A Song 30

At Marine Drive
in Arabian Sea,
Kabir and Tuka,
joyous sticks,
washed at public taps,
begged streets,
fed strays,
ate leftbehinds.
Tax exempt said
Budget papers. 

RBI....Quel de sara sara....

Quel de sara sara ...Reserve Bank of India is no more. On afternoon Feb.29, 2016, Mr. Arun Jaitley, the union finance minister, said Bye.... The RBI governor will have a casting vote in a 6-member Monetary Policy Committee (MPC), not veto power. The RBI will be a cricket team without a captain.The 6-member MPC will have three from the government and three from the RBI including the RBI governor. In Mint, Aparna Iyer and Jayshree P. Upadhyay write: 'The six-member MPC, once formalised, will decide on interest rates as against the current norm of the RBI governor and his internal team having complete control over monetary policy...The final composition announced by the government seems to tread the middle path as it tries to address concerns over excessive government influence on monetary policy. With the introduction of MPC, RBI will follow a system similar to the one followed by most global central banks such as US Federal Reserve and the Bank of England.' George Mathew in The Indian Express says: 'However, Jaitley did not spell out details of the proposed committee, especially if the RBI governor will have a casting vote.' Expected a comment from the former and best RBI governor, Dr. C. Rangarajan. In the Economic Times, the gentleman skirts the RBI issue with which he spent many years as deputy governor and governor. Sad. If the 6-member committee votes 4-2 on rate cuts with RBI governor in a minority, he does not have a veto vote to overturn the decision; in a tie he will have a casting vote; with that RBI and RBI governor will not decide on interest rates; it will be the Finance Ministry; the Finance Ministry will set the fiscal deficit, run the interest rates while the RBI will work the inflation target mandated to it; do not know whether it can be done; over time when debt management is taken away from RBI, Mint Street will not have an address. To Mint, A.V. Rajwade, an independent expert, says: 'RBI will still have control over monetary policy despite the committee deciding on rates. Looks like the governor got what he wanted.' Are you sure, Mr. Rajwade. Dr. Chakravarthy Rangarajan (Ranga to friends) was the deputy governor, RBI, from 1982-1991; governor from Dec. 22, 1992 to Dec. 21, 1997. In me books, the best RBI governor; he freed all interest rates except savings rate; allowed banks to freely price their loans and not wait for RBI okay; ahead of kharif and rabi season credit policy, met market players, bankers, academics, rounds of meetings with RBI staff apart from the Finance ministry, before taking a final decision. Dr. Manmohan Singh, unlike Pranab Mukherjee, P. Chidambaram and Arun Jaitley, let go; they did talk, they differed; they accepted each other. Today, RBI is superfluous; Dr. Raghuram Govind Rajan, is a dispensable extra. Why hang around, Doctor? Quel de sera, sera....

A Song 29

At Marine Drive
in Arabian Sea,
Kabir and Tuka
whiled over an
unfairness to wives and kids,
fariness to gods and sidekicks;
walked down to Chowpaty,
swam to a stranded fishing boat
on shaky waters,
sailed, to be with
grandkids in USA,
say Sorry.

A Song 28

At Marine Drive
in Arabian Sea,
Kabir and Tuka
kantepohe and Einstein,
equating
shunyatas of Rama, Krishna, Haris
with black-holed infinities;
violins with tambooras;
science with hippies;
unflagged, insufficient selfies,
knotting loose ends of infinities.   

Akshartap (Word fever)

At Marine Drive
on Arabian Sea,
Kabir and Tuka,
down with Akshartap, word fever;
'virus without vaccines,
words will have to be tapped
or drained' said the municipal doctor,
taking no fees;
Said Vithhala and Rakkumai:
'Go missing, silently,
police will help.'
For a third opinion,
refer to
stars, sky and seas.
No answers: bad weather.  

Aligarh

Ahead of a dying and of a getting back of  the lecturer's job, Prof. Shrinivas Ramchandra Siras, talks of settling down in America, after retirement, as that country accepts differences. Many may not like it. Many may argue America being as blind a place as India. For me India 2016 is Dhritharashtra. The going to America does not happen. He is found dead. Prof. Siras teaches Marathi in Aligarh Muslim University and perhaps, the only Maharashtrian in town, which he is used to, loves and talks Hindi and English with a Marathi accent. He is different, he is gay and none likes that...like today, differences are not accepted, discussed. Low on most counts, Indian society prefers a straight line narrative without dashes, dots, curves even as the Earth has no objections. Prof. Siras unwinds to a Malayali journalist Deepu Sebastian. He protests. There is a shot of the two travelling in a boat, of Deepu asking whether Prof. Siras is gay....and the shot sticks like the early shots of Prof. Siras sitting and nodding to a Lata song with a chappalled foot arcing the air... The two hour film is tight, the film has no paunch, little sound, it is as if you are not watching a film, but being with Prof. Siras in the lanes of Aligarh...the hurt in being denied is ever under lock and key ....Prof. Siras always firmly locks the rooms from which he is ever driven out; me thinks a few, if any, can do better than Manoj Bajpai as poet Prof. Siras with rhymes and Lata music. Wikipedia terms him a method actor; do not know what that means; you walk back home with him; he does not leave you like the unfairness of it all. Perhaps the film is most important to the different humans living with us and also to the Supreme Court agreeing to discuss homosexuality. Others are human, as human as you and me and cannot be red carded out of living. At Maxus, Borivili (W), went for the first show, watched the film with about 15 others. Me rating: Many A.  

A Song 26

 
At Marine Drive
in Arabian Sea,
Kabir and Tuka,
more kustikars,
less poets;
patrons Vitthala, Rakkumai
were like that;
kept out of litfests.,
chasing foodfests.