The Indian Middle-class

A newly proposed definition of what constitutes a middle class in a developing country, seeks to only consider those that earn at least 10$ a day, after excluding the top 5% of the richest people in the country. Shockingly this would mean that India would have no middle-class. One could argue with how the figure of 10$ was arrived at, but I can't help being shocked by the level of disparity in incomes between the reasonably well-off and the vast multitudes of the poor. It's going to take more than a few cosmetic 'on-paper' laws to turn things around.

Religious encounters of the strange kind

I don't think about religion on a daily basis. If anything, I would describe my self as agnostic leaning towards atheistic. But more than anything else, I think religion is an extremely personal matter, and I'm all for the cultural aspects of religious celebrations (for the most part anyway). As far as religion is concerned, I'd describe myself as "don't care", which made a recent encounter that I had all the more odd.

I was walking home, when I saw a couple on the sidewalk. I had a fair inkling of what they were doing when I noticed that the person walking in front of me had to weave his way through the couple, vigorously shaking his head as he walked by. The man (one half of the couple) would almost block your path thereby forcing you to listen to him. He had a book in his hand and a extremely-wide-and-therefore-creepy smile plastered on his face. Predictably he stood right in front of me. I noticed that both the man and the woman looked fairly young, probably in their mid-thirties and spoke with thick Asian accents. The conversation went something like this,

Man : Hello! Are you christian?
Me : No
Man : Are you Jewish?
Me : No
Man : What religion are you?
(I was tempted at this point to just walk away, but I didn't I'm not really sure why)
Me : Hindu
(I was a little surprised by my own answer. I think that the bottom-line is that I didn't really want to discuss my beliefs with a random stranger on the street. What happened next is the bit that I found really odd.)

Man : "Oh ... Have a nice day!"

This exchange left me a little baffled. I wonder what he was trying to do.

Hypothesis 1: He was actively trying to convert people away from Christianity/Judaism
Hypothesis 2: He was actively trying to convert people to Hinduism
Hypothesis 3: Either way, he didn't want to spend anymore time on the conversation

I'm not quite sure what to make of it all.

Winter

A single icicle juts out in front of my window, dripping slowly in the bright sunshine. Spring is just around the corner. I carefully make my way down the sidewalks covered in snow, soon to be packed into an uncrossable sheet of ice. I can't help thinking that winter this year has been worse than the last. My gloved hands return to my coat pockets, still stinging gently under the light wool. The trees are still bare; the colors of fall a many months away. For now, I wait patiently for warmer weather, for spring and then summer. Until then I pray that we've received the last heavy snowfall for the season.

Of Gut-Wrenching Poverty

Life in India is full of contradictions, as any visitor to the country will tell you. For someone living in India, however, reconciling these contradictions is essential for survival. It is hard if not impossible, to be faced with crippling poverty on a daily basis and not feel an overwhelming sense of sadness and guilt.
My home state of Maharashtra was recently contemplating changing the rules so that taxi permits would only be issued to persons who had lived in the state for at least fifteen years and can "read and write marathi (the local language)". The move is primarily aimed at keeping migrant workers from poorer states from acquiring local jobs. In a country where a vast number of people are illiterate, where we have failed to provide our poorest and most vulnerable sections of society with a minimum standard of living, where large sections of the population go hungry, this is what the Government imagines up. Perhaps we should soon expect a set of minimum qualifications that all of the urban poor must meet if they want to subsist amongst the more affluent. The irony is not lost on me.

The films of Louis Malle and India

Louis Malle is a wonderful filmmaker. Each of his films, that I have had an opportuinity to see, have been magnificent (Au Revoir Les Enfants, Lacombe Lucien, Le Souffle au Coeur, L'Inde Fantome, Calcutta) and I highly recommend them all. The last two in the list deserve special mention. L'Inde Fantome (Phantom India) and Calcutta are documentaries that were filmed in the late 70's in India, and they paint a startling, enchanting and at times disturbing portrait of India 40 years ago. If, like me, you have had a chance to see modern day India, these films might give you a new perspective on India's development in the past few years.

Two Movies and Some Fiction

What follows is another random bit of writing. Everything here is pure fiction, more or less anyway, that I was almost compelled to write after a couple of movies that I recently saw - "One Day You'll Understand" (Plus Tard) by Amos Gitai, and "The Class" (Entre les Murs) by Laurent Cantet. I highly recommend them both.

Its just another evening, no different from any other. A night out with friends, at the local pub. We've had a couple of rounds of beer each. "Nowhere close to my limit yet", I think. I excuse myself and head off to the restroom. My feet momentarily falter. Im almost surprised that im that drunk already. So much for my ability to hold my alcohol. By the time I've converted two pints into litres, and then calculated 5.7% of that, Im already back at the bar. One last draught and the glass is empty. "Just one last pint for the day, and then Im done", I decide. Drinks are ordered. Everyone seems happy. I look accross at a friend. He has a silly smile on his face. He's busy telling us how much he loves us. I smile. I turn back to my other friends. They are busy having a heated discussion about something. I can't really make out everything they are saying... but occasionally, I hear platitudes, I hear the same arguments repeated over and over... old wine in a new bottle ... except no one seems to realize that its the same old bottle. Im not sure if its the alcohol or just me, but I don't care. Im comfortable. Im happy. Its great to be out with friends.

I've seen enough

"I've seen enough, of nothing news,

The blackest stain on history, or last laugh blues.

Not gonna fight not gonna cry,

Not gonna shop around for one flag to fly."

-I've seen enough by The Cold War Kids.

There is a limit to stupidity ... right? Wrong. If you're a right-wing group in India you just keep creating new issues, each more ridiculous then the previous one. (For example, see this or this) But each new issue they raise is just so ridiculous that you have to stop and 'applaud' their creativity. After all, at some point the rational, thinking part of the brain chimes in. It points out errors in your thought processes, it identifies flaws in arguments, it throws reason at you, it hits you with a dose of logic. To reach a point when you can suppress the 'intelligent' parts of your brain and be ruled by insanity takes effort. Lot of it.

What then of the thinking, silent majority (at least I like to think that this is the majority of the population)? How long before they tire under the constant insanity heaped on them by our 'defenders of culture', our 'moral police'? How long before they stop trying to reason with these insane fools? How long before they stop trying to talk sense into the minds of the insane? After all, of what use are arguments and explanations to these mindless and witless few?

Thankfully there are some who haven't given up and who hopefully never will, as this innovative (?) campaign demonstrates. Thank God for them!