Myopic View on Iran

Media always propagated that Iran should be among the last choice on your travel list. But when I realized that I had to make a visit to Iran to install and train researchers I was equally excited and bit nerved upon hearing the news. As the process of visa application began, I realized although Indian passport initially had visa on arrival for Indian citizens, but the previous Indian government had cancelled the same visa on arrival facility to Iranians despite the fact that more than 10,000 Iranian student come annually to India to pursue their studies. The next choice was to visit Kuala-Lumpur to get my Iran visa done. Imagine the scene when you visit the embassy/consular office and you notice nothing written in English, except Arabic. Even the list on the token machine was in Arabic. Then an old TV playing a movie/serial showing scene on wars/local fights and people only with AK-47, this visual can really spike you up. The refreshing part was when requested an Iranian to help me with the token machine and which counter to reach, he made it all easy for me.  With Iran visa on my passport, ready to travel to learn more about the new nation and culture. Although I'm not sure whether I will be black-listed to travel to any western nations. 

Landing at Khomeini International Airport at Tehran  in the early hours, it took me more than 1 hour to clear immigration despite being just over 20-30 international passengers(mostly Pakistanis and Arabs) never saw a single European/american passenger at the immigration and all the long hour just because they had only 1 counter for foreign passport holder and for every passenger they seem to have ask long list of questions on the reason for visiting Iran. As my turn came up, I feared using the word that I'm scientist (Atomic in general), but for luck, the guy just smiled and stamped my passport, after seeing more than 3/4 of passport filled with visa stamps across the globe.

The long drive to the hotel in early hours on empty roads felt good. City architecture, swathing gardens, colorful mosque and curvy highways glittering the city indeed separated it from many other capitals of the world. It was only in the morning, did I realize the city of Tehran was surrounded by mountain that gave it a historic modern look. My colleague came to pick me after which I visited the University for the training, following which in evening we went to Evin darake and climbed the mountains along the small creek and enjoyed the local fruits. Here the place was bustling with young couple seeking good and private time, old couples trying to keep fitness and local farmers with their horse/donkey selling their produce. In general, the view transported me to back to ancient days. On the way down we walked through the older part of city consisting of small bylanes with houses with high walls. The collection of recipe on most of the hotel menu reminded me of the famous dialogue from Kabul Express, 'You have kebab for breakfast, for lunch for snacks and for dinner, the only choice you are left is the meat.' 

Over the days as I went about travelling cities, along the different direction the general opinion I had about the country and its people surely took 180 degree turn. Iran might be called Islamic republic of Iran, but its majority people are Persian and their roots are still Zoroastrianism. Persian today due to conquest of their nation by Arabs by might have become Islamic, But they are just follower of Islam and not strong believers. Local dialect when merged with Hindi has given rise to Urdu and that was the reason I could understand when my colleagues spoke Persian. Cultural city of Ishefahan, Mashhad and Qom was rich experience and religious tourism in this cities was worth noting. Along with my colleagues I visited the shrine containing the tomb of Imam Reza and was a enthralling experience by itself. 

The view of  Mountain Damavand, an active volcano and hill with huge mythological bearing with Persian history.

Among all the non scientific discussion that I had with my new made friends and colleagues, I figured out that the local mullahs were the one who everyone hated and felt that they have made life miserable for all the Persians. Government propaganda to enforce strict religious dictum on locals was accepted with fear and not with the right spirit coupled with the economic sanctions by the west on Iran mostly due to oil-politics and have left the people filled with opposition against the government. Keeping the religious politics away, Persian were the most sweetest people I have ever come across during my globe trotting, they have raised the bar of what it means to be a good host. The language by itself sounded like poetry when I heard people speaking, In contrast to what I observed in West, where people hesitate to speak to strangers, here people love talking to strangers. Hesitation to capture everything on my camera due to some inherent fear, I restricted the photos taken on my mobile. The regret being not able to capture the beautiful city, the people and culture in my camera frame, but at-least I have carried back wonderful memory of the people.

Labouring Hands but Stale Minds

Quite often as I would travel on work to different corners around the globe, one thing has always amazed me is the type of jobs that are undertaken by people all around. No work is ever big or small and there is always dignity is attached to every job we undertake.

At my alma mater, we were taught the importance of work with the dictum 'work is worship'. This feeling behind the work always guided us, allowing to put in 100 % percent of our effort while achieving the goal. This feeling no doubt helps you avoid the ego building up within, when enlisted with a important big task; or feeling of embarrassment when enlisted with a menial job.  The work could vary from assisting and sharing space with world leaders/musicians to cleaning campus/hostel premises. 

Carrying out your own work helps you build your own self-confidence and esteem. But imagine if all small jobs done by person himself, then the very service industry could run out of option. I would be very careful in making some poignant observation while travelling across our country. You would invariably see at airport toilets, someone lending you tissue paper, lift-man to press the floor you want to travel, someone to issue you parking ticket on an automated machine. These are very simple observation that anyone would come across our country, I always felt do we really need people for these jobs, aren't we capable of doing all these by ourselves. When we meant that we have to create jobs for the growing population of our country, Its not merely those job, that would require someone to robotically go through the same motion 24 hours, leaving his mind decomposing.  

These jobs in the service industry are to belittle one existence, and I'm sure the individual is always capable of using his limbs for better service than to merely use in conjunction to ease other's daily chores. The pertinent question to ask would be, Is that the person can DO only that much, It's never about empowerment here, since any job an individual gets will surely be financially rewarding based on the economic strata he comes from. 

I'm of the firm opinion that jobs should be rolled out so that unemployment is no more a stigma to our developing country, but jobs just for the heck of it, serving no purpose and more importantly resulting in making his limbs busy, but mind morbid can only result in dormant society.

Heart on Ember

Emotions when flames in your heart, you turn proactive;

But if they burn within, destruction abounds.

When Love flames within, happiness surrounds you all around;

But when love burns within, loneliness is what you feel always.

When Anger flames in your heart, discontent brews;

And if anger burns within, savageness is nearby.

When Lust flames inside you, passion envelops you;

But if it burns within, hedonism is what you become.

When Knowledge flames within, humility grows;

but when it burns within, arrogance booms outside.

When Jealousy flames inside you, extra effort will always abound;

But if your heart burns with jealousy, hurting others is vice you develop.

When Motivation flames in your heart, no goal is ever far;

But if it burns within, failure kisses you at every step.

When Dreams are flamed in you, hope blooms;

But when they are burnt within, disappointment strikes.

So decide what you intend to Flame or Burn within your heart.

Ashamed of our Identity

It’s been ages, since i logged onto my blog-page to express myself. Although my Job and my passion had given me enough opportunity to travel around, lazily i never took to make notes of what i observed and ruminate about what each place, culture and cuisine had to offer for each one of us.

 Living and travelling from Singapore to most of the South East Asian countries, lots of observation strikes me. Most prominent was the presence of Hindu temples and architecture all around. Curiosity got me asking myself what could have been the reason for such a prominent Hindu base being present in SE Asia. Although it was no brainer, since there has been such a lot historian records of Indian traders/sages coming to SE Asia to promote Hindu culture, that it got easily mingled with the local population from SE Asia.

 Reading through one of the historian records, I realized that Hinduism had spread its wings here in SE-Asia already by 200 BC, The present country of Indonesia, Laos, Cambodia, Vietnam, Philippine and Thailand had strong Hindu influence on the local ruler. Buddhism reached here around 400 AD and Islam reached only in the 12 century. Although today Hinduism has become the minority population in this region. Each countries local language & culture has a distinct Hindu touch to all of them. 

 What has surprised me a lot is that today these countries have either a very strong Islamic & Buddhist presence, but despite the small rub of Hinduism that had on them, you will be greatly surprised to see temples of Hindu God/Goddess revered all around these region. I personally have seen at Suvarnabhoomi Bangkok airport large statue of Vishnu avatar of ocean churning, at Bali huge statues of Lord Krishna and Arjuna delivering the Bhagvad Gita in the city centre. These are just the few examples that I have cited. The important underlying fact despite being non Hindu country, they proudly display Hindu culture in their city infrastructure, Just because they were influenced by the Hindu culture long time ago. 

 Whereas we being a Hindu dominant country(Secular), Nowhere outside the premises of a temple, Do I see any carvings, painting, statutes of Hindu based culture, forget Islam, Buddhism, Jainism, Sikhism which all have flourished in our country. Our history, traditions and culture are not merely to be part of the curriculum till we graduate, but also a part of our identity till we breathe our last. I’m not sure what has plagued our country that our administrator have failed to recognize the rich cultural heritage that our nation has, or is it that we have become ashamed of our real identity and would love to display only our pseudo secular image.

Surprise Script

Rarely do we come across situation in life, Where we think of our future and dream of walking it all Alone, and within a week do we realize that the event around your life have taken such a twist and turn, that the dream that I imagined of walking alone, may be shared by someone else, and you have a company to assist you till the very end of your journey.
Our personal ambitions are outcome of our skill and the environment we grow, & nothing better than the truth that you end up getting a company who will tend to share your dream as OUR own dream. No wonder someone correctly remarked, When your dream are no more thine or mine, but OUR’s, it’s the onset of a beautiful relation that is about to being scripted in your life. How often an individual goes through such a phase in life, where mere fraction of time have elapsed before eyes have met glances, thoughts shared, horoscope matched and have mutually agreed to have their life bound together in such a short span of time (guess mere 5 days).
Some days get etched in your memory forever, sometime for the significant/misfortunate event that occur then, But how about a day for which you always knew would surely come sometime, but comes in such instantaneous fraction which takes all people and nearby completely by surprise. Having gone through such an experience myself, I’m sure Rush you to have gone through the same thought process. No wonder the Friday 11, 09 is the beginning of new script for us, but the speed at the which the script was drafted have taken quite a community by surprise. Apart from the event it’s the surprise element of that day and the days before that will etch in my memory for long.

Going On & On

Nothing taste sweeter than your own sweat after you achieve what you initially set for. No goals are ever remembered and cherished longer which is earned easily. Every individual once in his life time sets a goal which he dreams of achieving. The drive towards his goal is the motivation that keeps him GOING ON & ON till he reach his goal.

Setting goals are as easy as dreaming about achieving your goals, but reaching your goals is what separates boys from men.I have a dream is what Martin Luther King, Jr said during his Lincoln Memorial speech at Washington DC, He promised his people that they shall not walk alone, and as they walk they always marched ahead and never turn back. He never lived to see his dream come true, but his words ensured that the people worked for the dream he lived for and truly do we see a society that has overcome its apartheid policy.

Have we ever wondered when are own chips are down, what have propelled us to reach our goal. Many a times we come across famous song, poem, speech or words of wisdom from our elders. These are more than sufficient to overcome the hurdles we face on the way to our destination. Motivation is not a phase of life, that you need to go through, buts its just a mere instant that makes you realize that you are worth every ounce of the dream you dreamnt of.

Difficulties are bound to come on a treacherous path that promises of a beautiful destination at its end. Lack of resources and hurdles we face en route always will linger back of the mind questioning the very existence of the beautiful destination we set out for, In such a dire situation when every grey cells deny and muscle hesitate to cooperate for the journey, and we are left alone treading the path. The answer is just Go On & On, Motivation is the source of potential that you can tap when the confidence is low and confusion high. Nothing follows Success as Success, nor Success after Failure, for its easy to get motivated when you are at either end. But when you are in transition between them what keeps us motivated is simply the dream. The pace at which you lose to achieve your goal is the indicator of you losing your motivation. The moment you lose motivation, you compromise on your target. And anything less than achieving your dream, is failure after all.

Your dream exist as long as you keep yourself motivated and the day you lose the motivation, your dream comes crashing. The most important of all your motivation lies on the foundation of your skill and talent. Skilled individual might lack motivation to achieve his goal, but a motivated individual always poses skill to reach his goal. On a final note, motivation is like the ladder on which you climb to reach you goal, but always check that your ladder rest against the right wall, lest you reach wrong top.

Lessons on Losing

The greatest lesson ever learned are on the fields and not in the closed doors on the classes are quite often heard statements. But what has really has prompted this view is an interesting lesson by itself.The list of interesting tale at the end of intriguing matches have often gone down in the annals of history not just because they entertained the crowds, but the lesson that they taught the crowd. List of such incident that strikes my mind are the Edgbaston Test match of 2005, where Freddie console Lee after losing the test. The 2008 finals between rafa and roger at the australian open, where rafa acknowledges that roger is still the best. The lesson of humility amidst wild celebrations are such cornerstones of such epic incidents that down the history these incidents will be referred for such heart rendering incidents rather than the winner of the match.
Each legendary sporting ground has a place dedicated to the greatest truth written by pioneering poets and author, such as the Wimbledon center court near the players entrance has a line mentioned from Rudyard Kipling, " If you can meet triumph and disaster and treat two impostors the same...". The sporting arena is the only place where the best awaits to ascend the surface, or the best sinks from the surface. No wonder one need to learn to treat both the incidents with same due regards.
Success and Failure on grounds are separated by mere fraction of time, space and energy in most of the events.The pain of losing from a whisker hurts deeper from the agony of body injuries in the game. Losing on the ground is lesson by itself, for it gives you an opportunity to reguard to prepare again for the glory next time. No wonder individuals who really lose the game but not the lesson come back to win emphatically the next time. Well no points for guessing the 5-0 whitewash in Ashes 2007, nor the Edberg-Becker Wimbledon final classics. The list of such games and matches are listless, where in the loser comes back to claim back his title. Such incident do keep the magic rivalry ensuring on and on. The winner always take the cup and the glory and rarely the motivation to keep going on next time, but the loser takes only the defeat to his advantage to win next time. If losing still gives you nothing it makes the next victory sweeter. So lets remember losing and winning are no doubt part and parcel of the games and sports( extensively used cliche), but the lessons learned from either of them are priceless.
We lose not when we lose the game, but lose to learn the lesson from the game. For the lessons once learnt, we know we rarely do we lose.The real champions are not the ones who have tasted success extensively, but the ones who have learnt the lesson from losing. Since for every failure one endures he gets an opportunity to get things right, and the champions keeps playing till he gets everything right. So next time when we face losing, remember to take your lesson back home.

LOVE or HATE.

There were several instances that have spun over the wheel of time in the recent past that has my grey cell triggered into contemplative mood once again. "Over the years I came across several situation and decided to choose Love over Hate and that's why I'm here". This statement made by our own Allah Rakha Rahman at the Kodak theater while collecting his Second Oscar for his composition 'Jai Ho'. There is profound depth in the statement he made on the stage. The second instance that have occurred within a fortnight of such Joyous occasion is the attack on Sri Lankan cricketers while on their way to Gadaffi stadium to play the second test. While its difficult to see any analogy between 2 incident, I found an underlying current of collective human emotion that drives beneath the 2 incident, The word 'Love & Hate' as Rahman uttered says it All.
The most simplest and purest of Human emotion that's present in any individual irrespective of his age is Love. It's a feeling that Human is born with and gets reflected in every activity he/she pursues. It requires no training to Love someone whom you never know. It's the most spontaneous of the human emotion that erupts from within and encompasses all who are near. Love is the basis of all human emotion. In fact every positive human feeling has it origin in Love. Dedication, Devotion, Discipline and Determination owes its origin to the presence of Love in individual.
If an individual loves his work, it gets reflected in his determination and dedication to the work he does. If the individual loves people around and avoid hurting other by any mean, it get reflected in his disciplined attitude. If the individual loves the Almighty it get reflected in his devotion. So any good human trait that one can thinks has it foundation laid on Love. The purest, unsullied emotion of Love has woven intricate and simple incidents in Human history, that depicts its ability to achieve ones destiny against every odds. Love for one's brethren irrespective of the origin, which in fact is the need of the hour is Non-Violence is all about. Mahatma Gandhi stood for Non-Violence(Ahimsa) that was because he loved the people around him. You just can't hurt a person if you Love them. Loving as an emotion is not limited to the people we are aware or Know. In fact it spread beyond the realms of our relative, parents and friendship. The greatest Living example in the contemporary world Mankind had ever seen was Mother Teresa. Her Love for the weak, week after week was the living testimonial that Love for an individual outside your nearest neighborhood can make the greatest difference in the life of people. If Love is the Zenith of the Human emotion, then Nadir is Hate.
Hate is the basis of all the weak and negative trait that can be found in Human. If you hate others then you are jealous of his success, you become angry at there demeanor. But an aspect which surprisingly is so different between Hate and Love is, It's easy to Love people you never know, But its so hard to hate people you never knew. Revenge is the form of hate but its a repercussion of action against an individual who Hurt you. But to hurt other whom you never encountered in your life is the greatest danger Mankind is facing today.
My belief that Terrorism is outcome of revenge against some foreign occupation, Religious Intolerance,Governmental policies, Economic Disparity and list is endless, got thwarted when we see terrorist attack people indiscriminately, without FEAR and LOGIC. To Hate others you never know, you have to train them diligently ensuring that their thinking defies every norm of logic and reasoning. That's the reason the terrorist aren't emotional and trained only to kill, irrespective of the creed, nationality and religion. Fighting and killing your enemy(Only in War & Battle) at least make sense because of some demographic or economic disparity. Being Jealous, envying someone whom you know also make a bit sense, since you can't withstand their success. Being angry at someone is acceptable who haven't behaved well with you. In all the above cases you are aware of your so called enemy, But the way the Terrorist are trained to Hate, they know not their targets identity. Thus the possibility of feeling remorse after attack is remote, wherein in any other vengeance there is every chance the individual might seek pardon or request amnesty. But the future doesn't look bleak as the present may be, where every nook and corner of the world is infected with Hate resulting in Terrorist activities causing harm both the people and property. The remedial solution are endless, but permanent solution can only be replacing Hate with Love, If one is trained to Hate others; effort need to be put to teach people to love others so as to ensure a beautiful legacy of mankind has to survive into the future.
Thus Love and Hate as 2 emotion are a quite a powerful force that can drive mankind to achieve greatness or doom.

In Love

When Separation agonizes the Mind,
You Know you are in Love.
When you compromise your Happiness for theirs happiness,
You know you are in Love.
When your dream are no more yours But Our's
You know you are in Love.
In solitude when you think of none, but only them,
you know you are in Love.
If you Lust not for gratification, but for Intimacy,
You know you are in Love.
When you trust None, But Only One,
You know you are in Love.
When pain and Fear dissolves in their Presence,
You know you are in Love.
When Heart takes precedence over Mind in making decisions,
You know you are in Love.
Now you Know you are in Love,
Not Because you choose, But it Chanced.

May Be It's Written

So Jamal are you ready for the final question for 20 Million rupees. So you know the answer, No I dont, But i will still play, because it 'may be written'. This is how the final tense scene is shot in Slumdog Millionaire. Hmmm a sort of movie might be nominated for the Oscars and has won already 4 golden globe awards for best direction, best screen play, best motion picture and best original score by our own A.R. Rahman.
Did the movie strike the real cord of slum dwellers, could it capture the the hardship faced by inmates of the slum, or was it fairy tale journey of the Jamal written on a backdrop of destitute society. Well I have no intention of answering the question, nor as a serious film watcher could the quality of direction or music score really appall me. Movie making should be a culture, rather a business. It should portray a obvious message at the end of show and most important if it can ever get the grey cells working then the very purpose of movie making has reached it very goal. This movie might be classified as a good entertainer, while for the West it might end up showing India still as third world country and plethora of problem among which Poverty, Corruption & Malfeasance still dominates our daily routine. There is One aspect which strike mine grey matter for sure, is the dialogue which keep uttering through out the movie, "May Be it's Written".
How do you perceive this statement is very important, It has a very deep hidden message buried in it. There is a sanskrit sloka which goes as," Taena vina trunapi na chalathi" which means 'Not even the blade of grass moves without my will'. It's a gem of a statement which separates the Theists from Atheists. For the devotee of Almighty its a great truth that strengthens his belief. But a pessimist can view this as reason for not being active enough to carry out his duties and work, after all there is nothing in my hand, and simply utter 'sab kuch upar wale ke haath main hain'. But this missing logic which everyone misses is, 'Results are not in our Hand, But We are very much responsible for our Action'. Lord Krishna taught this greatest truth to Arjuna in his Universal message to mankind in Bhagvad Gita. We are bound by actions and cannot escape our duties and responsibility. The flaw in the reasoning if everything is Written why Bother?, The Answer to this fallacy is Our approach to work is not good performance but good outcome. The Theists approaches this statement as, Whatever happens is always for good, for it is willed by the God, But the greatest pitfall can be If good things are happening around him, He will always praise well wishers and thanks God. But the moment event around him turns ugly he curse his ally and accuse God of playing false with him. The statement,' It's the will of God' are or those who don't elate during happy times and get dejected during failure. The one who keeps his balanced composure both during Happy & Sad times is the One who really can say, "May Be It's Written".
After all Results are consequence of Action, but response to be Happy or Sad is our own Decision. And the one who keep the balanced state of Mind (Stithapragnya)during Joy & Sorrow never falters. Thereby winning his shot of 20 million rupees at the end.

Breached Wall: UNDER CONSTRUCTION

Just out of the Blue, in a response to one of the earlier blog I had written about a breaching wall, I'm writing a epilogue to earlier article. As per say the article has no relevance to any real story, but just is a figment of my imagination.

Well no dismantled piece of edifice leaves a happy tale to finish,
and usually leaves the inmates with a sore heart of losing his
valuable possession. A wall that has been breached hoping someone will
come to reside there permanently has come as a serious intimidation to
me, not knowing that someone who came so soon is also leaving back
from the same breached door.

Heart as you know is a single seat room, where there is place only
for one to sit and drive the body. Until you are alone it's your
conscience who drives your decision and life. But then there someone
else later who takes that place and steadies your journey of life.
Well I guess I was confident that few months had really given
me the free pass to your life. Not knowing that the place has been
occupied by someone else some time ago. How could I claim for
a spot there, when the seat is already reserved for someone else.

Though I haven't come to terms with myself and I hope I might soon
be able to reconstruct the cracked walls. But as said by someone, "Failure is all about acknowledging that you have lost". I still believe Im in contention for the seat. For it's my firm belief that decision you have made is more of prejudice than bare reality. Well I hope when you leave the portals of my vision you really feel the
lacuna in your heart and realize that you have missed a major part of your heart back with me and left for your destination ahead in your life. And I pray that these wonderful memories just doesn't becomes stock of grey cell in your upper compartment.

Finally I would end with the fact that I'm starting to rebuild this wall, but leaving a small aperture open just for you which will ever wait for you to occupy the seat for whom I had initially kept it empty.

INDIA EXPOSED.

Post 26/11 attack has exposed India's weakness & inability to anticipate terror strike of such an large scale conspired by the foreign elements on the Indian soil. Foreign elements has created havoc in the country time and again that has been completely forgotten or ignored. In fact over the last few years there was surprisingly attack in almost 15 major cities around the country. Amidst all the terror strike committed on Indian soil, the one that occurred at Mumbai was the most heinous and dreadful. It was an attack that had been well planned and people trained like combats for the maximum damage and casualty. But at this juncture the efforts of our Policemen, NSG commando's are worthy of praise for the courage taken in order to eliminate the terrorist from the Hotels ensuring that as minimum of hostages were lost.
The last several years has been a witness to the rise of Extremist terrorism seen in our soil for the very first time. Surprisingly the enemy we were tackling for the last few decades just at the borders are no more a threat than the ones seen attacking us at the heart of the country. The account of lost lives & damaged infrastructure has been monumental arising from terrorist strike across the country. But whats surprises me is the astronomical failure of the government in repeatedly avoiding occurrence of such a attacks on the society.
The Joker in the movie The Dark Knight comments, When citizens are hurt by criminals, there isn't much fear in the society, where in if a high profile individual is targeted the society is inflated with tension. Imagine the similar type of response if had been possible after any bomb attacks that had been carried out earlier I guessed there would have been every possibility the society & the government would have taken more proactive steps.
Apart from planned training, brainwashing, religious intolerance, unprofessional, non committed, careless and irresponsible bureaucrats & politicians are responsible for the messy situation the country has landed into. The immediate consequence could be soon seen by rolling heads in the government incapable of handling the position they represented. So were the long list of high profile ministers letting lose & cheap words unworthy of there caliber and position, invoking the wrath of people across the country. Colossal failure of the country was exposed when a bunch of 10 armed people took the country at ransom for more than 60 hours. The collective failure of every unit was easily witnessed during the horrendous event. The Media had it own share of blame to carry which covered the interviews of the elite suffered but neglected the poor traveling at the other heritage center CST. Aam Aadmi voice was lost in oblivion where in the elite were exclusively covered even at their homes. The news channel and its anchors were busy showing the charred tables & broken crockery at the Hotels. While others were showcasing the live actions taken by the NSG commandos, forgetting that the greatest disaster that occurred at Munich 1972 Olympics was primarily due to live telecast of armed action by snipers that were viewed by the terrorist and who in turn finally killed the 11 athletes.
The dastardly attack has completely exposed our country inability to take proactive decision on preventing of any such future possible attack. Desperate situation doesn't require desperate response. Polarized society will only end up weakening the momentum require to solve the crisis. One thing for sure for me is that series of such attack has clearly shown us all of that, We might be a Soft Individuals, But we have also become a Soft Target.

Religious Intolerance.

I ever wondered whether being born as Hindu, Christian, Muslim, Buddhist or Jew ever took me closer to God. If this wasn't the case why is the world hell bent on converting someone from one religion to other, and again reconverting them back. If a conversion to a religion is the ticket to long lasting peace, then I think the converters are forgetting the major clue. It's not the religion but the practice of your religion will take you closer to GOD, and grant one self everlasting peace and Happiness.
As the saying goes, The door of the Heavens opens for you for eternal joy and Bliss. But everyone forgets the preface to the quote, being a righteous man will you the get your share of bliss and happiness. Of late religious conversion is on rampart in Indian society. The country being secular has given the rights to its citizen to choose the religion he like and practice his culture without hesitation. The oppressed lower caste Hindu who have been tormented by the rich upper caste for ages have chosen to change there religion when provided an opportunity by the christian missionary. I wonder just by changing your religion does one get rid of all the difficulties of his life, Then surely just one religion would have survived over the centuries. Nobody has realized that suppression in lower caste arises due to economic factors and low illiteracy. Thus any organization want to really provide succor to the oppressed they should have ensure by providing them with education and employment opportunities. As Lord Jesus said, if you give fish to hungry, you feed him for the day, but if you teach him to fish, then you feed him for his life. Thus for this reason the christian missionary should be praised that they have set up school in the remote corners of the country, where government has failed to reach its masses. But if they think that by bargaining education and resources with their religion, they are mistaking their work ethics. Conversion & Reconversion has off late resulted in series of violent attacks on the majority & minority citizens of the country. Hills of Kandhamal which would have hardly striked anyone's sight on the Indian Map is now making headlines around the world over the issue of communal fight between the 2 groups. Though the reason between animosity between the 2 group though both initially belonged to lower Hindu caste earlier, has been fueled by the fact one group after conversion has a better literacy and influential position. The killing of a holy seer which has led to escalation of violence in the entire state of Orissa and as a result has affected the minority living in the other state like Karnataka. The situation is more of a political issue rather than a mere religious matter.
The reality of religious conversion being hidden amidst rubble's of political & economic disparity is the fact people are not converted by force or will, but driven to despair by living in a discarded society with no self respect and financial constrain. The people apart from promised a place for themselves in heaven from following a certain religion are given a identity in the society. It's this condition that makes them convert to different religion. Though there are various governmental law that need to be abide while conversion takes place, ensuring that conversion in not forceful & against there will. But the matter still remain untouched whether conversion gives you the peace and happiness which remained elusive when you were someone else, or was it just a route taken to avoid the societies neglect, poverty and desperation.

IT's not NORMAL Anymore.

Last evening as I called up my aunty to check out how she was, the moment I heard of Delhi serial blast. She told me, that she was fine and things were back to normal soon. People were in fact also flocking to the bomb sites near the 2 famous busy markets of Delhi, to know how the situation looked.
The media ensured that the entire nation was aware of the new disaster that striked the country once again by covering the entire incident immediately after the blast till late night including live press from the Home minister, Chief Minister and other important dignitaries. The live response of entire nation echoes just one sentiment that whatever the terrorist do to steal the peace and normalcy of the country, we shall not budge, get afraid, and we will be back to our routine. It looks the serial blast have become a weekly affair in the country. Thus the citizens feel there is not much to be scared of. If you are unlucky then you suffer at the hands of the cruel fate, else we just end up speaking few words, how incompetent the federal government has become, that it is unable to provide security to its citizen.
The silver lining of the entire cowardice incident carried out by the terrorist that it has failed to induce fear in the heart of the citizens of the country. Though the attack has been carried out by a group of individual, it doesn't really matter to which group they belong to, what I fail to understand is in such attack those who die do not belong to any peculiar group. So the very purpose of fighting such an insurgency really serves no purpose. On what ideology are these incidents carried out, result is just destruction.
The media is holding debate amidst top politicians, whether to implement stringent anti-terror laws to uphold safety of the citizens. Some group is interested in training specialist for post attack investigation to avoid future attacks. Few other claims that we need to improvise out intelligence bureau so as to track the terrorist and pass on the necessary information to others. Some request others not to blame a particular society/group while the investigation is going on, though the indication invisibly points towards them. All these measure will no doubt help to solve if not completely avoid any future terrorist attacks.
Amidst all this turmoil there is certain change that's happening in the mindset of the INDIANS. Though we claim we are brave to face any such attack by the insurgent on us, that they can break our resolve to lead a routine life with peace and happiness. Deep amidst these claims, fear has found its root and we try to hide it by living a routine layman life. Else we wouldn't have become so remorse, for we pity only when we are helpless. This feeling of helpless has arisen from the seeds of fear, which is covered by our feeling of superficial existence. Thus when we speak that despite the serial bombing in my town, our life has been unaffected, it’s because we are helpless not knowing what to do, and say life is just normal. But the truth remains; life is no longer NORMAL anymore.

Shamefull Exit

To be shown a red card in football match purely indicates that the team has to play the remaining part of the game with 1 player short. It plays a detrimental role as the one of player remains unmarked gives the opponent a huge chance of scoring relatively easy. To be booked for yellow card or red card for misconduct or dangerous challenge was introduced in football in 1970 FIFA world cup, and became mandatory in all forms of domestic matches since 1982.
On screen most of the time details are missed when we see player being booked committing a foul, but the on field referee and linesmen help make a sensible decision at last.The point I noticed as I sat and watched late night the Champions league final between Manchester United and Chelsea. There were ugly scenes that occurred in extra time as Tevez was pushed around and finally Didier Drogba was handed red card for slapping Vidic. The greatest ignominy that a player feels is being handed a red card and that on a special occasion like final of great football tournament. The greatest(most shameful) of such exit was that of Zinedin Zidane for head butting Materazzi. The player rated twice as the Fifa world player and golden ball winner in the year 2006, before making a shame full exit from sports with his famously infamous headbutt against Materazzi. So with Beckham against Argentina in the 1998 world cup quarter finals.
Some decision could have been harsh others subdued, but the fact is the player leaves the ground in shame. For some it could have been the most shameful exit of their career, for other just a punishment for their bad tackle on the opponent. It took me by suprise that there were some player on whom the entire teams moral and strength rest, and they carry the team spirit till the dying moment of the great matches only to lose their cool in some untoward incident( they might have been provoked). This exit for many has caused the team to lose their trophies Zidane and Drogba are the 2 names that immediately strikes me as i remember watching the entire match only to realize that their misconduct resulted in losing the silverware for their team.
I just feel that heavy expectation from these players result in loosing their head in the most crucial moments of the game. But after all its these pressure that test every player and separates boys from men.

Blowing The Flame.

Human right violation is not new to mankind, and has occurred ever since man has ruled his fellow men. The society with power and an eager thirst to conquer beyond its occupied territory has always resulted in clash between societies with and without power always resulting in destruction of life and property. The aftermath of such conquest is of more importance as it always result in extreme human right violation, resulting from the revolt of sufferers.
Most of the occasion, the suffering of the oppressed is slipped below the carpet in name of planned violence. But the present scenario, where Chinese government unleashed terror in Tibet resulting in large scale death of local citizens needs appropriate solution. The western world views it as complete death of democracy in Tibet, where as the Tibetans voiced there protest against the Chinese government by disrupting the Olympic flame throughout the world Olympic relay beginning from Athens, London, Paris, San Francisco and Delhi.The question that got highlighted was whether Tibetans were right in their attempt to disrupt the Olympic flame, did it get the required attention by the world in large of the growing atrocities of the Chinese government towards the Tibetans.
A certain part of me accepted the way the Tibetans voiced their protest, as its well known that their peace loving master Dalai Lama is completely against any form of violence, and he ensured that in any kind of protest that were carried out were completely non-violent. Disrupting a rally without hurting, or breaking any law is clearly a matured form of voicing concern. The most important point to notice is none of the protest resulted in any damage of any life or property. They ensured that by targeting the Olympic torch run which ran news in every corner of the world, the Tibetans could reach out to the entire world showing the atrocities suffered by them under the illegitimate Chinese rule.
But how right were they in targeting an event which plans to unite mankind under a single umbrella. Sports and games represented in Olympic brings out the best of an individual, It's a proud moment for any individual to represent his/her country and win accolades by competing with the best in the world. Chinese Olympic event has become a political target for everyone to voice their concern about Chinese inability to provide humanitarian succor to people in Darfur and Tibet. Even Steven Spielberg quit the Olympic artist director after mentioning that he felt the Chinese government did nothing to resolve the crisis at Darfur despite having such strong hold in Sudan national politics. Even the event got out of proportion in India when many top notched sports person decided not to involve themselves in the torch run. Even decision by great leaders to boycott the opening and closing Olympic ceremony as a mean to drive home the message that the Chinese government is wrong in there approach to handle the humanitarian crisis in Tibetan and Darfur.
It looks absurd to choose an occasion like sports to voice their concern about political crisis around the world. Sports is an event that should try to unite mankind in spite of all the differences that exist amidst us, but by we are missing the opportunity that we get what sport and games has to offer. My views are not against the voicing of the concern, but against the occasion used to voice the concern.

Uniting the Nation

With Raj Thackeray politically trying to create divide amidst Maharashtrian by accusing north Indian migrant of swamping state financial situation, blaming them for lack of opportunity for the fellow Maharastrian. Along with which few big bollywood names lending support to his cause, it look surprising, instead of going ahead, we are creating plans and vision for the nation to lead it backward. There are contentious issues, sporadic event occurring throughout that scares the uniting fabric of the nation.
But what surprised me completely as I watched the second finals between young Indian blue and Oz down under, with the Team India defeated the world champ by 9 runs to claim there first tri-series series against Australia in Australia. It was a great cricketing achievement for the nation to be proud of its young sportstars. The nation goes frenzy and start to throw abuse on every possible cricketer, captain and coach when the team loses, but then praises lavishly on team members for there victory. Every news channel have at least a hour of news daily about cricket, though it might have no relation to any on-field event. Cricket news sell more hotter than the news regarding Darfur Crisis, US presidential election or may be even recently concluded Indian budget.
What really bind the nation amidst the geographical boundaries is the spirit of cricket, it unites the old and young, rich and poor, illiterate and literate. No wonder the game of cricket is aptly called the 'Religion of the developing India.' With Sachin, Yuvraj, Dhoni or even Dravid raised to the status of demigod. It's no doubt that they have become a sort of ideal personality for youngsters to cheer about. Every Indian has a variety of suggestion, comment and advice for the players, (God knows how many ever played on ground with full guard) but yet each have a comment to share on everyone of them.
Nation being cricket crazy brings upon itself an unique way of bringing it citizen dwell on some common interest they share among themselves. Cricket gives the citizen a platform to express themselves, which otherwise people have really nothing to share or comment with others. For many it looks the game has taken priority over many other relevant issues and other forms of game. But what is more important is it has brought under itself variety of people with all possible background to share a common agenda. If cricket can be used as a medium to impart some message to the nation, its bound to reach the corners of the boundary.
Rarely does an country can boast of some issue that can bring it entire clan to be proactive, but here in India, cricket has achieved the status which no other agenda, issue or event can bring the entire nation on the edge of it chair. If utilized properly as a right medium, cricket has the ability to unite the nation, beyond the realm of any social, religious or political framework.

For SALE, For SALE........

Well this is an article that is the outcome of a debate competition held back in my campus amidst PhD graduates, where we discussed the ensuring legality of human sale was beneficial. Well i did take stance for favoring the motion and what follow below is my perspective of the topic. It's for not creating any controversial stir as the topic is highly sensitive and has to be handled with utmost care and logical viewpoint.
The excerpt are as follow.....
Ladies and Gentleman of Elite Intellectual society
I'm not here to sensationalize, the issue but want every individual look at the matter from a pragmatic perspective. Over the last few weeks every newspaper has carried the news of immigrant workers being exploited of there body organs specially Kidney without there CONSENT. Such news are sufficient to stir human right activist, and in turn every news channel and in general entire public.
Well let me portray some statistics, people say numbers can be misleading, but most of the time they do are informative. Just in the state of Delhi and Harayana, there were 2000 patients who received kidney transplant, where is just 30 were from relatives, by the way its illegal to receive any sort of human organ apart from eyes from your relatives. This implies the remaining 1970 were illegal transplant!!!!. Apart from this there are 6700 still awaiting transplant and there are 6000 who die annually, just because there are no donors available. I ask of the audience have you heard of such issues ever making news or any human activist organization supporting this cause.
I want to highlight the fact that people die every year, not because there are no immediate relative donors available, thus you have no way to approach anyone else to donate human organs by any legal procedure, and as a result what thrive amidst is a huge illegal black market of organ sales running across the length and breadth of the world.
Organ sale is viewed as manifestation of poverty and desperation from the lower strata of the society. We view it as breach of human rights, but the life being saved is never scaled on the same MORAL BALANCE. Well what will legalizing organ sale result in, looking at in a humorous note
1)It will reduce the burden of maintaining criminal in the jail.
2)It will abolish, if not surely minimize the crime of illegal sale.
3)It will help to regulate and monitor such an event, which will help in long run to minimize risk, find novel route to help emergency patients and will avoid surely exploitation of poor people.
Organ Sale-Organ transplant can be viewed as win-win situation, rather than mere exploitation of poor people. If the donor is from the weaker section and the recipient from richer section, ensuring right legal law we can ensure right monetary benefit to the poor and right health benefit to the rich. The same can be said of even opposite situation. Every individual has right to healthy living.
By legalizing you are not only creating win-win situation in every transplant, but also ensure in the illegal trade, the poor will never be exploited. Legalizing ensure the whole process is scanned under right conditions, and it will help database where the knowledge will be useful in long run.
Finally its m firm belief, Legal framework is like a mesh, which collect dirt, when dirty water flows through it. Finer the mesh(i.e better the legal framework) the cleaner the water you get at the other end.
Man needs conscience to drive himself ahead, where else society requires law to progress.

It ain't over 'til it's over

The above tag line shouldn't come as surprise for Hollywood buffs, for the moment they read it,Rocky Balboa should manifest front of them. Sylvester Stallone has immortalized the machoist character Rocky Balboa to the entire world. The movie was inspired by Muhammad Ali- Chuck Wepner heavy weight boxing fight held in 1975. The 6 part movie revolves around the heavy weight boxing champion Rocky Balboa, whose challenged by different contenders during different phases of his life.
The movie apart from highlighting boxing has shed light on various aspect of human personality which is essential for survival. I enjoyed seeing the entire series in one go, just to not let go continuity and appreciate the nuances of story line in the movie. The spirit of 'never give up' despite enduring pain flows as the bottom line of the movie. Rigorous training and hard work are essential for any successful career, but when it applies to physical training, its so easy to quit, after all when body endures pain mind hesitates to accompany. Pain is a human quality that everyone tries to avoid, but not realizing its importance that without pain one cannot enjoy pleasure.
Pain has its own relevance in human life, it moves one's heart seeing other in pain.
It provokes your grey cells, for rarely do you bother when people are happy around you, but when they are in pain{sad} do you feel like knowing about them, thus get people closer. But Pain can do more magic than just hurt us around, the more you face pain, the more you can handle them later. Pain can widen our circle of exhaustions. Pain might wear your muscles and strengthens your mind. Enduring pain toughens the will power of man, after all the building subjected to harshest test survives along the annals of history.
Sports and Games are one place where man is ready to accept pain gleefully, after all its while playing man enjoys despite being pain, exercising his ability to his limits and beyond. Sportsman speaks of mental toughness that lead them to glory, the stepping stone to this glory is pain and pain alone. Pain that teaches not to quit when going get tough, but to become more tough. After all ITS NOT OVER TILL ITS ALL OVER.

Recipe for Disaster.

Imagine fertile land all around you is not used to feed the growing population of the world, rather for filling up the tanks of the motors driven around us. Biofuels can no way supplement the growing demand of automation and aviation industry for replaceable fuel, rather will stress the increasing demand for food for increasing population in the world.
Biofuels firstly need appropriate definition for itself, It's a fuel made from living part or waste they produce. The list include wood, straw, animal excreta, ethanol made from processing plant material. But of late, its derived mostly from crops like sugarcane and corn. Ethanol is used along with petrol as fuel in most of the advanced hybrid vehicle. The advantage of using biofuels is it will reduce greenhouse gas emission, and in turn reduce the catastrophe of global warming.This advantage has been highlighted extensively for increasing the production of biofuels around the world. In fact countries like Brazil, US have doubled there ethanol production in last 4-5 years. European Union also have set target that vehicle running should have around 5% of fuel coming from biological sources. Setting targets like this will put more pressure on government to put aside more land for devoting it for cultivation of biofuels, rather for food grains. The picture looks so clear from the fact that the moment the land for cultivating biofuels is diverted to fuel your vehicles, instantly there is more pressure to feed the growing population of the world. There are already civil unrest that has occurred in several developing nations such as Mexico over food versus fuel conflict.
Society seems to have disregarded the fact that there is population explosion, and half the population in most of the developing and underdeveloped nations still sleeps with empty stomach every night. The priority needs to be set right, is is to fuel the rich people vehicle in developed nations, or feed the malnourished people of the world. And as far as use of biofuels as greener technology for the future, the simple solution lies in reducing energy consumption, rather than trying to meet the increasing energy demands of growing population.