Ten Issues - 4

1- Half-life of the Coal Child : Not many know that the dangerous and suffocating rat mines of Meghalaya are worked by 70,000 child miners. Following them into hellish pits, Kunal Majumder exposes the dark veins of an exploitative industry.

2- Glory, piety and politics : With Pakistan’s two main political parties looking exhausted by being made to play a continuous game of cat and mouse with the establishment, the new generation of young Pakistanis began to look elsewhere.

3- A Short History of Rebellion" : TSI discovers that most fade away or come back ‘home’. Some do make history–for better or worse.

4- Interview of Maulana Abul Kalam Azad given to the famous journalist Shorish Kashmiri for a Lahore based Urdu magazine, Chattan, in April 1946.

5- Of grids and groups: An alternative view of "open" and "closed" societies.

6- Over 200,000 Narmada Dam oustees still to be rehabilitated; A crime that goes unpunished for 25 years.

7- Killings of Ahmadis unleashes fresh soul-searching over Pakistan’s identity : The soul-searching is particularly acute given that the suppression of the Ahmadis is officially endorsed by the state.

8- The 7 Habits of Highly Ineffective People : The thing about habits is that for good and bad they require no thinking.

9- Invisible environmentalists : They forage the city, collecting and sorting often hazardous waste when the city sleeps and by day they are gone. Most of them are women and we have no long-term policy in place that looks at their welfare or health, writes Kalpana Sharma.

10- The Great Bhopal Killing : Read here complete history of Disaster.

In Between, Abhishek Singhvi who is the spokesperson of Congress is also the legal representative of DOW Chemicals (the company that purchased Carbide). Not only that, he is also a member of the committee that is supposed to investigate the Bhopal incident. So on the one hand he is an investigator, and on the other, he protects the legal interests of DOW. What a wonderful world !

The Necessity of Blasphemy - 1

I try to understand the phenomenon constituting of violence, power, truth and justice in the daily happenings. Blasphemy is must for progress of the civilization. Ideas behind traditions must be challenged to know if they are true and relevant — and if we cannot challenge an idea, we cannot know validity of following the traditions in the society. Today, I want to publish without fear or favour and look at the world without the filter of 'faith'.

USA administered Guantanamo Bay or Abu Ghraib in Iraq, Soviet suppression through Gulag, Hitler's cruelty in the Holocaust, Islamic persecution of Bahai faith, Ahmadiyya community and non Muslims, discrimination in hindus on the basis of caste, Israel's action against Palestine, South African apartheid with root of racism, fight of Christianity against evolution theory and countless other struggles shows the dark side of the world in last 60 years only.

They are the recent events existing in the minds of last generation. They are still not tampered enough or vanished out by the propagandist of religion or patriotism. Milan Kundera was spot on in observing this: The struggle of man against power is the struggle of memory against forgetting. It's a pity though that argument doesn't cut it - we have to wait for inhumanity to reach its crescendo (Spanish Inquisition, Slavery, Holocaust, Apartheid, Guantanamo) before the scales fall from people's eyes and they recognise the error in their dogma.

There can be no democracy without secularism, since only under secularism can one free oneself from religious or sectarian mentalities, and as a consequence think and choose with one's mind. What is happening is that extremist leaders who have absolutely no clue about solving the country’s problems are promising a heaven that they cannot deliver, on condition that a certain section of the country is either eliminated or pushed into the ghettos.

Any statement or work of art may be good or bad, the essential test is whether they are worth seeing or not and the authority to decide lies with the viewers and not with any self proclaimed leaders of the society, state or religion. Its not one cause which makes one a terrorist but ones method which makes one a terrorist.

The plea that nobody should offend the conservative elements’ sensibilities should be thoroughly discussed. Up to a point the argument is valid, then its used to drag down backwards to the society where power dictates. There is a ridiculous 'respect' demanded by religious people for their unsupportable superstitious beliefs.

Take the Burqa case only. Societies having people with diverse religious backgrounds are bound together partly by informal chance relations between strangers – people being able to acknowledge each other in the street or being able pass the time of day. The anonymity of the burqa takes the uniqueness of face away from the woman. That is my greatest objection to it. Burqa is a symbol of submission in the eyes of progressive religion (progressive on the basis of emergence of people who questioned authority of religion over an individual);

Women's choice should be governed by their own will. And the right of choice comes through free and rational thinking. And a person avoiding rationalism due to belief in an unquestioned faith is harmful for society, be it christian or any other religion. And don’t justify anything because its written in the religious books thousand year ago. The rational education given to you has led for this ability to question own’s logic, experience and prevailing circumstances. A decision should not be governed by the blind faith and ideological enslavement to a society, state or religion of the birth and upbringing.

I don’t see this as a ban but the freedom of woman to overcome a barrier thrown by a stone age society; We all owe Europe for its secular notion and rational thinking. And they had history of bitter fight with church and life of many good people were ruined along the way in order to define for human rights, equality, freedom and other cherished values of European enlightenment. And, That's why these value are precious; The organic growth and spreading of European secularism happened through out the world due to its universal appeal. I will end this part of essay with a dialogue from the movie Agora : You don’t question what you believe, or cannot. I must.

Ten Issues - 2

I am not interested in sensationalism in these sensitive times. I talk about phenomenon in the state of cultural stagnation and political apathy. Reading and education is do ours bit to build democracy as effectiveness of democracy depends on the awareness of its citizens.

1- Indianhomemaker tells us: What do men need liberation from ?

2- Half of India doesn’t even have access to the judiciary. what do courts mean to them? Lawyer Prashant Bhushan speaks to Amit Sengupta of Tehleka on Who is a public intellectual, who can pass for one in India?

3- Amrita Preetam Imroz : A love Story of a Poet and a Painter. Just read to understand the intimacy of the love and poetry.

4- Dubai for a common purpose: to make money as smoothly and painlessly as possible, even if that means turning a blind eye.

5- Greg Satell explains: The Difference between Social Media and Social Networks.

6- From fields to a BPO in 6 months : A first-of-its-kind women-only BPO started by 'Harva' in a Haryana village is all set to harness the rural talent while changing the rigid mindset of the people, transforming rural economy, writes Hemlata Aithani.

7- Author of this post said - If truly good cinema is what survives the test of time, then these three were my first encounter with good world cinema that subsequently attracted me into the good world of cinema! Go on and read - World Cinema : Dark is Mine.

8- By mollycoddling their charges and telling them how to fix each problem, coaches end up creating players who can't think or act for themselves. Is that what has happened to RP Singh and Ishant Sharma? Go figure it out yourself by Harsha Bhogle

9- The Envelope, Please: From Eight Great Innovative Tools, Which Ones Are the Winners? published by April 22, 2010 in India Knowledge@Wharton

10- Who is easily manipulated? A valid question asked by Seth Godin on advertisements.

I don't walk Left

Question- How do society cope with its problems ?

Answer- In the first step, Intellects of the community discover the malpractices going in the society. They are noticed by all but not viewed as problem in the general conscious of the group in the authority (monetary and political in charge). Intellects present the problem so that its long term ill effects can be understand by the individuals. Then in final step, they modify or replace the practice with the new one. Hence, society moves from one processing system to other till the existing one corrupts. But this minority of intellect of the society breeds in the environment where rational voice is not suppressed by the fear of violence of authority or extremists. Thus how society evolve and their idea of justice expands. All human rights & social equality movements have given value to this freedom and democracy of the human life.

The basic condition of the peaceful co existence in diverse society (each group is diverse in the nature) is the free flow of the knowledge. The society barred from the information flow is doomed to rise in confusion and paranoia. Conspiracy theories arise in the closed community and dissent is taken as disloyalty. The state will try to push only single voice with false propaganda through news network, intelligence agencies and rewriting history books. The environment of fear soon spreads epidemically and vociferous supporter of new propaganda theories become associated with the party.

The reality will collide with the narrow closed assumptions of state and religion. A state governed by too much closeness wants to avoid terror of 'globalized world under capitalism' in name of protecting the weakened. The deep belief that everything—especially anything pro western (capitalistic)—is already and by definition an intervention is part of the very identity and ideology of the Communist and Islamic theocracy. So even moderates are regards as corrupts and betrayer in their own society.

An abolished censorship, tolerated artistic freedom, eased travel restrictions and allowed new civic movements to come into existence, they merely created a virus that threatened the communist system. The absurdity of the ruling system could be counted on; what was necessary in the meanwhile was the refusal of the lie and the willingness to display civic courage. Theocratic or communistic regions are absolute in the nature. Communist regimes become oppressive with the time. The gradual transfer of Bolshevik revolution into Stalin's dictatorship regime destroyed the spirit of revolution in the name of itself. And in theocracy, Iran is the prime example of progressive society and stone age thinking political authority.

There is a deep link, not only of shared experience that people share a view of the world, the commitment to social equality and freedom. Leftwing intellectual mafia still hangs on the theoretical aspect of communism instead of falling to see why communism fall in the trap of dictatorial type governance. Unfortunately, loyalty to an idea rather than its purpose is a recipe for disaster. And that's why the Communism fail to solve the problems. Communism is an institution works best in opposition. It checks the absolute concentration of capital in the hands of few individuals. It is an instrument of distribution of wealth but not the generation. That's why It fail to generate money or to encourage entrepreneurship skills in the people.

I think that it's the responsibility of those writers and intellectuals who are still alive to talk about the past openly so to avoid the dangers in the future. The tendency of outside analyst like me should not be to focus excessive around state sponsored person or religious clerics, rather than consulting the writers and poets of the country. Analyst has to learn and avoid sensationalism in reading the issues. And the issues should be seen as an happening phenomenon to observe and re mediate the problem in the society.

Ten Issues - 1

The first step in solving any issue is accepting the presence of the problem. A man convinced against will is of the same opinion still. So let us broadened our opinions about issues here -

1- Before the home ministry raises new paramilitary battalions, it needs to ask why the old ones are quitting in droves. raman kirpal reports on a brewing crisis : Soldiers of Misfortune .

2- Taking offense an be a competitive sport. Islam is forefront runner in this game : Not Even in South Park?

3- Opposition to reservations for women in Parliament have centred on at least four points. Step by step Vaijayanti Gupta rebuts the arguments and re-iterates the case for reservations. Women’s reservation Bill – the 2010 story .

4- Need tribal voices for their rights to counter corporate propagandist nationalism. The Fall Out Of Dantewada By Vidya Bhushan Rawat.

5- David Mumford reviews Kim Plofker's Mathematics in India ;

6- In this interesting paper [PDF], Lant Pritchett argues that India, despite its economic strides and democracy, is a "flailing" state:

7- Micro-foundations of Inclusive Growth [PDF]: The aim of this chapter is to go beyond these short-term and sector-specific concerns to broader questions of policy making in India and, at the same time, to focus on the relatively neglected subject of the micro-foundations of macroeconomic policy.

8- Remedial Education : Research by J-PAL affiliates has shown that providing remedial tutoring for children who have fallen behind academically can improve learning outcomes. Evidence from their study has contributed to the scale-up of NGO Pratham's Read India program in 19 states in India. In 2008-09, 33 million children benefited from remedial education through the Read India program.

9- Dropout engineering a hundred orphan dreams. Society needs person like Rajesh Singh as their role model. Thanks Vivek Padmanabham for the weblink.

10- Selections from Dalit Writing ; Let me close 10th section with an old Indian tale which maybe has some insights. A father used to read his child bedtime stories. One day the child asked the father, ‘Dad, how come in all the stories you read, the hunter always bags the tiger.’ The father thought for a moment and replied, ‘When the tiger learns to write you will hear that story.’

Thought of the Day: Conversations have three levels : people, incidents and ideas. The lowest form of conversation is about people. When we go up one rung we reach incidents which have a slightly larger spectrum than talking about people. But the conversation which really matters is when we talk about ideas, because they are universal and live beyond time and space. - Javed Akhtar

Disturbing Trend in Civilization - 4 (Last Part)

I had read about Nazism and holocaust in class 10th history book. The whole notion of racial supremacy appears highly irrational to my teenage mind. Hitler and Nazis rise on the wave of German Nationalism. Read in super short about history here :

" To secure their ability to create a totalitarian state, the Nazi party's paramilitary force, the Sturmabteilung (SA) or "Storm Detachment" used acts of violence against leftists, communist, democrats, Jews and other opposition or minority groups. Given the frustrations of the people (after World War I and during the Great Depression) it was easy for the SA to attract large numbers of alienated (and unemployed) youth and working class people for the party.he "logic" of keeping Germany small worked in the favor of its principal economic rivals, and had been a driving force in the recreation of a Polish state. The goal was to create numerous counterweights in order to "balance out Germany's power". The Nazis endorsed the concept of Großdeutschland, or Greater Germany, and believed that the incorporation of the Germanic people into one nation was a vital step towards their national success.

Racialism and racism were important aspects of society within the Third Reich. The Nazis combined anti-Semitism with anti-Communist ideology, regarding the leftist-internationalist movement—as well as international market capitalism—as the work of "Conspiratorial Jewry". They referred to this so-called movement with terminology such as the "Jewish-Bolshevistic revolution of subhumans".[49] This platform manifested itself in the displacement, internment, and systematic extermination of an estimated 11 million to 12 million people in the midst of World War II, roughly half of them being Jews targeted in what is historically remembered as the Holocaust (Shoah), 3 million ethnic Poles, and another 100,000–1,000,000 being Roma, who were murdered in the Porajmos. Other victims of Nazi persecution included communists, various political opponents, social outcasts, homosexuals, freethinkers, religious dissidents such as Jehovah's Witnesses, Christadelphians, the Confessing Church and Freemasons. "[Source: Wiki]



It was my first encounter with the monsters of the human civilization created on the name of belief. This homogeneous and state-sponsored strain of believe system will damage the whole civilization and Europe has taken lesson from it. I observe that when minority have much control on trade, education and jobs, This will provoke backlash of majority. Majority will rise either in the name of religious or ethnic nationalism. This has happened in Germany and it will happen in Africa soon.

A complete opposite matter in India that Muslims constitute highly uneducated, unskilled and poor part of population. Sachar Committee recommend for reservation that is opposed by majority of Hindus. They completely fail to see the concept of inclusive growth. A country can't develop with its one of the ethnic or religious group absent in the government jobs. Paramount position hold by few Muslims doesn't depict with honesty the position of backwardness of the Muslim.

If majority claims truth on the basis of their supposed superiority of the collective regime at the expense of minority, the society is on the path of decay and violence. Through the engineering of a single, wholesome notion of faith and nation as preached by RSS brand in India will put us more towards civil war than development and peace. And our habit of taking guidance with Islamic clergy for each decision in Muslim matters shows moral bankruptcy and tendency to ignore majority of Muslims for easy approach; The last person by merit whose opinion should be taken for progressive causes are given highest priority.

Muslim in minority voice for secular state while being in majority starts debating for sharia law. That is happening in Kashmir valley. Sometimes, I fear from the paranoid outrage against Muslims and immigrants by Shiv Sainiks and MNS. Long history of violence is overlooked by majority here in India to support their regional, ethnic and religious causes.

Why it becomes almost a matter greater than life and death to hide your faults? We stand proud for the positive qualities about our culture and religion but takes an irrational approach in its shortcomings. To be self centered and obsessed with greatness of own is the reason if fall of all men, societies and civilizations of the world. I want to end last part of the essay on optimistic note. But don't know what will happen to the world around us in the future. I want a change and a place where people understand value of Liberty, Equality, Fraternity...

Vichaar Shoonya + 5

It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face in marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat. [Part of Speech by Theodore Roosevelt at the Sorbonne, Paris, April 23, 1910.]

1- Delhi's Commonwealth Games slave labour shame : CHILDREN are slaving away at work on building sites in New Delhi as the Indian capital struggles to get ready for this year's Commonwealth Games.

2- The Song That Is Irresistible: How the State Leads People to Their Own Destruction : Robert Higgs's Schlarbaum Award Acceptance Speech, delivered on October 12, 2007, at the Mises Institute's 25th Anniversary Celebration.

3- The Grandmaster Experiment : The queen is the most powerful piece on the chessboard. Yet in the ultra-elite ranks of chess, a woman who can hold her own is the rarest of creatures. How, then, did one family produce three of the most successful female chess champions ever?

4- Vanishing Wisdom : A report on water management in Uttarakhand where traditional systems do the disappearing act.

5- Microfinanace in Macro Mess : Corporate entry threatens the very idea on which microfinance institutions were set up. How will the dispossessed be affected.

6- Lilavati's Daughters: The Women Scientists of India

7- Deterring Internet Piracy : A burning debated between Cinephiles

8- How Harvard Gets its Best and Brightest : Sure, students work hard to get into this elite college. But so does the admissions committee.

9- Burma : The political Black Hole (pdf format)

10- The structure and silence of the cognitariat: Only a small "creative class" achieves the creativity and freedom attributed by stereotype to all knowledge workers, writes Christopher Newfield. Below this elite exist far more numerous "perma-temps", who are highly qualified yet interchangeable.

11- How to Create Ideas that Evolve.

Jihad against Caste Discrimination

I am always in the favor of inclusive development of backward caste and tribe with general caste. Equality, dignity and merit to GE, OBC & SC, ST irrespective of their caste backgrounds. I always think that government gives equal ground through regulations and reservation in theory only. I don't know that our higher caste Hindu is now accepting lower caste as their equals or not. I always ask elders that has society became more feudal, caste oriented and communal than 60 years ago ? No clear cut answers. People still ask surname with smile to map out the caste and ancestry in their minds. I hope one day caste discrimination will fade away and it will remind us of our ethnicity only.

1- An interview of Shahid Siddiqui, Editor of Urdu daily Nai Duniya about caste politics.

2- Call for first caste census in India.

Officials said the ministry had asked for caste to be included as one of the criteria in the 2011 census, and recommended a differential headcount of the Other Backward Classes and reassessment of their conditions that could lead to changes in the OBC list.

3-Untouchables in Indian polity, 1956-2000: A review from a mainstream political angle. This review is from the book The Untouchables: Subordination, Poverty And The State In Modern India by Oliver Mendelsohn & Marika Vicziany

4- MacArthur Foundation "genius" Esther Duflo, PhD '99, field-tests aid programs to find out which ones work-and why.

5- Indian cinema and caste. A well balanced look.

"If you ask a Bollywood filmmaker whether this is actually what he is defending, he will be surprised. He believes that the values he is defending in his film are universal — love, family, country, religion... The word ‘caste’ would never cross his mind. Then how do we say that Bollywood films defend caste society?

The arranged marriage or marriage with parental sanction is an institution that supports, that takes the load of caste society through absolute parental authority when it comes to marriage or any other kind of relationship with the opposite sex. This parental authority is taken for granted in Bollywood films. There is no need to even explain it. The world of Bollywood cinema is so cleansed of caste and religion that one is almost tempted to believe that one is dealing with a bunch of ultra-liberals for whom caste and religion do not define the human personality. But the real reason for this absence is that women must not make the wrong sexual choice that could lead to the collapse of society as we know it. So, the world of Bollywood cinema is shown to be a ‘natural’ world, where upper caste Punjabi men are linked up with upper caste Punjabi women without the problematic obstacle of caste ever coming in the way of their union. Whereas, in reality, especially for the middle-class, caste is an overriding factor in marriage in particular and sexual relations in general."

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I remembered a good quote against racism to finish this article. That would be of a 19-year old single mother from McKeesport, quoted by the Democratic Party chairman for Pittsburgh's 22nd Ward, Khari Mosley, in the Pittsburgh Post Gazette, on November 2nd.

Rosa sat so Martin could walk, Martin walked so Barack could run, Barack ran so we all can fly.

Articles on Cyberworld:

1- A fourth of India turning into desert: ISRO study : No less than a fourth of India’s geographical area, or 81 million hectares, is undergoing a process of desertification

2- Communism Lite - Kerala : Story of Communist party in Kerala covered by Karl E. Meyer and Shareen Brysac, for the Pulitzer Center.

3- Doctors without Borders--- An Indian story of not-so-young Indian doctors who left behind their flourishing career in medicine as well as the lure of huge bucks to go and work in rural India.

4- Johann Hari reports The dark side of Dubai and Dubai: A morally bankrupt dictatorship built by slave labour ; Dubai was meant to be a Middle-Eastern Shangri-La, a glittering monument to Arab enterprise and western capitalism. But as hard times arrive in the city state that rose from the desert sands, an uglier story is emerging.

5- Born for others : True accounts of persons dedicated for good of Society covered by By DeCruz Pulikottil & Kanhaiah Bhelari.

This story beats everything I’ve ever read/heard about friendship……

Horror gripped the heart of a World War-I soldier, as he saw his lifelong friend fall in battle. The soldier asked his Captain if he could go out to bring his fallen associate back.

“You can go,” said the Captain, “but don’t think it will be worth it.Your friend is probably dead and you may throw your life away.”

The Captain ’s words didn’t matter, and the soldier went anyway. Miraculously, he managed to reach his friend, hoisted him onto his shoulder and brought him back to their company’s trench.

The officer checked the wounded soldier, then looked kindly at his friend. "I told you it wouldn’t be worth it,” he said. “Your friend is dead and you are mortally wounded.”

“It was worth it, Sir,” said the soldier.

“What do you mean by worth it?” responded the Captain.”Your friend is dead.”

“Yes Sir,” the soldier answered, “but it was worth it because when I got to him, he was still alive and I had the satisfaction of hearing him say…….

” Man…I knew you would come ! ”

Vichaar Shoonya + 2

On the profound truth which is a hybrid of reality and mythology, There's no one truth & On telling stories ;

What Have We Done to Democracy? - by Arundhati Roy

Does the Internet spread democracy? - by Evgeny Morozov

India’s Maoist dilemma: the case of Lalgarh by Aaradhana Jhunjhunwala

A Former Street Kid Sizes Up 'Slumdog Millionaire'

Rashmi Bansal's Talk at IIT-Kgp covered by a blogger.

Thought of the Day:
“You see with your eyes, you hear with the sense of your hearing, you feel with your sense of touch, and all these senses are nothing but functions of your mind which is nothing but a thought which in turn is just an idea… so if you close your eyes and go to sleep the world ceases to exist and when you wake up it comes back in different shapes and forms to every living being on the earth.” – Arthur Schopenhauer (The World As Will and Idea)

Justice and Democracy

The seed of post was sown when Joie de vivre commented in mine recent post that we live in the country where Logon ko democracy ka D bhi nai pata. She was absolutely right that Indians have a long way to go to understand the values of rights and duties of citizen. Personally, I don't have very strong belief in democracy but have a faith in swift and vigilant justice. Yet democracy seems to me as best way of giving voices to myself and the people. This is my naive attempt to understand the complex relationship of justice and democracy.

Democracy is ethically right but intellectually void.-- Max Kislanski

I once asked my father why people rate parliament above supreme court running on constitution. He replied me that constitution is made for serving the people not the vice-versa. When representative of people at Parliament veto supreme court verdict, they are abiding the rule of people only. I was silenced then. After many years, this memory resurfaces in studying Shahbano Case. I got my reply that while voting in Parliament just supports majority, it may or may not be the right voice. A wrong decision by majority may lead to injustice and may provoke decay of values and law in the society.

Justice is wisdom on merit and democracy is the choice to take different opinion. Too much democracy is like free market without any control. This is what Fareed Zakaria (former editor Newsweek) calls the tyranny of the majority. He argues that democracy, overwhelmingly, has had wonderful consequences. But the construction of a rich, diverse and complex social order needs a multitude of ideas to flourish. Democracy as a single ideology across politics, society, arts and business is akin to religious dogmatism where faith dictates every aspect of life. This is a very important argument. Democracy has proven itself to be the most acceptable form of political governance where the will of majority forms the basis for legislature. Still mindless ‘majorityism’ is dangerous. A journalist and novelist Pankaj Mishra points out this flaw of democracy ---

"When last week in Ha'aretz the Israeli historian Tom Segev judged Israeli "apathy" towards the massacre in Gaza as "chilling and shameful", he brought on deja vu among Indians. In 2002 the Hindu nationalist government of Gujarat supervised the killing of more than two thousand Muslims. The state's chief minister, Narendra Modi, who green-lighted the mass murder, seemed a monstrous figure to many Indians; they then watched aghast as the citizens of Gujarat - better-educated and more prosperous than most Indians - re-elected Modi by a landslide after the pogrom. In 2007, a few months after the magazine Tehelka taped Hindu nationalists in Gujarat boasting how they raped and dismembered Muslims, Modi again won elections with contemptuous ease. Though prohibited from entering the US, Modi is now courted by corporate groups, including Tata, and frequently hailed as India's next prime minister. As the Israeli right looks likely to be the latest electoral beneficiary of state terror, it is time to ask: can the institutions of electoral democracy, liberal capitalism and the nation-state be relied upon to do our moral thinking for us? "Trust in the majority," they seem to say, but more often than not the majority proves itself incapable of even common sense. " [Origin]

Our society is driving towards consumer culture and lack of awareness about ground realities is hurting our chance of progress. People aren't dumb but they take time to retrospect its decision. Impact of popularism is like mob madness. Each person involved in the mob takes his own time to return from the state of hysteria. People deserve better but they don't know about other options. A balancing act is done by media by providing voice to the lost causes and people living on periphery of society.

A sense of power to control is what the media is in turn giving to public in reality shows. It’s the manipulation and unreliability of methods media use to determine what people want. What media should fix is error in the systems, not the society. A democracy should encourage a person to tell the truth as it is, the truth about the truth. The freedom and liberty are more greater than the idea of democracy or theocracy or dictatorship.

So long as men worship the Caesars and Napoleons, Caesars and Napoleons will duly arise and make them miserable. --- Aldous Huxley

Vichaar Shoonya + 1

From RGV's blog, a thought for the day---
Q: Can you give me an example to differentiate between knowledge, intelligence, genius and wisdom?
Ans: Knowledge is to know that a snake contains poison; intelligence is to figure out what the poison contains and how it can kill you. Genius is to create an anti venom. Wisdom is to know all this but yet not to fuck around with the snake just in case the first three go wrong.

Capital gains : A vivid, wide-ranging (and very scary) portrait of unbridled consumerism in the post-liberalisation years. [Thanks to Jai Arjun Singh]

Infamous List: To clarify, the people in these lists are/were good, honorable people. What is unpleasant/infamous about the lists are the circumstances in which these people found themselves.

Rabindranath Tagore in Conversation with H. G. Wells

Gapminder: Unveiling the beauty of statistics for a fact based world view.

Free Hindi Ebooks Download.

Mentor Yourself: Five core strategies for developing a more satisfying and successful academic career.

Must See Links

Just reading few views & counter-views about freedom of expression and moral policing. These articles are must for each individual who thinks and cares about present situation and upcoming future of the society. May be, I am too novice to raise my voice but there is magic in fighting battles beyond endurance and limits.

1- Bloggers can be nailed for views: Verdict by Supreme Court. And, Bloggers unite against SC verdict. Remember if you try to muzzle something, it proliferates. Warning to SC .......

2- Pramod Muthalik has created controversy in Indian Intellectuals view:  Sagarika Ghose (IBNLive Blog): Two Indias are pulling in different directions and Counter view of Sagarika Ghose article : Moral Policing, Socialistalgia and Millikan’s Special Drops, Fussing About Speed Math and Thanks to Gowtham .


3- Mint article on controversial 'Pink Chaddi' Campaign: Gender grouse beyond the bar. The pink-bloomer war against the moral police managed a victory of sorts, but failed to raise the issue that gender injustice in India goes beyond pub-going and Valentine’s Day.

Read also, The critical scrutiny on Mint editorial by an esteemed blogger of India:

Streisand Effect must be in the mind of the blog community by this time now. he Streisand effect is a primarily online phenomenon in which an attempt to censor  or remove a piece of information has the unintended consequence of causing the information to be publicized widely and to a greater extent than would have occurred if no censorship had been attempted. Judging the views is an Individual choice and right. Special link for the people with open mind for fellowship.

Changing Times

I do not talk about society with great concern in general. I came across few links that shocked and shivered me. Times are certainly changing but with faster rate...

For Ultra Modernists: I have long ago read this article about "overindulged and spoilt” British teenagers who will try and learn values and ethics from the families of six Pune doctors. Not given much thought about British brats. Read from this link for knowing in detail about this image below. This baby face boy has created tsunami in British society by becoming father to a child.Forget about safe sex, the girl(15 years) has given birth to healthy baby. In short, Ramchandra kah gaye siya se, aisa kalyug aayega; 15 saal ki amma hogi, ladka 13 mein baap ban jayega!!. (quote created by a fundoo guy)
I always feel that Sex education has become “how-to-do-it guide”. Texts have indeterminate range of meaning if not studied from a proper prospective. There is nothing wrong with the intention of educators but the implementation will provide same results here. We need to challenge the common perception of sex as a recreational activity and present it rather as an expression of the total self-giving of a husband and wife to each other in marriage.

Today, Technology is racing ahead of biology. In Indian context, there is so much money now with IT and BPO boom , shift in social culture has happened. For the current generation, the age of 'full adulthood' - in their minds - may be as early as 11 or 12. Most of the youngsters of any generation do not realize that being modern does not mean giving life into smoking. There is nothing cool about alcohols, drugs and divorce. Old enough to drive,vote,love and smoke does not make you mature from mind.

For Ultra Conservatives: I believe that all fundamentalists/ultra conservative share an aversion for modernity and a hatred of gender equality. I was left speechless on reading these two articles. A layer of blankness had surrounded my mind.

1- If you live in Bangalore [or not] make sure to read this harrowing account of moral policing by local hoodlums.

2- If you are a woman [or not] make sure to check out this must-read post on the red-colored blues. Thanks to Animesh Sir for given two links.

Ultra modernist or ultra orthodox elements must be put on fringes of society for balancing act. I do not believe in democracy but have firm faith in justice and humanity. I stand for my views as a believer that single individual can make a difference. No preachings, its your choice to accept the facts or not...