WE ARE (EN)TITLED

In a previous post I had touched upon the current Chennai fad and the general Tamilian predilection for grandiose titles. The titles range from the gentle "Artist" ( conferred on a far from gentle man) to a warrior-like "Commander in Chief"  (couldn't be more inappropriate for he has trouble marshalling his own troops) and include "green gold" (duh!!), "Mother", "Golden star", "Maiden" (this for a woman over sixty who is widely believed to have lost that status decades ago on a casting couch; on current form she is very likely to remain one), and "Revolutionary Leader". The list is only indicative of this titled madness and not exhaustive. Titles have been getting ever more wild, grandiose, most of the time thoroughly  undeserved and all the time totally unfounded. The basic premise underlying this trend is the (Goebbels-like) belief that Truth is in the repetition of claims. Popular acceptance,adulation, adoption and even imitation more than validates this premise.

Are we then just a bunch of people with fancy titles (albeit self-assumed)?  Far from it. We are entitled, not just titled, people. May not be empowered people, but we certainly are entitled.

Mr.Kamaraj (who was bested and consigned to political oblivion by a woman he reportedly dismissed as a "chit of a girl"), the grand old man of Congress Party, conferred entitlement to a college degree on every child born in the state of Madras. They say it had everything to do with his own lack of a higher education and with winning elections. He is widely held to be the father of entitlement, at least in this state. The grandfather of entitlements was a grandee of the Dravidian movement who, when asked if sacrificing "efficiency" at the altar of "entitlement" will not be bad for governance, reportedly said that a government was like a bus: while it helped to have all four wheels of the same size, wheels of differing sizes would not stop it altogether. Thus entitlements have a long and distinguished history in this state.

There are various types of entitlements:

1. We are entitled to titles.
Weird and wonderful ones. Sonorous ones. Fancy ones. Wild ones even. Most of these titles are the result of abject sycophancy and an overdose of  hallucinogens. Not to forget a total absence of factual basis. We can and do assume titles implying valour, high academic achievements, cultural sensitivity and achievements, artistry, personal traits like generosity, and social position and status. So much so we were the first to bring back the titles that were abolished by Indira Gandhi in the 1960's when we restored a title to a family which had lost control of its fiefdom over 300 years ago. Thereafter the rest of the country lost no time in dusting off their own Maharajas,  Maharanas,  Maharaos and Maha-what-have-you, not to mention Nawabs and Zamindars. Bengalis had long ago cleverly incorporated titles signifying territory ownership into their last names (as in Talukdar, for example) and thus did not have to resort to such repossession.

2. We are entitled to free Utilities.
We are entitled to free water and electricity. Never mind that the supply thereof  is of very poor quality. Never mind that we then divert the supply - illegally, I may add - to business establishments which are unable to establish their entitlement to obtain these. We watch TVs, which we are entitled to for free, plugged into free power connections we are entitled to while frying fish (alas, not free so far) on the free gas stove (which we are entitled to) running on LPG gas (entitlement). The government has commenced its own TV channel which in course of time will surely be made free of subscription fee.

3. We are entitled to college places and college degrees.
Never mind our academic bent or the lack thereof, we are entitled to a place in a college; as also a college degree. Talk of academic accomplishments is simply upper class mischief.

4. We are entitled to flout the law.
Laws, rules and regulations are just a lot of baloney. They are meant for the fearful who run scared of their own shadows. Laws are meant to oil the wheels of the society and make social living easier. We do that our way - so long as you live by our rules, everything is hunky-dory and there will be no social friction. This applies to traffic rules, land titles, just about anything you can think of. If you are Salman Khan you are entitled to run over mango people living on half a banana a day;  if you are a poor NRI  hairdresser you will do jail time; a RI (Resident Indian) is only entitled to RI (rigorous imprisonment). Notable non-mango people are entitled to inherit this great but troubled land in addition to being exempt from security checks at airports.

5.We are entitled not to observe social niceties.
So we belch loudly and as often as possible at restaurants and public places. We jostle, we jump queues, we rub up against others in public places, and we are entitled to share our thoughts as loudly as our vocal chords would permit.

6. We are entitled to re-invent history as often and as fancifully as we wish and generally we do. Even if we don't invent anything (except History which we invent all the time) it does not matter - we are entitled to them anyway.

7. We are entitled to take 30 days a year off from work in addition to 52 Sundays and half of each Saturday. This is on top of 20 or so "festivals" and one day a month for no reason at all. In addition, on the days we "work", we are entitled to arrive late, leave early and take long lunch and shopping breaks. We are also entitled to take time off to take children to school, parents to hospital, obtain a new gas connection or terminate an old phone connection. In Chennai we have the unique entitlement to take an hour off on Amavasya days to pay perform poojas for our dear departed. Media intellectuals crib about this enormous waste of working hours but the smart ones know that the economy only grows when we are busy goofing off.

Above all we are entitled to think life is good.

THE VISA TEST

The Chinese built the Great Wall to keep the marauding Mongols out. The West invented the Visa, for the same purpose. The latter has taken some weird forms over the years.

Times were when you could jump on to a ship - or stowaway, depending on your spirit of adventure and financial condition - and got off the ship at some port with nary a glance thrown in your direction. You were just another coolie come to serve the great empire, and good luck to you. Given the class divide in the UK, it was a assumed that you couldnt compete with those that really mattered, and you looked different anyway and spoke funny like Peter Sellers on heroin. America needed vast numbers of immigrants and one more meant a further pair of hands to build dams, railroads and NY skyscrapers; the language skills didn't matter for the Americans spoke funny in any case.

Then the West went and invented the visa system. To keep "the other" out. They realized that vast hordes were willing - itching, actually - to come over; to escape poor governance, lack of basic daily necessities, plain and simple tyranny and sometimes even persecution; above all, in order to realize one's dreams which suddenly did not seem so distant any more given the West's economic expansion mode. Indian cotton crops and vast throngs of the great unwashed and unclothed kept the mills of Manchester humming overtime. The Americans were feeding and clothing themselves and the masses newly arrived from an unfriendly Europe.

Then wars happened, communism was on the march, America and Japan looked outwards, British empire was imploding, Germans wanted to wipe out everyone except themselves, and in the middle of all this someone went and crashed economies everywhere. A flu' pandemic also killed millions across the globe. When the shooting match ended America was victorious, Russia was bloodied but victorious, Europe was rubble, Japan was glowing with radiation, and British empire had lost its appetite for an empire. Suddenly there were bad guys and needy ones everywhere who needed keeping out. One could no longer jump into a ship,or a plane for that matter, land somewhere and start living there. Us Vs Them lines were drawn all over the place: East Vs the West, North Vs the South and Russians Vs all the rest. Russians built walls to keep their people in while the West was building invisible ones to keep others out.

The queues outside the American consulates in India were long and started forming in the wee hours of the morning. They sought your financial details, tax returns and details of property ownership. Now they ask for your views on the Drone strikes. They used to ask you to prove that you were not trying to emigrate; now they ask you to prove that you support regime changes and the war on terror. The British examine  you ability to finance the trip and intent to leave Britain  on expiry of the visa. If you want to migrate though, it gets a lot harder: it will require deep knowledge of British history and FA cup results not to mention what Magna Carta means in English. Not expressing liberal  views in your social network pages  and wholehearted support for regime changes and war on terror help.

Then someone went and crashed the world economy all over again (you'd think that the smart people of the West would learn from the past), leaving the West struggling, China powering forward, and India muddling along. Suddenly India became an attractive destination for Ambitious Americans, hapless Brits and clueless French, all looking to make a quick billion or two. Germans, like their wines, do not travel well and send their Mercedes Audis and Porsches instead. The Chinese detest the "unclean" Indians and don't trust the tricky gwailos. So they don't come to India nor let the gwailos come in. The Chinese women continue to prefer aged and much married gwailos, especially the French.

Now it's time for India to erect barriers to this influx of fortune hunters.We failed to do that when Robert Clive arrived with his burning ambition and flashing sword and look what happened for the next 300 years! We need to be subtle, like the Brits, and ask questions about history and culture before granting visas. We should ask about the distinction between the pulao and the Biryani,  and between a sambhar and a kulambu.  We must question them on the poetry and political philosophies of Baharathiyar and Bharathidasan and as a trick, include Sunil Baharti (Mittal) in the equation (answer: the last one only believes in money). The fact that most Indians would fail this test does not matter - we are all already in. That Sonia Gandhi might fail also does not matter, for David Cameron doesn't know what Magna Carta means in English. She might hardly fare better with Dante and Machiavelli, for I am not sure if Italian waitresses were required to read them.

Those seeking long-stay visas could be tested on the life and achievements of Sachin Tendulkar.

TAXING TIMES IN CHENNAI

I was in need of something to achieve this morning.

I managed to run my car a full month on a single tank of petrol (still the actual fuel economy is well below Toyota's claims - what do those guys smoke?), assisted someone with his Harvard Business School application (some might wonder why I would want to inflict yet another HBS graduate on the world, but that is a matter for another day) and generally managed to stay within my budget for the month.. I started to manage the finances of our fractious and fractured housing Condo. All these still left me in need of a sense of (greater) achievement. Ah, yes, I even managed not to have fresh scars on my car which if you know Chennai is a considerable achievement. Chennai has this interesting relationship with wealth and symbols of wealth, such as a car - we absolutely despise the ones without it and envy the ones with it. We display this through a fierce protection of our own assets from vandalism and by vandalising others'. But I digress.

I felt I needed to achieve something bigger this morning. What could be more challenging than trying to pay one's taxes? Challenging from many different perspectives: firstly, bringing oneself to pay something to an entity that in one's opinion does not deserve it; secondly the act of finding the money  is a challenge; and thirdly the act of payment is made as near a physical impossibility as any group of humans can manage it. When I sat at my computer to make the payments the local government was upto the challenge and made it impossible to do this on line.Suddenly I belonged to the wrong "area", "ward" and "Sub" (whatever that one is) compared to six months ago. Then I decided to beard the lion in his den. I decided to visit the office that supposedly collects property taxes.

This is a very brave act and not to be undertaken lightly.The government was upto the challenge and defeated my ill-considered essay by not being where it was supposed to be. Anywhere else this might be inconceivable. Not in Chennai, India. Noticing that my continued cruising around was drawing unwelcome attention, I beat a hasty retreat and looked for something else to achieve, one still involving the government.

I discovered that my "water taxes" were due. The phrase "water tax" is a misnomer - there is a component of the payment that is classified a "Tax" and another which is a "charge". The Tax is a percentage of the annual rental value which, according to the government, is less than 50% of what similar residences in my Condo fetch every month. In short, it is a figment of the government's imagination although imagination is not a word one associates with governments. The other component, the "charge", is not related to anything, particularly the actual consumption of water.

The decision not to pay the water tax/charge online was for a simple reason: their servers do not work before or after hours and generally not at all the rest of the time. I was possessed of a steely determination to make the payment by appearing at their office in person. Excited as I was, I was also filled with apprehension about the absence of key officials, the fact of having paid these taxes on line for the last two years (such payments are generally held to be "untraceable") and about the approach of lunch time when all activity ceases; any of the above could have rendered my attempt null and void. I joined the queue, considered taking a short-cut available for "senior citizens", dropped that idea - if you want to be considered a Senior in Chennai, you must look old, feel old, be bald or at least fully grey and dress old - and queued up. When my turn came up, which wasn't long, it was all over in a moment with a zap of a handheld laser barcode reader. All my payments records were on screen, including my online payments. Money changed hands, got classified into "Tax" and "Charge"  and a receipt was duly issued. I was so pleasantly taken aback that I want to go back again. The problem is, they only bill me once every six months.

I am seriously thinking of petitioning the Government to accept my payments every month.

What's the World Coming to?

I am depressed
Again.

This time the condition has not been brought on by the texting generation's favourite phrase. Nor due to the intimation of my God's infirmities and inabilities.

The last one is not true; not exactly anyway. I have been informed that my God is an elaborate hoax and not by a school drop-out domestic help.

Let me begin at the beginning, although considerable uncertainty surrounds what exactly was the beginning  and what existed before the beginning. It is what Physicists call a "singularity" which is a code word for "I don't know and would prefer that you don't ask". Physicist-parents refer to their extremely wayward offspring as "singularities". Ordinary parents do not so refer to their children because they - the parents -  are unaware of  what singularity means and think it is the state of being single. Isn't that the purpose of all technical jargon: to confuse the uninitiated and confound the unfamiliar? Anyway, getting back to the very "beginning", I have just been informed that there was no beginning to begin with.

You see the idea of "beginning" mattered to the creationists or the  "bubble theorists" who thought that the universe started like a bubble and kept expanding like one, darkly implying that like a bubble it would one day burst too. They preferred to remain silent about the drop of soapy water which became the bubble. The Steady-Statists  preferred to think of a universe without a Beginning or End which is fine so long as you are dealing with the middle, but can get to be embarrassing when near the extremities. This view vibed well with  some Hindu traditions that posited gods with neither beginning nor end; Such views conveniently closed their eyes to the myths about gazillion gods who were born, grew up and died just like any human. Now I am told that a beginning or an end exists only in our minds and are not "real" or "absolute".

I preferred a world where starting somewhere if I went in some direction long enough I  would reach the End with no further progress possible. A world that had length, width, depth and, thanks to Einstein, Time. I am now informed that Time and Space do not exist but are just my mental constructs, a result of my "consciousness". This last-named is a concept much beloved of men like Deepak Chopra and J.Krishnamurthy. It is particularly upsetting to have one's orderly world of mathematical certainties  turned upside down by the wishy-washy stuff of Krishnamurthy, Chopra et al.

Mine was a world in which given the  "Initial Conditions", I could compute my state any time. With a fair amount of precision. Mine was a world where Radios, Lasers, LCD TVs, MRIs and PET Scans, all worked and entertained, diagnosed and even cured. I thought I understood how these worked - well, not quite, but I knew vaguely the principles on which they were based and could comprehend, if someone explained them minus the maths. It was a world in which if I learnt the right maths, and tried hard enough I could explain the Universe - well, not all of it, but all except before the Beginning and  after the End. So long as you didnt want to know where everything was and what they were doing at the same time, I could explain everything, give or take a few "anomalies".

Now along comes someone who is not even a Physicist ( a medical doctor, for pete's sake) and says the whole thing is a trick of our minds.

Enough to depress anyone I would imagine.

O M G

I am depressed this morning.

There are a number of reasons for this state, starting with having to use the  texting-generation's most favourite exclamation for the title of this post. I have nothing against that generation beyond noting that they are selfish, spoilt, looks-obsessed, ill-educated, badly brought up and financed instead of being raised by their parents.

The other main reason I am depressed this morning is that I have just been informed that my God is not good enough, doesn't cut it, doesn't pass muster, etc etc: In general he/she is a wimp not deserving of my - or for that matter anyone else's - devotion and respect. This despite my god being a vast multitude of  multi-limbed, multifaceted, characters capable of taking many forms and (usually) possessed of multiple consorts. I have much respect for anyone who can manage one spouse / companion / consort and I go into a state of abject surrender in front of anyone with two of these, not to speak of a multitude. Despite being possessed of this enviable ability, I have been left depressed by the intimation that my gods don't cut it.

I am reminded immediately of a book that my father handed me long ago while I was still in school. It was summer holiday and I had nothing much to do, having dismantled every electrically-driven object - no electronics those days, mind you - I was allowed to lay my hands on; these included battery operated train sets, cars, Mechano sets and generally anything with an electrical motor and /or battery in it. Needless to say I had less success putting them back together again and, when I did succeed, I was usually left with a few parts more than I started with. But such is the locus of developing genius. I had a feeling that I was going to be another Feynman although I hadn't yet heard of that gentleman which happened only much later, in college. Concerned by my boredom and by the mounting cost of things that needed immediate replacement - such as torches, bicycle dynamos etc - my father thought up this idea of getting me to read. Read with a capital R. Quite unlike today's parents giving their kids Harry Potter videos to watch.

The book was titled The God That Failed. It was subtitled "A Confession". The book featured essays by exotic sounding names like Louis Fischer, Arthur Koestler, Andre Gide (which I duly pronounced as "Guide", not knowing any French), et al. It was soon after the Russians had stolen a march over the West with the launch of  the Sputnik, the space-dog Laika and were threatening to obliterate the West with their ICBMs. I believe Krushchev used to call Nehru "Tavarisch" and give him a bear hug which somehow filled me with excitement. Much, much later when I saw Bob Hoskins play Krushchev in "Eenemy at the Gates" the excitement returned. Not only had they pulverized the Nazis, they also had managed  to get rid of  Stalin, and their rockets and missiles looked more menacing than the Western equivalents. Their Marshals (Zhukov et al) looked much much more resplendent in their uniforms festooned with medals and campaign ribbons, much more so so than the American Generals LeMay or Taylor or Admirals Zumwalt or Rickover. In short I was in thrall of the Soviets as any boy who liked things that went "boom" could possibly be.

Then Koestler, Gide, Fischer et al said that the Soviets God had failed. Actually I am deliberately getting the dates a little mixed up here - they said it a little before I was born, but I became aware of their saying it only 15 years later. After all I had to learn to read and learn to read English which, despite what my facility with the language might lead you to believe, I wasn't born with. A bit like quantum mechanical view of the world, a thing exists only when you observe it. So, to me, the Soviet God had failed only when I heard about it from these fine gentlemen, although their rockets were still doing well in the 'sixties. They too would fail, later, and I am unsure of the role of God in that. Or that of Ronnie Reagan despite his claims.

Not only did I have to read such books and newspapers and magazines handed to me by my father, but I also had to write precis of what those books said or essays on the headline news, like the "State of Congo" which my father would then get typed and critically read. So learning the names of the capitals of the world, the colonial powers and their colonies as well as the names of their liberators (who later turned their tormentors-in-chief) was de rigueur. Not surprisingly I used to hate summer holidays while in school. The upside was that I could show off amongst boys of my age, reeling off names of countries on every continent, their capital cities and their current leaders. The last named was a bit tricky especially when it concerned South American and South East Asian countries for by the time I learnt the names of one set of leaders they would have been overthrown in a "coup de etat". That was my first French word (apart from the name of Mr.Gide whom I called Guide) and sounded very sophisticated. I would say coup with a silent P unlike my peers who did not and somehow felt that that was a special skill.

The aforementioned venerable gentlemen had all embraced Communist ideals and Soviet Russia heartily in the early days of the latter and, after the Nazis were overthrown, had a change of heart. Not least because the Nazis had been eliminated - you see, Stalin's unspeakable cruelties on his own people, carefully concealed from everyone, was slowly beginning to leak to the wider world. To them, the Soviet Gods had failed notwithstanding their chest full of brass-ware.

Which brings us to brass ware in general and Hindu idols in particular.

We are on the lookout for a domestic help now and someone referred a woman who had time to spare and needed to earn some money. In the course of the chat - during which she interviewed my wife more than the other way round - we were informed that having converted to Christianity (to marry the object of her affections), she will not come to work on Sundays which the good Christian Lord had decreed to be the day of rest (the Hindu Lords, the whole host of them, have made no such stipulations perhaps knowing full well that for Indians every day is a day of rest, if they can get away with it). She appears to have embraced the Christian faith with a fervour only to be found among the neophytes and apostates.

Despite having grown up as a Hindu having only recently embraced Christianity, she also unequivocally confirmed that she is not much impressed by brass-ware especially when the latter purport to be idols of Hindu Gods and therefore will not look at them let alone touch, clean or polish them.

It seems my Gods have failed to impress which leaves me depressed.

ACHIEVEMENT ORIENTATION II

I wrote in an earlier post about how anti-achievement oriented we Indians are as a society and how we maligned an achiever by stripping him of his present position on the day after his greatest achievement. While the conventional political and social wisdom would attribute this to his being a Dalit or a Maharashtrian or both, my inquiry suggests otherwise: that it was entirely due to his world-record beating achievement. In other words, his achievement cost him dear.

We are an anti-achievement society. We prefer to inherit than to achieve. You can guess where this is going.

Whatever the field of endeavour, the inheritor is more respected than the achiever. We prefer Dalit-hood to be inherited than achieved. As for Brahminhood, it is a debased currency that no one wants to possess either way. Prime ministerial position is conferred or inherited rather than achieved through ability, track record and merit. So also other positions of  prominence in politics or government. Ditto for places in the so-called "professional courses", especially in Engineering and Medicine. Jobs are sought to be inherited through a process of ever microscopic segmentation of the society (in order to justify inheriting the privilege). History is twisted and wrung until rights and wrongs can be extracted  which are then used to justify some sort of entitlement programme in education and jobs.

Where does all this come from?

The Great Indian Movie which is a bellwether of Indian social norms, desires and aspirations and is a true mirror of the Indian society, reflects this accurately. The "hero" or the protagonist is invariably the scion of a titled moneyed and landed family of consequence. When in the beginning he appears to be otherwise, in the end he is discovered to be the long-lost scion of a titled, moneyed and landed family. His ability to single handedly take on a few dozen baddies and drop-kick and karate-chop his way into the heart of the girl and the audience is attributed not so much to his skills in martial arts as to the natural inheritance of a young man of noble birth. The "villain" or the baddie, on the other hand is invariably born on the wrong side of the bed or railway track, whichever analogy tickles your fancy, and is thus not a true inheritor of the riches or great facility with his legs or hands. He is invariably shown to be a thrusting upstart who was not born to greatness (but one who merely aspires to it) and therefore does not deserve it.

Even the Hindu mythology is full of this  line of thought. Some characters obtain great powers from Gods through diligent worship and through severe penance. In the end all their boons and powers are to no avail when confronting the ones who inherited their great powers. Just recall any story from the myths...

In modern times, Nehru was preferred to  Patel,  Indira to to a legion of politicians derogatorily referred to as the "syndicate", Rajiv to Pranab, and now Yuvraj Rahul to anyone of the  other aspirants.

The effect of this is nothing short of disastrous.  Instead of striving to achieve excellence or greatness, the race is on to achieve and accumulate great power and wealth so that the next generation can inherit them, thus gaining a leg up on their competitors. So we amass political power, land, money, gold and anything whatsoever which can be passed on to the next generation. That this act of amassing power and wealth requires one to break various laws and moral injunctions is the real issue. We have thus created a political criminal / amoral class who are all set to pass on their advantages to the next generation. The real damage is done to the psyche of the public: all that matters is acquiring power, whatever the means. Therefore the scant respect for the rule of law.

Achievements are democratic - anyone can aspire for them. Inheritance is reserved for the privileged few.

We are on the side of inheritance.

ACHIEVEMENT ORIENTATION

We in India do not respect achievements. Which is why a former star weightlifter is reduced to working in a brick factory, carrying loads of bricks instead of being feted as an achiever and / or coaching the new crop of weightlifters. Which is why former gold medal winners (in hockey, not in individual events) have to hock their medals to support themselves even as sports officials are doing flourishing with nothing to show by way of achievements to deserve the life of luxury and wealth.

The most recent example of this is the shameful way in which the venerable Mr. Shinde, former Power minister and present Home minister has been treated. He has many stellar qualifications not the least of which is his being a Dalit from Maharashtra state. Sometimes these are separate qualifications but the modest man that he is, Mr Shinde just claims them as one single honour. Each of these is in itself a formidable qualifications for high honour and higher office. But in combination they trump everything else. It is the Indian political equivalent of a straight flush in poker - there is none higher.

I do not mean to denigrate being a Dalit or a Maratha, but there is another, even higher, qualification  he possesses: his unquestioned (and unquestioning) loyalty to the First Family. While the first two come with birth, the last named has to be earned like a Bournville chocolate. The process isnt easy and involves years  of cringing before and paying obeisance to the First Family members regardless of age, ability etc. Total lack of individuality and achievements in various spheres not only helps, but are a pre-requisite. That a Dalit from Maharashtra has managed to achieve these is no mean achievement.

On a week when various countries are counting their Olympic gold medal tally - in which endeavour India is doing quite badly despite the pre-Olympic hype - this man puts India on the global map with a world record breaking power shut-down and promptly gets punished with a change in responsibilities. Keeping a few millions in the dark comes naturally to all politicians. That's their stock in trade one might say. Keeping 600 millions in the dark is an unsurpassed and unsurpassable record by even Indian standards. To put it in perspective, the number is bigger than the entire population of North and South American continents. It is bigger than all of Europe. It is even bigger than the population of Pakistan, Bangladesh and Indonesia combined or that of South east Asia plus Japan. It is only smaller than China and India. It is a record even the USA with its abject dependence on power grids and technology has failed to achieve, even during the worst of the solar storms which generally tend to fry power systems on earth.

Every newspaper of any worth in the world - traditional as well as online - was talking about this fantastic achievement. For a day or two even the goings on in Syria were off the front page! That is no mean achievement.

And how do we reward this man?  By promptly removing him from his responsibility for the power sector and taking him with the responsibility for "Home". Or internal affairs. Affairs, like all politicians, he can handle. With aplomb. With sang froid.  Home, on the other hand, is not as exalted as "power" although while holding the "Home" portfolio, he will wield substantial power. But this kind of power can  not light up homes; it can only extinguish  lights and it usually operates in the dark.

We are a nation of anti-achievers.