It has been quite a while that I laid back and did what I love the most: To let my mind wander...
Off late with all the tasks and corresponding completions timelines, there has been little opportunity at hand to just 'while' away some moments with no purpose at all. This isn't me complaining about all the tasks I am committed to, but expressing my want of those wonderful moments, moments of unfettered bliss within my head...
The euphoria emanating from such purposeful 'purposeless inquisitions', with no tangible outputs is an exquisite feeling of self fulfillment. This gratification is necessary for me, to keep this narcissist mind at work.
Time, spent such, is an investment one would quintessentially have to make, while mining into the talents and ideas within thyself !
Such ponderous moments culminate to become wondrous creative acts.
And, that is Mission Accomplished! Being at it,regularly is an exquisite treat each of us could give ourselves...
I meet many people; people who don't enjoy what they do. They simply go through their lives, getting on with it. They got no great pleasure from what they do; They endure it, rather than enjoy it, and wait for the weekend... Sir Ken Robinson
Using this excerpt from Sir Ken Robinson as a take off point, allow me to present the little acknowledged, but the common societal catastrophe: The ubiquity of superficiality in people, or the Hypocrisy as the Lifestyle syndrome.
We might have acknowledged this syndrome, i.e., in others; But most of us wouldn't dare to evaluate ourselves, to see where we personally stand on this scale of self treason.
Deriving pleasure and gratification out of the work we do is as irrelevant in today's world, as the expectation of honest and earnest governance in today's pseudo-democracies. The unfortunate trend, which has percolated to become a trait of the society is : We'd know it is wrong, but wouldn't bother to better it, because supposedly everyone does it that way!
We bury our natural urges and talents deep down, piling the routine of hypocrisy, confusing mediocrity to be excellence, and pseudo recognitions as results. Few moments of exalting happiness is what keeps us going, when there's a life full with exalting gratification that goes wasted.
A friend of mine says, "All our priorities are screwed up! They're nonsensical". And I so agree with it.
We emulate others, while we lose our authenticity; Worst of it all, we feel no remorse about this self betrayal. Starting from our desires, passions, culture and lifestyle everything has one common factor: Pretension!
After cribbing about this syndrome to this extent, I shall end it optimistically by remembering the few true humans I know: People who are, what they are, and others would only want to emulate them.
Bryan Adams in Bangalore (image from TOI, we weren't allowed with our cams!)
After the two hours of Bryan Adams in Bangalore, I was unable to make an audible sound, or even stand up straight; I was drenched in dust but was euphoric and was certainly still on Cloud No.9!
But, even a minute before, until there was Bryan Adams on stage, I, like the rest of the thousands, didn't feel any fatigue, we were just ecstatic to see the Deity himself singing, jumping and cheering with us energetically, in his flesh and bones, until he got us soaked to our bare bones!
The sea of people, a sea with a common current of Bryan Adams' music in it, was the experience of a lifetime. I'm certain that the Indian audience cannot sing-along any other artist for almost all the songs performed! It was scintillating, and not to mention intoxicating.
While me and my friends were guessing as to what might be the opening track, he surprised us, by more aptly opening with "There will never be another tonight", and he had the struck the right chord as he got us all jumping and hooting throughout... He introduces himself as Bryan Adams, and starts off with "Here I am", and this track never fails to give goosebumps, and in a live show, it blows you away.
I can recollect something special about each of the tracks performed, but I'll prevent myself from making this the longest post by me, and only mention the rest: Somebody, 18 Till I die, Everything I do - I do it for you, Please forgive me, Heaven, The only thing that looks good on me, Night to remember, How do you feel tonight, Can't stop this thing we started, Cuts Like a knife, Here I am, Hearts on Fire, Thought I'd died and gone to heaven, Baby when you're gone, Cloud No.9, Run to you, You've been a friend to me, Summer of 69 and I must have missed out a few and he closed the show with his Bare Bones performance.
Dizzy!And that's what it was like!
There was an awesome jam between Bryan Adams and Keith Scott for one of the tracks, and later a dedication to Keith Scott in Hearts on Fire. To perform the female lead for Baby when you're gone, Bryan pulled out a girl from the audience and it was superb, and she did perform well!
At 90 mins the band closed the show with Cloud No.9, but the crowd asked for more and more, they did give heed to us and went back and performed Run to You and You've been a friend to me! Then the band members bid us adieu, while we hadn't got enough.
And this time Bryan Adams, stayed back and did two tracks from his Bare Bones, The way you make me feel and Straight from the Heart ( acoustic guitar, his voice and him playing mouth organ!):The perfect curtain call!
These two hours of my life will remain evergreen and immortalized, with resonance of Bryan Adams' performance, his energy, the music and all the words which mean so much to me!
ಇತ್ತೀಚಿಗೆ ಒಂದು ಸರಕಾರೀ ಕಛೇರಿಯಲ್ಲಿ ಕೆಲಸವಿದ್ದಿತು. ಒಂದೆರಡು ಮುಖ್ಯವಾದ ದಾಖಲೆಗಳನ್ನು ಅವರಲ್ಲಿ ಕೊಟ್ಟು , ಕೆಲಸಕ್ಕೆ ಹೊರಡಬೇಕಾದ ಸನ್ನಿವೇಷ.
ಆ ಕಛೇರಿಯ ಕಾರ್ಯಸಮಯ ಬೆಳಿಗ್ಗೆ ೯:೦೦ ರಿಂದ ಸಾಯಂಕಾಲ ೫:೦೦ ರವರೆಗೆ ಎಂದು ಒಂದು ಫಲಕದಲ್ಲಿ ಸೂಚಿಸಲಾಗಿತ್ತು. ಈ ಕೆಲಸದ ಸಲುವಾಗಿ ಹಲವಾರು ಬರುವರೆಂದು ಅರಿತ ನಾನು, ಮತ್ತು ನನ್ನಂತಹ ಇನ್ನು ಕೆಲವರು ಸ್ವಲ್ಪ ಬೇಗನೆಯೇ ಅಲ್ಲಿ ಸೇರಿದ್ದವು.
ಸಮಯ ೯: ೦೦ ಇನ್ನೂ ಹಲವಾರು ಜನ ನಮ್ಮ ಸಾಲಿನಲ್ಲಿ ಸೇರಿದರು, ಆದರೆ ಆ ಕಛೇರಿಯ ಕಾರ್ಮಚಾರಿಗಳು ಬರುವಂತೆ ಕಂಡು ಬರಲಿಲ್ಲ. ಇಲ್ಲಿ ಸೇರಿದ್ದ ಎಲ್ಲರೂ ತಮ್ಮ ಕೆಲಸಕ್ಕೆ ಹೋಗಲು ಸಿದ್ಧರಾಗಿರುವಂತೆ ಕಂಡು ಬಂದಿತು. ಸೇರಿದ್ದ ಜನರ ಸಂಖ್ಯೆ ೧೦ ರಿಂದ ೨೦, ೧೫ ನಿಮಿಷಗಳಲ್ಲಿ ಸುಮಾರು ೪೦ ಜನ ಸೇರಿದ್ದರು.
ಸಮಯ ೯:೩೦ ಆದರೂ, ಕರ್ಮಚಾರಿಗಳು ಯಾರೂ ಬರಲಿಲ್ಲ.
ತಡವಾಗಿ ಬರುವುದು, ಬಂದ ನಂತರ ನಿರ್ಲಕ್ಷ್ಯತೆಯಿಂದ ಕೆಲಸವನ್ನು ಮಾಡುವುದು ನಮ್ಮ ಭಾರತ ದೇಶದ ಸಂಸ್ಕ್ರುತಿಯೆಂದೇ ಹಲವರು ನಂಬಿದ್ದೇವೆ. ಹಾಗೆ ನಂಬಿದ್ದ ಕೆಲವು ಜನರು ಇದರ ಬಗ್ಗೆ ಗೊಣಗಲು ಪ್ರಾರಂಭಿಸಿದರು. 'ಸರಕಾರೀ ಕಛೇರಿಗಳೇ ಹೀಗೆ', 'ಏನೂ ಪ್ರಯೋಜನವಿಲ್ಲ' , 'ಊಟದ ಸಮಯವನ್ನು ಮಾತ್ರ ಸರಿಯಾಗಿ ಪಾಲಿಸುವರು ', ಎಂದು ಇನ್ನೂ ಬಹಳ ರೀತಿಯ ಮಾತಿನ ಕಿಡಿ ಕಾರುತಿದ್ದರು.
ಸಮಯ ೯:೪೫, ಕಛೇರಿಯ ಕಾರ್ಮಿಕರು ಯಾವುದೇ ಆತಂಕವಿಲ್ಲದೆ, ಹಾಯಾಗಿ ಬಂದರು. ಬಂದು, ತಮ್ಮ ವಯಕ್ತಿಕ ಮಾತು ಕಥೆಗಳನ್ನು ಮುಗಿಸಿ ತಮ್ಮ ಕುರ್ಚಿಯಲ್ಲಿ ಬಂದು ಕುಳಿತು ತಮ್ಮ ಕೆಲಸವನ್ನು ನಿಧಾನವಾಗಿ ಪ್ರಾರಂಭಿಸಿದರು. ಅಲ್ಲಿಯವರೆಗೆ ಗೊಣಗುತ್ತಿದ್ದ ಜನ, ತೆಪ್ಪಗಾಗಿ ತಮ್ಮ ದಾಖಲೆಗನ್ನು ಕೊಟ್ಟು ಹೋಗ ತೊಡಗಿದರು. ಆತನಕ ಅವರು ಕಿಡಿಕಾರುತಿದುದನ್ನು ಆ ಕಾರ್ಮಿಕರು ನೋಡಲಿಲ್ಲ; ಹಾಗೆ ನೋಡಿದ್ದರೆ, ಸ್ವಲ್ಪವಾದರೂ ಯೋಚಿಸಿ ತಮ್ಮ ಕೆಲಸವನ್ನು ಸರಿಯಾಗಿ ಮಾಡಬೇಕೆಂದು ನಿರ್ಧರಿಸುತ್ತಿದರೋ ಏನೋ . ಆದರೆ ನಮ್ಮ ಜನ ಈಗ ತಮ್ಮ ಬಾಯನ್ನೂ ತೆಗೆಯಲೇ ಇಲ್ಲ .
ಸಮಯ ೧೦:೦೦, ನನ್ನ ಸರದಿ ಬಂದಿತು. ನಾನೂ ನನ್ನ ದಾಖಲೆಗಳನ್ನು ಕೊಟ್ಟು, ಸಹಿ ಮಾಡಿದೆ. ಅದಾದ ನಂತರ ಆ ಕಾರ್ಮಿಕರನ್ನು ತರಾಟೆಗೆ ತೆಗೆದುಕೊಂಡೆ. ಸರಿಯಾದ ಸಮಯಕ್ಕೆ ಅವರು ಬಾರದ ಕಾರಣ, ೫೦ ಜನರು ತಮ್ಮ ಕೆಲಸಗಳಿಗೆ ತಡವಾಗಿ ಹೋಗ ಬೇಕಾದ ಪರಿಸ್ಥಿತಿ ಉಂಟಾಗಿದೆ, ಮತ್ತು ಅವರಲ್ಲಿ ಸ್ವಲ್ಪವೂ ಜವಾಬ್ದಾರಿಯಿಲ್ಲವೆಂದು ಹೇಳಿದೆ. ಅಷ್ಟರಲ್ಲಿ, ಆ ಕಾರ್ಮಿಕರು ಬರುವ ಮುನ್ನ ಗೊಣಗುತ್ತಿದ್ದ ಜನರು ನನನ್ನು ಸಮಾಧಾನ ಮಾಡಿಕೊಳ್ಳಲು ಹೇಳತೊಡಗಿದರು. ಆ ಕಾರ್ಮಿಕರ ಮೇಲೆ ಇದ್ದ ಕೊಪಕ್ಕಿಂತ ಈ ಸತ್ತ-ಪ್ರಜೆಗಳ ಮೇಲೆ ಕೋಪ ಅಧಿಕವಾಯಿತು. ಕಛೇರಿಯ ಕಾರ್ಮಿಕರು ಬರುವ ಮುನ್ನ ಅವರ ಬಗ್ಗೆ ಹರಟೆ ಹೊಡೆದು, ಅವರ ಮುಂದೆ ಏನೂ ಹೇಳದೆ, ಹೇಳುತಿದ್ದ ನನನ್ನು ತಡೆಯುತಿದ್ದ ಆ ಮೂರ್ಖರಂತೆ ವರ್ತಿಸುದ್ದ ಜನರ ಮೇಲೆ ಇನ್ನಷ್ಟು ಕೋಪ ಹೆಚ್ಚಾಯಿತು.
"ಅವರ ಬೆನ್ನ ಹಿಂದೆ ಅವರನ್ನು ನೀವು ಟೀಕಿಸಿದರೆ ಏನು ಪ್ರಾಯೋಜನೆ? ಅವರ ಮುಂದೆ, ಅವರನ್ನು ತರಾಟೆಗೆ ತೆಗೆದರೆ ತಾನೇ ಅವರಲ್ಲಿ ನಮ್ಮ ಬಗ್ಗೆ ಜವಾಬ್ದಾರಿ ಬಂದು, ಕೆಲಸವನ್ನು ಸರಿಯಾಗಿ ಮಾಡುವರು!" ಎಂದು ಅಲ್ಲಿದ ಜನರನ್ನು ಕೇಳಿ, ಅಲ್ಲಿಂದ ಹೊರಡಲು ಆರಂಭಿಸಿದೆ.
ನಾನು ಕೊಪಗೊಂಡುದನ್ನು ನೋಡಿದ ಒಬ್ಬ ಮಧ್ಯ ವಯಸ್ಕನು ನನಗೆ " easy ..easy " ಎಂದು ಉಪವಾದ ಮಾಡಿದರು.
ನಡೆಯುತ್ತಿದ್ದ ನಾನು, ಅವರ ಬಳಿ ನಿಂತು : "ನೀವು easy ..easy ... ಅಂತ ಹೇಳಿಯೇ ನಮ್ಮ ದೇಶವನ್ನು ಈ ಸ್ಥಿತಿಗೆ ತಂದಿದ್ದೆರೆ ...ಕೋಪ ಪಡಬೇಕು ರೀ!", ಎಂದು ಗರ್ಜಿಸಿ ಅಲ್ಲಿಂದ ಹೊರಟೆ !
ಹಿನ್ನುಡಿ :
ನನ್ನ ಅನಿಸಿಕೆಯ ಪ್ರಕಾರ ನಮ್ಮ ದೇಶದ ಜನತೆ ಗಾಂಧಿಯವರ ಅಹಿಂಸಾ ತತ್ವವನ್ನು ತಪ್ಪಾಗಿ ಅರಿತು ಅನುಸರಿಸುತಿದ್ದಾರೆ .
ಗಾಂಧೀ ನಮಗೆ ಕೋಪವೇ ಬರಬಾರದು, ಎಲ್ಲವನ್ನು ಸಹಿಸಿಕೊಂಡು ಹೋಗಬೇಕೆಂದು ಹೇಳಿಕೊಡಲಿಲ್ಲ!
ಅನ್ಯಾಯವನ್ನು ಕಂಡಾಗ ಕೋಪ ಪಡಬೇಕು,
ಆಗ ನಮಗೆ ಬರುವ ಕೋಪವನ್ನು ಅಹಿಂಸಾತ್ಮಕವಾಗಿ ವ್ಯಕ್ತ ಪಡಿಸಬೇಕು!
ಎಂದು ಗಾಂಧೀ ಹೇಳಿ, ಅವರ ಬದುಕಿನ ಮುಖಾಂತರ ತೋರಿಸಿಕೊಟ್ಟಿದ್ದಾರೆ...
I knew not who this young man was, or what he had become later on when I watched The Motorcycle Diaries, intermittently in Zee Studio before a couple of years. I tried to read the book now, pretending to have not known this young man, or what he has come to be to me.
It was an experience reading The Motorcycle Diaries.
The book is not only the account of 'making of a revolutionary icon' in the 20th Century. It is an elegantly written, profoundly influential travelogue. It is one of the finest and smooth books to read. The simplicity of the people and their lives, with all their struggles amidst the vivid descriptions of the sublime nature is the consistent undercurrent throughout this Diary.
The entire book is as if a prologue to the last chapter (When you read it, might agree),
Recollecting a few lines in the last chapter:
I knew... I now knew that when the great guiding spirit cleaves humanity into two antagonistic halves, I would be with the people.
This young man chronicling his adventures and revelations in the countryside of the Latin American continent could have been anyone amongst us. Each of us at some point of time are brought to such revelatory experiences in one form or another. The point is how much of influence these experiences have on us. We seldom give heed to what these experiences reveal to us; We conveniently shut ourselves off.
Whereas this young adventurer, who set off to know his continent's people, was transformed to become one of the greatest revolutionaries of the human history, who goes on to inspire millions of youngsters even today.
Che!
We might concur, or differ with Che's politics and his warfare, but the urge to recognize and stand against oppression, backed with relentless dedication and efforts is what Che is all about.
He is as relevant today, as he was during his times.
We need to open up ourselves; Then observe and act. If it takes a little of Che in each of us to do it - So be it.
Never a step backward, Never a moment of weakness. - Ernesto 'Che' Guevara
In the year 1984, in Shimshapura, a village not far away from the Silicon capital of India, Bangalore, there lived a rational man who was ahead of times, in relation to the circumstances he was brought up in. The story is about this man rising above all his peers and contemporaries.
As a background to this story, Untouchability and Casteism in India are perils which are still haunting various regions of India, and are far from being things of the past. I find it unneccasry to elucidate what these superstitous inhuman acts are capable of unleashing, as we have had chronicles narrated to us in our schools and most of us might have witnessed it in person.
While our protagonist is in his early twenties, living in the orthodox, caste-conscious village ( like the many then, and a little less now), has an entourage of seven other youngsters in the village. Interestingly, his entourage comprises of a person from the 'lower' caste and this by itself has outraged the rest of the village, as it is still presumed to be 'unholy' and 'degrading' to interact closely with these people who are called as the 'dalits' otherwise in India.
Reiterating the fact that he was 'rational', he would profess to his peers that caste-based discrimination to be a foolish superstition,and people shouldn't endorse such inhuman discriminations. His entourage was convinced better than the rest of the village.
Until now, the protagonist and his entourage had only interacted with the lower caste friend of theirs, whereas they hadn't visited his home or eaten there.
During one festival, this friend invites the rest of the entourage to his home for the special supper. These young men, who had until then professed rationality, didn't think otherwise; acted by their words and happily joined their friend from the 'lower' caste for a relishing dinner, a hitherto event in the village...
Post dinner, each one of them, because of the prejudices they were brought up in, questioned themselves, if it was any different or 'unholy',or if they felt 'guilty' to have suppered with their friend. Convinced that they had done the right thing, they slept that night peacefully.
For the next couple of days, the news about this young group of villagers having suppered at the 'dalit's' home spread all across the village, into some 1000 houses, like wild fire. Every road-side conglomeration of people would discuss exhaustingly about this 'atrocity' committed by these youngsters. With the news reaching the village heads, and the Panchayat, they decide to summon these young men for the 'shameful' disdain exhibited by them.
No logic presented by these men was given heed to, and all the 'accused' were 'convicted', for the crime of having brought disgrace to the entire village, and the 'upper caste'. As a punishment they were fined Rs.50/- each (substantial amount in the 1980's) and were to undergo the re-purification process: It would comprise of shaving off their heads, taking a public bath with turmeric and soap-nut powder, and drinking a trickle of the 'holy cattle water' or the cow's urine! As the entire village was against these men, including their own family members they had to succumb to this ridiculous process.
After undergoing this atrocity, our protagonist is outraged and furious.
During an immediate visit to the town, away from his village, he meets his brother. The brother on questioning about his new hairdo, and the subsequent narration of the entire saga, is infuriated and escorts his victimized brother to the press and everything is reported there.
As caste-based discrimination and untouchability in India are constitutional offenses, the newspaper report which appeared next day triggered the police to reach the village and hand out serious warnings to the village heads. The village heads went absconding.
Unaware of the ramifications of his newspaper interview, our protagonist reaches the village to be welcomed with stares of admiration from a few, while the rest were dreadfully scared! Once he spoke to his friends, he realized the implications of his newspaper interview and was glad that the elders were being taught a lesson for their stupidity...
After returning from their tenure of absconding, the undaunted village heads regrouped the Panchayat and decided to boycott the protagonist along with his family (seclusion from the rest of the village).
With pressure from within the house, with his brothers asking him to leave the house, the protagonist had decided to stay away from his house. But, his mother urged him to face the villagers and stay put at his home.
With moral support from his mother, he started to visit the village as he would normally. To counter the ignorance of the rest of the villagers, he began to analyze the history of the village, and noticed that there were many other upper caste people who had and were interacting with the 'lower caste' people for their benefits (for the sake of free labor, illegitimate relationships, exploitation and so on). He jotted down the names and instances such as those, and started questioning the village heads, who could not confront him. They started dodging him, and during this process he had mobilized a good number of other rationales from the village who would join him for this essential cause and fight against such caste-based discrimination in their village and nearby ones.
Over a period of time, the villagers' ignorance and audacity had molded our protagonist into a leader, and he was the first member from his district to have won a Panchayat seat in the elections, standing for the party he endorses.
Even now, he is a leader who resonates to the ground level problems of his villagers and goes to great extents to see that he can help them with the best of his efforts.
PS: The name of the protagonist is G Ramakrishna, from the Malavalli taluk of Mandya district. People in his taluk are more open and welcoming to people from other castes, although the peril by itself is not fully abolished. GR even now is active in mobilizing people to stand up for their cause, bringing them out of the shackles of inhibitions and ignorance. He is one common man, who turned to be a Hero, a working class hero...
The question of whether or not all the complexities we have drawn onto our daily lives, is worth or not has kept my mind boggled for quite sometime now.
On the one hand, there is the incessant urge of us humans to explore the unknown realms of unconquered nature. This urge is what has lead us into the cognizance of the vastness and grandeur of nature. While this is making our lives complex with every passing second with all the ramifications in the form of technology and innovations, it has also given us immense gratification, to further instigate our thought process to ponder more and better.
But, on the other hand, this quench to understand nature, by unleashing the humongous information and ramifications in the form of technology has misaligned us from our fundamental sensual pleasures we would otherwise incessantly derive from nature. The solace nature gives us has been replaced with artificial and temporary indulgences. Once a while, when we are back at the bosoms of mother nature, the immeasurable bliss it renders is irreplaceable.
Pursuing our inquisition is a pleasure of its own, pursuing it without letting go our natural indulgences in all the grandeur of nature is most important.
PS: The state of my mind while composing this post has been perfectly conducive to churn up contrasts such as the ones presented in the post.
During an eventful trip recently, I found myself walking for miles early in the morning, chewing Neem stalks to cleanse my mouth ( I still wonder why people transcended to tooth pastes and tooth brushes!); Eating simple, unsophisticated, yet delicious food cooked on firewood; Singing and dancing around campfire; Laying on my back in open fields, staring at the stars(majority of which are not visible in the city!).
I am not sure as to what we have gained by endorsing the urban sophistications, but I can clearly see all that we are missing!
Change your profile picture in tricolor theme; Post a futile status message saying "Happy Republic Day", without knowing what a Republic is!; Get tens of likes from like minded "Patriots"; Talk about shallow nationalism for a day ; Try remembering the National heroes, as portrayed by the media; Most of all, enjoy the holiday - stay at home, or better rush to a shopping mall!
Isn't it a really nice way to commemorate the oblivion of a Republic India?
This sort of a superficial and occasional patriotism is what has rendered India to it's current messy state.
Does this sort of occasional sense of pride and nationalism do any good at all? Aren't we only trying to please ourselves, or our entourage by showing such shallow patriotism? We let go daily opportunities through the year, where we can excel as citizens, and only on a few occasions exalt in the name of patriotism.
Every time 'We the People', 'celebrate' the Republic Day, we must place a check on the extent of how much of a Republic we are.
A Republic gives heed to its citizens: Our Voice matters in a Republic. But, with every passing year, this national trait is eroding and will soon be met with oblivion, without any remorse.
It is alarming to observe a huge section of the society being happily complacent with the lack of Democracy in a Republic, and are self approvingly endorsing such hypocrisy, branded as nationalism.
If you are proud of your country, be so every second of your life, and transform that pride into efforts and actions, which will better the nation. Please stop this occasional hypocrisy!
First a recap of the proceedings in India, with some points specific to Karnataka:
The overall inflation has hit 8.8 %, with food inflation at about 17 %; While the Central Govt is attributing this anomaly to be symptoms of growth, i.e, necessary for increasing the GDP, citizens are the ones who have fallen prey to this firestorm. [ A recent central govt report recognizes that 70 % of the population survives on Rs.20/day] So, where is the growth?
Since the deregulation of fuel prices in India ( i.e., variations in fuel prices would be in synchronism with the International market, without much intervention from the Govt.), there has been a sharp increase of about 20% within a span of less than an year.
Central Govt.'s hush-hush methodology (or inaction?) until now, towards the speculated 1.5 Billion USD worth of tax evaded Indian money in the Swiss Bank accounts, is also a matter of grave concern.
Showers of other scams, which fancy themselves, unashamedly with dizzying figures attached to them. India shining? Yes, very much. The bars are set high this time: Prerequisite for any scam to hit the media and make news has become about 100 crore Rs; anything less than that is not even covered by the media!
Continuing increase in farmer suicides, and their rate of retrition from farming have aggravated the already ineffective agricultural system in India
The State Govt here in Karnataka has been busy dodging the allegations and corruption charges against it. So, it has least bothered about the perilous state the citizens are being pushed into.
And as one of my friends had pointed out, there is not even a pretense about citizen welfare amongst the State legislators these days, and are busily 'flinging mud' (media phrase!) at each other
A state sponsored and imposed Bandh today, to protest the Governor's grant to prosecute the CM, according to the ruling party was to be observed as 'Indication of people's support to the CM'! If Public transport is shut off, and commercial establishments forcefully closed it can only increase the anguish against these morons of Nth order.
While these and more chronicles of the pathetic Governance are getting ever ubiquitous, we the citizens are 'Silently witnessing the grand Spectacle'!
By the way, do we still have an independent judiciary? Or, is Judiciary the next addendum to list of terms that are limited only to the text books, joining the list of these attributes:
This is what the Constitution promised India to be, and where do we stand today? Who is to be held responsible? Why has the system gotten this rotten? Who is the culprit?
I cannot propose a pragmatic solution at this juncture, but can clearly see each of us being responsible for this pathetic state of affairs. No salvation would be feasible from this mess, without the active and activated participation of each one of us.
We meet a lot of people on a daily basis. Not everyone leaves an impression on us occupying neurons in our brain. And of the few people who do leave an impression, for me, the ones who permanently reside on their alloted neurons, and invading into more neurons are the People who are still fundamentally very people-like.
By quoting a phrase like fundamentally people, I am blanketing all the people who have not lost their identity in the sophistications of the freaky, gadgety world. They are more or less rarities, who are less dependent on the rest of the human inventions, or at least not in a vulnerable state of dependency. People who 'use' technology, and not who 'live' technology.
There are numerous anecdotes to recollect the humanness of these special people I have come to know. I shall start with the logging of the latest one.
Be grounded
An ophthalmologist I visited for consultation recently, reminded me the importance of being grounded. Grounded as in not the humility aspect of it, although that too was inherent to her. But, it was more about thinking in a simple and realistic manner. All the thoughts and words emanating from her, were bouncing off a basic ,yet strong mental platform. During each moment of the interaction with her, she was manifesting the simplest, yet so alien thought process. With no complexities, looking at everything in their simplest forms, making it all seem so obvious, while my mind was stuck in a jargon war, 'trying to think'!
Human'abilty
With every passing day, our dependence on everything apart from our own ability has been increasing unscrupulously. We are getting more vulnerable by the day. We are crippled when there is no power, or even when we don't spot a calculator to multiply two two digit numbers! When this is the state of the improvisation of our abilities, I can only recollect one person, who defied this dependence in every practical manner: A man I would have loved to know better, my grand dad.
He wasn't extraordinarily dependent on machines, on the contrary he was relatively self sufficient with his exceptional abilities. For instance, he used to never wait for a bus, or a rickshaw, for his 10+10 km work commute and he didn't want to own a personal vehicle. He used to walk briskly the entire distance, do his day's work and walk back to home effortlessly. On the contrary, I can only think of the cribbing each of us consciously does for any purposeful walk, of even a km.
Also, he was my first reference encyclopaedia for any doubts in History, or general science, or politics.
He was an ad hoc quiz master. I have always wanted to emulate him, and I must have been partially successful in trying to endorse his mind set, but never his physical stamina or the strong mental conviction, for which I shall remember him eternally.
Such people are the ones, who remind us of all the unreality we are filled with, and in a silent manner of their own urge us to reclaim ourselves from the shackles of dependencies.
Firstly, at the risk of sounding chauvinistic, I dare to confess: Of all the cities I've visited (as yet, only within India) nothing comes close to being Bangalore. I am addicted to the weather, ambiance, people and places here, and find it really tough to 'adjust' elsewhere. And yeah, it is shaping up to be a vulnerability of mine. Nevertheless, you would hear conforming confessions from most core Bangaloreans in the same context.
My physical location in Bangalore is one of the best places to be. It is The Green Peninsula: Three sides surrounded by the best greenery that Bangalore is still left with, and two patches of serene lakes; All within a radius of about 2-4 km.
@ the IISc
To my West is my favorite portion of Bangalore - The Indian Institute of Science. If not at work, I'll most probably be found in the IISc; visiting friends, calling for meetings or participating in sessions. This is the best place to be cycling. The rich flora, the serenity, coupled with my books and music, and the impeccable lemon tea have made it an addiction of sorts...
@ UAS, approaching the big boulders
To the East is the University of Agricultural Sciences (UAS), and this has immense retrospective value to me. It used to be the childhood weekly picnic spot. Over the weekends, me and my cousins would pack some snacks, or find some mulberries, or the strawberry-like flowers of cacti and 'trek' the small hills ( i.e., the big boulders), through the tongue-like mud roads to reach the Campus grounds.These huge grounds were where I scored my first 100 in Cricket ( two teams of 5 each were playing:), while I was in my high school. Other fascinating regions of this was the veterinary campus where the poultry, piggery, dairy farms were present. Now these farms are diminishing, but the pastures, and rest of the greenery is in decent condition.
Hebbal Lake, and a small portion of GKVK
To my North would be the continuation of the UAS campus, Gandhi Krishi Vignan Kendra (popularly known as GKVK). I have paid the least number of visits here, but will be soon frequenting my rides to this campus as well.
The two scattered water bodies; the depleting Hebbal lake and the serene Sankey lake do add immense value to ambiance in my vicinity.
After having lived for a long long time in such a proximity, it comes as no surprise that I'm obsessed with this ambiance - the Green Peninsula of mine.
My recent decision of voluntary, but temporary disconnect from the online networking happened spontaneously. I had no clear explanations to myself, when I decided to do it. But, there was an uneasy feeling, an apprehension of sorts which had led me to it. Without projecting it to be an exaggeration, I am presenting my observations here.
During the first couple of days, I did realize the advantages which I had missed by perenially being available online. It might seem as an anomalous regression, tending away from the shackles of today's complex obligations of the digital social etiquette. It was certainly a regression, but not anomalous; I'd say it was very natural, which facilitated a breather from the claustrophobic WEB.
The highly available architecture might do well with core switches in networking, but as people a pause in our interactions with the rest of the people is very much necessary: If not for other reasons, at least to break the monotony.
Monotony, is something I consciously try not to get entangled in. On the other hand, as if to manifest the paradox, this persistence against monotony by itself would end up being monotonous. And, in such instances, the best thing to do is to hibernate. Although this time, it was a hibernation only from my commitments to the Web-World, soon I'd want one absolute hibernation, this time inclusive of all domains.
Well, fear not! It ain't reclusive: It would only be an essential pit stop.
Another understanding, I seem to have arrived at is the ease with which we can get influenced by the increased interactions with the uni-dimensional networking and activities online, again a ramification of the monotony. As a result, our discerning faculties, which differentiate realness of real people and the realness of the digital personas of people, get eroded either when used unscrupulously, or when unused scrupulously. Again, breaking the monotony is one efficient solution to tackle this narrow perception syndrome.
The post caption gives a deep, contemporary insight into the ever growing disparity in India.
BPL (Below Poverty Line) population in India is a massive section of it, and while most of the real BPL remain left out in the Government's segregation. There is also the never-ending controversies surrounding the criteria and benefits availed to this section of the population. Nevertheless, what one needs to absorb out of the term BPL in India is that, a major portion (a conservative figure of at least 30%) of the country's population is not in a position to afford basic food, shelter, health and education, while there is another extreme section of the population that is well and far beyond this population, who are oblivious of the BPL.
A statistic would accentuate this disparity: Just 52 individual Indian citizens own assets that is worth 25% of the entire nation's annual Gross Domestic Product (GDP).
Further, when the democracy is tending towards anarchy, the media does well by catalytically euphemising this transformation.
The 'breaking news' for the past two days on all popular media enterprises, which have forcibly invaded into our lives, is that Player X has been sold in a fearsome bid, or that Player Y has gone unsold in the shameless IPL bidding. All of a sudden, the chaos surrounding the scams (~ status quo?) seems to have mellowed down. The media has temporarily forgotten about them, and will revive them when their TRP hint going downwards. Off late, I haven't been able to contain my frustration against the highfalutin media. But, then I realize it is just a ramification of a peril that is deep rooted into our systems.
The arguments and ideas pertaining to changing India have been happening for long. Corruption has become systematized, as in, the system provides for immense opportunities of embezzlement, nepotism, and other 'rich varieties' of corruption, inviting the great scamsters to eat the country from within.
At this juncture, one sigh of worry by an important Indian is worth mentioning: "India can ill-afford crony capitalism..." Dr.Manmohan Singh,Prime Minister of India
When the disparity is accelerating, corruption is rotting the country from within, there should be a lot that each of us can do to nullify these perils.
I have decided to take a sabbatical from all my online activities for sometime (including my personal mails). I shall stay so, for at least a week, or even more than that.
Will reveal my reasons once I am back online.
For any important communications, feel free to give me a call, or meet me up :-)
Firstly,
Wish you all a radical and blissfully happy new year :-)
Let us strive towards making this year and the future from now on better than it has been, by being part of the change which we will set rolling on.
Standing at another check point, to measure the evolution in the past one year.
Now, looking back at 2010, personally, it has been exceptional in many ways: Paradigm shifts, Perpetual ideas, Personal bliss....
Here's a small retrospective log (for personal chronicling of course;) of the year that has been...
My stand on religion has gotten clearer; At least to myself, while, most of the rest are perplexed further. This endorsement of mine as a disbeliever has made a lot many unhappy, understandably. Nevermind, I am happier than ever with this outlook and am working to make it better.
Another major paradigm shift has been of my perception of the society. It has gotten more critical, in a shrewd manner, and still going on. Learning, understanding and interpreting the mechanisms of the ways in which the world is run is more than fascinating: It is enlightening.
Professionally, my apprehension of getting complacent seems to be coming true. Now that I have gotten conscious about it for sometime now, I am working to counter this sense of shallow satisfaction, to keep myself motivated and to do more than what I am currently doing. Come next year, there will be some tangible actions.
Personally, no new friends this entire year. That comes as no surprise, and only adds to my record of being me. By the way, the old ones have become sparse, further more. Whereas, few old acquaintances have transcended to become real close companions. There is more synchronism in the better entourage that is in the making. Glad for that :-)
Like always, the only incessant resolution is to evolve, for the better. And I hope each of you does the same.
Wish you all a transformative new year; Transformative in the sense of curbing all the negatives and accentuating all the positives.
Physics being the denominator of all science, is based on the fundamental fact that 'likes repel', whereas 'unlikes would rather attract', when put in a very blunt manner. Without trying to repeat the obviousness of the presented factual statement, and presuming that my audience is able to comprehend it in full context, I would be already delving to the point of contention in this post: Exceptions to the case of 'Repellent likes'.
The exception being dealt with is not necessarily bound by the laws of Physics as we know today. And this makes this case of exception abstract in nature to a certain extent, as it operates at the intersections of the mental and social spaces.
Quite many of my posts and conversations would regularly aspire for, and invoke a sect of like-minded people. In one such interaction with one other like-minded friend, I happened to state "Like minds do not repel". But, even before I had completed saying it, I felt necessitated to justify 'the almost grueling friction' which is so inherent to the interactions amongst, for instance within my own limited diaspora of resonating minds.
With some extra contemplation on these lines, although I was convinced of the friction prevalent, I did realize it was no repulsion that is manifested. It is more of the inherent attribute of such a diaspora, which culminates to become a process of refinement. If i were feeling poetic right now, I could go on to use the simile, and say, Like the tough abrasion necessary to bring out the luster in diamonds
Apart from this friction that yields betterment, such interactions facilitate freducheying, churning out some of the most wonderful by-products, in the form of sparkling ideas bouncing off each other's adamant convictions.
The seemingly repellent interactions amongst like minded people are actually synergistic in nature, and churn out ideas: Ideas that are immortal.
ಬಹಳ ಅಂತರದ ನಂತರ, ಒಂದು ಆಹ್ಲಾದಕರ ಕನ್ನಡ ಚಿತ್ರವನ್ನು ನೋಡುವ ಅವಕಾಶ ದೊರಕಿತು. ಯೋಗರಾಜ ಭಟ್ಟರ 'ಪಂಚರಂಗಿ', ಒಂದು ಸರಳವಾದ ಮನೋರಂಜಕ ಚಿತ್ರ. ಇದರಲ್ಲಿ ಬಹಳ ಗಂಭೀರವಾದ ವಿಷಯವಾಗಲಿ, ವಸ್ತುವಾಗಲಿ ಪ್ರಸ್ತಾಪಿಸದೆ, ಸಣ್ಣದೊಂದು ಕಥೆಯನ್ನು ಒಳ್ಳೆಯ ಸಂಗೀತ, ಸಂಭಾಷಣೆಗಳ ಅಭಿರುಚಿಯಿಂದ ಸೇರಿಸಿಸಿ ನಿರೂಪಿಸಲಾಗಿದೆ.
ಇಂದಿನ ಕರಾವಳಿ ಕರ್ನಾಟಕದ ಕಲಾಚಾರದಲ್ಲಿ ನಡೆಯುವ ಎರಡು ದಿನಗಳ ಘಟನೆಗಳನೂ, ಎರಡು ತಾಸುಗಳಲ್ಲಿ ಅತ್ಯಂತ ಸೌಂದರ್ಯವಾಗಿ ಸೆರೆಹಿಡಿದು ಆಹ್ಲಾದಕರವಾಗಿ ನೀಡಿದ್ದಾರೆ ಭಟ್ಟರ ತಂಡ.
ಹಾಡುಗಳಿಗಿಂತಲೂ, ಚಿತ್ರದ ನಾಯಕನಟ ನುಡಿಯುವ ಸಂಭಾಷಣೆಯು, ಆಧುನಿಕ ಕವಿತೆಗಳಂತೆ ರಂಜಕವಾದ್ಗಿದ್ದವು. ಎಲ್ಲಾ ಮಾತುಗಳಿಗೂ 'ಗಳು' ಪ್ರತ್ಯಯವನ್ನು ಸೇರಿಸಿ ಆಡುವ ಸಂಭಾಷಣೆಯು ತೀವ್ರ ಕಲ್ಪನೆ, ಹಾಗು ವ್ಯಂಗ್ಯದ ತುತ್ತತುದಿಎನ್ನಿಸುತ್ತದೆ. ಇದು, ಈ ಚಿತ್ರದ ಬಲವೆಂದೂ ಹೇಳಬಹದು.
ನನಗೆ ಇಷ್ಟವಿರುವ ಸಂಭಾಷಣೆಯ ತುಣುಕುಗಳು:
"sslc-ಗಳು, puc-ಗಳು, cet-ಗಳು, ಇಂಜಿನೀರಿಂಗು, ಪಂಜಿನೀರಿಂಗು, ಮೆಡಿಕಲ್-ಗಳು, ಹಲ್ಲು ,ಕಿವಿ, ಮೂಗು, ಬಾಯಿ, ಡಾಕ್ಟರಗಳು
ಕೈ ಬೀಸಿ ಕರೆದು, ಕೆರದಲ್ಲಿ ಹೊಡೆವ syllabus-ಗಳು
ಪಾಸು ಮಾಡಲು ಮನಸೇ ಬಾರದ ಕೋರ್ಸುಗಳು;
ಕಷ್ಟದ ಸೀಟುಗಳು, ಗುತ್ತಿಗೆ donation-ಗಳು ,
ಸತ್ತರು parents-ಗಳು, ಇದ್ದರು students-ಗಳು ."
Most of us profusely talk about change. It has come to be inherited in our social behavior. We feel compellingly necessitated about change, or at least to talk, or to be part of a talk about change. The problem herewith is the extent, quality and feasibility of the change we are envisaging, and how we intend to accomplish it?
Before answering these questions,let us try to be honest:
Most of the times, all of the talks we hear about 'Change' end up being merely self-approving, and/or pretentiously show that we are somehow concerned about the events around us. With some help from deep introspection, we would easily arrive at the cognizance of it being plain superficial.
Unfortunate as it is, we cannot afford to disregard this behavior, as there is a huge section of the society affiliated to such a school of thought.
When change is what we aspire for; be it within or outside oneself, it eludes us. It is the nature of change to be elusive. To bring about the change we really want to, beyond the captivating speeches and obscuring ideas, it takes a clear vision backed by immense efforts: Focussed efforts directed towards a clear vision.
Talking is good, but only talking is catastrophically bad.
We need to transcend from the monotonous monologues of the verbal sphere to the actual action sphere. We need to firstly, and most importantly dissect our own belief system, to see what we aspire for.
If we are able to endorse ourselves to an already existing like-minded sect, very well. Else, we need to necessarily build one such sect. The power of individually identical but conforming thoughts, coupled with synergistic actions have never failed to shake up the world.
Aspirations to bring about change come as a reaction to the extremities we impulsively observe in our daily life. Without grooming our understanding and/or without equipping ourselves with the quintessential implements to enable us in persistently holding on to our convictions, there is no hope of bringing any substantial change. To counter the elusiveness inherent to change, we need to strengthen our convictions as well:
Focussed efforts directed towards a clear vision emanating from strong convictions,
else change shall continue to elude the pseudoers...
Well, the title might seem a little unnatural to the post, as has been the case for the recent few posts. Nevertheless, the content of this post does converge really well with my thoughts right now. I am contemplating the infrastructure and dependencies for an individual to ideate.
A frame of reference derived from the society, to gauge any work we do is the measure against which the society values our work.
Everything is relative when seen outside us. On the contrary, the value we give to our creations such as ideas/art/work from within is 'absolute', and at the zenith of the self evaluation scheme, unless, someone is bitten by an inferiority complex-inducing bug.
Once these creations from within are let out, away from the creator, to the outside world, that is when the societal evaluation either degrades or betters the value of it, in a manner relative to the external frames of reference.
The challenge for an individual is to be immune to this external evaluation, both during the creation and after outputting the same.
There might be some instances when we do seek such references, and these must be in congruency with the quality and depth of the individual's mind and character. Charlatanry would be the obvious weed, and one must grow to recognize and differentiate it.
Personally, I try never to look for, or look at the external frames of reference, while I churn out the best in me. Seeking inspiration from outside the individual is different from seeking recognition, even before creation. Always, I presume that any external frame of reference would stand intimidated within the realms of my ideation.
This mustn't be interpreted as ego, or over-confidence: I can go on to say that there is nothing called as over-confidence; Confidence is one thing, we either have or don't.
Never mind, talking further I have inculcated this trait in me consciously - To be oblivious of the frames of reference, and output my ideas in an independent manner.
I must admit that most of the times, the result is far superior than in comparison with the rest of the frames of references, whereas, there are a few instances which due to the inherent lack of multitudes of perceptions within one mind, end up being trivial. And, these are the conditions which seldom necessitate that we do consider the other frames of references, but restricted to a trusted diaspora.
PS: To understand this post better, think of the external frames of refernces as 'mental apparatus' of (people) minus (the individual).
Bengaluru is witnessing one of the peak periods of protests and campaigns as a result of the reckless attitude of the Government ,here in Karnataka by the BJP, and then at the Centre by the UPA-2.
While Karnataka is being branded the 'Most Corrupt state of India', from being the 'Haven for IT and development', Citizens seem to have finally started bothering about it beyond their coffee discussions and newspaper reads.
I came across this initiative in a mailing list, and was following up their developments for the past week.
Today, I did participate in the Corruption Saaku Campaign to voice my opinion, and more so to see what solutions were being churned and presented in this initiative.
The turn out was really good: There were about 400-500 of us, and the Walk from Kanteerva Stadium to Shantinagar Grounds did make the rest of the public attend to. The T-shirts, posters, stickers, handouts, slogans and banners did convey the intentions of the rally in an attractive manner. The walk lasted about an hour, and at the end of it all of us gathered at the Shantinagar Grounds. I was more keen on the propositions that would be presented at the venue by the Organizers of this event, to get insight into the future actions.
Before analyzing the objectives and measures, and their feasibility presented here, it would be of interest to analyze the variety of people gathered for this campaign.
As mentioned earlier, major portion of it were tax-paying professionals and students, with a few activists from the various NGO's organizing this event. It definitely did not represent all the sections of people who are being affected by this "Multi-headed and tentacled demon called Corruption", as put by one of the participants.
Given that this is the start of a prospective mass movement as portrayed by everyone, it would have been appropriate to include people from all sections of the society. As for today's proceedings, I see no initiatives on those lines happening.
Further, the course of actions, future objectives, which are of more import did end up disappointing me.
The speakers were hinting at empowering the vigilance institutions, increasing the powers of Lokayukta, citizens abstaining from giving bribes, and other measures which I believe would only act at the superficial level. There were no clear measures discussed as to how the "Rotten system"could be cleansed.
It appears that the inherent flaws in the system which invite Corruption to breed would be left untouched, as a temporary solution the weeds would be chopped off only from the surface.
And no agenda or course of actions were presented which would guide this movement to grow and take a better shape in future.
I am not complaining about the efforts put today. These were genuine enough, but without the long term vision of eradicating a deep rooted parasite like Corruption entirely, it wouldn't bring about any real and permanent change in the system. Attempts to tackle such perils from the surface will only give temporary solace and will be infested again.
All the passion shown today by the concerned citizens should be enveloped together, bringing together people from all sections of the society.
They must be guided with a vision to cleanse the system from its roots. That is when protests, campaigns and attempts to bring about movements such as today's can sustain, and, at the least embark upon the path of salvaging people from the current hostile conditions of the society.
Of the few important people who have had substantial influence on me, Professor Richard Dawkins is the latest addendum. He comes late, but will certainly have (had?) a profound impact on my frame of thought. I am the most and wholly conformed to him than any other intellect I revere. And I have reached that state of conformity after checking up all the arguments he presents in a convincing manner, as encouraged by him.
I am yet to read him ( will soon start to), but have watched almost all of his talks and certainly all of his documentaries. While watching him talk in the convincing attempts of elucidating obvious facts about life and nature, which are easily ignored under the blanket of religion and other correlated fallibilities; And also while tackling the absurdity spilled by ignorance; I can recognize a portion of my own longing and aspirations in him. Prof.Dawkins has already inspired me to take up the cause which he has worked his entire life: To stand up for the truth, substantiated by reasoning and evidence.
Personally, I have gradually grown to be an ardent atheist in the last few years. The obvious conflicts of reasons like the supernatural, destiny, after life and miracles were long conquered by my own attempts of understanding, facilitated by Science all along. But, the usual conflict any atheist would have to face: Hurting the 'feelings' of the believers in quest to cognizance, was keeping me from taking a strong public stand.
Prof. Dawkins has guided me through this process of equipping myself to take a strong stand, even if I supposedly hurt the feelings of others. These 'feelings' weren't to be there at the first place; People who realize it and shed the carapace of irrationality would not feel hurt.But, the adamant and reluctant ones who fail to understand and comprehend the grand truth professed by Science ought to be brought out of the delusion, and if it takes to hurt their unreasonable feelings ,then better we shatter those.
Facts, sometimes are obvious with all the evidence scattered all around us. We still fail to recognize them and stay blind. This sort of voluntary blindness, would transform to become the foundation for a deepening state of ignorance. This is a peril which would not only affect the individual, but will go on to hamper the entire society.
Tackling such atrocities from the root would require the activated ones, or the atheists to spread their religion of truth and reason; And as Prof.Dawkins calls it, we need to endorse Militant Atheism, by which he implies that we go out and speak up, take a stand and counter the religious fanaticism with loud truths, facts and reasoning of Science.
Clarification: I was a Darwinian even before Prof.Dawkins happened to me. The post title seemed better put the way it is.
PS: Some of the best things ever said, and here's all of my favorite by Prof.Dawkins
“After sleeping through a hundred million centuries we have finally opened our eyes on a sumptuous planet, sparkling with color, bountiful with life. Within decades we must close our eyes again. Isn’t it a noble, an enlightened way of spending our brief time in the sun, to work at understanding the universe and how we have come to wake up in it? This is how I answer when I am asked—as I am surprisingly often—why I bother to get up in the mornings.”
"Religion is about turning untested belief into unshakable truth through the power of institutions and the passage of time."
“Dawkins’ Law of the Conservation of Difficulty states that obscurantism in an academic subject expands to fill the vacuum of its intrinsic simplicity”
"We are all atheists about most of the gods that humanity has ever believed in. Some of us just go one god further."
"By all means let's be open-minded, but not so open-minded that our brains drop out."
I was lucky enough to witness the sheer magnificence and grandeur of Music Choirs yesterday, in Bangalore. It was scintillating, and a sublime musical experience. Live music is always more powerful than the recorded counterpart, and this was manifested to me in full strength in a reputed institution's annual Christmas event.
While the music was intoxicating, I was also witnessing an undercurrent of a very very powerful human devised tool - Faith.
Not only in yesterday's event, but all the grand religious and spiritual events of Hinduism,or Islam, the power exalted by the solidarity and bonding, centered around the unrealistic Hope as the reason is mind boggling.
It is almost unfathomable to me, to understand how people are convinced beyond doubts about the hope they exhibit in the divine powers! Although, it is very pleasant to witness such events of solidarity, with bubbling love and hope, I am forced to think of the consequences of such activities, which drift people away from the reality, deluding them all life.
Not to mention the narrow mindedness and seclusions which are inherent to religions. Although, each boasts of secularism and coexistence it has been evident in various points of time in the history, till the present day how faith and religion ultimately take up the shape of fanaticism, hampering the society in a profound manner.
At this juncture, I find it timely to clarify a standpoint which a certain few of you have been asking me:
I am not 'for' any of the religions, but against all of them.
People must be able to live lives which are not fake based on lifelong hoaxes!
We, being the so called 'rational' beings must exhibit this trait not individually, but as a combined entity. In this direction, we have lot of work to be done.
Finally, not to blame the music; Music is an intoxicator, and an efficient one. To use such a beautiful thing to convey permanent unrealism is disheartening.
It must have been a few minutes since the post title, and while trying to contemplate content for jotting down here, I find myself wandering in the cyberspace, away from my draft board.
This has been the case with me for all the time I remember about myself,with respect to all the work I have done. It might seem that my activities emanate out of strict or near disciplined focus. But, seldom has that been the case. Intermittent, but regular impulses of involuntary focus is what I can attribute myself with.
By which I mean,
Personally, it has been tough to get me to do what I do, for, all i want to do is not always what I get to do.
This seems quite natural, and correlative to most of our mindsets.
Inculcating focus and attention is subjectively relative. As in, it is absolutely independent of individual and the subject, but has all to do with the relation between the two. The intrigue or, the incentive an individual aspires out of the interaction with the subject is what would decide the extent of focussed attention he/she would allocate to all the entities around.
Nevertheless, if one wants to analyse the psychological algorithm behind the switching mechanism from being focussed to distracted, or vice versa, a personal, ironical experience might help:
The moment I get conscious of either being focussed or distracted, I am involuntarily found switched to the other mode.
I remember writing a similar post, or something remotely on these lines. Nevertheless, I again feel it imperative to elucidate to a certain portion of my acquaintances that
Being silly ain't humor,and talking sense is not somber!
Adding to the already persistent, vast gamut of misconceptions, people tend to think that if one is trying to communicate ideas or information in a simple and sensible manner, either the content, or the presenter, or both are emanating from some gloomy or hideous origins. This adds to the poor reception amonsgt the people, to the matters of immense import.
But contrarily, people get hooked onto silly, frivolous and futile attempts of some empty heads
(the TRP ratings of the TV shows people watch would prove the contradiction I am trying to etch out here).
Charlie Chaplin as the Little Tramp
Humor, in daily life is not about being silly, but about taking things lightly, and responsibly. And, the Greatest Comedian of all times manifested it to us in his work.
If humor was only gimmickry, or sarcasm, or plain mockery, we wouldn't have recognized and remembered Charles Chaplin as the Greatest Comedian ever. He used humor as a tool to convey all the tough messages he wanted to. He showed humor to be one of the best ways to lead one's life, lightly and responsibly. But, if people have had it confused with just being silly, he'd be very upset with it.
Likewise, if people attribute sense to somber, it is highly unfortunate, not to the sensibles, but to the rest of the dogmatists.
PS: This speech from The Great Dictator by Charlie Chaplin is one of the best ever.
Firstly, the post title is derived from the letters written by one of the groundbreaking thinkers, who added a new paradigm to the world as seen today- Karl Marx.
I shall not be concentrating on him, or his letter as yet. But, would like to revolve around this radical sentence : Ruthless criticism of everything that exists.
One of the main objectives of our existence is to validate the existence of everything else by our own critical faculties; In pursuit of this validation is when many paradigm shifts have been unleashed on the world.
We might tend to accept, with many generations of like minded people having lived before us for centuries, the need to criticize everything ruthlessly might not be necessary; But, chances that the most obvious of the things as perceived by the humanity are the ones which need the most criticism. For, given the obviousness of the entity, the chances that it has bypassed the scrutiny of the critical faculties of many generations is very high. To quote a few scantly scrutinized percolations of obvious human wisdom are God, Religion,Traditions,the Social fabric, the educational, economic, and political systems.
It naturally is our responsibility to put such percolations of supposed human wisdom under the lens of scrutiny with the bettered tools of criticism. And the word ruthless criticism is to be taken positively, which implies, it must be carried out with no prejudices, biases and compromises. Only then, the society with all its components can sustain and perpetuate based on reason, with incessant validations.
Remember to, Ruthlessly criticize everything that exists! Move on, only when convinced.
I Thou shall always tread the path of reason: Scrutinizing every step taken.
II Thou shall seek truth in its entirety by scientific means, using the tools of questioning, reasoning and verification.
III Thou shall and must think freely ( free as in freedom); and question with no fears or apprehensions, whatsoever.
IV Thou shall sustain the natural curiosity, by incessantly pursuing the quest to understand everything, scientifically.
V Thou shall openly accept flaws, once proven; Then learn, correct and better oneself.
VI Thou shall tackle the absurdities propelled by blind belief emanating from ignorance, in a passionate and dialectic manner, by perpetuating the cognizance of truth, substantiated by reason and evidence.
VII Thou shall not impose one's views, but shall put it forth in the most effective technique making imposition needless.
VIII Thou shall grow and perpetuate the genetically inherent social morality of the Homo sapiens, arbitrated by our critical faculties.
IX Thou shall naturally die; With no delusions of after life to be confused with, shall make the best out of the lucky tenure of being a grand conscious part of the Universe.
X Thou shall never follow, but can always improvise.
The term Contradiction is not something of a rarity in the Universe. The way Universe has come to be, as far as our understanding spans, is a consequence of conflicting opposites, coexisting at every instant of, all the time that has passed; Let us for example consider the naturally occurring,
Nuclear Fusion vs Nuclear Fission.
Avoiding the debate of the Big Bang and the subsequent immediate speculations, allow me to start from The virtually eternal hydrogen cloud that there was: Simplistically put, Fission produces sufficient energy to trigger Fusion. Then Fusion has/is converting the hydrogen to become all the elements known to us today. Fission and Fusion are conflicting opposites -One breaks, while the other makes. But, both together struggle and coexist, synthesizing all that is we are and we see today across the Universe.
If analysed thoroughly, there is for everything that exists: A thesis and an antithesis. The sedimentation of existence is the Synthesis of the conflicting Thesis and anti-thesis.
Let us consider further such ubiquitous, universally true and coexisting but conflicting opposites depicted in the graphic below.
And at personal levels, each and every decision we take at every instant of our lives is a synthesis of choosing between two coexisting choices. At this instant, I am faced with the choice of either continuing this argument or to Stop.
The synthesis of this dilemma is for you to see, as I complete this post.
The concept of the coexistence of conflicting opposites is something that can be observed ubiquitously, and scrutinized thoroughly at every walk of our lives, and every interaction in the Universe.
There perpetuates an infinite struggle between the coexisting opposites (thesis and anti-thesis) to leave behind sediments (synthesis), which might appear as cognizance, impact, logic or change to us.
The 2G spectrum licensing scam by the Telecom Minister amounting to 1,73,000 crore rupees! An unrelenting and defiant minister playing his dirty politics tricks in the safe haven of coalition government.
Common Wealth Games embezzlement, nepotism and other corruptions which cost the mediocre infrastructure for the games a whooping 70,000 crore rupees. This scam seems to be at the verge of oblivion, for there have been newer, bigger and better scams surfacing up, for the media to chew on.
As a crowning notoriety to all the scams hitherto, comes the Adarsh Housing Society scam, where the land alloted for the widows and family members of war martyrs has been grabbed by the influentials, to convert it into a posh apartment with flats for all the accomplices. What a shame!
In Karnataka, here:
The never ending saga of the horse-trade of MLA's; An over-expanding cabinet where the ruling party is at the fix of handing out minister posts to all their legislators!
The false majority at the Legislative Houses, which has been successfully manipulated by luring and enticing the legislators with the raw power of money!
Another mega-scam at the verge of oblivion - The Illegal Mining Mafia ( remember the tussle between Lokayukta vs the State Govt.?) Studies show that this scam has cost the state of Karnataka nothing less than 23,000 crore rupees!
With a discomfortingly revelatory prologue such as this, and with the facts about the deep rooted corruption plaguing everywhere, there is a strong requirement for all the responsible and sensible citizens to take a call and cleanse this sickening, parasitic trend of politics, which is eating into the country, feeding on its people, ultimately nullifying the revered ideology of Democracy-By,Of and For the People!
I apprehend, if there is any hope at all for the citizens to expect anything for their good in this rotten system! Corruption has come to be a mandatory prerequisite to become a politician, and in the real sense of it.
Is there a chance that these leaders could give any heed to the real and basic needs of people?
They are super busy spending all their time and all our resources either in filling their personal treasuries, or saving their arses from the fire behind them!
Political morality, if there is anything like it, has to be inculcated/reinvigorated in this chaotic system filled with corrupt highfalutins. This sorry state of the state and the country, with the not-so sorry politicians making people feel sorry by the day has to be rectified.
People have to regain their conviction: They must demand and work towards resurrecting the miserably failing ideology of democracy here in India - The world's largest Democracy!
There are two ways to live: you can live as if nothing is a miracle; you can live as if everything is a miracle
-The genius of Albert Einstein
I do realize this is a clichéd quote, but, how many of us have really got to feel the essence of this statement?
Haven't we all started living the first way, with no awe and admiration for all the small, little, important things in life?
If you ask me, I'd stick to the latter ideology.
Everything is a Miracle!
Forever, until this moment, the simplicity and the grandeur; the scale and the variety; the comprehension and the obscurity; the beauty and the serenity, pertaining to each and every, small and big creation and manifestation of Nature, coupled with the interaction and interference of us humans has kept me at the zenith of awe and admiration, or at least I hope to be there soon.
Every simple facet of existence exhibited by Mother Nature and Father Time is attributable to nothing less than miracles.Without digressing into the obvious miracles, like the vastness and eternity of the Universe, or the existence of life on the Earth, let us unleash the subtle ones.
Personally, The Clouds still remain the most fascinating and intriguing manifestation of the exact quality we are discussing about. I can never stop wondering about the indefinite patterns spread over the blue canvas of the sky. This is just one of the marvels, which despite the science, logic and reasoning gives a kind of incomprehensible bliss to the other marvelous existence in the Universe, i.e.,Our Minds, projected by the NNN-Natural Neural Networks headed by the Human Brain.
Although the brain is what is prompting me to jot this down, I do not think it is a narcissist, for, it promptly attributes these qualities not to itself but the culmination of millions of years of trillions of small changes as directed by Time.
The boundless imagination, the seamless creativity, the never depleting resource of thoughts and ideas, the vivid world visualized within the mind are the things which we seldom stop to savor and be awed with.
So near, yet so far...
Often, if not always, it is imperative we stop and look at everything around, including ourselves and recognize the miracles that we have come to be, and celebrate in the spirit of Nature by trying to emulate her with a polite mimicking of her manifestations.
Imagine, Ideate and Create:-)
Wonder, Awe and Admiration will keep us inspired to do more than what our un-instigated mind would usually want to.
As a final thought, isn't it marvelous that the scattered and scrambled thoughts emanating from my mind have been communicated to you, and that my mind has just now touched yours?
Miracle, it is:Miracles, we are;
Music does convey all emotions in the most efficient way. But, as a listener I have until now been dependent on music instruments coupled with vocals to enjoy the tracks, irrespective of the artist or the genre.
Instrumentals haven't been the most appealing pieces of music in terms of emotional conveyance to me, as is the case for a lot of audience. There have been a few extraordinary pieces of music which would stick to my mind and linger forever, such as the Bombay Theme by A R Rahman.
Now again, one other masterpiece by A R Rahman for 127 Hours is on the verge of becoming one such musical mind-block. With my amateur guitar experience, I seem to connect with this piece of music very well.
Liberation triad from the Danny Boyle movie by A R Rahman is one of his recently composed defining pieces of music. With "Liberation Begins", "Liberation in a dream" and the crescendo "Liberation", he transcends into different levels of emotions progressively and hits the right chords, stimulating all the emotions as intended. When these three tracks are listened sequentially until the crescendo,they manifest the increasing power of each guitar chord being played.
Yet again, I am being taken into the deeper realms of music by A R Rahman :-)
What could be better than a day's off from work, substituted by relaxing at home, with lots to eat and feast on, while watching some special TV, apart from the warmth of the togetherness, with the added amusement provided by the skeptical participation in prayers and rituals?
A friend had raised a question if rationalists and atheists should be celebrating festivals at all!
And, as I am privileged enough to be a novice of both these elite classes (ignore the jargons;), I strongly feel even rationalism and atheism cannot prevent one from getting together with family and friends, to eat and celebrate the togetherness. That is what any Festival is meant to be, more than emulating any ancient traditions which make little sense in the contemporary world.
As I intend to keep this post positive as a whole, I shall save the critique on the customs and traditions of all religions for elaborations in future posts.
So, 'Festivals minus Rituals' is a must have for everybody to feel the power of celebration in the spirit of life, to increase joy, happiness and to savor the periodic special days.
With Deepavali/Diwali at the horizon, let this Festival of Lights,
enlighten the minds of people, fill it with sparkling ideas, blasting off prejudices and ignorance. Hope there is lesser pollution this time, as the trend has been off late.
