Identity we carry - a deeper look

Have u ever wondered about the fact that people who are either traditionally bound or are highly intellectual often cling more to their identity than people who r moderately educated like us. By Identity here I mean how we define ourselves in this society. For eg - My prime identity is of an Indian but for a RSS member its hindu or for Raj Thackrey its marathi. Religion, region, language, caste, nation anything can form ones identity and at the same time people carry multiple identities and use suitable identity from their kitty according to their interest and needs.

Point is we often feel that being possessive about identity is a parochial trait and with education and exposure to modernity, this trait eventually would die out. Taking ourselves as an example - most of us are least bothered which religion we follow and what region do we belong to. But on the other hand, there is another group considered as highly educated which paradoxically to our thought and similar to traditionalist cling to their identities. Jews in Israel considered most educated is a prime example. Indian diaspora in US, Scottish Irish sub nationalism consciousness in Britain are other examples.

So questions are - 1) Why are some people possessive about their identities and 2) Could modernity and education replace this identity conscience.

Identity gives man a measure by which he differentiates himself from others. Its gives the much essential spice in life and reason to live. Modernity with it has brought a culture of Mcdonalisation which has resulted in expansion of uniformity across boards. Today Middle class across world eat speak dress in a similar fashion. Thus diluting our unique identities, resulting in identity crisis. Man without identity today feels rootless and lonely. This identity loss has resulted in outlash against modernity, some of the manifestation of which are moral policing, khap panchayats, marathi and north east sub national consciousness. And also fundamentalism which is a product of modern times and was not existent traditionally.

Coming back to the point - identity comes natural to man and has nothing to do with tradition and modernity. We, the middle class, are temporally blinded by modernity and must wake up and understand the more deeper reasons behind the so called wrongs of our society. Or else ironically we the educated ones will continue to remain the most ignorant. As for struggle for identity (which has often turned violent) is reaction to forceful exposure of man to modernity and it would help on our part to be much more sensitive to others identity.

Why religion is good ?

How we , bearers of the next generations, condemn religion ! What is religion ? Religion, though many, followed by still more many, is in essence, a set of beliefs institutionalized by some structure, may it be a temple, a church or a mosque. Irony is, on one hand, we are taught about our value system by one part of our society - our culture, family and religion, its the other part of the same society - our educational system which teaches us to question it. And we chose to believe the latter. Alas! we miss the essence of religion, a structure of society that has endured for centuries.

How our parents after performing a ritual (which may seem infinitely absurd to our rational mind) seem more content? How hope is kindled once again in a dejected, depressed heart of a man disheartened by repetitive failures, by some illogical commentary of a priest ? How a mind troubled by uncertainty is again brought to peace by seemingly wisdom words of religion ?

The essence of religion is not its manifest function which are visible to eyes. Its not the salvation or the sacrifice or the nirvana. But its the latent functions which we, the rational ones, become blind to. Science, though has made us rational, also has made us blind to things which are invisible to eyes.

So what are these latent functions. Let me show you how these function are exercised in disguise in our daily lives.

Picture a high on drama ritual going on. Obviously its being attended by many. While this ritual is going on, man whose faith is reasserted into god and religion, unknowingly comes closer to those having the same belief. Unknowingly many are united under the same umbrella - the common faith; a unity which gives rise to solidarity necessary for our society to survive. Though this apparent, seemingly naive truth, may seem simple to you, rattle your mind to find any other such potent tool to unite man with such ease. Aaah ! you c ! Its not the visible goal of the ritual thats important, its the disguised unity which is the achievement. Religions across world, though different, impart common beliefs in their flock, which unites them.

Lets take another scenario - a man who is troubled by repetitive failures, failure even after he is worked so hard, tried his best, becomes hopeless. Hope is reignited in his heart by few words of religious wisdom like the ones in Gita. These preachings though irrational gives man courage to once again stand and fight. No science can achieve this feat. U c now! its not the preachings that are imp, its the impact they have on man thats imp. Preachings vary from religion to religion but their objective remains the same - to give man courage to fight once more.

Our lives are full of uncertainties. You know whats the main reason for man's sadness, its these uncertainties over which man has no control. Quest for answers to these uncertainties makes man restless, his peace his lost. Religion, through its absurd reasons, gives him closure, peace. Again its not the reason which are important, its the closure which is its miracle.

Religions are many in this world. They have different preachings, interpreted yet differently by many. But the objectives, the latent functions are same for all of them. U c, y religion came to be in the first place. They were not for some salvation, they were made to keep man safe, content, away from war, in peace with his brothers, in short a more happy man. Tools it used may have been absurd but they were done to make man a more happy man. After all! Its the same reason we developed science, to make our lives more comfortable, more merrier. But Science is far from fullfilling all our querries, so meanwhile there is religion to keep us at peace, to keep us happy. Plus our lives are short and we cant wait for science to solve all our problems. So just believe and be happy!

Reservation and The Cause of Reservation

Why are our policy makers c reservation as solution to everything? When we achieved our independence from British shackles, alternatives were searched for a fast economic social growth path. For the cause of upliftment of unprivileged, depressed class leaders demanded communal electorates but congess leaders headed by Mahatama Gandhi was against such electorates. With intense bargaining, reservation of seats as solution was hammered out.

Its quite visible and clear that intentions of our leaders were/are fair and true but the path they chose is not the best one. I am against reservation of any type. Does that mean I am against the upliftment of poor and the needy ? Obviously NO ! Then why am I against reservation?Because I believe there are better solutions available to this problem then reservation. Its not like to achieve something u have to sacrifice something. It is possible for the whole society to move forward.

Reservation tramples the very basic fundamental principal of democracy i.e. individual liberalism. Its a tool synonym to communist ideology ; an 100% reservation would transform our democracy into a communism.

Reservation are like steroids for body building. You may see benefits but along with hazardous side effects. They are uneconomic and opposes the market principles of competition.

Compromise on talent and its side-effects - When you reserve a seat, you compromise on talent which then effects work.

Reservation is one of the most stickiest policy ever. We may have neutralized socialism but it would be impossible to dilute reservation. Any community or class given reservation would never want to let it go without a fight. Its like power given in hand of politician or bureaucrat or high salary given to an employee. They will not let it go !

It brings an psychological divide between the reserved classes and others. Its nurturing a division not based on economic or social conditions but one that of envy, jealousy of having less opportunities.

Its highly uneconomical. Such high reservation if carefully looked is an substitute or cover up of actually handing over money. This will prove highly dangerous for our economy.

I don't deny that this reservation policy won't bear any fruits, it will. But at the cost of irreversible damage. Moreover when its possible to have solutions better than reservation, then why should we chose the former.

United India : India - Pakistan - Bangladesh

An amazingly beautiful idea struck me today !

Today there exists such escalated tension between India and Pakistan. How our thoughts are clouded by hatred and distrust when it comes to Pakistan. But there actually exist an irony which has been overlooked. The same Pakistan was once our India and if seen through a different lens, it seems as if two brothers have taken arms against each other.

Partition divided us into India , Pakistan and Bangladesh, a single nation imputed by the sword of communalism and Religious sectarianism. What if, these 3 in future decide to come back together once again , to be a united country once again. What if we decide to erase the boundary once drawn on map by the British. What if we decide to reunite the parts of a broken nation lost once in history - a United India of India, Pakistan and Bangladesh.

West and East Germany came back together to form once again an united Germany. Can we dare to see the same dream ?

There is no use to awaken the ignorant - to make him vote

Well ! Recently I came to realize this irony -

Thr is this movement going around - Jago re ! , India awakening ...... Ya the one that tells that if u r not voting, u r sleeping :) The irony here is awakening a youth for doing something for which he doesnt know a thing about. .............. ok ! I get it that u dont get it :P let me explain !

We should vote. What for ! Y for ! Which for !

How many elections do u know about ? Ya! General elections ........ state elections ......... hmmm ..... do you know about municipality elections or for that matter panchayat elections !

Do you know the difference between an MP and a MLA ?

Do you know that locality (block) you are living in elects a corporator/ any representative by other name.

Do you know that does your state have a legislature council or not ?

U c ! wat use is thr to awaken a person who doesnt know a shit about what he is voting for!

They say we should vote to make our politicians accountable. But they forget accountability of MPs (general elections) don't matter to us that much.

Politicians whose accountability do matter to us are the one closest to us ........... municipality then state then general (union) ............. the closer it gets, the more ignorant we are about it (we don't know anything about municipality, do we? )

Its like this ............. group of friends c a pothole or corruption at a local sarkari office. One of them curse the politicians .............. another one says that its our mistake that we don't vote ......... the first one goes and votes in general election and feels good bout it that he is an awakened citizen and has done duty on his part. Wat fool ! Idiot doesnt know that voting in general election wont help, he must vote in municipality elections to make things better.

We have identified the problem correctly - to make our politicians accountable, we must vote. But prior to it we must know where to vote ................ and believe me, its not our fault, its our education systems fault.

Whats irony on irony is that we the most educated ones or the most brilliant ones (especially the IITians and IIMites ) don't have a clue about this system. Moreover, knowing about our admin system is no common sense . Yeah ! I am not joking , the bloody thing is so complex that if u take a book and start reading it, u will end up jamming ur brain. And they expect a common man to know all this and on this assumption, they come to awaken us !

The solution is simple - put a compulsory course on our administration, political and electoral system when we are mature. We have one (elementary) in our 6th-7th grade. Who does remember it, I don't and I know u don't. We need a compulsory course in our higher secondary and graduation (college) .

Afterwhich I believe our society can be awakened. Becoz u talk about waking one who is sleeping but has the knowledge !

Global Warming and Recent 2009 drought

As they all say, its all global warming ! The most contemporary effect of this climate change in our lives is 2009 drought which of course as we all know has sent food prices soaring.

You may have always wondered (well! at least some) how this drought and Global warming are connected. Though many point towards Global warming, there is no clear unanimous theory yet.

Well answer to this recent drought is phenomena of El Nino. El Nino is a global climatic event that affects our monsoons. During this event, surprisingly a high pressure exists over Indian subcontinent as opposed to low pressure in summers (a riddle which remains unsolved). Due to this pressure reversal, monsoons which are pulled into India, due to low pressure over Indian subcontinent, is severely affected. And in India we experience drought.

Now where does climate change come into picture ? Earlier this El Nino cycle used to repeat itself in 15-20 yrs. Post 1950s, it was seen to occur every 4 years and with 21st century, scientists are dreading us for a renewed periodic cycle of 2.5 yrs. This increased frequency of El Nino as many world scientist claim is an effect of global warming.

But alas ! our scientists are yet to fully understand this phenomena and its connection to global warming though it has been part of human history as long as we can remember.

PS - El Nino event is predicted to continue in 2010, so you may see a consecutive year of drought.

India's Sovereignty in today's world

Sovereignty means paramount, absolute and unchallenged authority of a nation (state) within it's own boundaries. Needless to say, it also implies complete independence and autonomy in handling one's own affair.

As the world moves towards globalization, its curious to note its effects on a nation's sovereignty.

Let me put some questions for you after which we will be able to appreciate the idea we are about to embark upon.

1. Why BJP and Left are opposed to Nuclear deal ?
2. Why are we opposed to international scrutiny of our climate change initiatives & policies ?
3. Why Left is against opening up of markets to foreign MNCs - liberalism ?
4. Why opposition (be it any party) views every international deal with crossed eyes ?
5. Why do we often hesitate to take aid from world donors ? etc.

The answer to all these questions is that all these deals though are advantageous and essential comes with a compromise. They all somehow subdue our sovereignty.

Whenever we sign an international agreement or deal, we are legally bound by the rules and regulations as agreed or set. Thus, our parliament looses its supremacy to freely legislate on matters dealing with the deal as its bound by international laws to abide by the agreement. And hence, we are subjugated to laws over which we have little control. Moreover, it's difficult for our leaders to acknowledge our subdued sovereignty.

Strengthening of International bodies like UN, WTO, World Bank.

Bilateral/Multilateral deals