Drama in the Hills

News often has a quality of drama about it these days. I am talking about news here not news stories. Is there a difference? I think so. News is the happenings whereas news stories are often the tale spun out of it and conclusions drawn by “revered” journalists and so-called “experts”.

A piece I read today is definitely stuff for movies. You could shoot a blockbuster out of it. The news item titled “Militants answer distress call” in The Hindu had me thinking of something on the lines of Robin Hood. As I read it I was amazed, simply amazed, for want of a better word.

The story goes thus. Militants kidnapped a group of engineers working with a private concern at gunpoint in the North-East and held them for ransom, in the jungles nonetheless. Mr. Ashok Saikia, Senior Vice-President of the company, approached a rival militant faction with promises to facilitate negotiations with the government if they helped rescue the abductees. After a gun battle between the two groups the kidnapped people were rescued with no injuries. Can you see Aamir or SRK playing the leader of the rival faction rescuing the victims? Or better still does it remind you of Don, the good SRK attempting to help the police? That fits, doesn’t it?

Well, amazing as this story is, it is disturbing. I really do appreciate Mr. Saikia for thinking out of the box and his ingenious idea of getting help from the militants themselves. The son of two-time Chief-Minister probably knew there was no use approaching the police or paramilitary which has a large presence in the region. I also respect his concern for the victims and sincere efforts to get them back. And kudos to him for openly acknowledging striking such a deal and promising to keep his end of the bargain.

But look at the irony of the situation, a SOS directed towards militants and to their credit, they raise to the occasion. For one, it shows the ineffectiveness of the machinery entrusted to enforce law and order. And it reiterates the fact that not all militants are cold-blooded killers. They have, atleast many of them do, genuine grievances that should be addressed by the government. Many outfits are eager to talk to the government, get out of the jungles and lead a real life. If they are willing to trust a private company that has no obligations to facilitate negotiations, I imagine they are probably tired of warfare and desperate to wave a white flag. The government would do well to take the cue and act promptly to bring peace to the region.

Sincere efforts and a sensitive approach to alleviating the grievances of the people is the key to achieving enduring peace in the North-east.

Vindicated!

To start off this blog on a rather quirky note, I sometimes have this annoying habit of not keeping at anything for any extended period of time. By extended period of time, I mean a few hours. Any task I take up, any studying I do, I can rarely pursue for more than half an hour at a stretch. I yearn for breaks and take them as well. I have often been disturbed by this inability of mine to concentrate on something for an even an hour at a stretch. On the other hand, give me any novel and I can plunge into the pages and not resurface for hours. It sometimes led me to wonder if I am a lazy git when it comes to work, or serious learning. After a few attempts at slogging for a reasonable amount of time (read an hour) with no commendable output, I firmly decided I would rather complete work in pieces rather than wear myself out with longer and less productive time frames. I also reasoned out that my mind needs refreshment and hence the breaks were justified. I just made a note that take care that these breaks don’t become a ritual.

All said and done, I have always been bit envious of people who can work for longer periods of time and sometimes wondered if my inability to concentrate for a longer time was due to my lack of interest in the object of attention. But then, I tend to take breaks even in writing which I relish doing. Sometimes these siestas come out of a minor sense of accomplishment or rather pure joy in something I had just done.

Even though I had flung these nagging thoughts on concentration issues out of my mind, they did come back to haunt me once in a while. So when I read, or rather heard, this quote by Alfred Marshall on his working habits, I was absolutely elated.

"I resolved never to use my mind when it was not fresh and regard the interval between successive strains as sacred to my repose. . . . I resolved never to read a mathematical book for more than a quarter of an hour at a time without a break. I always had a work of light literature at my side. . . . Of course I often got excited by my mathematics and read for half an hour or so without stopping but that meant my mind was intense and no harm was done”

Ok, I am not Alfred Marshall and Marshall himself was a quirky individual and all that. But then who cares :)

So you are wondering why this makes me happy then? Great minds think alike? Ok, just kidding ;). Happy to be a weirdo? Hmm, sounds cool but not on target. Well, I guess it is just that it gives me a sense of reassurance that this is a proven method ( Marshall counts for more than one person. ;) ). And most importantly, sets my mind to rest on the doubt that I do not evince much interest in the task at hand. After all, Marshall was nothing if not obsessive about his mathematics.