Tamil Nadu election results: An amateur's review

Looks like I may have a future as a political pundit after all. Cho Ramaswamy's protege? Perhaps, perhaps. Don't jinx it. ;)

My amateur takeaways, in no particular order, from the poll results where Tamil Nadu has chosen to be robbed by the incumbent set of thugs for the first time in 38 years. 

1. This appears more a loss for DMK than a victory for ADMK. Tamil Nadu's notorious anti-incumbency urge was not strong enough to deny Jayalalitha a second term. Memories from DMK's previous term, greed spawned by family/dynasty politics and potential for great corruption did DMK in. To make matters worse, their tie up with Congress turned out to be a big mistake - they won 8 of the 41 seats that they contested in with a paltry 6.4% vote share. (Source: wikipedia). They had to go with the Congress: the BJP wouldn't touch the DMK with, to borrow a term from my Brit colleague, a ten-foot bargepole and quite honestly, the Congress and the DMK partnered so well in UPA II to loot the nation that they had to keep each other happy to ensure that the lid remained seated firmly on their sordid affairs.

2. Imagine M Karunanidhi dying as a Chief Minister: restrained glee for MK Stalin, manufactured grief among the cadres and mild to moderate chaos across the state as the power struggle in the family unfolds. I'm so happy that this has been averted.  And a grave on the Marina beach for the fossil-in-a-veshti nonagenarian will now be a tough ask with JJ at the helm. 

3. BJP and their sad Tamil story continues. My secret wish was that they would win at least 5 seats in and around Coimbatore and Kanyakumari. And they drew a blank. BJP going alone in TN is a wasted effort: their flavor of Hindutva done in Hindi won't appeal to the Tamil sensibilities, their better governance notwithstanding. And development is not as big a deal in the state like elsewhere in the country. That said, I'm still willing to bet that the same people would vote for BJP in 2019, provided they are able to cobble together a good alliance. The national credibility of the BJP combined with some local flavor will be the ideal mix, although it remains to be seen who can be that ideal local partner. 

4. The DMDK+ drubbing. I'm hard pressed to say anything other than, well deserved. I'm glad the people were able to see right through them and called their bluff. Granted they didn't have the might - people and money - of the big two. But all things considered, it was a rickety party and turned out to be a damp squib. And how! Captain, Thol Thirumavalavan and the communists lost spectacularly. Of particular interest is the curious case of Thol Thirumavalavan losing in a reserved constituency. The self styled voice of the Dalits shown the door! Time for introspection guys. 

5. Alcohol. It was billed as the ultimate make or break issue around which this poll was supposed to turn. And everyone that had promised total prohibition - and had expected to win the female vote - ended up biting the dust. Prohibition is, at best, a knee jerk solution to the threat posed by alcohol abuse. Personally I'll bat for more control, extensive rehabilitation and increasing awareness rather than total prohibition. Going cold turkey will only facilitate a flourishing illicit liquor trade, people losing eyesight and countless deaths. And also leave that occasional drinker looking for a beer on a Friday night terribly frustrated. 

6. 57% voter turn out in Chennai. That old-school indifference of the middle class rears its ugly head again. Yes, there is the age-old grievance that is unique to the middle class: what do they get in return for their vote? Pretty much nothing. So why bother. But let's not forget that the income tax one pays doesn't fetch much returns either in India. But everyone pays it nonetheless. Just like that. 

7. A truly three cornered fight remains a distant dream in Tamil Nadu. The DMK is at a crossroads: MK's death will lead to some ugliness in the fight for succession. But the party would survive better given that it is only a family business and families patch up. Especially if the stakes are high. On the other hand, ADMK will flounder badly in a post-JJ world, as second tier leadership is unheard of in their set up. With PMK, MDMK, DMDK and the communists being irrelevant players, DMK will be left without a serious challenger. And that is a scary scenario. BJP, are you listening?

TamilNadu polls: my predictions

Since turning 18, I have exercised my franchise exactly once. I have always been living outside of India for the most part of this century and have missed all the elections since the 1999 national polls including this one.

So had I been in Chennai, instead of in the opposite side of the world, who would I have voted for?

Not for the DMK - Congress alliance. Two families of bandits with vast experience of looting the nation in most imaginative ways between them, coming together - once more - with a clean plate at the election buffet. Under the leadership of M Karunanidhi - who, if the media is to be believed, may actually be alive. A vote for them is not only forgiving their many sins of the past of varying vintages but paving the way for many more, I'm sure, in the future. And call me old fashioned but I have a thing against family/dynastic politics. Particularly if they have the fake-Gandhi and *.nidhi names. Oh and I'll also pass the opportunity to have a 93-year old three-wived, conniving fossil as a Chief Minister! And finally, remember, Congress-tainted DMK presence will do no help to pass any legislation in the parliament.

Not for the ADMK. If DMK is the devil (quite rightly), the ADMK is definitely the deep sea (again, quite rightly). As far as corruption credentials go, the DMK and ADMK are conjoined twins with two separate bank accounts. On top of corruption and sycophancy, you must throw inefficiency into the mix this time around. Cases in point: the Chennai deluge and the loss of industrial investment to the state (source: Indian Express). They may not have family baggage but with an ailing leader (officially a spinster), the sister family and the sycophants circling around and no trace of a second tier leadership worth talking about, this is a slowly ticking bomb.

Not for the PMK. Granted that they have adopted a different approach for this election: going it alone in all constituencies, announcing the CM candidate, taking an early and consistent stand on abolition of alcohol, although with no convincing plans on how to offset the loss in revenue and prevent illicit liquor problems. But I can't look past their history: after all this is still the same tree felling party playing caste politics. And the problems of La Famiglia politics hangs like a cloud over this set up too.

Not for the PWF (the miscellany) either. An LTTE sympathizer. Tired communists. The so called Dalit champion and an actor with questionable qualifications. (Reminds me of a strictly for Tamils-only Rajini clip: Oru dhaadi, oru mottai, naalu school pasanga! Ippo suthuveengalae??) An alliance of convenience with no common ideology other than the self-assumed "alternate" to the old-school Dravidian dispensations. A noble and lofty goal, no doubt, but they possess neither the cohesion nor the clout to pull of anything more than a seat or two.

That leaves us with the BJP. Forced to go alone because they couldn't stitch together a half-decent alliance in the time they had. A national party trying to be relevant in a state that cannot (and will not) follow what Mr. Modi shouts from the pulpit. Based on what they are trying to do rather clumsily in New Delhi, a vote for them is a vote for clean(er) governance and that is something that Tamil Nadu can do with now. And paint me an optimist but I nurse the hope that in the near future they could become a political force to reckon with in the state. So, yes, I would have voted for them.

Let's pretend that the readers of this blog - both of them - ask me the next question: who do I think shall win? Well, I'm no political pundit and my knowledge is gleaned from the comments section of click-bait articles on Tamil publications. But given that any pol. pun is only taking an educated guess and is as likely to get it wrong as the next guy on the street, let me throw my hat into the ring too.

For all the talk about this being a "multi-cornered" contest, this will continue to be a closely fought dog fight between ADMK and the DMK. Given that as a state we have the dubious distinction of alternating between these two sets of thieving groups, history may be smiling at the DMK this time. But Rs. 1,76,000 crores is a figure that has been tattooed on people's minds. Not an easy amount to forget or forgive, the recent flood mismanagement notwithstanding. One look at the faces of Raja and K'mozhi and those memories come flooding back and I have to watch a few Dr. Subramaniam Swamy videos on YouTube to feel better. So here is my prediction: the marginally lesser of the two evils - that's ADMK for non-Tamilians - could scrape through by a slim margin. Perhaps even with the help of BJP?

With that out of the way, I'll join the rest of the state with bated breath for the 19th. 

An aborted take off and the aftermath

The world’s best airline. The second best airport in the world. What happens when the proverbial shit hits the fan?

6:00pm

“Flight crew to your stations please.”

The reassuring voice of the captain from the flight deck came over the PA system. The aircraft taxied to the head of the runway, turned around and came to a halt for those few moments before the take off. The engines gathered speed as the aircraft started thundering down the runway, all set to take off from Incheon, South Korea on its long hop to San Francisco late in the evening on the 5^th of May.

From my 44C aisle seat, I peeled my eyes from the LCD screen and looked out the window. I could see little more than the wing and the slats in the dim light. No number of years of flying can make me feel insouciant at the time of takeoff. Truth is, I’m still awed by flying, planes and everything connected to aviation. And from my seat, watching or visualizing the plane actually lifting off, the wheels folding, imagining the pilots manning the big bird through the clouds is now a habit. Oh and a prayer or two also, I must add. Perhaps my own way of being part of, in my opinion, what is a magical phenomenon.

I reckon we were maybe eight seconds, or ten at the most, from lift off when instead of accelerating the plane actually started braking. Momentum, braking efficiency, friction – all those concepts float by when a nearly full Boeing 777, about to lift off, is brought to an abrupt halt. That rare time when you appreciate why the seat belts are put in and thankful that you are wearing one. As the plane came to a shuddering halt, quizzical looks were exchanged till the pilot came back on and to say that he had aborted the takeoff on the orders of the control tower. You could be flying the greatest planes to the most exotic locations but the guy in the tower calls the shots.

We must have been sitting for about fifteen minutes at, what I’m pretty sure was, the very end of the runway when the pilot came back on again and shared further news. First about a plane straying on to our runway (gulp!) and then about flat tires and a brake system that is hot, dashing my hopes of a short delay. This could be longer. Many Indian parents (SQ16, May, California Spring…) had meantime started floating multiple theories, one more interesting than the other. Buses showed up about 30 minutes later and ferried us back to the terminal with our hand baggage and I could actually see the flat tires through the window. But this is the world’s best airline having issues at the world’s second best airport and I reckoned we could be airborne later that night.

7:30 pm “Let them have cake!”

The ground staff led us to the waiting area in front of the Krisflyer lounge. I identified two colleagues who were on the same flight – frequent flyers – and hence could shadow them into the lounge. The colleagues managed to take in 3 elderly folks to the lounge. As a fan of test cricket, you are familiar with the torture of rain delays in a tantalizingly poised game: a break in the rains – mopping – pitch inspection – new start time – more rains. The airline equivalent of this started playing out. The first announced 2-hour delay quickly became three after some checks and then four by which time it was rather clear that the chances of flying out that night were slim. No complaints there: ensuring flight worthiness of the aircraft and hence passenger safety is paramount. I’ll wait till you are satisfied. But I’m sure glad that I had access to the packed-to-the-gills lounge and hence some reasonably good finger food. The economy class folks in the waiting area outside, in the meantime, had been given a rough deal in what was the first of many goof-ups that night. Meal vouchers, I learned, were handed out but the restaurants had all closed down by that time, rendering them useless. Later some cake was then distributed to the folks. “Let them have cake!”

11:30pm “The wheels on the bus go round and round…”

It was finally announced that a special flight would be made available the following day at 1300hrs – a delay of nearly 20 hours - and that we would be provided accommodation for the night. Accommodation as in an hour-away-by-bus-back-into-Seoul and not something close by. The first class and business class travelers were whisked away separately. Again, no complaints: this is how the world works from temples to airports and everywhere in between. All of were asked to head to the immigration counter for canceling the departure stamp to allow re-entry or get a temporary visa issued as appropriate. In what was a masterstroke in customer service, when the elderly started looking for baggage trolleys, the Incheon airport officials informed us, rather callously, that no trolleys would be available as it was late night. Yes, the world’s second best airport couldn’t let the elderly and the infirm use baggage trolleys. We took turns helping out those who needed help with either walking or heavy bags.

A quick side note. Most Indian Americans, by default, seem to ask for wheel chair service for their traveling parents. Some of them genuinely need it; case in point the 88-year-old couple that was in the plane. But many others, don’t get me wrong, seem to be playing it extremely safe. A few fifty year-olds had been enrolled for the wheel chair service: I helped them with some paperwork and hence I know their age. Granted that I don’t know their medical condition to make a judgment on whether they really needed one. But as they say, it is a small world. I ran into some of them a few days after in the Bay Area, walking around just fine! My point? Walking during the layover and/or arrival would actually be better for them instead of more sitting from a health stand point. Again, this is not for everyone but something to think about.

Immigration was long and cumbersome given the lack of enough officials at that hour. More so for a few that required help with questions. The ground staff wasn’t around to help out here and we pitched in to help out to the extent possible.

2:00am

Buses took us to the Hilton at the foot of the Namsan Hill in Seoul. Check-in was not too bad but we were informed that dinner was not part of the accommodation plan. And needless to mention, food on the late night menu was steeply priced. We again helped out people with their bags and kids. Most of them required help with the card key entry, the lights, the faucets and figuring out window screens. By the time we could go to our rooms, it was past 3am.

10:00am

It was a grey, murky, wet morning and breakfast was a solemn affair. Everyone had one thing foremost on their minds: Can we get back to the airport and be on our way please? We were bussed back to Incheon and check in to the special flight was quick.We raised the lack of support at many stages since the aborted take off with the ground staff and requested this: that the really elderly be upgraded either to the business class or at least the premium economy section. No and no. After much haggling, they upgraded the 88-year-old couple to premium eco. I wish they were a lot more reasonable under the circumstances.

May be I sounded whiny. It is not my intention to be so and I consider myself as having been nothing short of extremely lucky. But what was truly appalling was the lack of adequate support and efficiency that should have been made available, particularly to those that needed it the most. Looking back at the incidents of that night, here are my takeaways in no particular order.

We were an extremely lucky group in that a plane straying on to the runway could have been much more, umm…serious? I don’t think I will know whose fault it was but full marks to the air traffic controller and to the pilot for making sure that a canceled flight was the worst thing that happened that night.

One would expect that things would be handled smoothly given that it is Singapore Airlines having an issue at Incheon. But the lack of coordination, bad communication/updates at every step of the way was stunningly bad! I could hear many people murmur that United Airlines (yes, United!) would have done a better job in that same situation.

If you need great service onboard, a fantastic entertainment system or finely customized meals to suit every palate, one needn’t look further than Singapore Airlines. But when things weren’t going according to plan, we got to take a look at their underside. Verdict: not very pleasant. Was it lack of experience or training for such a situation that led them to trip up the way they did? Whatever be the reason behind it, I hope they learned a thing or two from the incident.

Once again, full marks to the ATC and the pilot! Being around and healthy to post this is a better outcome than the other possibilities, the annoyances notwithstanding. 

The scent of a mother

This is something that has been languishing in my drafts folder along with a dozen or so other under cooked posts-in-the-making. I chose to put the finishing touches to this one today and serve it up as the next dose of prose of mediocre quality that is the standard fare at this corner of the internet. If you think this is my mother's day offering, you really don't know me too well. Anyways, I guess this is how Maniratnam must've sounded when he claimed Iruvar was a piece of fiction. 

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It was a late afternoon in August 2008. I had gotten out of work early and was meeting my father and my brother – who had been out running some errands – at Ambika Appalam depot, a few blocks down the street from our home. It has always been a convenient meeting point for our family – not too long a walk from home, near a bus stand and an easy landmark for all Chennai auto drivers. Although the two of them had been delayed and showed up late, the three of us stood there by the bottom of the stairs leading up into the building. We had nothing pressing to get done, none of us was particularly keen on going back home and we stood there for some time – three men – not quite sure what to do with the rest of the evening.

I don't remember where we ended up going to from there or what we did that evening and that is not the point of this post anyways. But here is some context to how we ended up at that corner in Adyar. Our mother had died only a few days earlier. The ceremonies spanning thirteen days had been completed. We had then taken a few days off to visit family in Bangalore. We had also visited my in-laws in Mysore. My wife wanted to stay back with her parents for a few more days before we returned to Singapore. So it was just the three of us back in Chennai – me, my brother and our father – to spend a few days by ourselves tying up loose ends before heading back out to our respective bases.

That day, there were no doctor appointments to take our mother to, no treatments to arrange for. There were neither hospital stays to be coordinated nor any medicines to be procured. And as I said, the ceremonies over the preceding days had been completed, the relatives had departed one by one and we found ourselves in a sudden vacuum – three men, till recently very busy – not quite sure what to do with the rest of the evening.

That particular incident impacted me and kept playing back in my mind again and again over the next few days. The Ambika Appalam Depot bathed in the late afternoon sun. Three men, not quite sure on the agenda for the evening. No compelling reason to go back home to. There was something unsettling about that moment that I had trouble putting a finger on. 

Then it dawned on me one fine day. I was the married guy but with the wife out of town. My brother was still single then. And our father, the recent widower, of course. We didn’t have the reassuring presence of a woman around – a mom or a wife or a sister-in-law – to engage us or even drive us nuts. The presence of a lady, the whiff of womanhood – of any relation – is such a positive influence on everyone around. A natural mechanism to keep everyone - particularly the XY-chromosomed - grounded and balanced. Granted there is always the exception or three but at least in our family this has been the case – the lady was the bedrock. 

I kept playing this incident in my mind again and I replaced the three of us from that evening with a school going kid. I played out that exact same scenario: a young kid - mother recently deceased and the dad away at work to support the family - returning to an empty home after school. Such a terrible scenario. And scary that it would be so easy for the kid to lose his path and focus. There was a similar example that I became aware of on my wife’s side where the kid (now in college) suffered after his mom passed away when he was small. A fate that should not visit any child - young or old.  

At the risk of sounding like something straight out of a particularly cheesy Hallmark card - mothers are simply special. No mother is perfect and no woman flawless. But they are where they are - shortcomings and all - for a pretty big reason. Cast in a role much bigger and grander than they are even aware of often times.

On a related note, a few years back, I was in the room when a doctor uttered the best words I’ve ever heard from one of their tribe: “A sick mother is no mother.” Truer words? Never spoken, I would say. So please take care of your health. After all, you must be around and fit to enjoy the fruits of your labor. Go take a walk, get that mammogram, take that pap smear test, read a book or sip a quiet cup of coffee. They are not against the law, I checked. 

On a random Tuesday (few days after mother’s day), my salute to all mothers. Actually, make that a salute to every woman out there – mother, grandmother, sister, aunt, friend - that is a positive influence on an individual, her family and the society. We may not thank you often or thank you enough but make no mistake, you are special.