The World Food Crisis

For nation shall rise against nation and kingdom against kingdom and there shall be earthquakes in divers places and there shall be famines and troubles these are the beginnings of sorrows .¹

Since eternity, food security has been of utmost importance for human beings. Be it struggling against the mammoths in pre-historic age or agriculture in the Neolithic age, man has always struggled for food and survived. And even today in the 21^st century the mankind is facing a food crisis which is affecting everyone, the developed countries like the USA and Japan, the developing countries like India and the underdeveloped African countries. It is taking inflation to unbearable levels and making life miserable for a large number of people in the third world countries.

Who is responsible for all this? World leaders have been blaming each other, claiming different issues as the reason, but in this blame game is anyone looking for a sustainable solution to the grave problem?

The very basic reason for the food crisis is not the shortage of food but the dramatic increase in the food prices and the causes for the same can be attributed to numerous factors which are collectively responsible. A phased analysis of the food crisis can be carried out by studying the roles and policy decisions taken by India, USA, the EU and their effect on common man.

Indians were outraged when the US commented on the increase in consumption by Indian middle class. Being traditionally vegetarian Indians have low per capita consumption than the US. But India is indeed to blame, but for different reasons. It is among the 40 countries that have curbed food exports to control domestic prices. Hence the food supply in world market has shrunk, fuelling the prices. Actually there is no food shortage, according to FAO² statistics the world cereal production was record high at 2108 million tonnes in 2007.

The European Union has aggressively pushed its bio-fuel programme despite warnings from scientists and researchers. Britain went through implementation of the legislation which said that 2.5% of all gasoline and diesel sold must be derived from crops.

USA increased its production of bio-fuel from corn manifolds in recent times. With India curbing exports, South Asian rice exporting countries forming an alliance OREC (Organisation of Rice Exporting Countries) and collectively negotiating at their terms and given the consumers’ preference for aromatic varieties of rice, Basmati (India) and Jasmine (Thailand) the rice prices in the US have increased.

The above cited factors just make the tip of an iceberg. Actually there are multiple factors that have contributed to rising food prices. The increasing crude prices have led to diversion from production of food crops (particularly maize) to produce bio-fuel. Increasing population and demand particularly from India and China contribute to making the problem severe in the long run. Apart from these there are flawed government policies which have adversely affected the market dynamics.

Realising the graveness of the crisis, what we need to do is to look for a sustainable solution for the entire world. A person suffering in Africa is no different from an Indian. The governments ought to act collectively and responsibly for the betterment of mankind. It is indeed high time to act or the world might just see another World War for food security.

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1: Mark 13:8, http://bible.cc/mark/13-8.htm
2: http://www.fao.org/

Sourav Ganguly: An epoch brought to end

Nature follows dawn-sunlight-dusk-midnight. What can be dawn-sunlight-eclipse-sunlight-forced into darkness forever? Confusing enough... but that is what Sourav Ganguly's career has been.

Sourav Ganguly is certainly the most controversial cricketer India has ever produced. For me he has used cricket and more mind games to succeed. His inclusion in the Indian test team was termed as quota system. He carried his not-doing-dirty-work image from his ODI debut series when he refused to take drinks on the ground. The man in the making was a leader who would reshape the fate of Indian cricket. He silenced his critics with an awesome debut following the same in the next test match only to be nicknamed "Prince of Kolkata" by the British media.

Captaincy of the Indian cricket team is the next most commented job after the prime minister of India. Ganguly's career took a linearly increasing curve from 1996 to 2000. He formed a successful opening pair with Sachin, was the one man army at Toronto Sahara cup, and smashed a splendid 183 against Sri Lanka in the world cup. I guess no Indian batsman has matched such a batting performance outside India against a good team as his 183.

When Sachin resigned from captaincy, Ganguly was the most deserving player in the team to lead. Captaincy did take a toll on Sachin's individual performance, and history says it happens with very Indian captain. Indian team got a new image with its new leader. Azharuddin brought a real bad name for the country by selling himself to bookies, Sachin couldn’t take India’s performance anywhere, and this new guy coming in had a lot of responsibilities. He took the most unorthodox decisions, realised the importance of Rahul Dravid, the then laggard in ODIs, and ensured his place by giving him a dual responsibility of a wicket-keeper. And it worked.

He pushed for inclusion of Harbhajan Singh in the team, who would have otherwise been forgotten due to the chucking allegation, groomed players like Yuvraj, Zaheer Khan and Irfan Pathan and brought in Srinath back from an almost retirement. His leadership was undoubtedly the best Indian team ever had. Harbhajan ripped apart the Aussies, Pathan gave Pakistan the dose of their own medicine (doctored by Wasim Akram :-P) and Zaheer Khan remains the mainstay of Indian pace attack. He steered the Indian team to finals of ICC Champions Trophy in 2000 and 2002. It was his sheer perseverance and never-give-up attitude by which India defeated strongly placed South Africa in the pre final game. In this period Indian team reached the finals of almost every tournament they played.

Ganguly was the first Indian captain to take the Aussie challenge in the right spirit and beat them at their soil. The entire 2003-04 test series was dominated by India. It was he who reinstated the confidence in the Indian team that they could take on the Aussie might. It was when the Indian team lacked the experience of Zaheer Khan and Harbhajan, any other captain would have accepted a thrashing defeat before the first match. He led the team by setting an example, a splendid 144 at Brisbane in the first test, used the resources he had to gain the maximum. He found talent in Pathan and the player delivered by taking Steve Waugh’s wicket in the last test match he played.

Even Australian media praised the Indian team and Wisden published an article that other teams should learn from India. He was the architect of the changing face of Indian dominance in world cricket. He questioned the decisions of Steve Bucknor, challenged the bans on him at ICC, and used aggression to treat other teams their way, particularly the Aussies. And the list remains incomplete without mentioning Ganguly waving his shirt at the Lord's.

All was going right, when Indian board realised that they need another foreigh coach. Newly appointed coach, Greg Chappel, wanted to run the game of cricket in India like a football coach. He dreamt of 2007 world cup but couldn’t take the team anywhere close to it. A team can’t have two Gunda’s, that’s what SRK said in Chak de India. India had one (Ganguly) and just got another as Chappel. Differences must have crept in; Chappel had the edge to prove himself because of Ganguly’s bad run with form. An Indian fighter, fighting with an Aussie egoist. Cricket imperialism isn’t it? And the Aussie succeeded in dividing the team and ruling over it. The team seemed to have performed well on records but many of the victories were against weaker teams. The docile Dravid was just a remote controlled captain. Greg Chappel might have succeeded in ruling over the team but actually ruined the team chemistry. The result: 2007 world cup debacle.

When Ganguly staged a comeback in the Indian side, performed well, I thought I could draw a parallel with his comeback and Steve Jobs second coming. Both being ditched by the individuals they backed and made a remarkable comeback. Jobs went ahead and still continues but Ganguly found more John Sculleys. His second stint with Indian team started off remarkably with fighting performance against South Africa, and good ODI performances against West Indies and Sri Lanka. But the road ahead was never as smooth as it used to be.

The new league of young, hit-the-dance-floor, hair-style-changing, chips-selling and bollywood savvy players cleared the seniors from their way and own the control of the team. I doubt how long will Sachin hold the fort. Ganguly could not even get to think of retirement from the ODIs and probably for this reason the board decided to give him the opportunity to think about his test career.

With politics in the Indian cricket prevailing, the most successful Indian captain is being made to take retirement. The person who transformed the outlook of the Indian team isn’t given the respect he deserves. His elegant sixes won't be there anymore, his on field aggression won't be in the game but his ideology will remain, his aggression to take the team forward will be leant by others; and his leadership will continue to inspire people.

It’s an era coming rather being brought to an end.

Religious Brand Equity

I am neither an atheist nor an agnostic, but after experiencing and knowing the commercialisation of religion I couldn't stop myself from writing this. It may be blasphemous but sorry people these are the most honest views that I have about religion of the day.

In today's economy, religion is a best-seller. Oil prices, inflation, recession, world economy taking turns, stock markets' upheaval none of it has even a miniscule impact on the Religion Inc. Although there are no statistics available but surely it is an industry that continues to grow, at a rate surpassing each year.

I happened to attend an economics lecture in first year of engineering and the professor discussed the B-Plan of a replica of Vaishno Devi temple in Ahmedabad. Realising the profits the temple generated, the conceiver (read owner) of the idea was planning another replica-temple in the region. Moral of the story, religion is serious business.

I have utmost respect to the religious organisations who work for the benefit of the society, education, up-bringing of orphans etc, but at the same time there are many which, under the name of religion, make a mockery of it. There are religious communities and sects who have started branding themselves with marketing concepts- take 4Ps for instance.

Product Differentiation: Promote themselves as having the largest pure gold idol of god
Place: Provide comforty ambience to people, amusement parks in the temple premises, food courts
Price: Although there is usually no entry fee in temples, but most of the times people are lured into religious acts by the priests (read marketing executives) and made to shell out a large amount.
Promotion: There is no major temple or a religious body in India which doesn't have a website of its own.

And this is not the end of it. Temples and their managing organisations have tied up with banks for online donations, prasad delivery and even booking for an early meeting (read skipping the queue) with the almighty. The money that goes into this religious system is hardly accounted for and probably parallel money or another RBI is running across the country.

Adding to it, religion is also keeping pace with any other business domain in the world. If globalisation is the most talked about issue in the world, religion is not lagging behind. Temples are going global with their branches (read offices) opening in major cities of the world, with headquarter of course in India. With revenues and forex pouring in from all over the world, when the rupee rises against the dollar certainly temples must be getting a hit in their annual balance sheet and forex reserves depleting each time rupee weakens.

What's in store for us?
In years to come, we may find online temples where the GenNext would pay homage to the god by click of a button on a PAID internet website. We may find temples getting into shopping malls, or there may be temples branding themselves as Lifestyle products and targeting niche clientele.

I know it is exaggeration but still is it the religion that we believe in, and is it worth believing in the same? Is it necessary for us to have an organised religion? Or is it just another version of Hawala or a parallel money market?

I personally don't disbelieve in religion, or the religious practices. But for god's sake can't the caretakers of religion keep it clean?

A Day Full Of Life

Even before coming to Bhubaneswar, I had discussed about a trip to Puri and thought of reaching XIMB a day or two earlier and visiting the place. But many things don’t happen in life as desired and most good things that happen are not planned in advance.

The idea of an excursion to Puri started with a mail seeking biking enthusiasts to join a group. The idea supposedly got attention of almost the entire batch and it turned out into a PGP-1 trip to Konark and Puri. The entire batch was all set to have a day full of life coincidently on the “Friendship Day.”

The CulReps n CRs planned out an itinerary and the first destination was Chandrabhaga Beach to catch the first rays of the sun. We were supposed to start from campus at 0300 hrs, but managed to start at around 0400 hrs and missed those first rays by 15-20 minutes. By the time sun was way above the horizon illuminating the clouds. I had never seen a sunrise at the sea, although had a chance at Palolem Beach in Goa, but preferred sleeping.

Anyways, the sight of a beach after a long time was captivating. This was the first time I was at the eastern coastline of India, the Bay of Bengal. All the beaches I had been to were on the western coast, the Arabian Sea. It is difficult to contain one’s emotions and excitement at the beach. And actually nobody cared about the clothes getting wet or changing the wet clothes and went into the sea, believe me it was fun. There were people with me who were at a beach for the first time in life and I can’t really imagine the ecstasy. We spent around an hour on the Chandrabhaga Beach and then moved towards the Konark Temple.

What I like the most about the ancient temples and monuments is their architecture and the creativity. Konark Temple was built in 1250 A.D. and is a World Heritage Site. We had guide with us before entering the temple premises and he started telling the history of the site. I tried listening, concentrated but wasn’t able to pick his lingo. I still don’t know how the temple relates to Sun apart from the fact that it depicts a chariot with 24 wheels, each representing an hour of the day. The temple seems to be inspired from Kamasutra, with sculptures in various amorous poses on all the main walls. I bet Hugh Hefner is reincarnation of an Indian King of that era. Even Playboy isn’t that erotic as the sensuous poses carved on the stone structure. Indians are ahead of Americans by 8 centuries. But at the same time, it is the art and the architecture that values the most. The symmetry, the size of the rocks, the perfection makes the temple astonishing and not to forget the fact that it was built in the age when there were no machines and cranes.

After the Konark temple, we took a break at Yatri Nivas, changed clothes and headed towards Puri. The marine drive was marvellous. We then reached Jagannath Temple regarded as one of the four most sacred Hindu pilgrimages in India. We were advised not to speak to the priests in the temple. The temple is known world over for the Rath Yatra, and the English word juggernaut originates from Jagannath. We spent some time in the temple had Prasad and was time for moving to the Puri beach. At times I feel the temples should never become commercial centres and whenever that happens I think it transforms into a business centre rather than remaining a place of god.

We spent the entire day at the Puri beach. The golden sand, cool breeze, rising waves, clouds what else to expect and rain added to the party. It was all about struggling to stay at a place in the waves, making groups and challenging the incoming waves to be washed away to the shore and standing up to the sea again. It was fun, adventure, enjoyment and tons of other adjectives...

Every cloud has a silver lining; there were clouds with more vibrant colours as we left the place. The entire batch went into hibernation on the return journey back to the college. The day is unforegettable and will remain very special to me.

Indian Demo-Crazy

Many Indians feel proud when India is called the largest democracy in the world. Those who actually want to spare a thought, the "largest" can be attributed only due to the infinite population and democracy only because we conduct elections every now and then. But do we actually comply with the text book definition of democracy, a government by the people, for the people and from the people? I seriously doubt.

I have always had feelings that India is a weak democracy, and it surely is. There have been endless instances which have made me develop an opinion of this sort, no single party or even an alliance of a few parties' government for almost a decade, minority coalition partners ruling the entire country with the power to pull down the government, MPs accepting bribes to ask questions in the Parliament and the count never ends. Is this the face of democracy that we are proud of? Indian politics has become a management game fighting for power at any cost, any damn cost. No wonder what's at stake is the entire country, the people for which the government is elected, and this vicious circle becomes even more complicated as we delve deep into it.

UPA minus the communists winning the trust vote today may be a good sign for the N-Deal and the Prime Minister's efforts of taking a step towards ensuring energy security for the country. But the way it happened, buying cross votes from opposition, MPs producing wads of cash allegedly offered to them by the other political party.... Holy crap!!!

On a pessimistic note there is no will in the political fraternity to improve the political system in India, and the reason being that any improvement would be detrimental for those who initiate the process. It was never the case that all the politicians supported the OBC reservation, some spoke out initially, but didn’t have the guts to be in the system and change it. And eventually every political party supported the OBC reservation and the Supreme Court was left beating around the bush. Writing this, I am enjoying being a critic, at the same time I am also one who blabbers a lot and does nothing. At least the intent is good :)

But the unanswered question remains that is this the democracy we want the world to look up to in the Goldman Sachs report predicting dominant world economies in 2050?

We are emerging as an economy, the numbers say so, but are we emerging as a better governed country?

Are we actually doing any good or just becoming worse from worst?

Can we see a corruption free India in our life?

Opinions invited...

The longest train journey....

I started out my journey to Bhubaneswar for joining XIMB, loaded with all the stuff that I thought would be required in coming two years. The journey was to be like any other trips, but turned out to be one of the most unforgettable. On 16^th June I boarded the B2 coach in Gitanjali Express, the best train on the Mumbai-Howrah route and was supposed to reach Kharagpur the next morning at 10 and take another train to Bhubaneswar at 3. I had a lot of luggage and was kinda difficult for me to adjust in the already cramped space, but somehow managed. I usually interact with people in the train, had a good company of fellow passengers, and all was going on well.

The train cruised through the central India in the day and was running almost on time. In the evening I watched a few episodes of 2.5 Men, had a good night sleep and on 17^th morning it reached Tatanagar half an hour late. Kharagpur was just 2 hours away. As the train left Tatanagar, I started packing up my belongings, unlocked the chains and was expecting the train to reach Kharagpur in some time. But the journey had a lot in store, it wasn’t gonna end soon.

Just about 45 minutes after it left Tatanagar, it halted at a small station Ghatsila. It wasn’t a scheduled stoppage but the train didn’t start for long. There were rumours all around, engine failure, a collapsed bridge due to rain, track submerged ahead and what not… We remained there for 3-4 hours and then the station master announced that the train would proceed. It did, not to reach Kharagpur, but only to halt at the next station Chakulia. It was raining heavily, and the station master informed that the train wouldn’t move indefinitely until the rail tracks at Kharagpur get cleared.

The AC went down, but hopes were still alive. I went to the station master twice or thrice just to get informed about what is going to happen next but there was not even an iota of certainty. The pantry car which had stock only upto 16^th dinner and 17^th breakfast, did manage to serve lunch and tea was still available, but no water bottles or anything else. I stocked up 4 7Up bottles for me from the pantry and only 2 more were left there. I went outside the station, in that heavy rain, just to find a few pan walas, bought some biscuits and kurkure. My cellphone was also not working then, made a few calls and informed back home about the situation.

It was late in the evening and all the people on-board the train had by then realised that the night had to be spent at Chakulia. There were many bongs in the train and all feared a naxalites’ attack. A local guy told me that naxals are not even close to Chakulia, and there apprehensions were worthless. The bong oldies argued with the station authorities to provide RPF or take the train back to some safer place. But none was feasible and I guess either they couldn’t sleep all that night or had nightmares of naxalites attacking the train.

By that time I also interacted with other people in my coach. There were 3 guys who were going to play the under 17 national level badminton at Kolkata just next to my compartment. Then there was chap Sambaran, who was making portraits of the people in the train, people were watching movies in groups on their laptops, thanks to the battery support by Indian Railways. I went outside the station again to explore ways of reaching Kharagpur or going back to Tatanagar in case the train didn’t move even the next day. The only thing I realised was that it was more difficult than anything with the luggage I was carrying. It was late night; the bongs’ fears reached heights, a local Marwari family took a noble step to and provided milk to all the kids in the train and puri bhaji to others. But still the railway authorities didn’t come up with any help for the stranded passengers. The station didn’t even have the water supply, and drinking water also was arranged by some local NGO outside the station.

Sambaran made portraits of the three baddy guys and mine too. He had his birthday on 18^th, we wished him at 12, went to sleep with a glimmer of hope to see ourselves at some other place when we woke up. At 530 AM I found the train hadn’t moved a centimetre. Going to Tatanagar was the next thing on my mind, so I enquired with the station authorities if there was any scope for the train to move to Kharagpur. Having not got a positive response, I found a few others who also wanted to go to Tatanagar. I again went outside the station to get a taxi or some other conveyance and just then there was an announcement that the train would depart for Kharagpur in 15 minutes. I rushed back, the train started, stopped again at a few stations on the way and finally reached Kharagpur at 1:30PM a good 27 hours late.

Kharagpur: the longest, most confusing, and most useless platforms in the world. Even for fetching mineral water I had to find a shop outside the station premises. I enquired about any trains to Bhubaneswar only to get a lame reply in Bengali “!@@$$%^$&#&&%#&”

Me: “Hindi me batao”
Enquiry officer: “Bengali seekh k aao”
Me: “Tereko Bengali bolne ke liye baithaya hai kya yahan, hindi me bata train kab jayegi”
EO: “ Sham 5 baje tak koi nahi hai, uske bad ka pata nahi”

I checked out the road connectivity to Bhubaneswar also, but it didn’t exist either. I went to the waiting room, and was prepared to wait endlessly, optimist of getting a positive reply after 5. In the mean time I asked my sister to check flights to Bhubaneswar from all nearby places, Kolkata, Ranchi and Raipur. Finally found one from Raipur. Mumbai bound Gitanjali Express was the frist train to leave from Howrah after two days of flood fury. Boarded the train, 2AC, got a seat after negotiations with the ticket collector. Got a flight ticket as late as possible, was very sceptical about its reaching Raipur in time. Finally reached Raipur again 5 hours late at 730 am.

I boarded the flight, which was again late by 45 minutes, at 130pm. I guess it was the only way to by-pass the clouds. Finally landed in the city of temples, Bhubaneswar at 230… A jaded sigh… Those 72 hours were way too much.

What should have been a more than comfortable journey became the longest and the most tiring and most trying journey I have ever experienced in life. Experiences like this are different, uncommon, but should never hit often. The hindi word “safar” (a journey) just turned into “suffer”.