Black, White and Shades of Grey

Betty had some Bitter Butter, then she made some Better Butter to make the bitter butter better butter - a popular tongue twister during my school days.

Prime Minister Modi has unravelled his Better Butter (white) to undo the Bitter Butter (black). Will the resultant still be black or be black in patches or will be one of the ‘Shades of Grey’ is too early tell. Pundits say it can’t be all white! 

It’s also emerging that the exercise is not as simple as ‘to make the bitter butter, better butter’.  

While the exercise is turning out to be tougher than alchemy for the Government led by Modi, the black money holders are finding it easy to convert their black old notes into 22 carat gold at every equally unscrupulous Jewelry shops with doors open wide 24 hours a day.

For the common man the PM’s decision hit them like a Tsunami. The people (all Indians, minus the more privileged), who had been hit, have reposed their faith that the Tsunami would eventually cleanse the filthy black shores to spotless white, have plunged into the waves with no lifebuoys on, to swim with the tide. How many of them would survive the torrid waves, nobody is sure. But so far, blissfully, the patience holds. The same people, who had earlier survived several worse global economic crises and meltdowns have tremendous trust that they could survive this Tsunami too with their infinite ability for tolerance, frugality and the native Talisman - a string of red-chilly, lemon and a piece of charcoal that they hang on their doors to keep evil and trouble out of their homes. But do they know that during the past crises they had been kept afloat by an invisible life boat called 'Black Economy' that was and is larger than the real white one, the way one sees it? And that the bottom of the invisible black (economy) boat has been targeted and torpedoed, by the same exercise that they now ardently support. And they now float on the swirling waters, hanging on to nothing more than their talisman of red-chilly, lemon and charcoal as their only insurance?

I have reasons to say this; that the frugality would peak out and still not be enough to outlast the 50 days of sacrifice they had been asked to and that the tolerance would dissipate along with their ephemeral trust! Unless, of course, the PM stays the course as per his stated will to pursue the last person with Black Money, whoever he is, wherever he is, whatever he is and whenever he had stowed his Black Money, since independence!

As I said, the people now have reasons aplenty to suspect the will of the PM, though not his motives.

For one, the people don’t see the celebrities and politicians standing in the queue at banks, clamoring for the valid currencies, new and old. Going by my personal experience, the banks strictly refuse to entertain alibis who stand-in for others to exchange their currencies or draw from their personal accounts. So are there a privileged many who are more than equal, who have their currencies exchanged in valid denominations and delivered to them in their comfort of their homes, while the rest of us are left to the mercy of the elements? That’s not fair!

For another, we see newspaper reports that huge bundles of valid new currencies (Rs. 2000 denomination) were confiscated by the officials at regular intervals. How did the racketeers get them in the first place, without the support of officials in the chain of command and control? The people’s concerns may not be about the monies seized; small fry, in spite of the fact that they are huge hauls. It requires no imagination that such currency notes clandestinely issued through the back door to the swindlers are much larger in volumes than the ones seized and probably much more than those officially issued to the general public standing in the queues. That’s not fair!

Then, there are complaints that the secret program wasn’t quite secret after all. That it had been confidentially and selectively leaked out to those in the corridors of power; the ruling party elite and their choice cronies. That’s not fair!

For one more; the ostentatious wedding! While honest people from high, middle and low in the economic order have shown willingness to sacrifice and to lead a frugal life in the next 50 days in support of the clarion call of the PM, this is proof that the wayward political / industrial nexus that was the key to the generation of black money in the first place, are gleefully and openly challenging the PM’s authority and subverting the initiative. The Reddy, who has conducted his daughter’s wedding in a flagrant manner claims he spent Rs. 30 Cr of white money. Someone has highlighted that the wedding cost a whopping Rs. 650 Cr (USD 100M) of Black Money! The truth is somewhere in between. But whatever the truth, it’s a standing example of crass violation of morality and conscience that the PM has appealed for and supported by honest citizens of India by and large. It looks like the joke is on the same honest citizens!

This poses a test of the PM’s will, ability and credibility. That the Reddy in question is a member of the BJP, the ruling party and an ex-Minister and that the he has been charged for economic offences against the nation and removed as Minister for the same reason; that his patron, Yeddiyurappa had been removed as CM and leader of the state BJP for his nexus and support of Mr. Reddy and that subsequently he had been re-instated as party leader under duress and distress by the party Managers, are facts that has not been lost on the general public. Thus this test of trust could unravel PM Modi’s will to act fair to the people who trust him.

Going by our experience, Mr. Reddy will get away with his violation with not even a slap on his wrist. The valid new currencies issued through the back door to persons with privileges handed out by the political and social structures and to swindlers of this nation would continue and grow exponentially as new ingenious ways to ferret such currencies out of the legal channels are found; even as honest, trusting folks continue to be harassed, mauled, crippled or even dead standing in the raging lines to the bank counters that are happy to shut their doors on them, while pleased to keep the back doors open.

Going by the intolerable faculty for tolerance among the populace, a great Indian Heritage since ages, the PM would get away with his failure of the test of trust. Even if he happened to unearth an iota of the Black Money that exist, his ever reliable PR managers will blow it up along with their trumpets and the innocent trusting public will be pleased and honor him with votes.

Whatever the resultant Shade of Grey, the color of the new money (Rs. 2000 note) is brighter pink than the old Rs. 1000 note and double the value too. To that extent, the economy is in better ‘pink of health’ and a ‘rosier’ future is assured for us.

Jallikattu - of Frightened Bulls, Students with Viking Horns and Old Men on Steroids

I hope the arguments against and for Jallikkattu in Tamil Nadu, India aren’t over and the verdict isn’t out yet; they have been just adjourned. I have heard that voices of reason get submerged between noises of anger. So I am trying to sneak past my views on the emotions and nostalgia at play when the tempers have been relatively cooled.

There had been several arguments on the issue. The one I remember most against the sport(?) is a photograph of a tamer bull, shivering in fright at the gates, ready to be released in the middle of, what it believes as a murderous crowd, booing, baying and lusting for its blood. It is reminiscent of gladiator combats where unarmed slaves and captured fighters were pitted against ferocious animals and Sabre rattling warriors when blood and gore overflowed for the pleasure of royalty and to entertain the people.

I remember the stand out argument in favor of the ‘sport’; it’s just a traditional sport, with more stress on ‘traditional’ than ‘sport’; no bulls are harmed, none of the men are armed, no bloodshed out there, and that its not a murderous raging crowd, but just an excited one.

I have nothing against the bulls or its supporters, who are growing in numbers by the day. Sure it has become fashionable sport to take a shot at the word ‘tradition’ these days, even if a shot means just clicking their mouse to say ‘yes’ from the comfort of their couches. I have watched much worse sports among humankind played out there, without involving the pitiable animals. Boxing for one; there is more blood shed and more deaths due to boxing than Jallikkattu. I have also seen a human in a similar plight, tamer than the bull in question, ready to head into a crowd of muscular helmeted men, who were ready to overpower him by sheer might and weight, unmindful of the bruises and broken bones they could inflict on him. The tamer being, un-rattled by the might and weight staked up against is determined to charge forward and to outwit and outrun them without giving the combined power-pack of his antagonists a chance to smother him down. When he instinctively manages to slip past the muscular cordon and touch the other end, he scents victory. For him, there’s no scent sweeter than this. We all know this sport to be either ‘American Football’ or Rugby. Should these sports be banned too along with Jallikkattu? How is a human bruise lesser unkinder than a cut on a bull?

Do the bulls that succeed in reaching the other end without being tamed, feel similarly victorious and elated? Why not! All living beings are driven by the same basic instincts of fear, their response to fear and the sense of pride in slipping out of the perceived jaws of death. Such a moment surely should be a source of pride for them. They should feel re-invigorated after such a bout after all. If they are conquered at a Jallikattu meet, it still doesn’t do a bull any harm, because they are not dead or at the end of the day as they probably would have feared. They are most likely not even injured badly, save a bruise here and there. They also possibly feel good about the number of adversaries they felled or slipped past during their run.

Closer home at Mumbai, we see different version of the same sport being played at least four times everyday by millions of tamer human mortals everyday, without any activists, politicians, media and the courts bating an eyelid; venue: the electric trains. If anyone does bate something, it is the children, who bate their breath in fear before they lunge forward into the surging crowds to either aboard or to alight from the trains to their schools or other destinations. At the end of the run, or say plunge, they are squeezed, straightened, bent, crushed, choked, torn apart, bruised and injured every time; not to speak of having been assaulted, modesty outraged, pilfered of shopped goods and pick-pocketed; just as one of the several legally payable surcharges on top of the already paid heavy taxes. I suggest that the school uniforms be modified to include with Viking Horns, so the dread in the eyes of the threatened children will be noticed by the activists so that they can raise a cry of shame and pain, they feel towards the fortunate bulls.

Back home in Chennai, I heard a gentle old man say a few months earlier that he takes steroids to reinvigorate him after a peak hour travel in one of those over crowded city buses. The last time I met him a few days earlier, he said that he now takes his steroids before he undertakes the travel and not afterwards. He reminded me of the charges that the bulls are being put on steroids and drugs. Whichever the Jallikattu, there should be no flagrant use of steroids and drugs.

The one who hasn’t seen fear in the eyes of school children in the Mumbai trains and the infirm on the Chennai buses while stepping in and out , should cast the first stone on the sport of ‘Jallikattu’.

If there was something inhuman about Jallikattu, then the cruelty started when man began domesticating animals robbing them of their natural environs, stealing nature’s order of ‘survival of the fittest’, where everyday they have to slip past, if not fight back predators at the higher level of the food chain. In any case, these animals if returned to their rightful natural environs will have to play ‘Jallikkattu’ of a more fatal kind. Most of them would not survive a single day’s run, far from being venerated before and after a run, success or not. I’m inclined to think that through the sport of Jallikkattu, for a day or two a year, the bulls would feel surcharged and fighting fit, having tasted their natural environs though diluted in scope. Here I have to remind of the decision of the Government of Tamil Nadu to send the temple elephants on a vacation for a week every year to their natural environments in the forests so they would feel invigorated. This was appreciated by all.

What is this article to highlight the problem, if it does not have a solution? Yes, I have one. :-)

Before human intervention, the bulls were born free to compete and fight among other bulls to win over a cow of their choice. They do not tend to curb their natural instincts for the fear that they could be ‘bullied’ by others of their species and probably for the fear of being gored to death. But domestication and commercialization has robbed them of their opportunity to display their natural instincts to fight and win their mates. My idea is to make the sport more rewarding for the bulls. Instead of running without a purpose, other than to save their skin, let them run for this reward. Let’s house a number of healthy, fertile cows in an open field at the end of the bull-run path and let the bulls know that they could select their partner of affections from among them. See the lust in their eyes as they wait to charge out of the gates, not fear. I’m sure that they would join the fun fest. Let the game continue through the night in the pseudo-natural environs where the strongest of them would fight and win the lick of their favored mates. I would caution that the humans who trespass their path wear body armor and helmet to protect themselves from the ‘vigour’ous bulls that could toss, trample or ignore them in their run for their mate.

I also hope the activists lined up against ‘Jallikkattu’ would feel assuaged that the balance of power, purpose and fun have been firmly established between the bulls and the men.

pun'nily yours

 Ravi Krish