Indian Education System

I wanted to write about Indian education system for long. I am a cross over product of this system, making me eligible to comment on it. But I was in dilemma whether to talk on this topic or not. If I make a favorable comment on it, then people ask me that why the hell did you leave India for US education? If I make some unpleasant comment about it then I become foreign educated person who always is critical of their country. But one of my friends just sent me an interesting article about Indian education and I decided to take a shot.

Obviously, I am not going to make a favorable comment about the Indian education structure. But I am not comparing it with American education system either. I intend to focus solely on Indian education system.

The Indian education system is borrowed from Britain. We were ruled by them so it is obvious that they will force their education on us. But the problem is that even after gaining independence from them we continue to follow their system. I am not saying we should overhaul the system completely. But tailoring it for the Indian society will be a welcomed effort. Lately, changing the curriculum has become a political play ground, making it impossible to improve it further. But, the real question is, why did it become a political play ground? I think putrid idea of secularism among the Indians is actually becoming a cancerous growth encompassing virtually every facet of social structure. People don't realize that and in any case, making any statement against Western style education instantly places in the bracket of Hindu fundamentalism.

Indian education system emphasize on Science and Math. We do have reputed law and science institutions but generally, stress is on engineering or medical practices. The rigidity of the system is quite evident when right after 12th grade students are asked to make tough choices. I am not suggesting that we should change the system according to US style where medical education begins only after completing a bachelors degree, wasting precious three or four years. But students in India certainly deserve propitious conditions to grow. The division should be only medical and non-medical. Once you choose non-medical stream, after a year or so, students should be free to choose between economics or engineering or they should be able to even opt for literature. Such flexibility will help students to pick a line that suits them most but at the same time streams other than engineering and medical will gain importance too.

The other area I would like to press emphasis on is to introduce Indian education to Indian students. It sounds bizarre but the irony is quite evident when you see India's official name being India, nomenclature of British. When I was in India I had no clue about Indian philosophy, Indian medicine, Indian theology or Indian justice system. India was a developed country before Islamic invasions and we maintained our knowledge till the British invaders came. Not that we lost our knowledge but very little progress was made during the British era. Reason: they systematically suppressed our values. We were forced to get accustomed to alien law system and alien social system. And, all though the shortfall of these systems are quite evident, we still cling to it with our lives, refusing to change it according to changing time and according to Indian mind set.

I do not intend to make detailed comment on current educational system because that will require much more space. The recent hoopla about India dominating world worries me because it is not feasible for IITs and IIMs carrying progress on their backs. We need to have overall development, something that is unique, something that is by our people and for our people. For that we have to develop strong educational base exclusively focused on India and by India.

Rationality and My Blog

I have been blogging for quite a bit of time. But, I never explained why the title of my blog is 'Quest of Rationality' and web address of it as 'evolved monkey'. I guess it is imperative for me to explain the significance of it. Both the title and the web address are closely connected and signifies important message. Which, I usually try to convey through my blogs.

Generally my blogs are on current affairs and I strongly believe that rationality is sorely missing in today's world. Either we don't understand the surrounding or we don't want to understand. We are so engrossed in our little personal life that we are increasingly becoming myopic towards the social problem. As globalization is increasingly taking hold of our lives, each individual of the society getting woven tightly, thus, problems faced by the society as whole undeniably affects each person directly or indirectly.

Liberal market economy and democracy provided fairly prosperous life to western countries and for many of emerging economies. But sadly it also sends the society into lull and oblivious to the surrounding situation, and makes them instant prey for manipulation. A democracy becomes less democratic and adds fanatic capitalism to that and we have perfect recipe for highly educated but extremely ignorant society.

The folly of market economy is that it emphasizes so much on objectivity, virtually defining everything in terms of numbers and statistics, in that process people ceases to be people and merely become number. In this race of objectifying everything, society as a whole looses its focus, facilitating individuals to immerse in their own world and there by loosing what ever rational they have.

When I say that today's world is not rational, I don't believe in mawkish and utopian ideas of peaceful and happy world. I don't intend to achieve that initiative, because one, it is impossible and second it is utterly useless. Without friction there will no energy that means no more progress. But, as we are making great strides in making our lives more comfortable, the scientific and industrial development are becoming malediction to our spiritualistic and mental progress. We are increasingly becoming short-sighted and the future look rather bleak at this point.

Blogging rationally, I want people to understand that seemingly jargons of international issues are not that complicated. All we need to do is not get manipulated and in order to do that we need to think rationally, that is, think like evolved monkey.

Earthquake and Politics

The recent earthquake in Kashmir area was unfortunate. Thousands of people lost their lives and many more lost their livelihood. The politics that ensued in post-earthquake scenario was like rubbing salt on the wound. But, if anyone was expecting that such politics should not happen is clearly out of three dimensional realms. This area is most militarized region in the world, and perhaps, hardest terrorist hit region in the world as number deaths due to terrorism crossing 75,000 lives. So, it is obvious that there is going to be heavy political wrangling after earthquake. I have few contentions about certain issues that are raised during earthquake conundrum.

First, if anyone is thinking that this earthquake will bridge gap between India and Pakistan then they are clearly hallucinating. There is no gap to bridge between these two nations, because, they are heading towards opposite directions. A gap forms when two things are moving in same direction but trudging different paths. But in case of India-Pakistan, one nation is perpetually caught in the vicious cycle of fundamentalism, heading towards disaster for sure and other nation in spite of its diversity, gigantic corruption and incompetent system that matches its size is laboriously moving towards self-reliance and perhaps, towards better future. To bridge the gap between two, either India has to retract what ever progress it has achieved or Pakistan needs to modernize itself, recasting it self by distancing itself from wacko fundamentalism. Both of such things are impossible.

There was huge outcry from so called Kashmiri leadership that corporate India is not doing enough for quake victims. There may be some truth in that but Kashmiri people should be ashamed of themselves asking for such help from the people, whom they hated for so long. They resent Indian leadership, Indian populace, Indian diversity; they even ethnically cleansed Kashmir by either killing or driving out Hindu Kashmiri Pundits from the valley. And now, they are angry because Indian corporations are not helping enough. Rewind time to the year 1986 and we can read news papers warning Kashmiri Hindus to vacate the Kashmiri land or face certain deaths.

I am not saying that Indian corporations are not helping enough because they sympathizes with Kashmiri Hindus, I doubt if they give a damm about them. Simply speaking it is very dangerous being a Hindu in Kashmir valley and most of the Indian corporate giants are Hindus. Not that they discriminate on the basis of religion but no one will allow their employees getting killed in Kashmir valley only because they are Hindus.

Kashmir is a part of India, whether Kashmiri Muslims wants to believe in that or not. I think Indian government is doing everything in its capacity to help the quake victims. Indian government is not great in relief effort but I refuse to believe that they are not doing enough work only because the affected area is Kashmir. They (Indian government) are doing their job the way they usually do it, irrespective of calamity hit area. But it is necessary for Kashmiri people to do introspection. Only that way they will be able to build strong future.

There is strong current among Indian seculars that India should give monetary aid to Pakistan, but it is a classic case of degenerated individuals. I am writing this blog and there is news that there were series of bomb blast in Delhi. I am wondering if India end up providing money to Pakistan then India will basically finance the next set of bomb blast. All those people, who are for sending help to Pakistan, should be immediately deported to their beloved Pakistan.

Life is ephemeral. You think that it’s in your hand but when you try to grab it, it vanishes, as if you are trying to grab vapor. But we refuse to admit the transient nature of our existence. We believe in its reality. But it is no more real than your mirror image. I pride myself as a rational. Everything has an answer. Each action, every event is result of something that had happened prior and at the same time each action and every event affects the future. But we fail understand the both the past and the future. And then something happens which throws us off the rail route. It is as if someone punching completely out of blue and we can’t see the hand nor can we retaliate. Our defense seems to be utterly helpless and our reaction vapid.

I mean, once life is not entirely once own. Considering life as a sculpture, the things that are beyond our comprehension shapes the final sculpture. Or I guess the sculpture is constantly evolving because of these impacts. If the events that are not in our hand affects us so much then why do we work so much to build our life? It is really fruitless. Isn’t it? We build grand plan of the future, we work incessantly towards materializing those plans, we dream of its fruit and then one fine day suddenly there is severe pain in the chest and full stop to our life story. There are thousands of ways to die but that is not it. We equally get affected if our closest relative is diagnosed with some terminal disease.

It seems like pain is the essence of our life and happiness is indeed ephemeral.

Democracy II

One of the dictionary meanings of democracy is government by the people; exercised either directly or through elected representatives. If we take the literal meaning of the definition then we end up with only visible portion of democracy. That is, voters electing their representative and by exercising their vote of consent they take direct part in the governance. But governance of law, international relations, trade, defense, social structure etc. actually encompasses the true meaning of democracy. Unfortunately, the representation of common man in all these sectors is virtually non-existent. Once we elect a representative, the nation goes in their hand and for next few years at least, general populace is left in lurch.

The feeling of lack of say in the crucial matter, perhaps, actual lack of representation mocks the very system by dissociating the populace from the democracy. They feel alienated enough and whenever the political leadership makes a mistake, general populace refuse to owe the responsibility. German society refuses to accept that, directly or indirectly, they were responsible for genocide. American society fails to understand that they are the one who elected Nixon in spite of his ambiguous stand on Vietnam War. Do I need to mention re-election of George W. Bush here?

Western countries on their quest of plundering the world forcefully sowed an alien form of democracy in rest of the world. The promised anodyne effect of democracy is nowhere in sight and the result had been nothing short of a disaster. Cursory glance on once conquered world and the banality of the democracy stands naked. Except few functioning democracies like India, Japan, South Korea, and South Africa, the race to keep pace with western nation had resulted at best a failed state and at worst catastrophe. Borrowed concept, borrowed institution, borrowed attitude, borrowed mentality never works, and if it had worked some where then exception proves the rule.

I am not lamenting democracy for sake of lamenting. But, what happened to most of the world in 1940’s is happening again, in Iraq. Without considering the sentiment and mentality of the society, western nations are thrusting their form of democracy on Iraq. The result of it will be seen after 10-20 years or more. I am sure it won’t be great.

Reiterating my stand; I am not against democracy and I see democracy as the only legitimate way of governing society. At the same time, if the democracy does not reflect the mentality of the society then it is more often than not, bound to fail. And, rather than changing the whole society, we need to overhaul the system. I don’t mean any revolution because revolutions are futile efforts leading nowhere. Rather concrete steps tailor made for the society and by the society.

Oil Chaos

I was supposed to write a follow up blog on Democracy. I am writing that on that subject but increase in oil prices needed prompt attention right now. The oil prices touched $66/barrel and from Wal-mart to consumers, everybody is feeling the pinch. There was an article, very informative, about oil prices in New York Times. But I felt like the article failed to touch the core issue. Other reason cited for recent spurt in oil prices is, increase in oil demand in India and China. Somehow Iraq war is never considered as a remote possibility for oil price rise. But that is a political issue and I do not intend to discuss it here.

Most of the columns about oil revolve around the oil consumption by automobiles and for house heating and cooling. In fact, 2/3 of oil consumption can be attributed these two factors. But apart from these obvious reasons, if we look around then almost our (American) lifestyle depends on oil. And, I am not sure how much of our lifestyle we are ready to forgo in order to reduce consumption. Scary part is all the countries are trying to follow American lifestyle and our mother earth does not have that many resources to quench our thirst. If all the people on the earth lead American lifestyle then we will need forty earths. Coming back to oil, right from what we eat to what we wear, oil is integral part of production. Plastic, essential part of current lifestyle needs lot of oil. Even beef production needs considerable oil. Houses we build, clothes we wear, everything depends on oil. With globalization spawning its tentacles, trading among the nations solely depends on the oil. In short, we need oil more than the air we breathe. Makes sense, right! That is why we continue to pollute our air.

Even if we take out automobile out of our life, oil remains integral part of our lifestyle. And, scarcity of oil in future will hit our civilization (western civilization) like a bullet and consequences will be chaos.

According to USGS (US Geology dept.) within next 20 years more than 50% of oil supply will flow from Middle-East. That means clout of evil Saudis and their brethren will increase exponentially. And, at that time we will realize that what we had today was adolescent age of Islamic terrorism. Do we need any more explanation for Iraq war?

Democracy

Human quest for adequately working, non-frictional society with the government or leaders or perhaps kings, who always think betterment of the society, can be described at best as an illusion. But, this does not mean we should not embark on this rocky road to perfection. In our times the mantra for successful society is democracy. Ironically the leitmotif of democracy had killed more than it claims to liberate.

Every system known to man had its fault. Some systems were successful at some point and utterly failure at other time. Some like communism had inherent weakness since its inception and caused untold misery. Then in such scenario what makes democracy an only viable option in current situation? Or is it what we would like to believe? I am sure no staunch democracy activist guarantee the perfection but the given the history of the world since the end of colonism creates a conundrum about democracy that almost makes it impossible to question the shortcomings of democracy.

The failure of the world to respond to hundreds of genocides around the world is a great example how democracy is manipulated around the globe. Counter argument to this statement would be that the democracy is not bad but the people who govern are bad. But at least one will have to agree that democracy presents all the tools necessary to manipulate peoples mind set. Forget about the genocide in rest of the world, the real folly here is this system manipulates itself. It creates thick fog in front of itself and then fantasizes about its beauty in the mirror.

United State of America, current torch-bearer of democracy had so many issues of itself and with current form of democracy, it seems impossible that they will ever be solved. Everything is vote oriented. Technically peoples’ opinion should set the mandate and in fact they do. But the real hitch is, public opinion is manipulated by the system itself, i.e. by the elected body itself.

The democracy supposedly did wonders to the western world. The freedom of speech, masthead of the democracy gave voice to the millions of working class people. The riches of technology, innovation, literature, art etc of western world are usually attributed to the western world’s quest for democracy. But in reality, wealth of western world can equally be attributed to its barbaric and bloody colonial past. They systematically plundered the whole world and massacred millions under the guise of ‘educating’ people. Before leaving the captured land they forcefully sowed an alien form of democracy in the conquered land. Obviously barring few exception, the democracy has been disaster to most of the world and back tracked the development of the world further.

I am not saying democracy is completely corrupt system. I am not communist either. In fact, I hate communism to my bones. I am not a great fan of socialism. But still I am questioning the form of democracy that most of the third world nations around the world are trying to follow and most of the western nations are trying to impose on them. Hopefully there will be more discussion on this topic in main stream press and among the people.

Friendship Day and Me

Today is friendship day and I don’t intend to write eulogizing this day. Well! That is not a good way to start the column but I will do so in order to illustrate my acute syndrome towards these celebrations of ‘days’. I abhor these days because I somehow see this as sign of we continue to be slaves to western ideas and thoughts. I know I am touching a very sensitive subject and perhaps, opening Pandora’s Box of modernism and tradionalism. But I will persist in efforts of logically and rationally questioning the social ‘norms’.

I strongly believe that there is absolutely rubbish to celebrate these days. There is not only one Valentines Day but whole family of it. Mothers’ day, fathers’ Day, Sisters’ Day, Brothers’ Day, Friendship Day and all the B.S. I am sick of this blatant abuse of social insecurity and lack of thinking by capitalistic model. These companies like Hallmark, Archie’s, 1-800-Flowers etc constantly feeds that if we do not celebrate these days then we do not love our friends and family. And even though majority of the people know that these days are advertised by these gifts and greeting cards companies just to increase their sale, most people insist of celebrating the days because if they don’t then they are virtually outcaste from the modern, peace-loving, parent and friends loving society. Instead of encompassing everyone in love, these ‘days’ actually excludes more people. Why do I need a particular day to show my love to my parents and friends? I love them everyday and why do I need to make public spectacle of my love towards them? And, if the situation is so bad that I can tell my parents that I love you only on a particular day then Mothers’ Day and Father’s day won’t bridge the gap between me and my parents. There is no modernism here and if there is anything here then it is pure dumbness of us.

The things get nasty in India. It’s a taboo to question anything that is western. If you tried to stick to traditions or tried to improve them according to current time then you are right-wing Hindu nationalist, a communalist, and anti-western, anti-American, anti-progressive person. India has nothing to do with St. Valentine and Indian culture accords highest status to mother and father, even above god. But, young generation, (yes, my generation!) particularly in metropolitan cities go wild on Valentines Day. I am not saying they should be stopped forcefully because that won’t fit in democratic institution. And, I am not particularly against going wild either. Its just the reason behind these wild parties bothers me.

And to mention the fact, St. Valentines Day has nothing to do with St. Valentines either. (So, I am not anti-Christian either!) It is long tradition in Christianity to steal the holidays of old, non-Christian traditions, known as ‘pagan’ traditions. Thus, in Ancient Rome, February 14th was a holiday to honor Juno, Queen of the Roman Gods and Goddesses.

So much for the modernity, we are celebrating the day that was a holiday for barbaric Romans at least 2000 years ago.

Iraqi 'Insurgency'

There is constant reporting about increased sophistication of Iraqi ‘insurgents’ in recent month or so. But somehow I find these articles, misinterpreting and misrepresent the situation. It would be outlandish to say that reporters are doing that purposefully, as these reports are getting published in prestigious news publications.

Iraqi army was a working and well maintained institution before Iraq war. They fought continuously with Iran for eight years and they were first class fighting unit in Middle-east before 1991 war. It is often portrayed that Iraqi army ran for covers when faced with U.S. army in 1991, but in the hindsight they did sensible thing. Then, they were not facing only U.S. army but almost whole world was against them and fighting would have been foolish. Plus, apparently they knew that U.S. army would change the regime, so they did the best thing under such circumstances.

Coming back to the reports about the increasing sophistication of Iraqi ‘insurgents’, we should understand that Americans are not fighting some dumb Afghanis in Afghanistan. They are facing an army with complete knowledge of weaponry and bomb making techniques. Not only that, these fighters got away with most of the weapons and equipments needed for bomb making. These people are intelligent enough to understand the strategies of U.S. troops and then attack at weak points. There is seems to a systematic effort to kill the Iraqis who are working for U.S. administration and of course, to kill U.S. soldiers.

It would be audacious to prophesize about the result of current fighting between Iraqis and U.S. U.S. troops has enormous resources and extremely advanced technology at their disposal but at the same time Iraqis have advantage of home ground and swelling local support. They are not getting sophisticated, they already are. All they are doing is to match tit for tat to U.S. efforts to quill them. The fight is on and it is going to be bloody.

I H A R ( I hate Aishwarya Rai)

dang ! I am sick of Aishwarya Rai. No, I don't find her hot or anything like that. She is a decent looking girl who can not act and who always carry a fake expression of gracefulness. In some of the so called intense scenes of the movie, I feel like elongating, vibrating or do something like that with her face so that she will have some expression on it. She looks arrogant and at the same time a little dumb. She is not even sensual. (Wise people know what I mean by Sensual!)

I am sick of see her photographs everywhere and I was embarrassed to watch her babbling on David Letterman show. She, in no way, represents India or Indian womanhood. She looks like a plastic doll to me, beautiful but lifeless.

Oh yes! She can't act. I think I wrote that before! Hmm....ohh right! She can't dance either.

Shwaas and Oscars

Shwaas is a fantastic film. It shows interaction between, a child, who is about to loose is eye-sight due to rare cancer and his grandfather. Shwas was nominated by Indian panorama for Oscars, but the movie failed to get nomination for best foreign movie segment. Does that mean that Shwas was not worth even a nomination? No, because there are lots of factors involved for a movie to get nominations. It is imperative that most of the jurors to see the movie and to make them to do so, lot of money and good contacts among the Hollywood lobbyist are necessary. Obviously, Shwas people lacked these resources.

But apart from these obvious obstacles, the greatest challenge Shwaas faced was lack of understanding among the jurors about the cultural background of the movie. The subtlety of that movie were impossible for a foreign juror, who probably never been to India and had a standard ‘mystic’ notion of India, to understand. For example, Parsha’s (film’s main character) grandfather is shown carrying an umbrella all the time. The mundane chore of carrying an umbrella speaks volumes about the character. It shows the age of the character, his nature and his social background. All these points were subtle even for Indian people and it would too much to expect a foreign juror to understand this fine act that director and script writer captures effectively.

The cultural divide that Shwaas faced is more or less common for all the India movies that were nominated by Indian panorama to Oscar committee. And, as Hollywood is not ready to include the biggest film industry in the world in its fold, Indian movie goers, instead of feeling cheated, increasingly see Oscar as an ultimate standard for the movie. It may be a good standard for Hollywood movies but it is certainly not a good way to measure Indian movies. For directors like Govind Nihalani, Shyam Benegal, Guru Dutt, Ram Gopal Varma or Ashutosh Gowarikar, not getting recognition at Oscars reflects the lack of understanding and talent on Oscars part, rather than lack of capacity as our own people perceive.

Year 2105 and Hitler

Year 2105 –

Hitler - a great orator and fierce nationalist. He is credited with single handedly brining Germany out of their misery in post WW-II scenario. His militaristic foresight and diplomatic acumen can be compared with very few people of 20^th century. Though his racial supremacist policies were partly responsible for WW-II, nevertheless his devotion towards his own people and ‘fatherland’ was widely seen as model for patriotism in contemporary era. He is accused of orchestrating holocaust, where almost 60 millions Jewish people allegedly were murdered. But there is no substantial evidence that he was direct in charge of such genocide. His associates like Goebbles, Goring etc may be responsible for Holocaust.

Don’t be alarmed, this eulogy was not printed anywhere. I wrote it just to understand how I felt when I read about Genghis Khan, listed as one of the most prominent person of last millennium in Time magazine. Not only Genghis Khan, I was astonished to see Muhammad Ghuri as a ‘king who brought numerous artisans, nobles etc’ along with him in India. Bought, give me a break! He was a fucking maniac, a religious zealot who killed millions just because they were not of his religion. Interestingly Hitler failed to get mentioned as one of the prominent person who shaped the world in last millennium. The explanation given by Nancy Gibbs, one of the Time magazines writers is as follows.

if all Hitler had done was kill people in vast numbers more efficiently than anyone else ever did, the debate over his lasting importance might end there. But Hitler's impact went beyond his willingness to kill without mercy. He did something civilization had not seen before. Genghis Khan operated in the context of the nomadic steppe, where pillaging villages was the norm. Hitler came out of the most civilized society on Earth, the land of Beethoven and Goethe and Schiller. He set out to kill people not for what they did but for who they were. Even Mao and Stalin were killing their "class enemies." Hitler killed a million Jewish babies just for existing.

Now, there is a differentiation among the killers on the basis of, well, what fits the current political scenario. This is ridiculous. Genghis Khan, Hitler, Muhammad Ghuri or all of their kinds were genociders, killers, and murderers. They killed people simply because ‘not for what they did but for what they were’.

All the people that came to North America as ‘pilgrimage’ or went to south America or Australia were genociders because they effectively obliterated Red Indians, Aboriginals of Australia and native dwellers of South and Central America. But, shhh! We can’t write about that, we can’t say that loudly. People who did that were whites, peaceful Christians and they were on their mission to educate the world. Ultimately, they succeeded in their efforts and price was too low even to mention. Couple of hundred million people lost their lives. But that’s ok! That is why we have Thomas Jefferson, George Washington as luminaries who lit the flame of freedom as democracy. (It is a different issue that they didn’t know that Red Indians were killed by their countryman ‘not for what they did but for what they were’. )

If Genghis Khan became a worlds prominent figure within 800 of his genocidal acts (almost 750 years of that 800 years wasn’t a media age per se!) then there is no stopping from someone writing eulogy for Hitler within next 100 years. And, as long as there is differentiation among the people who killed people insanely just because what they stood for, there will another genocider in making.

Don’t worry Mr. Pol Pot, Mr. Mao, Mr. Stalin you guys are next in line for eulogy.

Changed Face of Terrorist

Attack in London was not a surprise at all. It was long expected and according to New York Times London “had been on the cross roads of terrorism for long”. Plus, who can forget Mohammad Gaddafi saying on the eve of Afghanistan bombing that “US should bomb London rather than Kabul”. The growing population of Islamic community in Britain had been headache for most of the government around the world, now; it is going to be big headache for British government too. I was reading an interesting column about the attacks in NY Times and the points raised by author definitely needs attention.

Looking at the terrorist profiles in London or New York attacks, we can see that majority of those terrorist are from educated, middle class or upper class families and had decent childhood. Thus, the standard picture of terrorist being poor, uneducated and hailing from isolated and fanatic community is wanting in current terrorists’ profile. Another important feature is bulk of the terrorists comes from Saudi Arabia, Jordan and Pakistan. Two of the above mentioned countries have per capita income very high, 12,000 and 4,500 respectively. And about Pakistan, well, it is hub for terrorist, one stop shopping mall for all terrorist, so it hardly surprising that we find Pakistani nationals regularly on terrorist list. Good example would be in last four months, in Iraq, 46 of the 55 suicide bombers were Saudi nationals.

The terrorist who blew themselves along with 55 innocent people in London were born and brought up in England. They had far more opportunities to succeed in life than their ‘brethren’ in Iraq and Afghanistan. Yet, they chose to die for some flimsy reason. That shows that the Islamic community should start reforming themselves rather blaming the rest of the world for their social backwardness. I am not saying that everyone should advance according to western standard and it would be most welcome to set the standards of development according to their society. But harming no one and killing no one for some stupid reason is something, which is an unwritten rule.

Flow is a nature’s phenomenon. Defying that and sticking to something that happened almost 1400 years does not make sense. There are number of ways to reform the system without deviating from the central path and without loosing the crux. It will be most welcome effort for whole world.

B.S. II

There seems to be inverse relationship between number of books and columns I read and blogs I write. And, that actually scares me. It points out to few things. One, either I am extremely intelligent creature, whose mental strength increases in multiple proportion of number of books I read. And as I get nearer to the absolute infinity of knowledge, my pace of writing is increasing in order to enlighten the world the complexity of being a living being on this mother earth. Or, I am plainly bull shitting. The choice is yours. I will go for second option.

I uploaded a stat counter on my blog. It keeps the count of number of unique visitors, the time they spent on my blog, their location etc. almost 80% of people spends less than 5 seconds on my blog. (Though, this percentage is decreasing.)It again points few things again. Either people do not have time to read some of the interesting topics I write about or again, I am bull shitting. In this case I will go for first option.

I realized another interesting reason behind not reading my blog. I am benevolent enough to consider that majority of the people pay attention to the things happening around them. (I know they don’t!) But somehow they are bored to read, kind of things or issues I write on the blog. Or, they are read a lot, think a lot and they simply find no time in reading or listening to what other people say. I feel that this is the precise reason why we see so much bull shitting everywhere. CNN, FOX, MSNBC, BBC all these news channel with their biased views, instead of providing unpartisan news information to the viewers B.S. so much that, people like me have to rely on Jon Stewart and his The Daily show for reality. Sadly, there is no option here and I will rest my B.S. case here. Shalom!

(If I were you I won’t read this piece of s#*#t!)

World War - II

History channel is bombarding with programs celebrating the end of World War II for last whole week or so. The WW-II was certainly horrific. It was nadir for humanity. It consumed almost 5, 50, 00,000 lives and changed the future of the world drastically. NAZI power couldn’t become a superpower but it wounded British Empire so badly that Britain ceased to be a superpower. (And instantly attained the third world status, as the saying goes!) And, though the Cold war began, at least, the colonial era ended with the conclusion of world war.

The disturbing element of History channels WW-II programs is constant referral t the Allies member as torch bearers of freedom and democracy. Most of the allied members were definitely democratic, (barring, glaring example of Russia) I do not believe that Allied members were ‘freedom lovers’. The reason behind it is simple, the allied members had whole world shared among themselves and Germany challenged their supremacy or the delicate power balance among the powerful allies. And, the concomitant reason for waging war against Germany was to save their colonies and the ruse was the redemption and protection from the Nazi Satan.

I am in no way suggesting that Germany would have liberated the world from Colonial rule. Germany was itself a colonial power. And now looking back at NAZI doctrine, we can certainly say that colonial powers were benign compared to what Nazi’s would have been, had they won the war. Actually the conquered world had no choice or they had choice between rulers who were competing to plunder them. But the allied members were in no way fighting for the world. The horrific crime the allied members did near the end of world war were equally reprehensible as NAZI war crimes. Of course the Holocaust can not be compared with anything and at the same time I am not comparing Allied nations with Nazi Germany. Because, I think there can’t be any comparison among them as all of them were in same basket. Whether Nazi’s killed insanely under the spell of racial supremacy or Allied nations killed insanely under the spell of ‘liberating people’, ultimately it was the innocent bystander who was slaughtered.

I am not a peace activist andI believe that conflict is part of the nature. But at least in WW-II there was no liberator and victor but everyone was a victim.

Selected writings of Dr. S. Radhakrishnan

It is now admitted that the Hindus at a very early time conceived and developed the two sciences of logic and grammar. Wilson Writes “ In medicine, as in astronomy and metaphysics, the Hindus once kept pace with the most enlightened nations of the world; and they attained as through a proficiency in medicine and surgery as any people whose acquisitions are recorded and as indeed was practicable, before anatomy was made known to us by discoveries of modern inquirers.” It is true that they did not invent any great mechanical appliances. For this a kind Heaven, which gave them the great water courses and abundant supplies of food is responsible. Let us also remember that these mechanical inventions belong after all, to the sixteenth century and after , by which time India had lost her independence and become parasitic. The day she lost her independence and become parasitic. The day she lost her freedom and began to flirt with other nations, a curse fell on her and she became petrified. Till then she could hold her own even ini arts, crafts and industries, not to speak of mathematics, astronomy, chemistry, medicine, surgery, and those branches of physical knowledge practiced in ancient times. She knew how to chisel stone, draw pictures, burnish gold and weave rich fabrics. She developed all arts , fine and industrial, which furnish the conditions of civilized existence. Her ships crossed the oceans and her wealth brimmed over to Judea, Egypt and Rome. Her conception of man and society, morals and religion were remarkable for the time. We can’t reasonably say that the Indian people reveled in poetry and mythology, and spurned science and philosophy, though it is true that they were intent on seeking the unity of things than emphasizing their sharpness and separation.

- Dr. S. Radhakrishnan
Indian Philosophy, Volume I

20th Century

The death toll in 20^th Century is listed below. Bulk of these casualties can be directly attributed to the ‘peace-loving’, ‘liberator’ and ‘democratic’ nations of western hemisphere.

1) First World War - (1914-18): 1,50,00,000

2) Russian Civil War – (1917-22): 90,00,000

3) Soviet Union, Stalin's regime (1924-53): 2,00,00,000

4) Second World War (1937-45): 5,50,00,000

5) Post-War Expulsion of Germans from East Europe (1945-47): 21,00,000

6) Chinese Civil War (1945-49): 25,00,000

7) People's Republic of China, Mao Zedong's regime (1949-1975):4,00,00,000

8) Tibet (1950 et seq.): 600 000

9) Mexican Revolution (1910-20): 1 000 000

10) Armenian Massacres (1915-23): 1 500 000

11) China War-lord era (1917-28): 800 000

12) China, Nationalist Era (1928-37): 3 100 000

13) Korean War (1950-53): 2 800 000

14) Rwanda and Burundi (1959-95): 1 350 000

15) Second Indochina War (1960-75): 3 500 000

(It includes Vietnam war, Vietnam Civil war, Cambodian war)

16) Ethiopia (1962-92): 1 400 000

17) Nigeria (1966-70): 1 000 000

18) Bangladesh (1971): 1 250 000

19) Cambodia, Khmer Rouge (1975-1978): 1 650 000

20) Afghanistan (1979-2001): 1 800 000

21) Iran Iraq War (1980-88): 1 000 000

22) Sudan (1983 et seq.): 1 900 000

23) Kinshasa Congo (1998 et seq.): 3 300 000

Source: http://users.erols.com/mwhite28/warstat1.htm

Mr. Manmohan Singh and Oxford

I had a very long discussion with my friend J.B. about the statement made by Mr. Manmohan Singh at Oxford. I wrote a blog denouncing him for making, what I considered as a brash statement. I thought he was indirectly eulogizing the British rule. But apparently he was not. I still stand by my statements in that particular blog, even I though I am ready apologies for misunderstanding Mr. Singhs’ statement. I agree with him (if he indeed said that! ) when he said that the infrastructure or bureaucracy British people created in India, for plundering country more systematically, helped in India in post-independence period.

British rule was worst in most of the sense than previous invaders India witnessed. Even though the damage was not visible as in case of previous invasions, the mentality that British people created is still hurting India.

Ram Janmabhumi

Less crudely, such questions are partly answered everyday by things like the city of Ayodhya, in Thailand. The Thai Ayodhya is not only sacred; it is unlikely to concede that Madurai is only a derivative of Mathura. Once however you historicize Rama, once you locate his birthplace at a particular Ayodhya at a particular point of time, either to territorialize his claim to a temple or to oppose it, you atutomatically deny or diminish the sacrednessof the other Ayodhya and, while you may serve the purpose of those who view Rama as a national leader, a historical figure and a cultural hero, you cannot sustain his stuuatus as a god who, as a god, has to exist today. If Rama is, only then is he Rama. If Rama was, he is no Rama. This is the paradox in which one gets caught when one accepts the language of either the Hindutva-hawkers or the secular fundamentalist.

- Ashis Nandy

Secularism

Whenever someone tries to write about the Islamic destruction in Medieval India, the secularists are up in arms. I really don’t care about the secularist because they are useless and they twisted the secularism in such a way that unity of different faiths, which they sought to do, is almost impossible to achieve now. But I don’t intend to write about secularism; that would be digression.

The Islamic invaders coming from Arabia were barbaric and religious fanatics. They wanted to spread their faith and kill who refuse to obey them. The destruction is real. The obliterated civilization of Zoroastrians in Iran is perfect example of annihilation and so is the Gandhar. (Present day Afghanistan)

But that was the way it used to happen in those times. Christians did the same thing in North and South America, as religious zealotry was a norm and secularism was rare, rather unacceptable. But that does not mean that we should not even talk about the destruction. Millions and millions of people lost their lives so at least we can do today is to evaluate the past and build the future in such a way that such genocides won’t happen again.

The Islamic marauders too were marauded; by Genghis Khan in 12^th century. And, even though both the victims and victors were of same religion, the genocide and annihilation done by Genghis Khan is unparallel in history. The genocide done by Hitler needed modern technologies but Genghis Khan did that with bare swords and hatchets. The sacking of Baghdad was so inhuman and barbaric that even today Baghdad grieves for its destruction.

Alas, that is not everybody thinks. Secularist made it impossible to discuss anything related to religion. We can not discuss the achievements of religion of majority nor can we discuss shortcomings of religion of minorities. Without open discussion society is increasingly becoming like stagnant water, full of dirt and mosquitoes. And, then everybody (media and “intellectuals”) show surprise at Gujrat riots, at Ayodhya riots. Where as the Ahamadabad riots in 1967 were worst than Ayodhya riots and Godhra was under curfew for six months in 1947.

Considering the media bias and intellectual blindness in India there is little chance that situation will change in near future. And, it will continue to affect the future growth of India adversely.

Invasion Theory II

Recently, Mr. Manmohan Singh babbled that British rule actually helped India. I thought I will be shocked to hear India’s prime minister saying that, but I wasn’t. It will be too naive to be shocked with this statement. The reason behind such a statement is not that Mr. Singh is Britain educated but the reason is total lack of historical perspective among the society. The problem is two pronged; first we do not take our history seriously, mostly brushing it of as ‘history’ and second, few people who take history seriously usually have no real sense of history.

As V. S. Naipaul correctly observed that, Indians need to face their wounds; the wounds of a defeated and plundered civilization. We say that we have ancient civilization. But if we ask ourselves what exactly do we know about our ancient civilization then very few people can actually answer the question. We no longer have our old universities, medicine, engineering and we are fast loosing our philosophy. We do not even speak, write or even understand Sanskrit anymore. (The way we are going, I doubt after fifty years we will be speaking even Hindi) There is no question that our civilization is old, already an antique when western civilization rose in Rome but it happened thousands of years ago. But this false sense of superiority seems to me like a poor attempt to conceal the deep wounds we had in last thousand years. The Islamic invaders followed by British crooks beheaded us so badly that we are still trying to find the logic explanation to our defeat. All of our values that lead us to dazzling heights proved completely useless against the marauding and barbaric invaders from west. Unfortunately we are still trying to pick up those values and boast the greatness of our civilization.

Out of this apathy towards our own history rose the attitude which is reflected in our Prime ministers statement. He is not to be blamed as he is mare reflection of our society. Lot of Indians do think that British rule was good. But was it really good or it was better than Islamic invaders we had for 500 years? Actually, both of them were equally bad. Both of them tried to destroy what we stand for and what we strive for. Our religion, tradition, custom, language, history, even geography is muddled because of them. They left us with no sense of direction and with no sense of ourselves..

Within 60 years of Independence if Indian prime minister states that British rule was good then I am scared of the future. I am just hoping that Mr. Singh statement was politically motivated and he did not meant that. But even in this hope lies a defeat which I am not ready to face.

Peshawe

The Peshawe dynasty is vastly misunderstood among other dynasties in India. Instead of counting them among the best administered and bravest (They are the one who officially overthrown Delhi sultanate and won area up to Attock in Pakistan.) they are blamed for numerous things. Particularly, Marathas sulked endlessly, as they had to fight under Peshawe’s (Brahmins) supervision in post-Shivaji period.

Strong navy was ultimate dream of Shivaji and he worked relentlessly for this dream and succeeded up to great extent. He halted British businessman from establishing strong base in Kokan area and stunted the growth of Portuguese outside Goa. His ships used to wreck havoc up to Arabian Peninsula. Among the other things, Peshawe’s are blamed for not building maintaining Navy in Arabian seas. Even if we accept this blame, we should consider the reasons behind it. It was almost impossible for them to keep eye on Navy’s growth because they were concentrating mainly on expanding empire on the west and northern front. They won area up to Gwalior, and virtually stopped further invasions from west and central Asia. Plus, they were fighting with their own brethren. Holkar, Shinde, Bhosle (Nagpur) were not co-operating with them at best and fighting against them at worst. .

An important thing to note is, British established their firm base in Calcutta first as they realized that it is impossible to expand their empire from Western Ghats. So, considering Peshawe’s did grave mistake by neglecting Navy, they were fairly successful in keeping sea enemies at bay as even Portuguese remained confined to Goa and there by serving the purpose of Navy.

It is a fashion to criticize the Peshawe’s because, first, there no more Peshwe’s left and second, Maratha’s still wield power in Maharashtra. But, I don’t think that Peshwe’s were Brahmins nor Shivaji was Maratha. They were great people who worked selflessly with grand aim in mind and they worked incessantly to achieve that goal. It’s because their bravery that we still boast name of our country as Bharat and still follow our religion and our tradition. Blaming someone because of caste politics is not only an attempt to trivialize their life but also an insult to their achievements.

Thomas L. Friedman

Apparently, Thomas Friedman, a New York Times columnist is increasingly becoming popular in India and among Indian Diaspora. His columns now appear regularly on Indian express website and he is getting quoted everywhere, particularly with respect to his views about India. But, I am increasingly getting frustrated with him, I mean with his views. Sure, he meets with all the important people, he travels around the world, but, instead he becoming rationalist and clear thinker, he is becoming naïve and his solutions to the problem, particularly about Islamic terrorism are childish.

He always carries a sense of superiority because he is American (though, he does criticizes America) and talks as if he stands on morally high ground. He sincerely believes that America is the only savior of the world and last hope for world redemption. He thinks America is beacon of democracy and believes that only hardcore capitalism is the only answer to all the world problems.

His solution for Islamic militancy is absolutely rubbish. He seems to believe that peaceful approach will do magic with militancy, at the same though, he thinks that Iraq invasion was necessary. In his talk about terrorism, he fails to mention Pakistan and that makes me wonder whether this person is biased or plainly stupid.

His views about India are definitely positive but he believes that India is lucky country, at least in terms of its software business. And, he thinks that it was America that helped India immensely. It is truth that Indian companies earn bulk of their money from U.S. but at the same time it is hard to discern whether India needs America or America needs India more. Mr. Friedman seems to see India as if a child growing under proper care and care is provided by America.

He try to simplify every problem and there nothing wrong in projecting a problem in simplified manner but that does not mean the problem itself is simple. He almost always fails to see the complexity behind most of the issues, be it Islamic terrorism or super power status of the America.

Capitalism II

Capitalism is defined as economic system based on private ownership of the means of production, in which personal profit can be acquired through investment of capital and employment of labor. Capitalism is grounded in the concept of free enterprise, which argues that government intervention in the economy should be restricted and that a free market, based on supply and demand, will ultimately maximize consumer welfare.

Basically, it is an economic system by people and for people. But increasingly, the word people is getting replaced by corporations. And, instead of satisfying the demands of the society these corporations are creating demand for their products, at the expense of community welfare. The strategies employed by fast food companies are fine example of demand generating tactics.

I do not claim to be a master economist and there is fair amount of
probability that I am completely wrong here. The tactics employed by
fast food companies (Americans spend $110 billions on fast food
annually, more than they spend on education!) that augmented their
sales to colossus level in comparison with their business in 1980's,
should be thoroughly scrutinized. These companies did not pay any
attention to the healthy diet, in the name of cost cutting; they pay
extremely low to their employees. They add artificial flavors for some
kind of addictive taste. Also, these companies focus themselves to
children. If a child is addicted to fast food then the fast food
company earns a life time customer. In the book Fast Food Nation, the
authors made a valid point; generally a child associates particular
taste of food to a particular incidence. That is the reason; we always
have nostalgic feeling about mom's food. So, with proper
advertisement, if a child is enticed to fast food outlet and if he
spends happy time there with his or her family then the child will
associate that particular taste with happy family time.

The scary part is, this research is done by fast food companies and not by
author. Manipulating communities demand is probably rampant in every
industry. I quoted fast food industry because I read the book about
it. But cosmetic industry is probably, another fine example of such
tactics. Such kind of capitalism is certainly harmful to the society. Ironically, the cure of this problem is hard to find as society is itself generating the perpetrator.

Capitalism

Being an economic major I am supposed to believe in capitalism and free market economics. But I am increasingly getting skeptical about these policies. I am not turning communist or socialist, but any thing in excess is bane. So, capitalism in excess is harmful to the society. The monotonous way with which U.S. and western powers continue to advocate capitalism scares me. One thing, in last two hundred years or so Europeans have created havoc across the world, so it is hard to believe in them now. Second thing, the guiding principal of current of form capitalism; greed is good, if followed, will lead to systematic destruction of the societies across the globe and not to tell, of environment too.

If the resources of the globe are constant, that means supply is constant and demand for these resources is forced to increase continuously then the strain on the supply will cross the threshold at some point and at that point, either strongest (that is western countries) will seize those resources and rest of the world will be left in lurch or quest to fulfill the demand will lead to total destruction of environment. The logging of rainforest, disappearance of coral reefs, more and more species are joining the extinct list, (at least one specie vanishes every day) over fishing in seas and in rivers, increase in barren land due to excessive crops, tremendous strain on fresh water supply, decrease in ozone layer, decrease in Ice shield in North and South pole etc. The list is long and new things keep on adding.

Apart from these obvious environment degradation, the living standard of most of the people is decreasing rapidly (I have listed few facts in a prior blog.) and wealth is getting accumulated in few hands.

I am not completely against capitalism. The effects of communism are horrendous and we can not allow communism to take hold again. But I strongly believe that, models of capitalism should change according to countries, societies and people. The form of capitalism in US does not guarantee success in other countries. Extremities always meet at the end. Communism tried to use same economic model for all situation and forced such policies on all kind of people. U.S. and western countries are doing same thing albeit, with capitalism.

Biased History

I like history, I should have been history major but I really doubt I would have learned more in history classes than what I am learning or understanding now. Not to chide the history stream but I am rather skeptical of streams like history, political science etc, as I am very puzzled by consistent rift between the ‘liberal’ outlook of the curriculum and actual outcome it, generated through student.

Discussing history with anyone invariably ends with the sentence that interpretation of history changes according to the person. And I refuse to buy this argument. History is like a fact book. Facts can not be interpreted because that is why they are called as facts. Interpretation may be considered as a best mean to reach the end or decipher the reality when historical data is not completely collected. But when complete data is available, interpreting history is nothing short of criminal act. Sadly that is what we usually witness and, explain it with the argument that winners write the history. Of course, winners definitely write the history but fortunately they almost never succeed to wipe off the real history and it is up to the current generation to find the facts and learn it.

Such examples, where history is not only miss-represented history but also miss-understood history are numerous. I can understand the presenting history that suits the invader or ruler but conveniently misunderstanding history is a crime. I think such a behavior stems from either sheer dumbness and laziness to understanding the reality or incapability of facing the deep wounds suffered by society as a whole.

History is extremely important for any society. History actually defines who we are; it tells us what we aim at and shows the pitfalls in our quest to attain the aim. It is utterly foolish to ‘live’ in history but reaching opposite spectrum by completely denying or denigrating history is foolish too. Polluting the history or accepting the polluted history will make our quest more arduous or in worst case completely throw us off the track, forcing us to live like a headless body.

A good Chemistry Question

A good question for Organic Chemistry students –:
State the constituents of Burger King strawberry milk shake?

Answer –
A typical artificial strawberry flavor, like the kind found in a Burger King strawberry milk shake, contains the following ingredients: Amyl Acetate, Benzyl Isobutyrte, butyric acid, cinnamyl isobutyrate, cinnamyl valerate, cognac essential oil, diacetyl, dipropyl ketone, ethyl acetate, ethyl amylketone, ethyl butyrate, ethyl cinnamate, ethyl heptanoate, ethyl heptylate, ethyl lactate, ethyl methylphenylglycidate, ethyl nitrate, ethyl propionate, ethyl valerate, heliotropin, hydroxyphenyl-2-butanone, isobutyl anthranilate, isobutyl butyrate, lemon essential oil, maltol, 4 methylacetophenone, methyl anthranilate, methyl benzoate, methyl cinnamate, methyl heptine carbonate, methyl naphtyhl ketone, methyl salicylate, mint essential oil, neroli essential oil, nerolin, neryl isobutyrate, orris butter, phenethyl alcohol, rose, rum ether, vanillin and solvent…

Michael Jackson

1) I do not know his name but I saw his case on Spike TV. This guy was already a suspect for Marijuana dealings. He was caught by cop for speed limit violation. He resisted arrest and can you guess how long he was sent to jail? Any guess……well 60 years with little or no chance of parole.

2) I saw this case again on Spike TV. This guy was a cop himself. Off duty, he was detained by cops for an extremely trivial traffic violation. Supposedly, this guy did not give indicator while changing lane. Obviously, he was furious for his detainment and refused to show his license. The cop on duty tried to arrest him and this guy resisted arrest. Verdict, lower court sentenced him for 7 years, he went further to Supreme Court, citing racist treatment. (The cop on duty was white and the state was Florida) the case is pending but in the mean time he was suspended from his police department.

3) The third story is of another black person who was a child prodigy. A pop icon of 80’s who attained the star hood in his early teens. In 1992 ( or 93?) Michael Jackson was charged first time for sexually molesting a young male child. The case was settled out of court, with molested child getting undisclosed amount as compensation. He continued to share his bed with young male children. But according to him there is no molestation, whatsoever. He had a bad childhood so he wanted these children to enjoy as much as possible. Indeed, a saintly objective. He was charged again in 2005 on 10 counts, ranging from sexual molestation to intoxicating young children. Government prosecutors provided all possible testimonies and evidenes to jurors. In spite of that Michael Jackson was acquitted on all charges. Reason, evidence wasn’t enough. Yeh ,right !

Oh by the way in all three cases the suspects (or victims, at least in first two cases) were blacks.

Michael Jackson’s lawyers played the race card well. They made jurors guilty of punishing a black person but at the same time made them reluctant to convict a white person.

- Jay Leno in Tonight Show.

( This quote does not make any sense with respect to the blog but I still quoted it, because, its funny!)

Invasion Theory

The passivity with which foreign invasions are studied makes me sick and angry. Particularly in India, where Islamic invasions since 8th century and Christian proselytizing invasions since 17th century had profound and destabilizing effect on the society. Invasions are not easy business. One king trying to win more kingdoms or one religion trying to proselytize more people is some of the childish explanation to invasions that conceals the barbaric and disastrous effect of the reality.

My point is that, irrespective of the time of invasion and invaders, the basic pattern of destruction remains relatively same. There seems to be certain common thread that runs through all mayhems. There are two basic ways of destructions; ironically in this age of categorization and choices, even destructions can be categorized.

One of kind of destruction is complete annihilation of the civilization like Spanish Inquisition or Arab Muslims wiping out Zoroastrian civilization. In both cases the invaders not only changed the language, religion, customs, myths & legends of conquered people but they virtually changed the race by marrying them or by other means. The Incas Maya’s and etc of south and Central America are museumised, and Zoroastrians are dwelling in a tiny population in India after loosing their land and heritage in 7th century.

The second type of invasion, though similar to first type of invasion on the onset, but is subtler in numerous ways to conquering the society. Good example is British rule in India. With huge land and huge population under their control, their (Britishers) standard methods of changing race (the way they did in Scotland) or native populations genocide (like in North America and Australia) were useless. So, they adopted different method. First they tried to change the language and they were successful up to certain extent. Second they changed the way Indians used to work. With constantly referring Indians as “lazy natives” etc, (Obviously, lot of other methods were used but I am just giving you an example.) they induced a sense of inferiority complex among the society. They divided the society on the basis of caste, clans and most importantly on the basis of religion. Rest of the destruction is left to native to do. The natives themselves start disliking what their heritage, their history even their skin color and they do everything that is possible to distance themselves from their own culture.

What Britishers couldn’t achieve in 100 years of rule, is now, frantically attained by Indians themselves. It is a fashion, a status symbol to talk in English. A person is considered almost an illiterate if he can’t understand English. Among the Hindus’, it is necessary to distance oneself from religion, in order to be seen as progressive. Imitation of western culture is best possible innovation. From, the way to dress to the way to soap operas and films are made, replication of western ideas is paramount in order to succeed.

In post WW-II world, the role of religion in obscuring diverse cultural identities declined considerably as globalization and capitalism is doing that role in much slicker way and with considerably less resistance. It is up to the native people again to defend themselves and save their heritage and culture. The odds are against them but the battle is worth a fighting.

Partition

India-Pakistan partition always puzzles me. There are numerous theories behind this largest ever human migration, but each and every theory seems to be wrapped in the dark mist of mystery. Even after 50 years the blame game continues and it still has potential to create substantial commotion across the borders. Thinking about this painful historical event, I stumble upon couple of questions and facts that are hard to ignore and yet never correctly answered or quoted in media or remembered by general populace.

First, I strongly believe that Jinnah was the sole architect of the partition. Gandhi strongly opposed to partition; one, because partitioning country is exactly what Britishers always wanted and second, partitioning means Gandhi’s extensive Muslim appeasement policies failed to bridge the gap between Hindus and Muslim. Though, Mr. Nehru’s role seems to be ambiguous, British politicians had stated goal of creating India, Pakistan and Princestan. Though their efforts to create Princestan failed due to Sardar Patel, Britishers were more than happy in dividing country in two parts (or three parts) and they rightly gauged that Jinnah was the right card, perhaps a card of ace.

Second, with this blame game seems to be continue for eternity, I always think of Britishers as happiest people and laughing at India and Pakistan, because no one seems to blame British crooks for partition. British government is not only responsible for this partition but also for horrendous human rights violation and thousands of deaths during and after partition. Even though in power, it seems like a purposeful effort not stop the Razakar’s in Hydrabad, Kolkata and in North West Frontier and in Lahore.

Third, Gandhi was killed by a “Hindu fanatic” because the killer thought that Gandhi was responsible for partition. Though, it is hard to believe that Gandhi was responsible for partition but at the same time Gandhi can’t cleanse himself of partition either. If he was most revered and influential person during that period and indeed, a leader of whole nation and if he is hailed as a person who single handedly brought British empire down then he should owe the responsibility of partition too. For example, Mr. Nehru was responsible for early development of India at the same time he was also responsible for China debacle. Similarly Gandhi may not be directly responsible for partition but as a leader he should owe the responsibility as he clearly failed to grasp the reality behind the partition and even though he was greatly pained by incessant killing, his pain would not bring back those lost lives.

Partition can not be blamed on a single person nor can it be pin pointed on single incident. That event was waiting to happen and host of things can be cited as reasons. The recent ruckus over Mr. Advani’s comments on Jinnah, forces us to ask; is it still worth to create controversies about Partition? The answer is yes. I believe it is actually imperative for us to further explore the issue as partition was not only large forced human migration in human history but it irrevocably altered the geography, history and future of Indian subcontinent. Partition is not a history and it will be criminal to forget it by saying let bygones be bygones. The implications of partition are visible even after 60 years. We ought to explore issue of partition further till we find out the truth.

Some coool facts

1) The personal assets of Bill Gates, Paul Allen and Warren Buffet exceed the combined GDP of world’s 41 poorest nations.

2) Each of the 400 richest Americans saw their wealth increase by an average of $940 millions each year over the period of 1998-99, while the net wealth of the bottom 40% diminished by 80 percent between 1983 to 95.

3) Off the US’s total assets, 1% of Americans own 95% and 80% of the households take home a proportionately smaller amount of the national wealth than they did 20 years ago.

4) “Between” 1960 to 1993 the gap in per capita income between the developing and developed world tripled, from $5,700 to $15,400.

5) In 1900 the per capita income of America was nine times more than Ethiopia, today it is 45 times.

6) In 1960 the income gap between the top 20% of the people living in the richest countries and the bottom 20% of the poor worldwide was 30-1, in 1990 it was 60-1 and in 1995 it was 75-1

7) In 1993 the poorest 10% of the world’s people had only 1.6% of the wealth of the richest 10 % of the people, the poorest 57% of the worlds’ people had about the same income as the richest 1% and richest 10% of the US population, which is 25 million people had combined income than poorest 43% of the world’s people or about 2 billion people

Freakonomics

It will be amazing, if it is true. I do not have any data to support my argument; still I will put forth my idea. My idea stems from the book I am reading and the name of the book is Freakonomics. According to the author, the Roe vs. Wade case had a very drastic impact on the sudden drop in the crime rate in mid-90. That seems either too naive to liberals or offensive to conservatives. The argument is that the children born to single or poor or teenager mother have more probability of having un-happy life. These children are more prone to crime and uneducated life. Now, as these children were not born, the whole new generation of underprivileged children did not come to existence. As the generation born in mid-70’s entered late teens in 90’s, the crime rate fell as this generation was born to more educated, responsible and well to do parents.

The debate here is not whether abortion should be legalized or not, but it is a factual academic research.

I am trying to apply same logic to the effect of aggressive affirmative or reservation policies that were enforced in 1990’s in India. These affirmative policies irrevocably altered the landscape of Indian politics. The society stand divided as the genie of affirmative action became tool for politicians to create vote banks. I am completely anti-affirmative policies. I do believe that the backward communities need a help to come with rest of the society but when the quota system crosses the 50% or 60% limit then it defeats the very purpose of its inaction and becomes crutches.

But, there is silver lining to this policy. Intelligent people, who couldn’t get admissions in good colleges, only because they are upper caste, started working harder. The admission benchmark went up and best started coming out of the students. Plus, students started in different states where there is either less stringent affirmative policy or there are more colleges. Most importantly students started migrating to US for higher education. The boom in Indian economy, that made middle class to afford higher education abroad came hand in hand with computer boom in US, that created insatiable appetite for computer educated and English speaking engineers. Result; sudden spurt in Indian software industry.

There are host of other reasons for growth in software industry, like complete non-interference of Indian government. But this negatively positive impact of affirmative action should not be overlooked. May be the number of people by their caste will be good statistics to prove or disapprove this theory.

B.S.

What is this fuss about Quran discretion? It is ridiculous. Duh! Those people are freaking terrorists, murderers and they are not in Guantanamo beach for holidays. How come one should treat those animals humanly? I mean, these people are not even animals they are beyond that; they are savages like saitans’. They do not think twice about killing innocent people but when in jail, they expect to be treated according to Geneva Convention and need their human rights to be protected, simply outrageous. And the funny part is that these terrorists and their brethren in host of the Islamic countries get agitated over the supposed discretion of their holy book. Excuse me, but when Sunnis bomb the Shia mosques then Quran get burnt too. (One minor point, bunch of people usually get killed in such attacks too!) But, that is not a sin, such a disrespect of Quran is understandable because it is done by Muslims.

All this politically correct crap makes me sick. It does not solve any problem but actually complicates already complicated situation. But I do not any see discontinuation of such bullshit in foreseeable future. It ain’t going to stop in no way!