Walk Alone

Maybe it is true what people say about lonely people being born, not made.

Is it any good having a racing team in F1 called Force India? What is Indian about this team other than its owner and its colors? Formula racing is the ultimate symbiosis of engineering and passion - in which other sport does a human pilot half a ton of exquisite engineering to speeds in excess of 300 kmph? Where is the Indian talent in Force India’s engineering? Where is the Indian passion in its driving?

Is this all we can do? Are we so devoid of talent that we have to bank on a billionaire’s purchasing power?

We, Indians, are sure buying up a lot of ready-made pieces. Mittal buys up steel companies in Europe. Tata grabs Rover and Jaguar in Britain. Mallya grabs Midland F1.

And over a billion people pat themselves on their collective back.

As kid, I used to hear an anecdote.

America dug out a lump of iron ore and shipped it to Germany. Germany refined the ore into an ingot and flew it to Japan. Japan machine-tooled the ingot into a perfect square plate and sent it to India.

And India stamped “Made In India” on the plate.

Now that I think of it, I can guess why cricket feels good. Sure, our boys are unreliable. Maybe they are not the best that is out there. But, they are our boys - Indians. And when they win, India wins. When they win, more people than a billionaire and his stockholders win.

Not all nightmares contain terror. Not all contain horror. Blood or demons.

Sometimes, you have the option of doing something. Of not doing something. Of walking down a different path. Of walking away from something you know you will regret later on. You have the choice of not hurting people you love; of redeeming their trust. Or otherwise.

In a nightmare, you watch yourself taking all the wrong turns, selecting all the wrong options. You see someone who is less than what you want to be.

In such a nightmare, despair takes root in you. It runs after your breath, holds your heart.

And after such a nightmare, you don’t - can’t - go back to sleep.

I’m back to thinking some more about the people I love to hate, despite the fact that some of my trusted colleagues and acquaintances come from them. Let’s see - I got two more pet peeves.

How was your Diwali? And the weeks leading up to Diwali itself? Mine was noisy and smoke-filled. Guess who did I have to thank for that? I did not see a single person - not one - who was not a member of this community bursting crackers and flares.

Another eccentricity of these people is their penchant for eating off food-carts. Every day I walk home from the train station, I pass a 500 metre stretch of S. V. Road taken over by food-carts and converted into a food court. I mean, WTF? If you love eating out, as in eating food that is not home-cooked, then go to a restaurant or a fast-food joint. There is no need to patronize the hawkers right out on the road, people!

Another thing that baffles me about Gujaratis is the almost fanatical trust they have placed in Modi. FOSS and GNU/Linux geeks are (traditionally) politically liberal - you wouldn’t expect one of us to support a guy like Modi. But apparently, I was wrong. Even my afore-mentioned colleagues are die-hard Modi supporters.

To be honest, before Godhra, the only black spot I had seen was his continued support to the Sardar Sarovar Project. Even that was not as much an issue against Modi as against the Gujarat government - all governments before him, irrespective of political hues, had supported the project. I remember a weekly news magazine had published a special report in January 2002 about how Modi was effectively bringing Gujarat back on its feet an year after the Bhuj earthquake. And I agreed - here was one superb administrator - it seemed as if he was trained by Kautilya himself.

Then dawned the 27th day of February, 2002. A crime was committed against humanity that day. Those who gave its victims the shroud of religious indignation also gave the criminals the armor of religious persecution. A crime for which retribution could have realized within the limits of law and order was turned over to the “public court”. And there lay Modi’s mistake.

Nobody wanted those savages to go free. Hindu, Muslim, atheist, secularist - everyone was rooting for vengeance. Kay said it best in Men in Black:

A person is smart. People are dumb, panicky, dangerous animals and you know it.

To this animal was handed the baton of justice, vengeance and vigilance. This animal was told of an enemy so potent he could strike even in the heart of the Hindu Desh. An enemy so dangerous he was omnipresent, yet invisible. An enemy where there was none; for criminals are an organic part of society. A cancerous tumor is not your enemy, but you don’t keep it in your body longer than necessary.

What happened in the next few months is not something Gujaratis should ever be proud of.

Modi has moved on. Gujarat has moved on. Except for the feeling of dreaded karma catching up in the future, there is not much left of those months when humanity deserted the land of many of its greatest sons. Even vigilantes keeping an eye on Modi have found nothing to fault him with. Vigilance is the price of freedom.

I think it is time we expect both sides of this conflict to forgive. Not forget; because if they forget, then history will repeat itself.

In the meanwhile, we all have a future to make.

I thought the word revert meant

to return to a former habit, practice, belief, condition, etc.

At least, that is what dictionary.com tells me. I’m having trouble reconciling its meaning with its usage.

what a wonderul[sic] day to revert to the alma-mater and get nostalgic…

Well, that was the most appalling misuse to date, that I had seen. But how many of you have missed the following gem?

Please revert back to me/us as soon as possible with <insert whatever document or changes or information the person is asking>

I/We shall revert back to you as soon as possible with <insert whatever document or changes or information you are asking>

This particular usage is shockingly common - at least I’ve seen my unfair share of it while I’ve been at Direxions. That it doesn’t reflect on the language skills of Direxions executives is apparent - because I have heard this phrase when I called the HSBC helpline too.

The closest approximation I can get to is : revert back equals report back or get back. I wonder whether this deliberate misuse is taught in the management schools.