No way out

Two instances I encountered yesterday made a connection with some of the realities that confront me through the work I do: the first was a column in Mint by Ramesh Ramanathan where he eloquently describes his encounter with an Indian youth whose story is similar to maybe tens of thousands of other young people who come to Bombay to make a living. In this case, the youth was a taxi driver with limited skills.

The second instance was a Bollywood movie I saw last night where a young girl from a small town comes to Bombay to make a living, realizes she doesn't have any skills or education required to find even the most basic of jobs and ends up becoming a call girl. The portrayal of the call girl in the movie is a glamorous, high flying "escort" version which is probably not true for 99% of the girls who end up as prostitutes in big cities.

The commonality in both instances is that a young person ( and there are around 200 million of them in India today and increasing) is unable to illustrate ambitions and dreams as in the case of the young taxi driver or is forced into prostitution as in the case of the girl in the movie, primarily because there is no framework for either of them to cash in on the opportunities to create wealth for themselves that exist in India today.

The example of the call girl was much too close to reality for comfort. There have been times when I've interacted with girls who have received timely interventions and it left me more than slightly shaken as to their plight. Similarly, on an almost daily basis I see so many young people earning far below what they could be, only because they lack one or two critical skills that are the need of today's private enterprise. And this reinforces the importance of employable skills training and life skills training for youth, especially those at risk. I don't intend getting into a thesis on my work but despite the great Bollywood-Yash Raj combo, the veneer of fantasy suffered a slight crack as fantasy inevitably does when confronted with cold, hard reality.

Bollywood 1 Economist 0

Most people who have some Indian connection would have either seen Lagaan or at the least, have heard some of the melodious tunes composed for the movie, not to mention the graceful dances only Bollywood can conjure.

VJ & I were discussing how, despite all the rhetoric, Indians are pretty oblivious to religion in most aspects of our pop culture. I then proceeded to name a remarkable list of "most favourites" in Bollywood & Cricket: actors, musicians & players. Inevitably, Lagaan came up as a name and here is where VJ pointed out something interesting:

One of my favourite songs in Lagaan is "Radha kaise na jale" which translated means "how can Radha not be jealous". The song is a reference to Radha, the consort of Krishna: one of the most famous figures in Hindu mythology and the central figure of the Hindus' most revered of books, the Bhagavad Gita. The song incorporates a well known and liked theme in Hindu mythology: Radha admonishing Krishna for his alleged flirtations with other girls (Krishna being somebody much in demand by the nubile nymphets in those days). In the song, Krishna goes onto rebuff these allegations by saying that, even when he meets attractive princesses, his heart only thinks of and sings for Radha. The point here of course is not to debate whether Krishna actually was telling the truth but to examine this song a little more. Its easily one of my favourite movies and one of my favourite Bollywood songs: as much for its melody as for the lyrics of the song and the fantastic choreography and dancing, all depicting a naughty Krishna and a besotted but angry Radha.

The credits for the song are as follows:

Depicting Krishna in the song: Aamir Khan
Choreographer: Saroj Khan
Music Composer: A. R Rahman
Lyricist: Javed Akhtar

Care to guess what they all have in common?

As much as the Economist blares its alarmist horn (and the magazine is becoming increasingly and irritatingly strident in recent times), India is still a free country and a place where religion only raises its (sometimes ugly) head when politicians or terrorists poke it the wrong way. And obscene generalizations like the ones made in this article "It is not known what role India's 150m Muslims, who include 40% of Hyderabad's population, play in the violence. Probably a supporting one at most. But that could change. India's Muslims have long suffered politically inspired communal violence and casual discrimination. Were they ever to become seriously riled, India would have a problem indeed" only serve to highlight how out of touch even this standard of journalism is with the reality on the ground.

Gujarat of course was a crime that can never be excused or explained but please let us not claim only Muslims are discriminated against or only Muslims are singled out for unfair treatment in India. I am dark skinned and I get discriminated against in this country. If I am a dalit I get discriminated. If I am a sub caste within a caste, I get discriminated. If I have a surname "Mehta" in Karnataka, I get discriminated against. But hey I haven't become a terrorist. Nor have the millions of dalits and shudras and the thousands of other "lower castes". So I'm not really sure wtf the Economist is trying to say here by fingering 150 million people as potential terrorists. Indian history and culture is replete with central figures who are Muslim. India wouldn't be half the country it is today if we were to take away some of the Indian Muslims from the landscape or if we were to show scant respect for Muslims outside our borders even. Can we even begin to contemplate cricket without Azhar or Saeed Anwar or Bollywood without Aamir Khan or music without Zakir Hussain?

Indian society today has intertwined people and religion to the nth degree, so much so that a Muslim prancing about as the Hindus' most revered and worshipped of Gods, mouthing a tune composed by 2 other Muslims is not just accepted but universally applauded and sung across the country. And it was important for me, as an Indian to refresh that particular discussion about "Radha kaise na jale" because therein lies the ultimate truth really.