Are we too hooked up to corruption !!

Today I was reading a blog which gives a basic analysis of corruption verses public verdict and was surprised to know that corruption wins. In other words the statistics shows in politics the more the corrupt the party or candidate is more are the chances of winning. We wonder why? Couple of reasons that comes to my mind are, dramatically overhyped media interference in each and every case, lack of transparency, CBI’s limited power, limited choice by the voters and so on. Whenever some scam opens up the media jumps into it as if it is revenue pumping machine. They overhype the scam in their own interest and portrait it to the public in the most catastrophic manner. They gain by the publicity as well as the concerned party and once the squeezing is over the matter gets abated. I experienced and I am sure you too must have experienced that we are left with the no result situation when our curiosity is at the peak in the scam. The law takes its own course and once the case is out of the publicity phase manipulation is done more easily and thus the corruption is encouraged in its own style. Public only sees what it is shown!!! Lack of transparency is another major reason for corrupt candidate being the choice. Does the public have the correct information on each candidate being nominated? Even if a candidate is under trial public is not provided with all the charges levied against him. If all the information is given to the public they can at least do a comparative analysis on which candidate they should go for. CBI’s limited power is very crucial in determining a country’s status quo as far as the corruption is concerned. Any case when it is in the peek is suddenly pulled out or is forcefully slowed down due to high level pressure. This has two sided effect, one the CBI’s enthusiasm gets curbed for future cases also and the second, the case losses its shine and with the lapse of time voters forgets about the case during the election and they finally land up choosing the wrong candidate. But the most important reason according to me is the limited choice available for the voters. Its only the corrupt people due to their financial ability get the tickets and thereby the voters have only corrupt candidate to choose from. My experience has been that anywhere, be it a drawing room or club or playground or office we only discuss about the corruption prevailing in the country and blame the corrupt leaders but no one of us dares to stand for the election who can give a clean politics to the country. Whom should we blame- the corrupt leaders or the honest people who doesn’t have a spine to fight. We all have to think !!!!!!

Is Democracy killing Democracy?

Sometime ago during a speech, Arundhati Roy had said that Kashmir was never an integral part of India’ and this statement evoked many question – question on freedom of speech, question on reacting to such provocative statements, motive of such unrealistic statements etc.
Right now let’s not discuss whether Kashmir is an integral part of India or not, instead, lets address the more simple yet fundamental issue- Freedom of speech. In a country where media plays an important role in its development, freedom of speech is the heart of the media but at the same time it is important to draw a line between this freedom and speech carrying communal and social sentiments. Freedom of speech cannot be treated as a blank cheque which can be filled by the whims and fancies of the user, instead before using this freedom one should judge their own moral liability towards the society. No one has the right to exploit democracy in the name of Freedom of Speech.
Then again the second question comes as how does mass react on such statements!! I agree, the mass too have the freedom of reaction on such statements but again where is the limit. Bajrang Dal said that she will be treated the same way as the painter MF Hussain has been treated. Normally in such a situation mass tend to get violent and do whatever they want, in the name of democracy. So, be a party or an individual, everybody has a responsibility towards the society for not using such statements that could with no reason evoke the emotions of mass to react violently. As is rightly said ‘the concept of democracy is that of self government by the people’.
Though, there is another argument saying that freedom of speech helps to provide a balance between the outburst and the calmness. It acts as a safety Valve to let off steam when people might otherwise become revolutionary. Having said so, there are certain factors which should be kept in mind before applying the freedom of speech and they are, the motive, duration, the volume of people that can get offended, the velocity of the offense, conflicts with other values and rights, social value and the benefit of the community on whole.
Press regulation is almost non existing in India. Media has all the freedom whether it be crime or corruption, but when it is the case of religion, these self proclaimed religious leaders influence the mob is such a way that they can virtually bring the city to a standstill and forces the authority to react as per them. There will, of course, continue to be disputes on the limits of this fundamental right but we all are mature enough to know what is provocative and what is on social interest and hence should act accordingly. Let’s not misuse the power of democracy.
Enough has been talked about on freedom of speech by many learned and now it’s time to impede the swing of pendulum…

Krishna- Symbol of Love ….

The whole universe is being run by only one feeling – Love. It’s a feeling so tender and soft like a skin of a new born baby. I don’t think I need to explain more about love b’coz its there in each and every one of us. Only thing that we need to discuss is the origin of this feeling and that’s Krishna. It might sound slightly illogical, but love is beyond logic and Krishna is LOVE himself. Let me explain.

If one gets deep in Krishna, we then understand that His love is in reciprocator form i.e if you give him a pinch of love you get oceans of love in return and the chain starts thereafter and the learning of Krishna madness starts which is like a golden ticket to eternal happiness. It is very natural that if someone smiles at you, howsoever filthy you are, you will bound to smile back and that’s what exactly happens at the beginning phase of falling in love with Krishna. He actually seeks you out from wherever you are.

Krishna has always been depicted in pictures as blue in colour which is again a colour of infinity like the sky or the ocean which has no limits. This symbolizes that Krishna’s love also has no volume or boundaries, its eternal, everlasting and even the pain that comes in his love is a blissful experience. I know that no one has ever seen Krishna so the pictures that we see are purely the outcome of the love that the devotees have for him, but if the imagination of the devotees can be so beautiful and charming what will he be in real? You see from any angle (whether a man or God) he is a totality. It was he who taught us in Bhagwat Gita that love is superior to Wisdom as a path to reach him. Who can forget the story of Blessings of Krishna in the form of Jewels and gold in exchange of some mangoes. When Krishna was going to the fruit vendor so hurriedly, most of the grain he was holding fell and he could give only few of them but it was the pure love of the fruit vendor that she still gave Krishna the mangoes and that is the kind of love which holds the peak in Krishna’s heart.

All of us know that Radharani was not a wife to Krishna, even then, from ages Radha and Krishna fits the definition of Twin souls. They wanted to set an example that love persists not only in the Lilas but also in the separation and that is why Radha refused to impound herself to the boundaries of social relationships and took the pain of separation with pride. This gives us a learning that it is the pain of separation that actually serves as a fire which always gives us a push to get nearer to our beloved lord. Vrindavan, where Krishna gave a new meaning to love, had so much of love that even today when anybody visits can feel Krishna in every particle. One can feel the supreme charm of loving intimacy that Krishna shares equally with all his devotees.

It’s not only that we see Krishna’s love only in epics with Radha and the Gopis but the love can be seen also in the modern time in the form of Krishna – Meera. Meera was so immensely in love with Krishna that he had to come to her many time to show his love. It was when Meera was given poison to drink, when she was made to walk on fire and similar occasions. Being a princess to a royal family she had all responsibilities but her love for Krishna made her leave everything and wander the streets in search of her beloved. This was the impact of love of Krishna..

If one searches the corner of his heart one can only find love in it and that’s why even being a God he has showed us the path of pure and spontaneous love discarding all religious rituals. This ever charming, ever loving, dark and handsome supreme power gave one strong message in Bhagwat Gita that when we love him completely we should forget everything, even his position as God and simply love him as a true lover. Somebody rightly said Love him for the sake of love with no calculation….

Hare Krishna !!!

Can youth of today take politics as their career? The need of the hour...

These day’s students are running madly after the tag of MBA so that they can have some good jobs in their pocket either through the Institutes placement services or of their own. Whatever the source of jobs are, the ultimate goal is to make money as well as status, so be it the large corporate of any vertical like the IT, Food sector or power sector etc. Then why is the youth not considering politics as a career. To my mind politics is a very profitable venture wrapped with power, money and status. So let’s discuss this in today’s forum....

When we visualize a political leader we often imagine somebody at an age of 60+ with Kurta Pyjama, mostly uneducated and criminal records etc. and very fondly we elect them and start criticizing with the way our country is being governed on all possible occasion, let it be a social get together, or our blogs or even some talk shows and so on, forgetting that we are the one to be blamed for electing them. As a matter of fact we actually should think that at age when rest of the profession takes retirement, this profession actually comes to age and becomes eligible to govern.

I think it’s high time that the best and the brightest among the youth to join politics and serve the nation. Youth politics may translate to better politics. Though no one can deny that India has progressed but the pace could have been faster if youth participation in policy making and legislation would have been there. During the time of Independence young leaders like Nehru came to politics but then they never paved the way for the young leaders to take their role other than their own family members. The trend is still the same as we see few young leaders like Rahul Gandhi, Sachin pilot etc who belong to the prominent political background but none from any independent trendsetters.

Isn’t it strange that today’s youth are forced to elect majority of people above 60 years, but it’s because we do not have choice. To my understanding it should be just the other way round, it should be the old people handing over the nation to the youth who represent vigor, passion for the nation, ethics and integrity. There are two ways that we can bring the youth to this field for the nations development, one by making politics lucrative career option ( without the corruption element in it) and second giving the opportunity to the youth by making laws like retirement age for old politicians , essential education qualification, clean past record etc.

Since we do not have any institution which makes good administrator to run the nation so it would be better if we make it as a stream in our education forum to teach how to run the country and like any corporate has divisions the course can also have various departments in the curriculum for them to stand for election on the basis of their specialization during the course. Actually politics should be treated as a noble profession with a mission in mind to run the nation. I strongly believe in the notion that “be in the system to change the system”.

I completely agree with someone saying that there should be an overhaul of the Indian political scene by nourishing potential talented youths. With due respect to the current youth leaders, lets welcome more and more youth in the system and not leave the country just in the mercy of dynasty politics. I know it’s easy said than done but at least we can look for a start….

Is Happiness a mirage and more so for a homosexual?

Life is a struggle and especially if you are different. I too had doubts on this notion as I believed that you can be more successful if you are different but I was proved wrong. When one day one of my friend told me that she is lesbian it came to me as a shock of life and then even I could not relate myself to her though I was supposed to be knowing her better than anybody else in the group and then she explained me how difficult life will be when she opens out to the society of her orientation. I agreed…

The Supreme court on 2nd July 2009 legalized homosexuality in India by striking down section 377 of the Indian penal code. Though India was slightly late in legalizing homosexuality when compared to their western counterparts who did it in 1980’s and 1990’s , but is still ahead off than some countries of middle east, Africa, south pacific etc.. Surprisingly, in six countries even now homosexuality is punishable by life imprisonment and in ten other countries it carries death penalty. But on humanity ground can we think why such penalty, just to be in love? How can a love be different if it happens with the same sex or the opposite one? One cannot decide who you fall in love with because the heart knows no limits. Otherwise, there is no scientific basis for distinguishing between homosexual and heterosexual couples with respect to the legal rights, obligations and benefits by civil marriage act, other than the social stigma.

The question is, are they born like that way? I feel that an individual develops a homosexual orientation for the reason genetic or environmental or likely a combination of both. But, homosexuality is not a disability or deformity though homophobia is, which dangerously invades the hearts and minds of everyone. Regardless of how they feel and why they are like that, I think everyone of us can vouch that 100% homosexual couples are happy but then how many of us can vouch that even 50% heterosexual couples are happy? As I wrote in my earlier blog that most of the marriages are just compromise and life is all about being happy, so why can’t we let these people be happy and not force them to adjust. Why again this so called social guardian comes on their way of happiness and why can’t they be made free from thinking that homosexuality is a sin?

When I started taking interest in the homosexual subject and found out to my surprise that there are people who wants to join the clan even if they are not homosexual themselves because they think that it is the modern age fashion to be called so, as many of the celebrity as well as the western culture are in it. Here I agree, that it is unfair to do so in the name of fashion, because it should not be followed by choice, instead it is a matter of destiny. When I wanted to know from my friend the preference of same sex she clearly said that it is the symmetry of tenderness, consideration and understanding of feelings, like a women understands a women better and the same with men. And probably that is the secret of their everlasting happiness.

When the Delhi high court gave this historical verdict, India became the 127th country to legalize homosexuality, but being a country which gives immense importance to its culture and religion, it became a shock to many people and they voiced their objections too along with some influential groups and parties, but don’t we see traditions changing with times. From pardha system to women going to space, from father’s responsiblity to earn for the family to a single father parenting his child, we all have seen the cultural change in our society, then why can’t we just leave them alone. And if religion is the objection then I strongly believe that god is so powerful that he himself can correct the value system and so these social guardian need not try to act like god themselves and treat the homosexual as 5th class citizen though, I strongly believe that god has given its consent to homosexuality as it has also been seen in animals too, only difference is animals do not have judgmental society to put a stamp on it.

To my opinion, these people are not doing any harm to anyone so how do we get the right to interfere in their lives and happiness. This is a natural problem and let the nature decide its course of action, and the social judges can just relax as this can never be a cultural threat because our culture is so rich that it cannot be dented by any action of fraction of people’s behavior.

It is really strange, when I see each topic of my blogs, I wonder how we look for reasons to divest people of their basic rights to be happy and live life the way they want….

Marriages are made in heaven and divorces are???

India is changing at different pace and you don’t need to be a scholar to see the change. Though, in some aspects the depth of our value systems still remains unmoved like the caste system but there are some issues wherein we are getting very close to the western culture. The current rate of divorces in India is one of the yardstick by which we can measure our closeness with our western counter parts. As always, we will not discuss the statistics, but the fact whether divorce is healthy or not.

With all its technological advancement of 21st century and in this gadget age we are actually depended on materialistic world. The pressure to fulfill these requirements of modern times forces us to spend more time on work which is blocking our connection with our family, be it husband or wife. It’s proven that breakups are more in educated and carrier oriented couples than in the primitive ones. Relationship these days have become performance oriented. Couples are judged not with their love for each other but with their respective achievements.

I personally don’t see anything wrong in this. Though, it is not good for the society as a whole, but finally the society is paying the price for being so male dominated and female suppression since time immemorial. The society care takers, like always, blame the female financial independence for high rate of divorce. Just can’t agree…Lets see a situation where the female is not financially independent and at the same time is not happy in the marriage, she is forced to keep the marriage intact with all sorts of depression. Is the situation not worst than divorce?

According to me, all that a marriage requires is love element in it, without which it’s only a compromise, a social tag and a suffering relationship. In such a case is divorce a bad option? Divorce, even at this age is not looked upon high in our culture, but culture again has been twisted in all sphere of life for convenience sake. Otherwise, Indian culture is so rich that it has accommodated even the most odd situation possible, which no culture or society of modern times can even think off – remember Draupadi sharing 5 husbands at a time? So why culture being induced as a hindrance to freedom from the suffering marriages?

Many a times, people get married before evaluating the partners properly or in worst case even knowing themselves very well, and when the reality hits, either they land up with a bad marriage for life or divorce. Marriage is actually the biggest commitment of life and that should be taken very seriously. For that matter even live-in- relationship is a better platform for successful marriages. After knowing the shortcomings of the partner, if love still persists one should go ahead with the marriage commitment or else one will keep marrying and divorcing endlessly.

India has the lowest rate of divorce for many reasons like financial independence of women, difficult and time consuming divorce procedures, social stigma etc but now the rate is slightly increasing which looks like a respite for women. With the latest amendment in the Hindu marriage act, divorce has been made easier by making ‘irretrievable breakdown of marriage’ as a ground. It’s really an irony that even judges of family courts are often insensitive towards women and advice them to be more adjusting ( mind you, here the word adjusting and surrendering to in-laws has a very thin line between them). Though some counselors argue that by making divorce so easy, couples will not even try to reconcile, but still I see it as an easy end to unhappy marriages. After all life is to be happy…..

Honour killings or Murder????

To be born a Hindu in India is actually a passport to enter the caste system, one of the world’s longest surviving Social Stigma. Want proof ? Look for the current Honour Killings which are flooded everyday in the news paper with much of its pride. As if the rest of the social evil like female foeticide, dowry deaths, unreported Sati pratha etc were not enough that we have come up with a modern terminology called Honour Killing.

First of all, I object the term “Honour Killing” as I don’t see any honour in such killings. To me it is the media who has named it as honour killing which actually should be called as pure murder so that society do not take a pride on this path. Our media has always posed themselves as the guardian of the society and we see what they show us. So my humble request to the media is please call a murder a murder instead of coining it in a new phrase of honour killing.

Though I agree that this is not a new evil to the society, it prevailed even in early days also, just that, they were unreported and now suddenly it came into hype. But Indian law should tackle this situation also in the same manner as was done for other social evil like sati etc. No clan or politician can justify these murders in the name of culture in the 21st century. It is a real shame that at the time when we talk about India’s development in global scenario we are still facing such dark age social crime.

Another notable point here is that, when our so called social judges are deciding against the freedom of the choice of the life partners they are forgetting that there are other issues also which needs more attention than this barbarism. Just think over how many of us have heard of killing a family member for raping a minor girl within the family. We often hear of father raping the daughter and when exposed the matter is curbed and when the same girl goes out of the caste and marries a boy of her choice the mother takes the initiative to kill the girl in the name of family honour. Where does the social justice falls in the case of father raping the daughter..Such a hypocrite society we have in the name of Indian culture.

The irony is the Khap panchayats don’t order the Honour killings, instead they create such an atmosphere that the mother , father and the brother are forced to kill their own child just to save the honour of the family. Many politicians are supporting the Khap though they do not agree with the principal personally, but they do support just to gain the sympathy of the common man. This is purely politics of convenience with negative consequences.

At times I feel that these honour killings are worse than murders as murders do take place on the spur of the moment and the killer do regret at times but in the case of honour killings it is not so, in fact, they take pride in killing those people who have been grown up by or with them. It is extremely surprising that just to prove a point some people can go to any extent and be so inhuman.

Actually, what are these children asking for? Freedom to choose their life partner? which anyways is their fundamental right. And parents are anyways expected to look forward to the happiness of their children, so where is the gap in the thinking? Why are we becoming so judgmental and blood thirsty? It’s high time the parents stop assuming the child as their property and stop behaving like a dictator. They should treat them as an individual who does have their own mind and heart to take the most important decision of their lives. At the most the parents have the right to abandon and isolate the children from their social circle but Killing! No way!!!

I wonder that at a age when we have so much of starvation, and other basic problems like drinking water, medical care, sanitation etc do we have the mind frame and time to crib on this baseless issue?

Is it not the time we come out of the dark age which we left behind long back and move ahead for a better future to “live and let live” which is the basis of our culture…..