Friday, September 26, 2008

Liberal or a bigot

This is a question that needs a great deal of thinking. We spew words and venom alike on the thought that is not akin to our own. Moreover, Whom to call a Liberal and who is a bigot. This is a question every Hindu( way of life i meant) must answer.

What is wrong with our culture/religion or way of life that we have become a Lamp post wherein every dog that comes around and needs to assert its presence goes on lifting its leg piss on it? How come right thinking and intelligent people can't call the bluff and see for themselves the farce that is continuing for so long. In my opinion this has roots in the invasions and subsequent rule of the foreigners. To be more precise it all started with the muslim rule and has continued with even more fervor during the british raj and now also.

How come we allow these moral guardians/politicians/commies/South Indian Rationalist parties to talk shit about Hindu brethren? How they blame and chide the hindus for this kind of behaviour? How they win elections and manage to sway the hindu majority even after bashing them? We still see a subsequent majority of Hindus agreeing with these jokers wherein these very guys have no balls to talk in a similar manner about Islamists, christian missionaries. we must find answers. If we look closely such subservient thought processes have been seen in all societies that have suffered the misfortune of being conquered and subjected to alien rule for some time. There are always people in all societies who confuse superiority of armed might with superiority of culture, who start despising themselves as belonging to an inferior breed and end by taking to the ways of the conqueror in order to regain self confidence, who begin finding faults with everything they have inherited from their forefathers, and who finally join hands with every force and factor which is out to subvert their ancestral society.

Viewed in this perspective, Pandit Nehru was no more than a self alienated Hindu, and Nehruism is not much more than Hindubaiting born out of and sustained by a deep seated sense of inferiority vis a vis Islam, Christianity, and the modern West.

centuries of muslim rule in medieval India had produced a whole class of such self alienated Hindus. They had interpreted the superiority of Muslim arms as symbolic of the superiority of Muslim culture. Over a period of time, they had come to think and behave like the conquerors and to look down upon their own people. They were most happy when employed in some Muslim establishment so that they might pass as members of the ruling elite. The only thing that could be said in their favour was that, for one reason or the other, they did not convert to Islam and merge themselves completely in Muslim society. But for the same reason, they had become Trojan horses of Islamic imperialism, and worked for pulling down the cultural defences of their own people.

The same class walked over to the British side when British arms became triumphant. They retained most of those and Hindu prejudices which they had borrowed from their Muslim masters, and cultivated some more which were contributed by the British establishment and the Christian missions. That is how the British rule became a divine dispensation for them. The most typical product of this double process was Raja Ram Mohun Roy. This joker maintained 2 houses one for Indians and another for Europeans( resplendent with European wives and butlers) and he courted the Europeans in this house. All thanks to the commie influenced education we read about him as a great saviour of Hinduism( as if all was bad before that). Every society has it's own horrific past - west had it's slave trade, burning of protestants alive. we never ever had slavery as an institution as we were a flowing religion, based on equality of human beings.

" Fortunately for Hindu society, however, the self alienated Hindu had not become a dominant factor during the Muslim rule. His class was confined to the urban centres where alone Muslim influence was present in a significant measure. The number of this bastard breed was few and far between in the countryside where Muslim rule had never struck strong roots. Secondly, the capacity of Islam for manipulating human minds by means of ideological warfare was less than poor. It worked mostly by means of brute force, and aroused strong resistance. Finally, throughout the period of Muslim rule, the education of Hindu children had remained in Hindu hands by and large. So the self alienated Hindu existed and functioned only on the margins of Hindu society, and seldom in the mainstream."

All this changed with the coming of the British conquerors and the Christian missionaries. Their influence was not confined to the urban centres because their outposts had spread to the countryside as well. Secondly, they were equipped with a stock of ideas and the means for communicating them which were far more competent as compared to the corresponding equipment of Islam. And what made the big difference in the long run was that the education of Hindu children was taken over by the imperialist and the missionary establishments. As a cumulative result, the crop of self alienated Hindus multiplied fast and several fold. Add to that the blitzkrieg against authentic Hindus and in favour of the selfalienated Hindus mounted by the Communist apparatus built up by Soviet imperialism.

It is no less than a wonder in human history that Hindu society and culture not only survived the storm, but also produced a counter attack under Maharshi Dayananda, Swami Vivekananda, Sri Aurobindo and Mahatma Gandhi such as earned for them the esteem of the world at large. Even so, the self alienated Hindus continued to multiply and flourish in a cultural miliu mostly dominated by the modem West. And they came to the top in the post independence period when no stalwart of the Hindu resurgence remained on the scene.

What is required in todays scenario is a moral equivalent of Swami Vivekanad who rouses the spirit of this great civilisation and make them believe in the greatness of the thought that makes us so unique. When I look at this and analyse what Bajrang dal is doing or has done,I am forced to ask this question. What's wrong being a hardline Hindu? I am proud of my heritage and will protect it at whatever cost. I don't need a certificate of being cultured from west minded/ leftist/ rationalists. I will make all out efforts to redeem my society of the ills and bring dignity to all even though I have no god in heart and mind.

I am ready to be a Bigot.

Monday, September 22, 2008

My innamota

How do you describe the feeling watch a pelican stroll around your feet
looking for some grains? you move and the pretty bird stays,
unmindful of your chores,busy.
perfect harmony of beings.
I am one with my inner self, my innamota.
kids running around,playing in the grass, rolling, parents clicking pictures.
Curious young man, all of four, looking to make his mark,
chasing around the birds, get bittten, turns chicken himself.
I am one with my inner self, my innamota.
what do I seek in this distant foreign land?
purpose of life or life itself?
The old lady wipes the food off her young man’s lips.
He is frail,she perplexed looking at the pair of kissing young women.
Which one of them is ‘The woman’, nodes her head.
what language is it? east european, may be polish,err Russian
“Eat slowly George, You are retired long back, no hurry”.
I am one with my inner self, my innamota.
Is it a reinforcement of belief or statement on current state?
Am i convincing myself of the harmony with myself?
Slow long walk to the underground, sad, happy face
what about the soul? “ No one will see it”
before i walk, let me feed the pelicans, reflect at the cycle of my life.
Am i one with my inner self, my innamota?

Saturday, August 23, 2008

Then there will be blood..

I write this with a heavy heart in the distant land. I am struggling to find news related to India and kashmir situation. I have some questions before i proceed to further..
[*]What is India? It it an idea only in mind/thought?
[*]Why should kashmir be such an issue?
[*]Isn't it truth that some 500 princely states signed up on the behalf of their populace to be part of India?
[*]Only because Kashmir is muslim majority,that's why it should be given autonomy or whatever - special status?
[*]By this logic, why not Khalistan? Why not Bangistan - adding parts of Assam to bangladesh?
[*]Why should article 370 not be removed and let it assimilate?
[*]If this tamasha was to happen and some lousy armchair psedo-secularists/intellectuals were to decide the fate of this nation state, why my brothers fight and die for it?
[*]Who has given this government right to represent indian people? With the 50% voting and congress getting 30% popular vote, it comes to mere 15% of the population representation?
[*]Who has given journalists like Barkha dutt/Vir sanghvi the right to talk nonsense and liberty to represent India?
[*]Isn't this the incompetence of Shivraj patil and MMS? The moment jammu people call for their rights they become communal?
[*]Does secularism mean only appeasing Muslims?
[*]Why not one law for all citizens?
[*]Should we not throw out all muslims into bay of bengal and then into pakistan by this logic. Country was devided on religious terms- right? I believe most of them want the same things as all other Indians, education for kids, decent future and all
[*]Are we a nation of wimps? America fought a deadly civil war to assimilate, Britain fought some 400,sorry 600+ years with Ireland to assimilate and still on. Russia still fights in Chechnya, China in taiwan for 60 years and we endorse such stupid and inane ideas.

Let me clarify, I have great friends in muslims and I am an avowed athiest. I firmly believe it's been couple of million years since 'God' last visited. All my muslim friends are furious. 4 months back , I wrote an article and then only I had mentioned that India needs to be wary of Barkha dutt types.
The danger to India, is not from these islamists or fundamentalists, It is from these pseudo secularists. In this country, If a neighboring farmer ploughs 6 inches of land from field,generations spill blood for that 6 inches. You all are giving solutions just like that. We are trying to justify and analyse Arundhati Roy, who thinks she is representative of india(after writing a semi porn novel) named peice of s---- and Barkha dutt. Let me say on this forum there will be blood'.

Thursday, June 26, 2008

Drive on the moonlight

Let's drive on the moonlight,
Let's ride the tides
Let's fly the air we breathe
Let's drop the pretensions
which city sleeps to hide
Don't trap the fairies of happiness
watch them dance in the moonlight
make your horizons a little wide
Please drop the pretensions which city sleeps to hide
Lost in subtle nuisances of life
I managed to drop the pretensions which city sleeps to hide
b'cos a fairy of happiness did touch my life

Rain and cities

I loved rain as a child in Doon,
Vast, empty, parched landscape waiting anxiously
like the bride waiting for the warrior to return
She almost knew him but that seems a longtime ago.
Waiting with open bosom and throbbing heart, coy but not shy
“Drench the nymph with the shower”, I would say.
The pitter- patter would start and I would extend my hand for that elixir of life,
I missed it often and the thirsty, greedy nymph would lap it up to ease off her pain.
“Whose love was truer?
Mine, The nymph’s or the bird’s that waited a year for the first drop of rain”.
I again missed the first drop as usual, “Nymph will lap it up”, I thought
I see myself on the road, staring, perplexed, wet
Water flowing to the drain, “Someone spilled oil on the concrete road”
Anxious, thirsty, Greedy Nymph
Waiting with open bosom and throbbing heart, coy but not shy
How will it survive the thirst? Wait seems forever
‘Elixir of life’ flows into the drain
I loved rain as a child....

Monday, June 16, 2008

Death, my friend

Death as an old friend,
I seek to know you.
How you survived the test of times,
How did you live so long?
Death as an old companion,
I seek to know from you,
How you manage to be so just,
Enamoring all, from dust to crest.
Death as an old mate,
I seek to understand you,
Inspite of being the other leg of journey,
Why do people still abhor you?
Death as an old acquaintance,
I wish to slay you,
You too deserve, off course with the onset of mine,
What I just said``other leg of journey’

Saturday, June 14, 2008

Three plus three

I saw someone in the mirror, whom I can’t recall
resembled me, somehow but was not me.
I could have taken a longer look but I was getting late
All my friends were waiting at the gate.
We had a plan to catch some snail,
Which we do everytime it rains, with out a fail.
Catching butterflies gets a little tiring,
Sneaking, running and snatching them in the flight
I just woke perspiring.
“ I love those round milk sweets and the chocolate on the cake”,
There is no one to listen and no one to answer
I get up like everyday, counting the wrinkles.
“There is one more hair around my ear”
Like everyday there is again a call from her,
Asking me if I am sincere,
How do I tell her that growing up is my biggest fear?
Moreover verse three is never clear
Growing up meant loosing everyone I hold dear.
“For god sake , you are thrity three, make some decisions”.
“Don’t touch that chocolate,
you get it for two Asterix , one phantom and one nice song”
Still figuring out the boy, who was rushing to catch some snail.
The best place for butterflies in Doon is to follow the trail
Till they take you the greens.
“Are you listening?” I heard someone shout.
Yeah, I do but three plus three just makes six – butterflies, snails and lies

Monday, June 02, 2008

If you exist

I have been searching
and I am not able to find a mechanism,
a device that can help me find him.
He has been elusive, long lost youth that has long left the spirit,
What i see is hungry,dour faces, empty black eyes
stretched palms leading to frail and drooping shoulders.
"He is the one that was caught rioting,was running with a packet"
I am looking for answer but I need to ask the relevant question?
I have a burden on my spirit, size of a boulder,
He keeps on repeating," God is punishing me for my sins"
I loose half of what he says in the din,
alas, I see the half a kg of wheat he was stealing,
I wonder, he lays here in the mighty arms of law,
his kids,picking up the trash and eating.
"why preserve life in such botched up forms?"
I am loosing my reason,
For an atheist, it sounds like a treason,
with all my energy i make my vocal chords express
Oh God, If you exist take me out of this holy mess

Saturday, May 10, 2008

forever young

May the sun keeps on shining on you,
In all those cold cold climes
May the happiness always surround you
Whenever in the horizons, you see gloomy times
May the life showers all the good things
Even when you are without a dime
May you grow proud , dignified and true
And do unto others what you would have done to you
With every passing day
May you gain far more wisdom
Barter the wrinkles
For peace, happiness and song
Cos in my heart you will stay
forever young
May the moon be your guiding light
While the sun kisses your toes
May you find the edge of rainbow
With a prince of your dreams
May your love be reciprocated
It does not go vain
May you see the dance of raindrops
While he sings the songs of rainbow
Barter the wrinkles
For peace, happiness and song
Cos I bless you to be
Mother of a hundred sons.
Don’t worry through them
You will stay
forever young
Forever young

The title is borrowed from Bob Dylan as i could not find any better one. Anyway i love the song.It's amazing

Thursday, May 01, 2008

Love

What is this phenomenon? Generating such emotions!!! One word and so much of feelings get related, sorry tied to it. The moment somebody mentions love, we react a different way. Looking closely, Is it really a different reaction? I find it very alike in some strange way.Another question is how come entire humanity starts behaving the same way? this leads to another question, Do we react in a similar way b'cos subconciously we know we are supposed to react this way. Whatever...

Some of my friends say that i refuse to talk about it. The ones who really know me would understand that this is really not true.If some one is capable to speak on the nuances of Love, It is me. First of all let me begin by setting the platform - Love is a verb. I have always seen love as a continuum, It relates. It is never ending and the relationships are the death knell. It is beautiful, It is music, natural, serene, pristine like the flowing river in tranqulity.Love in itself is the end. It is the river that is flowing and eventually becomes the sea, even bigger, never ending. Lovers die but love lives.This is what i mean by Love.

But to relate is insecure, and relationship is a security. Relationship has a certainty; relating is just a meeting of two strangers, may be a peice of wood and the stream. Wood dancing on the lap and enjoying every bit of it. May be just an overnight stay and in the morning we say goodbye. Who knows what is going to happen tomorrow? And we are so afraid that we want to make it certain, we want to make it predictable. We would like tomorrow to be according to our ideas; we don't allow it freedom to have its own say. This whole anxiety, the whole tension that runs through our lives is a result of our desires to control the future and somehow deep down our knowledge about the inability to do so.

So we do the next best thing( as per us), we try and secure the future. In the case of love we want to make it into a relationship, we get married. I have a question.why the hell you make it a legal contract. Why? How does the law come into love? you know what? The law comes into love because love is not there. It is only a fantasy, and you know the fantasy will disappear. Before it disappears settle down, before it disappears do something so it becomes impossible to separate.

So what does it mean? through Socrates Plato characterizes love as a desire to partake in the beautiful for the purpose of gaining happiness. Happiness? as per me it becomes a bloody impossible project and the end result is failure. The only hope is a better " meditative world ", I will add thoughtful to it. people will love, love immensely, but their love will remain a relating not a relationship. And I am not saying that their love will be only momentary. There is every possibility their love may go deeper than your love, may have a higher quality of intimacy, may have something more of poetry and more of godliness in it. And there is every possibility their love may last longer than your so-called relationship ever lasts. But it can not not be guaranteed by the law, by the court, by the policeman. The guarantee will be inner. It will be a commitment from the heart, it will be a silent accpetance of me and yes, 'You'.

If you like someone, I have delberately used the word 'Like',You would want to spend more time with him/her.The intimacy will grow by each meet. There are fruits that grow after long months of procss, buds,flowers and then fruits. there are few flowers that wither away after some weeks in the sun and then there are few which take years to blossom. The longer it takes, longer it lasts.it has to be a commitment from one heart to another heart. It has not even to be verbalized, because to verbalize it is to profane it. It has to be a silent commitment; eye to eye, heart to heart, being to being. It has to be understood, not said.

when Sartre says, “I am the self which I will be, in the mode of not being it.”[2] As distance is created, the present self realizes its alienation from its past and its future self. This is the “nihilating structure of temporality.”[3] When the consciousness realizes this separation, it begins to understand that the freedom that it is becomes a burden of constant self-renewal. An anguish will exist over the relation of the past and future as it pertains to present existence.

Love is ageless, has no language and has just flows. will live long after 'The lover' is dead.Last but not the least, I sometimes start thinking that it is an impossible project, overhyped and looking for totality of being through the use of other.

Monday, April 21, 2008

who have i become?

Runaway, coward,pragmatist, loaf away, lier or a cheat? Why do i continue to dilute what is me, every single day. Whenever some open palms come in front of me leading upto destitue and frail old hands, I cant resist showing pity and empathy inspite of feeling none.
I do it b'cos i am supposed to not b'cos i feel like. Like i once said preserving life in so many of botched up forms is against the basic tenets of nature, "survival of the fittest". This brings an unnecessary burden on the planet. I am willing to support people to earn a living but i can't give alms.
'Runaway' comes from my current state - I am just running away from my beloved India and searching something. In one of the funniest episodes that happened was at Heathrow. The customs officer asked me if i had something to declare and I told him that i have nothing to declare except my genius. he smiled and did not check me. so a runaway genius - finally.
Lot of my professors feel that i have not fulfilled my potential. I cud have become something but i don't know what? So i have cheated them or myself is another question. More often than not i am reminded of what Johny cash sung

" I hurt myself today,
to see if i still feel,
our focus on the thing,
the only thing that's real.
the needle tears a hole,
the old familiar sting,
try to kill it all the way,
but i remember everything.
What have i become? my sweetest friend,
Everyone i know, goes away in the end..."

The question rings in my head.. What have i become? Do i feel something?

Sunday, March 16, 2008

who died last minute?

I am lamenting ! Indeed I am, You will have to trust me on this. Last minute a part of me died again. There is nothing new about this but the question I am going to put, is new for me. Did I add any part to myself after the death of one? This is a perfectly logical question and within the confines of laws of nature – Something dies and evolution makes sure that there is something to take it’s place.
The moot point is what is it that is now living inside me in the barter? Pain, more pain, anger, jealousy or the will to live? Now this leads to one more question, who is the real me? The one that is dying every minute or the one that is coming alive? Utter confusion, no connection but connection, we must find. Centuries men have grappled with questions like these and contributed to the advancement of human civilization. I claim or desire to do no such thing.
Back to the point now (lest it becomes too late). I think I am adding so called worldly wisdom and becoming more and more closed after every incident like this. When I look deep within myself , I realize that I am loosing more of what is pure within me, simple values and trust for fellow travelers on this earth on the journey called Life. Now I am left wondering when do I die more? When I add worldly wisdom or when I feel dejected, hurt and pained by the actions of people I Love? Confusion ,more confusion! Where is the fisherman, where is the shepherd?
Why should I feel hurt and dejected in the first place? Why in heaven’s name am I Looking for some shepherd? I look towards all the great man that have come before me on this earth and find that the only difference between us is that they lived in simpler times and they became great centuries after their death. I somehow feel no hatred or anger against people but just get immune to them and that is what I am worried about or should I actually worry about in the first place. The answer lies somewhere in between. I am what I am, I will be what I will be.
I am more living while I am giving. I die the moment I expect people to appreciate what I am doing for them. Then the bigger question is whether I should anything out of Pity at all or continue to do things if i like them. Pity, for all the reasons of the world( in it's favour) is something i find myself unable to show. It kills the beautiful I could have created .
Pity thwarts the whole law of evolution, which is the law of natural selection. It preserves whatever is ripe for destruction; it fights onthe side of those disinherited and condemned by life; by maintaining life in so many of the botched of all kinds, it gives life itself a gloomy and dubious aspect." Mankind has ventured to call pity a virtue (--in every _superior_ moral system it appears as a weakness--); going still further, it has been called the virtue, the source and foundation of all other virtues--but let us always bear in mind that this was from the standpoint of a philosophy that was nihilistic, and upon whose shield the denial of life was inscribed."
The pure soul is a pure lie.... So long as the priest, that professional denier, calumniator and poisoner of life, is accepted as a higher variety of man, there can be no answer to the question, What is truth? Truth has already been stood on its head when the obvious attorney of mere emptiness is mistaken for its representative....
Coming back to the original argument, I guess the part of me that stays is the end to the evolution of Life. men is the final specie. The weak must die otherwise the decadence would set in. Man could have become ‘God’ but something brought him down. May be, his desire to be God. lets seek the answers !!!!

Sunday, March 02, 2008

Dawn of despair

I would like to acknowledge the inspiration from Jim Morisson for this piece of poetry.I read a couple of lines by him in a news paper article - namely the first 2 lines.


The velvet fur of religion, Polished Knife handle and the coin,
Soft chuckle of Kids in the foreground, Soliloques of the Spider king,
Life Flowing out of the veins, behold she walks the aisle to the Priest,
Hallucinations, No, No Dreams and they do turn true.
I swear I heard her say, “I Do”.
Cool March noon, Couples naked, rush to the water,
Like Mad, Obsessed, driven by some Culpability,
Deep breathe before the Plunge.
The Graveyard, the tombstone, the gloom stone and the rune stone,
Looks like another devil dies, the sun and Moon waiting,
In the deep Southern nights for mating.
Rub-Rub the Silver coin,
The one I gave you, The Voice comes from faraway,
Waiting to be born, out of Love or Despair?
You seem to be Comfortable in your skin,
Devoid of any feeling of guilt or Sin,
Laid some Nymph, Ploughed your seed through her Soul?
Don’t bank on it, anyone can own it whole,
Your love doesn’t spread, before being mendacious she doesn’t even turn red.
Saw the God begging her to marry him, behold she Slides out of Bed,
Spurns him over, “Don’t love you anymore”.
Walks with the Silver Coin, Kicking him in the Loin,
Tree sway and waste forever, Life flows out of Veins,
Draining all the accumulated pains.
A message has been sent to the heart of brain, Please Freeze,
Don’t let him die on us, “For Godsake, He is God”.
“He, of all, shd have known, free will can’t be Paired,
With Subjugation and someone else’s yearning”.
“What you say is all fair, I deserve this,
Greatest cannibal of all.”
Some tired future,
Let me sleep, I Can’t let off the disease.
Love has poisoned my soul,
“See, The God” gasp for air,
Believe me when I say it is the Dawn of Despair.

Thursday, February 21, 2008

India! The land of innovation...

I have spent almost all of my education life living in boarding schools and college hostels. This can be looked in two ways – It helped me become very self reliant, independent and secondely not afraid of failures and compulsive risk taker.
I started my professional career with ‘Gillette India Ltd ’.A company which taught me a lot in terms of systems, procedures and execution of plans. I joined Philips in the month of January ’01 as ‘Area sales executive’. I again worked in Rural India and also worked in Metros like Delhi handling sales for Consumer electronics products – mainly audio and color television ..Being apart of Philips GSM team I learnt how powerful a role mobile phone has played in the life of rural India. In a country as diverse(7600 dialects),majority of population still lives in villages (roughly 70%),earns less than $3 a day how do you run a business and make money too.
Let me give an example , India has the world’s cheapest telecommunication services, yet it purchases same equipment from same 5 worldwide vendors, and any one from the Telecom Industry will tell you, the operating costs are insignificant to the capital equipment, and depreciation .Yes, Indian companies are making profits. Now you can make a call across India in just Rs 1. Revenue from other services (content download etc) is less than 4 %.
Now I can safely say that they do work and money can be made serving the lower part of the pyramid too, where majority of Indian families live – roughly 150 Mln households. Only point to note is that they earn roughly $2 a day in most of the cases .They are very brand conscious and cheap quality will never be accepted. Growth of Philips in the past 2 years stands testimony to our learning and proof that money can be made and western solutions of products and business models will not work in India.
We have the largest middle class in the world and growing fast enough to overtake majority of European economies in the next 1-2 years (we may have to change the base of GDP though). Urban India which is spending more and more on consumer goods but in the end is saving enough to put country’s saving rate at over 22% (unusual for a country so poor), is connected but in the end wants value for money.
India manages to have hospitals run on shoe string budgets, charge people practically nothing but run profitably (Narayan Hridyalaya,Arvind eye hospital). In fact, US is struggling to learn this model of healthcare.
India manages to create software that is order of magnitude cheaper than its counterparts in US (like, IBM, PwC, etc) and please do not get carried away at the difference in manpower costing - it represents something like 12% of the total project cost, so even if
US is at one extreme of 12%, and India is FREE, the cost differential would be in that order of magnitude, It’s not so in reality, it’s about 100% cheaper. (Please refer to the balance sheet of Adobe - its on net - the total manpower costs is 11.76% of the gross revenue, of Infosys its just 16%)
India has lowest cost airplane flights - and that is achieved by taking planes on lease that cost the same as anywhere else in the world, and yet are running very profitably...
We have innovated interesting business models. We do not need patent protection for ingenious technologies, because our expertise lies in creating that wafer thin efficient but sustainable business model that just can not be even thought of anywhere else in the
world. We need protection for these business models may be - but that is a separate subject.
We have innovated many other aspects of life - we do not have the excessive, iron clad declaration of various legal options - thanks to our slow judiciary (sorry, cant avoid being cynical here though un-intended), we have a system that allows a doctor to cure a patient for mere Rs. 50/- (Us $1.xx) - this would be unthinkable purely due to malpractice insurance fees that a doctor has to worry about in US, or other countries. In India, we do not have strongly enforced minimum wages - so we can actually employ a domestic help
and a driver - these luxuries are unthinkable for a middle class family in most developed nations. And these drivers and maids also eke out a living. They create lesser social unrest. If you analyse this, it’s just a very interesting restricted application of commercial laws - and I tend to think, is a great innovation. We, however, manage to enforce the minimum wages on the industry sector fairly comprehensively - there is always 5-10% disobedience, but that is true anywhere in the world.
I know the post is getting a bit long, but cant resist one last example - Bombay has 1,37,000 registered shops, with only ten percent having a PC to run a complicated inventory system - and most of these are profitable - I secured figures for the S&E Act
returns. The rest 90% is running a shop very smoothly, without any bar code, any PC, any complicated satellite hooked device that uploads its inventory position directly to the supplier - In India, a phone call is enough to do that.
I think India as the future of innovative thinking in business and social applications, and I am certain that one major reason why US worries about China/India is because of the fact that we have managed to run a fairly decent social system, with its moles and warts, at a fraction of cost of the so called the advanced societies, and thus have managed to prevent from being on the brink of social collapse that US is fearing (think New Orleans), or France/Britain are going through already . We are innovative, entrepreneurial, hungry for better life, and actually happier in our cumulative existence. Yet, we remain practical; we have a balance of skepticism towards products without applications,
and we make money enough to provide an average living to a billion plus people.
In the end I understand that the growth in this country, unlike China is internal consumption driven, wherein in China’s case it is export driven .My learning of India being unique, can’t be compared with China , will require unique solutions and I am certain we are fully capable of doing that and already doing it :-)

Sunday, February 17, 2008

Islam! What makes it tick?

I know,I am choosing the most non- politically correct topic possible in a Secular and liberal world.I am slowly coming around the view that the so called intellectual and liberal elite whether they are in India, continental Europe or US find it very uncomfortable to speak and talk about. They keep on talking about the values like, Equality,Right of freedom of speech, Religion and so on and so forth, However they are also dumbfounded to explain the phenomenon called Islam. I keep on watching Liberal, left influenced intelligentsia, I mean the likes of Barkha dutt secularists so passionately take the topic of perceived or real discrimination against Muslims.
I recently read a topic on Hindu woman marrying muslim man and the columnist was heaping praise on their courage. What and absurd topic and think of a newspapers like Times of India to publish it. How many Muslim woman marry in other religions and why they force the man to convert? If the relationship is based on Love then what does it need apart from that? One thing I want to say that these Liberals are speaking all this only in secular and predominantly non muslim countries and instead of thanking the majority they keep on spewing anger against the minority treatment. Muslims also, see al this closely and talk about the freedom of speech and religion in secular and liberal democracies but surprisingly they forget about all these values in islamic countries - Saudi or pakistan or even Malaysia. Not her religion can have a Temple, Church, Synagogue In Arab world.
The danger which the masses in Europe have woken up to now is real. Still i would add the danger is not from Islamists, It is from the liberal intellectuals.
It is indeed funny that the new found oil wealth of Arab world is bailing out European and American banks and organizations. They have the money and as per the last estimate Saudi investment in US economy is staggering $900 billion, That is around 8%+ of American GDP. Even more funnier is that an Athiest like me is talking about Religion. The reason for me to write is that in my quest to understand Religions i found Islam one of the most mystical. I just cant expalin the phenomenon why so many people are willing to kill others.
There is no wonder the religions of the world are called faith as they are based on gullibility and illogic so they dont want people to question them. I find that an insult to my intelligence, anyway the topic is islam and i have some questions today hope somebody hasthe answers.
Ever since the Attack on America on September 11, 2001, we have heard a never-ending chorus of voices from government, academia, and the media assuring us that the Islamic terrorists who attacked the Trade Towers and the Pentagon are not repre­sentative of “true Islam.” We have been likewise assured by spiritual leaders — even some Christian spokesmen — that Islam is a religion of peace, and that Muslims worship the same God as Christians and Jews.

“Our war is not against Islam,” we have been told repeatedly. “Our war is against terrorism.”

Central Questions
Well, what about it?

Are Muslims the spiritual brothers and sisters of Christians and Jews?
Do we all worship the same God?
Are the Islamic holy scriptures, known as the Koran, inspired by God?
Is Islam another path to God by which one can attain eternal life?
Are the Islamic fundamentalists representative of true Islam, or are they a terrible aberration of an otherwise peace-loving religion?
Is our war really a political one against international terrorists, or is it a spiritual battle against a demonic, intolerant, militant, and imperialistic religion known as Islam?
An Historical Perspective on Islam
Let’s begin our consideration of these questions with some historical background.
Muhammad, the man who dictated the Koran and gave birth to Islam, was born in Mecca in the Saudi Arabian peninsula in 570 A.D. His father died before he was born, and his mother died when he was six years old. He was raised first by a grand father and later by an uncle.
Muhammad was illiterate throughout his life. Until the age of 25 he worked in caravans. During his extensive travels, he encountered many Christians and Jews. Through his conversations with them, he picked up bits and pieces of both Judaism and Christianity.
His life was radically changed at age 25 when he met a wealthy widow 40 years old who fell in love with him. Their marriage enabled Muhammad to live a life of leisure from that point on.
Muhammad’s Call
Fifteen years after his marriage, at age 40, Muhammad had a visitation from a spirit. Supposedly, this spirit told him that he was called of God to be a “prophet” and an “apostle.” It is in teresting to note that there was no tradition in Arabian religions of either prophets or apostles. These terms were obviously used by Muhammad to appeal to Jews and Christians.

Muhammad continued to have spirit visitations. They would throw him into a trance, and his utterances during the trances were written down by scribes. These ethereal statements became the Koran, but they were not compiled until after Muhammad’s death. When the compilation was made, the utterances were not organized either chronologically or by subject matter. The result was a jumble of disorganized and often incoherent sayings which are frequently contradictory.For example, the Koran1 gives four conflicting accounts of Muhammad’s call to be a prophet [the word, Sura, means chapter]:

Suras 53 and 81 — God, or Allah as he is called in Arabic, personally appeared to Muhammad.
Suras 16 and 26 — The call was from the Holy Spirit.
Sura 15 — Angels issued the call.
Sura 2 — Gabriel was the one who appeared to him.
Muhammad’s Revelations

At the time Muhammad received his initial visitation, there were over 300 gods being worshiped in Mecca by pilgrims who came there each year to pray at the Ka’aba, a small cubic building that housed a black meteorite and effigies of the various gods. One of those gods was Allah, the moon god.

Muhammad decided to proclaim that there was only one god — and he selected Allah as that god. That’s the reason the crescent moon became the symbol of Islam. Muhammad also proclaimed that he was the prophet of Allah.

Initially, Muhammad expected both Jews and Christians to receive his new revelation. Thus, early passages in the Koran speak admiringly of “the people of the Book.” These are the passages that Muslims in the West love to quote in their effort to prove that Islam is a tolerant religion. An example is Sura 5:82 which says, “You will find that those who are nearest in love to the believers [Muslims] are those who say, ‘We are Christians.’”But when Jews and Christians rejected Muhammad, he turned fiercely against them, and later passages in the Koran speak of them disparagingly:
Sura 5:51 commands Muslims not to take Jews and Christians as friends.
Sura 9:29 commands Muslims to fight against Jews and Christians until they either submit to Allah or else agree to pay a special tax.
Sura 2:65-66 and Sura 5:60 contain references to Jews as “apes and swine to be despised and rejected.” (Think of that! You can be sure that such a statement did not come from the true God of this universe who selected the Jews to be His Chosen People.)
Jews and Christians were not the only ones who rejected Muhammad’s new revelations. The people of his own tribe, the Quraysh, also rejected him. In response, Muhammad succumbed to the temptation to appease his tribe by announcing that it would be okay for them to worship the three daughters of Allah — named Al-Lat, Al-Uzza, and Ma nat.

This declaration led to the infamous “Satanic verses” of the Koran which were later deleted when Muhammad reverted back to monotheism. Muslims have tried ever since to cover-up this diversion from the faith. You may remember that in 1989 Salman Rushdie brought up this taboo topic when he wrote a novel entitled, The Satanic Verses. The Ayatollah Khomeini of Iran condemned him and called for his assassination.
The opposition to Muhammad in his home town of Mecca continued to grow until he was forced to flee 250 miles to Medina where his message was received. The Islamic calendar dates from this year when Muhammad fled to Medina and found a receptive audience, resulting in the formal establishment of Islam as a religion. It was the year 622 A.D., and that date represents year one of the Muslim calendar, which is a lunar calendar. The year 2001 is the year 1422 in the Muslim dating system.

After the death of his wife, Muhammad married at least 11 other women (some sources place the total as high as 16). He also took several concubines. He married one girl who was only six years old and had sexual relations with her when she was 9.2 According to the Koran, only the prophet could have unlimited wives. All other Muslim men are limited to four (Sura 4:3). What kind of man would do that marry a 6 year old and have sex with a 9 year old ? They are called pedophile

Muhammad died on June 8, 632 A.D. in Medina at age 63. He left no successor, and Islam soon broke into warring sects such as the Shiites and the Sunnis.
I guess the post is getting too long and the rest is history. Some day i will talk about ' Sanatan Dharma' but as of now let me hide lest some zealot announces some reward for my head.

Friday, February 08, 2008

Thank you Raj Bhaiyya... ooops ' BHAI'

It is getting funnier and baffling by the day. It is indeed shameful and hurtful to see a handful of louts holding the fabric of the country to ransom. The case in point is the stupidity being played on the streets of Mumbai. I am slowly coming around to the view that we have failed miserably as a nation state. Add to that I am really feeling bad for the great man whose 60th death anniversary we was supposed to remind us that we need to conquer the demons of our heart.

I think his relevance finished on the day India got independence. In a way we killed him that very day when the country got divided and Nehru and company killed whatever remained of his ideals when they cornered the Teen murti bhavan and Rashtrapati bhavan for themselves. We, basically have failed to become civilized humans and remain a barbaric and violent race at the end of the day. Ready to kill and ready to do anything for short term gains. Looking at the reaction of our own brethren in Mumbai, I see no reason why the Europeans or American reacting and moaning the lack of opportunities for natives.

In fact I laud them for being civilized and decent enough not to resort to this kind of madness. What to say about the role of the serving party( I hate to call them ruling party, They are elected to serve me and I pay their salaries). The home minister belongs to this state , He is the lousiest home minister in the history of this country- spineless and incapable.

What to say about the good doctor? Well, How does he sleep so well? Reluctantly though, I agree with BJP here that he is our own Lame duck PM. He has failed on every front – No major economic reform, No infrastructure project , No movement on the higher education front and internal security has been compromised so many times that I have lost count. Any Tom- dick harry can issue a fatwa, hit a woman and call for the head of Salman Rushdie.

I guess it’s time for me stop being sentimental and look at the reality. I am an alien in the very land my forefather’s shed blood for. Good, my own old man died in 1997, other wise he would written one more emotional letter to PM and would have died more dejected than he actually did. Time for me to get the citizenship of the country I Live in… atleast the hurt will be less, In case someone calls me ‘ paki’ or a ‘ Bloody Indian’.

I can really empathise with my brethren from north-east of India better. I ,now understand the pain of being an alien in one’s own country, the pain of being called a ‘Chinky’ or a Harry or a ‘Bhaiyya’. This is happening in a country where you can find people of all origins – Shaka , Huna, Mongol, Aryan, Afrikaners and jarawas. Thank you Raj ‘ Bhaiyya’ for making me realsie how alien I am …

Friday, February 01, 2008

Nano ya na Mano

Please forgive me the crazy title as i too got carried away by the hysteria generated by Ratan's baby. He truly is a 'Ratan' , those of you who don't understand the meaning, It means, Gem. However this post is not for singing peans for Ratan Tata, there are many who have been doing it with far more regularity, this post is for a far more bigger reason than many suspect. I wrote an article for my college magazine in 2004 arguing India's place as a 'Land of Innovation' and I was being laughed and lauded equally . I will reproduce my article at a later part of the blog. Today i want to raise an important issue - issue of middle class housing.
We have a number of real estate companies claiming to build new india( their market capitalisation shocks me sometimes) but i have a question. what India they are talking about? With the average cost of a 1000 sq ft house in the range of Rs40 lacs on  national average, whom are they catering? What about the Bharat? Yesterday i was horrified to see the net profit of DLF it is astounding 2700 crores on a turnover of some 4000 odd crores. This is the most profitable company in terms of profit margins. Unilever and P&G, pls take note.
Why we have no ' Ratan ' who can innovate housing and bring it down to a level where it is more affordable to the rest of 88% Indians? Why there is no body ready to bite the bullet? Again the slimy politician - He is making money through the dubious deals and with his share in real estate companies, he is ensuring there are slums on govt land suddenly and then he proposes a slum redevelopment scheme where his chosen companies make these building and the poor slum dweller gets nothing but moves to new land.
When will we get a Ratan? Can we write a note to him and tell him,' mano ya na nano ' please help 'Jeh's ' beloved India to provide dignified living. Please help the poor lady to have a bathroom so she need not take a bath in open roads of Mumbai, Please provide a roof and a door so that she need to enjoy the companionship on a heap of garbage in the open during the dark nights. If he insists that he needs to retire now as he is already hovering above 70, we must stop him from doing that. Need be, we must bring a law in parliament and make him criminal in case he thinks of retiring. Some of us have already made him so by questioning the right of middle class Indian to drive a car.It has to be the privilege of the 'arrived'.
Give anything to Men except dignity, they may not understand the gift.

Cant find the article i wrote in 2004... will try and find it.. meanwhile please help wrote a petition .... " mano ya na nano "







Monday, January 07, 2008

Happiness

What gives me happiness? Money,Gizmo's,Being with Family and friends or being alone? Do i need the money so that i can buy the gizmo's? do i need the Gizmo's as I want to escape the reality of my current life? Am i taking too pessimistic a view? Before i try and get into this, Let me try and figure the most obvious and at the same time the most profound question, What is happiness?
Is happiness a perception of reality or is it a creation of illusionary realism? what gives me happiness? Sometimes i like being sad not at my state but looking at the state of the black man begging on the streets of Chicago(secretly thanking myself that i have abed to sleep and a roof also). Sometimes sex gives me happiness and other times escaping from it gives me happiness.It means it is situational also. In that case how come people, as their first instinct put happiness and material wealth together?Watching little Adi play and dragging me to jump on the bed with him gives me so much of joy, Did i just use the word joy? why not happiness?
Confusion, No connection. When Nietzsche says ," Basically I am a sad man", he seems to be taking a particular delight in it. When someone says that he/she broke off, It is said as a symbol of relief and good riddance(publicly) in half smile but there is a tinge of sadness.
The people in my life have always complained to me about my being a loner in the crowd, aloof and some have even gone to the extent of calling 'antisocial'. for them mixing with the crowds is happiness, they seek solace in collective... " Andha andha theliya, dono koop padant".For me being part of a crowd, group, community brings sadness and bewilderment. it never brings me happiness. I have been called insane sometimes due to this nature of mine but It's my belief that insanity in individuals is rare but in groups, communities,relationships, nations, It is a rule.
On the other side, My Mac, brought me a lot of joy. Ooops i again called it joy, why not happiness? some people will tell me that joy is short term and happiness is long term but this leads to another question! have we found a way to figure out future? Do we have a source to 'Oracle'? If happiness is the goal then why do we keep on looking for short term smiles?
Nothing seems to be, what is seems to be. I am lonely but i am not alone. I am happy though b'cos it could not have been better. that looks an encouraging thought- isn't it?
The individual has always had to struggle to keep from being overwhelmed by the tribe. if you try it will be lonely often But(as my friend Mohit says) no price is high enough for the privilege of owning yourself. Sometimes being lonely also gives you happiness !!! i guess i just said it earlier also :-) I am happy

Sunday, December 16, 2007

Man.Am I?

why do get so harsh on myself? why cant i have a normal life? why cant i sleep with my concience subdued? I guess this life time is not enough for me. May be someday ....
Well I am in the windy city, Snow flakes are falling like wooly cotton flakes, white as fresh death. I swear they are very white. In this "richest nation on earth", people seem to be walking in somnabulism,alone, seeking solace in material belongings. I guess i have earned the qualification to comment on the state of this nation.
I watch people hurrying home to the the security of some known smiles and warm friendly hugs. why not go back to my beloved motherland.I kept on saying this but I didn't know how far it was true, 'Every existing thing is born without reason, prolongs itself out of weakness, and dies by chance'
May be someday this questioning, constant scrutiny will also die - wither off. I sincerely hope so. I miss my country and i realise this is the dumbest race of humans you can come across. Think of a democracy where the last protest was held during Vietnam and people are afraid what the govt might do.

Out here,Everything has been figured out, except how to live.

Men who go out on ships
To escape sin & the mire of cities
watch the placenta of evening starsfrom the deck,
on their backs& cross the equator& perform rituals to exhume the dead
dangerous initiation
To mark passage to new levels
To feel on the verge of an exorcism,a rite of passageTo wait,
or seek manhood
enlightenment in a gun
Salvation in wielding power
To kill childhood,
innocencein an instant

Tuesday, November 27, 2007

wake up

It is funny that i am writing using these two words as the heading. Now a lot of people can argue that they are awake and very much aware and they dont need someone like me to tell them. However wake up we must, to the dangers of flawed development, education that is not able to provide living, communists, the greedy parliamentarians.democracy is in peril and we are in danger of becoming a banana republic.
I am horrified to read the reports that that we have naxalites in 150 disticts of the country. How did this happen? they were only present in 43 districts a decade back. The brazenness, lack of knowledge, education and arrogance of politicians or the flawed development. Watching news has become a heart wrenching episode - landless marching to the capital to demand their rights on the land, Governemt does not even have the time to speak to them. 100's of thousands marched, hungry and tired.
yesterday the ' Adivasis' are beaten on the streets of Guwahati,police is watching. I am ashamed to be called an Indian.What was the freedom for? did the freedom happen for these guys. They should have the first right on the land ( forest) their forefathers have lived for centuries.
I have a question? Can we sleep easy after watching all this? Why patriotism has become the baby of the lower class? Why none of these politicians send their kids to army anymore? why we become patriotic in times of war only? Is helping shape the future of fellow indians not our duty? Till when we continue to wait for a leader instead of these demi gods? Till when we wait for the government to do everything?
Are we questioning enough? Are we filing enough applications through RTI? Are we doing enough?
Service chiefs are scanned on the airports and these louts( MP and ministers) are exempted! Service chiefs are good enough to save the country but not good to be trusted that they wont carry bombs on flights on the other hand our ministers are allowed freedom to carry their illgotten wealthe on flights without check.There is a genocide in Nandigram and perpetuated by the so called left intellectuals.policeis ordered to standon the periphery and watch scores of Communist bastards roaming with their guns and sticks and raping woman.wake up and do your bit.
We are tax payers and we have every right to find whatis happening to the surcharge i pay on petrol,for education , for roads.
Are you awake? if not, then Wake up !!!