Sunday, August 26, 2007

Cowardly act of terrorism

I express my deepest condolences and sympathies to the familes who have lost loved ones in the barbaric and dastardly terrorist attacks in the city of Pearls, Hyderabad. I pray to God Almighty to give solace as the families grieve, and I hope both the State and Central government will nab these cowards.

While some may be apprehensive of venturing out to public places for some time, I am of the opinion, that terrorists seek to create a sense of fear within us all. They want us to watch our step, whenever we are having fun, or whenever we are doing the most mundane things of our lives, like shopping. If we start letting go of what we hold dear, we have effectively lost. Those who seek to create fear win, if we let fear creep into our hearts. If we show courage, resilience, and a sense of brotherhood, the terrorists shall never succeed. Therefore, I say this: I shall visit Gokul Chat, the very next day I arrive in India. That is a promise I make to myself.

I hope all leaders of the world unanimously condemn this incident, and I pray that Hyderabad, returns to its usual Hyderabadi attitude very soon.

Jai Hind

Tuesday, August 14, 2007

60th Anniversary of Indian Independence

Namaste,

On this the 60th anniversary of Indian Independence, please accept my warmest greetings.

On 12 March 1930, at the Sabarmati Ashram in Gujarat, 79 men went for a walk. For 23 days they marched, covering four districts, 48 villages, and 400 kilometres. On the way they picked up thousands of other ordinary people, animated by a cause so much bigger than themselves. Then, on 6 April, by the sea at the coastal village of Dandi, a thin, bald elderly figure picked up a handful of salty earth and said, "With this, I am shaking the foundations of the British Empire." That man, was M.K.Gandhi, attorney-at-law.

The empire shook alright. The purpose of Gandhi's march was to protest the oppressive and unfair salt tax, and across the country people joined the battle. They made their own salt. They bought illegal salt. That year, 60,000 Indians were arrested during these protests. The Salt Law was not repealed. And yet, "the first stage in ... the final struggle of freedom," as Gandhi described it, had made an impact.

The effect of this impact was made clear on August 15th 1947, when Pt. Jawaharlal Nehru, stood on top of India's symbolism of freedom, the Red Fort and uttered those immortal lines "At the stroke of the midnight hour, when the world sleeps, India shall awake to a life and freedom".

The story of our freedom struggle is not just encompassed by a Gandhi or a Nehru. It consists of millions of people like, Shaheed Bhagat Singh, Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose, Ramprasad Bismil, Sukhdev, Rajguru, Chandrashekhar Azad, Sarojini Naidu, Kasturbha Gandhi. We as children have continuously been told tales, on the great achievements of our freedom fighters, tales that literally send shivers down our spine. Many a time I ask myself, what would force these people to give up their comforts, and enter into police records as terrorists, as they were known in their time. Well the answer is they fought, because they wanted to be the masters of their own destiny. They wanted to be the architects of India's rise. They wanted to bask in its successes, and accept responsibilities for the nation's failures. To that end, we are eternally indebted to them.

Let us ask ourselves, where have we come in the past 60 years? If we were travel back in time, and pick up a few freedom fighters, bring them back to the present, what would they think? Would they be proud of what they fought for? Or, would they go off on another walk?

India, and we as Indians have made tremendous leaps, over the past 60 years. Some of those leaps have been into the future, and sadly some have been backwards. Per-capita, we produce more millionaires than anywhere else in the world. However, we are also home to the largest slum in Asia. Our institutions of excellence, the IITs, IIMs, BITS are now more than just colleges, they are brand names. On the other hand, we have the world largest number of illiterates. Our economic boom in the recent 17 years is there for everyone to see. We are the fastest growing democratic nation on earth. However, we are consistently ranked in the lower half of the UN Development Index.

For far too long now, we have been stripped of our economic freedom, and our personal freedoms, yet we have barely resisted. In some parts of the country, we treat our own brethren worse than the British Raj. Yet inspite of this, we routinely do not protest. We just blame the government, as if they descended from the sky. Remember, we voted these governments to power, and we are just as much to blame for it. In our 60 years, we have achieved a lot, yet we have made many mistakes. Indeed some may say we are playing catch-up. I agree. 43 years of misguided economic policy cannot be fixed in 17 years of relative economic freedom. Likewise, decades of draconian limits on freedom of expression, cannot be fixed in a short term. Long term solutions are needed. A vibrant leadership is needed. Swami Vivekananda once said "Give me 100 young men and I will change the face of this nation". For the sake of reality let's put that figure to 10 million in current terms. Can we find 10 million such men? Are we willing to sacrifice, if the we once again want to be the masters of our own destiny? Can we fight for a cause so much bigger than ourselves? These questions must be answered by our own minds and hearts, and then we must do what we must, to paraphrase Qui Gon Jinn from Star Wars episode 1

In finishing, India stands on the verge of a rare moment in history. As we begin our 61st year of independence, let us remind ourselves that we have around 250-300 million people between the ages of 15-35. That includes, many of you as well. This population is more than ten times the entire population of Australia and comparable with the population of the United States. Which power on earth can stop us if we all decide to achieve to the best of our abilities? Why can't we as Gurukanth Desai says "Reach the top"? We can get rid of the tag of "developing nation" and replace it with the words of "developed superpower".

President John F Kennedy once remarked "Ask not what your country can do for you, but what you can do for your country". That is precisely what I intend to do.

Jai Hind!!


Thursday, August 09, 2007

An introspective question

Around about 5:30 this evening, I was accosted by a colleague and as we were chatting, I asked him if he was going to an event on Friday night here in Adelaide, known as Dum Maro Dum, a party event. My friend said no (and many other things but I shall not post them here), and told me of another event, along the same lines as Dum Maro Dum, which in his words, was supposedly better. After telling him politely, that I wouldn't attend, my colleague somehow insinuated that one of the reasons for my non-attendance, is that I would not be allowed to attend.

This set me thinking. Is this how my peers think of me not attending a nightclubbing event? As a 21 year old, am I obligated to routinely go out and party? Must I genuinely stay out late at night? Are these rules codified somewhere, whereby I can refer to what I must do at a particular age? While thinking, I realised, if I am indeed not following 'the trend', then I am in effect, rebelling. Thus, by not following a trend that youth follow, I am subconsciously following Rule No.1 in the teenagers' handbook "Be a Rebel". However, I don't know if this actually applicable. I think not, however it did sound like a good point at the time.

Rather than now bore myself, with philosophical arguments of my actions being rebellion against rebellion itself, I boarded the bus home for a quiet journey. However, I could not get the question/insinuation out of my head. I felt that this needed to be answered in more ways than one. Moreover, I needed to make this answer public, as this would affect how my peers perceive me. If they honestly thought that I do not go out because my parents do not allow me, then their perception is wrong, and I must correct this immediately.

Firstly, I have never been banned from going out to a nightclub. It is a subject I do not often broach about to my parents, and even when I do, I have always been given what my colleague calls "permission". Therefore my parents' permission or the alleged lack thereof is not even a factor in me not attending DMD and similar programs.

Let's pursue another track. Rather than establishing why I do not need to go nightclubbing, it would be better if I looked at the purposes served by nightclubbing and then analysing if these purposes can be served by not nightclubbing, and whether I need these purposes to be served in the first place.

When I asked several of my friends why they went clubbing, some answers were:
1. To have fun.
2. To get drunk.
3. To intimately interact with people (of the opposite sex).

I do not believe that in order to have fun, I must visit a club. As a 21 year old, I have my own ways of deriving happiness, a by-product of having fun. I am involved in many associations, clubs and societies and organising functions, as well as participating in such functions, give me immense happiness. I do not feel that partying in a night club will allow me to have as much fun as I would have when I would be pursuing other activities. If that is the case, I have no need to go clubbing on a regular basis, and therefore I don't.

My response to reasons 2 and 3 are going to be the same and hence I have grouped them together. The response of this comes from my value set, and since this is a question about why I
do not go out, I believe that my reliance on my set of values is more pertinent here than above. I do not drink, due to a combination of my own choices and my religious beliefs. My choices and religious beliefs are my private opinions and as far as I know, I have never let these beliefs be imposed on others. Furthermore, I do not believe in that drinking will allow me to get ahead, or positively influence my career in anyway. Thus, from a practical and a personal level, I do not drink, and I do not want to drink, and thus, I do not want to go clubbing for this purpose.

I will use a similar (and shorter) response to reason 3. Once again, my values, and religious beliefs combine to mean that I do not wish to intimately interact with people of the opposite sex. If this somehow implies that I am gay, then I cannot change others' opinions just as they cannot change mine. Moreover, if reason 3 is directly linked to reason 2, I believe that is a betrayal of trust when people are intimate with those who are not in their senses. Thus, based on this reason alone, I do not believe I need to go clubbing.

Finally, I'll take your indulgence about one more reason. In my previous lines above, I had used an objective method, into why I didn't go into a nightclub. I shall now propose a subjective reason. The way I view myself, i.e. in my self-perception I do not want to go out clubbing. And in the end, I think that is all that matters.

I think that's enough introspection for one night

PS: Sorry for the word length.

Sunday, August 05, 2007

An interesting co-incidence?

Why is it that after a function organised by the telugu community, most of the members attending the function, are seen in the Hindu temple the next day?

Is it just a co-incidence, or is it a case of "Father, forgive us for we have sinned" type of visit?