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."

At the edge

A lone voice drifts through the woods......drum beats in the dark skies...........a black stallion paces restively in the valley below......an old lady among the tribes continues her chants.....the gentle breeze brings with it the smell of the earth....a clutter of leaves dance in a circle.......the mountains paint a picture of stubborn resolve against the backdrop of the night sky......

Pursuit of happiness

I saw this video of Dan Gilbert, who's a "social psychologist" and holds a job at Harvard as a professor in psychology. It explores happiness, rather "synthetic happiness" as he calls it, an investigation into how human beings can convince themselves of happiness even in seemingly dire situations. Watch it here.

The great source of both misery and disorders of human life seems to arise from over-rating the difference between one permanent situation and another. Some of those situations may no doubt deserve to be prefered to others but none of them can deserve to be pursued with that passionate ardor which drives us to violate the rules either of prudence or of justice, or to corrupt the future tranquility of our minds either by shame from the remembrance of our own folly or by remorse from the horror of our own injustice - Adam Smith

Justice

Two separate events bring focus to our country,

• The appointment of KG Balakrishnan as the new Chief justice, the first ever lower caste individual to hold the prestigious post. (I hate the term "dalit" as espoused in the media and likewise, it only serves to further divide us by giving a group of individuals a distinct name). Many people tell me that the mere appointment of a few SC/ST individuals to high government posts takes attention away from the ground realities, that the lower sections of society still continue to be marginalized, and that only when we are able to make a difference to them can we be righteously joyful. While they definitely have a point, we still have a long distance to travel in terms of social equality, but an appointment like this(considering the media attention it grabs) sends out a message to the population. A message that has the power to change the mindsets of people.
  
• The Noida killings, a case that gets more gruesome as the days proceed and more details are unravelled. As per a NDTV report this morning, the count of the mass murdering of children lies at 70. With a population of 1.1 billion it is hard for many to fathom the proportions of these grisly killings. Picture a loved one among these 70 and it will become more clear. I can't help but imagine the bestiality of the murderer(s) who has/have committed these crimes. Why? Why were these innocent children killed? Is it part of a bigger plot such as a kidney racket? If so, are we to hear similar cases in different parts of the country(Bhopal has 400 children missing on record today)? Or are these the actuations of a socio-pathic mass-murderer? Whatever be the case, the initial verdict in this case is clear, the police have failed us. These crimes were committed across 2 years, couldn't the police have noticed something sinister as the number of missing children began increasing? Which brings us to the question, were FIRs registered for all these missing children? The CBI has taken over the case, and I will only be too pleased to see the police be held answerable for their lapses. To all the families that have lost their children, I understand your pain and my sympathies reach out to you.
  

Proteus Burns......

The planet Proteus had hurtled aimlessly through space for a long time, never following an orbit, never conforming to a trajectory. The characteristic darkness of infinite black emptiness resounded within him. In a different part of the galaxy, a star called Atalante grieved in her loneliness, at events that seemed to change the course of her peaceful gratified existence.
It would come to pass that their paths would collide.

By the time wanderlust Proteus realized that he had been restricting his journeys to a certain part of the galaxy, he had already begun to gravitate towards Atalante. The galaxy would be witness to the anchoring of Proteus, an orbit hitherto unknown to him now created itself around the nova. Meanwhile Atalante, oblivious to the radical change in Proteus, accepted him and thereby entered a new stage in her ontogeny.

As time passed Atalante began to shine more bright, more beautiful, as Proteus gave her reason for existence. The light that she shone reached out into his depths and soon Proteus came of age and life emerged on him, the drifting planet now felt alive. Even though Atalante secretly feared for their insecure future in a volatile galaxy, the bonds that tied them together grew stronger and thus began an age of peace, hitherto unknown to Proteus. But while Proteus and Atalante smiled, the overlooking cosmos wasn't. Little did Proteus know that one day elements within him would be held against.

One cosmic summer, echelons of dark clouds began sweeping across Proteus and soon Atalante was obscured from his vision. The time that Atalante feared had arrived upon them, the galaxy had conspired against Proteus. A set of events were placed in motion that would change their paths for life. Atalante was forced to succumb to the greater powers of the galaxy that began to chart out a separate course for her. A blinded and benighted Proteus was left disoriented as he slowly began to feel Atalante's drift. Proteus tugged as mightily as his planetary mass would permit, but Atalante's weakness crippled him. Afraid to resist the reverential powers, Atalante began the journey dictated to her, bereft with grief, thereby making the final move in an intergalactic alliance.

Proteus, continued to hover, unable to fathom the consequences. The galaxy had done him wrong, his guiding star had been whisked away and he no longer had a raison d'etre. Besieged with rage, his terrain began to split in fiery eruptions, volcanoes spewing fire and ash into his anguished atmosphere. Oceans raged, lightning razed, which soon saw the termination of life on his surface. He glowed with the fires that swept across his plains vanquishing all that came in its path.

The cosmos watches as severed of all his bonds, a burning Proteus plunges back into the depths of darkness............

Battles in the northern sky

The stars and planets begin to align themselves for an impending showdown...

Hooked!

There are some songs that haunt you, in your moments of solitude they play in your mind, over and over again. Banco de Gaia's "Farewell Ferengistan" is one of those songs. The first time I heard it, I knew this one wasn't going to leave me for some time. It's the kind of song that sets the mood for introspection, the kind of song that makes you wonder about what's been your life and what will, the kind of song that makes you realise that after all life is a journey and through all the ups and downs.................we must sail on.

Red Letter Day

Read this. A news article that really does not seem to have any ramifications for the educated Indian reader. But ramifications there are, as it announces the rebirth of a country fighting hard to shed it's social ills. 60 years of independence and the thorn of caste discrimination still remains. What purportedly started out to be the division of society based on occupation, only served to justify the oppression and humiliation of vast sections of our people. Religion played partner in crime over the centuries, with the creation of exclusive institutions for the upper classes. Practices such as endogamy served to contain the classes within themselves and are adhered to even in this age. Inter-caste marriages receive stiff opposition even in educated urban circles. I would hold the policy makers amongst our ancestors guilty on one single count. The consistent denial of the right to a life of respect, to large sections of the populace throughout history.
Which is why, I wouldn't dismiss this news article as insipid. If our country harbours dreams of becoming a developed nation, merely joining the nuclear kitty club won't do. These slow steps which aim at binding our fractured society address our grass-root problems. Our potential will only be fully recognised if we as a population are able to function as one seamless whole.
The time has come to expedite the undoing of social crimes committed for centuries, that time is now.

King of a stellar war

The conflict has played itself out and battles are waged every day in an invisible realm. Some days there is a lull, but is usually followed by an intense struggle later. It is a conflict of ideologies, a conflict of principles, Odysseus trumpets rationale, Rama espouses compassion. Interestingly the outcome is known ab initio, ..... there can be no victor, this war can be waged for eternity. But we battle on, as if bound by duty. Someday a truce will be realised, ....someday.

And I stand among ruins today, the dust lies thick in the air. Entire settlements have been demolished in the aftermath. Every broken brick here holds a memory, but will be buried in time. She has visited these wreckages, I can feel her, her subtle yet sweet fragrance lingers. A single rain drop crashes on the terra firma and I look to the overcast sky. Before long my surroundings are drenched by the cloudburst, a man remains to comfort a troubled land.

A struggle called life

My body takes to this cold floor well, I continue to lie against it. My chest heaves in rhythm to the guitars that play in the background. If my heart were to beat any faster it may explode. This pain I put myself through is addictive. A few minutes ago every muscle in my legs strained to carry my body forward, at the decree of a mind wishing to maintain a steady, swift pace. He'd screamed to stop, this hurt was killing, every nerve racing to the brain signalling an aching,.... an incessant aching. But in the battle of mind over body, the strong willed wins, all pleas go unheard.
.......And a wave of heat rises off me, this pain slowly begins to cease,.....this bittersweet pain. A brief moment of peace comes alive, elusive as it has been for quiet awhile. I know it won't last for long, I savour every minute of it. The calm ebbs and I know it will soon be over, the music returns to my ears, my senses begin to respond to the cool floor. I know I have to rise soon and return to life,... a struggle called life.

A blog less ordinary

I need to start a new blog. To all those, whose attention this blog hasn't been able to hold, my apologies. I must admit, I have been quite selfish about this blog. The words that are penned here are done so for the mere satisfaction and pleasure of the blogger himself. It isn't written keeping in mind what fellow netizens would like to read. Which brings me around to the idea, that if I had to write for someone who would I write for. A netizen is too broad a term.When it finally boils down to individuals, there are differences, there are sections of them with varying tastes, and while being able to cater to all of them through a single blog may not be impossible, it will take a lot of creative exhaustion to bring to existence. Luckily, I have had a certain section of my rare readers return to me with criticism which is constructive (Wise quote: Criticism which does not come forth, no matter how well intentioned, is anything but constructive. To Blog: The psychology of criticism) And while they speak, I feel quite safe in assuming that they speak for a greater majority. Words less taxing on the mind, ideas a little less complex, the blog for the normal man, who loves his meals, committed to his job, worries more about his family than his world and would prefer reading something more straightforward. I don't think at the end of a day he would like to decipher the esoteric writings of a blogger whose thoughts more often than not border on the unconventional. Then to you my friends I will soon begin one, we have laid the seeds, just give it some time to sprout. Watch this page.
As for this space here, I am afraid he will continue to cater to one mind alone.

Can't get you out of my head

Songs that have me hooked as of today, rather...tonight:
* City and Colour - Comin' Home
* Tom Cochrane - Didn't mean
* Fuel - Million miles

Define

Like the gentle breeze that wafts though the slender stalks of green paddy fields, like the soft rain that falls upon the rustic earth....the cool water quenching its thirst, like the warmth that envelops them when two lovers kiss, like the clear night sky speckled with a million stars that shine upon the universe, like the graceful trot of a stallion by the riverside......
Towards these beautiful aspects of nature, I bear no hate, but an association I have none.
I owe my allegiance to the raging storms that battle the titanic oceans on dark moonless nights, to the violent explosions on the surface of the sun threatening to split him apart, to the lone cliff that rises from the ground in contempt of the crashing waves, to the chest that braves a bullet in his struggle for freedom, to the spirit of the wolf as he howls to his pack just before they set out for a twilight hunt on the barren Alaskan snowfields
....It is these unspoken acts of defiance that have my loyalty.

Final straws

Come December
the last maple leaves that cling in desperation
Will be forced to kiss the ground
the squirrels that pranced around in gaiety
will seek shelter in the earth below
water which nows runs free over these rocks
shall soon be frozen in motion
the year that saw the end of a chapter
shall soon come to its dark end

And I will wait for these cold winds to blow
to know which way they go
I will watch another lake freeze, another river struck still,
the trees laid bare,............
the last shards of vulnerability, laid siege to by nature's plan
know no dread, neither any fear
I will be waiting
Come December

Hallowed be thy name

To those familiar,.....

• I have seen Iron Maiden in flesh and blood.
• I have screamed along with Bruce......live!
• I have seen Eddie
• I have chanted along with 15000 people to "Fear of the Dark"

Orca

Last weekend, I spent time with a couple of dolphins, seals, walruses and killer whales. Though I couldn't strike a meaningful conversation with any of them, we were in close proximity as they swam in man-made tanks. I was attracted to the killer whale(Orca) in particular, in fact "killer whale" is a misnomer. They belong to the dolphin family, the largest one at that. An appealing trait is their intelligence which is visible in their group hunting strategies(known to prey on blue whales, hence "killer whale"), their social structure, their methods of communication.
While it was indeed a memorable experience to watch these magnificent creatures swimming around in an environment where it is possible to watch them more closely, there is a price that is paid. A price paid by the orca himself. Under captivity, they are known to suffer from a condition called dorsal fin collapse. The water in the tanks lack sufficient pressure as compared to that of the ocean, which is supposedly required for the dorsal fin's development.
While developed nations have certainly reached a more humane way of treating animals in captivity, the truth will always remain. Captivity, no matter how humane, is unfair. These mute beings have a right to roam free in the wild, and shouldn't have found their way into this blog to be described as beautiful.

Fate

"Fate...is a funny thing. It swells up like raging waters that we are forced to travel. It provides no exit, no deviation, no respite. It drops us in a bottomless ocean and compels us....we either swim,...or drown. And sometimes as we struggle against the unforgiving tide, a great truth arises......, we've been here before."