Farouk Gulsara's Blog, page 116

We will survive!

The human race must be a resilient lot. Nothing will annihilate them except if they decide to self-destruct. We have been through tragedies in many forms, natural calamities to man-made ones, but we keep coming back strong, shaken but not stirred. All they need is time and space to prosper.

This, I realised when I attended a wedding in Karak, a small town along the Titiwangsa Range which forms the spine of the peninsula, in the state of Pahang. Even though it is located only about an hour's drive from the capital city of Kuala Lumpur, these two towns seem worlds apart. Away from the hustle and bustle of the concrete jungle, Karak is nicely tucked between hills covered with lush greenery of the tropical forest and its fresh air.

The wedding reception held in the modest premises of a Chinese temple, it covered all the bare necessities. Forget the razzmatazz of the city lights and unnecessary blatant display of bling-bling, the function was never deficient in any other department.
The hall set the mood for a colourful Indian wedding. Draped in contrasting bright red, black and white backdrop, the dais displayed a shining wrought-iron seat fit for the royalties which seated two, naturally for the King and Queen for the day.

Being Malaysians, furthermore from a laid-back Eastern coast town, people were just sauntering jauntily at their own pace, way past the time specified on the invitation card. But what the heck, it is a party, not a scheduled flight.

It is incredible how the people of a small town can sustain their day to day living and fulfil their social obligations even being away from the glaring lights of the city. Somehow, people manage to satisfy their need as they go on their lives. Like in that wedding, the local bakery provided a 3-tier wedding cake, and the town's electrician provided the 'state-of-the-art' sound system to set the pace for merrymaking. The neighbourhood shutterbug immortalised the memorable night digitally in pixels and cine forms. Gustatory needs were met by caterers form the town itself. They were quick to serve a mouth-watering spread that tickled all taste buds and satisfied all palatal cravings.

Give people peace and give them space to express. They will be self-sufficient and establish a prototype for future generations to follow. When their path meets a hurdle, they could initially falter but then quickly recoup, regain strength, and soon they would be sailing again in no time. That is the undying spirit of the human endeavour.




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Can't live on goodwill and sunshine!

The execution of 38 Sioux Indians by the U.S. Authorities at Mankato, Minnesota. December 26th, 1862. Heard about another forgotten wars of the bygone era. The state of Minnesota saw, in 1862, amidst the American Civil War, one of the biggest brutalities against the Native Americans. Mass hanging of 38 troublemaker Indians took place under the ambit of the law signed by decree of the President of the USA then, Abraham Lincoln. The story of Dakota Indians is the same story of any marginalised and economically deprived group anywhere in the world.

The tribe of Dakota Indians occupied a large portion of land in the Midwest region of North America. The vast land base was necessary for their way of life; being hunters and wanderers. The whites from the East were expanding to the West. The sure way to get them to gain possession of the land, they thought, was to get the Indians to surrender was the legal way. Through lopsided deals, the white traders sold many unnecessary things to them. After getting all in debt, unable to service the loan, the white traders demanded, as per their signed agreements, their fertile land.
The Dakota Indians realised that they had been taken for a ride and retaliated. The powers that be, the ruling officials, painted a contrasting view of what was actually happening on the ground level. One thing led to another, and before they knew it, the US-Dakota War of 1862 came about.

Through the white-man appointment kangaroo courts, the Dakota chiefs and innocent commoners were hanged. The Dakota Indians who fought against the US government were effectively placed in concentration camps called reservations. So, in the end, they were displaced, and their residence overran and taken over.

Is it just me or does the whole imbroglio not smell a bit like what is happening or had happened in Malaysia? Land used to be for everybody's use. God provided, we as human toiled and reap its benefit. In the 20th century with the New World Order and new global economic structure, things changed. Every plot of land in every country was nationalised and carved out to belong to somebody. The wise ones who were in the know of the law of the day seized their chances. New lands in Malaya were opened and sold for a song. The ignorant fools stayed aloof. They smelled rat everywhere and prayed for God to shower His miracle. They thought they could live on a prayer. Fast forward sixty years later, and they find that the ignorant find themselves pushed to the fringes. They suddenly find out that the lands that they were occupying never belonged to them. Its new owners have all the documents to prove their ownership, but the occupiers had none. The owners had the long arm of the law to behind them whilst the occupiers had nothing, but goodwill and oral deals which were probably made in the spirit of the moment under the intoxicating effects of social lubricants. They probably realised it a little too late. Verbal promises and hearsays do not hold. The leaders must have the foresight to protect the community from being run over. Still, water must run deep. https://asok22.wixsite.com/real-lesson 
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Queen sings the blues!

Sita Sings the Blues (2008) Director: Nina Paley

Since its first narration as way back as 7th century BCE and its additions over the centuries, it has fascinated many. The epic poem has been analysed, reanalysed and re-interpreted from so many angles. Ramayana continues to be a source of inspiration for many on Rama, the obedient son, the brother, the King, the husband, the warrior and the avatar of Vishnu Himself.

This time around, this animated production looks for the epic from Sita's viewpoint, as a wife yearning for Rama's trust and acceptance. Using 1929 catchy blues songs by Annette Hanshaw as the main background score, the movie depicts a miserable Sita who yearns for Rama's love. Through no fault of her, she is accused of infidelity. Rama, the stoic king, is depicted as the cold-hearted husband who is more interested in reputation and living up the citizen's approval rather than standing up for his wife.

Running parallel to the main storyline is the contemporary story of Nina, the director, and her relationship with her husband who deserted her in real life. Like Rama, he becomes cold after his trip to Trivandrum, India. Like Sita too, Nina is wronged and becomes the wife who is the victim of the husband's unknown train of thought.
The film portrays Sita as the innocent victim of the times who is made to prove her purity. At every juncture, she is assumed to be the guilty. Her words carry no weight, and she has to depend on the elements of Nature to prove her chastity. She has to perform the fire ritual repeatedly to this effect. After sacrificing fourteen years of princely life to stay a pauper's life because of internal political wranglings, she is banished again to the jungle, pregnant, lonely and broken. Is it all for love? How long can a lady take all these beatings?

Naturally, this film drew flak from ultra-conservative Hindu groups who perceive this film as degrading to the image of Rama, the avatar of the Supreme Being, Lord Vishnu. He is portrayed as the aloof and cold King who is more interested in living to maintain a pristine image and feeding to the public gossips rather than doing the 'right' thing. Lord Rama and His actions have been an exemplary moral code for generations all this while. To question this, they say, is sacrilegious.


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Anarchy or Evolution?

That is what the world has come to. There is sadly no 'one-answer-fit-all' response. The people who argue against the grain are smart people with intelligence quotients higher than the general public. 

Everyone is concerned only of his own self. There is an inner desire to live life to the fullest; enough of living under the pretence that something sacrosanct needed to be protected. If all this while they had cowed to societal pressures and suppressed their inner needs, it was the time that they let their hair down. They do as they please.

Over generations, through trials and error, regulations have been put in the system. Each sex had their gender roles. Each gender had their duties and expectations. It was not a perfect arrangement, but there was a semblance of order. The general public accepted it as necessary to continue our existence. 

Nothing does not offend anyone any more. This signage in an Italian B and B with an 'alien' in a coquettish pose is not acceptable by the LGBT Rights Association there.
Now, a section of the population has started questioning the status quo. These people do not want to be confined in boxes assigned to them. They find it difficult to tick their nature (or is Man's) assigned social expectations. They do not feel comfortable using gender allocated toilet facilities. Through no fault of theirs, they appear trapped in the wrong body, and they want out. They want to fight back. There is no more two sexes. There is a third, fourth, fifth and maybe more.

It seems that there is no necessity to fill up the gender box anymore. The blurring of capability and roles of the sexes are more blurred than ever. Their voices are growing stronger by the day. Their contributions to society cannot be denied. They do not cause the wrath of the Almighty. They are here to stay whether we like it or not. If this would lead to anarchy as the traditionalists predict, it is up to us as thinking humans to accept this change, utilise it to our own benefit and help to steer civilisation towards a future that includes the people who are different and do not confirm. Our journey from the caves to the skyscrapers is rife with outliers who merely refuse to conform to the societal norm.

The first fearless caveman who dared to sit on the tree trunk floating by the river managed to reach on the other side to open the door of opportunities.http://asok22.wix.com/real-lesson
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Wheat from chaff, rice from husk!

Panel discussion in Georgetown Literary Festival 2018 on
Indian Democracy.From the fringe, from the outside, from one who views the drama as a third person, the political scene in India is quite confusing. It all depends on where one consumes the information.

If you were to follow Twitter feeds, the dedicated and erudite 'spin doctors' will make you believe that India is indeed in the midst of a sort of 'Renaissance' that Europe went through in the 15th century. Reels of her successes are flashed upon your very eyes. Discoveries are made on a daily basis of newfound explanations on old Indian (Hindu) wisdom. It is as though they are not only catching the bus of the Industrial Revolution but indeed overtaking it. They would like us to believe that they are just re-claiming their standings in the old world as it was four centuries ago when a quarter of the world's wealth was under their thumbs. They are in a quest to re-dust of their old scriptures which they claim held all the known and unknown secrets of the universe. Our forefathers knew it all, but over the ages, we have blinded ourselves with the wisdom of the fools. They justify the old archaic rituals with what the detractors refer to pseudosciences, but for believers, it is cosmic science.

They have us convinced that their economy is flying high with counterfeit money off the market and terrorism under check because of their demonetisation policies. The opposing camp, however, dismisses it as mumbo-jumbo, pointing towards weak rupee as the indisputable proof.

Panel discussion in Georgetown Literary Festival 2018
on the Partition of India.There are murmurs under the surface that emphatically attest that there is a concerted effort by interest groups outside the country who are in control of media, print and broadcast, and hellbent in creating anarchy in a nation that is known for its tolerance of pluralism. They, who happen to be ruling currently, accuse journalists and intellectual as tools of the enemy of the state for undermining the prosperity of the nation.

In spite of what the ruling party says about class unity and religious tolerance in India, the media paints a very bleak picture of brotherhood amongst its people. Some quarters insists volatility is at an all-time high, last seen in 1947 during Partition. For the first time, Hindus have been issued certificates confirming their belief to the Hindu 'religion'! This must be another form of 'rebranding' as it had been doing to stay afloat. Hinduism, the way of life has evolved many times to counter the popularity of other emerging teachings many times before.

We live in an age of propaganda. What we hear is not what is real and is happening at the ground level. Our system is such that everyone is kept contended in their cocoons hearing their own self-satisfying rhetoric that resonates in their own echo chamber. Vigilance is of paramount importance. We need discourses and people who continuously challenge our convictions. Is there a need to filter information when freedom of information has become a right? We must know to separate the wheat from the chaff, rice from the husk.http://asok22.wix.com/real-lesson
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Comfortably numbed!

Karma Chameleon
The song is about the terrible fear of alienation that people have, the fear of standing up for one thing. It's about trying to suck up to everybody.Rather than sneering at what they do, it would make sense for us to ask 'why' they do the things that they do. The point in question is the condemnation of many organised religions on demand of rights of those who deviate from the conventional sexual norms.

As the world progresses, we find more and more people choose to display their sexual preferences, and it is clear. The LGBTQIA camp is definitely having a surge in recruitment. Its members are rational highly intellectual people who do their share of contributing to society. They are crystal clear and sound in their thinking. The detractors may say that they are a confused lot who need to be guided back to 'normality'. Clearly, they had misinterpreted the cues that were put to their bodies and minds.

Maybe the real reason for this non-acceptance is politics and control. It is easier to control people who are homogenous. A set of people with the same outlook of life and same values seldom disagree. It is effortless to put in them the fear of the evil 'other'. Since the union of the same liaison is not going to propagate future soldiers to fuel future expansions, it is considered a waste of time and resources. In other words, wasted seed. A dearth of similar thinking individual will lead to the fall of Empires. History has shown that population growth is essential to the continuity of species. The soldier ants and worker ants are always in shortage as the megalomaniac satiety of the ruling community can never be doused. 
Freddie Mercury Memorial Montreux, Switzerland.
Courtesy of TripAdvisor
The members of the third gender probably have a unique re-wiring of the brain that makes them excel in fields that involve creativity. Music, dances, compositions, art, high fashion, haute culture and performances are their forte. These are precisely the fields that the purists want to curb. They want performing workers, not thinking ones who may rise to question the status quo. The arts numb the mind, they say. It off-tracks us from the real purpose of life, which is to carry out the said divine decree; failing which the ever-easily offended Protector of the Universe would openly display his wrath. Hence, these are labelled as temptations, the evil interplay of the Dark Forces. Thus, the overt condemnation of the third sex.

Despite the doom and gloom that were predicted by these naysayers, science has proven their predictions were unsubstantiated. The inquisitive human mind and the zest to live had nullified these assertions. Is it a coincidence that these nitpicking quibblers insist that science is bad for you and that one should ask too many questions but accept the holy scriptures unequivocally. 

Science has prevailed and has shown that we do not need soldiers to fight modern wars. At the click of a button with remote manoeuvring, considerable damage can be inflicted. AI and robotics have changed wars between nations as a dare to create so much damage that mutual annihilation is a greater danger than winning battles. Economic manipulation, psychological and biological warfare pose a more significant threat. Numbers are irrelevant.
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Sit, Booboo, sit. Good dog!

The word 'consent' is a double-edged sword. On the one hand, there are 'implied consent' and 'silence is consent', then on the other spectrum, are the murky waters of 'informed consent', as if consents are sometimes uninformed or imposed. We have also heard of 'consent under duress' which is by no means consent. In surgical practice, failure to divulge certain rare but real complications of an operation denotes carelessness and possibly negligence of the attending surgeon. As if the patient was not informed that surgery was a risky business.

Recently I heard a podcast of consent of a different kind. In fact, this edition came around way before cry babies started screaming #MeToo! The latest version of approval is 'I agreed to this but not to that..." 

A few years previously, in fact, a good full decade after a young lady (A) went separate ways with her best male friend (B), she decided to revisit the event that made them part ways. She resolved to delve head-on with her assailant (B) to try to determine when and how she put herself in a situation until she was sexually violated.

A and B had, when they were in their early twenties, a platonic relationship. They used to hang out together in each other's room together, talking about intimate things and sharing private thoughts. There was an agreed unwritten rule that lustful love and romance was not in the equation. Towards the end of their university studies, under the influence of intoxicants, they crossed their line. She was alright with the initial petting and cuddling but...

Looking back, A feels that she was wronged. She did not mind the initial part of their intimacy, but she felt assaulted after crossing certain self-made boundaries. B, being the male component of the liaison, thought, at that juncture, he needed to be the aggressor; to do what was expected of him. Perhaps, nature dictates such an arrangement. The innumerable male gametes attempting desperately to fertilise a single ovum is the testimony to this.

There is no issue at all there. Putting spark and cotton side by side and not to expect the cotton to be ignited is pure foolhardy. Of course, opposites attract. In the spring of youth and the raging of hormones fuelled by the inhibitory effects of intoxicants, the animalistic reptile brain is bound to supercede rational thinking. Rules and regulations go out of the window. Even on the female side who inherently tend to be the reluctant party, it is difficult to be brakes on emotions when the flickering ember of passion is fanned.

I think that is the problem with us. We believe we have controls on everything. Like ordering our lunch at the drive-in, we think we can dictate what want. The last person that we can trust is our own dear self! Do not put yourself in a vulnerable position. You do not need someone else to disappoint you. The person who would do that could be you.

Life is becoming more difficult with cultural conditioning, need to assert gender roles, individual responsibility for his actions, empathy, mindfulness and individual right. Nobody can do anything of his volition anymore. He is expected to act and react in certain ways only. 

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A reflection behind the wall of freedom

The Discovery of India  Jawaharlal Nehru  (3rd Edition; 1947)
© FGIn school, we as students of history were given the impression that going to prison in the name of nation and justice is noble. Amma told us of the numerous times that Mahatma Gandhi, Nehru and the majority of the freedom fighters of India were imprisoned. The gaols got so packed that inmates had to be freed due to space constraints.

There must be some messages lost in translation today as we see leaders entangled in the 1MDB fiasco also try to appear heady and statesman-like under the scrutiny of the press and the glaring flash of the journalist-photographers.

We also were told that Nehru wrote his book whilst in prison. Amma was so fascinated with Gandhi and Nehru that she displayed a clay figurine of them in our living room so as to as remind her children to be useful citizens. 

Then we grew up...

Mixing with people who grew up in India and now with the access to information overload, the squeaky clean image of Gandhi, Nehru and Nehru's dynasty has lost its lustre. There is no shortage of gossips about Nehru's private life, his alleged affairs and even tertiary syphilis being the cause of his death, not cardiac arrest. Even his ancestry is questioned. The conspiracy theorists assert he is a closet Muslim and grew up in the slums of Allahabad. In real life, he was a Kashmiri Brahmin and a son of a lawyer.
In the post-truth era, another set of accusations are being hurled at him; that he was a Fabian. The Fabian movement portrays the image of being a socialist movement that tries to bring socialistic changes gradually through democracy without resorting to revolutionary overthrows. The conspiracy theorists do not buy that. Their real intention, they allege, as depicted in its coat of arms, says it all. It is an emblem representing a wolf in sheep's clothing. They are now accused of being part of the Cabal movement that tries to send the civilised as we know into one that of anarchy!

The Fabian Society
Wolf in Sheep's Clothing, the original coat of arms.(Wiki Commons)In the opposite camp, accusations have arisen of late following the erection of Sardar Patel's enormous statue. It is said that it is a part of a concerted plan by the ruling party to erase Nehru's legacy from the history books.

A nonagenarian, 94 to be exact, loaned this book to me. The book, complete with watermarks and all the battle wounds of time had been in his collection for a long time. Being born in Quetta, in the state of Baluchistan when Pakistan did not exist, Partition is a distant but a harrowing memory for him. Even though he was safe under the tropical skies of Malaya then, he lost many of his family members during the 1947 bloodshed. Many of his them bear witness to India's own holocaust. Interestingly, he still reads his Hindu devotional hymns in the Urdu script. 

I cannot believe that Nehru's opus magnum was written in prison. At a time when information was scarce, especially in prison when access was limited, his knowledge on the history, religious text and the philosophy of India was phenomenal. This book was his look on the origin of a piece of land called India, how she evolved to reach great heights and her subsequent tumble to the mighty brutal forces of the Northern Muslim invaders and later the British.

When I announced that I was reading the book, somebody remarked, "Ah, a confused book written by a man whose administration was equally confused!" To be fair, this book was written by a politician, not a scholar. His outlook had to be fair in keeping with the changing of the times then. At a time when racial tensions were running high, and the support of the whole of the country was vital, he needed to appear bipartisan.

It is unfathomable that a civilisation so advanced could be brought to its knees. Members of such a race should be enslaved and be outclassed by others who were barbaric by comparison. If Ibn Khaldun's words are anything else to go by, this is precisely what he was trying to say - that a primitive tribe would yearn to be like the civilised, work to be like them, soon to be decadent like the masters and soon to be outclassed by another. 

Critics had a field day condemning Nehru's stance of the Afghan and Moghul invaders who, despite their conquests, decide to stay in India. This is in sharp contrast to the English who looted and basically relocated India's wealth. The detractors assert that the Muslim invaders were never awed by Indian's civilisation but instead were mesmerised with wisdom elsewhere, Arabic world, for instance. The British did try to bring modernity to India which by that time had slumbered off while the rest of the world was changing, technologically and economically. They too, for the first time, did unite the subcontinent under a single banner to stir their emotions to dig deep into their psyche to reassess their own culture.

The book is the reflection of Nehru's discovery of his motherland and an avenue for us as readers to discover a bit of his biography - his imprisonment, the death of his wife and his sincere desire for his country to turn up big and mighty like some of the big nations around the world (e.g. like Russia and China) which arose majestically from ashes of destruction.

I enjoyed the book indeed. The poetic yet straightforward descriptions of simple and sometimes painful things in life linger on the mind like an ear-worm. 


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A reflection behind the wall from freedom

The Discovery of India  Jawaharlal Nehru  (3rd Edition; 1947)
© FGIn school, we as students of history were given the impression that going to prison in the name of nation and justice is noble. Amma told us of the numerous times that Mahatma Gandhi, Nehru and the majority of the freedom fighters of India were imprisoned. The gaols got so packed that inmates had to be freed due to space constraints.

There must be some messages lost in translation today as we see leaders entangled in the 1MDB fiasco also try to appear heady and statesman-like under the scrutiny of the press and the glaring flash of the journalist-photographers.

We also were told that Nehru wrote his book whilst in prison. Amma was so fascinated with Gandhi and Nehru that she displayed a clay figurine of them in our living room so as to as remind her children to be useful citizens. 

Then we grew up...

Mixing with people who grew up in India and now with the access to information overload, the squeaky clean image of Gandhi, Nehru and Nehru's dynasty has lost its lustre. There is no shortage of gossips about Nehru's private life, his alleged affairs and even tertiary syphilis being the cause of his death, not cardiac arrest. Even his ancestry is questioned. The conspiracy theorists assert he is a closet Muslim and grew up in the slums of Allahabad. In real life, he was a Kashmiri Brahmin and a son of a lawyer.
In the post-truth era, another set of accusations are being hurled at him; that he was a Fabian. The Fabian movement portrays the image of being a socialist movement that tries to bring socialistic changes gradually through democracy without resorting to revolutionary overthrows. The conspiracy theorists do not buy that. Their real intention, they allege, as depicted in its coat of arms, says it all. It is an emblem representing a wolf in sheep's clothing. They are now accused of being part of the Cabal movement that tries to send the civilised as we know into one that of anarchy!

The Fabian Society
Wolf in Sheep's Clothing, the original coat of arms.(Wiki Commons)In the opposite camp, accusations have arisen of late following the erection of Sardar Patel's enormous statue. It is said that it is a part of a concerted plan by the ruling party to erase Nehru's legacy from the history books.

A nonagenarian, 94 to be exact, loaned this book to me. The book, complete with watermarks and all the battle wounds of time had been in his collection for a long time. Being born in Quetta, in the state of Baluchistan when Pakistan did not exist, Partition is a distant but a harrowing memory for him. Even though he was safe under the tropical skies of Malaya then, he lost many of his family members during the 1947 bloodshed. Many of his them bear witness to India's own holocaust. Interestingly, he still reads his Hindu devotional hymns in the Urdu script. 

I cannot believe that Nehru's opus magnum was written in prison. At a time when information was scarce, especially in prison when access was limited, his knowledge on the history, religious text and the philosophy of India was phenomenal. This book was his look on the origin of a piece of land called India, how she evolved to reach great heights and her subsequent tumble to the mighty brutal forces of the Northern Muslim invaders and later the British.

When I announced that I was reading the book, somebody remarked, "Ah, a confused book written by a man whose administration was equally confused!" To be fair, this book was written by a politician, not a scholar. His outlook had to be fair in keeping with the changing of the times then. At a time when racial tensions were running high, and the support of the whole of the country was vital, he needed to appear bipartisan.

It is unfathomable that a civilisation so advanced could be brought to its knees. Members of such a race should be enslaved and be outclassed by others who were barbaric by comparison. If Ibn Khaldun's words are anything else to go by, this is precisely what he was trying to say - that a primitive tribe would yearn to be like the civilised, work to be like them, soon to be decadent like the masters and soon to be outclassed by another. 

Critics had a field day condemning Nehru's stance of the Afghan and Moghul invaders who, despite their conquests, decide to stay in India. This is in sharp contrast to the English who looted and basically relocated India's wealth. The detractors assert that the Muslim invaders were never awed by Indian's civilisation but instead were mesmerised with wisdom elsewhere, Arabic world, for instance. The British did try to bring modernity to India which by that time had slumbered off while the rest of the world was changing, technologically and economically. They too, for the first time, did unite the subcontinent under a single banner to stir their emotions to dig deep into their psyche to reassess their own culture.

The book is the reflection of Nehru's discovery of his motherland and an avenue for us as readers to discover a bit of his biography - his imprisonment, the death of his wife and his sincere desire for his country to turn up big and mighty like some of the big nations around the world (e.g. like Russia and China) which arose majestically from ashes of destruction.

I enjoyed the book indeed. The poetic yet straightforward descriptions of simple and sometimes painful things in life linger on the mind like an earworm. 


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The Man behind the Figure!

Sardar (1994)



I was curious to find out the statue of the 600-feet Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel created such a buzz when it was unveiled to the world recently. From accusations of wasting taxpayers money to trying to erase the memory of Nehru's contribution to Independence, the structure, which is four times taller than the Statue of Liberty, attracted the attention for all the wrong reasons. Many feel that its cost of USD 400million, albeit being contributed by the private sector, could be used for more pressing basic needs. The monument is said to be able to withstand a wind velocity of 220 km/h and seismic movements of up to Richter scale 6.5. Then, there were allegations of misuse of land rights, environmental degradation and religious insensitivities. 

Sardar was somewhat a reluctant politician who rose, from being a cynic of Gandhism to being an active member of the Congress Party to being the Deputy Prime Minister of newly independent India.

In school, we never really came close to doing about Patel in our (Malaysian) history books. So it was a surprise when some of my Indian friends told me that Patel was actually the best Prime Minister that India never had. Because of Gandhi's obsession with Nehru and Patel's reluctance to show prominence, Nehru ended up filling up the history books.

Patel, a shrewd lawyer and politician, was instrumental in many of the decisions and successes of newly Independent India. He tried to establish a robust civil service and motivations to the farmers to be self-reliant. By far, his biggest achievement is the political shadow of getting the princely states, 565 of them, to join the Indian Republic rather than be part of the Islamic state of Pakistan. 

An active advocate of 'Quit India Movement', he was the first proponent of Partition after seeing senseless religious violence. 

This almost 3-hour movie fast-paced movie will appeal to viewers who are familiar with the history of India. The story is a collection of many events that the screenwriter expects the audience to know beforehand as the constraint of time impedes elaborate storytelling. In that way, many may get lost in the details.

Rakesh Rawal gave a sterling performance of Patel and the black and white footage and newspaper clippings of historical events add to the authenticity to the storytelling. High educational value.

Memorable quote: ''I hope I am making right decision. My biggest fear is if these decisions are wrong then people will make us evil and if decisions are right then people will make us heroes. But, they won't understand in what circumstances and situation we made these decisions.''

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