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.