The true face of capitalism

If you want to see the true face of Capitalism, India is a good example.

India (or rather, the Indian ruling class) fully embraced capitalism in 1991, and is now the world's 6th largest exporter of food. In 2003, it exported 17 million tonnes of food - mostly grains that will feed livestock in advanced capitalist economies.

GDP growth increased from 4.7% in 1983 to 7% in 2012 and provided many job opportunities for urban and educated Indians. Privatisation and foreign direct investment helped spread new enterprises and encouraged the growth of the IT sector. Privatisation has also resulted in the development of a private healthcare sector that offers high-quality and world-class health services. A "middle class" has also developed, although how many people are in this group is anyone's guess.

At the same time, India has the largest population of starving and hungry people in the world according to the UN. Food intake levels in 2011/12 were reported to be lower than intake levels from 1983. Utsa Patnaik, an Indian Marxist economist, estimated that food absorption rates declined from 177 Kg per head in 1990 to 151 Kg per head in 2001. This level is comparable to levels experienced in 1947, when India gained independence, representing a setback of over 40 years. One out of every two children in India suffer from malnutrition and stunted growth, and 79% are anaemic.

India also has one of the highest infant mortality rates in the world, higher than Bangladesh and the Democratic Republic of the Congo. The majority of Indian people cannot afford privatised healthcare, and the government has reduced its healthcare budget to barely 1% of total Indian GDP. Over 50% of people avoid going to the clinic or hospital because they can't afford it. 2 million Indian children die every year from preventable diseases.

According to Indian government sources, 23% of the Indian population can be classified as middle-to-high-income. The remaining 77% survive on less than $0.15 per day. 93% of the workforce is in the informal sector, and as such have no job security or minimum wage. Agricultural workers are almost entirely informal. In fact, trade liberalisation caused a crisis in the agricultural sector; there have been over 300,000 worker suicides since 1991, mostly caused by mounting debt - a direct result of trade liberalisation.

The richest 10% of the Indian population control 74% of India's wealth; the richest 1% control 49%. Meanwhile, 0.8% of the wealth trickles down to the poorest 20%.

India is continually lauded as a capitalist success story, and in a way it is. The capitalists have been very successful in stealing all of India's wealth and keeping it for themselves, and they have been very successful in oppressing the majority of the population. Capitalism has dispossessed the majority, however. That is the true nature of capitalism, something free market fundamentalists and imperialist pigs conveniently ignore.

Logic behind India driving on the left hand side of the road.

There are 76 countries, territories and dependencies which drive on the left. There are numerous theories as to why some countries drive on the left and some on the right. Though no one knows the exact reasons for sure, it seems likely that travelling on the left of the road became the obvious choice in ancient times. Indeed Roman coins from 50 AD have been found which depict horsemen passing on each other’s right. Horse travel in often violent times is the key to why driving on the left became popular. A horse rider would carry their sword in a scabbard on their left hand side , which they would draw, and use with their right hand. It therefore made sense for the right arm, when wielding the sword to be nearer a potential opponent and further away when in the scabbard. That made travelling on the left the safest and most obvious method.

Also, right handed people generally mount a horse from the animals left, and it would be hard to do otherwise if wearing a sword on the left. Obviously, it’s safer to mount and dismount at the side of the road rather than in the centre, so if a rider mounts on the left it would make sense for the horse to then be ridden on the left.
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A change to the left hand driving trend occurred in the late 1700s. In the USA large wagons pulled by several horses began to be used to transport products. These wagons had no driver’s seat; instead the driver sat on the left rear horse, (called postilion riding) so he could keep his right whip arm free to lash the team. Since he was sitting on the left, the driver has the best view of the distance between his vehicle and oncoming traffic by keeping to the right. Also, the French Revolution of 1789 helped the shift to right-hand travel in Europe. Before the revolution it was customary for the aristocracy to travel on the left of the road and force slower moving peasant traffic over to the right. After the storming of the Bastille, aristocrats adopted a lower profile when travelling and joined the peasants on the right.Later , As Napoleon conquered nations he would force them to adopt driving on the right which spread the right hand trend through Europe .

In spite of the shift to driving on the right, Britain stuck with the left hand driving rule and countries which were part of the British Empire were made to follow suit. This is why India, Australasia and the former British colonies in Africa continue to drive on the left. One exception is Egypt, as that country was conquered by Napoleon before becoming a British dependency. Other colonies also adopted the driving style of their mother country.

Anger Management

I am 21, and a very calm & gentle guy. I usually distance myself from an ugly situation. But sometimes, the flood gates just open. This happened a couple of months back.

Near the EcoSpace signal, I got cut off by a Skoda driving very rashly. The driver of the Skoda almost drove me off the road into the road divider. I generally ignore such things and drive on, since in Bangalore it is normal. But that day I don't know what happened to me.

I overtook the car, and blocked him off. My friend was with me & she tried to stop me from confronting him. But I got out and gestured the other driver to come out. He started arguing that he had switched on the indicators, and hence he was right (in driving me off the road). I was angry, shaking, and infuriated. And what happened next is something I wish I had not done. I opened the boot of my car and took out the car jack. And banged the car jack on the Skoda’s bonnet. TWICE. The driver was scared to death. Since the driver’s window was open, I was about to use car jack to bash into driver's face when I saw he had two children (aged about 5 and 9 years) in the back seat.

I stood there confused & angry at myself. The driver of the Skoda sped off as if he had escaped death. I walked back slowly to my car. That incident changed me forever. I still cannot forget the fear I saw on the driver's face and his 2 kids. And my friend was aghast. She couldn't believe what I had just done, because she'd never really seen me do anything like this before. I felt miserable for days after this incident.

How do you manage to be cool in various situations? Some situations can be challenging, as the one above was. They can cause us to lose control, feel angry, disturbed and then react as a result. The problem with this behavior is that we are giving away our control to the other person. Keeping control and staying calm is especially important in times of disagreement, stress & anger. We could say or do anything at a time like this and be completely unaware of it until later when the repercussions would have to be considered. For eg.  The driver could have been carrying a firearm & might as well have shot me if he thought that his life was in danger. The situation could have turned into a legal problem if the driver wanted to press charges, since I damaged his vehicle & threatened him with bodily harm.

What should you do to remain calm in tough situations? Assess the situation and try to see the bigger picture. Had I been willing to let go of this & understand why the driver cut me off, this would have never happened. Do not react at that instant. If you have to answer someone, take a moment to think about it. Nowadays, if I am angry at someone/something, I just excuse myself & go to the powder room. It calms me down & gives me more time to react. Discussion, negotiation and compromise can follow if you stay calm, since this allows other to stay calm too. The Skoda's driver was arguing with me but in a mild manner. Had I also been more calm, this would never have happened. Relationships remain intact and even improve when people prove that they can work together respectfully through rough situations and achieve a sensible result. Some wise man once said that holding on to anger is like grasping a hot coal with the intent of throwing it at someone else; you are the one who gets burned.

I read this anecdote somewhere, though i can't seem to remember it.

One day I hopped in a taxi and we took off for the airport. We were driving in the right lane when suddenly a black car jumped out of a parking space right in front of us. My taxi driver slammed on his brakes, skidded, and missed the other car by just inches! The driver of the other car whipped his head around and started yelling at us. My taxi driver just smiled and waved at the guy. And I mean, he was really friendly. So I asked, ‘Why did you just do that? This guy almost ruined your car and sent us to the hospital!’ This is when my taxi driver taught me what I now call, ‘The Law of the Garbage Truck.’
He explained that many people are like garbage trucks. They run around full of garbage, full of frustration, full of anger, and full of disappointment. As their garbage piles up, they need a place to dump it, and sometimes they’ll dump it on you. Don’t take it personally. Just smile, wave, wish them well, and move on. Don’t take their garbage and spread it to other people at work, at home, or on the streets.

The bottom line is that successful people do not let garbage trucks take over their day. Life’s too short to wake up in the morning with regrets, so…Love the people who treat you right. Pray for the ones who don’t. Life is ten percent what you make it and ninety percent how you take it!

Piku: Beyond Relationships

One of the many poignant moments from Piku

With internal assessments just over, my friends and I were looking for a breath of fresh air. And it came in form of Shoojit Sircar’s endearing and pensive drama-comedy ‘Piku’. To be frank, some of us in the gang were planning for Bombay Velvet. And since I don’t like typical Bollywood masala flicks, I decided to go with Piku. And God-oh god, what a sweet surprise it turned out to be. More importantly, it made me reconsider my relationship with my father as well.

Piku is the story of a Delhi-based Bengali family’s hypochondriac, self-centered, part-senile 70 year-old man, Bhaskor Bannerjee (Amitabh Bachchan), with the compulsively chronic condition of constipation and his firm, stubborn, annoyed daughter, Piku Bannerjee (Deepika Padukone) – who frequently quarrel over ‘motion’ issues of the former. t a slice-of-life movie which deals with how a daughter, extremely busy in her work life as an architect, is doubling up as her 70 year old father's babysitter. How she deals with her father's tantrums everyday which involves tackling his arch nemesis - constipation. Both have an unconditional love towards each other, but being stubborn and head-strong as individuals, they have a disagreement on most of the trivial issues with neither of them buckling down.

The film has a very realistic and candid quality, just like Shoojit Sircar’s previous “Vicky Donor. The direction is impeccable. The subtle relationship and mutual feelings that develop between Irrfan and Deepika are very well portrayed and the director has kept this relationship open ended. Kudos for avoiding a conclusion on that relation in a conventional way. You may notice that when the real-estate broker flies in from Kolkata, he has an airline tag on his bag. This shows the attention to detail by Sircar. Words cannot do justice to the performance put up by the cast. Amitabh's portrayal of Bhaskor Banerjee is sincerely endearing and irritating enough to do justice to the character. And to the champion who gets things done easily, nicely and effortlessly- Irrfan Khan. That one scene where he goes to pick the family in the morning when the driver opts to disappear, he sits quiet and Deepika comes out to sit in front seat. You can watch it again and again, no words exchanged but the viewer totally understands and gives a sarcastic laughter. And the surprise package includes the sweet Mausami Chatterjee, with her never get rude attitude and ready to reply character. The good old Raghubir Yadav as the wonderful family homeopathic doctor. Even Jisshu Sengupta as Syed was very apt for his role. However, the scene-stealer is Deepika Padukone, who has really come a long way as an actor, and delivers a neat, matured performance. She’s fire and ice. You’ll fall in love with her. I was reminded of my physics teacher back in school, Moushmi Chatterjee; a lady who could be almost be described as ‘Piku’. The portrayal of the Bengali family as a whole is extremely realistic. And I can tell you this because I have lived in a predominantly Bengali neighborhood in a city with a high population of Bengalis. My teachers in Carmel High were Bengali as well as the local tuitions (Prasanjeet & pramanik, anyone?). Hell, even my first crush, in grade III or IV, was a Bengali. :P

The Background Score by Anupam Roy is fresh and most appealing. For the first time in Bollywood, the songs were more than just noise, they actually meant to give solace, they take you to that world where you just want the lazy journey to continue forever, with people you love, with nothing to worry about. And finally, a few words about the director of photography. Kamaljeet Sir, you deserve an award for representing the cities of Kolkata and Delhi. Having lived in Kolkata for some time, I can assure you that it is one of the best depictions of the city in recent times (Kahaani as well). La Martiniere High, the Howrah Bridge and the ‘Jhaal-Mudi’ – Oh, the nostalgia. Mayer ghat bagbazaar, where I used to sit for hours waiting for a ferry to go across Kolkata.

A very rare release, and very highly recommended. Especially in such times, where every second piece of news we read is negative and heartbreaking. 'Piku' constantly brought a smile on my face for those 2 hours. It showed exactly the way love happens...in phases!!! It builds slowly, in conversations. It is filled with lots of humour which is bound to leave you in splits. It is a very endearing story of a father-daughter relationship and the message stands out strong. Its strong Bengali essence is also brought out very well. It is surely going to tickle your funny bone and one is assured to come out of the theatre with a big satisfied smile on the face. It doesn't matter to which age group you belong, you'll be able to connect with the movie in any manner possible. 

PS: This review will continue in the 2nd part, where I will talk about how it has influenced me and made me reconsider my bond with my father.