WOTY 2011 - and IWOTY?

As the year draws to a close, one cannot help but pause in thought, spare a few moments to reflect upon all the happenings of the year that slips into the past. How the year 2011 treated you would largely determine whether you loved it or loathed it.

“Squeezed middle” is the Oxford Dictionaries Word of the Year 2011.

Generally it has been an year of protests across continents - protest against crony capitalism and the economic cruelty of the 1% against the “other 99%” by innovating financial products designed to unjustly enrich the wealthy, while handing out a raw deal to the ‘squeezed middle’. While squeezed middle is British Labour Party leader Ed Miliband's term for those seen as bearing the brunt of government tax burdens while having very little to pay it off.

“Occupy” is Global Language Monitor WOTY 2011

The “Occupy Wall Street” movement along with the occupied territories of Iraq and Afghanistan helped “occupy” pitch for top spot in the Global Language Monitor’s exercise this year.

‘Arab Spring’ was voted as the Phrase off the Year 2011 by Oxford Dictionaries

In North Africa and the middle eastern countries, the year witnessed unrest of the masses against complacent, vain, self-serving leaders exploiting them in every conceivable manner for decades. What began as an uprising in Tunisia in December 2010, later spread as the Jasmine revolution to other countries in the region and is now collectively termed as the ‘Arab Spring’ by the western countries. Power-drunk despots, who had unleashed their tyranny on their subjects for several decades, were dislodged from their thrones as public sentiment turned against them in 2011 after bearing the brunt of their atrocities.

The other words that also-ran in the race to the top may be seen in the links below;

Oxford Dictionaries shortlist of words for WOTY 2011

Global Language Monitor’s WOTY 2011

As has been expressed by the ArTIcKles Blog, we Indians ought to choose our own Word of the Year the Indian Word Of The Year (IWOTY).

What do you think the Indian Word of the Year 2011 be? Do suggest words for IWOTY 2011 - leave your comment in this blogpost.

Retailing our woes

When our elected parliamentarians holds the nation to ransom as they bicker on some or the other issue by preventing the house from functioning in its core business of discussing and passing bills that are the dire need of its citizens, one would think that any bill passed by the Government in such times would be received with a thunderous applause. But that has not been our experience recently. The FDI in multi-brand retail has been quashed by opposition from left-wing political parties, who see more harm to our people than good. The argument is that they will finish the kirana-wallas (mom-and-pop stores) and then dictate their prices to the small farmers and exploit them! Those who support FDI in multi-brand retail argue that the large food chain specialists will offer better prices to farmers, invest in better cold-storage chains and yet offer consumers a better deal than the present market mechanism does.

Indian traders have, for several decades, dictated terms to small farmers and producers, fleeced middle class consumers by flouting every regulation meant to protect them and have unjustly enriched themselves all along. Several success stories of small-time retailers turning into big-time business houses with companies now listed on bourses get featured regularly in the media. Yet, it was these very retailers that got bailed out by opposing the FDI proposal in multi-brand retail! Basically, organized global retailers of the kinds of Walmart and Carrefour lost out – at least for the moment.

The young prince of the Congress party has been telling our farmers how they had been deprived of an opportunity to get better prices from these charmed global giants and would continue to suffer from the handouts from local traders due to the opposition to the proposed FDI.

What one ought to ask is this: Weren’t the various malls that were set up by Indian entrepreneurs, the likes of Big Bazaar, Subhiksha, More, Reliance Fresh and several others – which were also supposed to cut out the middleman from the chain and offer better times for producers and consumers from their efficient supply chain capabilities – supposed to do exactly this? But they did not prevent farmer suicides or prevent the exploitation of the small producers, did they? So how is it that bigger global players would do what the local entrepreneurs fail to? If conditions of investment in cold-chains and better supply chain facilities would be enforced for FDI investors, wouldn’t the same conditions imposed on domestic players have not been the right way to go? Would we not have seen better infrastructure if these conditions had been in place for local large-format retailers already?

The magic potion of multi-brand retail revolution having been thwarted, the government hurriedly passed the Food Security Bill! The succour to our hungry millions, it would seem. But the recent introduction of the Food Security Bill has been criticized in the press for several shortcomings and significantly for the huge burden [estimated to be Rs. 5,45,000 Crores] on the ex-chequer at a time when the fiscal deficit already poses an insurmountable challenge for the government to cope with. Deficit aside, the poor delivery mechanisms that our previous programs prompt us to be skeptical of the basic purpose of any food security bill – to ensure every citizen gets his two square meals every day! Will he? Or will some politician now go around and tell the hungry that the pseudo intellectuals in our society opposed the FSB and deprived you of your rightful meal today, that we sought to deliver?

One cant but admire the work of various NGOs committed to feed the hungry - they dont wait for the government to pass a piece of legislation!

Jug, Jug Jiyo, Jug!

When a ‘festival’ calls itself a ‘carnival’ in just its second year, you know this is not just any new-born but someone growing in a hurry! The Times Literary Festival made its debut last year (2010) in Mumbai’s NCPA, about which I had blogged about here. This year’s Times Literary ‘Carnival’ was held at the Mehboob Studios at Bandra, Mumbai from 2nd – 4th December 2011 on a much larger scale – clearly the crowds had swelled in numbers compared to the turnout at last year's Fest! The organization of the event was the responsibility of our beloved columnist, Bachi Karkaria and Namita Devidayal, another Times staffer, who tried their best to bring in as much variety and spice in the proceedings through a thematic diversification into Hindi song lyrics – by roping in the likes of popular Bollywood lyricist Gulzar and the upcoming folk-musician Raghu Dixit to bring the festival to life!

The event gave an opportunity to readers and wannabe writers to meet several authors like Rashmi Bansal, Sonia Faleiro, Chetan Bhagat, Rahul Pandita and several others and pick up a signed copy of their work - as they chat up with them on the sidelines! Last year I had the opportunity to talk to Amish Tripathi and Ashwin Sanghi and my favourite columnist Bachi Karkaria at the book stall at the NCPA. This year it was an opportunity to have a few words with Jug Suraiya, Bunny Suraiya and Rashmi Bansal in between sessions!





Being a die-hard fan of ‘Jugular Vein’, a column by Jug Suraiya that never fails to entertain with its dollops of humour, this was an opportunity to listen to the writer talk on 3rd Dec, about his book, “JS and the Times of my life” with his wife, Bunny. The talk was indeed very enlightening – providing deep insights into what makes Jug the phenomenal success he is today. “Why do people only think of you as a humour writer, although you do write a contrarian column ‘Second Opinion’ and have written spiritual pieces for the Speaking Tree, short fiction and poems?” Bunny asked. Jug shrugged and said he hoped people wouldn’t be laughing–out-loud while reading his other pieces! Jug further clarified that he was more like a ‘ventriloquist's puppet’ when it came to journalistic writing of pieces of current affairs and opinions.

When asked “Is there any ethics in humour?”, he replied with 2 rules of humour that he observes strictly “Rule No. 1 - Always make fun of yourself, before you attempt to make fun of others and Rule No. 2 – Always make fun of those who are more privileged than you NOT of those under-privileged, deprived sections of society – those that are more at a disadvantage than you are – you couldn’t be making fun of the poor downtrodden, could you?”! So very true, Jug!

When asked about the blogging community and their work, he responded that it is what he called a large “prosumer” group, those who ‘produce’ as well as ‘consume’ the produce amongst themselves – a phenomenon made possible by the internet today. "Junior Statesman", the magazine that he began his career with, was such a ‘prosumerist’ magazine, which encouraged readers to contribute to it rather than have elite columnists being featured. When asked if 'JS,the magazine'could be revived, though, he responded that "it could be – but only in the electronic medium – not in print"!

One young man cornered Jug in the question and answer session, when he commented that although he did offer his ‘Second Opinion’ column to readers of TOI, in his opinion, he was not having or offering any opinion at all! He cited examples when he had contradicted himself at different points in time. Jug was at a loss for words, although his wife, Bunny appreciated this young man with “That was really a good question!”

Oh, Jug may have a good explanation for this some other day – although he had nothing to offer on the spur of the moment. Well I can understand, I too had this one question in my mind that I did not ask him during the session:
“You say, you are the ‘ventriloquist’s puppet’ - Pray tell us who is the ventriloquist?”

Whatever the answer, I truly love your “Jugular Vein” – the column, that is!

“Blogger’s Post-Script – My personal treasurable take-away was an autograph of Jug I took on a photcopy of one of my latest published articles - And this picture i took of Jug and his Bunny!”