Bombs are obsolete

JAMES CARROLL “60 years of faulty logic” on March 12 2007:

“……………….Last week, the Bush administration announced plans for the first new nuclear weapon in more than 20 years, a program of ultimately replacing all American warheads. So much for the nuclear elimination toward which the United States is legally bound to work by the Nuclear Non-proliferation Treaty. Washington simultaneously assured Russia and China that this renewal of the nuclear arsenal was no cause for them to feel threatened. Hello? Russia and China have no choice but to follow the US lead, inevitably gearing up another arms race. It is 1947 all over again. A precious opportunity to turn the world away from nuclear weapons, and away from war, is once more being squandered -- by America.”

Artist : Rober J. Day The New Yorker 18 Aug 1945

p.s. On August 6, 1945, the nuclear weapon "Little Boy" was dropped on the city of Hiroshima, followed on August 9, 1945 by the detonation of the "Fat Man" nuclear bomb over Nagasaki.

Did Day finish his picture before or after Aug 6, 1945?

Bringing up Berlin

JAMES CARROLL “60 years of faulty logic” on March 12, 2007:

“SIXTY YEARS AGO today, Harry Truman went before a joint session of Congress to announce what became known as the Truman Doctrine. "At the present moment in world history, nearly every nation must choose between alternative ways of life."

With that, an era of bipolarity was inaugurated, dividing the world between forces of good and evil.

The speech amounted, as one of Truman's advisers characterized it, to a declaration of religious war. In the transcendent struggle between Moscow and Washington, "nonalignment" was not an option. Truman declared that the United States would actively support "free" people anywhere who were resisting either internal or external threats to that freedom. The "free world" was born, but so, eventually, were disastrous wars in Korea and Vietnam.

The occasion of Truman's pronouncement was his decision to militarily support one side in the civil war in Greece, and with that, the deadly precedent of American intervention in foreign civil wars was set. Fear of communism became a driving force of politics and a justification for vast military expenditures…….”

Gore Vidal is one of the sanest American voice still occasionally heard.

When he was asked if cold war was complete illusion, he said : “ No, it was a complete fact. But it was based on an illusion that the Russians were coming. This was the propaganda that never ever let up, until finally Gorbachev dissolved the whole story. We had maintained the myth in order to keep 51% of the US budget for a military which has no enemy. “

Berlin was a shining symbol of the Cold war. ( Remember, JFK’s "Ich bin ein Berliner”?)

Many conversations were ruined by the very mention of it!

Artist: Alan Dunn The New Yorker 29 July 1961

The desert is in my heart

Global warming, pollution have now become household words. Partly because they now are part of our children’s curriculum. Partly because our lives seem to be affected by some of them. Summers start early, winters never arrive.

It is also because we can blame some one else for it! Just like the way we blame all ills in our society on politicians. It is sooooooooooo convenient.

But our greed is responsible for global warming. Mahatma Gandhi asked us to simplify our habits. We are constantly engaged in complicating them. We want larger houses. Larger cars. Larger air conditioners, many clothes, footwears...............

Remember what T S Eliot said:

“The desert is not remote in southern tropics,
The desert is not only around the corner,
The desert is squeezed in the tube-train next to you,
The desert is in the heart of your brother.”

Swaminathan S Anklesaria Aiyar has an interesting take on our fondness of cars - "The hidden social cost of vehicles” Times of India March 25,2007:

“……….There is little appreciation among politicians or the middle class of the huge social cost of cars. They cannot see that huge subsidies, mostly hidden, are being ladled out to car-owners. These need to be abolished and replaced with user charges or taxes that reflect the full social cost of cars. The Left front, which once supported high taxes on petrol, now acts as though petrol is a Fundamental Right. So does Sonia Gandhi……I am not among those who want cars to be abolished and replaced entirely by buses and trams. Public transport has an important place in cities, but so does private transport. I believe in the freedom of people to travel where and when they want. But this freedom imposes a wide array of hidden costs on a city economy, and car-owners should pay these costs in full. Otherwise we will be subsidising pollution, fuel adulteration, congestion, respiratory disease, and the disappearance of green spaces”

Artist: Joseph Farris The New Yorker 5 Dec 1964

Is Indian cricket going the hockey way?

There is a lot of talk on these lines in Indian media- Times of India 29 March 2007 by Bobilli Vijay Kumar, No less than Arun Nehru Asian Age March 30 2007.

Implicit in this is argument is: cricket CAME hockey way.

Did it? No.

Hockey has always been played by many Europeans nations since its debut in 1908 Olympics. India was at number one in the sport from 1928 to 1960- winning 30 games on the trot at Olympics while losing none, scoring 197 goals while taking only 8. After losing to Pakistan in 1960, India reclaimed the gold at Tokyo 1964. Even after 1964, Indian Hockey did quite well, claiming two Olympic bronze medals and World Cup in Malaysia. Its decline started with 1976 Montreal Olympics.

Cricket, on the other hand, was never played by more than handful nations. Even then India can boast of very few great results– 1971 series win against England in England (England had just beaten Australia in Australia), 1971 series win against WI in WI, 1983 World Cup and 1985 World Series victory in Australia. Out of these only the last two could be compared to Olympic gold.

Indian hockey is surely in wilderness today but it truly has a glorious past. I am not sure if the same can be said of Indian cricket.

Our cricketers are rich. Our cricket bodies and their bosses are richer. In our country, like Americans, we increasingly associate wealth with personal merit. Therefore, once the dust settles down on India’s world cup performance, we surely will find tons of merit in all our wealthy boys.

vulgar and prurient and dumb interests

David Foster Wallace : "TV is not vulgar and prurient and dumb because the people who compose the audience are vulgar and dumb. Television is the way it is simply because people tend to be extremely similar in their vulgar and prurient and dumb interests and wildly different in their refined and aesthetic and noble interests."

Michael Crichton “Airframe” (1996)

“…..A lot of people complain that television lacks focus. But that's the nature of the medium. Television's not about information at all. Information is active, engaging. Television is passive. Information is disinterested, objective. Television is emotional. It's entertainment. Whatever he says, however he acts, in truth Martin has absolutely no interest in you, or your company, or your airplanes. He's paid to exercise his one reliable talent: provoking people, getting them to make an emotional outburst, to lose their temper, to say something outrageous. He doesn't really want to know about airplanes. He wants a media moment. If you understand that, you can deal with him.”

Viewer is disgusted that tonight he will not perhaps get his media moment!


Artist : Richard Decker The New Yorker 27 oct 1956

Please don't start another triology!

My son is Harry Potter nut. He used to spend a lot of time on HP before we put some restrictions.

I have mixed feelings on the subject of HP. HP is a clever mix of what children seek in their real life and fantasies. It is good but it gets more mind share of children than it deserves. It also is highly addictive. Like Pokemon or tomato ketchup.

Indian media too plays a big role in promoting HP. My son recently attended a quiz organized by Times of India. To our horror, it was dominated by questions on HP. Children were asked questions on personal life of author J. K. Rowling and they knew the answers! I am not sure we want our son to attend such a quiz again.

Therefore, I am also tempted to howl to J. K. Rowling : “Think of the children. Please don’t start another trilogy”
Artist : Richard Decker The New Yorker 10 Sept 1955

Isn’t there enough trouble in the world already?

I love science. But my favourite rant is importance of soft skills more than science.

Gandhiji, Vinoba Bhave विनोबा भावे and Sane Guruji साने गुरुजी wanted us to focus on soft skills to build tolerant and healthy society. Society free of corruption and communal hatred. Society that is compassionate. Society free of dogma and superstition. Society that respects manual and intellectual works equally. (on the last point, read Vinoba Bhave’s brilliant Marathi essay on Sage Agastya who gave equal importance to both brain and brawn)

Shiv Vishwanathan “… Science today is a creature of market or state. It is seen as the IT of Azim Premji and Chandrababu Naidu without asking how cyberspace and justice can unite. But there is no sense of fun, no invitation to ask why the sky is blue, or why a top spins or why a boomerang moves the way it does. We need to go back to our inventive history and bring science back into the celebration called culture, to create a science as inventive as our music or dance, a science that celebrates 40,000 varieties of rice and ensures they do not become a monoculture of five to 10 species.”

I think as a nation we worry only about technical areas of education. Is it good for us in the long run?

Therefore, I am tempted to ask my 13 year old son…………
Artist: Rea Gardner The New Yorker 10 Nov 1945

It's just stuff. Not Abdul.

In movie “American Beauty” (1999), protagonist Lester Burnham, played by Kevin Spacey, tells his wife:
“This isn't life, it's just stuff. And it's become more important to you than living. Well, honey, that's just nuts.”

Many times we forget this. We think the stuff defines us. We think the elephants we ride define us.

No wonder others don’t recognize us without them!
Artist: Richard Decker The New Yorker 17 Nov 1945

Go to hell

Indian media had big plans to splurge printing ink, advertisers' money, precious electricity and our time for another month or so in the name of cricket. Alas! Indian team put a spanner in the works.

But media are fighting back.

Now, they want to poll cricket fans on various issues afflicting Indian cricket. Just like exit polls during elections, you have plethora of cricket polls.... Tendulkar, Dravid, Ganguly, Dalmia, Pawar, Vengsarkar, Sandip Patil, Wright, Sidhu, Jadeja, Yuvraj Singh etc etc.

No one has called me so far. But if they do.............

Artist: Robert J. Day The New Yorker 19 Feb 1938

"One billion people, yes. But how many human beings?”

During last several weeks, I often heard: “A billion people are praying for India’s success at world cup cricket.”
In the past, I may have let it pass. Not so this time. (Thankfully I have still not heard: Two billion eyes are watching cricket).

Neither my wife nor I were praying.

Since our maid- Sunita- who was borne in Pune district and has been living in Pune city since her marriage (much before she turned 18!)- is also part of that billion, I asked her if she prayed for such a cause.

Her response was startling: “Dajee, what is cricket?”

Sunita’s husband – an able bodied male- refuses to work. She has two kids. She has no electricity at home. Her kids attend private school because she thinks subsidized public schools are rotten and are bad influence on her children. With her meager income, Sunita looks after family of five including her old father-in-law. Her dwelling in nearby slum is registered in the name of her father-in-law. If he were to die, Sunita is not sure about her fate because her relations with husband are so soured that she refuses to sleep with him.

If at all Sunita prays, it is for longevity of her father-in-law.

I think we neo-rich and our media are just getting carried away. Let us remember that in this land there are still more Sunita’s than us.

“One billion people, yes. But how many human beings?”
Artist : William O'Brian The New Yorker 14 Nov 1964