Mukteshwar in the abode of the free god

Mukteshwar perched at 7,500 ft in the lower Himalayas is not a hill station, nor is it on the way to anything of significance. It just is. Off the map, and unconcerned. Kumaoun has deeper woods and greater diversity of fauna than most parts of India. Being here is a treat in itself.
We leave Delhi excited at the thoughts of deep Deodar woods, heady fresh mountain air and that unique quiet you find among forested slopes. The road from Delhi takes only seven hours. We add a couple of hours, making allowance for a dip at the holy Ganga at Gharmukteshwar. A must do is to take a boat ride here looking for the elusive Ganges dolphin. Alas, elusive it remains, because the river pristine as it appears, is polluted by the nearby sugar mills.
Back in the 4x4 and the journey is smooth once you leave Uttar Pradesh behind. However, the saving grace of UP is the lunch at Rampur. This former fiefdom of the famous Nawab Ahmed Ali Khan Bahadur is known for its great dog breed — the Rampur hound, a unique Rampuri designed dagger and exquisite food. We sample with relish a big spread of kebabs — succulent as they come. Also on offer is distinctive Haleem, a lentils and mutton combination cooked with clarified butter over large copper pots overnight. Slow food movement may be catching on in the rest of the world but here it’s a way of life.
An hour from Rampur racing through a teak and sal forest, starts the climb. We pass the pleasant Lake District of Bhimtal. Two more hours through meandering greens and we arrive at the hotel Win Cliff, elevated above a high ridge overlooking Mukteshwar. Red bricks, minimalist architecture with green potted plants, and wood panels blend in with the surroundings.
Mukteshwar has a unique offering for those who are serious rock climbers. At the edge of the western rock end of this tiny town, the rock face is jagged, with sheer drops of up to 600 feet. A bunch of mountaineering enthusiasts run this camp. With a little bit of training and a whole lot more of enthusiasm, you can climb about, securely hooked from a line. The cool mountain air makes this adventure a little easy to bear. However undertake it only of you derive joys from making the body dog tired while negotiating sheer drops that even with a secure hooked line could cause serious damage should you miss a footing. The rock formations here are so famous that the government is seriously thinking of a year-round professional camp from 2008.
The next morning we meet the owner of the hotel, who, to our surprise, is an IIM graduate. This is absolutely the place to stay in Mukteshwar. The view below is of valleys sloping down a good 2,000 ft and more. There are views of farms and hamlets, and the occasional jungle fowl cackling noisily away.
Directly opposite in the far horizon is the great Nanda Devi ice face. This is a massive peak at over 21,000 ft that makes even Mukteshwar look but a hillock. On a clear day this astonishing mountain is an in-your-face encounter with the great Himalayas, and one is unlikely to ever forget it. This, you say to yourself, is it. The view was the reason we did not visit just another hill station. Alas, mists encircle the patron goddess of Uttrakhand and before we know it, she has disappeared — enveloped by the Himalayas.
The next day is for a short ride to the hunting lodge of the legendry Jim Corbett. The tales immortalised in the book Man-eaters of Kumaoun are based largely in these parts. It is in poor shape and has little by the way of memorabilia about the great man. However, the setting is so picture perfect it makes up for all the shortcomings. Once here you can choose from a myriad bunch of mountain roads that the goatherds take for pasture land below. We pack a picnic lunch and walk six kilometers to reach a wooded meadow. Delhi is so far out of reach it’s almost forgotten!
Another must visit, an ancient Shiv Temple from which the town gets it name. This is the abode of the free god. It has a curious intensity, a peculiar, almost primeval pull. The old sadhu is almost out of a coffee table book. Long matted locks and lots of vibhuti. He tells me that we have met in a previous life and that I was a penniless wanderer. Guess not much has changed in this life either. A long discussion on the meaning of life and death, on tracing lineages, on the concept of time follows. A most fulfilling three quarters of an hour of matters spiritual.
From Lord Shiva to Corbett, from ecological beauty and sheer magnificence of the great Nanda Devi, from walks in wooded nooks to enveloping silence of a glittering equinox, Mukteshwar offers all this and a lot more. So go over, stay and generally do nothing much else while there. Get away to sample a bit of heaven while it lasts. We bumped into two “property developers” just as we got ready to depart.

internet privacy a real poblem

Privacy International (PI) is a human rights group formed in 1990 as a watchdog on surveillance and privacy invasions by governments and corporations. PI has conducted campaigns and research globally on issues ranging from wiretapping and national security, to ID cards, video surveillance, data matching, medical privacy and freedom of information and expression. Dr Gus Hosein, Senior Fellow with Privacy International, spoke with Ninad D Sheth. Excerpts:
What are the major privacy issues facing the Internet?
The first threat is storage and use of your ‘transactional data’, which is regarding your navigation of the web, who you send emails to and when, who you communicate with and where you are, and what you search for, what entertainment you seek, what items you read. The second threat is monitoring of communications and this is done by both Companies and governments. Companies want to advertise to you (like Gmail) and governments want to know what you are up to. A third concern of privacy is advanced services and applications. Social networking sites potentially hold much information about you, though some do calendaring and email services done by third parties. In fact, any service that stores your personal information on a central server, particularly when that information was previously held on your own computer (email, calendar, journal, etc.) may be open to abuse.
Government policy in countries such as China has caused concern that privacy if ignored could land people in jail! Is it true that the Chinese government has substantial staff dedicated to snooping on net users?
China certainly leads the world in this domain. But according to reports, Saudi Arabia is not very far behind. Many countries are expending more and more resources to enhance their internet surveillance capacities.
How important is Internet privacy for corporations? How easy is it to snoop on non-public networks for enforcement and other state bodies?
It is a highly competitive market environment and there is great concern whenever Companies risk losing control over their own information. If governments and other Companies discover product development plans, accounts information or strategic plans, this could be devastating.
How easy is it to snoop?
Increasingly Companies are making use of public networks for communication. Like, Companies make use of the public telephone network. So, when governments want to snoop on their conversations, they only need to approach the third-party company with a warrant. This way, Companies will not know that their privacy is being invaded.
You have been critical of Google as far as standards of privacy are concerned. Does the stand still exist?
We expressed concerns about the industry as a whole. In recent months, we have been engaging with these Companies, including Google, and we have noticed that many of these Companies truly want to make their services more privacy friendly. They are realising that their entire business models rely on consumer confidence and trust.
How serious is the threat of a rogue employee in one of the search firms?
Rogue employees with access to the company’s files have been a threat. With advanced networking, it is increasingly becoming easy for information to be removed from organisations without any knowledge to security officials. One should also be wary of the ‘stupid employee’. There are cases of employees leaving laptops and other confidential information unattended. Companies must take steps to secure data within and beyond their network.

The what if's of India

Every so often we sit down and think about what could have been in our lives. What if one had ended up marrying a childhood sweetheart say, or had opted for science—instead of liberal arts, or immigrated abroad and so forth. We as people think about it, smile, shrug and move on.
Now, historians are considering the if's of history seriously. A recent book dwells into the major what ifs of the world, (What If? The World's Foremost Military Historians Imagine What Might Have Been, by Robert Cowley & Stephen E. Ambrose)
For a what if to be truly worth considering it has to be plausible. Wishful thinking cannot form the basis of alternative history. So the right questions are important. A popular issue of Outlook went overboard while publishing a series of what ifs, though most of it were too macroscopic to fall in the realm of possibility. The small twists are really provocative. A close shave. A death defied. A war won or lost by chance. Indian history throws up at least three such cases which could conceivably change its course.
The most interesting case of how India could have been radically different by minor alteration in her history comes from the Mughal Empire. The year was 1657. Ill health of the emperor Shahjehan precipitated fratricide, common in succession struggle to the Mughal throne. Historians believe that with the backing of his father the emperor, an army at Delhi, and a strategic depth till Lahore, Prince Dara Shikoh had it going for him. One battle well fought, and the course of Indian history would have turned on its head. All he needed was strategic priority and a bit of luck. He messed up his priority by sending his best troops to fight his brother Shouja at Varansi. He ran out of luck when his other brother, Murad Baksh teamed up with Aurangzeb. As an emperor he would have been Akbar reloaded. He was tolerant and inclined towards Hinduism and Sufism. At that time India was the centre of Islam and a powerful Sufi influence could have turned even the crusading zeal of Islam on a more tolerant course. Finally Dara could have led to an Indian renaissance given his interest in the arts.
The second counterfact is even more interesting. Mohammad Ali Jinnah died barely an year after taking over as the Quaid- e- Azam of Pakistan. During the later years of the freedom struggle this suave lawyer was already afflicted with tuberculosis. Had this been known, there is a distinct possibility of a grand compromise that may have avoided the partition of India. He could have been offered the prime ministership of India while the Congress could have just counted the hours.
Thirdly, what if Sardar Patel and not Nehru had become the first prime minister of Independent India? Mahatma’s favour for Nehru was apparent but still many have pondered this many times over. His succession was in fact seriously considered before Nehru won the coveted crown. Should Sardar have become PM, India would certainly have been a very different country.
He was unlikely to accept a ceasefire in Kashmir in 1948 given that on the ground India was winning the war and the troops had reached beyond what is today the line of control. India may have embarked on a free market regime much earlier than China. Unlike Nehru no go slow was likely to have occurred on the nuclear weapon option either. India may even have even on the side of the United States in the cold war. And most importantly, India may not even have had the successive dynastic premiers it ended up with. Wishful thinking borders on allegory. But in history as in life counterrfactuals are full of wistful possibilities.

once upon a crime

It's intrusive, it's all-pervasive, and it has the makings of a bestseller. It's the latest buzz on TV. Fact is, eight of the top 10 shows on news channels are crime reports. That's the whodunnit part. Here's more...
There's a common modus operandi for these crime reports - a vigilant approach, dark and sinister sets, sometimes with a cellphone in the background mingling with the hushed conspiratorial tones of those who host these shows.
Finally, there's the hush-hush talk. Here, the criminal (accused, not convicted mind you - but that's but a little detail for TV channels) is produced before the camera and the anchor combines the three roles of cop, judge and jury. If the reality component of these shows, given the crusading manner of the TV hosts, doesn't grip you, there's more to come. The crime is dramatised and it's always way beyond terrible, more so because the criminal, more often than not, is an overweight, moustachioed bad guy playing the cliche to the last detail.
Aaj Tak has a programme called Jurm Aaj Tak, which trawls through recent FIRs in faraway places in Meerut and Bulandshahar. The anchor, Shams Tahir Khan, goes into a low-tone mafioso drawl to add to the effect. It doesn't add up though. Sony has a show called Crime Patrol, which is hosted by Shakti Anand.
While the pumped-up host gives the impression of a cop who's about to pounce on a criminal, the show doesn't really live up to expectations in that, sometimes, 'lesser' crimes are blown up to make them interesting. "It is after all a crime show and we do need to spice it up sometimes just as we sanitise the show a little bit sometimes," says Anand.
"One thing is for sure, crime sells big time in middle-class India." Does it bother Anand that some of the cases are still in court and the alleged criminal hasn't actually been convicted? "We have a role to play as the media. Even if a case is highlighted, we take care not to be biased," he maintains.
Star's Red Alert isn't different from other crime shows on TV, what with its share of hushed whispers, wailing sirens and other stuff that goes into making these potboilers on TV. Says the host, Jitendra Dixit: "Red Alert aims at raising civil awareness about crime and those that subvert the laws of society. It is easy to sensationalise and dramatise things while doing this, but the show hasn't been designed on these lines."
The way these TV crusades are shaping up it appears time is not far when Indian TV will do a trial like the celebrated O J Simpson media circus in the US. The awesome reach of TV gives the anchors power to play cop without any checks or curbs on their crusades. The reason why so many channels have so many crime shows and there's one channel in the pipeline that will be exclusively dedicated to crime isn't far to fathom. These shows are targeted at the voyeuristic instinct of the middle-class family man and his wife - it's sort of cheap thrill and means getting acquainted with big crime and its perpetrators. Indeed, blood and gore sells almost as well as soaps in developed markets such as the US and Europe.
Ratings for crime-based reality shows are far greater than talk shows of news channels and the academic discussions on TV. What's more, if reality crime shows are at the top of the ratings game in the West, they're slowly getting there in India.
Says Sulina Menon, CEO, North of Carat: "There is serious interest in these shows, which are throwing up impressive numbers. But production quality has to go up a long way before they can become top drawer attractions."
Shoaib Ilyassi, whose copy of America's Most Wanted became popular, now has a new show on India TV. Says Illyasi: "We have already been instrumental in catching 24 criminals though this new show. The public wants to know about crimes and demands accountability from the police. I believe that we cater to both these aspects."
So, come tonight, and couch potatoes will once again be taken through a whirl of sirens and guns, cops and robbers. Let the hunt begin.

absulute Goa

My last visit to Goa was at the turn of the millennium, right after my wedding. The honeymoon — as my wife reminds me on the odd occasion — is long over. So I was keen to know if the same will hold true for my attachment with this exquisite sea-facing dreamland.
Since I was paying my way — and, alas, not on a junket — I chose a no-frills airline called Spice Jet. It is frighteningly no-frills! They do not even have life jackets; in case of trouble over the sea you pull the seat from your bottom, hug it close and pray hard.
Destination Goa attracts blondes of all manners. Just before takeoff, a pretty young French backpacker parked herself next to me. Now my French isn’t much but conversations tend to start on short hauls. The blonde asked me if I had “done” Goa before.
Unlike backpackers out to ‘do’ India with a vengeance, I do not ‘do’ a place. It is much better to discover the place by walking around, meeting the local historian, dropping by an off-the-map eatery, and generally taking time to soak it in.
With the death of distance these days no one wants a relaxed look. Travel is bereft of either exotica or adventure. The destination has taken over; the journey does not really matter. There is a frenzied need amongst the middle class to ‘do’ a destination, if possible within the dreaded two-nights-three-days straightjacket.
In the 1990s, Boeing proudly announced in its ad line — tomorrow you can be anywhere, thus, by definition, ruling out that adrenalin flow which comes from going down the road less taken as in the olden days of travel.
The charm and romance of travellers like Francis Younghusband or Richard Halliburton has long gone. By contrast, the air-conditioned traveller of today is the new consumer of global haunts, the outsider breezing past without bothering to look in. The digital culture has shrunk distance unbelievably. Microsoft’s tag line asks you where you want to go today. Between Boeing and Microsoft, the world has become a TV screen and the magic-carpet traveller has been reduced to a couch potato.
Entire communities, most notably the Gujaratis and the Bengalis, have a fixed idea of visiting spaces through the vulgar mass tour groups with special diets thrown in. The Gee Wiz American is the crassest incarnate of the modern tourist. The Japanese, taking digital pictures of everything that moves come a close second.
Modern travel is entirely soulless. There no excitement of arrival and none of the abiding pleasure of finding. All that matters is a picture with a grin in front of the Parthenon. Inevitably, the merry-go-round ends with a dinner at the local McDonalds.
As I drank yet another feni on a moonlit Palolim beach, I had uneasy thoughts that another crass American Denis Tito had already “done” space as a tourist. The final frontier has been crossed.
At the Goa airport on my way back, I bought a lottery ticket promising riches (actually, a crore). I said to myself, what good is it even if I win? In Goa you realise that the best things in life cost little. A feni, reading a book by the beach, or chatting up the blondes. For the one out to seek Goa and not ‘do’ her, she saves her charms, like true love. Goa remains a one-night stand that lasts a lifetime.

wine boom in in india

A survey by France-based Vinexpo, the premier event organisers for those in the wine and spirits trade, presents a happy picture for India. Its assessment is that the enormous growth in India’s wine market will account for 150 million cases by 2010. This is triple the consumption level of wine in India today.
Lifestyle changes upward mobility and perceived health advantages are driving the preference for wine. Interestingly, while the wine market is growing by 30% a year, that for spirits is lagging behind at 25%.
With growth has come curiosity for the different sorts of wine and to satisfy this curiosity there are wine clubs mushrooming like never before.
In Mumbai, at the Oberoi’s, they have this Italian restaurant Vetro. You order the food and a surprise awaits you. The restaurant has started an extensive wine library and at any time you can indulge in a wine tasting session with up to five whites and five reds. What’s more, these are offered on the house! The purpose is simple. The hotel wants you not to be scared of ordering a wine. Just enjoy the sampling, relax, see what you like and the next time you will have a better idea perhaps of what you want to order.
Last month Banglore saw the launch of the Wine Society of India, with a bunch of software types trying to deconstruct subtleties of Chardonnay.
In Delhi too there are at least six wine clubs that invite people across professions to come for a sampling more then once a month. These are structured events with a lot of jargon. For those who want to be initiated though, it is almost like a tribal ritual. A lot of the members comprise lunching ladies who want to sound knowledgeable about wine. It probably works out as: knowing wine names means being sophisticated.
This buzz has also hit the embassy circles. They are pitching in with products from their countries, so a lot of the sampling is on the house. The Chilean, Australian and Italian ambassadors in Delhi are known to promote wine from their respective countries and periodically hold wine tasting events.
Now for the downer. Despite the buzz that wine is creating in India, let’s face it, the market is still tiny. It is worth only $50 million in value. And, the per capita consumption is what gives it away — Indians ‘consume’ only two teaspoons of wine per head per year. Wine makers have obviously figured out that the market from here can only grow.

wildlife tv as voyer feed

Legendary crocodile hunter Steve Irwin died doing what he loved, diving the depths off the Australian coast searching for yet another creature and tempting fate. Even as the world mourns a man who did more than anyone else to bring wildlife to the drawing room, his methods have brought up important questions that have divided the naturalist community.
While some believe that his style popularised wildlife among the masses, for others it reduced wildlife to a sideshow for couch potatoes. That Steve had no scientific training was another criticism towards his cowboy approach masquerading as ecological knowledge.
By intruding into the space of diverse fauna across the world, Steve trivialized the many complexities involved in the relationship between an animal and its ecology, thereby peddling a sort of eco-porn.
His was a brand of spectacle where enthusiasm made up for rigor, audacity substituted scrutiny and showmanship replaced information. When one grapples with a 350-pound anaconda in the remote Amazon basin, or gets up, close and personal with a 20 foot Nile crocodile, the line between wildlife documentation and circus-entertainment blurs. It was this that troubled serious and committed wildlife photographers and filmmakers and true lovers of ecology.
Steve of course was aware of the limitations of his stunts and had argued that all he was trying to do is to take away the unjustified fears that people have of wild animals they perceive as dangerous. However in realty, the effect was quite the opposite. Animals that in their natural surrounding would most likely leave humans alone were portrayed as dangerous beasts that can be ‘tackled’. The fact that Steve was seeking and provoking the animals was left unsaid. This important fact was never put into context by the producers of his dramatic documentaries. A lot of this change has to do with the changing nature of those who fund wildlife programming. The transformation happened with pay television taking roots in the developed economies. The sober, scholastic approach best underlined by the work of David Attenborough for the BBC was replaced by an emphasis on production quality and viewer interactive stunts. This meant that the "color" of the story became the overriding priority for the producer. To achieve this color, many a time wildlife encounters were simply set up. Tigers, surrounded by trekkers astride elephants, were seen huddling for the camera with bait tied all around. Similarly, fights were deliberately provoked between wild African elephants. The audience of course only saw the action and not the artifice. In a famous case it was reported that Britain-based John Downer Productions had used a plastic Solomon fish to film grizzlies in the Alaskan wilds. But as long as the bears bared their fangs, who cared if the fish was fake.
Even as the world mourns Steve's death, it is perhaps time for all involved, the channels, the production companies but most important of all the viewer to choose between wildlife as informed documentation or the sexed-up version, which, while pleasing to the eye, is not the 'real thing.' The wild is a primeval, lonely space that can be best understood on its own terms. It is time for the mass media and its audience to respect those terms.