PROPERTY DISPUTES

One property dispute that seems to have evinced the interest of the business community in particular and the public in general is the SHROFF vs SHROFF battle – Shardul Shroff vs Cyril Shroff, brothers and partners of the biggest law firm in India Amarchand Mangaldas. They are disputing their mother’s will where she bequeaths her entire 20% plus share to elder son Shardul Shroff, thus creating inequity in firm ownership between the two brothers. It took years for both of them to painstakingly build a clean reputation that saw their business flourishing and today this reputation is at stake.

This case seems to evoke a deeper human angle. Property disputes are not only amongst the rich today. This disease has become an epidemic and has spread across all classes and has hit the middle class in a big way. Why not, a home that was worth a few lakh of rupees 15 years back is worth crores of rupees today. The rise is phenomenal… on one hand making another home unaffordable for the family and on the other everyone clinging on to the one that has been passed on for generations.

It has become a social malice resulting from high property prices. In my own area where I live I see the fights happening between brothers and sisters over one single flat. In my hometown Kerala I was told by a journalist that joint families are breaking down due to property disputes. The Dubai returned keralities had invested in huge homes and land and now children fight over this ancestral property that they have made no contribution whatsoever financially or maybe even otherwise. Yes that is the key – No one has really earned it but wants as much a big pie that they can get. Maybe it is far-fetched to link this data; Kerala is the suicide capital of India.

I know a lady in Mumbai who was happy and cheerful. Just a year back her father passed away and the big ancestral property in her hometown is now the root of all her problems. The brothers don’t want to give her any share as they think that since she has been living far off from them and parents for many years now and is married and of another family, she does not need or earn a share. She thinks otherwise. She believes she must have a share as she wants it for her children. The fight is on and her life has now more tensions …. The irony of this malice is that the mathematics of life goes all wrong. We want to be more happier by adding that piece of property or money equivalent to the property which never existed in our lives before. But in the process we are deleting many, many good things from our life which existed before. So the maths works negative, does it not? For one, her smile nowadays is smeared with worries. Yes it sounds very philosophical but definitely not practical to the people concerned for whom it is also about fairness and equality, apart from the money.

But what all this surely does is kill the crux of human life - family. Family is everything. More then ever it is important for children to grow up in big large family of uncles and aunties.

Rising Property prices - It has started making all of us more inhuman than ever before.

Kathakali - Kerala's Classical Dance Drama

Yesterday for the first time I watched a live performance of the popular Malayalam art form Kathakali. Being a keralite, it is quite late in the day that I am coming to appreciate this art form. My family was quite amused that I am travelling all the way from Bandra to far off Bhandup (quite remote place for us Bandraites) to watch Kathakali, which they presume I know much of and must have watched it many times. Yes on TV but not live. I may have attended a few concerts when I was young but I guess I slept through it as I don’t have any memories.

So I go to Bright School at Bhandup where the 3-day Kathakali festival is on. It is being conducted on a small stage in a small corner of the school where less than 100 can be seated in plastic chairs. It is extremely hot with the audience and artists dripping with sweat. The air from the high ceiling fans does not reach one and of course no air-conditioner. The show starts at 6.30 pm, I reach around 6.45. I decide at the very beginning that I will leave by 8.30 or 9 as I may not be able to take the heat of that place. Besides I will also be hungry by then and home is one hour away.

I begin watching and neither time nor the heat nor hunger hits me. I am enthralled even though I know nothing of the stories that they enact.
This Kathakali artist here is 76-years old!.

The whole synchronisation of the drama with the percussion instruments the chenda and the maddalam is so beautiful. The Sopanam style of rendition of the songs which has its roots from the temple songs, indeed makes you feel that you are being transported to a heavenly abode.

What caught my attention was that for years I have heard about the unique make-up that Kathakali artists adorn but never gave so much a thought to it, only understanding that it takes 4-5 hours and is a laborious task both for the make-up man and the Kathakali artist.

But yesterday I looked at the make-up with different eyes. It reminded me of the two most important constituents of our face – the eyes and the lips. Kathakali speaks of love, anger, devotion, jealously, hatred, beauty, sadness, joy with these two components of the face. Kathakali beautifies and mystifies the eyes and lips in such a way to show the entirety of emotions through the eyes and lips. And indeed it is the eyes and the lips that reflect the soul that resides within us and with it our whole inner being and emotions.

Most importantly this art form is not about the artist, it is about the art. Most art forms revolve around the artist and his or her greatness and fame (and the numerous awards to his name). There the artist brings in more about him or herself, than the art and that is where everything to me is lost.

Well for a keralite I might be too late in the day in understanding and enjoying this art form but like they say better late than never. Truly it has filled my soul with a lot of my own stories.

WE NEED TO WALK THE TALK, NOT MODI

Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s speech on 28th September at Madison Square, New York was another ‘uplifting the masses’ speech. Many journalists reported that while the speech was impressive, the Prime Minister of India spoke of the same issues of governance, cleanliness and making India the next superpower. Economist Swaminathan Aiyar writes in the Economic Times that it is time for Modi to Walk The Talk. Translating potential into performance is tough, says Aiyar. Surely who does not know that it is indeed tough in a diverse and vast country like India. And it is tougher today than before. Reason being – A major erosion of our culture. The culture to think service to country and humanity is absent in a major way. A corruption ridden environment has seeped deep into the minds of every Indian and money has become the colour of speech, aggravated by rising inflation. Modi is trying bit by bit to bring back the culture Indians are known to exhibit when they had great leaders heading them. That is - To serve the country and to think of any job as a service and sacrifice to the country. Hence he says whether it is a teacher or a doctor or a sweeper, we must think we are sacrificing our lives for the service of the nation. If mindsets of people do not change, whether at work or in the subject of cleanliness, no matter how hard any government works, we are going to take one step forward and two steps backward. So we are missing the point of his speeches. Walk the Talk, who should Walk The Talk, not him but us citizens. That’s what he is simply saying.

Narendra Modi is merely opening up all the choked up channels, whether it is in mindset or ground realities. He has well thought out all his strategies. Imagine if nothing else he has made noise about India to 3 major countries that matter – China, Japan and U.S.A. He is inviting these three countries to come to India for their manufacturing needs. He says he will remove all bureaucratic hurdles and make it easy for them. He is slowly and gradually making the right moves to see manufacturing gets a leg up and that will automatically see many economic indicators improving.

Many scoff his Ganga project cleansing and do not consider it a priority amongst the many pressing projects that require funding. Ganga cleansing will require hell of a lot of resources. But Modi is confident that once you set out to do something good, money will flow. Don’t we see so many crowd funding projects for a good cause rake in a lot of funds? Again his keenness to cleanse the Ganga is deeper and hence for him a priority. He says it flows through so many cities of India. While he harped on the benefits of economic prosperity in cleansing the Ganga, he also knows that it does not bode well for India to keep a Holy river dirty. Cleanliness and positive energy starts from there. Modi is making all the moves but putting the ball in our court. Instead of expecting miracles from him, we should expect first a miraculous change in ourselves.