Death on the Samjhauta

The Pakistanis killed in the terrorist attack on the Samjhauta Express were buried today near Panipat. The Hindu, referred to the Pakistanis as our brothers, and I couldn't agree more. The partition was one of the most traumatic experiences in the history of both countries. Traumatic, because the division of the country by the British, into Pakistan and India, uprooted families and friends.While a political line split a country, since we share a common history, I think it fair to call them our brothers.
Trivia: The train on which the bombs went off, was actually the Delhi-Attari Special and not the Samjhauta.The Samjhauta in reality runs only between Attari, on the Indian side, and Wagah(Pakistan), a meagre distance of 3 km. Passengers travelling between Delhi and Lahore board the Delhi-Attari special, and alight at Attari for customs and immigration. They then board the Samjhauta to take them to Wagah. After the formalities at Wagah, they board another train to Lahore. The Samjhauta returns to Attari the same day.

A blog's direction

While most of the posts here, have a common thread running through them, it was never intentional. This blog initially started out as just another place for me to express my thoughts, abstract as well as the converse. In the past few months however, this blog's message has attained a lot more clarity, it has steered itself towards a socio-political realm. Moving forward, this blog will focus on -

• Current affairs, and their ramifications, discernible and obscure
• Social issues
  
• Philosophy, related to society, governance

Abstract thoughts will make their way into the other blog I maintain.

Taking the easy route

I am guilty of optimism, probably over-optimism, as this article proved. It does keep me grounded to reality, that while certain figures look good on the blackboard, they may not convey the real picture. And the real picture is....

• The poor do not get justice, the Nithari killings just prove that point. And yes, most of the country carried on with their daily activities once the initial debate was over. The Nithari killings are just the tip of the iceberg, convicting the murderers does not solve the underlying problems with our judicial system. Every citizen of the country, rich or poor, has a right to justice. Do we provide it? No. Guilty!
• Our children's right to education. All the developed countries and a few developing countries, mandate free and compulsory education for their children for a minimum number of years(UK-12, China-9, Venezuela - 9, Germany -10, Sweden -9). Our constitution too had mandated compulsory education for every child up to the age of 14, which had to be achieved by 1960. But successive governments have failed to uphold their constitutional responsibilities, and coupled with poor population planning, securing this right for our children remains a distant dream. Around 50% of our country's children-of- schooling-age are out of school. Have we failed them? Yes. Guilty on second count!
• Poverty. 30% of our people live below the poverty line, as per the World Bank, that's every individual who earns less than a dollar a day. An offshoot, India has more undernourished children than Africa. Since Africa's plight gets more attention on global media and the failure of Indian media to highlight this statistic, it largely goes unnoticed. Is the rest of the country to blame? Yes. Guilty again!

The well-to-do remain mostly numbed when faced with the plights of the poor. Pictures of poverty, uncommon deaths are no longer new to us, and doesn't evince the sympathy it ideally should.We cannot ignore the plights of large sections of our populace, in our rush to view India as an increasingly successful nation. Those marginalised cannot and should not be marginalised further, as we plod ahead. A nation is not built by governments, armies or bureaucrats, the fabric of a nation is it's people, a people tightly woven together. It is our responsibility to alleviate the the conditions of the underprivileged, it is our responsibility to bring the lower sections of our society on par with the rest of the nation.

As much as we fail to realize it, each one of us is indebted to the nation, indebted to our countrymen/women, an exposition of which I shall reserve for my next blog.

The Indian Juggernaut

There is no stopping the country, nothing. After the plundering of our wealth by the West in the last two centuries, the subjugation of our peace-loving people(once thought of as barbaric by our illegitimate rulers), the atrocities committed upon us in the name of the empire..........it brings a smile to my face to see my countrymen making our presence known in the world. Be it the Tata acquisition of a British company, the Mittal steel empire, the software engineer developing applications for American corporations or the customer care representative handling Microsoft's support calls in Bangalore......the truth is clear, we will persist. India is poised to overtake UK's economy in a decade(article in The Independent) and possibly America' s in another 40 years.
It should be noted that India and China have dominated the world economy in the last 2000 years. Europe and America started controlling the world economy only in the last 300 years, credit going to Britain for pioneering the industrial revolution. But the shift of economic power back to India and China is bound to happen in the first half of this century itself.
These positive outcomes for India are not an excuse to cover up for it's corrupt bureaucracy nor it's debased politicians. This is a vindication of it's people, my people. It speaks of the spirit of it's common man, his ability to rise above his despair and move forward. We have a lot to achieve in terms of governing ourselves and it will take patience and sacrifice. But for now the juggernaut moves ahead slowly and steadily.

PS: It is not without reason that the word "Juggernaut" forms a part of this blog's title. This word found its way into the English language through India. It derives from "Jagganatha", an incarnation of the Hindu God Vishnu. Further, from Wiki"..........One of the most famous of Indian temples is the Jagannath Temple in Puri, Orissa, which has the Ratha Yatra (chariot procession), an annual procession of chariots carrying the murtis/statues of Jagannâth (Lord Krishna), Subhadra and Baladeva (Krishna's elder brother). During the British colonial era, Christian missionaries promulgated a myth that Hindu devotees of Krishna were lunatic fanatics who threw themselves under the wheels of these chariots in order to attain salvation. Such a description can also be found in the popular fourteenth-century work "The Travels of Sir John Mandeville." The fact is that devotees have sometimes been crushed accidentally in the past as the massive 45 foot tall, multi-ton chariot slipped out of control. Many have also been killed in the resulting stampedes. The sight led the Britons to use the word "Juggernaut" to refer to other instances of unstoppable, crushing forces."