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MORPARIA’S PAGE E-mail: [email protected] Contents DECEMBER 2015 VOL.19/5 ○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○ THEME: Morparia’s page 2 The Year 2015 Humour 2015 5 V. Gangadhar Critiquing Modi 6 Managing Editor B. Ramesh Babu Mrs. Sucharita R. Hegde Is intolerance peaking? 8 C.V. Aravind Do we need moral policing? 10 Editor Julio Ribeiro Anuradha Dhareshwar Now, Patels want the OBC tag! 12 P.M. Kamath Assistant Editor State of the media: Modi and that social thing 14 E. Jayakrishnan E.Vijayalakshmi Rajan More precious than gold 16 6 Dr. M.A. Haque Design As rewind, so forward… 19 H. V. Shiv Shankar Akul Tripathi Face to Face 21 Sharmila Biswas: Shoma A. Chatterji Marketing Know India Better Mahesh Kanojia Ahmedabad and Gandhinagar: a tale of twin cities 23 OIOP Clubs Co-ordinator Dr. M.A. Haque Vaibhav Palkar Features Getting older, and better 40 Dr. Sujeet Rajan Subscription In-Charge The thinking disabled 42 Nagesh Bangera Dr. T.D. Rajan 21 Climate change in Paris 44 Sharmila Biswas Dr. Chandani Bhattacharjee Positive strokes 45 Advisory Board Prakash Bal Joshi Sucharita Hegde What have you resolved for 2016? 47 Justice S. Radhakrishnan G. Venkatesh Venkat R. Chary Cultural Kaleidoscope The world at her feet 48 Shoma A. Chatterji Printed & Published by The Ankiya-naat and Bhaona 50 Mrs. Sucharita R. Hegde for Dr. Kanak Rele One India One People Foundation, Column 52 Mahalaxmi Chambers, 4th floor, Nature watch : Bittu Sahgal 22, Bhulabhai Desai Road, In focus : C.V. Aravind Mumbai - 400 026 Young India 54 Tel: 022-2353 4400 23 Great Indians 56 Fax: 022-2351 7544 e-mail: [email protected] [email protected] Printed at: Graphtone (India) Pvt. Ltd. A1 /319, Shah & Nahar Industrial Estate. S. J. Marg, Lower Parel (W) Mumbai – 400 013 visit us at: Baburao Krishnarao Kalamandalam Captain Anuj www.oneindiaonepeople.com Mestry (aka Satyabhama Nayyar, MVC www.facebook.com/oneindiaonepeoplefoundation Baburao Painter) LETTERS TO THE EDITOR “Well-conceived and well-written” I read your October 2015 issue (Relevance of Gandhi) and Akul Tripathi’s photo feature on Independence which have needed to be defended in the first place! Is this a sign is well-conceived and of new India where icons like him have to be defended and well-written. It is a intolerance and religious schisms continue to grow? I wonder good piece for the old to what the Mahatma would have thought of the current state reminisce and for the new of affairs. He definitely would have had a solution to the ills generation to learn and be that plague the Indian society today. But for sure, his solution inspired. I have had the would never involve violence or aggression of any sort. It good fortune of visiting would have been passive resistance, and effective! Perhaps some of those sights and those who claim to be defenders of the society, would do historic structures. well to learn from his techniques. A united and strong India is in all our best interests. The article on Gandhi’s food was Keep up the good work! very interesting. What a great visionary he was! He was not – Professor B. Ramesh Babu, Hyderabad before his times. I think we are way beyond ours. Let’s learn “Gandhi was truly a mean for all seasons” from this man and try and incorporate healthy habits in our The October 2015 issue was truly superb! The cover daily routine. Gandhi was truly a man for all seasons. Isn’t it of the magazine deserves a special mention. You must be time we realised that? commended for defending Gandhiji when he should never – B.S. Saranya, Mumbai Letters should be addressed to Mumbai - 400 026 22, Bhulabhai Desai Road, Mahalaxmi Chambers, 4th floor, Foundation, One India People The Editor, 022-2351 7544 e-mail: [email protected] / [email protected] www.oneindiaonepeople.com 022 - 2353 4400 Fax: Tel: 4 ONE INDIA ONE PEOPLE December 2015 SATIRE Humour 2015 As the year comes to a close, every citizen looks around for something which he had missed out during the year. He may or may not get it, but the effort should always be on, says V. Gangadhar. HEN my journalism career started, I spent the the end of June, the lakes were almost full. The complacent first year doing what came to be known as population was happy, the farm lobby was exuberant. Well, Wfestival reporting. It was a never-ending routine. no one bothered when July rainfall in the city was just a Festival reporting was simple - you just reported festivals token. August is normally a bountiful monsoon month. The which were in plenty in the Hindu calendar year. After some festivals came and went - Janmashtami, Ganesh Chaturthi - experience, I could do the work blindfolded. yet, no sign of rains. Already there was a 30 After all, how many readers would remember per cent water cut. Would it go up higher? that the same news item on the same festival Politics was no Trains no longer served drinking water to had appeared last year and this, and in all doubt prominent thirsty passengers. People may not agree probability would be repeated next year! - Bihar was on with me, but to me the Water Story was number one. The media tackled it from every Repetition is part of journalism. A lot of everyone’s lips it tends to get repeated and it is not often angle including how Bollywood celebrities that routine news needs to be challenged to but the polls really tackled it! be drastically changed and rewritten. Take made headlines in Politics was no doubt prominent - Bihar 2015 AD. The city was keenly expecting its the city. The term was on everyone’s lips but the polls really annual tryst with the monsoon. Reporters ‘Bihari’ assumed made headlines in the city. The term ‘Bihari’ keep close track of the monsoon and the new dimensions. assumed new dimensions. That, plus several bolder ones made brave predictions. Yet, the other major events rocked the city like the That, plus several monsoon is often elusive and seldom follows 588th postponement of Mumbai university the dictates of the weather bureau. other major events examinations. Dengue which normally Take for instance my 40th year of rocked the city spared Mumbai, embraced the city in its monsoon watching in 2014. The beginning like the 588th arms, with the Sena-BJP taking full credit was predictable and by end of June 30, the postponement of for ushering it into the city. city had got a good drenching. So did the Mumbai university It was not just entertainment in Mumbai following months. By August end, the vital examinations. journalism. It is now highly academic lakes which provided water to the city were with ‘Litfests’ happening every week at overflowing. We sighed in relief, no water every nook and corner. Every media topic, cuts in 2014. But slowly, the water supply worsened and by particularly sex in its various forms, flourish in the literary the beginning of September, around 30 per cent cuts were scene. Ageless sex wonders like ‘Germaine Greer’ made imposed. Besides cloud seeding, pujas and homas were held welcome appearances on the literary at - many places, but the skies did not open up. On the day scene and nothing could stop our sex of my flight to New York, finally, the miracle happened. Rain literature queen Madam Shobhaa De slammed the city from dawn and did not stop for 60 hours, from rushing in for a bit of nostalgic wiping out the rain deficit, and echoing the sentiments of chit chat. That was part of the Aamir Khan’s movie ‘3 Idiots,’ ‘ALL IS WELL’. annual cultural scene which titillated Was it time for a gentle reminder not to take things for Mumbai. granted? The 2015 monsoon was predicted as normal. By The writer is a well-known satirist. ONE INDIA ONE PEOPLE December 2015 5 THE YEAR 2015 CritiquingCritiquing ModiModi Many report cards have been written for the Modi government’s performance, especially this year. But is it fair to judge so early? asks B. Ramesh Babu. He says the government needs to be given more time, while pointing out areas where it needs to tighten its belt. ALLING for a “report card”, looking over it with a party had lost in the national and state elections before and microscope and highlighting the “performance failure” worked its way back to power sooner or later. But the Cof the NDA (National Democratic Alliance) government parliamentary election of 2014 was a watershed and has led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, has become a national radically transformed the political landscape of the nation. pastime. That he assumed office only 18 months ago, hardly Modi’s “development agenda” rapidly gained momentum and long enough to make a fair assessment of the new leader and swept the party into power with a huge mandate. Caste, the party in power at the Centre, does not seem to deter the community, religion, seemed to be secondary, especially for detractors. the youth of the nation, who voted in support of their aspirations for employment and The unprecedented mandate better future, in Even his spectacular victory in the General Elections of overwhelming numbers. 2014 did not win him the traditional honeymoon period that Modi’s promise of was allowed to other leaders. The electoral mandate he “development” caught and the BJP won was unprecedented the imagination of the and overwhelming. nation which had Modi and the become sick and tired of new BJP the daily scandals and naturally the non-functioning expected that duopoly of the Sonia- the huge Manmohan Singh popular vote leadership.