to believe or not to believe

The last lecture someone asked me about the posturing that India Pakistan was doing across borders. There was a terrorist attack on a military base in India and India retaliated by conducting ‘surgical’ strikes across the border on alleged camps. Uff… that was just the thig to get me started off. A long short history about right wing governments versus leftists and the centers. How right wing governments thrive on conflict and the perceived threat perception from an outsider.

I just explained how the marketing theory will typically right wing governments. Why there is always some escalation of conflict that rallies a population when right wingers are in power. For some reason – there was Kargil war after which in the election they could cobble up a majority for a relatively stable coalition.

 In the second term there were the ‘attacks’ on the Indian Parliament. Some believe that these were staged.

I quote from an article published here

http://www.revolutionarydemocracy.org/afzal/afzal13.htm

“We know this much: On December 13, 2001, the Indian Parliament was in its winter session. (The NDA government was under attack for yet another corruption scandal.) At 11.30 in the morning, five armed men in a white Ambassador car fitted out with an Improvised Explosive Device drove through the gates of Parliament House. When they were challenged, they jumped out of the car and opened fire. In the gun battle that followed, all the attackers were killed. Eight security personnel and a gardener were killed too.

The dead terrorists, the police said, had enough explosives to blow up the Parliament building, and enough ammunition to take on a whole battalion of soldiers. Unlike most terrorists, these five left behind a thick trail of evidence – weapons, mobile phones, phone numbers, ID cards, photographs, packets of dry fruit, and even a love letter.

Not surprisingly, PM A.B. Vajpayee seized the opportunity to compare the assault to the September 11 attacks in the US that had happened only three months previously.

On December 14, 2001, the day after the attack on Parliament, the Special Cell of the Delhi Police claimed it had tracked down several people suspected to have been involved in the conspiracy. A day later, on December 15, it announced that it had "cracked the case": the attack, the police said, was a joint operation carried out by two Pakistan-based terrorist groups, Lashkar-e-Toiba and Jaish-e-Mohammed.

Twelve people were named as being part of the conspiracy. Ghazi Baba of the Jaish (Usual Suspect I), Maulana Masood Azhar also of the Jaish (Usual Suspect II); Tariq Ahmed (a "Pakistani"); five deceased "Pakistani terrorists" (we still don't know who they are). And three Kashmiri men, S.A.R. Geelani, Shaukat Hussain Guru, and Mohammed Afzal; and Shaukat's wife Afsan Guru. These were the only four to be arrested.

In the tense days that followed, Parliament was adjourned. On December 21, India recalled its high commissioner from Pakistan, suspended air, rail and bus communications and banned over-flights. It put into motion a massive mobilisation of its war machinery, and moved more than half-a-million troops to the Pakistan border. Foreign embassies evacuated their staff and citizens, and tourists travelling to India were issued cautionary travel advisories. The world watched with bated breath as the subcontinent was taken to the brink of nuclear war. (All this cost India an estimated Rs 10,000 crore of public money. A few hundred soldiers died just in the panicky process of mobilisation.)”

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And then somewhere else in the article she argues

“On the basis of this illegal confession extracted under torture, hundreds of thousands of soldiers were moved to the Pakistan border at huge cost to the public exchequer, and the subcontinent devolved into a game of nuclear brinkmanship in which the whole world was held hostage.

Big Whispered Question: Could it have been the other way around? Did the confession precipitate the war, or did the need for a war precipitate the need for the confession?”

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Whatever the truth, after the attack, the Indian army saw a mobilization where two nuclear powers eye balled each other https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2001%E2%80%9302_India%E2%80%93Pakistan_standoff

Wow. That was two nuclear powers eye balling each other! Let that sink in for some time.

Now this time around as well, we have some posturing and in the ‘surgical’ strike one army crossed the border, ‘destroyed’ camps and came back. This was celebrated in the media and everyone in India rejoiced that finally as a country we have teeth. Jingoism all around you!

And now look at the centrist party. When they came to power, they implemented socialist schemes with a gusto. Right to education, right to food and right to employment. The last one was “MNREGA – the world’s largest workfare programme - formed the backbone of the UPA government’s anti-poverty programme, and may well represent its most important legacy in the long run.”

 - See more at: http://www.ideasforindia.in/article.aspx?article_id=292#sthash.1WVnU4gw.dpuf”

In the last paragraph the article states “It is no surprise therefore that MNREGA helped UPA gain re-election in the 2009 general elections. There is detailed RD-based evidence showing that UPA reaped electoral benefits from rolling out MNREGA in 2009, and that MNREGA budgetary allocations across districts and blocks have been manipulated in certain states to increase these benefits. “

So yes in the end, it’s up to you to weigh the substance of the propaganda and the schemes thrown at you. You can’t accept anything blindly.

I explained all of this to the class. In marketing I keep teaching, the first thing is to understand yourself and your brand and understand what it is that you are selling. Similarly if you are a consumer, you have to understand who is it that is selling something to you. What they seem to be selling versus what they are selling. Political parties are amongst the most dependent on marketing for survival. They have to understand their core philosophy so as to keep their core base intact and after that they go after the fence sitters. Without a detailed and vivid understanding of who they actually are, no political party can hope for long term survival. Funnily worldwide the philosophies seem to converge across three types – viz right left and center. The core principals are also very similar across. Rights tend to favor minimal government and are pro-business, while the center tries to lean left and increase governance and welfare for the underprivileged. The left of course, worldwide is stupidly rigid and completely veering towards state owned. You can understand world economics, trade, politics and news through the interplay of these thoughts and ideals.

So when the world is going bonkers and you have strong ideas on what is wrong and right and you want to box the crap out of your neighbors, sure, do so, but think again. Or as Arundhati Roy in the article says very very nicely – “To hang Mohammed Afzal without knowing what really happened is a misdeed that will not easily be forgotten. Or forgiven. Nor should it be.

Notwithstanding the 10% Growth Rate.”

The last line is the hardest hitting one that she has written. It’s a dig at the right wing which normally is super pro-business and pro-growth. The growth rate is an important metric on which they win votes and allegiance.

Yes – you have the freedom to vote right, left or centre. You have and must exercise the freedom to shout slogans, support war, surgical strikes, place of worship or whatever you want to do in a peaceful non violent way. You have the right to spew vitriol and choose sides. But all I tell the kids that I teach – listen carefully, not just to the message but also to the carrier and the originator? Within this itself there are many, multiple agendas. Look carefully!

It also amazes me that how much of a pacifist I have become. From a mother India lover who wanted to join the army and serve the motherland, I have become a skeptic. The fun bit is that I don’t know when this happened. No I am not disillusioned with the politicians of the country. That doesn’t work me up. We deserve the jokers we elect. Public service is very difficult, taxing and definitely not rewarding (if you are honest). We make life difficult for the guys doing public service. We believe that all problems come to their doorstep and we absolve ourselves of any solution. It also doesn’t help that most people in public service drive their own agendas and their own ways of doing things. They don’t allow for participation and block everything else. But yes, people inherently are to blame for the shit they get.

I have been involved with the Swimming pool of the gymkhana as an office bearer. It is a dam tough thing to do. People have strong agendas and counter agendas. They don’t help when needed but come across to criticize whatever you do. I think a few years of public service should be a must for anyone. Once that’s done you will do a better job of discharging your duties as a citizen, benefitting the collective whole.

But yes – I have over a period of time become an agno- nationalist. I don’t care about your nationality or mine. What I care about is how humans react to one another and treat each other. How people have to get involved in how they debate and conduct themselves in public. These are simple and important principals from which I want to draw the line. I love my city and my country but not in a jingoistic way. I love how my culture and my thought has been shaped by our geography and our history. I know what I am by knowing my past. But I also know that I have to shape my future and that of the generations to come from me. It cannot be shaped by propaganda but by listening to logic and to question everything. It can come from a deeper understanding of people and their emotions and their selfish interests. It comes from within. I have been lucky to be in marketing. It helps me understand the core of human behavior and their motivations. It makes me skeptic and dreamer at the same time. It is interesting.

In the aftermath of the terror attacks, Pakistani artistes are being singled out and have been asked leave the country. Producers have been told not to take them in their movies or songs. There is enough indian talent they say.

Here, listen to this absolutely amazing cover by a Pakistani band. Tell me, if they come to India and play a song, how would we not end up being enriched? Would we be poorer? But hell, thanks to youtube, they are broadcast across the world. I just love the song, the cover version which I argue is better than the original. I love the sitar notes which reverberate through the song giving it a strong constant sound lending a kind of stirring to the guitar. The crisp tabla creates an interesting contrast to the more muffled drums used. The contrast and the richness is there to be heard. Like Indian classical jugalbandi style, every instrument is given its two minutes of solo with the rest giving it beat support. This takes a song that was essentially a solo to a group effort, making it unforgettable. Seriously brilliant.

While watching TV over the weekend, we chanced upon Haider. Haider is an adaptation of the Hamlet and Jispa with her new found love for English thanks to her amazing teacher Mrs Ayesha Thomas was keen to see the Shakespeare adaptation. We had seen Omkara, the Othello adaptation together and now Hamlet. It’s fun watching the movie with her. I had to explain certain parts of it and the language is a bit difficult for her to pick up completely on her own. But nevertheless it was awesome fun. At the end of the movie, we went through Wikipedia to understand the original story better and therefore to better appreciate the adaptation. While reading the explanation, I chanced upon this paragraph that explains all that I have written so far in this blog – “The idea that nothing is real except in the mind of the individual finds its roots in the Greek Sophists, who argued that since nothing can be perceived except through the senses—and since all individuals sense, and therefore perceive things differently—there is no absolute truth, but rather only relative truth”

i love you baby, i love you school

I sat this Sunday with Jispa to ensure that she is up to speed on her school work. 8^th grade has started amazingly well for her. Her first set of exams have her scoring lovely marks in almost all subjects, except math. She is now working on her math as well and she is trying to score well there. The teachers are quite nice and are putting an effort in explaining the concepts to the students. They have tons of research and very little mugging up. A lot of explanations of terms and concepts and lots of interesting home work. She has to write a 1200 word essay on the French Revolution after researching whatever she wants on the internet. Now that is cool.

This is the right way to study rather than learning by rote. This is life. You will not know most of what hits you but you are expected to read and understand on the internet and then you are expected to synthesize the same in a short and efficient manner.

So when I sat to study with her, quite frankly I was quite lost. I had nothing to teach her. I just went through most of the work and asked her if she understood. She did and so I just went on and closed almost all the studies in 30 minutes flat. It was a smooth process. She studies on a regular basis, she researches and she manages her homework. I introduced her to Khan Academy.

Jispa now days is getting interested in her school work. She wants to do well and shine in the classroom. I find that very heartening. So I try and use that in motivating her to do better. I have told her about Khan academy multiple times but she hadn’t every really used it. This time while studying I spoke to her about it. I told her that since it’s a US based thing and you have an international curriculum you should be able to love what they do and you will find it relevant. That struck a chord and she was at it, watching videos and learning from there.

I was telling Jasmine that seriously, I don’t understand anything and I can’t really add value to her studies. The fact that I am sitting and discussing stuff with her is enough. Just show that her studies are important and her successes at school are important and celebrated. I keep telling her that she has done well and that we wonder how but we are happy that she is managing her studies and her swimming together.

So while finishing off her studies, I could really add value to only two subjects – Geography and English. In geography we were talking about over population. Here I completely dissed her studies. Over population to my mind is a mythical monster created by people with low imagination and will to do good work. There is no such thing such as over population. Cities have dense populations and in many ways its good for living as people are able to stay together and us mass transportation and fundamentally reduce the footprint. You can efficiently design living, transport, communications, leisure, recreation etc. People are better when they are dense as opposed to being completely spread out. So the problem is not over population but that of under infrastructure. The government tries to solve the problem by labelling it wrong. There is definitely a larger population than what the infrastructure can support but the problem is not the population but the infrastructure. Hence the problem is that there is less infrastructure that what the people need. That’s all you need to do. Reframe your issues. Jispa also completely agrees. She said that in class she also spoke about that as once I had spoken to her about this. People have ingenuity and enterprise.  They cannot be the problem. They are the solution. When we were growing up, I remember having this discussion and debate. I too firmly believed that over population is an issue. China’s one child policy is the solution that must be emulated. As we have seen, China has now devolved policy as it creates a various set of issues, that are also weird to handle – such as too pampered children, an ageing population and preference for males. You cannot see population as a problem but that as an opportunity. People can solve their problems, you have to give them freedom to express their enterprise. One will rise and feed a hundred. I look at my previous firm where one man’s dream took his company today to a height where they have over 40,000 employees. In effect feeding – directly over 120,000 people at the minimum. The ripple effect is much larger. One man’s bull headed vision. She said she tried explaining but she is one fighting many and also the teacher. I think this Thursday, in the parent teachers meeting, I am planning to have a smallish but healthy discussion with her geography teacher. It should be good fun. I might have Jasmine nudging me under the table to stop. Let’s see where that one goes.

The other subject that I help her and we have amazing discussions is English. Here I am learning as much as she is. And with which I am teaching her to go further. We had a few discussions about her homework and the stuff that she had to do. I took the paragraphs and completely pushed the envelope on its meanings. We started discussing and reached meanings on the stuff that we hadn’t thought of before. In English its awesome, we can go as far as we want to go without being right or wrong. Jispa then gets a few ideas and then she notes it down. Annotations and notes is something that her teacher has taught her as the way of studying and I think its completely awesome. This way she makes small notes on the side and then discusses it in class, or with her teacher or uses it in her essays/ work. It’s super cool. I wish I studied like that when I was in school.  This gives her an amazing edge. The only worry is that while talking, I put in more things in her head that I this is right. Not that she cannot process it and hold it, but it’s the equivalent of doing your kids homework. And then I think again. It possibly isn’t. It is just a new and different way to look at things. When I read books and see the authors point, I keep it or reject it to use again. So I guess, right now, Jispa is simply seeing various different points of view and possibly mine are very strong and powerful. She does keep rejecting bad ideas or she uses my ideas to challenge existing norms or challenge my ideas as well. Together we reach further than where we were. So in the end, I assume it’s a good thing.

This is another question to ask the teacher at school. How much should we discuss the home work. It seems to be helping her, but how much is the question.

Lets see…. But one thing I did do soon enough. I thanked Jasmine. When the school forms for admission were being given out, I was the one opposed to this school. It seemed like a ladida school and I was afraid it would be too expensive and that we would meet people from different high end backgrounds. It would be impossible to blend in I felt. But Jasmine insisted and we took the form and applied. Then we got through round 1 and then round 2. In the end, looking at everyone who did not get through, there was no way we were going to say no. This level of teaching and this manner of the teachers is worth spending an arm and a leg to get through. We have been lucky. Jispa has been awesome.

Here is one forward that her English teacher put on the whatsapp group. How do you find any fault with a teacher who sends this to the kids.

I so wish that someone taught me stuff like this when I was young and impressionable. I had lost faith in studying and teaching at the time. This is serious.

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And now some random lovely video that justifies the title of the blog. I love the video and I love this song. I can’t have enough of these guys.