Lost into the night

As I reach home rushing
I'm late, I guess
She stands there donning
A lovely evening dress


The lights go dim
The candles are lit
With dinner and wine
At the table we sit


The raindrops cut through
The tranquil of the sky
I quietly go swimming
In the ocean of her eyes


Against my black suit
As the cold winds braze
She smiles and shies
Away from my gaze


I turn on soft music
Proposing to dance
We stare at each other
Moving in a trance


Her breath tickles my ears
While my lips close in on hers
"You're beautiful," I say
"I'm happy," she whispers


As my arms grip her waist
She leans up on me
Holding each other tight
We kiss as meant to be

It's stopped raining
And the moon's glowing bright
But we're still dancing
Lost into the night

The Rishikesh Poem

Rests the revered city of Rishikesh
On the banks of the mystic Ganges
The Gateway to the mighty Himalayas
The sanctuary of sadhus and sages


Behold the brook of myth and legend
Slipping between the Shiwalik ridges
The sacred Ganga bubbles and babbles
Below the Ram and Lakshman bridges


The blissful sparkling hue of aqua green
Mesmerizes me with its alluring glimmer
Smooth round pebbles on fine white sand
Form a serene backdrop of the river


Talking to me with splashy gurgles
Runs the torrent of liquid snow
It cools my feet, heals my soul
It does indeed forever flow


As the greyish orange twilight sets in swift
I find myself sprawled on a rock in a dream
The soothing zephyr strokes my bare chest fondly
Lapping my legs, the water gushes downstream


As the moon begins to take over the glow
Come tiny stars twinkling in the night skies
Now I realize the vastness of the Universe
As I gape at space with spellbound eyes


As I slosh back to my tent in retreat
Dimples a diamond in the holy river
Blends the sun and rill in rhyming tranquil
Romantically into a quivering shimmer

The Toothless Grin

The dark and delicate skin

Sagged on the bony frame

A dirty torn sari

Was draped around the dame

No twinkle in her eyes

No voice in her throat

The blisters on her temples

Resembled cracks on the road

Rested thick black glasses

On the bridge of her nose

The wrinkles on the face

Told the tale of her woes

Shrivelled and withered

She struck a sorry sight

In the busy streets of Mumbai

No care for her plight

But neither she begged for alms

Nor did she utter a cry

She earned a living for herself

Wanting to give faith a try

With quivering hands

And furrowed brow

She wove wicker baskets

From strips of willow

I walked across the street

Towards the poor oldie

With a fist clinking with coins

And a heart bleeding sympathy

She raised her head to me

Proud of yet another win

Crinkling up her face

In a priceless toothless grin

My Name is Kahn !

    

    We all know how much the U.S. is pissed off with China at pegging its Renminbi (RMB) i.e. the yuan to the $ or, at the most, letting it grow at a snail's pace relative to the $ after pegging it against a basket of currencies, instead of allowing it to float freely (subject to economic forces like growth, productivity, forex surplus, interest rate etc.) which would have resulted in a much stronger yuan. US legislators, in retaliation against the manipulation (deliberate undervaluation) of the yuan by the People's Bank of China, are threatening to punish China by imposing anti-dumping and other anti-trade bills to make Chinese imports to U.S. costly. And some time back, Japan and Brazil too resorted to devalue their currency for a short period to promote their exports . 

    Dominique Strauss-Kahn, the IMF head, views this global situation as a “currency war” and has enjoined China, almost beseechingly, to give up its “policy weapon” of currency. It’s almost like he is saying to China “Look pal, by freeing your currency and letting it climb, your people will benefit by greater purchasing power, better household incomes, less inflation and lead to a better standard of living in your country. Oh, and in the process, it will also help solve the global imbalances and distortions. See, a win-win situation for all!” He is reiterating the same thing at all IMF and G7 meetings now, as if he desperately wants to be heard to the Chinese. But the question comes, what does China stand to gain in keeping the value of its own currency low in the first place? And why the hell is Uncle Sam poking his nose with what China does to its domestic currency and the IMF bitching about China's protectionist mercantile policies? After all, the yuan is “China’s sovereign concern and should not be discussed in international circles” as noted by a few Chinese officials. The thing is, we're living in a global village, and anything China does indirectly affects the global economy, more so, the U.S.


    China, being the last stop of almost every manufacturing process that happens in the world, is a purely exports-driven economy and this decades-old Chinese practice of artificially keeping its currency weak unarguably gives it a trade advantage of damn cheap exports. The 3 major problems that U.S. blames China for, are:
1. its huge trade deficit with China ($173.4 billions from Jan 2010 till Aug 2010)
2. the colossal foreign reserves that China has accumulated ($2.6 trillion)
3. the growing unemployment in America due to its shrinking manufacturing industry. (9.6%)

    Five years back, pressurized by the mounting international political tension and the straining sino-US relationship, China decided to pour oil on troubled waters by de-pegging yuan to the $, allowing it to rise by 2.1% and then doing the "tortoise-run" with a basket of currencies – steady appreciation, but very slow. They allowed a narrow-margin oscillation of the yuan wrt to $ and the result till 2008 was a net appreciation by almost 22% from its value in 2005. But alas! The Recession struck, thanks to the credit crunch in America, and China, in a natural state of shielding itself from the global meltdown, fell back to the fixed exchange rate regime, again initiating the depreciation process. However, the net effect still stands at a 17% appreciation in the yuan from 2005. But now, China is not willing to bow down to political pressure from the U.S.

Chinese authorities, atypically vocal about their stand this time, have several comebacks.

Firstly, they say, re-pegging the yuan to $ in 2008 was a "special" policy to safeguard themselves against the global meltdown. 

Secondly, they argue, their trade surplus with the U.S. is due to growing self-sufficiency from its economies to scale owing to the huge surge of industrialization in the last 2 decades, leading to decreasing imports from U.S.; not due to some stratagem against U.S. which gives them an enormous comparative advantage in trade.  For instance, they still have to import raw-materials from a few Asian countries with which they do have trade deficits. 

And thirdly, the excess of foreign reserves, that the U.S. keeps talking about, is, according to the Chinese (I couldn't agree more), the "hot money" capital influx in China on speculation of an accelerated revaluation of yuan. This is happening as a direct result of a concept which I'd like to call "Converse of the International Fisher Effect", if you will, which goes something like: an expected appreciation of RMB relative to $ might reduce inflation in China, which is likely to pull up the relative interest rate in China , leading to interest arbitrage opportunity for investors.

    Ben Bernanke, the Fed Head, recently hinted the likelihood of QE2 i.e. a second bout of quantitative easing (stimulatory monetary policy of the Fed to print money just to buy mortgage-backed securities and government bonds from banks via open market operations, which would lower their yield and lure investors to switch to stocks, thus injecting liquidity, raising the business capital and fueling the economy). The World Bank is apprehensive that this loose-money policy adopted by the U.S. could lead to a capital flight to higher-yielding emerging markets in developing countries as theirs, creating excess liquidity, which would, ofcourse, be short-lived. As soon as the money-flow takes a U-turn, it'll leave behind inflated asset bubbles to rip open disastrously, very similar to what's happened in Japan in the 90s.

Tim Geithner, the U.S. Treasury Secretary, who wants to accentuate more on the currency issue at the G20 meeting to be held in Seoul in mid-November, is inadvertently reminding China of the bitter Japanese experience that followed the 1985 Plaza Accord, which set in motion the creation of a series of property bubbles and its explosion into the so-called Lost Decade in Japan. By the way, the agreement has done practically nothing till date to improve the U.S. trade deficit with Japan, which was its primary goal. The last thing that China wants is having to sign a Plaza II and "cross the Rubicon" the way Japan did 25 years back (when it agreed to let the greenback drop against the yen, indirectly leading to the asset price bubble)

The economic implications of the revaluation of yuan is complex and hard to tell. However, the immediate loser of the yuan appreciation would be the American consumer, no doubt, who used to buy "made-in-China" products so cheap in Wal-Mart, even though it might mean a job for one of his friends at a firm looking to revive its business in the "American-made" labelled goods. Many U.S. industries which are dependent on China for inputs will be hit badly. The cost advantage and total value added will decline drastically. And quite obviously, this currency adjustment will deteriorate the export industry in China on which majority of its population thrives. The most important question that comes up is: While helping to create jobs in America, why should China accept the sudden transfer of the unemployment burden from America's shoulder onto theirs, when most of this unemployment came from the financial crisis that U.S. instigated 2 years back?

The real culprit that the U.S. is conveniently overlooking is its meagre domestic savings, which is inadequate to feed its domestic investments. Americans must learn to stop living off plastic money and minimize usage of resources. Prudent fiscal policies, rather than rash monetary ones will better help U.S. to address its domestic problem. Yuan appreciation is not their only way out, though it will definitely make things easier for them and, at the same time, give a chance to other ASEAN countries to fill in the gap in exports that China would have left, thus scattering the benefits globally.

Let's accept it. America has its own problems, which the politicians are trying to hide under the curtain of the yuan. "It is always easy to have scapegoats" as Mr. Strauss-Kahn rightly puts it.

Heaven Can Wait

Time flies away

Deep into sweet darkness

And you never realize

The reason for being

Death rings its bells

In a moment of despair

Helpless and hopeless

You shiver and stare

You fear it the most

Though a necessary end

It comes when it comes

Never know how it's penned

Life is a journey

You begin in the womb

And tread the sands of time

You end it in a tomb

It's a choice

Every breath you take

To hate or to love

To burn out or fade away

What lives is honour

And the respect you gain

The love of mankind

Everything else inane

To a man thus

Who lived to love

And rose above,

I salute and say:

"If tears could build stairs

And memories a lane,

I'd ascend my way to heaven

And bring you back again"

RIP,  KK Dugar.

Dancing to MJ song "Money" | Desitara

Dancing to MJ song "Money" | Desitara

RIP MJ

Dear Michael,

You left us on this day a year back. How can we ever forget that day? We miss you a lot, Michael. And we are proud to say, you are the greatest entertainer and most loving human being that ever stepped on earth. You made millions of us smile. You made us believe in magic. You taught us to dance and enjoy life to its fullest. You stretched boundaries and defied the laws of Physics. You created legendary videos and evergreen music. And you helped millions of disadvantaged children live the life they could never imagine. Here’s a poem for you from one of your devotees on your 1st death anniversary:



O Loved one!
O Gloved one!
The avatar of Nataraj
The energy of the Sun

The beat in your heart,
The chord of a maverick
It’s the rhythm of the Universe
And the sound of all music

You slid and you moonwalked
Like a wheel on the roll
You are so rightly called
The King of Pop, King of soul

Healing the world
Your music and You
Spreading love and joy
And your magic too

You’re not black,
You’re not white
For us you’re God
Rays of Divine light

Not only Billie Jean
We all are your lovers
We pray for your soul
Not curse like the others

Accused and abused
By the tabloid junkie
Beat it! We know better,
You were not at all crazy!

You’re not a smooth criminal
Neither dangerous, nor bad
You’re just invincible
Which makes some people sad

You did everything possible
For the poor and fragile
Didn’t really care for money
Valued a child’s smile

Your human nature
Was always a mystery
But you sure were a thriller
The greatest in history

With every move of yours
You epitomized perfection
The fluidity in your dance
It’s music in motion

You popped and you froze
Like a dancing machine
You proved Newton wrong
With the anti-gravity lean

Oh! Why did you stop?
Didn’t get enough of you;
We rocked with you
Just can’t stop loving you

We’d scream and we’d cry
For your every track
Though you’ll be there forever
We want you back!

You’re out of our life
You were gone too soon
We shall never ever forget
This fateful date of June!

Your passion for your art
Is impossible to compare
The heaven is blessed
For Michael Jackson is there!


We love you, Michael
RIP


P.S. The titles of albums/songs used here (modified or otherwise) are:

1. Heal the world
2. Music & me
3. Black or white
4. Billie Jean
5. Tabloid junkie
6. Smooth criminal
7. Dangerous
8. Bad
9. Invincible
10. Smile
11. Human nature
12. Thriller
13. History
14. Dancing machine
15. Don't stop till you get enough
16. Rock with you
17. I just can't stop loving you
18. Scream
19. Cry
20. I want you back
21. I'll be there
22. She's out my life
23. Money
24. Beat it
25. Gone too soon

The Great Indian Mirage

The recent 3G auction has fetched the Government more than 3 times the sum it had imagined it would get. The Government is expressing its happiness by saying that this astronomical amount would greatly reduce its burden of fiscal deficit looming at almost 6% of GDP for quite a while. Sorry, I beg to differ. According to me, this is just an illusion; more like a smoke-mirror installed by the Government that the public is not able to see through. Virtually, the economy is hardly better off, if not worse off, with these biddings. This can be explained by applying some basic principles of economics.

   

    Technically put,

Fiscal deficit = Govt. spending - Tax revenue

  

    To fill this crack, the Government makes use of 2 direct tools:

1. Passing the parcel (borrowing more and pouring into the treasury to cover up the current deficit)
2. Encashing on family gold (selling its assets for liquid money)

 

    Both of these ways alow the Government to reduce the negative balance in its current account with similar effects. It can go either way, whichever is more convenient at a given point of time. However, there is another concept which might have escaped our respected FM Mr. Pranab Mukherjee’s sharp acumen. This identity, a more realistic measure of the country’s financial scenario, is:

 

Networth of Govt. = Assets - Borrowings

 

      The 3G auction was an implementation of the 2nd tool of combating the fiscal deficit. The Government sold bandwidths in return for cash. But hey! What difference did it make to the networth? Nothing! The equation remains exactly the same:

 

New Networth = (Assets - 106k crores) - (Borrowings - 106k crores) = Old Networth

   

    The Government just has the benefit of escaping the embarrassment of seeking funds from domestic sources or fiddling with the balance of payment accounts via foreign credit. Nothing more. The FIIs and HNIs (punters) of the share bazaar seemed to have been tricked too. They have been more than generous in buying enormous bulks of stock and pulling up the Sensex like a rocket just after the auction results. They think that the banks would now have more money to lend to industries rather than to the Government, which will push the economy even further.   In reality, there is no positive effect on the liquidity influx in the system due to less borrowing by the Government from the banks, as many seem to believe. In fact, quite the opposite. Now, the Government has ensured that the telecom companies borrow from the banks to pay for the spectrum, which will be extracted from the customers indirectly through tariff hikes and hidden costs. The Government, either foolishly, or very cunningly, has passed the buck to the telecom companies, who obviously will, in order to retain profits, pass it further to the common man. The Government has just shuffled up the cards on the deck. The pack remains the same.

   

    It’s a similar story with the Government’s decision of selling minority stakes in PSUs to private players. Only if majority stakes were sold so that private companies are given full autonomy, it would have effectively dealt with the evils of corruption and red-tapism that the Government managment is stained with. But our Government seems to think otherwise.

    

    One may ask, “Ok, so what could have been done other than bid for the spectrum? Gifting them to top telecom companies (as done in the case of 2G spectrum) is unfair and capitalistic!” My answer would simply be, “Revenue in the form of a sustainable flow of money over a period of time is always better than a once-for-all jackpot.”

    

    What the Government could have done is conduct auctions at regular intervals for certain percentages of the spectrum every time. Firstly, this would have generated gradual, but steady revenues every year instead of an overwhelming lumpsum amount at one go. Secondly, It would have also provided sufficient time to the telecom companies to test the 3G in the market and break even sooner to further finance the spectrum buys. Thirdly, it would have not put the huge liability on the telecom companies to repay the loans to the banks and the associated interest cost. Fourthly, and most importantly, it would have averted the danger of a liquidity crunch and the fear of bank collapse in case the 3G fails to live up to its expectations.

    

    The broadened tax slabs in the recent budget made has made people happy. But we don’t understand that the money we’ll pay for using the 3G technology is a form of indirect tax to the Gvernment, just in a more capitalisitc way. What the people seem to overlook and the Government doesn’t seem to care about, is the fact that the underlying problem of Government overspending is the villian here. The Government should look to contain the overspending by:

 

• Completing infrastructure projects on time and saving on the interest cost
• Putting a stop to the ever-increasing subsidies
• Dealing strictly with the Government servants and officers and making them more accountable
• Cutting down on administrative and compliance costs by reducing the paperwork and shortening the levels of beaureucracy in the electronic era
• Not diverting the taxpayer’s money to political campaigns illegally

 

    In short, Government overspends knowingly, we overpay unknowingly. But, I suppose, the Government finds fooling us easier and more convenient than bring in the above mentioned reforms.

Development at what cost?

India is one of the emerging economies of the world and could easily become the 3rd richest 5 years down the line. The GDP growth rate of India is unprecedently great. India is posed to become the next hot manufacturing hub after China. India has the maximum number of millionaires and billionaires globally. We are flooded with these optimistic & positive news about India everyday. But are things really that rosy?

I stay in Mumbai, one of the costliest cities in the world in terms of real estate, the commercial capital of India & one of India's most developed cities. But I do not get a basic necessity such as drinking water from the BMC. I do not have space to walk without rubbing off someone's shoulder with every step I take. I feel suffocated in the explosing population & increasing pollution. I do not need malls as much as I need clean drinking water. I do not need a car as much as I need some space to walk comfortably. I do not need luxury treatment in South Mumbai hotels as much as I need an assurance that I am safe.

I feel a deep pity for the thousands who were "murdered" in the Bhopal Gas Tragedy 26 years back. And I feel a deeper pity for the survivors who got their hopes murdered a day back. The criminals of the first murder are the millionaires & billionaires of Union Carbide India Limited who, in an excitement of making more bucks, neglected all the safety measures that could have avoided this calamity. They, deliberately, had kept the gas chambers unrefrigerated, to cut "fixed costs", due to which the chambers, finally after half a year, gave in and exploded, releasing the toxic gas all over the city. Indians will never forget two nights. One night is the one when we got freedom, and the other night is when we were again captured by the worst industrial accident in the history of the world.

And after years of delay and postponement, when the final verdict is out, India again faces another black-out. That of a law that is gradually diminishing to void. Everybody knows that not a single accused is behind the bars, let alone a death sentence. This is what we call justice in India.

India, surely, is developing. But at what cost?

Oh! Look at...

Oh!

Look at your face
A silvery moonshine
Splashing my black eyes…

And oh!

Look at your eyes
Blue as a brook
Flowing to my lips…

And oh!

Look at your lips
Red as a ruby
Pecking on my cheek…

And oh!

Look at your cheeks
Rosy as raspberry
Cuddling up my hair…

And oh!

Look at your hair
Blond as a braid of gold
Caressing my hands…

And oh!

Look at your hands
So soft and delicate
Lovely as yourself…

And oh!

Look at yourself
No less than a miracle…

Give me a squeeze, now!
Before I get too lyrical…


This Poem is for the sweetest girl on earth, who happens to be my younger sister, Simran
Love you, Sim :)

We'll do it

Children of the world, we'll do it
We'll meet on endless shores
Making sandcastles and floating our boats
While people fight and defend their point of view
Forever putting on masks that are new
We'll swing the tide of time and do it.

Children of the world, we'll do it
With song and dance and innocent bliss
And the soft caress of a loving kiss
We'll do it.

While traders trade and haggle their price
And politicians try so hard to be nice
We'll meet on endless shores and floating our boats
We'll do it.

While lawyers argue and doctors treat
Stockbrokers quote the price on meat
While preachers preach and ring the bell
Carpetbaggers with something to sell
We'll sing and dance in innocent bliss
With the soft caress of a loving kiss
We'll do it.

Meeting on endless shores
Making sandcastles and floating our boats
We'll do it.

We'll ride the rainbow, a cloud, a storm
Flying in the wind, we'll change our form
We'll reach the stars, embrace the moon
We'll break the barrier and be there soon

While architects plan their buildings high
And trade unions raise their hue and cry
While boardroom squabbles generate heat
And in secret places dealers meet

We'll sing and dance in innocent bliss
And the soft caress of a loving kiss
We'll do it.

While philosophers grapple and continue to tackle
Endless dilemmas of body and mind
Physicists wander, continue to ponder
Perennial questions of space and time
Archeologists survey, continue to dig
Bygone treasures small and big

Psychologists probe, analyze the tears
Of hysterical notions, phobias, fears

While priests take confessions
In a serious session
And people struggle
In the hustle and bustle
In the noise and din
On the meaning of sin
We'll touch the stars, embrace the moon
Break the barrier, arrive there soon
Ride the rainbow, the cloud, the storm
Flying in the wind, changing our form

Children of the world, we'll do it

With song and dance and innocent bliss
The soft caress of a loving kiss
We'll do it.

- MJ

P.S. : MJ was larger than life & his thoughts beyond human rationale. Most of you will interpret the poem as I know you will. That is the difference between a legend & a commoner. For those who differ, welcome to MJism. 

IS THIS IT?

MJ: (1958...)

It was the afternoon of 28th Oct, 2009. I had missed our college cultural fest & had come down to Bombay to spend some time with my parents & witness MJ's last rehearsals on the big screen. In short, to be with my Gods!
  
I listen to MJ the whole day. I have watched His music & dance videos innumerable times, but still I couldn't get enough of Him. "The wait is finally over. This is it!" I thought to myself as I entered the theatre with two MJ-crazy-too friends of mine to watch the documentary "This is it" on the release day, first show.  The movie contains rehearsal footages of MJ's last show that never could happen.

The movie begins with the process of selection of dancers for the show. From a few thousands down to a handful. And by none other than the man himself. Michael Jackson. A genius performer knows the role of everybody involved in putting together the show. MJ watched the auditions with a hawk-eye & was clear-minded as to what exactly fit the bill. That is how he achieved perfection in each of his legendary performances.

The film goes on to capture the perfectionist rehearsing his art. His precise & fluid dance moves at an age of fifty left the lithe dancers performing with him breathless. One could see His deep passion for music that drove this King of Pop to achieve an unbeatable super-stardom for more than two decades. One could observe the awe & admiration in the eyes of the other artists who were a part of the entourage. "How can a celebrity of His magnitude be still so humble & down-to-earth?" was the question on everybody's mind.

Everybody in the world knows Michael Jackson. They can be divided into two groups. One, who are His true fans and "really" know Him. And the other, who have heard about him and never "really" knew Him. However, nobody could ignore this extra-ordinary living being. The film hopes the Group2 people move to Group1.

As the movie ended, I tried to keep my tears of awe & sadness from shedding in front of my female friends. MJ never really died, only His era did. He'll continue to live in the hearts of millions of His fans around the world who can never forget the magic of "Billie Jean" & the thousands of disadvantaged children who shall never forget how He "healed the world".

MJ, You are forever.

RIP.

Everyone's worth it

    Do you think you are the only one? Do you think you are so god-gifted that you pity one of the guys at college or mock them that he cannot have girlfriends or why Calculus is not meant for him? Think again.

    Sometimes I wonder why people are just so stuck-up. Today’s youth disregards humility as an integral part of its character. Allow me to generalize, because of the majority of such people in today’s world. Why this self-righteousness? Why this conceit? Why this superiority complex? Do these people think they are the few enlightened ones? Why does a guy have problem with an aspect of another’s nature which is not his own?  Isn’t compromise supposed to be “the word” in friendship, or for that matter, any relationship?

    Why don’t they try to realize that it’s not always the other person who is on the wrong side? Every person thinks every other person as an asshole, which is so foolish. Everyone is equally talented. It just shows on some guys & some just like to keep a low profile.

    We should learn to be humble & submissive. Even if the other guy is at fault, we should try to rectify him politely instead of scorning at him. To err is human, to forgive is divine. You don’t need to speak out to stand out. This world needs a helping hand, not a pointing one; lips which smile at others, not laugh at them, chest which are straight with self-pride, not swollen with smugness, and eyes, which look up to, not down at.

    So, the next time you utter “Woh ch**** hai”, sympathize with yourself. You are addressing yourself.

Modern Gujarat: The Land of Non-Gandhism & Non-democracy

Every Indian grows up hearing stories of Mahatma Gandhi, who was born in Gujarat. He had once said, “I shall strive for an India in which the poorest shall feel that it is their country, in whose making they have an effective voice; an India in which there shall be no high class or low class of people; and above all, an India in which all communities shall live in perfect harmony.” But what does Gandhi mean to people today? Are his values still alive?

    In Ahmedabad, Gandhiji made a speech eighty years ago that he hoped would change India’s destiny, “My aim is to get the Salt tax abolished. This is for me the first step towards complete freedom. As the Independence movement is essentially for the poorest of the land, the beginning shall be made with this evil.”  Immediately after, he started the historic Salt March against the injustice of British rule. Accompanied by 81 fellow marchers, Gandhi walked for 23 days covering a distance of almost 350 kms. to Dandi, where he broke the British colonial law by picking up a handful of salt. This was a leader for the poor.

    In present Ahmedabad, the face that you can see staring down at you from every billboard is of a very different leader – the chief minister of Gujarat,  Narendra Modi. Quoting him, “In the global economic era, India cannot win the financial battle without a level playing field. If we lose the opportunity now, we will fall behind in the 21^st century as we did earlier.” I don’t know what would have Gandhi made of Modi’s India, where Shining India is one of the fastest growing economies of the world; where the freedom to buy & spend seems to be the greatest freedom of all. But Gandhi would definitely have had a lot to say about the other India that they did not like to advertise in the government brochures; the India in which 300 million poor people dream of freedom from hunger and fear.

    Gandhi always strived for Hindu-Muslim brotherhood. However, in modern Gujarat, his words seem like empty slogans from the distant past. Hindus have unleashed their accumulated hatred against the Muslims time and again post-independence. At the instigation by BJP, the Babri Masjid was destroyed. Quoting a Bajrang Dal member, “I believe that the Muslim community is like a dog’s tail which remains crooked forever. They have such a history of more than 500 years. Ever since Muslims came, they have looted millions of rupees, stole our jewels, destroyed our temples and idols, took away our women & raped them. They’re like demons of a kind.” In the Godhra riots – India’s worst massacre in fifty years - Hindu fundamentalist groups comprising of such like-minded people targeted the Muslim community all over the state. More than 2000 Muslims were killed. More than 400 women were raped & more than a lakh were displaced & homeless. The police and the administration simply turned a blind eye to the violence. Narendra Modi’s stand against the Muslims won him the Hindu vote. He was re-elected as the chief minister and became more powerful than ever before. How could this have happened in Gujarat of all places?

    We just observe the various Gandhiji’s statues and his Ashrams, but the values that Gandhiji stood up for are non-existent. In a sense, the Father of the Nation, Gandhi, sacrificed his life for the minority community of the country as he was killed because of the Partition of India. But where are those values that Gandhiji talked about? Today, one can hardly see Gandhi in Gujarat.

    Again quoting Modi, “Our focus areas are the Special Economic Zones. SEZs are going to be the driving force. Gujarat has visualized this & so we are facilitating SEZs.” What Modi fails to visualize is that these SEZs could displace thousands of poor people from their homes, giving their land to MNCs. These companies would not have to follow the Indian labour laws or pay normal taxes. Modi’s dream is to transform Ahmedabad into a global megacity. Every day, thousands of villagers migrate to the city to find work. But in the city there is no relief. Modi also claimed, “I will remove every single slum in Ahmedabad”. But as much as he can try, the slums won’t go away because if you make the poor poorer, slums will keep cropping up. Modi wants to construct high-rise buildings, gardens, swimming pools & shopping centres in place of the slums. He wants to build to entertain the tourists, but he does not think about the poor slum-dwellers. He hasn’t envisioned anything for the hundreds of thousands of poor families living in the slum. They want nothing but two meals a day & a place to live. If they are thrown outside the city, where will they work and how will they earn & feed their family? These people help maintain the city. But the city has no place for them any longer.

    Today the cities dominate and drain the villages so that they are crumbling to ruins. Exploiting of villages is itself organized violence. Gandhi’s dream for the villages is dying. In the U.S. & in Europe, farmers receive subsidies & protection. But here in India, farmers are left at the mercy of global market forces – only one of the many reasons that lakhs of farmers have committed suicide over the past few years.

    The Gujarat BJP government is trying to erase Gandhi’s ideas. In Gandhi’s name they want to take the land in Dandi, where farmers grow rice, & sell it to a MNC. Even the soil of Dandi has not been spared. Do we really need 5-star hotels in Dandi? I wonder what they will call that place once they get rid of the farmers; the Mahatma Gandhi SEZ? I wonder if the tourists who will come to shop at the Dandi mall will find time to visit the museum there. And if they do, will they see anything more than an old man walking barefoot, making a big fuss about a fistful of salt?

    We have made Gandhi irrelevant. We have frozen him in time. We have not bothered to reinvent his ideas and we are living with the consequences. We drove away the white-skinned to become slaves of the black-skinned. The poor never got their independence. The sweepers, carpenters, domestic workers & labourers make it possible for us to have a comfortable life. But we would like them to be invisible.

    Gandhiji won our freedom sixty years ago, but what has really changed? We proclaim an economic miracle, but the inequality, poverty & violence still continue to grow. There is a new colonialism in India which we don’t seem to care about. After all, we are the colonizers.