Tuesday, April 19, 2011

The Boring Sermon of Devil

Personal Life :-

I was recently made joke by naming me as an 'Intellectual' (a much abused word that means Boring). As for words of Christopher Hitchens :- The usual duty of the 'intellectual' is to argue for complexity and to insist that phenomena in the world of ideas should not be sloganized or reduced to easily repeated formulae. Hence, quite a pseudo character for me. There are two characteristics of mine : Irreverence and Skepticism that I cherish most. I can assure you personally that they can generate surprisingly constructive results if combined with love and compassion.

My Childhood was shaped by the parents, friends, relatives, neighbors and teachers in a quite confined surrounding of home, school and colony. As a scholar in the college, I can retrospect my life as a a simple story into a complex one with time. I was never sharp, ambitious, hard or cynical. It was a moody, dreamy character with a sincere, naive idealist, motivated more by vague yearnings than concrete plans. May be environment around me does not place ambition above all, but was philosophical, accepting and optimistic.

I started ridiculing over unjust world like everyone without even understanding the root cause . So looking for the solution was not in the picture. When inquiry for the root cause begins, it turned to be nightmare. Beyond ridiculing the most banal situations, I realized painfully the insignificance of one's existence. Then gradually, I drifted from the pleasures of life towards boring intellectual talks. There were few light moments providing with a slight relief but much time invested in gaining knowledge, vain efforts and solitude.

And then I realized that there is all the difference in the world between treating people equally and attempting to make them equal. Now, I want to depict in a tangible way the solitude and morality of humans through words. I speak and write a bit harsh for the reader (Quite Middle and Elite class) there to wake them from the dream. There is a whole humanity to embrace as our own and the time is running out fast.

People are doing well, earning good money, and own a house, and so want to ‘enjoy life’ only. Then, why I am so ranting on everyone. I am fighting for improving this system only so that you can cherish and enjoy life. To make the world that I share with you a happy and peaceful place for billions of us.

Public View:-

"Distinctions between westernisation and modernisation have not touched the bulk of western educated modern Indians, who are convinced that their future lies in being exactly like Europe and North America."---Ashis Nandy

I am rooting for this modernization in order to reform our social, political and economic system, which is full of bias, inequality and discrimination that conflict with our fundamental rights. People are not modernizing with the secular, democratic, republic and liberty concepts of state. They are still divided and fighting over the religion, race and caste background. Religious agendas confuses people, engages them in the conspiracy theories, and decreases society’s collective ability to make sensible decisions.

It is apathy of well educated middle class and casual nihilistic view of the elites is letting us down. Middle-classes of India especially want to make the world a better place. Just like their drawing-rooms !

Law can't change human. The struggle at grass root level is always finished by the conscious of the masses. The society’s collective ability to make sensible decisions always have to be governed by will of the people and inclusive path laid down by wise and just people. No class should be eliminated for the sake of development and even it has to be happened for greater good. Cohesion of elite with the support middle class is needed to uplift threshold conditions of life for everyone.

Every person has a right to live and enjoy the life irrespective of his peculiar background, hobbies or choices.  While doing a job is not enough, one has to check whether the system is inclusive and providing justice or not. One has to design a system where one can at least have a shelter to meet his all requirements and opportunities to improve.

A hungry person on the streets is not going to care whether or not their nation has superpower status or not if he/she are sleeping every night on the empty stomach. The forcibly displaced people seek refuge and livelihood in the city to find themselves again evicted from their jhuggis in the name of cleaning the city and ‘development’.

It is holding on the hope of the unprivileged individual cut from all high connections that his/her life will be better through hard work and honesty one day. The day that hope will die, that will be the beginning of the night of the death of all those beneficiaries of present state. And they can never guess in their wild dreams what has triggered and caused their fall. All 'shining' and 'rising' slogan will meet a sudden abrupt revolutionary and apocalyptic end.

It leads us to basic premise of the plot : Does one can't develop without exploiting others ? A hard nut case for me to crack individually. But we all together can. And here again at the end of this section, I find myself preaching like devil to flush away the dogmas... What an asshole I am !

Sunday, April 17, 2011

Understanding Islamic Culture -5

Continuing from 1, 2 , 3 , 4 -

Women’s rights in the Muslim world is always opposed by conservative circles who constantly emphasize that behavior should follow the the Koran and the Prophet. The orthodox comprehension of the obligation to wear a dress as per the elders is a tradition in each society. In prevalent practice, it is mostly older men – learned or unlearned – who assume the right to determine how a woman should appear. And Islam is fairly in criticism over its fundamentalist approach to the feminist issues.

But a free state based on the rule of law protects a woman and gives a citizen both moral and bodily integrity. To to maintain a 'culture of silence' for honour will anyways lead to the moral corruption of the society . One has to accept that Islam itself is an human endeavor and like all human endeavors “things do fall apart.”. And there must be voice for women's legitimate claim for equality before the law and society.

1- Sixteen reasons why I object to this dangerous cover-up : A dress code for Muslim women when in public institutions would free up our faith from the grip of fanatics and reintegrate us into our country by Yasmin Alibbai-Brown.

2- Azar Nafisi, Author of an international sensation, Reading Lolita in Tehran: A Memoir in Books . Interview as Azar Nafisi converses with Robert Birnbaum.

3-Interview with Asra Nomani : - The 44-year-old US writer Asra Nomani is viewed as a prominent representative of "Gender Jihad". For the former Wall Street Journal reporter, there is no contradiction between Islam and feminism. She spoke to Alfred Hackensberger at Qantara.

4-Encounters with the niqab by Rafia Zakaria : Women who choose to wear the niqab, an expression of their commitment to Islam, must wrestle with this thorny ethical question prior to exercising their undeniable rights. Duties and rights must be evaluated on the scales of ethical responsibilities to one’s community.;

5- Shirin Ebadi: who defines Islam? Shirin Ebadi is an Iranian human rights lawyer who was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 2003. Shirin Ebadi in conversation with Deniz ndiyoti :- "Egyptian women are lucky in one way. They have witnessed the predicament of Iranian women and seen how the Islamic state has hijacked the Iranian revolution, changed the laws and reversed women’s gains. My advice to Egyptian women is “do not give way to a government that would force you to choose between your rights and Islam”. I believe that Iran was a lesson for the women in the entire region".

Friday, April 15, 2011

Bye Bye CSC

Sometimes life gives you the finger and sometimes it gives you a gift also. Desire rather than reason governed human behavior has helped me to achieve a short term goal.

I resigned from CSC on 14th April, on auspicious Tamil New Year. Why ? I have been selected for admission to two year full time Programme for Postgraduate Diploma in Rural Management, 2011-2013 at XIMB (Bhubaneshwar). So dream of going for rural management course will be completed in XIMB, not in IRMA. Anyways, first step taken for a long term.

The era of self confinement is nearly over. This tranquil solitude has helped me to develop vigorous individuality.  I learn that : 1) Never evaluate one's success through the standards set by others. 2) Transparent character melts distrust. 3) Be alert with the trap of self persuasion.

Engineers are considered as the individuals whose ideas and expertise made possible technology-based economic output. Engineering field is quite a finished business now. The era of Mechanical Engineer by degree and Information Security Engineer by job is over. I will add little social perspective to this management programme in further studies now on.

Knowing my limit as mediocre, I will push the boundaries and extend my creative instinct. I have shortcomings that I lack the courage to be real soldier or real dissident. So will do best this time in the college now.

Thanks to Varun Grover for his tip that Irreverence will take you further than you can imagine. That was a advise that I ignored first. But finding it much true day by day.