The Virus & The Vaccine - Invincibility & All That

-- I'm really curious, considering all the posts you've been putting up: which leader or govt would have done a better job, in your opinion, considering how rowdy/indisciplined we are as a nation? --

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That is perhaps the wrong question to ask, though there are answers to it, too. The question to me, would be: is this the best – remotely the best – that could have been done in the current circumstances? My answer is no. There are far too many instances of the obviously wrong thing being done or the cringingly wrong thing being said by people in government (read Modi) to warrant a detailed defence of my position. In short: the insistence of the government, repeatedly, to be pig-headed and go do the damnedest thing in the face of, if not evidence, at least statistics; its refusal to consult experts or get advice from people who have knowledge or experience; the in-your-face superciliousness; the eagerness to always teach others a lesson; the smirking arrogance of assumed omniscience even when the ignorance is evident; all these can safely be assumed to have descended from the man at the top.

Raising the possibility or evidence of these 'qualities' in others is not a defence against criticism of the protagonist here; when any or more of these others are in similar posts of authority and then they put themselves in similar positions, they can be addressed in similar words or with similar sentiments. Meanwhile, we have Modi, who is the strongest PM since Rajiv Gandhi and who has been bestowed the reputation of being the most decisive leader perhaps after Indira Gandhi.

But to come back to the question, perhaps, and attempt an answer (and since it appears to be a political question, let me leave myself out as a possible candidate and attempt a political answer) – well, why not Rahul Gandhi, on going evidence? If it can be peripherally argued that Rahul Gandhi did not come up with any of his tweets where he seems to be rather prescient, or the ideas in them, at least he has, for all indications, consulted someone who has had those ideas, and listened to them, and for all we know grasped the core of them – and even the nuances! And he has had the confidence – humility? – to put them all out in the world for people to see, think about, discuss, criticize, denounce, deride, whatever. I consider that a sign of a leader.

Or Pinarayi Vijayan – the one guy who seems to have gone about the business of getting the right people together and beating out a plan which, while resulting in a larger percentage of population getting the virus, has simultaneously seen the lowest death rate as a proportion of either Covid cases or overall state population, bar the tiniest states and union territories in the country.

Or Yeddiyurappa. Why not?! (Another reason to include him is that I can be more of an equal opportunity offender and give everyone a fair reason to abuse me or beat me up.) Even though cases, particularly in Bangalore, are not exactly small in number or percentage, Yeddiyurappa has certainly been trying to hack it. He has taken decisions at more or less the right time. Even when it comes to deaths, though Bangalore seems to have reported less than half its Covid deaths officially, the government doesn't seem to have made any elaborate attempts to hide numbers a la Gujarat, UP or MP, and was proactive in sending out a notice that people could arrange the final rites of their relatives in the place of their choosing, once it saw the stress the crematoria and burial grounds were beginning to come under.

In my opinion, the bottom line is that of doing the needful, of trying one's best, of wanting to do what needs to be done – and being earnest and sincere about it. Most state governments – with a few obvious exceptions – seem to have taken the effort. Till his head-scratchingly weird television address where he more or less exhorted children to go rogue on their parents, the prime minister was more or less invisible on the national stage, except when he was gushing in his Twitter posts about the unprecedented crowds at his rallies. The home minister has been invisible, period. The health minister has not been invisible – unfortunately.

There is then the imbroglio of the oxygen supply, where the centre has insisted on being in sole charge of distribution. And the impending dizzying mess of the vaccination drive, starting with the initial promise of 'free vaccine for all', with ministers queuing up to drum the message into people's ears. Here again, the centre insisted on being the nodal agency, the 'free' promise quickly unravelling, till it came to the crunch where both money and vaccine availability were concerned, and the centre just let go all of a sudden. "Things fall apart; the center cannot hold; Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world" – to quote W B Yeats. Lapidary words have meanwhile turned to dust, and those who spouted them have proved to have feet of clay.

And in all this, it has to be the PM, as monarch of all he surveys, who has to be tied to the seat under the hanging sword. In a coalition, one might accuse a dozen party leaders of blackmailing the PM; Modi has, if anything, blackmailed himself.

In the case of UP, I am wont to let Adityanath, as a worthy foil to the PM, carry the cross – or, should I say dung? – but the Gujarat gocha has to remain with Modi, the state being run by his chosen acolyte. The wilful suppression of the numbers of the dead and the dallying with data should on their own be enough to build a condemnatory consensus centred on the mendacity and incompetence of the government (and of Modi, who holds almost absolute sway over what happens in his fiefdoms). We wouldn’t even have to come to the apparent insouciance that is evident in the lack of willingness to engage with, or respond to, the citizens experiencing one of the most disastrous periods we have seen. But once we go behind the screen – or the smokescreen maybe in this case – we see these just as more inevitable consequences of Modi’s egomania, megalomania, trust in magic-wanding, and giving primacy to faith over fact. We see a host of undesirable, even ruinous, qualities; his followers see nothing.

There is perhaps a reason for Modi's feet of clay in this instance – a reason, not an excuse. Having allowed the Kumbh Mela, there was no way he could then say the Covid situation was dicey. Having proceeded to harangue the world on how his government had decisively wrung the neck of Covid, there was no reason to hold back on the election and the rallies, nor any to proceed cautiously or put systems in place in case of a repeat outbreak; no reason to move ahead quickly on vaccines, no reason to do anything with the allocated Covid budget. 

And there was no face with which to stop the chest-thumping, cut back on the machismo, and acknowledge the real and looming threat. That was perhaps a bit too much to expect, especially from a man who, at the beginning of the first wave, had humble-bragged that while the Mahabharata was won in 18 days, the war with Covid would be over in 21 days. He almost seemed to say that he wasn't as great as Krishna, who was aware of his godliness – but not too far behind, either! His followers were left to read more between the lines, if they wanted. For instance, the Mahabharata was just a war fought on a battlefield in Kurukshetra against an army of a few hundred thousand people, while Modi's was a heroic battle against an unseen enemy and he was leading a humongous nation of almost 1.4 billion people! That's right... 21 days is no joke, and Modi was almost godly (on second thoughts, cleave that Svarbhanu of a word, almost) in his precise knowledge of its result!

The ego train chugged on.... refusing to decentralize, cornering control of vaccine and oxygen distribution, fudging data and brazening out on the matters of Covid cases and deaths. Things got alarmingly worse, as the warnings had foretold... and the strongman froze! – to the extent that he didn't even seem able to give an order to the lessers in his party and government to, if not stop lying, at least stop talking embarrassing nonsense and displaying shocking insensitivity. I get his ardent desire to defer to his assiduously cultivated vote bank but this kind of reckless and dangerous pandering?! The only conclusion I can draw is that he wasn't interested in doing the right thing.

We are now on the day where vaccination will be thrown open to all adults at varying prices, with the most illogical and unfair barriers of entry. On top of all that, at many places there is no sign of the vaccines that people have registered for and are supposed to pay and get. We might yet reap the whirlwind here; meanwhile, we have the record number of registrations to crow about. Modiji ki jai.

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My post ...

"I could stand in the middle of Fifth Avenue and shoot somebody and I wouldn’t lose voters,” Donald Trump boasted in 2016. Now, why would I think about that at this time?

... was occasioned by my belief that in spite of all that happened in the Covid times, in spite of the total mismanagement by the government, in spite of the near-invisibility of the PM and HM (two figures central to the management of a disaster of this magnitude), in spite of the stunning incompetence, in spite of the sheer lack of logic in decisions, in spite of the terrible consequences of all these wrong actions or non-actions – in spite of all this, Modi will still forge ahead and win next time round.

That disturbing and disgusting quote of Trump is to me the rough equivalent of what is often said here in Hindi: "Sau khoon maaf" or, pardon for a hundred murders. But again, maybe that is not quite accurate – because maafi ka savaal hi nahin uthta hai, the question of pardon doesn't arise!

After all, his followers think not that Modi will only do the right thing but that whatever Modi does is the right thing. 

A Strand of the Past, Almost

I don't think I was at Strand Book Stall on more than a handful of occasions, but it was a unique book shop. And Mr T N Shanbagh was a unique bookseller.

I remember once looking for Vikram Seth's An Equal Music when Mr Shanbagh came over and said, "Ah, you are interested in his books." I said yes, he was one of my favorite authors.

I had the Indian edition in my hand, when he said, "We also have a foreign edition," and called one of the assistants to get a copy. Then he told me, "You know, this is a better edition and is also cheaper! The paper is thicker and the print on the other side doesn't show through. I get better deals on foreign editions and I pass it on."

Then he pointed to the rough edges of the paper, saying, "Many people think this is a defect. Actually, these are special copies and are more expensive." I found out more later about deckling and its presence in an era of automated mass production.

On another occasion, I was browsing at Strand when I noticed a couple of shelves and a swivel rack of Western classical music CDs. My heart leaped, especially when I saw the ridiculously low prices. I turned, sensing someone behind me, and there was Mr Shanbagh again! He was curious about my interest. I told him I had been listening to Western classical for a few years but did not know much about it. He said he had a few friends, mostly elderly Parsis, who listened primarily to the genre.

I asked him how he could sell the CDs so cheap. "I visited a publisher friend when I had gone to the Hamburg book fair," he said. "I saw piles of CDs, and he told me he didn't know what to do with them and he would probably sell them as junk. I thought my friends would be interested, and told him I could buy the CDs if they weren't too expensive. He said I didn't have to pay him anything except all the transport costs. That's why they are so cheap." A CD was priced at ₹55 and a double CD pack at ₹85. I picked up all the CDs I could for the money I had on me.

I visited again a few weeks later and a lot of the CDs were still there. After I moved to Bangalore, I visited Strand at Manipal Centre and a found a stack of CDs from the same set, and ended up buying quite a few more.

At Strand Bangalore, I once got talking to Vidya Virkar, mentioning my literature background and being a journalist, and she gave me an additional 10% discount! If all this was silly, it was the best kind of silliness I've ever encountered. In Bangalore, I bought virtually all my books at Strand.

The closure of Strand Bangalore was sad. The impending closure of THE Strand is disturbing.

I am in the past....

(Balamurali passed away earlier today, 22 Nov 2016.)

I met and interacted with Dr M Balamuralikrishna only once. After talking to him over an hour-long interview, I was going to drop Balamurali off back at his hotel. I was driving and my colleague opened the rear door for him. With one of his winning smiles, Balamurali opened the front passenger door and slid in. That moment will remain etched in my mind for the amazing grace it embodied. How many people would have done that... particularly how many celebrities? In fact, even if they knew the social convention, how many of them would have had the presence of mind or the awareness of time and space to produce that act of easy grace?

Of course, this was just the moment that rounded the personality of Balamurali for me. I had been listening to his music for three decades then. I continue to. And I continue to be charmed by the man and his music.

There is much to say about the man. At the same time, there is nothing to say. His music speaks for him - in different ways for different people. It tells a story. It takes you on a journey.

Turn on his music, close your eyes, and listen. You don't just hear the music; you experience it. You relate on many levels. You experience a singular musical mind at work, but at the same time you understand the performer. High art and compelling entertainment existing beautifully together. You watch a video of his concert - again, you don't just listen to the music. You observe a gifted musician, sure, but you also observe the consummate performer, teasing you to respond to his music, a creative artiste always fully aware of the audience he so effortlessly takes on one of the most exhilaratingly sensuous rides of their lives.

I can safely - and emphatically - say that it is rarely that a personality like his comes around. The passing of Balamurali marks the end of an era. And this is one moment I do not want to listen to his music. The silence is more appropriate.