Fink-Nottle Tries to Register to Vote

Last week, I decided to get my act together and register to vote. A little procrastination later, I had filled in my form on Jaagore.com, figured out the material I needed to carry for identification purposes and was feeling well and truly satisfied with myself. The next day at work I printed out my forms, got my passport photographs taken and carefully assembled all the papers. Following some more dilly dallying I finally made the trip down to the local Municipal Corporation Wednesday morning on my way to work. I asked my cabbie to make the requisite stop and he turned and asked me if a water pipeline in my flat had gone bust. I said nothing of the sort, I just want to register to vote which led him to snigger more than he should have. He also told me I must be living in some dreamland if I expected the place to open before 10:30 AM. Sure enough, upon reaching I was told it won't open till 10:30 AM and I could wait around. Instead, I went back to the sniggering cabbie and asked him to take me to work.

Thursday, I had some time off in the afternoon. At 1:45 PM, I left for the Corporation and was there within 15 minutes. It is a decrepit old compound with some construction work on one of the newer buildings that houses staff. The building that held the registry office was of course the oldest, seemingly built in the revolutionary heyday of the late 1940s. I walked in to the compound like a lost duckling unsure of which way to waddle to next. A short man with a big mustache (as is so often the case) called me to sign into a register. I said I wanted to register to vote so he waved me up a flight of rickety wooden stairs. This staircase could have played a lead role in a movie about a haunted house with its extreme creaky sounds including some new ones I had never heard before. Once on top it was a large landing which served as a corridor, hall and balcony all in one. There were two windows with a long snaking queue from the window furthest away. I got into this queue behind a short young man who must not have been much older than I. Two kids of 18 or 19 stood in line behind me, one with a pimpled face and the other with a chipped tooth. I went up to the first window where two very bored looking men were sitting drinking tea, surrounded by so many sheafs of paper that one could visualize the forests they once were. I asked them if my papers were in order. One of them snatched them, flipped through the forms and then handed me a new empty form. I told him I had already filled it out but he said I had printed it out so the registration officers would think I hadn't written a thing. They needed to see ink on the form to be assured it had been filled out.

Reluctantly I took the same form and filled it out again. The neatness and ease of reading a printed form was obviously all in my head as the bureaucrats would prefer the scrawl of a million different hands. The two kids in line behind me were flipping through photocopies of their forms. I asked them if that was necessary. Pimply said if I didn't have a photocopy they'd send me back. Why? They stamp the photocopy to attest as a receipt. It also serves as a replacement form if they end up losing my original form. Of course, there was no mention of my having to follow up on the lost form and providing this attested copy. I decided to follow their advice, asked them to hold my spot in line and ran across the street to make copies.

I returned after a few minutes, copies in hand and was glad to note the line had moved forward quite a bit. I also found three new people immediately in front of me. Apparently, they had gone for lunch asking someone else to hold their place in line. I glanced once again at the kids behind me and this time they were looking at their identification proofs which also bore stamps and signatures. I asked again if that was necessary. Apparently if I didn't get them attested they weren't valid. Desperately asking for how I could get them attested, I drew blank stares from everyone around me. The kids said they're doctor stamped their papers. An old man a good deal ahead of me quietly told me to go to the building next door to room 24 and they would stamp it. I thanked him profusely and made a run for it. Finally finding the room, they gave me looks of disgust. Not only was I asking them for a tremendous favour I had not brought the original proofs of identity. The gentleman gave me a stern talking to for being such a fool but then quietly signed the papers and sent me to the stamping authority next door. The crisis was averted.

Relieved, I made my way back to discover the line hadn't moved forward at all. A man of about 60 was gesturing wildly telling everyone to stand in their lines and shouting at a young woman who had dared to cut ahead. Self-appointed authority figures can be found anywhere, I guess. He then focused his wrath on a couple that were taking a break from the heat of the queue to lean against the banister, disrupting the snaking queue. Turning into an orator, he rhetorically asked why does a young couple get to rest while an old man stands diligently in line. The old man in question smiled toothlessly and the rest of us smiled in response. A moment of levity in the heat.

At any given moment there were 5 people at the registration window thrusting their forms forward. Most people carried not just their forms but those of their family members too. The kids behind me had exhausted most topics of conversation and were now discussing Harry Potter. I was not just frustrated but needed to get back to work. The Muslim woman in front of me with her burqa covering all but her glasses told me it was taking so long because they had no computers in there. I refused to believe her but the man in front of her told me he was here to pick up his election card and it was his third visit. Each time he waited for hours got to the front and they physically searched for a card to match the 10 digits or so on his receipt. Each time he was turned away and told to return in a few days.

It struck me only then that pretty much everyone around me was Muslim and from the labour/lower middle class. It sounds like a classist judgement it goes a long way to explain their patience and my frustration. They smiled when telling me there weren't any computers and how they might dramatically reduce time. They understood better than me that some automation could also lead to greater order in all the chaos. The man trying to collect his election card pointed my attention through a side window. A well dressed man in his 40s was seating himself across 2 officials and accepting a cup of tea. He had apparently just paid a bribe and won himself an express ticket to registration. The man waiting with me just smiled and told me to try my luck if I had the money. After all why was I the odd one out in the queue? Flabbergasted, I considered the proposition. It took more resolve than I expected. And then just to make things better, out of the blue walked in 8 all in burqas of varying ages led by a religious Muslim man with a long beard. They got in line a few spaces ahead of me along with a family member who had been waiting. It was after 4 PM and clearly my turn wasn't going to come that day. The kids behind me joked that they could watch a movie and return and still be in the same place in line. I gave up and walked away desperate to get back to work and not to mention some air conditioning. The self-appointed authority figure just about to get his own turn called out to me telling me not to give up so easily. I told him I just needed a drink of water.

There were still four more days for me to try my luck. Friday was not possible due to work and I was traveling on the weekend. Monday morning I tried again reaching at 9 AM but the queue had begun 2 hours earlier. I did not have the time to stand in line for 3-4 hours and had to return. I am chastened by my experience but really it is my fault for trying only at the last minute. I am now an educated man without a vote, the kind I love to rail against - a hypocrite. In 5 years, I hope to value my right as much as those who lack so much in resources but make up for in belief.

UPDATE - Now that I look back, I realize a community of sorts was formed that day. We were all in it together, braving the heat, taking time off from work, all trying to exercise our franchise. It was spontaneously formed, and it goes a long way to explain why people held spots for others for hours, gave advice to prevent repeat trips whether it was something as simple as photocopying or attesting identity. It also explains why the self-appointed orator asked me to have patience. I was abandoning the community when I walked out and perhaps he saw that.

An Ode to the Motor Vehicle

I contemplated writing an obituary for Pontiac when GM announced that the make was being cut a few months ago. The truth though was that it had died long ago. Pontiac had been making unmemorable cars for almost 20 years. The Firebird, the GTO were long gone, belongings of a bygone era. "A failure of leadership “from Washington to Detroit” over the years has led the industry to the brink of collapse", paraphrases the New York Times on Obama's ultimatum to the US car industry. He speaks not just of mismanagement of finances (unsustainable pension payments) but of the production of gas-guzzlers that are expensive to drive (read oil prices exploding last year) and costlier still on the environment. There is little to say on their mismanagement that has not been said already.

The public sacking of Rick Wagoner is long overdue but that it has had to come from the President of the United States shows the sort of mess the company is in. Wagoner saw it coming and was making appearances on the Colbert Report advertising the Chevrolet Volt which was supposed to make all the pain go away. Colbert's jokes about plugging the Volt into his Hummer led to an unnatural laugh from Wagoner. The Damocles sword has clearly hung over his head for too long yet I cannot feel any sympathy for him. Men like him have destroyed the car, making it an expensive means of conveyance rather than a work of art as it used to be. He along with others have betrayed the legacy of industry stalwarts from Henry Ford to Enzo Ferrari and John DeLorean to Lee Iacocca. What must Iacocca be thinking when he sees the company he led through an exhaustive bailout in 1979 being commanded to merge with Fiat? Fiat itself has been run into the ground by the latter generations of the Agnelli family. Why should they survive as one entity? Mercedes Benz and Chrysler was a disastrous marriage just 10 years ago. Few have the right to hold their head high in this fiasco.

I am incensed most that the car as we have known it is dying out. Vehicles like Tata Nano dominate the Indian news while other hybrids such as the Toyota Prius and Honda Civic have been doing the rounds for some time. For all their worldy benefits they do not make the heart skip a beat. The curves were lost some time ago. Cars used to emote from every line. The Jaguar E-Type was the definition of sexy for the 1960s with icons such as George Best closely associated with its buxom shape. There is no grill like that of the Corvette Stingray, no doors like those of the Gullwing, no unbridled roar like that of the V8 under the hood of the GTO. For all the world's GPS satnavs there is no technologically groundbreaking car like the Citroen DS with its headlights that moved where you wanted them to and a hydraulic suspension system that is still marveled at. I don't think I can fall in love with a car in its first scene in a movie like I did with the Alfa Romeo in The Graduate. Nothing to change the English language as the Duesenberg did in the 1920s spawning the word 'doozy'. And in some cases, words cannot do justice to the ephemerality of the Mercedes-Benz 500 K Roadster. Maybe that is why I love it most and always will.



There will be the Porsches churned out year after year, mechanical precision inside and out. Ferraris will always come out red and the Aston Martin will try to remind us of days gone past. Audis have managed to turn simplicity into style. They give me some hope. The trend though has been one of ugly cars that beg to be remodeled after 3 years and to fade away in junk yards. They do not hold any magic that would appeal to an enthusiast to have them restored. Masses of Corollas and VW Golfs ready to be compacted. Even the progress of technology only serves to highlight how the vintage cars I treasure now may not be around in 30-40 years. Every car that comes with a processor is now serviced by computers more than by people. I requested a car restorer to give me an apprenticeship to restore vintage cars at his shop. He told me bluntly that I was not an artisan and it is only they who can do the very specialized jobs of moulding these aged beasts back in one piece. Every year there are fewer and fewer skilled men with the ability and willingness to work on them. It leaves me with a heavy heart to know that something I love so may not be around for too much longer. I feel bad for future generations who may be left with derivatives of the Tata Nano and little else because of choices that leadership, management and millions of others made on vehicles without souls. Any number of ultimatums from Obama will not roll back the clock. I am lucky, as apparently it is better to have loved and lost than to never have loved at all.

Why only Gandhi?

The media frenzy surrounding Varun Gandhi's inflammatory speech last week and its ramifications leave me baffled. Every time a commentator starts taking us through the transcript of the young politician's speech, the reaction of the Election Commission and bytes from leaders on all sides of the political spectrum, the argument boils down to one point of contention. How can a great-grandson of Jawahar Lal Nehru, a member of India's first political family make such anti-minority remarks? Did he not learn anything from his family's legacy? Does he have no respect for the Gandhi name? Some feel he is a right-wing avatar of his father Sanjay Gandhi, who sent shivers down the spine of every Indian man during the Emergency days of the 1970s. Others observe that Varun was not brought up at 10 Janpath, hence how can we expect him to hold the same regard for constitutional fundamentals such as secularism as supposedly his cousins do?

One minute. Let us pause and think. What are we saying here? Varun Gandhi should not have said what he did because he is Jawahar Lal Nehru's great-grandson, Indira Gandhi's grandson? Why is he being measured by a different moral parameter, when day in and day out we hear similar rhetoric (less or more restrained) from politicians and leaders all over the country? Is it not reason enough that you want to serve the people of India, hence you must respect the ideals that founded this country? Any politician making ludicrous statements like those of Varun Gandhi must be held accountable.

The strength of a leader cannot be measured by the force of his speech-making. Content matters. Unfortunately, in a nation where a vast sum of people ready to cast their vote are not educated or politically astute, it is easy to get swayed by charisma alone and the appearance of being strong (not that this has not happened to some degree when an electorate is educated and politically astute). Hence, it is up to the liberal media and public to voice their concerns when we hear speeches of hate from people claiming to lead our country and give direction to our future. There is no point in making comparisons between cousins or kin. If Rahul Gandhi has not made anti-Muslim remarks, he did once give his family all the credit for making India an independent country. For someone aspiring to be Prime Minister, it is advisable that he take some history lessons.

Politicians use false rhetoric and try to divide the electorate on religion, caste, ethnic or class based differences when they fear losing or when they can think of nothing concrete to offer. More than moralizing why a Gandhi would say what he did choose to, it is better we ask ourselves why do we let such men and women scare us? And once we are comfortable embracing our differences as an asset, we must try and help those countrymen who are still swayed by the last names and fiery speeches of their leaders. So raise your voices when you hear such rubbish, start a campaign, direct the media's attention to such nonsense. And do it for one and all - Gandhi or Gandhi.

You Go Obama Dawg!

Just watch this! I could not come up with a better way to describe my sentiments than the title of this entry I read on another blog.

Lalu You Legend!

Catch the Emperor of the Railways back when he was a simple house-husband to the truly powerful Rabri Devi. His hair still stick out from his ears like tiny antenna and the bufaaalllo (or gaai, bhainse if you prefer) are crucial bystanders.

Gimme My Money!

I've just read that the House of Representatives has overwhelmingly passed a new law levying a 90% tax on bonuses paid out at rescued firms. It seems an easy end to the furor that has been generated by AIG wanting to pay upwards of $160 million in bonuses to certain employees that have met or exceeded performance targets as decided last year. One could leave aside how unethical those bonuses may be as enough has been said and written on it. The people wanted their pound of flesh (literally: Senator Grassley of Iowa preferred they commit suicide though he has retracted that now, half a pound will do) and seemingly they will get some of it.

The issue with this form of compensation is that the finance world has long viewed bonuses as the key component of their take home salary. It lent an entrepreneurial and competitive touch and was supposed to be a great incentive for individuals to maximize the profits of the company and thus themselves. Its painfully obvious now that it was all misaligned because the individual traders aren't paying out millions to cover the losses their trading positions made. To be without a bonus though, is for a banker to be reduced to the earthworm level of the masses. How will they be able to differentiate themselves with the same basic salary (still a good deal higher) as that of an accountant or a marketing executive? How will they pay for cases of Grey Goose and all those cocaine fueled binges? For over twenty years, the bonus has been accepted as the reason for entering finance and for working 20 hour days. If they let go of it, they might as well move back to Iowa and watch the cows graze.

Hence the rush of chief executives down to Washington to protest in feeble voices against this bill. Some Republicans remember that their party motto is "No Taxes, No Abortion" and have voted against it but most have turned traitors to the cause. They cry out loud, "Give our employees incentive to work or they shall leave us for other better banks or worse yet sit around and mope!". Except there are no other banks left to accept employees. And as for the incentivization, if the bank manages to pay bailout money back and owes less than $5 billion, the bonus tax goes down considerably. Hooray for a long term incentive that binds the bank and the employee to a very clear target. Of course, the bill could well be illegal as it is applied retroactively and may get stuck in court or repealed. But it'll sure shake up Wall Street. Bankers everywhere must be saying, "Toto, I've a feeling we're not in Kansas anymore."

Iftikhar Chaudhary's Long March Back- Part 2

The Punjabi middle class and intelligentsia: Many of the lawyers and leaders would love to claim that the whole nation united for change yesterday. The fact of the matter is, they did not. This day belonged to the people of Punjab, with a handful of people from Balochistan and NWFP. Sindh stood resolutely behind the government, and Karachi’s people remained quite disinterested, pleased to see that for once their city was not at the center of the tension. But yes, this was all about Punjab, and that is in no way a criticism. For what we have witnessed in the Punjab is the rise of a new force for political and social change. The Lawyers Movement has brought together the new burgeoning Punjabi urban middle class, with the urban elites, giving them a political consciousness and a political enthusiasm. They are both willing and able to come together to bring about change, and so they are a very potent force for the future. We finally have a middle class that is convinced of democracy and public participation, and is willing to fight for it, come out on the streets for it, as they did in large numbers yesterday, and we also have an urban elite that is willing to join them. Now, all they suffer from is a lack of leadership. Their leaders unfortunately, are predominantly people like Imran Khan and Qazi Hussain Ahmed, reactionary right-wingers, who wish to take this country in the wrong direction with their ardent anti-Americanism, and their dangerous religious populism. It’s time the progressive segment of society acknowledged the power and potency of this new class, and gave it some kind of positive direction. Men like Aitzaz Ahsan really need to be catapulted to the front of Pakistani politics, to give them the leadership they really need, because we know from yesterday, that what the Punjabi middle class wants, they can get.

Chief Justice Iftikhar Chaudhary: Of course, there can be no doubt the big winner from this drama was the man himself, the deposed and now restored Chief Justice. Throughout all this, I marveled at the fact that Iftikhar Chaudhary remained totally silent. He could have come out, riled up the people, and tried to force some agitation but he did not. He has shown remarkable restraint, something we rarely expect from our leaders. This one man has proven himself a giant. The government did not want him back, the army did not want him back, and the US did not want him back. None of the powers-that-be were hoping for his return. But, yet all have been forced to give way. Many of Pakistan’s experts were of the opinion that the movement to restore him did not have any lasting traction, and after last years’ election and ousting of Musharraf, the movement would fragment and he would become irrelevant. But that did not happen. Many disagree with his judicial activism, or find his politicization of the judiciary worrisome, or even distrust his character, but they cannot doubt the grip he has on the political imagination of our people, and hence the power he wields to bring the entire establishment to its knees. His return represents the victory of the people against the establishment.

The people are joyous. Different people hope he will take on different segments of the establishment. Some hope he will put Musharraf on trial (well I certainly wish he could, at any rate, thought I doubt it). Others hope he will revoke the National Reconciliation Ordinance and delegitimize Zardari’s presidency, look into the Missing Persons cases, even prosecute the MQM in Karachi for the violence of May 12th. Some even claim he will bring increased foreign investment to Pakistan. People see him as a panacea for all Pakistan’s problems.

The reality is he is not. And no, there is no guarantee that things will get better now.

Quite the contrary.

The conflict between the PPP and PML-N is far from over; there is yet more chaos to come. The Long March exposed clear schisms between Sindh and Punjab that do not bode well for the future. The pro-Islamist crowd still leads the Punjabi middle class. Zardari is still very much in power, albeit isolated. The economy is still in a downward spiral. And moreover, the dangerous Taliban continue to expand their hold over this state. We do not even know where Iftikhar Chaudhary stands on these issues, and we hope he does not take the line of his right-wing supporters in Punjab, making the war on the Taliban even more difficult. Finally, the army still reigns supreme within the establishment, and continues to play its own political games. In fact the great unanswered question remains: what role did the Army play in all this? Some speculate that the army helped orchestrate all this, and has even been involved in deals with Iftikhar Chaudhary and Nawaz Sharif. I myself do believe the army had an important role to play, but that we will understand better as time reveals further facts about what transpired behind the scenes these last few days.

Yet in spite of all this, I think for this one day, the cynics and pessimists must acknowledge one thing, that this could have gone a lot worse, and that on this one day, regardless of whatever was going on behind the scenes, people came out in large droves, believing they could make a difference, zealous in exercising their democratic right to hold their leaders responsible, and confident they could change the political face of this country, and they did just that. So today, the people can give themselves a pat on the back. This was Pakistan’s ‘Yes we can’ moment, and the people should be proud.

Iftikhar Chaudhary's Long March Back- Part 1

And so once more, the ides of March have proven historic for Pakistan. After a very long time, the Pakistani people, yearning for good news, starving for something positive, pleaing with their deities for a reason not to give up all hope can actually say, something went right. On this day, many heroes were anointed, many villains were shamed, but more than that, a tense Pakistani populace can heave a sigh of relief, that among all the possible disasters that could have resulted from this confrontation, the only possible positive scenario, possibly the least likely eventuality at that, is the one that actually happened. The protests could have turned violent, but they did not. They could have been hijacked by more aggressive, more militant elements but they were not. Possibly disastrous confrontations in Islamabad were avoided. The police could have kept up with the suppressive tactics that they engaged in right up till Sunday morning but they backed off. Zardari could have continued emulating the ways of Musharraf and authoritarian dictators of years past, but he was halted. Most dangerous of all, the army, sensing instability, could have seized the opportunity to throw out the civilian government once more, but they chose not to. Instead, the army laid low, Zardari backed off, the protests were peaceful, positive and celebratory for the most part, and they got what they came out for without having to resort to violence or aggression, as most people would have assumed was inevitable. Lahore bore witness to one big party with a big cause.

Zardari and his coterie have clearly lost big in this whole drama. Taking on the Sharifs and pretty much the entire Punjab the way he did was just a monumental mistake. Zardari was never someone the public could have had much faith in. But his style of governing thus far had been based on consensus and compromise, which I believed was the smartest way to bring a stable political set-up to this country. However, this approach that he applied everywhere else, was distinctly absent in Punjab. He and his Punjabi lieutenant Salman Taseer went after the Sharifs and paid for it. Zardari ended up resorting to the same strong arm tactics of dissolving assemblies, rounding up opponents, arresting people by the hundreds, curbing the media and suppressing all political activity, that Musharraf did, and his efforts met the same fate. The only difference was he did not have a powerful army establishment behind him so his chances of getting away with such a power grab were even less. How blinded was he by his own power, one wonders. Zardari and his minions Salman Taseer, Rehman Malik and Farooq Naek, have always been viewed by most of society with great suspicion if not outright hostility. Now they have cemented their places as villains and targets of universal public ridicule and rage. I hope some of them, especially Salman Taseer who has proven to be a real arrogant menace, depart as soon as possible. One thing is for sure, the Zardari government is now tottering towards its own collapse, as even people within the PPP have made their objections to their leadership clear. He is a wily man, no doubt, I do not see him getting out of this one.

Several figures have emerged as clear victors in this tumultuous drama.

Nawaz Sharif : While I fear this man, his tendency towards belligerent confrontation, his Punjabi regionalism, his right wing tendencies, and his resultant close alliances, with those elements that I fear most in the Pakistan political spectrum, the Islamists, I still have to give him the credit he is due. When Zardari picked what columnist Irfan Hussain called, his presidential ‘panga’ with Sharif, he clearly underestimated the populist strength of this man. Governor Salman Taseer mocked him, doubting his ability to bring out the people. But bring them out he did. And how. On 15th March, he showed his mettle and his following. He spoke directly to the civilian government, to the establishment, and to anyone else who doubted him, telling them that he was the only leader other than the late Benazir Bhutto who can really bring out the people, the only other leader with that populist strength, and no one should forget that. As he defied house arrest orders, to arrive at GPO chowk in Lahore, to lead 40, 000 people, even those with minimal respect for Nawaz, including myself, could not help but be impressed. Moreover, the fact that he did not do anything to turn the crowd violent or too aggressive deserves commendation. That Nawaz got involved in this movement for the sake of his own power prospects, that he was willing to take Pakistan to the brink in his confrontation with Zardari is without doubt, and is a matter of concern. But he handled the situation very deftly yesterday, and clearly won this latest battle in the endless war between him and the PPP, decisively.

Prime Minister Gilani: Prime Minister Gilani has been the butt of countless jokes since Zardari chose him as his powerless puppet prime minister. Yet throughout this conflict, he has staked a position separately from the president, stuck to his guns, and been at the center of all possible reconciliation efforts, refusing to allow Zardari to close the doors on compromise. Gilani made both his discomfort with Governor’s Rule and his interest in seeing the judges restored clear. Negotiating with Zardari, Kayani and the Sharifs, Gilani kept the door opened to a resolution thorough, and finally, many speculate it was him and Kayani who pressured Zardari to accept the Chief Justice being restored. Gilani has finally come into his own, and is not the same puppet prime minister everyone ridiculed anymore.

Sherry Rehman, Raza Rabbani, Aitzaz Ahsan, Safdar Abbassi, Naheed Khan: These five figures from the PPP, have proven that there are people of principle still left in Pakistani politics. By leading the Lawyers’ Movement, Aitzaz Ahsan lost all his political clout within the PPP once Zardari and his gang took over the party after the February elections. But he stuck with his position on the judicial issue and today it has paid its dividends. Moreover, he is no more alone as a PPP member with serious public reservations regarding the Zardari leadership. Indeed he is joined by several others who were very close to Benazir Bhutto and were at the core of the party before. Naheed Khan and Safder Abbassi both stalwarts of the PPP have come out with the lawyers against the government. Raza Rabbani and Sherry Rehman both senior members of the PPP also resigned their positions in protest at the tactics and strategies of the Zardari leadership. Former Information Minister Sherry Rehmans principled stance against the government’s actions against the media was especially impressive, as it is not often you see someone with such a high cabinet position resign purely on the principle of prior guarantees she had made to the people. Amidst the hypocrisy and opportunism that characterizes Pakistani politics such stances are rare and refreshing.
(This entry is broken into two parts)

Forgotten and Forlorn. The Heart of British India's Capital.

A few steps down the narrow strip of road with just enough room for a tram track running down the middle, and several thoughts and questions crossed my mind. There was an instant reaction in some corner of my brain to everything the eye saw. To borrow the old cliche, time had stopped still in the neighborhood that lay before me. Early 19th century homes of concrete and brick, with gigantic archways, Greco-Roman colonnades, decorative balconies overlooking the street below, lined the narrow strip of road. The homes were once residences of the landholding, cultural elite of the city. Yet the archways, the pillars, the balconies all reeked of decay, degeneration and loss.

On approaching one such building, now converted in to a charitable hospital for old women, an eerie silence hung heavy over the vast property. The freshly painted yellow majestic pillars, storey-high, tightly shut windows seemed to hold in them stories of a vibrant past and a history of its passing away. Attempting to go closer to them felt like a violation of a long, preserved status quo. I stepped back and moved on, down the street.

Once called the heart of my city, these lanes seemed lost in time. Was this really the same city I called my home? The difference between where I had lived and grown up and this locality I had stepped in to on that day, seemed too much to reconcile. What did the residents of these parts make of the areas I lived in? Did they ever visit them? How had I not been here before? How did I never visit these parts? If this was once the heart of my city, why had I never seen it? To not discover the roots of a place one likes to call home seemed like a gross injustice and a loss of all sense of semblance.

A few steps further down the by-lanes led to the discovery of more hidden architectural marvels. 'Marvels', as I had not imagined I would encounter such structures here. 'Marvels' since I could not help but think what kind of manpower, planning and resources it must have taken in the 19th century for locals to build them. 'Marvels' that now lie uncared for, unkempt and bleeding. There were so many ways of restoring these places, opening them up to the public, allowing people like me who had grown up on the other side of the city to come and have a look at their heritage. And no one was saying it had to be done for free. It annoys me sometimes when I think how we let go of preserving our heritage and feeling proud of it so easily. How can we be so flippant about it? And then everyone complains how the city has nothing to offer anymore… The vitality that once characterized the 'heart' of my city is lost. I hope we do not lose the symbols that make up our memory of ourselves as a metropolis completely.

A New Era for Indian Politics

9 political parties came together today to form the Third Front, positioning themselves as an alternative to the UPA and NDA, the Congress and BJP led alliances respectively. In doing so, the Left Front, along with major regional parties like AIADMK and BSP seem to have initiated a new era for Indian politics, one removed from the two national party based alliances of the past.

While India has had coalition governments for a long time now, a viable third alternative to the UPA and NDA is something quite momentous. A Third Front formed the government briefly after the 1996 elections, but its political capital was meager and chances of survival rather low. With the current mix though, it is a whole different story and Indian politics are likely to be altered for a long time to come.

Not only do people believe a Third Front will take away a number of votes from the two major alliances, but there is serious talk of the Third Front actually having the numbers to come to power. This is still an unlikely scenario with the current group of parties, but with a few more choice allies, things could turn decisively.

They will be very strong in UP(80 seats) with the BSP. They will get more than a decent share of seats in both Andhra (42) with the TDP and Telengana Rashtra Samithi and Tamil Nadu (39) with the AIADMK. In the 62 seats up for grabs between the two Communist bastions Kerala(20) and West Bengal(42) it is safe to assume another 45 seats for the two Left Parties. With the JD(S) in Karnataka, and if they can lure the BJD in Orissa(21) and possibly the NCP in Maharashtra (48), they would be competing in a serious way in all populous states with the exception of Bihar.

This is an unprecedented situation in Indian politics and one that is sure to lead to a number of exciting scenarios on counting day and during the formation of government. While it is still up to the Third Front to decide on a Prime Ministerial candidate (a decision that will give it even more legitimacy), the numbers look encouraging for them in several ways. Indian politics just became an even bigger mess!

A Storm Brewing?

Political trouble and instability continue to brew on all sides of the Indian border. The latest news of turmoil comes from Pakistan and Bangladesh, after Sri Lanka, Afghanistan, Nepal and Burma have all been subject to domestic, often war-like conflicts and clashes in the last few years.

Terrorists struck at a symbol close to the heart of any person in the sub-continent in Lahore earlier this week. Meanwhile, Bangladesh had already been reeling from a rebellion of the Bangladesh Rifles who protect and guard the country's borders. Their attempted mutiny left not just the populous country vulnerable, it also left one side of the border with India unsecured and insufficiently unmanned. In the duration of a week, India has received multiple warnings of the fragile political nature of states on its periphery. And in the duration of that very week, the lack of deliberation regarding India's role in the sub-continent or its foreign policy in general has been exposed.

When civil war engulfed Sri Lanka, freedom was curbed in Burma or Maobadis took over power in Nepal, what was India's collective response? A series of extremely delayed gestures of concern, which by their timing immediately put the many smaller, less powerful states around India on the front foot and severely undermining its geographic and economic might.

The Ministry of External Affairs (at whose helm is a gentleman who wears many a hat for the current administration, thus displaying his amazing multi-tasking abilities at running the country), the Opposition and not even the group that calls itself the country's watch dog - the media, seem to miss a coherent, practical, evolutionary foreign policy agenda. Nuclear deal done, a deep slumber seems to have set in. Meanwhile, India's neighborhood continues to burn.

What we need to fear is not perhaps a full blown armed conflict in the short run. Our neighbours are too weak to unleash that. The real threat is the ability of disruptive forces in the region to destabilize India's domestic security and society. Refugees entering India from porous borders along Nepal and Bangladesh add not just another mouth to feed but another person to protect, another child to put in to school and another job to create in a country with an already dismal Human Development Index count. The spillover effect of human rights abuses on Tamils in Sri Lanka has caused a furore in the southern state of Tamil Nadu and threatens to hold captive political alliances and negotiations in India's upcoming general elections. All of these will add up to make India a state bleeding at too many points to remain focused on its own development.

The External Affairs Ministry along with the elite Indian Foreign Services needs to sit down and chart out an agenda for India's role in South Asia at the earliest. Individual Prime Ministers have dealt with our neighbours as per their political exigencies. If India truly aspires to be a superpower, it must start gaining some respect and clout in its own backyard before trying to make its mark on global affairs. Otherwise, the storm brewing will creep closer and closer to India's borders and make us take two steps backward for each foot forward.

The Mist Clears - Third Front Announced

The plot thickens. As the CEC announces a 5-phase Lok Sabha polls beginning on April 16th, till the 16th of May, Former Prime Minister of India, H.D Deve Gowda (remember him?) has taken it upon himself to answer some of the questions I asked in my previous post. He announced today the composition of the Third Front, an issue I was duly concerned with. It appears this Third Front will include the CPI, CPM, Deve Gowda's JD(S), Jayalalitha's AIADMK (already aligned with the CPI) and the RSP.

Others are sure to join this third front, as a counter to the two dominant coalitions, the UPA and NDA. As to who they might be, we are as yet uncertain. Mayawati's alliances are sure to be the topic of much debate in the days to come. She is an ascendant national figure and would have the political capital to expect the Prime Ministership if she were to be a member of a Third Front that came to power. Without a clear front runner for Prime Minister, any Third Front will be mired in internal squabbling much like the last time we had a similar situation(1996).

In West Bengal, Mamata Banerjee's Trinamool Congress has alligned with the Congress against the Left Front. In UP, the Congress and SP are yet to agree on seat-sharing, but with Mayawati expected to be dominant there once again, that might be an inconsequential debate.