phenoMENON

When a man does not realize his kinship with the world, he lives in a prison whose walls are alien to him. When he meets the eternal spirit in all objects, then is he emancipated, for then he discovers the fullest significance of the world into which he is born; then he finds himself in perfect truth, and his harmony with all is established. - Rabindranath Tagore, SADHANA   {Posted by me on my blogpost on Tuesday, June 14, 2005}

{Originally published on Friday 27 May 2005} The words tumbled fast and passionately – like the staccato cough of a Kalashnikov, (as seen in Hollywood movies - I have never seen this gun in real life, or it being fired - just love the analogy). “Think of what will happen to you when you die. Who will save you. Who is your savior? You will have no salvation because you don’t believe in the ‘true’ faith. Don’t you fear the searing fire of Hell which will burn you for eternity?” I clicked back a few of the best laughing smiley I could find on my Yahoo Messenger. And typed “In my religion there is no Hell.” Another incident. My friend thinks I am seething in wrath because I have started to feel disconcerted by the constant and incessant debasing of Hindu religious rituals and practices by a section of the media. It has almost become a fashion. So I am not a freethinker. To become a freethinker, what will I have to do? Deny my Gods. The temples. The traditions. ???? Even this justificat...

{Originally posted on 17 July 2007} Every day now, newspaper discuss about wast e disposal problems being faced by Kochi. Household gunk is piling up on street corners. Worried housewives ask their neigbhours apprehensively, “Will the waste remover come today?”. Kochi is not yet Mumbai. It is not even close to Bangaloru. Yet the Kochi Corporation cannot cope with the demands of waste disposal right now. About 250 tonnes of solid waste is generated in Corporation areas daily. Out of this, biodegradable waste is only 10 to 20 tonnes. Imagine what how much it will be 5 years from now. 10 years from now. It is not the incompetence of the people running the Kochi Corporation or their inefficiencies that are the reason for this, as most would point out. It is just indicative of our mindset. We are complacent. We don’t foresee or anticipate change. Our town planners cannot even imagine a solution beyond ‘dumping’ waste as landfills. The problems with dumping solid waste at Bra...

{Originally posted on 8 Dec 2008} In the last 61 years, our political class has been the most mediocre and has let us down. We have seen the quality of our Political Leadership deteriorating and we have reached the limit. Now is the time to change the way we elect our representatives. Here is my suggestion on how we can change our system. 1. Improve the quality of our Political Leadership. Here’s how we can do it: A. The quality of politicians will improve if there is change in the leadership within the political parties. We, as members of political parties, should insist and ensure that there is complete democracy and transparency in our political party. Bringing about In-Party Democracy is the first and foremost way to transform India and bring about a quality leadership from within the existing party ranks. All candidates to regional, state and national elections should be chosen by election from within party ranks. This election should be monitored and verified by th...

{originally published in 11 Dec 2008} We invite tender for global terrorism. If you are a mullah with a sizeable following, getting a steady flow of unaccounted spending money from a sponsor in Saudi Arabia, you are welcome to join as the “handler” of the terrorists. You will also be involved in giving guidance, indoctrination and hate instructions / literature. We are also recruiting ‘foot soldiers’. If you are a suitably brain-dead individuals of the age 15 to 32 you can apply. You’ll be involved in causing death and destruction of your enemies (Actually, our enemy, since we can’t fight our enemy face to face. Though we believe every one of our soldier is equal to 10 of theirs because of our strong belief in our religion and god, our height and wheatish colour of our skin, things have proved otherwise and our enemy’s soldiers gave us a sound beating every single time and we lost all wars with them!). You will be trained in unspecified rural areas. You get the chance to han...

{Originally created and posted on Wednesday, May 25, 2005} How crude, with their antiquated practices and illogical traditions! A constant refrain of the left-leaning jurnos and the obvious secularists / modernists of today. When incidences occur that looks like an affront to progressive, modern thinking one thing is prominent by its absence. The “other” viewpoint. While it is OK to wear a banian with pictures of Lord Ganesha or Shiva, it is an outrage when MF Hussain paints Saraswathi or Durga. But why so? No one really got their view. Or perhaps the trishul wielding folks are not sophisticated enough to articulate their stance with clarity. One reason could perhaps be - they “perceived” such incidences as “deliberate and calculated attempt” at denigration. Why do they do so? Politics is one reason, historical baggage is another. Both cannot be wished away overnight. That’s the plain vanilla. And now, Tina Turner CAN act as Durga. But WHY Tina Turner? Answer – why can’t she? She ca...