The Unreasonable Man

The waves of jubilations across the length and breadth of India on Anna’s ‘victory’ is as effusive as it is infectious. There is an overwhelming ‘sense of relief’ after the ‘sense of the House’ resolution was passed by both the Houses of the Parliament. Whether the victory is real or imagined, partial or pyrrhic, it may be too premature to tell. But I have a new warmth in my heart post the hope-igniting debate by our elected representatives on the Lokpal Bill.

The man at the centre of the anti-corruption crusade, the redoubtable, 74-year old Anna Hazare, is being heaped with praise and showered with accolades for not only correctly reading the pulse of the masses, but also for the strength of his resolve and the force of his convictions. The man on the street totally identified himself with this dhoti-clad, Gandhi-cap wielding frail man, who seemed more as an anna-chronism and a misfit in the modern society than a messiah he is being regarded as now. The ‘I am Anna’ slogans on the lips of young and old alike, on T-shirts and caps, as tattoos and badges are a testimony to that.

Nevertheless, he has also been criticized as being too intransigent and unnecessarily obdurate. He is accused of following “it’s my way or the highway” approach, not budging a wee bit from his position and not willing to take the viewpoint of others. Some people are also alarmed that he has set a ‘dangerous precedent’ of blackmail tactics with his indefinite fast and rabble-rousing style of protests. There is a grain of truth in all these allegations.

But I want to put all this in perspective. Let me start by quoting George Bernard Shaw : “The reasonable man adapts himself to the conditions that surround him... The unreasonable man adapts surrounding conditions to himself... Therefore, all progress depends on the unreasonable man."

Were it not for the unconventional dose of disagreeability of a few, the earth would still be flat, the sun would still revolve around it, we would still be collecting firewood and we would still be making our journeys on horsebacks or bullock-carts. Still.

We all encounter unreasonableness in our daily lives. Hasn’t your wife or husband or child given you a hard time with their onerous demands once in a while ? Isn’t your boss too tough on you at times ? If you’re in sales like me, haven’t you encountered customers who are very exacting ? But for the unreasonableness of the people around us, we wouldn’t know what makes our loved ones happy, we wouldn’t perform better in our jobs and we wouldn’t offer better products and services to our customers. Life would just be status quo.

And then again, reasonableness is both relative and contextual. What seems fair to me would appear to be unfair to you; what looks unacceptable today would be perfectly tolerable tomorrow.

Back to the anagram called Anna. His indefinite fast which began on August 16 had a clear-cut demand to the Government – pass my version of the Jan Lokpal Bill, presumably in toto, latest by August 30th, or else…..To many, this was a ‘maximalist’ position, akin to putting a gun on somebody’s head and threatening to pull the trigger if his orders were not complied with. Was that fair ? Remember that Anna has been fighting for this cause for several years, if not decades, and this measure was a last resort after a series of attempts to push for a strong Bill for the institution of an Ombudsman fell short of their objectives. But who was Anna doing this for, and for what gains ? He has no family, no progeny, ostensibly no political affiliations and he is in the twilight of his life. So all he is trying to do is to make things better for you and me, and for a brighter future of his beloved country. He is willing to put his own life on the line, while always emphasizing non-violence, for the selfless service to the society.

When Mahatma Gandhi started his ‘Quit India’ movement, coincidentally also launched in the month of August, I am sure our British masters, who were embroiled in World War II at the time, would have not only thought of him as being hugely pigheaded and inconsiderate, but also out of his mind. However, Gandhiji only hoped to bring the British to the negotiating table and put pressure on them for the independence of India through his struggle.

Anna had declared war on corruption. And all is fair in war and love. The ground reality was that he was negotiating with an insensitive Government, with whom he had developed a huge trust deficit after a string of empty promises and failed assurances. Anyone who has been on a negotiating table knows that it’s a good strategy to start the parleys with a higher ground than what you want to ultimately settle for, and then give in one little smidgen at a time till you arrive at a mutually agreeable solution. I do not know whether Anna deliberately deployed this strategy, but this is exactly how it panned out. From an extreme position of passing of his version of the Bill within 15 days, all what he got was a ‘resolution’ (not a commitment) to consider three of his main recommendations in the proposed Lokpal Bill, already introduced by the Government in the Parliament. This was a much diluted offer on the table than the original bid, but which Anna ultimately accepted. So Anna, who appeared to be totally unyielding at first, happened to be quite flexible after all.

In this whole unprecedented tug-of-war, I feel there are no losers. Whether there will be an effective Lokpal Bill, which will truly benefit the long-suffering people of the country, remains to be seen. But this 24x7 drama of a little over 12 days has elated me in many ways. Firstly, because I feel the citizens of the country showed a tremendous sense of awakening, maturity and unity through their peaceful, yet persistent support to the Anna Hazare movement. Secondly, the media played a catalyst role, not only through its relentless coverage of the issue, but also by launching their own anti-corruption campaigns. Thirdly, and most hearteningly, the Parliament and our elected representatives finally heard the voice of their people, rose to the occasion and did what was the right thing to do, without compromising on either the Constitution or the ‘supremacy of the Parliament’. The world’s largest Parliamentary democracy is not only alive and kicking, but also very vibrant !

Call Anna an obstinate old man, and it will not be far from the truth, yet it is due to his unremitting ways that today we have a real hope of tackling the menace of corruption in our everyday lives. Don’t get me wrong, I am neither advocating unreasonable behavior at all times, nor subscribing to recourses such as indefinite fasts as a means of protest. I am all for logical, rational and commonsensical dialogues and debates as the preferred way of resolving any thorny issue. But when you feel very strongly about something, you must be uncompromising and unbending in your values and beliefs. The ‘chalta hai’ attitude has to change to ‘nahi chalega’ mindset. This is what the key lesson is, amongst several others, from Anna Hazare’s Jan Lokpal Bill movement.

Thank you Anna for being unreasonable. We need a hazaar Hazares like you.

Endpiece : Honest disagreement is often a good sign of progress. - Mohandas Gandhi

The Song of the Corrupt

The din of anti-corruption protests have reached a crescendo across India. The ‘Anna-archy’ prevailing in the country since August 16 has taken such a centrestage that, going by the media channels, nothing else seems to be happening in the country. Everybody is in a frenzy- Team Anna, all their supporters, the Government, the opposition, the detractors of Anna and of course the news channels. But nobody is clear yet as to where this will end eventually.

Imagine for a moment that sometime in the rosy future, the last evil remnants of corruption have been rooted out from the nation. You’re in Utopia, where everyone is a squeaky- clean, law abiding citizen. By some magic mechanism, every bribe-taker and bribe-giver can be immediately caught and sent behind bars for their heinous offense. So nobody is taking any chances. What will life be like then ?

Imagine.

You’ve just been pulled over for overspeeding, but your story about your mother being taken to the hospital cuts no ice with the traffic constable. And that 50- or 100-rupee note no longer wields any power on him either. Oh, joy ! Several days have passed since your electricity has been disconnected for failure to pay an astronomical bill, which was due to a faulty meter. But you have no option other than to wait your turn till the inspector from the company arrives and checks the damn device. Till then, its darkness for you and your family. Jeez !

You dread the day when you will have to stand in the long queue in sweltering heat for your driving license renewal, due next year. The loathsome touts who had saved you a lot of time and trouble for a small fee are nowhere to be found. Bother ! You’ve already made six trips to the Sub-Registrar’s office to get your property registered, only to be turned back for some lacuna or the other in the papers. You clench your teeth as you wish there was someone to guide you through this inscrutable maze. Help !

A lot has changed since bribery and corruption breathed its last. Many businesses have shut shop, as they simply do not know how to go on in this new world where nobody influences anybody. The piles of files in the Govt. offices are growing larger by the day, as the babus are awfully fearful of clearing them ‘too quickly’. The elite private schools and colleges have seen a sharp drop in their standards, and some are even on the verge of closure. The steady dose of ‘capitation fees’ have dried up, and with it all their vital signs have been dwindling.

Gold prices have dipped sharply, and so have property values. The parallel economy which was driving their demand has sputtered to a stop. Eating out is a big problem for folks now, as thousands of roadside eateries and restaurants had to down shutters for failing to meet hygiene standards. Airlines, luxury car makers and five-star hotels are hard hit as the flow of black money has ebbed and nearly vanished from their catchment areas.

Several construction contracts are still to see the light of the day because of strict procedures and lengthy tendering processes, seriously hampering infrastructure development. But most worryingly, a large number of defence purchase programs, vital for the country’s security, have been gathering dust since the middlemen turned their backs and are avoiding the country like the plague.

That was just a dream. Or a nightmare. But this scenario is surely from the eyes of a treacherous, slimy, corrupt person about to lose his livelihood.

Back to reality. The corrupt still rule the roost. In fact, they’ve composed a song for themselves, with a kind of pied-piper melody, which they are seriously thinking of making it their national anthem. It is simply called “Just bribe me, baby”, and here are its lyrics :

Just bribe me, baby

At times when you wan’t it done
Just come to me, I’m the only one
Don’t run around and drive yourself crazy
All you’ve to do is just bribe me, baby

You’ve a problem, and I’ve the key
I’ve the glasses that’ll make you see
When everything seems so hazy
All you’ve to do is just bribe me baby

Show me the color of money
It’s so sweet as nectar and honey
It sure gives a boost, it gives speed
Money makes the world go round indeed

Don’t be shy, and grease my palms
For your pain I’ve all the balms
So shake yourself and don’t be lazy
All you’ve to do is just bribe me baby

Leave it to me, and gimme some graft
Cause I got the guile and I got the craft
Go it alone, and you’ve no chance
I’ll make you sing, and I’ll make you dance

Life is short, you’ve a lot to do
Why bother when you don’t have to ?
Do me a favor, just pass on the gravy
All you’ve to do is just bribe me baby !

Endpiece : The accomplice to the crime of corruption is frequently our own indifference.
- Bess Myerson

Life Lessons from Scuba Diving

I am permanently enrolled in a full-time school called ‘Life’. There is no other institution that gives you never-ending lessons, and the choice is entirely yours whether to learn from them or not.

But what can you learn about life from an esoteric recreational activity like scuba-diving ? An immense measure, as I am still discovering to my utter amazement since the time I took the plunge (literally !)

Let’s begin.

Under water, everything happens slowly. Part of the reason is because of the limits put by the liquid medium, and part is because it is in your own interest to be slow. Your breathing has to be slow, your movements leisurely and your thinking unhurried. Lesson : Above the water also, in life, your pace should be measured and deliberate, savoring the varied flavors that come your way and lingering on to the essence of our existence. Feeling alive is more important than just being alive. But it’s amazing how we are getting increasingly breathless everyday of our fast-paced lives.

Scuba-divers always go diving with a ‘buddy’. (You can go solo, but it is not recommended). After donning the ‘second-skin’ and other gear, divers do a pre-dive ‘buddy check’ to ensure that the all the equipment is functioning properly. In the depths of water, your buddy is always beside you, not only relishing the colorful sights while gliding along, but also ever ready to assist you in case you get into some trouble, small or big. Message : It’s good to have someone to rely on and put your complete trust on in the journey of life, be it your spouse, a bosom friend, a parent, a guru. The buddy is there to help you every time you stumble or take a misstep. And the relationship is two-ways, making it quite enriching, emotionally satisfying and pleasurable.

Scuba-diving is a new frontier for adventure and exploration, but it has to be done with a lot of preparation. First of course is the equipment itself – there’s the high-pressure cylinder with air delivery system, the mask and snorkel, fins for your feet, a suitable wet or dry suit, weight belt and a dive computer to give you information on depth, time, direction etc. However, there’s a whole lot of new skills that you need to learn to survive down below. Equalizing your ears as you descend, clearing your mask of water, taking out the air regulator from your mouth and putting it back, maintaining buoyancy at different depths, becoming acquainted with sign language – these are all necessary competences to be learnt in confined waters before heading out into the open sea. Key Point : Being ready isn’t enough, you’ve to be prepared for any significant change. And adventure is not about taking risks, rather it is about elimination of risks.

Since you’re putting your body in an environment which is out of its element, you need to exercise some extra caution. Dive too deep or too long, and you’ll suffer from what is called ‘Nitrogen Narcosis’, a feeling of euphoria, paranoia, well being, nervousness and a slowing down of the normal functions of the brain and body. Ascend too fast, and you will risk decompression sickness which can lead to dizziness, paralysis, temporary blindness, convulsions and unconsciousness. Holding your breath under water can lead to overexpansion injuries in the lungs. All this may sound scary at first, as it sure did to me, but this doesn’t come in your way to enjoy the beautiful sights during your dive as long as you follow the principles. Lesson : We have limitations, we have to work within those boundaries. Nevertheless, to quote Albert Einstein “Once we accept out limits, we go beyond them.”

Now, despite all the training, preparations and experience that you may have undergone in scuba-diving, there could be an odd occasion when you panic. It may be that you’re out of air, have lost sight of your buddy, encounter low visibility, or suddenly start rising or sinking, or in a rare instance come face-to-face with an intimidating creature like the shark. Panic. A natural human reaction to danger, real or imagined, but very instinctive. The simple solution to counter panic during a dive is to take deep breaths and always think calmly. I know it’s easier said than done, but you’ve got to train you mind to do that. Lesson : When in panic, calm down and breathe deeply. Fear doesn’t exist anywhere except in the mind. And the other side of every fear is freedom.

Divers go to extreme lengths in taking care of the world under water. We humans are mere visitors, indeed veritable guests in the marine world, and have to behave responsibly so. Divers are deeply respectful of the aquatic wildlife. Whether it is a tiny fish, a gentle turtle, a magnificent Manta ray or a formidable shark – all are treated with due reverence. Any dose of aggression is left behind above the water. Even the beautiful and inviting corals are only to be appreciated with the eyes rather than the hands, as simply touching the corals may remove some of the protective mucous coating, making them susceptible to injury or infections. Moral : Live and let live. Do unto others what you would have them do unto you. We’ve come to this wonderful world to nurture it, not harm or destroy it. And we need to make this world a better place for you and me, and for our future generations to live in harmony with nature.

There. I never knew I could learn so much about life above water from going under water ! But I was humbled by a statement made by my diving instructor, Martin, after he surfaced from a dive, when he said, almost to himself, “I learnt something new during this dive”. I was too dumbfounded to ask him what could he have possibly learnt which he already did not know. Because this came from a man who is a veteran of maybe more than 2,000 dives (you’ll take about five and a half years of diving every single day of the year to achieve this feat !)

Ladies and gentlemen, take a bow. And never stop learning in life.

Endpiece : It is utterly false and cruelly arbitrary to put all the play and learning into childhood, all the work into middle age, and all the regrets into old age. - Margaret Mead

A Life Taken for Granted

Life is good. Life is rotten. Life’s fun. Life’s a b****. We all go through a roller-coaster of emotions about life in our limited time on this third rock from the sun.

“Life is difficult” – is the first sentence of the book ‘The Road Less Traveled’, by M. Scott Peck, a timeless classic on personal growth. Just three words, but a profound statement.

I stumbled upon another perspective of life rather abruptly.

I realized recently, from indulging in an activity hitherto never undertaken in my short existence, how we generally take our lives for granted. It was my first descent into deep waters with a hose in my mouth attached to a cylinder of compressed air. Yes – it was my first scuba dive.

The numero uno rule in scuba diving is :
“NEVER FORGET TO BREATHE”

Breathing is something we do not even think of while on terra firma. But when you are in an unfamiliar environment under water, your body and mind are suddenly shocked by the alien territory, and you become acutely aware of breathing. That you have to breathe through your mouth, as your nose is blocked shut by the mask, only adds to the feeling of mortal peril.

As you are descending down to the depths, the ears start to hurt, and you have to keep pressing your nose and breathe out in order to ‘pop’ your ears. All of us have experienced this, whether while swimming or climbing mountains, and we have rid ourselves of the feeling merely by gulping our saliva. But while scuba diving, this ‘equalization’ of air pressure inside your Eustachian canals becomes vital for survival under a mountain of water.

Then, suspended in the liquid world, your body goes wobbly and your arms and legs start going in all directions in a rather comical way. Balancing your head, torso and other parts of your skeleton is a whole new skill to be learnt inside the blue planet.

There are many other facets of scuba-diving experiences which I will talk about in my later article, but now I just want to say that I started appreciating the very mundane things of life the moment I pulled myself back to the safety of solid earth above. Let me hasten to add here that scuba diving was my dream come true, and I found it really exciting, even though I might have been a little fearful. But, boy, was I glad to breathe ‘normally’ and walk ‘straight’ after the deep dive into the salty water ! My ears still ached a little, as if reminding me of the unannounced ordeal that I had just put them through.

Sufficiently jolted by the happening, I began to have a growing sense of awareness that I had been taking a lot of things in life for granted. I was immediately thankful to the scuba dive which brought about this rupture with the world that I had known till that time.

To begin with, we all take our mother’s love for granted (or for that matter father’s love). The affections and caring of our spouse in the small little things that they do for us go mostly unnoticed. The silent adoration and unquestioned trust that our children bestow upon us slip under the radar. In other words, our families are the first victims of our short shrift.

We take our liberty for granted, which was earned with the ultimate sacrifice of our brave freedom-fighters and is sustained by the sweat and blood of our armed forces. The small comforts of modern life like electricity, clean water, a warm bed to sleep in, the humble refrigerator, the ubiquitous kitchen stove or the plain pop-up toaster – all go barely noticed, let alone appreciated. A child’s laugh, the gentle fluttering of a flower, a raindrop winding down a window pane, the beauty of a sunrise, the warmth of a hug - are at once dismissed as too ordinary and inane.

It is only when the ordinary things in life are taken away from us, if only very briefly, that we comprehend its importance. Try closing your eyes for a couple of minutes and go about your routine. You don’t know what you’ve got ‘til it’s gone.

It is only when we have a brush with danger that we feel lucky to be alive. It is only when the skies are dark for days that we are thankful for the sun coming out. Its only when we are famished that we enjoy our meal with relish. Water tastes like sweet nectar only when our throats are parched. Our hearts leap with unbridled joy on the mere sight of land after long hours or days on the high seas. A mere injury to our thumb makes it difficult to as much as hold a pencil in our hand, and suddenly makes us realize its importance.

There are those who think that life is just drudgery. And there are some who feel that life is a celebration. Which side are you on ?

Its your life. Go on, live it the way you want it. Zindagi na milegi dobara (with due credit to the latest Bollywood flick).


Endpiece : When you're in danger of losing a thing it becomes precious and when it's around us, it's in tedious abundance and we take it for granted as if we're going to live forever, which we're not. - John McGahern