Tuesday, December 30, 2008

Unity in Diversity

Rahul Basu rightly reviews the book 'India after Gandhi' in these lines. I really liked them for clear construction of his thought on such a vast topic. "It has become fashionable to deride and denigrate Nehru and Nehruvian socialism and secularism. But it is the Nehruvian ideal, the cliche of 'unity in diversity' that has precisely seen the country through the shocks of more than half a century. It was precisely Nehru's insistence that every culture, every language, every religion, every creed, every caste would have its own place in the Indian polity that, illogically enough, has kept the country together. There has never been an overarching dominant culture to which all others have had to defer. India might be predominantly Hindu, but by no means is it a Hindu Pakistan. "

We need to understand that the cliche “Unity in Diversity” goes beyond the words. Our rich cultural heritage and diversity extends well beyond language and variety in indian cuisine. Cultural, Linguistic, geographical and wildlife diversity of the region gives a rough idea about it.India is so diverse that one life time is not sufficient for anyone to know what exactly it is. The beauty of it lies in diversity. Just imagine how we will be if we were of the same religion, same caste, same color and ofcourse in a tiny country but we aren't and gifted with vast country, different cultures and ofcourse languages. If we all look same in our way of living, race, color and region then aren't we missing a chance to explore this so many wonderful ways of living.

Indians are intelligent enough and our centuries practiced tolerance for diversity has equipped us with strong skills of adaptation. The diversity is mind boggling to foreigners not only in terms cultures & food but the psyche of the people as well. The difference in the south itself is apparent in the way the society has evolved in the last 60 years of independence, where Kerala has taken strides in the social front and rural infrastructure way better than most of the northern states… Karnataka, AP and Tamilnadu have been successful in the new age industries of IT and biotech. Gujjus and marvaris are predominantly business oriented. Among the troops, there is more representation from punjab, haryana, himachal, UP, MP, bihar, rajasthan. Still, Diversity shouldn’t be sacrificed for the sake of a unifying identity.

Amalgam of ethnicity and races against Indian background. It is Melting Pots: Mosaic [Hybrid Culture and Religion]. India as new model for both bio and ethnic diversity. Place of birth of 4 major religion: Hindu, Jainism, Buddhism & Sikhism. Muslim and Christian are fairly adopted here.Jews were given shelter when they were bashed all over the world. Business, Invasion, Settlement and adaption to provide rich heritage. Indian subcontinent is well diverse in each aspect of culture. India, amidst her diversity still stands incredible to the world because she has the ability to evolve while retaining her uniqueness.

Only Europe can match its diversity but not quality. Look at Europe. It got split into small little countries because of the language and culture differences. And today, amazingly they are uniting again, under the flag of EU. It makes economic sense.

Let me end the topic with few quotes:

Rene Dubos -"Human diversity makes tolerance more than a virtue; it makes it a requirement for survival".

Jimmy Carter -"We have become not a melting pot but a beautiful mosaic of different people, different beliefs, different yearnings, different hopes and different dreams".

Helen Keller - "Alone we can do so little, together we can do so much".

Mikhail Gorbachev "Peace is not unity in similarity but unity in diversity, in the comparison and conciliation of differences".

Brutual Murder of Mr.M K Gupta

This year ends with a sad note about one of our alumni being killed by political mafia. Mr. Manoj Gupta (Civil 1979) was Class I executive engineer of PWD dept. in UP, near Kanpur. He was killed by local mafia and BSP MLA for refusing to donate Rs. 50 lakhs for celebration of birthday on 15 Jan for chief minister, Mayawati. Due to political fallout, the birthday party (for which Rs.1,000 crores were collected) has been canceled. It is a great loss to our IT-BHU community. We are planning to take action on legal, political and media front. An information page is posted on our website by Pramod Joshi, 1979 batch.
Additional links:

1) Mayaʼs claim falls flat: no engineer behind killing

http://www.indianexpress.com/news/mayas-claim-falls-flat-no-engineer-behind-k.../403547/

2) Mayawati cancels birthday celebrations

http://www.dnaindia.com/report.asp?newsid=1216934

3) Slain engineerʼs son declines Maya's compensation

http://www.dnaindia.com/report.asp?newsid=1216935

4) 32 torture marks on murdered UP engineer

http://www.dnaindia.com/report.asp?newsid=1216620&pageid=0

5) Rattled Maya reads out riot act to partymen

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/India/Rattled_Maya_reads_out_riot_act_to_partymen/articleshow/3897843.cms

6) Rahul plea on engineer at odds with ally

http://www.telegraphindia.com/1081227/jsp/nation/story_10307906.jsp

Please flash this news to all our Alumni and appeal them for a protest. The form of protest could be signature campaign to the Honorable Governor of UP and The Honorable President of India. Please do the needful at the earliest. looking forward to your kind reply and help.

Saturday, December 27, 2008

New face of Indian Cricket


Bollywood and cricket are opium for Indians. Indians were quite influenced by anglo-saxon culture post independence. True face of Indian patriotism was suppressed by white race domination feeling. Image of Indian cricketers abroad was of decent and polite guys in blue. Sunil Gavaskar start the process of reversing and it comes to maturity in Dada's captaincy. Kapil Dev started not only change in fast bowling department but shows way for small town cricketers. Initially cricketer with metro cities background were selected but now scenario has changed completely. An interesting analysis is here about this change.

Rookie from every part of India came and change the face of Indian cricket. After the shambles of booking controversy, Ganguly had taken captaincy in his hand. He was passionate and fusion of new blood in team changes the perspective of cricket in India. The whole career of Dada is of wilderness and redemption. Setback and comeback become inheritance culture of Indian team in dada captaincy. He was committed to change regional attitude to national character of cricketers. The unending passion to win and set he landmark has established him as fierce cricketer in opposition camp. Dada has turned hope of millions into expectation for winning both local and abroad. Dada shows how to win in any condition yet known in this part of world.

Back in 2001, the Oz juggernaut that had crushed everything in its path for 16 games came to a shuddering halt when India refused to be cowed at Eden Gardens despite the hopeless situation that they found themselves in at the end of day three. Then we see the miracle and uncertainty of cricket with exceptional win of India. By the time the teams reached Chennai for the deciding Test, the aura had gone, and India calmly picked off 510 in response to Australia's 391 to set up a series win.

The times, they certainly were a changing. Hope was turned into milestone performance. Natwest trophy 2002 was also beginning of new era and yuvi and Kaif makes the dream chase successful. What this photo did for a nation in war, the image on the left did to a nation in doubt with its expression at success. The half-naked Maharaja's slap on proud Brit cheek was perhaps as strong as the "Half-naked Fakir's".

Talent hunter like Greg has pointed out for younger version of our cricket team. But his cynical tactics make him to pay price of failures. Rahul Dravid and Anil Kumble has done real good job after taking reins of captaincy. But nothing magical was achieved except first test win in South Africa. Only tough stand of Anil Kumble against Australian sledging and cheating attitude was worthy remembrance. The heated controversy at Australia shows our national nature to stand together in hard times.

Leadership is a spark not hard work or preparation. Its natural or inherited and M S Dhoni has uncompromising pursuit for victory. Peter Roebuck has done very straight to heart article about current condition of Indian Cricket.Dhoni correctly remarked: "It is all about enjoying each other success". I am enjoying his success feat and is Dhoni enjoying mine?

Message for New Year for Indian Cricket:
" Beyond the skies the hope lies and we see a better tomorrow with open eyes !!"