Secularism!

Strange week indeed.. I started off the week by reading an article in 'The Hindu' about the Kashmir elections. One person from a town had subscribed to something called "Islamic law" for them where people follow the tenets of the Koran. To explain what it is all about, he goes on to say "Men have beards, Women wear the burqa"..

Yesterday, while I was walking out of the temple, we had some women approaching us and telling us to join some function - some foundation for establishing 'Ram Rajya' in India. I did not stand long enough to ask what that entails :-/, Did Lord Ram specify how to lead a country in times of the poverty, illiteracy, terrorism and computers?

I believe both ideas are trivializing the issue and closing your eyes to the reality. This is the land of each and every person irrespective of religion and
you cannot ask somebody of the other religion to just go. Where will anybody go? Jump into the Indian Ocean :-/. India's biggest hope and strength shall remain to be secularism and democracy.

I think its high time schools started teaching children the virtues of secularism and tolerance.That would, perhaps in the long term avoid such incorrect dogmas! But... unfortunately, the bigger issue in our education system is not what it is being taught.. but bringing in people to be taught. :(

B

The little forgotten heroes

I couldn't resist posting this article - Brave constables

It talks about the brave policemen who managed to do the "impossible", if I could say that..Its these people's contribution that we need to be talking more about.

With my maternal family based out of Bombay, we visited the city on an annual basis during my growing years. All through these years, I never knew there existed a "Taj mahal" hotel against the backdrop of the Gateway of India. But one place, I indeed do know about is the VT or the CST station.  We boarded long distance trains to Chennai from this very station or from the Dadar station. Like the city itself, I remember the place as crowded with scores of trains and passengers present all the time. I dread to think what would have happened if the man with the microphone who announces the arrival/departure of trains on a daily basis had not had the presense of mind to warn the other passengers present in the station to move out using the back gate. I believe this truly signifies the "Mumbai spirit" more than anything else - A common man with the presence of mind and the will to help out others. 

Its these men that we need to be proud of in life. In their life, with meagre means, they still end up thinking for the community. Wish more of us were like this..

B

Change coming to India?

I did not walk the rally to Gateway of India in Mumbai. I did not walk the rally in Cubbon Park in Bangalore. All I did was to light a small candle in my balcony. But something tells me, this time its different.. is change coming to India?

I don't know what will happen tomorrow. Will all go back to their own lives and fight their everyday battles..., maybe they will.. but I still think we will make a difference.

So, candles to a "changing" India! Lets usher in a new era..

Anguish

Its ironic that my last post talks about "Unsung heroes".. the last two days of Mumbai terror seem to be a grim reminder of my pledge to pray for them... I am devastated and there seems to be a feeling of helplessness and strangely.. I doubt I am the only one feeling so..

I can't fathom why a man would want to kill others so mercilessly and then kill himself. I can't fathom why the intelligence did not have any inkling of such an attack and was caught so unaware..initially, they did not even know how armed the terrorists were and lost their senior officers. I can't fathom why the leadership which thought "long term" on the nuclear deal did not think so for dealing with terrorism..and most importantly, I can't fathom why we Indians have are so clueless, helpless when we hear such stuff..

And I am tired of the news channels.. I am sure there are other good/bad things happening in the country - lets discuss them as well.. The media with its complete focus on the attacks seem to be doing more harm than any good.. its quite likely the terrorists will get information on the commando operation from these channels. Last night, I saw a panel in CNN-IBN telling how the police system is not prepared for such attacks and how the policemen were not wearing the bullet proof properly.. Oh yeah, they were going to do a cat walk and they should have properly called you for guidance on wearing it.. A bit of common sense in these so-called panels would have helped.. the least you can do in a situation is to support these people rather than find a reason to criticise! I guess I must be void of common sense too.. I watched this nonsense for sometime.. long enough to feel disgusted. And far worse, is the "calls" made by some "so-called" terrorists to India TV! Gimme a break... we are talking about lives here, not damn TRP's.

Last, I pray for the families of the men who died fighting for us, pray for the men who are injured and wish them a speedy recovery, pray for the numerous innocent people who have died or injured.. God.. bestow us all with strength..

B

Unsung Heroes

Today, I was watching the Hindi movie "Lakshya" on TV and suddenly I realised something and was moved to tears..

Death in the family is by far the most distressing and painful thing any person can go through..the pain is unimaginable and that feeling of helplessness when you know you can do nothing to alleviate the pain is very difficult to handle...

The movie talks about the soldiers of the country and how they give their lives to fight the enemy..These people too have families who love them a lot and how distressing it must be for them to lose their sons/husbands in the battle.. We often come across articles in the newspaper talking of some ambush and that 4 or 5 soldies have lost their life. It has become like a statistic.. we read and move on, not for a moment do we think that 5 families have lost their member... 

I think the least I can do is next time I read/hear something like this, I sit and pray for these people, their families, their battalion or task force asking God to bestow them with strength to deal with the loss..

B

Let go

I seriously need a crash course on how to give titles to my "posts". Off late, some of the titles I have given are way awful.. and I believe this one is too..! :(

Anyway, thanks to the new Tata connection at home, the movie I have managed to catch in bits and pieces( on Doordarshan no less!) in the last few days is "Guru", directed by Maniratnam. Its a nice movie with brilliant screenplay and music.. But it made me curious to go and read up a bit about the Dhirubhai Ambani and I found this beautiful quote of his,

"Our dreams have to be bigger. Our ambitions higher. Our commitment deeper. And our efforts greater. This is my dream for Reliance and for India." 

I believe this is a very meaningful sentence and something we should follow all our lives. I often "restrict" myself thinking of some existant or non-existant constraints.. what will people think if I do this etc? Who cares! How much do we care about what Mr.X or Ms.Y is doing? And why would they be any different, why will they think about what I am going to do.. Why should I stop myself from thinking big..

This reminds of an incident in my life. In the first six months of my job, we went on a Team Building workshop for 2 days at ICRISAT. The instructor was a doctor, a pyschiatrist.. if I remember right. The group of people were split into two groups and for one exercise, my group had to wait outside while the other group completed its task. While we were filing out, the Dr came to the door and called me.. And then he said... "Don't hold yourself.. you are good in what you are doing... Let go!". Immediately, I went on the defensive and said.. "No No.., I am not.. blah blah blah"! He heard me out, smiled and went back. Now, I think he was right.. I probably restrict myself a bit.. and its time to "Let go" and  not worry too much about the consequences.. I am not that dumb also :|

So, its time to let go, dream big and work harder on it ! :)

Incidentally, this has been a distressing week as such. Two people on whom I had invested quite a bit of my energy and effort quit.. at the same time! They insist its not intentional or planned for them to be going at the same time.. and I tend to believe it. Anyway, it means I have to chart a new beginning with new folks anytime soon.. Hopefully, I am more prepared this time round and I don't commit the same mistakes I did the last time ;)

Thats about it.. Again "Let go" is my new mantra! 

B

Fear - Is it this?

I heard this about a person I have met... Apparantly the woman is being stalked by a guy for close to 5 years. I don't know too many of the details, but the girl and her family have been unable to do much .. I don't know how true this story is or should I believe it at all in the first place... but what got me thinking is how ignorant I am as a person to deal with something like this.

I imagined myself to be in a similar situation and wondered how I should deal with it and drew well.. a blank :(. We make claims about going to the police or to a lawyer, but how much do we trust them and how does law deal with such situations. There is no tangible evidence available in this case, just a fear pyschosis ....

This led me to think that we know so little of the law of the country. A silly tamil movie "Tamizhan" talked about this and I found it laughable and silly :(. But the point it raised is quite true and relevant - we must know our Indian civil law at a basic level. How many of us know what needs to be done to deal with things like this? Whom should we approach and at what point?

I read a book by John Grisham - the Rainmaker. Here, a black couple lose their son because the insurance company refuses to pay up for the bone marrow treatment that the kid requires. In the course of the courtroom battle, we realise that the insurance company rejects claims over a certain amount all the time primarily because they are convinced the poor claimants(the black couple here) would never approach a lawyer. We are no better ... We don't know our rights, we don't know whom to approach and we certainly don't know how to deal with it.

I read somewhere that US is a developed country where the citizens run to the courtroom for everything.. We may be there in another 40 years time, but till then the current generation must and should learn about our rights and the law.. Any suggestions on how to do it is most welcome..

B