India After Gandhi !!

I always tell my friends that I don't read as much as I'd like to. I attribute it mainly to the fact that I'm an out-and-about kinda guy. Every single day (even a work day) is packed with so many outdoor activities and there are so many things that I need to follow (like sports, politics, movies, economics, technology etc) that whatever leisure time I get I tend to spend it on these activities.

But over the last month or so I've managed to find the time to read 2 books. The first one was 'Too Big To Fail' which I read en-route to my brother's place in Arkansas (there's not much else you can do on a plane that's not much bigger than a bus !!). That book was just too good to put down. A true page-turner. Its a behind-the-scenes account of the financial meltdown. Awesome awesome read!! I highly recommend it to anyone with even a scintilla of interest in finance & economics.

But this post is for the second book. It's titled 'India After Gandhi'. And if the title didn't make it amply clear it's the story of India after the demise of Gandhi. In the foreword the author rightly points out that all history books in India seem to climax with the independence of India in 1947. We are 60 years past that point. But we don't have a book that chronicles the issues and challenges India has faced since.

This book describes the affair between India and it's destiny after their famous tryst on the 15th Aug 1947. India's problems did not end that day with the attainment of liberty. As the leaders of that time were to find out, they had just started.

The book talks abouts how independence came not to "one" but to "two nations". The anguish that was caused by the partition. Countless people died, countless became refugees, lives changed forever. It details the plight of refugees from both East & West Pakistan. I came to know so many things I had absolutely no idea about.

Then there was the onerous task of including the various "princely states" to the Indian union. It was as the author puts it "the hottest of all the hot potatoes of the time". Also the herculean task of drafting a new constitution. A constitution that had to take into consideration the aspirations of a multitude of communities, religions, classes & regions and had to allay the fears of minorities in a Hindu dominant nation.

In 1952 the first general elections were held. This was a formidable challenge to say the least. The issue of Kashmir was still unsettled in the 50s (remains unsettled till date). The book also talks about how the Congress leaders had always professed the formation of states based on language but how after independence they thought it wouldn't be wise to divide the nation, already marred by a bloody partition, any further . And how they eventually had to give in to the numerous protests in favor of linguistic states. How the leaders of the time handled the Naga rebellion, the Hindu Civil Code and India's foreign policy.

I've been through just one portion of the book up till now. I must say reading it drains you. It's not one of those books you can read for pleasure but a book that you should read nonetheless. I look forward to reading the rest of it !!

If you do too then we should talk afterwards.

India Burning !!

I sit in a far-off place, look at the plight of my country and shake my head in disbelief.

Another 100 people died in an incident last week. Some say that it was the work of the Maoists. Some say otherwise. The needle of suspicion has still not settled. Unsurprisingly politics is acting as the spring.

I read about the twin sisters, Shirin and Sharmin, who died in the accident. They were going to visit Mumbai for the first time and were mighty excited. Sadly they took the journey of no return. Anyone who outcries for the human rights of the Maoists or tries to romanticize their rebellion should have had one look at the girls' cherubic faces. Smashed by metal and smeared with blood they lay there in the wreckage.

What is this? What's wrong with these people ?!

Be it the "fake democracy" that Ms. Roy has been carping about. Or be it the excesses committed by the govt in the past. No reason is reason enough to do this. No cause is good enough for expiation.

Now we have to understand that we are a relatively 'young' nation. We are bound to have some problems. Every nation does. The US even after 150 years of its independence had problems of segregation and racial discrimination. I mention this since their situation then was quite akin to our situation now. The blacks were left to struggle in the dungeons of poverty & segregation while the whites enjoyed the fruits of the nation's progress. Similar reasons have been cited by the Maoists for their struggle.

What we need to see though is how they came out of it. Not by killing policemen & sabotaging trains. Not by burning bridges either. But through acts of non-violent protests and civil disobedience. Their acts engendered crisis situations which highlighted the inequities between the two races and entailed immediate action by the govt.

There were protests like the Montgomery Bus Boycott and the Greensboro sit-ins. The whole movement was largely non-violent. And they did it in the face of severe oppression and violence from the whites.

Call me naive but I think that Gandhi guy had the idea right. So did King Jr.

An eye for an eye would leave the whole world blind !!

But who's gonna tell the Maoists ?! Ms. Roy ?!

Yeh Dil Maange More !!

There's something about Bernie Madoff !! At first glance, he does not come across as the most striking personality in the group. If anything he is understated and unassuming. Not at all flashy. He's not somebody you'd be able to trust your money with easily, just for the sheer lack of flair that he exhibits.

But people still did. That's because when you watch closely you notice the demeanor of a man who's got everything under control. Who whether speaks or not, is still the man in-charge in the room. Being powerful is like being a lady, if you have to tell people you are, you probably aren't. And that's why Bernie prefers to keep mum. Whenever I watch him on TV, I always feel that he's still got another card up his sleeve and he'd probably get out of this unscathed, barring his reputation of course.

Surely Madoff is not the kind of person one would expect, leave alone suspect, of doing what he did. Running the biggest Ponzi scheme of all times. The Wall Street always knew there were skeletons in it's closet. But when something like this came out with Madoff's name associated with it, it's surprise and shock element swelled that much more.

Madoff has served as the chairman of the NASDAQ in the past. It was one thing that he pushed for greater accountability and transparency in the business during that time. Quite another that behind closed doors he himself was hatching the biggest fraud of our times.

Well, I have read a lot about Madoff and people have got numerous things to say about him. One thing that resounds through all their views and opinions is that Bernie was a "smart" and a "decent" man.

A trading expert, Jim Angel has this to say of him. "Here's somebody who didn't need to start a scam to become a multi millionaire many times over. And yet apparently there must have been some 'flaw' in his makeup that led him to get into this mess and to dig himself deeper and deeper."

Makes me wonder what this 'flaw' really was. Was it an urge to show the world how smart he was? If not through his work then through his duplicity. Did it all start out as a mere gamble and then turned into a compulsive exercise to gain approval and adulation of his clients. Since he could not give a performance commensurate to the applause, he decided to sham. He surely would have known that his luck would run out soon but still he didn't stop. What made him squander, with wanton disregard, the money of numerous people many of whom were close friends. Was he totally oblivious to reality? Or was it just the plain old sin of "greed" that got the better of him.

Some point out that it was "greed" which was the cause of this huge scam. And I couldn't agree more. And not just Madoff's greed, but the greed of his investors too. Madoff is no doubt to be blamed and he would (probably) serve a long long time for that. But what about the investors?Doubts about the double digit returns year after year were blanketed only by the investors' greed and ignorance. They blindly followed the maxim of "Bernie knows !!" but the blindfold on their eyes was really one of their own greed. When something appears too good to be true, it is probably not. And that's what it precisely was. Well in hindsight everything looks 20-20 but I bet there were signs and red flags all along which the investors just ignored. And in the process became the "willing victims" of Bernie. Ah, an oxymoron !!

It's always difficult to draw a line between ambition and greed. Ambition is good we are taught. Greed is not. But the line that divides them is really thin. Often times its difficult to tell on which side we are when in pursuit of something. That big pent house, that second or third car or that beach house down south !! Who's to say what's ambition and what's greed. Hedonism really dictates much of what we do. And hedonism is a close relative of greed.

Madoff may have initially desired only to build himself a decent name on the Wall Street. And may be he started out alright too, but at what point greed usurped the dominion of his mind, nobody knows, not even himself.

And it's not just the case with him. It's the same for us all. Are we all not victims of greed? Isn't it greed when we keep seeking ways to make more and more money. When we fall preys to the "quick money" schemes. Isn't it greed when we are doing a job we don't even love just because it's monetarily rewarding? And is it not greed when we despise taxes and find ways to evade them.

So, what's the way out? Who knows... Greed is difficult to exorcise because most of the times we don't even know that it's taken control of our selves. But if we do know that we are in it's possession, one remedy could be following the maxim of "Simple Living and High Thinking" as advocated by Gandhi. Or may be learn from the Bible, "Food and raiment and with that I shall be content". Again, akin to many philosophies, they are much easier to preach than practice.

The repercussions of Madoff's deeds are many. On the honest brokers and traders, it has put a tremendous pressure of convincing investors to come back to the markets. Many charities whose money was with Madoff have been shut down and the people they were helping have turned out to be Madoff's biggest victims eventually. And as some have suggested this act of Madoff's has fuelled feelings of Anti-Semitism across the globe.

But more than anything hasn't this scam once again reinstated greed as the biggest sin of all? Sure there are pride, sloth, gluttony, anger, envy and lust. But greed really beats them all. And on it's pervasiveness alone. Not all of us are slothful. Some are short-tempered or envious. But greed is a strong desire in almost all of us and is extremely difficult to overcome. It's a beast bigger than any and no "silver bullet" is yet known that could kill it.

"Greed" my friends, is the biggest and deadliest of all sins. Don't let anyone tell you otherwise !!