Tath tvam asi

Paritrana

2006-04-14T06:16:00.000-07:00

Every country is born out of certain ideals. India is defined by its constitution to be a sovereign, socialist, secular democratic republic.
To sustain progress, any civilization needs to continuously evolve. Such is the case with India as well, many events good and bad has shaped India over the years, and continue to do so. Some of these events announce itself with a bang while others go unnoticed until the repercussions are felt wide.
Come May, we will witness an event of the latter kind. Many a time, Indians have found themselves falling into the trap of analysis paralysis. Come May, we will witness real action.
On that fateful morning, when you step down the door and walk the road
you won't hear trumpets blowing, nor will you see confetti in the air but trust me when I say, the glory will be felt in the heart. For on that day, some of us would have sown the first seeds of total revolution.
Come May, the quest for complete relief shall begin.
- - - - -
A Nation's Strength (by R.W. Emerson)

What makes a nation's pillars high
And it's foundations strong?
What makes it mighty to defy
The foes that round it throng?
It is not gold. Its kingdoms grand
Go down in battle shock;
Its shafts are laid on sinking sand,
Not on abiding rock.
Is it the sword? Ask the red dust
Of empires passed away;
The blood has turned their stones to rust,
Their glory to decay.
And is it pride? Ah, that bright crown
Has seemed to nations sweet;
But God has struck its luster down
In ashes at his feet.
Not gold but only men can make
A people great and strong;
Men who for truth and honor's sake
Stand fast and suffer long.
Brave men who work while others sleep,
Who dare while others fly...
They build a nation's pillars deep
And lift them to the sky.

Home is where the heart is

2006-04-02T21:49:00.000-07:00

It is a strange feeling when you come to know something which you never thought about before and once you heard it, you can't stop thinking about it. I am talking about that metaphysical and elusive place called "home". Home is something I take for granted. I was not the odd one out in my neighbourhood. Come to think of it, there was no odd one, everyone had same cultural background and these early years of my life conditioned my mind to believe there is no identity problem out there.

They say ignorance is bliss, though in this case I choose to think otherwise. Living in America has exposed me with all sorts of issues in these lines and I am concerned.

This is a very sensitive issue and I write this with all due respect.
One evening a bunch of my friends and I were hanging out and amidst the chaos a question popped, Where do you come from? The following minute felt like eternity. The absence of noise in the air couldn't remain unnoticed and I turned my head over to see my friend. I was curious, I wanted to ask what's the matter, but I kept the question to myself.
Let me not tell you what happened next,but here is a story.

Scene 1: Jenny was born in China where the government has put down a guideline along the lines of one family,one child. This forces her parents to give her away for adoption when she is four years old.
Scene 2: A couple in America has no children, they want to adopt but are afraid of the scenario where the biological parents may show up in future. So they decide to adopt from Asia.
Scene 3: Jenny is ten years old, she is living in upstate New York. She is hanging out with her friends and her friend asks, Where do you come from? Jenny is silent, she is feeling weak,the smile on her face evident until a minute back is taken over by drops of tears.
She writes in her diary the following night,
Dear diary, Susan asked me today where did I come from? I am American, my home is America. Why should she ask me? Why am I not looking like Susan?
She tells me I have different hair,eyes and I look different. Why am I not looking like Susan?

As hollow as it may seem, many of us take such things for granted. For long I did, not anymore. Hopefully, we will teach our children that people may look different,but there are more things that unite us than divide. We will let our children know why they look different from each other but still they are the same.
For starters, let's acknowledge that identity is something we should imbibe in our kids early and we shall give them the right reasons
to believe.
So in future when Susan is 20 years old, she doesn't ask the same question or worse tell Jenny this is not your country. And that will be the key to solving many of our problems.

Seeing is believing

2006-03-20T19:07:00.000-08:00

A friend once told me, "sometimes even a small thing like the map of the world one uses can say a lot about someone. " I asked her what on earth are you talking about? She said, let's play a game and that's how it started.
She: What is the size of Greenland?
Me: Are you trying to be Amitabh Bachchan, I don't want to play KBC!
She: Come on, give it a try.
Me: I don't know, I can google it and let you know (laughing).
She: How brilliant, OK tell me, what is the size of China?
Me: You won't give up huh? Hmm, I know it's bigger than Greenland.
She: Yeah, you know by how much?
Me: Why don't you tell me, Ms.Know-it-all.
She: Aha, whatever. Ok so China is 4 times larger than Greenland. Do you know how big is Africa?
Me: Yeah, it's pretty big, afterall Sahara is there right?
She: Oh, so you do know that atleast! You know, Africa could hold the land occupied by China, India, Europe, Argentina, New Zealand and the USA and there will be still room left! In other words, it's about 14 times larger than Greenland.
Me: Wow, that is a nice way to put it, one can imagine how big that is. But tell me again, why are we having this conversation?
She: Wait, you will soon know. So now we know that China is 4 times as big as Greenland and Africa is 14 times larger.
Now, let's have a look at a map.

(We both look at the map. I am silent for a few minutes)
She: Did you notice something?
Me: Yeah, it never occured to me before. Greenland looks more or less same as China and Africa is only slightly bigger. Hey, this map has got
all size proportions totally wrong.
She: Nice, it didn't occur to you before huh? I mean you knew Greenland was not as big as China and Africa is bigger than all these but still
you never wondered if this map was wrong before, right?
Me: Yeah, guess you are right. I never saw it this way before.
She: That's what I said a few minutes before, it tells a lot about you. Some people say, the map is the way it is because it was convenient,
psychologically, during the eras of colonialism, when Europe was the central power. This kind of projection helped portray Europe at the center
and look much larger than it is.
Me: Phew, so much for that explanation. You are saying there was a conspiracy and even now people don't want to change the map and make it right?
She: Yeah, afterall almost all of us are conditioned to seeing this "view" of our world. We are not yet ready for the truth may be. Let me show you how the world really should be mapped where the relative sizes are correct.

Me: Yeah you are right, the inertia of habit is indeed a powerful force. Let me go google this, I need to know the truth, it's out there!

Size doesn't matter

2006-03-17T18:54:00.000-08:00

There is a story about a boy and a star fish. It was low tide season and many star fishes were stuck in the shore. A boy kept picking one at a time and throw it to the sea. A man who has been watching the boy for a while, comes up to him and says, "Son, it doesn't matter. You can't save them all, there are so many of them." To which the boy replied, "It does matter. It mattered to the one I just saved. That's good enough and I shall keep doing that till I can."
This is a story we must remember every day in our lives, before we start sulking at our inability to improve the country, the government, the lives of near and dear. We all have the ability to make changes albeit small, nevertheless they are as important as the massive tides of change we wish to bring upon. This is our call, we can make a difference, our work at the grass root level is important .
Life is not fair and not all are blessed with good fortune. Let's remember that, and let's take pride and pleasure in getting a chance to do something for the rest of us. Finance an underpriveleged kid's education, teach vocational skills to young students in your local college, do your own thing.
Always remember, size doesn't matter.

The philosophy of Yatras

2006-03-14T18:08:00.000-08:00

I wonder, it's not even a few days since India experienced another terrorist attack and all that our political leaders can think about now is to how to cash on it. These politicians are in a frenzy to visit the place, issue statements and organize yatras. It just underlines the fact that perception is reality. You don't need to "be" good, you just need to appear that way.
The media, by and large behave irresponsibly in these circumstances. Air time is devoted to such events indirectly giving it the importance it's not entitled to.
But then come to think of it, the media is promoting such things only because people devote time to know about them. So where does the buck stop?
Rousseau believed in the innate goodness of people and had written, "there is no original perversity in the human heart. " He must be turning in his grave.

Seeds of communalism

2006-01-26T12:31:00.000-08:00

I was never good with dates, and may be that is the reason why I hated learning history in school and thought there is no point reading about what happened in the past. But times have changed and I have come to the belief that to understand the present we need to first understand what happened in the past. Many who follow India's political scenario would wonder how religion got mixed into politics. I decided to look in the past and I read about this exhange of letters in 1937 between Nehru and Jinnah.
I wouldn't dare to single out this incident but somehow I have this feeling that this was the beginning of the end for the concept of India, which many leaders of the freedom struggle had envisioned, which gave them strength, hope and happiness and sadly which never meant to be.
----
In July 1937, Jinnah issued a statement (in the context of Congress's mass contact policy with Muslims), "There is plenty of scope for Nehru to improve his own people, the Hindus."
Nehru replied, "Not being religiously or communally inclined, I venture to think of my people as the Indian people as a whole."
----

Quota System: The Menace

2006-01-02T18:17:00.000-08:00

Quota system was the need of the hour, say 50 years ago. India, was a very divided society, access to education, job, and other primary needs were in the hands of a select few. It was a right thing to bring in quota in to these realms, to make sure the vast number of unfortunate people were given due right to these amenities.
But today, that decision has gone sour. Now quota system promoters are not leaders with far reaching vision, but mere politicians who can't see beyond the vote banks of their constituency.
Come new year, we are invited with two recommendations, that are going to have wide repercussions, good or bad time will tell (I hope against hope that it turns out well, or even better the recommendations don't become laws).
I am talking about the encroachment of quotas into India Inc and the IITs. We all know India need more than a few IITs, there are so many brilliant students out there. I was more than a happy news to hear about the increase of seats, but all hope was lost when I read about them devoted to new quotas and not general admissions (I wish sense prevails and they give some seats for general as well).
Like this was not enough, came another blow. Quotas in the India inc. Now, give me one reason how this would be beneficial. I am all for affirmative action, but I am against giving priority to caste/background than capability. It's a sad state of affairs when our so-called leaders don't get this fact. Performance can't be compromised. Capability is the yard stick. If you are competent, you will be rewarded regardless of where you come from. Isn't this straight enough?
I am aware of the issues of those unfortunate people, who never got their due. But this is not the solution, ask the industry to help those needy, give them loans for education. If they prove themselves, they will get job, thanks to the economy!
Don't make people complacent, don't kill competency.

How did we mess it up so badly?

2005-12-28T21:47:00.000-08:00

They say, it strikes you when it happens to you. Till then, it's just another piece of news. I am referring to the despicable notion of violence against humans aka terrorism.
Yesterday it was WTC, today it is IISc, tomorrow...
I can't preach as I myself considered violence against humans as just another story; happening in another part of the world. Today it is very much part of my reality and now I can see and feel what I couldn't earlier.
I see people, I don't see ideologies. I see fear, I don't see hatred.
We are people who want to live and let live. Now we are just pawns in some darn game of one upmanship played by governments and their covert agencies.
We are paying for all the mistakes different governments made over the past few decades. Selfish politicians seeking welfare of their own and not giving a damn about the country, normal people succumbing to bad ideologies, and sinisters who just exploit the situation for money.
Oh god, who are to blame? How can we improve the mess? Where do we start?

Life will find a way

2005-12-25T19:24:00.000-08:00

You march on the path of life, like nomads searching for the next stop of opportunity.
You don't have time to look back, you don't want to reflect, you are not interested in the roots, the only direction you focus is ahead.
But don't be fooled, life will find a way, it will pause you for a moment when you least expect it, it will catch you unawares and will look straight into you eyes and smile.
Where are you heading, you little fellow? What is it that you are trying to achieve?
Are you giving back as much as you want to take?
Life will find a way, now the ball is in your court...

Stretch your limits

2005-12-25T18:18:00.000-08:00

I have read this a million times,
heared this often spoken, and said this myself. Limits, as we all would soon discover, are set by one's abilities, talents,
circumstances, resources and personal beliefs. The eternal search and desire to do more, want more, aim for more,
hope for more, crave for more, achieve more motivates us to press ourselves harder. Imagine yourself in a
grueling race with Mr. Opportunity on life's track ...running determinedly to the finish line with your tongue
dropping to the ground, eyes popping out, and your limbs feeling like torn out from its sockets. You extend yourself..stretch yourself.

Coming out from all that as a winner or loser is another story. What matters at this point is when you look back ---

finding out who you were and who you are now after the race. Self-discovery.
Knowing your
limits. Knowing what you can do or what you can't do. ..and learning how much more you can do. Stretching your limits takes you to
that point of self-knowledge. That is where real power is found. That is the whole point of the exercise. Stretech
your limits -- discover your fullest potential.

Tath tvam asi

2005-12-24T22:40:00.000-08:00

For the curious, here is a link

http://www.ibiblio.org/sripedia/cgi-bin/kbase/
Tat_Tvam_Asi#Tat_Tvam_Asi_That_Thou_art

An evening

2005-12-24T22:32:00.000-08:00

Nice and cool weather,
kids playing in the front garden,
every one smiling and joking away,
Manhattan sky line in the horizon,
star bucks coffee in the hand,
wow, isn't this the american dream I always dreamt of?

Back to the future

2005-12-24T22:29:00.000-08:00

It's not exactly comfortable journeying into unchartered territories.
Adulthood is becoming exactly that. Some part of you wants to cling on to that which gave you your innocence, but I think it's fighting a losing battle.
What is out there and why is it that one is frightened to move on?
I guess it's because the decisions you make when you are an adult are so cold and calculated, that you just don't feel alive anymore.It's always what is in it for me?will it help me in my future? Hmm, some part of you may be feeling apologetic?
or It's just that you are afraid of future, you just want things the way they were, plain and simple.
Whatever that is, one cannot stop flow of time.
We can just say, back to the future!
show me what you got, buddy!

What is the point?

2005-12-24T22:20:00.000-08:00

So many bad things happen all around us.
So many bad things happen to many people we know, and whom we respect as good.
Did you ever felt angry at god, or whoever is supposed to take care of all this but is apparently not?
Did you ever felt like questioning the faith, which feels like the right thing to do?
I have felt it time and again, but I always suppress the feeling.do you know why?
It's becuase I am selfish.
It's because many of my prayers get response while I can see that some of the others are not.
It's because I am afraid that I will get the wrath of His.
It's because I don't want me or my near and dear ones to be members of the not-so-blessed group of people whose lives are miserable for no logical reason whatsoever.
It's because I am stupid enough to believe that it's because of my prayers that my people are safe( like those poor others forgot to pray or care)
I have started hating myself, finally.
I don't understand the point of life, yet.