Sunday, August 15, 2010

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….

Sunday, August 1, 2010

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….