Believe in the power of 'And'

 By Somali K Chakrabarti

'AND' -  the simple 3 lettered word represents the spirit of empowering yourself to pursue different tracks, without having to turn your back on one path for choosing the other.

One dimensional labels have, for long, been used to typecast women.

Time and again you are told that you can be either a successful homemaker OR a successful professional, a caring woman OR an ambitious woman, a demure woman OR a brazen woman. Unfortunately such stereotypes are painfully restrictive, leave women with little choice, and have dissuaded many women from reaching their potential.

Now is the time to give a chance to 'AND' .

I will tell you about two women, born in different times, almost 70 years apart, and how OR and AND have influenced their lives.

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The Great Indian Litterbug

 By Somali K Chakrabarti

Litterbug is the name; to litter is his game.

He is one you will adore, for his qualities galore.

This is the story of the 7 year old little Litterbug

Cute little Litterbug is just back from school. Hungry as hell, he throws around his bag and yells for food. His doting mother hands over an apple and some bananas to him. The little Litterbug eats the half apple and throws the other half right out of the window.

‘My son will grow up to be a great cricketer one day. See how he strives to perfect his aim!’ Mother Litterbug utters aloud drooling over the antics of her lil one.

The banana peel follows the half eaten apple out of the window as she lovingly looks on. He tears open a packet of chips, takes out his notebook, and starts scribbling vigorously to finish his homework before he goes out to play.

Little Litterbug

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Celebrate diversity and break cultural stereotypes

 By Somali K Chakrabarti

 “There are not more than five musical notes, yet the combination of these five give rise to more melodies than can ever be heard.

There are not more than five primary colours, yet in combination they produce more hues than can ever been seen.

There are not more than five cardinal tastes, yet combinations of them yield more flavours than can ever be tasted.”

― Sun Tzu

India being a large country, the culture and tradition of a part at one end of the country are distinctly different from another part at the other end. The vast multitude of art, music, dance, food and traditions add to the cultural diversity and enliven the country with shades and hues of different colors, but not without presenting their own set of challenges.

We are, often, so oriented to our customs and traditions that most of us tend to judge others solely by the values and standards of our own culture. We don’t desist from complaining about how foreigners perceive us, but then we Indians have our own yardsticks for judging people from other states. Deeply ingrained in our psyche are the cultural prejudices that we have grown up with.

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Clean India – Sanitation and hygiene starts with You and Me

By Somali K Chakrabarti

There are more cell phones than toilets in India.

It is a well known fact by now that whereas nearly 45 per cent of India’s population uses cell phones, only 31 per cent of the population has access to improved sanitation.

Poor and inadequate sanitation have been a major cause of diarrhea and infections among young children. The other fallout are malnutrition, stunting, premature deaths, wasted time and productivity, and tourism losses.

This is likely to change with PM Modi’s emphasis on cleanliness and proper sanitation facilities, and the launch of ambitious ‘Swachch Bharat Abhiyan’, to make India clean by 2019. No longer it is undignified to talk about the existing sanitation problems and the need to build toilets to end open defecation in India.

To make the mission a success, many corporate houses, NGOs, media and other agencies have joined in to address the rising need of hygiene and sanitation in India. Many initiatives have been taken up for constructing toilets in rural areas, promoting the use of toilets by running  sanitation and hygiene campaigns and developing proper waste disposal and management systems.

RB India and NDTV have partnered to launch “Dettol – Banega Swachh India” and are organising a 12 hour LIVE televised CLEANATHON on 14th December, 2014, which will bring together the entire nation towards better sanitation & hygiene.

See http://swachhindia.ndtv.com/

While there are systemic or behavioral issues to be tackled at the broader level, You and I as individuals, can also do our bit to make India clean and hygienic.

Much like charity begins at home, sanitation and hygiene starts with you and me.  

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Walking fiesta at Equals Street - a fun filled way to kickstart your Sunday

By Somali K Chakrabarti

 

Ciclovía, is a weekly city-wide, car-free day in Bogotá, when more than 2 million people come out to cycle, hang out and eat on the streets. It has been successfully running since 1974.

 

Ciclovía keeps cars off the streets in the Colombian capital and brings rich and poor together - if only for a day. ~ theguardian

 

The concept of Ciclovía has, since then, spread far and wide beyond Columbia, and walking events are now organized in different cities around the world.

Walking festivals in India

The concept is no longer alien to India either. Known by name of Raahgiri, a similar event started in Gurgaon in 2013, and has been continuing for over a year. Such events are also organized at Connaught Place in Delhi, in Bhopal, Ludhiyana, Pune, Navi Mumbai and have lately started in Mumbai as the Santacruz – Bandra festival, as the result of collective efforts of NGOs, think tanks, citizens' associations and cycling groups

Living in Mumbai, one of my main grouse has been the lack of open spaces to walk. So when I heard of Santacruz – Bandra Walking Festival that is organized every Sunday from 7 am to 11 am, with two of the busiest streets of Mumbai - Linking Road and SV Road, being closed to traffic to allow people to walk, there was no way I could keep away.

So, there I was walking at Linking Road with hoards of others who were out on the road strolling, briskly walking, prancing or jogging. What a sight it was to see the traffic packed roads of Mumbai completely devoid of traffic! Children with roller skates whizzed past in glee, there were others on cycles and push bikes, and a few were trying to balance on a segway.

Cycles and Segway ride

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'Bhopal: A Prayer For Rain', A film to stir your soul

By Somali K Chakrabarti

December 2^nd, 1984, was one of the darkest nights in the history of Bhopal and that of India, when poisonous gas flare had leaked out of Union Carbide India Ltd’s (UCIL) pesticide plant, killing thousands of people over the next few days.

Thirty years on, a film ‘Bhopal: A Prayer For Rain’ rakes up the memories of the hapless night as it narrates the heart rendering story of Bhopal gas tragedy, one of the worst industrial disasters in India that occurred due to corporate negligence.

The movie released in the US on 7^th Nov and is scheduled to release in India on 5^th Dec, 2014. The film is directed by Ravi Kumar, who upon reading Sanjoy Hazarika’s book, ‘Bhopal: The Lessons of a tragedy’, was inspired to make a film on the subject for a younger audience who do not know about Carbide or Bhopal.

The story unfolds through the life of Dilip, a poor Rickshaw driver living in a slum in Bhopal, who struggles on a daily basis to support his wife Leela, his child and his sister. Dilip is elated when he lands himself a job in the UCIL’s pesticide plant – the job helps him to earn wages to feed his family and marry off his sister. The factory is a symbol of progress and prosperity for Dilip. Dilip, however, is not the least aware of the impending dangers on his life and on the lives of his folks.

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Busting the myth of Manliness in Indian society

By Somali K Chakrabarti

Mard ko dard nahin hota.
Amitabh Bachchan had declared in his characteristic style in ‘Mard’, one of the memorable Bollywood blockbusters from the 1980s. Translated in English it means ‘A real man does not feel pain’.

This stereotypical projection of men in India, has time and again been exemplified by the society, perpetrated through the movies, and reinforced by many parents while raising their children.

In a thought provoking show 'When Masculinity Harms Men’ in Satyamev Jayate’, Aamir Khan took a step towards busting the myth of manliness that exists in the Indian society.

Here is what Mr Bachchan said on the show.

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To forcefully instill values in the male child to constantly act like a man or to behave violently is wrong.  ~Amitabh Bachchan

A far cry from his iconic dialogue!

Power, aggression, control are classified as ‘masculine’ traits, while caring, sharing, expressing emotions or crying are the typically seen as ‘feminine’ traits.

These notions are instilled in the mind of male children right from their childhood. Any small boy, who cries, is consoled saying he shouldn’t cry like a girl, since he is physically stronger. Mothers urge their sons to beat up other children rather than get bullied or beaten up. The image of a 'Macho' man endowed with enormous physical strength, gets so  imprinted in the mind of male children that it often leads them to believe that “masculinity“ is about demonstration of power rather than about human consideration or sensitivity. As such, they value aggression more than reason, and at times they tend to believe that they will be more admired and can get away with whatever they do if they are more aggressive or violent.


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Why society should accept Alternative Sexuality

By Somali K Chakrabarti

Alan Turing, whose pioneering work laid the mathematical foundations of computer, was convicted for homosexuality and subjected to chemical castration that drove him to suicide. His suicide prompted the British government to amend laws concerning homosexuality.

~ Aamir Khan on 'Accepting Alternative Sexuality' episode of his show Stayamev Jayate that touched upon the sensitive issue of the rights of LGBT community to live freely and openly.

Alan Turing was the British mathematical genius, logician and cryptanalyst who had invented the Turing machine, which laid the foundation for creation of modern computers. By cracking the German military’s secret code, Turing had helped the British Navy defeat Hitler's U-boats and win the Battle of the Atlantic, in the World War II. He was a marathon runner too, with world class time, and was named as one of the 100 most influential people of the 20th century, by TIME magazine in 1999.

Alan Turing

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Mumbai - A Green City Turning Grey

By Somali K Chakrabarti

Standing by the open window railing on my room, as I sip my morning tea looking at the coconuts swinging from the tree at a stone’s throw, I struggle each day to reconcile with how the view has changed over the last two years. The open space on both sides, where there used to be a nursery and a school playground is now covered up with high-rise flats that are in the last stage of construction. In place of the variety of plants and flowers in the nursery, stands a burly concrete mixer humming throughout the day. Scaffoldings along the walls of buildings and reinforcement rods jutting out of the columns from the roof of an under-construction parking lot make an unseemly sight.

I feel let down and so do the other residents of the building. But do we complain? Not much!

Financial wisdom tells us that with the land prices having appreciated more than 5 times, we should not be complaining. Likewise, constructing high rise buildings on a prime property makes more commercial sense for builder; so what if the land was initially earmarked for a school playground and a park.

Besides enjoying the facility of a plush club house with a well equipped gym and swimming pool, residents also get the privilege of a view into the interiors of other flats from their houses.

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Putting Kabaddi Back on Track - A Unique CSR Initiative

Kabbaddi is in vogue now! 

The rustic Indian game that nobody thought much about has suddenly become fashionable.

With the Television channels broadcasting the live game in its slick 45 minute format, men, women and kids alike have taken a liking to the game. Spectators are enthralled by the combination of skill, tactics, footwork, agility and the reflexes of the players. Four or five defenders coiling around a raider to bring him down, or the raider extricating himself from his opponents to retreat to his home court, make an exciting watch.

Earlier what was seen as a semi – urban or a rural game is now being viewed as strategic and even glamorous.  It is exhilarating to see the raider as he tries to discern the strategy of the defenders, and withholds his breath during the entire course of the raid in his opponents’ court, while continuously and audibly chanting the word ‘Kabaddi’.

Media coverage of the Kabaddi matches played in stadiums all over the country, cutting edge graphics and presence of celebrities have upped the glamour quotient the game and created the right buzz.

Role of India Inc in resurrecting Kabaddi 

Admittedly, the credit goes to India Inc for reviving the game and presenting it in a format that appeals not only to people from the interiors of the country, but also to school going kids living in the metros, who have also started following the game. The short duration matches the young viewers’ attention span.

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‘The Flaws In Our Laws’ By Dr Bibek Debroy | Absurdities Of Indian Laws – Part II

Continuing from my last post ‘The Flaws In Our Laws’ By Bibek Debroy | My Scribbling Of The Session – Part I, here I proceed to  jot down the next two anecdotes that were also the most interesting anecdotes of the session.

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Identifying Surplus Government Posts

Anecdote 3 was about identifying redundant government posts to recommend their abolishment.

The story, as narrated to Dr Debroy by a retired senior civil officer goes as follows…

In 1973, an Administrative Reforms Commission was set up in Tamil Nadu to find posts in the system that appeared to be redundant. Two such posts identified were that of LBK, LBA. Nobody seemed to have a clue about what these abbreviations stood for, nor about the duties assigned to these posts.

Some facts unfurled when people who had retired from these positions and were drawing pensions were called upon to enquire about the posts.

In 1926, a Royal Commission on Agricultural Reform was set to improve the quality of agriculture in India . The Commission was set up under the Chairmanship of Lord Linlithgow, who later became the Viceroy of India and served from 1936 – 1943. It was decided by the Commission that agricultural productivity would be improved by improving the quality of Indian cattle by breeding Indian cows with foreign bulls. The system was as slow then as it is today, maybe much more slower. Nothing moved on the recommendations of the Royal Commissions.

Ten years on, in 1936 when it was announced that Lord Linlithgow would be the new Governor General, things suddenly stirred up in the system. The new Viceroy would certainly want to know what had happened to his recommendations.

In the government system, creating new positions is just as difficult as slashing jobs. So to get things moving, two job positions were created by invoking the name of Lord Linlithgow . The position LBK stood for Linlithgow’s Bull Keeper, who was assigned with the task of overseeing the import of bulls, while LBA’s (Linlithgow’s Bull Assistant’s) job was to ensure that cows were impregnated at the right time.

As we were in splits of laughter, he added that though these posts were abolished in the early 1980s. Yet there was another post that still continued past the 1980s.

This was the post of Churchill Cigar Assistant.  The World War II had disrupted the supply of cigar from Havana. The Prime Minister of Britain, Mr Winston Churchill loved his cigars, and so his housekeeping staff looked at the possible alternative supply of Trichy cigars from India. Churchill Cigar Assistants were appointed to source cheroots from Trichy and supply them to Britain for consumption of Mr Winston Churchill.  The post continued to remain long after the supply of cheerots from Trichy to Whitehall had stopped.

As we lapped up the anecdotes, Debroy proceeded to the next one.

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The Dead People’s Association 

Anecdote 4, the most interesting of all was about Mritak Sangh (Dead People’s Assosiation)

This is the story of Lal Bihari from Uttar Pradesh, who was declared dead on government’s revenue document after his relatives bribed the officials  and announced him ‘Dead’ to usurp his ancestral piece of land.

He tried everything to prove himself alive – from pelting stones at Police Station in the hope of being arrested and thereby forcing the government to acknowledge his existence, to claiming a widow pension to his wife, hoping they would rectify the mistake upon seeing she was still married to him. But nothing changed. Any number of attempts made by him to prove that he was alive proved futile.

In the process he discovered that there were around 20000 officially dead people in India. Having lived for a long period as a dead man alive, he made a resolve to help other landless individuals in their fight to prove themselves ‘Alive’ and thus he formed the Mritak Sangh[i] .

In 2003 Bihari was awarded the Ig Nobel Peace Prize– a parody of the famous Nobel Peace Prize for his widespread altruistic “posthumous activities [i].

While this anecdote had people in splits of laughter, it also clearly revealed the vulnerabilities of the Indian Legal System.

Like a master storyteller Bibek Debroy proceeded on to tell us about the large number of state level statutes that existed in India, old archaic laws some dating back to the 19^th century and Pre independence days that are no longer the least relevant, the Sarai  Act, Hackney Carriage Act in London and some other anecdotes.

The Q & A round followed.  His answers delved into specifics of the Sections & Clauses wherever needed.

By the end of the session it was obvious that the Dimensions of Legal Reform in India are numerous. It was also apparent that while a Lawyer would focus more on the redressal of injustice occurred, an Economist’s view of the legal system is more oriented towards mechanisms for prevention of flaws in future.

It was undoubtedly a very enlightening session. Dr Bibek Debroy used a common sense approach throughout to drive down the points and share his profound insights. It was an enriching experience for me and I personally felt that this lecture was completely at par with the lectures delivered by some of the world’s best B School professors, that I have had the privilege to attend.

Thanks to MoneyLife Foundation for giving us this wonderful opportunity to listen to a great speaker. It was definitely an opportunity NOT to be missed.

References

[i] http://www.mritaksangh.org/

[ii] http://www.improbable.com/ig/winners/#ig2003.

‘The Flaws In Our Laws’ By Dr Bibek Debroy | Absurdities Of Indian Laws – Part I

On rare occasions, it happens that a person can dig into a complex topic with remarkable ease and make perfect sense to a diverse group of listeners, while capturing their attention all along and making the subject exceptionally interesting.  Dr Bibek Debroy is certainly one of those people blessed with such rare ability. Fascinated by his knowledge on the vast array of subjects he tweets about, I had registered for the seminar arranged by MoneyLife Foundation, to hear Dr Debroy speak on the Flaws in Indian Laws.

I reached the Royal Bombay Yacht Club just 5 min before the start of the event. The building is just at a stone’s throw from the Gateway Of India and has an old world charm about it. With hardly any time in hand to appreciate the architecture, I rushed into the hall and yet found myself seated on a single vacant seat on the 2^nd row.  And there I was, all set to listen to one of the most interesting sessions by the noted economist, columnist and author.

So the session began. Right from the word ‘go’, it was replete with anecdotes that held the audience in rapturous attention and we found ourselves intermittently bursting into peals of laughter at the absurdities existing in the Indian laws. I am recollecting here some of the numerous anecdotes shared, which I had managed to scribble down.

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The Trigger For Initiating A Research Project For Legal Reforms.

The 1^st anecdote was about an unexpected and a seemingly innocuous event that had provided the trigger for initiating a research project by the Government Of India for Legal Reforms.

The story goes back to the year 1993. One day Dr Ashok Rudra, a scholar, economist and professor at Vishva Bharti invited Bibek Debroy for lunch to ask about his interest in heading the research project. He gave him the time between the start of lunch & dessert to make up his mind.

The project was approved by none other than our ex PM Dr Manmohan Singh, who was then, the Finance Minister Of India. Mr. Shankar Aiyar, a noted journalist analyst and author of the book ‘Accidental India’ had inadvertently provided the prompt for the project. 

It happened so, that Shankar Aiyar was invited to France to speak on a conference. The per diem allowance in those days was $65. Shankar Aiyyar found the amount less and wanted his allowance to be increased to $100. He put up an application to Mr. S. Varadachary, who was then, the Joint Secretary in the Ministry of Finance. Varadachary must have seen some merit in the request, and thought it should be extended to all others as well. However, that called for making a modification to the Foreign Exchange Regulation Act (FERA). The matter was then taken to Mr Ashok Desai , the Chief Economic Consultant, who thought it made sense to scrap FERA and come up with a new version with changes in all other areas, wherever needed. He discussed the proposition with Dr Manmohan Singh, who agreed and further suggested that a research project be carried out for Law Reform to identify all areas that needed to be amended.

So began the search for a person who could undertake this project. In this context Ashok Desai contacted his friend Ashok Rudra, who then took Debroy for lunch.

Of course, the answer was yes and thus started a Project for Law Reform in collaboration with the National Law School Bangalore with support from Mr Madhav Menon, the founder-director of the law school. The Project was to continue for 4 years and resulted in many interesting findings and suggestions. How many of the suggestions were implemented, is a different question though.

With narration of this anecdote, Dr Debroy had managed to catch the attention of the listeners. He quickly moved on to the 2^nd story.

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The Longest Standing Litigation in India.

Anecdote No 2 was related to the longest standing litigation in India.

When Bibek Debroy started to look out for the longest standing litigation in India, he could not get any satisfactory answers to this question from any lawyer, or any pertinent information in this matter.

Finally a search in the Guinness Book of World Records revealed the longest standing litigation as one that dated back to 1205. The case was filed by a member of a certain Korat family in Ambegaon in Pune and it involved a litigation about which family branch should get the right to worship the family shrine. Spanning a period of 761 years, this certainly qualified as the longest standing litigation in the country (maybe even in the world).

As the word about this longest standing litigation spread around in the newspapers, Debroy received a letter from a certain Mr Narasimha Reddy pointing out that though the history of this dispute dated back to 1205, the dispute was with the court from 1964 to 1966 and was settled in a period of 3 years. To substantiate his claim, Narasimha Reddy mailed all records of the case, which he had personally collected, to Bibek Debroy. Amazed by his interest in digging out the facts and files pertaining to the case, Debroy asked Reddy what had prompted him to travel all the way from his residence in Hyderabad to Pune to collect the records.

The reply was equally amazing. “I have filed for the record of the longest standing dispute from 1945 – 1990, a span of 45 years to Guinness Book of World Record”, said Reddy. Obviously it was in his interest to see that no case surpassed the duration of his litigation.

Unfortunately for Narasimha Reddy, The Guinness Book had either discontinued that category of records or did not want to include any cases from India wrt this category. So he had to be content with an entry in the Limca Book of Records.

Thus stood the case of the Longest standing dispute.

We were all ears and hungry for more.

I later did a google search and found that a litigation over a disputed graveyard in Varanasi has been going on since 1878. This supersedes Mr Reddy’s record.

I stop here now to keep this post short and continue with the other anecdotes in my next post.

For the two most interesting anecdotes click on to ‘The Flaws In Our Laws’ By Bibek Debroy | My Scribbling Of The Session – Part II.

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Including here comments received from Dr Bibek Debroy. I seem to have mixed up a few names.

Inbuilt Apathy Towards Road Traffic Accidents In India

A few days back a young man from Kurukshetra, Dikshant Sharma had started a petition requesting Aamir Khan to take up the issue of Road Accidents in India on his show Satyamev Jayate.

After I signed the petition [i], I surfed for information on road traffic accidents and came to know the following facts:

According to the World Health Organisation (WHO), road traffic accidents are the leading cause of death for young people in developing countries. India accounts for about 10% of road crash fatalities worldwide.

One person dies every five minutes on Indian roads. Going by National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB), this figure is expected to escalate to one death every three minutes by 2020 [ii]. In terms of absolute numbers more people die in road crashes in India than anywhere else in the world.

Every other day we read in the newspapers about road accidents. Unresponsive governance coupled with personal apathy makes the situation worse and many are left to die on the streets even when hospitals are close by.

Infographics - Road Traffic Accidents

The disconcerting question is why do these recurring incidents of traffic death remain as just statistics and do not stir up the authorities or people in general?

This problem of personal apathy & unresponsive governance can partly be explained by the fact that people tend to fear and react more to situations in which many people may be killed at one point in time as opposed to situations in which number of casualty remains the same or might be even more, but the deaths are distributed over a longer period of time.

These low-probability high-consequence events such as the terrorist attacks in Mumbai in 2008 or the disappearance of MH370 are known as 'Dread Risks'. Since dread risk events are perceived as unknown and potentially catastrophic, such events evoke widespread fear, anxiety and sharp psychological reactions that may produce large ripple effects.

An article published in Psychological Science, on behalf of the American Psychological Society corroborates the concept of Dread Risk. The study suggests that the fear of flying following September 11, 2001 caused more people in America to travel by road, resulting in 353 additional highway deaths than would have otherwise been the case [iii]. As the dread risk events have enormous impact simultaneously on a large group of people, these are highly publicized and governments all around the world, focus on responding to events quickly to control & contain the situation and rightly so.

On the other hand, in case of road accidents, though the families of victims suffer immense psychosocial distress, the psychological impact on general public is not so pronounced.  Despite the appalling dimensions of the problem, road safety ranks very low on our list of priorities. The cultural indifference ambivalence towards road traffic deaths, does not compel the government to change the status quo. More people die in road crashes than due to malaria or TB, yet the government hardly notices.

This emphasizes the necessity for creating awareness about the need for pre-hospital emergency medical response for accident victims. We need a shift in focus from inevitability of the accidents to preventability of accidents and injury control.

This is not to say that public awareness initiatives will be sufficient to prevent the road tragedies; it will require the concerted effort from government including parliament, the police, road users, NGOs and the media to develop & implement policies on injury prevention. Scientifically designed roads, automobile design safety, better law enforcement and road user sensitization are needed to bring down RTAs.

However to begin with, if the public were better informed about the plight of accident victims, and how to provide them immediate access to medics, it will also possibly help in creating demand for emergency response for accident victims, thus saving thousands of lives.

References:

[i] http://chn.ge/1ePLlSP

[ii] http://www.livemint.com/Opinion/D8iIIQDQkx8RGRdzros9tI/Taking-note-of-road-deaths-in-India.html

[iii] Dread Risk, September 11, and Fatal Traffic Accidents by Gerd Gigerenzer, Max Planck Institute for Human Development, Berlin, Germany