It's a term which has caught my fancy - Open to Interpretation. This term, I heard in the Vodafone Plc. chief's speech a couple of days back, when he came out with the statement that Indian laws in FDI are not clear and 'open to interpretation.'

Coming down to the root cause of the chaos that India is, in general and also in all the environments it supports, spiritual, social, economic or for that matter political - the whole Indian system is 'Open to Interpretation'

In everything that happens in India, people choose to interpret things the way they want to, and behind this very generic cover, several shady activities thrive which have been an eyesore not just for the world in general but also to the citizens in particular.

Look at the way the Indian legal system runs. All it's laws are archaic, and totally irrelevant to today's times. Yet no one wants to change them. Simply because behind these laws, the dirty underbelly of the Indian system hides effectively.

Just like a chameleon, that interprets the surroundings and turns itself into the surroundings, so also, the Indian governance has acquired this art of interpreting the laws and regulations to it's own benefit, thus hiding and carrying out it's underhand tasks there.

Being open to interpretation is even subject to the scriptures of religions esp. the Bhagavat Gita. This epic can be interpreted by several people in their own ways and it will hold true.

This applies even to the way the Indian mythology has unfolded. The Karma of this land is itself open to interpretation. Hence India per se, is Open to Interpretation.

No wonder you find so many people reading about so many aspects of this land and feeling fascinated by it because for each one of them, this land holds its own interpretation.

Boiling down from all this is one simple fact. The spirit and existence of India is open to interpretation and so also are its people and laws and governance. The only aspect that hinders this 'open to interpretation' thought process - which is the basis of the chaos that it creates - is the overlap of a logical thought process of order which runs against this free interpretation aspect.

As a result, there is so much of perceived disorder in the nation and everything that happens to its citizens.
As I mentioned in my earlier blog entry, the Karma of this land is to be in chaos, to be always turbulent and to emerge victorious out of it.
The people who inhabit it are true embodiments of this spirit of free will and bringing any forced order to it will never be possible or will not bring in positive results in the long run, for there will be some other force that will run that will be perceived to be 'against' the orderly thought process.

Hence all of us in this nation should learn to 'interpret' things for our own convenience to have a more 'fulfilling life

- with just one caveat -

keep your morality and conscience aspect in mind, so that your interpretation and its implementation does not hinder someone else's interpretation and implementation to cause a clash of an extreme kind - something similar to the old English phrase which is no longer being used anywhere in our regular lexicon -
"your freedom ends where my nose begins"

Another point going into the prove that the India story is being built on a very very weak base - a base without values, checks and balances - is the Satyam fraud story.

In my opinion, 'corporate governance' can now probably be seen as a cover for acts that companies would commit which didn't need to be in public attention and hide under this cover and still get away.
I have very grave doubts on why the Independent directors of such a company not have any moral or ethical accountability to be the whistle blowers and highlight such a fraud right upfront?

Resigning on moral grounds, leaving investors in the lurch is not an act of bravery but that of cowardice and utter contempt of trust and faith.
That such people who under the political and monetary influence agree to be on boards of companies is an utmost immoral activity but unfortunately, on the legal front, India will not have any law to prosecute such people for ages to come... simply because the laws are brought in by politicians and they eventually need to protect their self interests.

The fraud by Satyam has put a blot on the whole concept of CG in India. People will go about tom-tom-ing that probably Satyam is a one off company to have done such malpractice, but just imagine the situation - a company that received an award for CG itself has admitted to fraud.

Frankly, I might sound pessimistic like a few others but today, India's inflated position as an IT Major or whatever industry major destination has not been reached without such malpractices.

You see even the US has achieved the dubious distinction of being on top of the world as a major power, but it has not got there without committing fraud at one level or another.

The India story is hopefully not as big a sham but I think a lot of skeletons are being piled into the closet of lots of companies which have only taken advantage of the Indian political mess, lack of national governance and corruption and have duped the public which thought India is going places...

Only those who have power, money and the influence of high level connections will survive in this nation.

The rest of us, who might admit to being pessimists are probably right being so, because we are the ones who have a high regard for the Indian value system which is getting corroded and eroded due to this manic money making binge that industries are going on post the liberalization-political-game that has been unleashed on the citizens of this nation.
But we do not have the power to change the situation as we see it and hence we end up being on the pessimistic side of the coin.

We all as citizens of this nation - hard working and honest - have to be very careful of our future.

We are in really bad times and will before a long time to come unless someone at the national governance level does not take a deep hard look at where they want to take this nation.

We as honest hardworking citizens need to take a deep hard look and decide if this nation is taking us in the right direction or not.

I totally concur with M. R. Venkatesh's article on CG written some time back.

All these negative events make me conclude that the hard working honest people of this nation will have nothing to our credit till this nation has its house in order - which unfortunately is not possible for the next 100 years - even IF we survive another foreign invasion.

The chilling levels of terror that is going to unfold if not checked RIGHT NOW at a very fast pace can be gauged by this comparison of the modus operandi of training for such modules.

We have all heard that in the neighboring nation, ex army people are training the so called militants who unleash terror in various ways.

Look at the similarity of this event unfolding through the investigations in the Malegaon case. You find an Indian army guy, in service, doing just the similar thing here in India - if the investigation allegations are to be believed.

If the similarity of these two events click in your head, you see that at the ground level, the radical youth see how the militants across the border are functioning, and they are trying to replicate that model here.

Now look at the location where this seems to have originated. SIMI and Abhinav Bharat are 2 of the organizations that have been blamed so far. Both have roots in the central state of MP.
Does this mean, that the cops and intelligence in the state there are NOT aware of the simmering heat and smoke signals such activities generate?

Is M.P. becoming a hot bed of such 'criminal' activities today, esp. also because there has been a huge influx of youth from the rural parts of other states into MP given it's 'education center' tag?

Is this kind of a situation even being considered by the cops there or they are under severe political pressure to perform to the tune of the politicians and thus ignore such happenings?

In my opinion it is not possible that the intelligence and cops are not aware of this. They are aware but they are probably under some pressure from somewhere to keep quiet about it.

But if the converse is true, that if the cops are really unaware of this ground level activities of these groups when they were formed, then it is a matter of highest level of shame (if we Indians have retained the meaning of being ashamed)

- that all of us are living our lives disconnected from everything but our own selfish pleasures.

- that we common people have taken our life and our system and our degrading existance for granted and are willing to die like insects esp. in a nation which seems to have a more evolved existence in the past. (it does not mean we have to only rest on our past laurels but it shows that we don't care about our individual worth in the present)

- that all of us are no longer considering ourselves as part of this nation, but each of us is an island unto ourselves with our super Egos and our mis-conceptions and out pre-conceived notions.

- that we are just living the lives of those chaotic soap bubbles that get formed when water is agitated, only to burst up and die out - without trying to really live to our full capacities of our human form and function.

Unfortunately, this is what the terrorists are making of their own lives and spreading the cancer in all societies, esp. the ones like India where there is high vulnerability, helplessness and utmost corruption in the governance and everyone is living in their own world uncared about what happens around them - till it happens to them.

Only then they pay a little attention.. and then they get into their daily grind...

The following piece in the HT 07-10-08 reflects what people like me are going through today ..hence I present it here for you verbatim...

- about the current state of affairs of the nation and how it has impacted people like me..

The last line underscores the mindset of people like me, who feel helpless about the law and order situation around me, are seeking... and believe me, we are not insane, when we demand a gun for ours and our family protection....

are we not looking at signs of what one can call.. a civil war????

on a side note, I see a parallel between India today and the US of the past, which might have led the gun laws to be set up there 'cos I think the US has probably gone through similar times before it reached today's state.
But that does not help me today 'cos my safety is at stake and I need protection from what the state has failed to control... increasing violence and reducing value of the human life....
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Searching high and low for the law - Gautam Chikermane, (HT)

There are two forces of physics acting upon a changing India today. On the economic front, as India expands into global terrains, a centripetal force is gathering momentum, best represented by the country’s 8 per cent growth rate. This force, however, is being pulled back, through an equally strong centrifugal force that looks inward, is fragmented and savage in its execution. Caught in between are the rest of us. If economic development and mass prosperity have to be delivered, the politics of violence that the centrifugal force represents needs to die. And there lies a political opportunity for
Elections 2009.

The most high-profile wart of this centrifugal force is the Nano’s undignified exit from Singur. Last week Ratan Tata had said that Mamata Banerjee had pulled “the trigger on his head”, forcing him to move out of West Bengal to Gujarat, the trigger being his employees’ safety.
Earlier, L.K. Chaudhury, CEO of the Italian company Graziano Trasmissioni, was beaten to death by workers in Greater Noida, some 20 minutes from the national capital, with the Labour Minister subtly trying to build political capital from the crime by saying, “This should serve as a warning for managements.” (He later backtracked, but the damage was done.)
North Indians are being targeted in Mumbai by Raj Thackeray and his Maharashtra Navnirman Sena as an investment into future elections to garner jingoistic support. Churches are being burnt in Orissa and nuns raped under the blind eyes of the police while the state’s highly articulate Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik says he’s doing his job.
A young journalist dies a mysterious death in Delhi and its Chief Minister Shiela Dikshit says women should not be “adventurous” and that companies, not the police, should take responsibility for their safety.
The message from our politicians who have built walls of protection with taxpayers’ money around themselves and their families: India is,and will continue to be, run by thugs, so please watch out for yourselves.

As the rest of us take events like these in stride and get desensitised by the never-ending images on TV, permanent headlines in newspapers and infinite opinions on blogs, never has the need for law and order as the first and foremost electoral expectation of voters been so high, so acute. Law and order is something we are supposed to take for granted. It is only riding this safety infrastructure that we can do anything else — pursue jobs, buy groceries, watch films.
On the other hand, we are gradually beginning to accept lawlessness,particularly by the rich, the powerful and the organised mobs they manage to cobble, as one more dinner-table discussion — ‘Pass the death toll, please.’ As this anarchy gets political support, we are gradually being pushed into a corner, where an unvoiced frustration with governance is systematically eating into our democratic and civilised innards. With weapons in the hands of a small clutch of ineligible political aspirants, the man on the street has never been in as much physical danger as today.

Lawmakers are breaking the law as if it’s their birth right. And when stopped — as Virendra Kumar Khatik was, as he tried to barricade the arms of the law from an anti-encroachment drive, only to face collateral damage — action is taken, not against the honourable Member of Parliament for attempting to come in the way of the law, but against the junior policemen who tried to implement it. They’ve been charged with an attempt to murder and have been suspended from duty. Shed a tear for them.

Those whom voters have entrusted with democratic power and white car privileges — and with them the responsibility to provide law and order — are all but numbed into submission under this new force gathering strength, issue by issue, in state after state. Leadership at the highest levels is reeling under the weight of a moral compulsion to let people, who any right-minded person would call murderers, rapists, repeat offenders, and bad characters, have a free run on the rest of us, feed on our livelihoods, our fears. And our freedoms. (“Today, terrorists are being worshipped,” said Justice J.N. Patel referring to Raj Thackeray, who, in turn, instead of feeling the fear of the law as any law-abiding citizen should, is brazenly asking the court to “define a terrorist”.)

The CPI(M)’s West Bengal Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee virtually offered a free hand to Mamata Banerjee and her mob to stop workers seeking nothing more than an honest day’s job from working. The Congress’s Maharashtra Chief Minister Vilasrao Deshmukh is standing still, watching non-Maharashtrian citizens of India being beaten and threatened, their businesses, taxis and trade being destroyed. The Biju Janata Dal’s Orissa Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik has nothing more than lofty words to offer Christians being mauled in his state.

We, the silent majority, have allowed this small band of hoodlums to decide whether we have the right to work, to religion, to celebration, to life, to love. Too busy to look beyond the prosperity that the economic centripetal force has brought, in the form of our 2-BHKs and iPhones, we are allowing a new political culture to invade our country.
It’s almost as if we are being conquered all over again, this time by some of the smartest minds this country has produced, minds — like the smart lawyers, accountants and financial engineers who recently ran the global financial system aground — that are finding and punching holes in the law to usurp power.
A leveraged buyout is underway, where a small bunch of private interest groups cobble together to create visible damage for maximum impact. We are being forced into believing that violence is the currency of political or social intercourse in a modern, trillion-dollar economy. That if we want something bad enough, we can just go out and collect thugs. This faith needs to be destroyed. These mobs and their political masters need to be dragged under the purview of the law, before this belief system becomes a mass religion. For any responsible party, this presents a so-far ignored political opportunity. In the last elections, with a focus on economic growth, our attention moved from ‘roti-kapda-makaan’ to ‘bijli-sadak-pani’. It’s time now to go back to basics and devise a new slogan around ‘suraksha-kanoon-dand’ (safety-law-punishment) — and implement it ruthlessly. Political profits are guaranteed.

Until that happens, can anyone tell me where I can buy a gun?
(C) HT 07-10-2008

I have been attached to this city over a long time. I in a way fell for it's open grounds, spaces and greenery which have always been a part of my living times all along.
So it was probably nature that makes me connect with this city.
But with the recent times, even that connection seems to be wearing off.
The city wears a deserted look, with all the big trees, 50-100 yr old trees being felled for want of space.

I have lately reached a conclusion that this city is on the verge of going into negative growth in real terms than really showing all round growth.

I will explain with simple instances of locations which anyone would assume would have changed positively over the last 10 yrs. But unfortunately, the situation is in the exact opposite.

before I write anything about the locations or the city in general, I must admit that the attitude of the citizens of this city has degraded to the worse that one can experience.
The reasons are many - the city has an influx of people from the nearby villages (which themselves are in the state of becoming small towns or extensions of towns).
The citizens have a VERY HIGH LEVEL of immaturity written all over their face and they inherit the aggressiveness that comes with this immaturity.

The citizens have very limited levels of patience and those who belong to the uncivilised gentry have no patience at all.
I have had instances when people would ram their bikes into mine though i am right at the edge of the traffic and then turn around showing aggression lest their show gets spoilt.

On the other hand, the apathy also has increased towards any incident. There have been incidents where people have been hit by vehicles or have been attacked at the slightest provocation and the rest have just watched the duel unfold.

People carry knives and sickles which they have no qualms about taking out at the time of any slight altercation to show their might, and they would not think twice using it either 'cos the law and order has taken a back seat and takes no action on erring citizens. money power has come to rule the roost as in most cities of the country.

coming to the degrading situation of public attitude, the locations which are these symbols of deteriration are
a. Jail road - the junction and the area around there has turned into a virtual mayhem. Especially the signal where there is no order in following the rules of traffic.
People do not care about pedestrians at any place in the city, esp. now with the city roads being dug up or being dug out since ages, where there seems no scope for any road to exist and unruly people driving bikes, scooters, autos and 4 wheelers consider the road their sole domain to drive.
Imagine a 100 thousand people thinking this way on narrow streets and you have the situation of the city roads and junctions.

On top of this, the parking of vehicles has assumed hugely mismanaged proportions.
The city has NO parking system. You would find streets where people have parked bikes, hapazardly, and next to the bikes, you would find 2 rows of cars parked. Effectively a 40 ft road is reduced to a 10 ft for both sides of traffic, with SUVs and cars and autos not only plying along those roads but also making random U-turns and reversing to get into bylanes where there is virtually no parking rule.

Another aspect of driving esp. at night is that everyone drives with their headlights on high-beam. On top of this, there are some folks who, in order to show off their new found immaturity put white neon headlamps and drive with full high beam, virtually blinding people driving on the opposite side. Esp. since there are no road dividers, the chances of one individual getting blinded and tailgating the one in front is very high.

Being the centrally located state of the nation, and being geographically located in a plateau with the Narmada river serving most of it's water needs - the Malwa Plateau, MP, and it's cities had an advantage for almost all kinds of industries.
Unfortunately, the lack of political will and focus on some real development for the state has landed this state into more of a dependent status than being independent and contributing to the nations' GDP.
Though things are likely to change, it takes a huge amount of time in this state to take decisions, most of them being passed around like a bucket of popcorn.
The Global Investor's meet in Indore, that the MP government called for last year should have probably taken off in a huge way, had things really been moved positively.
Several reknowned people and companies did agree to participate then. I was not able to find out about any further details on the success of the meet and any action items highlighted in the same.
Things still are at a very basic level of planning even today, and implementation details are thus awaited.
On a personal note, I know of one company - SemanticBITS which wanted to invest in Indore, but has backed out and decided to locate in Hyderabad. I'd say, a loss for the state. Another level of loss comes from the relocation of existing companies like CSC, who, finding infrastructure development very slow have decided to get most of their work moved to locations like Hyderabad, Chennai and Noida.

I hope though that the state does a lot more to invite companies, esp. by ensuring quick deployment of infrastructure and power and zero red-tapism for companies to set up and do uninterrupted business in the state.

All over the world, one thing that really stands out in stark contrast is the amount of destruction that mankind unleashes in the name of development.
So also, in a city like this, I was appalled when I came across the fact that the so called city planners were totally unprepared at the influx of people into the city and over the last 5 years or so, have unleashed unplanned development projects in the city... at the cost of high amounts of destruction - of nature.

The first prime targets of all development are the lungs of a city, the trees.

The destruction of trees in Indore began almost 4 years back, at various locations including the existing A.B.Road which passed outside the erstwhile old Indore city. The excuses given by the city planners was that the trees were a hindrance for development and hence they must go....

I wonder what kind of qualified planners these people are that they failed to recognise the need for building their designs around existing natural structures than destroying the structures to the extent that the whole city feels the impact.
Almost 40 odd trees were cut down on the Starlit road to widen it to accomodate more traffic and more commercial structures.
Around 100 odd trees were cut down on the A.B.Road all along from the outer ring road on the South till Scheme 74 on the North, under some plan, where they were to widen the road.
But today, the plan has been scrapped and no one has bothered to calculate and consider the loss they have unleashed by destroying trees that were probably more than 100 yrs old.

Open lands have been usurped by the builder politician nexus, killing the real spirit of progress for the city.

Unfortunate again, that the common citizen in that part of the country is one who seeks for his self, there is no collective conscience that the citizens bring together to ensure that their city preserves it's charm at least for the sake of the Nature that it was known for;

Shab-e-malwa - the glorified evening of Malwa - an erstwhile oft repeated Urdu phrase that described succinctly the glory of the breezy evenings of the Malwa plateau that Indore is part of, now no longer retains it's meaning or charm.
The balmy breezy evenings have been replaced by hot dusty winds that bring in dust covering everything in it's path, turning the landscape into a bleak, dreary, hot parched brown cover.
So much so the price to pay for development in once upon a time beautiful city.