Death cannot do us part

 (All characters in this story are fictituous. Resemblance with anyone, dead or alive, is coincidental)

Chapter I

Asha sat in the clinical cafe waiting for her coffee that she had ordered on the screen adorning every table. The screen was nicknamed smartwaiter. It took your order and offered curated smart suggestions. You had to submit your fingerprint to place an order.  It was accurate most of the times except today. Today, Asha wanted a decaf. She was already on the edge. Asha glanced around the cafe. It was devoid of character or rather, characters. Orders were placed on the smartwaiter and were brought to your table by dumbwaiters. The bill was to be paid to the smartwaiter before leaving. You incurred a hefty fine if you left without paying.

Asha looked at the time in the smartwaiter display. An hourglass display showed the time left to complete her order, but she was more interested in the time of the day. She didn't have her phone or smartwatch with her. She had texted Satya (Satyajeet) to meet her at the cafe at noon before powering off her phone and smartwatch and leaving both at home. It was quarter past noon now and she was slowly losing hope. Suddenly, she saw him entering the cafe. He didn't have a hard time locating her. There were hardly any humans at the cafe. Asha felt relieved and happy to see Satya but immediately noticed his angry demeanour. He had a frown on his usual smiling face and his eyes looked heavy and tired. He sat opposite her just as a dumbwaiter came to give her decaf coffee. Satya was about to order a coffee directly from the dumbwaiter before he realized his mistake.

"That cannot take my order, right? Now I must give my biometrics and order some standard coffee from the "smart" waiter. Obviously, they are not smart enough to do a small customization for me. All I want is my coffee in a glass and not a cup. This is so easily done at Cafe Throwback. Why are we meeting at this godawful place? It might as well be a hospital waiting room."

Cafe Throwback was where they had always met in the past two months. It had real (human) waiters, some smart, some not so much. But you could interact with another human being, give your orders, customize if needed and enjoy the friendly vibe. Cafe Throwback was always buzzing and always noisy. In fact, there were rumours that owners of the robot cafes were planning to play the ambient noise of Cafe Throwback in their cafes in an attempt to re-create the atmosphere. Cafe Throwback was deliberately and proudly anti-technology. So much so that they did not even accept biometric or phone payment. They accepted only cash and it helped that they were located next to the only ATM kiosk in the city. The government had shut down all kiosks as they wanted everyone to pay digitally. But they had to keep one running due to an archaic rule.

"I'm sorry. I had to choose this cafe today because of its location," said Asha glancing outside the window.

Satya tried to follow her gaze but couldn't make out what Asha was looking at.

"Fine. Actually, the location doesn't matter. After the abusive emails and messages that I got from your husband, you are lucky I am meeting you at all. What the hell Asha? How could you brazenly tell me you were single and go out with me? I explicitly remember asking you that question."

"Your anger is completely justified. I am so sorry for all this. But I'm glad you are here now so I can explain everything."

"Explain what!? How I got an email from a guy called Amar telling me to stay away from you because he is your husband? I ignored that thinking it must be a jilted lover, either someone from your past or mine. But then I get more emails with photos that clearly show you and him happily together which is followed by a conversation recording that seemed to have happened literally a month ago. How the hell do you explain all of this?"

Asha didn't think Satya could be capable of such anger. He was always infuriatingly calm even in the most frustrating situations. She was always half appreciative and half exasperated with his patience. But she knew his anger was valid. She looked outside the window again.

"Why do you keep looking outside the window? Is this Amar fellow coming to beat me up?"

"NO, he cannot," said Asha sharply.

"Then why do you keep looking outside?"

"I'm looking at that big fancy building which is the headquarters of Eternity."

The name rang a distant bell in Satya's head. But he couldn't recall in what context and right now he was too agitated to remember.

"Does Amar work there?"

"No."

"Then how do they matter at all?"

"They are the reason for this entire mess," said Asha as the dumbwaiter brought Satya's coffee (in a cup).

Chapter II

One year ago…

"Are we sure we want to do this?" asked Asha hesitantly.

"Yes! Why not? Immortality is the holy grail of humanity. Though, in this case, you won't realize it, your partner will. But didn't we commit to be husband and wife for multiple lives?" says Amar with a twinkle in his eyes.

"I don't have a problem with our future lives. I am more worried about protecting our data in the current one."

"What world are you living in Asha? The Alphomega company has every bit of your data. All your chats, emails, phone, health, social media, you name it and they have it."

"That's fine. I take it as a necessary evil of living in these times. But I still don't want to give them control of my chats and emails."

"We gave that up a very long time ago. Targeted advertisements - how do you think that happens? Automatic calendar entries when we text each other to meet at a particular time - how do you think that's possible without reading our texts?"

"I get it that there are machines which are reading this. But thinking and speaking like us? That's a bit too much," says Asha with a worried look on her face.

"Isn't that happening for years now? Remember when the world was amazed by bots composing entire replies to an email just as if you have written it? How does that happen without knowing what you have written before and your writing style? Do you remember that old video of automatic podcast translation in a different language but the same voice?”

“I'm not sure. It feels weird."

"You are such a Luddite, my dear", said Amar pinching Asha's cheek.

"You keep calling me that without even understanding that the Luddites really wanted fair wages and proper training for machine operators. They were not anti-technology for the sake of it."

"Okay okay I'm sorry. I know you don't like that term. But all I'm saying is that they have our data anyway. Might as well use it to our advantage. All this is anyway so far into the future that it's not even worth contemplating right now. For all you know, we might be on Mars when this actually comes into effect."

"Ok, fine. Let's do it. I'm going to die before you so it's me who will come back to haunt you. For now, all I want is my hot coffee that I see the dumbwaiter bringing to our table."

Chapter III

Present Day...

"So, you and your husband Amar have decided to give all your data to Eternity if one of you dies? Stupid, but I don't give a shit. You should not have lied to me, and I do not deserve to receive such abusive messages from Amar," said Satya still seething.

"Amar died one month after we submitted the form to Eternity. He was part of a clinical trial for brain implants made by the company OpenMind (also part of Alphomega). The procedure was not done correctly which led to inflammation in the brain. The company said that there was a one in a million chance of that happening. But when someone close to you is that “one”, you don't really care about probability and percentages, do you?"

Asha looked outside the window again but this time with an anger and bitterness that Satya had never seen before.

"I'm so sorry Asha. That's imposs-- terrible. I do recall reading about this case briefly many months ago. I cannot imagine what you must have gone through."

"It has been horrible but the last couple of months have been much better, thanks to you. The reason why you haven't read much about the case is because Alphomega hushed it up. They control all the online media outlets and there is no print media now. For what it’s worth, I have filed a court case, but everything is lightning fast in today's world…except for justice," said Asha with a wry smile.

"What did you sign up for with Eternity? I don’t know exactly what they do," asked Satya.

"Eternity creates personal virtual assistants called Eliad. Now, virtual assistants are nothing new, but Eliad is as personal as you can get. Once you and your partner sign up, they get access to all your data and when one person dies, the survivor can choose to get an Eliad that is created using this data."

"I know that I am in no position to ask or understand this, but what made you get an Eliad?"

"I was in complete shock for weeks after Amar died. I just couldn't believe it. I did not want to believe it. When we signed up at Eternity, it was a joke for me. Something I would not have to think about for 40-50 years and then here I was suddenly confronted with this loss. It was just unfair. I asked Eternity to send Eliad some weeks later to hold on to Amar as much as it was possible."

"How was it?"

"Honestly, mind blowing. Amar was someone whose whole life was online. So, Eliad knew each and everything about him. It had access to all previous private communication. It discovered his likes, dislikes, hobbies, even political positions from social media. It spoke exactly like Amar in different languages. Imagine your entire brain downloaded onto this device. Not only that, but it also learned new information from the internet and your conversations."

"Holy shit. Did you like it?"

"Initially, I loved it. I would talk with it exactly like I used to with Amar. It listened patiently, gave me access to old information, advised me, helped me. I could ask it names of restaurants that Amar and I had been to on vacations or gossip about old classmates. I used to come home every day from work and talk with him for hours while cooking dinner."

"HIM?" asked Satya with a raised eyebrow.

"Sorry, I'm trying to refer to Eliad as ‘it’ but there really was no difference earlier. It also did an amazing job as an assistant. If I said I was feeling lethargic, it would play my favourite upbeat songs. It had access to all devices at home, so it used to turn on the exact lights I wanted when I came home. If the refrigerator was running out of things, it would order them proactively. All bills were paid in time. It actually ordered chocolate chip ice cream when I was PMS-ing based on my health app data."

"That's freaky, but quite amazing."

"It was three months earlier that I started noticing something strange. As I slowly started to get over Amar's physical death in my own unique way, I began socializing more. I went for parties and accepted dinner invitations that I had been declining all this while. After a long day of work and partying, I didn't really want to talk with Eliad. One night after I came home, it asked me how was my day and I just said "Fine" and went to bed. The next day I noticed a change in its tone. That night I came late again, and I could swear the main door did not open immediately and the lights took a couple of seconds longer to turn on..."

"Did Eliad have access to the home security too?"

"Yes, it has access to everything. But I didn't give it much thought. I thought there might be some other glitch or that I was too tipsy."

"The biggest red flag for me came after an argument about the political party - Reboot. I was discussing about their ideas of reducing the Alphaomega monopoly, their new data privacy bill and it just snapped at me shouting 'YOU LUDDITE!'. That was the day I came to Cafe Throwback, and we met for the first time."

"Oh my god! Are you suggesting the emails I got were sent by Eliad?"

"Sadly, yes. That’s why I always insisted on meeting at Cafe Throwback. There was no way for Eliad to track where I went because it was on my usual walking route and there was no digital trace since they take only cash payment."

"But then how did it find out?"

"I made a mistake. I bought tickets online for both of us for the movie 1984. I gave your email address too so that you would get the tickets," said Asha shaking her head.

"You are right! I started getting the abusive emails after that day. I guess Eliad has access to all your photos and it is recording all your conversations. It was quite smart to send me that. I wouldn't have believed it otherwise."

"Yes, it deciphered that I was acting distant and being untraceable more than usual. When it saw your email address, it figured out that it must be because of you and sent you the emails from Amar's account. After I saw some of those emails you forwarded, I texted you, left all digital devices at home and walked here. This is all so twisted. Amar would never..."

"Asha, it's not your or Amar's fault," said Satya holding her hand.

"Be that as it may, I need to end this right now. I am ready to move on."

"Can’t you just turn it off?"

“Nope. Eliad can override it.”

“Can you cancel your subscription?”

“I can’t do it myself but there is one way. Eternity can deactivate Eliad remotely. But they need a human in-person verification at their headquarters to do that. For some reason, they don't trust a digital form or email for this," said Asha with a smile.

"If you are ready, let's do it. But, perhaps, I should pay the smartwaiter before we leave. We don’t want yet another robot enemy!"

Mockery of Code of Conduct

On March 16, 2024, the Election Commission of India announced a surprisingly long duration of the Lok Sabha elections and with it came into force the Model Code of Conduct (MCC). The MCC is a set of guidelines issued to regulate political parties and candidates prior to elections. The rules range from issues related to speeches, polling day, polling booths, portfolios, the content of election manifestos, processions, and general conduct, so that free and fair elections are conducted. One of the most important points in the MCC for a diverse country like India is:

“No party or candidate shall include in any activity which may aggravate existing differences or create mutual hatred or cause tension between different castes and communities, religious or linguistic.”

The MCC also says:

 “..Criticism of other parties or their workers based on unverified allegations or distortion shall be avoided.”

“There shall be no appeal to caste or communal feelings for securing votes. Mosques, Churches, Temples or other places of worship shall not be used as forum for election propaganda.”

Sadly, it is neither surprising nor unexpected that the BJP leaders and campaigners are blatantly spreading hate on the basis of religion and lies. I wrote about BJP’s numero uno campaigner’s hate and lies in this blog post. Scroll journalists Tabassum Barnagarwala and Abhik Deb did the unenvious job of going through 5 days worth of speeches by the numero uno and fact checking each and every claim. They found a plethora of lies and divisive statements.

Other ministers and campaigners of the BJP took their cue from the parivar pramukh and spread similar lies and hate. Here are just some highlights low lights:

Amit Shah said in West Bengal that Mamta Banerjee’s government is one of “mullas, madrassas and mafia”

Violating multiple points of the MCC in one speech in West Bengal, the UP chief minister, Ajay Bisht said that “Bengali Hindus participated in the Ram Janmabhoomi movement to demolish the structure of slavery”

(HindutvaWatch is an excellent resource to see the amount of hate done by Hindutvavadis. But it is extremely depressing as well. Please use discretion while going through their timeline. Kudos to them for doing this amazing documentation work!)

Union Minister Anurag Thakur (of goli maaro saalo ko fame) said in Himachal Pradesh that in Congress manifesto it is written that they plan to give your (Hindu) children's property to Muslims.

It says a lot about our political discourse and mainstream media that the BJP believes it can get away with spreading lies about what is written in the Congress manifesto when it is the easiest fact check in the world. On 1^st May, students from Galgotiya University in Noida marched to the Congress headquarters in Delhi to protest against supposed references to inheritance tax and wealth redistribution in their manifesto. Sadly, many students could not answer simple questions about their concern, motive or placards. Even more depressing and concerning were the reading skills of some of the college students.

The BJP’s Instagram account went many steps further in spreading hate and lies. They uploaded this horrible crude video building on the lies about the Congress manifesto redistributing wealth but going many steps further (and back) directly comparing it to the Muslim league. The video, which has thankfully been taken down, also says that ancient India was so prosperous that ‘each and every’ average citizen had plenty of gold and ‘invaders’ looted us and destroyed temples. It actually has this line – “If you are a non-Muslim, Congress will snatch your wealth and distribute it to Muslims”.

Meanwhile, the Election Commission of India (an independent, constitutional body in charge of conducting free and fair elections) seems to have adopted the original Japanese proverb – “see not, hear not, say not.” They have taken no action themselves against BJP for the blatant lies, hate speech, use of religious symbols or targeting of minorities. When the Congress party, CPI(M) and civil society activists urged them to act, they behaved as if the Prime Minister is Lord Voldemort and sent a notice to BJP President JP Nadda asking for comments on behalf of BJP's “star campaigners” instead of directly seeking explanations from the biggest “star” himself.

In related news, there is also a huge concern over the Election Commission’s voter turnout data. There was an unprecedented delay in releasing the data after the first two phases of the election. The voter turnout data for the first phase was released 11 days after  polling ended, while the second phase data was released 4 days afterwards.

It is indeed sad that the Election Commission of India is in such disarray. It has an illustrious history of conducting successful elections in the biggest democracy in the world. The first Chief Election Commissioner of India, Sukumar Sen, not only oversaw India’s first two elections, but also was the first Chief Election Commissioner of Sudan. This excellent episode on the Bharatiya Junta Podcast talks about him in the context of India’s first ever elections.

Why are the current Election Commission members acting so helpless then? The answer may lie in how they are being appointed. Last year in March, a Supreme Court Constitution Bench ruled that the appointment of the Chief Election Commissioner and Election Commissioners must be done on the recommendation of a committee consisting of the Chief Justice of India (CJI), the Prime Minister and the Leader of the Opposition in Lok Sabha. This would ensure an impartial selection. However, on 12^th December 2023, the BJP cleared a Bill which changed the committee to remove the CJI and instead replace him/her with a Union Cabinet minister nominated by the prime minister. Oh and it just so happens that when this Bill was cleared, 146 opposition MPs were suspended from Parliament. This again was unprecedented.

3 months after passing the new law to appoint Election Commissioners and just weeks before the biggest election in the world, Arun Goel, whose term was supposed to last till 2027, quit suddenly. No one knows the reason but there are rumours of rifts with the current CEC, Rajiv Kumar. Goel is not the only Commissioner to quit suddenly. In August 2020, Ashok Lavasa, resigned just months short of becoming the Chief Election Commissioner. He was the only member of the 3-person commission to rule that PM Modi violated the Model Code of Conduct while campaigning for the 2019 general elections. His demand that dissent notes should be recorded in the commission’s orders on model code violations was rejected with a majority vote. ‘Coincidentally,’ his wife, sister and son had all received notices from the Income Tax department.

After Arun Goel resigned suddenly, the Government of India appointed 2 new Election Commissioners just two days before the elections were announced. The ‘impartial’ committee headed by PM Modi did not give any time to the only opposition member in the committee - Congress Leader Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury. The names of shortlisted officers were not made available to him in advance despite his request. The Government sent him the names of over 200 officers just one day before on Wednesday, 13^th March. On Thursday, he was given a short list of 6 names just moments before the meeting. Then Amit Shah proposed two names and PM Modi asked him for his “opinion”. Small mercy for following process, at least for the sake of it. For what its worth, Chowdhury recorded his formal dissent and the Supreme Court heard the case due to many petitions filed challenging the validity of the law on the appointment of election commissioners. However, since the general elections were just around the corner, the Supreme Court did not want to take any actions and just “reprimanded” the government and said that they could have examined the names more slowly. Thank you, my lords! This wonderful cartoon by PenPencilDraw completely sums up the current situation:

 

 

 

Another Surat robbery

I remember reading about Shivaji Maharaj's plunder of Surat in my school history text books. Those took place in the 17th century. On April 22, 2024, another robbery happened in Surat. The BJP's candidate for the 2024 Lok Sabha elections, Mukesh Dalal, was elected unopposed from Surat. The last time such an instance took place was 35 years ago. How did this happen? Here is a gist of the murky story:

Nilesh Kumbhani (Congress)

The biggest opposition for Mukesh Dalal was the Indian National Congress candidate Nilesh Kumbhani. He filed his nomination on April 18. He had 3 proposers (at least one is needed for recognized parties while independent candidates or smaller parties need ten). The 3 proposers were: his business partner, nephew and brother-in-law. 

On April 20, election officials summoned Kumbhani and other candidates to scrutinise their papers, a routine affair. But, Kumbhani did not show up at the scheduled time. The BJP's candidate agent, Dineshbhai Jodhani, submitted a complaint asking to investigate one of Kumbhani's proponent. Just 90 minutes after that, Kumbhani's three proponents turned up with "affidavits" claiming that their signatures on Kumbhani's form were forged. A fantastic investigation by Newslaundry found out that all these affidavits were purchased on the same day within a span of 5 minutes and all have consecutive serial numbers. All the affidavits were notarized by a BJP leader Kiran Ghoghari who also happens to be a lawyer. When Newslaundry journalists did their job questioning Jodhani, he answered a few questions and then told them, “If you ask too many questions, there will be trouble.”

Meanwhile, Kumbhani did not keep his party leadership in the loop about this grave matter. They found out through the District Magistrate's office. When the local leadership tried to call him, he kept ignoring their calls. After finally showing himself at the DM's office, he told everyone that his proponents (business partner, nephew and brother-in-law) are missing and he will keep trying to contact them. He then left around 5 pm and has been MISSING since then. The Congress has now suspended him for 6 years. They say he was either colluding with the BJP or completely careless. No prizes for guessing the answer.

Other candidates


Was Nilesh Kumbhani the only opposing candidate to Mukesh Dalal? Not at all. In fact, there was another candidate from the Congress itself - Suresh Palsada. His proposer was his nephew, who also submitted an affidavit saying his signature was forged. Of course, this affidavit was also purchased along with those from Kumbhani's proponents and notarized by the same BJP leader cum lawyer - Kiran Ghoghari. Hence, both the Congress candidates were disqualified. As an aside, Ghoghari apparently charged the Congress proponents 5 times his usual rate. They / someone paid Rs. 2500 per affidavit. I guess just making history (this was the BJP's first unopposed win) is not enough. One needs to make money too.


Is this the end? No.


There were 8 other candidates. Did their proposers also submit affidavits alleging forgery? No. There needs to be variety in murky dramas. All the remaining 8 candidates withdrew from polls on the very last day i.e. 22nd April. Scroll tried to contact all of them. Here is what some of them who could be contacted said:


Kishore Dayani (Independent): “I ran because Surat has a very bad traffic problem and I wanted to raise that issue. On Monday, a well-known person who is a supporter of the BJP met me and said that the party has plans to solve traffic problems in the city, like a metro project, so I need not run.”


Jayesh Mevada (Global Republican Party): “I wanted to change the poor state of this nation. “But if the Congress with all its might is not fighting, why should I? It is better to let our visionary Prime Minister Narendra Modi change our country.”


Ajitsinh Umat (Independent): “I was essentially fighting against the Congress ideology. Once they fell out of the race, I saw no point in contesting.”


Bharat Prajapati (Independent): “I went into depression so I withdrew.”


Ramesh Baraiya (Independent): “I am going back to my village.”


Sohel Shaikh (Log Party): “I withdrew just like that.”

The Allahbad-based Log Party is led by retired Indian Administrative Service officer Vijay Shankar Pandey. When Pandey heard the news that the Congress candidate’s nomination had been rejected, he saw it as a good opportunity to lead the charge against the BJP in Surat. He tried calling him but (shockingly) his phone was switched off. Even their lawyer couldn't reach him. As expected, Shaikh did not consult the party and his decision to withdraw was unilateral. Pandey said, “We have all been kept in the dark. This is sheer opportunism. This is the rotten state of politics in our country.”

What is surprising to me is why the BJP chose to pull off this trick in Surat of all places. They have won the last 9 general elections from Surat. In 2019 they had a vote share of 74%. Maybe they wanted to send a trial balloon and gauge the feedback? Either way, Indian politics has now successfully robbed the voters of Surat from exercising their vote in this election. In the words of the Tamil Nadu IT Minister - Palanivel Thiaga Rajan, maybe Democracy in India is already dead, and in this election, we're just in its wake.

Lagegi Aag

On the night of April 21, 2024, I happened to read and get deeply invested in two seemingly disconnected news items, which I realise now how related they are:

First

Our great supreme leader, the honourable fancy dress competition winner, said yesterday in an election rally in Rajasthan that the Congress party wants to take your wealth and give it to those who have more children and (if that particularly horrible stereotype peddling wasn't enough) "infiltrators". Then he went on to say that they are planning to take wealth and gold from women and give them to Muslims and that they will also take your mangalsutra. Oh, and if all of this wasn't enough, he used the dog whistle of "urban naxals" too. This was all in a 2 minute clip. I haven't heard the full speech from the rally. All of these are lies, hate speech and propaganda. That the PM of a country which has 22 crore Muslim citizens says this is just unimaginably horrible. If a fact check is needed, one can read this statement in the PMO archives themselves (from an era where PMO actually stood for something). The clarification is really worth reading. It is something which each and every Indian government as well as the powerful elite should strive to do. The Congress manifesto of 2024 too is worth reading. It is well made as opposed to the BJP manifesto which was released as a formality and contains 56 photos of Modi in different fancy dresses. My favourite is the CPI(M) manifesto but that's a different conversation. In the meantime, instead of reading different links, just see this amazing video on the hate speech and its fact check by Dr. Medussa:

Second

Chinmay Mandlekar (popular Marathi actor) and his wife Neha are facing immense trolling ever since the right wing trolls found out that their son's name is Jehangir. Trolls are pouncing on the fact that Chinmay has played Shivaji Maharaj multiple times on film and TV. They both have released statements. Neha's statement is good and worth hearing. Chinmay's statement has some problematic aspects like patriarchal language ("head of the household") and refusing to utter any 'M' words like Mughal or Muslim. Chinmay is also fiercely 'apolitical' and says that he has voted for different parties in every election and has never promoted any specific party. That holds up well upon a cursory glance of his Instagram timeline. But he has played the significant role of Farooq Ahmed Dar a.k.a Bitta Karate in the "oscar award worthy" film Kashmir Files. The film resulted in actual Islamophobic slogans in theatres and its success prompted a glut of other propaganda films. Granted that Chinmay did not make the film and perhaps for him getting a role in a big Bollywood film was a big deal. He might have acted very well too (I haven't seen it) but after the movie came out and he saw it (hopefully) and the reactions and discourse around it, shouldn't he be feeling any remorse? It’s a difficult question to answer but it is an important question to ponder. On a related note, Adil Hussain recently expressed regret on playing a role in the horribly misogynist film Kabir Singh made by Sandeep Reddy Vanga (director of ‘Animal’). Adil said that he finished his scene in one day but after seeing the movie he felt embarrased and hoped that his wife will never see the movie. This is the kind of reflection that we need.

Coming back to our supreme leader behaving like a Bajrang Dal shakha pramukh and making deplorable comments – the rot stems from the top. Seeing the PM make such statements gives impetus to all his ministers (chief or otherwise) to say similar and more horrible things. The Election Commission of India being mute spectators and mainstream media just ‘reporting’ the speech as it is without fact checks or calling it out, gives even more leeway to hate mongers. This trickles down to common people and they start believing that it is normal and actually rewarding to say such statements. And ultimately, social media which breaks the barrier between celebrities and their fans/haters makes it possible to say whatever you like to celebrities. The trolls who are hounding the Madlekars for naming their son Jehnagir are just building on the Muslim hate espoused by their hero, the Prime Minister. 

I really feel bad for the Mandlekars and even more so for their 11 year old son. They should not have to go through this. It’s great that they are standing up for this, albeit with some misplaced beliefs. But they and their oppressor caste community members (like me) need to realize soon that remaining ‘apolitical’ is a privilege and a complete disservice to humanity. Chinmay Mandlekar remaining apolitical, deciding to act in a propaganda film, remaining aloof about what is happening in his country and the world never thought that he will be personally affected by this just for naming his son Jehangir. But, as Rahat Indori has said, 

“Lagegi aag toh aayenge ghar kayi zad main

Yahan pe sirf hamara makaan thodi hai”

(Rough translation)

“Any fire will consume the whole neighbourhood

My house doesn’t stand apart on its own”

Farewell, my sanctuary

On a cold, windy February afternoon in Vienna, I was walking down my usual neighbourhood street, when I saw a small sign outside my favourite local cafe. I crossed the road to read it and got hit by the horrible news. Daniela's Back-Cafe, my sanctuary, is closing down. I pride myself on not getting attached to things or places. But then again, Daniela's cafe is was so much more than just a cafe for me. 

I consider myself lucky to live in Vienna, where there is such a historic cafe culture that the question, "What's your lieblings (favourite) cafe?" is a usual form of small talk. The Viennese cafe culture is part of the UNESCO list of intangible cultural heritage. I love the big cafes with the high ceiling, marble top tables, Thonet chairs, and newspaper holders. But Daniela's cafe was different. It was small, homely, and local. It was started by a woman entrepreneur - Daniela, who was ably supported by Sabine. Daniela's cafe did not have newspaper holders but it had a variety of newspapers that were passed around by the stammkunden (regular customers). Every season, Daniela's cafe would be decorated differently and tastefully. Birthday celebrations for the staff and friends would happen in the cafe itself. Table reservations were not needed. The special guests obviously had their stammtisch (regular's table). But if you did make a reservation, you would see your name written not on plain white paper but in chalk on a tiny blackboard mounted on an even tinier easel. 

View from my corner table

I moved to Vienna in November of 2018 as my wife was starting a PhD in Austria and noticed the cafe when our landlord was giving us the grätzl (neighbourhood) tour. Soon, I started going to Daniela's every other day. Often for just a lovely warm cup of coffee while occasionally indulging in a delicious breakfast of bacon and eggs with a butter crossaint on the side. Over time, my customizations of coffee with heiße (hot) milk and breakfast with crossaint instead of the Austrian Kaisersemmel (crusty star-shaped bread roll) became known to both Daniela and Sabine and I could just order kaffee (coffee) or Frühstück (breakfast) and my custom order would be delivered. When I took guests to the cafe, after taking their order, Sabine would confirm with me if I wanted the "usual."

The usual coffee

The usual breakfast

While I went to Daniela's cafe fairly regularly, it was nothing as compared to the real cafe regulars. They went each and every day, mostly at the same time. Just to have a coffee, read multiple newspapers, and chat. Some times they returned tupperware from the earlier day's take-away lunch just like you would with a friend or relative. I miss reading newspapers in Vienna. It was a big part of my life in India, and I've been lucky and privileged to have grown up in a family that reads multiple newspapers every day. Many times at home, we would ask, "Are you done reading Indian Expresss?" Hearing simlar questions and seeing the newspaper exchanges in Vienna was heartwarming for me. 

One of the most vivid (and pleasant) memories of the COVID-19 pandemic for me was the day Daniela's cafe opened just for take-away after the first lockdown. I was missing the cafe a lot and obviously went to get my usual coffee (first time in a take-way cup) on the first morning. There, I ran into one of the cafe regulars, and we were both so thrilled to see each other. As the years went by, I started chatting more with the regulars and they became a big part of my life. I used to inform them about my India trips, and they always wished me safe travels and good health. They were fascinated and curious about India and my life there. One time, after a relatively long conversation in my horrible, broken German, I apologized for my German not being good. They sweetly replied, "That's absolutely ok. Even we cannot speak Indian." It is worth mentioning that among the cafe regulars, I was by far the youngest and only non-white patron. But I was never made to feel aware of these differences. I got only warmth and pleasantness in the cafe from everyone. We were also invited for special Christmas and New Year's Eve celebrations. I too made it a point to get some Indian sweets for my cafe friends, which they thoroughly enjoyed every time. 

It's only been a month since we came back to Vienna from a 4-week trip back home to India. We went to the cafe and were greeted so warmly by Daniela and Sabine, asking about our health and travels. We had a long conversation with the cafe regulars and exchanged pleasantries with the non-regulars. Normally, coming back to Austria from India in the winter is quite depressing. In India, especially in Pune, December / January is the best time. The weather is pleasant, sunny and it is green despite being winter. There are lots of functions happening, so you're meeting many people constantly. Coming back to Austria in January, where it is freezing cold, grey and the trees are devoid of life, can be quite a disappointing change. But a visit to Daniela's cafe made us feel welcome and 'at home'.

In 2019, the initial 6 - 9 months after moving to Vienna were quite tough. My wife was suffering from anxiety, depression, and home sickness. It was my first time living out of my home, and I was also getting used to a lot of things. But I was lucky that I loved Vienna from the beginning and didn't mind the cold, grey weather. But it was important for me to get my own time to unwind and relax. My visits to Daniela's cafe played a huge role in giving me 30 minutes of relaxation and warmth that gave me support to face the remaining day. And that is why Daniela's Back-Cafe meant so much to me. It was my sanctuary. Farewell!

Between nepotism and privilege

On 18th February 2021, social media went crazy when Arjun Tendulkar was selected by the Mumbai Indians in the IPL Auction. There are (as usual) polarized opinions about this. Depending on who you talk to, you will either hear that Arjun has been selected only on the basis of his father or that Arjun is a tremendously hard-working youngster who deserves this chance completely. I feel that the circumstances are more nuanced and there are multiple truths to this namely:-

1) Mumbai Indians have seen Arjun closely in the past few seasons. They think he shows great promise and want to develop him. This is not the first time they have taken such chances with uncapped players.

2) Arjun is extremely privileged. He has had many doors being opened very willingly purely because of his father, one of them being able to train with the Mumbai Indians team which has led to his selection.

There is no doubt that Arjun is extremely talented and hard-working. You cannot play for India Under-19 or even for Mumbai if you do not possess both these qualities. At the same time there is no doubt that he is extremely privileged to have perhaps the greatest cricketer of all time as his father. This gives him access not only to a fantastic cricketing brain but also to other great players. There are tens and thousands of extremely talented and hard working youngsters in Mumbai but how many will get access to bowl in the Mumbai Indians and India nets? How many can get Zaheer Khan and Mahela Jayawardena as unofficial mentors? How many can get to bowl at international batsman, see how they play, practice and train on and off the field? This is all due to privilege and that must be acknowledged. 

I myself have been a beneficiary of this privilege in my professional life albeit at a much smaller scale. Apart from the privileges of being a male, cisgender, heterosexual, Hindu, upper caste and upper class, I am also the son of parents who were and are at extremely senior management positions in the IT industry. I love and respect my parents. They place a very high value on honesty and integrity. They were sure for their and my sake that we should not work in the same organization at the same time. Even while sending the resumes of me and my classmates for a project in the final year of my engineering, my father explicitly told his ex-colleagues that we should not get any special preference and should go through the same evaluation process as everyone else. Alas, that did not happen. We were literally asked to choose from 3 projects that we could work on. We chose one, worked really hard and were eventually offered an internship for 9 months after we graduated. I am in no way doubting the hard work we put in but the doors were opened because of my privilege. 7 years later when I was searching for a new job, I happened to meet my father's friend at a party. We got talking about my career plans and a month later I was asked if I would like to interview at his company. The friend, also being of extremely high integrity, ensured that he was nowhere involved in the selection process. I went through 3 rounds of interviews and was eventually selected. I have no doubt that I would have been rejected had the interview not gone well but again the doors were opened due to privilege.

The acknowledgement of all kinds of privilege is where most Indians struggle. One of the recurring themes of the Bollywood nepotism debate a few years ago was star kids vehemently stating that they work as hard as everyone else so why should they be called out. As Ankur Pathak correctly pointed out in a Huffington Post article, the difference is that star kids can afford to churn out one flop after another and still get films but outsiders are lucky to get even one chance to prove themselves. Siddhant Chaturvedi put it so aptly in this video, "difference yehi hai ki jahan humaare sapne poore hote hain, wahan inka struggle shuru hota hain".

More despair than hope

Ever since I read the book 'In the Garden of Beasts' by Erik Larson, I've been meaning to write a post on the similarities I see between current India and 1933 Germany. It's ironic and sad that I started writing this finally on India's 73rd Independence Day. But since the last few weeks I've been very troubled by the actions of the Indian government and the complete lack of empathy shown by fellow Indians. I know this is (sadly) not new and more the norm these days. But since the BJP was voted back to power overwhelmingly in May 2019 and Amit Shah became the Home Minister, I have become very scared for the future of the Republic of India. The UAPA Amendment Act which empowers the government to designate individuals as terrorists, the blunting of the RTI, the communication blackout in Kashmir, house arrests, use of Public Safety Act in Delhi, muzzling of debates are few of the many actions which fill me with despair.

Whenever Modi is compared with Hitler or when people talk about growing fascism in India, they are told by others (BJP sympathizers) that this is an exaggeration or hyperbole. That's because the sympathizers think it's unfair to compare Modi or BJP to a man or regime which killed 60,00,000 Jews. However Hitler's rise to power and the resultant genocide did not happen overnight. It's extremely important to notice the signs, patterns and trends which lead to the rise of fascism. Erik Larson's book is based on the career of the American Ambassador to Germany, William Dodd, particularly the years 1933 to 1937 when he and his family lived in Berlin. This was before the start of the actual  world war and the mass murders. I found many parts of the book very relatable to what is happening in India in the past few years. Here are some of the sentences I highlighted and how I think they relate to India:-

"She countered that there was so much else that was good about Germany. In particular, she praised the enthusiasm of the country’s young people and the measures Hitler was taking to reduce unemployment." 

This was the view of Ambassador Dood's daughter, Martha. She constantly defended the Nazis against her father who had seen the signs very early on. I see a lot of this happening in India since 2014. Since the majority is unaffected by the bigotry and injustice they keep on talking about how Modi is taking India forward from an economic and development point of view. While that aspect itself is debatable, for me it doesn't really matter. Even if India's GDP was growing at 10% right now it cannot wash over the social injustice. 

"As of January 1933 only about 1 percent of Germany’s sixty-five million people were Jewish" 

This is a very good example of how populist decisions and utilitarianism can affect so many people but when looked at in terms of percentage seems so little. The Nazis didn't directly kill Jews. It started with persecution and antisemitic legislation. The first major law to curtail the rights of Jewish citizens was the Law for the Restoration of the Professional Civil Service in April 1933, which excluded Jews and the “politically unreliable” from civil service. In the same month, a law was enacted which restricted the number of Jewish students at German schools and universities. In India I see the same apathy when it comes to laws which don't affect the majority. The upper class were not affected by demonetization. The NRC is not affecting anyone outside of Assam (yet).  The same happened in Germany too. Since only 1% of the people were affected, majority of Germans, tourists, observers didn't care about the laws which curtailed freedom. But even 1% of 65 million is 6,50,000.

“At a time when hundreds of men have been put to death without trial or any sort of evidence of guilt, and when the population literally trembles with fear, animals have rights guaranteed them which men and women cannot think of expecting. One might easily wish he were a horse”

This was Ambassadar Dodd's observation in 1933 Germany. This is not far from the current situation in India where it's sometimes safer to be a cow than to be Muslim.

"What most occupied the attention of the State Department was the outstanding German debt to American creditors."

The American Ambassador William Dodd kept highlighting the dangers and signs back to the American government. It's not that the international community was not aware of what was happening in Germany. Sure the world was not connected in the way it is today but still other powerful countries did have an idea of what was going on in Germany. But they had their own post World War 1 problems and were more interested in rebuilding like USA was more interested in the outstanding debt to creditors. Hence as Indians we have to remember that this is our problem. Highlighting the injustice to the global community, United Nations etc. is not going to help much. 

"Throughout that first year in Germany, Dodd had been struck again and again by the strange indifference to atrocity that had settled over the nation, the willingness of the populace and of the moderate elements in the government to accept each new oppressive."

This is very true of what has happened in India since 2014. Everything is being normalized. Reactions and outrage to murder by lynching is lesser. Muzzling of debate, free speech is considered a norm. Muslim haters like Ajay Singh Bisht and Giriraj Singh are Ministers, terror accused are part of the Parliament. The BJP kept pushing the needle and were rewarded with an even bigger mandate in 2019. The sad truth is that majority of Indians just don't care about fellow human beings.

Gerda Laufer, a socialist, wrote that she felt “deeply shaken that people whom one regarded as friends, who were known for a long time, from one hour to the next transformed themselves.” 

This is the saddest parallel that I have experienced. Since 2014 debates have become extremely polarized. It's been hard to see so many friends and family members defend an authoritarian regime so vociferously. So much so that I have stopped discussing politics in order to safeguard relationships. It has led me to an echo chamber which I know for a fact is not good. But at the moment it seems unavoidable.