Curious Case of Abhigya Anand

Education doesn’t equate to wisdom and intellect is not a mere product of intelligence.While education and to some extent intelligence, are necessary conditions to acquire knowledge, these are far from sufficient conditions. Penchant for knowledge and a commitment to curiosity  unconstrained by convention leads to true wisdom. “We are faced with the paradoxical fact that education has become one of the chief obstacles to learning and freedom of thought” once said the inimitable Bertrand Russel.

Abhigya's Conscience Channel

One such baffling paradox is the curious case of child phenomenon Abhigya Anand, a social media sensation who happens to pop up ubiquitously in all my social networks every week. A child prodigy: claimed by many, incarnation of Saraswati- The Goddess of Knowledge, proclaim others. A saviour of Sanatana Dharma - the eternal wisdom of India, a modern day Parashara and 21^st century Vasishta are his other unending eulogies.His videos on the Conscience channel range from sermons on Ayurveda to Astrology and his lectures cover inefficiencies of banking institutions, undercurrents of bullion markets, Vastu, vaccines,vulnerabilities of 5G and many more. His charming innocence and his innate ability to explain multi-disciplinary subjects point to the boundless potential of this lovely boy, but the paradox lies in the fact that Abhigya although very educated is ill-advised and  ill-informed.

Most, if not all, of Abhigya’s freewheeling lectures are on matters beyond his knowledge, maturity and age. More worryingly, they are driven by pseudoscience and his indulgence in Astrology the most troubling of all. There are child prodigies with similar potentials and Abhigya is clearly infinitesimally intelligent than his preadolescent peers, so one must tread carefully should any objections to his style, content and tactics are motivated by my jealousy and spite. So I shall refrain from criticizing Abhigya from here on, on the contrary, I sympathize that such an intelligent and gifted child has been indoctrinated and brought up within the confines of spiritualism, mysticism, theology and superstition by his parents who exalt in his upbringing, mostly through home-schooling.

No doubt, his parents are caring and meticulously attentive and Abhigya and Abhideya- his equally talented sister, were trained in Sanskrit, ancient texts, Indian classical music, were introduced to technology and sciences, as many of his lectures on anatomy allude to.  Most of his videos tend to be astrological predictions based on Vedic Astrology, evidently, what has not been taught to him are the concepts of pratyaksa(evidence), anumana(scepticism) and aptavacana (peer review). Not only are these the key foundations of modern science but also the foundations of Samkhya shastra, one of the six schools of Indian philosophy.

Sadguru vs Abhigya 

Blinkered by bronze age mystical thinking, his parents have failed to instil critical thinking and rationality, which attest to their own weaknesses and poor Abhigya has been ushered into a world of instant stardom. Thanks to the dynamics of social media, Abhigya became a Youtube celebrity competing with the likes of Sadguru in the marketplace of mysticism and spirituality. Sadguru is not a complete novice when it comes pseudoscience, he has tiptoed on it at various times in many of his talks, the difference is only one of a degree. But when Sadguru rightly called out the futility of Abhigya’s Covid-19 predictions, Abhigya retorted back calling Sadguru a SadGuru. Notwithstanding his short comings and lack of scientific rigour, Sadguru is reasonably well versed in Indian philosophy and an eloquent speaker. For Abhigya to have the conviction to lock horns publicly with the Sadguru cannot be explained in any other way than to presume that his reckless parents have forced him to condemn Saduguru publicly with little afterthought.

Vidya dadati vinayam vinayad yati patratam – Education leads to humility, from humility arises character, says the Hitopadesha. Abhigya’s parents have utterly failed in inculcating such humility in Abhigya, on the contrary it is common for some parents to compensate their own shortcomings by reflecting on the accomplishments of their children. Their insecurities may eventually lead to their children becoming narcissistic themselves, constantly seeking out attention and approval, hallmark of many of Abhigya’s videos. Once such video is a two-hour lecture by Abhigya at IIM comprising of mishmash of conspiracy theories and hodgepodge of random internet musings put together by his parents is a testimony to their lack of objective thinking and scientific mindset.

Another similar mindset driven by insecurity that is pervasive in our culture is that our Indian culture is sacred and divine and that we are a blessed race. Partly driven by an uncritical religiosity and lack of self-esteem, people tend to believe that our ancient sages, the Maharishis, have bestowed the light of Vedic knowledge to the people living south of Himalayas. Not to Peruvians of South America, nor Malawians of Africa and definitely not to tribes of Central Asian steppes nor to the Eskimos of Arctic. Moreover, they believe such divine knowledge only imparted to our ancestors, comprises of advanced scientific theories: Medicine, Astronomy, Cosmology that matches and even exceeds achievements of modern science, which leads me to the followers of Abhigya.

Abhigya IIM Lecture

Once they have invested much of their self-esteem in such blind faith but the drudgery of life opens up to the ground reality of toil, hardship and uncertainty, the reinforcement to their vacuous vanity calls for a magical archetype. Abhigya is such an archetype: young, charming, intelligent who fortifies their faith and preconceptions in Vedic Astrology, Vastu and other mystical ideas. Abhigya is the archetypical little Sri Krishna in their minds, and his subscribers barely question and, in many cases, incapable of questioning the pseudoscientific theories that are being spouted in his videos. His followers are not concerned with “what he says” but “what he is”, Abhigya is a just a container that maintains their delusional beliefs. As he matures into adulthood and his cuteness and novelty wears off, his followers will flock to another mystic or a spiritual guru who bolsters their magical thinking.

In the 17^th century, Sir Isaac Newton experimented in occult Biblical theories to decode the date of Judgement day and spent many years muddling in the pseudoscience of Alchemy looking for Philosopher’s stone, that turns any metal into gold. During the Black Plague, Newton quarantined himself for two years and the same inquisitive mind came up with Philosophiæ Naturalis Principia Mathematica , Principle of Mathematics that form the basis of Calculus, Gravitational theory and Newtonian physics that launched  the age of enlightenment and  eventually led humans to conquer the Moon. Thankfully, his works on Alchemy is forgotten and confined to dustbin of history. Abhigya is certainly capable of becoming a Newton, whether he continues to dabble in Astrology and Vastu like Newton’s flirtation with Alchemy or sees the light of true science and knowledge is yet to be seen.

The sooner this lovely child is unshackled from the preconceived dogma of his followers and the myopic world view of his parents, the sooner Abhigya will be able to fulfil his true potential.

Social Distancing from Astrologers during this Pandemic

 These are truly unprecedented times. Three months ago this planet was exuberantly celebrating the New year completely oblivious of a virus that was lurking to shatter our anthropocentric vanity. Within weeks, this zoonotic retrovirus upended our civilization with access to advanced medical expertise into an obsessive-hand-washing, loo-roll-stockpiling zombies. Overnight, buzz words like social media was deposed by social distancing, tik-tok is less chic than lockdown and covid-19 has eviscerated any utopic idealism of vision-20.

As the epidemiologists, virologists and immunologists across the world are scrambling to rein in this pandemic, some astrologers in India have been throwing their unsolicited hats into the ring. Sharing just the etymological constructs of “astro” and “logy” with the modern science but none of its scientific rigour, these charlatans have entered the fray with their chicanery that somehow explains or predicts this current calamity. As the world finds itself exposed and frenetically seeking for answers, Astrologers desperately trying to add to this conversation is understandable, if not commendable and is probably paved with good intentions. And Astrologers, like Homeopaths, Chiropractors and Osteopaths, truly believe that their discipline is systematic, precise and methodical that has stood the test of time and genuinely feel their intuitions and insights are valuable to the public discourse.

Overnight, child celebrities like Abhigya and other astrologers like Dr.Jai Madaan have become a sensation brazenly conveying their predictions on social media. Let me contravene the old adage by sparing the ‘child’ but spoiling the proverbial idiocy ‘rod’ here. When Prime Minister Modi called for national unity by calling for a national vigil by lighting a lamp on the 5^th of April at 9 PM for 9 minutes, Dr.Jai took to youtube to explain the intriguing phenomenon behind Modi’s plea to light the lamp at a precise time and duration. Was Modi really advised by the high priests of AYUSH, our Ministry of Superstition, on the precise time and duration would be a distracting conjecture that I don’t want to dig into. 

But according to Dr.Jai, this is akin to a surgical strike kind of moment and how the science behind this auspicious timeline reveals itself. Astrology is a predictive, remedial and guiding science, she exhorts before she explores how the planets millions of miles away subservient to cosmological laws somehow like some numbers , 9 seems to be their popular choice but our lunar compatriot has a special affinity with number 5. And by using some mental gymnastics she jumps onto the science of physics, on how during that time the sound energy and light energy mysteriously combines to help build your immunity. Before the credulous observer had a moment to grasp, we are into the world of immunology, a giant heck of leap from physics to human physiology. And the kind of light energy is also important, so she opines, as Rahu is allergic to electronic light from our devices, so better the light be emitted from lamp of Mustard oil.  

 This gives an impression that somehow Astrologers have a phenomenally deep insight into the world of cosmology and a quantum level understanding of  how the planets’ arrangement in one remote solar system, has a mysterious impact on one particular species of ape on planet Earth, inducing cellular changes in our biochemistry there by affecting our immunogenetics. And now you add, Vedic to this asinine discipline, we have a whole new field of Vedic Astrology that becomes sacrosanct. With such advance and varied knowledge across multiple disciplines, I cannot fathom why Astrologers don’t come up with what this third chimpanzee species  need to do for the spike proteins of coronavirus to stop binding to the ACE2 receptor of human cells and stop the disease in its tracks, or even better if they could enlighten us on which oil should be used to light the lamp  so that RNA dependent polymerase is blocked inhibiting viral replication. Just proclaiming that it helps our immunity is a tad too vague, dont you think?

While I await their advise with bated breath, Vedic Astrology or otherwise, I am less concerned with its pseudo-scientific worldview which itself is an insult to human ingenuity.  During this time of the pandemic where our weakness and fragility have been laid bare by a tiny virus, whose raison d'etre of its spreading is no different to us, i.e to copy one's genetic structure deep into the future, we are reminded once again our futility and short-sightedness of human centric world view. 

This dangerous anthropocentrism, the belief that the human beings  are the most important entity in the universe, and that the planets, the Moon, the Sun and other celestial bodies can be appeased by burning oil at some ridiculous time for the benefit of one species, is indeed the pinnacle of stupidity and unforgivable vanity. This signifies a lack of humility, that we are just a tiny speck in this universe competing with other species from gigantic blue whales to miniscule viruses, is nowhere more profound and glaring than in the field of Astrology.

As we are washing our hands, we should also incorporate some aspect of washing our minds off this idiocy and social distancing should include copious amounts of distancing from Astrologers.

Modi 2.0 - Is Hindutva to blame?

And here we go again, Mr.Modi is back, this time more stronger. Whilst the liberal elite have been liberally scattering words like ‘populists’, nationalists’ and ‘hindu extremists’ like jelly beans every time they invoke Modi’s name, which incidentally is all the time, the Indian populace had other ideas. Completely oblivious to this elite chatter they enthroned Modi, this time coronation Modi 2.0 is embellished with a 7% increase in the vote share compared to 2014, a 45% overall vote share that is unprecedented since the Nehruvian era and Modi’s incursion as a powerful force in the South and West Bengal, to name a few.

The 'Mahagatbandhan', the grand alliance comprising of Congress, the left and a conglomerate of regional parties are understandably aghast and frantically searching for the reasons behind their abject rejection. Rather than soul searching, after a peripheral scrutiny of their ignominy and humiliation, Modi’s victory is attributed to change in India’s mind-set.  “The left has gone right in Bengal” claimed an NDTV reporter, “people are veering towards extremism”, proclaimed another on the social media, such a victory couldn’t have been possible without tampering the electronic voting machines, decreed another bright spark. “The only plausible explanation starts with the construction of the most extraordinary personality cult in modern Indian history”, writes the great Shashi Tharoor.

On the other hand, the bhakts(unapologetic followers of Modi) are explicably euphoric, attributing this phenomenal success to their infallible dear leader . Whatsapp groups and Twitterati are replete with hackneyed citations of enormous strides India has made under Modi’s premiership, conveniently ignoring the fact that Indian economy is in far worse state than in 2014 and India ranks a paltry 130 in the human development index (HDI) of the 184 nations for which HDI is calculated. To put into perspective India is sandwiched between Tajikistan and Cambodia in the HDI rankings but these are impervious to bhakts’ vision (or lack of it) of India’s place in the global world.

In this polarised world of parochial ideologies on either side of left-right spectrum, where one’s commitment to their half-baked opinions are unduly amplified by social-media, a nuanced centrist view on any discourse is gasping for breath in the hate filled echo-chambers. The binary  ‘black or white’ thinking and a blinkered perspective leaves no place of middle ground, you are either a patriot or a traitor, either for open borders or a vile xenophobe, a staunch feminist or a chauvinistic bigot.  How do you explain Modi 2.0 amidst this fundamentally flawed backdrop? Has India gone mad with Hindutva as ‘The Atlantic’ has fervently claimed? Or, is there a simpler explanation that conforms to the principle of parsimony (also called the Occam’s razor), a very important heuristic that is often ignored in seeking plausible explanations amidst competing hypothesis.

For those who have been never introduced to the William Okham(c 1287 -1347), Okham(Occam) postulated that simpler explanations are more likely to be correct than the complex ones. Let us assume an industrious student who scored poorly in an examination. One simpler explanation could be that the student, albeit diligent, did not prepare to the best of his  or her ability. Or, the paper was extremely challenging. May be, this subject was not  his or her strongest subject. These explanations can mostly account for the student’s bad performance, but it could also be additionally hypothesized that the student was in an inebriated condition during the exam. May be, the student did very well but due to an administrative mistake, half of his(or hers) answer papers were somehow blown away during transit. Or, the person marking the paper has a real contempt for students and was hell bent on failing every other student, moreover his wife had left him recently. These latter explanations are much more complex and calls for unwarranted assumptions while the former assumptions give us a more or less a cohesive reason for poor results.

Could Modi’s victory be explained without resorting to far-fetched interpretations such as that a billion people had pandered to right-wing Hindutva ideology? Or that the elections were rigged and that the electronic voting machines (EVM) were possessed or tampered with? Or perhaps, Occam’s razor would suggest a simpler explanation, an utter ineptitude of the opposition that fought the election on a single agenda, to depose Modi. What complemented Modi’s ascendancy  to second term was the gaping vacuum of alternative leadership, an opposition bereft of any viable ideas with an intoxicating addiction to Gandhi-Nehru dynasty and an alliance of other regional parties that infantilized the public with their trite slogans instead of robust policies. As the old saying goes, donkeys led by a lion are more effective than lions led by a donkey. Could it be that opposition was a group of donkeys led by a donkey?

Let us rewind the clock back to 2004, BJP were in power for a full term under the late Atal Bihari Vajpayee’s premiership. One of the most respected politicians of the post-congress era, a soft-spoken moderate and an astute administrator, Vajpayee advanced the economic reforms of the previous Government and successfully fought the Kargil war with Pakistan. During his reign, India successfully conducted the nuclear tests (Pokhran II) and was recognized as a global nuclear power despite some initial pushback from United States. There is no doubt that BJP was instrumental in whipping up the Hindu sentiments in the early nineties, but Vajpayee was highly respected domestically and had won the accolades of many foreign leaders during his reign. “India shining” was the motto of BJP’s 2004 manifesto and having won a war with Pakistan, one would have assumed a comfortable return to power for Vajpayee. Against all odds, people of India chose UPA(Congress Alliance) led by Sonia Gandhi in 2004 and again in 2009 as if the billion people somehow had a collective amnesia of their Hindutva identities for 10 years.

A decade of UPA’s government is only remembered for litany of scams and scandals such as the reprehensible Commonwealth games scam, brazen 2G spectrum allocation scandal and the Coalgate scam, which had left a bitter taste despite a very capable prime minister in Dr. Manmohan Singh, the prime architect of economic reforms in the mid-nineties. The sheer desperation to displace this dreadful government was too strong and compelled the electorate to look for alternatives. Under this backdrop of rampant corruption and crony capitalism, arose Modi 1.0, a tea-seller-turned-chief-minister of state of Gujarat, with a perceived track record of shrewd administration and economic growth. Modi conjured up a presidential-style election campaign in a parliamentary democratic system and was able to unite the nation promising corruption-free administration.

In 2019, Modi has successfully re-enacted his presidential-style campaign. But is there any truth in the claim that part of Modi’s victory has right-wing hindutva underpinnings? Make no mistake, Modi and his cohorts are blatantly Hindutva apologizers inspired by regressive RSS ideology that energized a sizeable minority of unhinged bhakts peddling anti-Muslim/Christian claptrap with glee. In a nation of a billion people, that sizeable minority would run into millions of bigoted individuals poisoning the public discourse. Any attempt to criticize Modi or his botched implementation of demonetization would be countered with a barrage of vitriolic comments littered with ’anti-indian’, ‘sickular’, ‘presstitue’ and other ridiculous drivel from these jingoistic Modi supporters but this alone cannot explain the Modi wave.

Another principle that is often ignored is that two things can be true at the same time. One cannot ignore the right-wing leanings of Modi-Amit duo, a cavalier attitude in stubbing out cow vigilantism and an alarming rise of anti-secular values, but it is equally true that in the absence of half-decent opposition, India chose Modi not because of hindutva but despite hindutva and as a trade-off for a long-term stable government, an exercise in ‘better the devil you know than the devil you don’t’, plain and simple.

Modi’s first term has not been stellar by any stretch of imagination, India’s growth in the last five years has been lackadaisical. To borrow Shashi Tharoor’s phrase, Modi has been a paradoxical prime minister who over promised and under achieved despite some well-intentioned popular schemes. Under Modi’s premiership, constitutional and statutory institutions have been undermined with undue political interference, something that has been a feature of every government before Modi. Child poverty and malnutrition is rife, Indian educational system is crippled, youth unemployment is high and access to quality health for vast majority of population is still virtually inaccessible.  Yes, it is unfair to expect Modi to have made a major impact in 5 years given several decades of inexcusable neglect by previous governments, but it’s hard to see what structural changes that his government has implanted in the first term that can be reaped in the next five years. 

Unless, the opposition steps up to find a visionary leader who can match Modi’s style and exuberance with an alternative message of unity and prosperity not based on caste and religion lines, India will continue to chose the lesser of the evils and Indian electorate will be expediently branded populists and nationalists for doing so.

Do we need an International Yoga day?

Not many things come with Made-in-India tag these days, but recently celebrated Yoga day is a true Indian cultural export that has even caught the imagination of UN, so much so that 21st June  was declared as International Yoga day. The declaration of this day came after the call for the adoption of International Day of Yoga by Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi during his address to UN General Assembly in 2015. There is no denying that the International Yoga day has been a reasonable, if not a resounding, success.  Admissibly, I do have an ax to grind: not necessarily against Narendra Modi or even against Yoga as a discipline per se but with the irrational romanticism and mysticism that has been intrinsically attested to Yoga and its perceived, very often exaggerated, benefits.

On one hand the radical left vehemently oppose the idea of celebrating Yoga day as an anti-secular doctrine, whilst right-wing Hindu groups on the other elevate Yoga as a panacea to all human suffering. In both the cases the discipline of Yoga that has become the point of contention has little to do with the metaphysics of Yoga in its pristine form as enunciated by Patanjali. The mainstream Yoga, eulogized and practiced today, has been mainly reduced to two main concepts: “asanas”, complex stretching routines prerogative of only seasoned gymnasts and “Pranayama”, breathing and meditation techniques widely practised across the world. The rest of the Yogic principles such as Yama, Niyama, Dharana, Pratyahara, Dhyana and Samadhi are expediently remitted to the hermitages and ashrams. 

Politicians of all size and shapes whose last bout of physical activity was probably when they had last stooped for the votes (or distributing notes), leap out of their luxury mansions demonstrating their yoga skills which can range from being amateurish to abysmal. Obviously our beloved celebrities, swamis, matajis and anyone owning a saffron gown need little or no invitation to join the bandwagon. After a hectic day of twisting, bending and stretching, the day usually ends extolling the innumerable merits of Yoga and reveling in the privilege that was bestowed up us by the wisdom of our ancient sages. Yoga being promoted as a tool to uplift the physical and emotional well-being of the people is less of an issue but my objection is with the blind glorification and delusional deification of Yoga. Reinforced with religious mysticism and unhealthy doses of superstition, Yoga and its practitioners carelessly meander into the world of quackery devoid of any critical thinking and skepticism.

Take the case of Kundalini yoga. The proponents of this school argue that the practice of this yoga is supposed to arouse the sleeping Kundalini Shakti from its coiled base through the 6 chakras, and penetrate the 7th chakra, or crown. Kundalini energy is technically explained as being sparked during yogic breathing when prana and apana blends at the 3rd chakra (navel center) at which point it initially drops down to the 1st and 2nd chakras before traveling up to the spine to the higher centers of the brain to activate the golden cord. 

Coming to eerily named Kapalbhati pranayama – allegedly a skull shining technique that has the potential to improve circulation by clearing the nadis, subtle energy channels in human body. We are told that Ida, Pingala and Sushumna are three of the most important nadis in the human body. “When the Ida nadi is not functioning smoothly or is blocked, one experiences cold, depression, low mental energy and sluggish digestion. And the blocked Pingala nadi triggers quick temper and irritation, itching body, dry skin and throat, excessive appetite and excessive physical or sexual energy.” 

And if you haven’t heard about the science behind Surya Namaskar, here it is from Sri Sri Ravi Sankar, the founder of the famous art of living group. “All our emotions get stored in the solar plexus, and it is also the point from where one's gut feelings arise. The size of the solar plexus is said to like the size of a small gooseberry. However, for those who do yoga and meditation, it becomes much bigger - almost three to four times bigger than the normal size. The more expanded your solar plexus, the greater is your mental stability and your intuition.” Many of Sri Ravi Sankar’s followers are doctors and surgeons but how they fall hook, line and sinker for such gibberish may seem inexplicable if not for the great power of faith and credulity. 

The chakras and the kundalini, nadis and solar plexus do not make it to our science text books for a good reason, as these irrational theories were based on primitive understanding of human anatomy. An average sixth grader has more knowledge of human physiology than our ancestors but we uphold this gobbledygook as some sacred science passed on to us by the ancient sages.When empirical evidence is of no consequence and  wishful thinking displaces objectivity, when hope tramples reason and piety dislodges scientific rigour, faith becomes this fabulous commodity that belief based institutions feed on fervently.

Of course, not all yoga is flimflam and we do not have to throw away the baby with the bath water. Principles of Niyama and Pratyahara espouse austerity and contentment - essentially the main components of minimalism that have a great role to play in the 21st century given our proclivity for gluttonous consumerism. Some asanas do help improve flexibility and posture, and studies have shown positive health benefits of Yoga in relieving back pain. Mindfulness meditation is scientifically proven to alleviate stress related illnesses and inflammation yet this can be explained by neuroscience and human physiology without having to invoke chakras, nadis and other bronze age beliefs.

By discarding the balderdash and mystic elements, rational components of Yoga can be incorporated  into our daily routines along with swimming, aerobics and sports. Swimming, similar to Yoga, also involves breathing and many postural techniques, and is proven to be one the best lifestyle activities which greatly benefits both body and mind. It helps manage weight, reduces stress levels and raises self-esteem, strengthens muscles, improves sleep and helps lower disease risk yet and no mental gymnastics is needed to explain its efficacy nor do we have to deify this great activity.We do not need an International Swimming Day or an International Aerobics day for that matter.

Setting aside the fact that practicing Yoga can be immensely boring, is it more beneficial or effective than playing any other physical sport? India has been plagued by decades of infrastructural neglect where hundreds of millions of children have virtually no access to clean and friendly playgrounds. Adults and senior citizens have little or no recourse to sports and leisure facilities where nearest park could be many miles away. Our infamous Olympic legacy needs no introduction, just one gold medal in 40 years for 1.3 billion people where as Jamaica, a country that the World Bank calls one of the slowest growing in the developing world, now prides itself on being home to the world's fastest man and woman. Any one remember Dipa Karmakar; the only Indian gymnast to ever attempt the deadly produnova who had to use makeshift apparatus made of second-hand springs and shock absorbers from discarded scooters for her practice. To put India's historic performance in context, Michael Phelps has won as many medals on his own as Team India has managed since 1900.

Ah well! Never mind, its only sport...we have the eternal wisdom of Yoga, any one up for Ganda Bherunda Aasana.

Happy International Yoga Day!!!!!

Kabali: A Ponzi get more-rich scheme

Definition:Ponzi

ˈpɒnzi/

noun

1.    a form of fraud in which belief in the success of a non-existent enterprise is fostered by the payment of quick returns to the first investors from money invested by later investors.

The first investors are indeed Mr.Thanu and his accomplice, an overrated filmmaker Pa. Ranjith and later investors are of course the gullible audiences, capable of digesting any amount of banality in the name of Hero worship.  Most ardent of Rajni fanatics who, given a million chances to choose between a free all-inclusive-holiday to Bahamas and a premiere show ticket to a new Rajni film, would chose the latter a million times. Given you have such Rajniphiles in vast numbers and virtually guaranteed return on investment, any responsibility and dedication to the art of movie-making goes out of window and the result is the baloney rich damp squib: Kabali

Technology has caught up with Hollywood standards and movie makers have now access to a wide range of techniques to enrich the movie experience but more often than not mindless repetition of formula, thread-bare story lines and mediocre screenplay are still the trademarks of mainstream Indian movies. Kabali has all these three ingredients in abundance and interestingly, or rather ironically, this is not where the movie utterly flounders. Every performer has his or her strengths and weaknesses and the Director’s job is to extract the best out of them by concealing their underlying flaws. What makes this film almost unbearable to watch is such accumulation of mediocre acting, not just of the other cast but even our ever dependable protagonist , an otherwise versatile and stylish actor, Rajni for once, has been inanely insipid and mind-numbingly mundane. 

Of course, any director even with best of the endeavours and utmost diligence can still end up making a boring movie. Iruvar, the political drama loosely based on MGR and Karunanidhi is one such movie with painfully slow narration that has a potential to cure insomnia, was for all understable reasons was not a commercial success. But you could hardly question the effort that Maniratnam had invested in this biopic: Mohanlal and Prakash Raj rose to their ranks along with Rehman’s gripping background score and Santosh Sivan’s astounding camera work.

On the other hand, there is not one scene in Kabali that shows Pa.Ranjith’s commitment to his vain enterprise. Mishmash of aerial camera work embellished with slow-motion scenes doesn’t make an engrossing film, if that’s his idea of a captivating movie, then he should consider changing his profession.  

Hurricane Kanhaiya, its time to move on.

The Rohit storm that gripped the nation was slowly subsiding only to be struck again by Hurricane Kanhaiya. Free speech has been taken for a ride, the extreme right tried stifling it in the name of their bigoted patriotism, anti-social fringe groups joined the band wagon like fare-evaders and the extreme left opportunely embarked on this gravy train with their usual insouciant leftist-jingoism.

Within a transient period of few weeks, heroes and villains have emerged from the dust-bowl of government’s high-handedness, pervasive yellow-journalism and slapdash social media. The aftermath left a wreckage of impaired vanity and introspection, leaving behind a litany of unanswered questions. From this debris popped out Mr.Chauhan, a sombre villain, a lawyer turned judge, jury and executioner. His nausea-inducing antics on the day Kanhaiya Kumar was presented before the magistrates should sound as a death knell and chilling reminder of dogmatic nationalism that is engulfing this secular nation. Draconian use of sedition charges on a student instigated a debate in both the houses; cornered and confronted rose another protagonist, Smriti Irani with her fiery and emotional counter-attack dismantling her unwary rivals with an incendiary commotion, if not, reason. The dust barely settled and from the rubble, exploded rejuvenated Kanhaiya, freshly bailed yet bizarrely admonished as diseased by the Judge. And oh! My gracious me, this boy can talk.

My first impression of him when he took stage was that of a meek and gentle pupil caught up in a skirmish that might have puffed up into a serious agitation, possibly fanned by opposition student wing into a political fist-fight and ultimately framed into an act of sedition by administrative muscle of HRD ministry. That may well have been the case, but ten minutes into his tirade the sheer eloquence and uncompromising diction of his speech has laid bare my naïve misjudgment of his personality. This youngster is a seasoned raconteur, influenced by left-wing idealism and hardened by torment meted out to him by the establishment, reinvigorated by the support he received from the liberal academia, he turned his resentment towards Modi and his cohorts, understandably and rightly so. His speech was impressive and free indeed, free-flowing, freely publicized by the free press, “Freedom in India and not from India” was his expedient swan song.

Unrelenting and unabated, he enthralled, captivated and fascinated his university peers by his unrestrained flow of ideas. Amidst the euphoria, I was still struggling to unravel any pieces of wisdom from his passionate discourse that I could muster. Invoking many of Modi’s tag lines, his harangue was evoking and mildly provoking, bordering marginally on light-hearted demagoguery and cheerful rabble-rousery but devoid of any tangible intellectual content. I was waiting for him to illuminate his countrymen on why he chose Afzal Guru’s anniversary as his day of emancipation to drumroll his version of “Azadi from hunger, corruption, discrimination and backwardness”. He vividly talked about Jumlas(Gimmicks), the parables and metaphors were exemplary, but his speech was  appealing to emotion and not to intellect. His seamless change of tack from soldiers to farmers’ suicides and from caste system to equal right to prosperity, reminding the nation of his family’s modest income and humble beginnings bore all the hallmarks of Modi’s pre-election campaigns: replete with empty rhetoric and infectious orotundity, mishmash of passionate idealism and euphonous obscurantism, alluring to the concomitant dissents of the lower and middle class India; Modi has finally met his match.

An hour of random reflections, cliché musings and Modi bashing constructed with magniloquence makes a great performance, not a consciousness-raising speech. This is unrivaled entertainment and its over and if you happen to be a purveyor of more intellectual stuff, start looking elsewhere; listening to the likes of Dr.Jayaprakash Narayan would be a good start.

Mumbai Attacks: The Blame Game

In the aftermath of the Mumbai terror attacks, internet is replete with views on why India has often been the target of the Islamic terrorism. And one of the most oft repeated mantra has been that the oppression of Muslims and the plight of Kashmiris have been the casus-belli for the 26/11 and for all other atrocities preceding this terrible tragedy. This argument has been accentuated not only by apologists of Islam, but also by other moderate Muslims and Hindus alike. When it comes to oppression of Muslims in India, the statistics that Muslims are under-represented in every field actually justifies the case of the critics. But such an under-representation of Muslims has been often been ascribed to the hegemony of the Hindu majority as opposed to their own non-reformist principles.

On this politically correct backdrop the fact that has been blissfully ignored is that the Hindus as an Indian majority, have always celebrated and even eulogized the achievements of Muslims in many fields. Take the case of Bollywood and the likes of Shar Rukh Khan, Salman Khan and my personal favourite Amir Khan, have always enjoyed similar success and even in some cases more than that of their Hindu counter parts, which couldn't have been possible if not for the fanfare of the Hindu majority. Mohammad Rafi is considered as one of the most melodious singer India has been blessed with and he enjoyed the same success to that of his contemporary, Kishore Kumar. Naushad, the veteran music director and A.R.Rehman, the most influential musician of our times, are both Muslims and they have always enjoyed special place in the hearts of the Indians. Let alone Indian Muslims, even the Pakistani musicians such as Adnan Sami have been heartily welcomed and celebrated by the Hindus. The Indian classical musicians, such as Ustad Bismillah Khan, Ustad Zakir Khan and his father Ustad Allah Rakha, the great Ustad Bade Ghulam Ali Khan and Parween Sultana have always enthralled the audiences with their soothing music and they always occupied similar place to that of their Hindu musicians such as Pandit Bhimsen Joshi and Pt.Hari Prasad Chaurasia.

Of the 41 Bharat Ratna recipients, the highest civilian award conferred to Indians, five of six have been awarded to the Indian Muslims and the other one went to the Pakistani national, Khan Abdul Ghaffar Khan, also known as Frontier Gandhi. Moreover, three of the Indian Presidents- Dr. Zakir Hussain, Fakruddin Ali Ahmed and Dr.A.P.J Abdul Kalam, have been Muslims. Infact, Dr.Abdul Kalam has been voted the most loved president of India in a CNN poll, which would not have been possible if not for the love of majority Hindus. And finally, the Muslims have rarely been discriminated on their religious grounds in Cricket, the nations most loved sport. Mansoor Ali Khan Pataudi and Md.Azharuddin have captained India, let alone playing for the country and the contributions of Zaheer Khan, Yusuf and Irfan Pathan have been greatly appreciated by the Indian cricket lovers. From the above, we can say that Indian Muslims cannot be seen as oppressed, at least not to the level as portrayed by these critics. India firmly disagreed on George Bush's war on Iraq and a resolution was passed unanimously condemning the action of coalition forces and refused to allow the US to use its military bases and this has been barely mentioned by these critics nor has been seen as good gesture by the Islamic militant groups. And this resolution was adopted when the BJP led NDA government, considered as a communal Hindu party, was in power.
It is a common knowledge the militants groups such as JeM, LeT and Al-Qaeda have Pan-Islamic agenda, and Kashmir and Palestine are their trump cards. When it comes Kashmir, in my personal opinion, they still should be given an option for a plebiscite according the UN Mandate but a 60% turn-out to the local assembly elections, rejecting and sometimes even braving the calls of separatists, is an ample proof of their affinity towards democratic India.

And the reason why India has been often targeted is because it is a soft target, as I discussed in my previous article, thanks to our bickering and toothless politicians, who could not the address the internal security of this country despite several attacks.

And when it comes to oppression, in my view the dalits are more oppressed than the Muslims and as a Hindu I acknowledge the problem with our caste system which I strongly opposed in my one of my previous article: India needs a real change. It is time that Muslims take some responsibility for their backwardness and start addressing them and stop playing the victim.