Mayank Chhaya Daily

Revisiting a remarkable 26/11 story from Chicago

On the 14th anniversary today of the ghastly and fiendish terror attacks on Mumbai on November 26, 2008 I am revisiting some of a dozen and more stories that I wrote for various media outlets as part of the trial of two Chicago-based key plotters, David Coleman Headley and Tahawwur Hussain Rana. One particular story I remember is the one I have posted here because it gives a remarkable insight into how coldly and clinically planned the whole operation was.

This story was written for the IANS wire. 

May 24, 2011

By Mayank Chhaya

Chicago, May 24 (IANS) From how to pray without leaving the forehead indurated to the language of the train announcements at the Victoria Terminus station, the Pakistani planners of the Mumbai terror attacks paid meticulous attention to every detail, key plotter David Coleman Headley testified here.

The 50-year-old Pakistani American, who has pleaded guilty to all 12 charges of his involvement in planning the attacks, Monday offered a rare and extraordinary look inside the behind-the-scenes planning of an operation that left the Indian state practically paralyzed for three days starting Nov 26, 2008.

Under a plea bargain deal that requires him to cooperate fully with the federal prosecutors, Headley was expected to disclose all that he knows about the planning of the attack and he lived up to that obligation as Assistant US Attorney Daniel Collins carefully walked him through all major and minor details of the plot.

Headley’s attorney John Theis sat in the front row as his client answered questions in somewhat muffled tones even while disclosing remarkable details.

At one point as he discussed the kind of conversations he had had with his Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) handler Sajid Mir, Headley said he was even told how to pray in order to avoid "mihrab", the dark spot that devout Muslim men have on their foreheads because of the regular friction with the floor while praying.

The significance of this particular detail being that since Headley was to travel to Mumbai as a white American on a US passport, a mark like that on his forehead may arouse suspicion. As a result, he was advised to pray without touching his forehead to the ground.

Another seemingly minor but crucial detail that came to light during his four-hour-long testimony concerned the train arrival and departure announcements at Mumbai’s Victoria Terminus or Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus.

Headley told the court that he pointed out to both Sajid Mir and Major Iqbal, a shadowy figure reportedly belonging to Pakistan’s Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI), that the announcements were made in English and Marathi. If the attackers did not know English, they could run into difficulty trying to find out when trains were arriving.

The overriding theme of prosecutor Collins’ questioning was to establish how closely the LeT, as represented by Sajid Mir, and the ISI, as represented by Major Iqbal were involved every step of the way, directing Headley what to do, when, where and how. So much so that Mir and Headley even discussed which Islamic denomination the latter’s fellow accused Tahawwur Hussain Rana belonged to as well as the need to win him over to the Salafi side of Islam.

Salafi adherents treat the companions of the Prophet Mohammed and the two immediate generations of Muslims that followed as their role model. Headley said LeT believes being a Salafi "is a prerequisite to jihad". He said he was told by Mir that only when Rana, a Pakistani military physician turned businessman at whose trial Headley testified, was made a Salafi can the real agenda be pushed.

Headley and Rana even debated who should declare jihad, whether a head of an Islamic state, as Rana believed, or someone else. Headley explained to Rana that a head of state was necessary only if it was to be "offensive" jihad but for "defensive" jihad of the kind currently underway it was not necessary.

Another striking disclosure that Headley made relates to the 2002 Muslim massacre in Gujarat in the aftermath of the killings of 50 Hindu pilgrims at Godhra. In fact, he cited that massacre as one of the triggers for him personally to get involved in the Mumbai attacks.

He said between 2002 and 2007 the LeT had received hundreds of letters from Muslims in Gujarat to help them. He even referred to an undercover video recording of a Hindu activist called Babu Bajrangi who had bragged about personally killing many Muslims.

The broad focus of his testimony was also on the number of times he met Major Iqbal and Sajid Mir to fine-tune plans for the Mumbai attacks as well as watch many video surveillance tapes of the city that Headley personally shot during his visits prior to the attack.

From discussing landing sites to the schedule of a major conference of defense industry which was to be organized at the Taj Mahal Hotel and from how to transfer attackers from a Pakistani boat to an Indian vessel to determining the nearest taxi stand, the three men discussed everything in great detail.

Perhaps at the beginning of being done

Forlorn--MC

It has been a long time since I last offered a gratuitous interpretation of an artwork of mine. Hence this.

As good paintings go, this may not even qualify as one but I have a particular affinity for it. I painted it perhaps three years ago in rapid strokes as a practice run. When I finished it, it began to grow on me; not because of artistic merit but its forlorn mood.

On the face of it, it is an empty office building or office lot. It is glass-fronted, stretching into the horizon. I do not know how big the building is but it is big. And yet it is almost completely devoid of any human presence except, if you look, there is a forlorn red/magenta figure it. Is it me? Well, who it might be is not as important as that there is someone. I did not want it to be have a discernible gender but it ended up having it. It is a male. 

I have done more than 500 paintings so far, both actual and digital. There are many I like a great deal but this one always creates a sense of finality in me. To me it signals a personal end, a conclusion, a denouement. At the same time though, it has a very distant horizon. So it is possible that there is perhaps something beyond termination.

You would notice that the figure is quite some distance away from the horizon which perhaps means that he is not yet done. Perhaps he is at the beginning of being done. 

That's all for today.

 

Sovereign immunity, Mohammed bin Salman and Narendra Modi

State Department Principal Deputy Spokesperson Vedant Patel (Cue 22.44 for that particular comment)

Consternation could be one of the reactions from New Delhi to a comment by State Department Principal Deputy Spokesperson Vedant Patel citing the reinstatement of Prime Minister Narendra's Modi's US visa in 2014 as part of an answer at his presser about the controversial granting of sovereign immunity to Saudi "crown prince" and Prime Minister Mohammed bin Salman (MBS).

That Patel's comment came in the context of the now controversial granting of sovereign immunity to MBS being consistent with the US policy of affording such immunity to heads of state who might be in some serious legal jeopardy on account of their transgressions in their respective countries could be diplomatically fraught. The immunity extended to MBS in a case against him in a federal court here in America relates to the grotesque murder of the Washington Post columnist Jamal Khashoggi in which the Saudi prime minister has been implicated.

Before I dwell a bit on the MBS immunity, let me say a couple of things about the potentially troublesome juxtaposition that Patel offered with similar immunity extended to Modi and others. In his reply to a series of persistent questions about the MBS immunity, Patel said that it was not the first time that the US had done so. "It is a longstanding and consistent line of effort. It has been applied to a number of heads of state previously, some examples, President (Jean-Bertrand) Aristide in Haiti in 1993, President (Robert) Mugabe in Zimbabwe in 2001, Prime Minister Modi in India in 2014 and President (Joseph) Kabila in the DRC (the Democratic Republic of the Congo) in 2018. This is a consistent practice we have afforded to heads of state," Patel said.

There is nothing objectionable about Patel's comments on the sheer facts of what he is saying. These are just bare facts and as a spokesperson it is his duty to offer them unvarnished. However, international diplomacy, especially between Modi's India and President Joe Biden's America, is often fraught. It is from that standpoint that the seeming bracketing of Modi with MBS and other strongmen could be problematic for its optics. Of course, no government, either here in America or that in India, should feel the need to finesse facts no matter how unedifying they may be.

India's External Affairs Ministry may not necessarily respond to this merely because the assertion came in the context of MBS but Modi's detractors, and it is a rapidly growing constituency, could cite this as yet another blot on him. 

By itself sovereign immunity should be noncontroversial because countries offer it as part of the international law. In the specific context of MBS though, the immunity is rife with the prospects of being seen as the Biden administration going soft on the prime minister in a calibrated fashion at a time when the US-Saudi relations are perhaps at their most tense. A particular sticking point has been the Saudi decision to slash oil production in an apparent alliance with Russia at a time gas prices are running so high in America. There were suggestion of the Saudis under MBS humiliating Washington by gouging oil prices.

With this as the backdrop the grant of sovereign immunity to MBS looks at the very least curious notwithstanding the longstanding practice as cited by Patel. Of course, Patel was at pains to repeatedly insist that, "This Suggestion of Immunity does not reflect an assessment on the merits of the case. It speaks to nothing on broader policy or the state of relations. This was purely a legal determination."

He kept saying again and again at the presser yesterday that the MBS immunity was no reflection on the legal merits of the Khashoggi murder case and accusations. In a statement on Twitter Fred Ryan, the Washington Post's publisher and CEO,  said yesterday that President Biden is "granting a license to kill to one of the world's most egregious human-rights abusers who is responsible for the cold-blooded murder of Jamal Khashoggi."

Despite the fact that immunity is a longstanding practice, affording it to MBS has opened the door for other prospective violators of human rights who might become heads of state. 

On a flippant note, I found it amusing that Patel cast a fellow Gujarati, namely Prime Minister Modi in a less than flattering light without at all intending to. 

The joys, mostly, of writing four books simultaneously

Me writing (Photo by me)

Writing four books simultaneously on four completely unconnected subjects, like I am doing now, is a fascinating experience. I am not sure if I will pull this off but while I am in the midst of it, jumping themes from gravity (nonfiction) to a political thriller (fiction) to a memoir (well) to a biography of a city (nonfiction) is exhilarating.

Perhaps the toughest part has been not to unconsciously repeat literary constructs or sentences or phrases. Between the four I have written over 200,000 words and I think I have managed not to repeat any yet. It remains to be seen how long I can keep this up. I am generally a very fast writer. For instance, I wrote my critically acclaimed biography of the Dalai Lama titled ‘Man, Monk, Mystic’, published by Doubleday/Random House, in a month. This is not counting the time I spent on research, interviews and travel that preceded the actual, physical act of writing. I remember I had finished my first book, a bestselling biography, in a month and a half. I must point out here that that one I wrote on a Remington typewriter.

These four books are taking much longer not because I have slowed down but because one keeps stepping on one’s dick as it were thanks to a penurious life. To get around some of that penury I have ghost-written two books in the last couple of years or so. Those certainly played a role in slowing me down.

I enjoy writing all four but if I were to list them in the order of my joy, I would say the one about gravity wins the top prize because it keeps me intellectually sharp. That would be followed by my memoirs and the other two being close third.

I was reading some of the passages this morning from all four which I think might be of some interest to you.

From my memoirs which I originally called ‘What does Jupiter really do?’ but changed it to ‘A Tangential Life’:

A sense of futility about everything in the universe, including my own existence, has paralyzed me throughout my life. For instance, I see no reason at all for me to have been born. None.

I used to ask my mother Snehlata, admittedly to her chagrin and amusement both, why she and my father Manharray did not stop at the second child. (I am the youngest of the four). What answer can a mother possibly give her son who asks why she gave birth to him?

On balance, I am aware that I have brought nothing of value to the human discourse. Nothing. Yet I feel prompted to write this book.

It may seem as if through this book, I am seeking some identifiable purpose to the universe, but the truth is that I am not. Since the age of 13, when I started being drawn to the themes addressed here, I have never thought of the universe in terms of meaning or purpose. Just as I am most likely here, the universe is most likely here too and that’s that. Until one of us ceases that will be that.

From the book about Gravity:

For a force that is the weakest of the four fundamental forces, gravity is remarkably defining of the universe. It is hard to decide whether the universe is a consequence of gravity or gravity is a consequence of the universe. Either way, it is omnipresent across the universe in a way that is both subtle and yet profound.

From a biography of Ahmedabad:

For a city that is India’s seventh largest, Ahmedabad exerts surprisingly light urban gravity. It is a city that gives one the impression that it is either unaware of or unconcerned about its impact on India’s national life, both throughout history and in modern times. Few metros of Ahmedabad’s size and historical significance are as unselfconscious and untouched by their relevance and, in some sense, notoriety. Long used to being counted out of the list of important Indian cities, Ahmedabad has developed a detached demeanor about its many great accomplishments and contributions. By the same logic, it is equally unencumbered by its many profound flaws. Its disinterest in showcasing itself can often be mistaken for natural diffidence. It is anything but.

From a political thriller titled ‘Mayor of Mochipore’

It is only at predawn that Mochipore is free from the stench of rotting entrails.

As night hands over the realm to day odors cease for an imperceptibly brief moment. They say you have to be born here to know when to capture that moment.

The odors never really leave Mochipore. They merely change their direction and intensity depending on the time of the day and how much sea breeze is blowing. By noon the summer sun has cooked the odors which are seasoned by the humid air so thoroughly that cases of people fainting in the middle of the town’s main square are not altogether unheard of.

Although it sits in the midst of hundreds of mango orchards Mochipore remains remarkably untouched by the heady fragrances of the fruit in various stages of ripening unlocked during the summer. Locals have a wistful saying here which goes: “Even decaying mangos inside my armpit smell better than perfumes of Mochipore.”

Remarkably technology savvy young Indian trekkers and travelers

Trekker Aniruddha Patil's latest video from the Saras Gadh near Mumbai in Maharashtra

One of the most heartwarming consequences of the opening up of the Indian economy over the last 30 years and a subsequent rise in dispensable incomes among the millennials and zoomers (Gen Z) is how widely many of them travel around the country. In the last decade or so, quite clearly there has been a dramatic increase in the availability of travel and trekking gear because of the opening up of the economy. 

I do occasionally watch some of the travel and trekking shows, especially by zoomers. One of them is Aniruddha Patil who produces some remarkable visual chronicles of trekking sites in Maharashtra, especially those around various forts atop the state's many basalt hills. It is particularly interesting how youngsters such as Aniruddha are so adept at deploying a combination of technologies to create fairly slick videos of their various trekking adventures. One of the technologies is drones whose cheap availability in India in the last five to ten years has made it so easy to produce aerial shots which were unheard of until recently. For a long time aerial shots were the sole domain of hugely-budgeted film crews. Not so any more.

It is amazing how skilled this generation is at effortlessly using these technologies and how much they have become intrinsic to their lives. Another perhaps unintended consequence is how hands-on and handy many of these young travelers and trekkers have become at fixing their gear. These may not may be seminal changes in a society but in the long-run they improve the country's prospects of keeping up with the ever-changing technological landscape.

The narration that these trekkers offer may vary quite a bit in their quality in terms of the language and sweep of information but for most of who watch such videos the voice is secondary to the visual. At this rate, India will end up become most visually chronicled in its history which is always welcome. 

Mystified over Elon Musk's Twitter mess

It is mystifying that barely two weeks ago Elon Musk completed his acquisition of Twitter and now he is already signaling prospects of the social media platform going bankrupt. It was only six months ago that he could not keep his exultation in check while getting ready to acquire it with abrasive enthusiasm. 

If within a matter of weeks we have been treated to a very Muskian kind of manic depressive conduct, it begs the question whether this man knows what he is doing. Incidentally, I am not using the term manic depressive in a medical, diagnostic sense. I am not even remotely qualified to do that. Nevertheless, how can a social media platform that one moment is on the verge of becoming an even more powerful global town square in his estimation hurtle towards the verge of bankruptcy in a span of days? Would he or should he not have known in April when he mounted the hostile bid that there is no immediate or even near-term money to be made on Twitter?

One would think that the world's richest man, who half in jest and half seriously likes to tease us about his extraterrestrial origin and hence possessing of greater intelligence, would know such elementary stuff about acquiring companies. Soon after acquiring he goes on a firing spree without any regard for the distinct likelihood that he would need many of those he was sacking to run the platform and make it profitable. He reportedly fired nearly half of Twitter's 7500 employees and now, it seems, he wants some of them back. It is like shooting one's own dick and then suddenly feeling horny. (I am presuming the presence of the penis is not a prerequisite to libido.) 

Imagine a situation where Musk had hired someone else to helm Twitter after the acquisition and that person had messed up as badly as Musk has. Musk would have fired him in far less than 140 characters. 

It is entirely possible that being a supremely intelligent alien he sees far beyond and much deeper than any of us can and eventually his brilliant masterplan may become evident. However, for now one gets the sense that he is winging it. He does not which branch to land on or which tree. 

It certainly makes me wonder whether he is all that he is cracked up to be -- a super sharp nerd who is on the verge of taking over the world and lord it over the swinish multitude like you and I. 

Eight billionth baby on the way amid climate catastrophe

By Mayank Chhaya

As the world prepares for its 8 billionth baby any day now, United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, who has been a particularly fierce campaigner about the global climate disaster with a flair for the theatrical, has said the world is on its way to “a highway to climate hell with our foot still on the accelerator.”

“We are in the fight of our lives and we are losing,” he said during his address today to the 27th Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change – COP27 – between November 6 and 18^th.

The backdrop to COP27 is the most disturbing realization is that the goal keeping Earth’s average temperature from rising more than 1.5 degrees Celsius above its preindustrial level is all but dead. As pointed out by Guterres repeatedly, the wealthiest economies are “shutting the door” on limiting the temperature to 2°C, let alone meet the 1.5°C goal.

COP27 will attempt to on the outcomes of COP26 to deliver tangible action on a host of issues critical to tackling the climate emergency – from urgently reducing greenhouse gas emissions, building resilience, and adapting to the inevitable impacts of climate change, to delivering on the commitments to finance climate action in developing countries.

“In just days, our planet’s population will cross a new threshold. The 8 billionth member of our human family will be born. This milestone puts into perspective what this climate conference is all about. How will we answer when “Baby 8 Billion” is old enough to ask:   What did you do for our world – and for our planet -- when you had the chance?” Guterres said.

In the runup to COP27 Guterres had made these points, “A third of Pakistan flooded. Europe’s hottest summer in 500 years. The Philippines hammered. The whole of Cuba in black-out. And here, in the United States, Hurricane Ian has delivered a brutal reminder that no country and no economy is immune from the climate crisis.”

The conference comes in the shadow of the G20 industrialized nations stalling any major action. Guterres has been pointing out that the collective commitments of G20 leading industrialized nations governments are coming “far too little, and far too late”.

One of the goals of COP27 is to ensure that the developed world deliver on its pledges totaling $100 billion in order to support climate action in developing countries.  COP27 is seen as the litmus test for how seriously governments take the growing climate toll on the most vulnerable countries.

According to the United Nations estimate $300 billion will be needed annually by developing countries for adaptation by 2030.

As pointed out by Guterres, global emissions have continued to rise since 2018 when the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), the United Nations–led panel of scientists and scholars, said the goal of 1.5°C had become impossible. While it is often said the goal is “technically” possible to achieve but it invariably runs into global development compulsions and challenges, particularly in the developing world.

Since the 2018 IPCC report all the dire scenarios of extreme droughts, famines, hurricanes and other related catastrophes have become a reality around the world. Guterres has used his powerful platform to unrelentingly talk about the climate crisis as the defining challenge for humanity.

The best that is hoped for by many experts is that even as the world will overshoot the goal through the century there are expectations that by 2050 the world will control the temperature by removing vast amounts of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. 

Guterres’ remarks at COP27 remained characteristically candid and even deeply disconcerting.

“Greenhouse gas emissions keep growing.   Global temperatures keep rising.  And our planet is fast approaching tipping points that will make climate chaos irreversible. We are on a highway to climate hell with our foot still on the accelerator,” he said.  

While acknowledging that conflicts such as the war in Ukraine and others have caused much bloodshed and violence and have had dramatic impacts all over the world, he said it was crucial that the international community stays focused on climate change.

“But climate change is on a different timeline, and a different scale.  It is the defining issue of our age.  It is the central challenge of our century.  It is unacceptable, outrageous and self-defeating to put it on the back burner.  Indeed, many of today’s conflicts are linked with growing climate chaos,” he said.

He pointed out that the science is clear, adding, “any hope of limiting temperature rise to 1.5 degrees means achieving global net zero emissions by 2050.  But that 1.5 degree goal is on life support – and the machines are rattling.  

He called for “a historic act between developed and emerging economies – a Climate Solidarity Pact” as part of which all countries will make an extra effort to reduce emissions this decade in line with the 1.5-degree goal. 

“A pact in which wealthier countries and International Financial Institutions provide financial and technical assistance to help emerging economies speed their own renewable energy transition.  

A pact to end dependence on fossil fuels and the building of new coal plants – phasing out coal in OECD countries by 2030 and everywhere else by 2040. 

A pact that will provide universal, affordable, sustainable energy for all.  

A pact in which developed and emerging economies unite around a common strategy and combine capacities and resources for the benefit of humankind.”

He singled out the two largest economies, the United States and China, as having “a particular responsibility to join efforts to make this pact a reality.”

“Humanity has a choice:  cooperate or perish. It is either a Climate Solidarity Pact – or a Collective Suicide Pact,” he said.

Let's all feast on Mumtaz's sherbety eyes

Mumtaz in ‘Do Raaste’ (1969)

Over close to a decade and a half, I have written so many posts on such a diverse range of subjects that much of them I tend to forget. Take for instance, this post. 

I woke up singing this charming hit from the 1969 movie 'Do Raaste'. As I hummed the song at 4.30 a.m. I had a vague recollection that I had written something about it. Sure enough, I had. It was the following post on September 7, 2016. 

I want to particularly applaud the great lyricist Anand Bakshi for his superbly picturesque construct in 'Yeh reshami zulfein, yeh sharbati aankhen'. The use of the word sharbati is brilliant. 

September 7, 2016

“These tresses so silky

These eyes so sherbet-y

All live feasting on them”

These lines are a direct translation of a memorably hit Hindi movie song “Yeh reshmi zulfein, Yeh sherbety aankhe, Inhen dekh kar jee rahen hain sabhi.” It was written by Anand Bakshi and composed by Laxmikant Pyarelal for the 1969 movie “Do Raaste” (Two Paths). I had an instant recall of this song while reading a charming piece by Laura Kiniry in the Smithsonian magazine about how for decades Americans have wrongly called sherbet, sherbert with an extra ‘R”"’.

Of course, sherbet in the popular understanding in America is more like ice-cream than a refreshing icy drink bursting with a host of flavors that I and millions of Indians drink. Sherbet as a poetic metaphor has been a popular one in Hindi cinema and has been used quite a bit for a long time. The song here is among the most successful versions of that. Sherbet-y eyes mean a combination of enchantingly sparkly deep, eyes which could be of a variety of colors, the most popular being deep orange brown. In the Hindi cinema poetic construct those sherbet-y eyes beguile you, entrance you and then trap you in those lovely silky tresses.

Kiniry writes, “I conducted an informal Facebook survey and found out something quite distressing about my friends: the bulk of them have been ordering, describing and enjoying the sweet pleasures of a dessert that doesn't really exist. Of course, they will tell you something different—that “sherbert,” a delicious frozen blend of sugar and fruit juice, with just enough dairy to resemble a lighter, softer ice cream is a real as gelato or frozen custard. They're not alone in their thinking. Local creameries throughout the United States. have been slinging scoops of “sherbert” for years, whipping it up in a rainbow of colors. But the truth is that second 'R' is erroneous. It's been “sherbet” all along.”

I want to reassure Kiniry and her readers that it is indeed sherbet, a word  that came to India courtesy of Farsi and is now very much an Indian word. Sherbet is more like slushy in the South Asian context with a scoop of ice-cream to optionally top it off.

Growing up in Ahmedabad, every evening a Rajasthani man named Rangeelo (Colorful) with his strikingly colorful turbans used to go around vending “golas” or crushed ice carefully mounted on thin bamboo sticks and then slathered with sherbet with a scoop of ice-cream if one was willing to pay a few paises extra.

The long and short of it is that it is indeed sherbet and I have Mumtaz’s eyes to prove it. So go find some sherbet and slurp it down before the summer runs out.

Reminiscing about Dr. Amar Bose

Dr. Amar Bose (Photo: www.bose.com)

November 2 was Dr. Amar Bose's 93rd birth anniversary. It escaped my attention. Here is what I wrote in tribute to him on July 13, a day after he died in 2013. 

July 12, 2013

My first and only meeting with Dr. Amar Gopal Bose in the early 1990s in New Delhi nearly led me to write his biography. It was after a press conference that Dr. Bose gave in the Indian capital that I separately chatted him up a bit.

It was my sense then that he was somewhat amused by all the media attention he was getting there. He seemed genuinely surprised that his work in acoustic engineering was known to many at the news conference. Of course, most of that knowledge was about the famous line of Bose stereo speakers.

When I mentioned that perhaps he should consider a biography about his life and perhaps he should consider me as his biographer, he flashed an incredulous smile. He said something to the effect that “the thought had never crossed his mind”. He gave me his business card with his company’s address in Framingham, Massachusetts and asked me to send a formal proposal. I promptly did but never heard back. So that was that.

My recollection of that news conference is that reporters were surprised to hear Dr. Bose’s fully American accent without a trace of his partly Bengali origin. Of course, many did not know at the time that he was born in Philadelphia to Noni Gopal Bose who was married to an American school teacher. He was, for all practical purposes, American. Born on November 2, 1929, he came of age at a time when America was in the grip of the Great Depression.

I remember asking him how that experience influenced his formative years. I am not quoting him verbatim but he said he was too young to have been directly affected by it, although he had memories of the era.

Among my superficial impressions of Dr. Bose then was that he was dapper in an understated way. A tall man, his bearing was friendly and had a smile that was wide open. I also remember him often moistening his lips with his tongue as if he felt parched. Do excuse me but I do tend to be observant about these inane details. Another feature I remember was that for some reason he reminded me of Dev Anand. Very likely it was his partly toothless smile that made me think of Anand. At the very least, there is the feel-alike touch between the two, if not look-alike.

Check out the two images below, one of their hands and the other of their faces.

Left, Dr. Bose’s hand, Right, Anand’s.

Left, Dr. Bose, and Anand

There is no particular relevance to these comparisons while writing about Dr. Bose other than the fact that I have a weakness to look at things and people from many different angles.

According to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), with which he had more than six decades of association, “Dr. Bose received his bachelor’s degree, master’s degree and doctorate from MIT, all in electrical engineering. He was asked to join the faculty in 1956, and he accepted with the intention of teaching for no more than two years. He continued as a member of the MIT faculty until 2001.

During his long tenure at MIT, Dr. Bose made his mark both in research and in teaching. In 1956, he started a research program in physical acoustics and psychoacoustics: This led to his development of many patents in acoustics, electronics, nonlinear systems and communication theory.”

He was among the most popular MIT teachers whose classes were much sought after. “Amar Bose was a legend at MIT,” said MIT Chancellor Eric Grimson, who served as a faculty colleague of Dr. Bose in the Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science. “He was an incredible teacher, an inspiring mentor, a deep and insightful researcher. He has influenced multiple generations of students, both directly through the classroom and laboratory, and through the many students he influenced who have themselves pursued careers as faculty, propagating Professor Bose’s approach to mentorship and teaching.”

Bose Corporation, the company that he founded nearly 50 years ago and which revolutionized sound technology, was a closely held entity. He did not take it public because he knew the pressures of corporate bottom lines would deviate him from his largely R and D mindset.

It was a tribute to his unusual way of doing business that in 2011, Dr. Bose gave MIT the majority of the stock of Bose Corporation in the form of nonvoting shares. “Under the terms of the gift, dividends from those shares will be used by MIT to sustain and advance MIT’s education and research mission. MIT cannot sell its Bose shares, and does not participate in the management or governance of the company,” the MIT said.

Elon Musk's penury despite his billions

'The Scythe Man' by Mayank Chhaya, directly inspired by the great Edvard Munch.

On hearing about the merciless manner in which Elon Musk has fired half of Twitter employees conjured up in me visions of a farmworker swinging his scythe to hack through a field.

Going by an assortment of reports it seems the sackings were indiscriminate and cruel in the way they were handed down via unsigned emails. It has been reported that those who got their emails on their company address are safe and those who got their emails on their personal emails were fired.

He may not have intended it that way, but Musk’s action has come across as gleeful and even spiteful. If one did not know better, one would think that he bought Twitter only to close it down. Clearly, he wants it to remain alive and well and profitable after sinking $44 billion of his and other investors’ billions in a company he knew was a perennial loss-maker. Now that he is in-charge, by his own admission Twitter is losing $4 million a day, a burn-rate which would leave it in a $1.4 plus hole in a year’s time on top of the $1 billion that he is reported to owe in annual interest.

I have had my share of schadenfreude in the hours and days after Musk took over Twitter but I am being a dick because thousands of people’s lives have been hit by the firings. It is unfathomable what his plan really is for a social media platform that he considers transformative for the world. Transformation does not happen in empty offices, by brutally scything through a corporate field and in the midst of people’s sighs.

Musk’s biggest challenge, of course, is to stem the revenue flight after big advertisers have either completely stopped or paused worried about the direction that the platform is headed in. Experts say the mass firings of entire teams of departments such as curation and others are deeply problematic when it comes to monitoring and preventing hateful misinformation and falsehoods which have become the fodder of social media. It is for that very reason that advertisers have pulled back.

On his part, Musk insists that there is no dilution in moderation at all and what is happening is a direct consequence of activist groups mounting a campaign against Twitter. Complaints about a distinct rise in hateful tweets have abounded. So much so that in keeping with his cheeky outlook, Musk now calls himself “Twitter Complaint Hotline Operator”. That’s funny but he may not have the last laugh as doubts and questions mount over his unsparing handling of Twitter employees so far.

Even though he has introduced a monthly subscription fee of $8 if you want the much-coveted blue tick with your name, its ability to generate vast sums of money he will need to recoup the staggering investment remains seriously doubtful. At this stage it does feel as if he has bitten off more than he can chew especially because of his three other major preoccupations, Tesla, SpaceX and the Boring Company. Notwithstanding his extraterrestrial origin, Musk too has his limits.

For a while it was amusing to see him throw around the figure of $8 to anyone and everyone, including Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and broadcaster Dan Rather. Who would have thought that eight bucks would matter so much to the world’s richest man who suddenly behaves rather penurious?