‘Water, water everywhere …’

‘Water, water everywhere …’
By Narendra Luther

A British officer, after years of experience in the country remarked perceptively that Indian agriculture was a gamble in the Monsoon. It looks now that it is not only agriculture but also our entire life which is at the mercy of the annual water-laden winds given the name by the Arabs and corrupted by the English into Monsoon.

July 2005: The city of Mumbai was deluged. The entire urban system went for a toss. People of all rank in life from those living in slums to those commuting in their Mercedes Benz cars were stuck for at least 24 hours. Houses collapsed. Many people were killed. The army was called in to rescue the marooned and to provide succour to those who cold not come out of their rubble.

Causes given were: Worst rains in 40 years. Inadequate civic infrastructure. Flagrant violation of municipal rules and regulations in constructing buildings.

‘Never Again’

The Chief Minister promised to take necessary remedial action and said such a situation will not be allowed to recur. The Prime Minister visited the city. Relief funds were sanctioned. The weather changed and every thing was back to normal. The focus of news shifted to Dawood Ibrahim and his trial. Later, Pramod Mahajan’s fratricide became the scandal of the season for couch potatoes.

The devastation was not limited to Mumbai alone. It was replicated in varying degrees in different parts of the country in rural as well as urban areas.

Then we had an unduly long dry spell. Monsoon did not keep its time in 2006. We feared drought. Prices of daily needs started shooting up. People of different faiths organized mass prayers for rains to their respective Gods.

Encore

July –August 2006: The story of Mumbai of the previous year is repeated not only in Mumbai but also in Gujarat, Maharashtra and Andhra Pradesh. Locality after locality is shown sunk deep in water. Army boats and Air Force helicopters are drafted for rescue and relief operations. The situation in Surat city was incredibly horrifying and one wouldn’t believe it if one did not see it on television. Sixty percent of the city lay marooned under hose deep waters. As in Coleridge’s poem, there was ‘water, water everywhere, but not a drop to drink’. Roads became canals and trucks failed to swim in them. The airport in Visakhapatnam became a lake and there were no flight to or form it for over a week. My own experience of being stuck in a traffic jam caused by rains and the consequent absence of any traffic policeman on duty seems too trivial to be mentioned. The media highlights cases of individual daring and bravery in saving lives of the marooned people.

This is an annual tamasha and we are all so used to it as if it is immutable as death. We have become immune to the fact that it is a case of man–made tragedy and is entirely remediable. That is, if we have the necessary will to take some action.

It is a cliché that India lives in its villages. For some decades now the rate of urban growth has been greater than that of rural growth. People keep on migrating from villages to towns and cities in search of better opportunities. They swell the slum population. Everyone does not succeed in getting an honest job. Some of the failed ones take to crime or politics. In either case they increase the burden on civic amenities. Such migrations and transformations are a universal phenomenon. But the developed countries have handled them systematically. India is one of the countries in the east where a systematic approach has not been developed. Instead of foreseeing the problem, we chase it. Widespread corruption and the pursuit of populist policies to consolidate vote banks prevent common sense solutions.

Causes of the tragedy

Global warming is blamed for erratic weather phenomena. That is beyond our control. The rural tragedy is caused by our failure to tame rivers intelligently. People of Megha Patekar’s ilk blame it on big dams. To some extent they seem to be right. Some of flooding of villages has been caused by the sudden release of huge quantities of water from reservoirs.

The cause of flooding of our towns is entirely within our control. Not only has our drainage system not kept pace with our urban growth, whatever additions have been made have not been all sound engineering. The cambering of roads which is an elementary requirement is not done properly. Outlets for water from roads at lower levels have not been provided. Similarly, weep holes at stagnation points are missing. In many cases drainage lines have been laid without giving due regard to natural slopes of the area and the catchments. In some cases the drainage nallahs and lines are silted up or clogged and so are unable to take in the rainwater. It happened in Hyderabad in 1971. That was pure negligence. Thereafter, I saw to it that the silt in the drains was removed before every monsoon season. The result was that in 1976 when more rain fell than in the earlier floods, there was no flooding. That was purely because due attention was paid to a routine function. Such functions are neglected because there is no drama in them. When they blow crises, the very officials who ought to have been punished are hailed as heroes. Again in 2001 flooding on a massive scale occurred in the new fashionable areas of the city. That was because of large scale unauthorized constructions and faulty construction of roads. I called it a case of suicides and murders. People who built without due permission in low-lying areas and even in lakebeds and courses of nallahs were committing suicides. Those who permitted them were guilty of murders. Yet, no heads rolled.

The National Urban Renewal Fund

In a proper system of administration what happened in Mumbai and other areas in 2005 should not have been allowed to recur the next year. Yet we all saw it and those in authority saw it without any feeling of guilt or shame. Now the Central Government has sanctioned the Jawaharlal Nehru Urban Renewal Plan with an outlay of Rs. 64,000 crores. The amount is lager than the annual budget of many states in the country. This could be used to supplement budgets for specific schemes to prevent the recurrence of urban deluge. Yet we will see how the funds under this plan will be diverted to some other non-crucial schemes and flooding of cities will remain an annual feature.

A point to be stressed is that there is no divide between rural and urban problem of infrastructure. Both are two sides of the same coin. We must see them as whole. One affects the other. If the rural areas are developed properly the fatal attraction of urban areas will diminish. It needs a holistic approach. It is of course easier said than done.

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The Wedding Picture

The Wedding Picture
By Narendra Luther

The wedding picture on the wall
A couple - young and handsome,
Looking dotingly at each other,
Or smiling deeply into the camera’s lens.
Or looking away - together - at some distant object,
Dreamily!
Love that is undying and intense
Glowing like embers!
The future holding God-knows what treasures
A gift-box not yet unwrapped.

* * *
The couple in the sitting room
Mellowed by years of conjugality,
Looking in different direction, wanly
Searching different memory lanes.
The gift-box unwrapped and emptied.
Trials and triumphs and frustrations of a lifetime
Furrowed on their flaccid faces.
Love - those ‘embers for a year’; ‘ashes for thirty’;

The wedding picture on the wall
Smiles down upon them
From another world -- that was.

* * *
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Your Time is Up

Your Time is Up
By Narendra Luther

Economists of the classical school, like J.B. Say and Marshall, listed three factors of production: Land, Labour and Capital. They did not seem to have recognized that these operate under the overarching constraint of another factor - Time. Modern management experts have underscored the crucial role of Time.

Time has two contradictory characteristics. By itself, it is unlimited. But for each one of us it is limited. All of us are busy trying to kill time, but in the end, time will kill us. Of the various resource that we employ in any productive activity, time is the only on which is inflexible. Land – traditionally considered ‘fixed’-- can be acquired. Not time. Banks pay and charge interest for time. Most of our replies to letters begin with the standard apology; I did not get time earlier. Actually, it was there all the time. You did not take care to take it. It takes only few minutes to reply to any letter.

An Inflexible Resource

For most jobs, we are given deadlines. Time-overruns carry a penalty because time gone is an opportunity lost. Teachers of modern business management emphasize the value of time. Time is important not only in business; it is equally important in our private life.

Another advice dinned into our ears is to prioritize. That is necessary again because as the poet said, ‘art is long and time is short’, implying the necessity of prioritization.’ First things first’ formula is important because later things run the risk of being left out—for want of time.

Recently I read an interesting and instructive story. A man made an offer to give $86,400 to a person. There was only one condition. He must spend it within 24 hours. Now the man had numerous ideas about the things he wanted to acquire. But he was not ready to splurge the amount in such a short time. He thought of what he needed most. So, this constraint of time forced him to prepare a list of his priorities.

This happens to all of us all the time – everyday. There are 86,400 seconds in a day of 24 hours. We have to decide what to do with them. If we cannot make up our mind, that gift is lost forever. If one were to think of it, one would be surprised at the amount of loss we have suffered already.

So, planning our time is a very important. All our other achievement are dependent on that. Nothing can be done unless we allocate time to it. The goals of life are to be set considering that we have limited time. Napoleon observed in his Maxims that ‘ there is one kind of robber whom the law does not strike at, and who steals what is most precious to men: time’.

Your Own Time

First decision is how much time you are willing to allocate to your work. The general division is eight hours each for work, eating, and sleep respectively. Depending upon your age, health, and goals, you will have to modify the allocation. Napoleon said that man needed five hours, woman six, and child seven for sleep. Only fools needed more than that. But he was an exception who could sleep on horseback. We are lucky. We have the luxury of cars and it is far more comfortable to sleep in them provided you are not driving. Once an allocation has been made, the problem of managing that time will crop up. Most of us leave our time management at the mercy of others. A friend drops in without appointment and sheer good manners will force you to let him steal your time. It is assumed that if you are at home you are free. A friend of mine asked another mutual friend if he was at home in the evening. Yes, he replied. ‘Then I will drop in at six’, said our friend. ‘No’ he replied, ‘I have an appointment at that time’.
’Appointment with whom?’ asked the other friend.

‘With myself’, he said calmly.

He was the only Indian I have met who had the courage to say that. After all an appointment with oneself is mores important than with anybody else. But we assume that if you are alone you are doing nothing -- and are available!

Modern Techniques

In a rough sort of way, most of us do some time-management. A cooking range provides four burners. That is because a housewife cooks some dishes simultaneously, or according to the time taken by them, in a certain sequence. If there were only one burner, she would be forced to cook the dishes consecutively and waste a lot of her time. A coking range enables her to do her own intuitive analysis, work out sequencing, and cut down the cooking time. When you have to do a number of things, you try to take them up in such a way that you save time by bundling them as far as possible. Management experts have formalized them into what they call Programme Evaluation and Review Techniques (PERT) and prepare a Critical Path Method (CPM). These methods are employed in major jobs like erection of a steel plant, which entails a multitude of activities. They help managers to sequence activities so as to optimize the use of resources. It helps them to decide whether steel should be ordered before cement has arrived and so on. On a micro level, these techniques can be consciously applied to our daily routine. In the ladder of evolution, external discipline precedes self-discipline. Many persons are excellent managers when it comes to official work. That is because they are required to observe rules laid down by others, at the risk of losing their job. The same efficient managers are often sloppy in their private affairs because of the absence of external discipline. Superior beings internalize discipline and learn to be answerable to themselves.

Two things arise from the above. We have to optimize the utilization of time. For that we have to learn not to place it at the mercy of others.

External Discipline

Here again ‘external’ aids help. If you sit down in your study at a fixed time regularly, after some time you will be automatically led to that room at the appointed time. Also, it helps to have different places for different types of activities. The dining room is not conducive to serious work. Nor is bedroom. Properly maintained, it should induce sleep, not activity.

Life can thus become orderly and its pattern conducive to optimum results. However, I must warn against the danger of a martinet existence. Too much regimentation is the enemy of creativity. My last word therefore would be that having ordered your life, introduce an element of occasional disorderliness to sample what is going on elsewhere. I believe that railway accidents happen sometime because the engine jumps off the fixed rails out of sheer boredom of routine. Avoid boredom – to yourself and others.

***
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Whose Century?

Whose Century?
By Narendra Luther

In my article on the Anglo- American attack on Iraq in the April issue (A Fable for our Times), I said that its outcome was predictable. Despite the hype created by the two governments and the western media about the enormity of the weapons of mass destruction that Iraq was alleged to be possessing, it was a walkover for the ‘coalition forces’. More than a month after the conquest of Iraq, the victors have not been able to substantiate their charges of the existence of the Weapons of Mass Destruction (WMD) with Iraq. This has led to the cynical remark that the initials WMD stood for ‘weapons of mass deception’ and they were in the possession of the coalition forces. Also, if they are now discovered in Iraq, they will be suspected to have been planted, which the Police resort to in many cases. Art Buchwald, the American satirist-columnist has observed that instead of spending 75 billion dollars on eliminating Saddam, the U.S. administration could have got it done in one billion dollars through one of the Italian mafias in the U.S!

Body blow to UN

The basic motive of the Americans in attacking Iraq was always suspect. If it was to remove a tyrannical dictator, there were others far more deserving of that treatment than Saddam. The Americans are actively supporting many of them as indeed they did Saddam earlier when it suited them. The reception, which the coalition forces expected to be accorded in the vanquished country, was not enthusiastic enough to justify their vaunted claims that they were liberating the people from a despot’s tyranny.

The US approach to the Iraq question could be faulted on many counts. The Americans tried to take the UN with them in their campaign. When three permanent members of the Security Council refused to go along with them, the US decided to go it alone nevertheless. Both the US and the UK took the self-righteous stand that they were satisfied with the evidence they had about the delinquencies of the dictatorial regime in Iraq. That evidence was not shared with the lesser members of UN. The UN charter prohibits interferes in the internal affairs of any sovereign country. Thus, the very approach of the US and the UK dealt a body blow to the UN. For more than a decade, sanctions had been imposed on Iraq for possession of WMD’s. Now without having discovered them, or admitting that they were not there, the Americans want the sanctions lifted. Important members of the UN are against such an arbitrary approach. In my article referred to above, I had likened the America behaviour to that of the village tyrant. If the village panchayat did not go along with him, it was removed. The US bypassed the world panchayat (UN), and having got used to it, it shall do so again.

While in many Islamic countries, there was open expression of anger at the attack on Iraq; in other countries, there was a sense of moral outrage at the action. Again, as in the case of the village landlord, some countries thought it expedient to keep quiet, or just to mumble unhappiness, but the resentment against the action was universal.

Motive for Attack

The feeling that the motive for the attack was oil more than any thing else is strengthened by the fact that while priceless heritage in the Iraqi museum was allowed to be plundered and destroyed, adequate action was taken to safeguard the oil wells. That is why now the question being asked all around is: which country next? Syria has already been sufficiently chastened verbally by the victors of Iraq.

The American are not able to overcome the shock of 9/11 and the fall of the twin towers. The myth of its almight and invulnerability was shattered by that incident. An invisible band of terrorists, which cocked a snook at its fortress security, sent the nation into an unprecedented flurry. To eliminate the possibility of such a recurrence, it has vowed to root out terrorism wherever it exists. It is a laudable objective but here too consistency is lacking in its policy. It does not exhibit a uniform concern at the terrorist activity in places like Kashmir. Such an approach does not inspire faith; it generates cynicism.

With the demise of the Soviet Union, the bi-polar world of the last century is gone. Earlier, the Soviet Union could counter any move by the US, which threatened to upset the delicate balance of powering today’s uni-polar world where there is only one super- power. The non-aligned movement (NAM), which was born out of the bi-polar situation, has been rendered irrelevant. Earlier, non-alignment meant equidistance from the two poles. Now you are either with one power or you are against it. The very term ‘balance’ implies the existence of two units. In today’s situation, the balance can only mean the US (with its satellites) vs. the rest of the world. Who can be the spokesman of the rest of the world?

Morality in international conduct

While self –interest of nations determines international relations, there is a minimum sense of justice which must be perceived in the external policies and acts of nations. No nation can override the interests of other nations for all times. There is a feeling now that there is no one to counter any move by the US. She can get away with anything. There is a rudimentary sense of equity with which international policies and actions are judged. Today the American might is unchallenged. That however does not mean it can do whatever it likes anywhere. The bomb blast in Saudi Arabia on the eve of the visit of Collin Powell, and later at Casablanca show how many invisible forces are working against the US, and no body knows how and where they will hit.

The American historian, Barbara Tuchman, in her book ‘The March of Folly’ has shown how all wars from the Trojan to Vietnam were acts of folly. At that time they were waged, they were shown to be fully justified by those who initiated them. In retrospect, she shows them as unnecessary and avoidable. It reinforces the old saying attributed to Gustavus Adolphus of Sweden, and at least to six other statesmen: ‘See my son with how little wisdom the world is governed.’

Noting the emergence of the US as the unchallenged power, many pundits have declared that the 21st Century belongs to America. That is based on too narrow a reading of recent developments, and an insufficient appreciation of historical factors. Today in the global village, political hegemony has to be closely accountable to the Panchayat. As in our masala films, at the end of the day, the landlord–villain is humbled. Jack kills the giant and good sense comes to prevail. What is blinding us today might as well be the last flicker of the flame for the American lamp. The century will belong, not to the almighty America, but to the meek of the world.

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Which Party?

Which Party?
By Narendra Luther

Humans are social animals. They must live in groups to survive. Groups create
problems. In order to solve them they create parties. Parties are of two types. One is political.

Political parties come into being because man is a prejudiced being. Like-minded people get together and float a party. Once they join it, they see everything through a prism. Their objectivity, sense of fairness, and equity – become casualties. Political parties are popular because they relieve people of the necessity to think. That difficult task is handed over to some one else. How wonderful to have ready- made opinions handed over to you to pass them on as deep reflections of your own! Political parties have a problem for every solution. They will fight for finding other ways of reaching a place when a direct approach is available. God for them has one face, that of their own leader; truth, his utterance. Political parties often get into trouble when some men of conscience join them. A conscientious man suspects that the rival might be right. There is no place for such persons in a political party. Party men cannot afford to be in doubt. They must always assert that they are right. They should also be capable of saying the exact reverse of what their current opinion. That becomes necessary when they change parties. Abraham Lincoln as a young lawyer argued a case successfully in the morning. In the afternoon, he happened to have another case in the same court in which he gave arguments opposing what he had said in the morning. The judge asked him with a smile, ‘Mr. Lincoln, you are saying exactly the opposite of what you were saying in the morning’. Lincoln replied, ‘Your Honour, I might have been wrong in the morning, but I am definitely right in the afternoon’. He won that case too.

The other type of party is Cocktails. They have nothing to do with animals or birds as one might be led to imagine. They comprise humans of divers sexes—men women,
and people. They are held in the evenings and there is no saying how long they last. They are organized for various purposes – to willy-nilly welcome or to say farewell to some one, to celebrate an event, like marriage, birthday, or even a wedding anniversary. Strictly speaking, dinners should be given on such occasions, but cocktails parties are cheaper and more fun. Drinks of various types are served with snacks, which often make up for the lack of dinner. In a cocktail party, no one cares how bad your English is so long as your Scotch is good. After a while, a lot of bonhomie and good will is generated amongst the guests and every one tends to agree with the other. There are some spoil–sports or noveau- drinkers who will always disagree. Another drink is shoved into such hands and they are pushed to some equally garrulous person of the opposite sex. After a while either they both walk out or are too drunk to talk. So, one disagreement is resolved.

Cocktail party is designed to prevent concentration – either on a person or a topic. In a cocktail party, you are supposed to circulate. Some people complete their circulation too soon and come back to the same spot from where they started. That is bad manners. Your orbit is supposed to keep on varying unless the chief guest gets hold of you and wants to have a chat with you.

The host takes care to stay sober and to get the others sozzled, particularly those from whom he is trying to seek business or a favour. In non-business parties, the object is fun. But even there, you cannot prevent a discussion of politics or current events. As the spirits soar, the ability to solve intricate problems also improves. I have seen the Kashmir problem solved many times in such parties, the composition of the national cricket team decided upon, and alternatives offered to resolve the issue of Palestine, terrorism, and communalism. Iraq too has often been disposed of in a most harmonious way. There is generally consensus in such parties and everyone is fair to the other. Also, people are honest in the expression of their opinions about their friends. That sometime causes problems to sort out which another cocktail party becomes necessary. Even husbands are polite to their wives at such parties because nothing makes a woman look better than three cocktails inside a man. So, my advice to women is never to accept a compliment at a cocktail party at your face value. Men of my generation remember with envy the journalist who walked up to that stunner, Madeleine Dietrich and told her, ‘Madam you look as beautiful when sober, as any other woman would look when drunk’. Some over-drinkers are sad to get under the table. Mae West knew her limit. When offered another drink, she said coolly: ‘One more drink and I will be under the host’. But some men’s sense of truth is so strong that even cocktails can’t suppress it. Like when Churchill walked up to Lady Astor and told her bluntly: ‘You are ugly’. She retorted indignantly: ‘Winston, you are drunk’. Churchill slurred back: ‘Madam, I shall be sober when I wake up tomorrow morning, but you will still be ugly’.

I am a man of conscience. I can go astray temporarily. But I come back to the right track before too long. I am never cocksure; I am generally in doubt. That is why I have not joined any political party. For finding solutions to problems, I prefer to take a chance in a cocktail party.

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Render the Account

Render the Account
By Narendra Luther

Tom Paine, the English revolutionary and thinker of the 18th century says in his celebrated book Rights of Man, that Government is the badge of man’s lost innocence. It is a necessary evil for civilized existence.

But safeguards have to be provided against the arbitrary exercise of power by government to maintain civilized existence.

No taxation without representation is an old axiom of democracy. That is to ensure that no unjust or unnecessary tax is imposed on the citizens. That is half the job. The other half is to ensure that the money collected from the citizens is spent properly for the purpose for which it is raised. In other words, the propriety of expenditure also needs to be ensured.

Citizen and the Government

To scrutinizes the utilization of public funds by the Government, our Constitution has created the office of the Comptroller and Auditor General. His findings are placed before the Public Accounts Committee. All instances of irregularities and improprieties and recommendations thereon by the Committee are placed before the legislature for appropriate remedial and punitive action against the delinquent authorities. While this is good, these reports are in the nature of a post-mortem and are useful largely for the future.

Secondly, given the party system of government, the elected representatives may overlook the infractions of the administration depending upon their party affiliations. Also, in the plethora of technicalities, the average citizen cannot grasp what is happening. Many people have therefore argued that we should supplement the present system of accountability of administration to elected representatives with direct and ongoing scrutiny by the people. That would ensure that mischief is nipped in the bud.

Information is Power

For such a scrutiny, relevant data and information are necessary. It has been said aptly that information is power. That power lies with the bureaucracy and it is loath to share it with others. As the French semiologist, Jean Baudrillard says in his book, Cool Memories, ‘Information can tell us everything. It has all the answers. But they are answers to questions we have not asked’.

For any scheme of empowering people, therefore, access to information is the first crucial step. It will discourage arbitrary action on the part of the bureaucracy and protect the citizens’ basic right to due process and equal protection of the law. It will also reduce corruption within government institutions and enhance integrity amongst public functionaries.

The question of enacting legislation to provide access to information has assumed importance come up in the last decade or so. According to Privacy International, 51 countries had such comprehensive Freedom of Information laws in place in April 2003. In India, similar legislation has been passed in some states to enable citizens to access information from government officials.

Information provides the transparency necessary for ensuring accountability. UNDP defines accountability ‘as the requirement that officials answer to stakeholders on the disposal of their powers and duties, act on criticisms or requirements made of them and accept (some) responsibility for failure, incompetence or deceit.’

Citizen’s Charter

An offshoot of the right to information is the Citizen’s Charter. According to article 21(2) of the United Nations Declaration of Universal Human Rights, ‘Everyone has the right of equal access to public service in his country’. Citizen’s Charter enlightens the citizens about their rights and how they can secure them. In case public officials fail to provide specific public services, they have to pay prescribed penalties. In India, Andhra Pradesh was perhaps the first state to adopt the concept when it issued its ‘Vision 2020’ document in 1999. Following upon that, some departments and public utilities issued their own Citizen’s Charters. The latest to do so is the Police. However, penalties for failure to provide specific services by public servants have not been indicated in some of the charters.

Civil Society Initiatives

By himself, an average citizen lacks adequate knowledge and resources to take up individual and collective grievances with the government. That is more so due to illiteracy and poverty of a vast section of our populace. So, a number of social action groups have come up in different states to take up public issues. They have pioneered the concept of generating valid and potent information to contest and challenge discretionary abuses and to expose corruption. A good example of that is the work of an NGO – the Mazdoor Kisan Shakti Sangathan (MKSS). Through the medium of 'public hearings' to demand public accountability, the Sangathan has been quite successful in bringing about transparency of development expenditure; accountability of officials; redress of grievances; and legitimization of social or public audit. The Public Affairs Centre in Bangalore has organized public interaction with official of the Municipal Corporation on provisions in the budget and their utilization. In Andhra Pradesh, the Lok Satta has taken up a number of issues in this regard. Its latest initiative is to mobilize public opinion to confer empowerment on the local bodies provided in the 73rd and 74th amendments of the Constitution, which have not yet become a reality.

Consumer’s Rights

It is not only with regard to government that transparency and the right to information is important. Similar transparency is important in regard to other institutions and organizations which serve social needs. We are all consumers of products and services. We need to be assured of their quality. We need to be protected from unscrupulous trade practices of manufacturers and suppliers of goods and services. ‘Goods once sold will not be taken back’ is a motto encountered everywhere in our country. Such a stipulation does not exist anywhere in the western countries. There, consumer is really the king. The Consumer Protection Act was enacted by the Parliament in 1986 and amended in 1993. Under it, National and State Councils and District Forums have been established for the redress of the grievances of the consumers. The concept of accountability has thus been extended to private organizations in manufacture, trade and commerce also.

Rights of Investor

The third aspect of accountability is with regard to the world of shares. Every entrepreneur borrows from public financial institutions and the public direct through public issues. As user of public funds, he is accountable for their proper utilization. The need for accountability in that field has also been felt particularly after some scams rocked the market. The Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) has taken a number of steps to promote sound corporate governance. However much remains to be done. The non-official directors do not get to know about much of the day-to day working of companies. Yet, under law they are responsible for all the acts of the company. The shareholders get only one opportunity in a year to ask questions and they are easily disposed of. A specific and clear delegation of authority from the board to the executive directors needs to be provided for.
Our freedom has many aspects. They all need to be secured in order to ensure continuance of our civilized existence. Therein lies the importance of multifaceted accountability.

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On Making Money

On Making Money
By Narendra Luther

Money has been called the root of all evil. But it is forgotten that the lack of it is the whole blooming tree. It is the most important thing in life. You have to have enough of it not to need it. Those who have it decry it; those who lack it moan for it.

There are various ways of making money, and none can advise you better than one who has not succeeded in making it can.

Conventional wisdom lays down one of the three ways: Beg, Borrow, or Steal. The seemingly easiest way to make money is to beg. There is a mistaken notion that beggars ply their trade only by standing and stretching their hand. The only honest beggars are those who do not make any pretensions about their intentions. They are masters of psychology. They wait at intersections and approach you when you are prevented by the red light to proceed further. They make you feel guilty and many can’t escape from that trap. Some beggars accost you when you have just emerged yourself from your secret begging from a place of worship. That is when one beggar stands face to face with another. It is difficult to go past the horde of beggars when they proclaim loudly that what you begged from the deity will be granted if you grant them their small prayer. It will be jeopardized if you don’t play god to them. The other place where they wait in ambush for you is when you emerge from a restaurant after a lavish meal. Whether you have been a guest or a host, the outstretched hand from a rag -covered body stirs your conscience. You calculate guiltily what small fraction of the amount spent inside by you the miserable beggar is asking for. A coin thrown into the lap of the waif will make you feel light.

Stealing is not free from risks. But there are various ways of stealing that need not make you fall foul of the law. An excess claim on a journey, inflating the conveyance charges or adding a non-existent guest to the list of prospects entertained -- all go into the making of the art of thievery.

Borrowing is quite common. A good number of standard reasons exist for making borrowing look entirely justified. A sudden need for travel to attend a family funeral, a tragic mishap to a beloved kin, a sudden illness which necessitates hospitalization. Anything which induces the milk of human kindness flow in the heart of the borrwee. Borrowers generally drop their benefactors from their list lest they should start pestering them for the repayment of an insignificant amount. They prefer dealing with people with short memory in money matters. Unfortunately, an average memory is sharpest in that respect.

Bribe is another easy way of making money. But for that it is necessary that you should have acquired some placement. Any position is good enough for taking bribes. But one has to take care that one is not caught in the act. Punishment is not for taking bribe, but for having been caught at doing that. So, a good measure of intelligence is necessary for taking bribes safely. Also, one should not be too greedy. Otherwise, one may go the way of the Chairman of the Public Service Commission of a certain State.

Making investments in stocks and bonds is another way of making money. That is what the sellers of stock will tell you believing that you will skip the small print which gives the statutory caution. That makes it somewhat exciting, like smoking which warns you that it is dangerous to health. So is racing, mountaineering, and even swimming. But they are not as dangerous as sleeping on a bedstead. More people in recorded history world-wide have died in their beds than anywhere else. Yet we persist -- sometime taking someone else also to our bed and thus expanding the scope of the danger involved. However, investments have to be made cautiously, that is putting as little of your money as possible. In this field, one has to know when to pull out. But there is no right time; only right luck. And that is not in your hands.

Lately, sports also have become good business. Time was when sportsmen played for the heck of it. Playing was more important than winning. Now you play to win – not the game but money. That is easy. Al that you have to do is to be a good player, but to play poorly. There are enough people to pay you for playing below par. That is specially so in cricket. Others sports are also learning from it. One reason cricket has overtaken – even killed all other sports is that there is more money in this for not playing well. But here too you have to take precautions. One is not to talk on cell phones. Technology betrays as much as it helps.

Another easy way is to marry a rich widow. That is the only case in which second hand goods sell at first hand prices. For women, the equivalent opportunity lies in becoming a mistress of a rich business man. It requires an instinct every woman is born with. Let a man chase you till you catch him. But then comes the tedious problem of keeping your quarry in your own net.

So far no one has discovered a sure-fire method of making money without getting sold to it. Money does not guarantee happiness, but every thing, which can possibly give happiness is bought by money – including charity and philanthropy. So, there is no escape from money. As for myself, I don’t much care for money if I can be rich without it. For, I agree with Sophia Tucker: ‘I have been rich, and I have been poor. Rich is better.’

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Daughter of the soil

Daughter of the soil
By Narendra Luther

Help! I am in grave danger of soon becoming a stateless person. No, I am not kidding. With the Home Minister who is also the Deputy PM of India having been dubbed as a Pakistani, the former refugees from Pakistan like me can’t be far behind. While Advani, being an influential politician might be able to manage to stay on -- or if the worse comes to worst -- strike a deal with his former homeland, a common man like me has no such chances. After a long time, I managed to become qualified as a ‘Mulki’ in Hyderabad. If I lose that status, I shall become, in Homer’s phrase, a ‘lawless, homeless, hearthless one’ I shall have to appeal to the International Commission for Refugees. Where will they send me now that I am past the productive -- and sad to admit even the reproductive age!

This entire hullabaloo arose because with her election as President of the Congress Party, Sonia Gandhi, also became a potential Prime Minister of India. In fact, she is already the Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha and thus a shadow Prime Minister. In our system of party politics which is a play of light and shade, at periodic intervals, the shadow becomes reality, and reality the shadow. To pre-empt that occurrence, voices have been raised about her being a foreigner.

The ‘Mulki Formula’

People in Andhra Pradesh are quite familiar with the working of the ‘Mulki’ doctrine of the former state of Hyderabad. Under that one had either to be born within the State or be a resident for 14 years to be a ‘Mulki’. Its rigour was further refined in the Six-Point Formula promulgated by the Government of India in 1960s. Under that, public servants can be transferred only within the three traditional regions of the State. For a student from the Andhra region of the State, it is easier to get admission to a university in any part of the world than in the Telangana region – and vice versa. It has only sharpened the demand for the separate state of Telangana.

It is an insidious form of the doctrine of ‘sons of the soil’, which has raised its ugly head lately in most of the States.

Domiciliary Qualification

As against that, in politics, there is no requirement of domicile. Any one can contest a seat for the Lok Sabha from anywhere in India. Thus, Sonia Gandhi and Sushma Swaraj, both residents of Delhi, contested from Karnataka in the last elections. Buta Singh, a Punjabi Sikh, contested from Rajasthan. The Rajya Sabha, which is supposed to provide representation to States has a requirement of domicile in the State from which a candidate can contest. That has been overcome by the ruse of renting a house in a city of the ‘safe’ State. Thus, R.K. Dhawan was able to become a member of the Rajya Sabha from A.P. by renting a house in Hyderabad.

Any citizen of India who is 25 years of age can contest for a seat in Parliament. Briefly, any Member of Parliament can become Prime Minister. The Congress Party has for their own reasons chosen Sonia Gandhi as their leader. In case the Party gets a majority of seats in the Lok Sabha, or can cobble a coalition claiming majority in the Lok Sabha, Sonia can lawfully become Prime Minister. It is that prospect that creates a panic amongst many aspirants to the Prime Ministry, and their followers. They argue that it is violative of our dignity as a nation to have a foreigner as Prime Minister. But she is now a citizen of India and it is pointless to rake up the past. In fact, she is already the leader of the Opposition with the rank of a cabinet minister.

Foreigners in India

In this context, it may be worth noting that in the past many foreigners have served India in various capacities with distinction. I am not referring to the paid officials of the East India Company or, later of the Crown. An Englishman, A.O. Hume, a member of ICS, denounced the revenue from the sale of liquor as ‘ wages of sin’. He wrote a letter to the Calcutta University graduates inviting 50 volunteers to join in a movement to promote the mental moral, social and political regeneration of India. This letter led to the formation of the Indian National Congress in 1885. He was Secretary or Joint Secretary of 19 out of the first 22 sessions of the Congress. In 1908, the Congress passed a resolution describing him as father of the Indian National Congress. Sir William Wedderburn, after his retirement, devoted himself to the promotion of the Congress. He was elected President of the Congress at its 4th session. Back in England, he became head of the India Party. Sir Henry Cotton retiring as Chief Commissioner returned to India and presided over the 1904 session of the Indian National Congress. Annie Besant, an English woman founded the Home Rule League to demand self rule for Indians. She was elected President of the Congress Party in 1917. C.F. Andrew was another Englishman who became a follower of Mahatma Gandhi and fought for the freedom of the country. The ‘Mother’ of the Pondicherry Ashram was French, but revered by Indians. After attaining independence in 1947, the first Governor General appointed by us was an Englishman. When an Albanian missionary, settled in India, was awarded the Nobel Prize in 1979, we celebrated her as an Indian. No one then raised the point of Mother Teresa’s foreign origin.

Indians Abroad

Look at the other side of the coin. Persons of Indian origin were elected members of the British House of Commons. Some sat in the House of Lords. Swaraj Paul is still there. Daleep Singh Saund became a senator n U.S. Some have been elected to the legislatures of States. Vaz was a junior minister in England until recently. Another is a minister in Canada. We cried foul when a duly elected Prime Minister of Indian origin was toppled in Fiji.

People’s Choice

The criterion is the judgment of the public as reflected in the popular vote. She has already crossed the first hurdle. The oldest and the largest political party in the country has chosen her as its leader. The voters have duly elected her as a member of Lok Sabha. If the people are against her, nothing prevents them from defeating her in elections. The objections raised against her as being a foreigner, have led to ludicrous counter-objections that Advani is a Pakistani, and Vajpayee is an Aryan. Today no country in the world can claim ethnic purity. In India, we rejoice in our pluralism. All the religions of the world co-exist in this ancient land just as all the climatic variations of the world are replicated here. We have laid down the rules of the game of power in the Constitution. Let us play the game according to them.

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A New Beginning

A New Beginning
By Narendra Luther

I share my first name with the chief Minister of Gujarat. But I don’t share his claim, his blame and now his fame. Nor do I have the inclination or the capacity to do so. For what he has achieved is based on fear, and numbers. Fear does not last. The extreme of fear is courage. When you have nothing further to lose, you stand up.

However, he has helped raise a basic question: Are we secular? As one who suffered the trauma of Partition as a child, I have a stake in secularism. The question often asked derisively is: what is secularism? It has been dubbed as plain non –concern about the majority community, or cynically equated with appeasement of the largest minority. There are lofty definitions of secularism, which are as old as the hills. As a working formula, Sarva Dharma Samabhava – equal respect for all religions can’t be improved upon. Democracy is based on the concept of equality of all persons. Once we accept that, caste, creed, colour -- all become irrelevant. Human being and his/her welfare is what matters. And that welfare is a common denominator cutting across the barriers of community and religion. For decades since Independence, we have heard the slogan of Roti, Kapda, and Makan – food, clothing, and shelter, and its generic substitute – Garibi Hatao. Now, food clothing and shelter have no religion. When I was a young child, at every station when the train stopped, vendors came shouting ‘Hindu Pani’, and Muslim Pani’. In our smugness, we took water from our respective communal pitchers, not knowing that it had come from a common source. It quenched thirst irrespective of who was dispensing it. Shylock, the much-maligned Jew speaks for the whole humanity in his spirited reply to Salerio in ‘The Merchant of Venice’:

‘He hath disgac’d me and hinder’d me half a million; laughed at my losses, mocked at my gains, scorned my nation, thwarted my bargains, cooled my friends, heated mine enemies. And what is the reason? I am a Jew. Hath not a Jew eyes? Hath not a Jew hands, organs, dimensions, affections, passions, fed with the same food, hurt with the same weapons, subject to the same diseases, healed by the same means, warmed and cooled by the same winter and summer, as a Christian is? If you prick us, do we not bleed? If you tickle us, do we not laugh? If you poison us, do we not die? And if you wrong us, shall we not revenge? If we are like you in the rest, we will resemble you in that…. The villainy you teach me I will execute; and it shall go hard but I will better the instruction.’

That about sums up the situation in Gujarat – and even in the rest of the country. In what respect are the members of different communities different from each other in their civic needs and wants? And politics is concerned only with the civic side of citizens. It is not – indeed should not concern itself with their private beliefs and faith. Note the last sentence of Shylock. They will retaliate. And retaliation may take different forms. If they are not conventionally equal in arms with the other, they will resort to guerilla warfare, as Sivaji did with Aurangzeb. The modern variation of that is terrorism. And you can’t fight terrorism unless you tackle its real causes and roots. The dharma –duty of a ruler is to ensure conditions of civilized existence for its subjects. That is the raison d’etre of the State. In that, the State cannot take a partisan stand. It cannot let groups of citizens settle their scores by taking law in their own hands. As Chief Minister, Modi had no religion, no attachment, and no consideration except the security of the citizens of Gujarat.

Gujarat underlines the tragic fact in our political life that we have been highlighting non-issues. What was the gaurava of Gujarat, which was brought in to drum up the passions of the people there? Gujarat’s gaurava is Mahatma Gandhi who laid down his life for communal amity. In Gujarat, every man is called Bhai and every woman a Behn irrespective of their community or religion. With such universal brotherhood, and sorority, a surprise so much blood shed should have take place there. But feud within families is generally far bloodier than normal warfare. Civil wars destroy more than external aggressions.

Having said that, I shall like to address the other side too. For too long have they gone on blaming the majority for all their ills. For too long have they gone on harping on their separate identity, which resulted in the creation of Pakistan. For centuries, they have ruled this country. Why did they become backward then? Why do they plead their backwardness as a reason for getting special treatment?? Who prevents them from removing their backwardness through education? The Constitution provides level playing field for all – plus special safeguards for minorities. As the case of Pakistan has shown, religion does not unite; language does not bond. If that were so, Bangladesh should not have come into being. We have to rise above language and religion. There is always scope – even need for reform. The impulse for that has to come from within.

Iqbal said ‘religion does not teach hatred. He was wrong. Four centuries ago, Dean Swift observed bitingly: We have enough of religion to hate one another, but not enough of it to love one another’. I am not sure whether we need more of it or less of it. Can’t we live just as plain human beings?

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Liquid Famine

Liquid Famine
By Narendra Luther

This is the year of water. So, let us look at water before it flows into history.

Water is life. Rivers and water bodies are sources of sustenance for fauna flora and humans. That is why most of the cities of the world were established on the banks of rivers. Great civilizations developed and flourished on the banks of rivers like the Tigris, the Nile, the Euphrates, and the Sind. With the change in the course of rivers, or their drying up, cities are known to have vanished.

Basic facts about water

A few basic facts about water: First, from the day the planet earth came into being till today, the amount of total water availability has not varied.

Second, we have been tempering with the traditional systems of reservoirs of water, both natural and man-made. Constructions like factories, buildings, and other obstructions have been allowed to come up in the catchments. This has resulted in blocking of natural flows of water.

Third, the water supply systems have been increasingly centralized. In place of dispersed storages created by nature or local communities, official reservoirs have been created and distribution from them has been placed under centralized bureaucracies.

Fourth, desilting of water bodies and channels has not been attended to routinely, thus reducing their storage, and carrying capacity respectively.

Last, in new colonies and the laying of roads and lanes, natural drainage has not been respected and no proper substitute plans have been provided. That has resulted in water logging in various areas even after a brief shower.

The looming scarcity

In addition, global warming has adversely affected weathers and seasons. Rains have become erratic. They don’t conform to seasons. That has affected the system of water supply, which is predicated on seasons. Indian agriculture has traditionally been called a ‘gamble in monsoons’. Now the magnitude of the gamble has been enhanced by the uncertain opening time of the ‘casino’.

We therefore face a situation of water famine unheard of before. Cassandras have predicted acute shortage of water even by 2020’s and a permanent scarcity by 2050. Rural Jills have to trudge up to ten kilometers to fetch a pail of water. It is quite conceivable that the wars of the future would be for water more than for oil. In India, we already find ‘civil wars’ between the riparian states like Karnataka and Tamil Nadu, and Karnataka and AP for sharing of waters from common river sources.

The Garland Canal Project

A paradox in our water situation is that when some areas are suffering from drought, others have deluges. In order to develop a balance, the late Dr K.L. Rao, an eminent engineer who became the minister for irrigation of India, conceived the ‘garland project’ four decades ago. Considered too ambitious and costly, it was not pursued. Now, the present government has revived it and has set up a Task Force to work out the details of the project which is estimated to cost Rs. 5,60,000 crores. I cannot comment upon the practicality of the project at this stage except that it seems too ambitious and given the vicissitudes in our political set up, may not be pursued to its conclusion. Also, it may be bogged down by the sorts of conflicts between states which we are witnessing even today. The situation is grim and is becoming worse every year. Mr. Sompal, member of the Planning Commission in charge of Water Resources has caustically observed that ‘the river linking will not happen in our lifetime’.

In early June 2003, the Hyderabad Urban Development Authority organized an International Workshop on Lakes in Hyderabad. It was part of the expression of its concern about the lack of maintenance of water bodies which is a contributing factor in our water problem. A strange phenomenon is at work in India and other developing counties. The routine maintenance of public assets and works is generally neglected. At the same time, new investments are being made in creating new assets. Because of this policy, the initial capacity and efficiency of the existing utilities goes on diminishing progressively. In the case of Electricity Boards, for example, loss in transmission and frequent breakdowns is attributed by technical people to inattention to maintenance and upgradation of the existing ‘plant’. Similar neglect is in evidence in the case of water sources. We allow this neglect till a crisis develops. Then it is tackled on an emergency basis. That is because the creation of new assets makes news while their maintenance of the existing assets goes unnoticed. So, both from the pint of view of drama and votes, attention is paid to new projects and not to routine maintenance of old ones. A manager of a public utility becomes a hero when he tackles a crisis though it might have been created by his own negligence.

Story of Lakes

A good example is provided by the Workshop on lakes referred to above. Encroachments on lakebeds, their pollution by the free flow of sewerage into them and diversion of water from them has been allowed unchecked. In Hyderabad, the Vengala Rao Park in Banjara Hills was recently inaugurated with great fanfare. No one mentioned that it was laid on the dead body of a lake which was systematically killed by encroachers and land grabbers. Earlier, similar development had happened in the case of Mansab Tank. As the very name suggests, it was a lake. Today there is a habitation – and a park there.

Lopsided priorities

At the Workshop referred to above, Mr. Sompal, Member of the Planning Commission expressed his concern at the lack of adequate concern for the development of water resources. He said that while Rs. 98,900 crores were allocated to the telecommunication sector in the 10th Plan, only 3,300 crores was provided for water resources. In the 9th Plan the allocation was Rs. 92,600 crores for the telecom sector and Rs. 1955 crores for water resources. We are trying to provide better communication for people whose very existence is at stake!

It was also announced at the Hyderabad Workshop on Lakes that it is proposed to privatize these water bodies. That would be only legalizing the existing situation. Already water bodies are treated by people as private property. Witness the encroachments, constructions, landfills and diversion of water that is taking place in lakes. What is required is more effective public control over them and not offering them to private parties.

Earlier people have died of food famines. The Nobel Laureate, Amartya Sen has observed that famines take place in dictatorships, not in democracies. He was referring to food famines. His logic is that the public awareness of the developing situation and the clamour raised about them will prevent their occurrence. Well, the new famine of water is developing under democratic regimes in India. Indians will not die of starvation henceforth; they will die of thirst. The only relieving feature of such a death is that it is quicker.

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A Form of Wealth

A Form of Wealth
By Narendra Luther

It was once said, ‘ if wealth is lost, nothing is lost, if health is lost something is lost, if character is lost every thing is lost.’ Such a statement could have been made only by some one who was poor – and before electoral politics was introduced in India. Now the order has changed. We see every day that wealth is every thing and the loss of character does not mean anything. On the other hand, it only increases the chances of becoming wealthier. But health remains in the middle of either order. You can strut about without character, but you can’t move from your bed without good health. You can earn pots of money, but you can’t enjoy it without good health. You can only make doctors wealthy.

Health is so important that in every society an inquiry about it forms an integral part of the initial greeting. It is a curse of human estate that you have to do so much to maintain good health. Animals keep their health merely by living their life. They remain healthy unless some human being inflicts some injury on them. Veterinary hospitals have been opened by human beings for animals, largely to keep them in an unnatural state – and for their own amusement. However, not being one myself, I don’t know much about animals. I am quite surprised when some people make pronouncements about the likes and dislikes of animals, like: ‘ O! dogs love biscuits’. All I know is that they like to be left alone and that is one thing that we don’t do. We are essentially ringmasters in a circus. When we say we love animals, we mean those whom we keep under our control.

However, let us revert to the problem of maintaining good health in humans. There is an old saying that prevention is better than cure. Surely, it was not a physician who would have said that. Who would want his business ruined? I believe the reverse of it – cure is better than prevention. Prevention is a daily nuisance, a regime of constant denial, something that may finally turn out to be entirely unwarranted. On the other hand, a cure becomes necessary only occasionally and makes for a good departure from routine. I do not like the hard work involved in trying to maintain good health. One of them is taking some sort of exercise every day – like walking. Now, walking to no purpose is a complete waste of time and energy. I walk when I have to reach somewhere, for some work and not just to return tired after half an hour or so.

To know the importance of good health, it is necessary to fall ill sometime. A healthy person does not know what it means to be healthy -- or sick. A sick person knows both and so is better informed. I am not advocating the cause of ill health. I am not an agent of the medical profession. I am talking of small harmless illnesses like a bad cold, a minor hurt, and a small fever. A sort of situation, which is not life – threatening, and is generally described as ‘indisposition’ in the medical bulletin of VIP’s. It provides you with much- needed break from routine, and a short absence from your social circle. It enhances your social importance. People enquire why you were absent from a particular function. It generates sympathy for you. It provides you an opportunity to know who cares for you and how much. It is an index of your importance. It distinguishes friends from foes. Friends want to know if your indisposition is something serious -- and are disappointed if it is not. On hearing about the sickness of a friend, the instinctive remark is, ‘ Nothing trivial, I hope’.

Callers ask you how you fell ill. Some people seize upon that opportunity to transform themselves into an Ancient Mariner. I have heard such sob stories many times. Sometime, the tape is replayed when another caller drops in while I am still there. Good manners prevent me from interrupting. That is a signal for me to leave. I do not get into narrating the Arabian Night when I fall ill. I try to dismiss it as ‘one of those things’. But some callers are not satisfied. Last time I got reports that they spread the canard that I was merely feigning sickness since I could not say how it all happened. So, credibility lies in conformity.

If you are not the social type, it provides an opportunity to be all by your self. Just loll about in your bed and listen to your favourite music, or read a book that was lying neglected on the shelf awaiting your attention. It also gives you an excuse not to do the daily shave or take he prescribed bath or even change your clothes. You can ask your favourite dishes to be prepared and, having savoured them, sleep as much as you like. During the period of your indisposition, you are the centre of the world for the family. The rest of the world becomes secondary. It also provides time for you to brood, to think about the worthwhile ness of your work and to think of doing something different, or the same thing differently. It is during such interludes of enforced idleness that most of the inventions of the world were made, and some careers changed. George Bernard Shaw put it in his own way when he said,’ I enjoy convalescence. It is that part which makes illness worthwhile’

Medical advice is never so freely available as when you are unwell. Callers will tell you how they got out of a similar ailment by taking a particular medicine. If you are on allopathic system, some one will advice you to go in for homeopathy. If you are already an addict of the sweet pill, your well wisher will exhort you to try Ayurveda. If you are a votary of this native system, some friend will ask you to come out of superstitions and orthodoxies if you want to live at all. Some persons start parallel streams of treatment hoping that their recovery will be expedited by the double or triple dose. Some diseases are infectious. Unfortunately, health is not. They should try to make health also infectious.

I am not a serious person by nature. I cannot therefore be an advocate of serious sickness. I am talking about minor ailments, which are part of a healthy life. If you are feeling low, neglected by the family and friends, taken for granted by colleagues, my advice is contract a minor illness -- and sees the difference. It is good for your morale.

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A Fable for our Times

A Fable for our Times
By Narendra Luther

Once upon a time, there was a wolf. He felt thirsty and went to the nearby stream to drink water. There he saw at a distance a lamb also drinking water. Suddenly he felt hungry. But he wanted to appear to be reasonable because the local panchayat had promulgated a rule that no one would be killed without due process. So, he went up to the lamb and asked him why he was polluting the water. The lamb replied meekly that he could not be doing so because he was drinking down stream while the wolf was drinking up stream. The wolf then thought of another ruse. He asked him why he had abused him last year. The lamb again replied respectfully that it could not be so because he was not even born then. At this insolence the wolf said, ’Well, if it was not you, then it must have been your mother’. Saying that, he pounced upon the lamb and ate it up in no time.


The wolf then sought the blessings of the Panchayat for his taking the law into his own hands. Some senior members of the Panchayat said what the wolf had done and was doing was not right. The wolf said the members did not know that the world had changed and that it must now listen to the wolf because he knew what was best for the animals. However, when the wolf sensed the mood of the majority of the members, he said that the subject need not be discussed. After all discussion was all talk. And talk was less important than work.

Earlier there used to be a bear and generally, if the wolf exhibited some overbearing trait, the bear would object and warn to him to behave. Lately, however, the bear had become unwell and had begun to depend upon the wolf even for its sustenance. But this time, he sent a message from his bed that he did not like what the wolf had started doing. An old fox and a cheetah whom the wolf had once mauled badly also joined in the protest. They all felt that the old world in which the wolf and the bear had always opposed each other was good for the other animals. But there was no point in moping about it.

We have all read the old nursery rhyme:
‘Mary had a little lamb whose fleece was white as snow
And every where that Mary went the lamb was sire to go.’
Not only that. Whatever Mary asked, the lamb was sure to do. Once Mary decided to fight a burly fellow who had annoyed him. The lamb joined him readily.

The fable and the nursery rhyme have come alive today. It does not require much imagination to identify the wolf and across the Atlantic, our little Mary’s Lamb. I write this on Day 6 of the campaign of the wolf and Mary’s Lamb against the lamb. The result seems to be a foregone conclusion but the tragedy must unfold itself in slow motion.

In one fell blow, the US has virtually sidelined the UN. It has mocked at world opinion. It says that no country should amass weapon of mass destruction. But that dictum does not apply to it. What is the use of being a super power if you are below the law like any other weakling? The sole super cop of the world needs to have weapons to discipline the anti-social elements. In George Bush’s Animal Farm, as in George Orwell’s, ‘All animals are equal. But some are more equal than others’.

No, the US has not merely sidelined the UN. It has buried it, like the League of Nations was. The international ‘social contract’, which first found expression in the League, and was later refined in the UN, has been scrapped. It has taken us back to the ‘state of nature’ where might was right. That was the primordial law of the jungle. That is the only practical basis on which life can be lived under the new order. The US has also thrown out the America dream of liberty, equality and the pursuit of happiness. Earlier it was held to be universal. Now it is only for the Americans. So out goes the UN, which embodied all these values. Time has now come for another world body to emerge from the ashes of the UN -- if it dares.

America, which attaches such importance to public opinion, has decided to experiment how far it can go in flouting it on international scale. There are protests all over the world. But people obviously do not know what is good for them. Mom used to know. Now since she is no longer there, Uncle Sam will tell them what is good for them. A grand coalition has been formed with Mary, its lamb, some foxes, and mice. They will all get their share of the carcass when the hunt is complete. Well that is the promise for now. But when once the hunt is complete, the hunter may want to go ahead to new grounds. After all the world is full of quarries if the hunter has the will and the weapons to go on.

They say America wants oil. Yes, it does. Who does not? But America professes loftier objectives. It wants to rid the world of the terrorists and replace the axis of evil with the axis of virtue so that every one can then pursue the American dream all over the world without having to go to America. A truly noble objective. So much in the interest of all of us. Shouldn’t we be grateful?

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A multi-faceted prince

A multi-faceted prince
By Narendra Luther

The founder of Hyderabad, Mohammed Quli Qutb Shah (b.1565; d.1611) was a prince, poet, lover, and a builder. He ascended the throne in 1580 at the age of 15 and ruled for thirty-one years.

Lover

As a young prince he fell in live with a Hindu maiden, Bhagmati by name. In 1591 he founded the new city 6 kilometers from Golconda across the river Musi and after his beloved, called it Bhagnagar. Its chronogrammatic title which yields the year of its completion, was Farkhunda Buniyad which in Persian means ‘of fortunate foundation’ – the equivalent of the name Bhagnagar.

It was one of the first elaborately planned cities anywhere. The Sultan wanted it to be ‘unparalleled in the world and a replica of heaven itself’. The inspiration for its architectural plans and layout was drawn from Iran – and in particular the then new city of Isfahan.

Builder

First of all, the Charminar was built as the city centre. Four roads were made to radiate from it in the four cardinal directions. Fourteen thousand shops, houses, inns, baths, schools, and mosques were built as part of the original plan. Amongst the original public buildings was the Dar-ul-shifa or the general hospital. Some of the buildings including this hospital still stand today. However, none of the dozen-odd palaces, which were constructed by Mohammed Quli, has survived the ravages of the Mughal invasion and subsequent neglect. Some had as many as nine storeys. Aurangazeb, on his inspection of the city after the Mughal victory in 1687 was surprised to see such tall and magnificent structures.

The city had extensive gardens both within and without it and the name of some localities still carry the prefix or suffix of bagh (garden). The French traveller, Thevenot noted the garden-city character of Bhagnagar and wondered how the arches of mansions supported the weight of terrace-gardens. Tavenier, Barnier, Ferishta, Abbe Carre and other foreign visitors in the 17th century and subsequently sang paeans in praise of the city. Many believed that it was bigger and better than the Mughal cities of the day like Agra and Lahore!

Mohammed Quli was as great, if not a bigger builder than Shah Jahan the Mughal was. A recent study by a German architect has tried to prove with reference to the verses in the holy Quran that Mohammed Quli’s injunction about the new city was not a mere figure of speech. The city was in fact laid on the pattern of the Garden of Eden in its essential features.

Poet

Mohammed Quli was a prolific and a versatile poet. He wrote nearly 1,00,000 lines of poetry in Persian, and in every genre of what was later to be called Urdu.

Before him Dakhni poetry had been largely religious. Quli introduced the secular element into it. He talks of nature in its variegated aspects, seasons of the year, flowers, fruits, vegetables, gardens, social life, customs, and festivals. He sings of the pleasures of physical love with a rare candour and abandon. For him there is no difference between a Hindu and a Muslim:

Kufar reet kya hor Islam reet
Har ek reet mein hai ishq ka raaz

(What is the heathen’s creed -- and the Muslim’s.
Every practice is based on the secret of love.)

Further:

Main na janun Kaba o but khana o maikhana koon
Dektha hoon par kahan diktha hai tuj mukh ka safa

(I don’t know the holy Kaaba, the idol’s temple or the tavern,
I look everywhere but can’t see a face as clear as yours)


On love he has some observations of universal truth:

Suno log meri prem kahani
Keh peela hai rang ashiqui ki nishani

(Listen folks to my tale of love,
A palate complexion signifies a lover).

Figures of Speech

Quli often employs the devices of alliteration and onomatopoeia very effectively. Note the following:

Piya soon rat jagi hai so dikthi hai sudhan sarkhush
Madan sarkhush, sayan sarkhush, anjan sarkhush nayan sarkhush

(Oh lady, you have kept the whole night awake with your lover.
Cupid is happy, so are the couch, the collyrium - and your eyes)

Dandana garja joban badal niman
Kangana jhalkar minj sunao tum

(Youth thunders like a cloud.
Let’s hear the jingle of bangles).

Unfortunately, the rhythm and internal rhyme abounding in his poetry can’t be put across in translation adequately.

Hindi element

Quli had a sound and extensive knowledge of the Hindi ragas. He mentions Asavari, Dhanashree, Gauri, Malahar, Kalyan, Basant and Ramkali in his poems. He declares his preference for music in the following couplet:

Mere sang mil bajaati sankh gaati, Sankhara abhran
Sriraga jo gati istri to mujko bhati hai

(She who plays the conch with me and sings Snakhrabhram,
The one who sings Sriraga -- that woman I like).

Quli’s choice of subjects was unlimited. He covered the entire range of life in its variations. His idiom sprang from the soil and his language was the one spoken by the common people in their daily lives. He has been compared to Nazeer Akbar Abadi of Agra (1740-1830) as a people’s poet. But Nazeer was a plebian, whereas Quli was a ruler.

His range

Quli is a poet of sight and sound, of relish and savour, of fragrance and redolence, of spice and flavour, of sunrise and daylight, of rhyme and rhythm, of dance and music – of the celebration of life. His poetry glorifies all phases of biological existence. He rejoices in seasons of the year, the rhythmic succession of which makes the sum of our life-spring, monsoon, and winter, summer. He celebrates festivals, birthdays, weddings, New Year Days. On each topic, there is not one poem, but many. As life’s cycle goes on, he reverts to each of these recurring events with renewed vigour. He doesn’t get bored with life, because every aspect of it excites him. There is no pessimism or cynicism in him. He is an extrovert whose reaction to events is always positive. He gloats on being the favourite ‘servant’ of the Prophet and the Imams, which made him a favourite of Fate. He glories in being a ruler and living a life ease and sensuality. A pure sense of life pulsates through his writings.

A Misconception

Some people say that Mohammed Quli was also a poet in Telugu. No such claim has been substantiated. I have been able to find only three words of Telugu in his entire anthology – ‘Em Mari em’.


His invocation at the inauguration of the new city of Bhagnagar, has become famous:

Mera sheahar logan soon mamoor kar
Rakhya joon tun darya mein min Ya Sami

(O God, fill my city with people, as you have the river with fish)

Obviously this prayer was heard and the city now suffers from over- population. It has one of the highest rates of growth in the country!

For his legendary love for Bhagmati, and his rich and enchanting poetry, Mohammed Quli has won a permanent place in the hearts of the people of the city. An annual festival is held to commemorate him. Generations of singers have sung his poems. Amongst them the most popular is:

Piya baj pyala piya jai na; piya baj ik til jiya jai na
Kate hain piya bin saburi karo; kaha jai amma kiya jai na
Nahi ishq jis woh bada koodh hai; kadi us say mil baisa jai na
Qutb Shah na do mujh divane ko pand; diwane ko kuch pand diya jai na.

(Without the lover one cannot drink the cup!
Without him one cannot live for a moment.
They counsel patience in the absence of love.
Ah! It is easier said than done.
One unacquainted with love is a half-wit!
Don’t ever have anything to do with him.
Don’t give me any advice to a lunatic like me
You can’t din sense into an insane person).


Mohammed Quli is regarded as the first Urdu poet with an anthology to his credit. Dr.Zore edited his anthology for the first time in 1940. Professor Syeda Jaffar brought out a more extensive volume in 1985. Such is the liberal use of Hindi expressions and idiom in his works that, but for the script, he might even be considered a poet of Hindi.

No wonder that of all the rulers of the Deccan, no one is remembered more fondly than this versatile man. He is commemorated every year on a befittingly grand scale.

***
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The Demise of Dakhni

The Demise of Dakhni
By Narendra Luther


With the fall of Golconda in 1687, the Dakhni suffered a collapse – almost a demise.

Incidentally, Golconda was the last of the southern sultanates to fall to the Mughals. The language which had ruled the roost till then now went under and was superceded by Urdu of the North. Hitherto the term ‘Urdu’ had not been used at all. Dakhni and also the language of daily use in the North were referred to as Hindi. The conquest of Golconda by the Mughals had an effect somewhat similar to that of the conquest of the South by Allauddin Khilji four centuries earlier. The language, which had been used in Delhi and around, came along with the new rulers and overpowered the native language. The word ‘Urdu’ means an ‘army camp’ in Turkish. Hence it was used for the language spoken by the soldiery and the man in the street. By definition, it could not have been very developed as a literary vehicle.

However, unlike individuals, languages don’t die all of a sudden. They linger on and it takes decades - even centuries - for them to be completely wiped out. Dakhni was reduced to the status of second-rate language, and then to that of a dialect.

Vali Dakhni (died 17070)

The most famous name during this twilight phase of Dakhni is that of Vali Dakhni. He was born in Gujarat, which at that time was considered a part of Deccan. His compositions of that period bear the same stamp as that of earlier Dakhni poets and writers. It is virtually Hindi and there are lots of words, similes, and metaphors drawn from the Hindu mythology Note the reference to the Hindu holy places like Kashi, Hardwar and the river Yamuna in one of his poems:

‘Koocha-e-yar ain Kasi hai, Jogi dil wahan ka basi hai,
Pi ke bairag ke udasi soon, dil pe mere sada usdasi hai
Ai sanam tuj jabeen upar yeh khal, Hindu-e- Hardwar basi hai
Zulf teri hai mauj Jamuna ki, Til-e- nazk uske joon sanasi hai


(My beloved’s street is Kashi, my heart is its resident
Separated from my beloved, I am always morose
The beauty-spot on your cheek, is a Hindu residing in Hardwar
Your tress is the wave of the Yamuna, the spot near it is the mendicant)


In one of his poems its amusing to know that while talking of ‘kufr’ (heathenism), he talks of Ram:



‘Kufr koon tor dil soon dil mein rakh kar neeyat khalis
Hua hai Ram bin hasrat soon ja Lachchman so Ram iska


There is an echo of Mohammed Quli in the following couplet:

‘Sajan ka baj alam mein dagar naeen,
Haman mein hai magar ham ko khabar naeen’.

(None else matters in the world except my love
He is within me, yet I am unaware of that)


He is believed to have died in the year of Aurangazeb’s death -- 1707. However, before that his compositions had reached Delhi and won acclaim. Later, he himself visited Delhi and was warmly received in the literary circles there. In Delhi, on the advice of the well known poet, saint and scholar, Shah Sa’adullah Gulshan, he started writing in Urdu with an overlay of Persian which was the vogue in Delhi.

There is a noticeable difference in his poetry after that. Note the following:

Us ko hasil kyonke ho jag mein faragh-e- zindagi
Gardash-e-aflak ho jis ko ayyagh-e- zindagi

(How can he ever find his peace of mind
The cup of whose life is forever revolving like sky?)

Vali is therefore an inhabitant of two worlds – Deccan, and Delhi. He is a poet both of the Dakhni, as well as of Urdu. He introduced the two languages to each other and built bridges between them. Then, he walked, as it were, over that bridge to what was to become Urdu. Garcon de Tassy, a Frenchman edited his anthology in French in 1823.

Behri (died 1718)

Qazi Mahamood Behri is another well-known name of the period. He is believed to have died in 1718. He wrote a long poem called ‘Man Lagan’. According to Dr. Moonis, Behri has probably used more Hindi words in his poems than any other poet:

Ai roop tera rati rati hai, Parbat parbat pati pati hai

(You reside in the smallest object, in every mountain, in every leaf)

He also wrote a eulogy of the new emperor, Aurangzeb.



Shah Turab


Shah Turab’s ‘Man Samjhavan’ (1758) can be considered to be the last composition in Dakhni. It is a fee translation of ‘Manache Shlok’ by the Maratha saint-poet Ramdas (1608-81). Part-religious, part- reformist, it preaches principles of good living.

The opening lines of his composition are:

Sifat kar awwal us ki jo Ram haiga, usi Ram se ham ko aram haiga
Sada Ram ke nam soon kam haiga, haman dhyan usi ka subho sham haiga

(Praise the one who is Rama, He gives us solace
Always concerned with him, forever absorbed in him)

Further, he establishes an identity between Krishna and Ali;

Kishen jis ko kehte Ali nam haiga, Ali nam lene soon aram haiga

(Krishna is the same as Ali, you get peace by taking Ali’s name)


The poet calls himself a ‘Hussaini Brahmin’. It is said that in Pushkar in Rajasthan there is even now a group of dervishes who called themselves ‘Hussaini Brahmins’. They make their living by begging in the name of Hussain. They have adopted Hindu customs and eat only with Syeds amongst Muslims.

The late Professor Naseeruddin Hashmi enumerates 22 poets in the post- Golconda era – including Vali and Behri.

By a strange twist, Dakhni, the older and senior language, having been fully assimilated into the ‘language of the market’, was given the honour of its ancestry by being designated ‘ancient Urdu’. It is interesting to speculate what would have happened if, instead of being conquered, the Deccan had conquered the North!

But then it is one of the ‘ifs’ of history – and of literature.


***

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The charming lingo of Bhagnagar

The charming lingo of Bhagnagar
By Narendra Luther

When I first came to Hyderabad in 1959, I felt at once something strange and familiar in the language spoken here. Even the written language had terms, which I had not come across in standard Urdu texts before. It took me some time and a reading of the works of some medieval poets and writers before I exclaimed ‘Eureka’. What had a ring of déjà vu about it was the profusion of Punjabi words in it.

To understand the reason for that we have to go back into history.

Birth of Urdu

Mehmood Ghaznavi conquered Punjab in 1020 A.D. and made it a part of his empire. The conquering army spoke Persian, while the local population spoke Punjabi. This conquest also led to extensive and repeated waves of immigration into India from area where Persian was spoken. Mohammed Ghouri overthrew Ghaznavi in 1186. Seven years later, in 1193, one of his generals, Qutubuddin Aibak captured Delhi and became its Sultan. So, for 173 years while Punjab was under the occupation first of Ghaznavi and then of Ghouri, this interaction continued. The inevitable intercourse gave birth to a new language -- Urdu. It can be said to be an offspring of Persian and Punjabi and its motherland is Punjab

So the language which the first Sultan of Delhi brought to it was a mixture of Punjabi and Persian.

Influence of the South

A century later, in 1295, Allaudin Khilji conquered the South. The language, which he and his troops brought with them, was the language born in Punjab and developed in and around Delhi. In 1327 Muhammad Tughlaq shifted his capital from Delhi to Devagiri and named it Daulatabad. A number of people, including nobles and some 500 Sufi saints followed the royal train. They supplemented the language already brought by Khilji. In 1347 the local chieftains revolted against Muhammad Tughlaq and established the Bahmani Empire. As a policy the new rulers did not keep any connection with the North. From then on therefore the Urdu of the North and that of the south developed independently of each other. The southern branch of the language naturally absorbed the influences of the neighbouring languages like Marathi, Telugu, and Kannada. Expressions like ‘hau’, ‘nakko’ and ‘kaiko’ and many others come from Marathi. In Telugu, while parting, one doesn’t say: ‘I will go’. Instead he says: ‘I will come back.’ In Andhra, I had once waited on and on for my boss who had said good-by to me in these terms. My deputy told me that when he had said “I shall come back’, he meant that he was going. This Telugu idiom amongst others influenced the lingo of Hyderabad.

Dakhni as a dialect

That was the language used by the poets of the South, like Feroz Shah, Burhanuddin Janam and Quresh Bidri, and later Gawwasi, Vajahi and Mohammad Quli. It was in 1555 that for the first time the term ‘Deccani’ or ‘Dakhni’ (from ‘Dakshin’ meaning South) was used for that language in the anthology of Feroze Shah. That language is full of Punjabi words. I once analyzed the glossary of Deccani words given in the anthology of Mohammad Quli Qutb Shah edited by Prof. Mrs. Syeda Jaffar. Quli, incidentally, is the founder of Hyderabad and the first Urdu poet to have a published anthology to his credit. Out of 2466 words listed in the glossary, 1009 or 41% was of Punjabi origin. Out of those, 494 words or 49% are now obsolete in Urdu but still current in Punjabi.

In 1687 when Aurangazeb conquered Golkonda, the Urdu of the North came to overpower Dakhni, which by that time had become a fully developed language. The comparative absence of Arabic and Persian words and the predominance of purely Indian sentiments and imagery characterized it. For example, Quli refers to God by the Hindi appellations like ‘Kartar’,’Sain’and ‘Datar’ etc. rather than ‘Khuda’ or ‘Allah’. Scholars like Dr. Masud Husain Khan have called Dakhni ‘old Urdu’. The poets and writers were proud of the language and as early as in 1613 AD, the poet Quresh Bidri had exhorted the people: ‘Tu Deccani hai pyare, tu Deccanich bol’ (You are Deccani, dear friend speak in that language).

The Current Scene

By the middle of the 18th century, it ceased to be a literary medium and was reduced to a dialect and the imperial Urdu of the North became the standard language. The natives now only speak Daikin. Some poets and prose writers specialize in it. For an average listener, some of its terms and idioms and the way they are rendered create spontaneous humour. The actor Mehmood employs it in the Hindi cinema to arouse laughter. Poets like the late Suleman Khateeb of Gulbarga, Ali Saib Mian and Sarvar Danda used it to great effect in mushairas. Amongst the contemporary poets of Dakhni the names of the late Ashraf Khundmiri and Himayatullah are worth mentioning. Khahmkhah mixes it with Urdu to create laughter. Fareed Anjum is a good contemporary poet in the dialect. In prose, the humorist Maseeh Anjum who passed away recently was undoubtedly the best exponent of the rural idiom of the dialect. As a language, Dakhni is now all but gone.

My two children had picked up the colloquial Deccani from their friends and servants. Their spontaneous expression like ‘nakko’ for ‘no’, ‘kaiko’ for ‘why’ and ‘hau’ for ‘yes’ evoked such laughter from our relations in the North that they used to be teased only to hear these expressions. There is a famous joke about a stranger to the city who enquired from a young boy whether the road he was standing on led to Charminar. The boy replied casually, ‘hau’. A respectable middle-class passer-by heard this. He called the boy and admonished him for using a vulgarism like ‘hau’.

The boy asked meekly; “What should I have said, Sir?”
You should have said: “Ji han ” replied the old citizen somberly.
“So ‘hau’ is a vulgar word?”
“Hau”, confirmed the elder involuntarily.
Now small islands of the Deccani dialect are coming up on foreign soils like England, the U.S. and Canada etc. where Hyderabadi emigrants have settled down. Most likely, it will be frozen there like, for example, the old Norwegian language has in America.
But while it is still here, let’s enjoy its quaintness.

***

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Prince, Poet, Lover, Builder

Prince, Poet, Lover, Builder
By Narendra Luther


We have dealt with the plebian poets of Golconda. Now it is time to meet a royal bard. The founder of Hyderabad, Mohammed Quli Qutb Shah( b.1565; d.1611) was a prince, poet, lover, and a builder.

Mohammed Quli was a prolific and a versatile poet. He wrote nearly 1,00,000 lines of poetry in Persian, and in every genre of what was later to be called Urdu.

Secular Element

Before him Dakhni poetry had been largely religious. Quli introduced the secular element into it. He talks of nature in its variegated aspects, seasons of the year, flowers, fruits, vegetables, gardens, social life, customs, and festivals. He sings of the pleasures of physical love with a rare candour and abandon. For him there is no difference between a Hindu and a Muslim:

Kufar reet kya hor Islam reet
Har ek reet mein hai ishq ka raaz

(What is the heathen’s creed -- and the Muslim’s.
Every practice is based on the secret of love.)

Further:

Main na janun Kaba o but khana o maikhana koon
Dektha hoon par kahan diktha hai tuj mukh ka safa

(I don’t know the holy Kaaba, the idol’s temple or the tavern,
I look everywhere but can’t see a face as clear as yours)


On love he has some observations of universal truth:

Suno log meri prem kahani
Keh peela hai rang ashiqui ki nishani

(Listen folks to my tale of love,
A palate complexion signifies a lover).

Figures of Speech

Quli often employs the devices of alliteration and onomatopoeia very effectively. Note the following:

Piya soon rat jagi hai so dikthi hai sudhan sarkhush
Madan sarkhush, sayan sarkhush, anjan sarkhush nayan sarkhush

(Oh lady, you have kept the whole night awake with your lover.
Cupid is happy, so are the couch, the collyrium - and your eyes)

Dan dana garja joban badal niman
Kangana jhalkar minj sunao tum

(Youth thunders like a cloud.
Let’s hear the jingle of bangles).

Unfortunately, the rhythm and internal rhyme abounding in his poetry can’t be put across in translation adequately.

Hindi element

Quli had a sound and extensive knowledge of the Hindi ragas. He mentions Asavari, Dhanashree, Gauri, Malahar, Kalyan, Basant and Ramkali in his poems. He declares his preference for music in the following couplet:

Mere sang mil bajaati sankh gaati, Sankhara abhran
Sriraga jo gati istri to mujko bhati hai

(She who plays the conch with me and sings Snakhrabhram,
The one who sings Sriraga -- that woman I like).

Quli’s choice of subjects was unlimited. The entire range of life in its variations was covered by him. His idiom sprang from the soil and his language was the one spoken by the common people in their daily lives. He has been compared to Nazeer Akbar Abadi of Agra (1740-1830) as a people’s poet. But Nazeer was a plebian, whereas Quli was a ruler.

His range

Quli is a poet of sight and sound, of relish and savour, of fragrance and redolence, of spice and flavour, of sunrise and daylight, of rhyme and rhythm, of dance and music – of the celebration of life. His poetry glorifies all phases of biological existence. He rejoices in seasons of the year, the rhythmic succession of which makes the sum of our life-spring, monsoon, winter, summer. He celebrates festivals, birthdays, weddings, New Year Days. On each topic, there is not one poem, but many. As life’s cycle goes on, he reverts to each of these recurring events with renewed vigour. He doesn’t get bored with life, because every aspect of it excites him. There is no pessimism or cynicism in him. He is an extrovert whose reaction to events is always positive. He gloats on being the favourite ‘servant’ of the Prophet and the Imams, which made him a favourite of Fate. He glories in being a ruler and living a life ease and sensuality. A pure sense of life pulsates through his writings.

A Misconception

Some people say that Mohammed Quli was also a poet in Telugu. No such claim has been substantiated. I have been able to find only three words of Telugu in his entire anthology – ‘Em Mari em’.


His invocation at the inauguration of the new city of Bhagnagar, has become famous:

Mera sheahar logan soon mamoor kar
Rakhya joon tun darya mein min Ya Sami

(O God, fill my city with people, as you have the river with fish)


Obviously this prayer was heard and the city now suffers from over- population. It has one of the highest rates of growth in the country!


For his legendary love for Bhagmati, and his rich and enchanting poetry, Mohammed Quli has won a permanent place in the hearts of the people of the city. An annual festival is held to commemorate him. Generations of singers have sung his poems. Amongst them the most popular is:

Piya baj pyala piya jai na; piya baj ik til jiya jai na
Kate hain piya bin saburi karo; kaha jai amma kiya jai na
Nahi ishq jis woh bada koodh hai; kadi us say mil baisa jai na
Qutb Shah na do mujh divane ko pand; diwane ko kuch pand diya jai na


(Without the lover one cannot drink the cup!
Without him one cannot live for a moment.
They counsel patience in the absence of love.
Ah! It is easier said than done.
One unacquainted with love is a half-wit!
Don’t ever have anything to do with him.
Don’t give me any advice to a lunatic like me
You can’t din sense into an insane person).


Mohammed Quli is regarded as the first Urdu poet with an anthology to his credit. Dr.Zore edited his anthology for the first time in 1940. Professor Syeda Jaffar brought out a more extensive volume in 1985.

Mohd. Quli’s three successors were also poets. We will meet them next time.

***

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