The victory in the Indiana primary has almost sealed the deal for Mr. Donald Trump to get the Republican nomination in the US presidential elections in November where he will be taking on Hillary Clinton from the Democrat side.  When some ten months ago, Mr. Trump announced his intention to contest on the GOP ticket, many thought this to be yet another grandstanding of the billionaire egomaniac.  But as he stood near the escalator of his own property in mid-town Manhattan after he inflicted a crushing defeat to Ted Cruz in Indiana; you couldn't help thinking boy, has he made everyone eat their words or what!  It has been nothing short of a spectacularly hostile takeover of a party which is angry, confused and bitterly divided after eight years of Obama presidency which challenged every certitude held dear by a mass of hard-core conservative base.  This is a pivotal moment in American history.  Ever since the decline of the industrial manufacturing in the west, not just in America, to the low cost labor market in the developing countries in Asia and Africa, the advanced economies of the western world are really experiencing the low growth in gainful employment.  There are vast swathes of mainland America, the towns which ones were powerful industrial bases for most of the post-war economic prosperity of the United States, have a forlorn and hollow look about them, with income levels going down and cost of living going up for a lot of working class people.  Add to this despair the clear and present demographic possibility that for the first time in the history of the country, the WASP population is going to be in minority thanks ironically to sustained immigration over the years from poor under developed countries to the US in search of better life; and the picture looks quite grim. 

     In all this enter a dangerous reactionary and demagogue called Donald Trump, whose bluster and bullying of anyone who does not agree with his woolly headed solutions is drawing a lot of traction with a lot of bigoted and racist supporters of his.  Mr. Trump is appealing to the basest of the human instincts.  The paranoia, xenophobia and a complete distrust of the open, pluralistic and liberal values which most civilized people stand for.  It is a damming indictment of a one hundred and sixty year old party of Abraham Lincoln that they have allowed such a rot to set in their system that someone like Donald Trump could just come from nowhere and mesmerize them.  According to a poll conducted among the core base of the GOP, about twenty per cent believe that it was a grave mistake by their president Abraham Lincoln to have abolished slavery!  That's what it is coming to now?  Fortunately, only seven per cent of the primary voters have voted for Trump, and this is nowhere near enough to install him in the White House, not by a long shot.  He will have to by necessity build a large coalition of voters from every stratum of society, race, ethnicity not to mention gender and sexual orientation if he has any chance.  Russian President Vladimir Putin has described Mr. Trump as one of the most talented and intelligent person!  I don't know about that but if he somehow squeezes through to the White House (remember George W Bush in the year 2000?), he would be the most clownish looking president albeit a somewhat sinister one. 

My Aunt, that is my father's sister related something the other day which she no doubt found rather endearing judging by her giggly manners, but I on the other hand found deeply unsettling and it was all I could do to keep myself from reacting.  She mentioned that apparently her grandson, that is her daughter's boy who will turn 15 next month, still insists on sleeping in the same bed with his parents at night.  I don't know why, but I had the sudden urge to see the photograph of the boy as to what did he look like now.  Then my Aunt showed me his recent picture on her phone.  I could see that he has grown taller and his health has also improved, and that there was an air of academic promise about him.  I wanted to see the picture because I wanted to understand why would a grownup teenager like him would ask for something this bizarre?  Instead of being stern and firmly telling him where to get off, they have only indulged him thus far.  When his dad, who is himself a pompous fellow with an annoying sense of entitlement, asks him in mock seriousness what will he do when he would be doing some job in a different city, how is he going to manage then?  And his answer is infuriatingly simple, he will take the mother away wherever he goes.  Take that Mr. Father!!  Conjugal intimacies gone for a toss.  And to think that they were trying for another kid; well fat chance of that happening now, if you know what I mean!

A lot of well meaning and educated people think that the Western society is more sensual and Indian society is more spiritual.  Then I feel like saying that if western society is ''sensual'', then our society is hypocritical.  The reason being that in the West, people by and large see things or situations as they are, unlike most of us who only imagine things that aren't there.  Our senses are something we are born with, if you are a believer you will say that being sensual is only making use of what God has given us; but hypocrisy is our own invention, and that's where the problem lies.  So, my Aunt and her family may see this as a benign manifestation of the kid's intensely filial devotion for his parents, particularly the mother, but what they don't see is hiding in plain sight.  The cloying affection going rancid.  The boy not being an emotionally balanced individual unable to negotiate the minefield of interpersonal relations in the wider world.  More is the pity.

Watching this fine movie ''Brooklyn'' the other day, I was quite moved by the scene which appear right at the very end.  It's the scene where Ellis, having come back to New York after much deliberation, spots Tony right across the street, happily going about his business and quite oblivious to the jumble of emotions that Ellis is going through at that moment.  And then, as soon as she sees him, there is a perfect moment of clarity where all of her indecision and confusion are washed away at the mere sight of him.  She realizes that he is the only man for her, who has been waiting patiently for her to come back.  She is damn sure that Tony is the love of her life and that this is Home for the rest of her life.  She cuts through the traffic to clasp him in a tight embrace as the credits started rolling.  I am not usually prone to maudlin ruminations, but it engendered in me a vague sense of longing for a time gone by.  After all, my sister also went to the  US, was on her own, and through sheer will and hard work not to mention the support of friends and kindness of strangers, has forged a life for herself.  What also resonated with me is like the protagonist in the movie, she also found the love of her life and future husband in Michael, now America is home and I am so proud of both of them.

  Speaking of which, it is always a special occasion for me when both Mike and my sister Bob come to India.  There is this sense of anticipation, and when they're actually here, the time just flies and before you know it, it's time to go back.  You almost feel cheated because there is much emotional investment on everyone's part, and so meager return!  The paucity of time, the elasticity of time.  How in moments of distress, it keeps on expanding, and when you are enjoying your time, it just vanishes in a jiffy, is quite remarkable.  But I always cherish the times I got to spend with Michael.  I think I can talk to him about anything.  He has got this instinctive grasp of where I am coming from on something.  Watching The Godfather movie together was the most fun.  I have maintained that when it comes to expressing complicated thoughts, I am much more at home with English, so in that sense communicating with Mike was quite enjoyable for me.  I could tell him some unvarnished truth about India, and could also pick his brains about America.  In the end, I would just say Bob and Mike, you guys know your stuff!

   

The only saving grace in Justice Pratibha Rani's judgment was that Kanhayia Kumar was granted bail.  Other than that, it was an awful judgment, badly worded and full of moralizing sermon on patriotism and nationalism.  I mean, for the life of me, I cannot understand why our judges can't stick to the facts of the case and see that the basic individual rights and provisions in the Constitution are not being violated.  Must they get on a high horse and start offering gratuitous lecture as to how or what a patriotic person should be like?  Whether it's me or Kanhayia or anyone else for that matter, nobody needs a certificate on patriotism from anybody.  Everyone is a patriot in his or her own way.

Arnab Goswami and Sudhir Chowdhry are the bosses of two of the most widely watched news networks in India.  The former runs TIMES NOW, the English one and the latter ZEE NEWS, the Hindi one.  They both earnestly claim to be a conscientious television journalist who are driven by the noblest of the professional objectives; but the reality is quite different.  Every night on Primetime, these gentlemen get on their soap box and launch into a harangue against anyone or anything that doesn't fit into their narrow vision of what constitutes 'National interest'.  To my mind, they have done a great disservice to the community of television journalists in this country.  If you watch them, which I don't by the way, you can't help but being perversely  mesmerized by the kind of reactionary demagogue they become, denouncing anyone who tries to put across a liberal or sober element into the discussion.  Theirs is an agenda driven show in the guise of a news programme, where they would try to suck up to the powers that be and promote mostly the Hindu right-wing world view.  They would ask you a loaded question and then trap you if you are on the side of reason rather than emotion.  The pomposity, the exaggerated notions of patriotism where there is no place for nuance or complexity can be quite unnerving if you are not a smart cookie.  They have been a kind of unfortunate trend setter in that the news stories are not so much reported as they are influenced.  Entrapment of unsuspecting people, morphed videos, manipulated editing, everything and anything is a fair game in the mad rush for getting the maximum  eyeballs, the ethics be damned.   The angry shout, the hectoring tone, this constant bullying into accepting one particular point of view makes you wonder where have all the decency from the public life gone?  There's complete certainty on their part that there can be no competing or contesting ideas of nationalism in this diverse and pluralistic society of ours.

   The white noise of lies, slander and half truths night after night have reduced the public discourse to the level of the gutter.  I have personally seen people who take their cue from these news channels, internalizing the mindset of a lynch mob where there is no room for any doubt about anything whatsoever.  There is a behavior pattern which is animated by an almost puritanical rage against individual liberty and personal freedom.  The old tactics is resorted to where if you can't take on somebody with logic and sober argument, you abuse and become shriller and shriller.  These people might be in the business of asking for banning, hanging and punishing the so called 'anti-national elements', but I would never like that to happen to these pious hate-mongers on Primetime television.  Because no matter how distasteful and offensive I find their proposition to my sensibility, I do believe that they have every right to express them.  I stand in opposition to everything that they represent but I would never like to become intolerant as they are.  What I can do however is keep challenging the bigotry and prejudice, and keep pushing the boundaries of civilized debate.

The other day, the Prime minister was telling the students at a university in Banaras about the virtues of being young and free-minded individuals they have to become if the country has to move forward.  Maybe the grotesque irony of the situation was completely lost on him.  Because just a couple of days before that, there was a brutal crackdown on a group of students by the police on the campus of one of the premier liberal arts university in the country, the JNU in the capital New Delhi.  Their supposed crime was that they were chanting 'anti India/anti national' slogans.  This peaceful agitation so unnerved the government about the imminent collapse of the mighty Indian state that it used methods which was grossly disproportionate to the so called 'treasonous act' by a handful of disaffected youngsters.  Anyone not familiar with the devious high-handedness of the Indian state would have thought this something out of a banana republic!

   There is a basic problem with the attitude of the government.  They believe that they have a monopoly over what constitute nationalism and patriotism.  When you start defining these nebulous and subjective facets of community life into a rigid structure of your ideological value system; then it is a very short step before your patriotism turns into a worldview grounded in jingoism, reaction and half-truths, that can do incalculable damage to this country.  To me, the freedom of speech and expression is absolute and non-negotiable.  I must have the right to express my views without any fear, and this also includes the freedom to mock and ridicule any religion or nationality, and if in the process, somebody's sentiments are offended, so be it.  As long as people are not indulging in violent activities, why can't the government just let us be?  Even the Constitution has not defined nationalism and has left it to the individual's devices.  I am much more concerned about the health of the Republic which need to be guarded against the growing virus of intolerance.

Nowadays I have almost completely given up on watching national news channels.  I realized that news on Indian television is not about the good old fashioned reporting from the ground, but mostly about talking heads in the studio.  I am certain that it's a part of a deliberate ploy to generate so much sound and fury that the real issues gets hopelessly lost in the mad cacophony.  Instead of adding to my knowledge about anything, they were only giving me headache.  So I stopped, I now occasionally tune into international networks like the BBC, CNN and Al Jazeera.  They are much more sober and have a lot more informed debates and discussion.

  What I do mostly these days, is that almost every night-- except maybe on weekend--I listen to the discourse by Osho.  As soon as I'm done with my supper, I get the audio recordings of his lectures turned on and wrap myself in a cocoon of my own world.  The soothing voice of Rajneesh.  It coaxes and cajoles, provokes and agitates in equal measure, but most importantly, it expands your mind and adds a focus to your consciousness.  So, here I am lying down, trying to get cozy.  I have shut my eyes and I'm just letting the words wash over me.  What is it that I'm looking for?  That truth can only be conveyed and understood in silence.  It is more important to know for yourself than to blindly accept, because when you just accept something in the name of religion or tradition, it is a totally borrowed wisdom and not your own.  There is some meditation on life and death.  You come to understand that your life is just one end of the spectrum.  The other end of that is death and that neither can exist without the other.  When there is no disease, there is health.  When there is no health, there is disease.  When there is no light, there is darkness, just like when there is no darkness, there is light.  This human existence is based on polarity, a kind of tension between opposing forces.  The future never comes, rather what is a slow accumulation of present moment, we delude ourselves as future.  These and plenty of other things swirl in my mind, and then I retire for the night.