Prem Rao : Stories from a Story Teller

“Hillbilly Elegy” by J D Vance

To be honest, I had never ever heard of J D Vance until recently. Only when Donald Trump chose him to be his running mate did I hear his name. The focus of many stories I read here in India were more about his wife Usha. That was because her parents were immigrants from India.

I then found his book, ” Hillbilly Elegy: A Memoir of a Family and Culture in Crisis” (Harper, 2016). You must remember he wrote this long before he became a Senator from Ohio. In 2016, no one would have imagined that Vance would become a candidate for Vice President of the United States! This happened only in July 2024. We should keep this in mind as we read Vance’s book.

This is Vance’s personal account of what it was like to have a deeply troubled family life. I admired his honesty in sketching out the principal characters in his life. These include his drug -addicted much-married mother; his sister, who was his biggest support; and his maternal grandparents. They influenced him deeply as he grew up. Indeed, it was his grandmother who played a huge role in shaping his thinking . She helped him escape out of the poverty- stricken, addiction- oriented life he would otherwise have led.

Many people, especially those outside the US, believe that all white people in the US are very well off. Vance’s book describes the difficulties faced by most poor white families in small towns and mining communities. These were compounded when blue collared jobs became scarce. Manufacturing and mining took a steep dive in profitability. Unemployment grew in leaps and bounds. This phenomenon made large parts of the northeast of the United States being called the Rust Belt. As a consequence of economic downfall, social and family ties were adversely affected. The number of broken marriages, broken homes and domestic turbulence increased substantially. Vance lived through all this as a kid. It was naturally his ambition to break out of the chains of poverty.

Vance explains how his four year spell in the US Marine Corps was a turning point in his life. He then attended Ohio State University -not surprisingly the first from his family to do so. He worked hard to achieve his dream of getting admitted into and graduating from the prestigious Yale Law School.

And no, though his wife Usha is mentioned in the book, not much is written about her. Of course, Vance describes how much she helped him at Yale Law School. That apart readers in India looking for stories about her family would be disappointed. I don’t think he even mentioned that her parents migrated from India!

The book underlines how adversity is a tough teacher. You learn a lot when you are dealt with many knocks in your life. Especially when you face many hardships- financial and emotional- at an early and impressionable age.

On Writing: Resources for Writers

Jetpack Beta: Write Brief With AI – Free Tool for WordPress Users

Here’s something which bloggers on WordPress will love. The folks at Jetpack have a beta version of “Write Brief With AI.” which looks incredibly interesting!

Apparently they started this project with the internal monicker of “Breve” which means “brief” in Latin. During the beta stage, this is available for free for all WordPress. com users.

Indeed it is built into the WordPress editor, so there is nothing extra one has to do. All you need to do is to click on the Jetpack logo. You will find this on the top right of your screen.

Just what does this tool do to help you write better?

To start with, it measures readability. As you write, it measures your readability score. As I key in this my score is 4.39. But hey! Is that good? Is that bad? I am confused. The accompanying article says’ ” Our research shows you should aim for a score of 8-12 for the highest readability. (The lower the number, the better.) The tool calculates your score as you type.”

If lower the number is better, then why specify 8-12? Not clear at all, to me! Is 6 better than 8? Then why 8-12?? Hope the folks dealing with this can clarify.

2. It helps you find and reduce Long Winded Sentences. This is a good feature. I tried it out and it works. The best part is that it offers suggestions for improvement too.

3. It identifies weak words like, ” possibly”, “might” and “could” which it called unconfident words. You should aim at minimising the use of such words to make your writing more confident and direct.

4. It simplifies your vocabulary, helping you choose simpler words to replace bombastic and complex words.

It helps you improve the title of your blog post and offers suggestions too!

Last but not the least it gives you an AI generated featured image for your post. Like this!!

Overall, I found this interesting!

There is a big debate brewing on AI and writing. A school of thought- supported by the Author’s Guild– says AI generated technologies are a threat to authors. The blatant copying of original work- without any attribution whatsoever is wrong, in my view. Yet, tools like Write Brief with AI do bring value to someone aiming to improve his/her writing style.

What do you folks think?

Authors, Book Reviews

“Exit Wounds” by Lanny Hunter

Growing up in India in the 1960s and 1970s, for me the Vietnam War was far away. It was distant from our every day lives. Yet it did loom large over the decades and occupied a lot of mind space. To my mind, there were two types of people in those days. A large number of Americans seemed to believe they were true patriots. They believed they were fighting for their country’s values and objectives of defending democracies anywhere in the world. As the war dragged on and the number of dead and wounded increased by the day. A powerful anti war sentiment grew in the US. Books have been written in plenty exhorting both sides of this spectrum. I have read many of them over the decades.

A recent book, published in October 2023 by Blackstone caught my attention. It is titled ” Exit Wounds: A Vietnam Elegy” and is by R Lanny Hunter. Serving with the Special Forces in Vietnam, Dr Hunter is well placed to write about the horrors of war. He saw this for himself as a medical doctor on the battlefield. He distinctly remembers the six-day siege at Plei Me in October 1965. Here, the US Forces directly encountered the Army of North Vietnam for the first time. Dr Hunter then a Captain (Medical Corps) in the Special Forces has described this battle in gory detail. He writes about the men – whom he came to know intimately-who fought that battle. Hunter had to make quick decisions on the battlefield. These decisions saved the lives of many soldiers. Sadly, all were not saved as he worked on the age old principle of triage.

Dr Hunter returned to the United States after his two year tour of duty. He was one of the most decorated medical officers to serve in Vietnam. Amongst other awards, he was awarded the Distinguished Service Cross

Given the financial resources and military might of the United States, no one imagined at that time, that this war that would end the way it did. Over time, the North Vietnam Army occupied large tracts of South Vietnam. One picture remains framed to this day in our minds. It is of men desperately scrambling to hang on to the last helicopter to leave the US Embassy in Saigon. The United States exited Vietnam in 1973 when Richard Nixon was the President – after losing over 58,000 men. The long drawn war finally ended in 1975 with a comprehensive victory for North Viet Nam.

Hunter writes that during the Vietnam war – 1965 to 1975- the United States and its allies dropped more than 7.5 million tonnes of bombs in Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia. This was more than double the amount of bombs dropped in Europe and Asia in the Second World War! Still they lost the War – which has many insights to students of modern day warfare and geopolitics.

What sets Hunter’s book apart from most others is not just the description of his meritorious war time duties. It is the story of his return to Vietnam in 1997. He returned -three decades after he left Vietnam -answering a plea for help from Y-Kre Mlo. This was his former Montagnard interpreter of bygone days. All through the book, we see the war through Hunter’s eyes as also through those of Y-Kre. We see how he was treated both during and after the war. As is obvious, he was made to suffer a lot after the war for having helped the Americans.

There are some charming vignettes in the book. One is of Hunter taking time off his battlefield duties to answer letters from a kid back in the US. His observations of Vietnam in the ’90s are also interesting. He notices how some things had changed but many others had remained pretty much the same.

I am sure this book will interest readers keen on war and human interest stories. Highly recommended.

"Glimpses of a Glorious Past", The Lawrence School, Lovedale

Farewell, dear Moira!

A little after a month past her 100th birthday, Old Lawrencian (OL) Dr Moira Breen Ph.D passed away on January 26, 2024 at Libertyville, Illinois, a short distance away from the hustle and bustle of Chicago and very far away from Madras (present day Chennai), India, where she was born on December 18, 1923.

I offer this tribute to dear Moira on behalf of Old Lawrencians from Lovedale cutting across many generations from all over the world. At the time of her passing, she was most likely the oldest living OL in the world!

Moira, I understand, is a girl’s name of Greek and Irish origin. In Greek, it translates to “destiny,” “share,” or “fate”. It is said that when babies were named “Moira ” they were encouraged to believe that their future was in their own hands. Dr Breen, in that sense, was most appropriately named. She was a totally self made person . Her many accomplishments are all the more remarkable considering her humble beginnings. She was dogged by many difficulties starting with her father abandoning his family when his children were quite young.

In the 1930s, the pupils of the Lawrence Memorial Royal Military School , Lovedale , were not quite associated with higher studies. Many of them joined the military service in the UK or took up Govt service in India in the Railways, Customs and other Government departments. In this milieu, Dr Moira Breen’s academic and scholarly research reflected in many published papers stand out in testimony to her hard work, diligence and ability to overcome challenges that came her way. “My old school in India gave me the backbone to live up to its motto “Never Give In” she wrote, summing up her life succinctly.

Family circumstances sent Moira and her younger brother to Lovedale in February 1932. Lovedale was home for her for most of the year, till she completed her Senior Cambridge examination with a first class. She then went to Queen Mary’s College in Madras ( present day Chennai) to complete her Bachelor of Science degree- once again in the first class. Five years in the Christian Medical College , Vellore and the Women’s Christian College, Chennai as a teaching laboratory assistant fuelled in her the passion to study more. Appreciating her mettle, her Professors recommended her for a Master’s program where she could study and do research at Vassar, Poughkeepsie N.Y. It was only the second institution to grant degrees to women in higher education in the United States.

As a 25 year old Anglo -Indian lady, who had never set foot outside the Madras Presidency before, she travelled from Ceylon ( now Sri Lanka) in a Dutch freighter heading to the United States. After a successful stint at Vassar, she did her doctorate in Biochemistry from Northwestern University Medical School, Chicago, Illinois in 1960. Subsequently, she became a Senior Medical Research Scientist with The Federal Government of the USA in which capacity she worked till she retired in 1988.

She loved art and even at a fairly advanced age showed a proficiency that belied her years. Apparently, she also drove a car till into her 90s! She was known to be genial, helpful and a respected member of whichever community she lived in. She loved dogs and took in many over the years, her favourite being a Sheltie .

Sadly ,from childhood, Moira was afflicted with a facial deformity which she took in her stride with her customary courage. She wrote, ” I am glad you liked the photo of myself. I owe a lot to my 3 “facial and reconstructive surgeons” – one in India and two in the US – who over the years have performed a total of 22 surgical procedures on my face making me more socially presentable.”

Some of us Old Lawrencians like Joseph Thomas, (ARA 1957)- (who first introduced me to Moira), Yohaan John (VIN 1991) and I, Prem Rao ( NIL 1967) corresponded with Moira and spoke to her once in a while but we never actually met her. I still remember her kindness in readily sharing her memories for ” “Glimpses Of A Glorious Past: An Informal History of The Lawrence School, Lovedale” that I edited some years ago. (For those of you who are interested, there are several posts on this project in this blog. )

Remember, we spoke of destiny earlier? Here’s how Dr Breen happened to meet Rahel Abraham (DEO 1994). Moira wrote, ” It was a lovely Fall day, sunny and cool and Rahel was sitting outside a bakery shop with her two children and a big black Labrador dog. I noticed the dog and stopped to talk to her on my way in to the bakery store. When I came out with a big grocery bag filled with 3 coffee cakes ( I was taking them to a party) she very kindly offered to help me. My car was packed in the parking lot in the next block. So Rahel, her two young girls and the black dog accompanied me to my car. On the way we introduced ourselves and she told me she was from Kerala. The following Sunday she visited me with her two girls and her black dog. The following week she invited me for dinner at her house where I met her husband and other members of her family.

She was delighted to have met another OL who left Lovedale 55 years after she did! To add one more co-incidence to the story, it turned out that Moira knew one of Rahel’s relatives Dr Liza Chacko at CMC Vellore from many decades ago!!

Starting from where she did and going through so much in her long life, for me, Dr Moira Breen was “Never Give In” personified. Her life reminds me of the old saying, ” Count your age by friends, not years. Count your life by smiles, not tears!” May her soul rest in peace!

I cannot end without thanking Joe, Yohaan, and Rahel for kindly sharing material and pictures for this post.

Authors, Book Reviews

“Resurgence- A Hyderabadi Miracle” by Ravi Krishnaswamy

If one wants an overview of interesting and impactful happenings from different parts of the world for four decades from 1975 to 2020, one should read, ” Resurgence- A Hyderabadi Miracle” by Ravi Krishnaswamy (aka K Ravi). In this book, published by Enas Publications in 2023 , he covers in considerable detail happenings during this period across various subjects like politics, sports, technology, and movies.

Seeing the litany of books, movies , songs etc described one might well ask: what is so much of information – almost Wikipeadic (to coin a phrase) in scope- doing in a work of fiction? The answer is that the author has used his imagination to good effect to create this story. In this fictional work, the main protagonist is Ram from Hyderabad, now in Telangana State in the South of India. He lives with his parents and siblings in Marredpally an area in Secunderabad which is like a twin city to the larger city of Hyderabad. Ram has a twin brother – who, not surprisingly at all, is called Shyam, like in the famous Hindi movie of that name. Sushila is their elder sister. As a young boy, Ram was an avid and even precocious reader but sadly he met with a bad accident in 1975 when he was hit by a speeding car while cycling with his friends.

Ram falls into a coma -which in this work of fiction eclipses even the record of Elaine Esposito of being in a coma for 37 years- and continues to be in that state till he miraculously recovers 45 years later. It is 2020 by then and the world is in a grip of a new and strange phenomenon which became known as Covid 19. This brought in dramatic changes all over the world. The lockdown in India for a few months helped Ram- in this story- to catch up with events of the decades that had passed him by as he lay in a coma. His parents have passed away so it is up to his sister, brother, and brother-in-law to bring Ram up to speed ( to use a modern idiom) on what has become a fascinating and new world for him. Even physical structures like some of the old landmarks of his locality have been wiped out.

The story weaves in a commentary of present day life where there have been so many advances in technology. These have resulted in developments which would have been considered impossible decades ago. But as with everything else, people too have changed. Ram notices a higher degree of greed for material successes, a hunger for consumption (and probably over consumption), and many other dramatic behavioural changes which reflect a world that would have been considered alien in the 1970s.

I was not at all surprised to hear from Ravi that he wrote this book during the Covid days. This book is very different from his first book called, “Born Smiling: A Father’s Tribute” which was more personal in nature, dealing as it did with the life and passing away of his beloved daughter.

This book is quite different in scope and character from most others. I compliment the author for choosing a difficult approach to tell a story which he assures us is not his- but set in areas very close to his heart.

Authors, Book Reviews

“Hindus In Hindu Rashtra” by Anand Ranganathan

While it is customary to start with the beginning of the book, let me start my review instead from the end! The book I write about was released on August 15, 2023 and is titled, “Hindus In Hindu Rashtra” by Dr Anand Ranganathan (BluOne Ink, 2023). If you think this book is about how Hindus dominate the narrative and events in our country, primarily because of their numbers, you must see the fuller title of the book, which says, ” Hindus In Hindu Rashtra: Eighth -Class Citizens And Victims of State-Sanctioned Apartheid” !

Dr Vikram Sampath, Historian and Fellow of the Royal Historical Society, sums up the situation described by the author by succinctly writing, in his Afterword to the book, ” If, even after reading a scholarly and evocative work like this- a small masterpiece in its own right- the Hindus and the Governments of this country do not wake up to take control and address these issues, the fate of the community will sadly be akin to that of lambs being quietly led to their own slaughter.”

Let’s place this book in context of some important numbers as regards population. Since this book will be of interest to people all over the world, I wish the author had added some key statistics in the Prologue.

India’s population is presently 1.43 billion which adds to the complexities of governing a large and diverse country. Yes, Hindus do form the majority of India’s population – at least as of now. According to Pew Research, between 1951 and 2011, the percentage of Hindu’s in India’s population fell from 84 % to 79% while the population of Muslims grew from 9.8 to 14.2 %. Currently their number is in excess of 204,000,000, which is larger than countries like Russia, UK, Germany, and France. It is estimated by Pew Research that 94 % of Hindus in the world live in india. However, in terms of certain rights, as you will see from Dr Ranganathan’s crisply explained, fact based book, they are far worse off than are the ” minorities” in relation to important aspects of life such as religion, and education, amongst others.

We are nearly two and a half decades into the 21 century and with the power of technology and social media it is clear that the one who sets the “narrative” (to use today’s speak) is the winner. Or at least has the major advantage to start with. We see these days how outrageous allegations and “news items” (mostly exaggerated or even blatantly false) grab all the headlines. If this is challenged, a toned down version or even an apology is rendered- not as a headline but in some obscure corner of the newspaper which no one notices! By then the damage has been done!

Many critics of Prime Minister Modi’s Government like Congress Leader Rahul Gandhi for example, or journalist Rana Ayyub for example, say that Muslims feel attacked in India and/or there is a move to inflame hatred against them. Presenting a very different picture of what is actually going on, Dr Ranganathan explains in his book, how on the contrary for decades after Independence in 1947, the Hindus are being discriminated against. He has eight chapters in his book and each of them deal with one aspect of this discrimination such as State Control of Hindu Temples, The Waqf Act, and so on. This is the reason why he calls Hindus “eighth -class citizens” of India!

It is a must read for every Hindu in India- to make them aware of where they actually stand despite all the noise that suggests a “Fascist Hindu Rashtra.”

It’s unfortunate these days that terms are used so casually. Often people speak of “genocide against minorities in India” but the last genocides in India were against the Kashmiri Pandits in the 1990s (which is covered in this book ) and before that, against the Sikhs in 1984.

I found the book to be meticulously researched and informative. I hope this will be translated into many Indian languages so as to increase its reach.

reminiscences

Nostalgia: About XLRI

The other day I was going through some old photographs and came across one that instantly brought back a lot of nostalgia for me. It was a picture of the Enright Hall, our hostel at XLRI, Jamshedpur, when I studied there from 1972 to 1974.

This residence for the male students at the Institute was named after Fr Quinn Enright SJ, the first Director of XLRI. The ground floor had some faculty offices, a large dining hall which was our Mess ( and often it was in a big mess), a much frequented music room and a canteen-store of sorts. The rooms for the students were in the floors above.

In those days, the girl students were not staying on campus. They lived elsewhere in a rented house, to which they repaired every evening after spending the whole day at the institute. It was considered rather unsafe for them to go back so late alone so they were always escorted by a band of faithful male admirers. They, naturally, came to be known as Escorts Limited after a well known company of those times.

So many memories flood my mind! Of the terrace -where we took refuge in the extremely hot summer months , lugging our mattresses up to bed down under the stars. Of the lawns on the ground floor, scene of many an impromptu Lawn Crowers Meet where guys and girls gave vent to their musical and singing talents. And,, of course of the rooms in between! It was a pretty modern building for those days with US style water faucets for drinking water, elevators and so on.

The XLRI campus had in those days a basketball court, a tennis court and a large ground for cricket, hockey and the like. The Main Building housed housed the offices, classrooms, library, and a small auditorium. While one could pretty much wear what they fancied in the hostel area, there was a rule that shorts were not allowed in the main building. One of our basketball players thirsty after a game headed straight for the nearest water faucet- in the main building disregarding his shorts. As he was quenching his thirst, a hand on his shoulder told him he was about to be pulled up. That hand belonged to the legendary Fr Edward McGrath who told him- as only he could, ” Son, this is Xavier Institute- not Miami Beach!”

At one time some girls lived in rented accommodation at one end of the cricket ground. During cricket matches it was therefore common for the commentator to announce, ” Here comes XYZ bowling from the Kastuar Sisters End”. The other end was the “Co-operative College End.”

The last memory for now is of a dear friend,Dilip Bam, now sadly no more. No party in the Mess was complete without Bam doing his famous dance on the dining table balancing a jug of beer on his head.

Those were fun times! As Mary Hopkin sang in one of the most popular songs of those faraway times, ” Those Were The Days My Friend! We Thought They Would Never End……”

Authors, Book Reviews

“A Prince Among The Patriots” by Maj. Gen. M K. Paul (Retd)

Often books are referred to as labours of love considering the huge amounts of work that go into writing them and the unbridled passion with which they are written. Knowing the author as I do, I can say with certainty that, “A Prince Among The Patriots: Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose” by Maj. Gen. M. K. Paul (Retd) is definitely one such book. This “labour of love” has been recently published by Heritage Publishers, New Delhi.

Over the decades since India became a free nation, there have been many books on Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose, whom I consider to be the most heroic Indian of the 20 th century. You might well ask, ” Why then should there be one more?”. To my mind, the advent of social media, the explosion of information available and a renewed interest in knowing how India won freedom from the British are factors that have propelled the writing of this book. I need hardly add that the author’s passion for the subject of the book has been a key driver.

As a keen student of literature in general and biography in particular for the last six decades, I believe a biography rests on two central pillars. The first pillar is about the subject of the biography. This addresses questions like: Who was the person the book is about? What kind of person was he/she? What characteristics and behaviours did he/she exhibit that set them apart from others?

The second pillar is about their achievements and contributions which make them worthy of being written about. How did their actions impact society around them? What were the results of their endeavours? To what extent did they succeed in achieving the outcomes they worked for?

Seen through this prism, “A Prince Amongst The Patriots” elaborates upon Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose’s personality and character and his stellar contributions towards winning freedom from the British. The latest available literature and accounts point out to how it was the fear of a large scale mutiny by the British Indian Army, The Navy and the Air Force that was the proverbial last nail in the coffin of the British Empire. Towards this end, the valiant actions of Netaji’s Azad Hind Fauj (Indian National Army) which actively battled the British had a big influence on the minds of ordinary Indians serving in the British Indian Forces. It was Bose’s war cry of “Give Me Blood and I will Give you Freedom” that sent a chill down the backs of the British.This was a very different approach from one they had been used to for decades: Gandhiji’s non-violent cry of “Quit India” which they had ignored.

Netaji was an extraordinary leader who led from the front. His exploits in escaping from British India in disguise in 1941 and coming back by German and Japanese submarines to take charge of the INA in 1943 speaks volumes about his personal courage. His is a very different story than that of his more famous contemporaries in Indian history who exhorted crowds to face lathis while they never faced attacks by the police themselves. Even when they were imprisoned, Nehru and Gandhi spent time in relatively comfortable prisons as distinct from the terrible experiences Netaji had to go through when imprisoned by the British in the early years of the Second World War.

Apart from Netaji’s interactions with Gandhi and Nehru in India, the book dwells upon Netaji’s interactions with Hitler, Mussolini, and Tojo in Germany, Italy and Japan. His mind was set only on one goal – freedom for his motherland. He was ready to take anybody’s help to achieve his dream. He was a man of principles, with a steadfast commitment to his cause, and a born leader with a flair for being different. Sadly, for decades after India became independent, Netaji did not get the recognition he richly deserved –

Hats off to Gen Paul for his work on Netaji Bose. I think the book could have seen better editing, but considering the author is 91, it is remarkable that he achieved one of his dearest ambitions: to write an interesting and informative book about his hero!

Highly recommended for those – especially amongst our youth – who are interested in Indian history, military history and biography.

In The News, My Take

Digital India

I hadn’t visited an ATM in many months, perhaps years. There used to be one around the corner from where we live. Since we were going out for a few days, at my age, I thought it might be prudent to withdraw some money. Just to be on the safe side! On reaching where the ATM used to be, in its place I found a shop selling seat covers and auto accessories. As I stood there puzzled, a grizzled middle-aged onion-potato seller smiled from behind his push cart. ” The ATM you are looking for closed down long ago, sir” he said. “No one comes here anymore. So they closed it. Every payment is done digitally these days”. He pointed happily to the QR Code he exhibited on his hand cart. “All of us are using this these days! You don’t have to carry cash any more.”

Hearing this from a hand cart vendor reminded me that we are now in a new India. A very different one from the days of my childhood in the 1950s and 1960s. Then we would have counted out each note and coin carefully, rubbing the note to make sure two notes were not going out in place of one! Today, a click and the transaction is done.

This message was reinforced recently at a hospital. I saw an elderly lady watch bewildered when the bill for her husband was settled with a few clicks on her son’s smartphone. I could relate to what went through her mind. Years ago, getting the patient discharged from the hospital would have been a major operation in itself! It would involve withdrawing money from the bank, carrying it carefully and paying it at the hospital so that the patient would be discharged.

For us in India, at work or at home, in urban areas and increasingly in rural areas too digital payments have overshadowed the traditional cash payments. The figures speak for themselves. Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman told the Parliament in her budget speech that India saw 7,400 crore digital payments of Rs 126 lakh crore through UPI in 2022.” (For those who may not be familiar with the terms, “lakhs” and “crores” commonly used in India: 100,000 makes 1 lakh and 100 lakhs makes 1 crore).

Yes, indeed the Unified Payments Interface (UPI) introduced in 2016 has taken the country by storm. Payments through Phone Pe, Google Pay, Pay Tm and other mobile App based platforms account for 42 % of all transactions. The older payment modes such as the credit cards and debit cards- once considered quite sauve and chic- had a share of just 7 % and 14 %, and are falling rapidly year on year.

The pandemic created havoc in many ways but it did help in strengthening the roots of the digital payments systems. Everyone and his uncle – especially in India’s cities and towns- started using online shopping, online payment gateways and the like based on several factors, key amongst them:- speed, convenience and reliability. Apart from person to person payments, there are many examples where digitisation has changed the way we live. One success story has been in the toll collections in National Highways. Earlier, there used to be long queues at the toll gates while people counted out notes laboriously. Today, thanks to FASTag and such methods, not only has the system become streamlined, saving valuable time but the numbers have also increased substantially. In 2022, toll collections at national and state highways brought in Rs 50,855 crore- an impressive 46% more than the previous year!

The use of mobile phones has been a major contributor to this galloping pace of progress for digital payments. In past years, politicians -especially in the Opposition – were skeptical whether our people would be able to use such sophisticated systems. Today, India has 1.2 billion mobile phone users with 600 millions smartphone users. Even in remote places, you will find the ubiquitous mobile phone and in its wake- social media!

Apart from having a large user base, India has become the world’s second largest manufacturer of mobile phones. The Economic Survey said the out put had increased from 6 crore units in 2015 to 31 crore units in 2022.

Those who wish to go through an easy to understand primer on digital payment will find this article on Digital Payments in India in Easebuzz to be of use.

So we have to move with the times. The writing on the wall is clear. Year after year, we shall see more advances in technology which will make our lives easier. Unfortunately, this applies equally to fraudsters too! To protect ourselves, we must learn best practices to stay safe and be cautious when we transact online.

Authors, Book Reviews

“The Mountbattens: Their Lives & Loves” by Andrew Lownie

To the reader in India, ” The Mountbattens: Their Lives & Loves” published by Blink Publishing in 2019 renews interest in a couple who played a pivotal role in the Partition of India. It is written by Andrew Lownie, a renowned journalist and literary agent. Apart from this comprehensive book on the Mounbattens, Lownie has written books on the former King Edward VIII called “The Traitor King: The Scandalous Exile of the Duke and Duchess of Windsor” and on the Russian spy Guy Burgess, titled, “Stalin’s Englishman: The Lives of Guy Burgess’.

Whenever I think of Admiral Lord Louis Mountbatten, 1st Earl Mountbatten of Burma (1900-1979), I see an imposing figure in sparkling white Naval uniform with rows of medal ribbons on his chest. He did become an Admiral of the Fleet and the First Sea Lord in 1955 thereby fulfilling a childhood vow that he would attain a position held by his father, Prince Louis of Battenberg. Mountbatten’s father was forced to resign as the First Sea Lord following intense public pressure due to his German ancestry when the First World War broke out in 1914.

However, more than his career as an officer of the Royal Navy, we in India know of “Dickie” Mountbatten as the last British Viceroy of India. In five hectic months from March to August 1947, he presided over the dismemberment of India. He was then invited to continue as Governor-General (from August 1947 to June 1948) after India became independent by Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru. As the last Viceroy of India, he was often seen accompanied by his wife, Edwina, Countess Mountbatten of Burma (1901-1960). She had earned a lot of accolades for her work as the Chief of the St John’s Ambulance Brigade during the Second World War.

As the book’s title suggests, it covers more than just the official roles the Mountbattens played during their long and distinguished careers. It speaks of the innumerable love affairs they had in the course of a long marriage that lasted from 1922 to 1960 when Lady Mounbatten passed away. The author writes that the book is the “portrait of an unusual marriage- one that was loving and mutually supportive, but also beset with infidelities. Mountbatten himself claimed that he and Edwin spent all their married lives getting into other people’s beds!

Dickie Mountbatten was the great grandson of Queen Victoria, through his mother. He was thus the nephew of King George V; a cousin of his successors as Kings of Britain, King Edward VIII and George VI; and uncle of Queen Elizabeth II who married his nephew, Phillip, in November 1947. All his life, Mountbatten had a reputation of being a name dropper who got things done using his closeness to the Royal Family. He may have been a member of the Royal Family but in terms of wealth Edwina was far richer than him. Her grandfather Sir Ernest Cassell was financial advisor to King Edward VII and in his own right one of the richest men in the world. When Edwina got married in 1922, she was the richest heiress in the world!!

Lownie takes us through the different stages of Mountbatten’s career starting from when he was commissioned as a Sub Lieutenant in the Royal Navy in 1916 until he retired with the rank of Admiral of the Feet as the First Sea Lord 1959. In the 1920s and 1930s, Edwina was more known for her love for parties, her many lovers, and the social circuit she thrived in more than for anything else. Her interest in Nursing and volunteering for the War effort came much later in her life. She did commendable work for the St Johns Ambulance Brigade and in nursing troops injured in battle in South East Asia where her husband was the Supreme Commander of Allied Forces.

Of special interest to readers in India will be the relationship between the Viceroy, the Vicerine, and Jawaharlal Nehru which has been described in considerable detail by Lownie. Was Edwina’s influence over Nehru used to get the Indian leader to agree to what Mountbatten wanted? Was their relationship merely a ” spiritual” one as claimed by some or much more than that? Did Mountbatten use Edwina’s love for Nehru and vice versa to his advantage? You should read the book for yourself to get all these answers. To many, this book will come as an eye opener. It describes how the high and mighty, glamorous members of the fabled “high society” lived during the height of the British Empire in England and in the closing days of the British Raj in India. After all for more than 50 years, the Mountbattens were considered close to British Royalty.

If you like history and biographies, this is a well-researched book which gives you new insights into the lives of Lord and Lady Mountbatten and the times they lived in.