Fiscal Cliff: Beginning of End Game

The Americans face a daunting dilemma as the year approaches end. At the end of year 2012, the spring that was holding uneasy equilibrium will snap, all the tax breaks in force will disappear coupled with spending cuts, will most certainly lead to another bout of depression. A depression will be bad for people, jobs will disappear therefore buyers will disappear kick starting a vicious cycle of surplus inventory leading to shutting down of part production therefore more jobs. But it will not be good for the debt laden country either; depression doesn't create wealth growth does therefore a lose lose situation much like situation in Europe  where unbridled borrowing saw collapse of several economies.  America is sitting on a mountain of debt and the exigency of a Democracy is such that leaders seek soft solutions, are partisan to their constituency having one focus that is to get reelected. Only a true leader with staggering confidence in his ability to convince the people can swim against the current and impose harsh policies.

                                         

We know what goes up will come down, America has been on top for a while the signs of fatigue are clearly visible. Predictably ‘Fiscal cliff’ will be dealt with in easy way out solution; the sense of well being would be extended for some more time but the doom will be brought so much nearer home. Whoever thought Soviet Union will collapse so dramatically, it wasn't the military weakness that led to its downfall, it was their bankrupt economy. I guess we have reached a state where all wars will be stalemates and we see it all around us, the Iraq, the Afghanistan. Even though these nations stood no chance at all against the might of the axis of coalition yet there has been no emphatic win, you can well imagine how the war would have played out if these nations had been more stubborn and endowed with, let us say, a perceived lethality of North Korea. It will be economy that will be the new paradigm of drift a nation takes. I don’t see any capable leader, least Obama, who will set in motion policies that will rectify flaws in its economy of living off borrowing. The economy will sink this Goliath. Unfortunately there is no reason for the enemy of US to celebrate, when Goliath falls it will shake the earth and with that the whole world will suffer.        

Joy Shooting in Newton and Gang Rape in Delhi

The repetition of history has gone much beyond farcical; it is now a combination of directionless anger and dumb bewilderment. The multitude is venting their frustration coming out in numbers and protesting at a formless monster. This time therea is no convenient dartboard in sight for them to shoot their darts; not the government, not the police and not the leaders. They are dumbstruck, deep down they know they are themselves responsible for this tragic state. For too long this has gone on desensitized, it happens to people in TV, or fellows shown in newspapers; remote and faraway. Now it appears that the horror is staring them a little closer for comfort.

Once I was engaged in a spirited debate over cooperative living. My contention was, “Ethical behavior is hardwired into us else cooperative living would not be possible and the cases of lapse were aberrations’. An expert on evolution intervened and suggested, ‘We are likely to be opportunistic if there is little chance of getting caught and the reward substantial’

I can’t say about the play of psychology in the case of joy shooter but the rape is significantly a case of chance that they will not get caught and if they did even then they will get away scot free. The perpetrators acted in complete disregard of fear of law, the staggering sense confidence committing crime in a moving bus in a city crawling with policemen all over tells a nasty story. It is time harsh punishment is meted out to individual and made example of. It will be unfortunate for these fellows to but who said world is fair, they took their chance and got caught in a whirlpool of emotions running very high so they have to pay the price for their felony, albeit a very high price.  

We can’t discuss capital punishment in isolation, the moral pressure of society, state of safety apparatus and how primed a society is; all contribute to behavior of the criminal. The enormity of capital punishment in an evolved society and a society seeped in medieval morality is not the same. If the right to redeem one belongs to criminal then an honest citizen also has right to life and dignity. Is India primed for this? Why is a rape considered such a heinous crime, largely due to moral repercussion heaped upon the victim by the society. These are conflicting paradoxes that confront Indians. Yes incarcerate them for life but it is not enough, something more graphic and macabre to jolt the psyche of criminal minded is needed, chop their hand too; bad luck if they happen to be the ones to be made example of. A permanent reminder for those who throw acid on hapless victim is necessary.   

If the gun is holy cow for the Americans then rein in the bullets. Without bullets the Gun would be toothless tiger. In addition make the person owing Gun equally responsible of crime for letting it fall in the hands of minor.

Deadly Game: Euthanasia

We all know death is finality of life and the prospect of facing it, the biggest fear of our life, yet we don’t spend sleepless nights mulling over its eventuality. For death is something that occurs to others; to people in TV and newspapers. Even on rare occasions when someone close is stricken we are shocked momentarily, rue loss of close one but never fear death striking ourselves, it still is somewhere far away…..... . As a little boy I used to think that fellows in sixties would be living in mortal fear of dying but as I approach sixties I see no sign of fear, only the death looks as fudgy and pushed further away. Yet specter of dying overwhelms us.   

But there are people who wish to die. The ones stricken with crippling illness, people who have lost all hope and people who find living an impossible chore. There is something hardwired into us to fear death and defend life, even a terminally ill person, who may not live another day, if suddenly assaulted will defend himself with all available means at his disposable even though in leisure he may contemplate dying all the time. So in nutshell death frightens us only when we see it coming now. Most convicts in death row may experience its debilitating horror. So is the first knowledge of incurable disease like cancer or Aids numbing to us. We sometimes secretly wish to die sitting in armchair without any warning ..

Euthanasia is a raging debate, I have nothing to say for or against it but I have a design that would be humane to the fellows who have become vegetables in life. The thing is if death comes unannounced and without pain then it is the most desirable option to have. Therefore if we can emulate death in controlled way as it comes in real life then it is the most acceptable form of euthanasia. Take for instance a terminally sick person who has six months to live; this fellow may live more than six months or may die in a few days therefore if we can implant a lethal capsule that activates on a randomized date between now and a time when the life becomes unbearable for this fellow then we give him an option to live a healthy life that emulates death’s unannounced nature. Every fellow who is not well or crippled or has reason to dislike life can be given this option and also he/she can dictate the period over which a randomized date occurs. .. Surely this is a better way to die than live languishing on an armchair. 

Life of Pi a review

This movie falls in the realm of fantasy and hard realism; something in the twilight zone of Paul Coelho’s Alchemist’s spiritual conquest and Bear Grylls true adventures in the wild. If there is allusion to spiritualism it is for you to judge but there is unmistakable aura surrounding this eventful narrative. A business minded family deeply fragmented by business pragmatism and religious world reaches a flash point where the easy equilibrium, the cozy lifestyle is suddenly disturbed for the worst. A decisive point in life for family to take a call to define their future and they do so.  The father of protagonist, a zoo owner in Pondicherry winds up his business and sets out to migrate to Canada. They undertake their journey in a Japanese cargo ship so that animals a can also be transported. The major part of events take place after ship break in a fiery storm over the Altlantic. The narrative zigzags in Gulzaresque flashback style.

It opens with the protagonist now a wizened adult in Canada narrating his experience to the writer and the flashbacks happen during this conversation. Ang Lee succeeds in capturing Indian ethos, brings alive nuances of his early childhood as a curious young fellow. The compacted childhood nicely builds up character of the young hero, a bewildered young man in awe of the sublime. The meaty portion of the movie is all about special effects and apparently no expense was spared to recreate marine experience. The building up of relationship between the young fellow and the beast is done with finesse and subtlety. The floating island scene creates metaphor for search of spiritual mysticism. Also the incredulous response of Japanese investigators to his real experience, trying to unravel drowning of the cargo vessel and his quickly thought up fictitious story to make it palatable adds another set of mysticism.

I will not judge its production value for I seriously suspect substandard projection facility at Big Cinema, the bright sun appears fudgy as if a low resolution frame is exploded to fill up the space, the 3D effect at places unhinges all apparently fault of the theater. Overall a joyful experience with ‘paisa vasool’ and free popcorn.

I would rate this film four stars out of five stars

Let The Stranger Alone IV

The villagers looked at the house with suspicion but were too afraid of the Englishman. The house meanwhile would occasionally erupt in bizarre spectacle. Strong ritualistic happenings added to its already formidable aura of horror. Dogs wouldn’t bark around the house, the goats would stop in their gait stand still in terror. Then one wing of the house burned down completely. The villagers rushed to help with water but the ghostly Englishman came out with gun, fired in air and frightened them off. Thereafter the house was remained completely inert. It is now more than fifty years, nobody knows if the Englishman or his wife is still alive, no one saw any corpse taken out of the house. .. ..

Some villagers reported sighting of a pale and weak Englishman walking through the riverbed a gun slung over his shoulder at the dead of night. Once he disappears, a short exotic woman follows his footstep some distance then disappears. But this could be imagination of these excitable villagers.

This summer E Babu was in the village. He had come here earlier as an immature young man, an immensely gullible fellow. Then stories of mystery house excited him as well as terrified him. Now equipped with his knowledge of the world and as a rational thinker he rejected the mystery about the house with utter scorn. For him it was just an abandoned house; the spic and span condition of house was imagination of the villagers. During the evening gossiping, the matter of the mystery house came up for discussion at which E Babu silenced them with declaration, I will visit the house at the dead of night and settle the mystery once for all”.

Everyone looked at him shocked silence. An old fellow from the village counseled, “teri mat to nahiN maari gai hai!” which E Babu ignored.

Buddha Was Right And Wrong

 Once we are born and acquire some sense of life, our focus remains fixed on survival. Once survival becomes trivial then focus shifts to preserving life but when this also becomes trivial we move to other objectives in life like deviations into succeeding in our chosen vocation or in commerce, art, philosophy and through them peer recognition. One spin-off of this endeavor is acquiring the fittest companion for mating in a competitive society. But at more mature age we look at death critically and try to think of ways to deal with it. Death appears to us as a frightening eventuality since it undoes everything we have done all our life; it simply kills all our devices to keep the life going.  Death appears to us as a dark mystery we know nothing about with our first hand knowledge therefore the horror it evokes. Everything about it is speculative though some of the wisdom coming from sources we hold in very high esteem; it still is not firsthand knowledge. Most of us are lazy enough to accept the handed down wisdom coming from religion about meaning of life. But, is the faith in this wisdom enough convincing? I think we do not have unshakable conviction in our faith, if we do, the thought will penetrate our subconscious and kill the mystery of death. After all mystery of death is creation of our subconscious.

Buddha for instance was not satisfied with the accepted view of his time therefore embarked on a quest to unravel meaning of life so that he can understand death. Buddha found an explanation for life and his conviction about it was deep. So deep that it penetrated his subconscious therefore death appeared no more mysterious. Buddha was right in finding a meaning for his life but he was wrong in prescribing the same meaning to everyone. It doesn’t work; we are individuals and have our own subconscious that creates a spell around death. To penetrate that spell we have to find our meaning, a powerful meaning so convincing that it penetrates our subconscious and breaks the spell cast by it. Once we can do that we will be at peace. 

Let The Stranger Alone III

The mysterious Englishman wouldn’t interact with the villagers. There was no point; the villagers wouldn’t have understood him. The man remained aloof but respected village ethos, would not intrude in temple activity. The disinterest suited the villagers, who were anyway in no condition to challenge him. Only once he came to the temple, watched the deity curiously for a long time, then walked away without bothering to look at the worshippers. Once he came out of the house and fired from his gun in anger when villagers were performing some noisy ‘Puja’. Gun shots quietened them. Thereafter the villagers were careful not to make too much noise in their celebrations. Villagers always had fanciful stories about the white man mostly painting him in bad light. But the woman, the Bakki, wouldn’t come out of house. She was the butt of their ire yet evoked a sense terror being a clairvoyant. The mysterious woman remained aloof, talked only to Madan Bhai. Some years after the Englishman’s marriage the villagers began to hear noise of violent quarrels emanating from the mystery house. Much they would have liked to hear the details but the fear of the English man kept them away from the house. Then the quarrels stopped altogether instead complete silence greeted them.

       The Englishman came out one afternoon. He was a changed man, a poor copy of old self; a mere skeleton around which a layer of skin was grafted, eyes sunken into its sockets altogether a ghostly image. He briefly walked around the house then disappeared into the house.

Then children from villages began to disappear……………

Will be contd.