Random Walk: Newton and India

Dear All,

Celebrations of Durga Puja seems to have been marred a little by "God" himself (err, herself). Droplets of water are slowly assuming ominous diameters. And those droplets are falling downwards under gravity from the heavenly abode. 

In the mornng, Indira, as usual, sent us a newslink. It was an Op-Ed published in The Hindu (nothing Hindu about it). Actually, myself and Indira keep on perturbing our more serious partners of Indian Policy almost every calendar day by bombing them with newslinks, pdf files, zips et al. 

The Op-Ed seems to have unravelled a mystery about our Newton, aare bhai our own Newton, Isaac Newton. No No. He is not a relative of Isaak Muivah. He is Sir Isaac Newton, the famous mathematician and physicist. Remember?

Yes, yes. Correct. The Father of Gravity. The Op-Ed said that he also tried his hand to be an alchemist. Now, this is something which I was not aware of. So what, who am I? That I need to be aware of everything. By being a student of physics, that too once upon a time, does not make me an expert on Newton. 

Leave it aside. What really enthused me in that Op-Ed was the fact that Sir Newton (I hardly address anyone by the 'title' Sir, Newton is one of the exceptions) was extremely hard working. Once he went for an opera. However, ran away feeling claustrophobic. Passed away at the age of 85, almost unscathed in terms of virginity. What a Man! 

Extremely difficult for me to follow his footsteps. That is natural. That is why I am not, and can never be Sir Newton. Nevertheless, I feel he can be promoted by our Government in the Family Planning Schemes.

The slogan can be simple: "Bachhe paida mat kijie, Newton Ban Jaie"

Period.

The lad who distributes newspaper in our apartment studies History in the local college. However, he hardly has any idea of the subject. Yesterday, I grilled him about French Revolution. He seemed to be oblivious of the term. And he says that he writes answers in the University Exams in Bengali. 

I was literally shocked. In our days (barely 10 years ago; I am not an old man), University Exams had to be written in English. 

Gone are the days of the Imperial Raj. We are inside the Red bastion. Why red? India is being Indianized. Even in the exams for the covenanted services; aare bhai IAS, IPS: one can write answers in any of the twenty two languages as enlisted in the 8th Schedule of our Constitution.

Nevertheless, I asked Tirtha (the lad's name) to drop in The Asian Age in my flat regularly, at least for the time being. In it, I found that today's editorial section has given sabaashi to India in grabbing a 'non-permanent' membership in the UNSC. 

According to me, this is a sign of abject failure. We set out for a permanent position, with the veto power. Aur Kya Mila hume? Agar permanent post mil jata without veto, to bhi chal jata. Abhi kise muuh dikhae?

I think the controversy regarding the Pokhran II seems to have worked against India in the world forum. Secondly, if India construes this to be a victory of diplomacy by pushing aside Kazakhstan from the fray, then it shall be seriously mistaken. No doubt, this is a victory, but a superlatively minor one. If India needs to be wary of a two decade old Central Asian Republic, then it goes to indicate India's clout in world fora. 

Post-Bush America has not actually been kind toward India. Hence, it needs to extract 'friendship' from Obama when the latter visits India during Diwali. The crackers must fire and the foreign policy crackpots must be fired. 

A far more involved India in Afghanistan and a cunning India fomenting US-China 'trust deficit' may actually win in the long run. The strengthening of defence and economy does not require an additional mention.

::: I wrote this yesterday. Our copy-editor Indira seems to have done some ghapla. There is a malicious campaign against me :::

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Uddipan Mukherjee is a late riser. Still, he works 'very hard' to edit Indian Policy. By the way, he writes in diplostratics