A lesser known fact about Lal Bahadur Shastri

Lal Bahadur Shastri also shares his birthday with Mahatma Gandhi, on October 2,as we all know. Even though he ruled for just over two years, it was one of the most eventful tenures for an Indian Prime Minister - the time when Pakistan fought a fierce war with us. 

A lesser known-fact was revealed by my father today at a dinner conversation as he was reminiscing those tough days of war-years circa 1965-66 (and I was not even born yet). He said India was short on food grains and was importing them from outside. USA had a notorious scheme called PL-480 which restricted the import of food grains by India especially because Pakistan was in a bloody war with India and the US tried its best to upstage us - thinking we could be bull-dozed as it was a new man after Nehru. But Shastri was short in stature, not short in size of thinking or easy to be bullied. He lashed out against US for exploiting the situation. He also realised that the food grains were not enough to feed India's millions; there is a food crisis at hand if all Indians were to consume three meals a day. He went on air to exhort all Indians to show their patriotism for the country in a much more dramatic manner than what today's Raghuram Rajan or Chidambaram would ever make to save dollars and import bills. He asked all Indians to make a supreme sacrifice: Miss A Meal once in a week. The savings combined with this single act of a meal saved will save India millions of import bill of food grains and also a national embarrassment. It worked, it seems. Except infants and aged, most people volunteered to miss a meal, even some restaurants closed down for one session a week, and it became a national cause that everyone loved to stand for in one of India's greatest food crisis. Today, we are reasonably self-sufficient in atleast 20 out of 24 varieties of food grains but those days, a measure like this which was more a request from a Prime Minister carried far greater response; it resonated because politicians like Shastri came up from humble origins and lived like farmers, simple, honest and out to make a difference to the country without amassing fortunes in benaami accounts. Shastri was a true leader who commanded a rare respect that only diminished with time in sync with the shrinking moral compass of today's politician leaders.

My father adds that the simple "Miss A Meal" became a rage at one time. He remembers a famous cartoon too which shows women at Beauty pageants parading with their respective country banners: Miss America, Miss Soviet Union, Miss England, Miss France and so on. When India's turn came, it was a woman with a banner which read "MISS A MEAL". Good night, friends and remember this soul whenever you remember Gandhi too. I hope we don't reach a situation when someone remembers Ravi Shastri more than Lal Bahadur Shastri. That will be tragic.

"The Reluctant Fundamentalist" Film Review (English)

Mira Nair is a gift from South Asia to Hollywood for blending the silky emotions of the East with the verve and rich production values of the West. "The Reluctant Fundamentalist" is one more proud addition to the magic of Mira Nair's films. Based on Mohsin Hamid's novel, Mira Nair has attempted a bold film that captures the essence of Mohsin's tale of a young man Chengez Khan who sets foot in the US, makes it big as a financial analyst in a Wall Street firm but soon finds devastating incursions into his privacy and belief systems after a xenophobic America beefs up its tirade against terrorism. Chengez Khan finds his innate world of private beliefs of faith and religion and nationhood of Pakistan awakened and harnessed in the avalanche of incidents that follow the 9/11 attacks - someone at work asks him to shave off his beard, a cop at the Subway books him under Homeland Security Act and strips him to the organ, his girl friend, a photo artiste throws open an exhibition making a gawdy collage of the symbols of religion and culture of Pakistan and finally, someone at the parking lot deflates his car tyres and spooks his dirty finger to stop fucking around in America. Until then, Chengez Khan, a composed and introverted star financial analyst who is creating ripples with his deep-dive business acumen and impeccable Americana becomes  a late believer in the causes that fire up Madarassas and Mujahiddins. His final breaking point comes in Instanbul, Turkey when Chengez Khan and his boss go to evaluate a legacy-rich Publishing company that has the most impressive imprint of middle-eastern writers. Chengez Khan gets a lecture here from the owner that going by the yardsticks of DCF Analysis and discount factors, his books maybe worth nothing in the eyes of the financial analyst, but that has spawned the most towering intellectual writers of the region which has been making waves and winning plaudits. Chengez Khan finds that the works of his own father, a Pakistani poet, are translated into Turkish by the gentlemen whom he is about to advise on business restructuring matters.  Thats the point Chengez kicks his corner office job and returns to Pakistan as a reluctant fundamentalist. The story moves, as in the book, like a narrative by the protagonist to an American journalist, who is himself a mole by an army of seals to help relieve an American researcher kidnapped by Chengez's men. 

Quite a fascinating buildup to the complex characterisation of a fundamentalist who could be one amongst us. Mira Nair uses her craft of delicate story-telling with her inimitable cinematic sensibilities. What helps the film despite its cliches on the terrorism theme are a great adapted screenplay, a terrific starcast led by Riz Ahmed (Chengez Khan), Bobby (Liev Schreiber), father (Om Puri) and lover artist (Kate Hudson). Having re-read the book since watching the film, I must say Mira Nair has outshined her films and in the process given a stratospheric lift to South Asia's hottest writer today ("How to Get Filthy Rich in Rising Asia"). She has given a bold treatment to the issue of metrosexual men in Atlantic countries rising up in arms against the most powerful nation on earth. Not since the films of Merchant - Ivory productions have we seen a director of the calibre as much as Mira Nair who dedicates the film to Altaf Nawaz Nair, her late father. While Ismail Merchant chose films of an era of the Raj mostly writers like Ruth Jhabbervala and E.M.Forster and rarely assumed an audacity to stir the joneses, Mira Nair gives a warm and passing commentary on the travails and the colorful tapestry of the lives of South Asians. She has an eye for detail, gets under the skin of the writer, knows how to graft the writer's eye onto an effervescent screenplay and weave a story that in the end carries her distinct signature style. 

Music by William Andrews deserves immodest mention. Besides lending his own voice in some songs, Andrews gave a distinct touch to the euphonies scored in the film  - inter-mixing Sufi music, Lahore beats and haunting melodies. The output certainly heightens the film's punctuated moods to desired effect. Cinematography is another clear winner - and that seems to do so well in Mira's films. Her eye for detail and that of Declan Quinn, the cinematographer matches so well whether it is Istanbul, Manila, Lahore or New York. A lot of viewers generally get confused between Mira Nair and Deepa Mehta. IMHO, Mira Nair is a master, not an apprentice like Deepa Mehta. Give a good story to Mira Nair, she will ace it up. Give a dazzling writer's work to Deepa Mehta, she will fake it down. If you have had enough of films with Navy Seal operations and jingoistic Americana, "The Reluctant Fundamentalist" is a good watch despite its length of 131 minutes, which includes atleast four minutes of tobacco warnings and seven minutes of false starts to a not-so-erotic love-making scene between Kate Hudson and the Wall Street Analyst. Notwithtstanding that, it is still 4 star film.

Cricket Australia Vs.Cricket India

The strength of a country's cricket team lies in its coaches and the process followed by the apex body in selecting in-form cricketers and giving a fighting team for the nation - a team that wont retreat or rest on past laurels. Cricket-lovers will always remember how clinical and ruthless Cricket Australia functions. They eased out Shane Warne at the cusp of another 300 wickets, and didn't spare ...Andrew Symonds for a few faux pas, waited for Steve Waugh, Glen Mcgirth, Dean Jones, Allan Border, Michael Bemen, David Boon, and several other cricketers I fail to recollect. And now, Ricky Ponting - the only cricketer who can beat the combined trio of Sachin, Laxman and Dravid in batting records. And look ma! he has been shown the door in ODIs. Thats class act of Cricket Australia.


Contrast with BCCI - reeking in corruption, under-invested in harvesting new talent, or training our cricketers to face bouncy pitches or fast bowlers. We don't even know how to sustain interest in fast-bowling as a career option, we make pitches that suit more batting records to get piled up. And look at our cavalier attitude towards non-performing assets - We are all the time waiting for some people who for some reason, we feel are above law, like Sachin to announce retirement. Gavaskar was right in saying, the best time to retire is when people say,"Why?" rather than "why not?". I have been saying consistently that Sachin's best days are behind and he doesn't deserve Bharat Ratna - thats a totally different topic (which I will address with proper arguments constructed layer by layer). And now, we are afraid to drop the demigod of cricket for whatever reasons. The point, however, is not that. The point is why BCCI doesn't have exacting performance standards for seniors who are not consistent like Cricket Australia or even neighbouring Pakistan Cricket Body which was notorious for sacking indisciplined players. Trouble is, BCCI has spread itself too thin on past laurels - and the country is going berserk on watching more and more of 14-reel cricket - Celebrity cricket league, IPL-Summer and IPL-October and the long dry-and-deadpan-pitch winter cricket season which end in draws or batsmen hauling up triple ton records.

Cricket nations across the world are waking up to the fact that too much money has crept into the cricketing lives - and cricket in India is becoming as gawdy as the big fat Indian wedding. If performance is not coming sooner or in consistent bouts, the euphoria or fixation over our national sportsgame will become anathema. Cricket lovers in India know that cricket blues happen also more often here than anywhere else. We just need an independent decision-making team that can look the other way when advertisers, business groups and cricket superstars are pouring in money. Money talks, in cricket also but not for too long - especially when performance goes missing.

Books about Pakistan

Pakistan is one country that never ceases to interest Indians especially those born around partition time like my father. So, it has always been my duty to quench his voracious reading appetite on books about Politicians and generals in Pakistan. He has read every book written about/by Jinnah, Bhutto, Musharaff. This somehow kindles a Hitchcockian interest in him - to read about Pakistan. So, you... can understand the glimmer of curiosity in him to read about Imran Khan by the cricketer himself.


"Pakistan - A Personal History" is a good book written to canvass himself (Imran Khan) to a nation torn asunder. Its a well-written book and Imran Khan deserves like every crooked politician a fair chance at the government. What is amazing to me is that the book delves more into his personal life through boyhood days to cricket and cancer and his many marriages and suddenly shifts gears into a political commentary on the state of affairs of Pakistan for the last 15 years which is as interesting as India. A cricket all-rounder cannot have such a masterly pavillion's view of politics in his own country especially when he has distanced himself from his country for so long until the recent past. Which is why, when we read that book "Pakistan: A Personal History" it turned out we read the same stuff somewhere. We found the answer alarmingly as a sidenote after the last page: "I have referred MJ Akbar's book "Tinderbox: A History of Pakistan" in writing this book". It turned out he has copied copiously from the book - to draw from MJ Akbar's magesterial sweep of history about Pakistan.

But his views on TV are a bit idealistic and sound familiar to those early halycon days of Bhutto, Benazir, Musharaff. In an interview with Rahul N of Headlines Today, he was impressive about Pakistan but bewildered about Kashmir, India and the policy that would shape Pakistan's relationship with India, and most of all, an unpardonable ignorance about Pakistan's anti-India terror camps. He is talking about "engaging" with such camps to bring a political solution. No wonder, even the US is wary about Imran Khan's rhetoric. He used to go after the Indian batsmen those days, now he is going after the Indian media nowadays and using it rather cleverly well. Whatever be his naivette and silly utterances, the youth of Pakistan are rallying behind him. I hope he succeeds in democratising, de-militarising Pakistan more so that it ceases to disturb India.

The last time I read a book about an aspiring politician from a celebrity sportsman background was "Life Imitates Chess" by Garry Kasparov. That was a joy and a celebration of life from History's greatest Chess Player with little references to politics and plenty of lessons. Reading Imran Khan is a bit more painful, and boring at times - like a political manifesto.