A tale of Oxford and Cambridge returned liars

A few days back I went to have lunch in Zeus café in Goldwin Smith Hall in Cornell University (US). I had gone there to enjoy a laid back afternoon lunch spiced with the explicit or implicit eroticism of the ‘abstract’,   with a mystic, dusky, poetic,  and a dangerously attractive Indian girl but,  sooner than later, I realized that the political ghosts would haunt my erotic afternoon siestas also. There I met a Professor, who is supposedly an expert on Indian polity. The honorable professor was facing some bureaucratic delays in getting Indian visa to attend a conference.  I told the professor that, since now we have a new prime minister and a stable government so they will fix these problems, to which the learned professor replied that oh no, the new prime minster will ‘fix’ all the Muslims. He further gave a grand conclusion that the days of Indian secularism are now over, with the victory of BJP. Similarly, a few days back I saw several posts on the facebook  from my Stephanian and supposedly Marxist, and liberal colleagues(though a lot of them wanted a laal batti, red wine, good cigars and Cambridge University) , which read, “RIP Secular India, Birth- 15^th August 1947, Death- 16^th May 2014”.

 ‘Secularism’ in India, now it seems that has become a nagging irritant, often used by a motley garb of intellectuals (mainly the professor-politicians of Congress party ), feudal  and caste-based political parties, and attention-seeking self-proclaimed coffee-table revolutionaries like Arundhati Roy and Aruna Roy, to shield all sorts of inefficiency, policy paralysis and minority-appeasing  vote-bank politics.  It is not something which is hated in India, but something which irritates. The mere mention of the word brings forth the images of inefficient Congress party and its deracinated group of intellectual ministers like Dr. Shashi Tharoor, Mani Shankar Aiyar, Manmohan Singh, Kapil Sibbal, and our ‘beloved’ and the only ‘rational and a bit ‘erotic’ soul, Mr. Digvijay Singh . Further, it brings forth the images of anti-national, provocative, biased and intolerant English writers like Arundhati Roy, Aruna Roy, Praful Bidwai and some jhola-chap JNU type intellectuals.

The question arises that why this has happened?  The answer to this question lies in the development and socio-academic as well as political projection of the concept of secularism. Before moving on to deeper exploration, it is worth mentioning that Indian secularism is essentially rooted in its great cultural and spiritual tradition of harmony, and peaceful coexistence. Any attempt to impose pseudo-intellectual versions of secularism which is based on distortion or denigration of this aforementioned glorious tradition will be met with outright rejection and rise of NAMO. And the present scenario is the one where the agenda of secularism is hijacked, distorted and abused by the left-leaning academia and media of the country. All the above mentioned self-proclaimed stalwarts of secularism and their discourses to protect the ‘idea of India’ are basically ‘moth-eaten’ attempts at intellectual sophistry, learned and rehearsed in the patronizing  arm of our ‘Nehru-Gandhi’ dynasty, and whose only aim is to please the mother-son duo to get good offices.

Indian Secularism is primarily a cultural phenomenon which has evolved over last 5000 years. In fact the word secularism itself is an incomplete expression. The perfect expression should be ‘peaceful and harmonious co-existence’.  Any attempt to define Indian secularism, politically and academically must understand the subtle nuances of this great cultural tradition of 5000 years.

India is a country which has witnessed a tolerant and respectful attitude towards diverse cultural, ideological and religious traditions since the dawn of civilization in this sub-continent. In the age of Buddha, there were about 364 heterodox sects thriving in Bharatvarsha. The sects included diverse groups such as Jainism, which believed in atheism, pluralism and non-violence, amoralism of Purana kassapa, Fatalism of Makhalli Ghosal, materialism of Ajit Kesakambali, materialism of Carvaka, eternalism of Pakudh Kachchayana and agnosticism of Sanjay Belathhiputta. Throughout the course of Indian history diverse cultural and religious groups have co-existed peacefully. Their beliefs were radically opposite to each other like Sanatana Dharma/Brahmana Dharma believed in soul and God whereas Buddhism did not believe in soul and God. The materialists and their mentor Carvaka believed in complete indulgence and denied all other-worldly entities. Similarly, Sankyhas believed in dualist world whereas Sankara and his advaitvaad believed in monism. In addition to these there were ultra-heterodox sects like tantriks, kapalikas, shaktas and saivas and aghoras who believed in sacrifice and even practiced sexual and orgiastic rituals in their tradition. All these diverse groups co-existed and evolved together without any major violent clash, for thousands of years and beautifully crafted the spiritual soul of Bharat varsha which believes in love and harmony. How deep these values of tolerance and faith are embedded in Indian mindset is amply demonstrated by the fact that any Hindu, whenever s/he comes across a religious place of any sect naturally happens to join his/her hands in reverence.

Further, the tolerance can be seen in the fact that same Buddha who did not believe in God and began as a rebel against Brahmanism is now regarded as an incarnation of Vishnu just like Rama or Krishna. In the similar vein, Carvaka who is an ardent proponent of materialist indulgence and pleasure, and categorically denies God is mentioned as a pious saint lecturing Yudhishthira in Mahabharata, which believes in Krishna as God.

In India several ethnic groups came as invaders like Shakas, Kushanas, Hunas, Greeks and Pahlavas but all of them were assimilated in Hindu pantheon of the sub-continent.  All this happened with peace and love. In fact foreign rulers like Kanishka organized 3rd Buddhist council in Kashmir. Greeks adopted Bhagwat dharma. The first historical evidence of Bhagwatism and Gita comes from a pillar built by Heliodorus to mark his devotion to Lord Vasudeva (Krishna or Vishnu) in Vidisha. Heliodorus was a Greek ambassador in the court of Sunga king Bhagbhadra.  Similarly, Tormana Huna who came as barbaric invader became a Saivite. Further, the Southern India which was linguistically, culturally and religiously different from the mainstream Aryan faiths and beliefs was assimilated in a very peaceful and tactical way in Hinduism. Their local deities like Murugan, Menakshi goddess and Balaji were assimilated as forms of Lord Kartikeya, Vishnu and Durga in Hinduism. In course of time Jainism and Buddhism which started as separate religions became a part of hindu cultural and spiritual mosaic.

 In medieval India, due to Bhakti movements and Sufi movements, India witnessed a growth of ‘ganga-jamuni Tahzeeb’ of Hindus and Muslims based on harmonious existence. Sufi shrines like Ajmer sharif and Auliya sahib in Delhi are worshipped by Hindus and Muslims alike. The faiths like Sikhism which emerged in medieval India had elements of both Islam and Hinduism. The peaceful coexistence or so-called secularism was seen in many strange and funny forms also. The cult of Kali-worshipping thugs which mercilessly killed traders and pilgrims had both Muslims and Hindu castes like rajputs, Brahmins and even vaishyas. The community of Jogis in Mewat (rajasthan) is religiously Islamic but they earn their living by singing devotional songs of Hindu God Lord Shiva.

India is the only place where Jewish community never faced any discrimination and the oldest Jewish synagogue still sprawls with all pride and safety in Kolkata. India has the world smallest minority of Zoroastrians who migrated from Iran when Turkish Islamic invaders forcibly converted the people of Iran and massacred millions. Even in the heydays of its power and military might India had never been an aggressor country. King Skandhagupta of Gupta dynasty and Lalitaditya Muktapida were powerful enough to conquer Asia but they never ventured out of India with any sword of aggressive Hinduism. Mighty King Asoka, the ‘Piyanam Piyadasi’ who ruled from Kashmir to Kanyakumari and Chittagong to the borders of Iran, went to central Asia and Srilanka  with the message of Buddha not with the sword of religion. India has a rich tradition of ‘Shastrartha’ in which ideological differences are debated in philosophical dialectics. Such debates were based on logic and rationality and they never advocated suppressing the opponent’s view by force. The Upnishads of the vedic tradition propounded the idea of ‘Vasudhev Kutumbkam’ which implies that the whole world is one family.

The secular-liberal brigade of India never displayed any understanding of this great tradition or even showed any respect to this great tradition. In fact, their only agenda was to project secularism as an insult to this great tradition.  This strain of secularism manifested itself in justifying cow slaughter, caste based quotas, haj subsidies, writing mercy petitions for Ajmal Kasab, addressing Osama as Reverend Osama Ji and indicting RSS in 26/11 terror attacks of Mumbai.

The left-leaning intelligentsia has always looked at Hindu scriptures like Gita, Ramayana , Mahabharata and Upnishads with an attitude of mockery, derision and hatred. Whenever there was any demand for proper academic research of Hindu traditions, history and religion the attempts were denied and insulted with accented English. The people who made such demands were scoffed at as a bunch of rustic villagers who could not speak in English. Even their rightful demands like inclusion and academic inquiry of Yoga, ancient Indian scientific texts like Vimanashastra, Charaksamhita, Mahabharata and vedic mathematics were branded as communal and venomous. Once in my seminar class in International Relations with Allen Carlson, we were discussing the dominance of western world in international relations theory. I was absolutely stunned to learn that these great thinkers and academicians of western world had no idea of Acharya Vishnu Gupta (Kautilya) and his ideas on political theory. In the educational curriculum the obvious villains like Aurangzeb, Muhammad Bin Tughlaq and Firuz Tughlaq have been glorified. The roads in capital city of Delhi have been named after them.  

The facts have been distorted to satisfy personal agendas. The NCERT texts and historians like Satish Chandra make a passing reference to the massacre of 30,00 people ordered by Akbar in Chittor as if the Zill-e-Ilahi was going to award him the Mansab of 7000 and allow him to sit next to Abul Fazl (sometimes I feel that he may be a rebirth of Abul Fazl). The brutal murders and forcible conversions ordered by barbarous Islamic rulers have been mentioned like a small joke in the history text books and endless chapters have been devoted to sing the exaggerated glories of Sufi saints. Even the Sufi as great as Nizamuddin Auliya once said that Hindus recognize that Islam is a great religion but they do not convert.  Such a great soul looks utterly greedy and helpless when it makes such a statement.

In the western world whenever I speak to academicians or anyone interested in India, they ask one question i.e. Is RSS a fascist organization who worship Hitler and Mussolini, and Is Modi going to fix minorities?

What shocks me and agitates me is the fact that such a horrendous lie has been spread over the years systematically by the syndicate of Congress and left-wing intellectual elites of India? When the leader of the ruling party and a Cambridge-educated Prime Minister called the prime ministerial candidate of the opposition party as butcher of Muslims, on baseless grounds they did the worst damage not to BJP, but to themselves and India’s international image. The world community never got to know of our glorious tolerant history but they got to know about this one man who was the biggest enemy of Congress. The congress government after ten years of revengeful investigation against Mr. Modi could not prove his involvement in Godhra riots. Even the Supreme Court gave clean chit to Narendra Bhai Modi. This man was ostracized my congress and left leaning intellectuals, and the media for about ten years, without any proven involvement in the riots. This is shameful for all of us.

In the similar vein RSS has been branded as fascist organization internationally. This argument is completely baseless. RSS, even at the wildest stretch of imagination is not fascist. It has never fought for offices. It has never spread any sort of racial hatred. Even the RSS’s notion of Hindutva is a cultural notion. It aims for preservation and promotion of the cultural and religious identity of all the religious groups living in India and that includes Muslims, Parsis, Jews and Christians also. Despite my disagreement with RSS leaders on several occasions, I have found them, people of impeccable character and honesty who devoted decades of their life to public and social service as opposed to Cambridge-Stephens educated left wing liberals whose backup plan was always writing a GRE exam. It is beyond any doubt that RSS has a strong base among common masses of India, where no one knows these so called secular intellectuals. This base of RSS is not based on Hindutva or any hate campaign, but it is based on the legendry social work done by them in the upliftment of tribal groups, cow protection, education and disaster relief. It has done a pioneering work in civil society movement in India. These aspects of RSS have never been brought to limelight by media. Why the UPA government could take Aruna Roy in National Advisory Council, who signed a mercy petition or Ajmal Kasab, and not anyone from RSS?

The liberal secular brigade found its venomous and revengeful secularism in falsely indicting the popular organizations like RSS in fake cases of terrorism, insulting and ostracizing them by calling them fascist. They found their secularism in catering to the whims and fancies of characterless sycophants and hindu-haters like John Dayala and Asaduddin Owaisi. These two individuals were never arrested when they made any inflammatory speeches. In fact, John Dayal was appointed a member on the committee on North-eastern states of India. Further, they found their secularism in insulting Hindu saints like Baba Ramdev and brutually assaulting them in the middle of night. Well, the surprising fact is that Arundhati Roy who blamed Indian government for ill-treating Muslims during 26/11, did not speak a word when Baba Ramdev and common people fasting against corruption were mercilessly beaten.  Aruna Roy, Harsh Mandar and Mr. Aiyar were not to be seen anywhere.

Tarak fateh, a Pakistani truth seeker, rightly tweeted a few days back that if Indian liberal intelligentsia can tolerate radical Muslim organizations like Ittehad -I-Musalmeen then, why can’t RSS? The left wing stalwarts like Arundhati Roy wrote ‘Monster in the Mirror’ on 26/11 in which she blamed the Indian government for treating Muslims badly. All these instances have created a perception in the common man’s mindset that whenever any Hindu interest is sacrificed the secular brigade people like Harsh Mandar, Medha Patkar , Aruna Roy, Barkha Dutt, Sagarika Ghosh, Manishakar Aiyar etc. will never speak up and they will take extra efforts in minority appeasement , which is actually true to a large extent. The common people of India do not trust these secular liberals. They have lost their credibility.

Coming to the Communal riots, it needs to be mentioned that the communal riots are a social phenomenon. It is a malaise whose causes are much deeper than global Islamic terrorism. There is a troubled history in the sub-continent. The problem of riots exists only between Hindus and Muslims, not with other communities like Parsis, Jews, Jains, Sikhs, Christians, and Buddhists etc. Why? The reason is that the forced conversions of medieval India left a deep impact in the Hindu mindset. It started when Solanki Rulers of Gujarat allowed Muslim traders a safe and secure existence in Gujarat. First time in the history of India a foreign ruler came and attacked the holiest shrine of Hindus i.e. Somnath. That invasion left a deep impact in the minds of people. Gujarat saw a continuous wave of loot and forced conversions after that. Not just Gujarat but entire North India including Kashmir saw a wave of forced conversions. This has never happened in the history of India. The phenomenon of forced conversion was completely alien to Hindu mindset. This led to strong resistance from Hindus and the proof is that in the entire region from Arabia to Malaysia India is the only country where after 1000 years of Muslim rule 82% population is still Hindu.  The common people are proud of this glorious history of resistance and their feelings can be witnessed in folklores of Rajasthan and north India.  The liberal brigade never accepted this history. I am not saying that it is true. Whether these claims are true or false can be found out only if there is a proper intellectual inquiry and debate. But the liberal brigade completely suppressed the right wing opinion in academia. The left wing academia and its domination never even allowed debate on these matters which are so close to Hindu sentiments. In Babri Masjid case, Supreme Court gave a judgment that there was a Hindu structure there. Now this is a question of religious sentiments of 100 crore Hindus of India. The liberals cannot brush it away as a demand of war-mongering bunch of communal fascists. While looking at Godhra riots, it must be seen that 57 hindu car sewaks were burnt alive in the train. The riots were knee-jerk reaction to that and the state has its own limitations in terms of resources etc. to control such sudden events.  However, the left wing media and intellectuals have never said a word about the burning of car sewaks.

Hence, to conclude I will say that when liars and the lies become so obvious and when they are presented with such refined intellectual sophistry then the common people who are innocent and live on their faith in their rulers come to hate the liars. The liars, no matter how educated they are, lose their credibility. With them, everything associated with them like their Cambridge degrees and Oxford diplomas also lose their credibility because people see those self-proclaimed messiahs of equality, insult a man just because he was a poor  ‘chay wallah’ in his childhood.  Then, occurs a revolution in which all the liars are thrown out mercilessly. How this process happens? The answer to this will be mentioned in detail by Rahul Gandhi in his autobiography which will be published from Italy after 30 to 40 years.

My suggestions for revamp of Indian diplomacy:
Honorable Prime Minister of India,
I am a graduate from Cornell University in Public Administration. In my 2 years of stay in the international diplomatic environment, I have realized that the world community suffers from lot of misconceptions about our foreign policy and our nation. The only way to address this issue is to make institutional changes in our foreign policy and diplomatic machinery. Here, I founded International Affairs Forum to promote soft power in diplomacy. I have realized that 21st century belongs to economic diplomacy and soft power. I am sending you few suggestions for making things better in our foreign policy.

1) The selection system must be changed. 1/4th of the diplomats can be selected through lateral entry system. Many bright Indian students are studying in Harvard, Fletcher school of diplomacy, Georgetown and many other such good universities. They can be asked to send their CVs and cover letter and then selected on the basis of personal or skype interview. Then they can be sent for 6 months orientation course in which they must be trained in Indian constitution, history, culture and diplomatic traditions. Having done that they can be sent for field assignments. Their performance must be reviewed after every 3 years and then a decision taken on retaining them or asking them to leave.

2) 1/4th of the candidates can be selected from the existing government officials in other central services, police services, state civil services, armed forces, private sector and non profit sector. They also should go through an orientation course and sent to field postings.

3) 50 % should be selected though regular competitive exam conducted by UPSC. Their tenure and the tenure of existing diplomats must be reviewed after every 3 to 5 years and then a decision taken on retaining them or not.

4) The ambassadors should be appointed from diverse areas like business, private sector, non profit sector, academicians and politicians. The nations where business interests are to be promoted can have envoys like Mr. Narayan Murthy etc.

5) we need to increase the number of diplomats to at least 4 to 5000.

6) We should get specialists in public diplomacy, soft power and water diplomacy and climate change.

7) All the processes of visa and passport must be made online. The fee must be accepted by credit card or checks and cash system should be abolished.

8) We must have a soft power secretariat to promote India's soft power across the world. For this the embassies must reach out to universities and academic and cultural institutions.

9) We must have a development secretariat in foreign ministry as now the major part of diplomacy is aids for development, poverty reduction, education etc in conflict areas. We should hire diplomats who are trained in international development studies.

10) India can take lead in reviving SAARC. To begin with, India can form SAARC Peace and Reconstruction Forces, with staff and corps recruited from all SAARC nations. They can, to begin with be posted in Afghanistan. They will engage in development work and train the local security forces. The development professionals can be recruited from our educational institutions like IIM, IRMA(Anand), JNU, Delhi university and other universities. Later, for youth a permanent SAARC peace volunteer corps can be formed. The dedicated band of youngsters will engage in fighting poverty, diseases, inequality in all SAARC nations and other conflict areas.

I have many other suggestions which I can send you on your personal email if you and the foreign ministry are interested. I can be contacted at ap749@cornell.edu.
Jaihind Jai Bharat
with warm regards,

                                                                  Why He Won?

When it comes to India, everything seems like a fantasy sequence of magical realism. The magical realism begins from its mythological Gods with multiple heads and continues to capture the domains of history, culture and politics. This is the country where one small prince (Buddha) got enlightened in Gaya and changed the course on History in entire Asia. This is the country where one lean and lanky mahatma of about five feet uprooted the might of invincible British colonial empire. This is the place which witnessed the unification of unimaginably diverse 547 princely states and, when everyone doubted its survival as a democratic nation, then it showed to the whole world that a country of seven different religions, 540 tribes, 3000 castes and about 1635 languages can survive as a democratic nation with strong economic growth. Today, one another surprising and almost a revolutionary phenomenon has occurred and i.e. the election of a man who was almost ostracized by the national media, political brass and intelligentsia for about 10 years, as the Prime Minister of the world largest democracy.

Mr. Modi comes to enjoy a cult figure like status now. In one of my previous article for PTH (Pak Tea House) I compared his fan following to that of Swami Vivekanand and there were several objections to that. But the way he single-handedly lifted the BJP from the abyss of despair and gloom, and steered its course to corridors of power, with a thumping majority proves beyond doubt that a country of 1.2 billion people is a ‘Modi’-fied India now.

In intellectual circles, this victory is being seen as the victory of communal and fascist Hindutva forces. Yesterday, I saw several facebook posts from my fellow Stephanians (an intellectual ivory tower of India with pro-left leanings) which said, “RIP Secular India, 16^th May 2014). The debate in the intellectual circles has gone back to the year of 1947 and has raised a question mark on the idea of India i.e. Is it the same India whose constitution declares it to be officially a secular country, and guarantees religious and cultural freedom to all its citizens, on account of its glorious history of peaceful co-existence of diverse religious and cultural groups?

I, personally feel that this is not the right way to look at this phenomenal victory. I strongly believe that the intellectual elites must come out of their cocoon of intellectual arrogance and not denigrate the democratic mandate of 1.2 billion people as a ‘making of the communal India’. In fact, closer analysis of the Indian political landscape over the last 10 years makes it amply clear that it is neither a miracle nor a rise of Hindutva. It turns out that this resounding victory is a logical culmination of the political vacuum that arose as a result of the timely amalgamation of several factors.

The question which I want to address here is that why an educated, liberal and irreligious man like me or many of my friends voted for Mr. Modi.

First and foremost, I would like to state upfront that the main plank of Mr. Modi’s election campaign was his Gujarat model of development. This is a new and very radical experiment in Indian democracy. The society where still caste, religion and feudal ethos dominate the mindset of an average Indian, no political party could dare to ride the horse of development, where populist politics and mincing of words had no role to play and, which demanded a no-nonsense leader who worked hard and showed the results which could be quantified. BJP experimented with this agenda in 2004 but failed miserably, because Indian mindset was still trying to come to terms with the phenomena of free market and globalized world. The BJP’s defeat of 2004 led all the regional parties like SP, BSP and Congress to plunge India back into 1980s when the politics was driven by the concerns of caste and religion, and incompetency was shielded by minority appeasement and great socialist ideas. However, this time the India was facing the electorate which has witnessed the financial crises of 2008 and realized the importance of economic growth. This time India was facing a voter which has witnessed the brutal terror attacks of Mumbai and several such blasts, and had realized the importance of national security. This time India faced a voter who was mesmerized with the power of social media and digital government and, would brook no tolerance to corruption and inefficiency.

Mr. Narendra Modi could capture these new expectations of the Indian masses. His manifesto, his style of governance, campaign and persona, in every way aligned with the new voter of India. Never before, there was such massive use of technology, social media and holograms in campaigning. The most startling fact is that Rahul and his team of Harvard and Wharton Graduates; extremely qualified ministers like Mr. Tharoor, Jairam Ramesh etc. could not see the change in the mindset of Indian voter. Their isolation from common masses and the arrogance of power made them think of the Indian voter as someone who is still rooted in caste and religion.

Whenever Mr. Modi talked of national security, economic growth and the incompetency of the government, the INC replied with Sachchar committee, politicization of Batla house encounter, Kargil war and the populist measures like food security act. Lately, their replies reflected extremes of insensitivity to people’s expectations. What was the Congress brass doing when leaders like Mulayam Singh, Digvijay Singh were shamelessly identifying the rights of minority communities with, the sacrifice of national security? When we look back, it astonishes beyond imagination that how could party with 128 years of glorious history could allow its leaders to address Osama Bin laden as Respected Osama Bin Laden Ji’? It is beyond explanation that how could an old and mature party resort to the tactics of misusing CBI to fabricate fictitious notions of ‘saffron terror’  and make a public appeal to the Imam of jama masjid  to urge all Muslims to vote for congress if they wanted to be safe.

It was a sheer misperception on the part of ruling establishment. On top of it, the number of financial scams like telecom, commonwealth continued unabated and a helpless prime minister could not do anything about except keeping a miscalculated political silence. I would consider it worth mentioning that the we must give our sincere thanks to Baba Ramdev, Mr. Kejriwal and Anna Hazare for launching mass movements exposing the moral bankruptcy of the government and, for empowering the Indian democracy and the Indian voter. If it were not for them, the political vacuum created by policy paralysis would never have come to the forefront, and Mr. Modi would never have got this opportunity to fill this vacuum.

Mr. Modi has always been projected as a very polarizing leader by domestic as well as foreign media. The ruling establishment and a bunch of archaic regional parties like SP and BSP played upon this image of Mr. Modi and used it in a very malicious and inefficient way to shield their incompetency, to which Mr. Modi always replied with the rhetoric of development. Hence, in effect this election became a truly polarized election. Mr. Modi ‘polarized’ it between economic growth, strong foreign policy, good governance, and a weak, corrupt ,arrogant and inefficient  governance of Congress whereas the INC ‘polarised’ it between protection of minorities and Hindu communalism of BJP.  Fortunately, Mr. Modi’s polarization worked whereas INC’s polarization backfired.

Therefore, I will conclude that it is a victory of hope, economic growth based on free-market, and the Modi phenomenon also marks the end of feudal India, dynastic politics, populist politics and caste based politics. I hope Mr. Modi delivers on his promises and keeps the hardliner Hindutva elements in control

Finally, before I end, I must say that the idea of India still remains the same i.e. peaceful co-existence. However, it now wants 10% growth rate and better quality of life.

                                          Good bye and Good luck-Have a wonderful life

The CIPA class of 2014 graduated on 25^th May 2014. All of us will be leaving for known and unknown destinies in few days. Yesterday, my friend Jenny Shin asked me, “hey Abhi, how do you feel after graduation?” I replied that I feel empty. I have the feeling of nothingness. I am letting this tranquility of nothingness seep into my being. In this nothingness, I have felt a few things which I could not feel in the fast paced life of last two years. I am sharing my experiences and few things which I internalized in the last two years, but felt only, in the stillness of this mystic nothingness.

August 2012, I found myself transported miles away from my rustic, rural and 19^th century homeland of Rajasthan (India) to the land of challenges and opportunities. I came with endless question, uncertainties and expectations. Today after about 2 years I feel that if the mankind’s ultimate goal is to achieve self-realization then I have at least made a major stride towards that goal and my unending journey has acquired a direction, ambition and a passion.

I come from a family of priests and except my father everyone in my family devoted themselves to spiritual pursuits. No one went abroad for any higher studies program. Today when I look back I feel that I have also advanced on the path of spiritual enlightenment but through action and serving the humanity.

Today, when I stand here with an eye peeping backwards and another looking into the uncertain horizons of the future, the first question that comes to my mind is: What is the idea of CIPA?

I have always inquired into the idea of my intellectual study before beginning it but in the case of this graduate program this question erupted today morning, a day after I graduated. The question emanates from the circumstances from which I came or hundreds like me came to CIPA and the pyscho-physical evolution of my persona over the last two years.

When a young man at the age of 27 decides to go to United States for a graduate program after five years of work experience in remote hinterlands of India what questions fire his imagination?

It is a state where there is an impulse to unlearn what he had already learnt and learns new things at once. My state of mind then was the state of confusion, when you question your beliefs, ideas, the work you have done. You want to know more and find correct answers to the questions of human existence. There is a rebel and a renegade in you at once. You want to change the order and yet stay within it. I came with hopes, fears, questions and dreams of bringing a sunshine, a smile and ray of hope. Thus the idea of CIPA is realization, wisdom and a peaceful revolution within oneself and outside. It is a revolution which is not chaos but a realm of peace, order and motivation. In the last two years all of us have gone through a revolutionary transformation in terms of ideas, beliefs, attitudes and dreams. The idea of CIPA is embodied in the portrait of Gandhi which I got to see every morning with a cup of tea after my stats class. The message of Gandhi was change and revolution but in a non-aggressive, peaceful, constructive and humble way and CIPA has brought that revolution in all of us. All of us are rebel in our own way: Rafi Sherzad fought against adverse life conditions and came to Cornell. I rebelled against the trend of joining bureaucracy and came to Cornell. Alvaro Salas rebelled against poverty, drugs and came to Cornell and most of you followed the same trend. In CIPA we have honed the art of revolution: Our revolution is for the construction, it is for peace and not for chaos. Hence I would urge:

Rebel, Rebel, Rebel but with a peaceful mind and peaceful intent and with values because its mot just what you dream and, achieve that matter, but what matters is how you chase and achieve your dreams.

With every passing day in CIPA I realized the limitless frontiers of mankind’s abilities and the inherent oneness of his existence. The most important and a life changing lesson for me here was the true spirit of internationalism and universal brotherhood of mankind. For the first time I felt South Asian, not Indian, then I even transcended that feeling and today I feel a universal and a truly global human person. Meeting different nationalities, seeing all of them freaking out over the assignments, midterms, seeing them falling in love, crying and smiling together, building true, deep and sincere bonds of friendship and nonetheless fighting and gossiping , strengthens my faith and belief in the fact that mankind essentially is one. The differences of religion, caste, color, creed and ideology always were, are and will always be superficial. And that demands a strong commitment and dedication from all of us to serve the suffering humanity.

In my class 10 when my classmates thought of preparing for engineering exams I got fascinated with Bismarck, Socrates, Lord Buddha and Prophet Muhammad and the story of human civilization. I found myself organizing inter-faith and inter-cultural dialogues forums in the small, arid villages of India without realizing that those initiatives were just the precursors of today’s IAF (International Affairs Forum).  After CIPA my faith in the existence of a superior, guiding force has strengthened and I have learned to appreciate the beauty of almighty’s mystic strokes. In IAF I tried( with Shaily's mighty support) to bring those aspects of the nations about which we never get to know in the media. We always heard about the conflicts in Afghanistan and Africa but here in CIPA and IAF I learned that there is much more to know about these nations.

Destiny, peace and Dreams:

My American experience exposed me to the new world of ‘networking’. Indeed, it a great way to acquire material success in life. However, in the last two years, I discovered a very important segment of networking which we were all missing out. I prefer to call this segment, ‘internal networking’. It is about reflection, introspection and finding out the spiritual emptiness in oneself. Sometimes, big dreams, big ideologies may blind us to the very basic needs of happiness i.e. a tranquil mind. The endless dreams and a lust for them may lead to anxiety, lust and erosion of morals. But we must find out the way which seeks perfect balance of ambitions, prosperity, mental peace and tranquility, and the righteous way of pursuing them.

I found that way in ‘internal networking’ which for me was taking some time out for closing down my eyes and sit in the meditative stillness of my breath where I am just a witness to what I am, not a doer or chaser of dreams. It gave me an opportunity to look at what I am doing and how I am doing it. I would urge everyone to find this balance through ‘internal networking’ to contribute in more positive way and live a healthy and spiritually satisfying life.

Life is not all about victories and achievements. In the domain of public affairs we will also face failures and downs. Those are the moments where we need some anchorage to protect us from the breakdown. The peace within, which one can attain from meditation, provides that anchorage and support. The tranquility within protects us from the anxiety of failures and, it will rejuvenate us to fight back.  

What else CIPA taught me and in fact the great American civilization taught me?

It taught me that human action and his faith in his action and conviction can bring miracles. This is the lesson which I would like to take back to my nation because my generation in my country reverts back to mystic chants and planets for their future.

Cornell taught me to ask right question with assertion, conviction and dedication. Cornell taught me the importance of basic things like discipline, time management and commitment.

In future, we go into the world of odds and challenges with these experiences and strengths. We will be with friends, allies, opponents and teeming millions who will look up to us with feelings of hope in their eyes. In that real battlefield the core human values like strength of soul, wisdom, balance of mind, tolerance, determination and compassion will be our true weapons. We were born with these weapons and in CIPA we realized their power, and value and in future we will, if not change the world, then at the least send a vibration of true love and harmony in this limitless cosmos.   I feel that I have a mission and I have the skills and I have the right set of ideas and passion to accomplish my goal. I express my heartfelt and sincere thanks to CIPA for churning out a conscious, aware and dedicated mankind out of me and 1000s of youngsters like me. I wish I could impart these skills or structure the education system in my country in this pattern and I hope to do it soon. My 2 years of education is not just confined to me but through me it will reach out to 1000s and if that produces one truly global citizen than I will feel that my existence is meaningful. 

I thank all the faculty members and my cipa fellows for being good friends, philosophers and guides. For me Cornell will always be like a mother and sometime 5, 10 years down the line I can see myself coming back to CIPA lounge and having my morning tea with the Gandhi’s portrait around and trying to find Cheryl.

Before I end,

Woods are dark, lovely and deep, I have promises to keep,

And miles to go before I sleep miles to go before I sleep

Hopefully I will see you in the playful strokes of destiny,

In the dreams of destiny

In the tears of destiny,

In the smiles of destiny,

Good bye and good luck

My Best Negotiation Class

                                       My Best Negotiation Class

The semester is soon going to begin. It feels like a mammoth army is going to invade my cozy world of isolated, deserted and sunny Ithaca, long evening walks, empty college town, quiet Iftaar parties at Annabel Taylor Hall, youtube movies and exciting field visits in Tompkins County.

Suddenly, the environment seems to be charged with a lot of energy, anxiety of course' selections and job hunts. Even the temperature seems to be getting a bit cold in the last few days. Contrary to my nature, even I am forcing myself to accept these changes in the ivy-league world of U.S., pretty much like a laid back feudal lord, reluctantly making his peace with newly established democracy after a people’s revolution. Last night, I was pondering over my courses for this semester i.e. fall 2013 and the list included a course in negotiations. About ten years back courses like negotiations, food policy, gender development etc would have been brushed off as good topics for writing essays and newspaper articles. Even know in my home country India and, in my cognitive existence, it is a bit difficult to accept anything beyond History, Geography, Economics and Philosophy as subjects. So, when I get to hear things like ‘Masters in Communication Management’, Masters in Post-Modern Transgender Studies’, 'Diploma in Negotiations', I find myself kind of ‘clueless’ and deprived of my ‘space’ and ‘time’ coordinates for a while.

Anyways, when I was thinking about the course structure of negotiations class, I had no idea of what it would it would be like. But, then something happened, which ordinarily happens in the books of magical realism. I was reminded of my best negotiation class. What could one feel, when in the middle of making a nerve-racking decision of choosing between statistical software programs like Stata and Metlab, one gets a flash of the petite, sun scorched, dull greenish parrot, which you wanted to catch when your old grandmother sitting beside you with her rosary in one of the quiet afternoons of your childhood, but, it flew away into the reddish horizons of the dusk, beyond the muddy waters of your village pond. That one flash will be an absolute bliss of childish innocence for me. That flash of my best negotiation class was just like that elusive, mystic parrot, which in spite of its ordinariness in all aspects of its being, was still sitting deep in my heart.

I was transported to the land where there were no Public Policy schools with their ‘core courses’ and ‘concentrations’, no balls and prom nights, no sky-scrappers of New York city and senators of Washington D.C. I travelled miles across the seas and in less than a fraction of a second, I was in the remote, isolated, small district in the deserts of Rajasthan (India). The district was known as Kalore (Names have been changed).

Before, I begin with my negotiations class, I feel like writing something about the district itself. It was a sleepy, old town with a robust and historical fort whose walls had almost turned black while romancing with the winds of time. It was said that Khalji muslim(12 cent. A.D) rulers had once attacked that fort with all their might, lust, deceit, greed and of course chivalry. They could not open the gates of the fort for days on end, as it was the strongest fort in region, beating even the then fort of Kandhar in strength. Finally, a local muslim converted Rajput landlord Kunwar Dagabaaz Muhammad Chauhaan showered a word of wisdom on Khalji Sipah Salaar( army captain). He advised him to grow Rai along the ramparts of the fort. Rai grew up in a night and in turn weakened the walls of the fort. Next day the Rajputs were left with bare minimum resources, unmatchable valor and the blessings of Goddess Bhawani (Mother goddess in Hinduism) as long as they did not look back while fighting (Rajput king claimed that goddess had promised him to bless them as long as he did not look back in the fight.) But how long could they last with the promises made in dreams, in front of chicanery, deceit, endless army and sleezy lust for women and wealth, strongly backed by the spirit of jihad and complete disregard of human values, morals and war-codes.

 Kalore of 2004-05 was a small city of less than 50,000 inhabitants which included a bunch of pious and well-known Hindu ascetics with tremendous social and political clout. One, who was the eldest and the most revered one, was Guru Maninath Ji. There were lots of rumors about him like he turned into a ferocious tiger in the night, with rudraksha( a sacred tree, symbol of shiva) tied around the neck. Another rumor that was doing the rounds was that he fed about 300,000 monks in the grand fair of Kumbha (sacred fair of Hindus) with his supernatural powers. His ashram (house of the ascetic with a temple in the compound) had 30 elephants and 150 cows. Everyday about 400 people ate in his ashram.

Call it a rumor effect or general spiritual fervor of the people, but he was always surrounded by devotees who came from all castes, communities and religions. He himself was from a very low caste of Hindu society called saragadas (caste employed as palace guard) and many other monks in the area came from low castes like Devasis (shepherds). His devotees included big zamindars(landlords), Jain merchants from far-off places like Chennai and Mumbai, politicians, bureaucrats, common masses, local muslims etc. His sermons included very simple things like cultivating the virtue of devotion, vegetarianism, Surya-Namaskaar( Yogic exercise). One of his locally powerful pathan(muslims) devotee Yakub Khan Bahadur had even started a cow-protection committee in the district. Having seen all that, I just felt that a great socio-economic egalitarian movement was taking place, unheard of in the shell-like intellectual circles and media, spreading communal harmony and uniting people, transcending the barriers of caste and religion. This was something which the big NGOs formed by my page-3, high class stephanian batch mates and intellectuals of JNU( Great University of Delhi, and an intellectual hub, popular for its Marxist Culture and anti-establishment views) could not achieve.

The district had rajputs, Brahmins, jainas, chamars, saragdas and the surrounding areas had a good number of Gujjars(community that worked with animal rearing) and Vishnois (a local tribe). Superficially the town was quite peaceful but the still waters of Kalore ran deep. The sands of Kalore had the tremendous potential to generate storms of unimaginable violence and turbulence on some religiously or socially sensitive issue as these tribes were very sensitive about their religious beliefs and social customs.

Everything was fine,  peaceful and normal with intoxicatingly soporific tumblers of chach(buttermilk); lazy, deserted town with all animate beings slumbering through long, dull afternoons and, soul-quenching folk bhajans (religious chants) in the evening, until the Gujjar community in the state of Rajasthan started a supposedly peaceful state wide agitation, claiming reservation in the government jobs. All the district collectors (Administrative head of the district in India) wanted to keep the ‘gujjar headache’ away from their districts. They were using all time-tested instruments of statecraft to keep the storm away from their backyard but most of them failed. The collectors these days in India are unlike those British collectors who used to get the assignment of district head only after 15 to 20 years of experience in the state, which they utilized to fully understand the cultural, political and religious dynamics of the state. Hence, they had profound understanding of their people and state from strategic point of view. The collectors after independence were young lads who came after going through almost an year long tedious, boring and mind-numbing examination process. Some of these young lads were lured by money, some by the power of red-beacon (A sign of powerful, arrogant Indian bureaucracy) and some by the moth-eaten idealism of their Delhi alma maters and in worse cases they were forced by their greedy, materialist parents, in order to get a good dowry (A civil servant in India gets huge dowry). The district collector of Kalore, Mr. Abhijeet Sinha was one such young lad from Bihar, a state well-known for producing politicians like Laluprasad yadav ji and shrewd bureaucrats. He was inspired partially by ‘moth-eaten’ idealism emanating from his ‘post-modern’ girl-friend of South Delhi and partially by the desire for ‘power’ emanating from his middle-class utopias, made up of 'unbounded desires' guarded with the so-called ‘feasible’ and ‘pragmatic’ ethics.

He had kind of separated from his wife because of his ‘extra-loving’ nature and naughty eyes endlessly attempting to inject seduction in the opposite gender (good he did not become a doctor). His dull and humdrum life included long evening walks, tennis and watching Veena Malik(a hot Pakistani seductress who has all the potential to solve Kashmir dispute) in ‘Big Boss’( a cheap, porn reality show).

Besides him, there was another fellow in the town, who was much more interesting from the point of view of both, Public Policy and personality. He was an old police officer viz. Surendra Mohan Mishra, almost on the verge of retirement. He was the police superintendent of Kalore. He was my father’s batch mate and a distant relative too. When I first met him I was immediately reminded of my history Professor Avadh Narayan Thakur, who always sang in his characteristic Bihari nasal twang that Sher shah Suri(medieval ruler known for his administrative efficiency and deceitful nature) had the traits of fox and lion (as if it was class of hunting, rather than history). I could actually see the cunning shrewdness of fox and valor of tiger in Mishra ji's mysterious or rather 'mischievous' eyes, which would scan you in one glance.

He was a very interesting character, a perfect product of a country marked by feudal pockets and silicon valleys. Formerly an economist, so even in his police job he always came out as the smartest utilitarian and an opportunity cost expert. He was a huge, dark figure, with a signature bureaucratic baldness, a big laddu(a round big, Indian sweet) shaped face and petty rotund hands, sufficiently reflective of eroded morals, knowledge, softness and vestiges of the poor innocent childhood. He could always be seen chewing tobacco in a very rustic and rooted manner, in his leisurely moments. I must mention that he was ‘modestly’, ‘wisely’, ‘rationally’ and ‘humanely’ corrupt. Once, the district collector caught the traffic police constable Bhaira Ram Gurjar accepting Rs. 300 in bribe from a rich merchant’s son illegally crossing the signal. The collector ordered his suspension but Mishra ji just transferred him to small police station in the outskirts with a warning and hushed up the matter. When I asked him the rationale for his action he replied that this poor fellow with a monthly salary of Rs. 4000 was not doing much of a harm in accepting Rs 300 in bribe. Besides, he was doing the traffic duty in the heat of 45 degree celsius for 13 hours so by standards of the most stringent labor economics principles he was underpaid hence, one need not make a big issue out this poor man’s act of little greed.

I found him much more efficient, practical and social in administration than the so-called most honest officers whose only qualifications were to talk endlessly against the system and get transferred to useless postings like chief commissioner of state kabbadi society, Lalit Kala Akadami( Fine Arts Academy) . Mishra ji, by the sheer dint of his abilities and economics had made good system of networks and relations in the district. He was good friends with Guru Maninath Ji because his ashram (Monk’s house) offered the best kheer (rice pudding) and dal and rice. Maninath ji used to sent fresh green peas, grams and fresh ghee(clarified butter) extracted from cow’s milk to Mishra ji in Prasad( food offered by temple to devotees). Whenever any guest visited Mishra ji from his village, he would always take him to Maninath ji’s ashram for obvious economic reasons and paid real respect to his microeconomic soul. One another remarkable thing about Mishra ji was that he equally popular among the religious heads of different religions like Islam, Christianity despite himself being a hardcore vegetarian Brahmin. He was very secular in accepting laddus, sevaiyya(a sweet dish made on Id) and pan cakes from all the different religious heads.

 In spite of the unrest in rest of the state, things were going fine in Kalore, with Abhijit Sinha ji busy in his romantic adventures and Mishra ji with his laddus of different ashrams and different religions. Then suddenly, one day Gujjars in kalore declared that they will revolt and stage a demonstration in a peaceful manner. The gujjar police constables had switched loyalties because all of them were annoyed with the collector’s unjust behavior with constable Bhaira Ram Gurjar.

Abhijit Sinha and Mishra ji were getting worried as Mishra ji just had about 500 cops with him in the district. The rest of them had been sent to other strife-torn areas and there was no possibility of getting additional forces. Mishra ji was having a fearful intuition that there could be a violent agitation, considering the track record of Gujjars in the other districts, but the collector said that ‘bloody revolution’ needs training in the political philosophies of Marxism, modern social institutions, leadership of middle class intellectuals and strong support of peasantry, and these ‘bunch of idiots’ had no such institutional forces. Mishra ji could not make much sense of all that wisdom except that he was reminded a bit of his pseudo-idealist stephanian son talking of left wing radicalism whenever asked to make a career in civil services. He thought of something with which collector felt confident, normal, sane and comfortable, and asked, ‘sir what’s going on with Veena Malik in ‘Big Boss’?” The collector took a deep sigh of relief as if he had been brought home from empty, oxygen-less Mars. He lectured on Veena Malik’s curves for about an hour.

Meanwhile Bhaira Ram wanted to pay back to Mishra ji for a saving his job and salary. He was perplexed because he could not go against the decision of Gujjar Panhcayat( social decision making body of gujjar leaders) . So he appeared in the guise of a snake-charmer at Mishra Ji’s house at about 2:30 in the night and informed him that there was great rage and turbulence among the gujjars. He informed that there were plans of mass violent rebellion in which the local gurjar dacoit Zalim Singh was supplying all the arms and ammunition. They were also planning to bomb the police stations.

Next day, Mishra Ji told the entire story to the district collector. Collector ordered that in such a situation, he had all the authority to open lathi-charge and tear gas. Mishra ji just smirked and left. He was just wondering that how could he open lathi- charge on the mob of at least 40,000 rogues armed with assault rifles, crude bombs and swords, with just 500 cops at his command.

He then called up Maninath Ji, seeking an appointment. He went to Maninath ji with lots of grams and jaggery as his micro-economic soul did not permit him to buy cashews in devotion, which he kept for himself and his chivas regal. Maninath ji got happy with grams and jaggery and asked him the purpose of the visit. Mishra ji told him about the gujjar agitation and his fearful intuitions. Maninath ji was popular among the gujjars and he had blessed their movement. At first he was surprised and said that he had could not help as he had given his blessings to gujjars, to which Mishra ji replied, “but, I am also your little, innocent, harmless child who deserved blessings”. Maninath ji said, “since I have eaten your gur and jaggery  I have an obligation now and will have to do something to avoid coming in the next birth. I will ask gujjar delegation, which is going to officially report collector about the agitation, to meet you also for like, half an hour. Rest is up to you, your wits and innocence. My blessings are with you.”

Next day gujjar delegation led by Hukum Singh Bhadana, dressed in thick khadi barni(narrow jacket), kurta made of Mysori Paper silk and upturned green jutis( locally made shoes, a handicraft) from Bhinmaal( place famous for its shoe industry) went to meet collector. Hukum Singh Bhadana was a rich, hefty and powerful transporter who had strong political connections and an overwhelming social clout. Other members included Master Bhanwar lal Gurjar, a local schoolteacher, whose mind lived in samosas and revolutionary ideals as long as they were used to seek a salary hike and increase in dearness allowance from the government , and his brother Banwari lal Gurjar, a part time property dealer actively involved with Bajrang dal( local right wing outfit) youth politics. Both of them went to have samosas when the delegation was waiting for collector’s response. The brothers ate about 18 samosas with the green chilies.

 The collector refused to meet as he was busy explaining one of his Bengali batch mates in civil service, the ‘sustainable and postmodern take on sexual intercourse’. The conquest of voluptuous, arousing, seductive curves and almost maddening lips had almost prepared a stage for another Mahabharata (Hindu mythological story of devastating fight between brothers) in the district. The enraged and angry delegation then went to meet Mishra ji, as advised by Maninath ji.

Mishra ji had just finished his lunch, which was a great ceremony in itself. Last time, when I saw him at lunch he was with a 13 course meal which included multiple varieties of chutneys like coriander chutney, garlic chutney, tomato chutney, dals, riatas, green grams and a couple of other green ‘wild organic herbs’. His office was usually loaded with heavily explosive and toxic farts as reported by his Munshi(clerk). When the gujjar delegation entered the office, as usual the air-conditioned government office was laden with the moisture of most stinky farts in the cosmos. In one corner, was standing an old, haggard havildar(a police sargent) Takhat Singh with a white walrus like, upturned rajput mustache, trying to stuff his nose with all the possible options to avoid those lethal fumes, blessing the room. In the center of the room, Mishra ji was sitting, enjoying a juicy Alphonso mango, which had been sent by Mr. Ghevar Chand Singhvi, a local merchant. Mishra ji did not like the fact that Takhat Singh was protecting his nostrils from the ‘moisture-laden aromas’ so he ordered him to filter tobacco for him, which he quite reluctantly did, contracting his facial muscles and presenting a sight of rotten tomato. At this I could see the smile of satisfaction on Mishra ji's face. 

Mr. Bhadana was the first victim of those ‘moisture–laden aromas’. He was already in a very bad mood and the moment his nostrils were invaded by ‘heavenly fumes’ he opened a salvo of rustic abuses at ‘samosa brothers, their eating habits and digestion’ for polluting the atmosphere. He was ranting that mass movements are not led by ‘farters’. He called them a burden on earth and yelled that they could have behaved with proper hygiene in the government office, at least. The brothers shot back that they were not responsible for that heinous crime and that he was trying to blame them for something which he had done. In fact the revolt could have taken place right there, but for the statesmanship of Takaht singh that the ‘fart uprising’ was nipped in the bud. Mishra ji smirked as usually, as the ‘moisture-laden aromas’ got a few more victims and no one got to know the original sinner.

Then Mr. Bhadana roared, “We have come to inform the ruthless, inhumane and arrogant district administration that we are going to stage a rail-roko( stop the train) movement tomorrow in the outskirts of the city. All transport services will be stopped and supplies of milk and food items will be stopped.”  He started abusing the collector and called him an arrogant buffoon, at which Mishra ji again smirked and felt a tinge of strong ‘bureaucratic happiness’ which occurs when your fellow officer is mocked at. Meanwhile, Takhat Singh reported Mishra ji that about 100 protesters had been killed in police firing and 40 policemen had been butchered in the neighboring district by gujjars. This alarmed Mishra Ji. He now did not want to resort to firing as he just had 500 cops and he did not want to tarnish his service record, as he was thinking of a political career after retirement, by initiating a similar movement for his own community.

He got up, and once again the ‘stinky humidity’ increased in the room. He joined hands in supplication and addressed Mr. Bhadana, “ Hukum, Collector and all your ministers are big people but this little, poor, humble fellow is your younger brother. So, please sit down and grace the little garibkhana( poor man’s house) of your younger brother”. Mr. Bhadana had already been told by Maninath ji that Mishra ji was very efficient and ‘vyavharik’( wise, rational in pragmatic way, sometimes even at the cost of petty morals) and a very social officer. He had also heard about Mishra ji’s ruthless encounter of dacoits who had killed a few jain merchants. So, he was impressed with the humble nature and pleasing smile of such a high-profile and strongly connected police officer and felt honored and flattered by the government which was his ultimate desire, although the fumes were still making his neurons crazy.

Mr. Bhadana sat down and initiated the conversation regarding next day’s agitation but he was interrupted by Mishra ji saying, “Sir, all this, we can talk later also. First, please relax, and tell me what would you like to have? First time, the elder brother has come to my office and I cannot begin the conversation with the talk about agitation. This is very inauspicious.” Bhadana Saheb first refused but then agreed, as even he was hungry since morning. Mishra ji ordered hot jalebis, Imarti, gulab jamuns (all are Indian sweets), spicy samosas(Indian dumplings) with chilly sauce (the brothers looked at each other with divine happiness, the moment they sighted samosas), nicely-cooled and sliced alphonso mangoes. All this was followed by fried pakoras( spicy fritters) and special ‘pyaz ki kachori’(Onion dumpling) specially ordered from Jodhpur (nearby district famous for its sweets and kachoris). The whole delegation almost jumped upon the food. The whole scene looked an invasion of Bakasur(mythological demon who ate like huge amounts of food) and his beastly army of asuras(demons)

Then Mishra ji asked Mr. Bhadana to come home some time for dinner and described the special heeng( Indian spice with heavenly smell) dal(lentil soup)  and chiwda (a spicy flour stuff to munch with drinks) which he made and used to enjoy after two drinks of chivas regal. He then asked Bhadana ji about his kids. Bhadana ji told that his son was studying in Kota, for admission into engineering (In South Asia middle class parents are crazy about sending their kids to engineering, management and medical schools so that they can get employed with MNCs and earn a lot in dollars) and his daughter was preparing for an entrance into top management institute. When Bhanwar lal Gurjar(One of the samosa brother) heard about the ‘career-talks’, he did not waste a second in declaring, with a force that would almost trample upon every animate thing existing there,  that his son was a chartered accountant employed with Reliance and earning Rs. 400,000 per annum. His son’s achievement had become known in the remotest villages and was on the verge of becoming a folk lore and he left no stone unturned in denigrating others by lyrical rendering of his son’s success story. His son had almost become a cult figure, a boy with supernatural powers in 'accounting'. Bhawar lal ji never missed any opportunity to belittle Mr. Bhadana by mentioning his son Ratan lal’s achievement.

Mr. Bhadana made an angry face at Bhanwarlaal and put him back in his chair, saying that he should first take care of his radioactive vapors. He then asked Mishra ji about the good MNCs and the pay packages they offered. Mishra ji had almost done a Phd. in this kind of knowledge, like a bunch of other officers on the verge of retirement for whom this was favorite past time, since two his batch mates had sent their sons to IIM( A)( top management institute of India) Mishra ji told Mr. Bhadana that Barclays offered like Rs. 600,000 per annum and Accenture offered 100,000 dollars in its foreign assignments . He also mentioned about Boston Consulting Group offering 200,000 dollars per annum. Mr. Bhadana got enamored with those figures and started dreaming of his son as a wall street banker.

Mishra ji, then took a deep breath of a reasonable victory, and asked about the exact time of the agitation next day, to which Bhadana ji replied, “which is the best medical college in country and how much donation they take and if Mishra ji had any connections to get the admission done?”After that, Mishra ji gave the list of all such high-profile colleges and felt a great relief that things were on the right track. Suddenly, there was once again a whiff of obnoxious fumes, doing rounds in the room. This time, the fumes smelled a bit relaxed and easy. The moment they said hello to Bhadana ji’s nostrils, he turned back and stared at the ‘samosa brothers’ with his amber like eyes, burning with rage. The brothers, finding themselves in no position to prove their innocence, tried to hide themselves behind the chairs. Meanwhile, Mishra ji advised Bhadana ji to persuade his daughter to sit for civil service examination and also mentioned the assets of top 20 corrupt bureaucrats. It was the last stroke to break the camel’s back. Bhadan ji was absolutely overwhelmed with ‘younger brother’s’ best advise and, was almost in tears, imagining his daughter with all that wealth in an ambassador car with red beacon. He looked as if he was in a great hurry to rush home and strictly command his daughter to prepare for that ‘gold mine’. Mishra ji then made a passing reference to the revolt. Bhadana ji, while getting into his car, hurriedly asked Mishra ji, “Should we stage this protest? What is your advise? Since you are a brother so your advise is very important for gujjars now.”  Mishra ji, without taking a pause, shot back, as if he was doing all that hard work for that question, “Hukum, Your younger brother is just a petty cop, who had no audacity and status to advise a wise man like you but, I just wanted to inform you that youth leaders from your rival political group were planning to send their men with rifles in order to spark a police firing on peaceful demonstrators. The IB (Intelligence Bureau) has reported this. Sir, once firing will start, then I will have no option but to respond. We have got an additional force of 1200 cops from paramilitary groups!!!!!!!!( Mishra ji was famous for such tricks) I can take care of my jawans(cops) but you know how ruthless and bull-headed these paramilitary people are. They do not spare anyone in firing. In Bharatpur they mercilessly poured bullets in the 50 inches broad chest of the leader of the protesters. The poor fellow died and others fled”.

The names like IB, CID and CBI( intelligence departments) still carried a bollywood like aura in those parts of the country and ‘stages of one’s consciousness’, thanks to crime thrillers starring Amitabh and Mithun, and the remnants of terror invoked by British secret service, still dormant somewhere in the sub-continental consciousness. Mr. Bhadana, having heard this, was shivering in his shoes and ordered for lemon soda as he suffered from low blood pressure. He profusely thanked Mishra ji and was in tears while doing that for saving his life as he was planning to lead the demonstration, out of his ‘compassion’ for gujjar masses and a ‘LITTLE’ concern for better political future. He gave a warm ‘brotherly’ hug to Mishra ji and said that if not for you, I would have been the first person to be shot dead. The samosa brothers had already left, cursing the youth for lack of pragmatism and provoking such violent agitations, having heard those gory stories of paramilitary forces. Mishra ji spoke, in voice heavily laden with ‘emotions and wisdom of the refined statecraft’ , “ Sir it was my duty to save my brother’s life even if that happened at the stake of leaking out confidential information and risking my career”. While going back Bhadana ji bought some guide books on current affairs for his daughter.

Both, Mishra Ji and Bhadana Ji were at Maninath ji’s ashram at 2 in the night. Both these leaders, supported by Maninath ji convinced the gujjar panchayat to drop the idea of the revolt and save the district from communal tensions and violence. The remaining rogues of the youth brigade who were planning to bomb police stations, with the support of Zalim Singh dacoit, were arrested overnight at the orders of Mishra ji. While going back Mishra Ji requested Maninath ji to pack some laddus( as he could not resist the smell of ghee and cloves, invading his nostrils during the talks) as his blessings. Takhat Singh also got a box packed for himself (he always did that).

Next day, everything was normal with scorching loo winds, collector sahib going on a walk with a voluptuous batch mate for another conquest and Mishra ji enjoying his laddus and 13 course lunch, and Takhat Singh as usually trying to protect his nostrils from ‘toxic vapors’, in vain. In the evening Bhadana ji came to thank Mishra Ji and informed him that Gujjar panchayat had decided to honor him by a gold idol of Lord Hanuman for shooting this trouble(as Hanuman, the monkey God is worshipped as a troubleshooter), which Mishra ji, gladly accepted and immediately calculated its monetary worth. Bhadana Ji also gifted 10 air tickets to Mishra ji and his family for a visit to Bangalore, where Bhadana ji had, his farm house. While going, he asked Mishra ji about the best tuition center for civil services. He also cursed the main leaders of revolt and alleged them of spoiling the youth’s mental stability and future. He vigorously suggested that the youth should not indulge in such violence and should sit for civil service exams. 

After few days, Mishra Ji casually asked about Bhanwar laal ji Gurjar at which Takhat Singh replied with a monstrous laughter that after that meeting with the delegation, Bhadana ji had made those brothers popular as ‘farting demons’. He was reported to have devoted a lot of time and energy in spreading this piece of ‘knowledge’. Mishra ji just smirked feeling so happy about his lethal discovery and the sheer power of toxic vapors.

This was my best negotiation class in which I saw how a small, peaceful town was saved from loss of human life and property. If that mammoth revolt had occurred in Kalore, it would have taken a toll of at least 60 to 70 human lives. Most of the times, the public unrest arises due to arrogant, incompetent rulers and their poor statecraft. A good statecraft supplemented with a decent dose of humility can solve most of the problems.