The Pritish Nandy Chat, Continued
kk (Fri Aug 15 1997 4:47 IST)
Dear sir, Isn't it a pity that one of the largest parties, the Congress, is prepared to hand over the sole power to a political novice Sonia for dynastic reasons? Is that the democracy we have after 50 years? I feel this is far worse than the case in Bihar. Rabri Devi was at least elected. Or are these signs that the Congress is dying?
Pritish Nandy (Fri Aug 15 1997 4:50 IST)
KK: I agree with you. In fact, I have said this before. In this chat itself. That the Congress died years back. No one noticed. Sitaram Kesri is sleepwalking. And as far as Sonia Gandhi is concerned, her comeback will be exactly like her good friend, Amitabh Bachchan's. A disaster. What Sonia will do for the Congress is what Bachchan did for his distributors of Mrityudata.
Alka (Fri Aug 15 1997 4:42 IST)
Sir, recently you interviewed the Mumbai Police Commissioner Subhash Malhotra.What's your assessment about the law and order situation in Mumbai? Recently the underworld killed Mr. Gulshan Kumar in a cold blooded manner.
Alka (Fri Aug 15 1997 4:47 IST)
Mr Nandy:Why aren't you answering my questions? Are you angry with me?
Pritish Nandy (Fri Aug 15 1997 4:56 IST)
Alka: Of course, I am not angry with you but thank you for reminding me. Yes, Mumbai is steeped in crime right now but the problem is: How can you have a city where the rich are so ostentatious and thje poor live in such abject poverty-- and expect that there will not be a blowout. The poor are being drawn into crime not out of greed -- simply because the Mob is offering them huge money to go and kill someone, which they are not, they are being paid a pittance-- they are killing because they are angry. They are angry, they are frustrated, they are desperate. They see the rich living out their vulgar, ostentatious lives right out there in the blaze of huge publicity-- and the media here is playing a pretty disgvusting role, by profiling their filthy rich lives in great detail, who is partying where, who is buying what,m who is wearing what, who is screwing whom -- and you expect this Gomorrah to stay crime free! No way. Mumbai must learn to be less flashy, more introspective. That will only happen when Mumbai learns to go back to its old history of hard work and great enterprise instead of becoming more and more a city of carpetbaggers and conmen.
kk (Fri Aug 15 1997 4:51 IST)
Thanks Mr Nandy for all the answers. It surely has been the most enjoyable chat of the day though it is 5 AM in California. One last question - You have interviewed so many celebrities, which interview do you treasure the most? Thanks!
Pritish Nandy (Fri Aug 15 1997 5:4 IST)
KK: Difficult to say, my friend. Different chats have meant different things to me. Just two hours back I was on Sony TV here interviewing Gujral, the prime minister, on his personal aspects of his life. I enjoyed it enormously simply because neither of us spoke politics for a change. Alas, I am remembered most for my political putdowns, not for the eclectgic stuff I have done. My interview with Lata, for instance, is once of my favourites even though people actually threatened to sue me for daring to ask her about her love life! Camper, Rajneesh, Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, Ravi Shankar, Vishwanathan Anand.. there are many interviews I am quite proud of. But, then, journalism is a profession where no one should ever look back. My best interviews will have to be the ones I plan to do tomorrow or the day after. The moment I look back, I am dead. If this sounds a bit like Dev Anand, I am sorry. It has nothing to do with age or time. It is a matter or prioritising your life. Only the future matters for a journalist. Tomorrow's story is ALWAYS the biggest, the most important, KK>
virat (Fri Aug 15 1997 5:6 IST)
Pritish, I strongly disagree with the statement which you have just made about, Indian society traditionally being a closed society. There goes a verse in Sanskrit Yani asmakam sucharitani tani twayo upasyani . It is difficult to imagine that in a country where sages have said that please wean out the good qualitites from us [the elders] and imbibe only those good qualitites, how could people have done this kind of a thing if freedom of speech and respect for individual perspective were unknown.
Pritish Nandy (Fri Aug 15 1997 5:6 IST)
Virat: I never said Indian society is closed. You must have misread something I have said. I said, traditionally we were tight lipped. Today we are open. That is why what comes out or is exposed seems bigger, larger, more frightening. But the truth is we are doing much better today than we have ever done before. Not just in economic terms. But in every possible way. Indian society is stronger, healthier, more open today than it ever was.
M (Fri Aug 15 1997 5:6 IST)
Mr. Nandy, are you from Bengal? What do you think about the lack of private investment, foreign or domestic in Bengal? Last summer I went to Calcutta and saw youths with MA degrees selling soaps from door to door and getting peanuts for it. In contrast in Lucknow, youths with just a higher secondary degrees were getting (and doing )sales and medical representative jobs. I saw none unemployed or underemployed? Do you think it is because of the mindset of Bengalis or that there is massive unemployment for non-technical educated youths in Bengal. You have to answer this question?
Pritish Nandy (Fri Aug 15 1997 5:13 IST)
M: Yes, I am from Bengal. The problem with Bengal is that we have a traditional mindset there is non-entrepreneurial. Doing business is seen as a comedown. That is why young people out there are always looking for jobs. I know because most Bengalis who arrive in Mumbai come to me straight from the railway station. They all ask for jobs. No one seeks an opportunity, a break to do his own thing. This is a sad mindset problem. That is why (and don't think I am being communal) Bengalis end up always working as slaves for Marwaris in Calcutta. Calcutta is the capital of Rajasthan. All the Marwaris go there first to make their fortunes before they migrate again to other cities. Yet Bengalis in Bengal remain impoverished, uinemployed. It is a bit like Maharashtrian youth in Mumbai. Now of course, they are picking up a new kind of entrepreneurial assignment-- crime. They are becoming shooters, extortionists, murderers on demand. But, again, rarely for themselves. Usually for a big time crime syndicate. So, even in crime, they like to work for others. That is why Calcutta has produced many great and successful Marwari entrepreneurs but not a single successful Bengali entrepreneur!
Randy Dandy (Fri Aug 15 1997 5:11 IST)
Mr. Nandy: Long back the illustrated weekly used to run a feature on the achievers in a particular caste - one caste a week. It was stopped for helping national integration. If the weeky were still existing today and you were its editor, would you run this feature ?
Pritish Nandy (Fri Aug 15 1997 5:14 IST)
Randy Dandy: No. I don't think I would like to rfate, define, select people by caste. I would like to feature people on merit and merit alone.
prasanverma (Fri Aug 15 1997 5:11 IST)
As i read U regularly, i feel that U R too optimist, but should a journalist ignore the dark part of the moon, What do U mean by open type society, Like Mahesh Bhatt & Pooja Bhatt type society or a society where every on has full freedom to say evrything or both R the same type of society
Pritish Nandy (Fri Aug 15 1997 5:16 IST)
Prasanverma: It is not a question of whether I am an optimist or not. It is a question of whether I have faith in India or not. Yes, I have faith in India. I have hope in its future, in its young people, in its enterprise, in its genius for survival. That is why you may perceive me as an optimist. I see myself as a realist. I see myself as a nationalist in that sense.
M (Fri Aug 15 1997 5:15 IST)
There used to exist a business class/caste in Bengal. Why does everybody want to be a Brahmin?
Pritish Nandy (Fri Aug 15 1997 5:20 IST)
M: Simply because the Brahmins ruled India for very long and had a great time doing it. Bengalis feel intellectually superior to the rest of India, not realising that intellectual superiority has nothing to do with the art of surviving in a tough, materialistic, driven society where success is determined by completely different norms than what one lives by. This dichotomy is exciting but complex and drives the Bengali community-- as indeed it drives many other similar communities-- into a schizoid dark hole.
virat (Fri Aug 15 1997 5:17 IST)
I find your answer a bit like Osho's view point about present. He believed that present could not be anything but what it is, and therefore it is the best that we have! However my own reflection on life tells me that present is nothing but a reflection of the past. So if present is something which you feel good about thank for the good actions in the past. The present however which you feel so elated about fails to provide education, liberation of mind, body and soul. Before Independence people worked for the birth of freedom today there is a big void in terms of a common national or soicial objective.
Pritish Nandy (Fri Aug 15 1997 5:24 IST)
Virat: I agree with you that the pre-Independence generation had a certain dream to live for. The present generation doesn't in that sense. But remember one thing, my friend: Just to survive in an increasingly complex and competitive world, the present generation of Indian pursues excellence more zealously. He or she has no choice. That is what is driving up standards in most areas-- even though we keep complaining about falling standards.
M (Fri Aug 15 1997 5:28 IST)
I've lived all my life in UP. But I used to visit Calcutta every year. I recently attented the 17th annual Bengali conference in the US. It was a cultural event. But there were some discussions on Bengali soceity, culture based on the great Bengali literature and language. I enjoyed the shows but I thought that so much fascination with language and art is leaving the Bengalis technologically behind. Most of the Bengalis, that is why, don't want to even choose professions in the Engineering disciplines. They look down on it. What do you think that can be done to change this?
Pritish Nandy (Fri Aug 15 1997 5:27 IST)
M: I left Calcutta simply because no one was ready to give me a job in the profession I most wanted to pursue-- journalism. Even though, by that time, at 25 or 26, I had won every literary award worth winning, every accolade, had 40 books in print and a Padma Shri under my belt! I faced this myself. Bengalis rarely do anything for fellow Bengalis. They always feel there is not enough place under the sun for another Bengali. Many communities in India are like that!
prasanverma (Fri Aug 15 1997 5:25 IST)
(1)Any comment on partition of india or u consider it as history (2)What was your comment when U saw taslumuddin's name as HOme Minister of india, and any comment on laloo now, because he was standing by him all the time
Pritish Nandy (Fri Aug 15 1997 5:36 IST)
Prasanverma: Nothing is history. If you ignore anything as history, it returns to haunt you again and again. So Partition is a grim reminder of where we all went wrong. We were too desperate, too greedy to win freedom quickly- so we had no time to sort this out. I don't blame Jinnah. We were all responsible. We should have known, anticipated the bloodshed and been careful to avoid it. But India has learnt its lesson. The communal riots you now see are becoming less and less frequent and are actually based on reasons apart from communal hate. Ayodhya for instance was not a communal problem. It was a political problem. It was created for political reasons. We must remember that. We Indians are not communal by design. How often have you resented seeing a Hindu heroine melting into a Muslim hero's arms when you are watching a Hindi film? Never. We are not moved by communal ideas as a rule. India's finest nuclear scientist is a Muslim but has anyone accused him of ever being less than a patriot. Never. Communalism is a political weapon used by political parties to further their political ends. Nothing more. Nothing less. Your speak of Taslimuddin. Here is an excellent example. Crime and corruption binds him to Laloo. The fact that Taslimuddin is a Muslim and Laloo a Hindu is completely irrelevent. Movies, crime, corruption, political expediency-- all these bring us together as Indians. What divides us is opportunism. Poliotical opportunism on both sides of the border.
gdgod (Fri Aug 15 1997 5:28 IST)
What do you forecast as India's future? Can you suggest any way to ensure that India is safe from Marauding Capitalists?
Pritish Nandy (Fri Aug 15 1997 5:41 IST)
gdgod: the only way India can be safe from marauding capitalists-- I imagine you mean MNCs-- is by creating its own marauding capitalists who can go out and conquer the world. Our talent is enormous, our genius for making money (among other things) is unmatched, our hard work is legendary in the lazier parts of the globe (as in, say, Britain)-- so why are we worried? We must go out and grab the best piece of action. What we need is freedom. Laws that allow us to become a global force. Once we are unfettered we can take on any nation, any damned capitalist. We can eat Bill Gates for breakfast, my friend. Don't worry.
gdgod (Fri Aug 15 1997 5:40 IST)
Please define success, in the Indian Context...and if it isn't too much, could you please answer my earlier queries??????????!!!!!!!!!
Pritish Nandy (Fri Aug 15 1997 5:43 IST)
gdgod: I HAVE answered your earlier query. As for success, there is no Indian context for it. Success is success. Making it happen. If you can make it happen-- anything-- you have arrived. Then, you call the shots, gdgod!
Pritish Nandy (Fri Aug 15 1997 5:45 IST)
Look guys, I have to go. I have an irate wife waiting for me at home, a shoot to complete, a flight to catch. But in case any of you want to leave a question for me, my e mail address is pnc@giasbm01.vsnl.net.in. I know that is very complex and unwieldy but you will soon get pritishnandycom.com. Hold out till then.
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