Capitalism - A need based development

With end of cold war and, communism proving to be defunct, capitalism was left with no rival. Yet, most of capitalizing attempts in non-western world in post cold-war scenario proved to failure at best and disaster at worst. The term failure term is subjective but looking at south-American continent, south-east Asian countries and host of African countries and Russia, capitalisms definitely failed in its attempts to lift the ‘rising economies’ to the new level. Increasing income gap in India and China its effect on their respective societies is sure to provide new case study of Capitalism. I am just praying that at least in case of these two countries capitalism should succeed because more than one-third of humanity is in peril.

Capitalism basically lets people to decide about their consumption as democracy lets people to decide their choice of government. The concept looks fairly enticing and workable. Yet, capitalism almost always ends up failing. No wonder the dissent against capitalism is growing through out the world and left wing parties are coming to the power at alarming rate.

Actually, it is not entirely capitalisms fault per se, at least not in the theory, the enforcers that is, western countries and the implementers that is, local government are both at equal fault. As in case of democracy, the forceful sowing of capitalism is a bad strategy itself. It has to grow according to the local needs, according to the local mindset, according to the local ethos and work culture. If it fails to become local then it defeats the very purpose of capitalism.

Capitalism is successful in western countries because the model developed according to the needs of the people. The theory itself developed as the demands of the people developed. Thus, the tool developed as the need was felt, and then those tools were used to build a new structure where new needs were felt. The cycle continued with each wheel of the capitalistic machine seamlessly fitting into one another forming a efficient, self-correcting economic system over the period of time.

With all such developed theories, economic models, western countries go into non-western, non-developed countries and try to apply this economics and hope for wonder. And in a sense, the wonder does happen, albeit for western countries. They are able to earn profit out of non-western countries leaving almost nothing for the natives. With no knowledge of economics, technology, no known infrastructure, no skilled labor, not skilled for modern machinery; corrupt political class, and western educated elite class that has no understanding of local environment, the capitalism is bound to fail.

The knowledge base should be home grown. The elite class that usually rules the country should understand their country more in order to rule. And most importantly, western country should give rising economies space to breath. With constant spanking by IMF and World Banks, they (western countries) are not exactly portraying capitalism in good light.

Capitalism is definitely mantra of success. But the procedure to go down the capitalistic path needs to be studied and molded according to the need. Wrong chanting of ‘mantras’ always leads to adverse effects.

India - Three Narratives

Visiting India is increasingly becoming a profound dilemma to me. In just four years I am finding myself staring at some gibberish scenario, a country that is fast becoming alien to me. Or perhaps, I am becoming alien to it. May be I am exaggerating or may be this is effect of V.S. Naipaul on me.

I think I am simultaneously living in three different narratives. First one, a booming India, an emerging economic giant and struggling geo-political power, a country critically analyzed and generally eulogized by NYT and WSJ. Being a nationalist, I feel that finally dream of billion people is becoming a reality. And in a sense it is true. But, this is a view from thousands of miles away. The discrepancies begin to appear once I go closer, that is, when I visit India.

This is second India, second narrative. India of reality. It is as if India of my dream is indeed a mirage. Dream and mirage when used together seems to be providing more devastating effect than mirage and more unrealistic effect than dream. Each visit India seems to be slipping into more chaos. No doubt there is great economic upheaval and its waves are encompassing whole India, affecting virtually every facet of social as well as individual life. But India as usual is unaware of these effects and is completely unprepared to deal with it. Prowess of political class, which is seeping through every facet of life, increasing its power and yet acting like a regressive force. A democracy that is slowly becoming mobocracy and a burgeoning middle class, instead of playing lead role in social up-lifting, busy in imitating west. The scenario seems to be comically dark and perplexing

Third narrative is more personal. It is related to my parents, my extended family and my friends. The anxiousness to come back home and frustration of dealing with situations, situations that were completely irrelevant to me before. And finally the dilemma of whether I should come back home permanently. The question should be whether I can stay and survive in India or not? This emotional turmoil is nothing short of a movie script. Thousands of questions shrouding like thorns, making me ineligible to live in India and at the same time making it impossible to live in US too.

I am pretty sure all most all the students and professionals going abroad face this daunting task of fitting themselves in an alien culture and redefining their concept of home, redefining concept of India.

I am not exactly going through this process, not yet. But I find my current situation funny because I never thought that I will ever stare at this problem.

My future is uncertain at this point and in fact I may never face this crisis. But I am just praying that my conscious will be clear of any doubt if I ever have to make any decision regarding this issue. I don’t want to become a visitor to India. How will I call India mine if I become visitor? And, I don’t want to loose one of the very few things that I feel are mine.

Pakistani Mentality

India is again having peace dialogue with Pakistan. It is sick, it is frustrating and on the top of that it is useless. You can't have peace negotiations with your enemy. Positive outcome from current peace process out of question, considering Pakistan is hell bent on destroying India. But it is impossible to teach some one who is not ready learn. As 'peaceful negotiations' is leitmotif of Indian foreign policy, banality of peace stands naked. That’s beside the point. My contention is that I disagree with the common argument amongst the dumbass Indian secularist that Pakistani people are not anti-Indian but only politicians and Army generals are the culprits. This argument is just stupid. It makes me wonder, from where did these politicians and Army Generals come from? That said, I am not saying that general Pakistani populace is bad, it’s just that generally they are anti-Indian. The reason is that their younger generation is taught to hate India.

I am ready to agree that Pakistani Army is staunch anti-Indian and they probably groom their soldiers that way. But it is interesting to study the ‘democratic’ years of Pakistan. Benzir Bhutto or Nawaaz Sharif, prime ministers of Pakistan at various times constantly harps on anti-India sentiments during their election meetings. Kargil intrusion took place when Pakistan was under democratically elected government so did 1971 Indo-Pak War. But how does generations of Pakistani society hates India? It is because they are taught that way in schools, directly and indirectly.

Curriculum of the schools usually speaks volumes about the mindset society. Effects of anti-Semitic curriculum in Germany during NAZI era are well documented. More recent example of will be curriculum in Saudi Arabia, where it teaches hatred towards practically everyone who is non-Muslim. No wonder, we have Saudi society that actively exports and finances global terrorism network. Coming back to Pakistan, we have similar curriculums in Pakistan. They teach weird form of History where their civilization dates back to Harrapan era but funny thing is that according to them Harrapans were Muslims too! Urdu is ancient that Sanskrit and Pakistan is not part of Indian sub-continent but rather part of Arabian Peninsula. They even petitioned UN to not to consider Pakistan part of Indian sub-continent. For them, barbaric invaders like Aurangzeb, Genghis Khan, and Muhammad Tughlaq etc. are heroes. (Dang! list of these bastard invaders is too long!). Their fetish of considering themselves as Arabian heritage is almost insane. (Even, Persians don’t consider themselves Arabs!) Even though, this region of subcontinent bore brunt of Islamic invasion but they see themselves not as victim but as victors. They feel that they are only legitimate voice of Muslims in sub-continent, which is just ridiculous. Such kind of curriculum and weird ideas sows seeds of superiority complex, which is fine, but that superiority is at the expense of utmost hatred towards India and perhaps towards non-Muslim world. It is easy to see that the terrorist circle that starts from Saudi Arabia ends in Pakistan.

They want to reject their past, their present is messed up and future is bleak. The political class has only one option, to continue their anti-India rhetoric. Such anti-India demagoguery not only diverts society’s attention from more pressing issues but also keeps Army busy. This politics seeped to main stream society through school curriculums. It is just pathetically inane to believe that Pakistani society loves or perhaps, indifferent towards India while Army and political class hate India.

P.S. -: May be, Pakistani don’t think that they love India. It is sheer insanity of Indian intelligentsia to believe that and propagate this putrid idea. Most of the Indian academics and press reporters, editors are communist-leftist. Their brains are highly undernourished and their rancid thinking line makes me wonder about India’s future itself.

I H A B ( I hate Amitabh Bacchan)

In the list of celebrities I hate most, I am adding Mr. Amitabh Bacchan. He worked incessantly in last five years or so to achieve this honor. I love him as an actor. His movies in late 70’s and early 80’s were phenomenal. And interestingly, if he gets good director he can still deliver stupendous performance. Sadly currently, it is almost impossible to find good directors. We celebrate pitiable creatures like Karan Johar as great directors. But issue about directors is a digression here.

The reason behind Amitabh Bacchan getting on my nerves is over exposure. He is virtually present in every Hindi movie. Like an omnipotent god! If he is not acting then he always makes sure that he thrusts his voice as a narrator. No matter who is the director or who are the actors, this guy jumps in any wagon, even if that wagon is destined to crash. Recently I saw him in a movie with this kid of 23. That kid was pathetic in every sense and the movie was of perfect garbage quality and it left me wondering why the hell Mr. Amitabh Bacchan is wasting his hard earned glory and reputation in old age. Not only movies but he is ready to market all kinds of products. He is even advertising Emami, a sun-screen lotion. Hello! you grow beard Mr. Bacchan!

People are considered as wise when turn 60. Instead acting like a wise man and bowing out with high honors, or perhaps, pursuing his livelihood with grace, he is behaving like a child, laying hands on everything. Please Mr. Bacchan, don’t make fool of your self.

Also, how on earth he gets roles on so many movies? This dearth of talent in Hindi movies really worries me. The way Hindi film industry is churning out high quality (that means costly) crap for last five years or so justifies Mr. Bacchans presence in the industry or perhaps, vice versa.

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