Shiv Sena's Malaysian Muslim Cousins

Every year in Bombay, ahem Mumbai, we go through a cheap but violent Shiv Sena circus against couples celebrating Valentine's Day. Their cadre usually attack shops that sell greeting cards and go and beat up couple who cosy up on the "day of love." 

I have never cared about Valentine's Day but the meaningless violence from the Sena harms more than helps their cause. But the Sena might just have found an ally in Malaysia. 

This is an AFP despatch from Kuala Lumpur.

"Several Malaysian states are planning a crackdown on "immoral acts" during Valentine's Day as part of a campaign to encourage a sin-free lifestyle, an Islamic party leader Wednesday.

Authorities in the northern states of Kedah, Penang and Kelantan as well as central Selangor state will carry out "immorality checks" on February 14, said Nasrudin Hasan Tantawi, head of the Islamic party PAS's youth wing."

http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5j6M0sZ21MDSUVipeFjbBXxnD4BRQ?docId=CNG.b0bd9634a7d95d37ca7220a20828e2b0.5d1

Non so se ridere o piangere (I don't know whether to laugh or cry) When will Asia ever rise above this kind of non sense?

Indian passion meets German proficiency

The above words were used by German musician Prem Joshua to describe his band, which performed in front of a jam-packed audience at the steps of the Asiatic Library on Sunday. I didn't expect such a large turnout for a fusion music concert but this is Bombay, people are always open to all sorts of creative endeavours.

Music is something that is ever evolving and Joshua's band plays with an incredible harmony between Eastern and Western elements. Joshua himself plays the sitar and the flute with almost a sense of perfection. We were treated to a fabulous concert for two hours. 

On a funny note, the musical performances of the Kala Ghoda Festival are being sponsored by Air India, an airline that makes more than a billion dollars worth of losses every year! Since the first time I saw the Kala Ghoda festival in 1999, it has grown immensely and is now a big ticket cultural event. Events like the festival and the marathon enrich both the city and its citizens. 

As a huge fan of fusion music, I would be delighted to see more Prem Joshua performances. I have a few of his albums and I always feel that my mind is transported to some kind of utopia when I listen to his music.

More for more pics from Kala Ghoda and other parts of the city, click here

http://www.flickr.com/photos/7444188@N05/sets/72157623823412347/

Beautiful sunrises

One of the best things about leaving the house by 7:00 am 3 days a week is the opportunity to catch some beautiful sunrises. I see gigantic crimson sunrises over the domestic airport when the train is between Vile Parle and Santa Cruz. When I see these lovely sunrises, I realise how this planet was before human beings decided to build ugly buildings, pollute and throw garbage all over the place.

Then there's the fresh air in the green university campus in Kalina. The gigantic bats are asleep on the trees and there's an unbelievable serenity as I walk from the main gate to the lecture complex. These are the kind of things that put me in the absolute best of moods early in the morning. 

Typical foreigner frustration at doing business in India

If you look around these days in any part of Bombay, you will see foreigners. It's not just the Europeans and North Americans anymore. You see East Asians, Africans and Latin Americans who can blend in easier than others.

There are many opportunities in this city and places like Bangalore and it's nice to see diversity but it's quite amusing reading rants about what some of these people think of life here. I point you out to a blog written by my friend using an analogy about the Mumbai Marathon and doing business in India.

http://indische-wirtschaft.de/?p=823

You'd read views here, which wouldn't be said in English given that they would offend Indians. But alas, there are those in India who can understand the languages of foreigners in a way that they would never understand ours.

My friend, the author talking about doing business and running a marathon in India says, "Beides ist in Indien härter als in Europa, weil die externen Verhältnisse viel extremer sind: Hitze, Luftverschmutzung, mangelnde Verpflegung beim Marathon beziehungsweise Wettbewerb, Bürokratie, Ressourcen-Zugang und Korruption im Geschäft)"  


That would translate as both are more difficult in India because of more extreme external conditions like heat, air pollution, bureaucracy, lack of food during the marathon, corruption in business.


These factors that don't stop these pioneers from coming to India to make money. The torch-bearers of civilization become more local than the Indians when it comes to getting things done.

This one riles me the most.

"Trotz professionellen Top-Managements, hat man doch immer wieder mit inkompetenten Hilfskräften zu tun, die keine Ahnung haben"

The author says despite  professional top management, you have to keep repeating things to get things done from incompetent support staff whom he calls clueless. 


A few weeks ago, I met a photographer from Vienna who is heavily in debt in Austria and works for a magazine on its last legs. She's here to live the life equivalent of a British Raj officer and has the same usual racist complaints about local men. 


She says they all look at her as a white chick, a commodity. She even has issues with her assistant. who she claims hits on her. Funny enough she shares a flat with her assistant as a paying guest. And the assistant is proud of hanging out with drug addicts and assorted spoilt brats. Maybe the Austrians haven't heard the proverb that "birds of a feather flock together."

The point is that you can't pay peanuts and get decent talent. Not in Europe and not in India.

It's amazing how so many European economies are on the verge of collapse and are floating because of IMF bailouts. Unemployment is rampant in the continent and so is racism often institutionalized. I think many European countries realise that they have major issues sans their colonies. How can you stay rich, when you can't exploit people in Africa and Asia? 


Going back to my friend who wrote this piece, he's an adorable young man with some nice ideas and I wouldn't like to say anything bad about him. But I am sure that he enjoys the security of the German language to express his true views on India, a country to which he has tied his financial fortunes to. 


All I can tell my foreign friends is, if you can't take the heat, leave the kitchen