Missing the Woods For The Trees

         In the hurly-burly of Indian social life we have a strange habit of latching on to peripheral issues that could be even disconnected from the issue at hand. As a tribe, we are emotional people and have yet to develop the practice of hard-headed evaluation of a problem. Probably it has something to do with the fact that while individually we are often brilliant, collectively we suffer from a lack of knowledge and general aversion to reading the fine print.

         If a road accident takes place, we instinctively tend to blame the driver of the larger vehicle and if a crowd collects, chances are that the driver would be at the receiving end of needless violence with much time being lost in getting the victim to hospital. If the larger vehicle was a truck it would be assumed that the driver was drunk. If a cop tried to shield the hapless driver from mob violence, it would be assumed that he was doing so having been paid a bribe.

        Consider the recent anti-corruption agitation by Anna Hazare. Judging by the answers of people interviewed by TV stations on the reasons for their presence or how the Lokpal Bill was going to remove corruption, most appeared to have only come for the free holiday from work or college and little or no idea about the real issues.

        Following the blasts in Mumbai and Delhi on 13/7 and 7/9 respectively, the agencies responsible appear to be using the fact that there were no CCTV cameras present there as a lifebuoy. The absence of a CCTV camera is not and should not be accepted as an excuse for an act of terrorism to succeed. No doubt these devices are an indispensible aid in the process of surveillance and recording, but the real issue is lack of a sense of urgency among our security agencies and the Indian public in general. Today the excuse is CCTV cameras, what will it be tomorrow? If the CCTV cameras don’t materialize for the next two months, do we let another few blasts take place? The fact is that the Mumbai and Delhi Police should have got their act together much sooner. If they didn’t have cameras, then they should have had boots on ground watching the crowds. If they didn’t have enough manpower, they or the Delhi High Court could have hired security to control crowds and monitor people. The reason trotted out for the absence of cameras is equally ridiculous – a stand-off between the PWD and the Delhi Police over the choice of cameras.

       Having said that, I think the Delhi Police and every other security agency needs to learn a thing or two from the Civil Aviation ministry. While Praful Patel was minister, they managed to push through sanctions for Rs 55000 crores in just a few weeks, something that had been hanging fire for years. Prafulbhai of course blithely says that just because he was at the helm, he wasn’t responsible, but therein hangs another tale.

      In fact, even the great Defence Ministry should sit up and take note. We have made a comprehensive document called the Defence Procurement Manual, revised and re-revised, till it covers almost every conceivable loophole. It even states that financial advisers should scrutinize cases carefully as the specialist officers who initiate cases have little experience in handling contracts and tendering. In other words, it tells the financial advisers to look at each word with a magnifying glass as the faujis are basically dolts. Perhaps true, but then the main issue gets lost sight of and we take years trying to buy an item that was required yesterday. The DPM doesn’t say anywhere how much time processing a case is supposed to take. We are more obsessed with financial propriety than with emergent needs. When the Chief Minister of Maharashtra lamented the delay in equipment procurement after the Mumbai blasts, he was stating the truth.

      However the real issue is not equipment but the casual attitude to policing. Where equipment procurement and objections by the finance and other babus are concerned, I find that the approach of my ex-boss with the financial advisers was clear and direct. His reply when they raised objections was, "I don't need you to read me the rules, I can read them myself. I need you to find a way around the objections and get me what I want. If you can't get me what I need to run this place, I don't need you."

     How many heads have rolled after the blasts? Our casualness stems from a lack of ownership of the organization and its problems. Policemen are not concerned at the loss of innocent lives in their precincts. While bureaucrats need to be held accountable for delaying cases, citing lack of equipment as a reason after a terrorist attack should not be accepted by the ruling class. Does the police chief have the moral courage to put in his resignation if he is so convinced he will be unable to protect the city in the absence of some critical equipment?

     Another case of missing the woods for the trees is the CAG’s recommendation that Air India stewardesses should not fly beyond the age of 40 or 45. The general reaction to this pronouncement was the equivalent of a fist pumping, Yes, as though the panacea to the airline’s ills had just been discovered! While most of us may welcome that recommendation, it is certainly not going to increase the airline’s efficiency or contribute to their revenues. A positive work attitude, the willingness to work with a smile and go that extra yard for a passenger’s comfort, will on the other hand, definitely make a difference.

      Similarly, if we want to make our citizens safe, we have to look hard at the real picture, are we doing all that is required and expected of us, or are we as usual missing the woods for the trees?

Corruption – The Road To Terrorism

       While the main aim of Anna Hazare’s anti- corruption movement has been to lift the common person from the endless misery of having to bribe government functionaries at each stage for obtaining even the most basic of entitlements, there is another but little recognized spin-off of the movement to bring public servants to book. While we continue to blame neighbouring countries and various fundamentalist political and religious factors for the spread of terrorism, one of the major arteries feeding terrorism will be severed if we can contain corruption among public servants.


      It starts at the borders. Consider this, it was reported in Malaysia by the local news service, Bernama that corruption among Malaysian immigration officers has allowed at least a thousand illegal immigrants a day to enter the country. It has been reported that border guards have amassed large fortunes merely by looking the other way thus permitting illegal immigrants including terrorists to enter. This is quite similar to our own BSF as the large numbers of Bangladeshi immigrants living illegally in India would indicate. Similarly, it would be recalled that during 26/11, Kasab and his cohorts entered Mumbai through the fishing colony at Cuffe Parade, where expectedly there was no policeman monitoring movements of fishermen disembarking from vessels returning from sea. Having said that, in retrospect, it is unlikely he could have done anything, given the firepower carried by the terrorists.


         In an earlier article I had stressed on the need to decongest the most sensitive areas in our metropolis, since the extreme crowding of parked vehicles, hawkers, illegal shops and the omnipresent pedestrians milling around in thousands in limited areas, makes it difficult to scan and scrutinize even with electronic aids to surveillance. The slow pace and density of traffic in these areas is almost certain to expand response times to the extent that it would be futile for Quick Reaction and Emergency Response Teams to even attempt to reach hot spots quickly. Any citizen can tell you how difficult it is to get rid of illegal encroachers once they establish themselves. So the moot question would be, why are they allowed to set up shop in the first place? The Airport Authority of India has been trying unsuccessfully for years to clear hutments and other shops directly abutting the boundary wall of the airport in Mumbai. No civic body can claim ignorance of the existence of illegal establishments, unless ofcourse they have been paid to keep their eyes shut.


          One has only to stand on any busy street to witness the farce played out by the BMC’s vans that come to clear streets of illegal hawkers. Any citizen knows that hawkers receive advance warning of the BMC’s ‘raids’, in order to enable them to clear their stalls before the van reaches them, so that they can be back in business at the same spot in a couple of hours. Others are even more brazen, they pay off the civic authorities in advance so that no raid is ever conducted in their areas. With policemen in uniform openly collecting hafta from street hawkers, why would they want to exert themselves and deny themselves the good life? Would it be surprising if terror cells decided to take advantage of such accommodating civic authorities?


         With corruption having set in, in a widespread manner it is quite understandable that hard core policing and intelligence gathering have taken a back seat with many more comfortable and lucrative duties available for cops. Part of the reason for the dip in their core activities is on account of a genuine shortage of manpower with a corresponding increase in demands on their time. Be that as it may, the only time some seriousness creeps in, is when there is a visit by a dignitary like the President, Prime Minister or a foreign Head of State. That is about the only time one can genuinely see roads free of hawkers, illegally parked vehicles, touts and vagrants. The only other occasion when cops can be seen working to prevent untoward incidents is when there is a high profile event like a cricket match, political gathering or some other such occasion that would cause heads to roll should something undesirable take place.


         Unfortunately our approach to security swings between completely lax to absolutely paranoid, since there are too many interests that would be affected if security were maintained at a steady level. However in gearing up to a high level from near zero in a short time, too many short cuts are taken.


       With this level of predictability in the security scenario, it requires no great intellect to realize that perpetrators of terror would avoid areas and occasions where and when security appears to be tightest and would instead go for soft targets.


      Perpetrators of terrorism related violence targeting the metros invariably have their training, planning and logistics conducted in other areas. It can be demonstrated that some of our worst run states are also those most affected by terror strikes. It is not only corrupt policemen who are responsible for the spread of terror but also other government functionaries who, while being charged with developing infrastructure and ensuring the equitable distribution of the government’s largesse, choose instead to line their pockets. The spread of Naxal groups in states like Jharkhand, Chhatisgarh and Bihar, who also happen to be among India’s worst managed states, is no coincidence. Though Bihar has vastly improved, it continues to host elements sympathetic to various terror groups. Poorly developed and lightly policed areas where petty government officials assume semi-feudal powers are ripe for terror groups to thrive since these areas are safe for setting up training camps and support bases in their remote areas, while the actual acts are conducted elsewhere.


       According to Wilkinson on http://www.meteck.org/causesTerrorism.html, “Those who are the subjects of a liberal state, but who are not admitted to its rights of citizenship cannot be morally bound to obedience to the state. They are not bound by political obligation for they have not been accorded any rights by the state.” Social and political injustice are two major causes of the spread of terror ideologies, since people choose terrorism when they are trying to right what they perceive to be a social or political or historic wrong – when they have been stripped of their land or rights or denied these fundamentals of livelihood.


      The common refrain of the common person in the debate following the protests for the Jan Lokpal Bill has been that one needs to pay bribes for everything ranging from ration cards to birth certificates to passports to pensions. While one can only hope and pray that Anna’s fast would not have been in vain, the point that emerges here is that if such routine documents are obtained only on payment of a bribe, it should be easy enough to obtain the same illegally for a somewhat larger consideration. After all, to obtain a passport all one needs is a ration card and a school certificate and those documents can also be obtained by greasing some palms. There are any number of touts who can arrange all such documents, with a portion of their fees finding its way to government functionaries.


          It is a recorded fact that the most corrupt countries are also those most affected by terrorism. Consider the nations of Iraq, Afghanistan, Nepal, Pakistan, Bangla Desh. Not only do these countries have a poor record in their fight against terror, but they also rank poorly on the Human Development Index, which means that most of their citizens are denied access to the most basic of amenities. Somalia, a country that has become synonymous with piracy does not even have a credible government. According to journalist Kamala Sarup the editor of http://peacejournalism.com/, “corruption by political leaders at the decision making levels is because of their greed to earn more money and they don't look anymore at the benefit of the people. They should think about the poor roads, inadequate drinking water supply in villages, absence of proper buildings for schools in the rural areas, teacher's salaries who sometimes don't get paid, lack of hospitals, bridges, around the country. The leaders should know corruption prevents the efficient allocation of resources. Economic injustice provides a fertile ground for terrorism.” Corrupt governments fail to give peace and fail to give security. Due to corruption, the political class as well as government functionaries get blackmailed and lose the will to fight terrorism.

Making Our Cities Safe From Terror

Although this article is written from the point of view of Mumbai, it equally applies to every other city in India.

In the aftermath of 13/7, as did happen after 26/11 and all the other dates that have since assumed their place in India’s Hall of Infamy, a lot of fur flew, soul searching was done, candle light vigils and solidarity meetings were held, high powered committees were formed and various TV anchors and prominent citizens held forth during stirring debates, after which everyone went home to bed with that warm feeling of having done their bit for the general good of society. The enthusiasm lasted about a month. In the present instance, I can already see it wearing off in less than two weeks.

The fact is, candle light marches achieve nothing other than imbibing the marcher with a pleasant feeling. We have already heard the Home Minister and his counterpart from the opposition say on national TV that there was no intelligence failure – possibly the weakest excuse that has been trotted out in recent times. Obviously, when there is no intelligence there can be no failure. India’s recent history is replete with knee jerk reactions, yet we seem to ignore the basics time and again. As a race we don’t have a sense of history and the saying, “those who don’t learn from the lessons of history are doomed to repeat its failures” becomes a self fulfilling prophecy in India’s case.

After 26/11, the call went out to have a commando force to guard the city of Mumbai, never mind the fact that the NSG had already been asked to set up a base in Mumbai. Mumbai’s outspoken elites wanted to do their bit for their less fortunate minions. In less than a year an ‘elite’ commando force was created. It remains a mystery how a regular constable can be transformed into a commando and thereafter an ‘elite commando’ in less than a year, without taking part in actual operations, without feeling the need to creep up on hostiles in their own territory in complete silence and the dozens of other situations that a commando has to face. A commando’s USP is his motivation. How does he remain motivated when his own officer doesn’t go through the grind with him?

Force One was created to guard the city like a fort, though that is hardly the job of a commando, the cop at the local police station with intimate knowledge of the by-lanes is better suited for guarding the city. The fact that Mumbai’s police chief didn’t want them around during President Obama’s visit spoke volumes for his confidence in his men. Unfortunately, the setting up of this force is the latest in a series of symbolic cosmetic gestures designed to deflect attention from the fundamental issues that need far greater attention.

Thus far, all our responses have been calibrated on the assumption that the next terrorist strike on the city would again be on the lines of 26/11. However terrorists are not known to be predictable. The blasts of 13/7 proved the fruitlessness of setting up an additional commando force, of buying armoured cars and amphibious equipment of doubtful efficacy when what was required was sound policing and intelligence. After every bomb blast, the only visible indication of any response from the law machinery are the barricades that spring up on roads serving little else other than choking traffic. The locations of barricades and the modus operandi of the police are so predictable that any terrorist who has done his due diligence would have long factored in the same into his plans.

Ineffective and half baked measures are inevitable when the sound advice of seasoned and experienced policemen is drowned by the shrill voices of socialites, actors, poets, financial geniuses and others allowed to influence policies where specialist knowledge is required. According to Prakash Singh, a former DG of the BSF, DGP of Assam and UP and a security analyst, the role of the local police station and the beat constable has been steadily sidelined. The Beat Constable was infact the ‘boots on ground’ of the law and it was his responsibility to walk around physically sighting everything and every person in his assigned area. A good beat cop kept watch on the criminal elements in his area and reported their activities and movements to his superiors. This enabled the local police station to build up its data base and it always had its finger on the pulse of its localities. They cultivated their own network of informers who provided information on activities not normally visible to uniformed policemen. This view is echoed by Ajai Sahni, the Director of the Institute for Conflict Management and a counter terrorism expert.

According to Sahni, the crucial imperative of improving general police capabilities has largely been ignored and the police constable remains what he was – poorly trained, poorly motivated, distanced from the intelligence chain, operating in conditions of stress and held in complete contempt by the general public and his own masters. Prakash Singh suggests steps to improve basic policing – the police station must be adequately staffed, men should be well trained, well equipped with reliable weapons, transports and communication facilities. Similarly the morale and well being of the policeman cannot be ignored – housing in particular, being a major stress factor in a large and expensive city, has to be provided. Lastly, though perhaps easier said than done, the police has to be freed from extraneous pressures.

One cannot make a city safe from terrorists while ignoring local criminal gangs and anti-social elements, for it can be safely concluded that terrorists will seek local assistance for information gathering, planning, logistic support and possibly for the actual operations also. Josy Joseph, writing for the Times of India has explored the possibility of the whole operation being outsourced by ideological groups, to those whose only motivation is money. He states that there are indications that the whole business is being outsourced to local criminal gangs or individuals who would carry out the recce, identify the spot and plant the bomb. He points out that it would be a clear advantage to the ISI, if locals could be recruited to conduct the strikes so that evidence would point investigators in the direction of Indians and nothing could be traced back to Pakistan. He also points out that outsourcing would be done to groups with proven capability and in fact the only difference between Mumbai and Delhi is the presence of a number of underworld gangs in Mumbai.

After 26/11, the government appointed a committee under former Union Home secretary, Ram Pradhan to look into the security lapses and recommend steps to avoid recurrence. Some of the recommendations of the Pradhan committee that are yet to be implemented are:
• Set up a nodal officer to coordinate between central and state intelligence agencies.
• Ensure closer liaison between the police and telecom companies
• Make the private sector responsible for their own security
• Draft SOPs for tackling terror attacks in future

All the above are seemingly self explanatory and may appear to be stating the obvious, however they have deep implications. While there are a number of central and state intelligence agencies in the urban hubs of Delhi and Mumbai, few of them talk to one another to share information, lest the glory be carried off by someone regarded as a rival agency. Hence a person carrying out a schoolmaster’s function is required to get each to share their zealously guarded information. This is a result of myriad agencies being created over the years. Whether the nodal officer will be able to convince the concerned agencies to share information, is anybody’s guess. According to Ajay Sahni, while terrorists may target Delhi and Mumbai, planning and training operations are usually conducted in the badlands of some poorly governed state or even abroad. Hence it is essential that not only should the intelligence networks be buzzing proactively, but the police should be monitoring telephone calls to and from the Maoist affected areas through the active cooperation of mobile service providers.

In my earlier article I had pointed out the difficulty of emergency and quick response services rapidly reaching the site of a terrorist attack or a building where a terrorist may be holed up, given the congestion in areas favoured by terrorists. There is virtually no alternative to decongest areas considered most vulnerable. Private corporations, business district associations and other collectives have to initiate their own security measures as recommended by the Pradhan Committee, for which removal of hawkers and vendors to specific zones and vehicles from the immediate frontage of shops to parking areas is an essential pre-requisite. Access to areas has to be controlled by private security persons who need to be trained to do more than merely donning a uniform. Once trained to observe crowds, monitor CCTVs, and identify signs of suspicious behavior, the private security can function as the extended eyes and ears of the police, informing them of criminal activity.

By and large, the laws are in place, what remains is their enforcement. We live in an era when nonchalantly flouting laws has become the norm, not only among the semi-educated but also among the educated upper middle class. Yesterday, driving on the sea-link I was surprised to see a couple of cars parked on it with people enjoying the breeze and view – this less than two weeks after 13/11, when there are signs saying that stopping on the sea link is forbidden. Obviously, when there is no one to catch them, people increasingly wink at the law. It is absolutely imperative that the police pull up their socks in all areas and ensure observance of the law in letter and spirit to send out a message not only to the public but also to criminal gangs and through them, to terrorist outfits. Only when the pressure of effective policing is felt by local criminal elements that terrorists will find it difficult to plan and operate with impunity as they are doing at present.

Do bear in mind that post 9/11, it is hardcore policing, intelligence and internal security measures that have kept USA safe, not the Predator drone strikes in Afghanistan or for that matter any military action halfway around the earth.

At present the city is barely under control of the law, and it is time to reclaim it. To do that, the answer is not to put up more police barricades, but instead to let the general public know that the police means business in all spheres, be it crowd control, vehicle traffic regulation, scrutiny of antecedents of foreigners and people seeking accommodation both in housing societies and in the city’s hotels and hostels, monitoring of phone chatter to and from suspicious areas and every other form of basic ground level policing. The answer lies in using technology to aid manual methods and employing smart, impartial and fair methods of laying down the law, thereby drawing the population closer rather than alienating them.

We must realize that we are now at war and though we may not see the enemy, the enemy sees us. It is a war without the drama and overt action, but with all the blood and gore of a regular war, spilled on our streets, where the next battle casualty could be your school going daughter. It is a war where brute force is ineffective and where the mind must be used efficiently. In the words of Gen Patton, “No b**** ever won a war by dying for his country, he won by making the other poor dumb b**** die for his country.” It’s time to wake up and get smart.

Mumbai's Energy - Boon or Bane

Wednesday 13th July 2011 is a date that not many are likely to forget, as it joins the growing list of dates that serve to remind India of her weaknesses and vulnerabilities. That we don’t seem to be doing enough to curb the scourge of terrorism is evident to even the most unlettered Bombayite, for despite all assurances, it is this city that appears to be bearing the brunt of terrorist attacks. While other cities in India have also faced terrorist acts, it is only Mumbai that has had to repeatedly deal with this mindless violence that targets all communities.
Why is it that this city has become a happy hunting ground for terrorists and why is it that successive governments are unable to control this menace. It is not that the central or state governments are not making efforts or do not have the funds to purchase equipment. It is not that the police do not have their intelligence network. Then why is this network not effective when it is known that law enforcement agencies have to succeed every time while a terrorist has to succeed only once. It is this truism that Rahul Gandhi was trying to articulate, unfortunately he did so rather clumsily at an inopportune moment.

Mumbai is and has always been a city in a hurry – “Bai bai, Mumbai mein sabko hich ghaai”. Nobody walks leisurely in this city, everyone is trying to get somewhere quickly, trying to swing a deal, trying to get there first. People have configured their home and work environments to complement each other and small businesses have sprung up to meet the felt needs of the bigger businesses. This is why it is so easy to do certain things in Mumbai. The city’s competitiveness ensures that it never sleeps. Nowhere else can you order a meal to be home delivered at midnight. Nowhere else does the system of hot food being delivered from homes in distant suburbs to offices in the city, work so effectively. The range of support one can get for one’s work is superb – documents picked up from your office for photocopying and delivered back neatly bound instantly, quick service from the nearest courier agent, cups of hot tea and coffee delivered through the day, cash picked up from the office for depositing reliably and regularly, cheques sent for cashing through the enterprising youngster earning a decent salary running oddjobs, the list goes on and on.

The city’s legendary energy has attracted businesses of every kind and has led to a number of similar industries being set up in their own distinct areas of operations – the financial district around the Reserve Bank and the Stock Exchange, the diamond and gold trading area in Zaveri Bazaar, the electronics market on Lamington Road, shipping and ship repair in the docks area, Bollywood in the suburbs and so many others.

The competition to attract buyers is intense, with each trying to outdo the other. Competition spills onto the road as well with temporary stalls set up on the roads and pavements outside the regular shops offering a cut price bargain for the same goods being sold inside. This is why it is such fun to shop in Crawford market area. Not only can you buy virtually anything under the sun inside a 1 km radius, but you can actually go shopping with Rs 100 and come away feeling pleased. Within that cheerful cacophony of people buying and selling are cars, scooters, cyclists, handcarts, roadside tea stalls, vendors, delivery trucks, buses, taxis, even the occasional cow, buffalo or goat and all the while, people and more people everywhere. Cars are virtually jammed next to each other without wasting an inch of space, bikes are parked right outside the shop and the van delivers your goods at your doorstep. No one minds if the road is partly blocked while the van unloads, which in any case is done deftly and quickly, because he has to go further for another delivery. In Mumbai, time is money. Wonderful for business.

But from the security point of view, this is a disaster waiting to happen. Large congregations of humanity and densely packed roads with no room for maneauvre do not support security and emergency imperatives. It is physically impossible to go through the process of stopping, scanning, searching and clearing thousands of people and their bags in a short time effectively, given the masses of humanity that throng these popular business destinations and the numbers of police and trained security personnel available. Even CCTV cameras installed in large numbers cannot prevent a terrorist strike unless there are sufficient personnel trained to sift through the mind numbing sea of faces that a single day’s video recordings would throw up, even if aided by face recognition software.

The people of Mumbai have become so used to constant and continuous motion that they simply do not accept any delay in their movement. All security initiatives in this city sooner or later fade away, either through a political lack of will, bureaucratic red tape, lack of interest by a corrupt police force, or a stubborn unwillingness to accept any curbs on personal liberty by an obdurate citizenry that regards it a birthright to demand safety and security from the government on the one hand while refusing to shed their blinkers on the other. Safety of the community depends on how much each person is willing to cooperate, which means, how much is each person willing to sacrifice so that everyone can benefit. That ‘how much’ in Mumbai is woefully small and can be judged from the fact that the diamond traders were unwilling to shift to newer and better facilities in BKC, citing one reason or another. On Wednesday it was the diamond traders in Zaveri Bazaar, the next time it could be the equally crowded financial sector around Dalal Street, or the popular and equally congested Linking Road, Bandra. Frankly it wouldn’t be a surprise if an IED was found smuggled into the docks either.

Given the sheer numbers of people packed into small spaces, there seems to be no alternative other than to decongest crowded areas and move some of these industries along with their supporting businesses into more organized zones built for the purpose. Undoubtedly, business deals would be interrupted for a while. Street vendors have to be cleared permanently and more effectively than the BMC’s eyewash exercises presently being conducted. No doubt it would make the street look rather dull and devoid of ‘chehel pehel’ but there is simply no option. When we allow new stalls to come up, it certainly adds to the colour but also adds new security challenges, when even the old ones haven’t been solved. The spread of stalls on Fashion Street is a case in point. The spillage of slums onto the land adjoining railway tracks is another. There have been cases of train commuters being hit by stones thrown by people walking or living nearby. The next time it could be a grenade.

I am not aware if there is any technology available that can scan the teeming humanity at Churchgate Station, for instance, automatically see through their metal tiffin boxes, sniff through briefcases, recognize suspicious faces, and indicate targets all in a jiffy, so that anti-terrorist teams can zero in on the likely hotspot efficiently and accurately without disturbing everyone. Till then, or till someone cracks the whip really hard, and areas get decongested and vehicles are parked in designated areas and people agree to stand patiently in queues, Mumbai’s famed energy will work against its own safety and security.

THE PROBLEM WITH FORWARDS

As any cellphone user and internet user with an e mail account will tell you, it is rather difficult to keep an inbox clean with the amount of rubbish that floods in every day in the form of unwanted mails. While one can sift through the chaff and consign the usual offers for credit cards and bargains to the trash bin, there are also a large number of mails sent by known people in the form of ‘forwards’. Usually, these over-zealous people trying so hard to be friendly, fail to appreciate the nuisance value of these mails. As a member of an e-group comprising a large number of members, I am privileged to receive various forwards, sent by one or the other member, however it has to be said in all fairness that it is only a few who have cultivated the habit of sending forwards into a fine art.

While it can be argued that this is one way of keeping in touch, the base issue here is that senders of forwards invariably fail to appreciate the attendant problems. The headaches start when people send forwards without thinking. “Forward bombing” is perhaps a close description of what happens when you receive a deluge of mails in your in-box all from the same sender. Senders fail to realize that when the recipient finds too many e mails from the same person, all of them forwards and completely irrelevant, the sender’s credibility takes a beating, something like another person talking too much whenever you come across them. Makes you want to avoid them.

Most forwards have gone around so many times that they are like the same stale jokes rehearsed and trotted out by the wannabe life of the party. You smile politely and even try to cough out a light laugh, while inwardly you groan at the inflicted punishment. Let me run through some of the commonly observed nuisance perpetrated by forwards.

Hoaxes. So many forwards are pure hoaxes which can be ascertained in a jiffy if the sender would only take the trouble. A few days ago I received photos of a Flying Hotel, the Hotelicopter. All that it took to see through the hoax, was to open another tab and google hotelicopter. The same photos that my friend had sent me, appeared along with the words Hoax. How come there’s no site for online booking of suites for a weekend stay in the flying hotel. Did it not occur to the sender that a helicopter can’t fly very far and has to come down to earth every hour or so. Some stories like those of exploding cellphones have been doing the rounds for years. Despite the myth having been exploded publicly, people still try to circulate photos of milk guzzling Ganeshas. There was even an alarming message that did the rounds recently and was circulated on mobile phones through SMSes that the Sea Link had developed cracks. Fortunately that hoax was exposed quickly. On another occasion I received a message advising me not to travel to Mahim as riots had broken out in that area.


Unverified Information. Another favorite is to send info without bothering to verify the authenticity. A few days ago I received a forwarded mail with some remarks ascribed to Chester Nimitz, the great American wartime Admiral. A quick search of Nimitz’s quotations revealed that he had never made such remarks and it was probably someone trying to create a newsworthy story. The story had done its rounds and was available for anyone on the net to “Copy & paste”. Shortly after the 2G scam had been exposed and the minister of telecom A Raja was arrested, stories of his amassed wealth began to circulate. I received a mail with photos of Raja’s fabulously luxurious villa reportedly built on the outskirts of Hyderabad. While I had no doubt that Raja could easily afford a house as expensive as that shown, somehow I could not link the style, the elegance, aesthetics and taste, so evident in those photos, with Shri A Raja. That house just wasn’t him. Sure enough, I came across those photos again but this time in an interiors magazine, in a photo shoot credited to a house in Montecito, California.

Repeated To Death. While once I sincerely read the presentations on self improvement forwarded by friends, but over a period of time I find myself reading the same thing over and over again. By now I must have viewed the series of photographs titled “Inside The Tube” a half dozen times along with so many other “Simple Joys of Life”, “The Beauty of Nature”, “Earth at Her Best”, “Wonders Of The World”, “Temple Made Of Bottles”, “Sculpted Garden”, “Lifelike Advertisements”, “Amazing Bridges” and so on. I would love to download some of these beautiful pictures to use in my presentations, but they are invariably in ‘.pps’ format and one can do nothing but gaze at them vacantly. Naughty pictures too, like the one of ‘Eye Catching T Shirt Slogans’ and other eye candies, have also been circulated ad nauseum and now seem juvenile. Well certainly no one’s getting any younger so perhaps they really are kiddish now.

I made the mistake of mildly suggesting to a regular sender of forwards in my e group, that he could consider sending more ‘real’ photos one could relate to, like pics taken during our training days, places served, important occasions etc rather than those taken of unknown places by professionals. I was ticked off rather stuffily that of the more than 300 members of our group, many had appreciated his forwards and that I was free to press the ‘Delete’ button if I didn’t like them, but don’t dare suggest that these forwards were anything but the best. Wow, what a mouthful! What part of the delete button didn’t I know about? I don’t think my reply, “Ok, cool” went down too well.

Jokes that once seemed priceless now appear silly, having read them so many times over. No doubt the limitless expanse of the net is a fertile field for jokes and I do marvel at the ingenuity of people who can come up with such priceless gems guaranteed to make you crack up. But still, everything must run its full circle. In this case the circle of life goes around many times.
Senders of forwards would do well, at the very least, to delete names and details of earlier senders and recipients, lest their e mail ids be trawled by marketing companies trying to push everything from low cost holidays to credit cards. I have seen mails with complete details of earlier senders, their names, addresses and telephone numbers, including some addresses from the defence services. Placing such details in an unrestricted environment is not the wisest thing to do. You never know when someone may use those details for malafide activities like phishing.

Surely all internet users must be aware of the problems of virus, cookies, spyware, worms and other creepy crawlies that abound the net. No prudent internet user would open an attachment unless sure of the sender and the contents of the attachment. If not, its time to wake up and smell the coffee, the net is not as safe a place as one might imagine. Nor is the information one reads on the net as authentic as one would like it to be. It is not the purpose of this article to do down those who send forwards in good faith, rather to make them aware that like in any other interaction, there is a measure of etiquette involved and one must be aware of the nuisance it causes when one breaches that fine line crossing over into the realm of boorishness.

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A Short Summary Of India's Martitime Heritage

This was originally written as the foreword of my book on the dockyard, and was later changed. However it remains a fair summary of India's maritime past. For those who are interested . ..  .

India’s maritime history predates the birth of Western civilisation. The world's first tidal dock is believed to have been built at Lothal around 2300 BC during the Harappan civilisation, near the present day Mangrol harbour on the Gujarat coast. Modern oceanographers have observed that the Harappans must have possessed great knowledge of tides in order to build such a dock on the ever-shifting course of the Sabarmati, as well as exemplary knowledge of hydrography and maritime engineering. The earliest known reference to an organization devoted to ships in ancient India is to the Mauryan Empire from the 4th century BC. It is believed that navigation as a science originated on the river Indus some 5000 years ago. The very word, "navigation," comes from the Sanskrit navagati, meaning "to travel by boat." According to Sardar KM Panikkar, the well know historian and India’s first ambassador to China, Hindus in the Indus Valley Civilisation used the magnetic compass (matsya yantra), and ventured far into the distant reaches of the Indian Ocean.

A fourteenth century description of an Indian ship credits it with a carrying capacity of over 700 people giving a fair idea of both ship building skills and maritime ability of seamen who could successfully man such large vessels. Another account of the early fifteenth century describes Indian ships as being built in compartments so that even if one part was shattered, the next remained intact, thus enabling the ship to complete her voyage. This was perhaps a forerunner of the modern day subdivision of ships into watertight compartments, a concept then totally alien to Europeans.  

            Through the 5^th to the 13^th centuries, Indian mariners from a series of dynasties, Maurya, Andhra, Pallava, Pandava, Chalukya and Chola, established close links with a number of foreign nations like Java, Sumatra, Siam and Cambodia. The kingdom of Vijayanagar had as many as 300 ports, while the Vijayanagar Emperor Dev Raya II, even assumed the title, “Lord of the Eastern, Western and Southern Oceans”. Sea trade flourished during the Hindu Period which ended around the fifteenth century after the fall of Vijayanagar. The presence of large number of merchant ships had attracted a number of pirates in the Arabian Sea and to ensure that their trade was not hampered, a number of Indian states maintained strong navies.

Indian sea power began to decline in the 13^th century when the Hindu Kingdoms of the south went into decline due to their own internal rivalries. Another factor in the decline of Indian sea power was emergence of the caste system which forbade high caste Hindus from venturing out to sea. Delhi came to be ruled by the Central Asian Dynasties, for whom sea power was an alien concept. At sea, there was a mad scramble for monopoly of the sea trade, which was eventually taken over by the Arabs, keeping India’s traditional trading partners out of the scene. On land, Muslim invaders from the north-west effectively cut off trade with Central Asia. The result was that India became isolated, with only the Arabs providing contact with the outside world. Meanwhile, the west had made significant scientific and technological advances which enabled them to navigate far beyond their shores and were therefore seeking to turn their scientific achievements into profits through trade. Till then, trade with India had been conducted only via the overland route, dominated by the Venetians, and it was only a question of time before the sea route to India from Europe was discovered.

The Portuguese had navigated as far as the Cape of Good Hope and it was a Portuguese merchant-sailor, Vasco da Gama who discovered the sea route to India. There was a brief resurgence of Indian maritime power in the 15^th and 16^th centuries, with the Zamorin’s admiral Kunjali Marakkar putting up a stout defence and even warding off the Portuguese for a while, followed by the Maratha Navy under Kanhoji Angre and the Siddis of Janjira. Success at sea was on account of quality ships being made by a well developed shipbuilding industry. However, it was the endless squabbles of the numerous states that did India in. Thereafter it was left to the Portuguese to demonstrate the ease with which Indian coastal states could be subjugated, by using a well trained navy capable of sailing long distances, armed with guns and cannon.

British travelers who visited Surat, saw for the first time, ships of a tonnage and size under construction, that they had never before seen in Europe’s yards. Although they came ostensibly for trade, most western powers had formed public-private partnerships, where joint-stockholding companies were floated. These companies were allowed a measure of free hand where it came to maximizing their profits, given the internecine struggles of countless local rajas, including the use of force. Eventually, the British managed to oust the Portuguese, the French and the Dutch from the main stage in the Arabian Sea. It is no accident that the rise of the British coincided with the ascendancy of their navy, and the simultaneous decline of the other European powers along with their maritime capabilities. The British also realized as had the Portuguese, nearly a half century earlier, that the key to sustaining their maritime dominance and thereby their grip over India, was a well established and professional dockyard, capable of maintaining and building ships. A dockyard was therefore a strategic asset, to be carefully maintained and developed with the latest technology available.

That the Dockyard proved its worth several times over is a recorded fact, obvious to any reader of history in the subcontinent. The Yard had a role to play in almost all wars fought in Asia during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, for that was when Britain was consolidating her colonies using the might of the Royal Navy. The British also realized, in later years, the folly of ignoring the Yard’s development, as happened at the outbreak of both world wars. The British reigned supreme in the Indian Ocean for well over a century, till 1941 when they had to contend with the Japanese. Fortunately for India, the British left a few years later.

The Yard’s modernization and expansion began only after Independence and being a long process, it continued in stages till the seventies. Since then, realizing that the nation faces multi-directional threats, additional dockyards have been created. Despite the additional infrastructure created from time to time, the dockyard continuously faces the challenge of technology as newer ships are added with state of art weapons, sensors, communications, missile and electronic warfare packages and propulsion systems. New roles for the Indian Navy are defined at an increasing frequency, with terrorism raising its ugly head and taking on new forms.

The coastline has changed vastly over the years, however the Arabian Sea continues to wash the rocks at the entrance to Mumbai harbour, as it has done for generations. While it is for the Indian Navy to ensure that the lessons of the past are not forgotten, at the very core of India’s maritime aspirations lies the Naval Dockyard at Mumbai, the history of which remains intertwined with the city of its birth.