Sorry I am Impotent
If nothing else, the title of this piece will ensure a more than normal readership. People love to hear confessions. Especially when it involves a person who they feel “thinks no end of himself”.
Impotency after all is a subject which like death is a great leveler. May be Charlie Chaplin is an exception, but it comes to each one of us stealthily, leaving us confused and groping. It functions beyond politics and, all said and done, defies the reach of “Mandalization”
I can foresee busy husbands, on their way to office, cutting out this article with furtive and trembling hands for detailed study before bedtime.
I can also foresee wives serving their spouses their breakfast of eggs and bacon, or maybe puri bhaji, with the newspaper article right in their face, hoping it will turn out to be for them a mixture of 30+, ginseng and Chavanprash.
The fact is that of late, all kinds of people are getting involved in bringing my impotency to my attention in ways that would have driven a weaker soul to hanging himself from the ceiling fan. A major usefulness of ceiling fans which, strangely, ceiling fan manufacturers have not exploited in their marketing strategy.
Let me tell you something. There are stages in one’s impotency. You can use a scale of 0 to 10. At the peak of my career in Human Resources Management with a German organization my team was able to successfully influence the Vision and the thrust of the Organization in the direction of openness and transparency and fairness and justice and growth for all employees.
I don’t think the secretarial pool had an opportunity to identify my level of impotency but I gave myself a low score of 2 in the scale. The reason being that I was impotent only as far as being unable to convince the German Management to permit Managers to abandon suit and tie and be allowed to come to work dressed casually.
Let me move to an area where my inadequacy in the scale of 0 to 10 had almost reached 8. It is my membership, in fact a very active and committed membership, at national and international levels of the Catholic Church in India which I have loved so very dearly.
Not as the parish councilor, not as President of the All India Catholic Union, not as a member of the Asian bishops think tank and not even as a member of the Pope’s advisory Council for five years have I made any substantial progress in my goal in seeking transparency in matters that affect members of the church, in justice especially for women and dalits and a strong collaborative decision-making role for the laity.
Presence at seminars, conducting of countless training programs for the laity, religious and clergy including bishops and an assertive Christ driven presence in various committees and commissions have hardly created a dent. The impotency scale stuck at an all high figure of 8.
A rare moment of adequacy and power was the occasion when 150,000 people, cutting across many denominations, gathered together at the Azad maidan to protest the unjust withdrawal of recognition of St. John’s Medical College and the attempted introduction of the Tyagi Conversion Bill.
I tasted the sweet smell of success and the impotence scale hit 0.
I write this piece years after what I’ve described earlier
At my age, with the legacy of activism that has witnessed the election of our “citizens choice” as Municipal Corporator, the successful public interest litigation against hawkers, the retrieval of open spaces from greedy builders and corrupt politicians, the taking over of the entire sea-front along Bandra for providing amenities that cater both to the body and mind, for protecting open spaces at personal cost to activists and for the hope of flood free residential areas, I thought we had come a long way in regaining my potency the non-Viagra way.
On the contrary. A recent spate of scholarly, unprejudiced and well-meaning white papers from various sources has led me to believe that all hope is lost. That my “circle of control” has shrunk to the size of a little puddle inside a gigantic ocean of my “circle of concern”.
Well-intentioned people are asking whether India is in a coma. Is it a fact that the problem of corruption in India has assumed enormous and embarrassing proportions in recent years although it has been with us for decades?
Are we at a juncture in the life of the nation where tripping over the precipice cannot be ruled out?
If all the scams of the last five years are added up, are they are likely to rival and exceed the British colonial loot of about a trillion dollars?
India, says a commentator, is becoming a Banana Republic instead of an economic superpower. Special treatment is promised at the expense of the people. So Ms Mayawati who is the chief Minister of the most densely inhabited State is pacified when an intelligence probe involving millions of rupees is scrapped.
The multimillion rupee fodder scam by another Chief Minister wielding enormous power is put in cold storage. Prime Minister Manmohan Singh presides over this kind of unparalleled loot.
European newspapers talk about, what every Indian knows, namely the shadowy financial deals of the Indian Cricket League. Some talk about some powerful entity in Poona who with his wife is operating a 1,000,000,000 Swiss account with the “sanction of the Indian regime”
Another story is about a former Chief Minister of Jharkhand who is reported to have funds in various tax havens that were partly used to buy mines in Liberia. There is no news about the progress in the inquiry of this case.
In the nastiest business scam in Indian records (Satyam) the government is accused of cleverly covering up the political aspects of the swindle predominately involving real estate.
Says an Austrian newspaper “If the Indian prime minister knows nothing about these scandals he is ignorant of the ground realities and does not deserve to be Prime Minister. If he does, is he a collaborator in the crime?
Says Mohan Murti in a brilliant piece written from Germany where he lives, “in the European mind the caricature of a typical Indian encompasses qualities of falsification, telling lies, being fraudulent, dishonest, corrupt, arrogant, boastful, speaking loudly and bothering others in public places. Not to mention spreading rumors and attempting to swindle if the slightest opportunity arises.”
Even if most of these are perceptions and only a fraction of these is true, I know I have lost control and my impotence meter has crossed the benchmark of 10 and crashed into 100 pieces.
The only consolation is that I am a powerless impotent. And I’m in the august company of the Indian Prime Minister the powerful impotent not to mention his remote controller the presiding deity of the Congress party…
What more could a person in the winter of his life ask for?
July 14th, 2010 at 1:39 am
Painfully true story, Uncle George. The analogy between home grown scams and the colonial loot is so hard hitting. When I was younger, with all the scandals I read about; bofors, fodder, etc., it was always so clear to me who the villains were.. not so anymore. Everyone, me included, now seem in on it. Criminal apathy.
Despite all the information and the exposure to how the rest of the world functions, the average Indian doesn’t seem to realize that a good quality of life in a system that actually works, doesn’t need to wait for vacation time when one can leave the country and enjoy it elsewhere.
Thank you for giving me much to think about, I’m going to need a lot of time to process this with honestly.
Maybe I’ll call a bandh. I’ve heard anyone can do it now.
July 17th, 2010 at 2:45 am
Dear Sheetal
Thanks for taking time to visit my site. You know, you’re so very different from most young people I meet, fewer than fewer, as I grow old. People of your age and with your knowledge and skills have only to realize that knowledge and skills are not sufficient unless you convert them to results. The third ingredient in effectiveness therefore are your attitudes. People like you can make a difference to this beautiful nation and bring about change.
We can talk about it when you’re next here.. In the meanwhile let me share with you a simple concept. Draw a large circle which is the circle of your concerns. You cannot change the world but you can make a difference to your back yard to your neighborhood, your home, your place of work, the circle of friends therefore draw another circle, a small one. It is the circle of a control or the circle of influence. A few things in the large circle of concern that you can control or influence. Focus on that. We are the change that we want to happen
Want, as you said, to organize a bandh? What a coincidence. My next posting on the website is about a very special bandh
much love
george
July 19th, 2010 at 4:54 am
Dear Uncle George,
It would be so wonderful to talk to you the next time I’m in Bombay.
In the mean time I’m going to do the exercise of the circle of concern and keep trying my hardest to BE the change I want to see.
Thanks uncle.
Waiting for your next post.
With love,
Sheetal.
July 28th, 2010 at 6:34 am
Dear sheetal
looking forward to seeing you at Sylva Condor
I have lots to share with young people
if you look at the ages of all those scamsters as well as those of being locked up in jail you realize that only the young can make a difference
I’m off tomorrow for 10 days to visit my darling daughter Anjali and her husband Sven at Cambridge
much love
George
July 29th, 2010 at 2:15 pm
Dear George,
Sadly gone are the days of Potent India and Indians, except corrupt governance and politicians. When it come to governance and competence they are Impotent. No matter how many morchas or strikes are held, they utlimately turn out or result in Impotency. All action no results. No ginseng or Chavanprash can cure the Impotency that prevails in our country’s system. So let’s not feel ashamed to accept or declare that we are “Impotent” in trying to achieve what the government and politicians fail to deliver to its countrymen.
By the way, the fact and truth is that we Indian are truly Potent, when it comes to increasing our “Population” among the other nations of the world. Aren’t we Proud of it. ????? ” Impotent to Potent”
Take care and God Bless
Dominic D’Souza
Aurora, CO, USA
August 15th, 2010 at 3:03 am
Dear Domnic
thanks for your comments on my article on political impotency
today is Independence Day. We have a regular flag hoisting ceremony in our building attended by all the members of other buildings on our road.
Hoisting the flag and singing the national anthem followed by Prayers For Our Lady
made me feel temporarily portent. Especially seeing the young faces in the gathering full of hope and determination. If we adults give them good witness about values surely they can bring about change even though we may not be around to see the change
September 30th, 2010 at 5:52 am
Its easier to blame PM for all the ills of the country of billion people. more so in a democritic country like ours. May be we undestand it better if we put ourseves in PMs shoes and anlalyze to find our score is nagative. We must thank God for getting a PM who is so honest to run our cournty.
October 6th, 2010 at 3:33 am
Thank you for visiting my site. Interesting to have a name sake writing to me. If you are from Godrej I have heard about you and rejoice at your achievements.
If you have read my piece carefully I blame myself more than anybody else. As as well as citizens like myself who at the age of 81 and a history of civic and political activism including joining a political party at great risk but not being able to bring about change in the areas of rampant and blatant corruption, total breakdown of law and order and change in the electoral process that can eventually elect large numbers of people who love India and can make a difference
I only consoled myself that other people much much bigger than myself are powerful and yet prefer to look the other way and live in denial.
The Prime Minister may be financially honest but he is corrupt by his silence, by his complicity in not ordering any action against corrupt people at the very top of our Democratic institutions.
We can do without a Prime Minister who is honest but has no integrity. Integrity is derived from the word “integer” which means a number that is indivisible. Integrity means practising what you preach, integrity means standing up for your beliefs.
If you are content with an honest Prime Minister lacking in integrity so be it. As someone said “I shall defend with my life your freedom to differ for me”
one George Menezes to another
October 10th, 2010 at 9:29 pm
Excellent piece of writing, Dad. Haven’t visited the site in a couple of months as have been busy with work & because I wasn’t expecting new writing so am pleasantly surprised.
Got the pictures of UK street scenes you forwarded that the CW game organisers are referring to in order to defend their shabby job in preparing for the games. A poor rationalisation to make themselves feel better about having blown an opportunity to really impress the international community of what they are capable of doing.
October 11th, 2010 at 7:33 am
Thanks Anjali. As expected some people did not like my blaming the PM
my reply which is to a namesake, you may read after I finish replying
October 19th, 2010 at 5:36 pm
By George ! Truly well written.
October 21st, 2010 at 3:32 am
Dear Mohan
Thank you for visiting my website and for your kind words
George
March 15th, 2011 at 10:37 am
If the quality of my writing has hopefully improved in the last few years it is because I am sincerely open to feedback, especially negative feedback.
Would appreciate examples in the article which as you say, did not work with you, to enable me to work on my effectiveness in communicating with my readers. Thank you
August 3rd, 2011 at 8:59 am
Gotta learn more about this. How can I contact you?
August 5th, 2011 at 2:38 am
Dear Kizzy
What would be your motivation to contact a man who writes about “being impotent” ?
You can always contact me on this site
thanks for visiting my website and taking time to comment
George
August 31st, 2011 at 2:49 am
I’m really inspired with your writing skills neatly as with the structure in your weblog. Is this a paid subject matter or did you customize it yourself? Either way stay up the nice quality writing, it is rare to peer a nice weblog like this one today..
August 31st, 2011 at 8:51 pm
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September 7th, 2011 at 8:03 am
Thank you so much, Adele
Very complimentary and very motivating to a writer
If you want to interact with me do use my e-mail
I post a mail once a month as I’m busy writing a book On Human Resources Management
Mostly my experience working for 25 years with Hoechst , a great German multinational company
George
September 7th, 2011 at 8:11 am
Thank you
Writers look forward to feedback
it makes them feel less lonely
January 11th, 2012 at 1:23 pm
Cool story!
January 12th, 2012 at 7:53 am
Thanks, God bless