Farewell to Gandhi

It was another Gandhi Jayanti on 2nd Oct’09,and jokes apart, time to remember our father of the nation. More importantly it was time to ponder and introspect once again the relevance of the Mahatma to India as a people in progress. Einstein remarked years ago that generations to come would scare believe that such a one as this in flesh and blood walked over the earth and it would not be wrong to surmise that ours is one among these generations which has taken the first step in consigning the Mahatma and his values to the dustbin of history. DF Karaka wrote a book titled ‘Out of Dust, He Made Us into Men’during the freedom struggle days and now we have wiped his dust from our memory, so to say. Reams of newsprint have spoken about his life and work but somewhere amidst all these, has been lost the essence and meaning of what he stood for.

In the commodified world we live in,everything has a price. At all costs seems to be the spirit pervading the corporate corridors. How high is the asking price determines how successful and powerful one is. Previously unheard of obscene figures dot ones pay cheque. Even as one more zero gets added to one’s salary, one more malnourished child goes into the coffin at Melaghat, and one more famished image of a Kalahandi local cries for attention. As someone raises his hands to his head in despair, another shrugs his shoulders with an air of indifference. It is here that two of Gandhi’s telling observations- There is enough for man’s need but not enough for man’s greed and to wipe every tear from every eye finds resonance.

All around us lifestyle changes and lack of values are too glaring to escape attention.Palatial houses for accommodation, designer and branded wear for one’s attire, fast food for consumption, SUVs and airways for transportation, hifi gadgets to keep in touch are all too common. Lack of respect for elders, indecent and immoral forms of relaxation and entertainment, dishonesty and lack of intellectual integrity in achieving goals, unethical conduct, lack of civic sense and the devil may care attitude are the accompanying virtues. Caste and religious discrimination and lack of dignity in labour are welcome additions.Contrast this with the Gandhian way of life and values and we know where we stand. No wonder the Gandhian is an extinct species.

For Gandhiji, non violence and truth were as old as the hills, majestic and standing in silent splendour, but to us they are obstacles to personal progress, a vice rather than a virtue. Amassing fortune rather than earning goodwill is the order of the day. Every man to himself, each to his own is the ruling credo. Both eyes for an eye, to give as good as one gets is the guiding principle.To top it all Gandhi has become a brand for others to make money.

With each passing day, the disconnect is only getting greater, the Mahatma becoming merely a subject of academic interest.The day is not far when our father of the nation loses even the symbolic significance that he enjoys now. Meanwhile we can continue milking the holiday on Gandhi Jayanti for our own ends.

What a father, what a nation.

Remembering Nani Palkhivala

December 11, marks the fifth death anniversary of Nani Palkhivala, preeminent lawyer, constitutional and tax expert, towering intellectual, charming public speaker, a firm believer in human rights and democracy, a champion of private enterprise and above all a fine human being, who was humility personified. He was a shining star in the Tata group, having been on the board of several Tata companies, all of which he graced with distinction. Not for nothing was he hailed as the conscience of the nation.

Born into a middle class Parsi family of Bombay in 1920, he was to make a mark on the judicial firmament in later years ,by the power of his intellect, the force of his advocacy, and the command over the English language. He strode the corridors of the Bombay high court like a colossus. Success and high office never went to his head, and he was at his best when defending the country on issues of national importance at the international courts of justice. If today, the basic structure of our constitution is intact, then it is thanks to his mercurial performance before the Supreme court in the Kesavananda Bharti case. Justice HR Khanna rightly described him as one who would easily find a place among the top ten lawyers in the world. He was one who followed the dictates of his conscience to the last word, which was amply demonstrated when he returned Indira Gandhi’s brief on her imposing emergency, and also when he refused the offer of the attorney general post. His grasp of the intricacies of law, and his ability to comprehend and translate into simple thought and words, finer and complicated aspects of cases he fought, made him a formidable exponent of advocacy at its very best. It used to be commonly said that in the courts of M.C.Chagla, a former chief justice of the Bombay High court, no case was decided until the last word was spoken. If that were so, it could easily be similarly said, that no case could be decided, until Palkhivala had submitted his full argument.

What endeared him to the masses was his year on year dissection of the Union budget, where he spoke on the tax implications of the budget, fearlessly pointing to the Government in power where it had gone wrong and where it went slow. An ardent critic of the Government for its high taxes and stifling of private enterprise, his opinions and arguments were always backed by facts and figures, and laced with the felicity of expression that came naturally to him. A dry subject like the Budget, in Palkhivala’s hands, turned into an important event on the Bombay calendar, what with people from all walks of life turning up at Brabourne stadium, to hear him at his very best. His speeches were liberally sprinkled with anecdotes, quotes from the likes of Edmund Burke,Coleridge,G.K.Chesterton,Shakespeare et al and a good dose of humour, appropriate to the context. Add to this,his phenomenal memory and erudition. and you had a brilliant display of public speaking in India. He was widely believed to be the best Finance minister India never had, and served as India’s ambassador to the US with dignity and distinction. To know that Rajaji held him in high regard, gives us a measure of the man he was.

Being from the Parsi community, Philanthropy was in his genes, and he contributed liberally to causes he held dear to his heart. A case in point is his munificence to Sankara Nethralaya in Chennai, whose service to the cause of eye care in this country, greatly impressed him. His self effacing nature and humility always kept people with whom he came in contact, at ease, and endeared him to one and all.

The least we can do is to remember him in the words of the poet James Russell Lowell who said :
‘His magic was not far to seek,
He was human,
Wherever he met a stranger,
There he left a friend.’.

Palkhivala may be dead but his legacy lives on.

The Immortal one-Sachin Tendulkar
And the show goes on. The longest running show since 1989 not on Broadway or Piccadilly, but on the cricket fields across the globe played by one man-the short and stout dynamo Sachin Ramesh Tendulkar is not going to end soon. He is to cricket what a soldier is to his country, dedicated to his mission, loyal to his country, superbly equipped in mind and body to annhilate the enemy,ready to fight to the last ball. Frailities he has that makes him human, but so few that easily makes him one of the best batsman to have set foot on a cricket field.
His recent stupendous performance which made him the first man to make a double hundred in a ODI, has proved beyond doubt that at the age of 36, he may be old wine but the best wine on offer. This effort has only strengthened his position in the list of all time greats of the game. His cricketing exploits are such in class and number that now to compare him to others of his ilk is sheer stupidity. He will from now on for the most part not rewrite records, but write new records for others to chase. More and more of his fans, wellwishers and cricket experts will now have the audacity to put him on par with Bradman if not above him.
He is God to some, a role model to many, an ideal to be followed, an act to be savoured, a cricketing jewel to be safeguarded, the pride of the entire nation. When Sachin bats, the nation watches and the opponent rues the day. It is a spectator’s delight and a bowler’s torment. When Sachin sparkles on the crease,there is jubilation, when he fails there is despair and heartbreak. Much as cricket analysts and writers try to explain that he is only human when he fails, his fans have etched him as God in their memory and goes into delirium on such occasions. Sachin himself has not helped matters, by the sheer breathlessness of his strokes, the wisdom of his shots, and the aura around his game.
His cricketing technique blends textbook theory with practice and innovation, that for every situation on the field, every circumstance of his team, he has the shots in his armoury. His repertoire of strokes which gives life to the scintillating stroke play from his bat means there is only a thin line which separates a good ball from a bad ball, making it that much more difficult to bowl at him. A thinking cricketer that he is, there can be no set formulas for the opposition to prise him out. He intelligently paces his innings such that he knows when to ambush the bowler, which bowler to make his prey(most bowlers are his anyway),when to be quiet and when to flare up. His batting only reinforces the fact that form may be temporary, but class is permanent.
His longevity in the highest level of the game can be compared to Federer’s in Tennis, but Federer never had to carry the hopes and aspirations of a billion plus countrymen to whom Sachin is God and cricket religion. To be injury free, stress free, controversy free and free of vices which money and power can buy, he knows his body and mind too well not to exert more than he can. Thus a prudent decision to stay out of the T20 version of the game and extend his career. The climax should hopefully be a century of centuries.
Of amiable disposition and ego free, a friend and guide to his teammates and other aspiring youngsters, a doting father and loving husband, who else can be a better advertisement to the gentleman’s game than him. Bradman had a deserving Cardus to write of him, Sobers had his deserving James, but to write deservingly of Tendulkar, sadly none is seen on the horizon. Let God give him many more years of happy cricket and lucky ones like us many more years of exciting cricket.