There's been a lot of acclaim for India's 'neutral' and resilient stand on the aftermath of Mumbai terror attacks. Much credit has been given to the government for blaming the elements in Pakistan and not the Pakistan government or army as such. Without knowing the actual facts, it's very hard to surmise what exactly is going on at the diplomatic level. What's the international pressure doing to India ? Or rather, how India is using all it's diplomatic arsenal to bring the perpetrators of terror to justice. Amidst all these, one thing is very clear. The belief that the terror attacks would lead to a war has been falsified. No country wants war. War would be devastating to the growing Indian economy. It might not do a great deal of damage to Pakistan but it'll hurt India real bad. So will the terrorists be brought to justice ?
For an individual like me, a common man - that's pure speculation. Will Pakistan extradite the terrorists ? Is ISI really behind all the terrorist camps ? Will the US pressure Pakistan to bring justice, and will Pakistan relent to that pressure ? Do the Chinese have any role in this ? Is China using Pakistan as a terror proxy to curb India's economic growth ? So it's total speculation. To media adds to this curiosity with biased reports.Moreover, for someone who is thousands of miles away, without access to the print media - getting the detailed information is pretty hard. What baffles me is that - how Pakistan is able to deny the role of the terrorists in the attacks - in spite of hardcore documented evidence being provided ?
As a side note - it was a great pleasure to see both the hotels, that were the targets of the terror attacks opening to the public within such a short time. Kudos to the management and staff. Kudos to also the people who went and stayed there - and especially those people who did it just to prove to the terrorists that their motives will never be fulfilled. The tourism or the hospitality industry will not bow down to the elements of terror.
While it's sad that hundreds of innocent lives were lost, it's even sadder that India is not able to do bring about justice to the perpetrators. If history reminds us, the terrorist attacks on Indian soil have only been growing in number and the degree of devastation. First it was restricted to the Kashmir valley, then there were attacks in Delhi, then Mumbai and then Bangalore and so no one knows where these terrorists will strike in the future. Sometimes it feels, it's better to go for an all out war and crush the source of terrorism in the mountains of POK.
Sunday, December 28, 2008
Sunday, December 07, 2008
Exploitation in India
For a long time, I've been pondering about the social aspects of life in India and trying to find out what probably is the key to most of the miseries in the sub continent. I think it all comes down to exploitation. From the roots of corruption to the mass religious conversions, it's exploitation all the way. What could be the cause of this deep rooted exploitation, needs to be found out. The very basic tenet of an Indian is to exploit I guess. May be it's the population density that has given rise to this character, but in every facet of the social life, exploitation stands tall, of course to the watchful eye. What got me into this mode of thinking was this revealing fact :
"beggars drug kids, put them to sleep and use them as begging baits".
This process of drugging the kids is a well established chain of exploitations. A homeless couple has a kid - whom they can't feed. A beggar exploits this by 'renting' the kid for a certain sum of money every day. The parents won't ask any reasons - they just take the money and hand over the kid. The beggar then goes to a fake doctor who exploits the beggar by taking a portion of that money for putting the kid to sleep by giving an intravenous injection of some sort. The beggar then uses the kid for begging - as the kid sleeps all day.
What startled me was that this process is a well established one. I mean, everyone knows about it and just shows a blind eye ? In a society, where even a kid's life is not valued for and at least taken into consideration - I fail to understand how 'macro policies' that affect other realms of life and society will be valued. Macro policies such as right to education, environment awareness, political stability etc - these have absolutely no value at the grass roots.
For all the 'emerging economy' glory, one has to look deeper into the Indian society and to see that is filled with this cruel exploitation. Truly saddening.
"beggars drug kids, put them to sleep and use them as begging baits".
This process of drugging the kids is a well established chain of exploitations. A homeless couple has a kid - whom they can't feed. A beggar exploits this by 'renting' the kid for a certain sum of money every day. The parents won't ask any reasons - they just take the money and hand over the kid. The beggar then goes to a fake doctor who exploits the beggar by taking a portion of that money for putting the kid to sleep by giving an intravenous injection of some sort. The beggar then uses the kid for begging - as the kid sleeps all day.
What startled me was that this process is a well established one. I mean, everyone knows about it and just shows a blind eye ? In a society, where even a kid's life is not valued for and at least taken into consideration - I fail to understand how 'macro policies' that affect other realms of life and society will be valued. Macro policies such as right to education, environment awareness, political stability etc - these have absolutely no value at the grass roots.
For all the 'emerging economy' glory, one has to look deeper into the Indian society and to see that is filled with this cruel exploitation. Truly saddening.
Thursday, November 20, 2008
Capitalism, as we see today
The recent stock market crash, housing bust and the never ending credit crunch have put capitalism in a whole new paradigm. To echo Micheal Moore's words "The capitalism, as we knew of, which didn't care about the world or it's people has finally ended". I would take a step back and say it's finally going to end. What started as a disaster in the financial industry is trickling down to every facet of human society, from autos to even technology industries - that were thought to weather this storm.
In my opinion, the fundamentals of the capitalistic business models have been put to test during the past few months. What could have been a major one time disaster has instead trickled down slowly, in spite of major attempts by the industry to avoid this mishap. The impact of the past few months has it's roots in several key decisions that were taken way back - when we may never know. This impact is definitely not because of a 'few lame' decisions or 'tactics'. I'd be hard pressed to believe that all of the best and the brightest minds in the industry succumbed to these decisions or tactics.
The very fact that the industry is standing in front of the government with folded hands begging for help - has no doubt questioned the premise of capitalism and it's success so far. Whether the government bails out the industries or not, I'm left to wonder - are we truly evolving ? I civilization such as the Mayan civilization lasted thousands of years, and here we are struggling with just 200 years of "modern capitalism".
In my opinion, the fundamentals of the capitalistic business models have been put to test during the past few months. What could have been a major one time disaster has instead trickled down slowly, in spite of major attempts by the industry to avoid this mishap. The impact of the past few months has it's roots in several key decisions that were taken way back - when we may never know. This impact is definitely not because of a 'few lame' decisions or 'tactics'. I'd be hard pressed to believe that all of the best and the brightest minds in the industry succumbed to these decisions or tactics.
The very fact that the industry is standing in front of the government with folded hands begging for help - has no doubt questioned the premise of capitalism and it's success so far. Whether the government bails out the industries or not, I'm left to wonder - are we truly evolving ? I civilization such as the Mayan civilization lasted thousands of years, and here we are struggling with just 200 years of "modern capitalism".
Saturday, November 08, 2008
My culture, my language
This thought hit me as I was conversing with a few 'Indian' kids here in Folsom. Incidentally we, I mean the kids and I spoke the same language, Kannada. It was during the interaction that it occurred to me that these kids could only understand the language but not speak the same. That hit me and hit me hard. I cannot imagine knowing a language and not being able to speak it. Sanskrit is one such language that I can relate to. I can understand the script but I can neither converse nor make out other conversations.
What hit me was the realization that I was no better than those kids. Growing up in a foreign land they were unable to speak Kannada but I who had spent all my growing years in Karnataka was unable to write one full sentence in Kannada without using any English words. I was shell shocked at my failure. The language I grew up speaking, writing and conversing had lost me or to stop the naivete, I can say I had failed Kannada, my language.
I started looking into the history of Kannada and that's when I realized I had lost the culture too. A language and it's culture are so intertwined it would be foolish to claim the language knowledge without that of it's culture. Am not talking about superficial knowledge here. By knowledge I mean, understanding the semantics of the language, not just the syntax. It did hurt me to feel that I had lost something which until this conversation with the kids, I had not even realized were mine.
I was of the opinion that communication is what matters and language was just a means of communication ( visual means being the other ). How wrong was I. Language is much more than means of communication - what is that 'more' is not quantifiable ( at least not by me ) but there is an emotion in Kannada that I feel for. The same emotion echoes in my culture as well.
Ever since I realized this 'loss', I'm making an attempt to regain at least some of what I have lost and I hope I'll be successful.
What hit me was the realization that I was no better than those kids. Growing up in a foreign land they were unable to speak Kannada but I who had spent all my growing years in Karnataka was unable to write one full sentence in Kannada without using any English words. I was shell shocked at my failure. The language I grew up speaking, writing and conversing had lost me or to stop the naivete, I can say I had failed Kannada, my language.
I started looking into the history of Kannada and that's when I realized I had lost the culture too. A language and it's culture are so intertwined it would be foolish to claim the language knowledge without that of it's culture. Am not talking about superficial knowledge here. By knowledge I mean, understanding the semantics of the language, not just the syntax. It did hurt me to feel that I had lost something which until this conversation with the kids, I had not even realized were mine.
I was of the opinion that communication is what matters and language was just a means of communication ( visual means being the other ). How wrong was I. Language is much more than means of communication - what is that 'more' is not quantifiable ( at least not by me ) but there is an emotion in Kannada that I feel for. The same emotion echoes in my culture as well.
Ever since I realized this 'loss', I'm making an attempt to regain at least some of what I have lost and I hope I'll be successful.
Monday, October 27, 2008
How to keep the brain alive
I don't mean literally. Never the less, how to keep the brain stimulated ? Before the how, let's delve to the question of 'why'. Why does one need to keep the brain stimulated. The answer is - we have a brain that is highly under utilized and in every one's best interests, the brain power, so called has to be utilized to the maximum potential. Not utilizing brain power is analogous to investing a few hundred thousands in a Lamborghini and drive the car at 20 mph. It doesn't hurt to do so, but it's not of any good either.
Everyone is aware of this fact. It shouldn't come as a surprise that, on an average we harness less than 10% of our brain power. I'm speaking about the average person here, not the crafty painter, the savvy investment banker or the psychology professor at Johns Hopkins. What got me into this thinking was my own lifestyle. I realized over a period of time how passive my lifestyle had become. To quote, during my high school days, I was a top achiever in almost every aspect and correspondingly my mind stayed very active. After high school - over a period of 10 years I can't seem to recollect many instances which stimulated my thinking and let me out of the box. There were such instances but not many. It's in my best interest to regain the activity level of those high school years, simply because a sedentary brain makes one more sedentary and the realization that I have a Lamborghini sitting idle in my garage, doing those occasional 20 mph runs. How to achieve that and what does this change in thinking translate to day to day living:
1. Giving up on Television - the most passive and mindless activity on this planet, period. I was never a fan of television mostly because of the commercials, but the more I kept 'surfing' the channels, the more mindless the activity became.
2. Giving up on movies - Movies of all kinds are mostly passive entertainment with the exception of a few.
3. Giving up on alcohol - This might seem a little crazy but I think drinking leads to an overall malnourished brain. An occasional drink should still be fine but regular partying surely eats up the brain cells.
4. Taking up reading : Not just the Fredrick Forsyth and the Jeffrey Archer thrillers - but the more stimulating ones - like Shantaram.
5. Taking up on certain video games - Not the ones where you have to kill all the time.
6. Waking up early - It's not a joke , 4 AM to 6 AM is the time the brain is most active. Hindus called it "Brahma Muhurta" for this reason.
7. Exercise - Again this does not translate to 45 minutes of muscle tearing bench presses and barbell workouts. A 15 minute jog would suffice.
8. Yoga and meditation: I'm still in the process of getting into Yoga but eventually Yoga will be the answer to keep the mind totally active.
It's true, not all minds think alike, but certainly the superiority of one mind over the other is just contextual. In today's ever competing world, it sure pays off to own a Lamborghini but the payoffs vanish the moment one hits the tarmac and drives the lamb at 20 mph. The extra boost has to be unlocked and the same is true holds true for the human brain as well.
Everyone is aware of this fact. It shouldn't come as a surprise that, on an average we harness less than 10% of our brain power. I'm speaking about the average person here, not the crafty painter, the savvy investment banker or the psychology professor at Johns Hopkins. What got me into this thinking was my own lifestyle. I realized over a period of time how passive my lifestyle had become. To quote, during my high school days, I was a top achiever in almost every aspect and correspondingly my mind stayed very active. After high school - over a period of 10 years I can't seem to recollect many instances which stimulated my thinking and let me out of the box. There were such instances but not many. It's in my best interest to regain the activity level of those high school years, simply because a sedentary brain makes one more sedentary and the realization that I have a Lamborghini sitting idle in my garage, doing those occasional 20 mph runs. How to achieve that and what does this change in thinking translate to day to day living:
1. Giving up on Television - the most passive and mindless activity on this planet, period. I was never a fan of television mostly because of the commercials, but the more I kept 'surfing' the channels, the more mindless the activity became.
2. Giving up on movies - Movies of all kinds are mostly passive entertainment with the exception of a few.
3. Giving up on alcohol - This might seem a little crazy but I think drinking leads to an overall malnourished brain. An occasional drink should still be fine but regular partying surely eats up the brain cells.
4. Taking up reading : Not just the Fredrick Forsyth and the Jeffrey Archer thrillers - but the more stimulating ones - like Shantaram.
5. Taking up on certain video games - Not the ones where you have to kill all the time.
6. Waking up early - It's not a joke , 4 AM to 6 AM is the time the brain is most active. Hindus called it "Brahma Muhurta" for this reason.
7. Exercise - Again this does not translate to 45 minutes of muscle tearing bench presses and barbell workouts. A 15 minute jog would suffice.
8. Yoga and meditation: I'm still in the process of getting into Yoga but eventually Yoga will be the answer to keep the mind totally active.
It's true, not all minds think alike, but certainly the superiority of one mind over the other is just contextual. In today's ever competing world, it sure pays off to own a Lamborghini but the payoffs vanish the moment one hits the tarmac and drives the lamb at 20 mph. The extra boost has to be unlocked and the same is true holds true for the human brain as well.
Sunday, October 26, 2008
Back to writing
It has been nearly 2 years since this blog was updated. During this time frame, I created several 'other' blogs (notably on travel and photography) in an attempt to diversify and after a few months or days of starting, I lost touch with the subject and hence could not continue writing. Another reason can also be attributed to laziness and my association with the not so intelligent community. This association kept me brain lazy and idle and I just could not write. The only writing I did was writing emails to my friend as she would insist that I write to her every day :).
I took some time to analyze what kept me away from writing and why did I start these different blogs and not write in them continuously. The reasons are quite candid. When I started writing this blog, about 4-5 years back, I started it for the sheer joy of writing and for sharing my thoughts and I lost that joy of writing. The 'other' blogs were started merely for the purpose of starting and writing about something that I neither wholly enjoyed nor wholly felt like. The quest for perfection, also didn't help me in continuing blogging on these other blogs.
In the past week, after having analyzed all of these, it did occur to me to get back to writing on this blog. It's something that I had always loved and there are all these new 'topics' to write about and share my thoughts. More over I'm reading some interesting books like "Guns, germs and Steel" which are provoking new thoughts and giving new dimensions to existing thoughts. So I'll keep writing hopefully .. until the next wave of boredom hits me and takes me away from writing.
I took some time to analyze what kept me away from writing and why did I start these different blogs and not write in them continuously. The reasons are quite candid. When I started writing this blog, about 4-5 years back, I started it for the sheer joy of writing and for sharing my thoughts and I lost that joy of writing. The 'other' blogs were started merely for the purpose of starting and writing about something that I neither wholly enjoyed nor wholly felt like. The quest for perfection, also didn't help me in continuing blogging on these other blogs.
In the past week, after having analyzed all of these, it did occur to me to get back to writing on this blog. It's something that I had always loved and there are all these new 'topics' to write about and share my thoughts. More over I'm reading some interesting books like "Guns, germs and Steel" which are provoking new thoughts and giving new dimensions to existing thoughts. So I'll keep writing hopefully .. until the next wave of boredom hits me and takes me away from writing.
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