Talking about talks

It would have been amusing had it not been for the underlying seriousness of the subject. As China resumes its long-stalled talks with the Dalai Lama’s special envoys, Beijing has one piece of advice for the Dalai Lama: “Cherish” the fact that they have another opportunity to hold talks.

“We hope the Dalai Lama will cherish this opportunity and respond positively to the requests of the central government,” Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Ma Zhaoxu has said.

It is an interesting choice of words. It has a ring of patronizing to it. It is almost as if a stern parent is telling an errant child after a timeout, “Now that you have learned you lesson please cherish tis lollipop."

The talks between the two sides broke down in November, 2008. It was not mentioned what caused it but at that time it was widely believed that the Tibetan demand for autonomy and assertion that it was not in conflict with the Chinese constitution was the reason.

The Dalai Lama’s two envoys Lodi G. Gyari and Envoy Kelsang Gyaltsen arrived in Beijing yesterday and are expected to spend several days in the Chinese capital. It is not clear what the two sides will talk about. If the past is any indication, they will attempt to lay a foundation for future talks.  The bar of expectation is so low in any China-Dalai Lama interactions that many are happy that it is happening at all.

Man, monnik, mysticus

I have just received the pocket book Dutch edition of my book Dalai Lama: Man, monnik, mysticus. So far the book has done over 20 language editions. I would describe the book's overall commercial performance as ranging between average and good. 


From what I can tell it has received far less media attention than one might have suspected given the inherently compelling nature of the subject. The reviews in the past two years have been largely positive, while some have called it dreadful. 
Unlike writers of lesser books, I have not been able to project myself personally. I have been driven by the principle that the work has to speak for itself. If it doesn't, that's just too bad. Admittedly, this is not the kind of attitude that can get me too far in a market where projecting oneself is a prerequisite. 


Just how much of a low profile I have kept on this book became evident to me at a recent event where more than 30 Indian journalists had gathered. Many of them were animatedly discussing the U.S. policy on China in the context of Tibet and the Dalai Lama and how it might play out with India. Broadcast journalists were looking for some educated comments on the subject. Sitting barely five feet away from many of them, it did not even strike anyone that I just might fit the bill.

About Jaipur Literature Festival

I have a tendency to look for utterly inconsequential details of life. This is within the fact that everything, including the universe, is utterly inconsequential.

The Jaipur Literature Festival has become not just India’s but Asia’s largest such annual gathering. The five-day festival has just begun in Jaipur, the capital of Rajasthan. Author William Dalrymple and publisher Namita Gokhle together have created something of lasting value in holding this event. Authors of great merit, from English and other languages, attend the event where anyone interested can walk in without any ticket or connection. The whole atmosphere is one of informal conviviality.

I give this backdrop for a reason. Given the conscious decision by Dalrymple and Gokhle to keep the proceedings so accessible, it is a bit amusing to read this bit about how celebrity authors display no starry airs at the event.

Both Dalrymple himself and a piece in The Daily Best by Olivia Cole mention how once author Vikram Seth sat on the floor and ate his food when he did not find a chair. This trivia is mentioned with obvious admiration and the intention seems to underscore how humble a great author becomes in the friendly settings of the festival. The import of mentioning Seth sitting on the floor, as opposed to in an ornate chair, and eating food is lost on me. Why is sitting on the floor a sign of anything, let alone humility? And that too in the midst of a gathering of people who think of themselves as above such ceremonies as where they may sit and eat.

Vikram Seth squatting with his legs crossed and eating food with his bare hands is not emblematic of anything. Period.

P.S.: That felt good.

KrishnAvatar

Purely on an impulse last year I fused these two completely unconnected images, the one of the left of Krishna, and the one on the right of Na'vi from director James Cameron's 'Avatar.' I was quite struck by how visually akin the two were. It turns out my impulse was not off the mark.


Cameron has said in an interview with the Entertainment Weekly here is what Cameron says 
''I just like blue. It's a good color,'' James Cameron says. ''Plus, there's a connection to the Hindu deities, which I like conceptually.'

Anil Kapoor on '24'

Anil Kapoor as Omar Hassan in '24' (Courtesy: Fox Broadcasting)

As career breaks go, Anil Kapoor’s induction into the wildly popular Fox drama ‘24’ is a quite a solid one. Kapoor, still fresh from his triumph in ‘Slumdog Millionaire”, plays Omar Hassan, “a determined Middle Eastern leader visiting the U.S. on a peacemaking mission.” He is a target of assassination by those who are opposed to his peace mission. Enter Jack Bauer (Kiefer Sutherland) to save the day. That is broadly the plot.

I have not been a 24 regular but last season I saw quite a bit of it. Despite its often unconcealed jingoism, it can be a compelling watch. In the last nine years Sutherland has internalized Bauer. As for Kapoor it is a great opportunity to keep his Hollywood ambitions on the front burner. Slumdog and his own intrinsic passion to grab the limelight gave him a lot of traction last year. The new 24 season is expected to do his career a world of good. You may even see him rise as the most successful crossover star from Mumbai.

Little bit about Haiti

Inevitably, the idea of “an angry god” has been injected into the stories coming out of the earthquake-ravaged Haiti.

In a short piece out of Port-au-Prince Pooja Bhatia, a fellow at the Institute of Current World Affairs, says among other things: “If God exists, he’s really got it in for Haiti. Haitians think so, too. Zed, a housekeeper in my apartment complex, said God was angry at sinners around the world, but especially in Haiti. Zed said the quake had fortified her faith, and that she understood it as divine retribution.”

Decency demands that one refrain from weighing in as the people of a country so profoundly wounded find different ways to rationalize and heal themselves. However, calling it “divine retribution” is nothing more than a case of mystifying self-loathing. The movement of the earth’s crust is neither divine nor retributive. It is purely geophysical.

For a fellow at Institute of Current World Affairs to say that, “If God exists, he’s really got it in for Haiti” or even “Perhaps a God who hides is better than nothing” is endorsing the absurd argument that somehow the Haitians had it coming.

A little beyond “F#$% New York Times’

Picture courtesy: twitpic

Singer MIA has a succinct riposte to The New York Times which described her former country Sri Lanka as number one destination to visit 2010. "FUCK NEW YORK TIMES! DO YOU THINK YOU NEED TO GO HERE ON VACATION?" she has tweeted and posted these pictures to illustrate her rage.

For the last decade and half Sri Lanka has been part of my journalistic interest. I have been visiting the country since 1994 for professional and personal reasons. I can tell you from those visits that the reality in Sri Lanka has been little more complex than what MIA's black and white rage and these harrowingly cruel pictures might underscore. The Sinhala-Tamil animus has been so longstanding and so compounded by centuries of enmity and blood and gore from both sides that it serves no real purpose now to apportion blame.

The Sinhala and Tamil kingdoms were historically at odds long before the more modern ethnic conflict began. In fact, in what clearly articulates this unease the Sinhala people have always used the symbol of a lion for their community as opposed to that of a tiger by the Tamils. The word Sinhala is a derivative of Simha, Sanskrit for lion. It can be reasonably argued that in modern times, especially after Sri Lanka became independent on February 4, 1948, the majority Sinhala community has been less than fair to the minority Tamil community, whose profound disaffection Vellupillai Prabhakaran and his Tamil Tiger rebels tapped into for over two and a half decades to propel one of the world's most violent secessionist campaigns.

As unnerving as these pictures are it is possible for the Sinhala side to counter them by showing as many pictures of people blown to bits by the Tamil Tigers. Let's just say that in this conflict cruelty and viciousness have not been the sole domain of just one side. It is unquestionable that there was a complete collapse of the rules of engagement during the military assault that terminated the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) last year. Notwithstanding the strenuous denials by the Sri Lankan governments independent sources have shown that serious human rights violations occurred during and in the aftermath of the all-out assault. The violence captured in these pictures are a product of that breakdown.

The question now is whether the world can forever afford to treat Sri Lanka with the kind of contempt that the singer shows. Individuals may make that choice but governments cannot. They have to prevail on the country to ensure that ethnic relations do not break down again to an extent which may yet trigger Tamil Tigers 2.0. If the inherent state cruelty was the factor that decided whether or not countries were ostracized, then we will have vast sections of an untouchable world. As compelling as the idea of comprehensive rejection of countries might be, it does not really work on a long-term basis.