Jekyll-and-Hyde India
Jug Suraiya | Jan 27, 2012, 12.00AM IST
Can a country have a split personality? Can a nation be a Dr Jekyll and a Mr Hyde, as in R L Stevenson’s classic tale about the good and the evil that coexists within the individual?
India boasts that in the next few decades it will outstrip Japan to become the third-largest economy in the world. India also boasts of being a cultural and spiritual superpower, with a civilisation going back some 4,000 years. India boasts nuclear capability, the world’s third-largest standing army, the ability to launch space satellites and technical know-how which makes it a rival to California’s Silicon Valley. So far, so very good. Dr Jekyll, through and through.
But India also has another face, another persona. A recent report reveals that India is one of the hungriest countries in the world, ranking 67 th out of 80 countries on the Global Hunger Index. Two hundred and thirty million Indians daily suffer from want of food. In terms of malnutrition, India is worse off than Pakistan, Nepal,Sudan or North Korea. Twenty-one per cent of India’s population is clinically undernourished, almost 44% of children below five years of age are underweight, and 7% of Indian children die before they reach this age.
Describing chronic and widespread child malnutrition as a ‘national shame’, Prime MinisterManmohan Singh has warned that the country cannot hope for a “healthy future”, when this generation of physically, and mentally, impaired children takes over as “farmers, teachers, data operators, artisans and service providers”.
The prime minister’s concern would seem to be a case of too little, too late. Never mind a “healthy future”, India has a far from healthy present, in terms of both physical as well as mental malnourishment. Research conducted by the Programme for International Student Assessment which surveyed 15-year-old schoolchildren from 73 countries has put India second last in terms of its students’ performance in reading, science and mathematics. While China came out on top of the list in all three subjects, India came right at the tail end, being better than only Kyrgyzstan. Dr Jekyll has been supplanted by Mr Hyde, and with a vengeance.
So which of the two Indias is the real India? Or are both of them equally real? Or equally unreal? The first casualty of a split-personality disorder – the Jekyll-and-Hyde syndrome – is reality. Objective reality is banished and replaced by a subjective world of self-delusion, a denial of the way things really are. Any attempt to reimpose a sense of reality is met with instant aggression and hostility. Jekyll-and-Hyde doesn’t want to know the truth about himself, or the two ‘themselves’ who make up his deeply divided self.
This is why India is so quick to take offence at any real or imagined slight, at any real or implied criticism. A BBC television show in which the host goes around in a vehicle with an inbuilt toilet because of the dearth of public lavatories in India evokes howls of official and unofficial protest. How dare these foreigners – especially the Brits who ruled us for almost 200 years and are to blame for everything, anyway – say such nasty things about us? Confronted by a mirror which reflects the inescapable reality about him, a violent Hyde comes to the fore.
On the other hand, the smallest token of appreciation or acceptance by the same or similar foreigners (Oprah Winfrey wearing a saree, an Indian tycoon getting to acquire a foreign company) is hailed as a symbol of national triumph. Dr Jekyll takes a self-congratulatory bow.
India is too quick to take offence, too quick to accept applause, because it swings between the two extremes of its split personality, between the good Jekyll and the brutish Hyde. Will the two, who are one and the same, ever be reconciled? Which one will emerge dominant? That’s perhaps the biggest real-life suspense story the world is witnessing today. Whom do you bet on?
Can a country have a split personality? Can a nation be a Dr Jekyll and a Mr Hyde, as in R L Stevenson’s classic tale about the good and the evil that coexists within the individual?
India boasts that in the next few decades it will outstrip Japan to become the third-largest economy in the world. India also boasts of being a cultural and spiritual superpower, with a civilisation going back some 4,000 years. India boasts nuclear capability, the world’s third-largest standing army, the ability to launch space satellites and technical know-how which makes it a rival to California’s Silicon Valley. So far, so very good. Dr Jekyll, through and through.
But India also has another face, another persona. A recent report reveals that India is one of the hungriest countries in the world, ranking 67 th out of 80 countries on the Global Hunger Index. Two hundred and thirty million Indians daily suffer from want of food. In terms of malnutrition, India is worse off than Pakistan, Nepal,Sudan or North Korea. Twenty-one per cent of India’s population is clinically undernourished, almost 44% of children below five years of age are underweight, and 7% of Indian children die before they reach this age.
Describing chronic and widespread child malnutrition as a ‘national shame’, Prime MinisterManmohan Singh has warned that the country cannot hope for a “healthy future”, when this generation of physically, and mentally, impaired children takes over as “farmers, teachers, data operators, artisans and service providers”.
The prime minister’s concern would seem to be a case of too little, too late. Never mind a “healthy future”, India has a far from healthy present, in terms of both physical as well as mental malnourishment. Research conducted by the Programme for International Student Assessment which surveyed 15-year-old schoolchildren from 73 countries has put India second last in terms of its students’ performance in reading, science and mathematics. While China came out on top of the list in all three subjects, India came right at the tail end, being better than only Kyrgyzstan. Dr Jekyll has been supplanted by Mr Hyde, and with a vengeance.
So which of the two Indias is the real India? Or are both of them equally real? Or equally unreal? The first casualty of a split-personality disorder – the Jekyll-and-Hyde syndrome – is reality. Objective reality is banished and replaced by a subjective world of self-delusion, a denial of the way things really are. Any attempt to reimpose a sense of reality is met with instant aggression and hostility. Jekyll-and-Hyde doesn’t want to know the truth about himself, or the two ‘themselves’ who make up his deeply divided self.
This is why India is so quick to take offence at any real or imagined slight, at any real or implied criticism. A BBC television show in which the host goes around in a vehicle with an inbuilt toilet because of the dearth of public lavatories in India evokes howls of official and unofficial protest. How dare these foreigners – especially the Brits who ruled us for almost 200 years and are to blame for everything, anyway – say such nasty things about us? Confronted by a mirror which reflects the inescapable reality about him, a violent Hyde comes to the fore.
On the other hand, the smallest token of appreciation or acceptance by the same or similar foreigners (Oprah Winfrey wearing a saree, an Indian tycoon getting to acquire a foreign company) is hailed as a symbol of national triumph. Dr Jekyll takes a self-congratulatory bow.
India is too quick to take offence, too quick to accept applause, because it swings between the two extremes of its split personality, between the good Jekyll and the brutish Hyde. Will the two, who are one and the same, ever be reconciled? Which one will emerge dominant? That’s perhaps the biggest real-life suspense story the world is witnessing today. Whom do you bet on?
Can a country have a split personality? Can a nation be a Dr Jekyll and a Mr Hyde, as in R L Stevenson’s classic tale about the good and the evil that coexists within the individual?
India boasts that in the next few decades it will outstrip Japan to become the third-largest economy in the world. India also boasts of being a cultural and spiritual superpower, with a civilisation going back some 4,000 years. India boasts nuclear capability, the world’s third-largest standing army, the ability to launch space satellites and technical know-how which makes it a rival to California’s Silicon Valley. So far, so very good. Dr Jekyll, through and through.
But India also has another face, another persona. A recent report reveals that India is one of the hungriest countries in the world, ranking 67 th out of 80 countries on the Global Hunger Index. Two hundred and thirty million Indians daily suffer from want of food. In terms of malnutrition, India is worse off than Pakistan, Nepal,Sudan or North Korea. Twenty-one per cent of India’s population is clinically undernourished, almost 44% of children below five years of age are underweight, and 7% of Indian children die before they reach this age.
Describing chronic and widespread child malnutrition as a ‘national shame’, Prime MinisterManmohan Singh has warned that the country cannot hope for a “healthy future”, when this generation of physically, and mentally, impaired children takes over as “farmers, teachers, data operators, artisans and service providers”.
The prime minister’s concern would seem to be a case of too little, too late. Never mind a “healthy future”, India has a far from healthy present, in terms of both physical as well as mental malnourishment. Research conducted by the Programme for International Student Assessment which surveyed 15-year-old schoolchildren from 73 countries has put India second last in terms of its students’ performance in reading, science and mathematics. While China came out on top of the list in all three subjects, India came right at the tail end, being better than only Kyrgyzstan. Dr Jekyll has been supplanted by Mr Hyde, and with a vengeance.
So which of the two Indias is the real India? Or are both of them equally real? Or equally unreal? The first casualty of a split-personality disorder – the Jekyll-and-Hyde syndrome – is reality. Objective reality is banished and replaced by a subjective world of self-delusion, a denial of the way things really are. Any attempt to reimpose a sense of reality is met with instant aggression and hostility. Jekyll-and-Hyde doesn’t want to know the truth about himself, or the two ‘themselves’ who make up his deeply divided self.
This is why India is so quick to take offence at any real or imagined slight, at any real or implied criticism. A BBC television show in which the host goes around in a vehicle with an inbuilt toilet because of the dearth of public lavatories in India evokes howls of official and unofficial protest. How dare these foreigners – especially the Brits who ruled us for almost 200 years and are to blame for everything, anyway – say such nasty things about us? Confronted by a mirror which reflects the inescapable reality about him, a violent Hyde comes to the fore.
On the other hand, the smallest token of appreciation or acceptance by the same or similar foreigners (Oprah Winfrey wearing a saree, an Indian tycoon getting to acquire a foreign company) is hailed as a symbol of national triumph. Dr Jekyll takes a self-congratulatory bow.
India is too quick to take offence, too quick to accept applause, because it swings between the two extremes of its split personality, between the good Jekyll and the brutish Hyde. Will the two, who are one and the same, ever be reconciled? Which one will emerge dominant? That’s perhaps the biggest real-life suspense story the world is witnessing today. Whom do you bet on?
Ooty cop dies during gymnastics display
UDHAGAMANDALAM: The Republic Day parade at the HADP stadium here ended on a tragic note when a police constable died while performing gymnastics.
The performance by 31-year-old Pandian, attached to the Armed Reserve Police in the Nilgiris, followed the cultural programmes. While performing, he lost his balance and fell, sustaining severe injuries on his neck. “While performing, he fell and hurt his neck. He was rushed to hospital but succumbed to a heart attack,” said S Nizamudhin, Nilgiris SP. “Pandian had performed the same routine last year. It is an unfortunate accident,” said inspector L Murali.
Pandian hailed from from Chinnamanur in Theni district. He is survived by his wife and two daughter
Become ‘junglee’ to take on Reds: CRPF DG
NEW DELHI: Giving a new mantra to over 70,000 CRPF troops engaged in anti-Naxal operations, its chief K Vijay Kumar has asked them to turn ‘junglee’ (inhabitants of forests) and hit the Maoists “hard” before eliminating them.
Kumar, who took over the reins of the force after the paramilitary suffered its biggest ever setback in Chhattisgarh’s Dantewada where Naxals ambushed 75 men in 2010, has asked his men to be like hunters, who hide in the area of the hunt and ultimately “neutralise” it.
“Your adversary is far too inferior than you- in training, in equipment, in physical strength, in tactics, in weaponry, in number, in food he takes. He cannot give you a face to fight. He believes in hiding, hitting and running. This is his strength.
“Let us also modify our tactics- be like hunters, hide in his area and hit him hard. Learn to be a junglee,” Kumar said in his recent official communication to his troops to boost their morale.
More than 70 CRPF battalions are deployed in various states, difficult terrains and dense forests to undertake anti-Maoist offensives and Kumar has made it a practice to write to them every month, since he took over in October 2010.
Decoding the Naxal modus-operandi, Kumar, who is credited to have eliminated forest brigand Veerappan as head of the STF in 2004, said, “Just like a snail, let us carry our rations and load on our back and stay in jungle for longer duration, invisible, silent to let him fall in our trap and hit him hard, pushing him back.
“The harder we push, the more of them (Naxals) will get neutralised. The more of them get neutralised, the fewer of us will have casualities. So remember pushing means fewer casualities…continue it in every skirmish he (Naxals) dares to have with you,” the Director General wrote to them in a signed letter.
5 killed in Rio high-rises collapse
AFP | Jan 27, 2012, 04.47AM IST
The collapse, apparently caused by structural problems , occurred late on Wednesday near the municipal theater on the city’s Cinelandia square.
Officials said six people were also hurt, including a woman who sustained head injuries and required surgery.
The accident raised fresh questions about the state of Brazil’s infrastructure as it prepares to host the 2014 World Cup and 2016 Summer Olympics.
ABBOTTABAD, Pakistan: Police say unknown assailants fired rocket propelled grenades at the military academy near Osama bin Laden’s compound in the northwest Pakistani city of Abbottabad.
Senior local police officer Abdul Karim says the attack early Friday morning damaged the wall of the academy but did not cause any casualties.
US Navy Seals killed bin Laden during a daring night raid on his compound in Abbottabad last May. The operation outraged the Pakistanis because they were not told about it beforehand.
Many US officials questioned how bin Laden could live for years near Pakistan’s equivalent of West Point. But the US has not found evidence senior Pakistani leaders knew he was there.
Gram sabhas above Lok Sabha: Anna
In a video message, activist Anna Hazare also praised the Lokayukta bill of Uttarakhand, in what may be seen as a surrogate campaign for the BJP in the state. He said the legislation drafted by the BJP government should be emulated by all states, something that endorses BJP’s claim to be sincere about fighting corruption under its chief ministerial candidate B C Khanduri.
Hazare demanded that a law be brought to give financial and decision-making powers to gram sabhas and threatened to go on a Ramlila Maidan style agitation for it. He also chose to raise the contentious issue of land acquisition, demanding that no acquisition take place without gram sabha approval.
“Lok Sabha thinks it is above everyone. This is wrong. People have made you. So they are above you… It is the sacred temple of democracy. In such a sacred place, what has happened in Rajya Sabha in the last day (of the winter session) on Lokpal bill. 550 people were giving their own suggestions. Nobody has asked people. So we need another law. Assemblies and Lok Sabha think that they are above gram sabhas. But gram sabhas are above you. We need a new law which gives such a power to gram sabhas,” he said in his 30-minute address at a seminar on ‘Rebuilding the Republic’.
Although Hazare’s romance for gram sabha is old, his pitch that the real power should be vested in lakhs of these bodies instead of Lok Sabha has been provoked by the resistance to his agenda in Parliament. The activist even acknowledged as much, criticizing the failure of Rajya Sabha to clear the Lokpal bill. “The elected members were giving their views on their own. This is not right democracy. Why this happened? Because the masters were sleeping… But this jan andolan has woken the people,” he said.
He said there should be provisions in the new law that a panchayat can be dismissed if it spends money without consulting the gram sabha. He extended this principle to land acquisition as well, saying land in a village should not be acquired without the approval of the gram sabha.
Hazare said there was no difference between the British rule and the present system if the government did not take the opinion of people while making laws. He made a fresh demand for Right to Recall and Right to Reject laws. In his election message, Hazare asked people to demand support for the Jan Lokpal from candidates before assuring their vote.
Arguing for amendment to the Constitution to ensure people’s participation in lawmaking, Team Anna member Prashant Bhushan suggested setting up of a ‘Referendum Commission’ on the lines of Election Commission to seek common man’s views in framing legislations.
Bhushan said that available technology and internet could be used for referendum. He said for laws related to a particular state, voting through internet kiosks could be held after biometric identification of a voter. “If it is at national level, the voting should be held at that level… you will have to ask people. The question is whether people wish to have (a particular) law,” he said. Bhushan claimed that holding such referendums would not be difficult.
“We need to have a Referendum Commission on the lines of Election Commission… if five per cent people approach the commission asking for a law, then there should be referendum,” he said.
Seeking to blunt criticism against the proposal, he said some people will raise concern that this will go against the minorities. “But this will not stand. It is said that majority will try to come up with some laws against the minority. That cannot happen as our Constitution guarantees certain rights,” Bhushan explained.
Activist Arvind Kejriwal added, “Parliament has become hostage to ruling party rather than ruling party being accountable to Parliament. This situation of ruling party high command becoming virtual king is dangerous,” he said. On the Lokpal bill, he said the law that went to Parliament was “useless”.
“97 amendments were introduced by opposition. Their speeches were different from the amendments they moved. The ruling party had the majority and they did what they wanted. Was it just a formality? Was it just a show? The people whom we send turn to their high command for orders,” he added.
Another Team Anna member Shanti Bhushan said the reason for the establishment of Republic was to give power to people for lawmaking. “But something has gone wrong. To bridge the gap, a people’s movement is needed and its bugle has been sounded. There will be a peaceful movement that will stretch to the nook and corner of the country,” he said.
Ind vs Aus: Virender Sehwag falls after an aggressive 62 off 53 balls
Spinner Nathan Lyon took the prize-wicket of dangerous Sehwag to give the hosts a crucial breakthough.
Sehwag led the run chase for India with his typical 62 runs off just 53 balls as he raced to fifty in 36 deliveries. He hit twelve boundaries in his rapid knock before throwing his wicket to a mistimed shot resulting to an easy catch forRicky Ponting at mid-on.
Sehwag added 66 runs for the second wicket with veteran Rahul Dravid as they tried to resurrect the Indian run chase after losing Gautam Gambhir (3) early.
India started poorly as they lost opener Gambhir inside five overs. Pacer Ryan Harris struck early in 4.3 overs to dismiss Gambhir cheaply and reduce India to 14/1.
Earlier, Australia declared their second innings soon after the play resume in the post-lunch session and set 500 runs target for India with less than five sessions left in the match.
Ricky Ponting (60) and Brad Haddin (11) took Australia’s overall lead to 499 runs when skipperMichael Clarke declare their innings close. Australia scored 167/5 in 46 overs in their second innings of the match after they declared their first essay at 604/7 on Day 2.
Australia lost Clarke (37) and Michael Hussey (15) in quick succession in the morning session of the fourth day of the fourth Test on Friday.
The hosts were 154/5 at lunch in their second innings with an overall lead of 486 runs with Ponting and Haddin at the crease.
Ishant Sharma trapped Hussey to give India second breakthrough. Umpire Dharmasena took his time before giving Hussey, who wasn’t happy with the decision, marching orders. Australia lost their fifth wicket at the score of 147.
Ricky Ponting, who added 71 runs for the fourth wicket with Michael Clarke, hit another fine half-century to take Australia’s overall lead past 475-run mark. Ponting’s 50 came off in 73 balls and included four boundaries.
Seamer Umesh Yadav got rid of Clarke, who scored 43-ball 37 with the help of four boundaries. Australia lost their fourth wicket at the score of 111.
Yadav’s full-length delivery got a faint outside edge from Clarke’s bat en-route to wicketkeeper Wriddhiman Saha’s hands.
Ponting hit two successive boundaries off Ishant Sharma to bring up 500 runs for the series and also take Australia’s overall lead past 400-run mark against India. .
Clarke and Ponting resumed Australia’s second innings on Day 4 after India conceded a huge first innings lead of 332 runs after the end of third day’s play at the Adelaide Oval.
Australia resumed Day 4 at 50/3 in the second innings enjoying an overall lead of 382 runs.
There was some artificial excitement towards the end of third day’s play when the home team lost their top-three for just 50 runs, but with an overall lead of 382 and seven wickets standing, Australia were merely stirred, not shaken.
Barring a miracle, it is hard to see this Indian line-up denying Australia a clean sweep of the four-Test series that was lost 10 days ago in Perth.
Virat Kohli provided the only bright moment by cracking his maiden century but India were still faced with a herculean task of preventing a ‘whitewash’ against Australia in the fourth and final Test.
Kohli stood bravely amidst the ruins with a gritty 116 but most of the other top batsmen surrendered meekly as India folded up for 272 in the first innings, and even though they were 332 runs in arrears of Australia’s first innings tally – and therefore liable to follow-on – skipper Michael Clarke decided not to enforce the same.
Credit should also be given to young Wriddhiman Saha (35) who helped Kohli add 114 runs for the sixth wicket which helped the Delhi lad push for his three-figure mark. Kohli’s delightful knock contained 11 boundaries and a six over deep mid-wicket off Michael Clarke’s bowling.
The second new-ball again did the trick for Australia as India who were 225/5 at one stage lost five wickets for 47 runs in little over 10 overs.
Aussie paceman Peter Siddle charged in on the unresponsive flat Adelaide pitch to take five for 49, denting a few more Indian batting reputations and prolonging Sachin Tendulkar’s wait for a 100th international century.
In Pics: Virat slams maiden Test century
Nothing was going right for him, and one could almost visualise that day in Sydney 12 years back when the Hyderabadi stylist was at his best.
Pushed to the corner, he came up with an innings of 167 that turned his career around and made him one of India’s greatest match winners.
Similarly on Thursday, India were fighting a losing battle and with the Aussies chirping all around, Kohli came up with a feisty century that proved to the world that he is the man to lead the new Indian batting brigade.
Devang Gandhi, a former Indian opener who was in that Australian tour in 1999-2000, agrees that there are similarities between VVS’ Sydney effort and Virat’s Adelaide ton. “There were doubts about the temperament of both the cricketers. VVS was highly regarded in the domestic circuit before while Virat is a proven ODI player. But both needed the century to cement their places in the Test team,” Gandhi said.
The former opener talked about the pressure that VVS was in going into the second innings of that Sydney Test. “VVS was not among the runs and he told me the day before that the selectors would drop him after this,” Gandhi said.
With the fear of innings defeat looming large, he knew that this was his last chance and he launched a fantastic counterattack on Glenn McGrath and Co.
“It was a brilliant pace attack and I believe that was one of the best Test innings I have ever seen. I don’t know whether the innings of Kohli will be on par with that one,” Sadagopan Ramesh, another Indian opener on that trip, said.
But both Gandhi and Ramesh agreed that just like doubts about Laxman’s talents were cleared after that innings, there won’t be any more questions over Kohli’s temperament.
“Kohli proved that he belongs to this stage. The entire Indian dressing-room had the same feeling when Laxman scored that century,” Gandhi said.
During the 1999-2000 tour, the only player who had scored a century before Laxman was skipper Sachin Tendulkar. The rest of the Indian batting lineup had looked listless.
All through the night.
ieth century and notable physicist of all time. It is told that he had 
Dhirajlal Hirachand Ambani was born on 28 December 1932, at Chorwad, Junagadh in Gujarat, When he was 16 years old, he moved to Aden,Yemen. Initially, Dhirubhai worked as a dispatch clerk with A. Besse & Co. Married to Kokilaben. Dhirubhai also worked in Dubai for sometime. He returned to India and founded the Reliance Commercial Corporation with an initial capital of Rs 15000. Dhirubhai set up the business in partnership with Champaklal Damani from whom he parted ways in 1965.
N.R. Narayana Murthy, the founder of Infosys Technologies is one of the most famous personalities in India’s I-T sector. Born on August 20, 1946, he obtained a degree in electrical engineering from the National Institute of Engineering under University of Mysore in 1967 and went on to do his Masters from IIT Kanpur in 1969.
The actor claims he had a secret crush on his Ek Main Aur Ekk Tu co-star in his teens. Uh oh…
Funemployment
