RIP Dr APJ Abdul Kalam

From the small town of Rameshwaram, from what looks like a severed link to the island of Sri Lanka, came this young boy who finished his schooling in Schwartz Matriculation School while supplementing his family with additional income by distributing news papers early morning, who moved on to Trichy to graduate in Physics at St Joseph’s College. With the dreams of becoming a fighter pilot he went to Madras and graduated in Aerospace Engineering from Madras Institute of Technology, Chromepet.

A life in the IAF wasn’t in Dr Kalam’s destiny having narrowly missed out in getting selected and joined the DRDO as a Scientist getting to work under greats like Vikram Sarabhai and Raja Ramanna. Dr Kalam moved to the ISRO and led India’s efforts in developing high-technology to greater heights despite budgetary constraints and at times international sanctions like the one right after India’s II nuclear test in May 1998.

Dr Kalam led from the front in operationalizing the Agni and Prithvi missiles right from conception, development, testing and adding them to the armed forces kitty. Dr Kalam’s contribution in the field of medicine is without any parallel. He’s steered DRDO to design easy to wear prosthetics for the disabled. He also helped design a low cost coronary stent. Dr Kalam’s account about the devastating effect of the 1964 Dhanushkodi cyclone and how it changed his outlook towards life is awe inspiring.

Dr Kalam  loved students and children and spent a lot of time interacting with them and sharing ideas. It’s almost poetic that his end came at one such stage in Shillong, Meghalaya. Dr Kalam has authored (or co-authored) a total of 15 books which remain best sellers. Dr Kalam was also a scholar of Tamil and could quote from the Thirukkural, Thiruppavai, Kurunthokai and many other old texts verbatim at will. He was also an exponent of the veena and was a discerning listener and fan of Carnatic Classical music.

Dr Kalam is a sterling example of what’s destiny can make off if one puts one’s heart and mind to a purpose using the limited means of the state in the idea that India became after 1947. That a little boy from an almost under privileged background at the southern most tip of this country could make it to the top of the country becoming it’s President by sheer hard work. A devout Muslim who had a truly secular outlook, who bowed to none nor expected anyone to bow before him.

RIP Dr Avul Pakir Jainulabdeen Abdul Kalam. God bless your soul.

The end of the original “Delhi Diary”

This blogger feared the worst when Vinod Mehta didn’t post another column after the 8th of Dec 2014 on Outlook, the legendary “Delhi Diary”. On the same page dated 23rd Feb it was Krishna Prasad, Outlook’s Editor-in-Chief, who wrote and it was a sign of what to expect. Vinod Mehta wasn’t going to be around anymore.

Yesterday he passed away leaving behind his wife and their pet canine companion the humorously named “Editor”, who for years was written about on the column. The obits since then in various media outlets have all unanimously praised Vinod Mehta. Even the PM had put out a condolence message on Twitter, despite the Editor not being one of those cheerleaders of the current establishment, nor the previous.

Vinod Mehta was one of those rare editors who didn’t start their careers as beat-reporters in journalism. Right from his first job he’s been an editor all the way from Debonair to Outlook. Until Outlook he was known for being inventive but not for being commercially successful.

I first found an issue of Outlook in 1995 in my friend’s house. His bank manager Dad, a voracious reader, was a subscriber of the magazine. I instantly took liking to it’s style and anti-establishment stance. Over the years that has evolved into being a fan of the magazine’s Editor-in-Chief, who also wrote regularly the column titled “Delhi Diary” and many a times those 800 words about a pressing subject of that time.

Outlook was also where I discovered Arundhati Roy and Ramachandra Guha. The former always got all the space her beautiful prose in the long form needed. From the latter’s articles I also spilled over to reading his books, except the one’s on cricket. Vinod Mehta wrote all his articles on paper, he took to a computer only in 2013.

Vinod Mehta was a rare journalist who never failed to talk about the rot in his profession. NDTV never invited him after Outlook published the transcript of the Radia tapes in 2010 which was critical of Barkha Dutt’s role in the political quagmire during the formation of UPA2. A big corporate house stopped giving out advertisements and I suspect that was a reason Vinod Mehta was shunted upwards and named “Editorial Director”. He was also an avid advocate of self-regulation in journalism, this hasn’t yet taken off in our country.

Vinod Mehta was also know for his liberal views and was stridently secular. He was friends with all which a lot of his readers in the last 5 years failed to appreciate some even calling him an apologetic of the Gandhi family. He was also someone who could take jokes and brickbats about himself. A cursory reading of the “letters to the editor” column would show you how much he enjoyed publishing the criticism of his readers.

Vinod Mehta was able to run Outlook independently because he also was able to make it commercially viable and profitable for his owners. When he wrote about his long lost abandoned daughter from a relationship as a student in England, one could feel that yearning of a father. May the old fellow, who liked his drink, his stray dog and many such strays, find peace where ever he is today.

Independence Day – India - play list

Along with wishing everyone a happy independence day I’d like to put forth an independence day play list of sorts. A collection of songs whose words and music have a strong patriotic spirit to it.

• National anthem: Featuring Pt. Hariprasad Chaurasia, Vikku Vinayakram, Ravikiran, Kumaresh & Ganesh, Pt. Vishwamohan Bhat, Ustad Amjad Ali Khan, Pt. Jasraj, this collective instrumental version was produced by AR Rahman for the album "Jana Gana Mana".
• Missing: Loosely based on the iconic “Vande Mataram”, this piece was composed and produced by AR Rahman for the album "Vande Mataram".
• Vande Mataram:  Written by Mehboob and sung by the ‘crown princess of Indian playback music’ Lata Mangeshkar, this song was composed and produced by Ranjit Barot for the album "Vande Mataram 98". It combined the best of the modern and the yesteryears, a feat Ranjit Barot  effortlessly manages to accomplish given his strong classical training and a background in rock music. The choir’s harmonic rendition of “Suchalaam sufalaam” that opens this song is unique and a spell binding effort.
• Maa Tujhe Salaam: Rendered, composed and produced by AR Rahman (Does anyone still remember Yak Bondy?) for the album "Vande Mataram", the words for this song were written by Mehboob. The brief given to him was to not write a song that the youth would like but never sing.
• Desh mere desh: Sung by Sukhwinder Singh & AR Rahman, composed and produced by AR Rahman for the movie "The legend of Bhagat Singh". The words of this song were written by Sameer.
• Yeh jo desh hai thera: sung, composed and produced by AR Rahman for the movie "Swades". Javed Akthar’s words bring a melancholic and fond feeling to friends living in foreign lands and to natives alike.
• Theme music from "Bombay": Composed and produced by AR Rahman for the movie "Bombay", this song is alleged to have taken 3 months to complete delaying the release of the movie. Based on the same raag as Mohandas Gandhi’s favourite song, this piece of music kicked off the trend of having instrumental compositions on mainstream film music albums, although AR Rahman has been doing it since his first movie “Thiruda thiruda”. “Bombay” is also the best selling casette tape of all times in India, if the accounting was transparent in the industry it would have rivalled MJ’s “Thriller” too in terms of copies sold.
• Azadi: Sung, composed and produced by AR Rahman for the movie "Bose, the forgotten hero", the words were written by Javed Akthar. This movie didn’t get quite the attention it deserved, it was a good effort and the music was top notch. This was one of AR Rahman’s lengthiest albums with a total of 19 tracks on the soundtrack CD.
• Thamizha thamizha: Sung by Hariharan, written by Vairamuthu, composed and produced by AR Rahman for the movie "Roja". (Bharat humko jaan say pyaara hai is the same tune in Hindi)
• Desk ki mitti: Words by Javed Akthar, sung by Sonu Nigam, composed and produced by AR Rahman for the movie "Bose, the forgotten hero".
• Sarfarosh ki tamanna: Written by Sameer, sung by Sonu Nigam & Hariharan, composed and produced by AR Rahman for the movie "The Legend of Bhagat Singh". 

“Chak de” composed by Salim-Sulaiman due for the movie “Chak de India”, “Mera mulk mera desh” from the movie “Diljale” composed by Anu Malik are some honourable mentions.

This writer has a strong bias towards AR Rahman which would be evident looking at the songs in this play list. There have been timeless gems from the olden days, since my understanding and exposure to music from that period is limited I’ve restrained myself to only mention songs that came out after 1992.

Are there any other songs in the last 2 and 1/2 decades that should have been mentioned?

Should POTA be brought back?

Everytime there's a terror attack in one of the Indian cities one can hear a cacaphony of voices asking for stringent anti-terror laws. This is particularly true about members from the BJP that keep arguing that POTA should be brought back. How serious is this allegation? Does our country need a draconian law like POTA to maintain law and order? Here's some more information.

POTA which stands for Prevention of Terrorism Act was passed in 2002 prior to which there was POTO which stood for Prevention of Terrorism Ordinance. This act was brought into force after the attacks on our Parliament in Dec 2001. It defined terrorism and many human rights advocates would argue that the definition infringed on the freedom of speech at times. Anybody arrested under this act could be kept in police custody for a period of 180 days without having been produced in front of a judge/magistrate for a remand. The confession extracted from an accused can also be used a evidence in a court of law. POTA by it's very nature assumed that anyone arrested under it was 'guilty' and had to be proved 'innocent' by way of evidence when the case came up for hearing.

As per the Indian constitution and other criminal laws a person is 'innocent' unless proven 'guilty', this was a vital new change in POTA. Most states in India implemented this law except Lalu's Bihar and some other states. The states that used this act to the maximum were Jharkhand, Gujarat and Tamilnadu. The irony in Gujarat was that the muslims who were arrested under allegations of torching the railway coach at Godhra were charged under POTA. The riots that followed saw large scale massacres of Muslims by Hindu hardliners and the folks arrested during these riots were charged under normal criminal laws, the CM of the state said POTA was not necessary. This selective imposition of the law was seen as partial and used as per the convenience in a particular case.

POTA also was a potent weapon in the hands of zealous law enforcement agencies. A law which was meant to handle the globally witnessed phenemenon of terrorism was being used to harrass and heckle innocent citizens many at times. In Tamilnadu V.Gopalaswamy (Vaiko) was arrested by the then CM J.Jayalalitha for making speeches in support of the LTTE. He languished in jail for about 4+ months before being formally charged by the police. Such was the vigorous nature of the act and it's ramifications when used by politicians to settle political scores. The UPA government repealed this act in 2004 and rightly so, it should have followed up with modifications to the CRPC with the definitions of terrorism, terrorist to accomodate the changing global scenario but that is still in the offing.

TADA (Terrorist and Disruptive Activities prevention act) was in force between 1985 and 1995 and was brought primarily to tackle terrorism in Punjab. This act didn't have clear definitions for terrorism and hence was misused widely because of which it was repealed in 1995.

The answer to a terror strike is not in getting draconian laws. It's in more efficient intelligence gathering, it's in sifting through volumes of gathered data and extracting meaningful information out of it. It's more about states taking complete responsibility for law and order and effective policing, it's not about blaming the central government for everything. Law and Order has always been a state subject and not a federal subject. For the sake of all the lives lost till now someone has to drive the point pretty clearly in our leaders today that the last thing they should play politics with is a human tragedy like a terror strike!