The Cuckoo’s Nest

Malayalam writer Sethu began his literary journey in the 1960s and over time, became a leading author in his language. The Cuckoo’s Nest is not a translation of one of his Malayalam works; it’s the first novel Sethu has written in English. It was an excellent idea for him to tell the story in a language that is followed by a significant section of the educated Indian middleclass. The Cuckoo’s Nest makes us reflect on some of the dreadful realities of our time in the context of the country as a whole.

In a short, 260-page novel, can anyone cover a range of truths from the bottomless misogyny that cuts across geography and cultures of India, to the deep hatred of the upper-caste Hindu towards the the children of lesser gods, to the “othering” of a part of our own people for pitiless political gains and the eager collaboration of a part of the Hindu religious establishment in the project, to the hypocrisy of the Catholic Church, and more importantly, to an undercurrent of love and tolerance of a people which are much older than the Western concept of liberal humanism, and which has held together a civilisation for five thousand years? Can you think of a novel that connects a Khap Panchayets of Haryana to an exploitative convent in Tamilnadu and yet manages to convey a message not of despair but of resounding hope? I wouldn’t have, unless I had read this novel.

The central character of The Cuckoo’s Nest is a former holy sister who has renounced her role in a convent, but not her faith in Jesus. Sister Agatha has left her convent and set up – with the help of some other noble souls in a small town in Tamilnadu – a home for young women who the society throws out for one reason or another. Her shelter becomes a microcosm of those margins of the Indian society where lots of unfortunate Indian women struggle before falling off the cliff. Agatha’s aim is to offer them a nest until they are ready to fly away. In the context of her nest, she is religion-neutral and doesn’t preach. Rather, she forbids religion there, except within the personal space of each occupant.

Agatha doesn’t tread the hackneyed path of tailoring classes or formal “education”. She doesn’t even hand-hold the hopeless girls. She just encourages them to find their own path to an honourable life. Some of them succeed, some don’t.

But the story of every one of the unfortunate girls makes compelling reading. While offering a glimpse into a largely unknown world, Sethu weaves their yarns with the refined skill of a master craftsman, which makes the book easy reading, despite its somewhat heavy contents. However, I wish he had the support of a more ruthless editor and the book was free from the rather numerous linguistic glitches and typos.

[The Cuckoo's Nest, Sethu, Niyogi Books, New Delhi, 2019]

22 April 2020

A fascist shows his fangs

Prannoy Roy recently said if the Indian media is asked to bend, they crawl.

Thanks to the crawlers, we find it difficult to access credible news. The mainstream newspapers, barring exceptions, publish government press releases most of the time. The TV channels are mostly unwatchable. Let me give you two examples.

The prime minister has set up a private trust to collect donations to deal with the COVID-19 pandemic, putting aside the PM's National Relief Fund which has been in existence since 1948. The new fund has been self-aggrandisingly named PM-CARES Fund. The Wikipedia says: “No one knows when it was registered, under which act, and why it [does] not contain any members of civil society or opposition as part of the trust.” (Accessed on 13/04/2030). Also, the trust isn’t covered under the RTI Act. So, the public has no way to find out how the amounts received will be spent. What level of arrogance can make the PM set up an opaque private fund in the time of the gravest crisis since independence, when he should act openly and transparently?

Secondly, India’s Corona virus cases are relatively small and we are happy about it. Let’s take a step back and check how many people India have been tested and compare it with a few other countries. According to a report published in the Business Standard on 9 April 2020, three countries had tested the following numbers till then FOR EVERY MILLION (1,000,000) PEOPLE:

Spain:                  18,300

South Korea:              60

India:                            4

  

A lot of experts believe India’s low level of testing is reflected in the relatively fewer cases, which is also a common-sense argument. If we may go back to the figures, it would be pointless to compare India with European nations, but for a country the leadership of which sells the fake dream of becoming a “Vishwa Guru”, can we not ask why India tested 1/15th of what South Korea, another emerging economy, did?

In a true democracy, the media will tear the government apart over the two issues I have flagged. But have you seen many discussions on them in the mainstream media, barring exceptions?

Fortunately, we have some new web-based news portals which offer us true news. They are run mostly by crowd-funding. The finest examples are THE WIRE and THE SCROLL. We should also mention Pratik Sinha’s Altnews.in, which has been doing a fantastic work. (If you haven’t, please do visit the website and check how much fake news is peddled by different sides of the political divide.)

The fascist powers that rule us cannot be happy with these upstart news portals which have captured the imagination of a lot of Indians, particularly the young. And they are not sitting idle.  

Recently, the UP government has filed criminal cases against Siddharth Varadarajan, Founding Editor of the Wire. The UP government accuses the Wire of “causing panic when it reported that UP chief minister Yogi Adityanath attended a religious event on March 25 at Ayodhya on the occasion of Ram Navmi”, long after a nation-wide lockdown was in place.

The Wire argues that the UP CM’s presence was an undisputable, recorded fact. However, in the article the Wire had “wrongly attributed a statement made by Acharya Paramhans to the chief minister, which was not only retracted but a corrigendum issued as well.”

In a statement made on 11 April 2020, 215 journalists have described the above event and issued a statement saying:

“Rather than let the matter end there, a FIR was filed in Faizabad district. On April 10, a team of the UP police descended at Siddharth Varadarajan’s residence to serve him a notice for appearing on April 14, irrespective of the fact that a nationwide lockdown was in force. … The state has an extra responsibility to exercise restraint on use of its powers when citizens are restricted in exercising many of their usual democratic rights. Freedom of the press is doubly important in such a context as people cannot make news themselves, but independent media is the most important medium of expressing their concerns. We demand that such politically motivated harassment of media persons should stop immediately.”

The New York Times tagline says, “Democracy dies in darkness.”

And what can be a quicker way to ensure darkness than to silence journalists by brute force or threats?

Monday, 13 April 2020

The Great Indian Middle Class

My friend Ramdas Menon writes:

“I always tell whoever cares to listen that the people to fear are not the saffron-bandanna clad, trishul wielding khaap panchayat types; rather, they're our kinsmen, clansmen, family members and friends.

“I know a guy - much senior to me and IIT educated - who called his mother from the US to ask her to offer prayers at the local Sitala Devi temple when his daughter had some skin infection.

“Yet another US based guy who had come down to Chennai to visit his ailing mother told me NOT to visit on Thursday because it was inauspicious.”

Cannot agree more. If I may sum up what I see around me:

·       Organised religion at its worst

·       Rampaging superstition

·       The privileged believing they’re somehow in grave danger

·       hating the “other”

·       Spewing hate even at a time when a pandemic, which may not kill millions, but will surely kill our economy

·       Unconcern for people who lost their livelihood overnight

·       Ostracizing doctors who are risking their lives for us

·       Not questioning what our rulers are doing to overcome the calamity

·       Accepting complete absence of transparency as normal

·       Following a charismatic demagogue like sheep

in short, irrationality defines our privileged existence.  

To the people of my social and economic background, I would say: I am a part of you, and I am ashamed of the fact. I am ashamed of myself too, because I am one of you.

The Corona Timeline, China, and WHO

[The information below has been collated from sources like the Wikipedia, BBC, Al Jazeera, ANI, and TOI]

1 December 2019: In the city of Wuhan in China’s Hubei province, symptoms of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) were first noticed in a man.

6 December: His 53-year-old wife showed similar symptoms; hospitalized.

25 December: Two more Chinese in Wuhan quarantined after they showed similar symptoms. Later that week, hospitals in Wuhan saw an exponential increase of comparable cases.

In the same week, Dr. Li Wenliang, a 33-year old ophthalmologist, informed a group of doctors about a new virus.

31 December: The Wuhan Municipal Health Commission declared that there was no clear human to human transmission of the virus. China got in touch with the World Health Organisation (WHO). They reprimanded Dr. Li Wenliang for spreading rumours.

1 January 2020: Huanan Seafood Wholesale Market was shut down as several of those infected had reportedly worked at the market.

3 January 2020: Li Wenliang had to sign a declaration to the police that he had been spreading ‘fake information’. Same day, the Hubei Provincial Health Commission asked doctors not to test for new cases. Doctors had to destroy the existing samples. The Wuhan Municipal Health Commission reiterated its position on no human to human infection, indicating collaboration in suppression of truth.

8 January: China claimed they had identified the virus and reiterated no human to human transmission.

11 January: The Wuhan Municipality published a report stating that the infected people had a history of contact with the wet market. It reiterated the absence of human transmission.

12 January: Li Wenliang was admitted to the hospital following severe breathing problems and was put in intensive care.

13 January: Thailand reported the first case of coronavirus outside China: a Chinese woman who had a travelled to Wuhan.

14 January: WHO issued a statement saying that the preliminary investigation conducted by China showed no trace of human to human infection.

15 January: Japan reported the first case of coronavirus. The patient had no history of visiting any wet market of China. After this, the Wuhan Health Commission admitted the possibility of human transmission.

21 January: The United States reported its first confirmed case of a patient who had returned from China six days earlier.

22 January: The WHO conducts a field visit to China and concludes that human to human transmission is taking place in Wuhan.

31 January: Speaking at a news conference in Geneva, the Chief of the WHO described the virus as an "unprecedented outbreak". But he praised the "extraordinary measures" the Chinese had taken, and said there was “no reason TO LIMIT TRADE OR TRAVEL TO CHINA”. (BBC, emphasis added)

7 February: Li Wenliang passed away in hospital. Wikipedia says “A subsequent Chinese official inquiry exonerated him and the Communist Party of China formally offered a "solemn apology" to his family and revoked its admonishment of him.”

11 March: World Health Organisation (WHO) declared the Novel Coronavirus (COVID-19) as pandemic.

31 March: The virus has shut down the world, with 178 countries infected, more than 7,87,000 confirmed cases, and over 37,000 dead.

*

Five dates are crucial on the timeline:

1.       31 December, when China informed the WHO, but suppressed its severity.

2.       14 January, when the WHO downplayed the infectivity of the virus and misled the world community.

3.       22 January, when the WHO found out human to human transmission, but did nothing to warn the rest of the world.

4.       31 January, when the WHO refused to limit travel to and trade with China.

5.       11 March, when the WHO declared the disease as pandemic, A MONTH AND 20 DAYS LATER.

Will anyone be punished for this humongous criminal delay?

Photograph of Dr. Li Wenliang courtesy: https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?curid=63046734