prayatn

Chalta hai!

2011-09-15T09:14:00.001-07:00

My biggest fear is to get accustomed to injustice and mediocrity....

And think it is pragmatism!

15 September 2011

The Most Beautiful Movie

2010-06-20T00:32:00.000-07:00

I happened to see parts of Subhash Ghai's 'Black and White' again on Friday. I like to call it the most 'beautiful' movie Ghai ever made. The the subtlety of humanity depicted, the strength of each character, the charm of Old Delhi and restraint of the director leaves one spell-bound ... and the key message that violence breeds violence is weaved effortlessly in the movie.

I often like to call 'Black and White' the movie, where Anil Kapoor plays Gandhi and his daughter (in the movie) plays Anne Frank. Whereas with Gandhi, the director weaves grace, with Anne Frank, he delivers magic. You need to see it to know it.

I recommend the movie to one and all. It is education. No doubt, it failed to deliver any money to the director/producer!

PS: Watch Dharma of Pankaj Dheer for another masterpiece.

Varun
20 June, 2010

Lincoln and Ram

2010-03-25T09:52:00.000-07:00

I recently completed a version of Lincoln's biography. I could not but keep being reminded of Maryada Purushottam Ram. Like Ram, Lincoln was honest, truthful and would not do 'evil' to his opponent. Not doing evil does not mean non-violence! It means fairness, right intent and not let personal grudge color morality. It is devotion and 'belief' in truth and only truth.

Two things I would like to quote from the book, one which Lincoln said and one which a friend of his said about him:

- Lincoln said, "Here are twenty three ministers of different denominations and all of them are against me but three, and here are a great many prominent members of the churches, a very large majority of whom are against me. Mr Bateman, I am not a christian - God know I would be one - but I have clearly read the Bible and I do not so understand this book." He drew from his pocket his new testament. 'These men well know I am for freedom of the territories, freedom everywhere as far as the Constitution and laws will permit, and that my opponents are for slavery. They know this, and yet, with this book in their hands, in the light of which human bondage cannot live a moment, they are going to vote against me. I do not understand it at all."

After a long pause, he added with tears, "I know there is a God and that he hates injustice and slavery. I see the storm coming and I know his hand is in it. He has a place and work for me - and I think he had -I believe I am ready. I am nothing, but truth is everything. I know I am right because I know that liberty is right, for Christ teaches it and Christ is God. I have told them that a house divided against itself cannot stand and Christ and reason say the same; and they will find it so. Douglas does not care if slavery is voted up or down, but God cares and humanity cares and I care and with God's help I shall not fail. I may not see the end; but it will come and I shall be vindicated; and these men will find that they have not read their bibles aright."

- Noah Brooks in Harper's Monthly Junly 1865:
"Though the intellecutal man had greatly grown meantime, few persons would recognize the heart, blithesome, genial and wiry Abraham Lincoln of earlier days in the sixteenth President of the United States, with his stooping figure, dull eyes, careworn face and languid frame. The old clear laugh never came back; the even temper was some times disturbed; and charity for all was often turned into unwonted suspicion of the motives of men, whose selfishness caused him much wear of mind."

Noah Brooks said in Scribner's monthly for Feb 1878:
" There was [in 1862] over his face an expression of sadness and a faraway look in the eyes, which were utterly unlike Lincoln of other days... I confess that I was so pained that I could almost shed a tear... By and by, I knew him better, his face was often full of mirth and enjoyment, and even when he was pensive or gloomy, his features were lighted up very much as a clouded alabaster vase might be softly illuminated by a light within."

I some times feel like Lincoln, at a burden of responsibility, much lesser...

Thanks
Varun
25 March 2010

Why Rahul is not a Gandhi

2010-02-05T09:28:00.000-08:00

Rahul is not a Gandhi. Not that I am questioning his right to the name of Gandhi, but I do not think his current activities of connecting with the masses are Gandhian!

At the outset, I must clarify that I have always nurtured respect for the symbolism of Rahul's campaign of visiting villages, spending time with the common man and sending a message that he 'cares'. Even, if it is a political drama, at the least it is pretension of the right things, rather than 'pretending' to be a muslim or a hindu basher/supporter to gain votes or be a regional or a caste champion. These are bad pretensions, bad stands and building the wrong rhetoric. Rahul's is a better pretension to get votes, he is atleast asking for votes on the plank of development! So I like him for that.

On the other hand, he might be Gandhian in the popular discourse or the symbolism, but not in the actual. And that is why it is a pretension. Since I never tried to study it in detail, I have very anecdotal evidence for the same. Thus it is fair if you are dismissive of it. A few minutes back I was watching the video of Rahul traveling in the local train in Mumbai leaving aside the helicopter stationed for him. The reporter said 'to the delight of his co-passengers', Rahul traveled in the local train to experience it and be able to listen to the problems of the common man. Quite ironically, the same footage showed the security guards sorrounding 'Gandhi' pushing people like animals to make space for Rahul to walk. Rahul watched on as his security maltreated the common man to make 'space' for him to talk to the common man. This was understandable if the common man had come to 'see' (darsanam?) Gandhi and were creating ruckus. May be then it was legitimate for pushing them around to control the crowd. But here, on the contrary, the space belonged to the common man, who was on their day's work and it was Rahul who was intruding and his men creating ruckus. Of course, this is not Gandhism. Gandhi wouldn't have watched on while such treatment was met out, on pretext of his visit!

So I am all for Rahul's pretension of the right, but then it is a pretension, a symbolism.

See the video here: http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/videoshow/5538954.cms

PS: I am always apolitical in my writings and stands... but this one was instinctive.

-Varun
5 Feb 2010

Guru

2010-01-18T08:32:00.000-08:00

My guru died more than 100 years back. Whereas an Eklavya made a moorti of his guru and felt his presence, my guru talks to me through his various talks, books and exemplary life. Whereas Ekalvya's guru asked him for his thumb, my guru has asked me for nothing, he does not believe in guru-dakshana, he did not believe in shopkeeping. Whereas Eklavya made no good when he met his guru in actual, I will be blessed and enthralled the day I meet my GURU in person. No doubt my guru asks me for nothing, but i feel like serving him with my heart's blood and serving him means just serving the living God....

At times, I feel his need all the more, when surrounded with question, puzzles, dilemmas and when looking for support.

Gurudev, where are you?

Varun
Jan 18, 2009

Anger

2009-12-07T07:53:00.000-08:00

my anger is not due to my vested interest
but due to the murder of righteousness
i would not speak out...
because the battle, too subtle, is lost before it begun
but i am sad...
not for the person who has been wronged,
the person does not care, too small a thing it is.
and it is never people who are wronged,
it is ideals which are murdered, values which are trampled
but, i am sad...
for the loved one, who has wronged
unfortunately there is no escape from karma
the tightening noose of justice
as much as i do not want it...
i can feel the punishment,
in its most poetic form,
probably without even one's knowledge
tightening its grip
on the shared 'value of wrong'
who can fight the eternal law.
but we have a responsibility to hope

Sab ko sanmati de bhagwaan.

-Varun
07-Dec-2009

Of course you cannot understand what I mean, that is the very aim!

Democracy

2009-11-26T09:36:00.001-08:00

Democracy has a fundamental flaw... that the best salesman is neither the best strategist nor the best executor, they are very different and often uncorrelated skill-sets.

-Varun
Nov 26, 2009

Meethi meethi Thand

2009-11-25T08:40:00.000-08:00

Meethi-meethi thand

Meethi-meethi thand chchune lagi thi,
maa ne ghar pe sab ke garam kapde nikal diye the,
is meethi-sardi ko meetha kapdo ki garmi hi to banaati hai
meine apni uni kameez pehne,
mandir mein khade, radha-krishan ko dekha,
maa ne unhe bhi sundar aur saksham uni kapde pehnaaye the,
tabhi meine poocha, ya phir, prarthna kari
maan ne to apne pure parivaar ko uni kapdo mein surakshit kar diya,
tujhe bhi...
par hey jagat-pita, jagat-mata, kya tune apne purey parivar ko surakshit kar liya?

-varun
25-nov-2009
The chilling winters...

Balika Vadhu

2009-07-21T12:25:00.000-07:00

Why I would never stop opposing 'Balika Vadhu'

When my eye first caught 'Baalika Vadhu', a super-popular TV-soap with a child-couple, I was shocked. I asked a family member how they could show child marriage which was illegal. She said, "arey dekhiyo to sahi, they put socially relevant messages whenever something wrong happens!" I saw it for 15 minutes and was far from convinced. Child marriage had immediately reminded me of "Age of Consent Bill" (See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Age_of_consent). I, till date, remain a lone rebel against Baalika Vadhu and shall remain so...

My problem with Baalika Vadhu is that it does not and would not show the ills of child marriage in the right light. It would keep it wishy-washy and to the surface. The problems shown in the soap are not only very sub-dued but many of them are not the 'real' ills of child marriage. Consider, for instance, the opposition of the boy's parents to the girl's going to school. Well, this is not a solitary ill of child marriage, since girls face the same treatment at their parent's home. Or consider the constant restrictions the dadi-saas puts on the paut-bahi, again not very different from those which are put for a full-grown bahu by saas in many other soaps. Or those put by the dadi on the young girl in her own home. The problems depicted are those not primarily of child marriage, but that of gender inequality. Then what are the key problems of child marriage?

It is the sexual complexities of child marriage which are non-existent in the serial. Moreover, the director has no choice but to continue this depiction to preserve the mainstream character of the serial. The general age difference in child marriage which was (and probably is) very prevalent has been totally neglected (ok! shown half-heartedly in Gehna). The pressure of early age pregnancy does not feature. All I see in Baalika Vadhu is this cute couple of Jagiya and Anandi having a fun time. I strongly and sincerely believe that this gives acceptance to the tradition of child marriage and hides the complexities.

The sexual urges of a growing male adolescent which becomes a huge problem for the victim young girl is and will remained undepicted in the serial. The sweet hero Jagiya cannot and will not do this, or rather, cannot be shown to do so. The other challenge for the young bride is to deliver babies, that too males, at a young age. Can the director show Anandi going through this at the hands of her husband and family and die in the course of it? I guess not.

Baalika Vadhu is stuck with the nice sugar-coated image it has given to Child Marriage. I refuse to budge from my stand that it advocates child marriage, despite all the socially-relevant statements it flashes on TV. Its compulsion to remain mainstream and have a chocolaty young love story leads to its bitter failure to bring out the evils of child marriage. I wish the director can be bold enough to turn his sweet Jagiya into a real-world ill-educated adolescent who has a woman he can command over in mind and body as sanctioned by tradition. Only then the real issue with child marriage shall come out. And I will stop my opposition to it!

-- Varun

Values...

2009-05-13T10:08:00.000-07:00

HUMAN VALUES have always been and continues to play a slave to Adam Smith's ubiquitous MARKETS.

What helplessness!

-Varun
13 May 2009

PS: It is amazing how the rule of demand and supply control most stuff around us rather than values, principles or fairness....

Jaago...

2008-12-20T10:44:00.000-08:00

Jaago Bansiwale lalna... Jaago mere pyaare

It is been long since I have been hearing this melodious song which Yashoda sings to wake up the flute-player Kanha every morning, in the literal sense. The picture painted by this song takes me into the blissful land of Krishna instantaneously.

For ages, the same song has depicted the metaphoric meaning where we cry to God to wake up and care of the world which, at any snapshot, is filled up with misery. It is to also remind Krishna of the promise he made in the Gita... in the theological sense. It is also a complain, rather a taunt ;)!

The other day when I heard this song, maybe for the hundredth time, a new meaning emerged. It was now a cry to the Krishna within to wake up...

O' the Krishna inside me, wake up...
O' the Krishna inside everyone wake up...
And once it happens, the world will be the blissful abode of Krishna

From Brute to Man, from Man to God... (The Great Vivekananda)

PS: The second and the third interpretation are the same from a Vedantic perspective, the third one being more fundamental.

-Varun
Dec 19, 2008

Atheism

2008-10-09T11:48:00.000-07:00

Vedanta does not recognize Atheism whose basis is Compassion for the world, for the poor, the exploited, for the one with unequal opportunity.

Such an individual is just ignorant of the fact that he/she is a believer, a believer of a much larger intensity than all the so-called believers in the world. This is so because his ignorance stems out of compassion and honesty. Whereas others' ignorance stems out of selfishness.

Most ignorant are those who consider these people as non-believers and criticise them for the same. The status of such people as a believer is under question!

Compassion & Honesty is God!

PS: Bhagat, I hope you are listening.

-Varun
Oct 09, 2008

When I met him...

2008-09-30T09:35:00.000-07:00

There was some random corporate prize ceremony going on. There was one medal which my name was written. I was expecting to be one of the recipients... but my name never got announced. With an off-hand attitude, i went over to some cabinets containing books, situated at one corner ( and started browsing through the books.

Some one approached me from the side and ... it was the mahatma! he came and started talking to me, asking me which books i had read and advising me on the books i should read. I had the most casual conversation with him. He just told me he is going to lunch with the other folks and if i needed any more advice on books, i can come to him.

I bid him good bye and casually started browsing through the books again. I was thinking, so thats how he actually looks, i had seen imitations in movies. And thats how his real voice sounds....

It did not hit me till the morning, when I woke up, that I had met the Mahatma! Yes, the Mahatma, and he had come to visit me! There are actually three more days before he actually comes.

PS: It made sense that he came in when I was near to books, would be shocked to see him in a corporate event.

PPS: Looking forward to at least a few more visits of his. I need more advice!

Varun
30th September 2008

Just 4...

2008-09-06T09:51:00.000-07:00

There are just four kind of people in this world

One who understands Evolution...

One who understands Vedanta...

One who understands Vedanta and Evolution...

And the one who understands none.

I do not know who is the luckiest!

-Varun
6th September 2008

PS: There is a 5th kind too, but there isn't enough evidence not to believe that it is fictional....

Prayer

2008-09-01T09:20:00.000-07:00

Prayer is but a complain...

... at a personal level, a humane level or a metaphysical level.

-Varun
Sept 01, 2008
In an attempt to solve the mystery of prayers

Gandhi is not just about Gandhi...

2008-06-24T09:09:00.000-07:00

Gandhi is not just about Gandhi, but Gandhi is about India...

It goes to the credit of the Indians to idealize and choose a 'Mahatma' as their political leader & ahimsa as a political weapon against the British.

-Varun
June 24, 2007
A thought which gave me one of those 'aha' moments...

Jo tu tode piya...

2008-06-12T08:23:00.000-07:00

Jo tu tode piya, mein nahi todu... Tose preet tod Krishna kaun sang jodu.

or in other words...

One cannot "Propter vitam vivendi perdere causas"

One cannot "Lose the reason of living, for the sake of living alive"

Even if the ideal you live for does not return the affection, you have to live for it, because leaving the ideal defeats the reason for living...

-Varun
Inspired when listened to this line of Mirabai's poem today morning.
12-June-2008

Statue

2008-06-03T12:48:00.000-07:00

I was at University of Delhi for a business call... I had a long day to spend there, but stole some time in the afternoon to sneak out and roam around. I plugged in my MP3 player with a lecture on vedanta and wandered aimlessly.... till i got into the campus next to the one I was in.

I saw a large statue there, the back-side. The clothes and built told me it was either Vivekananda or Dayananda Saraswati... I slowly moved towards it to catch a glimpse from the front. There was Vivekananda towering to the sky, his aura the light of the sun, on the backdrop of lush-green trees. For a minute, I wondered, is it only me who sees him or others too see him... I asked a gentleman standing there, "do you also see the statue of Vivekananda here".... he said, "bhai-sahaab, yeh statue to pichchle teen saal se dekh raha hun par yeh vivekanand kaun hai?".... my question was answered!

PS: Well, of course i did not ask anyone anything... Hope you appreciate the intended satire.

Uncontrollable factors

2008-05-02T21:24:00.000-07:00

Factors, those out of our control and influence us are plenty, the overwhelming uncertainty in life bewilders the human race since centuries... the rise of the soothsayers, tarot-readers, the taantrics and the maantrics, hypthesizing a mystical control over these.

the proposal of a 'higher destiny', a resignation to 'fate', the will of the devas, the demigods, the angels and the Gods....till logic overtook or so we liked to believe... the finer theory of 'karma' where thy action in the past birth control the perceived uncontrollable factor of today, elegant on occam's razor and cause-effect... placing us back as a controller, though somewhat helpless, dragging the burden of past!

vedanta then takes it spin, thy action-the concrete thought controls the so-called controlled factors, the subtler thought-the mission-the emotion-the intent-THE WILL controls the so-called uncontrollable... thy WILL modulates the uncertainty... Completely under your control, alas you do not know, the king of its kingship!

And it doesn't contradict the karma, the dharma of the Gods, but just takes a slight spin, that thy is the Lord of the universe, the universe being a manifestation of thy will.

-Varun
03 May 2008

Fireworks

2008-04-27T12:22:00.000-07:00

The cracker went up in the sky from the womb of the mother, it had 'arrived' on the canvass of the big blue sky with all eyes on it, there was an unseen, but potent marriage; then it burst into many small sparkling children, in the literal and the non-literal sense, the justification of its purpose... then it vanished in the vanity of the canvass of the big blue sky... in vain.

Varun, 27-April-2008
Only our duration is slightly longer, from our frame of reference!

Thoughts on S Vivekananda...

2008-01-17T08:10:00.000-08:00

...On January 12, National Youth Day

I pray, worship and serve the God, which common people call as 'Man'

If you ever felt on seeing the common man on street to fold your hands; if respect ensued from your heart on seeing the constant every day struggle of humans; if you ever felt ashamed even while giving something to a poor person...

... then you would appreciate the above statement.

Varun
Jan 17, 2008

Proud...

2007-12-11T10:32:00.000-08:00

And we remain proud Idolators... !!!

Satyakaam

2007-10-12T07:37:00.000-07:00

Watched Hrishida's Satyakaam yesterday. It has been more than 5 years when a cousin had told me that the way I am proceeding in life, I will end up like Dharmendra of Satyakaam.

I am no Satyapriya (Dharmendra) and I gave up the desire to be Satyapriya long back. However, it should not be mistaken that I deride the Satyapriyas around or think they are fools or insensible people. The plight of a Satyapriya is a constant reminder of the basic contradiction of life and the society we live in. That a Satyapriya cannot survive in our society is not to be mistaken as the failure of the satyapriya, but the failure of our society to inhabit a Satyapriya...

As I said, I gave up the desire to be a Satyapriya long back, I desire now to make a society where another individual does not have to compromise his stance to be a Satyapriya...

--Varun

Mrityu

2007-09-05T07:59:00.000-07:00

Death...

Hey Yogeshwar Krishna, yadi maut se naa ghabraau,
to kya mere maroprant mere bachchon ko khaana tu khilaayega?

PS:
Attacking the so-called philosophical/evolutionary reason for fear of death
Much stronger and relevant is the socio-economic reason...
Philosophy or spirituality has not helped us here,
As human, we have built systems of social security (for instance, insurance) to smoothen the journey...

Is free-market forces pulling SE in India?

2007-06-16T11:03:00.001-07:00

Is free-market pulling ‘social entrepreneurship’ in India

[Conversational/Q&A form of idea delivery rather than article]

What is social entrepreneurship?

A social enterprise (SE) is for-profit but serves a social goal. Recently, there is a lot of talk about social entrepreneurship, how it has become favorable through the forces of free market and may raise the world out of poverty.

How will market forces lead to SE?

Well, the argument is simple. Take the case of India: There are 700 million people in rural India. If you can do business with 1 in 1000 of this population and make a miniscule $1 on each of them, you can form a company with revenue of $0.7M! It is not wrong to assume that 0.1% of this population has economic capacity to spend a few dollars in a year. This set of people is the so-called emerging market for new businesses. Also, the huge volume of market with low profit per person is described as the economy of scale.

How is this different from conventional businesses?

The difference lies in the number of clients a company sells to. There are highly specialized businesses which work with a very few clients and make huge profits with each of them, for instance consider the defense industry. There is a spectrum of different industry from highly specialized to consumer-oriented products like shampoos, etc. The emerging market stretches this spectrum further to a huge market with lesser purchasing power. Compare the US consumer market, which has a 40 times (rough pessimistic number) higher purchasing power and a total population of 300 million, which is saturated in many respects.

But you said SEs have a social goal? Does serving the emerging markets imply social development?

The thesis is as follows. Enterprises now need to deliver products which are in lieu with demand, purchasing power and consumption patterns of the rural market. This would lead to development of products and processes to enable the demands and purchasing power of rural folks. For instance, the packaging of shampoo into sachet was a product innovation which matched the consumption pattern of the rural market and thus succeeded. The rural market will demand the services which they require for their progress and by the dynamics of free market, companies would provide it. One Laptop per child [1] is a project in this vein, though it is not completely demand-driven.

How would companies distribute to such a spread-out market?

A few different models work. The traditional model of big companies like Hindustan Lever was to connect multiple players in the supply chain from their centralized unit to the small paan-waala shop in the villages. This requires huge infrastructure: distribution network, storage facilities, etc. and trust with the local supplier [2 and references therein].

Building these huge networks, stocking product upfront and negotiating with the village shop-waala is surely not an easy task financially and operationally for a new business. The new approach is to work with NGO networks in rural areas and sell product through commission agents. For instance, let us consider one model. Grameen Phone [3], now a huge company, formed local entrepreneurs (commission-based agents) to sell mobile phone calls to villagers in Bangladesh. One key point of their model was to work with Grameen bank which already had a network and acted as hubs for training the agents and providing other support. Product distribution wasn’t a big headache for Grameen Phone given they were a services company. Second, commission-based models work well since the marketing is done by a person who knows the local language and behavior and is motivated to sell the product. This motivation of the agent leads to a pull for the product making distribution easier. A third desirable feature is to prove the model in one region and then incrementally or possibly organically ramp up the operations. These features allows for financially and operationally feasible models with small investment. Also, commission agents and other business processes lead to more employment and inflow of money in rural economy.

Hmmm, then it pretty much seems that market forces are pulling SE in India…

No, they are not.

But why, we just saw how people can and are building businesses around the rural market…

Yes, it is possible to build an enterprise focused around the rural market, but it is hard! And herein lies the problem. Doing business in the rural market in India is possible, but it isn’t easy. The whole process described above to form business processes and creating the right products can be achieved but it is easier said than done and risky.

This poses a problem because there are easier alternatives. In a free market, the entrepreneur goes with the idea which provides him/her the easiest and reliable way to earn most amount of money. The emergence of the rural market is a secondary phenomenon in India. A more dominant phenomenon is the rapid growth of a middle class with smooth consumption and a good amount of money to spend on leisure. This market is more like the developed markets in the West: smaller volume and higher profit per client, better infrastructure, easier distribution networks, etc. In comparison of this option, a SE for rural market is not attractive. Thus the free market favors the former than the latter.

Then there is a second problem. The maximum profitable products may not be the socially most plausible. An extreme example: it is more profitable to use computer kiosks to show pornographic films than doing microfinance transactions or deliver educational products (think liquor too!). This draws us into another issue: does a semi-literate population know what is best for them and if not, who decides (correlate with problems of democracy)? We wouldn’t enter this debate. Nonetheless, the point is that the most profitable service or product may not be a socially useful one. Also a socially useful product could be more challenging to develop.

So, are there no advantages to go for the rural market?

There is. A harder market directly implies less competition. If you can succeed in the rural market by taking all the achievable but not easy right steps, you have created a bar for others to enter. To build an enterprise for the rural market is harder and more time-consuming, but if it succeeds, the entrepreneur has the ‘last laugh’.

So, who do you think is currently and in future target the rural market?

Let us separate the traditional players, the bigwigs like Hindustan Lever, etc. Apart from them, there are big companies whose product consumption in the city market has saturated, so their next step of expansion is rural markets. Kellogs is one such example. Soft drink companies are similar. These companies also realize the future potential of the market.

Others might be very spirited entrepreneurs, who are ready to go the high risk-high gain way and can foresee a future gold-mine in the rural markets. I would believe that only people with a solid bank balance and good recovery plan in case of failure would go for such an enterprise. This is certainly not the small company, incremental growth and NGO networks model we discussed before.

So it is only the big companies that are getting in?

No, this is contrary to evidence. There are these third kinds of people, who are getting in. This is the centre of my argument. They aren’t getting pulled in by the free market forces. Free market would push entrepreneurs to middle-class markets and not surely socially useful products. The people doing SEs really have one of their aims to solve social problems. The free markets provide a substrate for their possible success. They can be technology people who have developed a rural technology or others with a large heart or some sort of social conditioning.

So who are these people?

Let us discuss this in Part II of the article.

References

1. One Laptop Per Child: http://laptop.org/

2. Tapping India’s Rural Market: http://www.uwstout.edu/rs/2004/article11.pdf

3. http://www.grameenphone.com/

Sharmindagi

2007-06-09T20:29:00.000-07:00

Aaj tere chehre pe yeh sharmindagi si kyun dikh rahi hai
Duniya to badli nahi, waise hi chal rahi hai
aaj bhi nish-chchal aasha hai, tamannaye hai aur hain vishwaas
agarbatti ko haath mein lekar, ek nyaayi sansaar ki hai aas

jhuki hai netre, tujhme pita aaj bhi dekhti hai,
itne dukh, itne anyaye, tujhme vishwaas ko nahi chchedti hai
kaal-chakra har tamanna ko hai simet raha, kshanik bana unhe udheth raha
phir bhi yeh hai maanav aasha ki jeet, aasha se yeh sab jhel raha
, tujhme aaj bhi pita ko hai dekh raha

anyaye par tamanna mein hi khot kyon batlaate hain
tere bande, tujhe hi kyon jhutlaate hain
aisi anyaye garbhit duniya aaj tere hridaye ko bhi kyon pees rahi hai
hey Krishna, Aaj tere chehre pe yeh sharmindagi si kyun deekh rahi hai

PS: Is belief in God merely Stockholm Syndrome?

-Varun

Gratitude

2007-04-15T12:13:00.001-07:00

How to express my gratitude to this French family?

I traveled from JFK to Rome to connect to Nice, France for DATE 2007. I missed my connecting flight and so did another gentleman traveling to DATE on the same flight as me.

We got a connection through Paris to Nice and reached Nice at 700pm instead of 1020am. Never transit through Rome... You will not find more rude and unhelpful people in your life.

The bags were missing, as expected! As we were filing the missing baggage forms, the flight official told us that she is expecting our bags on the next flight which has just landed. Miraculously we found our bags and it was a lot more relaxing now.

I took the bus to where my hotel was. I was in a city where i did not know the language and it was sparse on signs. As I was looking at the map, this women comes to me and starts saying things in French and when I say I dont know French, puts her hand in my pocket and tries to drag me. I push her aside and walk. The streets are pretty empty. It is 7 in the evening. I have a shoulder bag and a carry-on bag.

I am totally out of my sensibility now, looking at each person suspiciously, not knowing who to talk to, where to walk and just trying to get to a more crowded place. I finally manage to ask a restaurant man the place I want to go to. He tells me the directions: I start going ahead, still suspicious if he is misleading me.

I reach another street with a few people around and start walking on it, not seeing the signs and just moving towards the street where I can see more crowd. I ask two more people who tell me they are tourists. I am very suspicious to talk to anyone.

Then I meet this family: a husband, wife and their son in a crawler. They are dressed up as an young Indian couple would be. Seeing my confused face and a map in my hand, the woman tells the man that I need help. I show him the map. He speaks French. He asks me which hotel and finally somehow expresses that I should tell him the phone number.

I suspiciously show him the phone number. He makes a call from his mobile phone and for five minutes discusses the direction with this person in french, one word of which I could not understand. He then tells me to come with him and walks back on the street with his wife, son and me.

I am suspicious as to if he is playing a game with me and if he is, he is doing it pretty well. I move with him. He asks me where I am from and I nervously say India, since some stereotypical view is that French people don't like people coming from USA.

They lead me to a more isolated street and I am unsure if I am getting into the trap. He searches for the hotel here and there, we move a bit on a street and then turn back. We move on another street and I suddenly see at the edge of the corner, the Hotel name and I am relieved.

I show it to this man. He walks with me till the hotel gate and I struggle to find the french word for 'thank you', unable to understand how to express my gratitude. I feel ashamed that I couldn't even thank him in his language.... I go in speechless and disoriented.

I come to my room and I am yet to make my presentation for the talk day after tomorrow. But I am not in the mood...I call the reception to know if he has the phone number of this gentleman? He doesn't.

Sir, How do I express my gratitude to you? Thanks for going out of the way to help a random foriegner who didn't even speak your language. The expression of God comes through the expression of humanity and it has come today through you. It doesn't come through temples, mosques and churches.

I know you don't read English, but if you ever do read this, please write to me with your photograph so that I can recognize you and get a chance to express my gratitude...

Strength and Shame

2007-03-17T12:42:00.000-07:00

I am a great believer in strength of man over everything else. I believe that all problems in the world have a solution, one just needs to sit and think rationally, and then sincerely and courageously fight it till the end. Till we have the strength and confidence, anything and everything can be solved. Thus all I advocate to people is strength, sincerity and hope!

However, I have seen states of helplessness. And believe me they exist! There are people ready to try their best, are sincere, are ready to work dedicately, but there is no 'apparent' hope; there is no solution. I hate such helplessness. All it evokes a feeling of shame. When there are people in such a state in the world, what right do I have to the pleasures of the world and advocate strength? It is marked by a brain getting heavy with confusion and a needle like pain in the heart which has to be experienced to be known. Myself, all the ideas of strength and hope, just stand in front of this helplessness with tied hands asking for 'forgiveness'...for the ideas of strength are not universal and it is not a solution to all problems mankind has known... their strong advocacy is wrong and an error which is shameful and asks for forgiveness.

PS:
This is linked (or same) to many other themes:
1. When Muhammad Yunus says, a poverty free world is not the ideal world, but it is the best approximation to it.
2. It shows how vedanta is not universal in nature and needs the struts of the theory of karma for generalizing to all cases.
3. I still advocate strength, for the problems of world are hierarchical, 'strength' may not solve all, but a lot of them. We will use other tools for the rest... and one-by-one.

-varun
Mar 2007

Belief in Idealism

2007-01-06T22:04:00.000-08:00

1. I love a film showing the extremum of idealism and nobility, for it shows the fundamental nature of the human mind to be able to imagine and soar to the heights of idealism and strive for it. It makes a statement that...this is how I want the world to be... It makes you feel good that not only in thought, but in action, some people like this do exist. It tells you what to strive for in your heart, in people and in a society...

2. I hate seeing a film showing the extremum of idealism and nobility, since the world is not made this way, it is ironic to show such a world, it is making mockery of all those suffering with the basic problems of life... It is sad, it is like making fun of the human race, it is sad since we know the world is not like this and there is a long way to go to construct such a world by 'purushaarth'... One wants this dream to live in eyes of each human being, each one in the creation, and till the dream lives and fulfil in and every each eye, it is incomplete, painful and calls for a need to repair.

-Varun
7-Jan-2007

PS: I watched Vivah yesterday. I thank Barjatiyas for celebrating goodness, simplicity and Indianness. They have come a long way from Dosti to Vivah. We need Vivah, but we also need Dosti... We need to know what to strive for, but we need to also know how it is ... Please give us Dosti again...

Belief in God

2006-12-11T18:54:00.000-08:00

All the books on science, physics, evolution, neurobiology cannot convince me that God doesnt exist, but a 5-minute reminder of the amount of poverty, misery, injustice, disproportionate opportunity is there in the world convinces me he/she doesnt exist.

--Varun
11/12/2006

PS: Saw Rajshri's Dosti (1964) yesterday. Is available freely on rajshri.com

Making sense of the world

2006-02-12T11:03:00.000-08:00

Undoubtedly, there is a simple, straightforward and logically apealling philosophy underlieing this excessively complex, deceptive and confusing world.

If Advaita or the Buddhist theory of voidity is inadequate to explain it completely, it is not that the 'simple, general' solution to this complex problem doesnt exist, it is just that we have to work harder to find the solution... we are close.

-Varun
2k6

Ridicule God

2006-01-08T21:04:00.000-08:00

I can ridicule God, I can crack jokes on him ... I can make fun of him,

BUT
I wont tolerate others doing it .... ....

Why?

For I can ridicule my brother and shout on him ... But others, others dare try!!!

-Varun

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PS: Differently put, once you have studied a subject, you always find something worth criticising in it (!) and that critical thought carries the germs of new research... however if someone ridicules a subject due to sheer ignorance, it is extremely painful to hear him...

[[btw, I dont understand God at all, but have some kindaa bizarre theory and relation with him, still trying to figure it out, it is maybe just a anomalous genetically coded emotional imbalance!]]

Thoughts on Christmas

2005-12-25T11:43:00.000-08:00

On Christmas

Christmas always brings lot of excitement to me with all its beautiful colors, fancy fairy tales and the simple message of love and compassion. It is a beautiful festival, which SIMPLIFIES things. Of all the deep and complicated philosophy of Hinduism, where one sometimes just gets lost, the message of the Christmas is the SUMMARY, a message of love, compassion and forgiveness.

And then they have cute, childish stories weaving these emotions in the thread of life. These stories have again and again taught me things. For the meaning of child is to be innocent, objective and God-like, un-touched by the ‘vikaar’ of the world (the falsified change and clinging to it).

Thus for me, the day of Christmas is to become a kid and stop calculating, but seeing things as they are, beautiful and full of pleasure, where every person you come across is nice and compassionate, and where life is a play of the children of Lord. I thoroughly enjoy the innocence and simplicity of the festival, with all these animated characters who become teachers!

And then I remember the THE great master, who gave his life to redeem the sin of the other fellow beings and could ask God to forgive the very people who assassinated him!!! How perfectly this ties up with Leo Tolstoy’s non-resistance to evil and Mahavir’s non-violence. And you know what, whether Christ resurrected or not makes no difference to my respect for him or him being God!!!! For it is not miracles that matter…

Thus are my feelings on Christmas. And only a hindu can understand, why the heart of a Hindu could cry as loud for Christ as for Krishna, that universality of religion is embedded in the heart of the Hindu where he prays just anything and everything, here the antagonistic duality and non-duality also embrace each other and propose that God is everywhere!!!!

I would do great injustice to the Hindu community, if I don’t become practical at the conclusion. For a great question for us is that whether we should celebrate the festival of a set of people who come to our country to convert Hindus to Christians and tell us that all non-Christians are gonna go to hell? With celebrating shoulder to shoulder with them, aren’t we registering our approval to such beliefs and activities. Shouldn’t we send a message that we aren’t with you, till you mend your ways? I don’t have an answer for this question now, I call it the 'Christmas Dilemma'. For I celebrate Christmas with my own interpretation and spirit; but it may be misinterpreted as a Hindu’s unquenched thirst, an approval of the christian conversion scheme or a community’s weakness. Maybe an answer to this is to celebrate Christmas with all the right spirit but off the eyes of public…

What was exciting this Christmas....

Blessed are the poor in spirit: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

Blessed are the meek: for they shall posses the land.

Blessed are they who mourn: for they shall be comforted.

Blessed are they that hunger and thirst after justice: for they shall have their fill.

Blessed are the merciful: for they shall obtain mercy.

Blessed are the clean of heart: for they shall see God.

Blessed are the peacemakers: for they shall be called the children of God.

Blessed are they that suffer persecution for justice' sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

Unfathomable Intellect

2005-08-26T18:14:00.000-07:00

Unfathomable is the intellect of the being who created 'life' and 'humans'.... at the same time doing it an a way that his creation is bluffed into deducing that Evolution has done it all.

[That is what we call closing the path of reverse engineering OR even worse confusing the hacker -- An engineer's perspective]

--Varun
Aug 2005

Philosophy of Life

2005-06-24T10:42:00.000-07:00

The more I see the futility of the experience called life, the more I am inspired to act and work!

[[ The calm and serene philosophical equilibrium forms the background in Gita, where Krishna urges Arjun to go ahead and fight again and again ... in the foreground]]

--varun

A theory: God and Science

2005-06-19T12:42:00.000-07:00

It is a part of God's master plan that we shall never be able to prove his existence by analysis and experimentation on the material plane. For, if his existence is proven, i.e. if we reach a deadlock in science to say God exists OR we prove it scientifically; then there will be no question to seek an answer for. Everyone would know that God exists, and shall not requireto realize him out of virtue, honesty and self-introspection. This is against the rule of his game. He doesnt want his existence to be known as a fact, he wants individuals to realise it individually!!! Thus, on the material plane we will always find a closure in all things, we would be able to find a scientific reason to close the loop, but that is verily a part of his plan!

I understand, that this theory has its loopholes, since science may take us to a realm where we have everything in control including sorrow. Thus the meaning of virtue, emotions may end; become totally mathematical.... But would we ever reach a stage where we would free all from sorrow, hatred, happiness, etc.... even if it is possible in principle to do it someday? Thus if human emotions and struggle shall continue... so we will not be able to break the matrix of his game...
PS:
a. This theory is in its nascent stage, I need more time on it ;)
b. Thanks to Parul and Vikas, from whose ideas this theory sprang up.

-- Varun

About myself

2005-04-16T14:18:00.000-07:00

Bhagwad Geeta, Chapter 3, Verse 6

He, who restraining the organs of action, sits revolving in the mind, thoughts regarding objects of sense, he, of deluded understanding, is called a hypocrite.

--Varun
www.geocities.com/mumukshu