Conversation

"I had come looking for you. I thought you were thirsty. I'd brought rain with me"
"I was scorched by the heat that didn't exist, by the Sun that didn't rise. The promise of the rain seemed too distant and too late!"

The Eager Tiger and the Reluctant Dragon!

Charles and I are walking back from the Pilot’s house. When we are about to enter the Dantak complex, Charles notices something amiss. “Sir, who has removed the signboard?” He was referring to the prominent blue-and-white glow-signboard that declared, “Dantak welcomes you to Capital City Thimphu”. The board proudly perched atop declared the celebrated status of Dantak in Bhutan. It wasn’t to be seen anymore.

This set my mind get back to my earlier random thoughts about the role of Dantak in Bhutan (and thereby, that of India). Reaching home, over a cup of tea I organised my thoughts. Something that I’d always deferred for another day!

There have been several such ‘ominous’ signals for Dantak in the past few years. ‘Gentle nudges’ by His Majesty and the Royal Government of Bhutan however don’t seem to have registered on the Dantak bigwigs! The King earlier used to attend every function organised by and at Dantak. This stopped in the mid 90s. Abruptly. There hasn’t been a function that he has attended ever since. The men at Dantak have made themselves believe that it is due to the threat to security of the King’s life that he’s stopped attending the functions (naiveté, I must say).

There have been other such ‘messages’ too for Dantak. Like, being asked to remove the Dantak insignia from the signboards installed at roads all over Bhutan. This could’ve been done by the Government itself by spending money from its coffers; ironically it’s not to be so – Dantak has been ‘requested’ to do the needful! Of course, the Chief Engineer and his cronies explain it away as a sign of the Royal Kingdom wanting to ‘assert itself as an independent entity’. Sure, it wants to assert but what does this assertion mean to Dantak (and to India)?

Recently I learnt that Dantak has received a ‘plea’ from the Bhutan Royalty/Government to ‘kindly vacate Chapcha’. Chapcha houses the 60RCC (Road Construction Company) on the Phuentsholing-Thimphu Road, the main artery of Bhutan. The doyens of the Project however are busy asking for another place to relocate the RCC and haven’t thought about the significance of this ‘plea’! This plea assumes importance and meaning as Chapcha has no significant Bhutanese population nor could Government be having any special plans for its development or to house some new project that couldn’t be erected elsewhere!

The request for the removal of the signboard at the Head Quarter proudly declaring the presence of Project Dantak is the latest in such messages. The message is loud and clear. ‘You are no more needed here. Please leave’. The message has been delivered at HOME.

A new book by Her Majesty Ashi Dorji Wangmo Wangchuk contains not-so-glorious references to India (and the Indian army). She says the Bhutanese army achieved what the Indian army (and therefore India) couldn’t achieve in decades, in two years – of flushing out the ULFA militants! It’s true that His Majesty himself led the Bhutanese Army in this operation against ULFA hideouts in Bhutan. Over 400 militants were reportedly killed in this operation. But, would this ‘unsavoury’ reference to India’s capabilities have appeared in the book without the King’s knowledge? I have overheard the ambassador of India in Bhutan commenting that it’s tougher to carry out diplomatic work in Bhutan than in Pakistan!

It’s not difficult to find the reasons for this ‘coolness’ of Bhutan towards Dantak (and India). The first reason probably is the snub that the King purportedly received at the powers-that-be in India. It is rumoured that Brajesh Mishra ‘asked’ the King to come down to India to have talks with him since he had ‘no time’ to travel to Bhutan! What did he think India (and he) was? The US and the American President?

Curiously none of these messages, pleas, requests, signals and gentle nudges seems to be having any effect on the thick-skins of the Project managers. They are eager than ever to ‘work furiously to complete the double-laning project of the P-T Road within the next five years’. They are busy in making plans for new construction activities in Bhutan, in expanding the budgets, in finding novel jobs to be occupied with and in having grandiose designs! They even call the journos from the local tabloids to give these important soundbytes (these also happen to appear as lead stories in these newspapers)!

Having already completed major infrastructure in Bhutan there’s little for Dantak to do. And, India isn’t the only friend that Bhutan has today. Japan, Austria, UN Agencies are all wooing Bhutan with new funds and technology. And, it is a fact that India needs Bhutan more than Bhutan needing India today in the geopolitical situation. Bhutan acts as an excellent buffer between China and India. The earlier distrust that Bhutan had of China is thawing like the snow in the sun. And, probably the people too – because of the racial ancestry that they share – find themselves leaning toward China than India today.

Indians in Bhutan invariably tend to talk about the role of India in bringing modernity to Bhutan. None misses an opportunity to brag about the role of Dantak and how India transformed a 16th Century Bhutan into a modern state within a span of a few decades. Indian teams in Bhutan are like guests who have overstayed.

True India (and Dantak) has done a great deal for this country. But, that’s no reason to beat one’s own trumpet at every single chance. Humility is not an attribute that Indians can be proud of here. The magnanimity shown in the help and aid extended is conspicuous in the behaviour of the men working in Bhutan. Also in the road building projects that are currently underway, none of the Bhutanese contractors have been associated with. This too has created a lot of heartburn. The promises made by the Project remain just that. Empty.

The general public in Bhutan don’t really love Indians (I know every Indian who reads this would react emotionally. “How couldn’t they love us? We have done so much for them!”) The Indians the common Bhutanese interact with are the labourers who have come here to work on the road building projects from places like Bihar and Bengal (and even illegal aliens from Bangladesh). The impression that Bhutanese carry about Indians is that we are ‘uncouth, uncultured and unruly’. They despise the lewd behaviour of the labour (no fault of the labourers actually; men/women living away from their families too would like to have some ‘fun’).

There are reasons too for Dantak not wanting to leave Bhutan. Dantak in Bhutan is a money-spinner for the personnel posted here. The officers and men draw humongous packages (especially due to the fact that daily allowances for temporary duty moves within Bhutan are paid at UN rates of $45 a day). Army officers particularly enjoy special priveleges. It's a great holiday to be here. Little work, loads of fun, fat pay packets, opportunities galore to make a quick buck on the side too (with a gun license or two; for those who are mor 'bravehearted' contracts pay handsomely). Some Army officers have a wonderful suggestion too. That India should simply assimilate Bhutan into its territory. I hope they aren't too many in number and that they're not heard by the Bhutanese! Aren't we having enough problems without Bhutan in our country over border issues and secession?

It’s time that the Indian Project Teams in Bhutan (Dantak and IMTRAT) wake up and start packing their bags. The holiday's over. It’s surely saves face to leave before one’s told to go! Dantak should hand over the pending projects (and the money sanctioned) to Bhutan and exit gracefully. May be we would still be able to save the ties between the countries if we do it fast. If we don’t, I’m certain our sphere would be usurped by someone else, may be even China!

Epilogue:
I learn from Christopher that it was he who had suggested to the Ministry to get Dantak remove the signboard near the Head Quarter. I also learn from him that Bhutan has refused Indian aid to build its democratic institutions. Thanks largely to aid from India Bhutan has moved from being ‘one of the 10 poorest countries in the world’ in the 80s to the one with ‘the highest per capita income in the SAARC region’.

It Happens Only In India!

Baisanavarepalle, a small village in Chittoor district of Andhra was in the news today on NDTV 24X7. The newsreaders waxed eloquently about the energy saving methods of the denizens of this village – using solar energy in place of conventional sources of energy (coal, firewood and kerosene).

Interviews went off well with the villagers. And suddenly the entire screen was filled with the face of a woman (yeah, a woman and not a young girl in her 20s) wearing sunglasses (wraparounds, to be precise). The lady surely wanted to show off her status as a ‘richer person’ of the village. Apart from a new, silk sari, she wore metres of jasmine flowers in her hair, a touch of lipstick, a smile and used a non-stick pan to make her omelette! Of course one couldn’t miss the beatific and contented smile (smirk?) on her face.

If a woman can do it, can’t a man? So, there was a guy dressed in a colourful t-shirt and a rainbow lungi with wraparounds, trying to adjust the settings of the solar heater! These two scenes made my day happier, as I guffawed to my heart’s content.

In Telugu Cinema, you’d see the heroes wearing sunglasses everywhere – on the road, while singing with the heroine in the rain, at the office, at home, at the disco or a bar, while fending off the villains (from outraging the ‘modesty’ of the heroine in a bikini) – in their movies. Even heroines (not always, and not everyone) LOVE wearing sunglasses (especially, a rich heroine knows how to flaunt her ‘shades’ and even more specially at home) in Telugu cinema. I’d also love to see the hero/heroine having a bath with their ‘shades’ intact. Yet to come across such a scene though! Will someone pass this idea on to one of the Telugu directors please?

Tamil Cinema too celebrates sunshades. But their celebration is unidimensional (they have very little taste for variety; all of them wear the same glasses that were popularised by MGR; the tradition now is carried on by MKarunanidhi and it’s a pity there’s none on the horizon to carry this tradition forward).

During 80’s when innumerable number of Telugu/Tamil movies were remade in Hindi (and resurrected the careers of Jeetendra and Mithun (not to mention Sridevi and Jayaprada, and to a lesser extent Rajesh Khanna), these sunshades were brought in along with the storylines. However the trend didn’t stick (may be the glasses didn’t ‘wrap around’ the heroes/directors well enough). Had the idea gained roots, my wishes to see a lead actor with goggles probably would’ve come true by now. May be Raj Kapoor would have asked Mandakini to wrap herself around with these sunshades while having her ‘famed bath’ in ‘Ram Teri Ganga Maili’!

Hindi Cinema however ensures that ‘rich, spoilt and mannerless’ heroines wear shades to show that they’re ‘blind’. Their blindness to reality, to humanity, to humility and all such virtues is cured by the hero (and thereby the love story starts)! And, then of course we have enough number of songs that celebrate the haughty heroine’s looks in her dark glasses (‘Gore gore mukde pe kala kala cheshma’).

Of course we have ‘Men in Black’ and ‘Mission Impossible’ apart from the Bond movies that reflect the glamour of dark glasses in English Cinema. But none of them matches the impact, style and the verve seen on the Indian screens!

P.S. Influence of Telugu Cinema or not, it made good sense that these guys in the village working on the solar heaters wore glasses!