Of predictable fatwas and Russian footprints in Afghanistan.

Raju Korti
Having watched all the ferment in the land-locked country ever since the Soviets occupied it end 1979, I have come to the conclusion that Afghanistan continues and will continue to run around in circles. The plot has moved along predictable lines. The much coined Taliban 2.0 is not going to be any different from the Taliban 1.0. When you are talking of a medieval mindset that harks you back to more than 1500 years, the entire discourse refuses to change one bit.

A lot many commentators have let their imagination go on a cruise trying to make out a case that the violent outfit appears to be softening as it assumes control but the steadfast submission to the Sharia leaves them with no room for flexibility. The so called press conference that its apparently rational sounding elements took was an eyewash. Their accommodation for what is being sought to be conveyed as a meltdown from its earlier primitive posturing has come a cropper. Developments in the last couple of days is perhaps just a trailer of the bigger picture that is inevitably set to unfold.

Later than sooner, the first edict is out. After talking tall about women's rights, the Taliban has taken its first somersault, banning co-education in universities because it is the "root of all evils in the society". It also wants "virtuous female lecturers would be allowed to teach only female students, not the male ones. That should make you wonder who is that Taliban doesn't trust -- men or women. Beyond all that lip service, the Taliban has dropped enough hints that women are only meant to lie under men's bodies and cater to their baser instincts. Mind you, they are their own women! If they are going to kill women indiscriminately for not obeying their diktats, who the hell would they be left with to carry out their brutal legacy? With women hiding behind their veils and faced with relentless despotism, it is effectively the end of education for women. Expect more such oppressive fatwas in the time to come.

While nothing that the Taliban has done or gone about has any element of surprise, it is slightly unexpected that the Russians appear to have taken in their stride the Taliban resurgence. The Russian diplomats believe the people in charge as 'normal guys" and Afghanistan is safer than ever before. This is obviously a take off on Moscow's new stance that the take-over in Afghanistan is a reality that they must attune to. It is a complete anti-thesis of what all it did during its occupation of Kabul to prop up a Communist regime.

While the western countries have frantically tried to evacuate its people and embassies, Russia has chosen to stay put with a certificate that clears Taliban of any reprisals. In fact going one step further, the Putin dispensation sees a bright future of national reconciliation that spells end to political uncertainty and bloodshed. Putin's special envoy to Afghanistan opened the doors to a new equation saying the Taliban as being easier to negotiate than with the old puppet regime of the now exiled President Ashraf Ghani. Just as the NATO found it incompatible to deal with the puppet government the erstwhile Soviets had installed before they chose to exit the theatre.

Somewhere in this change of heart, where Moscow has preferred to use the term "radicals" instead of addressing the Taliban as "terrorists",it has not rushed to recognize Taliban as rulers. It has been trying to build bridges with the Taliban in the last three years in an obvious diversion from its earlier foreign policy. That hasn't gone down well with the West. Looked at from the ground reality, the West and the Communists have changed postures but in terms of their hostile posturing, everything is status quo. In the new algorithm Russia is indicating that while it is ready to come to terms with the mutations in Afghanistan, it is not ready yet to throw full dice, preferring the picture to emerge clearer.        

There is a plausible reason to understand why the Russians have been resilient. It visualizes no military role for itself after realizing that the war it fought in the 80s was futile. They miscalculated the wages of the 1979 invasion. It cost them over nine years and 20,000 army men to prop up a regime besides turning into an international pariah. The Soviet economy just couldn't hold on, nor could its states that were destined to balkanize. The exit was unceremonious and Afghanistan went from frying pan into the fire. My gut feeling is the Russians didn't anticipate the Taliban's sweep to the power and is making just those initial noises. I will not be surprised if they are biding time until they find out the real shape of things to come. As new rulers, Taliban doesn't leave much room except for some speculation.

That brings me to the basic question. Do the Talibanese have any ideas about governance beyond the  setting up of a Caliphate? At the cost of hazarding a guess, I think not. They may impose the Sharia that has limited takers in the present matrix. That will not work in the longer run if they have any thoughts about salvaging their ruined economy or if they want to acquire some leeway on the international negotiating tables. While there are reports that the Northern Alliance is rolling up sleeves again to fight the Taliban in their own backyard, the latter has a lot of hard work to do.

The war and strife are far from over. It could well be the beginning of even more hazardous times for Afghanistan. 

From Afghanistan, gone with the medals

Raju Korti
You don't have to be an officer in the army to know how touchy he is about the medals on his uniform. Beyond decoration, they are badges of honours that they flaunt on their swollen chests. There is a message loud and clear that these medals convey: Give me enough medals and I will win you any war.
But look at the picture accompanying this blog. It is of Field Marshal Abdul Rashid Dostum of the Afghan National Army who rose from a politician to become Commander in the Communist government during Soviet-Afghan war. You will wonder whether Dostum is wearing those medals or the medals are wearing Dostum.  

The key indigenous ally to the American special forces and the CIA during the campaign to topple the Taliban government, he was one of the most powerful and notorious warlords since the beginning of the Afghan wars. This opportunistic turncoat who conveniently chose to side with winners after every war in Afghanistan has now fled to Uzbekistan -- with all his medals. With Taliban catching up, Dostum knows that any further act masquerading as a brave marshal would end up with a Taliban bullet drilling a hole somewhere between those very medals he has been flaunting all these years.

A warrior should be defined by his scars, not his medals. I have seen pictures of a North Korean General with medals almost hanging down to his boots. When you get more medals than Captain America and Rambo put together without having even one active ground war, you look like a towering absurdity. Field Marshal Dostum deserves a honorable mention in that elite gallery. To be fair to Dostum, he has had a fair reputation, defeating Mujahideen commanders in northern Afghanistan and even persuading some to defect to the Communist cause. Although these were a slightly enhanced version of gangster fights, they earned him quick promotions. As someone who followed the tumult in Afghanistan regularly, I remember then President Mohammad Najibullah calling him a 'Hero of Afghanistan.' Najibullah didn't survive long and was found dead hanging to a wooden pole in the thick of the smoke that was rapidly engulfing the ravaged country.

From playing a pivotal role in the overthrow of the very man who called him a hero to joining hands with the new Burhanuddin Rabbani government, from partnering the Northern Alliance to shaking hands with Hamid Karzai he rapidly changed colours. When the going got tough, this 'tough' army chief chose to take a quick powder and flee Afghanistan when the Taliban over-ran Mazaar-I-Sharif. So Dostum is not a new hand at bolting from the country. This should be his second and probably the final exit as he knows the Taliban will not be charitably disposed any more.

For all of his six feet beefy structure, the bushy mustache and the number of medals decorating his camouflage Soviet-style military uniform, Dostum's CV though exciting and interesting, is diluted by his rank opportunism and his penchant to vanish when things got hot for him. That casts aspersions on all those medals glittering on his coat. There are no scars behind those medals. As journalist friend Prashant Hamine points out: "Looks like he got those medals from Mumbai's Chor Bazaar. They look like a collection of soft drink bottle caps."

Well, the fizz has gone. Only the 'dhakkans' remain.

Confessions of a rejection-softened man

Raju Korti
I have often been told that most fears of rejection rest on the desire of approval from other people and your self-esteem should not become casualty of how others view you. For all the hype and cosmetic coming from Teflon-coated tongues on the positives of rejection, I stand committed to my conviction: Rejection feels lousy and seriously dents one's sense of oneself.

As someone who has encountered rejection at all levels in the arduous course of my professional career and personal relationships, I have veered round to the conclusion that my life has been consumed by rejection. Trust me. it is psychologically debilitating, although I have kept trying my best for course corrections. It is what many people describe synonymously as destiny. Rejections are destined to happen. I realized it much earlier in my 65 years of existence. With the passage of time, I have experienced how much of my concern with social acceptance has percolated into everything I have ventured to do.

The pain of being excluded or rejected is not much different than physical pain or injury. In fact, it is worse a times. I have experienced emotional upheaval, cognition and even manifestation in physical health. Having reached a stage of being ostracized, I have been grappling these to the point of no return. I have never made any attempts to analyze and understand, lesser still, appreciate the whys and hows of rejection. I feel too disabled to rationalize rejection.

I marvel at the people who are evolved to live in cooperative societies. To some, it comes naturally. Like hunger or thirst, their need for acceptance emerges as a mechanism for survival. Social rejection aches cannot be handled like physical pain. Ask anyone who has been at the receiving end of a social snub, he will tell you his sob story of emotional turmoil and cognitive ferment that breed anger, anxiety, depression, jealousy and sadness. Even innocuous episodes of rejection can sting. 

Unlike most people who respond to rejection by seeking inclusion elsewhere, I prefer to go into a shell -- the fear of further rejection always weighing on the mind. Its a pain of chronic rejection that I have found it difficult to ward off although rejection from all quarters has become a way of life. I have begun to avoid people like plague. When I run into them, rebuff looms large. I am saying this despite being a professional and personal counselor. The only inconsistent part of this rejection story is when I counsel others to make a virtue out of it. In many words, not practicing what I preach. In one word 'hypocrisy'.

There is a silver line to this pessimistic story. I have desperately clung on to myself while people don't care about losing me. There is a consistency in my being rejected at all times, on all occasions and by all people including those who come across as close relatives and well wishers. At least a clear rejection is better than fake acceptance. No small consolation that. I have sustained rejections on the premise that you come alone, you go alone. Take rejections in your stride and move on bracing for more rejections. Mercifully, death never rejects anyone. At least someone will be kind enough to embrace me at the fag end of my rejected life. The redeeming feature is I won't be alive to see being rejected even after death.

Of fault-lines in Assam-Mizoram conflict

Raju Korti

The travel advisory issued by Assam government asking people not to travel to Mizoram is a serious reminder of how the states on the North-Eastern fringes of the country lapse into serious internal conflicts at the drop of a hat. Since the last few days, the border between Assam and Mizoram has seen a a number of violent skirmishes following provocation from the latter's civil society, mostly students and youth organizations. Matters precipitated with reports of fierce gun battle on the border leaving some policemen and civilians dead. This is a dangerous augury for a country that has been grappling with one internal conflict after the other, especially in the post 80s era.

The gravity of the situation can be gauged by the fact that this is the first of its kind advisory any state government has issued. I do not think this has happened even in the wake of worst violence resulting from the Maharashtra-Karnataka boundary dispute. While other cases of internal conflicts relating to Khalistan, Gorkhaland, separate Vidarbha and Tamil Eelam have quietened down, the North-East cauldron remains on the boil with periodic trouble on its porous borders. They are perennially vulnerable to armed support from hostile neighbours. The North-Eastern states have shown a marked inclination towards solving their disputes to armed struggle and insurgency. Little surprise panic and apprehension prevails on the border at all times and peace processes are tenuous.

Armed rebellions are not a new phenomenon in the mercurial North-East. Assam, Nagaland, Manipur, Arunachal Pradesh, Mizoram, Tripura and Sikkim have never had a track record of lasting peace on their borders. If it is not about an armed conflict with the Indian government, it is about internecine feuds. There was some respite in the early 90s when the situation appeared to ease but the situation is usually compounded by the presence of several armed factions. These factions nurse their own ideas of separatism -- from regional autonomy to complete independence.       

Most of these states are at loggerheads with the Centre. There is constant tension between native tribals and migrants from other part of India. Remember how in the 80s; Prafulla Kumar Mahanta led the students to become the chief minister with the 'sons of the soil' electoral plank. Besides, these states are not well connected with the country's mainland. They stand alienated despite being on the same map. I suspect, the situation was further aggravated when the Centre applied the Armed Forces Special Power Act (AFSPA) that was intended to quell the armed rebellion with similar tactics. The constant overt and covert attempts by China and Myanmar to stir up trouble queer the pitch.      

Assam has jealously tried to retain its political and cultural identity. Rampant infiltration from Bangladesh keeps altering the state's demographics. The anger of the Assamese is rationalized on the premise that illegal migrants could become the majority if their intrusions are not checked and that would mean loss of political power. There is nothing to show that this alone is the cause of unrest in these states. The North-East is not an industry-rich region. It is resource--deficit and does not have economies of scale to match. The security is uneven with its borders open to intrusions by militants and arms smuggling. 

One would expect that the Governors of such states as executive heads are competent to deal with such crises. The Sarkaria Commission set up in 1983 -- just around the time when North-East was a growing hotspot -- to look into entire gamut of Centre-State relations, made a number of recommendations on the appointments of the Governor. Since most of these went completely against the spirit of all political parties, the key recommendations were kept in cold storage. None of the governments at the Centre had the political will to implement the recommendations in toto. For the Centre; the Sarkaria report was like a razor asking it to cut its own throat.

Although "Seven Sisters", as the North-Eastern states are referred to, have a tumultuous history of border disputes, the backlash has been much severe this time.  In my considered opinion, it is not just a question of bringing these states into the country's  political mainstream. I wonder why the Centre gave the North-Eastern states a short shrift when it went about the reorganization of states and territories along linguistic lines. If anything it showed that these states were never on the check-list of the Centre if the idea was to streamline them. It allowed the disputes to get uglier and open to manipulation by external forces. The Centre just dithered and drifted making no worthwhile attempts to convince the states to accept a workable solution on accepting boundaries. Piecemeal solutions have not worked. It will not even now. '

Assam and Mizoram have been talking through their chief secretaries in a Centre-chaperoned dialogue process to douse inter-state border tensions before their respective police forces fatally clashed. The funniest part is the parties to the dispute swear by peaceful resolution and the unfortunate part is the quest for peace is through war and strife. 

Abdullahs in a 'begaani shaadi" called Afghanistan

Raju Korti
As Afghanistan hurtles from one crisis to another, I recall a piece that I wrote in The Indian Express in 1994 when the Taliban was making decisive inroads to gain control in the war-ravaged country. I had categorically stated that this was a war nobody would win. The Soviet Union coming to grips with its fragmentation had chosen to leave the theatre after installing a puppet government in 1989. The US took a headlong plunge post 2001 but it took them more than two decades to realize that they were fighting a futile war.

Taliban: Waiting for the decisive strike (File grab)

Battlefield since 1978, the emergence of Taliban and their dramatic advances had raised high hopes among war-weary Afghans that their miseries would come to an end. These hopes were dashed sooner than both the Soviets and Americans had thought. After overrunning Kabul, the Taliban remained engaged in a proxy war with the opposition forces led by Ahmed Shah Massoud. History has now repeated with Taliban gaining almost 80% control amidst heavy bloodshed. All because neighbouring countries and regional powers are viciously united in their continued support to the warring factions. 

I had also predicted that the internal conflict between anti-communist Islamic guerrillas and the Afghan communist government would blow up into a long Cold War between NATO and Warsaw Pact countries. The US withdrawal has been twenty years in the making. In its zeal to leave its global footprint, the US learnt next to nothing from the Vietnam war and its military miscarriages in Grenada, Nicaragua, Argentina, Fiji and elsewhere. The strife in Afghanistan has been costly, exhausting and increasingly unpopular, spilling over from one administration to another since George Bush. It persisted despite Obama and Trump making campaign promises under their respective presidencies.

President Biden's announcement about US exit is hasty, risky and ill-timed. For one, it is happening amidst a questionable peace process. It splinters Afghan government forces besides making a mockery of the sacrifices of its forces deployed there. For the emboldened Taliban this was just the opening they were looking for to stamp its presence. The poorly planned withdrawal announced by Biden might very likely boomerang if the Taliban and its terrorist allies manage to overwhelm Afghan forces. By all accounts that appears to be writing on the wall and if they manage to do that on or by 9/11, it will be terrible embarrassment for the Americans. The simple cue on the Soviet Union's exit and its aftermath should have been enough to indicate what might happen if the current trajectory is not checked. 

The US withdrawal could well lead to a similar situation -- devastating civil war and an eventual takeover by extremist hardliners. Taliban's recent moves suggest that it is positioning itself to wait out the occupation and strike at Kabul which is what the Mujahideen did to the Soviet Union in 1989. If this likely scenario transpires, Afghans who cooperated with allied forces with their stakeholders would be at risk. NATO cannot just disengage itself at this juncture just because there is an overly optimistic assessments by the American forces. The US cannot be a mute spectator as the Afghan forces cave in without putting up even a semblance of fight.

The Taliban is playing a smarter game this time by controlling and closing off the northern borders as well as on the Iranian side to prevent the growth of any Northern Alliance-like formation. I don't give the Afghans more than a few weeks before they crumble. The field is left clear with most foreign countries having pulled out. 

The resurgence of Taliban has ominous developments for New Delhi. It has activated support from Pakistan's terror groups like Lashkar-e-Toiba. India’s early engagement with post-Taliban Afghanistan was considered by the United States, Pakistan and the Afghan government to be a strategy to undermine Pakistan. While this may have been true at first, in recent years, India has come to accept that Pakistan has a special interest in Afghanistan that overshadows its own.

The algorithm has changed now. As Afghanistan meanders from bad to worst, it has moved from being a place where extremists co-existed and used terrorism to make a political statement on international scale to where radical ideologues are fighting for dominance. India seriously needs to rethink its long-standing approach towards the country. The premise that an external friendly power would do all the heavy lifting in Afghanistan will not work. For India, it should boil down to viewing Taliban as a Pakistan-sponsored entity that could intensify the insurgency in Kashmir.

It would be sound diplomatic practice for India to try to shape the contours of dialogue with the Afghan Taliban, regardless of who brokers this dialogue. It will allow India to support its partners in Kabul in maintaining an upper hand at the negotiation table and ensure India’s policy aim of maintaining a strategic balance between Afghanistan and Pakistan. However, I also anticipate India's pitch could well be queered by China providing economic aid to a bankrupt Afghan regime. The issue of Uighur Muslims may not be a deterrent in their bonhomie with the Taliban but then China might watch how the show unfolds before they throw their dice. 

Pakistan will not want to watch from the sidelines if Taliban does take over. It will gleefully become an interface between Taliban and China if and when it comes to that. They will seek to shape the contours of power equations to have some control over the Taliban and make sure that China does not snub them by dealing with the Taliban directly. In the midst of this rigmarole, Afghanistan will remain a case of "begaani shaadi mein Abdulle deewane."

An evening spent with Dilip Kumar, the icon on Indian cinema's desktop

Raju Korti
I will never forget my first and only bearing of the Mohammed Yusuf Khan Ghulam Sarwar Khan Peshawari in 1984. The name might confound the new generation whose memories do not stretch beyond  Dilip Kumar's films like Shakti or Saudagar. It was a 'mushaira'  session and Dilip Kumar had decorously chosen to squat on the floor in the true spirit of the event. The mushaira held little interest for me as I was among the legion who knew of his prowess to hold forth with his impeccable Urdu diction. He was equally profound with English and Hindi as I found later after that long one-on-one. 

Sketch by Bhagvan Das

I had handed over my press card to him through one of the organizers and he was gracious enough to acknowledge it with an eye contact right in the midst of reciting an ornamental shayari that came so effortlessly from his literary repositories. I referred to the eye contact because in my considered belief, he was probably the only actor whose eyes spoke eloquently. The rest of the body language just fell in unison. That made up for a devastating combination of the man's histrionics, now part of legendary folklores.

True to his reputation he had arrived well over two hours late and I remember incensed and impatient people had started wondering if the organizers had taken them for a ride. But as some people in the restive crowd had started making their way to the exit, in walked Dilip Kumar, his hands touching his forehead in a theatrical 'aadaab'. It was a measure of his ability to cast a hypnotic spell on the audience that they quickly retraced their steps followed by a hushed silence that could be only explained how he overawed people. He had sensed the mood of the audience with his decades experience as an unsurpassed actor. He was dressed in a Lungi and Kurta and his apple-peach complexion glowed and stood out in the maze of people on the stage.

The programme went on till 4 but more than half way through, he exited the stage and I thought my meeting had fizzled out in thin air. Just as I was grappling with my predicament, an organizer nudged me and told me 'Yusufbhai aap se milenge.' I saw him in his room sitting the same way. There was a twinkle in his eyes as he beckoned me to sit with a 'khushamdeed' -- khu and deed pronounced with the flourish and weight of a true Urdu stickler.

He looked at me amused when I told him that in the trinity that he formed with Dev Anand and Raj Kapoor, he was the Vishnu, Raj Kapoor the Mahesh and Dev Anand the Brahma. "I don't know what makes you say this but I can guess. We were all made up differently though we found our roots in the same profession. We all started a few years plus minus of each other but grew and evolved with a cinematic vision that defined us in a distinct way.

Explaining his metamorphosis from a method and serious actor in the late forties to one who got a little melodramatic towards the later sixties with the fifties as the fulcrum of his landmark performances, Dilip Kumar told me with the same intense, understated expression that had become  archetypal: "My career gradient has seen seamless transitions. From my first film Jwarbhata (1944), I charted some serious roles. Milan, Jugnu, Shaheed, Mela, Andaz, Jogan, Aarzoo, Deedar, Daag, Sangdil, Shikast, Tarana, Footpath, Devdas got me the sobriquet of 'Tragedy King.' I think it has something to do with my resilience with tragedies. In my formative years, I struggled to look after a huge family of in-laws, cousins and other close relatives. Life can be tough and that teaches you to be plaint. Maybe that reflected in my screen disposition."

"Sometimes in mid-fifties you changed track with the likes of Naya Daur, Yahudi, Madhumati, Kohinoor, Mughal-e-Azam, Gunga Jumna, Leader and Ram aur Shyam where your character was less overbearing. You took on lighter roles. Kohinoor, Leader and Ram aur Shyam were actually out and out comedies. How did you enter these skins with the same aplomb?" Dilip Kumar smiled the same mischievous smile that was evident in 'Nain lad jai hai to manwa ma kasak hui bekari'. "Even if there is an opportunity to school yourself in different characters -- characters that have distinct personalities which may be totally different from yours, you have got to completely divorce your own personality to be able to go over to the other personality."       

I do not think that any actor has unfolded the spectrum of acting that Dilip Kumar did. From the drunken, bloodshot-eyed Devdas to the pompous and ceremonious Prince Salim of Mughal-e-Azam, to the eternal romanticist of Madhumati, to the desperate crippled of Aadmi, to the outrageous buffoon in Ram aur Shyam and the over-the-top character in Shakti, Saudagar, Mazdoor and Kranti.His roles resonated in the rotund voice of Rafi through 'Peete peete kabhi kabhi yun jaam badal jaate hai.' The heady concoction was served for sixty five plus years on celluloid.

Nostalgic about the songs that he got to lip synch in the prime of his career, Dilip Kumar considered himself lucky to get the fare he did. "The equations were set in those days. It was Shanker-Jaikishen and Raj Kapoor and SD Burman and Dev(Anand). So it was Naushad mia, Rafisaab and Shakeel (Badayuni) who took up cudgels for me. Initially, Talat (Mehmood) mia who had become my voice but you see how the film music climbed from the subdued low to the screaming high. When Rafisaab took over after his Baiju Bawra success, he was singing in low pitch but he started hitting high notes with Amar (1954) onward. If you would have seen us playing badminton together, you would have seen how well we gelled with each other. Shakeelsaab kalaam likhe, Naushadmia tarz banaaye aur Rafisaab gaaye!"  

Regretting the little fallout with Rafi who was perhaps as blessed in stature, Dilip Kumar said "He (Mohammed Rafi) was a Man of God. Nothing against Kishore but I admit 'Saala mai to saab ban gaya' (Sagina Mahato-1970) looked jarring on me. The status quo was restored with 'Sukh ke sab saathi  (Gopi) and 'Na tu zameen ke liye hai' (Dastaan). It spoke volumes about the three legendary personalities of Indian cinema that they never washed dirty linen in public.

I remember the controversy Dilip Kumar had courted in the mid-eighties when he chose to marry Asma because his marriage with reigning actress and beauty queen Saira Banu was rumored to be fledgling because of the age differences between them. After a lot of dithering, Dilip Kumar came clean and divorced his new wife. As the in-charge of Page One that day, I had carried the story as a box item given the public interest it had generated. However that chapter of his life as also the much spoken about love affair with Madhubala were of no concern to me. Love affairs in the film industry have nothing to offer than some prurient quotient.

Dilip Kumar fondly reminisced how he had reached out to people other than those from his fraternity. "Bal Thackeray was a special friend. We were a mutual admiration club. There were times when I would impromptu gate-crash into his house. We would sit on the terrace of his house and discuss this and that over red wine and a very tasty 'chakna' (a starter) his wife Meenatai would rustle up with boiled peanuts, finely chopped onions, tomatoes and lime. In fact, I so much loved this starter that I remember eating it days on end at home. Contrary to what most people think, our political views never came in between our friendship." Unfortunately, towards the late nineties that was no longer true as Thackeray had rubbished him uncharitably after he was conferred the Nishan-e-Pakistan by the Pakistan government. To Dilip Kumar's credit he did not let his dignity to come in the way in the way of what could have been a slanging match. He matched the depth of his flawless articulation with poise that many in the industry today dreadfully lack.

As someone who was passionate about football, Dilip Kumar, a product of the Khalsa College, could have well donned the cap. "At times, I was more possessed as a footballer than as an actor. My outlet found it's way on the various grounds across Mumbai -- Shivaji Park mostly. I would hop out of my car and join any match in progress much to the amusement and appreciation of the participants. They would be surprised I could dribble through and pack a lethal kick. If you allow fame to get the better of you, you become nuisance, a public nuisance, a nuisance as a friend, as a member of the family, a nuisance to yourself. So I let myself go whenever I saw people playing football."

The Dilip Kumar psyche can be understood in this context. "My becoming an actor was more a twist of tale than a chosen course because I dared not to think I could ever become an actor. I couldn't even walk up on the stage and say 'Thank You' when we were to receive trophies at our sports meets at college." How he refined himself with time to deliver those weighty speeches is another story.

It is not my case here to deal with his life that is already in public domain. For that matter, I don't know if I have contributed anything new about his persona and professional life. As he is interred in the same Juhu cemetery where other icons have also been laid to rest -- Meena Kumari, Mohammed Rafi, Madhubala, Sahir Ludhianvi, Naushad, Ali Sardar Jaffri, Talat Mehmood, Jan Nisar Akhtar to name a few -- Dilip Kumar will be in the august company.

Having lived a full life of 98 years, it probably had to be his alter ego Rafi who sang this for him much before his own untimely demise in 1980. The voice and words are tailor-made for Dilip Kumar:

आज पुरानी राहों से कोई मुझे आवाज़ ना दे
दर्द में डूबे गीत ना दे, ग़म का सिसकता साज़ ना दे
बीते दिनों की याद थी जिन में, मैं वो तराने भूल चूका
आज नई मंज़िल है मेरी, कल के ठिकाने भूल चूका
ना वो दिल ना सनम, ना वो दिन धरम
अब दूर हूँ सारे गुनाहों से
टूट चुके सब प्यार के बंधन, आज कोई जंजीर नहीं
शीशा-ए-दिल में अरमानों की, आज कोई तस्वीर नहीं
अब शाद हूँ मैं, आज़ाद हूँ मैं 
कुछ काम नहीं है आहों से
पहुँचा हूँ वहाँ, नहीं दूर जहाँ 
भगवान भी मेरी निगाहों से

Raju Korti
In my 41 years as mediaperson, I have come across a category of people that has a special talent for stating the obvious. It occurs fairly equally in high and low intelligence people. Even with the specious argument that what is obvious to one may not be obvious to the other, it has the potential to make a dumbass of others. But the hilarity of not understanding what you say and believing the other people don't understand or  realize makes the irony delicious.

In 1982 I was into third year on my job and had been just elevated as the Shift In-charge of Page One. It was actually baptism by fire. From rewriting mofussil stories I was suddenly asked to do Page One on the day the union budget was presented. The stories from the wire and correspondents were coming in thick and fast. Those were the days when pages were being made manually on the Lino and the editor in-charge had to not only edit Page One stories, he also had to design the page. When I entered the newsroom around 8 pm, I saw my desk flooded with agency copies. 

Since, I knew fairly well what went into the making of the budget, I was confident of putting the edition to bed by the stipulated deadline. Before I could take my seat, a senior colleague of mine told me "Boss, aaj budget hai." I hid my sarcasm and asked him, Oh, is it? 

This colleague had a habit of reminding me the most important development of the day, especially  when I would be handling Page One. When the ethnic conflict broke out in Sri Lanka, he told me in his charitable tone "Boss, aaj Lanka ka story hai." If I had shouted "yes", I am sure LTTE chief V Prabhakaran would have heard it in Jaffna. But I let that pass.

Over a period, I acquired the reputation of a newsmaker in whose Page One shifts something shattering would invariably happen. My colleague would take a great delight in telling me what were the lead stories of the day. He sincerely believed I had zero news sense. On the night of 2-3rd December 1984, as I walked into the newsroom he sported his trademark benign smile and said "Boss, aaj Bhopal gas tragedy ki story hai." A year later, it was "Boss, aaj Indira ka assassination hua hai." 

"Boss, aaj railway accident ki story hai, Boss aaj Rajiv (Gandhi) cabinet ki story hai...." the list is countless. The only redeeming feature of these serial episodes was being addressed as "Boss" which was seemingly used out of habit. I do not recollect when this stopped but somewhere along the line, he realized I wasn't as dumb as he thought.

Stating the obvious has its own advantages. It fills up news space and talk time. Our erudite folks on the television have fine-tuned the art. "Aap ko kaisa lag raha hai?" is a universal question for all occasions and tragedies. The English version of 'stating the obvious' found a regional version in 'Zaahir si baat hai.." The obvious is consolidated by the camera which has better quality than the accompanying journalist. 

Lifestyle publications and channels have made a living out of inane questions. Food vloggers and anchors are sound so profound when they shoot questions like:Ye hotel aap ne kab se shuru kiya?

Iska matlab hai, aap ki teen peedhiyan is line me hai.