An Open Letter to the PM

(written after the Delhi gang-rape braveheart finally succumbed to her injuries on 29th Dec 2012)

Dear Mr Prime Minister,

I wish I could time this open letter to you better; but then shouldn't the timing coincide with the dark shameful truth that we could not save another of our women in the country we call independent and our own?

How I wish the lady who was brutally and beastly raped in a moving bus next to the power corridors of India was your own daughter! How I wish your daughter's chastity was compromised with every time an Indian woman's body and soul was molested and as many times these incidents happened in the country you democratically lead! Yes I'm really really really angry. And trust me Mr Prime Minister, that's as effective as you've been in office, and you must know this especially when you're planning to host the next season of the Pravasi Bharatiya Divas. Sadly, just look at your red face each time I and my fellow countrymen talk about your report card. You don't even just pass; you fail miserably, sir.

Every time you've addressed the nation - although instances like this have been way too rare - you've failed to assure your people of any seriousness or sincerity that your team has in doing even one thing that should positively interest them. How often and how many more times would you be a mere spectator of heinous crimes on our roads and public transports, issue a statement, set up an inquiry committee and hope that we forget about that? I understand India isn't a monarchy and you can't change things on your own; but aren't YOU the administrative custodian of our constitution as the head of the government that runs the country and makes policies to influence the future of the nation? When will we see ACTIONS and not just hollow promises that fall apart every day? Honestly, how long does it take to amend or implement certain laws that for long have been believed to need amendment or implementation? As an educated youth of India, I acknowledge that change doesn't happen overnight, but I also realise if you don't make an immediate attempt to start changing things that need to be changed, the world we live in will only get worse by the day! Is that what we're destined to be led into just because we've been foolish to vote you guys to power? I'm not sure if this letter will ever reach you, but I'm hopeful through strong voices you'll know what the country thinks and expects of you. You should also understand why you're paid for a job you've never been good at!

I end my letter hoping that better sense will prevail and you'll understand you have no business going to work if you know you can't produce expected results. At least show us for one you have the courage to resign!

Sincerely,
An Indian

Thank you Ratan Tata the Man of Steel

Dear Mr Ratan Tata,

If it wasn't for you, we wouldn't have known a businessman who did business not to amass wealth and earn a fortune for himself, but also to create jobs for the masses and make a difference to the way a nation lived.

As you did in your initial years at the helm of the Tata Group, you continued to be in a league of your own till the last day in office. You've lived by values, for passion and with integrity. Only a chosen few could ever possibly emulate your feat not only in the business frontier, but also in all that you've done to the way business is conducted. Not many did and would exhibit the grit and courage that you have way too many times in challenging in the open various government policies, be it corruption or a malfunctioning bureaucracy in the administrative backyard. Your persistence advocacy of clean business administration should become part of academic curricula!

Your contribution in taking the Tata conglomerate into every household in India and many other countries - from steel to software to automobile to what not - shall be considered material for fairytales for a long time to come.

Off the business table, I'd nurture an enduring pictorial memory of you co-piloting an F-18, the Super Hornet, into the skies. You're also probably the most good looking Indian business person. 

I congratulate you for being a 'man of steel' in the true sense!

Sincerely,
A social observer.

Rape in India: the Historic & Social angle

(Written after six men gang-raped a girl on a moving bus in Delhi. The girl is now fighting for her life in a hospital)
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It seemed just the right time to pen my thoughts on why Indian men rape women. In this particular case study, I decipher the historical and social reason of the menace.

There WAS an era in India that epitomised women as goddesses and mothers and there was encouragement for worshiping women. Over the span of many centuries since then, Indian history and the society have been subject to tides of change. Change caused due to invasion by foreign and domestic rulers whose legacy imposed partial - and in some cases - total darkness over the way this country treated philosophy, science and of course women. Some may say these are not related to which my humble submission would be that a society does not evolve unilaterally in one dimension but changes wholesomely. It did happen to us. 

Before long, that golden era turned pre-historic! India was pushed back in the darkness. If you're reasonably well-read, you'd know I'm not talking about the British rule at all! What that did to us - amongst many other things - was to negatively influence our societal attitude towards women. The woman was soon an object of lust and desire. Once again!

She was taught she wasn't equal; she was made to believe she was different and that she had to protect her chastity and sanctity, for men would otherwise prey on her. Even before she understood why she could be hunted for no fault of hers, she knew she had to keep herself deprived of many a sunshine until such time when she possibly could no longer be seen as a potential prey. That didn't do much good to her anyway. Man's unsatisfied hunger to dominate and thus prove supremacy - just because he was created as the stronger of the two - was out in the wild. She was being raped in every household, literally or otherwise. Nobody told her she could protest and ask it to be stopped. Hence it continued!

What we shamefully lost out on is TIME. During the same time, the world had moved much ahead of us; it was so way beyond for us, we couldn't even comprehend what liberation or equality or human-rights could be! We were not even ready to learn from them. In certain parts of the world, women were being seen as peers and colleagues to men. Men started to believe that their women were their better halves in true sense, while for the Indian men, it (ardhangini) was a mere word that sounded poetic and cool.

Then there emerged a new era. An era that offered closer proximity to the developed world, provided access to more advanced societal structures, taught alternate ways of looking at and treating women as a means of wholesome progress. What however did the damage was the big - yes, that was really big - disparity between every two classes and sects and layers in our society. The whole of the society never had the same reality, same level of education or awareness and same maturity to comprehend freedom. The obvious fallout of that layered hierarchical society was that while a certain section gradually embraced and adopted an advanced way of exercising women's rights, the other section of the same society was still living in a world where a woman was meant to never 'expose' anything that could 'entice' a man. The women belonging to the fortunate lot started having what they could call a life, while the unfortunate lot quietly noticed this shift in the socio-economic landscape. What was common in the minds of the men across these lots was the desire to tame who seemed both tough to have as well as vulnerable to assault. Unfortunately, the beastly want to dominate women hasn't improved much even over the last decades, doesn't matter which side of the class divide the man is on. As a result, a 'white' woman even today remains something to be had to the average man of our society. And that extends to any woman irrespective of their skin color, age or background. For the rapist, the act of few minutes is less of a physical adventure and more of a psychological 'victory'. This mentality won't change until such time when men start believing that women are just like them and that the physically weaker section of the society needs to be protected and not preyed on!

There are of course other equally important factors influencing the increasing number of rape cases in India. I'd talk about those in my upcoming articles.

Neil Armstrong, R.I.P.

 (Written on 26 August 2012, after Neil Armstrong passed away at the age of 82)

You had captured the imagination & aspiration of millions of students who ever looked up towards the unknown galaxies and applauded your feat. How during my childhood I wished I could one day become you! Your phenomenal achievement of having walked on the surface of the moon used to immensely inspire me, and I would close my eyes and imagine how you would have felt looking 'down' to the earth from up above! But as I gradually stepped out of my fantasy world, I realized no lesser man could ever come even close to who you were. 

Science shall make steady progress and humans would keep leaving their mark on the face of the moon; but yours will always remain the first ever love story with her :) And we along with her shall remember you for as long as time ticks. Nobody knows how far from the moon your new abode is going to be, but I can promise you'll be missed on the earth!

 

Neil Armstrong, R.I.P. 

We love a few 'relations'

(18 Oct 2006)

As a kid I had learnt “charity begins at home”. And I, like any other kid, was taught to love my parents, my siblings, my neighbors, my relatives. May be because my parents wanted me to realize that charity had to begin at home. May be that was the first step towards developing love for humanity as a whole.

Recently I had a different thought though. In the process of teaching the lesson of charity beginning at home, we fail to help our children love humans as humans. We teach them to love humans as fathers, mothers, brothers, sisters, uncles, aunts. Naturally, the kids grow up with love and affection for a few ‘relations’, and not for human beings.

On my way to office, if I find a man, lying by the side of the road, with an injury on his naked shoulder, I don’t stop my vehicle, to enquire what happened to him; nor do I take him to the hospital. The consoling reason I give to myself is: “He is a stranger, why should I accept this headache?” It’s ridiculous. Even after recognizing a man as a human, I call him a stranger. Could there be a bigger recognition than that he is a human?

We love a few ‘relations’, because we can expect some favors in return. That gives a reason to love. And love dies.

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Love, God and Religion

(19 Oct 2006)

Love is supposed to be the solution for a lot of human problems. By human problems, I mean man-made problems (we can’t stop or solve the problem of a tsunami with love!). It’s strange that love is the most talked about, yet the least practiced form of emotion.

We are waging wars everyday, in the name of love, god and religion. These three are so intensely interlinked, that a little emphasis on god or religion, at the cost of attention to love, would mean more complication, and less peace.

What are we fighting for, by rising to new heights of fanatic recklessness? Every fight is devoid of love, and we claim, we are fighting for a cause, for peace! When was human being more insane? Bloodshed only means, and leads to more bloodshed.

The underlying message of every religion in the world is: love humanity. Rest is all unnecessary. The first step towards loving people is to be sensitive to others. Forget sensitivity, we are up to converting people, and bringing them under the banner of a ‘more-liberal’ religion. Changing religions would only give a new name to the religion that we’ve practiced all our life. Escape is an illusion.

Sensitivity would pave the way for better understanding of people, and of the self. Love will follow. And love is the only way to peace. If we can scale this height, the ritual-centric religions would lose their relevance. When we know how to love people, we do not need any more religion. Love is the religion.

Beginning of the Questionning!

A lot is being spoken about yoga these days. Our so-called celebrities are promoting yoga. The western parts of the world are taking a very keen commercial interest in this product which many do not know was born in India. But I at times wonder if it is more of being 'cool' that is attached to this form of well-being than its original aura.

It seems that the world has suddenly woken up to this natural, no-side-effect lifestyle, helping a host of yoga institutions to spring up around the globe. In the society many believe I live in, it is seen as 'cool' to say, 'I have my yoga class from 6 in the evening today'! But am I overreacting in my refusal to participate in the celebration of the ever-growing popularity of this ancient Indian art? How much of it is real yoga, and how much is spirituality, anyway? I do not know for I've never been to any of those centers!

It may be the chauvinist Indian in me who wants a slice of the recognition from the outside world that yoga was conceived in India. 'What does the West anyway know of spirituality' is the doubt-syndrome some of us suffer from, especially when we see most yoga teachers preaching shades of spirituality along with their yoga lessons. They talk about how one should connect to the inner self in a world where our inner world is constantly being challenged and then invaded by an ever-increasing fear of lack of privacy. Hence the whole understanding of spirituality has gone through twists and spins over the last few decades, and a contemporary way of realizing the same has come into being. An impressive number of people are these days able to relate to this twenty first century form of spirituality. Which is just good!