We don't do nuance

We don’t do nuance

President George Dubya Bush, India’s special friend, or her hegemonistic bete noire, depending on your political persuasion, let it be known, “I don’t do nuance”, thereby putting the onus on his officials and advisers to present matters in black and white, the grey being relegated to damnation.

But two-term President G.W. Bush, once wanting a certain Mr.Laden “dead-or-alive”, in all look-you-in-the-eye seriousness, is wiser than it might be assumed at first. Because, casting the world and all its matters in stark either/or terms, does have its advantages.

Not doing nuance prevails, hands down, over doubt, and issues of intellectual honesty, for example. It helps you brush inconsistencies, like where are those life-threatening WMDs, under the carpet. And, it enables you to look decisive, almost as decisive as wearing a Bomber Jacket for a photo opportunity on a US Aircraft Carrier, as you back your chosen “regime change” horses. And you don’t even have to pander to inconvenient ifs and buts as you win re-election with a decisive majority.

But India, being an old civilisation, an observant and subtle one at that, always manages a variation on every theme. So, while the world watches our no-holds-barred version of democracy in morbid fascination; we, the people of India, are confronted with the unedifying spectacle of every political party, and person in it, casting its, and his or her agenda, in black or white, in sense and nonsense alike.

We don’t worry much that this resembles anarchy and invites aggression from Pakistan, China, internal Maoists, external terrorists and all others wanting to fish in troubled waters. But, really, we patently should!

Instead we seem to have developed an ever-changing aya ram gaya ram variation of the no-nuance mantra, with nil reference to our own past preferences, and a throw-away line or two as to the whys and wherefores for anybody listening.

Sometimes, a few politicos pick up, this being the land of Mahatma Gandhi, whatever shard of ethical justification they feel like, to cloak it in. It is a shard picked up from the floor, from the shattered jar of morality lying there. Others have reached a new level of blatancy altogether, and feel no need for cloaking anything anymore.

That is why you have issues of political illegitimacy cohabiting with oxymorons of deep-seated political incompatibility. You have the UPA refusing to distinguish between the patriotic Muslim citizen and blood-thirsty terrorist, at least in terms of nabbing and punishing any of the perpetrators. The illegal, encouraged to walk-in Bangladeshi, harbouring seditionists in their midst, is retained with full voting rights and a tacit understanding of political patronage while crocodile tears are shed over increasing piles of the innocent dead. The domestic jehadi, from known and documented hotspots, is allowed to go about his business as if it were a fundamental right of his that the nation must preserve.

You also have the NDA, ostensibly a Right-leaning, business-friendly party, brazenly declaring its intent to oppose any initiative to execute long pending reforms held up for long by the ideologically driven Left. This, coming, as it does, after disowning the very Indo-US Nuclear Deal that the NDA helped foster, over six years of preparatory work. And after testing nuclear devices, five of them, readied painstakingly after years of surreptitious development by successive Congress and Janata Dal governments before them.

You also have both sides trying to engineer defections, using every device of cash and kind at their disposal, and refusing to see any ignoniminy in it.

You have, in addition, the rag-tag-and-bobtail UNPA, the secondary Opposition, devoid of a coherent political vision of their own, unless it is the debilitating ideology of the Left, opposing both ends of the stick against the middle. They see nothing odd about their declared intention of providing the benighted populace with the “third alternative”, one to be authored and executed by themselves.

The UNPA is hoping to increase its strength in the next general election so that the UNPA, the UPA and the NDA become more or less the same size. Then, the UNPA would have the right to stake its claim to form the government just as legitimately as the other two groupings. The way things are going, this could indeed come to pass.

As for the other two formations, namely the UPA and the NDA, they are determined, to make short work of the UNPA, just as they have three times already! But perhaps the past is not an accurate predictor of the future. It could be the UNPA that breaks up the NDA or the UPA to their advantage the next time around!

And all this is only the main plot. Every regional party that is teamed up within the UPA, the NDA or the UNPA, or is ostensibly independent and unattached, has its own regional agenda, often at cross purposes with its larger commitments.

The solution to the deepening mess, bizarre as it may seem, is coming to more and more strategic, economic and political commentators. It is simply an alliance of the centrist elements in the UPA and those in the NDA, or, if one has to peel the onion somewhat in the process, between the Congress and the BJP.

After all, they account for nearly 400 of the 542 seat Lok Sabha between them and are likely to easily tally up the 272 seats needed for a parliamentary majority together going forward. They also represent most of the political and administrative acumen available to the Indian political stage. Not only would such a formation end the descending spiral of political blackmail that is getting us more and more into its boa constrictor-like grip, but the Congress and BJP could be regarded as natural allies if each dropped a few of their irreconcilable differences in favour of a common minimum programme of their own.

Together, the Congress and the BJP are capable of providing governance and stability to this country after the impending elections. Dubya Bush, our friend over the seas, knows why he doesn’t do nuance. Likewise our political leadership too must, in the service of our beloved nation as our 61st Independence Day approaches, consider dispensing with chicanery and refuse to nuance the differences between the party that won our independence and the one that constitutes the principal opposition. Today, they need to unite against the rest.

(1,050 words)
Gautam Mukherjee
July 29th, 2008

Published in The Pioneer as "A possible alternative" in Leader Edit slot on the EDIT page and online at http://www.dailypioneer.com/ --on Wednesday, July 30th, 2008

ON with the show!

On with the show!

A lot got done amidst the high drama of July 21st and 22nd besides the government winning the Trust Vote with a 19 vote lead and ten abstentions. There was most useful cross-voting from individuals from a clutch of Opposition parties, and it may be a short time before the cross-voters are drawn firmly into the UPA fold.

The lines of competence have been drawn for the general election coming up, and it seems clear that the Opposition is at a considerable disadvantage.

Nevertheless, it is hard to feel sorry for the Opposition. Not only is the UNPA composed of a jerry-built raft of the oddest lots of the political pantheon; including the detritus of lost political battles; but they are probably the worst behaved parliamentarians encountered so far.

Their fellow travellers in this instance, the NDA, look dispirited and hapless, and distinctly uncomfortable for having got into bed with a number of very unsavoury playmates. But perhaps in this era of coalition politics there is little choice.

There was much money doing the rounds, reportedly. But irrespective of the enquiries and prosecutions that may yet ensue, it seems hypocritical to be shocked to learn that public life has its corrupt moments! And to put it on television hardly represents any grand departure from the past, except for some pointless titillation.

But perhaps a few new steps do need to be taken. It seems no longer easy to take revolvers into parliament, at least one hopes so; but easy enough to spirit suitcases full of cash in. Perhaps the Watch and Ward Staff is unable to muster up the courage to stop “immune” MPs. It may therefore be time for a circular to go out from the Parliamentary Affairs Minister banning the entry of cash into parliament except for what a parliamentarian can carry in a wallet. That’s wallet, in the singular, as in one wallet per MP.

Parliament also badly needs to put in a new, high-tech sound management system, with sufficient acoustic insulation built into every part of the House, so that it makes all hecklers and interrupters inaudible, or nearly so, unless they speak into mikes. And the Speaker should have the button to cut off said mikes whenever necessary.

It is evident, of late, that opposition to anything is tantamount to shouting down anyone that is targeted. Persuasion from the Speaker of the House falls routinely on deaf ears despite the yelling he is forced to resort to. So, if one wants to, the technological solution is certainly at hand.

As for the Well of the House, and the propensity for parliamentarians rushing into it to hold impromptu dharnas, accompanied usually with sufficient slogan-shouting to paralyse all other activity; perhaps the answer is small-charge-shock-mines, embedded into the floor, acting in a manner similar to cattle-prods. Again, a button at the Speaker’s desk should prevent the parliamentary staff from receiving electric shocks as they go about their business. I am sure Westminster does not need such arrangements; but we are a younger democracy, and we certainly do.

Similar arrangements, like the Delhi Metro, moving to build Metro systems elsewhere, can then be spread to the State Assemblies, where legislators routinely throw furniture and fittings at each other as well, before rushing over to indulge in fisticuffs, and may call, therefore, for additional features.

The Trust Vote success, earned with commendable, if strenuous effort, by the government, does offer the ruling UPA a great chance to set a number of things to rights before calling for the general elections on schedule next year.

The Indo-US Nuclear Deal is going to happen, and happen without domestic interference now. This presents unprecedented new opportunities to India Inc., running into billions of US dollars, and the capital goods and power infrastructure companies have already begun to rally sharply on the stock markets in anticipation.

The Finance Minister is talking of developing consensus on a number of financial bills pending parliamentary approval but since most of these need only a simple majority, like the Trust Vote, and not a two-thirds majority, required generally for constitutional amendments, there is no need to regard Mr. Chidambaram‘s remarks as any more than politeness. Or perhaps, we need to see it as a face-saver for those elements of the Left that no longer wish to follow Mr. Karat’s amateurish directions.

Some social reform bills, such as the Women’s Reservation Bill, do however pose problems, with elements in the ruling UPA constrained by their vote banks, and will probably have to be kept in abeyance for the time being.

But, if the SP can find a way to withhold objections to it, adding daring to boldness, it may have the side effect of curbing the profusion of criminal elements in parliament with as many as 50 MPs facing grievous charges such as murder and over a hundred up on lesser charges such as rioting, arson and the like. Women, after all, are widely thought to be the more law abiding of the sexes.

But the greatest thing in favour of business and industry is the fact that the elements that now constitute the UPA are decidedly reformist and business friendly. This can only throw up new opportunities for the prime minister, an eminent economist himself, as well as the duo in the finance and commerce ministries.

We should also get on with drawing closer to the United States and Israel in defence and high technology areas. This will not only give us the best from the best, but paradoxically make Russia, the Arabs and others that we interact with, for oil, gas, trade and defence supplies, far more reasonable. It is a truism that negotiating from a position of strength makes all the difference.

We can also henceforth expect to be less frequently threatened by China with regard to Ladakh and Arunachal Pradesh and even Sikkim! As for Pakistan, we can be fairly sure that this is when they begin to give up the ghost with regard to their rivalry with India.

Perhaps, at long last, the contours of India as a future superpower are indeed possible to discern after this historic vote. And a special vote of thanks needs to go out to Speaker Somnath Chatterjee for upholding the highest standards of parliamentary procedure and wrestling the rambunctious assembly to an orderly outcome.


(1,050 words)

Gautam Mukherjee
July 23rd, 2008

Keys to India Inc. Vedanta, Karma & Dharma

BOOK REVIEW


THINK INDIA

The Rise of the World’s Next Superpower and what it means for every American

By Vinay Rai and William L. Simon
Published by Dutton (Penguin USA), August 2007.
Pages, 284. India price: Rs. 450/-


Keys to India Inc. Vedanta Dharma and Karma


It is always encouraging to see books on Indian business prospects written by businessmen, rather than academics or journalists, who, erudite as they often are, often lack that all important business instinct.

Vinay Rai of the erstwhile Usha Group, is a to-the-manner-born businessman, even though he concentrates more on his educational and philanthropic ventures these days. And having collaborated with a professional American writer, William Simon, who has previously written a New York Times bestselling biography of Steve Jobs of Apple Inc.; the book is smooth in the reading, with a profusion of easy Americanisms, to make it further comprehensible to the American interested in doing business in the new India.

This short and straight-forward book does not hem and haw, but clearly states that it is time for India and the United States to collaborate across-the-board, to their mutual benefit. This thrust is set in the context of present day global geo-politics, and the rising strategic threat posed by China, to Indian and American interests alike.

But of course, because India is geographically next door, it can certainly feel the dragon’s breath somewhat warmer on the back of its Gandhian neck. And it doesn’t help matters that India is forced to make the most of its Soviet-era armaments, with the odd brilliant bit of Israeli equipment, acquired lately, in the interim; while matters grow cosier with the United States, particularly without the impedimenta posed by the Left.

But the refreshing, if typical, Indian paradox is in the very next suggestion: next best strategic ally for India is none other than China! If we can work this in tandem going forward, mirroring the US-China initiative by Richard Nixon, that served to slowly unravel the power and eventually, the very existence, of the USSR; we will have the best of all worlds. But, this proposition is set in the favoured US style combo format. The unabashed alliance with the US is essential, and the further cooperation with China will be simply dandy.

Vinay Rai is scathing about the economically speaking lost years of India’s “tilt” towards the USSR, and her own Socialist policies of the licence-permit regime; which, according to him, in agreement with prevalent wisdom nowadays, has served to retard India’s progress. He speaks from first-hand experience, of course.

But, to some extent, Rai points out; the tilt towards the USSR was forced on us due to an unwarranted tilt on the part of the US towards Pakistan. So much so, that during the Bangladesh War in 1971, it is presumed that the US would have attacked India, if it were not for stern warnings on our behalf from the USSR.

The book also talks about the Indian approach, the Vedantic, Karma and Dharma-centric view of life and matters, her diversity, tolerance, her unity in tenuous ways, not so visible to the naked Western eye, her virtues, that are nestled in seeming deficits. And India’s geographical variety, her beauty, the attractive national temperament, always eager to learn, and so on.

This book has come to India almost a year after it was released in the US, and today, some of the grand posturing with regard to India and China as the engines of 21st century growth seem a little dog-eared, because the other two in BRIC, namely Russia and Brazil, are contemplating better prospects now, sitting as they both are, on large reserves of oil. To his credit, Rai does acknowledge this, but, in August 2007, there was probably no way of anticipating the extent of the oil price rise of 2008.

Ours is now a world labouring in the heat of ever-rising oil prices, risen seven-fold since 2001.We will, all of us who don’t produce a surplus of crude, never have enough to go around, and until a solution is found to this issue, most of the assumptions of this book may yet not come to pass.

Besides, what it is doing to global growth and inflation is of seismic proportions.

A lot of THINK INDIA reads like a starter book on India, a primer on its charms and contradictions, even glorifying the exotic aspects, and discounts the effectiveness of the internet and travel stories on TV channels such as Discovery and National Geographic, because otherwise, it wouldn’t have dwelt on first principles like this.

Fortunately, THINK INDIA redeems itself in the last chapter by getting back on economic track. In it, Simon and Rai write of the progress being made in the “Two Indias”, the one of urban and modern progress, the other, of a rural India, mired still in poverty, but wherein a lot of progress is being made to alleviate matters.

And all this, within the parameters of a thriving and effective democracy, unlikely to see any cataclysms that could derail its new tryst with destiny. And what might that be? India and China, both boasting economies ahead of the United States by 2050.

Well, Goldman Sachs says so, and if it is right about USD 200 per barrel oil soon, perhaps it is also right about India as a superpower by 2050.

(850 words)

Gautam Mukherjee
Tuesday, July 15th, 2008

Printed in The Sunday Pioneer BOOKS section as "Good times, bad times" and online at www.dailypioneer.com on Sunday, July 20th, 2008

The Codpiece of Evil

The Codpiece of Evil


The codpiece of evil cloaks the cassock of holiness, to invert a bit of multiple Booker winning Salman Rushdie’s pyrotechnic writing. In his version, in The Enchantress of Florence, Rushdie has the cassock, and its purported holiness, doing the cloaking of evil. But what’s the point of parroting a borrowed simile, if you aren’t going to twist it?

The right way up, that’s how it was. Four harrowing years worth, when Comrade Karat and pals were tenderising the government’s meat into a mess of Pathhar Kebab. And suddenly he can’t anymore, now and anon.

The celebratory crackers are going off everywhere, and not just because it’s wedding season again, but because, truth be told, nobody likes a finger-wagging bully, dressed in either codpiece or cassock.

But it has been a slick bit of Manmohanomics so far. And much to Opposition Leader Mr. Advani’s discomfiture; and not a bit of sputtering dismay. It is our timid prime minister who’s turned unexpectedly bold, replete with “midnight deception” involving the IAEA. Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has got everyone out manoeuvred for once. People are starting to say, with a smile and a wry shake of the head, he’s learnt his lessons well, not just now, but long ago, when he was running the numbers for Prime Minister Narasimha Rao.

And to strut about with Mrs. Sonia Gandhi’s backing, Rahul Gandhi working the phones to gather the numbers for the trust vote, the Congress big-wigs catering, as only they can to their beloved Your-wish-is-my-High Command; and a pair of other Singhs from Uttar Pradesh on board too.

If the prime minister is a card playing man, he’d recognise a royal flush in hand quick enough. Not bad for a fortnight’s work. And the outside Singhs, Mr. Ebullience cum Audacity Singh, holding hands with Mr. Rustic-Vote-Garnering- Singh from the Akhara, are both Aces in holes too, after all.

One can’t call it kabbadi, at least not yet, but its definitely masterful ringa-ringa-roses, with all the plague, and pox, and falling down in the mud, reserved for the trenchant Communist in Kabuli Sandals. Mr. Karat is not happy; but, no one outside of his club frankly gives a damn!

Furthermore, in this pre-election scene of extreme gloom and doom; with a possible 17 per cent wholesale inflation rate staring us in the face by year end; a stock market so depressed that its chin rests all day on its chest; a growth rate going, going, gone into reverse gear; the industrial numbers whittled down to a barely discernible 3 per cent; and a current account deficit threatening to bankrupt us; Mr. Manmohan Singh might just have the means at hand to restore some good cheer at last.

Some, if not all the pent up reform, can be implemented in short order after the government wins its trust vote, assuming it does so, on July 22nd.

And while Mr. Amar Singh may want to settle a score or two on behalf of his friends, its good old fashioned corporate lobbying, and there’s nothing sinister or cloak and dagger about it. What a relief and contrast it is to be spared the inquisitorial tortures of communist ideology in the only country with a Stalinist organisation left in the world! It does take some getting used to, this sudden lightness of being.
There is a tremendous amount of reform work piled up, in the financial sector, in the judiciary, in infrastructure, in labour reform, in PSU divestment. And as the soaring prices of crude oil, cresting up continuously on speculation teaches us, it is the financial sector that is the true engine of growth nowadays. Pending Indian reforms in the financial sector include those in pensions, insurance and banking as well as in structural ways that can better align it with global commerce.
If the UPA goes ahead with reforms in these areas now, promptly, it will change the depressed mood of India Inc. and middle class and rural, voting India too, galvanise fresh foreign investment, and position the ruling coalition favorably for the coming general elections. The considerable economist in the prime minister should be given a free hand.
In banking, we need some mergers amongst the public sector banks so that they can compete with much larger foreign banks. Then, there is the long pending issue of voting rights wherein, fair play demands that voting rights of foreign stakeholders must be commensurate with their shareholding pattern.
The Pension Fund Regulatory and Development Authority Bill is pending. Millions of the public’s pension money is being depleted by high inflation while the government has been unable to permit greater flexibility on how the funds may be invested.
Similarly, amendments are needed to free up the insurance sector inclusive of permitting more foreign direct investment in it, capped presently at just 26 per cent.
Reports do say that the UPA plans to take advantage of the exit of the Left. There’s quite a quiver full of arrows to let fly: such as, 100 per cent foreign direct investment (FDI) in telecom services. And specialty retail sectors to open up to foreign participation, including sports goods and electronics. Our own quality appreciation in manufacture can only go up as a consequence.
Atomic energy generation, which is presently barred to domestic and foreign private companies alike, could, and indeed should, be opened up. And, as the deal with America goes through, it may be good to realise that France’s nuclear power plants, all 56 of them, are actually based on American technology.
After experimenting with their own gas-cooled reactors in the 1960s, the French gave up, and purchased American Pressurized Water Reactors designed by Westinghouse. Sticking to just one design meant the 56 plants were much cheaper to build than in the US. Moreover, management of safety issues was much easier: the lessons from any incident at one plant could be quickly learned by managers of the other 55 plants.
This just might be a new season of learning unexpected lessons for many besides the prime minister who’s suddenly risen above codpieces and cassocks once and for all. As for evil, its back to school for it, and regrettably, China has already put up the no vacancies sign. I hear they are busy printing up their nuclear reactor plans in Hindi.

(1,050 words)
By Gautam Mukherjee
Saturday, July 12th, 2008

Also in print in The Pioneer on 16th July 2008 as "Celebrate the Left's exit" and online at www.dailypioneer.com

The Roof Over My Head

There may be trouble ahead
But while there's moonlight and music
And love and romance
Let's face the music and dance

Before the fiddlers have fled
Before they ask us to pay the bill
And while we still
Have the chance
Let's face the music and dance

Irving Berlin: From “Let’s face the music and dance”


The roof over my head


You and I have come across modest bungalows, built in the days when middle class people could afford to build homes with gardens and driveways, in metros such as Delhi and Mumbai, in mofussil towns, and up hill and down dale in remote parts, with names given to them, such as, “At Last”, and, “Journey’s End”.

Such naming, as opposed to “Saraswati Niwas” and “Shankar Kutir”, or even the pretentious “Mon Repos” or “Windermere”, may seem quixotic in 2008. But there was a time, when it took a middle class man or “earning member”, most of his life, before he could own that most prized roof over his head. It was treated as something of a crowning achievement.

This is because the house builder had to pay the entire bill, the land price, the cost of construction, the architect, the municipality for passed-drawings, the supervising engineer, bribes, taxes, everybody, in short, connected with his “own house” project. And he had to do so out of his savings, or, if he was unusually fortunate, from the modest proceeds of sale of ancestral property in his “native” place, supplemented nevertheless with his savings. There were no housing loans. There was the usurious Money Lender. But that, as they say, is another story.

Most of us then had very little stashed away on our middle class salaries. We built our houses on the strength of our retirement benefits, our Providend Fund yields, our Gratuity, if any, paid by employers for long years of service. So, we spent a large part of our productive life in rented property, or, well into middle-age, in a section of our ancestral property, or, along with our parents and assorted relatives. And we were forced to count ourselves lucky because the under classes below us had God’s own sky as their roof, sometimes augmented with bits of discarded gunny sacking or plastic sheeting or tin. And, as City of Joy by Dominic Lapierre makes only too clear, even that sort of accommodation bore a rent.

But the definitive middle class look at the subject is probably Nobel Laureate VS Naipaul’s A House for Mr. Biswas (1961). Naipaul, drawing on memories of his father, wrote about Mohun Biswas in an Indo-Trinidadian setting. But this Mr.Biswas, who struggles continually to make ends meet, who marries into the Tulsi family only to find himself dominated by it, and who finally sets the goal of owning his own house, seems familiar enough. It was part of the universal Indian Middle Class experience in the Nehruvian/Indira Gandhi era and its post-colonial realities.

But circa 2008, when so much has changed, has its own set of “own roof” related problems. And it is likely to get worse with high inflation and higher oil prices. There may well be trouble ahead. We might do well to listen then to Irving Berlin’s advice and dance, while we still have the chance. After all, we may be witnessing a gut wrenching down–turn in home ownership going forward. The good thing is that many of us have indeed turned into home-owners in our twenties and thirties rather than in our later years like Mr. Biswas.

But, there are still millions of units that need to be built, a huge deficit in decent budget housing, infinitely better than government built public housing projects, but perhaps less grand than the high-end luxury units on offer more often than not. Testimony to this is in the ever rising EMIs (Equated Monthly Installments), related to housing loans of the fancier housing. But then, they come with swimming pools, health clubs, split air-conditioning and Jacuzzis. They seemed like a mere stretch when the party began five or seven years ago, but more like a rod to break one’s back with now.

However, the alternatives are not very many. It is expensive to rent “capital gained” flats, worth crores, now. Even if you succeed in getting past the reluctance of flat owning investors, wary of the antiquated tenancy laws, insisting on “company leasing” entities, it is certainly not an easy proposition. Bungalows today are definitely not for the middle class, and are beyond the reach of the middle-level expatriate too.

Still, for a brief while, the great Indian Middle Class was indeed coasting along. It was being wooed by marketers of every type of consumer durable and appliance; cars came with easy-finance loans, flowers, and a box of sweets. And Home Loans were sanctioned with lightning speed by bushy-tailed young men, who acted like it was you who was doing them a good turn, which, come to think of it, you indubitably were!

Your Middle Class ego, battered, and poignantly represented by RK Laxman’s iconic “Common Man”, in that same chequered gala bandh, those Bata all-weather pumps, the white dhoti, ably assisted by nothing more substantial than his umbrella; had got used to being boosted and caressed by constant praise.

You read about your collective might. You were informed there were 300 million and more of you. You were not only India’s future but the future of the developed world, burning bright with education and intelligence, discerning, wise, knowledgeable and now ready to embrace la dolce vita with both arms and without guilt. You belonged to the biggest middle class entity anywhere, grown from modest beginnings sixty years ago, and already larger than the entire population of America.

But now, we may have come to a watershed if not an identity crisis. Our lives are defined a little differently from Mr. Biswas’. A roof over our head is not the be-all-and-end-all of our lives but just another necessity. The trouble is, we, the middle classes, never renowned for our nonchalance, may have to learn how to face the music and dance.

Because, as Scarlett O’ Hara said, to bring down the curtain on yet another celebrated book: Tomorrow is another day. And we may well be able to pay the bill tomorrow.

(1,049 words)

Gautam Mukherjee
2nd July 2008

Printed in The Pioneer and online at www.dailypioneer.com as "The roof over your head" on Thursday 3rd July 2008 on the EDIT Page.