy a secure family, an idyllic environment - everything that parents dream of providing their children. That lasted for three years, before family life was torn asunder, finding my children with my spouse in another city.

In an instant, a vibrant home was transformed into a sanctuary screaming with silence. The self had mattered little with the welfare of the children paramount in every thought and action. Suddenly, this wonderful township was meaningless, as the reason for living here was the family. There were no children to share with, no one to give to.... or so I thought. Evidently, there were lessons to be learnt by what I considered traumatic but the 'big picture' wasn't apparent yet.

Swimming was an everyday ritual we relished and now every stroke was a painful reminder of the immense satisfaction I had derived from teaching my two sons. Other parents who had watched me train my own began approaching me to train their kids. Gradually, I found myself investing the same time and energy in helping other children enjoy the water; rewarded with an ecstatic smile that accompanied every confident splash.

About the same time I started teaching speech and drama to children, explaining and instructing them in laborious detail in exactly the same way I would have done mine own. From participating in the growth and development of just two children, I found myself involved with many times that number; instilling them with self-esteem and self confidence - investing in them a part of me I had hitherto reserved for my own with no thought of sharing - as I wanted to save my best for my progeny only.

With every gesture and deed performed without expectation, I found myself blessed with more 'sons' and 'daughters' who returned for an assuring smile, a paternal hug, the exhilaration of a boosted self-confidence by achieving much through small things - like learning to perform a handstand, cycling without support, swimming on one's own steam.

It made me realise that as parents how unprepared we are to share with those that are not our own blood. Are we really selfless in 'sacrificing' time, energy, for our own or, do we demand 'returns' on our investments, compounded with the interest of high expectations?

There are millions of children out there who yearn for a smile, the warmth of an assuring embrace, a pat of appreciation for whom nothing is impossible with a little sense of security but it isn't available to them for one reason or other; either they are orphans, or abused, or juveniles or runways or, just children of very busy - and probably very rich- parents.

One of my most ‘giving’ moments occurred when I was filming at a children's home for HIV infected children. A young boy no older than three held my finger for the entire duration of my visit. He said nothing but held my finger tighter and tighter, following me everywhere I went. I had really given so little – so effortlessly - but this child had received so much and so did I!

My concern does not end with children. I am concerned about single Dads -like me - deprived of the affection of their own by irate spouses determined to cause maximum hurt, about single women yearning for the opportunity to exert maternal affection; about Grandpas and Grandmas relegated to old age homes craving to share their anecdotes of a lifetime with anyone willing to lend an ear.

We waste emotional resources in frightening proportions on a daily basis. If only we channelled the emotional flow between those with the need to give, to those with the need to receive, could we not resolve so many significant problems that plague our societies in the throes of change? Wouldn’t we all be receiving in the process?

Wouldn't a grandpa's time be better spent in an orphanage telling stories than in the mundane monotonous routine of an old age home? Wouldn't a single Dad be less distressed if he shared paternal advice with a bunch of juveniles at a remand home? Would he not be rewarded handsomely, if they considered him their role model? Would it not ease the pain of pining for one’s own?

If we, as parents - single or otherwise - think beyond expectations; if we think beyond being 'rewarded' emotionally or, materially by our own blood; if we share a gesture or, deed with any child in need during the course of a day - devoid of expectation - we open the sluice gates to a reservoir of positive energy.

Furthermore, we take the pressure off our flesh and blood who can give without being deemed emotional property, requiring to yield affection on demand; who can give of their own volition and in the process deriving immense reward from the process of giving.

That 'big picture' which I couldn't quite figure a few years ago has now been made apparent. Quite simply, in every cloud of trauma there is the silver lining of a learning curve. Difficult times have made me a better Dad...and most importantly a better human being.

Becoming All Eyes

2008-07-05T21:19:00.003+05:30

My first close encounter with the martial arts was circa 1978. Bruce Lee unleashed Enter the Dragon on my generation. Some of my school mates saw the film dozens of times, after which it was mandatory to self flagellate with a nunchaku in order to earn the peers’ respect.

At this juncture, my ignorant mind was given to understand that the martial arts were akin to winning brawls and not a pursuit of the mind.

Two decades later, I was at the Prithvi Theatre in Mumbai, watching a performance of the Odyssey by the Footsbarn Theatre from France. The performance had employed artistes from Kerala executing the most amazing movements with animalistic agility. These movements I learned, were inspired by the martial art of Kalaripayattu.

One such movement, which fascinated me, was the ‘crocodile’. Watching this movement in performance I swore to myself I would learn to do that before I die but the opportunity of spending years in Kerala to fulfil this objective was certainly not foreseeable.

Mysterious Beginnings

Phillip B Zarilli, one of the foremost actor trainers in the world and Professor of Drama at the University Of Exeter, UK spent twenty years in field research in Kerala to produce the first in-depth study of Kalaripayattu titled “When the Body Becomes All Eyes”

In his book he states, that the origins and growth of Kalaripayattu are shrouded in mystery, ancient ballads and foreign accounts that have left detailed notes on its practices and the physical culture it promoted.

K. Kelappan, one of the leading nationalists of Kerala, who came from Kadattanad, wrote in 1929:"It was the custom in Kerala to fight until death, if someone proclaimed war to establish his right or, to redeem the dignity of a family”

From the 12th Century we know that Kalaripayattu was practised throughout Kerala, Coorg and south western coastal India

Kalaripayattu, which had served as the backbone of the traditional militia of Kerala, faced the challenge of the colonial powers, whose aim was to destroy the power of the militia or, utilise it for their own advantage. The Europeans understood the power and status of the militia. The history of Kerala from 16th to 19th centuries shows that the culmination of these challenges resulted in the ruin of, not only the martial institution but also the vigour of the people.

Transforming the Negative Into Positive

Almost ten years later, I experienced an upheaval in my personal life that resulted in great anger welling within. I was quick to realise that negative energies of such volcanic proportions could easily be all consuming and all destructive, if not harnessed and channelled into something positive.

Around that time I was invited to participate in a drama workshop. I was reluctant at first but eventually decided to attend. Once again, I encountered Kalaripayattu, as the basic animal movements formed part of the workshop programming. Performing these movements felt exhilarating and it seemed this martial art was beckoning me – to guide me along the right path.

Impact on Art Forms Across Caste & Community

The heroic demeanour and practical techniques of Kalaripayattu were constantly on display in medieval Kerala through actual combat or, through cultural performances – mock combats, martial art displays and dance dramas

Most of the art forms, involving elements of physical culture and the body system also developed during the medieval period in synchrony with Kalaripayattu, since battle was a dominant metaphor for conceptualising relations of spiritual and socio-political power.

In Search of a Guru

There was no teacher in Mumbai but I did find a guru in Bangalore who was my namesake, Ranjan Mullaratt. He is a wisp of a man half my size, half my weight, with a boyish smile but a searing glare and a hand-shake that can twist steel.

Ranjan Mullaratt is foremost amongst a young generation of Kalaripayattu practitioners fashioning a new avatar for this ancient art form, while preserving and endorsing the virtues of traditional Kalaripayattu martial arts.

His objective is to provide easy accessibility to the common man and in the process make it a source of inspiration for self-expression in dance forms - both traditional and contemporary, in theatre, in everyday fitness regimens and in movies too.

With him began my journey - an endless exploration of human ability and capability.

Despite the fact that I used to swim at least a kilometre every day since 1990, my first weeks of training made me feel unhealthy, ungainly, awkward and unfit. My bones crackled like a bamboo grove in a storm and I discovered muscles and parts of the anatomy through aches and pains.

Of course I wanted to throw in the towel on a daily basis, blame it on age and try and find any lame excuse to discontinue. However, while training I felt the harnessing of negative energies into a reservoir of positive energy waiting to be creatively unleashed at my command.

Having formally trained in the dramatic arts I realised, that in the decades past I had never achieved such control over the body, as I was doing now. A headstand was hitherto impossible but that was made possible. To jump five feet in the air like a Cossack dancer and perform a split was inconceivable but even that was brought within the realm of the possible.

Losing anywhere between 500 – 3000 calories a session, the body is coaxed into releasing a treasure trove of chemicals that can only be described as exhilarating.

This is when I also realised that Kalaripayattu and the other martial arts are not a glorification of unbridled violence - a childhood misconception left uncorrected - but achieving control of the mind to work in harmony with the body and strive towards perfect synchronisation.

Entering New Realms: – The Psycho-Physiological

A study of the Kalari institution reveals that its culture has a relevance to contemporary society which is exposed to radical changes. The relevance is not of its martial aptitude or, heroic talent, but one closely related to the physical culture.

Through the positive health giving experience of its practice, Kalaripayattu attracts actors and dancers who use Kalaripayattu as a psycho-physiological discipline for artistic practice.

As an artistic practice, Kalaripayattu is understood to provide a set of pre-expressive psycho-physiological techniques to develop full body awareness that can be used in dance and theatre performances. Those that share this perspective are not troubled by the years it can take to be introduced to practical self–defence techniques.

Becoming All Eyes

Through this art form the body is trained to be as sensitive as the eye and react in suddenness to any stimuli, thus disciplining the body, to entwine the mental faculties it controls.

Kalaripayattu training is derived from permutations and combinations of animal movements, as observed typically in the elephant, tiger, lion, wild boar, peacock, horse, lizard, snake and crocodile. In nature, force is exerted in measure and proportion, typically illustrated by these animals.

Also, evident in training is the role of breath control, intricate hand work and leg movements such as animals use. All these elements are integral and essential to the enhancement of mental and physical performance skills.

Kalaripayattu - Changing Times, Changing Identity

Through the latter half of the twentieth century Kalaripayattu has been adapted for practice and presentation in a variety of contexts, other than warfare and duels. The practice of Kalaripayattu is becoming more about actualizing and harnessing one’s body-mind and power for use in daily life than on the battlefield.

In the early twentieth century itself some of the native gurus, like Keeleri Kunhikannan Gurukkal well trained in the 'Kalari' system, initiated several circus groups in Tellicherry, Kerala and became the father of Indian circus. The experiments in circus training continue to be a great success.

Today, by no yardstick is life a circus. Irrespective of age and gender we encounter numerous battlefields in our daily lives, demanding performance under pressure. For the child it is the classroom, for his father it is the office environment, for the mother it is the stress of juggling multiple roles. It is also the sports arena; a college debate, a quiz on television or, any scenario where minds contest, to seek advantage over other minds.

In battle, milliseconds in reaction time make the difference between life and death. In our daily lives, a focussed mind housed within a strong body purchases you adequate time to respond rather than react impulsively – making the critical difference between winning and losing.

Perhaps, Kalaripayattu could facilitate the change you seek in your life.

Dadaji's Green Corp

2008-06-22T14:55:00.002+05:30

The idea of developing holistic solutions for problems that plague the developing world is certainly challenging. These are solutions that have positive 'spin offs' in a multiplicity of areas, while conjuring solutions to address a specific problem.

In the developing world, we are akin to Apollo 13 stranded in outer space – low on power. We are all shouting "Houston we have a problem!" – in desperation, trying to achieve an elusive comeback with systems approaching "shut down".

The question is, how do we pull off a 'comeback' with some wire and duct tape solutions?

The solutions I advocate are 'green' - not the liquid and explosive kind from science-fiction films - those that address the issue of WASTE. My definition of waste is unwanted, undesired, unutilised and underutilised resources - which we call trash, garbage junk, rubbish etc, simply because we remain clueless what to do with it.

Such resources are not just what we throw into two bins called 'organic' and 'inorganic' but include humans like senior citizens in old-age homes, children in orphanages and juvenile homes – both in need appreciation- technology like cell phones and even time.

The inspiration for seeking 'green' solutions originated with the extra-terrestrial. SETI@home (Search for Extra-Terrestrial Intelligence) is an extremely popular volunteer computing project launched by the University of California, Berkeley in 1999. Internet connected computers - when in idle mode - search the skies for life by analysing radio telescope data.

Over five million users in 200 countries – including this writer- contribute over 19 billion hours of computer processing time with an average throughput of 387 Teraflops, equivalent to the second fastest computer on earth.

Of what relevance is SETI to resolving civic problems? The answer is apparent. Like SETI, we have to use existing @Home resources.

We have millions of retired senior citizens - with billions of man-hours of experience – going to waste. We also have millions of school-going children, glue sniffing street-children, who must be instilled with a civic awareness to prevent them from becoming violators of the future.

Many of our youth are already in organisations like the Scouts and Guides and NCC who can contribute to public service with their leadership abilities.

Our senior citizens could command teams of neighbourhood children, christened 'Dadaji's Green Corp'. Armed with cell phones - with cameras ofcourse – they take date-stamped photographs of civic offenders and traffic violators, inflagrante delicto (caught in the act) and instantly file transfer to Police HQ. Imagine the revenues to be earned from wrong parking, committing public nuisance, dumping garbage, and jumping traffic lights!

While we treat the traffic policeman with utter contempt and condescension we might be more circumspect about being caught jumping the red light by Dad, Dad’s friend, son or son’s friend - which ought to prove an efficacious moral deterrent.

Millions of cell-phones could be employed for public service saving millions of dollars on CCTV systems - monitoring public thoroughfares - serving the same purpose as 'big brothers'. Moreover, when a juvenile has a cell phone –and is earning money off it, he has less reason to steal one.

Dadaji’s Green Corp could earn a percentage from every fine that could be ploughed into neighbourhood civic development.

Besides, it is a legitimate way, for Dadaji and son to earn some pocket money off Papa - if he and his SUV find themselves on the wrong side of the law.

Awaiting The Green Signal

2008-06-18T22:31:00.004+05:30

Published in Deccan Chronicle on June 18, 2008

Should the fine for drunken driving be raised from Rs. 2000 to Rs. 10,000? Should the jail sentence be increased from two years to ten? Why are fines in India a thousand times lower than elsewhere in the world for the same offences?

The overwhelming number of daily traffic violations - more major than minor - has prominently occupied newspaper columns and radio programmes. Commissioners of Police of diverse rank reel of disturbing statistics in desperation as the situation tail spins out of control.

Why am I writing about traffic violations on the environment page?
The answer goes thus...

Over the last few years we have had many inebriated gentleman from notable backgrounds and illustrious families in various parts of the country, indulge in the most outrageous acts of drunken driving. These cases have straddled newspaper columns and monopolised television headlines more for their sensationalism than for the gravity of the matter.

Days later the finest lawyers that money can buy are hired... weeks later the witnesses have been purchased and turn hostile...months later all is forgotten... the case trudges though the morass of the judicial system ... and of course the concerned gentleman is probably driving again. This sequence replicates itself ad nauseum in every case. These gentlemen certainly would not be deterred by Rs. 10,000 or ten times that, when they have the wherewithal to derail their prosecution.

The exchequer bears not only the costs – without taking into consideration the man hours - of attempting to prosecute this offender but if sentenced this same offender further drains the exchequer as a ‘guest of the state’ in some jail!

Furthermore on any given day, in any Indian city thousands of bikers – not to mention cars and truckers - are caught and instantly let off, after greasing the policeman's palm. Twenty rupees exempts them from gracing the portals of a magistrate's court – shared between the men in uniform on duty.

If they pay a fine and are receipted for it, then 75% goes to the government and 25% as service charges towards the policeman's unofficial ‘welfare’ fund.

It does not take rocket science to calculate the quantum of money being lost to the exchequer on a daily basis. So, what purpose does it serve to increase fines, increase sentences, when the very implementation is compromised? It only permits the corrupt policemen on duty to increase his percentage and still let off the offender.

So, let's go green with sentencing....

Firstly, we fine ten times the present amount for the first violation, 50% of which goes towards an environment fund and up to 25% to the policeman on duty! Ofcourse this commission is available to him only when the offender is brought before the magistrate. That is an incentive to prosecute effectively and ensure the system is not compromised.

For the second violation, the offender forgoes motorised transport - two or four wheeler - and has to opt for a cycle or, public transport only for a determined period. How soon that would ease the roads of traffic jams!

For more serious offences, there would be no need for bail, simply because the offender isn't going to jail. Instead, the sentencing must include volunteering for public service. For example, neighbourhood garbage collection in Basavangudi, managing compost pits in Cox Town, street cleaning in Koramangala and assisting the traffic police through the day Majestic!

Offenders for major violations should be deputed to the forest department -rather than house them in jails. Not only should they be planting trees but more importantly they must ensure the planted trees remain alive. In the event that the planted trees are neglected, the number of years spent with the forest department doubles.

Would these sentences not provide for effective and permanent deterrence? Not only will we resolve the problem of the understaffed and underpaid public departments but going by the scale of violations countrywide, we ought to have a have a cleaner, greener nation sooner rather than later.

Needless to say, my proposal might raise the hackles of many quarters for myriad reasons. If it is ill-conceived then I urge those more competent and with more expertise to better conceive my proposal.

Rather than shout it down or rubbish it instantly, I hope it provokes and encourages readers' minds to offer workable, practicable solutions to a multiplicity of everyday problems that require innovative solutions - not punishment, penalties and fines

ReDADancy

2008-06-15T15:44:00.005+05:30

Abridged Version published in Deccan Chronicle on June 15, 2008

Unabridged Version:

When asked "Where is the mother?” I effortlessly refer to myself as a single Dad, when inquired of my personal circumstances. However, when I am required to pigeon-hole the perspectives and opinions of a single Dad - as opposed to a single Mum or, a good ol' run-of-the-mill Dad - there begins a churning within my head to identify the factors that create the difference - the separateness.

I have been blessed with experiencing a unique learning curve of being run-of-the-mill Dad, then 'born again bachelor and then single Dad!

Did I do things differently when I was an ordinary Dad from what I do now? The answer is NO.

Let me explain....

One of my earliest film watching memories as a child was "BORN FREE”, the true story of an orphaned lioness, brought up in captivity that is eventually taught survival skills and later released in the wild.

Like any mother, Joy Adamson, the 'mother' of Elsa the lioness found it excruciatingly difficult - almost impossible - to release her 'child' into the wild, to watch her lioness Elsa be mauled by other wildlife on every occasion she learned to hunt. However, she remained constant in her endeavour - perhaps easier with a lioness than a one's own child. Eventually, Elsa was successfully returned to the wild and even bore a litter!

Thereafter, I have watched hundreds of wildlife documentaries on every conceivable species and the recurring constant, is the fact that in almost every species -except man- the young have to fend for themselves, within a few weeks after birth.

As a documentary filmmaker I've been bestowed with an abundance of rich, unique experiences. While traversing the length and breadth of the country over the last two decades, I have travelled over 1.5 lakh kilometres by road providing me endless opportunities to watch children grow up, along India's highways.

I've had my heart in my mouth watching toddlers cross national highways with streetwise confidence against a relentless onslaught of TATA trucks, while their mothers are washing clothes or, fetching water. Protecting their young is a luxury the poor cannot afford. Perfecting their survival skills is a more affordable option.

However, one particular experience embedded a deep imprint. It was a typical monsoon day in the Garo Hills, Meghalaya. I was filming a documentary on rice. Towards late morning, the heavens unleashed torrents. While I sought protection for equipment and self from the elements in the veranda of a hut, I noticed a boy - probably two years old - without a stitch of clothing, having the time of his life in the rain. In the veranda opposite his grandma smoked a cheroot while she knitted. The rain was incessant and some half hour later, the lad got tired and repaired to the warmth of his grandmother's lap, who then wiped him down. He then played in the veranda she continued knitting and the rain continued.

I remember telling my director who was a single female - with decades of experience as a child psychologist, working amongst street children - that probably no urban parent anywhere in the world would allow such a situation to occur.

The above anecdotes formed important milestones in evolving my parenting philosophy that I call 'parental redundancy'.

The premise being, the earlier you develop the survival skills, the sooner your child will be up and running. Unlike other species it takes six years rather than six weeks for humans to whet their survival skills but it eventually rewards a parent with both the mental and physical time and space for personal enrichment and development, as your young grow.

What are survival skills in the twenty-first century? It starts with literally being street-wise and learning to cross roads, cycling through traffic but it also includes managing time, managing peer pressure and managing performance pressure.

Almost every child wants or has a beyblade, Barbie doll or play station. Survival skills is when your child derives immense pleasure from the skills of tying a reef knot, spin a two rupee top and make a catapult or doll out of paper, when there is no access to beylade or, Barbie doll.

Eventually, we have to release our children into concrete jungles where they have to be prepared to be mauled by competition and failure. So, it is more important they fall and be enriched by the experience of getting hurt - which makes them more cautious - than parents spending infinite amount of time and energy in preventing your offspring from getting hurt.

A decade later, I follow faithfully the same parenting principles that find me doing nothing differently as a Dad - between my two phases of fatherhood. I’ve progressed towards redundancy, with my sons pleased to have me on their radar but out of their hair! It also affords me the time to write; to share my opinions and perspectives!

So, what makes being a single Dad different? It’s akin to flying a Boeing 747 on two engines instead of four. Two engines are the father inculcating skills of the hunter-gatherer in his young. The other two engines are called the mother that human young enjoy using as emotional foot-mats.

In the absence of that facility, a single Dad has to awaken the feminine in him, to fulfil that emotional role. The bread-winner, hunter-gatherer has also to be care-giver. A bear hug in the morning, a nose rub at bed time and wiping away the tears goes a very long way.

That’s DAD!

Ranjan Kamath

Concerns Of A Carbon Emitting Dad

2008-06-15T15:22:00.002+05:30

Published in Deccan Chronicle on June 11, 2008

A few years ago I moved from Mumbai to Bangalore to be close to my children who were resident in Bangalore. To adjust to the transition, I cycled into the centre of town most week-day mornings immediately after day break to attend training in martial arts.

At that hour milkmen were about their deliveries with dispatch rider efficiency, newspaper boys rocketed through the neighbourhood like Katyusha mobile missile launchers, hurling the morning edition into vacant verandah spaces with pin-point precision.

The melliflous neighbourhood Koyals rendered wake-up calls to one and all to get on with morning ablutions, with the Gayatri Mantra crackling to life on radios to welcome a new day as I cycled by.

Inhaling the crisp morning air at 35 kmph brought every limb and sinew to life in an appreciation of perspiration and transported me the distance of four kilometres in fifteen minutes.

A couple of hours later after an intense work out, feeling like a fine-tuned Ferrari I derived advantage from the gradual decline - literally - of Hosur road to race past SUV's of very hue and cubic capacity dis-affectionately lip-locked bumper to bumper - the only circumstances under which a cyclist can take advantage of white collar (im)mobility.

From my precarious perch on two wheels under the endless avenue of trees the mottled sunlight revealed intriguing aspects of class consciousness; the realisation that there existed circumstances when the lowly cyclist marginalised between white line and footpath could experience the exhilaration of rapid social mobility.

I also wondered why we had permitted unbridled affluence to deprive ourselves of the simple pleasures of a cycle ride to school and work. If there was any city in India that was conducive to cycling it was Bangalore.

Why had we chosen to dismiss the pleasures of tree-lined avenues, cool morning air and a most pleasurable fitness regimen for traffic jams, air conditioning, carbon monoxide poisoning and crazed chauffeurs and road rage?

If the answer is 'saving time' then that was patently untrue. I was faster on two wheels fuelled with the energy of a single banana than four cylinders of a carbon emitting metallic monster deadlocked in traffic.

If the response is, we require cars the size of our inflated egos to announce our affluence and singular contributions to the burgeoning Indian economy then the Chinese have out manoeuvred us riding bicycles to work!

Four years later, I drive an SUV - much as I loathe the idea - that same distance of four kilometres, to drop my sons to school. Sadly, I raise the tinted glass windows not because it’s hot, but to shut out the sixty decibel audio levels that could drive any human to insanity and subsequent road rage.

In that short distance, I have to endure maniacal BPO cab drivers, meandering motorcyclists and hundreds of parents - also in cars - dropping children off at not less than five schools en route.

Ideally, I'd love to send my sons to school on cycles but that would be suicidal with many honourable citizens, of the opinion that jumping the red signal is their fundamental right guaranteed under Article 14.

Would it not make more sense to guarantee our children a sanitised traffic free zone to cycle to school and back? Not only would it keep them healthy but we wouldn't be complaining about rising oil prices.

What are my public transport options? Yellow coloured tempos- camouflaged as school buses - with children impaled against every window. A can of sardines would think they were travelling business class.

Autos festooned with school bags; children oozing out of every crack in the plastic create the imminent bad feeling of a laboratory experiment going wrong.

If there are more parents who wish to use their SUV's for family outings instead of school drops; if there are parents who have dared to dream of their children riding to school and back devoid of any concern for their safety and well-being; if there are others who might relish the joy of staying healthy by cycling to work, enjoying a crisp Bangalore morning and an orchestra of koyals rather than contort with every blaring horn, then let's stand up and be counted.

I would certainly like to reduce my fuel consumption, reduce carbon emissions, control my cholesterol, avoid cardiac complications and most importantly create a safer, greener cleaner Bangalore for all our children so why don't we make it happen?

Ranjan Kamath