The familiar and the unfamiliar

Today's issue of the Korea Times carried a shocking news. Former Korean President Roh Moo-Hyun, who was under investigation for a political corruption scandal had committed suicide by jumping off a cliff while hiking in his home village. The news of the investigation had already made headlines but this was a really unexpected development! I'm currently writing an article on self help books for the campus magazine and I wonder what kind of mental torment must he had faced that drove him to take such an extreme step. I came here to study at the university and I sometimes take pride in the fact that I can stay neutral and professional in most trying times. But I find myself getting increasingly getting involved and entangled in events that do not concern me and in others problems.
Leading a strictly academic life, especially in engineering can be very boring and I actively seek ways to add some diversity to my life. One such effort was to join the QUILL, which though takes a lot of my time but gives me a chance to learn new things and meet new people. Also I've learnt to take pleasure in the things that I have rather than repent about the things that I don't. I enjoy what comes along. Yesterday, I went to a nice restaurant where we had Bulgogi (grilled beef) and Mandu (steamed meat dumplings). A full fledged Korean meal is always interesting, due to the large number of side dishes (Banchhan) and the sheer variety of color. On top of this, most of the stuff is very healthy, which makes eating out a pleasurable and healthy experience. I came back with a full stomach and a great satisfaction that comes with a fulfilling meal. There was a lot of work to be done for the current issue of the QUILL. I am supposed to write an editorial on the psychology of theft and surveillance, and an article evaluating self help books. If the issue of the theft was not difficult enough, I got entangled into the quagmire of the self help articles due an impulsive decision during a dinner with some fellow QUILLers. I've never read a self help book in my life and I view those who read them with extreme contempt. During the dinner meeting I was extremely critical about those who take help of those who read them, calling them 'backboneless' and a lot of other foul things, only to find that the person sitting beside me was one of them. Suddenly I felt very bad and uncomfortable. And I decided to not only to give it a try but to write a full 2 page article evaluating good and bad self help books. I must admit that at that time my decision and judgement was clouded by actions but soon I came to realize how intimidating a task it was. But I have a reputation to protect and so I got down to understand the whole new world of self help books. I visited a famous bookstore with a few friends of mine, who read these books and surveyed the ones that were on display. They seems to have a lot of knowledge on this matter and gave me a lot of liberal advice. I reciprocated with some trademark caustic humor of mine!
Today, I was busy researching about the psychology of theft, surveillance, self help books, reading "Who Moved My Cheese?" and of course writing. To cheer myself up, I was listening to Pavarotti, mainly his rendition of Puccini's 'Nessun Dorma'. My fascination for Western classics started with Wagner's Tannhauser. Anyway, after a hard days work writing, I decided to take a break in the evening and take a walk. I decided to visit my old neighborhood of Bong-Cheon dong, where I lived for 6 months before moving into the dorm. As I walked I noticed the changes that had come about in the past few months. At the 4 way crossing, the new building that was being constructed had added a lot of new floors. There was a new Paris Baguette at the corner as well. The street side stalls selling snacks were there as usual and continued to be a big crowd puller. However, the man selling grilled chicken was missing. I decided to visit the Jungang market and found a really nice Shiraz wine. I also saw some familiar faces of the market employees. While coming back, I passed the cosmetic shops with irritating nasal female voices trying to attract customers. I was in mood for something sweet, so when I was passing the Tours Le Jours store, I decided to check it out. There was a new girl at the counter. Given the eagerness of her greetings, evidently she was a recent recruit! I decided to buy a nice almond cake.
With a large part of the writing task taken care of, I can relax a bit now. As midnight approaches, I'm still listening to Pavarotti - O' Sole Mio, Ave Maria has now joined Nessun Dorma and his baritone continues to enthral me. Accompanying the music is a wonderful Australian wine. Though alcohol is prohibited inside the dorm, I don't care now! Maybe, the alcohol is taking effect :). The absence of my room-mate also helps me indulge in this 'old vice of mine'.
Thus life rolls on. The more I try to simplify my life, the more entangled it gets. The more I try to understand the Korean psyche, the more mysterious it gets. The more I try to stay away from the pleasures of life (for the sake of my body-building objectives), the more induglent I seem to get.

Democracy triumphs!!!

I acquired my voter ID card about 5 years back when I was about to finish high school but have never voted in any of the elections - be it the general elections or the state assembly. For 4 years since school, I lived about 3 hours from my voting constituency and never felt the eagerness to take the gruelling journey home just to cast my vote. And since then I've been living outside India - first in Germany and now in Korea, and hence has just been a silent spectator to the 'Great Political Drama' that unfolds during the times of the elections.
In high school, during the infancy of my political consciousness I had witnessed a number of failed governments, weak leaders and the corruption and inefficiency that shrouds Indian politics - which unfortunately made me loose faith in the Indian democratic system at the very beginning. Towards the end of high school I was too busy with myself to take an active interest in politics and being in IIT where politically affiliated student unions don't exist, I have rarely had a chance to feel the wind that drives Indian politics. I hardly bothered for the Gymkhana elections in IIT and took no interest in them. This is partly because I didn't really care for what went on with others, the major policy changes and the possible changes that could be brought about by an active student movement. It might be said that all I was concerned about was myself and my career. And this is not just true for me but for a large number of other students in IIT as well. And the effect of such lack of interest and initiative reflects in the appalling conditions of the hostels, the lack of proper on campus medical facilities etc. Maybe if we had been a little more active, maybe if we had a little more faith in ourselves and if we had taken some right steps at the right time, it could have saved the innocent life that was lost due to the negligence of the pathetic BC Roy hospital.
I always believed that democracy cannot work in a country as large as India, where politics is played on the basis of caste, where a large number of politicians have extensive criminal records, where party tickets are sold to the highest bidder, where many of the MPs rarely turn up for the Parliamentary proceedings. This was coupled with the fact that a large percentage of the Indian population lives a very hard life and their votes can be bought by very small favors right before the election. The 'educated elite' hardly ever bothers to vote, believing that nothing will change and just one vote hardly matters. Voter turnouts in major cities are always very low. Also, due to the large number of regional parties, the negligence in developing states ruled by the opposition coalition, the short term myopic policies of the government which aims at immediate gains in the coming election rather than sustained growth in the long run, I believed that democracy could never be fully realised successfully in India.
After the 2004 elections when Congress led UPA came to power, there was much drama over the appointment of Dr Manmohan Singh as the PM (or rather a 'puppet PM'). Though I greatly admire Dr Singh as an academician and an economist, I was rather sceptical of him as a PM. I'd have rather preffered to see Advani as PM, whom I considered ideal for the job, because, as many would agree, he seems to have the 'balls' to do so. Also, growing up in a BJP era (during my high school), the 'India Shining campaign' (which ultimately didn't work), I came to admire a lot of NDA leaders like Yashwant Singh, Pramod Mahajan, Arun Jaitley, Sushma Swaraj etc, partly because they were media savvy. The confidence that the 'India Shining' campaign, the successful conclusion of the Kargil conflict, the peace measures with Pakistan, brought about was countered by the utter failure of the way the Kandahar hijacking was dealt with and the interference of MM Joshi in the functioning of IITs and IIMs.
Coming back to the present day, I was once again a 'distant observer' of the 2009 general elections. However, I could feel the tremors from thousands of miles away. The possibility of a fractured mandate, the horrors of Mulayam Singh's 'misguided manifesto' (which reminded me of Pol Pot's monstrous idea of going back in time to purify ourselves of 'western influence'), the possibility of the Third front or a Leftist dominated coalition coming to power, the nightmarish scenario of Mayavati becoming the PM, the bleak economic situation, constantly troubled me, though apparently I was far away from the reaches of the its fallout.
The results of the election stunned everybody. Nobody expected any particular coalition to come close to the magic figure but as it turned out, they did. And not only that, there was a clear mandate that people don't approve of the misguided ideas of the bigwigs of UP-Bihar. The Red bastion seems to crumble, at least for now, and I hope it will continue to crumble in future. Though this result will not make me a fan of the UPA overnight, it still makes to happy to think that the uncertainties that were threatening to engulf Indian politics seems to have cleared, at least of the time being. These are difficult times and the current government will have to cater to the expectations of a billion people. The market seems to have given a resounding applause to the election results and, hope, seems to break though the clouds of despair in these dark days.
Given the magnitude of the election process, the difficulties faced in conducting it, this outcome is no less momentous than the election of Obama. Just the difference in that it was not played out in the US. It seems that I've been proved wrong. Democracy does work in India, if not perfectly. People still have the power to spring surprises and reject opportunists.
There has been many occasions in the past, when the name of India featured prominently on the global stage- the Pokhran blasts, Olympic medals, winning the T20 world cup, the talks of India poised to be a global superpower. But I think that the results of this election has made me more proud of India that any other event. I've never been happy to be proved so utterly wrong and to witness not just the successful conclusion of the most complicated election process in the world but the triumph of the very idea of Democracy!

A Journalist's dilemma

Its been some time since I've written here. That's because I've been busy writing in other places - namely SNU English journal, the QUILL. Vol. 19 was my debut issue and I wrote 2 articles for it. One describing the perception and problems of foreign students coming to SNU and the other one was an editorial for the cover story - the obsession with fashion amongst Koreans.
Koreans are not the best English speakers in the world and hence the QUILL is mostly targeted for foreigners and those who have a decent proficiency with English. However, it seems strange to think that it would leave a large majority of SNU students out of the possible list of readers. While the other members of the QUILL team sticks to objective and factual reporting, while writing the editorials, I'm usually spoilt for choice. In the article allocation, while others have a fixed topic to write on, my section usually includes - "Free topic for Subho". Though it gives me a lot of freedom to choose my topic, writing style and format, knowing so little about SNU makes the problem more acute than what it sounds like. For example, this issue is supposed to be on Theft in SNU. Now when the issue came up, I was really surprised. Compared to India, Seoul is a utopian land - crimes are very rare, the streets are usually far safer and theft on campus of all places is almost unthinkable to me. The only unsafe thing I could think about was the way people ride bikes (mostly delivery guys). But now, I have developed more understanding on the issue and as it turns out, that the 'utopian' Korean society has many dark secrets in its closet.
In this regard, I was talking to a labmate of mine and for his opinion. I also asked him about how he felt about the previous article that I had written. The problem as it turned out was that he had some difficulty in understanding what I had written. Though I tried to be fairly objective and straight forward, I inevitably ended up making it a bit theatrical. With veiled hints and more than one layer of meaning, it may not be easy for a person not proficient enough in English to understand. However, writing it in a very plain language would 'take the piss out of the whole thing'. Now that's the dilemma - should I sacrifice the 'literary' quality of the article to make it more understandable and intelligible or should I stick to this multi-layered, slightly theatrical style of writing? I guess even after almost 2 decades of learning English and blogging for more than 3 years, I've a lot to learn about 'optimal expressionism'.
This has however been a satisfying journey. From the 'D' in 1st grade in English, to be able to play with the language, in terms of its structure, construction, meaning and expression - I've come a long way. But like all great journeys, this one is still far from being over. On the contrary, its like a mirage - the closer you approach, the farther the target gets.
From the experience of the last 2 months, I realise that joining the QUILL was good decision. On the very outset, it gives me a chance to improve my skills to play with the language and improve ability to express myself. Secondly, it helps me immerse myself into the life of SNU and the Korean society in general. I find myself reading more about Korean and its people and hence beginning to enjoy my stay here. My awareness level has increased significantly and so has my curiosity. Last but not the least is getting to meet people from other departments (though the membership seems to be heavily skewed in favor of students of International Relations) and get out of the 'macho' world of Engineering for some time! Though this semester is crazy, I'm not exactly depressed by the busy schedule and lack of sleep. The continuous classes (where I'm notoriously famous for falling asleep), language education, project work, watching Korean drama, writing for QUILL, kicking a** of people who read self-help books ... life has become crazy and complicated but at the same time a lot more interesting!