There are two kinds of people in the world..

There are two kinds of people in the world, largely – the optimists and the pessimists, the rich and the poor, the healthy and the weak, the young and the old, et cetera. However, in my home state of Tamil Nadu in India I have seen three kinds of people as far as the Tamil issue in Sri Lanka is concerned – the good, the bad and the ugly. The first are the dangerous and hawkish people who staunchly defend a solution carved out with guns and bombs and sealed in blood, even if it is that of innocents. The second are the ones who don’t give a damn about the whole issue, the more dangerous ones, because going by The Right Honorable Edmund Burke – the only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing. The third is the category in which, I believe, I fit in. The people who have every feeling of comradeship with our brethren in Lanka, crying when they cry and withering in pain as the shells explode and shudder every time the mines go off, deep within our hearts. We are often dismissed as anti-Tamils, cowards, congress party agents and backstabbers by the people in the first category and as people-yet-to-get-a-life by the second category.

One of the justifications the central government gave the country when the government extended a quasi-support to the Lankan government on the operation against the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) was to prevent the Chinese or the US getting a stronghold in India’s backyard by stepping in to fill the void left by India’s indecisiveness on an issue having a huge bearing on the emotions of countless Tamils and the security of the country. However, what we have witnessed ever since the end of the war is a Lankan government that is intoxicated having bathed and drunk on the successes of the war, an even more displaced Tamil population and more humiliation for India in the world stage with its weaknesses exposed as regard its policy towards Lanka with the latter cozying with China, faster.

It is beyond me why would India, a nation that can detain Italian marines for killing fishermen, even voice it out to Sri Lanka over similar incidents. The Chinese cooperation has extended into infrastructure building and offers of military assistance are also being heard. And the latest space cooperation, I think, is just an indication of what is yet to come. India may have pulled off many diplomatic victories but Sri Lanka is somewhere I think we messed up. Hope the irritant in the relation with Maldives doesn’t go the Sri Lankan way.

007 things I love about the latest 007 flick – Skyfall

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001 – Realistic, Old school style

By bringing in a cyber war-esque theme the flick is in sync with the times we are living in, unlike most other spy films which lives in their own fantasy world of villains with technology that are alien or prohibitively expensive for governments across the world to possess. A throwback to the old school style of shot guns, Scottish castle, escape tunnel, chapel, dynamite and death by knife throw, all in the ‘Gangnam’ era is a welcome relief.

002 – A failed, underdog, agent saves the world

An agent who fails the tests, considered inappropriate and unfit for the job takes up the mantle and delivers, in style. The movies with underdog heroes have always fascinated me because in real life, problems are always herculean; the same reason why I like Rocky series and the recent Dark Knight trilogy.

003 – Aston Martin DB5

The car screams British Engineering from all sides and from an era that saw the Ford Mustang and the Jaguar E-type. More than the car it’s the feelings Bond exhibits which shows his passion for the car. Be it when he threatens to eject M out when she complains about it being uncomfortable or when he is irritated when Silva has the DB5 destroyed by the gunship, it touched the part of my heart that loves and respects old, classic automobiles.

004 – A radio and a gun. What were you expecting an exploding pen?

The gadgetry at display in this flick was minimal. I loved it when Nathan Muir tells Bishop that all that a good spy needs are a stick of gum, pocket knife and smile in Spy Game. I liked it when all Bond carried was a radio transmitter (Radio! Not even GPS) and a Walther nine millimeter (albeit with finger print sensors).

Please grow up Q

005 – New quartermaster is young, computer savvy and predictably arrogant

The new Q is young and boasts of competence to commit damages with a computer however fails to live up by not foreseeing Silva’s plans on disarming the security measures.

R(etire)IP M. You'll be missed!

006 – An assertive M

M has been one of her best. Be it when cold about Silva’s accusations and her defense of ‘she did what she had to do’ or when enquiring what took so long for Bond to return back to duty. She wouldn’t compromise and retire with ‘dignity’ without completing her job and her testifying before MPs acknowledging the fight is no more with known nations or faces rather unknown faces.

007 – A relatively powerful villain who remains a step ahead most of the time

Silva was one step, if not many steps, ahead of MI6 throughout the movie. After his capture with the three royal marines’ helicopter hovering over the island tracking the radio signal I was a tad disappointed but when it dawned on me that it was a plan to stage his arrest, confinement and break out it got me gripping again.

Lessons from the roads

We, Indians (including me of course), could always use a lot of Road lessons. But today I discovered that the infamous Indian roads have something to give.

The festival of lights, Diwali, is just around the corner and the conservative southern city of Chennai is bursting at its seam with people and traffic. The fact that most of the city’s migrant workforce are hurrying back to their hometowns to spend time with their family is stretching the infrastructure of the city to its limit. The city’s police have been doing a good job in controlling the chaos from spiraling out of control and at times employ tactics that blows me over. Just the other day at the Wavin junction in Mogappair the police signaled me to drive on the right side of the road to clear the area. He held traffic on all sides of the four way junction to let us pass and he did well, he was able to clear the logjam at close to twice the speed of what he could do by using only one side of the road as mandated by laws.

The laws require us to drive on the left side of the roads (reminds me of the joke – when a foreigner asks an Indian as to which side of the road they drive – the left or right, the Indian supposedly replied that they drive on what is left of the road! :)) but the traffic constable wanted me to break the law. The reason is the infrastructure constraints, a problem with the system. When the infrastructure improves the law would automatically be followed.

Of late the Indian society has been hearing about scandals and scams and corruption. Everyone talks about punishing the guilty but no one talks about addressing the source of the problem, including Mr. Anna Hazare and Mr. Arvind Kejriwal. A Gestapo like power wielding Jan Lokpal with jurisdiction over the judiciary, legislature and executive is not the solution nor shaking and breaking the system going to help.

Remember punishing me or the constable or both is not addressing the problem, improving the infrastructure is going to make the problem disappear. Dear politicians and civil society warriors please start driving your own vehicles; there are lessons to be learnt from the roads too. :)