No Heroes In Indian Politics (1)

By Manuwant Choudhary

Just like the film `Hero' where all are villains, so it is with Indian politics.

I watched the film `Hero' and soon realised that it really had no heroes.

Promoted under the Salman Khan banner...the film is a birthday gift to Sooraj Pancholi, yes the same person who was Jiah Khan's boyfreind at the time she died mysteriously.

Bollywood has like one real murder mystery every ten years but nobody really solves it..life and the parties just go on...

Does anybody remember Divya Bharti?

Of course, the Sheena Bora murder case has overtaken Bollywood but then we do live in the age of television.

Coming back to Hero the film is about how a `Goonda's' son falls in love with a police inspector's daughter....but soon you realise that even the police are just the same `Goons in uniform'.

I waited and waited for Salman but after three hours with the titles rolling there he was singing `Ki Main Hoon Tera Hero".



No, no, definitely not.

Not even him.

In Salman's next  movie he will make even Indrani Mukherjea look like a Saint wronged....

I thought Bollywood is so much like our politics.

Look at whats happening in Bihar.

The mahagatbandhan is actually just a gatbandhan now...Mulayam has walked out..the Communists are on their own...

Nitish is alone on the posters.

Laloo says he just wants his sons to win.

And Laloo's Jungle Raj is better than the BJP Mangal Raj.

12 crore rupees have already been caught in Bihar.....

And Ram Vilas Paswan...it is his son Chirag....but a report today showed his village has no electricity even today...`Chiarg Tale Andhera'....

Its your caste versus mine or your religion against mine.

And the only alternative is one Pappu Yadav !

Father Van - A Rector To Remember

By Manuwant Choudhary

If I were the Dalai Lama I would try and find out where Father Van is reborn and who....

But the way he loved India and Darjeeling I am sure he must be a toddler Shrestha or a Pradhan in the cradle of the Kunchenjunga.

Father Gerard Van Wallegham was the last foreign missionary and he passed away recently at the age of 88 in his room at St Joseph's College, Darjeeling.

He was only 24 when he came to India as a Jesuit priest and stayed all his life.

And all his life he tried to get an Indian citizenship and the story is that  it was always rejected.

Even Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi tried to get him a citizenship only to be told that the same man some Mr. Chatterjee has rejected it.

I wonder when hundreds of our Indians become Canadian citizens..even when they are not so great..why the Indian government denied Fr. Van a citizenship.

I also wonder why Fr. Van is the last foreign missionary in the hills of Darjeeling?

Born to Belgian parents at Winnipeg, after graduating from St. Paul's, Winnipeg he decided to join the Jesuits.

I am immensely blessed to have been his student and also to have met him a few years ago at our 25 year Reunion.

Even at 85 he would walk from school to Chowrasta.

Memories of Fr. Van take me far back to my own childhood and the first day my parents put me into boarding.

At the age of 7 one does not even know what is a boarding school?

First I was quite happy with all the new school uniforms and the goodies being bought for me...but then
when that final moment for goodbyes came all hell broke loose.

Mr. Venkat was our Prefect and I recall giving him a nice kick and running away from the study hall...telling my parents that I did not want to be an engineer or doctor...I would be happy looking after the cows !

Mr. Venkat remembered my kick all along.

Then a younger tall foreign missionary simply lifted me up in the air and brought me to the Rectors office.

Fr. Van, the Rector, spoke in English...and he must have spent an hour trying to quieten me..but when everything failed...he just slapped me.....my cries stopped and I slept away in his office.  He carried me himself to the school dormitory and put me to bed.

I could hear him talking to the sisters to give me some soup when I am awake.

Of course, Fr. Van could not remember all the details when we last met...memory was failing him.

Also he had worse students to handle than me....like in a documentary on St. Joseph's he talks about how King Gyanendra of Nepal who was a tough one to handle. Said Fr. Van, "When I tried to control him he said he will call his troops !"

My own father was very fond of Fr. Van and when we were home Fr. Van would often come up in our dinner conversations....

Once my father went to drop me to school and it was a rainy Monday morning with the school assembly being held in the corridors.

Fr. Van was standing on the wooden stool and suddenly my name was called out.

I had never got a prize till then...and my father was all smiles that his son had finally won a prize.

Later he asked me what this was about..I explained that it was a Rs.100 fine for coming late to school !

St. Joseph's did give me a prize on the last day of school...something I value more than all the prizes out there in the world.

Sujay Ghosh's Thriller `Ahalya'

Ben Carson For President !

By Manuwant Choudhary

When US President Obama visited India in November 2010 HBO telecast a film on Ben Carson and I wrote here on my blog that the Ben Carson story is better than the Obama story.

http://indiavikalp.blogspot.in/2010/11/gifted-hands-ben-carson-story.html

In a way I wished he was America's President and not Obama.

So now when I see Carson running for President I do feel America is blessed.

I have never been to the United States of America nor have I a desire.

Yet, American democracy is important to the world.

Obama said "Yes You Can" and he won.

Back in India Modi copied "Yes You Can" and he too won using similar propoganda material.

And I am not sure if they have both improved their countries.

So Carson seems genuine and honest and he knows how the brains work, even that of politicians (if they have one that is)

Hear him out right till the end at this introductory video and if the American voters are enlightened they would vote Carson.

The Girl Under The Umbrella

By Manuwant Choudhary

This morning I woke up to heavy rains...the kind that makes you want to go to bed again.

Luckily, my taxi did not turn up so here I am writing.

I do like the rains...especially after a really long and hot summer.

The first rains when they hit the ground in rural India...the smell of the earth...quietens my nerves like nothing else...

Not sure if they have it in the spa.

But rains bring back all kinds of memories...from the rain pounding on tin roofs in the school dormitories of North Point in Darjeeling...to upturned umbrellas at Nariman Point in Bombay.

The fierce winds from the Arabian sea lashing across Marine Drive.

A walk.

The local trains coming to a halt...and everyone trying to make their way home..like ants.

Bombay rains are said to be the most unpredictable.

The saying goes, "Bambai ka Barsaat, ghore ka laat aur neta ka baat ka koi bharosa nahin hai...." (The Bombay rains, the kick from a horse and the promise of  a politician are all unreliable)

As a cub reporter in Bombay it was our job to call up the weather bureau each morning.

It was a routine and speaking to the weatherman over the years, the Reporters knew exactly what to expect.

So one day my colleague instead of calling the Weather Bureau chose simply to look out of the window and file her report.

Simple.

In fact, sometimes even horoscopes were penned by creative reporters.

Rains are also about romance.

Bollywood has so many hit film songs featuring the rain dance.

My favourite memory is on a holiday abroad...it was pouring..so I had no option but to visit the nearest club for a meal.

As I walked hurriedly, I noticed someone trying to squeeze under the umbrella of a security guard...I could only see her feet...

Just as I was about to enter the club, the managers looked a bit hassled...they asked me to wait.

Then I see them frantically look for someone.

The girl under the umbrella.

All embarrassed I see a very beautiful girl emerge.

Her job...to accompany me in the lift.

And we just smiled all the way.

I still don't know her name.

Breakfast With Chandra Shekharji

By Manuwant Choudhary

I have covered all kinds of stories as TV Reporter but one story I cannot forget is when I got this news that body guards of a former Indian Prime Minister Chandra Shekhar had shot dead a student in a train at Allahabad.

Chandra Shekhar was on his way to Balia, his constituency in eastern Uttar Pradesh.

We drove all night to enter UP and as the mist was only clearing we arrived at the guest house where the former Prime Minister was staying.

SPG men in their dark suits stood all around the guest house.

I wondered if they would shoot again at an intruding press.

Chandra Shekhar himself was notorious for his temper and he would shut up even a Laloo Prasad on the floor of parliament.

So it was challenging to even send him my visiting card at that early hour.

But surprisingly I was called in within a second.

Chandra Shekhar was still in bed under a quilt I remember and its only when he spotted the cameraman behind me that he got out of bed and took a seat on a sofa.

I recall asking my questions point blank.

And surprisingly I got an equal point by point reply...with Chandra Shekhar not only accepting that the incident took place but he gave vivid details of how the SPG had to resort to to fire.

And he had no emotions.

Just like his politics.

I wondered how is it so possible to be so honest about your own ruthlessness?

But that was Chandra Shekhar...he became India's 9th Prime Minister after toppling the V.P. Singh government with support from Rajiv Gandhi.

Even while we spoke I was clear my story would be hard-hitting.

The interview over I was happy to leave when Chandra Shekharji asked me...

"Aap kahan naashta kijiyega..." (Where will you have breakfast?)

I explained that I would eat at one of the road side dhabas in UP whose utensils were so new that you could spot them from a distance.

He replied, "Nahin, nahin, aap naashta humare saath lenge..."(No, no..you will have breakfast with me..)

But then it would be sometime for breakfast so he called his men...and asked them to show me around in Balia.,,,,

"Inhein jara aap Shaheed Smarak dikhayenge..jab tak main snan karta hoon...(Kindly take him to the Martyrs Memorial till I get ready...)

And off we were...a carcade of white ambassador cars...not knowing where....

Balia is a backwater...perhaps nothing happens in these parts even though Mangal Pandey...the sepoy who mutinied against the British was from the region.

And suddenly we enter an area which was like paradise...dahlia's and landscaped gardens all around...a river even....

It was unbelievable.

In fact, this was what we call chaur or low-lying area (which is generally water-logged and good for paddy.)

On my return, I did have my breakfast with Chandra Shekharji.

Over Puri & Sabzee he explained how as a Member of Parliament he could do every little for Balia so this was his gift to Balia and to the martyrs who won India her freedom.

He told me how he has earmarked land to be given to different research organisations in the country, from seeds to forests..from computers to fertilizers....and they would all work from here and offer India a better future.

"Because I have been India's Prime Minister it is possible for me to call up Vajpayeeji and get work done..."

All this was so unexpected from a politician I did not care about that I finally asked him who actually accomplished his vision and he replied, "Charles Correa from Bambai..."

0 Mile

By Manuwant Choudhary

0 Mile: If I were Anna Hazare fighting for farmers, I would fast right here...a stones throw away is the shut Hindustan Fertiliser Corporation...I would demand either the Indian government re-open this or return the land to the farmers from whom it was acquired.

The HFC is a ghost town.

While farmers have to buy Urea in the black market.

I watched NH 10 and it sure  is a violent film.

I could watch it again with Anushka Sharma.

Gurgaons night life, the shiny sky-rises...and then the wilderness beyond - caste - honour killings.

From the film I did get it that the Toyata Fortuner is  good ...and the Mahindra Scorpio is a goon !

But 0 Mile is worse.


Its a story of how socialism has destroyed India completely.

I drove around this ghost town...and cried.

Modi Sarkar is just as greedy as the Congress.

If I were Anna I would not make common cause with the Congress land bill...70 per cent consent or whatever is bullshit..rather I would talk about restoration of first principles - the right to private property.

The Indian government has acquired enough land in the past 66 years (the Indian railways is India's biggest landlord)....and they still want more...this time to give it to the private sector.

Even Gurcharan Das should stop calling himself a liberal as he writes "Even a farmers son needs jobs."

I would say, "Even a tycoon eats food".


The debate should never have been between jobs and farmers interests...rather on the basic right to private property.

It is ironical that its the Anna's and the leftists who often fight for private property...while the liberals put up a front for corporates.

This is what happened with Enron....

The Medha Patkars stole the show while liberals in India have remained absent.

Not just the HFC...in Bihar there are 55 public sector companies..who have thousands of acres of land under them...totally abandoned.

Their net asset value is 0.