Former Army Chief is always battle ready

Supreme Court decision on VKS- VKS and his lawyers thought that SC would be able to restore the honour and integrity that had been called into question (the lawyer, Mr. Bali, told the judges that a campaign had been launched against his client but dropped this argument, we are told, once the judges advised against the washing of dirty linen in public; he kept complementing? the gracefulness of the AG and govt. in withdrawing the December order, rejecting ’51 as YoB, which had forced the General to run to the court). Many now think that the SC did not think the way VKS and his legal advisors thought or did not go in the direction that they wanted it to go. A retired general said that SC had skirted the issue

Were VKS and team hoping that SC would do in the hearing what govt. and its agencies had not been able to do in 38 years?  Was SC ready to humble the govt. over something that did not deserve such public and legal scrutiny? Was more than just the law against VKS? ‘Wise men move with the wind’ is paternalistic and a bit condescending (we are wiser, be a good armyman and behave like a tree) and dylanesque? but it also brought out the inescapable fact that the favourable (some say it was less benign even then and that the silence was purchased) wind that got him the top job had turned unfavourable and he should have recognized it and taken it stoically. That would have avoided two adverse judgements in a row.  

Asking for reconciliation was being too hopeful but he can take solace from the recognition of his real b’day for non-service matters.  (Bali emphasized that VKS never asked for a change, just an honourable exit). The exit may have been more honourable if he had not framed the controversy and its resolution as a matter of honour. the ‘he was driven to it’ argument also looks more shaky now. VKS will be remembered for not shying away to fight against great odds. He got vociferous support, initially, from retired armymen on TV but towards the end of the fight, some of them had begun to have a lower opinion of their chief.


First week of Nov. ‘12- VKS is on stage with O P Chautala and other politicians. OPC is standing and holding a tied-up green turban slightly less bright than the turban he is wearing.  OPC makes a gesture with his hand to the sitting general, as if calling a young kid to give her a piece of sweet. OPC is not showing much of his teeth. Some may even call his look stern. VKS has been waiting for this. The quickness with which VKS gets up and the eagerness with which he wants to be led to the waiting crown would not have stiffened further (I read recently some of edmund candler’s words of praise for the ‘Indian Sepoy’ in war and peace) the spines of proud defence personnel.

In the book Great Soul, Lelyveld is unafraid to highlight the sometimes flawed and sometimes naive thinking (e.g. when responding to the request of jewish leaders to mediate on the palestine issue) and means adopted by bapu to achieve the very noble goals. also points out the lack of a lasting impact on the big issues of caste and communal harmony. L admires the ability of MG to remain consistent on most issues despite his unceasing articulation and fine-tuning of his position. one wonders whether he would have been more successful if he had been able to evolve an advisory team to grapple with the complexities of a movement that sought to represent a diverse Indian population.

MG quickly became the leader of the movement and inaugurated mass politics in India by identifying with the masses. just as in s Africa subcontinent, he said, the real heroes were the indentured who continued to strike even when he was jailed, so in india the poorest were the ones he sought out for implementing the vision of change he had in mind.

MG not prepared to denounce caste system or bring it down in one big attack. L hints that his not being a brahmin made it difficult for him to dictate terms to the temple custodians. MG is not afraid to negotiate despite being self-contradictory at times e.g. in the well documented encounter with Vaikom priest Nambutiri in latter’s garden.

L says that MG not interested in mobilization outside Congress and then adds that Ambedkar’s “ he would like to uplift untouchables if he can but not by offending the Hindus” sums up essence of their divide and that Ambedkar, like MG, did not (want to) view untouchables as Hindus. He ends by saying that the choice was about what would be better- a segregated minority battling for rights or a tolerated adjunct with recognized rights. That MG might have been responsible in giving ambedkar, as the law minister and constitution maker, the national position he craved but never got till then. Ambedkar scathing in saying that MG failed in his attempt to spiritualise politics and that he had become commercialized by it.

Starts by saying that his subject is not liberty of the will (‘unfortunately opposed to the misnamed doctrine of Philosophical Necessity’) but civil or social liberties.

“By liberty was meant the protection against tyrannical rulers”

Mill says that the rulers were “conceived as in a necessarily anatagonistic relationship to the people whom they ruled. Rulers consisted of a governing One or a governing tribe or caste.”

Mill talks of the subjects’ liberty consisting of setting a limit to the oppressive rule thru Political rights and constitutional checks.

Gillian Wright writes that Shrilal Shukla had told her that when writing raag darbari, he was concerned with the mild distortions in the system of that time. for capturing the goings on now, a marquez-like fantasy would be required. arun kamal, in his raag darbari ke paksh mein gavaahi, makes the same point in praising the use of an improvised, multidimensional? language by Shukla to capture the new complex reality.

I do not know whether the cold water in winter is good in the long term for my skin and tissue but I feel less cold after taking a bath and also more alert because of the shock treatment i.e fall in skin temperature, for a short period, from around 25+ C to what I would estimate as 15 C or even less (assuming water temperature to be about 10 degrees). And after the first impact has been absorbed, the cold water seems to be just sliding off the body, which seems to have got a protective coat.

If in need of higher voltage shocks, I start with hot water and pour cold immediately afterwards- a poor man’s ‘sauna followed by a jump into the freezing lake water’(also called Sauna(temperature vary from 60 C to 133 C) plus Polar Bear Club). I have become less prone to catching a chill when I go out and managed to bring down to zero my winter cold count.

Devverman, India’s new tennis star, talks of 15 minute ice bath needed daily to recover from the training fatigue. Overworked, sore muscles need hardening? If already warm, probably do not need hot water relaxation.

The medical thinking is that cold should be applied first to numb pain and make the swelling subside. The subsequent heat treatment would provide relaxation.

click A NYT article by Bryant Urstadt on art of finnish sauna

Wilde-

the brotherhood of man is no mere poet’s dream, it is the most depressing and humiliating reality.

We have come too far to encourage fraternity while continuing to maintain a distance with hoi polloi(the condition for a productive artistic output? In any case, whether artist is rich or poor, a degree of cocooning is required)

In the second half, Wilde is cursing the dumbing down effect that such equal mixing might lead to. Aristocratic republicanism of Nietzsche, elitism and appropriation of art

Shangvi- sly(imp) and provocative. Delights in his access to the drawing room and bedroom talk( never very deep/bright) of the upper crust of Bombay and being able to poke fun at them as an insider. Has the potential to go beyond the clichés that mar his prose but seems too lazy and unwilling to spend too much thought on taking his work to the next level. Not completely entranced by new age thinking on love and the good life but unable to stake out a place for alternative thinking and a lifestyle that is very different from that portrayed on the third page or that peddled by gurus. Has the contempt for the material life of the rich man who has not worked too hard for his money.

E. German Hoenecker jokes (hang up and try again- similarity between phone and H;

Erich Honecker wakes up, throws open his doors and welcomes the rising sun with a hearty "Good morning." "Good morning, dear Erich," it replies. After lunch he greets the sun again. "Good day, dear Erich," it responds. At bedtime he bids the sun goodnight. "Kiss my ass," it tells him. "I'm in the West now."

click http://www.ttaxus.com/gdrjokes.html for more gdr jokes

The inanity of eavesdropping on the same person; Stockholm syndrome can operate both ways i.e. the holder of captive cannot maintain a detached approach for long if he is not brain dead and heartless; there comes a time when you have to admit that your job has no higher purpose and is also killing you mentally. You know you are in the wrong job when the kid in your block eyes you with suspicion and shows little respect. You have to acknowledge that you cannot break the spirit of those you suppress. You never have absolute power, only illusions of power and you become more in control of your life the sooner you realize that. Wiesler does, his boss does not or refuses to do so. The relationship between the two reminds one of the intelligence boss in ‘Burn after reading’.

Every job can be made interesting if enough mental effort is made. Equally, no end to the boringness of a job if no effort is made.

Towards the end, Laszo, the dissident writer protagonist, confronts the Minister who had ordered surveillance and harassed his partner-an actress- and expresses wonder at the moral and intellectual caliber of the people who ruled the country. Stupid people can rule a country badly without harming lives of people too much. It is when the not so bright wield unbridled power and start intruding into the personal lives and controlling them that disaster strikes. The movie brings out the results of efficiency wrongly directed. Many are employed but there is little or zero constructive output(opening letters and compiling statistics of useless things and ignoring the figures that would present the regime in bad light). How the air of secrecy vitiates everything, from professional relationships to personal ones. The dependency that it breeds. You are free to discuss/ameliorate for the very little time when you are in open territory, safe nowhere.

The awe in which artists are held- in GDR, where little question of money and televised show off, it is the freedom to use their mind, body(the colleague of Wiesler? says that the artists are always enjoying themselves in bed) that is envied most by the mindless bureaucrats. W meeting Christa Maria in the pub and expressing his appreciation of her ‘art’ and requesting her to be herself. He is assuming that he has got to know her real self by listening in to her.

Joke again. The leader of the GDR, Erich Honecker, wants to know what the people really think of him. So goes out among the people in disguise. He asks a man on the street: "Excuse me, but what do you think of Honecker?" The man leads him down a side street, makes sure that nobody hears him, and whispers into Erich's ear, "I support Honecker!"

The joke brings out both the degree of suppression/uncertainty (even supporters of Honecker cannot be sure to be safe-the insecurity and arbitrariness is brought out nicely by another joke in which a jail inmate tells another,” you cannot be sentenced for 5 yrs for doing nothing since the sentence for that crime is 10”. Non-supporters of Honecker know that even lonely streets are not safe) and the degree of knowledge (everyone including Honecker knows that everything is rotten but everyone also knows that their salvation lies in maintaining the charade, not getting caught and ensuring that other loyalists get sidelined; the dissident know that the rulers know that they are disliked; the rulers know that the dissidents know that the rulers are inept and cannot be trusted)

In Jafar Panahi's ‘Mirrors’-had also been hooked from the very start by his white balloon and Offside-one is left wondering at many points why the people little Mina encounters are not extra helpful; these doubts are only partially resolved by the ‘baring the device’ in the middle of the movie. Many of The previous scenes have to be re-interpreted (again without complete resolution/satisfaction) after the revelation. Panahi does not want to give explanations, only document the city life(tehran) seen from eyes of an adventrous grade 2? girl and the background talk of bus riders, walkers. He also always keeps the viewer hungry, and sometimes impatient, for what happens next.

The unreliability and incompleteness of her ‘knowledge’ provides the rambling but never dull story. Mirrors has more adventure than White Balloon and some of the child’s responses are much more adult like and jaded. Both the girls are not very patient but in Mirrors, the girl has little time to sit and think and have a conversation(she having no elder brother, as in White balloon, to help her negotiate). At the same time, she trusts completely the kinder people she questions and entreats them (bus driver, policeman, old lady) to come with her to the destination that is flashing through her mind at that moment. Knows a few things but cannot put them all together. Neither can those who try to help her since the info is insufficient.

Most of those who are asked for help have valid reasons for not staying with her for long. She is not afraid to ask questions and is confident of her ability to find her way. A small girl wondering about for so long - what does it say about her society? The girl is treated as an adult (only because of her confidence?) and sometimes she displays the indifference of adults-the scooter and car crashes do not affect her much.

No society can be unidimensional. Young girls more free to talk, act and move about than adult women. The freedom that she has when she cannot value it and use it well will be absent when she wants it later in life. The bus scene of the engaged? couple exchanging loving glances and unaware of Mina ‘catching’ them tells a lot about the constraints women have to live under and also of the small mercies. Mina's smile is also a mix of innocence and knowingness.

Mina’s parents can be blamed for not making arrangements for her going home and also for making her act. but this is something that everybody seems ready to overlook, if not condone.

Panahi is perhaps making a comment on the value of capturing random movements and interactions of a small girl. It might be better than following a more predictable adult but invading the private world of a kid becomes self-defeating after a certain point.

Svejk like combo of angel and devil.

bbc radio 4 in our time program on Victorian pessimism

Mathew Arnold on honeymoon cannot be too optimistic


Ah, love, let us be true
To one another! for the world, which seems
To lie before us like a land of dreams,
So various, so beautiful, so new,
Hath really neither joy, nor love, nor light,
Nor certitude, nor peace, nor help for pain;
And we are here as on a darkling plain
Swept with confused alarms of struggle and flight,
Where ignorant armies clash by night



Fragmentation lonelnesss vulnerability uncertainty(abt aty of scriptures, higher criticism); turn too personal- coomunal loss has to be faced alone

1844- engels on english poor. All in dark, stranded. ‘struggle’ is v. Darwinian although b4 origin of species. Loss of confidence has to do with scientific change and loss of faith(henry oldenberg, future secy of royal sociey met Spinoza)

Sea of faith/fate?; Aegean tragedy.

Housman of a later generation talks of abandonment; all props gone. His pessimism becomes a matter of austerity; discipline in imagination; economy of despair.

Oxford from anglicism to catholicism(newman)

Bible just a book- german comparative historians; strauss ‘life of jesus’ transltd by george eliot(who also translated Spinoza)

39 articles canonicity; to get fellowship, degree, clergyman

Geology- charles lyall; ruskin’s ‘sound of hammer’ ; sun will go out

1869 victorian liberal arnold wrote culture and anarchy; barbarians are landed class who are nto well rounded human beings but can control; philistines are middle class.

Ward healers and backslappers vs political punditry

Competition from America and germany; v r not centre of creation; other repercussions of Darwinism; eugenics coined by galton, cousin of Darwin; beautiful evoltx?.; founder of salvation army says put them in an island; degeneration theory-nordau?; power of steam to transform travel; electricity-commcx.; elite worries of being outpopulated by masses; breaking up of certnties made others take advntage. George gissing, powerful voice of pessimism, alientatd from own community. Hardy doing comparable work. Women getting new opps. Writing in new ways but no 2 cheerfully. ‘New woman’ novel.

Cloudburst- steam and electricity. Univ college London-clough; wells(gloomy texts were v popular; 1895 time machine discusses degnrtx and also new physics-last scenes 30 m years into future talk of death of sun; abominable desolation of dying red disc and final struggles of life on earth hot survive) and gissing-loer middle class.

Pessimists do literary art better. Murky depths get canonized. WT Stead- pioneer of sensationalist modern jornalism, exposed child prostitution in London(The Victorians, AN Wilson); Football Assoctx begins in 1863;30 clubs by 1868; Aston Villa Wesleyan Chapel, Christ Church Bolton-->Bolton Wanderers;Bramhall lane Sheffield drawing crowds of 10k in late 1870s. 1871-72 dostoevsky writes the devils."Man canot possibly exist without his former Gods"-Kirilov

Period of mass education. 1870 state funded education. Vote extended.

Fear of cities- semi vicious savage class. Lambroso early criminologist; looks at head features. Undersanitation.

Both marx and Darwin; underground culture; literary and also in non-lit; the u/g we travel in; novel ‘netherworld’. Failing of the light. Right now nightmare is ‘burned up’-2 much light. Cos of pollution, less lite. Whats happening in agriculture? Collapsing; depopulated ;

Holmes always gets man and out of darkness. First virtual celebrity. Threatening but solvable.