Another Story

Amidst all the recent scuffles surrounding the agitations in Chennai, the rains brought a fresh aura and waived off the gloomy environment. One doesn’t get to witness rains in this time of the year. I woke up to the aroma of coffee and looked out of the window. I sensed the drizzle embraced by a cold and delicate breeze. The innocence of the moment made me think through life, especially the year gone. It was indeed an extraordinary year. But I owe it to the people, those who left, those who came by and those kind souls that decided to stay with me throughout, made it an intoxicating journey. And I owe it to the city, it made me meet some of the inquisitive minds, most dependable friends and beautiful hearts. After 5 years of constantly shifting from, Noida, Delhi, Gurgaon and Bangalore, I finally feel at home. 

Chennai gave the world a glimpse of one of the biggest peace protest after Independence. More than a million people came together to support their cultural ethos and save their heritage identity. It’s often labelled as one of the worst places to live in, because of weather and food. But remember, the winter keeps you laid back and the summers wake you up for life’s calling. The city might not have as many amazing cafes and bars to ‘party’, but it has quite a few mesmerising locations. The east coast road with the Bay of Bengal offering its melodic glances for instance.

And what good a home, without some great flatmates? Shifting often across different cities, taught me the valuable lesson that is to appreciate and cherish the people in our life. I realised that sometimes the smallest things takes up a big place in our hearts. From being over conscious about time and hyper aggressive about future, I let it all die. I found happiness in the conversations on the terrace over a beer, waking up early to take a glimpse of sunrise on a weekend, a game of football on the beachside, my small contribution in the kitchen while cooking and the unending long road trips. I realised the value of personalities around us and the impressions it leaves in our lives. There is more substance for characters around you, than money or swagger in this part of the world. Life in Chennai is raw, simple yet beautiful. I got to watch two of my favourite movies last year here. ‘Irudhi Suttru’, an invigorating boxing drama shot in an unfashioned way, it sent shivers down my spine. ‘Ae Dil Hai Mushkil’ that ran deeper into the mystery and power of unrequited love. Inspired by this, I wrote “My love, what’s merrier than the warmth of cold memories?” It was a year when my closest circle got married and having a new member in the family who likes the tune of your song is mere bliss.

I learnt and unlearnt quite a few things, especially about people. The canonical saying came true, that people who you love the most will move out of your life. There were huge disagreements, leading to disappointments, followed by tears and heart breaks. But sadly, even that was one sided. What battered me the most, is the perpetual silence at every phase. All this left me thinking that people will drift away sooner or later, but it did good for the evolution of me. And that changed my outlook for life, as I start afresh with a new purpose now, to save myself from desolation and to let go off what’s broken. I wish to see me becoming myself.

Beautiful End

Pursuit of happiness seemed a mystery

Happiness for me hovered around a cloud of sadness

Perhaps I found paradise in melancholy 

Such a paradox, I was! 

The universe started flowing flawlessly 

I found myself strolling away slowly

Not chasing happiness nor ambitions

My dream was you and pursuing you! 

The earth choked spinning miserably 

between my eyes and yours 

Amid the deep dawn and twinkling twilight

I strangled between my lips and yours!

A glimpse of your eyes

pushed me into ancient yesterday,

Sinking your lips with mine

took me into future tomorrow!

When the sky bows

And the voyage ends

I wish my eyes would seek yours

And my lips would overlap yours! 

Such a greedy bastard I was,

Yearning to fill you with limitless love

For a million mornings and endless nights 

But what is life, without a beautiful end? 

Believe, I will steer your caravan

In this life and then the next and next

I will fall in love with you forever

Unto love, my love! 

I would never let you go

in my death, even after my breath drifts away

I would never let you go

a beautiful beginning would await us even in the ending! 

Dead Man Walking

It’s a world, no one has ever been

I’m the only one, waiting for thee’

Fate had sealed our destiny back in earth

I broke, sobbed, moaned, wept with my 

thoughts all but in vain! Overtime, I was

bored to tears! Deep down, I was unable 

to make meaning with the way I parted! 

Thus, you live on high, and then on 

earth you live again; I’m sure you

remember the soul, that left to

create a new world for you! 

I imagined and fancied thy world,

there ain’t dawn or night, but only 

dusk throughout the light!  

My smiles were broken into pieces

Every minute moved like an eon

I was just a dead man walking! 

Whenever I wander’d on those winter twilight,

an air of melancholy surrounded me! 

the autumn brought agony, along

with despair and my heart sought ways to part! 

I walked past endless miles, I cringed with

you not being nigh ~ it’s your breathe

inside me, which gave me hope! 

For the creators, who hold my grudge

my sorrows and their delights

my passion against their malice

I’ll prove the immortality of love!

My poesy would celebrate our love

and many a verses, I wish to pen 

with you beside tipping my lips and

walking alongside my shadow or as my shadow!

Expressed words and penned lines, I recollect

Unuttered love and repressed emotions, haunts me eternal!

My love, you are a classy art 

as long as men breathe and eyes see

I would never budge to depart! 

When everything else fades, the makers 

would realise, love goes beyond life and death! 

O’ my crying thoughts 

O’ my betray’d gods

O’ my grieving heart 

O’ my flames have gone high

And my soul walks in the mighty skies! 

Alive and dead; the wait is ever excruciating

I’m waiting for every day to bed again 

but not yet, not yet ~ for now, I’m

just a dead man walking!!!

No more the King of good times

Finally Vijay Mallya has relinquished United Spirits (USL) as its chairman and will be getting $75 million as per the deal for quitting. State Bank of India has pounced at once to secure the lender’s first right on the severance package and moved to the Debt Recovery Tribunal (DRT) to seize his passport and arrest him. The only surprise is that it had come too late from the leading lender. The ostentatious businessman and his group owe around 7,800 crores to a consortium of 17 banks led by the State Bank of India which has lent more than 1,600 crores. The fortune of the erstwhile liquor baron has come to a mighty fall.

The Haughty Downfall  

How could one forget the plush and comfy Kingfisher airlines with dazzling air hostesses, sumptuous in-flight meals and the TV on board? Sure did the airlines give a sophisticated experience with a more urbane feel and one could just feel sorry for its downfall. Did one wrong diversification bring down the empire of Mallya down?

No, there is more to than just wrong diversification of the business. When the airlines started its operations in the mid 2005, it was ranked 6^th in the pantheon of Indian Aviation Industry. And the brand stood out with luxury as its USP. If properly administered Kingfisher Airlines would have easily evolved as the number one choice of flying for the Indian consumers. But a lousy management style has brought the authorities into terminating the license and ceasing its operations. Was there a desire by Mr. Mallya to wipe off the competition in the quest for his glory?

Sadly the answer is yes. At a time when Air Deccan (low cost carrier) was flying more passengers than Kingfisher airlines, there were dramatic events which started unfolding for the airline pioneered by Capt. C.R. Gopinath. Getting landing spaces, hangar facilities in major airports and permits for profitable routes became a staged hindrance for Air Deccan. And there was the writing on the wall for Air Deccan as it was sold to Vijay Mallya led kingfisher airlines.

Jet Airways which was the number one airlines at that time, got into a bidding war with Mr. Mallya over buying of a heavily loss making and debt ridden airline, Air Sahara. When Subrata Roy the owner of Air Sahara the then fourth largest operator wanted a sell-out, Mr. Mallya participated in what is known as an inflated auction strategy to push the price of the deal higher. Subsequently Mr. Mallya pulled out of the bidding and Jet Airways fell for it and ended up buying Air Sahara for 1,450 crores which was unanimously considered as too much.

Having won half the battle, Mr. Mallya had to trap the two state carriers. And the unimaginable merger of Indian Airlines happened with Air India. It is said that in 2007 Indian Airlines had achieved profitability of over 90% of its routes and it had only 10% in the red zone which was well on its way to profitability as well. Unfortunately the unification of Indian Airlines with Air India happened despite vehement opposition from the management of both the airlines. And as you guessed, the inevitable happened as what started as a loss of 180 crores ran into a mountain of debt amounting to 40,000 crores.  And now it was a fairy tale start for Kingfisher as even its main competitor was taken care of.

Regardless of Mr. Mallya’s strategy to drive out all the players in the ground, Kingfisher Airlines never made any profit from the day of its inception. Ofcourse, as one might guess, the whole master plan was orchestrated and supported by a faithful ally of Mr. Mallya, who was sitting on top of the pyramid in the aviation ministry. Perhaps Mr. Mallya should have realized that when his accomplice is moved out of the office, he would be in trouble. And come 2012 Mr. Mallya was in deep waters as expected over payments to vendors, employees were delayed, and the group started bleeding money. Mr. Mallya’s lobby to avail investment from foreign airlines went in vain. And Mr. Gopinath founder of Air Deccan believed there was a conspiracy to kill Kingfisher Airlines. Well, it wasn’t simply said, “what goes around comes around.”

Never ending good times

Despite business fiascos, the king of good times Mr. Mallya’s propensity to spend has not blunted as he celebrated his 60^th birthday party roping big names from Enrique Iglesias to Sonu Nigam to sing ‘Happy Birthday’. He drew severe flak for his lavish lifestyle even while owing the banks a lot of money. The RBI governor Mr. Rahuram Rajan lashed out at Mr. Mallya for flaunting his birthday parties. Even after the ignominy of being labeled as a willful defaulter by SBI, an individual without doubt has taken 17 banks for a ride publicly, challenging them by throwing extravagant parties and delaying repayments for almost half a decade.

The Chickens have come home to roost

The SBI chief Mrs. Bhattacharya’s move to arrest Mr. Mallya is commendable. It is sure to send a signal to those crony businessmen who had defrauded banks by not paying thousands of crores of money, to fall in line. While arresting Mr. Mallya is imperative to set an example, especially given the current plight of Indian Banks as they have neck deep bad debts of 4,00,000 crores, the due diligence upon which the banks have granted him loans has to be investigated. Kingfisher Airlines never in its history of seven years made even a quarterly profit. It clearly showcases the banks inefficiency in monitoring the end use of crores of money, which was loaned to the airlines. After all, why should the poor tax payers money be used to bail out the flaunty businessmen and their businesses? Taking down Mr. Vijay Mallya is just the beginning of many more to come.

Curious case of Tamilnadu Politicians

On the evening of December 2^nd, I sat still in front of the television as persistent rains were predicted by the meteorological department in Chennai for the next four days. And history stands as a testimony to what followed in the great coastal city of South India. More than 400 killed and 18 lakh displaced by the ravaging floods, the damages and the losses caused were estimated to be around INR 20000 crore to INR 100000 crore.

Hitting the bull’s-eye, one revelation is indisputable, the political class of the state is to be held accountable for the devastation caused by the floods. Nothing is more emblematic than the government’s failure to resurrect the infrastructure of the state. It might be a forgivable logic that any government would have failed to live up to such nature’s fury. However, a lot of such holocausts could have been avoided, if the polity had followed proper urban infrastructure and building norms. Sympathy for the very poor who had to leave all their little possessions they had accumulated over a period of their lifetime.

Innovative economy

Tamil Nadu was a paragon of administrative innovation. M.G. Ramachandran, one of the most popular actor cum politician, his mid-day meal scheme for school children stood as a torch bearer across the country when it came to welfare policies. In the last decade, both the Dravida Kazhagam parties have resorted to rational distributism of private goods in the name of free sarees, free bicycles, free cows, free goats, free laptops, free rice and free television. As the Indian economist Jagdish Bhagwati pointed out in his book, ‘Why Growth Matters’, that growth would not merely pull out people above the poverty line but it would have the added beneficial effect that it would generate revenues which could be then used to undertake redistribution. Such welfare policies came as a blessing in disguise for the populists, as it voted them to power.

Tamil Nadu is the second largest state economy and the second most industrialized state after Maharashtra in the country. Its manufacturing sector grew by 3.53% in 2013-14 which was higher than the country’s growth of 0.71%. It is often referred as the Detroit of India, an automobile hub in United States. An ASSOCHAM study earlier this year ranked Tamil Nadu as the best performing state on eight out of nine parameters like economic growth, power, roads and infrastructure, income and removing inequality and industrial development. I believe among the parameters which are requisites for ranking developed status to states, Tamil Nadu stands second to none. But the cause of concern is, if one of the most developed state is least prepared to confront an apocalyptic rage, then one can only imagine the readiness of the other states.

Non-Stop Branding

None can stand rival to the Indian Politicians when it comes to self-obsession. From Modi’s suit to Mayawati’s statues, people have had to tolerate the woeful narcissistic behaviour of our great politicians. But Jayalalithaa scored, a notch better than her political counterparts when it came to branding. Amma stickers were pasted in the relief materials that flew from other parts of the state and from across country. The Chief Minister drew severe flak for advocating cheap publicity when the people were experiencing difficult times. The ubiquity of Jayalalithaa’s face and the name she is called by ‘Amma’ is more annoying than charming. She has branded every free goods and schemes with her face and name Amma: Amma canteen, Amma salt, Amma cement, Amma drinking water. This practice shows the defiance of the self-loving politician who attaches her persona to all the welfare programs and it looks like all the good things appear to flow from her largess.

Jayalalithaa was arrested for a ‘‘disproportionate assets’’ case in Sep’14 before she was acquitted of all the charges in May 2015. Many of the projects which were finished weren’t opened by the stand-in Chief Minister Panneerselvam, one among her million worshippers just because the Lady was in jail. The element of surprise that irks me still is the kind of melodramatic devotion that people behold over her still. Self-immolations, crucifying, suicides for the sake of a corrupted and an undeserving politician is intolerable. One can narrow it down to a single reason, which is Rajinikanth a Tamil action superstar relishes, it’s called the movie mania.

This has long been the state’s impediment as movie stars after stars came to rule the state for almost half a century now from Karunanidhi, M.G. Ramachandran (affectionately called as MGR) to his heir Jayalalithaa. After the death of MGR, the two politicians rule the state in melodrama involving in arresting each other, verbal accusations and the most pity of them all, destroying each other’s projects and policies. The citizens of the state have long been involved in this histrionic devotion to their movie stars which simply got carried away to their actor cum politicians as well. Fans of Rajinikanth often involve in fervent activities like milk-bathing his posters and cut-outs infront of the movie halls which is otherwise reserved for gods inside the temple. It has been an embarrassment to the cultured, civilized and intellectual population of the state.

While Jayalalithaa often rules like an authoritarian despotic dictator, her counterpart Karunanidhi promotes political dynasty along the lines of Nehru-Gandhi family. Both of them are certain to make it to the top 10 most corrupted politicians in the country. While the former is tantalizingly inaccessible and self-obsessed as her close aids Sasikala and Illavarasi loot the state, the latter and his family has been part of one of the biggest scams the country has ever seen in the name of 2G. Thus, a wafer thin difference lies in the ideologies of both the parties.

Now that the elections are around the corner, the people are already perturbed over choosing between the devil and the deep blue sea (demon). After all, the Dravidian Political landscape are two sides of the same coin. Of course the people of the state deserve a better choice.

References:

http://www.thehindu.com/opinion/op-ed/chennai-floods-and-impact-on-tamil-nadu-elections-jayalalithaa-and-karunanidhi/article7996939.ece

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/07/05/magazine/what-happens-when-a-state-is-run-by-movie-stars.html?_r=0

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The Quitter

Drenched on the dark expressway,

a deep silence engulfed upon the road,

in a flash, I stood emptied by the blackout

only me, only me.......! 

To the skies above, the earth below

and the road ahead, I looked like a lone wolf

a withered leaf..... !

Fate hands a bump & you are judged a quitter

closing my eyes, I imagined myself & my efficacy 

I listen cautiously to my heart beats, it urges 

and illustrates the primacy of time & being here!

Being a bantam part of someone's life is a tenuous feat

Like a fragrance floating in the breeze,

Your time here is short, an unknown mystery

it's only you, only you.......!

You were a quitter and for the right reasons

there ain't any glory in persistence when 

your respect is lost enroute to your cause!

even a withered leaf, makes the pathway a picturesque

your breathe and your solitude

portrays your profound depth....

That's who you really are, you are a soulful soul

only you, only you.......! 

To be or not to be

Another new phase in life, before

I even started inhabiting, I 

had to pass through the sieve ....

the desire to sing, write & live 

had got diluted by then, my 

excitement died a bad death!

I was scared to even look up,

as the skies gave me a daunting look!

It was strange, my words strangled,

my emotions were drought! 

My silences were deep and blue

for once, I never had any answers...

a thought, a word, a feeling

was always so near but it hid itself...

Tough times are dry & rugged like desert,

One wishes, they never traveled that far

But that's how the dip is, like a falling star!

Everyone's story has bad pages

Most of them are like sad poems,

I wished to sing mine for my soul..! 

To be or not to be;

~ When I wandered like those lonely clouds 

which floats high of hills & valleys

You were the star under which

I wished to perch and roost! 

One hundred days, alas! to have seen 

those eyes, indeed sorrowful as it sounds,

I was in the depth of despair

having hoped, desired & beguiled!

Beyon'd hope lies my dismay

I dread the rustling of my heart

it's painful, I'm scared for once

I pity my grief, which lies ignored!

My wandering eyes, has lost the diversion

the faith escapes, not my pain

the feeling travels but in vain, 

just yearning you will come back again! 

a weary struggle to narrate my tale

abou't those silent nights

my death whispers & lures me

I'm mellowing easily, as I look'd

way too tender, with you not being near!

To go or not to go, my life 

rambles like a wayward ship

Let me erase my shadow of you

If I be the one who feels less,

let me worn away and sink in pride'

and fall down like withered leaf quietly!