The Ignoble Nobel- Vol 2

President Barack Obama has been awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for his efforts to decrease the world's nuclear arsenal. The Committee also noted Obama's efforts to solve the world's complex problems. Now I'm as big a fan of Barack Obama as the next guy, but I'm not sure which I find more ludicrous, the fact Obama won the prize or the reasons for giving it to him.
President Obama came to power on a wave of hope and jubilation the likes of which has not been seen in world history. But the truth is that less than one year into his term some of that halo is beginning to fade away. Mind you, most of it is not his fault. He's an extremely talented and sincere man doing a near impossible job. And he's not been doing it for long enough for any of his much debated and criticized efforts to bear any real fruit. So the committee that praises his efforts to solve the world's complex problems needs to take a good look at the world again. I'm not sure which of those problems has become any less problematic than it was last November when Obama won.
As for the citation regarding his efforts to reduce the world's nuclear arsenal, America still has the world's largest stockpile of nuclear weapons, still has not ratified the CTBT and has rewarded Pakistan's freeing of A Q Khan with more cash in aid. Yes, he initiated a debate on the subject, put non-military options with Iran back on the table and has not lashed out yet at North Korea. All very good, but Nobel prize good??!! Really!! It seems to me that someone on the Nobel Committee decided that they could use some of the rockstar like popularity that Obama brings to the table or they just decided to suck up to the USA. If it was rockstar appeal they were after, I submit Paul Hewson aka Bono as an alternative candidate. He's done some real good work, has been active for much longer than Obama has and here's the clincher, he's a real rockstar. If on the other hand they were just sucking up to the US Goverment, well then, all I have to say is, "Very good choice."
For us Indians, Obama's prize also brings back that never ending question about the Nobel peace prize. Why was The Mahatma never given the prize? To which we can now forevermore add, " Is Barack Obama greater even than Mahatma Gandhi?" Well the committee sure seems to think so.

The Ignoble Nobel- Vol 1

The Nobel prize announcements are always a source of much anticipation and eventually debate. But usually the controversies and debates involve the Peace prize or the Literature prize. For us Indians this year's Chemistry prize also provides much fodder for arguments and the Peace prize as well. Dr Venkataraman Ramakrishnan was awarded the Chemistry nobel along with Thomas Steitz and Ada Yonath for their work involving ribosomes. As if this were not enough President Barack Obama has been awarded the Peace prize for his efforts to reduce the world's nuclear arsenal. For the average "argumentative Indian", to quote another Nobel prize winner, this is a bumper Diwali.

The Chemistry prize resurrects the age old debate about brain drain and its causes and effects. Sadly this is a question that really comes into focus only when someone of Indian origin achieves something substantial internationally, when ideally it is an issue that should be front and centre in India's plans to become a global superpower. Dr Venkataraman was born and brought up in Chidambaram, TN. Sure this gives a lot of Tamilians cause for immense pride and maybe the rest of India as well. In some part of our minds we are glowing with a sense of achievement. This is proof that we are as good as anybody else out there, if, we are given the right opportunities. And that if is the point of all the debate. That Indians are generally smart has been proved beyond all argument by our dotcom friends. So the real questions are these? Could the good Dr Venks have achieved all he has if he stayed back in India? Almost defnitely no. Will the current environment in higher education and research in India ever throw up a home grown Nobel in the pure sciences? Highly unlikely. And should the fact that Dr Venks is now an American citizen take away from our sense of achievement? I definitely feel it should. It should be a matter of great introspection and shame that our best and brightest still choose the greener pastures of American academia. Both in terms of increasing our R&D capability across all fields and in terms of increasing India's global visibility and soft power, we should plan to overhaul our structure of higher education. And it has to begin from top down. The bosses running higher education in India shouldn't be retired politicians looking for a cushy end. That job should be given exclusively to top academicians with proven record in research. There has to be a strong focus on enabling bold and cutting edge research work to take root in labs across India. And more importantly there has to be generous government grants disbursed through autonomous, non-partisan, qualified and meritocratic governing committees. Only then can we have our own Dr Venkataraman and when that time we can truly bask in his/her glory.

Political Legacy : The YSR Way

I recently came to know of a health services scheme started by the late Andhra Pradesh CM Dr Y S R Reddy. Initially introduced on a trial basis in a few poverty ridden districts in the state and later on after it proved to be a resounding success, the scheme was extended to cover the entire state. The Rajiv Arogya Sri came into effect in April 2007. .It provides financial protection and the means to improve the health status of families living Below the Poverty Line for treatment of all the serious ailments. Under the scheme all white card holders(those deemed BPL) were entitled to free medical treatment at any of the corporate hospitals participating in the scheme. And to their credit quite a few of the big corporate names in the state are part of the scheme.

Now I have seen first hand how this scheme is transforming the access these poor people have to quality health care and in the process also their lives. The scheme allows anyone with a white card to simply walk in to a hospital and check if his/her symptoms match the diagnoses in a pre-approved government checklist. If it does, from then on they are eligible for the best care that the hospital can provide including cost of stay and food expenses without having to pay anything at all from their pockets. This is the sort of manna from heaven scheme that we hear of usually in oil rich Arab nations (although only for Arab nationals). They can afford it. But to actually try and implement it in an Indian state deserves special recognition of the man's intent to serve his people. Now I don't know anything else about YSR's or Andhra's politics but it probably helped that YSR was a doctor himself and because of that he probably understood better than most politicians, the difficulties India's poor face with regards to health care.

Now this is India after all and however noble the scheme, we will find ways to corrupt it. Like so with Arogya Sri. Some of the white card holders are simply too well off to fall in that unfortunate category called BPL, while some hospitals and associated health personnel are trying to make a fast buck by conning the poor patients into paying for services that they should be getting for free. But all things considered as far as a Government initiative is concerned schemes like Arogya Sri should be supported and lauded. Politicians at all levels should take note of the genuine outpouring of grief that followed YSR's untimely and tragic death recently. If you want to win elections and etch your name in history, dreaming up schemes like Arogya Sri is the better way to go about it, than building giant statues of yourself at public expense. Dr Y S R is no more but here's hoping that there are more like him because India's poor really need them.

My Name is Con

If ever an issue was created by the media for public consumption it is this whole brouhaha involving ShahRukh Khan and his alleged detention by airport officials at Newark Airport. The facts, as far as can be made out over all the cacophonous indignation, are these. Apparently ShahRukh who has been travelling in and out of the US all this year was detained and questioned for around 2 hours by the airport officials at Newark. Further details of the incident are all still a blur. And no one in the media really wants to find out. Because apparently, to quote Union Minister Ambika Soni, every Indian has been hurt by the actions of the US officials. And if this kind of treatment keeps getting meted out to Indian stars then maybe the Indian government should consider reciprocal action!! Seriously? This from a Union minister; talk about hyperbole!

But it doesn’t end there. News channels have been running this story with the breaking news tagline and with quotes from SRK camp regulars, Karan Johar and Farah Khan. Karan Johar somberly addressed the racist element of the incident and cheekily threw in the phrase “its all because his name is Khan.” And Farah Khan is under the delusion that SRK is the “biggest star in the world.” Of course SRK himself dominated all the airwaves with his extensive and in depth views on everything from racism to religious intolerance to international politics to the mental state of Americans as a people. All the while maintaining that he doesn’t want to make a big deal of the incident!

As an issue this couldn’t have been better scripted and that too on the Indian Independence day and most conveniently with SRK starrer My Name is Khan due to hit theatres soon. Anyone with even half a brain will stop to consider if this whole thing isn’t a publicity stunt. But apparently that does not include the editors running our news channels. Or considering the airtime this story is getting, most viewers are gullible enough to swallow this drivel that passes in the name of news.

The final word in this matter of course belongs to Salman Khan, who basically said that this has been happening to Asians, especially Muslims, for some time now and you have to just deal with it. My sympathies are with the Airport officials at Newark who had to listen to SRK stammer away for 2 hours and that too without the benefit of any songs involving Kajol/Rani/Preity to break the monotony.

But seriously, its time that we as a people learnt to deal with the fact that people we deem VIPs here in India are treated just like everyone else elsewhere and thats how it should be. And SRK should take a cue from Dr A P J Abdul Kalam and deal with any further spillover from this incident with some dignity and a whole lot of silence.

Confessions of a new Dad

In a way this is a post I have been writing in my head for the last 9 months, ever since Geetha told me we were expecting. But somehow I've not been able to put any of my thoughts into words. Even now my mind is in a constant state of turmoil swinging from wild excitement to mind-numbing fear to brimming with an emotion I'm not even sure how to explain except to say it becomes kind of hard to breathe but in a strangely nice way. I'm probably not making any sense to the uninitiated but such is the mental state of a freshly minted parent. I now understand the knowing smiles my parents have been giving me all these years. It meant criticize us all you want now but we'll wait and watch you muddle about when its your turn.

My daughter came to this world ahead of schedule and gave us a taste of the sleepless nights to come straight away. She was diagnosed as being small for gestational age in utero and we couldn't find a reason. One of the problems with being a doctor when you are an expecting parent is that you immediately tend to look for the worst differential diagnoses, even though in some part of your rational mind there's a voice saying that you are over-reacting and it'll be fine. That voice is however easily engulfed and silenced by the irrational fears of a father. Never again will I show the slightest bit of impatience with a parent enquiring about their child. After a torrid week at the hospital where she scared us with her weight (1.78kgs), jaundice and a false alarm with neonatal hypothyroidism, we finally brought her home so that we could settle into the serious business of feeding her every second hour and hoping that all this effort is rewarded with a gain in weight. Never before in my life have I measured grams so assiduously. Every sneeze or cough, every sound she emitted commanded immediate and complete attention. If she craps we worry, was that enough, wasn't it a little too runny and God forbid if she doesn't crap on schedule then we also become scared shitless. All of it would actually have been funny if it wasn't all too real. And all talk of a big family maybe even a set of twins have all gone out the window. Twins!?! What was I thinking!

But it cant and wont always be like this. One day she will be bigger and hopefully soon, toilet trained. And then we'll have different things to worry about. Like where she's crawling off to next or will she walk those few steps without falling. And all too soon there'll be tantrums, school, sleepovers with friends, and, dare i say it, boyfriends!! But I'm sure it wont be all worries. There'll be special moments that only a father and daughter can share, trips that we can take, lively discussions about books, movies, life and love. But I'm getting way ahead of myself here. My baby still cant hold her neck up let alone look at another baby boy. So thats something I can worry about later. But its fun to imagine all the worrying I can do in the coming future. And if you think I have lost my marbles, then such is the state of a freshly minted parent.

Coronation on Clay

Very often in modern sport superlative words of praise are loosely thrown about to describe flashes of brilliance. Roger Federer, even before his monumental achievement on Sunday, richly deserved every single adjective of praise ever attributed to him. But with this long overdue and much deserved French Open victory Federer has firmly put himself in the category of “greatest ever.” And for anyone who follows tennis seriously that’s a rather exclusive category.

But first, the facts. Numbers cannot do justice to the man’s achievement. But this is his 14^th Grand Slam, tying him with Pete Sampras; even more significantly the French Open was the only slam he needed to win to complete his career slam, a feat that makes him only the 6^th man ever to win all 4 Majors and puts his 14 titles ahead of Sampras’. But the most astounding statistic is the number 20; in the last 20 Grand Slams Roger Federer has made the semifinals or better every single time. That’s the kind of consistency even Tiger Woods hasn’t managed. But to put that achievement into perspective, Nadal who was beginning a streak of his own, was stopped in his tracks at 5 consecutive semifinals and that too at the clay of Roland Garros, easily his favourite surface. Federer has taken on all comers and found the mental and physical reserves required to keep winning even when he hasn’t played his best. After Nadal’s shocking and unexpected exit, the pressure on Federer to win was unbelievable. This was his tournament to lose. And he made sure he brought his A-game against Soderling. This victory at Roland Garros would’ve been that much more sweeter if it had come against Nadal. And it can always be argued that Federer might not even have won if Nadal was on the other side of the net. But the fact remains that at the end of 2 weeks of gruelling play both Nadal and Federer were expected to reach the finals and only one man made it. For all his abundant talent and never say die spirit, Nadal still has some way to go before he can be compared to Federer.

Its always a tricky thing, to compare players of different eras. And the arguments for or against any player as greatest of all time are always contentious. As things stand today, there’s really only one name that can compare with Federer; Rod Laver. But even the Rocket will concede that when he played the schedule was nowhere near as hectic or the competition as gruelling as it is today and he didnt play on 4 different surfaces. In terms of an all round game, consistency, adaptability, sportsmanship and professionalism Roger Federer is peerless. And tennis is richer for it and tennis fans who follow his journey know that each time he steps on court they are watching a master who’s creating his own script that will be the stuff of legend. 

Much to look forward to...

Now that the dust has finally settled on the election season and we know for sure that this government will in all likelyhood last the full 5-year term, the nation can breathe a collective sigh of relief. The Indian voter has spoken and spoken decisively. We've said no to the politics of religious fundamentalism, caste based divisiveness, no to the regional parochialism of the Yadavs and the Mayawatis and no to the blind dogmatism of the Left. And as the results from Bihar show we've said yes to good governance. It seems the Indian voter has finally wisened up, and its about time.

The Congress have been handed a mandate, and a decisive one at that, with a very obvious message. Deliver on the promises, clamp down on  corruption and remove the tired old faces and replace them with the young energetic MPs voted in in such large numbers for the first time since Independence. With 200+ seats in the Lok Sabha there is no risk of the Congress being held to blackmail like the last time. This is an opportunity the likes of which the Congress will probably never get again especially if they fail to make the most of it. Only time will tell if they will flatter to deceive.

But if Rahul Gandhi continues to surprise as he has done in this election with the Congress' performance in UP, the Congress will definitely have sunny days to look forward to. He has displayed a sense of purpose and self-discipline not seen before in an Indian politician. He has been underestimated by almost everyone outside the Congress but this election and especially the results from UP are a vindication of Rahul Gandhi's political acumen. His stress on changing the quality of political leadership in India comes as music to my ears and if he continues in the same vein he may even make a convert of me. But for that he has to bring to fruition his lofty aims of internal democracy in the Congress and merit over everything else. 

Either way the journey of Rahul Gandhi is something to look forward to. Here's hoping he stays the course. God knows our country needs many more politicians who sing the same tune. On a personal note, the victory of Shashi Tharoor from Thiruvananthapuram is particularly gladdening. I've been a fan for a long time and his victory is a sign that all is not lost in Indian democracy.