Work it out

Of late there has been a lot of talk of 'governance deficit'. Translated into plain language that means that the people who are meant to run the public affairs of this country - the politicians and the bureaucrats - don't know how to do their jobs. The bureaucrats - who in order to become bureaucrats generally would have had to pass often extremely competitive exams - might say that they know exactly what their job is, and how to do it. However, they are often prevented from doing so because of political interference. Maybe that's just buck-passing on the part of babudom, for there are many who believe that the ills of misgovernance that routinely plague the country are caused more by a generally inefficient, corrupt and unaccountable bureaucracy than by politicians. According to this argument, while politicians have to at least pretend to perform before the electorate or risk being voted out of office when their tenure is over, babus are secure in their jobs for the full length of their careers, and are under no compulsion to do their jobs or even to pretend to do so.

However, there seems to be a more crucial point of difference between politicians and babus when it comes to getting on with the job. While the babus at least know what their job is - whether they do it or not being a completely different matter - Indian politicians by and large appear to be totally clueless as to exactly what it is that is required of them by way of work. A TOI report on the responses given to an RTI application seeking to find out exactly what are the duties and responsibilities of our MPs and MLAs has shown that almost none of the respondents - including the Lok Sabha secretariat and the Election Commission - could give an adequate answer to these questions.

While the Election Commission brushed aside the queries saying that it was "not concerned with information sought", the Lok Sabha secretariat replied that there was "no provision either in the Constitution or the Rules of Procedure and Conduct of Business... defining duties and responsibilities of members of Parliament or through which the accountability can be fixed on non-performing MPs".

Spokespersons for both the Bihar and the West Bengal assemblies agreed that "there is no provision/rule through which the duties, responsibilities and accountabilities of MLAs are fixed". The sole exception to this denial of responsibility of our elected representatives was the Sikkim assembly which has rules "specifying the duties of MLAs", their "prime duty (being) to maintain communal harmony and peace among the people".

Ignorance is bliss. And being blissfully ignorant of just what their job entails - what they are actually meant to do once they've been elected into office - our political leaders can't be blamed for 'governance deficit', for not getting on with what they are meant to be doing. Because, as they've all too readily admitted, they don't know what it is that they are meant to do. So how can they be held responsible for not doing what they don't know they were supposed to be doing in the first place? And the answer to that, of course, is that they can't be held responsible. So the voters can go fly a kite. Or the governance deficit, whichever they prefer.

How are our politicians to be taught what their job is - apart from doing everything they can to hang on to power as long as they can and extract much as they can from the exchequer to enrich themselves? One suggestion might be to set up IIPs - Indian Institutes of Politics - along the lines of our IIMs and IITs, which are internationally acclaimed as centres of excellence. However, as well-meaning as it might sound, such a proposal is not merely hopelessly naive but also outdated. For the truth of the matter is that the Indian political class, across the board, has long ago already set up its own institute of political training, the alumni of which are living testimonials to the world's first functioning IIP: the Indian Institute of Plunder

The real relevance of Rani Lakshmi Bai

She lost her mother at the age of four. She lost her son when he was four months old. She lost her husband two years after she lost her son. She lost her kingdom soon after. Eventually, the nascent, birthing nation whose very entity she ignited - lost her.

And yet, she is remembered only for everything she gained; for herself, her child, her kingdom, her society and for a burgeoning revolution that anchored the imminent Indian struggle for independence.

The relevance of everything she represents; as an exponent of strong, patient, perseverant, unwavering, undeterred, unflappable womanhood gained an obtuse recognition when the revered Rani of Jhansi was listed by the Time magazine among ‘wives who were resolute even in troubled times: a daredevil wife’.

The very premise of this distinction seems flawed. Of the many roles that she played in a precious lifetime spanning a very few years - the role of a wife - was perhaps the most irrelevant. Not insignificant – irrelevant.

For, in the eleven years that she was married to the Raja Gangadhar Rao, she remained just a queen, albeit a uniquely talented queen. It was the tragic aftermath of his death and the unwarranted denial of her child’s claim to the throne that hurled her into the beginning of her own odyssey as a leader, a modernist visionary, a soldier, a nurturer, a diplomat and a mother.

In a contemporary mores that was struggling with regressive concepts of gender injustice, the Rani was unconventionally trained as a woman who could read the scriptures and wield the sword with equal dexterity. In challenging the British Doctrine of Lapse, at first tentatively and eventually unbendingly, she was doing more than just fighting for Jhansi.

She was fighting for the Right of an adopted child, the Right of a woman to rule a kingdom while her chosen heir apparent was a minor, the Right of women to don the uniform in battle, the Right to live and rule rather than become sati, the Right of each and every ‘citizen’ of her kingdom, man or woman, Hindu or Muslim, Brahmin or otherwise, to enlist in the battle for sovereignty.

Rani Lakshmi Bai is beyond lists- but she should be on everyone’s list. Especially, on the list of contemporary Indian women politicians who claim to be leaders just because they were voted in by an amorphous mass of people that they have bred on gender inequality, greed, caste division, religious divide.

Subhadra Kumari Chauhan eulogized the intrepid ruler in a poem that almost every Indian has heard. She called her a wave of invigorating youth, an example of pristine leadership, a gust of fiery terror for the enemy and gave her the title ‘mardani’: more of a man, than a man…

That poem rings true even today. Rani Lakshmi Bai deserves unstinted honor for her love for an adopted child whose claim she would not give up at any cost, or for any reason; for commitment to a national agenda that was only just coming together and was seeded outside of her dominion; for leading her army of men and women by exemplary valor; for giving birth to a truly victorious feminist doctrine; for galvanizing her army as a united front despite mixed composition of caste and creed; and for fighting unto death for a country that was no more than an idea!

She will remain, forever, in a league of her own for hers is the passion that makes reasons, Causes.

Proud parents of a soldier

July 26 is the day when we observe the Kargil Vijay Divas and pay homage to the 527 martyrs who laid down their lives for the motherland in the 1999 Kargil war.

I propose this year we start a campaign to honour also their parents, who gave their life's best flowers to serve the nation.

A small gesture. A sticker proudly proclaiming - Proud Parents of a soldier - be distributed to all parents of soldiers in our respective cities by civil organisations like Rotary, Lions, Bharat Vikas Parishad, etc, creating an atmosphere that it's great to have a son or a daughter serving as India's soldier.

On every vehicle, whether it's a scooter or a car, let the finely worded and designed stickers become a matter of self-pride and city's glory. Let the respective state governments declare small, but significant facilities, like no parking place will charge anything from vehicles displaying such a sticker. They give such facilities to journalists, politicians, MLAs and MPs and of course to all their local civic body officers. Why not extend this little gesture to the men and women who sent their children to the forces?

There is an official protocol on how a district authority would receive a member of Parliament and other representatives of the legislature. They have to stand from their seats and receive them with honour and also to see them off at the doors at the end of the meeting. Let this gesture be extended to the parents of the soldiers too.

In the Republic Day and Independence Day celebrations and high tea parties thrown by the governors of the states and the President in New Delhi, let a new category - Parents of the Soldiers - be added. We have added freedom fighters, decorated soldiers, and Padma awardees and recipients of other civil and military honours . There can be some categorisation on the basis of decorations and levels of service. But the category itself could do a lot to honour the simple, proud and so far ignored citizens whose contribution to the national security and glory was never recognised appropriately.

The railways has some categories of special passengers - sports persons, journalists, freedom fighters, golden pass holders and politicians. Why can't we have a category for the parents of the soldiers who would be given some preference in getting their berths confirmed and a constitutionally binding respectful behaviour by the railway staff and a 25% discount on the fare?

On special days, like Republic Day, Independence Day, and victory day celebrations, like Kargil Vijay Divas and Bharat Vijay Divas, let there be a separately marked row for the parents of our soldiers.

At the time of laying their lives for the nation in any action, soldiers always remember their parents and families. The last images. We do respect the wife and the kids of the soldier. But what about the parents for whom the soldier would have the highest respect?

Just see the images of the jubilant freshly graduated soldiers at the end of the Indian Military Academy's passing-out parade. The way their parents, with tears in their eyes and pride on their faces, hug their children and bless them invoking all the gods and goddesses. No politician will ever be able to do that while seeing his child joining politics or filing his/her nomination for the first time to contest an election.

But, ironically, while a politician's children always and almost everywhere get a preferential treatment and their parents too are regarded as neo-gods and goddesses by the local administration and state powers, the parents of soldiers are hardly even recognised as ones who part with their life's best support to support the people of the nation.

Shouldn't the state power be also recognising them equally respectfully?

I have humbly announced Uttrakhand's first grand war memorial on the completion of my first year in the Parliament this July 5 making all the soldiers community, the biggest in the country, too happy. I request everyone to give me ideas and support to select the best design for the project, for which I have already announced Rs 2 crore from my MPLAD funds. More will come. I feel embarrassed when none of our states can boast to have even a modestly built and well-maintained war memorial, to say the least about the states who give maximum number of soldiers to the forces, like Himachal and Uttarakhand. And even when such moves are initiated, it's sad to see that they are marred in local politics of petty oneupmanship.

But this July 26, let's all make a move. Let the stickers, some of them can be designed with a soldier's proud face on the left and a two line proclamation in the middle - Proud Parents of a Soldier - be propagated as widely as is possible through local initiatives. Make it a national campaign to honour those who honour our nation with their best contributions.

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Beatlemania: Christie's New York

As a muse the Beatles are successful in business. And when no one spoke of brands in the 60’s, they were well on their way to becoming one. In February 1964, more than 3000 teenagers congregated at New York’s JF Kennedy airport to welcome the Beatles as they landed in flesh and blood to unveil the truth of their iconicity. On their tour there were 100 policemen permanently with them. Beatles wigs, fashion, haircuts, everything spelt the tirade of a trend. And soft rock and pop ensued in all its euphoria. The concert given at the Washington Coliseum on Feb 11^th was part of a defining moment in the Beatles’ career, and it remains both an important event and a notable place in their story. And photographer Mike Mitchell was there to capture it. “Roll Over Beethoven” was chosen by the Beatles to begin the show – and Little Richard, who’s “Long Tall Sally” was chosen to end it. On July 20^th nearly forty years later Christies held a historic sale of the Liverpool lads’ photographs captured by the insightful, elegant palette of photographer Mike Mitchell.

‘The auction of The Beatles Illuminated: The Discovered Works of Mike Mitchell was an outstanding success. Christie’s clients sat shoulder to shoulder in the packed saleroom as each of these beautiful and once unknown images were auctioned off, becoming part of the iconic Beatles history. We were honored to present Mike Mitchell’s works and to witness the excitement that the Beatles still inspire all these years later,” according to Christies.

Christie's The Beatles Illuminated: The Discovered Works of Mike Mitchell, is a sale comprised of 50 lots of unpublished and never-before-seen photographs of the Beatles’ first hysteria-inducing visits to America in 1964. Shot in black and white by photographer Mike Mitchell when he was just 18 years old, the images have been filed away for nearly fifty years. The complete rediscovered collection is expected to realize in the region of $100,000.



The Beatles were unquestionably the most popular, most influential of all rock groups. Their influence expressed itself first of all in the simple sociological dimensions of their success, unmatched in pop-music history with songs that spoke of everyday simplicity and delight. But the band also managed almost single handedly to transform the innocent entertainment of rock-and-roll into the artistically self conscious pretensions of rock with songs like Mr. Postman and Love love me do and Ticket to Ride.

A rare silhouette encircles the figures of the four Beatles as the camera clicks them in that solitude backs to the shutterbug Mitchell.Brilliant in a real, surreal sliver, the image brings back the words of their song. "There are places I remember all my life, though some have changed," a song begins, "Some for ever, not for better, some have gone and some remain." In My Life, one of those most-loved Beatles songs – appeared on the band's 1965 album Rubber Soul, and was apparently born of journalist Kenneth Allsop telling Lennon he should write songs about his childhood. Lennon duly headed off and wrote a poem based on a bus route of his youth, winding its way through Liverpool, past Penny Lane and Strawberry Fields.




A single image of Paul McCartney is elusive as much as innocent in the appeal of the schoolboy look. These black and white images define the generation of the Beatles and the fact that these images were shot on one night February 11, 1964, makes it the scoop of the century. As the Beatles began to define their generation, it became apparent that John Lennon and Paul McCartney were the creative forces behind the band. Ringo Starr on the drums appears cute and cuddly as well as vigorous in his rhythmic restlessness. George Harrison echoes eloquence playing lead guitar. Lennon and McCartney who composed most of the band's songs and were the lead singers create their own characteristics soaked in the sounds of their own songs. These images show aptly that they worked together in a classically complementary manner. Those of us who grew up on a staple diet of Beatles numbers know for a fact that McCartney was the sunny, bright one, the purveyor of lilting ballads and cheery love songs. Lennon was the harder, fiercer man, the true rocker of the foursome, with the deepest, most convoluted sense of rock's anger and potential triumph.



A fragment of the drum set with the Beatles insignia is enough to get your juices flowing.



You also reckon that this was the band that was the greatest ever but also the most short-lived of all bands, which shot to international fame in 1964, were at one another’s throats by 1968, and blew apart for good in 1970—yet managed to fight self-destructively with Apple over trademarks and music rights until last year.

Beatles memorabilia have always done well at auctions. In 2005 the suit worn on the cover of Beatles' Abbey Road album fetched $118,000.In 2007, a lock of John Lennon's hair taped inside the cover of one of his books and inscribed to his hair dresser sold at auction for nearly $50,000.

The Beatles "developed, constructed, and implemented the most successful business model of all time." And this auction of rare photographs will prove well beyond doubt that they were business savvy. For the ‘Fab Four’ this is for posterity, and Mike Mitchells proves that sometimes we can recapture ‘Yesterday’ even as this auction hopes to say to a whole new generation, ‘Here Comes the Sun’

The secret underbelly of Delhi Belly

The anticipation is unbearable. A sly sense of knowingness ripples through the faces of the multiplex audience, most of them between 18-30 in age. It's like they are members of a secret club, out to consume something forbidden. Much before they have seen the movie --and this is the second day of the film's release -- they have already been swept away by it. In their minds Delhi Belly is already a classic. They have internalised its cultness much before they have witnessed a single shot.

The audience’s embracing isn't entirely wilful. Few of us watch a movie with a clean slate. The 100 plus television channels and the daily newspaper supplements ensure that every 'big' movie captures a slice of our mindspace much before it gets released. How we treat it depends on how much of that territory we have ceded mentally. In Delhi Belly's case, the buzz was manufactured around D K Bose, a song that sounds like a much-used abuse when played at high-speed. One of its producers Aamir Khan and lead actor Imraan Khan have insisted in television interviews that there's nothing naughty about the number. It's a similar argument that Dada Kondke, the master of double entendre, used to give. Kondke used to say, "There's only one meaning of the song. The other meaning is in your imagination." Nothing was further from the truth then. Nothing is further from the truth now. The beauty of double entendres is that they are not explicit -- they are creative. And in sexually-repressive societies, they act as valves that release pressure.

But DK Bose is perhaps the most innocent of cuss words in Delhi Belly. The movie is riddled with expletives indicating a kind of selective glasnost in the Indian censor board. But the interesting thing about Delhi Belly is not the movie itself, but the multiplex audience's response to abuse. What we see is the upward social mobility of expletives. The general response is that cuss words are cool when spoken by Guys Like Us. The three guys on the screen are our buddies. What they utter is not abuse but attitude.

Nobody admits though that uttering cuss words nonchalantly also works as a form of sexual release. It's like sharing a dirty joke that shouldn't be shared. The abuses are the gags, the best jokes in the movie. Minus the abuses, the movie is like Helen without dance, Hussain without brush.

With its innovative marketing, which also highlighted the expletives in the movie by beeping them out, Delhi Belly has managed to position itself as being on the right side of cool, the hip and happening side of attitude. So much so that disliking the film is a sign of being regressive, uncool and as not being with it enough to get it. It's a frightening sledgehammer to face and many have preferred to surrender rather than fight back. One isn't talking about the movie here but the tyranny of the majoritarian audience.

Few films, if any, have been able to fondle the bellybutton of the multiplexed class -- the kind of sexual fantasy it really needs. The film offers humour laced with verbal sex, rather than visual sex. Not really a novel idea in Bollywood. But it cleverly spiffs it up in a language and context that feels like novel and radical. Unlike another recent urban youth flick Shaitan, the characters here are more likeable and worth associating with. The usage of abuse isn't novel in Delhi Belly; its mainstream acceptance is. It also shows that at its core, the multiplex audience is as sexually repressed as its single-screen counterpart.

Which is why we get to see the NRI lassie feign the most hysterical of orgasms from women on top position. Sex simulation works two ways --it makes you laugh because it is a gimmick. But the scene cuts both ways; it is a sex scene too. In another scene, we have one of the leading ladies being serviced down below demanding, "Get back in there." There's no flesh but there's plenty of sexual fantasy for the audience there. Then, there's the scene where the photographer squeezes the kothewali madam's breast. There's plenty of other Freudian moments too: a peep show of butt cleavage or a man scratching his private parts in tight close up and more.

Throughout Delhi Belly, we get sex only as insinuation and titilation. As a society that's what we prefer on celluloid. We are generally uncomfortable watching sex in cinema. It unnerves us. We are not adults that way. With a few exceptions aside, we prefer to be adolescents of different varieties. We prefer sex as peepshow, as humour, as innuendo, as abuse -- everything but sex itself. That's been our journey from Raj Kapoor's Satyam Shivam Sundaram to the Dada Kondke flicks of the 1980s to Kya Kool Hain Hum (the film which originally introduced DK Bose to the audience) to Delhi Belly. They are different variations of the same theme with varying degrees of sophistication aimed at varying primary audiences.

The clever thing about the makers of Delhi Belly, which stylistically borrows heavily from the Guy Ritchie movies, is the way it also manipulates reality. The makers' idea of reality is limited to using language in a certain way. Actually the movie sells fantasy masquerading as reality. Think about its climax! How is it any different from a 1970s Dharmendra action film where all the bad guys died and the hero walked away with the pot of gold?

The short, simple point is this: Delhi Belly is a smart, funny flick that exploits our sexual repressiveness as a people, as a society. The triumph of its makers lies in making us proclaim that cuss words are not only cool but they also represent a certain high in creative originality and imagination in both language and arts.

Some more equal than others

I wrote last week about how India’s first-time attempt to measure inequality within the country revealed significant disparity in the development of individual states, such as a yawning gap between Kerala and Madhya Pradesh which are at the best and worst ends of the spectrum. It also showed stark differences in health, education and income indicators which determine India’s human development. You can gauge where your state stands according to the Inequality-adjusted Human Development Index and the loss it suffers due to inequality from the box at the bottom.

Like most data tools, this index too has its shortfalls. But it is worth moving beyond and looking at why inequality matters in a country’s progress, especially in a developing nation like India. There have been arguments that inequality was inevitable in the early stages of a country’s development (see Kuznet’s curve) but those have been contested, ever since.

Inequality became the buzzword in development circles in the early 2000s with major international agencies like the World Bank and UN taking note of the challenge it posed. The World Bank’s World Development Report (WDR) in 2006 themed “Equity and Development” was among the early acknowledgements by international agencies that inequality was a global concern.

There are widely debated views as to why inequality matters, if at all. The most simplistic of which is perhaps the human rights and social justice approach which believes it is unfair and unacceptable to deprive an individual of opportunities due to inherited disadvantage, say caste, religious status or gender in the context of India. Such discrimination could trigger social tension. There is of course lots we don’t know yet. About horizontal inequalities for instance, which affect entire segments of population (For eg: a minority group).

Fighting inequality also finds reason in the political sphere; experts point out that inequalities in political representation could lead to state capture, weaken institutions and even destabilize democracy at large.

But the argument that most often takes prominence is the economic challenge inequality poses. Many scholars put forward the argument that inequality, growth and poverty are inherently inter-linked. Inequality, it is said harms economic growth, particularly in developing countries. This in turn adversely affects poverty reduction. Elaborating on this, the WDR 2006 explains that inequality in wealth and opportunity lead to persistence of deprivation and the resulting waste of human potential can slow sustained economic growth. Evaluating the damage inequality poses the International Poverty Centre estimates that growth which is combined with falling inequality shows a 10 times higher impact on poverty reduction than countries with rising inequality.

Pointing out that the problems of income poverty in many countries like Brazil, South Africa, Chile or Mexico are not as much about the scarcity of resources as their improper distribution, Brazilian economist Marcelos Medeiros suggests that the way to fighting inequality would be to increase the income earnings of the poor by “increasing their labour earnings and raising social transfers”. The former he says require land reforms, production subsidies and better access to credit and markets. But he also points out that many of these measures could take over two decades to show results and so direct redistribution is essential, too. A similar policy approach, I would think, could apply to India as well.

Many of these policies for “leveling the playing field” have been ‘recommended’ by different international agencies time and again. At the release of India’s IHDI too, UN officials suggested that the inequalities be taken into consideration in the drafting of the 12^th Five Year Plan. Recommendations are all well, but it’s time to situate these strategies in localized socio-political realities and actually act on them.

A LOOK AT THE DEVELOPMENT LOSS DUE TO INEQUALITY

STATE-------------HDI---------------IHDI -----------Loss (%)

INDIA 0.504 0.343 32

Andhra Pradesh 0.485 0.332 31.5

Assam 0.474 0.341 28.17

Bihar 0.447 0.303 32.06

Chattisgarh 0.449 0.291 35.14

Gujarat 0.514 0.363 29.50

Haryana 0.545 0.374 31.18

Himachal Pradesh 0.558 0.403 27.81

Jharkhand 0.464 0.308 33.67

Karnataka 0.508 0.353 30.44

Kerala 0.625 0.520 16.78

Madhya Pradesh 0.451 0.290 35.74

Maharashtra 0.549 0.397 27.75

Orissa 0.442 0.296 33.11

Punjab 0.569 0.410 28.04

Rajasthan 0.468 0.308 34.02

Tamil Nadu 0.544 0.396 27.28

Uttar Pradesh 0.468 0.307 34.47

Uttarakhand 0.515 0.345 33.03

West Bengal 0.509 0.343 29.30

HDI: Human Development Index

IHDI: Inequality-adjusted HDI

One week with iPad 2…

July 8

I am out on an assignment on Friday afternoon when I get a call from the office. iPad 2 has arrived, I am told. Somebody has to take its delivery. A few calls are made and, finally, a friend and colleague, Manoj Ramachandran, agrees to save the hour for me. By the time I reach office, iPad 2 has already been taken out from the box. The good folks, who loaned the device to me for a week, also loaded it with essential apps and games. Manoj is a fan of its gaming prowess. He is happily throwing angry birds at smug pigs. A few others are smitten by the sleek and slim design and are in awe of its fantastic screen.

Checking for flaws in devices is a habit as well as the requirement of my job, so I carefully go through the design. The front is all glass, set in a unibody shell made of aluminum. In the typical Apple fashion, it is a minimalist and an elegant design. For a device packing a dual-core processor, 64GB internal storage, and 512MB RAM, iPad 2 is surprisingly thin and light. Though, nowhere near as portable and easy to hold as a 7-inch tablet like HTC Flyer.

The iPad 2 that I have supports 3G. But I decide not to use it because it takes only a micro SIM and I have no desire to go through the hassle of getting a micro SIM, or, as many people who have done it, cut my normal SIM. It would have been nice if Apple had followed industry standards and used a normal SIM. But, as it happens with the company, it is a part of its my-way-or-highway policy. Great for Apple because it gives it more control on the device. But punishing for customers.

Before calling it a day, I sign up for a new Apple account, which every Apple user has to do. It requires a valid credit card number and card security number, even if you don’t plan to use any paid apps. And it costs Re 1. The money is deducted from your credit card account as soon as you submit your details.

July 9

Finally, I have to do it. I have never been a fan of iTunes (and QuickTime that comes with it). It’s a bloated software. Just like Adobe Reader or Microsoft Office (for mainstream users). But it’s required if you want to activate (and hence use) your iPad and sync content between your computer and iPad.

I swallow my geek pride, decide to play by Apple rules and install iTunes + QuickTime. The experience is just as I had imagined. I don’t like the iTunes layout and UI. Mainstream users don’t mind iTunes, I have been told. Anyways, once iOS 5 arrives this fall, it may save users from iTunes.

July 10

It’s Sunday and I decide to use iPad 2 as my gaming device. In terms of specifications, iPad 2 packs some impressive hardware. Its dual-core processor can reach a speed of 1GHz. Even more impressive is the embedded graphics hardware that consists of two PowerVR SGX543. In real life, this makes iPad 2 one of the most impressive portable gaming devices, especially when you consider some fantastically designed games like Infinity Blade or Real Racing.

As someone who finds it difficult to play first-person shooter games without a keyboard and mouse, I don’t try many action games on iPad 2. But racing games like Asphalt 6 are all fun. Casual games like Lets Golf and Flight Control are equally impressive. Hands down iPad 2 is one of the best mobile gaming devices for casual gamers at the moment.

July 11

Time to go into the field. And I am carrying iPad 2 in my bag. It has the Twitter app installed. It has apps that keep an eye on my RSS feeds and my mails. I hope to stay in touch with my virtual life with it.

Strangely, I don’t use iPad 2 much. Despite its sleek design, iPad 2 is too big to be used on the go. I find it cumbersome to take it out from the bag every 15 minutes. I prefer my 4-inch Android smartphone on the move. But this is me. Many people may not mind using a 10-inch tablet.

July 12

iPad 2 may be too big to be used on the move but for your mobility needs at home — the occasions when you want access to a computer while watching TV in your drawing room — it looks like the perfect device. Today, I want to relax in the balcony and watch a film or two on iPad. With iTunes Store not available in India, one way to get your video or music fix is by streaming them through websites like YouTube. Another is to import your music and video library from PC using iTunes. I opt for the second one. Unfortunately, the codec and video resolution support on iPad is rather limited. Almost 70% of videos in my library can’t be played — or even imported — on iPad 2 unless I re-encode them.

Currently, easiest way to transfer content between devices is through mass storage mode using USB port. iPad 2 neither has a USB port nor supports mass storage mode. For a company that claims its devices just work, video playback can be improved in a big way. Asking your consumers to re-encode videos — a task that can take a hell lot of time on mainstream computers and is not really noob-friendly — is not the way to go about it.

July 13

Despite its limitations, iPad 2 seems to be growing on me. I am spending more time with it. Some of that because of the availability of some excellent apps. Twitter for iPad has a bloody good interface and is a joy to use. So are reader apps like MobileRSS. Zite and Flipboard did not work for me — I like my tabs and ability to flip through lots of information within minutes — but they look good and for mainstream users, bringing a magazine-like feel to web reading. iBook is equally impressive.

One jarring note is web browsing. No, it’s not lack of Flash support. It’s more to do with the overall speed of native browser — Safari — and the way it handles tabs. Also, by default, support for downloading attachments in emails or anything through Safari is anemic. Though there are free apps available that take care of these issues.

July 14

Last day of iPad 2 experience. And, I want to explore the device’s productivity prowess, if any. Can it replace a netbook? Can you use it for your office work?

iPad 2 has possibly the best on-screen keyboard on any tablet. But that is not enough if you want to do a lot of typing. So, I pair it with an Apple wireless keyboard and use Smart Cover to make a stand for device.

There are several productivity apps available for iPad2. Some of them are quite good. The best that I found are part of iWork for iPad. In fact, half of this article was typed on Pages. Yet, I don’t see iPad 2 replacing a netbook or laptop for serious work. The main reason for that is a lack of any meaningful multitasking. The way we work nowadays is increasingly dynamic. This is especially true for me. iPad, with its single-window approach, doesn’t make the cut. Not yet.

Concluding thoughts

From tomorrow, I will not be carrying the iPad 2. Will I miss it? Am I going to buy one? No!

This is not to say that iPad 2 is not worth its price. I feel that had I persisted with iPad 2 for a few more weeks, it would have grown on me, most likely because of its very good RSS readers and casual games. But currently, the way my workflow and life goes, I don’t feel iPad fits any slot. For keeping in touch with my virtual life and friends, I prefer to use smartphone. For rest of the stuff and work, I love my blue-blooded computer where I can open 50 Firefox tabs and 10 programs and switch between them effortlessly.

For many mainstream users, however, it may be different. Not everyone is a multitasking wizard. I have been told that most people like to take things easy and simple. They don’t need power options. They still love their magazines and television. They feel amused by ability to touch an icon and open a website. Or love the freedom from left and right mouse clicks and folder tree. For them, iPad 2 works very well if used primarily as a content consumption device.

iPad 2 has its problems. I believe it can benefit greatly from a USB port and some sort of file explorer but that is reportedly contrary to Apple’s philosophy. Screen resolution can be better and browser can be vastly improved. Video playback is an absolute shame. And multitasking is yet to evolve to a level where it can be usable. But for whatever it is worth, iPad 2 is also the best tablet experience out there right now because of its fantastic apps and a very sensible price.

Some like it hot...

I’m talking about food, of course. I was sitting under the ceiling fan in a little restaurant in Gole Market, one that I go to often enough for the staff to greet me with a friendly ‘How are you today, madam?’ Studying the menu, I ordered a veg biriyani and asked the waiter to ‘thora spicy kar do’. He nodded before disappearing into the kitchen, and a few minutes later my meal arrived. The rice was perfect, and so were the vegetables, but there wasn’t a speck of chilli in sight. I called the waiter over. ‘Please can you make this more spicy?’ I asked in Hindi. He looked at me with a pained expression, ‘But madam,’ he replied, in English, ‘too much spicy is not good for health!’

He was probably right, but I’d grown used to eating food with a masala kick. In fact, I’ve been eating so much chilli for so long that when I do occasionally revert to western food it no longer has any taste.

I fully blame B’s mother for this. I have never known anyone with such a high tolerance for spicy cooking. When I first moved in with the family she used to give me Indian cookery lessons, which I loved. We’d sit together on the floor and she’d watch me like a hawk as I cut up the vegetables, then she’d pull out various plastic jars of powdered spices. ‘Ma-saa-laa’, she said, pronouncing the word very slowly and clearly, as if she were training a dog to recognise commands. Opening the container of chilli powder, she added several heaped spoonfuls into the pot of vegetables, which sizzled and bubbled and finally became a curry so radioactively spicy that it required, afterwards, a litre or two of drinking water to recover.

Later, when I was fending for myself in my own flat, I decided to take up cooking properly. I bought a pressure cooker, some other pots, pans and utensils, and several plastic jars (in pastel colours with flowery designs) for my own masala collection. Once I’d settled into the new place, I called B. ‘I’m cooking you dinner,’ I said, in the style of a Perfect Woman. ‘What do you want?’

‘Anything you like,’ he replied, sounding impressed at my offer. I suggested my personal favourite, aloo gobhi. ‘Sounds good,’ he said. ‘Remember to make it FULL SPICY!’

Like mother like son, B refuses to eat anything that’s less hot than a naked flame, so as I prepared my culinary masterpiece I made sure to add plenty of chilli powder, and threw in a couple of fresh green chillis for good measure. I clamped the lid on the pressure cooker and started rolling chapatis. When B arrived and saw me covered in flour, sweating over the tawa, I could almost see his heart filling with pride. The gori has finally become a Good Indian Woman, he was probably thinking. I filled a jug with water, cut some onions, and set the plates out on the floor.

B took a chapati and picked up some of my homemade aloo gobhi. I stared at him in anticipation. As he chewed, his expression changed from a smile to a nervous grimace, finally contorting in sheer horror. His cheeks went red and beads of sweat appeared on his forehead, and without saying a word he poured himself a glass of water, and then another. And another. Eventually he composed himself and started laughing. ‘When I said “make it spicy” I didn’t mean “try to kill me!”’

Sadly, the aloo gobhi, so lovingly prepared, went straight into the rubbish.

So. My first attempt at Indian cooking was a spectacular failure, yes, but I got better. My next meals included aloo mutar, palak paneer and various daal experiments, and now, if I do say so myself, I’m quite a good cook. I can even make a mean gajar halwa for dessert.

But I still have problems when I eat out. Often on my way to Hindi class at Delhi University I stop at the choley stand for a quick lunch. This is one of my favourite street snacks, and I always take one of the raw green chillis to munch with it. Recently, I noticed a group of students watching me eat. Every time I took a bite of my chilli they started pointing and whispering, until one student came over and said, ‘Do you like Indian food?’ An insightful question, I thought. I nodded. Taking this as an invitation to begin a conversation, the student continued.

‘You are eating the chilli,’ he remarked.

‘Yes.’

‘But... I didn’t think foreigners could eat chilli.

And it turns out a lot of Indian people would agree. Earlier this summer I went with B to Amici, the pizza restaurant in Saket. Studying the menu, I saw a pizza with a small picture of a red chilli next to it, which, after ignoring the waiter’s fervent warning that it was ‘very spicy’, we ordered to share. A couple of minutes later the head chef came rushing out of the kitchen. ‘Madam,’ he said, in a serious tone, ‘I must tell you that this pizza is very spicy.’ I smiled, touched by his unnecessary concern, and told him not to worry. ‘She loves spicy food,’ B chipped in. ‘She’s practically Indian.’ With that, the chef beamed and swooshed back into the kitchen.

The pizza was indeed very spicy, and the flavours were quite Indian. I picked up another slice and thought for a while about the profoundness of this Indian-Western fusion I was enjoying, as a westerner, with an Indian. We asked for more water. ‘Is it too much spicy?’ the waiter smirked. ‘No,’ I replied. ‘It’s perfect.’

The technologies not invented

What if the undetectable bomb was invented? What if we could read each other's minds? What if we could see through clothes? None of these technologies are beyond the realms of possibility. Indeed in some form, all of these are already available, admittedly not widely nor in a practically usable form. In each of these cases we are no more than a few years away from being able in theory to create accessible versions of these technologies for everyday use.

Imagine the physical and cultural impact of these technologies. The undetectable bomb would make the effort of detecting a weapon meaningless; intent would by itself be indistinguishable from effect. Apart from the heightened risk posed by the idea of air travel, and the enormous impact that could occur as a result, it would create a democracy of doubt by making all human beings potential terrorists, with no way of being able to verify one's suspicions. The possible scenarios that could develop are too numerous and varied to go into, but suffice it to say that the impact would be profound. Similarly, if one look through clothes or read minds, the nature of civilization itself would change in a fundamental way. Ideas of privacy, modesty, of what constitutes the self, and what governs relationships would all need re-definition.

The object of these thought experiments is not to speculate on the future or to focus on the specific technologies in question but to think about the profound impact of technologies not yet invented. It is common to think of technology as a presence that shapes how we live and it is usual to think of progress as a movement forward, and for technology to be seen as a fundamental force that propels us towards the future. Given its incremental nature, wherein innovation occurs in a series of recurrent waves, technological progress is seen almost as a cultural given; an inevitable and inexorable process that improves the quality of our lives by continuing to improve itself. We all know that technology has a deep impact on culture as it modifies the assumptions on which we base societal norms and makes us re-imagine the way in which human beings organize themselves and interact with each other. A mobile phone for instance, has helped re-order space and time, helped individuals get a unique address in life and softened the notion of hierarchy for it is now possible to reach anyone directly without any intermediate screening. The cascading effects of mobile phones are far-reaching and they go well beyond the functional advantages they offer by way of better communication. They are not merely life-altering devices for individuals but change the nature of society in deep, albeit subtle ways. The impact of the Internet is perhaps even more profound for it helps re-define the very idea of power by giving everyone a voice; the Internet is nothing more than a slightly organized babble of individual voices. The Internet allows us to communicate directly to each other, it dismantles the barriers built around information and knowledge and disables the very idea of scale.

And yet, because of the continuous nature of innovation, we think of technology as if it were a natural process, increasingly aligned with the idea of civilization. By and large, we do not think of social change caused by technology as a rupture, but as a form of progression, or in some cases as a regression. For most part technology takes us forward into the future, evoking an occasional nostalgia about the good old days when life was simpler. In most cases, the social change caused by technology is seen as being inevitable, and its impact is often sought to be underplayed. Because culture changes slowly in response to technology, we get time to absorb the effects of technology and make them appear natural. The structural impact of technology is often deeper than its functional footprint; it is much easier to acknowledge the advantages of a mobile phone ( i can speak to my close ones from anywhere and at any time, for example) and its disadvantages (it eats up all personal time) than to recognize how it shapes ideas of identity, hierarchy and the sense of being an individual. Even a technology with as overt a cultural footprint as the contraceptive pill or Viagra, gets absorbed into our lives, without being seen as being too disruptive.

It is when we focus on things not invented that we can see the relationship between technology and culture more clearly. It becomes apparent that culture is perched precariously on top of some basic assumptions that are easy to dismantle. This has always been the case, but given the pace of technological change today, combined with the almost blasé attitude we have towards it, the ability to recognize this seems underdeveloped in today's world.

Technology produces certitude when it should also simultaneously multiply doubt. Cultures are constructed around an understanding of human capability which technology enhances and modifies. If we could, for instance, read each other's minds, several of civilisation's founding assumptions will get dismantled for what we call culture is an edifice built on the technology called the human body. As this technology acquires new abilities, culture needs to change. The faster, more discontinuous and fundamental the nature of this change, the greater the need for cultures to find ways to fill this gap. The ability of culture to change shape and reach a new equilibrium is not neither inevitable nor absolute. The urge to believe in a stable and continuous world makes us minimize the effect of technological change but who is to say that we will be able to do that forever?

Free the radio

It is funny, almost inexplicable, that in a country that has rambunctious private TV news channels reaching the smallest hamlets, radio remains under tight government leash. One would expect it to be the other way round. Last week, Union cabinet cleared the Phase III expansion of FM (Frequency Modulated) channels. That would take private FM radio to 227 cities from the present 86. It would also allow a modest increase in foreign ownership of channels (from 20% to 26%). The private radio channels would also be allowed to carry All India Radio news bulletin.

The decisions were less significant for what they allow than for what they still bar. Apart from extending the geographical reach of FM radio, these are but baby-steps in liberalizing the radio regime. Amazingly, the world’s biggest democracy still cannot have a privately owned radio news channel. By the looks of it, it is not even on the horizon. It just tells us what kind of dinosaurs still live in Delhi’s corridors of power. The people can be trusted with private news on TV, which is a much more influential medium, but not on radio.

Actually, technology forced the TV revolution upon us. With satellites beaming down TV signals that could easily and cheaply be received by anyone, government simply lost the ability to control it. It went along with the flow. Much better to allow uplinking facility from within the country and have a modicum of regulation than have everybody watching totally unregulated foreign channels.

That pragmatism paid off brilliantly. We have some awful TV channels but also some brilliant ones. More importantly, we hardly ever turn to BBC or CNN for news. The freeing up of TV has created thousands of jobs for artists, journalists, advertising professionals, and managers. It also created a huge new advertising channel helping boost the ad industry as well.

No such technological push came in the radio sector. Hence, government never felt the need to let go of it. It is taking exactly the same reluctant steps in opening radio up as it is in freeing the petroleum products price or undertaking other economic reforms. It is such a pity. A truly free radio regime would see the frequencies being opened up pan-India, not just in defined cities. It would also see liberalization of not just FM radio but also of AM (Amplitude Modulated) or the old-fashioned Medium Wave and Short Wave radio. These may not be able to carry high quality music but they are good enough for news and chat shows and they can have huge range. Anybody, including universities and non-profits, should be able to own and operate radio stations. Most importantly, the radio should be free to carry any content just as newspapers are.

Since radio is a relatively low cost operation, it would see mushrooming of channels and true competition. It would enhance the reach of information and entertainment manifold. TV requires total attention of viewers but anyone — from a homemaker in the kitchen to a farmer in his farm — can listen to radio as they work. It would enable many more groups and individuals to have themselves heard.

Probably, this potential of radio is keeping the netas and babus from even talking about its opening up. However, it should not prevent us from demanding it. Sadly, since we have our TV channels we seem to think radio has become obsolete. Actually, its opening up can usher in huge social changes and bring big economic benefits. As citizens, it is our right to be able to access unfiltered information from any source. A nanny government that does not think so insults our intelligence.

While we are on the subject, why do we still not have terrestrial TV channels? Doordarshan remains a monopoly in that area even though hardly anyone watches it. That is another anachronism 21st century-India is living with. Allowing terrestrial TV channels would result in quality local channels that would deliver news and entertainment in more professional manner than what indifferent cable distributors are able to right now. The government controls we have on electronic media ought to be an anathema in any modern democracy. Somehow, they have remained under the radar of our consciousness. It is time things changed.

Remembering the Dead, Digitally

The other day, returning from Lucknow to Delhi on the Shatabadi Express, two children discussing their Facebook profiles asked what will happen to their accounts once they are dead. The unexpected query brought home the fact that the issue of digital legacy handovers has become the most intense form of debate across the globe with the simple question ‘Who holds the legacy of deceased online account holders?’ still evading an answer.

Fact is that nearly $700 million digital property goes unclaimed annually just in the US alone due to death of the users, as per an estimate by Entrustet, a secure online service that helps organize and prepare the last wishes of digital asset holders. A report titled Dying in a Digital Age reveals that four in five people (80%) in the UK own digital assets, but only 9% have considered how they will pass these on when they die. With the UK’s digital music collections alone worth an estimated £9001 million, valuable possessions could be lost if they are not passed on.

A horde of people over 65 are adopting Facebook at a faster pace than any other age group, with 6.5 million signing up in May alone, three times as many as in May 2009, according to a research firm Comscore.

According to one estimate, between 1.78 million and 3 million Facebook users will pass away by the end of 2011. Companies across the globe are trying to establish clear-cut policies on this subject.

Besides the financial value of these accounts, there is ever-increasing sentimental value in people’s online possessions. For example, photos were traditionally kept in albums, but more and more are now stored online. What happens to them if you are denied access? Then there are tons and tons of videos uploaded by users on Youtube. Unimaginable amount of content from millions of bloggers and over 500 million Facebook members is being added in the digital world. What will happen to all this content once the account holder is no more?

Physical assets like property and bank accounts can be passed on to the families via a will or other physical verifications. Not so, however, for digital accounts – email, Facebook or Twitter accounts or any other networking sites – in which both confidential and frivolous information is being constantly stored and shared. Very little statutory or case law exists with respect to digital assets. However, just one state in the US - Oklahoma - law authorizes an executor to have authority over the email, social networking and blogging accounts of a deceased individual.

Incidentally, May 6 was Digital Death Day, an event tagged to an annual online-identity conference near San Francisco. The conference was called mainly to explore how one should deal with online profile after death.

The issue first arose way back in November 2004, when US Lance Corporal Justin Ellsworth was killed in a roadside bomb explosion in Iraq. A week after Justin’s death, his father demanded from Yahoo the password of his son’s email so that he could access his account. He felt that this would be the best way to know his son and his memories better.

However, Yahoo administrators refused to release Justin’s password to the family and a grieving father's effort to digitally preserve his son's legacy finally took the long haul of a court battle (finally settled after a year out of court with Yahoo giving the father a full CD of his son’s emails but still denying password access) as also the subject of intense public debate on the issue of online assets.

In 2005, the issue arose again, this time internally in Facebook when one of its employees — there were only 40 at the time — died in a bike accident. Facebook offered an option to request that the user’s profile be switched to “memorial” mode. However, for this, someone had to put in a request for a profile to be memorialized, which would have then deactivated certain features and reset various privacy controls, converting its function to a place where friends could leave remembrances. The process didn’t give much direct control to any heir or executor or similar figure, and as some complained, it could mean wiping out meaningful material and replacing it with “a thousand ‘sorry this happened’ messages”.

Keeping abreast with the growing demand among users about post-death asset handling, microblogging site Twitter last year released a “deceased” policy which took a step toward removing dead users from their recommendation engine. Various other companies have already started business angle to this -- Legacy Locker claims “around 10,000” people have signed up for its digital-estate-management service. DataInherit, a service of DSwiss, “the Swiss bank for information assets” (you can even update your digital-legacy data via its iPhone app), and Entrustet, of Madison, Wis.

Back home in India, the issue is yet to catch up with computer literacy not being as widespread as in the West. India has over 100 million users. Though the figure is hardly 10% of the total Indian population of 1.21 billion, it still puts India at the number three position in the internet users list. And, social networking sites are regularly increasing their space. Recently, Facebook’s users in India have crossed the 25-million base mark. It has become active internet users in recent past in India, leaving behind other networking sites like Orkut and Twitter.

However, youngsters like the one on Shatabdi Express are slowly and steadily coming up with relevant queries on this subject.

As and when the digital legacy papers become official all over the world and a unified policy guides users on future eventualities, here is what some of the popular sites are doing as a matter of individual policy:

Facebook: This networking site has the rights of deceased users in its privacy policy. According to this, your heirs or close friends can request that your account be deleted or memorialised. Memorialised profiles restrict profile access to confirmed friends, but allow friends and family to write on the user’s wall in remembrance. However, you can make it inactive by showing a death certificate or a news article that indicates the user’s death. Apart from this, the social networking site also has a feature that allows you to Download Your Information – the tool that lets you download a copy of your photos, videos, wall posts, messages friend list and other content.

Gmail: Google mail provides instructions for gaining access to deceased user’s account in its help documents. However, one has to provide a death certificate and proof that you have legal authority over the estate.

Twitter: This microblogging site has also addressed the issue in its help documents and it provides archival access of the user’s pubic tweets.

Yahoo: Yahoo has taken a harsh decision in case of a user’s death. While joining It does not accord any right of survivorship and non-transferability. While signing up one has to agree that his Yahoo account is non-transferable and that Yahoo ID content within an account terminates upon death.

YouTube: Lists its policy for deceased users in its help documents.

The jury is still out on the issue and the best way to pass on your legacy if you really don’t want it to die with you is to let in your heir on your username, password or store the same in some safe but accessible place.

Being an Emotional Victim

None of us like to think of ourselves as victims. The term "victim" brings to mind a pathetic image of a person who is powerless. Therefore, It comes as a shock to most of us to realize how often we allow ourselves to be emotional victims. Having counseled individuals, couples, families and business partners for 35 years, I know that many of us are victims much of the time without realizing it.

We are being victims anytime we give another person the power to define our worth. We are being victims anytime we make approval, sex, things, a substance, or an activity responsible for our feelings of happiness and lovability. We are being victims anytime we blame another for our feelings of fear, anger, hurt, aloneness, jealousy, disappointment, and so on. Whenever we choose to define ourselves externally, we are handing away power to others and we then feel controlled by their choices.

When we choose to define ourselves internally through our connection with our spiritual Guidance, we move into personal power and personal responsibility. The moment we sincerely want to learn about our own intrinsic worth and what behavior is in our highest good, and we ask Spirit, we will receive answers. Most people do not realize how easy it is to receive answers from a spiritual Source. The answers will pop into your mind in words or pictures, or you will experience the answers through your feelings, when your sincere desire is to learn.

We always have two choices: we can try to find our happiness, peace, safety, security, lovability and worth through people, things, activities, and substances; or we can feel joyful, peaceful, safe, secure, lovable and worthy through connection with a spiritual Source of love and compassion - taking loving care of ourselves and loving others.

Whenever we choose to find our happiness and safety through others, then we have to try to control them to give us what we want. Then, when they don't come through for us in the way we hoped they would, we feel victimized by their choices.

Here is an example: Don and Joyce are in a continual power struggle over how to handle their children. Joyce tends to be authoritarian while Don is fairly permissive. When Joyce gets frustrated with Don's parenting, she generally yells at him about his permissiveness. Don often listens to Joyce rant and rave at him. Sometimes she goes on for over an hour and he just listens. Then, when he tries to talk with her, she refuses to listen. Don then feels victimized, complaining about how Joyce yells at him and refuses to listen to him.

None of us like to think of ourselves as victims. The term "victim" brings to mind a pathetic image of a person who is powerless. Therefore, It comes as a shock to most of us to realize how often we allow ourselves to be emotional victims. Having counseled individuals, couples, families and business partners for 35 years, I know that many of us are victims much of the time without realizing it.

We are being victims anytime we give another person the power to define our worth. We are being victims anytime we make approval, sex, things, a substance, or an activity responsible for our feelings of happiness and lovability. We are being victims anytime we blame another for our feelings of fear, anger, hurt, aloneness, jealousy, disappointment, and so on. Whenever we choose to define ourselves externally, we are handing away power to others and we then feel controlled by their choices.

When we choose to define ourselves internally through our connection with our spiritual Guidance, we move into personal power and personal responsibility. The moment we sincerely want to learn about our own intrinsic worth and what behavior is in our highest good, and we ask Spirit, we will receive answers. Most people do not realize how easy it is to receive answers from a spiritual Source. The answers will pop into your mind in words or pictures, or you will experience the answers through your feelings, when your sincere desire is to learn.

We always have two choices: we can try to find our happiness, peace, safety, security, lovability and worth through people, things, activities, and substances; or we can feel joyful, peaceful, safe, secure, lovable and worthy through connection with a spiritual Source of love and compassion - taking loving care of ourselves and loving others.

Whenever we choose to find our happiness and safety through others, then we have to try to control them to give us what we want. Then, when they don't come through for us in the way we hoped they would, we feel victimized by their choices.

Here is an example: Don and Joyce are in a continual power struggle over how to handle their children. Joyce tends to be authoritarian while Don is fairly permissive. When Joyce gets frustrated with Don's parenting, she generally yells at him about his permissiveness. Don often listens to Joyce rant and rave at him. Sometimes she goes on for over an hour and he just listens. Then, when he tries to talk with her, she refuses to listen. Don then feels victimized, complaining about how Joyce yells at him and refuses to listen to him.

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