Renowned Writer Kamala Das Passed Away

Pune, India: Well-known writer Kamala Das alias Kamala Surayya alias Madhavikutty passed away in a private hospital at Pune, India, on Sunday early morning, the 31st May 2009, family sources said. She was 75. She had been undergoing treatment in the hospital for the last few months.
Kamala Das, a well-known Indian writer, who wrote in English as well as Malayalam, her native language. She is considered to be one of the outstanding Indian poets writing in English, although her popularity in Kerala is based chiefly on her short stories, novels and autobiography. Much of her writing in Malayalam came under the pen name Madhavikkutty.
Kamala Das was recognized as one of India’s foremost poets, who born on March 31, 1934 in Malabar in Kerala.

A noble thought on Jawaharlal Nehru’s 45th death anniversary

Today is 27th May, 2009.

My thoughts go back to down memory line. I was then a little boy of eight-years old. On 27th May 1964 our neighbour Kamlakshan was returning from the village shop with hot news and while returning home he was saying to everybody Nehru died! No television, internet, direct dialling telephone or other means of fast communication system were not available at that time in India.

Now 45-years have been passed. However, I still remember that day.

Today, on 27th May 2009, the Wednesday, India paid rich tributes to Jawaharlal Nehru’s 45th death anniversary. President Pratibha Patil  and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh  were among a host of leaders who paid floral tributes to India’s first Prime Minister. Jawaharlal Nehru was born on November 14, 1889.

On the 45th death anniversary of Jawaharlal Nehru I would like to share my thoughts with my readers. Now in India the Congress Party is back in power with 200 plus seats in the recent elections. I wrote an article last year about the closure of Nehru’s National Herald newspaper.

The Congress party and its president Sonia Gandhi can revive Jawaharlal Nehru’s National Herald. The paper is part of Nehru’s legacy and has upheld the tradition of secularism and non-alignment. Any thought of reviving the paper would be the most befitting tribute from the Congress party and Sonia Gandhi on his 45th death anniversary.

I reproduce below excerpts from my article published last year to refresh the memory of my readers:

“Creating something is not an easy job. Making something from the scratch and raising it to the top is a hard task to accomplish. Jawaharlal Nehru did this job 70 years ago in the form of launching the newspaper, National Herald at Lucknow on September 9, 1938. And now, bidding farewell to this venture is a difficult task. But, the 70-year-oldNational Herald and its sister Urdu newspaper Quami Awaz closed down on April 1 (Tuesday). The last editorial titled ’Herald hopes for a better tomorrow indicates perhaps the closure would be only a temporary phase.

Manikonda Chalapathi Rau was the editor of the National Heralad from 1946 onwards for over a period of 30 years. The founder, Jawaharlal Nehru was the soul and M Chalapathi Rau was the body of the newspaper.

Rajiv Gandhi revived the National Herald in 1987. The Lucknow edition of the National Herald and Quami Awaz were closed down about 10 years ago. The paper also had a Hindi edition Navjivan - a name given by Mahatma Gandhi - that was also closed down several years ago.

According to the oldest employee of the newspaper, 70-year-old TV Venkatachalam, the editor-in-chief of National Herald, New Delhi, who joined the newspaper in 1987 when Rajiv Gandhi revived it, and with 20 years’ service, nine years as editor said, "The paper is part of Nehru’s legacy and has continued to uphold the traditions of secularism and non-alignment and I hope the Congress party will not allow it to close down finally."

TV Venkatachalam further added, "The National Herald team always tried to keep a fine balance in our news, especially the editorials, and never tried to make it sound like a party publication. Unlike any party newspapers, there has never been any interference from the Congress party in presenting the news in the National Herald."

Can anyone imagine that the editorial department of a 70-year old English language newspaper did not have a computer in 2008? The press section had five computers and there was one computer in the teleprinter room, which was used by the editorial and advertisement staff to check mails. Some senior editors brought their own laptops to work. The management had wanted to computerise Quami Awaz four years ago, but the proposal was shot down by the union as around 20 calligraphers would have been displaced. The National Herald newspaper, which officially claimed a circulation of around 40,000 copies, ’never had a history of making profits’. Management is an art. Similarly unprofessional attitude and mismanagement is an art for quite a number of political people.

Jawaharlal Nehru once told "I will not let the National Herald close down even if I have to sell Anand Bhawan (to avoid it)".

It was his hope. Time has changed. Yes, time will tell the difference. Now who is interested in a non-profit making and dying heritage newspaper? As a person of Sonia Gandhi's stature, who has written longer Forewords than Indira Gandhi, in the latest editions of Jawaharlal Nehru’s three famous classics, Glimpses of World History, The Autobiography and The Discovery of India should have avoided the closure of the National Herald.

Had she some problems to avoid the closure of National Herald, competently manage the mismanagement and to find out means and finance, she should have consulted with the great fund raising Congress leaders from Gods own country, Kerala, who claim running a party newspaper and a TV channel, though the second claim is invalid. The Congress leaders from Kerala could have easily raised funds from the Middle East through their well-wishers and party supporters for National Herald.”

A mega contest that Lalu botched before it set off 

This is the story of one of the rare contests, nay I would like to call it the mother of all contests, in the history of India. Interestingly, it is alleged that sensing the inevitable, miserable and humiliating failure in the contest, the contestant has made up his mind to withdraw from the contest before the formal invitation and announcement of the contest. Nevertheless, I do not believe it.

After Lalu Prasad Yadav ‘won’ rupees one crore in Shahrukh Khan hosted pre-arranged Panchvi Pass show, a Non Governmental Organisation (NGO) in Mumbai headed by Sasidharan Nair planned to organise a mega contest in the history of India so far as the prize-money is concerned. Hold your breath - the price money is a whopping Rs 1,10,000 crores, which means 1,000 times more money per head than the current population of India.

The process of selection of the contestants to this contest is very different from the usual reality shows and contests like Kaun Benega Crorepati, Kya Aap Panchvi Pass Se Tez Hai, etc. The contestant will be selected by special invitation and he would be the star attraction of the contest. The specially invited star performer (contestant) of the NGO is wit guru and ‘management expertise personified’, MA, LLB (Bihar fame), Union Railway Minister Lalu Prasad Yadav.

Unlike other contests, this superb mammoth contest will be lasting only 60 minutes, 30 seconds to listen the question and 30 seconds to think the answer and 120 seconds to answer each question. The contest comprises of 20 very simple questions from two sections - 10 related to test the management expertise from the first section and remaining 10 related to test the evaluation skill on the working of Indian Railways during the last four years in the second section. Ten clues from each section shall be provided after the contestant accepts the invitation and conditions of the contest.

Some might be saying that I am kidding. They have a sound reason to say so because they never ever heard about such a contest with a special invitee and a whopping price money. Just for their knowledge, with the permission of the NGO, I am giving the details of some clues and conditions of the contest.

As the contest is the mother of all contests and the prize-money is whopping Rs 1,10,000 crores, the NGO put some conditions for participation. The first is that the contestant must acknowledge the invitation within 41 days on receipt of it and arrange to send a meagre sum of Re 1 on the first day, rupees two on the second day, rupees four on the third day, rupees eight on the fourth day and like that doubling the money on the following day till the 50th day.

The other condition is that he must come to the venue of the contest at Mumbai with usual protocol and bodyguards, but without any personal assistant or aides. Also, he should arrive at the venue in a simple and humble manner and without chartering any private or government or air force planes. Also not to travel in Mukesh Ambani’s private aircraft like he travelled on a Saturday evening after passing the Panchvi Pass and seeing the Indian Premier League (IPL) semi-final cricket match at Wankhade stadium. Further, no summoning of the general manager of central and western railways or any senior railway officials to the venue of the contest. A very important code of conduct of the contest is that when the host says that he is the fan of the contestant, the contestant should never say that he is the air conditioner of the host as said by him in the show.

I shall try to give as much information as possible on clues of the questions. Firstly, clues from the management expertise section. Definitely, there will be a question related to how much loss the Indian Railways has made in last four years. No reciting ready-made couplets and quartets in Hindi, as he was doing while presenting last four Railway Budgets, is allowed at the contest and if done so, 50 per cent of the prize money will be deducted for the first offence and for the second offence the contestant will be disqualified from the mega contest. Valid, justifiable and sound answer should be given by the contestant.

The second clue is about introducing green toilets in passenger compartments in railways. The contestant can expect a question related to how he is continuously fooling himself, the intelligent leaders of the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government and opposition alike, and the Indian public at large. The question could be in a different way as to how he allotted 4,000 crores in the current Railway Budget for green toilets and how cleverly he is not going to introduce these and mismanaging the funds or bifurcating the funds to other account.

Another sure-shot question would be that even after giving guest lectures at Harvard and very recently, in Singapore, the host will say that he is the worst business manager. Be prepared to counter it and give a positive, justifiable and right answer to this question.

From the second section, the questions would be on how the evaluation skill on the working of Indian railways can be used. I hope that the first question shall be how he evaluated to mismanage the railway properties, particularly the railway land, so intelligently in his favour and disclose the exact personal benefits.

The next possible question shall be from reviewing the management of mismanaging contracts and sub-contracts in the Indian Railways and the ultimate beneficiaries. Now I want to give the final clue: Why Rabri Devi, the better half of Lalu Prasad Yadav, is telling that my husband is the best Railway Minster India had seen ever and a sound endorsement and justification of this statement from the contestant.

The special invitation along with conditions of the contest is being sent to the minister and the sources close to him reveal, on condition of anonymity, that he is reluctant to accept the conditions, rather the invitation. Let us wait for the official clarification from him.  

·         This article was published soon after Lalu Prasad Yadav, the Railway Minister, participated in the pre-planned
        Panchvi Pass programme hosted by actor Shah Rukh Khan during the last week of May 2008

Lalu's Budget and Eco-friendly Toilets 

The Railway Minister Lalu Prasad Yadav presented this year’s Railway Budget in parliament the other day with pomp and fair. His better half and former Bihar chief minister Rabri Devi hailed the budget and said Lalu Prasad Yadav is the best railway minister India had seen ever. The railway made profit 9,000 crore in 2005, 14,000 crore in 2006, 20,000 crore in 2007, 25.000 crore in 2008 and projected a profit of 37,000 crore in 2009. He announced many sops in the budget and flagged off the Poll Express. The one, which most attracted me, is introducing the eco-friendly toilets, called green toilets, in all passenger trains.

The minister earmarked 4,000 crore in this budget for introducing eco-friendly toilets, similar to aeroplane, in 36,000 passenger coaches. It is welcoming news and all will congratulate the minister. However, this project will be implemented in a phased manner and completed by the end of the 11th Plan. The 11th Five Year Plan started in 2007 and completed in 2012. This means a waiting period of another four years to have eco-friendly green toilets in 36000 coaches.

The railway ministry has already started work in this direction. According to the railway minister, over the next four years annually 1000 crore would be pumped in for Green Toilet Project. The irony is the railway ministry has yet not studied properly and finalized which model green toilet to be adopted. Presently two different models of discharge-less toilets are experimenting in Delhi Reva Express and Barauni Express. Two techniques are being studied. First, having biological decomposition mechanism on board and the other one to empty the tank (like in planes) at big stations where the sewage would be treated before discharge.

Unless any decision is taken immediately on which model green toilet to be adopted in coaches, proper arrangements for treating and discharging the sewage are made and workers are trained to handle green toilet sewage, the project will remain in paper only. The railway ministry should take concrete steps soon in this direction.

The Verdict News weekly, Mumbai, March 2 -8, 2008 & www.merinews.com uploaded in February, 2008