August 2012: Interesting Links

* Mehta, Bhanu Pratap (2012): THE QUICKSAND OF CASTE, Indian Express, 28Aug12, URL - http://www.indianexpress.com/news/the-quicksand-of-caste/994050/0
- Reservation was no longer about justice; it was about political claims masquerading as claims about justice.
- The anxiety over slivers of representation has made it difficult to produce a larger politics of accountability.
- Division creates a politics of fear that our political class uses to disguise its own failures.
- (looking for) creative ways of getting us out of this Procrustean bed, where both freedom and justice are now hostage to a politics of identity and suspicion.

* China Today: Calligraphy Then and Now, URL - http://www.chinatoday.com.cn/ctenglish/se/txt/2012-08/14/content_475928.htm


* O'Brien, Derek (2012): THE O'BRIENS OF INDIA AND PAKISTAN, Blogpost - http://quizderek.blogspot.in/2012/08/the-obriens-of-india-and-pakistan_13.html


CAG

* Iyer, Ramaswamy R (2012): SETTING HOUNDS ON THE WATCHDOG, The Hindu, 30Aug12, URL - http://www.thehindu.com/opinion/lead/article3836708.ece?homepage=true

* Mehta, Bhanu Pratap (2012): GREAT CLEANSING ACT, Indian Express, 20Aug12, URL - http://www.indianexpress.com/news/great-cleansing-act/990402/0

* Mukhopadhyay, Amitabh (2012): CAG HAS A POINT ON COAL, Mail Today, 30Mar12, URL - www.google.co.in/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=4&sqi=2&ved=0CDgQFjAD&url=http://www.dailymail.co.uk/indiahome/indianews/article-2123004/AMITABH-MUKHOPADHYAY-CAG-point-coal.html&ei=eoBAUJyHGI7krAe4vID4CQ&usg=AFQjCNE0lQnJOx90DR6I39zWAn4zLQh9XA&sig2=CaaMPKDymhId9mxF24nEKQ
RAMASWAMY R. IYER

* Schuman/Kiyuku, Michael (2012); BLIND FAITH, Time, Aug12, URL - http://olympics.time.com/2012/08/23/blind-faith/
- Story of Kenyan paraolympic, Henry Wanyoike


* Arackaparambil, Rosemary, Manoj Kumar (2012): NEW LAND LAW IS BALANCING ACT FOR INDIA, IHT, 29Aug12, URL - http://in.reuters.com/article/2012/08/28/india-land-idINL4E8JS1CW20120828
- 118-year-old legislation

* Kazmin, Amin (2012): INDIA WRESTLES WITH COMPETING LAND NEEDS, Financial Times, 27Aug12

TOP ECONOMIST PONDERS INDIA’S TRUST DEFICIT, url - http://www.omglobe.com/2012/08/22/top-economist-ponders-indias-trust-deficit/
- He refers to an account 100 years ago by a frustrated European engineer in Japan named Kattendyke who wrote about supplies not arriving on time, workers showing up once and never returning, and a pervasive lack of punctuality

Blog: http://www.ulaar.com - Art of Returning to India and Staying Put

Rao, BV (2012): WHY THE FALL OF XEROX ZACHARIA IS UNTHINKABLE IN INDIAN MEDIA, First Post, 25 Aug 2012, URL - http://www.firstpost.com/india/why-the-fall-of-xerox-zakaria-is-unthinkable-in-indian-media-430088.html/2

Chandan, Pav-Bhaji and the Government, The Sleepwalker's Diary (Blog), URL -  http://sleepwalkertales.blogspot.in/2012/08/chandan-pav-bhaji-and-government.html

Happy Birthday Colors - http://www.nicopon.com/

Pilling, David (2012): JAPAN, CHINA AND THE LEGACY OF THEIR 'HISTORY PROBLEM'; Financial Times, London, 23AUG12, URL - http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/497f8d14-ec43-11e1-a91c-00144feab49a.html#axzz24SppZecT
- In 1885, an anonymous newspaper editorial  - supposedly by Yukichi Fukuzawa of the Y10,000 fame - titled "Leaving Asia"...and its impact

Allison, Graham (2012): THUCYDIDE'S TRAP HAS BEEN SPRUNG IN THE PACIFIC, Financial Times, 22Aug12, URL - http://www.ft.com/intl/cms/s/0/5d695b5a-ead3-11e1-984b-00144feab49a.html#axzz24SppZecT
- "It was the rise of Athens and the fear that this inspired in Sparta that made war inevitable" - Thucydides
- A historian's metaphor reminds us of the dangers two parties face when a rising power rivals a ruling power... Athens 5BC; Germany 19 CE, and now China 21 CE
- In a generation,  nation whose gross GDP was smaller that Spain's has become the se ond largest economy inthe world.

Twitter - @MajorlyProfound - acidic Pakistani blocked?

Harris, Shane (2012): GIVING IN TO THE SURVEILLANCE STATE, IHT, 24 Aug12
- NSA, Pentagon and Total Information Analysis (TIA)

Moldova, Gyorgy (2012): BALLPOINT, New Europe
- Hungarian inventor, Lazsto Biro (1899-1985) and the story of the ballpoint pen


Coleman, John (2012): FOR THOSE WHO WANT TO LEAD, READ; 15Aug12 HBR, URL - http://blogs.hbr.org/cs/2012/08/for_those_who_want_to_lead_rea.html

Sanyal, Kaushiki (2012): SPEAKING WITHOUT FEAR, Indian Express, 24Aug12, URL - http://www.indianexpress.com/news/speaking-without-fear/992256/0

Indian Government appointed committee gives recommendations to increase medal tally in 2016 Olympics (UnReal Times, 21Aug12) - URL - http://www.theunrealtimes.com/2012/08/21/indian-government-appointed-committee-gives-recommendations-to-increase-medal-tally-in-2016-olympics/

Innovation (Economist Quotes) - http://www.economist.com/blogs/schumpeter/2012/08/z-business-quotations-1?fsrc=gn_ep

Cartoon - The Hindu - Support Prices - http://www.thehindu.com/opinion/cartoon/article3800092.ece

Theodore Darlymple (2012): INDIA'S CONTRIBUTION TO THE OLYMPICS - INDIFFERENCE, WSJ, url - http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10000872396390443324404577595091687114760.html

Sengupta, Shombit (2012): McJEANS INDIA? Indian Express, 12Aug12
- Denim fabric was crafted in Nimes, France, in the 17th century; originally called Serge de Nimes. The contemporary term jeans comes from Genes, the French word for Genoa (Italy) sailors who wore denim workpants.


An Open Letter to Arnab Goswami - http://www.manushi.in/articles.php?articleId=1616


Why the U.S. Fracking Industry Worries About the Weather in India (Time, Jul 2012) - http://world.time.com/2012/07/17/why-the-u-s-fracking-industry-worries-about-the-weather-in-india/#ixzz23jNkAlf5

Dance of the Starlings
Murmuration (a group of starlings) - http://vimeo. com/31158841
starlings being attacked by a peregrine falcon - http://www.youtube. com/watch? v=b8eZJnbDHIg
explanation - http://beheco. oxfordjournals. org/content/ 21/6/1349. full

http://www.cbsnews.com/2100-18563_162-1409061.html


* TED -- Shashi Tharoor: Why nations should pursue "soft" power --- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EiTrl0W1QrM&feature=youtube_gdata_player

* TED - Margaret Heffernan: Dare to Disagree
URL - http://www.ted.com/talks/margaret_heffernan_dare_to_disagree.html?utm_source=newsletter_weekly_2012-08-10&utm_campaign=newsletter_weekly&utm_medium=email


* Sabastien, PT (2012): OLD DIET, NEW RECIPE, Business Today, 5Aug12, URL - http://businesstoday.intoday.in/story/cash-transfer-programme-lieu-of-subsidised-foodgrain/1/186383.html

* Nike Advt - Find Your Greatness - "...greatness is no more unique to us than breathing...we're all capable it it...all of us. URL - http://www.businessinsider.com/america-is-falling-in-love-with-the-chubby-kid-in-this-awesome-new-nike-ad-2012-8

* Khera, Reetika (2012): PUTTING KERALA TO WORK, The Hindu, 1Aug12, URL - http://www.thehindu.com/opinion/lead/article3708704.ece?homepage=true

Asian Voices in the Colonial Tide

A few days ago, when I requested the librarian at CPR for a copy of Pankaj Mishra's recently released book, "From the Ruins of Empire", I didn't really expect it bring back memories of Prof. Liang Pan's remarkable course at the University of Tsukuba.

Mishra's book goes well beyond the scope of Prof. Pan's sessions which were mostly centered on the dynamics of Meiji Restoration and the consequent transformation of Japan. It explores how the contemporaries of the Meji aristocrats in 19th century Turkey, Egypt, India, China and the Philippines responded to the challenges coming from Western missionaries, traders, soldiers and diplomats.

It follows the life and times of some remarkable individuals: Jamal al-Din Afghani, Liang Qichao, Fukuzawa Yukichi (of the Yen 10,000 note fame) and Rabindranath Tagore. As the drama unfolds, many others make a cameo appearance but play roles that anything but marginal, and these include Qichao's mentor, Kang Youwei; A traditionalist philosopher, Tan Sitong who famously discarded a chance to escape by saying that China would never renew itself until men were prepared to die for it.

Also rather revealing is the role of Japanese intellectuals who sharpened the contradiction between the nation's 'imperative to expand and dominate...and the pan-Asianist desire to express solidarity with other Asian countries.

One of them, Okuwa Shumei, 'Japan's leading scholar of Indian and Islamic cultures' was said to have converted to pan-Asianism after reading a book India's dire state under the British....which book was this?

------------------------------------------------
LINKS

* Mishra, Pankaj (2012): FROM THE RUINS OF EMPIRE, Allan Lane  Penguin, London, 2012

July 2012 - Links of the Month

Interesting articles & links from July 2012...


Economist (July 2012) - Antique Cabinets - http://www.economist.com/blogs/graphicdetail/2012/07/daily-chart-14

Maruti-Manesar-Riot


* Sampath, G (2012): Can India Inc. face the truth about the Manesar violence? DNA, 29Jul12, URL - http://www.dnaindia.com/analysis/column_can-india-inc-face-the-truth-about-the-manesar-violence_1721167-all
* Warnock, elanor, Yoshio Takahashi (2012): JAPAN INC., FUCUSES ON SUZUKI AFTER RIOT, WSJT 25 Jul 2012, p19
- Unstable cocktail of rising contract worker numbers, quickening inflation and low wages
* Johnson, TA (2012): MARUTI VIOLENCE SHOWS SOCIAL UNREST: PREMJI, IE 25Jul12


Salughter, Anne Mary (2012): Why Women Still Can’t Have It All, The Atlantic, July 2012, URL - http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2012/07/why-women-still-can-8217-t-have-it-all/9020/


PaisaBoltaHai - Know your currency notes - http://www.paisaboltahai.rbi.org.in/1000.htm#

Babu, Venkatesha (2008): Rajeev Chandrasekhar | Not the settling type, WSJ-Mint 31May08, URL - http://www.livemint.com/2008/05/31001212/Rajeev-Chandrasekhar--Not-the.html
- Rs127.86 trillion worth of derivatives on the books of Indian banks as on March 2008 (how much is it now?)
- 127,860,000,000,000.00 INR = 2,326,055,238,809.07 USD

Sanal Edamaruku and Rationalist International - http://www.rationalistinternational.net/

Swami, Praveen (2012): India's god laws fail the test of reason, The Hindu, 7 May 2012


Kreider, Tim (2012): The ‘Busy’ Trap, June 30, 2012, NYT Opinion Pages, URL - http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/06/30/the-busy-trap/?smid=fb-share
- “Idle dreaming is often of the essence of what we do,” wrote Thomas Pynchon in his essay on sloth. Archimedes’ “Eureka” in the bath, Newton’s apple, Jekyll & Hyde and the benzene ring: history is full of stories of inspirations that come in idle moments and dreams. It almost makes you wonder whether loafers, goldbricks and no-accounts aren’t responsible for more of the world’s great ideas, inventions and masterpieces than the hardworking.




Books - http://www.goodreads.com/book


Poems to Remember - Shakti Aur Kshama (Ramdhari Singh Dinkar) - http://poems2remember.blogspot.in/2007/01/shakti-aur-kshama-strength-and-mercy.html

BMW M5 Bullet Promo - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZDuxWGHA-Z4&feature=player_embedded

Legalism for Latecomers

In ancient China there was only one punishment for reporting late for government work - death.

This, and various other interesting facts tumbled out a book I've been reading: Paul S. Ropp's "China in World History".

During the Warring States Period (403-221BCE), the Qin 'First Emporer' of China and his brilliant minister Li Sim instituted what was to be the first built on iron-clad Rule of Law and the promotion of meritocracy over feudal aristocracy. As in the case of late reporting for work,  strict laws and punishment were based on the theory that harsher the punishment, the less it would have to be used.

This was statecraft based on a philosphy called Legalism.

The state of Qin was also the first to abolish serfdom and hand over land to the farmers. It also promoted soldiers and officials purely on merit.

Perhaps this is something to think about when one drives around central New Delhi, and sees hundreds of government officials lolling about on the lawns, chatting and sipping chai during working hours..

--------------------------------------------------------

REFERENCE:

Ropp, Paul S (2010): CHINA IN WORLD HISTORY, Oxford University Press 2010

Revisiting Corbett

The word Corbett immediately brings back to mind visits to the tiger sanctuary that is closest to Delhi.   Memories of thickly forested hills and deep, disconcerting silences that accentuate the tiniest sounds of insects, birds and animals.

Last week I revisited my notions about Corbett. While walking down the main road in Nainital, I picked a book from Narain's Book Shop - Jim Corbett's 'certifiable classic', Man-Eater's of Kumaon. While packing the book, the shopkeeper proudly mentioned that during his grandfather's time, Corbett used to drop by to the very same shop to buy his books and periodicals.

What strikes me when I read the book after a gap of three decades or so, is not only the man's deep respect for nature; his iron will to do better than his peers in the art of hunting, but also his matter-of-fact references to the cowardice of local villagers. In almost all stories, there are references to locals who
run away; making no attempt - despite having the advantage of numbers - to go after a man-eater which has attacked and carried away one of their own.

There are only three exceptions - the story of the girl who ran after a tiger that attacked and carried away her sister, screaming, "Take me instead of her!" (The Champawat Man-eater); A young mother is given for dead after being mauled, recovers after first aid (The Chowgadh maneaters); and one old villager, an ex-soldier of the Royal Garhwal Rifles and veteran of WW-I, who spends a whole night searching for his son. The old man who 'did not ask anyone to accompany him and none offered to do so', came within ten feet of where the tiger was lying eating his son but could not find him in the dark (The Kanda Maneater).

The tales make you wonder: To what extent were the Shikar stories, a deliberate PR tool for a colonial government? The villagers were nowhere as well armed as the sahibs. Their Buckshot's  are not a patch on the high powered rifles. The most they can do is tremble and create a racket so as to drive the tigers from thickets into the gun-sights of sahibs perched on treetops...

---------------------------------------------

Interesting Terms and Assorted Curiosities:

- Ghooral (Himalayan Thar)
- Strobilanthes
- Karphal trees, 'found at an elevation of 6000 ft, produces a sweet berry fancied both by humans and bears'?
- Where exactly is the Kala Agar Ridge which is 'forty miles in length, rising to a height of 8500ft and is thickly wooded along the crest'? (The Chowgadh Maneaters)
- And a place called Dalkhania...a valley starting from the watershed of three rivers Ladhya, Nandhour and Eastern Goula
- Who is Atrophos, who snips  the thread of life?
- What do Ringals (dense patches) look like?

Dunking Insects

Immediately after the first monsoon rains a birdbath on the terrace was caked with flies. Which are these insects that dunk and drown themselves? What could be the evolutionary advantage of such a mass suicide?

South Indian Iconography

At 5AM today morning, I found myself standing next to a strange yet familiar creature at the Uttara Guruvayur Temple in Delhi. Next to the Madhya-Haara or Vilakumattam, was a cement & paint rendition an architectural element quite common in South Indian temples: a gargoyle with the head & claws of a tiger, the trunk of an elephant and legs of a horse.

As if to balance out the ferocity of its bulging, glaring eyes it has a full election, and right below it, a rather comical looking elephant holding on to dear life.

What is this creature called? When did it first make an appearance in South Indian temples?
What could be the iconography behind this South Indian imagery which is conspicuously absent in the Northern temples?

June 2012: Links of the Month

Pittie, Aasheesh (2012): Indian Courser - My Kind of Birding, Blog post 21Jun12 - http://aasheeshpittie.blogspot.in/2012/06/my-kind-of-birding.html

Pal, Anuvab (2012): An Ode to Arnab Goswami, News Laundry 22Jun12, URL - http://www.newslaundry.com/2012/06/an-ode-to-arnab-goswami/

Shoji Kaori (2012): The Truth About Japanese Love - We just Don't get along, The Japan Times, 18Jun12, URL - http://www.japantimes.co.jp/text/ek20120618a1.html#.T-L9_LVo3uo

Obituary - Andrew Huxley, Neurophysiologist, The Economist, 16Jun12, URL - http://www.economist.com/node/21556885
- solved one of the most important biological mysteries of all—how nerve cells work, and thus, at bottom, how brains do

Dujarric, robert (2012): Japan's younger generation shuns the world stage, The Japan Times, 14June12, URL - http://www.linkedin.com/share?viewLink=&sid=s1222402276&url=http%3A%2F%2Flnkd%2Ein%2FnSr-MQ&urlhash=ehKO&uid=5619903118020968448&trk=EML_nus_share-F7&ut=1yhaSP-9hHSlg1

An American in Delhi - Jeanne Heydecker - http://american-in-delhi.blogspot.in/

Trees in the Ramayana:
- Lodhra: Simplocos racemosa - URLs - http://www.himalayahealthcare.com/herbfinder/h_symplo.htm
- Padmaka: Himalayan Wild Cherry (Prunus cerasoides  D.Don.) - URL - http://ayurvedicmedicinalplants.com/index.php?option=com_zoom&Itemid=26&page=view&catid=45&key=3
- Deodar: Himalayan Cedar (Cedrus deodara) - URL - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cedrus_deodara


Chinmaya R. Gharekhan (2012): India is not a global power, The Hindu 9Jun12, URL - http://www.thehindu.com/opinion/lead/article3505965.ece?homepage=true

Amir Khusro - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LV5UibHJZyQ

Rowana, Jenny (2012): The 'dirt' in The Dirty Picture: Caste, Gender and Silk Smitha, Round Table India, 17Jun12, URL - http://roundtableindia.co.in/index.php?Itemid=132&catid=119%3Afeature&id=5283%3Athe-dirt-in-the-dirty-picture-caste-gender-and-silk-smitha&option=com_content&view=article


Vishwanathan, Vidya (2012): IN PRAISE OF PERFORMANCE, The Hindu Businessline, 11 Jun 12, URL - http://www.thehindubusinessline.com/opinion/article3515924.ece
- Eagle flasks & longevity


* Joseph, Manu 92012): WHY ARE THE SUITS CRYING? The Open magazine 16Jun12, URL - http://www.openthemagazine.com/article/voices/why-are-the-suits-crying
- Daniel Nocera - Artificial Leaf Project


* Gulati, Ashok and Jyoti Gujral (2011): Food Security Bill: Can we afford Rs 6 lakh cr food subsidy in 3 years?, ET 11Dec11, URL - http://articles.economictimes.indiatimes.com/2011-12-17/news/30528849_1_food-subsidy-subsidised-grain-priority-households


Sharma, Mihir, S (2012): Austerity abuse: Government is not supposed to be poor, it is supposed to work for those of us who are, BS 9Jun12, http://business-standard.com/india/news/austerity-abuse/476731/

Rajan, Raghuram (2012): What Happened to India?, 8Jun12, URL - http://www.project-syndicate.org/commentary/what-happened-to-india-

Tharoor, Sashi (2012): The Indian Miracle Lives, 11Jun12, URL - http://www.project-syndicate.org/commentary/the-indian-miracle-lives

Das, Alokparna (2012): The Depths of History, IE 10Jun12, URL - http://www.indianexpress.com/news/the-depths-of-history/960023/

Chellany, Brahma (2012): The Resistable Rise of China, URL - http://www.project-syndicate.org/commentary/the-resistible-rise-of-asia-


Bajaj, Vikas (2012): As Grain Piles Up, India’s Poor Still Go Hungry, NYT 7 June 2012, http://www.nytimes.com/2012/06/08/business/global/a-failed-food-system-in-india-prompts-an-intense-review.html?_r=1

The Best Job in the World - P&G Advt - https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=NScs_qX2Okk


Worst Place to be a Woman (Foreign Policy) - http://www.foreignpolicy.com/articles/2012/04/24/the_worst_places_to_be_a_woman#0


NHK Online - http://www.nhk.or.jp/
Japanese girls in Gurgaon - http://www.nhk.or.jp/worldnet/archives/year/detail20120602_19.html

Smith (2012): Philosophy’s Western Bias, NYT 3June2012 - http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/06/03/philosophys-western-bias/

BBC: What the Ancients Did for Us - The Indians: What The Ancient Indians Did For The World - http://www.open.edu/openlearn/whats-on/ou-on-the-bbc-what-the-ancients-did-us-the-indians


(Viji in FB 3Jun12)
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/05/11/gross-ingredients-processed-foods_n_1510516.html?ref=mostpopular#s=more225946

(Sherzod FB, 3JUn12)
* Economist- Schumpeter: In praise of misfits
-Why business needs people with Asperger’s syndrome, attention-deficit disorder and dyslexia (Economist)
http://www.economist.com/node/21556230?fb_ref=scn%2Ffb_ec%2Fin_praise_of_misfits&fb_source=home_multiline

The Mau-Tam Puzzle

Facts of the case seem fairly straightforward. Every 50 years or so a bamboo species widespread in Mizoram suddenly blooms and dies. In its wake it leaves millions of seeds which trigger a population explosion of rats. Once the rats are through with the bamboo seeds, they devour crops and empty out granaries, leading - over a period of three years - to widespread famine and death by starvation.

Mizo's call this phenomenon 'Mau Tam'.

The Mau-Tam of 1959 is also noted as one of the triggers for the insurgency that gripped the hill-state, leading, at its peak, to the first and only case of the Indian Air Force bombing its own citizens (Aizwal, 1966).


An EPW paper of 1978 goes into this subject in some detail:


According to the Mizos, there are two death cycles of different in character. ..The first, the Mao Tam, is a sudden disaster - voile katha (?). The second, the Thing 'Tam, comes to wreak slowlv. The Mao Tak and Raw Thing (Melocanna Rambueoides and Bambose Hamiltonii) are the most widespread in Mizoram and the distress is very severe. But the bamboo flowers almost simultaneously and the famine passes in a year. The Thing Tam that follows begins its flowering in the eighteenth year and continues for about there years after: The three species that flower during the period are the Rawthing (Bambusa Tulda), the Rawnal (Dendrocalanus Longgispathus) and Rawngal (Caphalostachyum Capitatum). The flowering comes in batches. The distress is slow, long drawn. The invasion of the rats comes to its peak during the third or fouth year, a series of crop disasters which a peasant economy can hardly stand.


Now the puzzling this is that 2009 was supposed to mark the 50th year, and the time for the next Mau-Tam. What happened? Was there actually a disaster which was averted by human intervention?

Since there was nothing about it in the papers, I guess some reliable, first-hand info from a Mizo or a Manipuri would be required...

-------------------------------------------------------------------

REFERENCES & LINKS

Rangasami, Amritha (1978): Tragedy of Our Own Making, Economic and Political Weekly, Vol. 13, No. 15 (Apr. 15, 1978), pp. 653-662



Bhaumik, Subir (2012): Indian army's new enemy is rats, BBC World, 3Jun2006, URL - http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/5044436.stm

Mautam - The Bamboo Death - http://tocrosstheline.wordpress.com/2009/06/21/mautam-bamboo-death/

Forest Fires in Kumaon

Dry river beds dotted with murky pools, smoke rising from the hill slopes... The Himalayan foothills in Kumaon District presented a sad, depressing picture this summer. 

The locals complain of water shortages after most of the natural, roadside springs ran dry. The number of tourists has dwindled  - after all, why would anybody want to come to Kumaon if the hills are just as hot as the plains?

Puzzled by the large numbers of forest fires, all along the road to Ranikhet, I asked some villagers if they were caused by careless tourists tossing cigarette butts into the forests. "Its not so simple", they said, "the tourists are the least of our problems!". Then came a counter-question- "Did you see anybody doing anything to prevent the fires from spreading?". No, I didn't.

There are two sets of people who have an interest in keeping the fires burning. The first set are the nomadic herders. Hill slopes that are carpeted with pine-leaves (Pirol) prevent the grass from coming up. So the herders set fire to the resinous pine leaves, clearing the way for fresh grass, that are due to come up after the rains.

The second set, according to the villagers, are the officials from the Forest Department. These officials have annual afforestation targets and forest fires are a very handy for folks  looking for an excuse. In an area marked for afforestation, they simply set fire to entire hill-sides and claim that all the saplings got charred. The money is shared by the contractors and the state government officials who now have a vested interest in keeping the fires burning. 

The more you destroy, the more you can pilfer from the state coffers!

Sweet & Sour, Heavy & Light

One has heard of tea-tasters but it is hard to believe that at one time, there were also professional crude-oil tasters.

In the 19th century workers in the fledgeling oil industry used their sense of taste and smell to classify petroleum into four categories - sweet, sour, heavy and light. These days the same classification is used to determine the cost of the petrol or diesel that goes into our motor vehicles.

Any crude with more than 2.5% sulphur is called sour. Most of it comes from the Middle East. Sweet crude, on the other hand, is what is exported out of Africa, Europe (North Seas) and also supplied by the oil wells in India. Light crudes yield the more valuable gasoline, naphtha and kerosene while heavy ones give more diesel, fuel oil and residue. So in the crude-oil business, sweet & light is anyday better than heavy & sour.

One point, however, remains unclear: Is there any such thing as heavy & sweet oil?

------------------------------------------

REFERENCES & LINKS


* Choudhury, Ranabir Ray (2006): The balancing act with trade parity oil prices, BL 09Jan06, URL - http://www.thehindubusinessline.in/2006/06/09/stories/2006060903550300.htm

* Types of Crude Oil - http://nesteoil.com/default.asp?path=1,41,538,2035,5196,5197,5199

* Description of the MC 252 Crude Oil - http://oilspill.fsu.edu/images/pdfs/mc-252crude-oil-desc.pdf

* Ranjan, Amitav (2012): HOW PRICES ARE FIXED, BARREL BY BARREL, IE 07Jun12, URL - http://www.indianexpress.com/news/how-prices-are-fixed-barrel-by-barrel/958747/
- Sweet vs. Sour - any crude with more than 2.5% sulphur is sour
- Heavy vs. Light - Light crudes yield more gasoline, naphtha and kerosene while heavy ones give more diesel, fuel oil and residue.
- Though indigenous crudes from Assam and Mumbai High are sweet, they accounts for only 17 per cent of the total processed.
- Indian imports comprise nearly 80 per cent of sour crudes of which 82 per cent are from the Middle East. Of the 20 per cent imports that are sweet, Africa sends 99 per cent.

Bi-colored Ant at the Banyan Tree

The Banyan Tree, Okhla Bird Park

"6 AM at the Banyan tree..."

For folks on DelhiBird this simply indicates a well known meeting-point at the Okhla Bird Park on the banks of Yamuna river.

during the hot season the river looks more like an open drain with black, frothy effluent gushing down the slats. This Sunday, there were not too many birds on the Yamuna flood plains. At the banyan though there was an interesting looking ant scurrying through its folds and crevices.

Unlike any I had seen before in Kerala, this one had multiple nodes on the thorax and abdomen, almost making it look like an dandy ant trying to pass off for a mini-millipede!

Turns out that this was the Arboreal Bi-colored Ant (Tetraponera rufonigra). It seems they sting so badly that even some spiders try to mimic them to escape predators!

Arboreal Bicolored Ant (Tetraponera rufonigra)

Potty Disparity at the Planning Commission

The Planning Commission  (PC) of India is in the news again for all the wrong reasons. This time an RTI enquiry has revealed that PC has spent Rs. 3.4 million (Rs. 34 Lakhs)  to renovate two toilets at is Yojana Bhavan office. A new access-control system was installed in the toilets to ensure that only sixty officers with smart-cards could use these toilets.

This brings out a series of issues -- the absence of public hygiene even in premier government institutions; the tendency of our bureaucrats to play zero-sum games, to create solutions that seek to ensure their own comfort, and, most importantly, the ability of the middle-class to make a virtue out of hypocrisy and  apartheid. Segregation and access-control to toilets is merely an extension of a larger disconnect in our society.

A few days ago, I asked a colleague how he was coping with the ongoing shortage of power and water in suburban Delhi. "I too read about it in the papers", he said, "but I stay in a gated residential complex with 100% back-up for water and electricity...". Middle-class India lives far away from sweaty crowds waiting to fill buckets of water from water-tankers. It moves around in air-conditioned cars pretending not to see the beggars and vendors knocking on their window panes. So it is only natural that they would want to extend their comfortable cocoons to work-places, creating exclusive toilets that cannot be sullied by lesser mortals.

How have other countries dealt with similar problems?

In USA, segregation of toilet facilities by race was outlawed by the Civil Rights Act of 1964. "Rest-room Equity Acts" or "Potty parity Laws" were passed in many states to ensure that women are not “tethered close to home by the bladder's leash”.

In Japan the 're-booting' of social habits after the Meiji Restoration included compulsory training in toilet etiquette at the primary school level. Over the past century this training has been so deeply embedded in the social DNA that it ensures, to a large extent, that adults visiting public toilets use the towels and napkins to leave the toilets clean for those who come after them. This self-regulation minimises the work of janitors who are usually specialized workers outsourced from external contractors.

In India the problem goes beyond gender and race to the issues related to social classes. In the case of the Planning Commission, if a lady dignitary were to come for a meeting, would she have to borrow one of the 60 swipe-cards given to PC officials, to access a loo? Where would her driver go if he wanted to relieve himself?

I am waiting to hear the PC version of the story.  If the PC Dy.Chairman's previous rebuttal is anything to go by, I guess they will simply reiterate the need for officials to have cleaner toilets than their minions.


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Post Script, 7 Jun 2012

The Planning Commission has come up with a defense. "the toilet expenditure was necessary", said their statement, "because PC has over 1500 meetings every year...". What about the access control? Well, that is "to make women feel more secure".  Quite an absurd explanation given the fact that the building is guarded by dozens of security guards, and is located in one of the most secure zones of Delhi.
So the fact remains that 60 toilet-access-cards were issued to officials in PC. According to the PC website there are over 150 senior officials in Yojana Bhavan, so it must house at least 300 employees in the building. Is it safe to assume that a majority of employees & visitors to PC would be barred from using the two toilets that have been refurbished with Rs.35 Lakhs of the taxpayers money?

True to form, Shekhar Gupta's Express has come up with a editorial defending PC. Predictably, it ignores  the issue of access control, and tilts at windmills by defending the Dy.Chairman. You can fool some people sometimes...
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LINKS / REFERENCES

* Sainath, P (2012): THE AUSTERITY OF THE AFFLUENT, The Hindu, 21 May 2o12, URL - http://www.thehindu.com/opinion/columns/sainath/article3439624.ece

* Planning Commission spends Rs. 35 lakh to renovate two toilets in Delhi (PTI/NDTC, 6 Jun 2012) - http://www.ndtv.com/article/india/planning-commission-spends-rs-35-lakh-to-renovate-2-toilets-in-delhi-227824

* Planning commission renovates 2 toilets at Rs 35 lakh (PTI/ToI) - http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/business/india-business/Planning-commission-renovates-2-toilets-at-Rs-35-lakh/articleshow/13854397.cms

* "Potty-Parity Laws" - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Potty_parity

* Mary Anne Case (2005?): Why not abolish the laws of urinary segregation? Chicago University, URL - http://www.law.uchicago.edu/files/files/tperae.pdf

* Clarification from PC (6 June 2012) - http://pib.nic.in/newsite/erelease.aspx?relid=84712

Shekhar's Express

Until recently the Indian Express was my favourite newspaper. Unlike the leading "best-selling" newspapers like HT or ToI, it actually gave priority to news over advertisements; it published good investigative reports; it had credible editor in Shekhar Gupta and it had a line-up of the most interesting columnists.

These days IE seems a sad caricature of what it used to be. The only thing IE still has going for it are a handful of its columnists and reporters.   It still puts out 'news' but much of it seems to be peddling the agenda of the powers-that-be. Its investigative reports seem shallow, lacking in any credibility and the editor's weekly column 'National Interest' seems quite the opposite.

Take for instance its strident stance on the Gen. V.K. Singh controversy, topped by that full-front-pager on an alleged coup attempt. It soon emerged that the Express was making a mountain out of a mole-hill. The paper was mocked and chided, even by fellow editors like Vinod Mehta. Instead of coming clean on coup story with some clarifications it is taking Mehta to court!  Strangely, this bit of news is published in all papers - except the Express.

On 28 April, SG's article "With Prejudice" contained a string of factual errors - especially on the role of Sikh Generals during Operation Bluestar. These errors were were pointed out in a rebuttal by M. G. Devasagayam (13 May 2012) who also went on to politely rubbish SG's notion of 'National Interest' . As in the coup-story, the newspaper made no further mention about it, confirming the suspicious that the editor was again taking through his hat, and hoping that the readers suffer from chronic amnesia.

In his latest piece, "The 24th Chief", SG tries to counter a charge made by Gen. Singh that "for journalists, nothing is off-the-record". He says first that journos too have their ethics, that they would never betray anybody's trust. Then, hiding behind a quote from another hack, he adds a veiled threat - that "if a story is good, it will come out", confirming just the point Gen. Singh had made in his interviews.

So much for the 'Journalism of Courage'.

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LINKS / REFERENCES:

Gupta, Shekhar (2012): With Prejudice, Indian Express, 28 April 2012, URL - http://www.indianexpress.com/news/national-interest-with-prejudice/942607/

Devasagayam, M.G (2012): With No Prejudice, Indian Express, 19 May 2012, URL - http://www.indianexpress.com/news/with-no-prejudice/951159

Rangaswami, Anant (2012): Express Asks for the Mother of All Embarassments, First Post, 16 May 2012 - URL - http://www.firstpost.com/india/indian-express-asks-for-the-mother-of-all-embarrassments-311393.html

Gupta, Shekhar (2012): The 24th Chief, IE 2 Jun 2012, URL - http://www.indianexpress.com/news/the-24th-chief/956732/0

May 2012: Links of the Month

* Hill, David (2012): 8,200+ Strong, Researchers Band Together To Force Science Journals To Open Access, URL - http://singularityhub.com/2012/03/18/8200-strong-researchers-band-together-to-force-science-journals-to-open-access/

* Etymology: Tikhana = Feudal holding of a Thakur!
http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1525/aa.1959.61.1.02a00390/pdf


* Mehta, Bhanu Pratap (2012): THE SIN OF LITTLENESS, IE 29May12 - URL - http://www.indianexpress.com/news/sin-of-littleness/954929/
- Contagion of small-mindedness...mismatch between responsibility and the character of those being called to exercise it.
- Behind every economic problem lies a political one...behind most political problems there is a psychological one, a set of inchoate sentiments that undrlie action: insecurities that warp judgement, fears that lead to inhibition, pettiness that leads to destruction.


* Subramanian, Samanth (2012): The Outlier - The inscrutable politics of Subramanian Swamy, Caravan 1May12 - URL - http://www.caravanmagazine.in/Story.aspx?Storyid=1389&StoryStyle=FullStory

* Mehta, Bhanu Pratap (2012): COMIC STRIPPED, IE 16May12 - URL - http://www.indianexpress.com/news/comic-stripped/949754/0
- ...Reflects the ultimate triumph of sullenness over humour, cowardice over liberty, conformism over individuality.
- Part of the problem is that we become defenders of free intellectual inquiry only when someone else’s sentiments are outraged.
- There are several reasons:
(1) most community identities in our politics are constituted by a narrative of victimhood
(2) the things that unite groups are icons, not thought. Thought is dangerous, because it can potentially create disagreements...For icons to live thought has to die; for Gods to be worshipped their presence has to be abstract.
(3) we have a public culture that produces two different kinds of insecurities - The first is political insecurity...The second insecurity is that our intellectual cultures don’t have a shared basis for conversation. Like politicians, our authority has also been established by group think rather than shared protocols of professional excellence.


* Varshney, Ashutosh (2012): ARE THE STATES TOO STRONG? IE, 24May12 p10 - URL  - http://www.indianexpress.com/news/are-the-states-too-strong/953004/
- At the time of the French Revolution less than 50% of Frenchmen spoke French
- SL&Y - 'If states have strong teritorially based diversity, they need to internalise the state-nation, not the nation-state concept
- The simultaneous persuit of recognising diversity and building unity is not an easy task

* Raghavan, Srividhya (2012): Imprisoning the consumer behind a digital firewall, The Hindu, 23 May 12 -
- Digital Rights Management


* Sollo Chaudhury: The Indian who drove around the world in 80 days. Then, when the British Army beat his record by 40 days, he went to regain his GBWR title by driving around the world in 39 days!
-  http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/home/sunday-toi/A-race-against-time/articleshow/1844674506.cms
- http://www.telegraphindia.com/1030813/asp/nation/story_2259074.asp
- http://www.daijiworld.com/news/printer.asp?nid=24525


* Kerala Budget 2012: Nearly Bankrupt But High Education Spends - Deccan Chronicle (12Jan12) -
-  total overseas remittance was approximately Rs 50,000 crore in 2011.
Unemployment rates in rural Kerala were as high as 15.8% in 2004-05 even though it eased to 9% in 2009-10. The corresponding figures for urban areas were 19.9% and 8.3% respectively.


* Tiwari, Shivanand (2012): WHAT IS YOUR CASTE?, IE 7May12 p10
- Bangau Laxman and K.Balakrishnan are being prosecuted because they are Dalits (article by Bihari Brahmin!)

* Nair, Karthika (2012): Poems -- Uttaraa- Life Sentences, The Caravan 5May12 - http://www.caravanmagazine.in/Story/1393/Uttaraa--I.-Life-Sentences.html

* PIB - Trends in Unemployment - http://www.pib.nic.in/newsite/erelease.aspx?relid=82928
> Urban highest - Tripura 17%, Nagaland 9%, Kerala
> rural highest - Chandigadh 24%, Nagaland 10%

* Desai, Megnad (2012): Respectfully Yours, IE 6May12, Indian Express Eye, 6 May12 - http://www.indianexpress.com/news/respectfully-yours/945865/
- The British newspapers watch their MPs like hawks. It was they who discovered the scandal of MPs’ expenses and pursued the matter relentlessly till four MPs had to go to jail....They are mocked at, lampooned, reviled and treated like cases fit for the lunatic asylum. 


* Khan (2012): Symphony for Kabul, Indian Express, Sunday Eye - http://www.indianexpress.com/news/a-symphony-for-kabul/945874/


TED VIDEOS

- TED - Brenda Braithwaite: Gaming for Understanding

- TED - Joe Smith: How to Use a Paper Towel 

- TED - Larry Smith: Why you will fail your career

Valorization of Expediency?

What on earth is "valorization of expediency"??

I always look forward to reading OpEd articles by Bhanu Pratap Mehta. In his latest piece, 'Sin of Littleness', he discusses a 'contagion of small-mindedness' in public life. He laments that ideas have been replaced by vendettas, the future with past resentments, constructive engagement with rank cynicism.

Without dwelling on specifics, he discusses the sense of insecurity among our leaders and their loss of authority. So far so good...but the subsequent analyses talks of 'formations of power', 'zeitgist which equates expediency with innovation...expediency redounding on itself', and, finally, the last straw - 'valorization of expediency'.

By now the newspaper in my hand feels like a heavy academic journal, and the big words remind me of Amitabh Bachchan in Amar Akbar Antony.

What was BPM trying to say?

If one goes back to the words with a dictionary in hand, it could mean, "to give a value to self-serving means".

That is some progress but I am not there yet...

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NB: According to Google, this expression also figures in a literary article titled, Stephen Cope - As if Objectivist: Oppen’s Political Epistemophelia: "...Ezra Pound’s valorization of the expediency for poetry of ideogrammic script is only the most exemplary of High Modernist bids...". 

Sunday Birds

How many birds can be spotted on a Delhi summer morning?

White-throated Kingfisher (Halcyon smyrensis)

Indian Robin

Rosy Starlings??

Black Drongo (Dicrurus macrocercus)

House Sparrow

Ashy Prinia

Crested Lark (female)

Purple Sunbird (male)

Rock Pigeon (Columba livia)

Green Bee-eater (Merops orientalis)

Others in the spotted-but-not-shot category:

• White-brown Bush Robin (Tarsinger indicus)
• Coppersmith Barbet (Megalaima haemacephala)
• Indian Grey Hornbill (Ocyceros birostris)
• Common Hoopoe (Upupa epops - wonder what the Latin means?!?)
• Asian Koel (Eudynamys scolopacea)
• Rose-ringed Parakeet (Psittacula krameri)
• Indian Swiftlet (Collocalia unicolor)
• White-rumped Needletail (Zoonavena sylvatica) 
• Hume's Owl (Strix butleri) --- not sure: to be confirmed
• Laughing Dove (Streptopelia senegalensis)
• Yellow-footed Green Pigeon (Treron phoenicoptera)
• Shikra (Accipiter badius)
• Black-shouldered Kite (Elanus caeruleus)
• House Crow (Crovus splendens)
• Large-billed Crow (Corvus macrorhynchos)
• Asian Brown Flycatcher (Muscicapa dauurica)  --- not sure: to be confirmed

Nation-States vs. State-Nations

. India has always defied conventional definitions of a Nation-State. Accoording to Max Weber (Politics as a Vocation), a State is a "a sovereign entity (that rules itself), within a defined/specific territory (in defined borders), that holds a monopoly of the legitimate use of violence in the enforcement of its order". Since it just about meets all the three criteria it qualifies to be called a "State". However, a Nation is a body of people who share a real or imagined common history, culture, identity, religion, morality, language, traditions, ethnicity or ethnic origin. It is here that things get a bit wobbly. There is not much that is shared across the whole subcontinent. And yet, it would be quite absurd to claim that India is not a Nation, let alone a Nation-State. So, if available theories does not match with existing realities, you need to have new theories and concepts. This is exactly what is being done by Alfred Stepan, Juan Linz and Yogendra Yadav through their book, "Crafting State-Nations: India and Other Multinational Democracies". The authors invert the common, hyphenated term 'Nation-States' into 'State-Nations' to explain the dominant role played by the State in forging national identities. It makes so much more sense, if you think about it: Otto von Bismarck used his guns & cannons to unite all the Germanic tribes into a State-Nation, and then went on to enforce a common identity through a common, compulsary education system and by creating new symbols of national identity. The exact same model was used by the Meiji oligarchs to unite Japan's warring factions. Ditto with Garibaldi's Italy.


In all these cases, statesmen forged states and then, nations. Once a national identity was ready, new 'nation-states' emerged. In India the process seems to be happening at a slower pace, without much of the internal turmoil or wars that accompanied the European and Japanese experience. The credit for this should perhaps be equally shared between the national civil & military services, Bollywood, the national-level universities and sports.


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LINKS / REFERENCES:
* Varshney, Ashutosh (2012): ARE THE STATES TOO STRONG? IE, 24May12 p10 - URL - http://www.indianexpress.com/news/are-the-states-too-strong/953004/ 
* Wiki - http://wiki.answers.com/Q/What_is_the_difference_between_a_state_and_a_nation#ixzz1vshmW6C3

The Ambedkar Cartoons

.
What was the big fuss about a 60-year-old cartoon being published in a school textbook?

This illustration by Shankar had led, not only to the disruption of Parliamentary proceedings but also to widespread - and at times violent - protests across the country. Things cooled down after a quick, abject apology was issued by the concerned minister, along with promises to make some amends.

My own views on this issue were reflected in another cartoon put out by Manjul:

The matter ended there - or so I thought - until I came across a thought-provoking piece by S. Anand in the Indian Express (24 May-2012). He pulls out an interview published by WSJ in which Manika Sharma, principal of Delhi's elite Shri Ram School gives expression to some of the most deep-rooted, self-defeating biases in Indian society.

Anand's article clearly drives home the point that 'images and symbols tend to have a stronger impact than words'. Worth reading.

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REFERENCES / LINKS

* Anand, S (2012): A Different Reading, Indian Express, 24 May 2012, URL - http://www.indianexpress.com/news/a-different-reading/953008/

* Anand, Geeta (2011): Class Struggle: India's Experiments in Schooling Tests Rich and Poor, Wall Street Journal, 4 June 2011, URL - http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704083904576337373758647478.html

One Round

Today, after a gap of nearly twenty years, I found myself inside the Indian Parliament building. While walking along the pillared, circular corridor I wondered: How much distance would you be covering in one round?

It is exactly 490m, according to the measuring 'tape' available on Google Earth.