A nation battling its image in the world -after a devastating attack in MUMBAI. Its not like India was never attacked before, but yeah, 24*7 television has changed the impact of an attack, far from the scene of the crime to the cosy bedroom of each and every Indian family, within and abroad. Though the situation was brought under control in less than 3 days, (appalling by any SWAT standards), the nation still has a feel for the "sitting ducks" that they are, in the eyes of these terrorists.
But if we start digging around these Indian ducks, one of which is typing this line - all one can see, without bias, is a well-segregated and differentiated sub-groups on the basis of state boundaries, languages, religion, caste and so on.. Segregation is infinity exponentiated. We hardly have a core concept of what "India" should mean to all of us, but we can easily recognise ourselves as a Tamil xxxx or a Bengali yyyy. This is where the fundamental terror link exists in our social framework. States which were drawn on linguistic lines have caused irrevocable damage to us, only ensuring that we are fighting over water and electricity and what not?!
Taking religion more seriously in our lives, tends to be the other prominent dividor. One needs no explanation to understand this perspective of Indians.
Given these "I can find 100 differences in you" attitude, it needed an event like the Mumbai Attack or a war or maybe, an alien attack - on extrapolation - which would have given purpose for unity, from Kashmir to Kanyakumari and Gujarat to Arunachal Pradesh.
Politician bashing ensued and it held for very eventful television viewing, funny and satirical. The bare fact remains that each and every one of us isnt really much different from the politician we blame. Again not a no-brainer, but I will elaborate nevertheless!
How many of us maintain an orderly queue to get tickets at a railway counter or to order our favorite dish at the restaurant. How many of us try to drive in line with another vehicle in the many roads of the many cities we have? My personal belief is that "the culture of a city, a country can be understood by looking at the way the people drive on the road". One can get a sense of the law of the land, if it is of any significance, the patience quotient of the folks, the social adjustment factor and most importantly, the orderliness and cleanliness perspectives of the combined social setup.
While we are pathetic in most aspects, what shines out, is the emergence of grassroot corruption - paying the quick buck to the traffic constable - to escape official censure and processes. The reason for this - "who will go and waste time paying fine and appearing in the court?" So we take a more "practical" approach and avoid the legal system altogether. Policing and legal ways are essential not just to maintain an orderly society - but are essential to securing it as well. The system's corruption is such that, even a terrorist can bribe his way through the police, the army and even the legal system. If all of this fails, politicians with narrow goals, will support these groups, on some pretext or the other.
This is where we have been an incubator for not just terror, but for a kind of "illegal lifestyle". It was least suprising to know that all the 10 terrorists who attacked Mumbai had 400 dollars in change - why? - because thats the bribe one has to pay to the Coast Guard to sneak into India. One shouldnt blame them, we are all equally responsible for encouraging the kind of society where money can buy you anything, including legal shortcuts, citizenship and in such cases, entry to the country.
If there is no one to give, there will be never anyone to get.
If you and I, start following the law, and ensure that we do our bit to maintain its high ink standard, most of the other aspects will start re-organizing itself. Intelligence, blamed for its failure in the attack, doesnt only rely on phone calls and foot locker notes - it depends on the common man as well, from reporting on a new tenant to the nearest police station to ensuring that suspicious activities are reported instantly. Intelligence has to be as close to the battle ground as possible and cannot always be a matter of something orbiting the world, miles up.
At the time of retaliation, our leaders are still appealing to the world and to the galaxy, for support, for retribution. Nothing which comes from them, can give everlasting peace to India. The problem isnt entirely external. Its internal reasons need a much bigger and serious corrective action. Inconvenient truths. Inconvenient Indian truths.
Friday, December 26, 2008
Saturday, December 13, 2008
The drive to Switzerland!
It was just another day, a month back, when we suddenly drew up a plan to go to Coorg. Coorg, for those who dont know, is named as the "SWITZERLAND OF INDIA". Much of my push on this plan was to enjoy driving my new car.. and test my newly pruned driving skills and my endurance for long drives.
The ground work done was quite minimal. A couple of glances as to which National Highways to take from Chennai and also which key cities would be enroute. We started in two cars, one - I drove and the other - my dad's - we had a driver take that one. Driving in the highway is one thing, two cars driving as a group is just yet another!
Learnt this extra-ordinary lesson on this trip. It was always going to be a long drive, and all family members had advised to take a backup driver as well, incase things went wrong! I was however, quite confident that I Could pull it off.
In all, the journey was supposed to take around 8 hours. This according to some bhp team (on their website) which I am sure now, didnt go by road from Chennai to Coorg!!! The roads were immaculate, one has to admit. Perfect for driving conditions and if the surroundings were kept clean, one could have been duped that they were in a western nation. Arcot, Vellore and many smaller cities followed. With each city, we were passing, the elevation was on the rise. Finally as we reached Krishnagiri and onwards, one could see straight roads sloped effectively to blend with the hills beside. It was 6:30 that we started in the morning and we reached Krishnagiri by around 11:00. The next challenge was hitting Hosur and ultimately the land of traffic nightmare - Bengaluru!!
Hosur has a decent road stretch and we had a good lunch in one of the many restaurants. Being the driver, I had to curtail my intake, to avoid becoming sleepy. And so I did!! (This is the part I hated the most in the entire trip!!)
Bengaluru and its experiences deserve a new paragraph. So here go. Hosur to Bangalore, on paper is around 40 kms and Bangalore to Mysore was stated to be another 2 hours drive. What lay in store for us beyond Hosur was a nightmare and that too in the middle of the day! The road to Bangalore seemed endless, what with the array of vehicles and the extraordinary flyover which was being constructed. One birdie on the internet mentioned about some route from Electronics City to the Mysore highway, without having to hit the City and its traffic. What that birdie missed out, as we later realised, was this route was only 80% complete and had a good chunk of it missing. So we had to go right through the middle of the city, Forum Mall and then onwards to LalBagh and finally the market. Needless to say to anyone who knows Bgl traffic challenges, this journey took nearly 2 hours. Finally we were pleased to hear that we were in "Mysore Road". Phew, we thought! 2 hours to Mysore and we could go to Coorg by evening!
The road to Mysore was not going to give us any leeway. It was again, a halfcooked, so called highway, most roads in Pondicherry, would beat the width it offered. Anyways, we drove and drove and drove.. finally we were on a highway and gave us some opportunity to hit decent speeds of 80. It was slowly getting to the evening phase, when most office goers decide, enough is enough, and go home to start logging again from there. Had a quick bite in one of the highway restaurants, and we asked him. how far do we have to go to get to Coorg? He said.. "get off before Mysore, you will have a road to the right and yeah you can take that all the way to Coorg". My next question - was the most important one - of the entire journey - "Are the roads ok till there? Is there any challenge in driving in the night?". - "Ohh Not at all", he promised - "the roads are good." Till date, I dont know why he didnt tell me the truth, maybe we didnt tip the waiters sufficiently?!!
The sun finally started to lower its guard and we were firmly committed to reaching Coorg by nite to stay in the accomodation I had booked the previous day. So no stopping elsewhere in between. Coorg it is, come evening, nite or midnite!! There were not adequate lights on the highway and it was dark now, around 7 PM, a Karnataka Tourism vehicle was honking hard at me in the front. I finally gave some way, once it was possible. The driver, dont know if he was a qualified driver, raced ahead and put a sudden break and did something which swerved the bus to hit my car on the right side panel, just behind the headlights. It was a cool "thud". SHOCK and AWE, (quoted from George W Bush) followed. It was the first accidental accident for my car. The damage wasnt much but tears of blood flowed to see the ghastly bump!
This was also not to deter us, in our quest to get to Coorg.
Soon, around 830 PM, we decided to break for dinner - we were in a town called Hunsur. From thereon, we were told, the roads would be steep as we were entering the mountains. Ignorance, coupled with lack of local conditions, ensured that we were climbing an unknown route, in the dark, with no idea of what lay ahead. A lot of twists and turns followed and somehow we mustered our guts and it seemed like we were getting somewhere. We were all so happy. Atlast, we had succeeeded. A polite enquiry confirmed that it was not Madikeri, but Suntikoppa. "Madikeri is another 30 kms from here". Next question obviously met with a sign of "sorry - you are in trouble" - "Is the road any good till there?"
The route from Suntikoppa to Madikeri is so extraordinarily damaged, that one should wish that one's enemy also shouldnt have to take this route by car! Oh Holy Road Engineers of South India! Wish I knew what raw materials you use to build this road. My Hyundai GetzPrime gruntled all the way, as we worked our way painstakingly, through the dark forests and the so-called "road". If our vehicles had broken down there or got punctured, if we had been robbed there, no one on planet Earth would have an inkling to know, leave alone help!!
Prayers to previously unknown Gods and Goddesses followed, and the signboards showing the remaining number of kilometres to Madikeri, were cheered like never before. Finally, around midnite, nearly 18 hours after we started from Chennai, we were in Madikeri. A couple of calls to the homestay lady ensured that we didnt roam around too much and found our way correctly to the residence.
The ground work done was quite minimal. A couple of glances as to which National Highways to take from Chennai and also which key cities would be enroute. We started in two cars, one - I drove and the other - my dad's - we had a driver take that one. Driving in the highway is one thing, two cars driving as a group is just yet another!
Learnt this extra-ordinary lesson on this trip. It was always going to be a long drive, and all family members had advised to take a backup driver as well, incase things went wrong! I was however, quite confident that I Could pull it off.
In all, the journey was supposed to take around 8 hours. This according to some bhp team (on their website) which I am sure now, didnt go by road from Chennai to Coorg!!! The roads were immaculate, one has to admit. Perfect for driving conditions and if the surroundings were kept clean, one could have been duped that they were in a western nation. Arcot, Vellore and many smaller cities followed. With each city, we were passing, the elevation was on the rise. Finally as we reached Krishnagiri and onwards, one could see straight roads sloped effectively to blend with the hills beside. It was 6:30 that we started in the morning and we reached Krishnagiri by around 11:00. The next challenge was hitting Hosur and ultimately the land of traffic nightmare - Bengaluru!!
Hosur has a decent road stretch and we had a good lunch in one of the many restaurants. Being the driver, I had to curtail my intake, to avoid becoming sleepy. And so I did!! (This is the part I hated the most in the entire trip!!)
Bengaluru and its experiences deserve a new paragraph. So here go. Hosur to Bangalore, on paper is around 40 kms and Bangalore to Mysore was stated to be another 2 hours drive. What lay in store for us beyond Hosur was a nightmare and that too in the middle of the day! The road to Bangalore seemed endless, what with the array of vehicles and the extraordinary flyover which was being constructed. One birdie on the internet mentioned about some route from Electronics City to the Mysore highway, without having to hit the City and its traffic. What that birdie missed out, as we later realised, was this route was only 80% complete and had a good chunk of it missing. So we had to go right through the middle of the city, Forum Mall and then onwards to LalBagh and finally the market. Needless to say to anyone who knows Bgl traffic challenges, this journey took nearly 2 hours. Finally we were pleased to hear that we were in "Mysore Road". Phew, we thought! 2 hours to Mysore and we could go to Coorg by evening!
The road to Mysore was not going to give us any leeway. It was again, a halfcooked, so called highway, most roads in Pondicherry, would beat the width it offered. Anyways, we drove and drove and drove.. finally we were on a highway and gave us some opportunity to hit decent speeds of 80. It was slowly getting to the evening phase, when most office goers decide, enough is enough, and go home to start logging again from there. Had a quick bite in one of the highway restaurants, and we asked him. how far do we have to go to get to Coorg? He said.. "get off before Mysore, you will have a road to the right and yeah you can take that all the way to Coorg". My next question - was the most important one - of the entire journey - "Are the roads ok till there? Is there any challenge in driving in the night?". - "Ohh Not at all", he promised - "the roads are good." Till date, I dont know why he didnt tell me the truth, maybe we didnt tip the waiters sufficiently?!!
The sun finally started to lower its guard and we were firmly committed to reaching Coorg by nite to stay in the accomodation I had booked the previous day. So no stopping elsewhere in between. Coorg it is, come evening, nite or midnite!! There were not adequate lights on the highway and it was dark now, around 7 PM, a Karnataka Tourism vehicle was honking hard at me in the front. I finally gave some way, once it was possible. The driver, dont know if he was a qualified driver, raced ahead and put a sudden break and did something which swerved the bus to hit my car on the right side panel, just behind the headlights. It was a cool "thud". SHOCK and AWE, (quoted from George W Bush) followed. It was the first accidental accident for my car. The damage wasnt much but tears of blood flowed to see the ghastly bump!
This was also not to deter us, in our quest to get to Coorg.
Soon, around 830 PM, we decided to break for dinner - we were in a town called Hunsur. From thereon, we were told, the roads would be steep as we were entering the mountains. Ignorance, coupled with lack of local conditions, ensured that we were climbing an unknown route, in the dark, with no idea of what lay ahead. A lot of twists and turns followed and somehow we mustered our guts and it seemed like we were getting somewhere. We were all so happy. Atlast, we had succeeeded. A polite enquiry confirmed that it was not Madikeri, but Suntikoppa. "Madikeri is another 30 kms from here". Next question obviously met with a sign of "sorry - you are in trouble" - "Is the road any good till there?"
The route from Suntikoppa to Madikeri is so extraordinarily damaged, that one should wish that one's enemy also shouldnt have to take this route by car! Oh Holy Road Engineers of South India! Wish I knew what raw materials you use to build this road. My Hyundai GetzPrime gruntled all the way, as we worked our way painstakingly, through the dark forests and the so-called "road". If our vehicles had broken down there or got punctured, if we had been robbed there, no one on planet Earth would have an inkling to know, leave alone help!!
Prayers to previously unknown Gods and Goddesses followed, and the signboards showing the remaining number of kilometres to Madikeri, were cheered like never before. Finally, around midnite, nearly 18 hours after we started from Chennai, we were in Madikeri. A couple of calls to the homestay lady ensured that we didnt roam around too much and found our way correctly to the residence.
Once inside, visibly tired - we were all in for a great treat. The cottage I had booked, was an old residence which has been converted into a homestay. It was a four bedroom home, complete with dining room and a kitchen. We were all thrilled to get into those cozy beds and all promised the homestay lady - "If we get up tomorrow morning, we will ask for morning coffee!!"
Ohh, we got at 7 sharp, with the sun slowly finding its way and the pleasant air of the hillstation, pulling us out of our beds!
What happened later and how the drive and the places were - I will cover in a subsequent article. Its tiring, even to remember a gruelling drive :)
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