"Boredom is the
root of all evil - the despairing refusal to be oneself."
—Soren Kierkegaard (Danish, 1813-1855)
Word
for the day
Holus-Bolus (adv)
All at once; altogether.
Malice
towards none
Why the home
minister of modern India should engage himself in debate over supremacy of
Maharana Pratap and Akbar?
Should these things
be not better left to historians, poets and archaeologists?
First random
thought this morning
The number of near misses in India civil aviation sector
has seen material rise in past couple of years. This reflects the phenomenal rise
in air traffic. At the same time it also reflects that the infrastructure
needed to handle this kind of traffic growth is not in place. The new UDAAN
scheme may add significantly to the air traffic. It is also possible that
people with lesser experience and skill are hired to manage the sudden rise in
number of flights. The maintenance standards may also become slightly lax.
Authorities, Supreme Court, passenger associations must
look into the matter before we have a major disaster mid air or on the tarmac.
Moving away from roots
Have you seen the latest TV
promotion of the largest travel portal in India. The advertisement not only
stereotypes a typical resident of Delhi, but also tries to generalize the
socio-economic behavior of a large group of people based on their regional
identities.
Anyone who has lived in Mumbai for sometime will vouch for the
deep prejudice of affluent and highly educated Marwari and Gujarati people
towards north Indians.
A few weeks ago, a senior leader of the ruling party implied by
his public comments that the Aryan race north Indians are tolerant enough to
live with the dark skinned Dravidian south Indians.
The racial crimes against people from north eastern states are
frequent and rising.
One thing that we as a society have steadfastly refused to accept
is our regional and racial prejudices and preferences. Admittedly, the degree
of prejudices may vary from 0-100 on individual level, but on a broader social
level they do exist, and defiantly work to the detriment of country's overall
growth and development.
The presence of regional and racial prejudices and preferences in
the economically developed countries cannot be denied. In fact, there these
could have even stronger influence on the social structures.
But this does not justify the racism and regionalism in our land.
Our roots are built upon the Sanatan Dharma that seeks peace and prosperity for
everyone (सर्वे भवन्तु
सुखिनः सर्वे सन्तु निरामया), irrespective of race, region or creed; and
strengthened by the belief like (a) the entire universe is a family (वसुधैव कुटुम्बकम्) (b) all women in this
universe are incarnations of the Mother supreme (स्त्रियः समस्ताः सकला जगत्सु।) and (c) all castes are integrated into the one Mother Supreme (यादेवी सर्वभूतेषू जातिरूपेण
संस्थिता).
The current state of social, cultural and religious affairs is
definitely a distortion.
I have no inhibition in saying that the root cause of our
socio-economic backwardness lies in our utter disregard for our religion,
culture and traditions. More so by the vested political interest groups.
Religion has been a major force in core Indian ethos.
Traditionally it has been the influence of religion that has brought the
concepts of scientific inquisition, righteousness, moral rectitude, social
responsibility, environmental sustainability, debt management, HR management,
and just & fair taxation, etc. in the trade and commerce.
Post Independence the State has been over focusing on
micromanaging businesses and ignoring key social issues. This has weakened the
core fabric of Indian society, inasmuch as that taking pride in our rich
heritage has become synonym with bigotry for all - the so called
"nationalist" who takes pride, the so called "secularist"
who is too scared to take pride, and the so called "rationalist" who
find nothing to take pride in Indian heritage.
...to continue
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