Delhi Bomb Blast

This post was written immediately after Delhi Bomb blasts which happened on Sep 13, 2008. Whatever I have written below was an instantaneous reaction. I hope it still makes sense.

Bomb blasts shatter the human psyche. Recent Delhi blasts shattered mine also. People feel so helpless when it happens in their own city. What kind of security we are talking about? Terrorists challenge the Indian government by saying, "Stop us if you can". And they keep on targeting one city after another.

A typical stereotyped statement comes from Prime Minister to maintain peace and harmony. What's the meaning of peace/patience after-all? Keeping the mouth shut and doing nothing. Human life has become so cheap and people have become so insensitive that losing 21 lives may be just another headline for a week. After a few more days, another spicy news comes and old details of human-life loss lose the charm. However that loss is ingrained in the psyche of affected relatives for their rest of life. Life moves on and it seems that losing some people doesn't make much difference in a country of billion people.

Somehow we don't have a system in which culprits are punished as soon as crime happens. People live a life where they are so vulnerable that if something happens to them, there will be nobody to help them out. If you have influence and power, it's easy to murder people and stay free as everybody knows very few people have the courage to fight court-cases for rest of their lives. Even if they could, they have minuscule chances to win because of many reasons. So in current context, terrorists know very well that they are fighting against a impotent system and they are using it to their full advantage.

In a sense, bomb blasts came at a right time for these politicians as people will again forget the gravity of Bihar flood situation. Millions of people are in danger and nobody knows how they are going to live their rest of life.

Somehow you may think that I have become a little too sentimental which leads me to think system should not be based on just pure sentiments as generally we Indians become. The system should be impartial and should not be biased because of religion/cast/power or creed. More than 2500 lives got lost in Gujrat in a pre-planned attempt of genocide. One of the most so called respectable prime-minister of India did nothing. Even after all these 6 years or more, in the name of justice we have nothing. The biggest irony of the country is - the same criminal politicians get elected again and again. Instead of booking the culprits of Godhra carnage, the chief-minister delivers the vengeance calls and another 2500 people are killed senselessly. I was shocked to hear the Bajrang Dal top leader describing graphic details on how he killed pregnent woman, her child and other members of the community. It was recorded as a video and shown to the whole world, how a group planned total genocide of a community in Ahemdabad. Even after that the government did nothing. It was said that those details will be used in the legal case, but what legal case are we talking about. Have we become so insensitive that killing in cold blood doesn't make a difference for our political/judicial system? These legal activities are going to take another 10 years. Another example of "justice denied" case.

When a sizeable population of this country starts losing the faith on the system. Foe people who have lost lives of their relatives in these carnages, it's easy to go towards extremist ways. And I guess that's what is happening right now.

All I am trying to say - we need a system which is impartial to everyone. A system which could show fear of law. A system where a criminal is rest assured that he will be booked and punished in a timely fashion. A society where top politicians don't put the responsibility of the crime on citizens themselves and instead work hard to make city safe for everybody.

Jaane Tu Ya Jaane Na

I am a movie freak and almost never miss a chance to watch a good movie. Yesterday I saw "Jaane Tu Ya Jaane Na", a sweet romantic one. I liked it and so did my family also. The movie touchbases some the basics of human relations which I believed in for a long time and it just reaffirmed my understanding. You'd say that it's just another movie. But in my view some of its emotional scenes are true to real life also. I would like to discuss some of the abstractions which I could take out of movie and relate to real life.

1. It's just too difficult to be just friends in an opposite sex relationship. It just somehow doesn't work. One of the friends or both of them will find a feeling of loving each other. The cases, where the feeling of love is one-sided, are very difficult to handle even though both of them have made it explicit the relationship as just frinedship. So far, I have never seen two close friends from opposite sex. Somehow I tend to believe it doesn't exist.


2. In my last blog, I talked about extreme emotions in which when a person becomes part of your life, you'll do anything for him/her. These emotions are not just limited to a person only; Bhagat Singh was passionately charged with thr feeling of patriotism for our Nation. In this movie too, Jai - a non-violent person throughout, always says that he will not hurt anybody no matter what. When his best friend Aditi asks, what'll happen when somebody touches her, he responds saying he'll still not hurt that "somebody". That all is limited to plain talks in my view. However when one protagonist (Sushant) in the movie really batters her, this guy who never thought to hurt even an ant and whom everybody calls "fattu", goes straight to the house of Sushant and beats him up.


3. You may never feel the importance of your beloved when he/she is with you. Even though, you may want to think that it's easy to start a new life without him/her, that separation is never easy. You begin to feel that void when that person leaves you in real.


4. Think about a scenario. You may be very friendly with a person. He/she is your best friend in entire life. You may be sharing your "self" and all secrets of life with him/her only. What happens when someone other comes into your life and takes a lot of time which you earlier used to spend with your friend. That friend will try to accept the new reality but at the same time, feels betrayed too. That feeling is almost very difficult to get away with. Your mind knows that it's the reality of the life but your heart says something else.

Our Heritage

It might look very familiar to you when in a group of Indians, people start talking about the problems India has. Comparing India with western countries and coming out with all the problems we have. Surprisingly it has become a big gossip topic and I get amused and bored whenever I find it.

Sometimes I think they really don't realize what we actually have. Think about it. Satyajit Ray gets his due credit in India after he receives an Oscar award. Similarly from the time "Yog" became "Yoga", we began to realize its value. And why do we want to call our cinema as Bollywood instead of just Indian cinema like any other world cinema (french, italian, chinese etc)?

People talk about problems and chaos and say, may be they will not be able to perform in best possible way because of sheer amount of problems we have compared to western world. Recently we invited the founders of "Lean Software Development" in NCR and got an opportunity to talk with them. Similar question came into picture that in a system of chaos and so many problems we have in India, can we really perform the way western companies do. The answer she gave was satisfying and reinforced my thinking. She said, solutions and big economic drive comes in an area of chaos only. Countries which are satisfied with themselves and are already developed and have a good system will not be able to do that. USA in 19th century was a similar case. It used to be known for its complete lawlessness and absolutely no system. That time became the playground of so many initiatives and ideas and we see USA as the country we know now.

Sometimes I feel people don't know/underestimate their roots and are endlessly following their western dreams. It's a fashionable statement or a status symbol when a child talks about reading Harry Potter books. Similarly talking about Hollywood movies and English songs is also taken in similar fashion. However I get surprised when these children have no idea about our own heroes, cultures and mythology. No idea about Ramayana, Mahabharata and our value system etc.

Sometimes back, my polish friend told that he found some Indians so westernized that even his compatriot western people are not. I was amused to hear that. When we talk with western people, we talk about things which that person may be knowing already or is already comfortable with. Recently our company gifted bottles of wine as gift to our western guest even though we know Indian culture doesn't encourage alcohol and I think there could be better Indian gifts instead.

I felt the value of being Indian when I stayed for sometime in USA and talked to many people there. I felt so confident and comfortable in being myself that I think that was a kind of rebirth for me. I had so much to share and had so many different perspectives which those people never had and never thought of.

Before going there, I used to feel a bit of inferiority complex compared to my so called "westernized" friends. In US and Netherlands I could open up many communication channel and reaffirmed it again and again that we Indians have so much in ourselves that people in India don't understand or recognize it. We have our share of problems but tell me which country doesn't have them.

We talk about the chaos Indian system has but let's compare it with those countries. US has 6 times bigger space than India and 1/6th of its population. So in total a person in US has 36 times bigger spaces and resources to use compared to her Indian counterpart. You put the same ratio of people in States and you'll find a similar chaos there also.

I feel we should not leave some of the best things our cultural heritage provides us. From the very beginning, we are open to the new ideas, so much so that none of the western world has done so in their own history. So we should take forward the part of our heritage, values and culture and try to improve on the part we have problems. But following western values without any proper thought will not work in long run. It will create a rootlessness which I can already see in our younger generation.

Satyakam

For a long time, I had a desire to watch a Hrishikesh Mukherjee movie "Satyakam". I am a diehard fan of Mukherjee cinema as somehow it presents a world on celluloid which I would like to part with. Where else do you get that light cinema, persisting on your values effortlessly. "Satyakam" is supposed to be the best performance from Dharmendra and Hrishikesh Mukherjee also places this movie very high. You can take a look on following clip to get an idea about the movie.



The story forced me to think about many questions for which I don't have straightforward answers.

Don't you think in today's era, it may be suicidical to think and work for truth? As protagonist of the movie says, compromise is another name of taking bribes, corruption and issues in the system.

After independence, lots of young people believed in values, honesty and revolution. It may look like yet another story in today's day but there were people who left their home to change the system, help out the poor of the country and stayed in the remote areas even if they could take advantage of their credentials. My own father participated in Bhoodan Movement led by Vinoba Bhave when he was just 18. He left home and participated in getting the land donated from big landowners in order to give it to landless people. He participated in creating villages and stayed in a remote area with a very low stipend. He gave priceless 18 years of his youth to that movement selflessly. In turn he didn't take any land for himself or his family. In today's day it may be called foolishness for not doing something for his own sake but in those days, there were some young people after independence who wanted to participate in nation building.

We became independent in 1947 but we became slaves of our own people again. Even after getting independence, corruption, poverty, unemployment were rampant and for people like Satyakam it was difficult to differentiate between compromise and right thing to be done for the nation.

Sometimes I think how could people give their entire life for a cause. Sometimes I think how come Bhagat Singh (23 years old when he was hanged) could think about such a cause which could cost his own life. Similarly sometimes I also think how a person could remain so attached to a person who because of his/her illness, cannot be called a live person practically.

So what's right and what's wrong, sometimes become very challenging question to me. Sometimes back a girl asked me a difficult question. She said she is in love with a person for quite sometime. Recently she came to know that the person has a brain-tumor. It poses a big question about her future etc. I just gave her my own view. I think it all depends on the kind of attachment you have with that person. Sometimes attachment is so strong that you may not think or haven't thought anything without a person ever. That person may be your life. So when emotions are so strong and also you know what you are doing, people take difficult decisions too. In Mili movie, the character played by Amitabh marries the character played by Jaya Bachchan. Similarly Kishore Kumar married Madhu Bala even though he knew she would die with a heart disease soon. On the other hand, if the person is not so attached with that guy/girl, that person should definitely take practical stance and see things from practical aspects. Again there is no definition of right and wrong. If you see it carefully, both are correct if you take both perspectives. But sometimes similar kind of questions are not that easy.

Economic condition vs culture

For quite sometime I have been thinking about what leads different cultures to be so different. The differentiation aspects can be many but right now I am focused about family aspect of each culture and also its relation with the surrounding society. A lot is dependent on economic condition of a country. One thing is very common. If economic condition of a country is not so good, people try to live in groups. Living in groups means more security and also less vulnerability. And this directly proportionates to having families, believing in family values; as in case something bad happens to one individual, someone will be there to support him/her.

When you talk about groups and families, society implicitly comes into picture. You are more concerned then - what other people think about you. For instance, in India, if you have crossed a certain age, people will keep on asking why aren't you getting married. These pressures automatically keep on building. Sometimes your each action is judged by the people across the society and you just can't avoid them. So if there are some good things living as a part of society there are bad parts too. However living in groups, having family culture encourages and builds on cultural aspects, values etc. I think to maintain the sanctity of this culture they are required too. Economically less developed also means less number of employments which also means that people have a lot of time to think about others. It's always told that a blank mind is a house of Satan and that's true in this case. Gossips spread and people have a lot of things to talk about others.

On the other hand, if you belong to an economically developed country, you no longer require a group. You even will not be aware who your neighbour is. The same doesn't hold true when you live in society based culture. Your actions are not judged anymore. You may be living in a corner of a building and nobody bothers what you do unless they are getting affected by your actions. People don't need a joint (big) family anymore. They are so involved with their life that they don't have any time for other individual. You are then more individualistic who always thinks about yourself. Unless you have a good system to support with, older people are left in lurch in their later part of life and sometimes nobody cares about their well-being. Also now, people don't care about their roots as basically they no longer are aware about them. The ethics and values which a society based culture encourages start to lose their sheen as the communication which keep on happening in a group-based-society from older generation to younger generation doesn't seem to happen anymore frequently.

I have seen this pattern for some of the countries so far. Poland, which was not as much economically developed encouraged the group based culture. Similar things I have heard about Estonia also. The same holds true to India also. These days, India is in transition phase. If you see the people living in Metro cities, they are getting more and more financial independent thanks to the many economic liberalization policies adopted by Indian government. Families are becoming more and more nuclear these days because of lack of employment near to their towns and also because younger generation doesn't need older people anymore. Sometimes they are needed but most of the times they are needed to take care their kids as office going couple may not have a luxury to have full time nanny. System still doesn't support the social security to older people and they are left on their own when people no longer need them. I have already seen many such examples where it happened and nothing seem to work for older people.

So you know what, culture is already is in transition phase towards prosperity but I don't think system is still prepared for it or even thinking in that direction. One more result is - people are less aware about their culture, ethics and values as they are no longer passed from generation to generation. I am still trying to think if it's still possible to survive for all those values, ethics and cultural aspects even while living in this environment. From my own experience I have found that it may be possible but one needs to make continuous and conscious efforts with a lot of communication and visits to make it work. Most of the people who are comfortable in their own way of living may not find time/efforts for all these things. And in that way, you normally find the decline of the cultural aspects.

The Lost Timeless Moments

Recently when I was traveling with a Bus, I happened to hear an interesting conversation. The conversation was in native language and people were sharing jokes. The articulation of those jokes was wonderful and really hilarious. The situations and circumstances that guy was sharing were quite local but they had ethnic taste which may not be available anywhere else. Those dialogues were unheard, never recorded or documented ever and I am sure, will never get recorded/archived.

That time, I realized the value of the lost timeless moments. Sometimes I think the kind of childhood I (for that matter, my generation) enjoyed, may not be available to the current generation. Those small pleasures like making a paper boat and let it flow in the rainwater and running behind it wherever it goes, the pleasure of being half-naked and running around in the rain-water, sitting along with my mother in a chilled winter night in the kitchen besides "chullha" and blowing the air on fire with an iron pipe ("phoonkni"), sleeping on a "charpai" in a summer night on a village street and so on.

Some of it is lost and some will be lost in the coming time. Nobody will know those small pleasures ever. Similarly, ever wondered how people in India or for that matter anywhere in the world used to live before 500 years ago. What were their circumstances, living styles, problems, limitations and small pleasures they lived for. Nobody knows how the court of Akbar really looked like at that time. How he looked like, how he behaved, what about his Navratnas and things like that. We may cherish the celluloid version of Akbar's life but in reality the situation and circumstances could be entirely different. Whatever is documented are praises for the invader or emperor. The real social scenario and behavioral aspects are lost somewhere which can never be tracked now. So you know what, many of those timeless aspects are lost forever.