अनुभूति

Ramdev Baba's Fast Against Curroption - Conspiracy or Plain Bullcrap?!

2011-06-04T22:45:00.001+05:30

I want to give a perspective to the new crusade against corruption by Ramdev Baba who has been lurking in the backdrop of previous (possibly ongoing) effort made by Anna Hazare on the same issue. Before, I do that, I would like to start with my thoughts on the whole situation and gradually slide towards the theory on why Ramdev's drama is a conspiracy or plain bullcrap!

1. I don't think that protests like this will eradicate corruption from this country: I would like to make all these overzealous yuppies think and realize that corruption in our country is not a political problem. It is a social problem! You can expect change through protests and revolutions in the political scenario, we have seen that in past but do not expect any social change from such protests. We are not going to become less corrupt by introducing new laws. Corruption in this country is here to stay, its a INDIAN thing we are like this, like it or not! We like the corruption, ask all those of your NRI friends about how dearly they miss the corruption in India? It gives us a feeling of belonging to the 'privileged class' who doesn't have to stand in a queue and can GET THINGS DONE. The privileged class who can break rules and get away with doing so by paying for it in cash! Do you think we really want this to change? Bribe taker is essentially the god who takes bribe and answers all our prayers. How can we go against our gods! Think about all our 3 million gods, they all get appeased by money and give you the goodies that you desire! Socially, we accept the idea and practice it everyday! The only reason the middle class is behaving with such zeal is because there are few people who have been getting more favors from the gods because they are just so filthy rich!

2. I believe that we need stronger ombudsman bill in India than the one that is existing: There is no perfect system. Thermodynamically its impossible to create one! What we can realistically thrive to achieve is to BETTER the existing system. There are times when I have learned about the corruption charges on the government like 3G/2G scandal, CWG, 'notes-for-votes' etc where the government has gone into complete denial which led to delay or denial of investigation and justice. You can read the chronology and my anguish on denial of investigation and information in the 'Notes-for-votes' Scandal.

I believe the CVC has been ineffective in dealing with widespread corruption and doesn't have enough power to cause any change in political front. The constitution and the anti corruption laws does not make the government liable against the charges of corruption. In purview of the recent scandals, there has never been a greater need to make amends and give more legal powers to the ombudsman. It may not end corruption but it will have a symbolic value. And one should not underestimate the power and effect of these symbols!

3. I was heartened to see the common man coming out of their houses in support of Anna Hazare and I believe it was truly historic: I have never seen any movement in our recent history where the urban middle class, artists, intellectual came out together to support for a cause which has greater implication than just self interest. At most I only expected to see these self observed yuppies protesting against parks for their kids, reservations and saving the planet. But I was too glad to be proven wrong. Good job yuppies!

4. The government isn't too keen to change the existing ombudsman law: The reaction and delay followed by denial only shows the reluctance of the government to amend the existing law. We couldn't have made them to bow without the show of strength by being together and demanding our rights. It seems to me that the government is in middle of a dilemma whether they should go against self-interest or the public. I guess no one in their position will go against public opinion. But they won't jeopardize the self-interests of the ruling class either! The only solution I can think, by imagining myself in their position, is by dividing opinions. By creating doubts and imparting a sense of hysteria and disenchantment in the large group. It is a very effective tactic to tame the sheep! Most of us also know this tactic as "divide and rule."

5. Divide and Rule: "In politics and sociology, divide and rule is a combination of political, military and economic strategy of gaining and maintaining power by breaking up larger concentrations of power into chunks that individually have less power than the one implementing the strategy." - Wikipedia.

The government was obviously threatened by the show of power and determination through the support of Anna Hazare by the masses. They wouldn't have thought of going against the mass opinion. Instead, the best way to tackle a situation like this is by creating doubts in minds of people and make them miss the whole point and objective. For this you will need a joker who would divert the attention from the real serious objectives and make you wonder, "Why so serious?"

6. Baba Ramdev - The Joker!: I have a severe indignation for religion and religious godmen. But, I will try to keep these opinions away from this argument as much as possible. Anyhow, I find the extra demands made by Ramdev to be ridiculous and laughable. The demands are so eccentric that it makes me wonder if Ramdev is subconsciously (or consciously, I am not sure) acting on behalf of the government. There is no doubt that Ramdev is a attention seeker, there are numerous examples in favor of this argument. But, in his present misadventure there lies a greater danger which will swing mass public opinion from the real problems to the eccentric ones. Most of his demands are inferior to what one would expect from a kid studying in kindergarten and shows the kind of intellectual deprivation Ramdev Baba has suffered throughout his life.

It baffles me and makes me wonder what could have possibly provoked this kind of response in media and public at large? Hence, I put forth the following three theories!

7. Theory 1: Advantage Congress: Who is going to win if the opinion is divided or people in general gets disenchanted with the need to change the ombudsman law? It is the government, the ruling class of this country! They are the ones who were stopping the amendment to come into existence in the first place! Let me present a hypothetical scenario,

"Anna Hazare got more attention than Ramdev baba during the initial protest. You don't need a bright congressman to realize actual desires of Ramdev and his possible indignation at lack of camera focus. Yet again, you don't have to be a genius to guess that Ramdev Baba is more corrupt than Raja or Kanimozhi (of 2G/3G fame). Ramdev cheats you in daylight, at least Raja and Kani wouldn't! Knowing all these too well, some Machiavellian schemer and manipulator inside congress thought of a plan to provoke Ramdev to start another fast unto death. You just need a bunch of sycophants to boost the ego of a man whose intellectual level can be compared to a four year old. So, Ramdev in his pride comes back to the government with additional demands. (the ridiculous ones, mostly) The very same government which took eons to give credence to demands presented by team Anna Hazare sends a envoy headed by the home minister even before the start of the fast to convince Ramdev to quit the idea of fast but eventually doesn't accept the ridiculous demands. To me, it might just be an eyewash as the congress knows just too well that once Ramdev comes out with new self cooked demands and associate them with the demand for revision of ombudsman law and obviously make a mess of it. This will make a large number of people doubt the credibility of the movement demanding amendment of ombudsman law. So, the general public opinion is divided and the the interest or need to make further amends will die with the division. A win-win situation for congress!"

PS: The above scenario is purely hypothetical, I have not done any investigation to make that conclusion.

8. Theory 2: BJP is restless: It is quite likely that BJP has become restless when their nonsensical view of misdeeds done by congress wasn't amiably accepted by the public and wants to stir up the public opinion in its favor for its own self interest. The new ombudsman law will not serve the BJP either, but the stir will help them divert the mass opinion in their own favor. So, they instigate Ramdev to goto back to public with his personal agenda and try to revive the the hatred for the government. It is a much likely scenario than the one presented above as the closeness of Ramdev with BJP is not something that I am guessing! It is a well known fact!

9. Theory 3: Stupid is as stupid does: If you discard the above two theories then the misadventure that Ramdev has undertaken will end up breaking whatever was started by the team Anna Hazare and the people of this nation. And it is a HUGE PILE of bullcrap folks!

You can choose any one from the above three scenarios and you will find that it is the people (you, me and everyone else in this country) who are going to be on the losing side if we break the process of change that we have started, by allowing scandalous men like Ramdev Baba mutilate our rights while we remain slumberous!

PS: There is a fourth scenario where Ramdev is sincere to his demands. But I am not a fool!

Remember the 'Notes-for-Votes' Scandal?

2011-06-04T12:37:00.001+05:30

To me it appears that we have forgotten the serious nature of these allegations. The government response to these allegations embarrasses me and leave me cringing at the hopelessness of the situation. They had gone into complete denial as if it couldn't have happened. But, I had seen the allegations made by the MPs on the floor of parliament. Though, I doubted their intentions in the beginning and for two years I gave the government a benefit of doubt but the wikileak cable expose has put me to shame and mocked me for being naive.

In the beginning the hoopla generated by the Opposition parties and the media assured me of greater investigation into the matter. But it was denied and slowly the opposition went numb and the media with its short attention span found something/someone more interesting. Let me list out what happened and their reaction so far chronologically:

Three BJP MPs walked towards the speaker's table with bags full of cash and alleged that Amar Singh and Ahmed Patel paid them to vote in favor of the US-India Civil Nuclear bill
The Indian News channel CNN-IBN had proof of the deal with video footage and three telephonic conversations
A parliamentary committee was formed to investigate the allegation
The committee members investigated the video footage and telephonic conversation and concluded that there are no substantial proofs that the government bribed these MPs
The video footage and the telephonic conversations were NEVER made public by the news channel or the parliamentary committee
The media and the public forgot about this incidence and no one heard anything till mid march 2011
National daily, The Hindu, published the wikileaks cable where a congress leader was mentioned to have shown bags full of ~15 million dollars to be used as a bribe to win the votes, to some US embassy official.
The government denied the allegation saying that wikileaks is not a credible source!
The US ambassador to India in 2008, David Mulford, had accepted that cables are accurate and the MPs were presented with briefcase full of money!
The parliament got adjourned a several times but no investigative committee was formed
Three months since this incidence, we have conveniently forgotten this incidence and are comfortable with the abuse of our democracy and right to information and justice.

So, what should I make of the situation?
Does this whole country doubt the credibility of Wikileaks?
Or we are just too comfortable at being corrupt?

I have come to realize that the protest and loud shout in public hardly make any difference or change in this country. To me the only right way to go forward is by educating the masses. Is there way we can create awareness and ask for investigation and justice?

Eulogy For My Memories

2011-02-24T01:26:00.001+05:30

I got a call from Karthik a few weeks back and we talked for a long time reminiscing the past that we both promised never to forget. There were many incidences, people and 'stuffs' involved in that conversation. I was surprised to find that I have forgotten numerous 'stuffs' and people I should have remembered. It just got worse when I realized that I had forgotten a lot many things about myself too. For example, according to Karthik, I was good at playing marbles and we both partnered together and made a fortune defeating others in the game. Now when I look back, I cannot see myself playing marbles at all. I cannot even recall the rules of the game. This conversation left me with a sense of loss and restlessness as it raised many questions in my mind about the importance of any day of my life, if I am not going to remember them at all. Like any other normal person, my days can be characterized as fun, dull, sad, exciting etc. Though, there are numerous moments that I wish, I had never lived, still, I do not want to forget them. But, this conversation led to a realization that hit me so hard that felt compelled to write about it.

Since the earliest time, I have had problem remembering 'stuffs'. As a student, I could never remember what I had studied a night before the exams. I had always blamed this disability of mine to hamper learning during those days and at times even now. I still forget paying bills on time and very consistently pay the fines. For this reason I consciously avoid periodic bills where ever possible. But then it doesn't mean that I don't have memories of the past. My earliest memory of myself goes back to Barrackpore, Calcutta, sometime between 1985 and 1987. My parents took us to a Durga Pooja pandal and I can vividly remember my mother carrying my younger brother in one arm while I was holding onto the other arm. I recall the colorful carnival with flying horses, giant wheel, dust filled pathways, busy railway tracks and incense smoke in the atmosphere. The last thing I remember of the day is of us going back home on a crowded local train. My palms were getting sweaty and everytime the train stopped at a station, I felt that I will lose grip and will be pushed out of the train and get separated from my mother. I can still recall that fear.

This incidence happened so long ago that it feels like a dream now. Most of my memories of the past feels like a dream when I try to recall them. After the conversation with Karthik about marbles, I had a dream of my village. This is where I went to the local shop and bought 5 marbles which costed me 5 paise each. This was followed by game against local boys where I won around 10-15 marbles. The next thing I remember of the dream is hiding those marbles in a earthen pot besides the window in a room of our house in the village. There is a mystical part of my subconsciousness which tells me that this was more than a dream and if I go back to the same room in the village I will find the loot in the earthen pot hidden beside the window. I haven't been in that room for almost 12-15 years, for the matter of fact, I don't know if anyone else has been inside that room for this long. For what we know, the whole house has become haunted and people have claimed to see weird 'stuffs' near the house. All this makes the trip to my village even more exciting.

From these instances I have come to realize that I suffer from a neurotic condition (Alzheimer's first stage?? *shiver*) where it has become impossible for me to determine conscious experiences just based on memory. Obviously, I know that the current experience (say, the experience of writing this 'stuff') that I have with myself is conscious, since it is part of my available mind (I don't know the technical term, but available mind here is opposite to subconscious mind) and it will be recorded in writing as long as I don't completely lose my mind or google gets bankrupt. But what about past memories, how am I to determine if they were conscious to my past?

To me loss of memory is the loss of identity, the loss of self. I quite often use my own definition of identity over time, and see from my past memory, at some moment, the current experience of myself as determined by my theory about identity over time. But, because any proposed theory about identity over time must rest solely on memories, I can only deduce from the conscious subjects like friends, family etc which existed and had same or similar experiences of the events that I remember.

Therefore, the crux of all the thought is to highlight the importance of keeping a record of important events and keeping your friends and family close!

Coming Out of Closet: I am an Atheist

2009-12-14T13:56:00.003+05:30

This is the age where religion is one of the most powerful concept which affects us. Religion runs families, politics, governments, ideals, cultures, protests etc. We judge people by their commitment to religion, and religion unites and it divides. With all this mass hysteria behind the word “religion”, one assumes that you cannot criticize religion. Even the mildest of criticism is taken as blasphemy, judged against sin. Our moral values are guided by religion, ethics are dictated by it. You must be morally deprived or ethically impoverished to even think of criticizing religion. With all this at stake, I want to come out of the closet and let it be known that I am an atheist!

I had been through the stage of experimenting with religion and concept of God for a long time now. Belief in god is the paternal legacy that I inherited from my family, since the time that I remember. The idea of God was so obvious with nothing to question. The story is long and not interesting. So I'll just cut it short to, “one day I realized that I no more believe in religion or even in the concept of god.” For me religious texts are fiction and faith is a virus and god is no different from Aladin and his Genie. So, if you are talking to me about any of these subjects, do expect no or a sarcastic response from me. You may call me a sinner if you do not see me patronizing with your beliefs, but I am OK with it. I just do not wish to bark attack on idiotic view of religion and god. And yes, I think it is idiotic!

If you are making assumptions that something really miserable or ill-fated must have happened to me similar to Amitabh Bacchan's life in the movie Nastik, then you will be disappointed to know that my life is not that dramatic. Sorry! The reason for my beliefs leans heavily on science. The interrelation between various branches of science from astronomy to evolution to human psychology etc etc. For me faith or any faith does not need respect as I have come to believe that the ideas preached by these books should be scrutinized and when found illogical or in many case demeaning to humankind, should even be attacked. I am not just talking about one religion, I am talking about any monotheistic or polytheistic religion or any other form of god. The false myth spread by religion were nothing but ignorant stories and wisdom which tried to explain mysteries that had no answers then. Mysteries that we don't know and the ones that we may know in future are far more profound, far more uplifting than anything you will ever find in Vedas, Upanishads, Bible, Qur'an or any other religious texts.

I have been asked, What is wrong in having belief in god or existence of a God?

I think it is false and it is matter of belief without evidence. As a engineer and avid admirer of science and its progress, I like the idea that we should believe in things because there is evidence verifiable through repetitive experimentation and observations. There is such a huge amount of evidence since the beginning of the 21^st century that it is rather a matter of shame that people still base their life on something for which there is no evidence or never was any evidence. Especially when the truth is still so beautiful which is stored in form of scientific knowledge and observations all around us.

Many a times, I am confronted with the argument that, "it is absurd that is why it is faith, because if it was evidential then you would not require a faith and you will be missing the point about religion." But from my point of view, it is not a point in it favor, is it? For me what matters is the truth! And here I am referring to the scientific truth. I can't see any other form of truth when we are discussing the universe and the nature of life on this planet. There is arguably another form of truth, truth that you may call as ethical or moral truth. But from my point of view, the so called moral or ethical truths are nothing but outcome of common sense and I would rather not consider them scientific at all. When pondering over the question of definition of truth, I will be only referring to the scientific truth which are verifiable through rigorous experimentation and are based on years of accumulated scientific knowledge.

The reason why these questions have crossed across my mind are due to the rigid immovable shackles religion and its medieval customs have presented before us even after 400 years of enlightenment. Somehow it seems to me that there is a noticeable growth pseudosciences thanks to the media where a substantial part gives focus on astrology or conspiracy theory but never do we see TV series on Indian television on science and development of science. We have a whole generation growing up on crap shown on Aaj Tak and India Channel. As I said before, I find that there is so much available to us in terms of scientific knowledge and understanding of universe and life on this planet, that I consider it a tragedy that people have been actively led astray into believing illogical nonsense and superstitions of old ignorant world.

Where had the need to replace these superstitious ideas with science come from?

The answer is in human inquisitiveness to understand. Before science was fully developed they filled the need to understand with superstition or religion. There is also a need for consolation, and religion gives consolation to its followers, which probably is mixed blessing. Anyway, we need to realize that anything that is consoling is not necessarily true. Nevertheless it probably is a human need and it is easy enough to think of reasons why religion has persisted.

One thing people since childhood are taught that people who do not believe in religion are wicked and generally negative. But all the way through the growing years and understanding of world and nature around me I have come to realize that there are negative aspect of blind faith. What blind faith in absence of evidence does, is that it predispose you to do evil things that you otherwise wouldn't do.

Does blind faith have to be negative thing? My parents are religious, they can never think of hurting someone, where as, many positive aspects of their personalities can be attributed to their belief in God. So, what is the problem in having such innocuous belief?

I don't necessarily think that it is negative for every instance, but the very idea that it is blind, that is without evidence, is negative. With beliefs people keep telling each other that, “if you feel it is right or if something is true for you then its true to you, after all everything is relative.” But I think there is something far more absolute about the truth, the truth that earth is not flat cannot be disproved, also the truth that demons don't eat the sun and moon during eclipses cannot be treated as relative truth. In no relativistic reference frame of Einstein's will a demon eat sun or the moon, unless Einstein was kind enough to define a “Reference frame of insanity”!

One needs to acknowledge the innumerable proofs that disproves the old worlds notion of nature and with it also disproves the related pseudosciences and belief system. I don't wish to impose the truth or the new world's rationality on people if people are not ready to accept the truth. I will be far away from pushing them to see the beauty of it all. But I want these people to give themselves a opportunity to look at the truths discovered about nature and universe in recent years of development of science. The truth of human evolution and the laws which accurately explain the universe and nature are much better and satisfying than the cryptic book of wisdom. I wouldn't want their children to grow up sheltered from the truth from a wall erected by tradition, superstition and culture.

Finally, it is a common perception among Indians that atheists have two horn and a tail. It is this perception that stops many of us to look into the direction of logic. This is the very reason that I believe most atheists in this country are forced to remain in the closet of anonymity or wear masks to hide their actual beliefs. It is ironical when you realize that one of the largest treatise on atheism from the old world has been developed in India. Cārvāka is a system of Indian philosophy which is also one of the oldest atheist school of philosophy. Many of its proponents have had professed the concept that there is no life after death and religion is invented by man. In one of the Cārvāka texts it is said,

That the pleasure arising to man

from contact with sensible objects,

is to be relinquished because accompanied by pain—

such is the reasoning of fools.

The kernels of the paddy, rich with finest white grains,

What man, seeking his own true interest,

would fling them away

because of a covering of husk and dust?

While life remains, let a man live happily,

let him feed on butter though he runs in debt;

When once the body becomes ashes,

how can it ever return again?

So, what I am saying is not something new, this is the only life you have and if you are going to run your life based on beliefs that your actions will take you to hell or to a lowly life form in the next birth then you will be wasting your life in these beliefs of absurdities. And it definitely isn't a better way of living.

That was a good speech ...

2009-01-21T17:11:00.006+05:30

I liked Obama's speech, most people who saw me getting excited about the speech were shocked and some even accused me of worshiping anything that comes from west. The gravest problem with the new India and my countrymen is lack of true heroes. We have created heroes out of thugs and goons who have gone onto disappoint us all the time. People from the independence era are long gone. Slowly, through historical distortions and unreal ideas about history we have even managed to create doubts on their personalities to make them more of villains than heroes. So what are we left with? Wrong heroes!

Watching Sanjay Dutt on NDTV rallying for Samajwadi Party infront of hundreds of ‘laal topi junta’ cheering him makes a good case for my concerns. Further, our media doesn't forget to mention that Dutt '…got the crowd mesmerized with munnabhai and gandhigiri antics.' Do our media and our judiciary absolve dutt of all crimes listed against him under TADA and POTA just by playing Munnabhai in one of the movies made of Gandhi?

We are living among wrong heroes!

One Mans Loss

2008-11-04T20:21:00.003+05:30

Narrates the agony of a man who lost his all in the Iraq War...

In the days of the wars of the past,
Surfaces a story of a man who did last.
He lived a peaceful life in the farms,
His wife and children all in his arms.
Simple pleasures he always derived,
No reason why he should have been put through strife.

But power turned the world leaders insane,
And waged wars causing much pain.
Struggling through camps and attacks bleak,
He lost everything, his rest, his sleep.
The war lords spared none,
One by one they took away wife, daughter and son.

He tried clambering back to life,
Still running, knowing not why.
For whom was he to live and for what joy?
A lonely lonely life was all that was left by.
Tired and weary lay the brave man down ,
Not so weary of running but bcoz of life's sad song,

By the open graves he sat,
Of the unfortunate souls of depart,
Remembering how in such graves,
Laid his wife and children unclaimed.
Just then breaking the silence of ones who died,
He heard an infant wail and cry.

Among the Decomposing Bones it lay,
Sparking life in the Dead Place.
Angelic, cherubic, some Divine light
A magnificent Confluence he did see
On the Vestiges of Destruct,
Life was again on its Way to Resurrect.

Battling along in life's many wars,
Victory is not always ours.
Destroyed and finished many a times,
Life never does beautifully rhyme.
In open graves our hurts we do bury,
Cause its time to move on with hurry.

Yet how wondrous it would be, if in all life's strife
You can still live bravely THE AFTER LIFE……

Somewhere between Pune & Bangalore last year...

Knowledge is my destiny

2008-11-04T18:21:00.009+05:30

Most times my brain remains in the state of uneasy truce with occasional skirmishes and rare battles which are spurred by the environment and people I live. And then I look around at the world where a person gets overwhelmed by this uneasy situations and give up on the hope from its own destiny and looks for "settling down". The mind with its predisposition to peace and tranquility starts creating its own truth and fantasies which eventually turn into belief. Our society is filled with such fantasies and most individuals refuse to just look at the truth and vehemently oppose the truth from coming out for the fear that truce in mind will be broken. As a community we are not open to change and prefer to live close to blind beliefs we inherited from our "glorious" ancestors.

In India today, there is a vague resurgent in the demonstrably erroneous doctrines that, if true, would create at least a more interesting universe, but if false, it will imply a universe devoid of intelligence and reason. Such doctrines include astrology (the view that stars, which one hundred trillion kilometers away, are rising at the moment of my birth in a closed building can affect my destiny profoundly); Yoga & pseudo spirituality (rampant belief by numerous Indians that spirituality is to do with feeding the dog/cow on street and performing 'yagna' will bring peace and prosperity to the world and numerous claims, which are never proven, that modern medicine is totally ineffective against some breathing practices & rubbing of finger nails, which can eradicate baldness and even cure diseases like AIDS); Vaastu-Shashtra (Another illogical pseudo science where they "artistically misinterpret" basic physics and couple it will quantum mechanics and tell us that the Jar lying on my TV will bring me bad luck); Obviously, also include the doctrine of Special Creation by god or gods, despite our relatedness, both in biochemistry and brain physiology, with other animals.

We must never forget that we are a scientific civilization where knowledge and its integrity must be of utmost importance. Even if there exists half truth to human fantasies mentioned above, it must be proved and verified thoroughly. It is only way we can survive and had been surviving all along the history of human evolution. We won't survive any farther from now if we do not use the gift of human intelligence and synthesize it into knowledge. Science is Latin for knowledge ... and this knowledge is my Destiny!

Will Gandhi Work?

2008-10-25T14:16:00.010+05:30

(This article has been due since second October)

Sometimes, I think we are just not capable of digesting Gandhi. With Gandhi, I mean a set of ideas which were revived by a man through his own experimentation, named Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi. Most of us agree that Gandhi's philosophy of non-violence is nice, but what would happen to him if he was dealing with the likes of Adolf Hitler? Check out any history books, where Hitler has been produced as evil monster, which I do not contradict but agree as a brute reality. It wouldn't have been possible for Gandhi to destroy such distorted morality! So, we must reach a conclusion that Gandhi and his ideals are not applicable everywhere and therefore should be discarded.(?)

I see such thinking as a result of our upbringing where everything good is judged on its merit of achieving a purpose. The method which helps us in achieving the purpose fastest, is the best! The usefulness of achieving such a purpose and the means applied to achieve these purpose does not count. So, when Gandhi wouldn't have succeeded against Hitler, how can I or anyone else succeed without violently protesting for my cause? I should kill someone to make my voice count!

If you do not like someone or his ideas, is it okay to give yourself the right to kill him? I don’t endorse such savage justice. The path taken up by Gandhi is hard path and the right path. It takes great strength and integrity to be in the system and fight it. Instead, just blowing up the whole parliament and corrupt ministers doesn’t give us any kind of purpose. It does not help us build infrastructure or economy, protect our liberty, or remove poverty. Such acts are called terrorism.

If you really wish to achieve peace and harmony, your disapproval of Gandhian principles appear completely hypocritical and illogical, it is simple logical inference one should make. We have this tendency to blame others for our own miseries. We blame the English for the partition and with some incoherent - stupid - piggish logic, even Gandhi. But, why is it so hard to accept that the actual cause of failure is the seeds of hatred that we sow in our minds and heart on everyday basis? The caste system is our oldest mean to discriminate each other. Also, we have so many religions amongst us with each having its own level of superiority complex, further the different cultures and races. Such hatred starts in mind as we start questioning people as, Why do they eat non-veg? Why don't they drink? Why do they look like Chinese? How can I eat the food touched by him?... Gandhi tried, throughout his life, to remove these differences, his idea was simple, be the change that you want to see in the world, learn to love and respect the other although he is quite different from you.

I had been meeting people people since the time I left school who try to impose their (misguided) intelligence on me by contradicting every action of Gandhi by either stupid nonsensical logic or hypothetical plot which never happened, just like the one in the first paragraph. Consciously, I have stopped forcing myself to answer them. But I couldn't feel sorry for them and stop wondering, "No human who knows a little bit of history can come to the conclusion that Gandhi was responsible for the partition. It is their ignorance which speaks under their frail veil of intelligence."

People usually forget that non-violence does not mean making peace. On the other hand, it means fighting bravely and sincerely for truth and doing what is just. Like all fights, there will be a terrible loss and pain but it takes courage and patience to fight against injustice without losing your sanity and killing people in rage of the moment. You cannot just expect things to change overnight, it takes a lot of character to be Gandhi or follow his path and make it work.

Progress of economy = progress of happiness?

2008-08-19T15:32:00.004+05:30

The country is growing with its economy. We all want the economy to grow which is the basic metric on which our happiness is measured. This is also a basic assumption with which most of us turn the economic times or business section of our newspapers. But a book and a jammed parking at select city walk mall in Delhi forced me to rescan the question of my happiness.

Let me start with the incident which happened in the mall at Saket. We were returning home from a late night movie and it took us approximately 45 minutes to crawl our way out of the underground parking. After 45 minutes of tiring wait Harsh paid 80 Rupees. It would have cost less than Rs 80 to reach home if we had opted to walk out and catch an Auto-rickshaw. I didn't pay the parking charge but I would have felt cheated if I had to pay. Harsh suddenly justified the parking charge based on the land cost at this location and equating it to the amount it would have cost to own the same size of land in Saket. Obviously, from his calculation the parking charge should appear more like the steal for the day. But from my point of view, someone is definitely cheating and its not Harsh!

Though Harsh was instinctive in his calculation but if provoked he would have come up with other arguments to justify the parking charges, which would have probably included, cost of maintainance, salary for 30 odd people standing at parking floor to guide the shoppers, electricity charges, window shopping charges etc would have definitely justified the Rs 80 charged for parking a car for 4-5 hours on a weekend. But shouldn't capitalism also promote free market in which price of goods should be regulated by mutual consent of seller and buyer? We live in a capitalist society where the distribution of wealth follows the bell curve, which means that most part of our society will not be as privileged in terms of inheritance, IQ, opportunity to earn enough to pay for window shopping at Malls. And no one should be given the right to assume that if a person owns a car, he would also be happy to pay Rs 80 for parking.

This is where I come to my main intension. As human beings, the way in which we experience and interpret the world obviously depends very much indeed on the kind of ideas that fill our minds. If they are mainly small, weak, superficial, and incoherent, life will appear insipid, uninteresting, petty, and chaotic. It is difficult to bear the resultant feeling of emptiness, and the vacuum of our minds may only too easily be filled by some big, fantastic notion – political or economic or religious or social – which suddenly seems to illumine everything and to give meaning and purpose to our existence. It needs no emphasis that herein lies one of the great dangers of our time.

This is where we find something very big, like the select city walk mall in Saket, and we instinctively tend to justify the parking charge by looking at the size and forget what we are paying for... Eventually, not feeling unhappy about it but would definitely not feel happy if given a chance to vote. So capitalism does not promote democracy eventhough a common understanding says that democracy promotes capitalism.

Its obvious that capitalism has failed in human terms. It is not only affecting the human idea of happiness but also destroying the soil fertility, bio-diversity and atmosphere. Capitalism founded on the ideology of unlimited economic growth and industrialized mass production is not only unsustainable as we are constantly eating away the natural resources which will will be consumed eventually... it is blatantly harmful

In the age of ecology even socialism is not enough. It too is human centric, eco-destructive and advocates industrial mass production. It offers an economic system of the old paradigm. Now, if neither socialism nor communism nor capitalism, then what? We need new politics for the new paradigm, a system for the age of ecology, a system which is embedded in the interest of people, all people and also in the interest of the earth and all life upon it, human life as well as animal life, plant life, earth life, air life and water life. We need a system which replaces our capitalist world view with a naturalist world view, and shifts our society from capitalism to “naturalism”.

Counting money is not enough. Money is not wealth, it is only a measure of wealth, the real wealth is people, communities, cultures, land, forests, rivers. The bottom line has to include social and natural loss and gain as well as financial.

Without Underwear?

2008-06-13T15:02:00.003+05:30

I was talking to two people who were astonished when I told them I was not wearing any underwear under my jeans. And I wonder, have they ever tried jeans without underwear? It feels so wonderful! And I feel its more natural way of living. If nature had desired us to wear underwear then, in million years of human existence, babies would be born with underwear shaped membrane around our crotches (Evolution! ). Also, not wearing underwear cannot even be termed as gross. If I clean myself everyday and wear clean clothes then what is gross?

Its typical for people to react "astonished" (especially males - Which is sad ;) ) when they are confronted with the fact that I can manage without wearing underwear. What is more silly here is that most men (that I know) believe that people wear underwear to hide their inner desires from the world! These people are obviously unaware of advantages of going commando full time!! Scientific reasoning says that underwear has no known benefits, but many drawbacks, especially for men. And it is even more silly to equate hygiene to "cleanliness" which is a misconception. Underwear is not more hygienic than going commando: it doesn't allow perspiration to evaporate and thus promotes microbial proliferation, especially in the hot and humid climate. Though, one cannot stop microbes from escaping the crotch by wearing underwear: its like keeping ants in Elephant cage!

However, when men are concerned, the area covered by underwear is much cleaner than most people think: the hand, feet, mouth and face in general are far more dirtier than the crotch!

And for others, I do not mind letting others know of my hidden desires! Neither do I feel ashamed about it! Also, when clothes are concerned, I feel more comfortable going commando, after all its only about comfort!