Kashmir – Earth’s Heaven Turned Hell!

Once known as the Heaven on Earth, the beautiful state of Kashmir is well-renowned in the world today for being one of the most sensitive states where terrorism is rampant. With different surveys and different responses in both India and Pakistan alike, the one thing that is clear to me despite the statistics involved; is the dream for establishing their supremacy in Kashmir region has done more harm than good to both the countries involved.

The History of Kashmir
The land of Kashmir was predominantly ruled by the Hindus and the Buddhists till the 15th century, when the Mughals conquered the region. Thereafter, will the fall of the Mughal empire, the Kashmir region was ruled by independent rulers till the middle of 19th century when the British installed a puppet Hindu prince in the Muslim-predominant state. Things worsened when the British Government declared independence for the Indian Union and a partition was ordered.

After the futile efforts of the Hindu king to have his own state, he rushed to Indian Union for help after the Pakistani military attacked Kashmir with a view of annexing it as a part of their country. After his agreement that the territory will be placed under India, Indian troops were flown to Srinagar and in 1949, a UN cease-fire stopped the battle. This also led to the drawing of a cease-fire border between the two nations. A constituent assembly in Indian Kashmir voted in 1953 for incorporation into India, but this was delayed by continued Pakistani-Indian disagreement and UN disapproval of the disposition of any portion of the region without a plebiscite. A new vote by the assembly in Indian Kashmir in 1956 led to the integration of Kashmir as an Indian state; the area where Pakistan had entered i.e. PoK (Pakistan Occupied Kashmir), however remained under the control of Pakistan. India refused to consider subsequent Pakistani protests and UN resolutions calling for a plebiscite. In the decades that followed, the line of control blurred due to the two wars with Pakistan.

The years that have followed have only made matters worse. With continuous cross-border firing and more than 30000 people killed since 1989. Kashmir has now remained heaven only for the different extremist groups operating in the region.


Is the issue un-resolvable?

This post is more about finding a solution than just stating plain facts or asking questions. Though the Kashmir issue is highly tangled, I recently came across a case which can act as a precedent for the situation. The case is regarding the North Ireland region where the people were polarized similar to Kashmir and the place had to select between the United Kingdom and Ireland.


A brief on the North Ireland Case and The Good Friday Peace Agreement
Like India, Ireland was once upon a time a colony of the United Kingdom. The British Government had proposed a six-year trial rule of self Government in Ireland in 1914. This got shadowed by the First World War. On the other hand, in Ireland, nationalists won the overwhelming majority of the seats in the 1918 (United Kingdom) parliamentary election and declared unilaterally an independent (all-island) Irish Republic. Since the British Government refused this, the Irish war of independence followed. This created two Home Rule parliaments: a Parliament of Northern Ireland and a Parliament of Southern Ireland.

While the Protestants (a majority in North Ireland) wanted to stay with the United Kingdom, the Catholics (a majority in South Ireland) wanted an independent Ireland. This mismatch of vision led to attacks on Catholics in the north by loyalist mobs and attacks on Protestants in the south in 1920–22. When the independence was granted, Northern Ireland promptly exercised its right to remain within the United Kingdom and Southern Ireland became the independent Republic of Ireland. What followed was a Civil War and the resultant was complete mistrust in the Ireland isle.

In the events that followed included a lot of wars and cross-border tension. Finally in the 1990s after decades of peace talks, the region stabilized a little. In the year 1998, a peace agreement was signed, which is The Good Friday Peace Agreement. This agreement also called the Belfast Agreement was a major step in the peace process. The referendum in Northern Ireland was a direct vote on the Agreement while the vote in the Republic of Ireland was a vote to amend the Irish constitution where it was stated that Republic of Ireland has complete control over the Ireland isle (which included North Ireland) in line with the Belfast Agreement. From then till now, though there have been a lot of hiccups, the peace process has gone further and the problem of North Ireland is now non-existant.

Cutting the long story short, the basic underlying story can be crudely matched to the India-Pakistan independence and the state of Kashmir.


So is the Belfast Agreement A Ray of Hope for Kashmir?
Reading about the North Ireland episode made me feel that India and Pakistan can resolve their issues on similar lines. When Bill Clinton was in Power, he had suggested the same solution for Kashmir, but when I look into the intricacies of the issues, it may not be that simple to replicate the solution.

First of all, to resolve the issue, both sides must realize the limitations of violence to resolve this issue. Any solution brought forth on basis of plain majority is neither democratic nor will it work towards bringing lasting peace. Moreover, since there are various communities living in the state of Kashmir, any solution that is brought forth should take into consideration adequate representation of all the parties involved.

The other major difference is that while Government of Ireland was completely unrelated to the activities of IRA, it also shared a cordial relationship with the Government of Great Britain. Unlike this, we see a lot of Pakistan involvement in the various terror outfits that work for the “liberation” of Kashmir. As long as a real effort for reconciliation is not made and the relationships of India-Pakistan do not improve, peace talks are not bound to yield any results.

Moreover, unlike the polarized North Ireland (i.e. Catholics and Protestants), the issue in Kashmir is highly ethnic. There are various communities who are more interlinked with other communities than with people of their own region. I came across a movie (Shaurya), in which they state that Kashmiri Pundits make 12 types of meat. Now unlike the other regions of India, this is more bent towards Islam or Christianity as Hinduism inherently upholds vegetarianism. Again, religion is a way of life and over ages has evolved with region and hence just dividing the people based on caste would not bring forth a viable solution.

Apparently, for resolving North Ireland, there were various committees that worked together to reolve the issue. These include the UK Government, Irish Government and Independent Councils of North Ireland. Can we even imagine autonomous regional governments or representative committees of Jammu, Kashmir, Ladakh, the Pakistan-Occupied Kashmir to be included in peace talks and a joint India-Pakistan council?

Owing to the above discrepancies, the North Ireland issue cannot be directly mapped with Kashmir and yet, it is more like a precedent. Of course, we cannot find an exact match for any issue, one-size-fits-all thinking will not work and apparently the solution needs to be tailor-made. But as long as the underlying countries look at the issue with openness, any problem can be resolved.


Kashmir – Paradise Lost
India and Pakistan have in the recent decade come forth with lot of peace talks and brought to the table their interests in resolving Kashmir issue. Till recently, serious efforts were visible and the bus and train services (Samjhauta Express) showed that the ice was finally breaking. The countries seemingly looked as if working together and progressing towards peace. Ceasefire was also declared and firing stopped at the borders after almost 15 years.

But this good beginning was disliked by some radical groups and recent terror attacks in both India and Pakistan are on the rise. What is saddening is the fact that with the Mumbai Terror attack, Pakistan has shown resistance in bringing the people involved to justice. Apparently, the Pakistan army still has a major say and the democratic government seems to be just a puppet of the army chief. Both the Prime Minister and President, alongwith Nawaz Sharif in the beginning promised different things like sending ISI Director to India and bringing the Terrorists to justice, but later on the same people rectified that their statements were misquoted, called the terrorists state-less and demanded for more evidence. The recent turn of events have heated the situation even further and almost shown a possibility of war.

The current situation shows that Pakistan needs more political stability as it has had more than 20 years of Military rule in the last 3 decades. The Indians and Pakistanis realize that they are much more similar than they have been portrayed. We are a part of the same culture and apparently the same civilization which was once a “melting pot” of the best of all cultures. Yet all said and done unless a proper democracy comes in both the countries, the dream of a Kashmiri Paradise will remain – but a Dream.

Recession bites – An Unexplored Opportunity for India!!!

The current slowdown in the United States which has caused a Global recession phenomena lately has caused the other countries to relook their policies and their customer base. The so-called off-shoring companies in India, which just had either American customers or which just do plain BPO services are the ones bearing the brunt. There have been loads of cost-cutting initiatives in all the companies, with some even performing the brutal act of laying people off. Of course, we are all humans, and being one of them, I am both afraid of the change and sympathetic for the deserving people who lose their jobs; yet I believe, that since we have come to a point where we cannot escape the change, looking at the positives that are bound to happen with this revolution needs to be figured out.

More KPO instead of BPO

KPO or Knowledge Process Outsourcing has been a new buzz-word since a few years now, with plain old “Call Center” giving way to some of the important processes being outsourced. The work outsourced is not as simple as just replacing the B with a “K”, Knowledge process can be defined as high added value processes chain where the achievement of objectives is highly dependent on the skills, domain knowledge and experience of the people carrying out the activity.

The future of KPO has a high potential as it is diversified across various sectors like Legal Processes, Intellectual Property and Patent related services, Engineering Services, Web Development application, CAD/CAM Applications, Business Research and Analytics, Legal Research, Clinical Research, Publishing, Market Research (Market research KPO ) etc. The current global recession will usher these more important and also more specialized activities to be outsourced as the organizations in the developed countries try to cut their costs further.

There are various segments of KPO which are on the rise in India. The American doctors send scanned copies of reports to their counterparts in India and medical consultation is done. Apart from this, various companies plan to follow Biocon way for their Research Process Outsourcing as per Kiran Shaw. The other backend services like Payroll and Human Resource Management are already in place, but the one segment that would be benefitted immensely by the recession seems to be LPO.

LPO – The current Outsourcing Boom???Though initially treated with mis-trust, the Law Firms in United States have finally started delegating the drafting and the other paper work to their subsidiaries in India. The Wall-Street crisis brought a wind-fall in this nascent industry because the crisis that impacted the fortunes of Indian IT firms has the country’s LPOs minting bundles of cash with huge amount of litigation work coming their way from the US. With a lot of paperwork needed for filing bankruptcies, lawsuits, mergers and acquisitions that the global recession is bringing forth, the Indian LPOs are getting more and more involved into the so-called critical tasks of the companies. Also, with the E-discovery law in place, (this law is related to storage, usage and analysis of electronic data for the litigation work) the American Law firms are flocking to India because of the huge cost differential in lawyer fees.

What is also an icing on the cake is the fact that the rising economic crunch is sending new workload offshore, whereas since India has a huge number of lawyers graduating every year, and since India performs its legal proceedings in English, and also Indian Legal System is crudely based on the British Laws, the Indian Lawyers are almost instantly employable for the LPO jobs.

Of course, the law firms are still debating as to how much of the work/ data can be effectively outsourced to India, especially considering that the information of the clients or the case may be confidential, but some of the simpler tasks like drafting and document reviews are being sent to India in a larger amount. A few of the law firms also commented that ever since the fall of Lehmann Brothers, their work has almost doubled and there has been a lot of hiring in different cities as the bubble burst is still happening and hence the demand is on the high.

Mass Layoffs – A Blessing in Disguise???

For years, we Indians have been hard-wired to live a methodical life of studying and finding a well paying job in a reputed MNC and settle down in life. The mass layoffs that follow this recession will shake the whole system up and we will have to awaken from this “dream-world”. Considering that a huge mass of good educated people, i.e. Engineers, Managers, Doctors etc. suddenly become unemployed, people will start to look at the other opportunities that would have been overlooked. New innovations may occur which will change the way we perceive the world and probably, some Indian will spawn yet-another MNC, an Indian MNC.

These issues may also make people more interested in teaching, which for now is considered a “dull” occupation and hence the next generation of students will be guided better. A bunch of people may even enter into Politics and we may see a lot of changes in various other segments and scenarios. The dark side is the crime rates will also go on a high and how we cope with the question of how to feed the hungry people is going to be tough to answer.

With the terror on the high, production on a low and the global recession bound to stay; I see a REVOLUTION on the cards, when and what will happen; Only Time Can Tell!!!

The New Indian – Fundamentally Correct or Wrong

We all came across the dreaded Mumbai Terror attack last week and the massacre was condemned by all including myself in a blog-post. We all blamed the Government for being do lax about it and a lot of finger-pointing and blame-gaming followed. A lot of my readers said, asking questions is a good thing, but is there any answer. This made me ponder deeply and on a hind sight, the question that I asked myself and which “we”, the educated people should ask ourselves is, “Do we actually have the right to blame the Government? Did we actually go to vote when the Government was being chosen that we are now damning?” If the answer is “NO”, you belong to the modern Indian society where the educated and earning people feel going to exercise the Fundamental Right to vote is nothing but a waste of time.

If the answer is “NO”, we do not have the right to complain about the terrorism or the other Political issues. We see that all the so-called reforms the Government makes is for the poor or for a specific community but when we look at it from the perspective of the political candidate, he finds them as a reliable source of “vote-bank” as compared to us, the educated mass who lap up what we get and yet at the time of the polls say that all the politicians are worthless and hence we should not go to vote. The ideal example for this is that of Chandrababu Naidu (TDP) in Andhra Pradesh, who brought tremendous development to the city of Hyderabad, but since he did not do much for the rural areas in that term, he lost the next elections. We also see complete injustice in the policies made by the HR ministry regarding the reservations and all, but all in all, the politicians do what they do for gaining the votes and we are not helping them by not voting and hence we feel we are exploited/ not represented. The last straw also includes forgoing a whooping 60000 crore in loans to farmers in the election years.

Have we faced enough already?

The answer should have been “YES” decades ago, but we Indians are a very dormant society. We will not react as long as the issue does not affect us directly. We look ahead calmly even if our neighborhood is on fire unless we are unsure that the fire will not reach our house. This attitude of ours has costed us a lot in the past. Suddenly the hidden bombs which blasted in trains, buses or cinemas look like a small thing and the terrorists have reached places like the Taj, the Oberoi and the Gateway of India after the previous attacks on the Parliament.

We also see a higher amount of confidence in their attacks, more sophistication in their weaponry, and use of much more advanced technology coupled with perfect strategic planning. After this grueling experience, what do we get in return? Plain old finger pointing and prejudices from our Politicians; and sacrifices from our Police Force and Army. I am not blaming the Government for the lax in their response, this is the system that “we” the educated masses of this country have allowed to be molded over time and today when the same seeds we had sown have become deadly plants with venomous thorns that are pricking us, do we really have the right to criticize the system? I don't think so.

So what now?

All said and done, a problem that we have allowed to be formed can be resolved by our own actions. The time has passed when walking in a few processions and lighting a couple candles and then hoping that we won’t need someone to light a candle for ourselves the next time an incident happens. These things we did in the past to satisfy our conscience that we protest the inaction against terrorism and condemn the politicians don’t work anymore. Of course, we don’t want to join politics, we all wish to stay in the comfort of our homes and have the security of our jobs. So is there anything we can do?

Fortunately, there are a couple of things. First of all, we need to show the Politicians the Power of the masses. The educated masses need to exercise their “right to vote”. It is not just a luxury given to us by the Democracy, but it is the duty of a citizen to be responsible for what you get. Unless you vote, you do not have the authority to condemn any of the Government’s mis-doings. Once the politicians see the faith of the Indian voters and realize that their good work will be supported with votes, they will go to any extent for the good of the city, state and the country. This emotion was visible in the Gujarat Polls of 2007 and people from far and wide came forward to vote, with just the hope that the Government that delivers should not be toppled.

A lot of people ask what if we do not have any good leader to support. For that, the Indian Conduct of Election rules, published in 1961 does have a provision called Section 49-O, i.e. a way to mark yourselves as voted, but to NOT VOTE for any candidate. Unlike an email that is being forwarded as hoax that the Section 49-O when exercised the politicians in that constituency will be debarred or that there will be re-polls, this opting to exercise the option not to vote does not in any way render the election invalid or disqualify the candidates irrespective of the number of people "deciding not to vote".

Specifically, section 49-O of "Conduct of Election Rules of 1961" states:
"Elector deciding not to vote.-If an elector, after his electoral roll number has been duly entered in the register of voters in Form-17A and has put his signature or thumb impression thereon as required under sub-rule (1) of rule 49L, decided not to record his vote, a remark to this effect shall be made against the said entry in Form 17A by the presiding officer and the signature or thumb impression of the elector shall be obtained against such remark."

So, how would that help?

Though the common man is unaware of this provision, The Election commission, since 2001, has submitted two proposals requesting that a separate option called “None of the above” be provided on the Electronic Voting machines. But the Politicians are smart and hence nothing’s moved so far! But the point is, if it can get that simple and we do have a sizable number of people using the option, can’t we file a petition requesting an amendment be made to Rule 49-O?

Though exercising Section 49-O does not have results as spectacular as a re-poll and debarring, a high number of voters of exercising this option does make a statement that people are dissatisfied with the current setup and it also shows as a buffer of votes to the politicians who know that if they work well, these votes will be shifted to their vote-bank. Coupled with a strong media support, the change which is already “over-due” can be finally brought apart.


A Ray of Hope

The Mumbai-blasts have rekindled the spirits in the people of India. For the first time, I have seen a lot of Indian communities come out and condemn this brutal act of terror. Various International Forums have decided to help India in this menace for the first time and this has made the country or more importantly the country-men come closer. Various youngsters have started taking active interest in the state of the affairs of our country and the concepts like http://www.jaagore.com are helping awaken the lost sons of India.

Bottom-Line: For all the protests we have done till now: Was the entire slogan shouting required? Were the rallies required? What did we ever achieve? Were politicians ever going to listen to what we say if we shout one day and forget the event the very next day? Like Bhagat Singh said, the deaf need blasts to listen to what we say and the “right to vote” is the biggest bomb that a democracy can give us.

The change begins from us and we have to make a beginning. And as said in India's Most Wanted, India Fights Back - "Together We Can, and We Will."

Dasvidaniya – The Best Goodbye Ever

Cast: Vinay Pathak, Neha Dhupia, Rajat Kapoor, Ranvir Shorey, Purbi Joshi and Sarita Joshi

Director: Shashant Shah

Overall Rating: 7.5/10.0 (which is definitely a Good-to-Watch Movie)

The movie is said to be based on Akira Kurosawa’s Ikuru (1952) and Rob Reiner’s Bucket List (2007), but for the Indian audience, it can be loosely compared to Hrishikesh Mukherjee's Anand, which is an interesting tale of a man living his life to the fullest, despite being well aware of his impending death.

Dasvidanya tells the story of a typical person, Amar Kaul (Vinay Pathak), who though was considered as one of the studious kids in school, just reaches the post of an Accounts Manager in a Pharmaceutical Company because of his simplicity, while others climbed the Corporate ladders swiftly. The character talks about a typical lower middle class person in the city of Mumbai, his laborious job, hefty amount of work, dominant Boss, widow mother, and of course, the Mumbai’s transport system, i.e. the Local trains. The best part of this character is how closely it is relates to the Indian common man, who lives like a dead person every day.

His tangled life goes around such daily traumas, until one day, a supposedly known stomach infection strikes the deadly reality of being a Third Stage Stomach Cancer. Now, told by the doctor that he has only a few months to live, Amar realizes that he has never “lived life”. Never having mustered the courage to do the things he liked Amar decides to stop wasting his remaining life. As he makes a daily To-do list which used to give him a sense of achievement when he would check small things like getting a battery and fixing a remote, he now makes a To-Do list, which he calls, Top 10 Things To-Do before I die. The fact how Amar’s mother makes him visit a huge number of tantriks (religious people) for the healing of his cancer is yet another striking similarity with typical Indian mind-set. The film effectively finds humor in death, even sometimes at the cost of trivializing a tragedy.

The things he wants to do include buying a car, proposing to his childhood love, make a foreign trip and meet his childhood friend, and make amends with his family. There are also various other fancies that he desires in life and at times he gets more than he asked for from life. Yet the movie is not wonderful because of its story-line which is predictive. What makes the movie really wonderful to watch is the small moments and dialogues that make the very fabric in which the tale is woven. There are various incidents in the movie that make us smile and yet there are moments which bring tears to the eyes and that makes the wonderful blend of this movie and keep it going.

Of course, the movie has its own set of downs like a few parts could have been improved or do not sound convincing enough for the viewers to digest, but all in all, Dasvidaniya is engrossing to watch at least some parts. Kailash Kher’s Mumma is a wonderful song that shows the silent love between a mother and a child and so is the “silence” with which Amar proposes to his childhood love. These things raise the bar of the movie to the next level. Some of the dialogues about life that Amar makes about life are truly wonderful. Over one of his guitar lessons Amar’s teacher asks him, “What’s your problem in life, man?” to which Amar replies “My life is the problem”. Yet the dialogue that will remain with me is when Amar says, when Sikandar (Alexander) died, he died smiling, Amar wants to die playing (the guitar). The discussions reminded me of the famous poem, Leisure by W. H. Davis which goes "WHAT is this life if, full of care, We have no time to stand and stare?" And this feeling with its etched characters makes Dasvidaniya a real pleasure to watch.

Final Verdict: Vinay Pathak has truly raised his acting to the next level and the movie is really wonderful to watch. While it may not make to the list of ten things to do before you die, it's certainly an option when you want a good movie to watch.